Huaiyuan County is located in the northwest of Fengyang Prefecture, 200 miles away from Fengyang County. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info out of Fengyang Mansion through Chuzhou across the Huai River, carriages, horses and boats, to six to eight days, you can go directly to the Great Zhou Dynasty where the capital division is located Yingtianfu.

"The ancient wood is tied with a short canopy in the shade, and the cane helps me cross the east of the bridge. The clothes want to wet the apricot blossom rain, and the wind blows the willow wind. "On the new day of the apricot moon in the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu, it has already passed the stinging solar term, and the south of the Yangtze River is already the season of gentle wind and drizzle and spring breeze. But in Huaiyuan County, it was a rainy morning, but it was unusually cold in spring.

There is a five-entry mansion on Cuizhu Street in the east of the city, and two dead wind lamps outside the gate reflect the two big characters "Lufu" on the gatehouse. There are two stone lions on the left and right of the door, which are meek and simple in the solemn atmosphere. It is strong and powerful from the stone lion in front of the official yamen.

Lu Mansion is also called "Lu Bancheng" by the people of Huaiyuan County, not because Lu Mansion occupies half of the city, but because it is the ancestral residence of the Prince of the Great Zhou Dynasty. The second dynasty and three generations of the Lu Mansion produced two Taifu, and the current Lu Taifu is the eldest son of the old lady Lu.

Although Mrs. Lu has been living in Jingshi Yingtianfu for a long time, Lu Mansion still plays a pivotal role in Huaiyuan County. Now the ancestral house of Lu Mansion lives in the third master of Lu Mansion, Lu Chengyao's younger brother Lu Chengyao's family.

At the end of the day, the sky was gray and stained with a layer of black, and the stars and moon were covered in the dark clouds, refusing to even let through the afterglow. In the inner house of Lufu, the shadows of the rockery trees are soaked in light rain and are cold.

The door of the house in the middle house was gently opened, and the mother-in-law guarding the door was dumbfounded, bowing down, and didn't know what to say. I saw that at the opening of the door, two little maids wearing double buns and green cotton clothes, one carrying a dead wind lamp, the other carrying a small box woven with vines, and a young lady wearing a hood and a blue cloak walked out of the door.

The little maid carrying the wind lantern looked unhappy, glared at the mother-in-law who opened the door, and then helped the young lady to the corner gate of the west courtyard.

"Caixing, what are you doing with a rough mother-in-law, wait for the third lady next time, you will lose the identity of the eldest lady!" The maid carrying the rattan box is not very old, but the words that come out are quite a bit of the momentum of a big girl. They are the first-class maids who serve the eldest lady closely, and they represent the eldest lady when they talk and do things, and they really shouldn't be angry with a mother-in-law.

"Caiyue, how could I be wrong! The eldest lady got up in the morning to read, and that was the third master's permission. On weekdays, the eldest lady always thinks that these people work hard during the day, and they don't want to trouble them early in the morning, and would rather take a long detour themselves than avoid them. But the weather is bad today, if it weren't for us, who are slaves, who are afraid of wetting the eldest lady's shoes and socks, and wouldn't have borrowed the door of the inner house of Zhongju, how could she still have a mother-in-law talking there!"

The one who was called the eldest lady by the two maids was Lu Chengyao's daughter, and she was the only young lady in the big house, the second room, and the third room and the third house of the Lu Mansion, Lu Ruxue.

What kind of temperament are the two maids on weekdays, how could Lu Ruxue not know, but in her opinion, the two of them are just children who have not grown up, so they are not restricted by their temperament, as long as they don't lose their manners in front of outsiders, they will quarrel for a while.

Seeing that the eldest lady didn't squeak, the two maids felt bored after a few quarrels, and helped Lu Ruxue all the way to the west across the courtyard. To the west, you have to pass through another courtyard, and after the corner gate, you can take a shortcut into the west across the courtyard. Cai Yue had asked the housekeeper mother beside the third lady for the key to the corner door yesterday, but there was no mother-in-law guarding the door outside the corner door today.

As soon as he was about to open the corner door, he heard a voice from the other side of the courtyard wall. The voice of the speaker was not loud, but it was still very clear in the quiet and dim morning.

"Auntie, let's go back to the house, it's cold in the morning, and the yard is dark and not bright, what is there to see? When I turn around and get windy again, I should have a headache again!" It was a woman who spoke, her voice was a little old, and she had a little sleepiness that she hadn't woken up.

"Sleep!" the woman snorted coldly, "I have been either eating or sleeping all day long, looking up is the sky of the four directions, raising my feet is the earth of the four directions, and I have been sleepy in this courtyard for eleven years." Eleven years! I don't know what my daughter has become now? Mother Cao, you still let me sleep, where can I still sleep!" The woman's voice sounded sad and indignant, and Lu Ruxue even heard the hatred in these words.

Raise her hand to signal the two big girls not to make a sound. Although she didn't see many of these two women, she knew that the young one was the concubine of the second uncle Lu Chengzong, the mother of the second lady Lu Rushuang in the Lu Mansion, and the only concubine in the entire Lu Mansion.

According to the family rules of the Lu Mansion, only when a man is at least twenty-five and has no children under his knees can he take a concubine. The second uncle is 37 years old this year, and he has not been born until he is 25 years old, so he accepted a maid next to his wife as a concubine and gave birth to Lu Rushuang's daughter, so Lu Rushuang is only one month younger than Lu Ruxue.

After that, because this woman gave birth to a daughter, she slowly stopped taking the second lady in her eyes. Mrs. Lu didn't like her, so when Lu Rushuang turned one year old, she sent the woman back to the ancestral house. And Lu Rushuang followed the second master and the second lady to Beiping Mansion, sat up from the official of the seventh grade, and was promoted to the general judgment of the sixth grade three years later, and now he has sat down to the same knowledge of the fifth grade. Next year, the three-year term will expire, and that will be eight years.

The family style of the Lu Mansion is pure, and the great ancestor and the young master have never taken concubines, so the second master was a little unhappy with the concubine, and the lady sent the concubine back to the ancestral house, and he never raised any objections. However, because he has no children under his knees, when he was thirty years old, the second lady was in charge, and he took a concubine for the second master. It's just seven years in office, and still nothing has come out.

Lu Ruxue was thinking about these things in her head, but her ears were quietly listening to the movement within the courtyard wall. She doesn't like these intrigues in the house, but her mother is soft and gentle, if she doesn't help keep an eye on it, she doesn't know what will happen in this house.

The mother-in-law's voice soon came from the courtyard, "Eh, my aunt, you just don't think about yourself, you have to think about the second lady, if your words reach the ears of Mrs. Tai, you may be sent to the nunnery." Although you can't see the second lady in this ancestral house, it's still more comfortable than going to the nunnery, isn't it? At least you still have a hope!"

"Hope, of course you have hope, although the second miss was born to me, but that is also your granddaughter, others don't know what you think in your heart. Mother Cao, do you want to deceive even me?" The woman's words seemed to be squeezed out of her teeth, with a ruthless force.

Lu Ruxue stood outside the courtyard wall, almost exclaiming, if she didn't hear those words just now, then this Lu Rushuang, the second miss of Lu Mansion who has called her sister for more than ten years, is not the daughter of the second uncle at all, but the son of this aunt and Cao's mother. Cai Xing and Cai Yue were also stunned, if it weren't for Lu Ruxue covering their mouths in time, they were afraid that they would have exhaled urgently, which would startle the people in the courtyard.

Note: (1) New moon day: the first day of February.