The second wife only stayed in Hong Kong for a few days, then bought a ferry ticket and hurried back to Shanghai.

Although she was a little reluctant to let her only daughter Jianyu go, she was even more worried about the second master who stayed in Shanghai, for fear that she would be hooked by the fox again in the past few days when she was not around. As soon as she settled down, she bought a ticket and took a boat back to Shanghai non-stop.

As soon as she left, the Wen sisters were only one acquaintance in this unfamiliar place.

Although Mr. Qi is their female husband, he doesn't live here after all, and he can only see people when he is in class.

As for Wen Jingshu, although she is nominally their aunt, since she got married in the early years, she has only returned to Wenfu more than a handful of times in the past ten years. Although several juniors had heard of her name, this was the first time they had met, and the thought of living with this aunt in the future couldn't help but feel worried.

It is said that in the first few nights of coming, Jianwan and Jianxiu cried and wet their pillows at night.

But in front of adults, no one cried, not even the youngest Jianyu. They also knew in their hearts that it was useless to cry, Mei Shan was unreliable, and since the family sent them over, it was impossible for them to go back easily.

Wen Jingshu was not polite to them, and arranged a full course for them as soon as she came.

If they want to live in Hong Kong for a long time, the first thing they have to overcome is the language barrier.

Hong Kong is a mixed bag, with everyone there. There are Hakka, Hokkien, and imported dialects from all over the country, but Cantonese is the most spoken. After all, Hong Kong is too close to Guangdong, and the exchanges between the two places are even closer. Wen Jianning and the others will live in Hong Kong in the future, and they will inevitably have to change their Jiangnan accent.

This is followed by English.

After all, Hong Kong is a British concession and is most deeply influenced by the British. Especially in high society, it is difficult to speak English at all. The Wen family traveled thousands of miles to send the girls to Hong Kong this time in order to prepare them for entering the circle.

If they can keep up with the progress, wait until the beginning of spring next year, and if they pass the entrance exam, Wen Jingshu will send them to the nearby primary school attached to the monastery.

If she has the spare energy, Wen Jingshu also plans to let them learn some French, so that they can fill up the scene when they socialize at the dance party in the future.

In addition to this, they learn etiquette, play tennis, play the piano, and even dance children's ballet.

When the female teacher who taught ballet asked them to press their legs on the first day, Jianwan, who was born with hard muscles and was the oldest, cried heartbreakingly, and once wanted to pretend to be unconscious. Seeing embroidery and seeing Yu have soft muscles and bones, and it is not difficult to do this. Only Wen Jianning also felt a little struggling, but she gritted her teeth and endured it, sweating profusely, while Wen Jingshu and the others only watched from the sidelines.

After the practice was over, Wen Jingshu and the others brought desserts and juice, and said some beautiful words, and finally coaxed Jianwan and the others.

Wen Jingshu's original words were: "You don't need to learn to be any dancers, after all, women who dance ballet don't look good on their feet, just practice so that your demeanor can be seen." ”

"You don't have to learn the piano to be a big family, pick a few fashionable tunes to learn, and you won't be embarrassed at the banquet. ”

But having said that, they still have the same hardships to endure.

Although Wen Jingshu's requirements for them have been lowered again and again, Wen Jianning and them are all beginners, and they will inevitably have to suffer a lot when they get started. In this way, Mr. Qi came to give them a class every day, and even Jianwan, who had always been unable to sit still, was able to listen to Mr. Qi's entire class attentively recently.

After Mr. Qi came to Hong Kong, he quickly asked a friend to find a place to live. She came every morning around 10 a.m. to teach them Mandarin and English, and on weekends she switched to afternoons.

On Saturday afternoon, Mr. Qi was in class when he suddenly heard footsteps behind him.

Wen Jianning looked up and saw that it was her aunt Wen Jingshu who somehow woke up at this point.

Wen Jingshu was still wearing jade-colored satin pajamas, leaning against the door and smiling reservedly: "Peizhen, I haven't seen you for a long time." ”

Seeing Ning, they only then learned Mr. Qi's name, Qi Peizhen.

Mr. Qi put down the book in his hand and politely replied, "Long time no see." ”

The Wen family and the Qi family are both big local families in Huaicheng, and the two naturally knew each other when they were in the boudoir in the past. Later, they married far away and never saw each other again.

Mr. Qi has been attending classes for a few days since he arrived in Hong Kong, but it is the first time he has met Wen Jingshu.

Because every time Mr. Qi came to class before, Wen Jingshu and Mei Shan either went out to a banquet or shopping together, or fell asleep upstairs. When they woke up in the afternoon, Mr. Qi had already returned to his rented apartment after class.

Wen Jianning only felt that they were surprisingly lazy.

This aunt and Mei Shan never do things and do not read. The biggest busyness of the day is to go to banquets, shopping, and beauty, as soon as I go out is most of the day, I come back late at night, and it is common to sleep until three o'clock in the day and then get up the next day.

They don't work, and they don't know where to get the money to support this life of poverty and luxury.

Wen Jingshu smiled casually: "I just heard you give them a few little English accents. I haven't been back there for many years, and it's so kind to hear. ”

Mr. Qi's expression was still calm and indifferent: "My English is self-taught, and my pronunciation is really not very good. ”

Seeing her admitting her shortcomings in a playful manner, Wen Jingshu smiled with satisfaction, and changed the topic: "We haven't seen each other for many years, and you rarely come to Hong Kong again, why don't you live with us." ”

Mr. Qi shook his head and said, "No, I have already rented an apartment, not to mention that it is inconvenient for me to live here." ”

Of course, Wen Jingshu was just polite to her, and didn't really want her to live in her own home, so she exchanged a few more words with Mr. Qi, and left a few small sentences for Wen Jianning and them, "I'll find you a new English teacher in a few days", and turned around and left.

Wen Jianning didn't have any feelings for this aunt before, but she suddenly didn't like her a little.

Although she didn't know what grievances the two people had, she could hear that her aunt meant to smash Mr. Qi's job.

After Wen Jingshu left, Mr. Qi continued to teach them.

Today's lesson is over quickly.

After Mr. Qi announced the end of class, he suddenly said, "See Ning stay first, I have something to say to you." ”

Wen Jianning was stunned, and suddenly knew what Mr. Qi was going to say to her for a while.

These days, she has always wanted to ask Mr. Qi about replying to the letter, but she was afraid that asking too many questions would annoy Mr. Qi, so she had to keep pressing the impulse in her heart. When Mr. Qi called him like this today, his heart couldn't help but jump suddenly.

Seeing that Wan and the others ran out to play after class, there were only two people in the room, Mr. Qi and Wen Jianning, and they were so quiet that they could hear a needle dropping.

Mr. Qi pondered his words for a moment before he spoke cautiously: "Jianning, there is something I want to tell you. ”

Wen Jianning saw that Mr. Qi's expression was wrong, and he already had an ominous premonition in his heart, but he still looked at her with his little head on his face: "Sir, is my aunt's reply arrived?"

Mr. Qi said with a guilty face: "I'm sorry. ”

Wen Jianning's heart suddenly fell straight down.

Mr. Qi's voice suddenly became distant, as if floating from the sky: "The person I entrusted to deliver the letter came with news, saying that not long after you were picked up by the Wen family, Mingshui Town went to arrest Zhuang Ding and fill the army. Your uncle heard the news and ran away early, and the gang directly arrested your cousin Husheng and injured your aunt. When the messenger went to the village to look for them, your aunt and uncle had already left there to look for your cousin. ”

After speaking, Mr. Qi looked at Wen Jianning apologetically

She didn't expect that in just a few months, so many changes would happen to the Ming family. The person who delivered the letter didn't even see the people of the Ming family, nor did he inquire about their whereabouts, and completely lost the news of the Ming family.

Wen Jianning didn't speak for a long time, and when Mr. Qi thought she was going to stand like this all the time, he suddenly heard her say softly: "Thank you, sir, I'll go upstairs first." ”

After speaking, she didn't wait for Mr. Qi to answer, turned around and ran away.

Mr. Qi couldn't help but sigh as he watched the small figure step with heavy steps and finally disappear at the end of the stairs.

In the evening, Wen Jianning did not go downstairs to eat, and locked himself in the room alone.

That night, Wen Jianning had a fever.

Chun Tao, who took care of her closely, never paid attention to her affairs, so naturally she didn't find out about her situation in time. It wasn't until the next day when everyone had breakfast that she didn't come downstairs, and Mei Shan asked people to urge her a few times. The maid who went to knock on the door never heard a response from the room, and then she realized that something was wrong. When everyone knocked on the door and took a look, they found that Wen Jianning was already burned red and unconscious.

Wen Jingshu lost her temper on the spot: "I read that the people from the old mansion said that you were lazy and lazy, and I didn't say anything, just to give you face." I didn't expect a maid to really think of herself as a character. A good child, let you take care of it closely, it turns out to be like this. ”

Chun Tao was scolded so much that she trembled, trembling all over, and didn't even dare to cry.

Wen Jingshu drove her downstairs to the kitchen to do rough work on the spot, and changed to another maid to take care of Wen Jianning.

After a while, the doctor invited by the family arrived, took Wen Jianning's temperature, inspected her condition, and prescribed medicine, saying that it was not a big problem, and it would be good to wait for the fever to subside and slowly raise it. After sending off the doctor, the maids took turns to guard in front of Wen Jianning's bed.

Compared with her mother, who was born weak, Wen Jianning rarely got sick since she was a child.

This time, he was really sick, and he had a high fever for several days, and he was delirious.

She dreamed for a while that she was still in Pingqiao Village, standing on the river beach and seeing the Ming family's small broken fishing boat from a distance.

It was foggy, and white reeds were flying on the reeds on the shore. There was a small dim lamp hanging on the ship, which would be as bright as a breath, as if it were the light of a firefly. She waded barefoot towards the fishing boat, but she couldn't get to it.

Another moment, she dreamed that she was still on the Dutch steamer.

There was a storm on the sea, and the ship was very turbulent. She was so shaken that she couldn't tell the difference between east and west, north and south, huddled in the corner of the room, sick as now, but no one was around.

In her drowsiness, she only heard a strange voice in the darkness: "It's not cured, throw it down." ”

Someone grabbed her hands and feet without saying a word and threw her into the sea.

With a thud, the icy sea water poured in from all directions, engulfing her whole.

She woke up several times from nightmares and fell asleep again with a fever.

After repeating this several times, I finally felt so uncomfortable that I couldn't help but sobbed softly.

To outsiders, her face was flushed, her brows were furrowed, and she cried pitifully in her sleep.

When the others left, Mei Shan sat on the edge of her bed and talked to her: "On weekdays, I look at a hundred and eleven ideas in my heart, and after all, I am still a child. Whoever is separated from this world cannot live. I was sold by my father and mother when I was four or five years old, and when I was your age, I had been begging for a few years to live in a ninth-rate place. Look at it now, it's not okay. ”

Mei Shan has always been thoughtful, she saw that Wen Jianning fell ill suddenly, and refused to eat the night before, and quickly guessed that she was probably on her mind. I asked Mr. Qi again, and immediately knew the ins and outs of the matter.

I don't know why, Wen Jianning was trapped in a dream and couldn't break free, her head was also dizzy, and her partial consciousness was still a little lucid, and she could occasionally sense what the person sitting on the edge of the bed said to her, and she naturally heard Mei Shan's words clearly.

Wen Jianning heard a voice in her heart and said, no, she is different from Mei Shan.