After a long time, I saw a carriage coming from the direction of Lanfu, it was Lao Liu who drove the car, I didn't see the housekeeper, I guessed it was in the carriage, I didn't go over immediately, followed the carriage, walked forward, until I walked another street, the carriage stopped in a secluded place, Lao Liu got out of the carriage, beckoned to me, I hurried up, didn't speak, pulled the door and entered the carriage, I didn't see the housekeeper in the carriage, only Chunlan herself sat in it, Chunlan saw me come in, subconsciously moved, and kept her head down, Didn't look at me. I saw her like this, and I didn't have the interest to speak, I just handed her the snacks I bought, Chunlan hesitated, but still took it.

After I came up, the carriage continued to go forward, and I saw through the window that after leaving the inner city, I had made a great circle, and had been walking for an hour, until I reached an alley near the south gate, and the car stopped in front of an ordinary courtyard gate.

Lao Liu pulled the car door and said, "The young master is home, you come down, I'll knock on the door." ”

Lao Liu knocked on the door a few times, all of them were rhythmic, and it seemed that it was also a code when he knocked twice and stopped. After a while, the door opened from the inside, and it was opened by a man in his thirties, with a short figure of five and an ordinary appearance. When the man saw me, he bowed down and said, "Young master, you are here, please come to the house." ”

Entering the courtyard, this is a typical northern courtyard, with five halls in the middle, wings on both sides, and a tall plane tree planted in the small part of the yard, nothing special else.

Over there, Lao Liu also removed the threshold and drove the carriage directly in, the width of the door was just enough for the carriage to come in, and there was a horse shed here against the south wall, and there was a garage next to the horse shed.

I entered the hall and sat on the Taishi chair in the right position, and as soon as I sat down, the man said, "Young master, go to the backyard, there are many people here." ”

I glanced at the man suspiciously, and said to myself, isn't this the last? I saw the man, pushed open the corner of the hall to open the door to the inner room, flashed in, I also followed in, through a small corridor, the back suddenly opened, it was really a courtyard, the courtyard and the front yard pattern is the same, we came in another hall, the door of the hall is open, the yard is different from the front yard, here is also surrounded by wings, empty yard, because the sky is dark, can not see what is inside. There was also a man standing at the door of the hall here, and when he saw me coming, he turned around, and I saw that the man who brought me in turned out to be the same as the man who brought me in, and it seemed that they were twins.

When the man saw me come in, he also came over and saluted and said, "Young master, you are here, I haven't seen you for a long time." "I said in my heart that I don't know you, I don't know what your names are, the two look the same, what do I call in the future.

The man saw my doubts and said, "Young master, my eldest name is Chen Da, and that is my younger brother's name is Chen Er, this is the name that Master Tongzhi gave us, and I forgot the original name." ”

I know it's the cheap dad who gave them a new name for the sake of secrecy.

I said, "Busy with you, I'll take a look." "After that, I came to the courtyard, there is no back door here, it seems that there is a back, and they sealed it.

At this time, the moonlight has been tree high, by the light moonlight, see that here is full of all kinds of flowers and plants, although it is the beginning of autumn, but there are still a lot of open, especially the dozens of pots of chrysanthemums of various colors, some have been developed, most of them are also budding to be released.

I couldn't see it very clearly at night, so I went back to the front yard, at this time Lao Liu and they had already cleaned up, and the courtyard door had been closed.

I sat down in the hall, and several people stood at the bottom of the head waiting for my instructions, and I said, "From now on, Lao Liu and Chunlan are in this courtyard, and my father has already explained to you, so I won't say much here." The two eldest brothers are still in charge of the guards of the yard, beware of idlers coming in, Lao Liu will be the housekeeper, Chunlan will be in charge of the food of several of us, Lao Liu will come over in a while, I will give you some silver, and it will be yours to buy vegetables and rice in the future. It's not early tonight, everyone hasn't eaten yet, I don't think you have to do it, Lao Liu, you go out to find a restaurant, ask for a few dishes to come back, want good dishes, sumptuous points, today everyone gets together for the first time, can't be too shabby, and tomorrow you go, buy a few clothes for everyone, be good, don't worry about money. ”

After speaking, I took out the ingot of gold in my sleeve pocket and handed it to Lao Liu. Lao Liu took the gold, didn't say anything, and went out.

I asked Chen Da to take Chunlan and take a look at each room.

Chunlan came back and said, "Young master, there are a lot of rooms in the courtyard, I'm afraid I can't be busy." ”

Seeing Chunlan say this, I also felt that there were more rooms here and a little less people, so I said: "Then tomorrow I will go to the market with you to buy a few girls, if you want to come from the countryside, it is best to be the kind of child who has no father and no mother." ”

Chunlan replied: "Okay young master, I'll go and clean up the room for you first, no one has lived in it for a long time, and there is some dust in it." I answered, didn't say anything more, Chunlan went straight to the backyard.

I saw that Lao Liu wouldn't be able to come back for a while, so I said to Chen Da: "Brother Chen, you take me to the study to have a look." ”

Chen Da said: "Young master, you can just call me Chen Da, big brother can't be called, the adults know, don't break my legs." ”

"It doesn't matter, I've got the final say here, since being together is brothers, so why be polite."

Follow Chen Da, come to the main hall of the backyard, Chen Da pushed open a door on the side, went in and lit candles, I just went in, the study is not small, against the west wall is a row of bookshelves, the lower layer of the bookshelf is books, the upper two floors are antiques, I am not very interested in these, and I didn't look closely, I took out a book, and saw that they were all brand new books, and no one had touched them. It seems that it was bought here by my cheap dad in order to confuse others. The bookcase was placed in front of the window, with thick curtains drawn on the window, two chairs under the east wall, and a coffee table with a tea set on it, and nothing else.

After looking around, I blew out the candle and took Chen Da out of the study, and saw that there was also a door opposite the study, and there was a light coming out of the crack in the door, I thought it should be the bedroom.

I didn't go in, but went back to the main house in the front yard, and at this time Chen Er just went to open the door for Lao Liu, who came back from grocery shopping, and saw Lao Liu walking in with a food box.

I said, "Brother Chen, go and call Chunlan over, let's have dinner together." ”

After dinner, let the few of them rest in peace. I went to the study by myself, closed the door and found the mechanism in the third row of bookshelves according to what my cheap father said, and I twisted my hand, only to see a few square bricks in the southeast corner of the wall, which had sunk down, revealing a hole.