After the family banquet, I have been closely inquiring about Wu Minzhi's movements. I thought that my mother had made a clear decree to ask him to leave the sect, and he must be about to issue an order to promote Wu Chengsi and Wu Sansi to the officials, otherwise he might not be able to make the court clothes of Wu Chengsi and Wu Sansi on his mother's birthday more than ten days later. Who knew that after the mother's family banquet, she was not in a hurry, and every day she either went to the garden with her father to enjoy the spring, or held large and small palace banquets, and successively summoned Wu Chengsi and Wu Sansi into the palace to see them a few times, and gave them some goods- These rewards are not more than fifty paragraphs at a time, Wu Chengsi two but as if they have been greatly favored, thank you seal like flowing water into the palace, mother impatient to see, often called me to read, Wu Sansi's literary style is quite visible, Wu Chengsi's is far behind, mother listens to his seal, sometimes frowns at me and raises my chin, I didn't understand at first, or listen to Wan'er said "annoying the princess to ink this sentence", Fang understood the mother's meaning, so he pointed out the bad words and sentences with ink, and finally asked the attendants to accept it, send it back to let Wu Chengsi rewrite.

If it was three or five times, there was no big omission in the seal sent by Wu Chengsi, and the mother ordered Wu Chengsi to take the title and become the Duke of Zhou, and move Shangyi to serve the Emperor, and Wu Sansi did the Shangshu Fengyu, without a lord, and it was already February Jihai, and the next day was his mother's birthday.

On the day of the decree, I was following my mother's side, and my mother must have seen my surprise, and when she was in a good mood, she invited me to walk with her to the small garden near Lichun Terrace to enjoy the spring, and asked as she walked, "My son wonders why A-Niang only made the decree today?"

I honestly said, "I don't know. ”

Recently, for some reason, my mother has become more and more fond of testing me, and when she heard this, she asked, "You want to think about it and then answer." ”

I thought about it for a moment and said, "For fear that they will not obey?"

Mother smiled slightly, quite complacent: "Their father and ancestors treated your grandmother disrespectfully in the past, and they were sent to that poor place for so many years, many people have never seen what the Central Plains is like since they were born, and now they can return to Beijing to enjoy this wealth, and it is all dependent on your mother and me, how dare you disobey discipline?"

I was a little ashamed and said, "My son is stupid, please give me advice." ”

Mother said: "You can guess the front, it's not bad, but it's just young, and born rich and noble, I don't know the hearts of people in this world - they are used to being poor in the border land, and they suddenly returned to Beijing to confer officials, and they are relatives, I'm afraid that they will get carried away for a while, but they will lose the face of their grandfather's family, so it will take them a little longer, they know that I want to use them, but they don't see the will, and they are afraid and eager in their hearts, and they must repeatedly figure out what I mean, trembling, and dare not come nonsense, and when they can get an official position, they will cherish it, and they dare not be proud of their peers with noble relatives." In addition, if you make an order today, tomorrow you can see how they are dressed in court clothes, and you can also know how they behave in the world. ”

I said: "A-Niang was named an official and talented person that day, not to mention the official position, but let her choose her own clothes, is this also the meaning?"

My mother glanced at me approvingly, and I said: "If it is the latter one, I will learn more from the same officials, and I can still think of it, but the previous point is impossible to think of in any way, A-Niang's holy candle, although the son is A-Niang's biological daughter, but he can't even learn one of A-Niang's ten thousand." ”

My mother smiled at my sycophant, but she still patted me on the head and said, "You little thing is like a ghost when you calculate your grandmother, but you are very lazy in these things, if it weren't for Helan Minzhi offending you, I'm afraid you wouldn't even want to look at these cousins more?"

I was about to argue, but my mother glanced at me first: "How did those people in your palace handle?"

I said with some humility: "The crime has been sent to the court, and it will be agreed upon when the seal of the court order comes up." "Mother gave me Qiu Shenyun's letter, and charged me to restrain my palace people, I figured out the intention, about the meaning of asking me to dispose of it all, so I wrote a letter to accuse Qiu Shenyun of transferring all the people to the court, he usually even Li Sheng's order was also in violation, but he obeyed my order, and escorted all the people to the court, I actually still want to make a big deal in my heart, so I pretended to call the court there to discuss the crime, planning to drag it out for a few months, if the mother forgets about this matter, and then release them out of the palace, I don't want my mother to ask so quickly, so I had to say a perfunctory sentence first, who knows that my mother changed her face in an instant: "Didn't Qiu Shenyun already convict him of all the crimes, and his confession had already been sent, why did he have to discuss the crime again in court?"

I was startled, and said, "Every sin handed over by Qiu Shenyun is enough to abandon them from the city, just stealing, isn't it like this?"

My mother glared at me: "I see that although you are a little gentle and benevolent, you are generally quite sensible, why are you confused again when it comes to these things? Ah Yang is your nurse, and she is almost half the master in your place, and she does not think of sincerely reporting to the master, but colludes with her henchmen to steal, today it is a silk silk, tomorrow it is a seal of letters, a holy decree, and the day after tomorrow someone may be bribed to bring the disgusting things to your palace! Such a person who is good at self-mastery and deceives superiors and subordinates, do you still want to keep her?"

I saw that my mother was angry, and I was busy kneeling on the ground, but my mother glared at her, and then stood up, took her arm and said: "Ah Niang is angry, Ah Niang said that there is indeed a thing, but the law of the country, always in the investigation of their deeds, and not their hearts, now they are just stealing, they should be regarded as the sin of theft, or rod, or apprentice, or flow, only according to the law, why do it again? I heard that Qiu Shenqian even arrested the eunuchs who cleaned the dead leaves in the courtyard, and my servants in the Daming Palace almost took sixty percent, and I think... It's too cool. ”

The mother sneered: "Last year, you just reprimanded Ah Yang, she played a trick and complained about the illness, you went to the court in person, but she treated you disrespectfully, and she was willing to go back only if I made a will, only this one was enough for her! Qiu Shenqian was only sentenced to beheading, it was really cheap for her, but you still had to cover up and plead for her." I gave you the dossier because I wanted to see what you did, but I didn't expect you to think only about how to deceive me. ”

I didn't kneel or stand for a while, so I had to bow down and say: "Ah Niang, how can they also be the people around me, public execution, I'm afraid it's indecent, I beg Ah Niang to open the net and give a... All corpses. When I said this, my heart trembled slightly, both guilty and sad, and even my voice trembled unconsciously, my mother glanced at me and said, "Are you guilty of favoring Wei Huan that day?"

I shuddered and suddenly looked up at my mother. The flowers in the palace bloomed very early, and now it is a purple Qianyan, competing for beauty, we are close to the flower garden, my mother is reaching out and pinching a branch, pulling it closer, sniffing at the tip of her nose, she looks flat, and even with a little pleasure, sniffed, two fingers forcefully, the delicate flower branch is broken, look behind him, Tuan'er immediately came up with a mirror, my mother put the hairpin on her head, turned her head and asked me: "Is it good-looking?"

I didn't come back to my senses for a while, and said, "It's beautiful." I wanted to flatter my mother, so that she would forget Wei Huan, and said with a smile: "There are peonies at this time, it must be the feeling of A-Niang's holy virtue, and even the flowers have bloomed early." ”

The mother looked back and asked, "What do you think?"

The people behind her joked: "What the princess said is very true, the lady's holy virtue moves the sky." ”

The mother suddenly pulled the flower down again, threw it on the ground, and said, "I don't think it's good." ”

Everyone was stunned, and Tuan'er smiled: "Lady Luan Feng's body, although this flower is good, it seems to be a little less generous." ”

My mother smiled lightly, took me a few steps forward, and saw a big tree in front of me, which was only half budding, and it was yellow and green, which was quite ugly. The attendant who was in charge of the garden saw his mother staring at the tree, and explained with sweat on his face, "The villain has been replaced." ”

Mother smiled: "These trees have never been all green or all yellow, and it is interesting to see one that is half green and half yellow." ”

The waiter smiled and said: "Exactly, exactly, the villain also thinks so, so he doesn't dare to replace it, since His Majesty loves this tree, the villain dares to play His Majesty, do you want to move this tree to Zhenguan Palace?"

The mother smiled and said noncommittally: "You have worked hard, you will be rewarded with fifty silks, you don't have to stay here, just do your duty." ”

The chamberlain thanked me again and again, bowed and retired, and my mother sent her attendant a few steps away as usual, and led me forward slowly, saying as she went: "You must think in your heart that these people are lucky villains, don't you?"

I said, "They are A-Niang's servants, as they should be." "Even if I slapped my mother's ass for Wei Huan, what else can I say? But the ability of these people to open their eyes and tell nonsense really makes me admire, and I ask myself if I can't do this.

The mother smiled lightly and said, "You are wrong, although they are my close slaves, there are only a few of them who can take the king's heart as their own heart and the king's words as their own words from the beginning." They can do this, and I teach them to be like this, step by step. Her smile gradually faded, and when she looked at me, her smile disappeared completely: "For example, Wan'er, her ancestors and father's family were destroyed by me, do you say that she is really willing to serve me and be humble to me?"