When he and Liu Yi returned to Luyang County again, it was late at night on December 29.

Why Zhao Yu is in a hurry to come back in the middle of the night, it is because the next day is the end of the year, that is, the popular 'year except', his township marquis wants to worship the ancestors in the house, and his father Luyang township marquis specially instructed him to rush back to worship the ancestors.

In view of the fact that it was getting late, Liu Jian and the accompanying county guards stayed in the township mansion.

The next day, when Zhao Yu was still asleep, he was woken up by Jingnu, because the Marquis of Luyang sent someone to urge, urging his son not to delay the auspicious time of sacrificing his ancestors.

After sleeping for a few hours, he was woken up, and Zhao Yu followed Jingnu and Cao An to participate in the sacrifice in a daze.

The process of the sacrifice, he couldn't remember it too clearly in a daze, anyway, when he should kowtow to the old ancestor, there was a quiet girl next to him to remind him, and the rest of the time, Zhao Yu squinted and took a nap there.

During this period, the Marquis of Luyang noticed his son's tiredness, if it was in the past, he would definitely teach him a stern lesson, but this time he rarely pretended not to see it.

After all, he also knew that his son had really worked hard in the past ten days, and he had visited Wang Shangde and Wang Dan before and after - unlike most of the other objects who gave New Year's gifts, these two people really needed Zhao Yu to be present.

For example, Wang Shangde, if Zhao Yu was not present, even the Luyang townsman might not be able to see this General Wang.

Of course, even so, Zhao Yu is not the most tired person in the Xianghou Mansion these days, and the most tired person in the Xianghou Mansion these days is the chief steward Cao Ju, who visited more than 200 businessmen under the name of the Luye Freemason in ten days, and sent congratulatory gifts door to door.

Not to mention receiving a return visit from the gift-giver, the whole person can be said to have lost a lot of weight.

The chief steward had never been so troubled in any previous year.

However, tired and tired, the spirit of this chief steward is very good, after all, he also knows that the Luye Freemasonry is of great significance to him Luyang Zhao.

Besides, Zhao Yu, who participated in the boycott in a daze, Zhao Yu continued to go back to the house to make up for sleep, originally the old man Zhou still wanted to be close to this grandson who was not at home for many days, but he couldn't find the opportunity, and he was very disappointed.

During the period when Zhao Yu was making up for sleep, Jingnu led some maids and maids to start cleaning up the house, which is the so-called 'removing dust and cleaning the court'.

In order not to disturb Zhao Yu, who was making up for sleep, Jingnu reminded everyone to take their steps lightly from time to time, looking at her concerned look, those young maids were secretly funny and envious.

Mr. Ram personally wrote two atmospheric spring strips, and hung them in front of the door of the mansion with the eldest prince Zhao Yin, and then, Zhang Ying and other guards in the house also hung peach charms and other festive things in front of the door.

In previous years, in fact, there were so-called lanterns, but this year, in order to save money, the Luyang townspeople only hung some lanterns at the front door, side door, and back door, and the rest of the colored silk was done.

This is also something that cannot be helped, after all, this year's harvest in Luyang is due to drought - mainly because of the heavy losses of refugees, and the northwest of the county said that the villagers in the east of the county have come to borrow grain from the Luyang Township Marquis to survive.

The villagers, Luyang Township Marquis Mansion will naturally not sit idly by, with a meager interest money to lend a lot of money and grain, although this makes Luyang Township Marquis more famous in the local area, but it is inevitable that the Township Marquis Mansion is a little tight, although there is still some money and grain left, but because they don't know what the situation will be next year, Luyang Township Marquis and his wife discussed it, so they decided to save it.

Flickering and catching up until noon, Zhao Yu finally slept enough, and took Jingnu to the main house in the front yard.

At this time, in the hall of the main house, the sacrificial tables and ritual utensils have long been removed, and the Marquis of Luyang, the old man Zhou, and Mr. Ram are feasting on the only two guests invited by the house, namely Liu Xuan, the commander of Luyang County, and Mao Jue, the county commander of Yexian County.

According to common sense, the luncheon of the New Year's Eve is generally a family banquet, and the men of the family generally participate, such as the uncle, the second master, the uncle, and the uncle.

But the Luyang Township Marquis Mansion is good, only the old man Zhou, the Luyang township marquis, and the brothers Zhao Yin and Zhao Yu, the two sons of the old man Zhou, did not go home for the New Year.

Although Mr. Ram can talk to Mr. Zhou about the day, but after all, it is still too lonely, so the Luyang Township Marquis previously considered inviting Luyang County Commander Liu Jue and Ye County Commander Mao Jue, and invited the two of them to come to the Township Mansion to celebrate the New Year together, anyway, whether Liu Jian or Mao Jue, these two people only have their wives around them, and their sons are not around.

Liu Jian is a frequent visitor to the Luyang Township Marquis's Mansion, and happily accepted the invitation of the Luyang Township, while Mao Gong hesitated for a long time, until the Luyang Township Marquis repeatedly assured that there were only close relatives and friends, and there were absolutely no guests with interests involved, and Mao Gong agreed.

Even so, it's only five people.

Oh, and Zhao Yin, who was sitting on the side and looking around, he was not yet of the age of drinking, and he was obviously a little bored when he sat next to these five elders.

Fortunately, Zhao Yu soon brought Jingnu to accompany him.

After saluting Old Man Zhou, Luyang Xianghou, Liu Wei, Mao Jue, and Mr. Ram, Zhao Yu sat down next to his brother Zhao Yin and asked casually, "Where is my mother?" ”

"Entertain Mrs. Liu and Mao with my grandmother in the North House." Zhao Yin explained, and at the same time did not forget to say hello to Jingnu.

"Oh."

Zhao Yu nodded suddenly, and immediately, his gaze fell on Mr. Ram not far away, and asked Zhao Yin curiously, "Mr. Ram...... Isn't he going home for the New Year? ”

Zhao Yin knew that his brother had forgotten the memories of the past, and he was not surprised, so ......he made a "shhhh

Hearing this, Zhao Yu felt very puzzled, and asked puzzledly, "Why don't you continue the string?" Mr. Ram asked his father for a lot of restraints. ”

"The bundle is the reward for teaching the two of us, what does it have to do with whether he continues the string or not?" Zhao Yin frowned and said, and then defended the teacher: "Also, brother, sir, he doesn't love money, haven't you seen the remuneration that your father has given to your husband over the years, and Mr. hasn't moved anything except asking someone to buy books?" What Mr. cares about is the name! He thought that he deserved his father's high reward for the knowledge he had imparted to me. ”

『…… Birthright? Oh, Mr. Confucian, it's not strange.'"

Zhao Yu nodded suddenly, and asked casually, "Does Mr. have children?" ”

"I've never heard of it, and I shouldn't have it." Zhao Yin shook his head.

Zhao Yu was stunned, feeling a little incredible.

He didn't doubt Zhao Yin's defense, after all, Mr. Ram did know at first glance that he was not a person who valued money, he just felt a little puzzled, after all, Confucianism values filial piety the most, even if Confucianism puts 'loyalty' in front of 'filial piety', but the explanation of loyalty also requires people to obey their own monarch like their parents.

And 'no queen', this is the most unacceptable for Confucian disciples.

Unless......

"Unless that gentleman sees my eldest brother as a disciple to inherit the mantle."

Recalling Mr. Ram's strict teaching and too much protection of Zhao Yin, Zhao Yu felt that it was really not impossible.

Given that it was Mr. Ram's private matter, Zhao Yu was not easy to ask, and changed the topic: "Anyway, don't we have any other relatives in our family?" Uncle and cousin, look at this deserted ......."

Seeing that there were only five people drinking in the huge hall, and three of them were actually outsiders, Zhao Yin couldn't help but laugh, and then said in a low voice: "In my father's generation, he is the only one, and if my grandfather says it, he seems to have two brothers, but it doesn't seem to be a good relationship, and my father rarely mentioned it in the past, and he doesn't necessarily mention it once a year...... I also heard my mother say it by chance. By the way, don't mention it in front of your father, according to my mother's warning to me that day, if my father hears it, he will be unhappy. ”

"Elders, my Zhao clan still has two?"

Zhao Yu was surprised, after all, he had really never heard of it.

However, considering that Old Man Zhou was so bad to his son-in-law, the Luyang Township Marquis still treated him respectfully, but the other two branches of his Zhao family, the Luyang Township Marquis never mentioned it, Zhao Yu knew that there must be some contradiction when he thought about it, and it was a very powerful contradiction.

That's not much different from outsiders.

While eating something casually with Jingnu, Zhao Yu paid attention to the conversation of the five elders.

He thought that the five people were talking about something profound, but he didn't expect that Old Man Zhou, Liu Wei and Mao Jue were talking about their children.

I have to say that in this matter, these three really have a common language, after all, the sons of these three are not around - especially Old Man Zhou and Liu Gong, they talked especially speculatively, just because their relationship with their sons is not harmonious.

While chatting and drinking, the two soon got drunk and vented all their dissatisfaction with their son, and Mao Gong smiled bitterly beside him - his relationship with his son was not unharmonious.

As for the Luyang Township Marquis and Mr. Ram, the two of them were stunned and couldn't talk, so they could only listen quietly.

In this way, until dusk, the village lord's mansion gradually became lively, and the servants and guards of the palace also drank wine in their respective houses to celebrate.

By the time it was time for the dinner, when Zhou and the old lady came to visit with Mrs. Liu and Mrs. Mao, the five of them were already drinking and their faces were flushed, and they were almost unconscious.

It is worth mentioning that at this time, Mr. Zhou took out the gifts he had prepared, his son-in-law, daughter and two grandsons, each with a wooden box.

At first glance, it looks exactly the same, but according to the old man's personality, it is obvious that things are very different inside.

After returning to his house at night, Zhao Yu opened the wooden box, only to find that there was a tiger eagle about the size of Jingnu's fist, a tiger-shaped beast with a lazy demeanor and lying on its side on its fours.

What mythical beast?

There is no need to ask, it is a matter of asking for a fee, after all, it is his patron saint, and his family knows it.

So, as the eldest brother Zhao Yin, who was born at the same time as him, what kind of tiger eagle did he get? Which guardian beast does it correspond to?

To be honest, Zhao Yu was really curious.

As soon as the evening passed, the date entered the New Year, and Zhao Yu was a year older.

"Next, it's time to pay homage to the Marquis of Ruyang......

Before closing his eyes, Zhao Yu thought secretly.