A carriage drove into Qinggang County and stopped in front of the county office.

Ye County Commander of Qinggang County took the county officials and personally greeted him.

If only a group of palace maids returned to their hometowns, Ye County Ling would not need to go out to greet them, but this time there is a retired female official who returned to Qinggang County!

If the female official no longer contacts the palace after retiring, he will not be guilty of this sycophant. But the emperor personally issued an edict three years ago, saying that the Holy Son of Heaven should speak widely, and these retired female officials and palace maids have been trained in the palace and know books and etiquette, so they can also be the eyes and ears of the Son of Heaven after leaving the palace. They also want them to write some folk customs and submit them to the palace every year, so as not to prevent the Son of Heaven from living in the deep palace for a long time, not knowing the suffering of the people, and making jokes such as "why not eat minced meat......

And voila! This is clearly to let these retired female officials and palace maids complain to the palace in a bright and open manner!

At that time, this edict was also opposed by many ministers of the DPRK and China, causing a wave of admonition. But it is said that the emperor fought the ministers at the small court meeting and won a complete victory, and those ministers had to retreat in disgrace! Although these retired female officials and palace maids are not imperial historians and do not have the right to impeach the ministers of the court, if they are sued by them and leave a bad impression on the emperor and queen, it will also be very detrimental to their careers.

Although he also has a way to make these retired female officials and palace maids dare not talk nonsense, but there is no conflict of interest in the good and dignified, why make the relationship so stiff? Less enemies and more good relationships are the way to be officials!

Therefore, Ye Xianling personally greeted him.

Hyungui grabbed the arm of a young eunuch who was responsible for escorting them and jumped out of the carriage. After a few words of greeting with Ye Xianling, he followed him into the flower hall of the county office. There were about twenty people crowded into the flower hall, and Hyun-gyu's eyes wandered around the crowd twice before he looked at one of them with doubt.

This person...... This man with gray hair and wrinkles on his black and red face is a bit like his father? The two men next to him ...... Is it his own brothers?

She's not so sure!

After 14 years of separation, many of the memories of my childhood have been blurred, and the changes in each have been even greater. She looked at the three people suspiciously, but she still couldn't confirm it, and she was a little embarrassed for a while. If you recognize the wrong father, it will be ridiculous!

Ye Xianling saw Xuan Gui's embarrassment and was secretly amused in his heart, but for the purpose of building a good relationship, he diligently introduced Xuan Gui: "Yu Nushi, these people are your relatives!" The female history has been in the palace for more than ten years, I'm afraid I can't recognize it anymore, right? ”

"Thank you, Lord Ye!" Xuan Gui thanked Ye Xian Ling and smiled slightly bitterly, "I don't really recognize it!" ”

It turns out that this is really my father!

Hyun Gyu felt very strange in his heart, but he still stepped forward politely and saluted: "Dad! ”

Hyun-gyu's father's name was Yu Defu, and he rubbed his hands crampedly, "Alas! Alas! The earth answered twice. He looked at Hyun Gyu, who was radiant, well-behaved, and dressed in satin, and always had the feeling that he was dreaming: this ...... Is it really your own daughter? This is really a golden phoenix flying out of the grass nest!

"Daddy...... Who are these two? Hyun Gyu looked at the two men next to her father and asked Yu Defu.

Yu Defu came back to his senses and hurriedly introduced her again: The two men beside him were really Hyungui's elder brothers, Dazhu and Erzhu.

After the delivery, he resigned from the county government and got into a donkey cart borrowed by Yu Defu and others, and Xuan Gui asked about the situation at home.

Hyun Gyu is the second among the sisters in the family, and his maiden name is Erya. She has an older sister and two older brothers, Dazhu and Erzhu. When Hyun Gyu left home and entered the palace, he already had a younger sister Sanya and a younger brother Sanzhu below. After she entered the palace, her mother successively added a younger brother Sizhu and two younger sisters Siya and Wuya to her. It's a pity: the youngest Wuya didn't stand still, and died of illness when she was three years old!

When Hyun Gyu heard this, he couldn't help but sigh: Her mother is really capable of giving birth, four sons, five daughters, and nine children! This is much more powerful than the queen mother.

Now, the eldest girl has been married, and the two brothers have also married their sisters-in-law. Sanya is also married. They also gave Hyun Gyu a good idea of a family, and they waited for that family to get hired after Hyun Gyu!

After Hyun Gyu heard the news, he was a little unhappy in his heart: Wait for the family to get over and hire him? Don't you need to ask yourself what you mean about this?

"Dad, do you know that the emperor has already decreed: retired palace maids are independent in their marriage? If I don't agree to this family affair, it won't work! "Ugly words must be said in advance, lest her father and mother make their own decisions in the future, and the matter will hurt her feelings even more when it gets bigger!

Yu Defu smiled wryly: "I've heard of it before!" After the prefectural magistrate summoned us to the prefectural office, he said it again! But didn't we marry you? ”

"That's good!" Hyun Gyu smiled slightly and softened his tone, "What's the situation with that family?" ”

Yu Defu showed a little smug look on his face: "It's the Zhang family who opened a wine shop in Lingxing Town." Their eldest young grandmother died in childbirth last year, and I want to say that you will continue to make a chord for the eldest young master of his family. Don't worry, the young grandmother in front of his house only left a girl, and it won't get in your way! ”

What is the situation of Zhang Dahu's family, Hyun Gyu has been away from his hometown for many years, so he naturally knows nothing. For the Zhang family's family business, she was noncommittal, and decided to make a decision after reading it. But before he went home, the Zhang family came to the door to propose, this action is inevitably too fast, right?

"How did you climb to Zhang Dahu's house?" Hyun Gyu asked her father.

Before her father could speak, Dazhu had already said triumphantly: "Second sister, don't you know, now, you retired palace maids who came out of the palace are very popular!" said that you look good, have a rich dowry, and are all literate and hyphenated, and there is no way to write letters, and you are better than those bookkeepers. If you marry you, you can still have some relationship with the palace and the officials, and you will not be afraid of being bullied at will in the future! Those big families say that marrying you is more cost-effective than marrying those well-connected young ladies! ”

Seeing that he hadn't answered Hyungyu's question for a long time, Erzhu hurriedly said, "Big brother is right! I heard from the Zhang family that as soon as your list was sent to the county government, those big families did everything possible to inquire clearly, and asked the matchmaker to say goodbye! It wasn't us who climbed up to the Zhang family, it was the Zhang family who took the initiative to send a matchmaker to kiss. ”

Hyun Gyu secretly said that it was dangerous! If it weren't for the emperor's decree, the marriage of the retired female official and the palace maid would be autonomous, would it be that as soon as he returned home, there would be a marriage waiting for him? I thought again: In such a situation, did the emperor and his mother have expected that the emperor will make such a will? ! The emotion in my heart has added another layer.

Yu Defu's face also smiled like a chrysanthemum.

When I arrived in Lingxing Town, it was already dark, and I didn't have time to rush home. Hyun Gyu and the others stayed at a relative's house in the town. In terms of relationship, Hyun Gyu has to call the head of the family an uncle.

Uncle Yu was very courteous to Xuangui's family, and specially prepared good wine and food to pick up the wind and wash the dust for Xuangui.

Small doors serve guests, usually the men drink in the hall, and the women and children set a separate table in the kitchen.

Now it is a young woman who is being picked up, and several old men are very curious about Hyungyu's life and experience in the palace, and they don't want to get Hyungyu to eat in the kitchen. But it didn't seem appropriate for her to mix with the male guests at the same table, so she obeyed the authority: two tables of wine were set up in the hall, one table for the male guests and one table for the female dependents.

After three glasses of wine, everyone asked about Hyun-gyu's life in the palace. Hyun Gyu picked what he could say and bragged about it.

"What does the emperor look like? What does the queen look like? ”

Xuan Gui said: "The emperor is heroic and extraordinary, and the queen is both beautiful and kind. "What does the emperor and queen look like, but she didn't say a word!

"Have you ever waited by the emperor's side?"

Hyun-gyu: "No! I'm waiting by my mother's side. She simply omitted the exact length of time she had been waiting.

"What are you going to do with the waiter?"

Hyun Gyu: "There are a lot of people waiting around Niangniang. I'll just serve tea and water to the mother, and there are other palace maids to do! ”

Everyone in the Yu family sighed at the royal pomp. Uncle Yu showed off his knowledge: "I heard that this is the case in all big families!" If you serve tea and water, you will be in charge of serving tea and water; If the tube combs the hair, the special tube combs the hair; Not a single inch of confusion! ”

Yu Dazhu said: "No wonder the palace wants to recruit so many palace maids to enter the palace!" Is there a person who is in charge of pouring a night pot? ”

Uncle Yu's eldest son was quite familiar with him, and scolded with a smile: "He is in charge of pouring night pots for the queen's mother, and his identity is more valuable than that girl in your family!" ”

Hyun Gyu continued to laugh and say nothing, not planning to tell them: Niang Niang's bathroom has a flush toilet, and she doesn't need someone to pour the night pot!

Everyone laughed for a while, and Uncle Yu shook his head and smiled: "There is one thing, I haven't figured it out: why are you palace maids who spend so much money and so many years cultivating in the palace, why are they all released from the palace when they reach the age of twenty?" The emperor's account is not good enough! ”

Hyun Gyu smiled but didn't say anything. Although she had already guessed about this issue, since it was only her own speculation, not the queen's explicit instructions, she couldn't say it.

Aunt Yu said, "Exactly! I remember that when the palace maids were recruited, they were recruited from six to nine years old. I have always chosen a palace maid, but I have never chosen someone so young! At that time, some people chewed their tongues and said: Could it be that the royal family also likes to raise children and daughters-in-law? Unexpectedly, Erya was released from the palace so early! The queen doesn't want you to miss your life, right? ”

Hyun Gyu smiled: "Exactly! ”

The next day, after Hyun Gyu returned to Yujiazhuang, the old and young of the family, relatives and friends came to Zhuangkou to greet her, and the clan hugged her back to the house. What makes Hyun Gyu very happy is that her mother is still in good health.

The eldest girl, who had already been married, also came back with a man and a child, and Hyun Gyu asked her, "How are you doing?" ”

The eldest girl said to Hyun Gyu with some pride: "My mother-in-law still thinks that my mother's family is poor, and the dowry is too simple, so she treats me all day long with a nose that is not a nose, and her eyes are not eyes, and she either beats or scolds." But since I knew that you were a female official and were going back to your hometown this year, you haven't moved a finger from me, and you haven't scolded me much! ”

Hyun Gyu was a little speechless: The eldest sister's pursuit is so low? But she didn't say much, so as not to provoke the dissatisfaction and inadequacy in the eldest girl's heart, and add some troubles to it.

She said, "That's good! Who is Sanya married? Why didn't you go back to your parents' house today? I asked my father and the eldest brother and the second brother before, and they were all divided! ”

The eldest girl's face sank, she grabbed Xuan Gui's hand, and begged with two points in her expression: "Second sister, if you can do it, help Sanya!" ”

Xuan Gui's expression froze: "What's wrong with Sanya?" ”

The eldest girl said: "After you left for a few years, my father fell seriously ill, and the family really had no money!" The mother sold Sanya to a big family in the county to make Yahuan. The year before last, Sanya somehow offended the young grandmother of the family, and was married to a rotten drunkard by the young grandmother of the family. Last year, my father and eldest brother and second brother went to see Sanya and said that Sanya had been tortured to the point that she was no longer human. ”