Ten Mile Street, the courtyard of ten thousand homes.

The old servant Zhou Ning's wife and daughter Aunt Song and her youngest daughter Xiaolian got up in the morning to clean up for a while, their home was less affected by the typhoon, and there were no trees that were broken and the house was smashed and crushed.

Xiaolian is a mute when she comes out of her womb, her ears are not deaf, she is eleven years old this year, and she communicates with the people around her by playing sign language, but there are only five people who know her sign language, her father and sister Xiaohe, and Wan Kezhou's father and daughter. In addition to following his mother, this child basically does not go out on weekdays, and he cannot communicate alone with people outside when he goes out.

The mother and daughter were busy, and when they heard someone knocking on the door, Aunt Song went over to open the door, only to see a thin-looking, middle-aged man in plain clothes standing outside the door, with a goatee, followed by a small man in plain clothes, with a wooden box in his armpit.

The middle-aged man asked politely: "Dare to ask sister-in-law, this is the old gentleman's house of Wan Kezhou." ”

Aunt Song nodded yes and asked who the other party was.

The middle-aged man replied very politely and humbly: "I am the housekeeper of Yang Jiqing's son's house, my surname is Cong, and my sister-in-law asked me to be a housekeeper." ”

Aunt Song had never seen the housekeeper of a large family so modest and polite, so she hurriedly let her come into the courtyard to speak. The housekeeper brought the little servant into the courtyard, and did not go into the house, insisting on standing in the courtyard to talk to Sister-in-law Song, but Sister-in-law Song was not polite, so she asked him to sit down and talk on the stone bench next to the stone table in the courtyard.

Sitting down from the housekeeper, she immediately changed her face like a mournful woman, and comforted Aunt Song very sadly: "Sister-in-law, I came down today to report the unfortunate news. By the way. ”

Aunt Song couldn't help but hang her heart in her throat when she heard him say this, she didn't dare to think about whether the news was about Dong'er and Xiaohe, suppressed her fear and excitement, and let the housekeeper say it.

From the housekeeper's eyebrows tightened, he said sadly: "Sister-in-law, this is such a thing: Lingfu's daughter girl and girl Xiaohe have been living in the back garden of my house, so that my servant Lao Liu treats the Dong'er girl's foot disease, a few days ago, my old servant said that the Dong'er girl's foot has healed, and the Dong'er girl wants to move back to her own house, although my fourth son is reluctant, but he did not force the girl, and promised to send the girl home in these days." This morning, the kitchen people sent breakfast to the two girls, and they couldn't find the two of them inside or outside the house, and then the family who cleaned up the lake found that the two girls had fallen into the water, and the corpse was soaked in the water and bitten by the fish, everyone speculated that it must have been the storm last night, and the master and servant accidentally fell into the water when they rushed to carry the potted plants ravaged by the wind in the garden, or they may have been blown into the lake by the wind. Last night, the wind roared, and perhaps her master and servant had also shouted for help, but no one heard it--------"

As he spoke, he began to cry from the housekeeper, and said while crying: "When the fourth son of my family heard the news, he cried so much that he ran to the house where her master and servant lived before their lives and hit their heads against the wall, and their heads were bruised and swollen. The fourth son should have come over to tell the family in person, but now the fourth son of my family can't help himself with grief, and he can't expect him to tell him in person, so he has to appoint the little one to come over ----"

When Aunt Song heard the news of Dong'er and Xiaohe's death, her eyes were dark and she almost fainted, but fortunately, the housekeeper and the attendant quickly helped her. Xiaolian understood what the adults said, and opened her mouth to cry, she was mute, and she could only make a "ahhhhh

Aunt Song held the table with her left hand, beat her chest with a fist with her right hand, and shouted while crying: "How can I explain to my master when my master comes back, these two children are only sixteen years old, and they are only sixteen years old, why is God so short-sighted, and take away the children we have worked so hard to pull up........."

From the housekeeper motioned to the attendant to put the wooden box on the stone table, and said to Aunt Song: "Sister-in-law must mourn, this box contains six gold bars, which is the pain of our old lady to pay tribute to Mr. Wan Kezhou's loss of daughter, and the old lady has another two hundred taels of silver for me to send to the parents of the little lotus girl, the old lady said that whether it is a girl or a young lady, it is born to her father, and you must not only take care of the young lady and forget the girl." ”

Aunt Song was immersed in the pain of losing her daughter, and she was in the mood to look up at the gold bars and silver brought from the housekeeper.

From the housekeeper said: "The coffins of the two girls have now been parked in my ancestral hall, my lord Lang said, although the Dong'er girl did not pass the door, she and our four sons of the marriage contract is still counted, now to be the wife and concubine of the two girls buried in the ancestral tomb of the Yang family, although the two girls died at a young age, the tablet is the Yang family ancestral hall, behind the future can also enjoy the incense of the descendants of the Yang family, sister-in-law as the mother of the little lotus girl, must be enough to be gratified. ”

Aunt Song heard the news, her heart was indeed a little relieved, she has no son, she has been anxious that no one will burn paper incense for her two after her death, and today she smells that her daughter has become a concubine of a large family after her death, and she can enter the ancestral hall of a large family, and she can enjoy the vigorous incense of the descendants of a large family like Mrs. Zhengpai, as if this treatment is the treatment of her after death, it is really a little lively.

Seeing Aunt Song's expression a little relieved, the housekeeper knew that she was already a little alive in her heart, and then comforted: "Master Wan is out of the house, my squire has already written a letter to send to Taizhou Mansion in Zhejiang Province to report the news, just wait for Master Wan to come to the house to visit his daughter's coffin for the last time and let the two girls go to the ground for peace, sister-in-law hurriedly buy white cloth tailors these two days, and prepare the things needed for the funeral." There are still many things to deal with in the lower house, so I will stay for a short time and leave. ”

After leaving from the housekeeper, Aunt Song and Xiaolian's mother and daughter hugged their heads and cried, crying for about half an hour, crying tired, Aunt Song then remembered that Master An Xiu was too lai, so she collected her tears and said to Xiaolian: "Child, the housekeeper didn't say whether to tell us the news or not, I also forgot to ask, I think most of them don't treat the people of the family as family members, you take care of the family at home first, I will go to the temple to tell the lady to go." ”

Xiaolian wiped her tears and nodded in agreement, and the mother and daughter put away the gold bars and silver and locked them in the closet.

Aunt Song changed into plain clothes, gathered her hair, and went out, Xiaolian sent her mother to the door, just opened the door, and there was a ghost-like person standing quietly in front of the door, disheveled, messy hair, and a face like ashes, even though Aunt Song recognized this ghost at a glance as her own young lady Wan Dong'er, she was still frightened and screamed, flashing backwards.

Dong'er went through hardships, returned to the door of her house, saw a glance at her family, and before she could say a word, she couldn't support it anymore, she suddenly spit out a mouthful of blood in her mouth, her eyes were dark, and she fainted to the ground, no matter how Aunt Song and Xiaolian shook and screamed, they couldn't wake her up.

Aunt Song and Xiaolian placed the little master in her own room, they saw that her chest had been slowly rising and falling, and she was very sleepy, and the two looked at each other: Where is this ghost, it is clearly their young lady, but what happened to the two girls who drowned in the Yang Mansion? Why did the housekeeper insist that the two girls who drowned were the girls of the Wan family?

Aunt Song had inexplicable doubts and fears in her heart, she was an illiterate ordinary woman, she couldn't figure out what kind of drama was going on in Yang's mansion, she was going to rush to Puzhao Nunnery to meet Mrs. Anxiu, and now there is more reason to see Mrs. Anxiu, Dong'er is still alive, not dead, so what about Xiaohe, will Xiaohe still be alive somewhere, and he will be able to return home after a while.

Thinking of this, Aunt Song explained to Xiaolian again: "Child, stay at home with the girl, maybe your sister is still alive, I will go to the temple to find Mrs., and let Mrs. go to Yang's Mansion to ask for your sister." ”