Coming out of the Wangjiang Tower, close to the evening moment, the sun shines obliquely on the market, the eaves are sprinkled with lazy light, and occasionally there are ox carts passing by to catch the market, and there are many fewer people on the street.

Seeing the shop opposite, Chu Yiyao walked in and bought a jar of candied fruit, and when she came out, she bought a string of sugar gourds for Chu Yingzhu, just paid the copper money, and when she looked up, she passed by a figure in front of her, wearing a big robe and wrapping her whole body, but the beard made her very familiar, isn't that the shopkeeper in the mysterious shop in Guancheng!

Chu Yiyao wanted to make a sound but didn't know what to shout, and in a blink of an eye, the person entered the alley, and when she ran over to look, it was already gone.

"Bao Sheng, you just saw a bearded man passing by." Chu Yiyao was afraid that she was blind, so she turned around and asked Baosheng, Baosheng nodded, "Miss is not mistaken, he entered the alley." "

The dress was really weird, Chu Yiyao heard Qin Manqiu mention the weirdness of this shopkeeper, so he didn't take it to heart, got into the carriage and went back to Chu's house...

A few days later, the merchant ship to Datong came back, Chu Yiyao personally went to the dock to pick up Chu Duyuan, at the beginning of the year Chu Duyuan followed Hongdu, and now he went to Datong again, and several experiences have made him mature a lot.

"I brought everything you wanted, and I rushed over when I arrived on the first day, for fear of being preempted by others." Chu Duyuan still had a breath of sea water on his body, and pinched Chu Yiyao's nose.

"Thank you, second brother, has anyone gone to look for this too?" Chu Yiyao turned to ask, Chu Duyuan nodded, "There are a lot of people who inquire, when we went, the children of that family were all picked for you and kept, there was not much left on the mountain, I gave them some silver." "

"Then let someone carry it to my shop quickly." When it was so obvious that it was unloaded from the merchant ship, someone would definitely go to Datong to find it, Chu Yiyao also expected this, so he asked the family to help him early, and when he was mature, he would take it off for himself, and someone would pick it up when the time came.

Chu Duyuan pinched her cheek again, and Chu Yiyao glared at him stingily, "Second brother, if you pinch it again, you won't be able to marry if it's swollen." "

"You're thinking about getting married so soon?" Chu Duyuan laughed, after a year, people have grown a little taller, but this temper has not been restrained at all, but it has become more and more aged.

"I'm not in a hurry to get married, I think Ying Zhu is very bored alone, if only the second sister-in-law could have another little brother and sister to accompany Ying Zhu." Chu Yiyao's eyes flashed with a touch of cunning, Chu Duyuan looked at her with tears and laughter, she could make a detour to get married on any topic.

"You, what's in it here?" Chu Duyuan pointed to her head with a smile, shook his head and turned to walk towards Chu Zhong, Chu Yiyao looked at his back, this is the first time she mentioned this He was not angry, second brother, is this put down? …

After the merchant ship came back, Chu Yiyao began to get busy again, these arrived Heichuan had been drying on the deck for a while, and they were transported to the shop to dry for a few days before they were ground into powder, according to the two recipes she had prepared herself, she allocated a part of it for her uncle to send it to the restaurant she wanted first, and left a part of the original storage for storage, and put the rest in the shop.

At the beginning of December, the weather was already very cold, and the streets and alleys were very lively near the New Year, and there were a lot of replenishments in various shops during this time, Chu Yiyao didn't have time to see the new shop, and accompanied Qiao Cong'an to buy New Year's gifts, and there were several more to be sent out this year than last year.

"Sister-in-law, why is there still the Zhang family?" Chu Yiyao ordered the list of gifts, this Zhang family had only met once in Guancheng, and they had no business dealings.

"A few days ago, the people of the Zhang family gave New Year's gifts, and Mrs. Zhang also said that she wanted to move around more, no matter how she said it, she had to go back, right?" Chu Yiyao was slightly stunned, it was the Zhang family who took the initiative to send things to the Chu family.

"They sent something." Chu Yiyao put down the list of gifts and pursed her mouth.

"It's not much, the Zhang family didn't open a cloth workshop, so they sent a few good cloths and some dry goods." Qiao Cong'an smiled and patted her on the back, "Didn't you go out with the young master of the Zhang family, what do you think?" ”

"I can't see anything in a few words, I'm just a reader."

"This scholar has gone to Luoyang Academy." Qiao Cong'an looked at her with a look of disdain, and teased, "Maybe this scholar will be able to do well in the future." ”

"Then I will congratulate him on his proud career in the future, with a group of wives and concubines, and a proud life." Chu Yiyao stuck out her tongue and replied, Qiao Cong'an laughed.

"Young grandmother, eldest lady, the old lady of the Qiao family is here." Qiao Cong'an's personal maid Qing'er walked in to report, Qiao Cong'an was stunned, "Grandmother is here, please come in!" ”

Qing'er quickly invited Mrs. Qiao to Qiao Cong'an's yard, Mrs. Qiao was in her sixties, her body was still strong, and she was accompanied by a mother who walked in with her, and Qiao Cong'an greeted her and helped her sit down.

"Old lady, I haven't seen you for a long time, it's good for you to come in." Chu Yiyao sat down next to Old Madam Qiao and greeted with a smile, Old Madam Qiao reached out and touched her hand, and said okay in a loud voice.

"Sister-in-law, you accompany the old lady, I still have some things to do, and I will come back later." Old Mrs. Qiao has been here once since her sister-in-law married into the Chu family for so many years, this time she came over suddenly, there must be something, Chu Yiyao left them alone after saying hello, and took the peacock back to Yifeng Courtyard.

Not only Chu Yiyao thought so, Qiao Cong'an was also strange, ordering Qing'er to go outside, Qiao Cong'an sat next to Mrs. Qiao, "Grandmother, is my mother not in good health, and there is something at home?" ”

"What can she do, An'er, into Grandmother's arms." Old Mrs. Qiao suddenly wanted to hug Qiao Cong'an, suppressing the doubts in her heart, Qiao Cong'an hugged Mrs. Qiao, and did not see a touch of moisture in Mrs. Qiao's eyes.

"My good An'er." Mrs. Qiao patted Qiao Cong'an on the back, just like what Mrs. Qiao said when she hugged her when Qiao Cong'an was sick.

"Grandmother, is something happening?" Qiao Cong'an had never seen Old Madam Qiao like this, and there was a faint uneasiness in his heart, he came out of Old Madam Qiao's arms, caught a glimpse of her reddish eyes, took her hand and asked anxiously, "Grandmother, what's going on at home, you tell me." ”

"An'er, do you remember what happened before you were five years old?" Old Madam Qiao smiled and touched her face, Qiao Cong'an shook his head, "I can't remember." ”

She had a high fever when she was five years old, and when she woke up, she couldn't remember anything before she was five years old, and she couldn't remember it all these years.

"Cong'an, do you know why your mother doesn't like you?" A touch of sadness flashed across Joean's face, and he shook his head slightly, "Because my mother thinks that I killed my brother." ”

"Good boy, Cong Ning's death has nothing to do with you, it's your mother who hasn't figured it out yet." Old Madam Qiao fumbled and took out a cloth bag from her arms, and opened the cloth bag with trembling hands, inside was a belt embroidered with strange patterns, the belt was very old, and there was a silver earring next to the belt.

"When your father found you, you fainted in the haystack, with these earrings in your hands, and this strap on your body, your clothes were torn, and your face was covered with mud." Qiao looked up at Mrs. Qiao from An Meng, and her father found out what she meant.

"The nails of these earrings have pierced your palm, and your father wasted a lot of strength to break them open and take them down for you." Old Madam Qiao took her right hand, and the rough hand ran across her palm, where there was a small scar under closer inspection.

Qiao Cong'an's right hand trembled slightly, and she heard her throat tremble, "Grandmother, didn't you say that I was playful and pricked with a needle. ”

"You don't remember anything when you wake up, I'll let you stay in Qiao's house, why is your father so cruel to make you faint in the haystack." Old Mrs. Qiao sighed, Qiao Cong'an couldn't help clenching her fist in disbelief, she was not born to her mother, she picked it up.

So when she was young, her mother was not close to her, only her father and grandmother were good to her, and then her brother died in an accident, and her mother didn't like her even more, and after her father died, her mother hated her even more, and often cried and beat her and said that she killed her brother, and she wouldn't die without her brother, even if she married later, her mother never came to the Chu family once, and her mother's health has become worse and worse in recent years, every time she goes back to watch, her mother will always look at her in a daze and say that it is her fault, all this, just because she is not the Qiao family, she picked it up.

"Then why are you telling me this now?" For a long time, Qiao Cong'an cried out, it's good to hide it all his life, so many years have passed.

"Kid, someone's looking for you." Old Madam Qiao looked at her slightly shrugged shoulders and sighed, she didn't want to say, it's good to take this secret into the coffin, as long as the child is doing well, everything is fine, what does it matter if it is not her own love for so many years.

Qiao Cong'an looked at Mrs. Qiao, this sudden news made her unacceptable, she had been the daughter of the Qiao family for twenty-five years, and suddenly said that she was not a child of the Qiao family, she was just picked up by her father outside.

"He asked us if we had picked up a five-year-old girl twenty years ago, dressed in different clothes from everyone else's, with some silver bracelets and silver collars, and a patterned belt around her waist." Old Madam Qiao picked up the band, at first she didn't believe it, but the man took out the strap with the exact same pattern as this pattern, and she believed it, what was twenty years ago, where can she still find the same now:

"When your father met you, you didn't have any silver bracelets and silver collars on you, only these earrings, I'm afraid that after you got lost, others would blush and snatch the things on your body."

"My surname is Qiao, and I'm just the daughter of the Qiao family." Qiao Cong'an stared at the belt for a long time, said with paranoia, raised his head and took a deep breath and looked at Old Madam Qiao, "Grandmother, I don't want to know the rest." ”

There was a sigh from Old Madam Qiao in the air, and she gently touched Qiao Cong'an's head, "If you don't know, you don't know, you are the child of the Qiao family, no one will deny it, but Cong'an, you are also the child's mother, whether you recognize it or not, grandmother has to tell you about it, and people have come to you for twenty years, which shows that your relatives have been looking for you for the past twenty years." ”

Mrs. Qiao is old, she doesn't know how many years she still has to live, this daughter-in-law is not in good health now, and she is sober and sometimes crazy, for this child, her mother's family has no support at all, and it is not a good thing to be able to find the family who was separated from Anruo.

The author has something to say: the update is late, and it is only now finished, woo