Just after noon, there was a lot of traffic outside Yanjing Zuo'an Gate, and there was an endless stream of pedestrians and vehicles.

Several carriages waited outside the city gate, and waited for a quarter of an hour before they came to the city gate and handed over the road guide, saying that the car was Miss Cousin of An Yuanbo's Mansion, who had just lost her loving father who had been the political envoy of Shaanxi Zuobu, and had come to the capital to join her family.

When the carriage finally drove into the city, and then passed the Xuanwu Gate, and arrived at the inner city, I heard all kinds of people outside the car, and a girl sitting in the second car finally couldn't help but lift a corner of the green cloth curtain and look out of the screen window.

She was born in Hunan since she was a child, grew up in Jiangnan, only at the age of seven, after the death of her mother Zhao, she was sent by her father to her grandmother's house in Beijing, and lived for only a year before being picked up by her father, and since then she has accompanied her father in his hometown in Meizhou, Sichuan.

Unexpectedly, after only three or four years, she came to Yanjing again, but this time, her loving father had left her, and she was already an orphan girl who was both lost and discouraged, and she was a single Yan.

Zhou Caiwei only looked at it for a moment, then put down the curtain and sighed: "I remember that when I lived at my grandmother's house, I once went to Xing'an Temple to offer incense, and I passed by this street. No, it's only been three or four years of work, and I can't recognize it. I don't know if there are some similarities and differences in my grandmother's house......"

The carriage she rode in was very spacious, and in addition to her young lady, there was also her nurse Guo Shi, who had raised her since she was a child, and her upbringing grandmother Du Shi.

When her nurse Guo Shi heard her sigh, she immediately said: "Didn't we get a letter on the road, why did the second uncle go!" It's not that I said, there are several uncles of girls in this house, and this second uncle is the most serious and can be trusted, the original master still expects the second uncle to take care of you, and it always makes people feel at ease, and they don't want to ...... now."

At the end, he sighed: "I don't know what the chaos is like in this Bofu now?" Alas, let's go to the house at this time, if we had been living in the Bofu all along—"

Although Zhou Caiwei has always loved her nursing mother, when she heard this, she couldn't help but interrupt her: "Mom, don't say that, although I know that my mother's heart is for my good, I feel that if I had been raised in my grandmother's house three or four years ago, it would have been better to deal with it in the past few years than to go to it now." But in my heart, I am extremely grateful to my father for taking me home that day, and it has been a great blessing for me to be by my father's side for more than three years and enjoy the family of father and daughter. ”

Mama Du also said: "The girl has benefited a lot from following the master in the past few years, and she has benefited a lot, which will be of great benefit in the future." ”

She is not only Zhou Caiwei's nurturing grandmother, but also knows how her father taught her. At the beginning, I secretly wondered in my heart, thinking that since the founding of the Great Qin Dynasty, whether it is the Western Qin, the Northern Qin, the Southern Qin, or the dynasty now privately known as Yan Qin, in the past thousand years, it has always been a loving mother and a goddaughter, a strict father and a son, how many times have I seen this strict father go to teach his daughter in person?

At the beginning, Master Zhou invited her to her house, and she thought that it must be to teach this young lady, but most of the time in this day, it was Master Zhou, who had been the champion of the Lang, who taught him by words and deeds, and even taught his daughter many things that girls in this world should not know.

At the beginning, she also had a little whisper in her heart, but after the past three years, looking at this Miss Caiwei, it is very different from the beginning.

I think when she first arrived in Zhoufu, this little girl was still a very crying character, a little sentimental, but after following her father for three years, she was open-minded and hearty. Even though I was sad about the loss of my parents, I cried a few times when I thought about my deceased father and mother along the way, but in the end, I didn't shed tears in the wind and was sad when I saw the moon, so that I couldn't extricate myself from the pain.

Mama Du is a person who has seen a lot, knows that she is an orphan girl, and she is only afraid that it will not be easy to live in the future, but if she has such an open-minded temperament and * heart, even if the wind and rain are sudden in the future, she will not be able to be like a cold plum in the snow, frost and snow, and there is also a tree of spring letters.

For a while, the three people in the carriage were thinking about each other, but they didn't want the carriage to stop suddenly, and they didn't move anymore, and they could hear a lot of noise outside.

Mama Du raised her voice slightly and asked, "But what happened in front of you, why did you stop the car?" ”

I only heard the old servant Zhou Ping outside the car reply: "It was said that there was a group of people fighting and making trouble in front of them, smashing half of the stalls and shops on the street, and there were layers of people watching the excitement and grabbing things, blocking the road ahead." So the little ones had to stop their horses, and they didn't know when they would be able to pass! ”

Zhou Caiwei couldn't help frowning slightly when she heard him say this, as soon as they entered the city, they sent a small servant to An Yuanbo's mansion to report the news, saying that it would be possible to arrive in less than an hour, if it was delayed here for a long time, wouldn't it make the elders wait for a long time, which was somewhat bad.

was about to speak, but heard another voice outside the car window: "Niece of the Zhou family, I'm afraid that this place will not be able to pass for a while, instead of waiting here, let's take another way!" ”

Zhou Caiwei was thinking this in her heart, and immediately replied: "It's all up to Uncle Zou, I remember to go around from here to the west, go north for a while, and then go east to the bridge alley where my grandmother's house is located." ”

The "Uncle Zou" she called in her mouth was a close friend of her father's life, Zou Fu, who was also a native of Meizhou, who had passed the palace examination in high school, and was an official for less than a year, so he resigned and returned to his hometown, collected novels everywhere, printed them into books, and published them in the world.

When her father Zhou Zhen died of illness, because the Zhou family had been passed down for several generations, there were no close relatives, thanks to her father's close friends to help take care of the funeral, and also escorted her to Yanjing's grandmother's house, which made her grateful.

When the next few cars and horses of the Zhou family turned around one by one under Zou Fu's dispatch. Zhou Caiwei felt a little strange in her heart, and she didn't know who was so arrogant, and dared to fight like this at the feet of the Son of Heaven, disturbing the people and making the whole street unsafe. When I lived in Kyoto before, I had never heard of such a thing.

But I heard someone sighing outside the car, "Oh, I can't imagine that this little overlord has been running out for more than two years, and then returning to the capital, he will still cause trouble like this, beating people and destroying things!" ”

Another said: "It's even worse, it's even more troublesome than before, and I don't know which evil god is possessed!" ”

I heard another person laugh and said: "I can't say that I have reached the age when I should say kiss, so I feel annoyed and abnormal, and a ball of evil fire is going to find more and more east and west?" ”

As soon as these words came out, I could hear a burst of laughter outside the car window, as if everyone knew why the little overlord was so angry about the kiss. Hearing this, Zhou Caiwei in the car was very strange, how could there be a man in this world who was unhappy with his belly?

Unfortunately, by this time her carriage had gone some way west, and she could no longer hear the following.

After going around in a big circle, it was easy to finally arrive at An Yuanbo's Mansion in Daqiao Hutong, Zhou Caiwei ordered someone to go to Xijiaomen to pass the word, remembering the scene when her father took her to this mansion for the first time, and her heart was also a little gloomy.

But I heard a mother-in-law outside the car window reply: "Please wait a while, since the uncle went, the house has been very chaotic these days, not to mention the ...... today, those monkeys have all turned the sky upside down, seeing that the cousin has not yet arrived after Shen Zheng, one by one I don't know where to run to be lazy." Now there is a soft sedan chair, but I can't find the little guy who carries the sedan chair, and I ask the girl to stay for a while! ”

The nurse Guo Shi's face changed a little, and she couldn't help muttering: "This is too lazy Miss, as soon as we entered the city gate, we sent a little maid to report, how late is it, and I can't even find a few little guys?" At the end, he sighed again, "I think the last time we went to this mansion, we followed the old lady into the main entrance." ”

Zhou Caiwei was also a little uncomfortable in her heart, and when she heard her nurse say this, she couldn't help but soothe: "Mom, the second uncle is newly mourned, and the house is busy when I think it's a busy time, and there are people in the family who are lazy, not to mention that we are indeed late." You have also lived in the Uncle's Mansion, and you don't know that the people in the Mansion, even your uncle and aunt, often enter and exit through the corner gate. ”

As for why they welcomed their father and daughter from the main gate three years ago, it was probably because their father was in a high position at that time, and he was a member of the second grade!

Having said that, Zhou Caiwei couldn't help but lift the curtain again, wanting to take a look at the main gate of Uncle Anyuan's Mansion where their father and daughter had walked. I don't want to look at this curtain again, and I am surprised.

I saw a circle of people outside the gate of Bofu, and from the cracks in the crowd, I could faintly see several hearses full of white flags, and a few people in mourning clothes.

Zhou Caiwei thought of the half-sentence of the mother-in-law, "What's more, it's ...... today", is there anything else going on in this mansion?

At this time, the mother-in-law said back and forth, saying that the little maid had been found, and asked her to get out of the car and get into the sedan chair, and go to the second gate to meet Mrs. Tai first.

When Zhou Caiwei got on the soft sedan chair, she got off the sedan chair in front of a hanging flower door, a mother-in-law stepped forward to open the sedan curtain, her nurse helped her out, and the group walked along the verandah to the upper room of the Xuhui Hall where Mrs. Tai was.

I came all the way, but I saw that the maids and servants in the house were all dressed in plain clothes, all of them stood quietly with their eyebrows lowered and their eyes lowered, and the court was silent, and even the sound of parrot thrushes was not heard. At this time, it was an April day with red flowers and willows, but in this Anyuan Bo Mansion, it was as depressing as autumn.

I saw two maids standing by the main entrance of the five upper rooms, and when they saw her coming, one opened the curtain, and the other shouted, "Mrs. Tai, Miss Zhou is here." ”

Zhou Caiwei entered the bright room, looked up and saw that she was shocked again, it turned out that the people sitting in the hall, except for her grandmother Mrs. Luo, several of her uncles and aunts were all present.

It's okay that the uncles are here, but why are the uncles there? Among the brothers and sisters, only Cousin Yizhi stood behind Mrs. Tai.

A maid had already taken the brocade mat and put it on the ground, and Zhou Caiwei first kowtowed to her grandmother, "Granddaughter Zhou has seen her grandmother, I wish her grandmother good health!" ”

Mrs. Luo had something in her heart, so she only glanced at her casually, waved her hand and said, "Get up, I've seen your uncle and aunt." ”

Zhou Caiwei has seen them one by one, and these adults have a matter hanging in their hearts at this time, but they didn't say anything after asking her a few words, only Zhao Yizhi, the eldest lady of the Zhao family who finally greeted her, looked at her carefully.

I saw that she was wearing a white silk jacket and moon white armor, a white gauze skirt tied underneath, a green silk with two or three small mustaches on one side, a white jade plum hairpin, a white silk flower on the sideburns, and the rest of her hair was gathered into a bunch and draped over her shoulders, and only two locks were hung down by the ears to end with a plain head rope.

Zhao Yizhi only felt that this cousin of the Zhou family had not seen her for more than three years, and her eyebrows were more and more beautiful, and she was super elegant, and her bright eyes were particularly eye-catching.

Mrs. Luo asked how many people she had brought this time, and called her in to take a look, except for one more grandmother and two little maids, the other three were the nurses and the two maids who had followed her before.

Zhou Caiwei hurriedly said: "This Mama Du is the nurturing grandma that my father invited for me when he was alive, and she has no relatives at home, so she came to the capital with me." There is also an uncle of the Zou family, who was a friend of his father's former life, and he lost thousands of miles to escort him along the way. ”

The fifth old man, Zhao Mingyan, said: "Don't worry, niece, I have already met this Mr. Zou, and I ordered someone to arrange a place to live and treat each other well, but it is unfortunate that there are some side affairs today, and I don't have time to talk about it deeply." ”

Mrs. Tai remembered something at this time, and couldn't help rubbing her eyebrows and said: "I was thinking that when you are almost there, I will clean up your residence three or five days in advance, but I don't want an urgent report from Fujian that your second uncle died of a sudden illness." This thunderbolt on a sunny day made me and your second aunt and uncle both fall ill at once, and the house was in chaos, so I didn't care about this matter, but now I ......" Mrs. Tai's eyes couldn't help but look at the fifth wife, Luo.

The fifth lady was so obedient that when she saw her mother-in-law and aunt coming over, she immediately spoke: "When the eldest girl was in our house, she lived in my courtyard, and it is said that she should have lived with me again, and I often hated not giving birth to a daughter, so in my heart I treated the eldest girl as my own daughter. ”

"It's just that the house has been too busy recently, my mother and second sister-in-law are sick, and the job of steward in the house is temporarily entrusted to me, and I have never taken care of the house. What's more, Brother Ming and Brother Rui in my courtyard are also older, although they are family members, but there is a difference between men and women, and it is somewhat inconvenient. ”

It turns out that in the Anyuan Bo's mansion, except for the Xuhui Hall where Mrs. Tai lives is a three-entry courtyard, the rest of the courtyards where the old men live are all five-entry courtyards, and the hall and east and west wings of the second courtyard are for the old man and the young masters, and a small hanging flower door is set up at the third courtyard, followed by the fourth courtyard of the main house and the wing room where the wives and young ladies live, which is the main courtyard, and after the main courtyard, a back cover room is built for the aunts to live. When the young man got married, he moved to a small courtyard with three entrances, and before he got married, he lived in the same big yard as his parents, but there was a difference between inside and outside.

When Mrs. Tai heard this, she groaned slightly, and said, "The fifth daughter-in-law is very busy these days, but I'm afraid that I won't have the time to take care of you." "It's just that in addition to the yard of the fifth daughter-in-law, where can I send this granddaughter?

I only heard one person: "Mother, it's better to let the eldest girl live in my yard, just with our sister Fang." "But it's the eldest lady Wang.

Mrs. Tai frowned and said, "It's not proper, didn't you hear what the old five family said, Brother Jun in your courtyard is sixteen this year, isn't it convenient?" ”

Although Yizhi knew that it would be better for the eldest lady to live in the yard, but seeing that Zhou Caiwei's eyes were slightly red, and she was standing there alone, such a famous lady didn't even have a place to live at this time, she couldn't help but move in her heart, and said: "Grandmother, why don't you let your cousin live in the West Wing with me first, and we sisters will live together in your yard to honor you?" ”

Mrs. Tai thought about it for a while, but finally agreed. "Zhou girl, you should live with your Yizhi cousin first, and you should be the same as your cousins in every case. Your cousins won't be available at this time, so see you another day. Yizhi, you and Mama Wang take your sister to the West Wing, and let Sister Hui and her sisters come over to see their sisters. I still have some things to talk about with your uncles. ”

After the second daughter Shi Li retreated, Zhou Caiwei followed Yizhi out of the upper room, and when she walked along the right side of the verandah through the mountain to the west wing, she saw several mothers-in-law leading a woman with tears in her eyes and two children, a man and a woman, walking from the road.

The two cousins couldn't help but glance at each other, and they were a little strange in their hearts, who were these three people, and why were they all brought in in mourning clothes?