Ke Xiyuan's heart slowly sank, but he really didn't expect that the truth was so unbearable.

Cao Mingyuan's Cao family was born as an imperial merchant, and his ancestors have been operating in the Huai River area for generations, and they are quite famous.

But in this era, the most despicable thing about Shinong industry and commerce is business. It was the Cao family that urged future generations to learn Wen, hoping that there would be an executive in the house who would be prosperous. They are no longer short of money, but they lack an identity.

At that time, Cao Mingyuan was only thirteen years old, and he had been studying since he was a child, but he had no way out. Although there are a lot of relationships in the family, they have never been able to worship famous teachers. Many people don't like to have anything to do with the emperor's business.

At this time, Li Yulin threw an olive branch to Cao Mingyuan, sent Cao Mingyuan to the Li clan study, and recommended Cao Mingyuan to the most famous Confucian scholar in the Huaihe area at that time, and made Cao Mingyuan his close disciple.

The Cao family was extremely grateful to Li Yulin for this, and the two families began to have contact since then.

Cao Mingyuan is the most brilliant teenager of the Cao family's generation, after three years of careful teaching by his husband, he really solved the yuan in high school, and then two years later he was selected as a jinshi, and then the palace examination was hand-picked to explore the flowers.

Seventeen-year-old Tanhualang made the Huai River area all hot. Everyone thought that this Tanhualang must be an official in Beijing, but he didn't want him to return to his hometown and become the prefect of a small county in Huaihe.

Everyone said that the Cao family Tanhualang was to repay the kindness of his parents and the kindness of his teacher, but few people knew that he was returning to his hometown for a woman, and he was willing to wait for her to grow up and wait for her to leave the cabinet.

At that time, Emperor Longqing wanted to marry Tanhualang, but he didn't want Tanhualang to say bluntly that he would not marry without doing anything.

Today, I cherish talents. And thinking of his ambition, he granted his request.

That year was the fifth year of Jianyuan. Seventeen-year-old Cao Mingyuan returned to Huaihe and became a parent official in a room. At that time, the matchmakers in the Huaihe area broke through the threshold of the Cao family, and many families competed to marry their daughters into the Cao family. If nothing else, the Cao family is out of Cao Mingyuan, that is, with status and financial resources, it is a rare good family. Especially Cao Mingyuan is young. It is difficult to estimate how many official worships in the future, as long as you marry in the past, it is only a matter of time before you die.

However. At that time, Mrs. Cao only politely invited people to come in and then politely invited people out, and did not open her mouth to decide on any family affairs.

Everyone didn't understand what was going on with the Cao family, and although the people who went to say goodbye didn't say that the emperor was noble, they were all figures with heads and faces in the Huai River. Afterward. I don't know who said it. Tanhualang liked the eldest lady of Kangguo Mansion, and only waited for the eldest lady and Lu to come to the door to ask for marriage.

Everyone was in an uproar, but they also understood the reason. This Cao family has a Tanhualang, which is inseparable from Kang Guogong. This Cao Mingyuan has walked in the mansion many times, and it is very likely that he met the eldest lady. However, at that time, the eldest lady was only 12 years old, and there were still three years to go.

In the past three years, Cao Mingyuan has taken the position of prefect from a prefect county. Loved by the people, but still stopped at the Huai River. He didn't want to go to Kyoto to be an official.

It was also that year, before Cao Mingyuan had time to go to the Li Mansion to propose marriage, a holy decree in the palace came to the Huai River, and the eldest daughter of the Duke of Kangguo was named a virtuous concubine, and she chose a day to enter Beijing.

This holy dish is like a thunderclap in the Huai River, and it has become a topic of conversation after tea and dinner in every household. While everyone was saying that the eldest lady had a good life, they were also lamenting the infatuation with Cao Mingyuan.

How do you know that the holy decree has only come down for three days, and the Cao family sent a matchmaker to go to the Wei family, who is also an imperial businessman, to ask for marriage and marry the third lady in the house.

All of a sudden, all previous speculations were nullified. It turned out that it was the third lady of the Wei Mansion who had been making Cao Mingyuan wait stupidly. The third lady is the same age as the eldest lady of the Kangguo Mansion, and Cao Mingyuan is a childhood sweetheart and a good match. For a while, the rumors about the eldest lady's bad disappeared all at once.

However, just when everyone thought that the eldest lady was going to enter Beijing as a concubine, the old lady of Lu Mansion died. The old lady of Lufu is the grandmother of the eldest lady, and the eldest lady also has to mourn. Emperor Longqing was sympathetic to his mother's family, so he issued a holy decree and sent two palace grandmothers down to take care of the eldest lady's daily life, and bluntly said that three years later, he would welcome the eldest lady into the palace with the gift of a noble concubine.

In this way, the Cao family's Tanhualang married the Wei family's miss, and the Li family's eldest lady was locked up in the back house and raised by the palace grandmother, and it was three years in the blink of an eye.

Three years later, the eldest lady set off for Kyoto under the expectation of the people of Huaihe. Unexpectedly, halfway through, he died in a foreign land, and the coffin was transported back to the Huai River. The Duchess of Kang Guo was too stimulated and collapsed, and Mrs. Ru stood up at this time, took charge of the Kang Guo Mansion, and became the head of the house.

Also in the same year, Cao Mingyuan's wife Wei died in childbirth, leaving the father and son alone.

When Li Shuling said this, she stopped, and the corners of her eyes were full of tears.

"But I heard that Lord Cao loves the eldest lady alone." , Ke Xiyuan looked at Li Shuling, and her voice was a little low.

"Brother Cao lived in the house for a few years, and my sister was only eleven years old at that time, but she could already help her mother. Although Brother Cao was born in a wealthy family, after all, he was a parasitic man, and he had no merit and fame, and many people who lived with him looked down on him from a royal merchant family. At that time, my sister took care of Brother Cao a lot, and sent people to send precious books from time to time to help Brother Cao study. At that time, I was still in my mother's womb, and I didn't know what was going on between them. But what I can be sure of is that my sister was not happy after being named a virtuous concubine. I was six years old and already remembered. The night before my sister went to the capital, I was asked to accompany my mother well, and I had to ...... Look at Brother Cao! Li Shuling's tears flowed out again, "My cousin may not know, I was brought up by my sister." Since I was born, I have been carried by my sister. It was my sister who asked her mother, saying that she would enter the palace in the future, and it would be difficult for the sisters to reunite. When my mother saw her say this, she put me in my sister's yard, who took care of me for six years. I was young at the time, but I remember that my sister was often stunned by a notebook......"

It turns out that there is still such a story in it, but Ke Xiyuan still doesn't understand what Li Shuling means.

"Cousin, I want to sue you that my sister's death was not an accident! She was forced to death by my father, and the girls who followed her on the road all died cleanly. But what my father didn't expect was that he thought that those people had already sunk into the river and fed the fish, but he didn't expect that there was a person who survived and was saved by someone. Li Shuling wiped her eyes, and the corners of her mouth were mocking again.

"You mean, the eldest lady was actually killed by Kang Guogong? How is that possible? What good will it do him to kill the eldest lady? It doesn't make sense! If the eldest lady is crowned a virtuous concubine, it will be a beautiful thing to glorify the ancestors! Just because the Li family has a queen mother, if the eldest lady enters the palace, it will only help your father. Ke Xiyuan analyzed calmly, and her brain spun quickly.

"Humph! What he asks for is not wealth! Li Shuling snorted coldly, with a full coldness in her tone. (To be continued......)