Zhao Xiu got up early in the morning and found that the sky was gray, and the sky was covered with dark clouds, and it was a rainy day.

Bihan said: "When I woke up in the middle of the night last night, I felt that the breath outside was wrong, with moisture, and I guessed that there must be rain today, and sure enough. Liu Lu answered: "What can I do then?" Today, the old lady and the girl are going to Cao's house, if it rains, wouldn't it be inconvenient? ”

The two girls looked at Zhao Xiu together, but Zhao Xiu was a little absent-minded. Bihan had to ask her again: "Girl, the weather is like this today, why don't you go to Cao's house another day?" Zhao Xiu woke up: "I'll ask my grandmother what she means in a while." ”

Liu Lu tilted his head to look at Zhao Xiu's expression: "What's wrong with the girl?" It doesn't seem to be very energetic. But didn't sleep well yesterday? ”

Zhao Xiu shook his head, and he was a little depressed: "Since last night, I always feel depressed, as if something bad has happened, but I can't think of what it is." Maybe it's because of the bad weather? Don't worry about it, Bihan will take care of the house, and Liu Lu will accompany me to the West Courtyard. ”

The West Courtyard she said is Zhang's Sanjin Courtyard, because it is on the West Road, covering a wide area, the people in the Hou Mansion are referred to as the West Courtyard on weekdays, and they talk about Zhang's gossip in private, also known as "the West Courtyard", Zhao Xiu has heard a lot, and also called the West Courtyard, but he never talks about "the West Courtyard". She also knew that she lived on the East Road, next to the garden, and was in charge of the middle feed, and the people secretly talked about it, so she called herself "the one on the east side" or "the master behind the garden".

She, the "master behind the garden", began to be a housekeeper at a young age, and she didn't want to think about how to add a private room for herself. I can't tolerate corruption and dereliction of duty among my subordinates, and when I find out, there is no favor to talk about, but the benefits of the New Year's holidays are very good. The work is done, and the reward is also thick; She also set up a family medical center outside, as a designated medical office for the people, so that they can see a doctor for free with their identity waist card, and the medicine money is also public; Boys and girls from the family read and read and learn the rules of needlework, and there are new schools, which are also free; People gossip about it on weekdays. As long as she doesn't deliberately make up a bad reputation, she doesn't care. Her combination of soft and hard means tossed the subordinates of the Hou Mansion into a loss of temper.

Everyone came from the old Hou Mansion in the past, and some came from their hometown. There are almost no newcomers. The people in my hometown have long been accustomed to Zhao Xiu's style, and the old people of the Hou Mansion have suffered for ten years, and they feel that it is not easy to have a good errand, and they can be rewarded for their hard work. Don't worry about not being able to feed your family. It's better to be honest, lest something bad happen and be kicked out, then you will really lose your future. So everyone behaved obediently, did things according to the rules, and didn't bully people when they went out just because they came out of the Hou Mansion. Now that the reputation of the Hou Mansion in Jiannan is good, many people have begun to realize that the daughter of the Hou Mansion is quite capable, and she actually manages the huge Hou Mansion in an orderly manner. I can't help but praise it when I talk about it in private.

Zhao Xiu himself has little communication with outsiders, and he doesn't pay much attention to these discussions. This is her home. She presides over the feed, she is in power, her grandmother and brother love her, what do you want to add to herself, she doesn't need to take money out of her private house at all, what private house do you want to add to herself? The whole family had money left open to her, and only large sums of money needed to be approved by her grandmother and brother. But in that case, when she added property to her family, she couldn't succeed, and what did it have to do with her personal small treasury? She was very confident. Take 10,000 steps back, if one day, her housekeeper power falls, for example, her brother marries his sister-in-law and takes over the feed, she is not afraid. Take some private money and go out to do some small business, why worry about running out of money? She has the capital, experience, and ideas, so she naturally doesn't like the things that go from the sidelines.

Zhao Xiu took Liu Lu out of the courtyard, crossed the back porch of the main courtyard, and walked towards Zhang's Sanjin Courtyard on West Road. Now it's not as good as when I lived in a small house in the Drum Tower. At that time, she lived close to the Zhang family, and she only needed to walk a few steps to get there, but now she has to walk for ten minutes, and most of the Hou Mansion has collapsed. Living so far away, the grandparents and grandchildren don't seem to be as close as before, but relatively speaking, she has a higher degree of personal freedom, and she is quite satisfied. Sometimes she doesn't want to read poetry books, practice needlework, read some miscellaneous books, draw something she wants to draw, or even make a little needlework for someone, and she is not afraid that her grandmother will see it; If she wanted to work on her body, she wouldn't have to avoid her grandmother for boxing, even if she ran around the yard ten or eight times in a skit, and did a set of calisthenics, no one would say anything.

When Zhao Xiu walked into Zhang's house, Zhao Wei had already arrived first. He lives in the main courtyard, so it's easier to come here. When he saw his sister coming, he greeted him with a smile. Zhao Xiu saw that his dark circles were getting stricter and stricter, so he couldn't help but persuade him: "Brother stayed up late again yesterday?" Beware of the burnt body. There are still a lot of days left to try, so you can take it easy. At your age, it's better to get more than four hours of sleep a day. ”

Zhang smiled when he heard this: "It's a good thing that your brother is willing to study hard, which talented scholar doesn't get up early and work hard in the dark?" You're good, but you advise your brother to sleep more. ”

Zhao Xiu said: "No matter how hard you work, you must pay attention to the method, if you toss your body badly, what can you do if you pass the exam?" It's a lifetime thing. Grandmother, don't say that a scholar should get up early in the dark like this, there are many examples of scholars in the world who are so weak that their bones are broken by the wind. My brother can't be like them. I believe that my father is in the spirit of heaven, and I don't want to see my brother burn down his body for the sake of mourning his death. ”

Seeing her so solemn, Zhang was a little surprised, Zhao Wei hurriedly smiled: "Where did it come to this?" My grandmother told me to take more supplements every day, and I listened to them, and my sister always told me to pay attention to rest, and I never listened to the wind. Today, because the wind was strong last night, the window was blown loudly, and I was woken up a few times, and I didn't sleep well. After going back to lunch, I'll take another nap and recuperate. ”

Zhang also nodded when he heard this: "That's good." I told them to prepare a soothing soup for you for lunch. But how are the people in your house waiting? Why don't you close the windows before going to bed? The first time I was woken up, how many times did I quarrel? Don't they know how to close the windows? ”

Zhao Wei smiled and said, "It's closed, but it's blown open again." "Then quickly change the subject." Speaking of which, when the wind blew last night, I thought that the weather might not be good today, and sure enough, when I woke up in the morning, it was cloudy. I'm afraid it's going to rain in a while. Are grandmothers and sisters really going to Cao's house? What if it rains on the road? Why don't you go another day? ”

Zhang said: "It's okay now, let's go over early." It's all agreed, how can you break your promise? ”

Since she said so, Zhao Wei and Zhao Xiu's brothers and sisters are not easy to persuade much. The three of them had breakfast, Zhao Wei went to the study, Zhao Xiu went to take care of the daily housework, and waited for an hour. Seeing that the time was almost up, he first went back to his yard to change his clothes, and then went to the west courtyard to meet his grandmother. The grandparents and grandchildren set off for Cao's house.

The sky was not beautiful, and when they were halfway there, the rain began to fall. When I arrived at Cao's house, thanks to Mrs. Cao, many mothers-in-law and girls with umbrellas were sent to greet me. Rao is so. Their skirts and uppers were still a lot wet. Fortunately, Zhao Xiu had long expected this to happen, so he brought clean clothes and borrowed the Cao family's house to change his clothes, so that he could come out to meet Mrs. Cao and Mrs. Cao.

Mrs. Cao and Zhang's are old friends, and they are naturally affectionate when they meet, and she also likes Zhao Xiu very much, and she keeps praising her mouth: "The girl is getting more and more beautiful now, I like it when I see it." What is rare is not only that it looks good. Knowledgeable and gifted, and a good housekeeper. Where can I find such a good girl? Big girl. You might as well give me your maid as my granddaughter-in-law. ”

Mrs. Cao didn't know whether she was sincere or polite, Zhang's heart was very happy, but as soon as she missed her eyes, she caught a glimpse of Mrs. Cao's stunned look on her face, although it quickly disappeared, but the expression didn't look like a happy look. Zhang was a little hesitant in the dark, smiled and said a few words of modesty, and quickly got to the point: "I came here today to ask you about something, old sister." I was very surprised to hear that the lady in Yingtai was gone, and I didn't know what kind of regulations it was. ”

The expression on Mrs. Cao's face suddenly became very strange, and she looked uncomfortable, thinking of what her husband said this morning, she was a little suspicious that Fang Cai's own expression showed traces, which made Zhang's unhappy, so the other party specially said such things to mock herself.

As soon as Mrs. Cao saw her daughter-in-law's expression, she knew what she was thinking. She also saw the daughter-in-law's expression just now, and she couldn't help but hate iron and steel. She knew that her daughter-in-law was not happy that she said that, and she disliked that Zhao Xiu was not a lady from a famous scholarly family, and she didn't want to think about it, the eldest daughter of the Fang family's grandson branch could be married to the second son of the Bofu as a wife, and what qualifications did the married daughter of the Fang family's side branch have to find fault with the daughter of the Hou Mansion? Mrs. Cao sighed in her heart, only feeling that her grandson was probably not blessed.

She said to Zhang: "You don't have to worry about this matter, the lady in Yingtai is not dead, she is alive and well." The previous rumor was just a trap, it was aimed at a few rebel kings, and now it has been caught, and none of them have escaped. ”

Zhang and Zhao Xiu were taken aback. Zhao Xiu remembered Gao Zhen's actions a few days ago, and vaguely seemed to understand something. Zhang asked Mrs. Cao, "What do you say?" Haven't they all been wiped out? Who survived? Did the imperial court deliberately release the news in order to attract those people to worship and throw themselves into the net? ”

Mrs. Cao sneered: "Where do you want those people to worship?" Speaking of which, the news of the death of that lady in Yingtai will be due to them! I heard that they were unwilling to let their group be defeated, so they deliberately found someone to enter Yingtai with poison, intending to find an opportunity to poison the lady, and then blame the emperor, so that the young master mistakenly thought that the emperor was going to kill their mother and son, so as to provoke the young master's hatred for the emperor. When the Mid-Autumn Festival Palace banquet comes, the Queen Mother will graciously order him to attend the banquet, and then he may poison the emperor's family! Listen, what a wicked mind! If it weren't for the emperor's holy candlelight, the guards would have discovered the poison hidden in the body of the fine work sent into the palace by that group of people early on, I am afraid that they would really succeed! ”

Zhang was amazed when he heard this: "There is such a thing? After reciting a few words of the Buddha, I also felt a little scared in my heart.

Zhao Xiu felt that there seemed to be something wrong with this statement...... If Princess Qianying is really dead, will the Queen Mother still be kind enough to ask the prince of Ying, who has just died, to attend the palace banquet? Even Gao Zhen, the prince of Guangping, did not attend the palace banquet during the filial piety period. Can this flawed ploy really succeed?

And the expression on Mrs. Cao's face seemed to be even more uncomfortable. (To be continued......)