The red sunset slowly disappeared into the mountains stretching west of Yanzhou City, and half of the sky was soaked in crimson by the afterglow of the setting sun. A full moon hung on the deep blue sky in the east, watching with a cold gaze as a flock of geese flew south in a "human" shape. The heavens and the earth echoed, and the head goose chirped euphemistically and distantly.

Although it was already past the time for dinner, the city could still see the smoke of cooking, and the smell of fires left behind by the burning of firewood was everywhere. The Mid-Autumn Festival is just around the corner, and the air is filled with a faint fragrance of osmanthus flowers.

The sky gradually darkened......

After dinner, Huo Shiqi first went to Sang Aiai's house, which was three months pregnant, and sat down for a while, talked to her for a while, and when the maid came to hold the lamp, he got up and went back to the upper room.

In the upper room, his mother-in-law was leading the eldest girl and the younger brother to form a line around the kang table. Siya, the little girl, sat by the threshold as she did in the countryside, holding a clay bowl with a few pieces of rags that adults didn't want and a few blades of grass pulled from the yard. Seeing him coming, Siya immediately dropped the bowl, jumped over with dirty hands and hugged one of his legs, and said, "Daddy, hug ......"

He picked up his little daughter, and while patting the dust on her body, he pulled the earthen bowl into the ground with his foot, and said, "Why don't you remember what Daddy said to you?" The ground is dirty! ”

The sensible eldest girl immediately came over and took her sister from her father's hands. She knew that her parents had not seen each other for more than a month, and there must be a lot to say at this time, so she beckoned her two younger sisters back to her house together.

After the three daughters went out, Huo Shiqi sat down at the kang table, frowned and said, "When I eat, I see that the eldest girl's complexion is not very good, is she sick?" ”

Aunt Seventeen glanced at him, then withdrew her gaze, neatly packed up the needle and thread brain cloth clothes on the table, and paused before saying, "Why didn't you stay over there?" "She's talking about Sang Ai Ai. Although for the sake of Sang Aiai's blood and blood Huo Shiqi, she nodded and let this woman enter the door of the Huo family, and she didn't think that she was a jealous woman, but a woman appeared in the family with blank eyes, which always made her feel uncomfortable.

Huo Shiqi knew that there would be no end to this topic as soon as it was raised, so he simply pretended not to hear his wife's sour words, and continued to ask: "Have you asked the doctor to come back and see it?" ”

Aunt Seventeen put the needlework basket on the wooden cabinet in the corner of the kang, turned around and sighed without speaking: "Alas, Dr. Yiyi has come to see it, and there is nothing wrong with it." After taking a few medicines, he still looks sick. She said with a sad face, "Can you, the father, not know her thoughts?" After saying that, he sighed again.

Huo Shiqi also sighed silently with his mother-in-law. In the past two years, every time he thinks of the misfortune suffered by the eldest girl and her, his heart as a father is scratching his heart and feeling uncomfortable. Alas, this is all the initiation of him and his mother-in-law! If they hadn't been so shallow at the beginning, and didn't want to cling to that bit of wealth, how could the eldest daughter have suffered so much? But what's the use of regretting it? It's come to this point, what else can they do?

The two sat opposite each other with a long sigh and did not speak for a while. After a long time, Aunt Seventeen remembered that she should pour her husband a cup of tea. She put the tea in front of her husband, changed her happy tone and said: "A few days ago, I went to Xishan Longhu Temple, and the great monk of doom in the temple checked her mother's pulse, talked about her, and said that she was ...... It's a boy in the belly. ”

In fact, Huo Shiqi already knew about it. When he was in Ainiang's house just now, Sang Aiai told him all about it, but when he heard his mother-in-law say it again, he couldn't help but be so happy that his face lit up. When he was in Huojiabao, he was often ridiculed in front of him; In the past six months, the official fortune has been prosperous, and everything has gone smoothly, so I am even more worried that I have no heirs under my knees. Although there is not much outline in Ainiang's belly now, and it is not clear whether it is a man or a woman in the belly, he always has a feeling of raising his eyebrows and humming one by one, so that those who envy him can come to see, does he Huo Shiqi seem to be a person who has broken incense?

Seeing her husband grinning and pretending to be reserved, Aunt Seventeen's anger didn't come to one place, and she couldn't help but feel a little jealousy and sourness for Sang Aiai in the side room. She and Huo Shiqi are a husband and wife in distress, and the deep relationship that comes out of the wind and rain is actually not worried that other women will climb on their heads, but it is always her heart to continue to pass on the incense without the Huo family having a male baby. She has no way to compete with her beloved mother, so she has to find other topics to distract her husband.

She took out an account book from the small drawer of the kang table, turned two pages, and said, "I have received a lot of gifts from my family these days......

Huo Shiqi drank water from the bowl, agreed nonchalantly, and said, "You can just watch and do the things at home." ”

"Some I can do, and some still need you to make up your mind." Aunt Seventeen pushed the booklet to her husband, "I don't know how, this Mid-Autumn Festival ceremony is heavier than the last time we bought the family business and set up wine to entertain guests, many people usually don't have any contact, I haven't even heard of the name." Steward Zhou said, when people came over, they said that they were your colleagues in the yamen in the same year of the township test, and they put down their gifts and left, refusing to even take a sip of tea......"

"Hmm." Huo Shiqi looked at the account book as if he was not listening. There are indeed a lot of gifts, and the stewards have memorized twenty or thirty pages of general characters, including high-ranking state officials like Di Xu Taoqi, as well as guard generals like Sun Zhongshan and Qian Laosan, as well as the clerks who run errands in the Admiral's Mansion, all of whom are usually in contact. The further back I looked, the people who gave gifts were all sorts of things, including local officials who had dealt with them during office work, nodding acquaintances he met in restaurants and tea shops, and some of whom he had only heard of the name but had never seen himself...... Thinking about it, he closed the account book, and said with his fingers lightly on the tabletop, "The gifts are not light." ”

"That's it! The Mid-Autumn Festival is not the beginning of the year, how can you give such a heavy gift. As she spoke, Aunt Seventeen suddenly slapped the kang table, "That's right! I almost forgot! Qiao Zhun is the guy who eats people and doesn't do anything, and he is also looking for someone to bring some things! ”

Huo Shiqi was not too surprised. He had already heard from Lu Ji about the Ministry of Industry investigating new farm tools in Yi County. He understood that the people from the Ministry of Industry went to the place to check and checked, and only found that they had something to do with this matter, and did not mention the monk in half a word. This is Qiao Zhun pleasing himself. Although the accumulated resentment cannot be dissolved, but Qiao Zhun is so flattering, the hatred in his heart will inevitably fade a little. He asked, "You took it?" ”

Aunt Seventeen raised her eyebrows and said hatefully, "How can I accept his things?" Everything was thrown out to the people he sent! One by one, our Huo family is going to ask for food, and we can't accept a bite of food from the surname Qiao! ”

"What about the person who delivered the thing?" This time, Huo Shiqi was a little anxious. He didn't want to reconcile with Qiao Zhun, but he couldn't offend this person! The monk is a strange origin, and there is no way to hide many things he did in Huojiabao, Qiao Zhun is the parent official of Yi County, if he really wants to find a fork to find trouble, then no one can stop him; Even if Qiao Zhun didn't come forward, as long as he handed the words to Li Shen in Duanzhou, the world would be turned upside down in an instant......

"I live in that small inn at the end of the alley, and I come back every other day, and I am annoyed to death." Aunt Seventeen didn't notice her husband's application, and said angrily, "I came here again at noon today, but Steward Zhou didn't answer." I've never seen such a shameless person, the gift list has been thrown out a few times, and he refuses to leave in vain. It's really an eye-opener, one by one, their Qiao family is really capable......"

Huo Shiqi thought for a while and said, "When he comes back tomorrow, let him come in and entertain ...... with good food and drink."

Aunt Seventeen opened her mouth wide in shock. Why did her man suddenly say such a thing?

Huo Shiqi told what happened in Yi County. At the end he said, "I can't see this person, so you can meet him......"

Aunt Seventeen hesitated and said, "I don't want to see it either." Two days ago, I treated people like that, and suddenly changed to a smiling face to speak...... Besides, when Qiao Zhun was in Yixian County, he treated us like that, how could he swallow this breath easily? ”

Huo Shiqi said with a smile: "Women have knowledge. What's not to see? Greet in, a cup of tea, a meal, just a meal. In fact, he doesn't even have to prepare this tea and meal, and if he can send gifts to the door, he will make a great contribution to Qiao Zhun. Seeing that the woman was silent, he said again, "There are rumors outside that the monk is going to take over as the governor of Yanshan, Qiao Zhun came to give gifts at this time, we can't push him out of the door one by one, even if we don't think about it, we have to think about the monk." He pointed to the account book in front of his mother-in-law, "Nine times out of ten, the people here are here for this matter." The monks have a very tight gate, and they can't get in, so they have to send everything to our house......"

Aunt Seventeen also smiled: "Look at my dead man's mind, just thinking about receiving a lot of gifts, and thinking that it is your good relationship with you, I actually forgot about it." Yesterday, the two Mrs. Lu came to sit at home, and they also talked about it, and said that they would be able to have a letter in the winter month at the latest. They are people from the big clan, and there are many relatives in the capital, and these words come out of their mouths, and they are much more reliable than others. ”

Huo Shiqi knew a lot of things, so he didn't say anything about the foolish words of the three women, and just said: "Just know it in your heart, you and the people in our family can't go out and talk nonsense." In addition, these gift-givers must be prepared to give solemn gifts to others; The Di family, the Tao family and the Lu family, you have to go there in person. Don't be reluctant to spend money......" The woman interrupted him, and said with a smile on his face, "I still need your advice on this?" Even if I am a country aunt with a short knowledge, I can distinguish the weight. Rest assured, those few have returned the gifts. As she spoke, she took a small brocade-wrapped box from the kangtou. I'll show you a rare object. Mrs. Lu only sent it yesterday, don't say that this Yanshan is not many people in the world who have seen it......"

Huo Shiqi thought it was some kind of jade hairpin gold and silver jewelry, but he didn't care, and continued to talk about the topic he just had: "Qian Laosan and Fan Quanji are far away from them, and they will accept the gifts they send no matter how heavy they are. They are people brought out by the monks, and their temperament is straight and rough, and they will get angry when they are polite, thinking that we have trouble with them...... Zhongshan doesn't have to worry too much about it, his daughter-in-law has time to come to the house to talk, just take a few pieces of jewelry in hand. He and Qian Laosan are different. He is a person deliberately promoted and cultivated by monks, and sooner or later he will be the same as Ximen Sheng and Li Shen, and he will be in charge alone, and now the relationship between the two families will be intimate, and he will have all the benefits in the future. There is also Wen Mu of Weifu, who is also valued by monks. I heard that Wen Zhaoyuan fell in love with a woman somewhere outside, do you see if there is a chance to help them match, this is a great affection......"

Aunt Seventeen smiled: "I know." I'm a country aunt, I can't take care of this housework, so I have to worry about everything. Why don't you let the guy in the house over there be the house? ”

Huo Shiqi said: "I know that your heart is bright, and you will not fail to do these things." However, these things seem small, but in fact, they are powerful in the long run with our family, and I am afraid that you will miss two things for a while, so I can't help but say a few words. Count me too much. He smiled and lowered his head to eat tea.

Aunt Seventeen opened and closed the brocade box in her hand, held the box and frowned and said, "Yesterday, the two ladies of the Lu family came over and said something, reminding us to look at the sky and persuade the monk to let him go to Beijing in the winter moon. I think they have a point. Although it is said that the imperial court intends to let the monk take over this Yanshan, the monk does not express an attitude, I am afraid that things will inevitably have some twists and turns......"

Huo Shiqi smiled bitterly. As soon as he heard this, he knew that it was Lu Ji who gave him a message. In the afternoon, when he was in the Wei Mu Mansion, Lu Ji also mentioned this meaning in a roundabout way, always hoping that Shang Cheng could go to Beijing after the autumn harvest to report on his work, take the opportunity to visit the important ministers of the court, and implement the matter of taking over as the governor as soon as possible. But this matter is far as Lu Bofu thought. The question now is not whether the imperial court appoints a monk as a governor, but whether the monk is interested in being the governor of Yanshan......