Chapter 68: Whose Child
The little girl from the kitchen got the word and hurriedly went back to urge the meal. The www.biquge.info kitchen served the food that night, and everyone ate a little indiscriminately, and they couldn't hold back their tiredness and fell asleep.
Daiyu left the snow geese for the night, and the master and servant talked for half a night before going to sleep.
The next morning, everyone washed up, ate breakfast, and Jia Zheng took Jia Baoyu to Suzhou Academy to check on the spot.
Daiyu stayed in the mansion and sorted out the things left by Jia Min in the main house. The morning sun shines through the courtyard and into the room, diluting the bleakness and silence that has been uninhabited for a long time.
Daiyu took the wet handkerchief and wiped the relics left by Jia Min one by one, and at this moment, there was a sudden sound of footsteps outside the door.
Daiyu looked up and saw a little boy who was only three or four years old standing at the door, looking at her silently without blinking.
Daiyu suddenly felt that she saw the little brother who died many years ago, and couldn't help but be taken aback, took a step back, and lowered her eyes to see the shadow at the boy's feet, and then she breathed a sigh of relief.
At this time, Zijuan's voice came from outside: "Whose child is this?" Why did you get to the inner courtyard? ”
A rough girl who was cleaning the yard hurriedly ran over in a panic, glanced at Lin Daiyu, and hugged the boy to leave. But the boy had a temper, and he stood here and refused to leave with the rough girl.
Lin Daiyu looked at the stubborn little boy with a stubborn face, and couldn't bear to let the girl take him away, so she ordered:
"If this kid wants to play here, let him play, you go and do your own thing, and wait for his family to come over, and then let them bring it back alive, don't scare him."
As she spoke, she asked the little girl to go to the kitchen to get snacks for the little boy.
The rough girl glanced at Daiyu again and again, let go of her hand and quietly went to work.
Daiyu cleaned up for a while and found that the boy was just standing in the doorway and watching her, as if she had robbed him of something.
Daiyu was very helpless, and called the snow goose to come over to play with the child, and the snow goose came over and said a lot of words to the child, but the little boy still ignored it.
Lin Daiyu remembered that the rough girl was going to carry the boy as soon as she came over, and she probably knew the boy, so she ordered her to come over and asked, "Whose child is this?" Do you all recognize each other? ”
The rough girl lowered her head and was embarrassed for a while before she spoke: "This is, the little master of the girl's family. Lin Daiyu was startled, and asked again loudly: "What?" ”
Zijuan and Snow Goose were also thundered by this news, and the rough girl turned pale with fright, and hurriedly knelt down and said, "This is the little young master left by the girl's stepbrother." ”
Xue Yan was very angry, and said: "The step-young master is the step-young master, how old is the girl, you say it like this!" ”
The rough girl kowtowed and begged for mercy, and Daiyu stopped Xue Yan's questioning. remembered that when Fuling returned to Yangzhou that year, someone did send a family of three, saying that he was a stepson and wanted to inherit the incense for Lin Ruhai.
Daiyu thought of this stubble, so she asked the rough girl: "The child is here, so where are the stepbrothers and sisters-in-law?" ”
The rough girl shook her head again and again, Daiyu pondered for a while, ordered the girl to go down first, and asked people to go to the outer courtyard to invite Mama Wang's son Wang Shun to come over.
The snow goose was still here, and Daiyu hurriedly hurried her back to the house to pack her things. Snow Goose is the son of the Lin family, and there are brothers-in-law and parents at home, who are also in Suzhou to take care of the Lin family's sacrificial fields.
Snow Goose smiled and went back to pack the package, and here Zijuan accompanied Daiyu and met Wang Shun, the son of Mama Wang.
Wang Shun also brought an old man who was nearly seventy years old and had a lot of gray hair and beard.
Daiyu stood up and took a look, the old man's face was still three or four points familiar, and after thinking about it, she remembered that this was the old servant left by Lin Ruhai, the old housekeeper who took care of the outer courtyard when Jia Min was alive.
This old housekeeper has been in charge of Lin Ruhai's travel and miscellaneous affairs in the outer courtyard in the past, and he is more than seventy years old, and he has no children under his knees, only two daughters.
Since Jia Min died, Lin Ruhai also gave him silver to go to his daughter's son-in-law's house to care for the elderly, the old housekeeper went for half a month and came back, saying that he didn't want to drag down the juniors, and then Lin Ruhai died, and he also invited himself to come to this Suzhou Mansion to guard the old house for the elderly.
When the old housekeeper saw Daiyu, he couldn't help but burst into tears. Daiyu was also a little sad, and asked the girls to add a seat to the two of them for tea, and then asked about the family that was sent to be a stepson.
The old housekeeper said that they had inquired about this family, it was an honest farmer's family, and after sending it, it was also the house of the old mansion that was placed and lived, and lived in the courtyard next to the back door, and was supported by twenty taels of silver allocated from the shop every month. The first few months were better, but after half a year, the stepson somehow became addicted to alcohol and gambling, and at the end of last year, he got drunk at night in the winter and died of drunkenness overnight.
The farmer silently came and collected the body and took it away, leaving the child and his mother still there. Who knew that the child's mother's mother's family heard about it, took the child's mother back, and married a family in four or five days, leaving only this boy to live with the girl in the house.
Daiyu looked at the child silently, and asked who took care of it on weekdays, and the rough girl hurriedly stood up. Daiyu asked her where she lived and the silver of the calendar, and ordered her to go down and raise her silver to one or two silver, and that the rough work in her hands should be done by other girls, and from this day on, she moved in with the boy, and sent two more girls to serve.
After thinking about it, Daiyu was still not at ease, so she took Zijuan and Qingwen over and looked at the boy's residence, and sure enough, it was next to the back door.
Although convenience is convenient, it is not safe to live with a child in the end, so I asked the girls to help change a yard, change a new cluster of bedding, and then let people get materials to cut clothes and make shoes for the boy, and then instructed the kitchen to give the boy a meal every day, according to her share, not to be deducted.
Lin Daiyu personally supervised the girls to replace the yard, and saw that the boy just stood silently watching the girls clean up and tidy up, without even saying a word, and couldn't help but feel a little distressed. Children who have lost loved ones and experienced such a major blow will be more silent and confused than other children.
Everyone was busy in a nervous and orderly manner, and the snow goose came over with a package on her back. It turned out that Xue Yan's family had already come to pick her up, and the carriage stopped at the west corner gate of the forest house.
Daiyu looked at the smiling face of Xue Yan, listened to her chirping for a while, and drove her back to reunite with her family.
At this time, a little girl came to the second door to spread the word, saying that the prefect of Suzhou had sent someone to find Master Jia.
Jia Zheng took Jia Baoyu out early in the morning, and Daiyu asked Zijuan to go over to take a look, and if someone brought a post, ask him to leave a post and wait for Jia Zheng to come back.
The person outside the Lin family is none other than the prefect of Suzhou.
He sat in the carriage, listened to the questions and answers of the master and the little guy in the Lin family, and listened to the words from the little guy, and couldn't help but sigh.
The prefect of Suzhou asked the master to leave a post, and asked the carriage to turn back, and suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly asked the master to go over and ask: "In addition to Lord Jia, is there a young lady living in your mansion now?" ”