The late autumn sun is particularly precious, the light is shorter and stronger, and it is getting softer and softer, and through the curly yellow leaves sprinkled from the sky, it is fierce and fierce, and there is no bleakness at all. The mansion in the depths of Yongxingfang was completely enveloped in a golden soft light, which was more crisp and refreshing than the spring day, which was Mu Qing's favorite.

In the open space in the backyard, Ah Liu is instructing the servants and maids to move the wool trolls, wool mattresses, cotton jackets, curtains and other things used for wintering from the warehouse to dry incense, and the smell of warm agarwood incense wafts across the backyard.

The six-year-old Fu Yanyan opened his door this summer, although Mu Qing hired a teacher for him, in the end, as she grew up with Du Ruhan, her children were thin, and Ah Liu was like a sister, and Ah Yan treated her as if she were her own. At this moment, because he was endorsing in the front yard, Mu Qing hurriedly hugged Shiro, who had been more and more fond of pestering Ayan recently, and leaned over and led him to the backyard to watch the servants and maids do their work.

After a few words with Ah Liu, Du Qi hurried over from the front, looked around with a complicated expression, lowered his voice and said a few words close to Mu Qing's ear. Mu Qing suddenly covered his mouth and suppressed the volume "Ah", frowned and groaned for a long time, pulled over Ah Liu and said: "These drying things are up to them, you go and prepare a few plain skirts, and then have Shiro's plain clothes, it seems that we ...... I have to go back to Duling. ”

"Who's up ahead?" Mu Qing pulled Du Qi and asked in a low voice as he walked to the front yard, "Don't be a senior old man in the mansion, we can't be rude." ”

Du Qi lowered his eyes and meditated for a moment, "It is indeed an old seniority, when I followed Ah Lang, he was already in the house, and I vaguely remember that he was the elder follower of Lao Ah Lang." ”

Mu Qing had a general idea in his heart, and he walked to the front yard and the main house on the other wall. Sure enough, there was a plain housekeeper sitting in the house eating tea, and someone in the family was fighting outside, and the miserable whiteness of his body made Mu Qing feel a little taboo in his heart, but it was not easy to show it on his face.

The steward saw that Du Qi had invited a woman in her early twenties, although she had a good complexion, but her dress was plain and her hair was simple, like a housekeeper in an ordinary mansion. When she approached step by step, the cold and calm momentum swept together, obviously with a light smile in her eyebrows, but there was a little sharpness in her eyes, and somehow, the steward expected that she was not a lady in charge, and her body involuntarily bowed down, and saluted: "Madame is healthy." ”

"The steward is not to do this, but sit down and speak." Mu Qing stretched out his hand and helped him in mid-emptiness.

Where did the steward dare to sit, stood with his hands down, and sighed deeply, "Mrs. Yu, the day before yesterday, someone sent the third prince back from the eastern capital, with him, with the coffin of the eldest prince, saying that he was teaching people to harm in the eastern capital, and the old Ah Lang couldn't bear it for a while, so he fell down that day, and invited the doctor to come and see, only saying that he was sad and anxious, and I was afraid that it would be useless...... I went with the eldest prince last night. ”

Mu Qingteng stood up from his seat, when Du Qi passed the word before, he only said that Du Za was gone, thinking that he would be old in the future, and this matter had been prepared for a long time, but she never expected that the old Du Mansion was in such a situation now, she held the table with her hand and gasped.

Seeing her face change, the steward hurriedly said, "Madame, you must be steady." At present, there is a mess in the house, although there are all the clan relatives to help take care of the funeral, there should always be a head of the family to preside over it, our house has a total of three sons, and now the old Ah Lang and the eldest son went together, and the third son is also sick and weak, and he was counting on the second son, so he inquired about finding this, and did not want the second son to go out with the army and was not at home, the old slave was brave, so he could only ask Mrs. to go over and support it first. ”

Mu Qing lowered his eyes and condensed, calmed down, and when he spoke, his tone was already calm and unfazed, "Go to the spirit and kowtow, it should be, if you want to say host, you really don't dare." There should always be a female dependent next to the house, why can't you preside over it? I have never met any of your clan relatives, nor have I ever known the rules of the house, and it is not very suitable to take on such a big matter in the final analysis. ”

She didn't mean to shirk it, but she just thought that she and Du Ruhui did not have a marriage certificate, and presided over the funeral of the boss of Du Mansion as the head of the family. Moreover, Du Ruhui was expelled from Duling that day, and he was removed from the clan for 14 years, and he had never set foot in Duling, I don't know what his heart was.

Seeing that she had the intention of pushing, the steward couldn't help but be anxious, and almost didn't kneel down in front of her, "Mrs. doesn't know, about three or two years ago, the eldest son's wife met a thief on the way to Jinyang Province, and was martyred, leaving two little sons, the eldest is only thirteen this year, the younger one is ten years old, and some of the heirs are not worthy of the overall situation." The third prince suffered a crime in the eastern capital, and he was still lying on the couch, and the third lady took care of him day and night, and his temperament was the softest, and he was even more unable to support it. ”

Saying that, he raised his head and quickly looked at Mu Qing, then lowered his head again, "The old slave doesn't dare to say that he knows how to read people, he has been obsessed with many years, and he can see a little sophistication, and his wife's bearing is by no means ordinary." Moreover, although the second son angered the elders back then, the elder of the clan had to admit that he was not a thing in the pool, and among the descendants of the clan, only the second son of our family is like a character, and the lady can follow the second son for many years, so he must also be talented......"

Mu Qing hurriedly raised his hand to stop, "The steward is going to shame me." He knew in his heart that when he talked about this, he didn't allow her to shirk anymore, so he had to owe himself and say: "The reason should go, but I don't dare to preside over the overall situation, all Qi Niang can do is to sacrifice herself and do her best to be filial." Please wait a little while for the steward, and let me pick up a moment. ”

The old steward breathed a sigh of relief, and his close-fitting underwear was already slightly sweaty. Looking at her back hidden in the verandah, he suddenly realized that in the atmosphere of early winter and late autumn, he was actually wet, and raised his sleeves to tuck the damp sweat on his forehead and sideburns.

Yongxingfang to Duling is not far, from Yongxingfang to the south about 20 miles of road, gradually away from the city square, the flow of people is crowded, the carriage drove on a loess rammed road, compared with the previous avenue bumpy a lot. Shiro, who was sleeping soundly in Mu Qing's arms, was woken up by repeated bumps, opened his still hazy sleepy eyes, and looked around.

Mu Qing handed him to Ah Liu, carefully wrapped the small dark cyan gray squirrel cloak on his body, turned over and pushed the pane on the wall of the car to look, there were two rows of ginkgo trees standing straight and neatly beside the road, and at this time the leaves of the trees were about to fall, and the bare branches were endlessly desolate. On the contrary, it is the situation on the ground, and the small golden fans all over the ground make the faint sun more dazzling.

A little further on, the coachman who was driving the car respectfully asked outside the curtain: "This is coming, please prepare your wife." Mu Qing lifted the curtain and looked forward, only the white paper lanterns for mourning were hung at the gate of the mansion, and a few plain threads were pulled, and several servants of the six gods and no owners were looking left and right at the gate.

"It's only half a day's journey, and we have been in Chang'an for two years, but we have never seen Ah Lang come to look." Aliu muttered lowly.

Although Mu Qing did not speak, he secretly said this in his heart, about when his grandmother died, the clan did not allow him to return to his hometown to worship and was haunted, or there was some other reason, in the past ten years, he rarely talked about Du Ling, only a few childhood anecdotes.

The car stopped at the gate, and the steward of the house had already led two servant women forward to pick them up. Seeing Mu Qing get out of the car, he hurriedly bowed and saluted, leading her into the ear room at the second gate to change her clothes and decorate, and the servant woman put on the green silk clothes, cut the filial piety clothes, and asked her and Shiro to wear them.

Mu Qing had incense in front of the coffin, and when he saw the female dependents kneeling on the ground in front of the spirit in the hall, he glanced at it and cried sadly.

Everyone saw the chief steward standing behind Mu Qing with his hands down, expecting that she was Erlang's wife, except for the grief-stricken ones, the rest couldn't help but be a little curious, and quietly looked at this woman who was like a weak willow and had a delicate appearance, and few people sneered.

However, listen to her instructions one after another, how to keep the spirit and continue the incense inside, send people to report the funeral, where to settle the clan relatives who have rushed to the present, and which place to be in charge of the tea and trivial...... Receiving people and treating everything well, the rules that I don't know have a big steward to guide me, and I can't find anything wrong with her for a while.

Although Du Zha is the long history of the previous dynasty, because of the Du family's generations of official eunuchs, he is finally involved in today's court. There are so three or two old friends who came to pay tribute, how much have they heard of Gu Qiniang's name, and now they see it in the mourning hall, and they can't help but greet each other politely, and in the eyes of all the women, they secretly pressed down those who were so strong that they were not convinced. Therefore, her assignment and command in the past few hours have also been very smooth.

I was so busy that I didn't know when I got up outside, and when I heard the report, I didn't realize that it was already three watches, and I stopped a little at this time. Outsiders return home, temporarily unable to return home by the servants led to the prepared room to rest, the rest of the hall is only seven or eight women, there is a maid to tell the same Liu Niangzi has taken Xiao Langjun to rest, stop properly, please Mrs. just rest assured.

Mu Qing breathed a long sigh of relief, knelt on the sackcloth worship group in the mourning hall, closed his eyes and sorted out his thoughts. At present, the only tricky matter is Du Ruhui, who is far away in the Hedong Army, and his father and brother are mourning together, how to inform him, it is said that someone should be sent to the army to report the news, and I am afraid that he will disturb his mind and delay the fighter. Again, for him, the love of brothers may be far better than the love of father and son, and this sudden bad news should teach him how to bear it.

She sat on her knees in a daze, thinking about it in a distraught mood, hesitating and not knowing what to do. Suddenly, from the open door of the house, a woman of the same age as her walked in, with the same filial piety as her, her expression was in a trance, her eyes were red and swollen, and her face was bleak, and she ignored the greeting of the servant woman, and shook herself to Mu Qing, and bowed weakly.

"Sister-in-law has worked hard." She whispered in a hoarse voice: "There is no one at the moment, please go back and rest, enter some water and rice, and this place will be guarded by the steward for the time being." ”

Mu Qing pondered for a moment, "This ...... I'm afraid it's inappropriate...... "Whether it is justified or not, she has worn this mourning dress, and the rule of not eating for three days must always be observed."

"It's okay, although there is a rule of not eating for three days, this ritual has long been disrupted, and the right to not stick to meat and fish is replaced." The chief steward waved his hand and said, "If it's someone else, it's okay, Mrs. presides over the funeral, is sad and consumes a lot, today is considered to deal with the past, tomorrow there is another tiredness, hundreds of big and small things are waiting for the future, if you really don't eat for three days, how can you survive?" If Madame has a mistake, firstly, it is like pulling the backbone of the main heart, and secondly, how can we explain to the second son? ”

Yang also persuaded on the side, "Sister-in-law is considerate of us because of herself, so let's go back with me and eat some vegetarian soup cakes and take a break." As he spoke, he lowered his eyes and swept towards the people next to him, and put one hand on Mu Qing's arm.

Mu Qing only felt a tightness in his arm, as if he was deliberately pinched by the Yang family. Looking up at Yang's face, but seeing a hint in her eyes, when she saw this scene, Mu Qing had an epiphany in her heart, this is something to say to her in private. R1152