In the bleak mourning hall, Shao An wore linen and filial piety, doing his last bit of filial piety. Although he has been arguing with his father for many years, he is still grateful to this grandfather. Back then, if it weren't for the grandfather who said, "How can the descendants of the Shaw family live in the countryside?" At this moment, he is estimated to be a wild boy outside, and he can't enter the Shao Mansion or the family tree.

It's a pity that his father doesn't have the courage of his grandfather. Shao An was heartbroken, if his father had the toughness of his grandfather, or the strength of his mother, then the ending of the matter would not have been so miserable.

However, everything is irretrievable, and what has passed away will eventually pass away, and what should have come has already arrived.

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In the first year of Tai'an, An'er returned home.

In the dim and cold study, An'er had been kneeling for an hour. When Master Shao went to the ancestral hall to ask for the family law to come back, he pushed the door open, and in the faint light outside the door, he saw An'er kneeling in the shadows, silently.

An'er heard the noise and didn't make a sound. Master Shao was stunned when he saw this, but he didn't expect that he would really kneel obediently and ask for punishment. Master Shao waved his hand and motioned for everyone to go out, standing in front of An'er and starting to speak.

"On the first day you entered the Shao Mansion, you entered the ancestral hall, worshiped your ancestors, and clearly told you the Shao family's family rules, but now you knowingly violate it." Master Shao broke off, "Say, what is the punishment for stealing property?" ”

"Stealing money is punished with sixty lashes." An'er recited calmly.

Master Shao waved his rattan, "Remember clearly, look at what you did!" ”

The rattan hit his back, and it hurt hotly. An'er pursed her lips and took the whip. When he was exiled, he had never seen any kind of punishment, and his father's strength was nothing.

Master Shao didn't give him a chance to breathe, and carried the rattan a few times. The rattan fell haphazardly on the back, on the arms, on the shoulders...... An'er could bear it at first, but when she hit too much later, it would be very painful, and gradually her body trembled slightly.

Master Shao hit more than 20 times in one breath, and when he saw that An'er was just trembling and did not resist the punishment, he was surprised. He hated An'er's stubbornness the most, and repeatedly confronted him in front of the whole family, pulled into the study and beaten, and swore to die. It was necessary for a few family members to carry out the execution before it could be stopped.

Master Shao had already asked the young and strong family to wait outside the door, and he would rush in as soon as there was any movement. But after fighting for so long, An'er still didn't have any reaction.

In fact, Master Shao didn't know that the reason why An'er would resist the punishment was because he was not wrong. Why should he be obedient to the sins he desires? However, this time the crime of stealing is indeed true, so he will not quibble and escape the sentence.

With a "bang", the clothes were finally overwhelmed and torn by rattan. Just when An'er was groggy and delirious, she suddenly felt a chill behind her, and her clothes were ripped off by her father.

Master Shao peeled off his clothes and clearly saw the criss-crossing scars, covering his entire back layer upon layer. He couldn't help but be angry: "Who hit it? ”

An'er turned her head and glanced at her father seriously for the first time.

"Where have you been all these years?"

An'er looked down at the ground, but still didn't speak. Master Shao's anger came up again, but when he saw that his son was covered with scars, he couldn't scold anything. He was strange just now, his son went out on a trip, and his temperament was actually smoothed out. Now that I have seen the large and small scars on An'er's body, I finally understand how my temperament has been smoothed.

An'er knelt on the ground and waited for a long time, and when she saw that her father had stopped whipping, she said angrily: "You beat, there are still thirty-two strokes left." After you fight, I don't owe you anything anymore, and from now on, I will pay it off. ”

"Still so stubborn, just like your mother." An'er's words successfully provoked Master Shao's anger, so he no longer cared about the injuries on his body, and continued to pump hard.

In the last dozens of blows, Master Shao beat more and more fiercely, almost whipping blood. With the attack of the rattan pressing one after another, An'er remembered the story of Nezha sadly while suffering from the torture. Does he also have to cut the flesh and remove the bones in order to truly repay the grace of childbirth?

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On the day of the funeral, Zhang Bai in the Shao family compound was mourning, and the cars in front of the house were gathered, and many relatives, friends, neighbors, and even rich people and officials gathered to see off Old Man Shao for the last time.

I saw that the funeral procession of Shao Mansion was mighty, and hundreds of people saw each other off along the way, and the last journey of Old Man Shao was infinitely beautiful.

After the end of the seventh day, it is almost the new year. Shao An has never spent the New Year at home for so many years, and now this situation is unavoidable.

A while ago, Master Shao presided over the funeral, and he was so busy that his feet did not touch the ground, so he lived in the Shao family's compound for many days and never returned home. Shao An also happily stayed in the main mansion, after all, Shao Mansion has always been the source of pain for him, and he didn't move back to Shao Mansion until everything was over.

Master Shao wanted to vacate an upper room for Shao An to live in, but Shao An sneered when he heard this, and said, "Let's live in the original house, I'm used to it." ”

Master Shao was stunned and said with a smile: "Then let the subordinates clean it up for you." ”

Shao An sneered again and walked away on his own.

Since the age of eight, Shao An has been living in a small courtyard in the south. The courtyard was a small part of the courtyard where the servants lived, and it was far from the main courtyard. He entered the house when he was eight years old, with only one mother Zhang by his side. But Master Shao didn't give him a few more servants, and only let him and Zhang's mother live here alone. When he was twelve years old, Zhang's mother died of illness, and he didn't have to worry about it, so he made up his mind to leave this sad place.

As for Ari, it was when he returned from exile that his father finally assigned him an inferior servant. Over the years, Ah Rui has followed Shao An, and he has also seen the world, and this time he returned home, which was quite conspicuous. As the saying goes, the prime minister has seven officials in front of the door, but he is now the butler of the prime minister's house.

But Shao An understands that he and Ah Rui are not in a deep relationship with master and servant. And Ah Rui is still a little tender in the end, and he doesn't dare to trust him with many things.

After the house was cleaned up, Shao An went in with Ah Rui to have a look. Although I haven't lived in the house in the past few years, the furnishings in the courtyard haven't changed much, and the furniture has been renewed. A few new calligraphy and paintings were hung on the wall, antiques were added to the table, and after a little arrangement, it didn't look shabby.

It is said that after Shao An paid homage to the prime minister, Master Shao drove the slaves of the southern courtyard to live in the northern courtyard. So it won't be noisy and noisy at night, but a bit of quiet artistic conception.

Shao An sat at the table reading a book, and occasionally looked up at Ah Rui, who was directing the servants of the Shao Mansion to carry the luggage in the courtyard. That commanding demeanor can no longer see the timid look he had when he first came a few years ago.

※※※※※

After practicing the family law, An'er was obviously beaten a lot. In a drowsy state, I only remember that after my father finished fighting, he angrily threw down the rattan, left him and left. An'er was covered in injuries, and lay on the ground for a long time before she trembled and pulled on her clothes and groped her way back to the side courtyard where she lived before. When he saw the overgrown and abandoned yard, he couldn't help but feel a deep sense of powerlessness from the bottom of his heart. Faced with a pile of clutter in front of you, you are powerless to clean it up.

An'er looked around, found a relatively clean corner, and sat half-curled on the ground. He felt that he was hot, so he leaned his forehead against the wall beside him, and used the cold wall to cool down, but it could only cool down for a moment, and it did not have the effect of reducing fever. Eventually, An'er was exhausted and let herself gradually fall asleep.

The next day, a small group of people cowered and pushed open the mottled gate of the small courtyard, stepped into this remote place, and was immediately stunned by the desolation inside. He has been in Shao Mansion for half a year, and he heard from the old servants that this courtyard is a forbidden place in Shao Mansion, and no one is allowed to enter. He thought it was because it was haunted inside, so he took a very obedient detour from then on. But just now, the steward told him that he should go to the southern courtyard to serve the third young master.

He looked around the courtyard tremblingly, but he didn't see half a figure for a long time. He looked at the eerie main house, pushed the door in ruthlessly, and as soon as he entered the door, he found An'er crooked in the corner of the wall, her eyes closed, as if she had fainted.

The little guy was so frightened that he panicked, hurriedly ran over and shook his arm, shouting, "Third Young Master, Third Young Master? ”

An'er opened her eyes in a daze, and in front of her was an unknown little guy, fourteen or fifteen years old, stupid, stupid, and a new servant at first glance.

An'er said weakly: "Who are you?" ”

"Slave Ah Rui, the old man sent a slave to wait for the third young master."

An'er sneered, Master Shao would actually care about his life or death?

"Third Young Master, why did you sleep on the ground?" Ari grabbed his arm and tried to pull him up from the ground.

"Don't call me the third young master, I'm not the third young master." An'er shook off his support and continued to lean against the wall, closing her eyes to recuperate.

"Three...... What's that calling you? Ari looked at his new master with a little fear, and his heart trembled.

"It's called Childe." An'er said angrily, "Go, clean up the bed, and get some gold sore medicine." ”

Ari replied repeatedly, made the bed with his hands and feet, and came over to help the master to lie down. Only then did he realize that there seemed to be a wound on the master's back, and red blood was faintly oozing.

Waiting to help An'er lie down and lift his shirt, Ah Rui looked at the hideous and terrifying scars on An'er's back in horror, the new injuries were stacked on top of the old ones, which was simply unsightly.

"Pills." An'er waited for a long time, but didn't see the little guy's reaction, so she urged impatiently.

Ari's hands were shaking as he took the medicine, and the injury was much worse than the one he had suffered when he was beaten. He applied it lightly and carefully, and occasionally his hands were heavy, and he didn't see An'er crying pain. He secretly looked at the master who was lying quietly on the bed, motionless, obviously a personable nobleman, but no one would have thought that under the gorgeous clothes, he was covered with bruises.