After much consideration, Cao Hou still decided to hand over the matter to Mrs. Hou to deal with. Jiang Ke is from her mother's family, and it is most suitable for her to deal with it. If she agrees to marry Xiuling to Jiang Ke, it means that only in this way will she not make the Jiang family unhappy. Xiu Ling must be married.

Aunt Zhang and Cao Xiuling knelt outside Hou Ye's door all night, but Hou Ye still did not change his mind. In the end, they were driven back by Mrs. Hou.

Li Siyu saw the haggard appearance of the two people, and felt a little unbearable. Looking at their expressions, you know that this time it was a futile. This bitter ploy is a failure. The two knelt all night.

Li Siyu helped the two of them remove the cotton bag tied to their legs, and said, "What did Master Hou say?" ”

Aunt Zhang sighed, "Master Hou said that this matter is all up to Mrs., and he doesn't interfere." It's a good thing you tied this cotton bag to our legs in advance, otherwise we wouldn't know what would have become of our legs after kneeling on the ground all night. ”

Li Siyu said: "This Hou Ye is really ruthless. Seeing his daughter kneeling outside the house all night, he did not relent, and still wanted to marry Cao Xiuling to Jiang Ke according to Mrs. Hou's wishes.

Cao Xiuling burst into tears when she heard this, "Xiaoyu, what should we do next?" I really don't want to marry him. ”

Aunt Zhang also said: "Xiaoyu, you must think of a way for us." ”

Zhang's mother and daughter are now pinning all their hopes on Li Siyu.

Li Siyu sighed, "You guys stay at home, don't do anything, and leave the rest to me." ”

Li Siyu originally wanted to let Zhang's mother and daughter cry at the gate of the Hou Mansion, but thinking that this seemed to damage Cao Xiuling's image, it was not appropriate. So I decided to change the method, as the saying goes, money can make ghosts grind, and spending some money can actually achieve the effect of making Zhang's mother and daughter cry at the gate of the Hou Mansion.

After Li Siyu went out of the Hou Mansion, he found a remote place, changed into men's clothes, brought a hat, and went to the downtown with the two thousand yuan he earned from Tianxiang Pavilion. She found a few beggars and children, gave them some money, and asked them to spread the news that Hou Ye and Mrs. Hou "forced" Cao Xiuling to marry Jiang Ke, a scumbag.

Because Cao Xiuling replaced Li Siyu's name before, she is very well-known among the literati and writers in Luoyang City. Soon, Cao Xiuling's matter spread all over Luoyang City.

The weapon of the literati was their pen. Many literati and writers worked hard to condemn Lord Hou and Mrs. Hou for pushing talented women like Cao Xiuling into the fire pit. In less than a day, Hou Ye received letters about a foot high, which were written to him by literati, asking him not to marry Cao Xiuling to someone like Jiang Ke.

Hou Ye never expected that Cao Xiuling would have the reputation of a talented woman outside, let alone that the marriage of a concubine would cause a crusade against him by literati and artists.

Hou Ye looked at his three sons, and then took the letter and wrote it to them, "What do you think about this matter?" "He wanted to hear the opinions of his three sons.

The three sons of the Hou Mansion looked at the letter in their hands and frowned, and the second son, Cao Kang, said: "In my opinion, there must be someone behind this matter, who wants to damage the reputation of our Hou Mansion by taking advantage of Xiuling's engagement." ”

Hou Ye said: "I want to know how to solve this matter now." "If you leave it alone, you might get out of hand.

The second prince thought for a while and said: "The top priority is to find out who is inciting the people behind the scenes and solve the people behind the scenes." ”

Hou Ye looked at the eldest son, "An'er, what do you think?" ”

The eldest prince said: "The people have been instigated, and it is useless to find out the main messenger behind the scenes, and the people who are making trouble are not ordinary civilians, but some respected literati and writers, so the key is to calm their anger at present." ”

Cao Hou nodded, "An'er makes a lot of sense. "What he values and likes the most is his eldest son Cao An, but unfortunately Cao An has not been in good health since he was a child, and he doesn't know how long he can live.

Cao Hou continued: "Now that the literati and artists in Luoyang City have the same hatred and hatred, they have pointed the finger at our Cao family, and at this time, we must focus on appeasing these literati. "Otherwise, those literati and writers can send these letters to the Hou Mansion today, and dare to send these letters to the Son of Heaven tomorrow.

The Hou Mansion has always been close to the former prince Sima Yang, and the emperor prefers the current prince Sima Nan, so he is somewhat dissatisfied with the Cao Mansion.

Cao Hou looked at Cao Youran, the third son, who was drinking tea, and said, "Youran, what good can you do?" ”

Cao Youran is a well-known genius in Luoyang City, often corresponds with literati and artists, loves landscapes, and is dissolute and uninhibited by nature. Although he is the son of the Hou Ye, he has no intention of politics, and his greatest wish in life is to travel to all the famous rivers and mountains.

Cao Youran put down the teacup and said slowly: "These people wrote to their father, undoubtedly because they didn't want Xiu Ling to marry Jiang Gongzi, as long as my father withdrew Xiu Ling's relationship with Jiang Gongzi, this matter could be settled." Originally, according to the seniority, he should have called Jiang Ke a cousin, but he didn't look down on people like Jiang Ke from the bottom of his heart, and he was ashamed to have such a cousin, so he called him Jiang Gongzi.

Cao Hou thought about it and felt that it made sense. knew that he should not have acquiesced to this marriage in the first place. It is much better to make the Jiang family unhappy than to make all the literati and artists in Luoyang unhappy. Now that things are like this, he quits this family business, and the Jiang family can't complain about him.

Cao Youran said again: "As for what the second brother said that there are people behind the scenes to promote this matter, I don't think there is much possibility. A few days ago, Xiu Ling was named a talented girl because of the upper link of the pavilion master of Tianxiang Pavilion, and later left a Shanglian that no one has ever made a lower link and became famous in Luoyang. In the hearts of literati and writers, she is a well-deserved first talented woman in Luoyang, and many people admire her very much. Hearing that she was going to be engaged, she naturally went to inquire about his husband's family. In the end, they found out the details of Jiang Gongzi, and they naturally would not want to watch the Yiren in their minds marry such a person, and it was reasonable to write letters to persuade or accuse their fathers. ”

He was very surprised when he learned that Cao Xiuling had come up with the Shanglian of the Pavilion Master of Tianxiang Pavilion, he never thought that this sister of his would have some talent. When he saw Cao Xiuling's upper link left in Tianxiang Pavilion, "the sea is facing the chaochao and the chao chao is falling", he was stunned, because he couldn't even match the lower couplet. If it weren't for the fact that everyone in Luoyang City said that this Shanglian was left by his sister, he really wouldn't believe that his sister was so talented.

In fact, when the literati in Luoyang said that her sister was talented, he didn't believe it, so he was planning to go to Cao Xiuling to verify it in person, but because he had been busy with Cao Hou's birthday, he hadn't had the opportunity to verify it yet.