It turned out that Cai Wei was not bad, and the people behind the troublemakers were Dafang and Aunt Liu in the fourth room.

Since Yizhi got married, Mrs. Tai has been a little lazy to pay attention to the housekeeper's affairs, and the fourth wife takes care of it by herself, and she is no longer as close as before. She was afraid that Aunt Liu would make some bad things happen again before Yizhi got married, or secretly deduct Yizhi's dowry, so she personally stared at the affairs of the house.

When I saw Yizhi Shun Shun Li's exit from the pavilion, I didn't care about how the fourth wife took care of the house, and when Aunt Liu and the eldest lady saw that Mrs. Tai was missing, they took the opportunity to change the housekeeper lady who was in a tight place to several of their own people, and now seeing Mrs. Tai sick in bed again, she became more and more bold.

Because the few thousand taels of silver that were left in the treasury were all tossed up again after the New Year's Festival, and this year because of the bad drought, the harvest of the fields was not good, and the rent collected was only half of the previous year, so it was not good to do anything more. The land deeds and deeds of the land and shops in the house are all in the hands of the old lady, and it is not easy to change them. Therefore, the two of them put their minds on Cai Wei, the cousin.

Although her deed is also in the hands of the old lady, but the collection of rent and accounts is handled by the house, the fourth wife now has no support from the old lady, and she has long been overtaken by them, but she is only afraid that if the old lady protects this girl again, after all, Zhou Caiwei is still living in the west wing of Xuhui Hall. As the saying goes, "meet three points of love", the old lady is upright, if they really want to protect this granddaughter, how can they take the girl's dowry. Therefore, he came up with such a way to rush out, first move Cai Wei out, and cut off her contact with Mrs. Tai, so as to make it easier for them to make ghosts.

When Mama Du saw that Cai Wei knew who it was, she asked her, "Does that girl know why they are doing this to you?" ”

I heard Cai Wei sigh: "'The world is bustling, all for profit, and the world is bustling, all for profit.'" It is also said, 'A man dies for wealth, and a bird dies for food.'" They're probably just for my dowry! Many of the cases her father had told her had been of orphan daughters and young sons who had been robbed of their dowry property by a group of relatives.

"What can the girl do?"

Cai Wei was silent for a long time, and said: "Although Mama always praises me for being smart, but no matter how smart I am, in the end, I am an orphan girl, I have no status or support, but this dowry is in my name, but I can't make the decision, what can I do?" Now I have to take one step at a time, and wait for another year-" At this point, she suddenly stopped talking.

Gan Tangzui said quickly: "Wait another year, the girl will be in time, and then our aunt should-"

As soon as she heard the word "uncle" hit her heart, Cai Wei hurriedly grabbed a sachet from the pillow and threw it at Gantang, scolding in her mouth: "What a mouthy little hoof, busy for most of the day, don't go to sleep quickly, don't talk about it here!" ”

The three of them all fell asleep, and when they got up early in the morning of the second day, Cai Wei finished washing, first led the two maids to take the worship mat, and went to the outside of the Qiutang courtyard to bow a few times in the direction of the Xuhui Hall where Mrs. Tai was, and then got up to say goodbye to her aunt. I had breakfast with Aunt Zhao, and then I went back to the room to lead the maids to pack up their things, after all, they were moved in a hurry yesterday, and there were many things that had not had time to be put in order.

It wasn't until the afternoon when Shen Zheng was cooking that Cai Wei took advantage of the afterglow outside the window to copy the Buddhist scriptures on the bookcase.

Basho was waiting in front of her, and when she saw that she was copying Buddhist scriptures, she said unhappily: "Mrs. Tai has driven out the girl, why does the girl still copy the Buddhist scriptures for her?" In the hearts of Cai Wei, these little maids, I only felt that Mrs. Tai didn't care about her own girl at all, and she didn't ask a few more questions when she listened to the nonsense of the child, and she didn't care about the girl's diligent service, filial piety and consideration for her in the past two years, so she threw her own girl out, and she didn't settle a good place. If it was Yizhi, she didn't believe that Mrs. Tai would be so neat and straightforward.

When Cai Wei heard this, she still didn't raise her head to write, and only said lightly, "You go to Mama Du to receive ten ring rulers, so that you can think about why I want to punish you, and should you say these words?" I'll ask you again in the evening. ”

These maids are most afraid of Cai Wei's appearance, knowing that although their girls love to joke with them on weekdays, but if they make a mistake, they are never soft and favoritistic, and they don't dare to say anything at the moment, so they obediently went to find Mama Du to lead the board, and changed the loquat to Cai Wei inkstone.

Cai Weifang wrote a few strokes, and then heard a thin voice outside the curtain say, "Cousin, can I come in?" ”

Cai Wei hurriedly walked to the door, personally welcomed Wu Juan in, and ordered the orange to serve tea.

Wu Juan looked at the room and praised: "My sister is really good at tidying up the house, and I haven't seen my sister put up anything more than before, but this arrangement is much more elegant than before." ”

She asked Cai Wei what she was doing, and when she heard that she was copying Buddhist scriptures, she walked to the window and took a closer look, and couldn't stop praising her: "Sister, these words are really good, although I can't write, but I also think they are very good-looking!" ”

Cai Wei heard her say that she couldn't write, although she was slightly surprised in her heart, and was hesitating to ask the last question, her little cousin was already timid: "Cousin, I, I want to ask you for one thing......

Cai Wei saw her with her head down, her face red, and her embarrassed look, and she hurriedly said: "Good sister, don't tell me to ask for words, since you are my cousin, the two of us are now living in another room, if I can help you, I will definitely help you, but I don't know what it is?" ”

Wu Juan whispered: "I want to beg my sister to teach me to read and write, and beg my sister not to dislike me for being stupid, so that I can accept me as an apprentice and teach me a lesson?" ”

Now Cai Wei had to ask her why she didn't know how to read and write, and saw that her head hung lower, and after a long time, she whispered: "I was born to my aunt, and my aunt went when I was three years old." Although I have been raised by my mother's side since I was a child, and my mother has treated me very well, but in the end, Sister Wan is six years older than me, and by the time I can read, Sister Wan has already finished learning two of the "Four Books of Women", and I can't understand it when I listen to it on the side, and I don't want to bother my mother to teach it again, so I ...... I can't even write my own name now......"

Because of the advocating of "women are virtuous if they are not talented", many of the so-called ladies in the high-ranking families are rarely literate and knowledgeable, and most of them are just proficient in various etiquette rules and are just popular. Although there are also female gentlemen who teach female studies to young ladies from large families, Uncle Anyuan has never been invited, and if the ladies want to read and read, it is up to the wives to educate themselves.

Because the second wife and the fourth wife are literate and broken, Yizhi and Yihui have both studied a few books, Yifen and Yifei were both raised by their aunts, and they don't know a single big word, but although Yifang is also a descendant, she is also illiterate because her mother does not understand literature and ink.

It's only that if these three people want to be literate, it is far easier than Wu Juan, but they have never had this idea, but this little cousin, although she is still young, has such thoughts? So he asked her, "I don't know why my sister wants to read and write?" ”

Wu Juan glanced up at Cai Wei, hurriedly lowered her head again, and muttered: "I, I want to learn to write my name, and I just heard people say that reading can be reasonable, so ......, good sister, I recognize you as a master, can you teach me?" ”

What she didn't say was that since her sister-in-law was reluctant to read and write, her mother-in-law was still forced to learn, so it can be seen that reading and literacy must be a good thing, and since her mother-in-law didn't teach her, she had to think of other ways. What's more, that day, the young grandmother Sun Xiluan's high-minded talk about the "six arts of women", she later learned from the girls' chatter, so she wanted to learn to write even more.

If her father were still alive, she would not have to worry so much about her future and dowry. It's a pity that when she was four years old, her father was derelict in his duties when he was the prefect of Chuzhou, and he let a group of thieves rob the granary and silver treasury of the government. Not only was he dismissed, but he was also imprisoned for questioning, so he had to sell all the family property under his name, pay off the lost grain and silver, and dredge up some relationships with the money before he was released. But because he couldn't endure all kinds of hardships in prison, he fell ill and died less than three months after returning home.

Now all the property of their Wu family is only their mother-in-law's own dowry, and after all these years, I am afraid that there are only a few hectares of land and a house in Beijing, and there is very little money that can be earned. Otherwise, the mother-in-law would not have taken her children cheekily back to her parents' house to live. It's good that my mother-in-law can give herself a bite to eat, how can I expect her to give her another decent dowry.

She doesn't have a lot of dowry, if she wants to have a good future and climb into a good family, then she can only work herself, but she can't let go of everything that can improve herself. She was worried about how to learn these things, and this cousin of the Zhou family moved over, which was really a godsend, and she must have asked her to promise to teach herself.

Wu Juan made up her mind in her heart, so she looked at Zhou Caiwei with a pair of eyes wide.

Cai Wei saw that she finally dared to raise her eyes to look at herself, and a pair of big eyes looked timidly, full of prayer and longing, and mixed with some anxiety, just like the poor little rabbit in the cage she had raised that wanted to eat grass but couldn't reach it. couldn't help but soften his heart, and promised: "It's just to teach you to recognize a few words, where do you still need to recognize as a master?" From tomorrow onwards, you come every afternoon, I will teach you to recognize the word for an hour, it is a little late today, how about I teach you to recognize the two words of your name? ”

For a while, I carefully taught her the meaning of the words "Wu" and "Juan", and taught her the posture of holding the pen, and let her write a few strokes, and the sky was already dark.

Cai Wei smiled: "It's getting late, let's get here first." Tomorrow, if you write these two words a few times, I will teach you to recite the "Three Character Sutra". ”

Hearing this, Wu Juan couldn't help nodding her head and thanking her, and asked her to go to the main room to ask the second aunt and wife to say goodbye. But Cai Wei smiled and said, "Sister, you might as well go first, I still have to go to Mrs. Tai to say goodbye." ”

Wu Juan was puzzled: "Didn't they say, that ......, how will my sister go to ask the old lady for peace?" ”

"I'm just outside this courtyard and say hello in the direction where my grandmother lives, not to go there in person, but I want to go there, where can I get by?" Cai Wei said a little gloomily.

"But why is my sister-" Wu Juan had the same question in her heart as before, but she knew that there was something wrong with this, so she didn't dare to ask.

Cai Wei thought about it, and said: "My grandmother is an elder, and she took me by her side for two years, and now I say that I have overcome her, and I can no longer serve in front of my grandmother, but as a junior, how can I forget the morning and dusk gifts to my grandmother?" You can't go to say hello in person, and you should wish you a greeting. ”

Wu Juan listened and hurriedly said: "What my sister said is very true, I'll go with my sister!" "It turned out that because Mrs. Tai was too lazy to see people during her illness, Aunt Zhao only led their sisters to greet the old lady every five days.

Cai Wei shook her head and reminded her, "If my sister goes, what should you do with Sister Wan?" ”

Wu Juan immediately understood, thanked Cai Wei again, and went to greet her mother-in-law.

When Cai Wei came in after worshipping and greeted her aunt, Aunt Zhao said to her: "Although it is good that you have this filial piety, it's just that you don't blame your aunt for talking too much, I'm afraid that no matter how filial you are, it's just a blind man lighting a lamp in vain!" You have been filial to the old lady for two years, have you ever seen her hurt you a little? Alas, it's no wonder you, who made your mother the one who didn't like her the most among all the old lady's children, and you didn't hurt her! ”

Aunt Zhao's words were vaguely full of schadenfreude, it turned out that Zhao Mingxiang, who was the second among the three sisters that day, was not very beautiful. The only thing that can comfort her is that Zhao Mingqiu, the third sister who was the most beautiful among the three sisters, is the least loved by her mother. Who would have thought that the three sisters would marry one after another, and the sons-in-law of the three of them were not much different at the beginning, but they didn't want to gradually separate themselves later.

The eldest sister Zhao Mingxiu was married to the second son of Houfu, who was hopeless with the title, who would have thought that the eldest brother in front of him was infected with a sudden illness, and the title of the lord fell on his head.

The third sister Zhao Mingqiu is married to Zhou Zhen, the champion of the new department, at the beginning she was just a six-grade Hanlin Academy attendant, who knew that after a few years of hard work, this official became bigger and bigger, and kept rising in grade, and in the end, she also earned a second-grade lady.

Only the husband married by Zhao Mingxiang, who is the second line, is the most unsuccessful, and it took many years to become a prefect of the fourth grade, but he didn't want to make a mistake again, not to mention Mrs. Xuan, and even the family property was all lost, leaving only his own idea of dowry, so he had to drag his children and daughters back to his parents' house with a thick face.

Therefore, when she learned a few years ago that her third sister had lost her two sons first, and she was also ill with herself, although she also shed some tears, but there was also a trace of relief in the depths of her heart.

Because she has so much resentment in her heart, her words seem to be straightforward and persuasive, but in fact, they are full of schadenfreude.

Although Cai Wei wanted to ask why her mother was Mrs. Tai's least favorite daughter, she felt that her second aunt's tone was very yin and yang, so she couldn't help but ask her, just smiled faintly. No matter what people say about her, every day she still bows to Mrs. Tai outside the hospital and asks for peace.

Xu was moved by her sincerity, and seven or eight days later, a person came from Mrs. Tai's courtyard, none other than Mama Wang, the most trusted person by Mrs. Tai's side.