The steward shook his head and said, "Your mother didn't say it, but it's ......."

He didn't say anything, obviously he knew what Ah Zhu's mother was hanging around at the yamen, but after all, it was a matter of Ah Zhu's family, and he didn't want to be nosy, so it was better to not know what to do.

Ah Zhu's face was gloomy, of course she also knew why her mother was wandering outside the yamen again, her relationship with her mother Du was not good, and she had to quarrel almost every time she met, but since she was a mother and daughter, she couldn't see it!

Ah Zhu sighed, put down the basin and hand towel, and slowly walked towards the side door, she knew that her mother Du Shi must be wandering around there.

The side door is the place where the servants in the yamen enter and exit, and there are also people who transport vegetables and firewood, and when Azhu arrives at the door, he looks out and sees his mother Du Shi, and sure enough, he walks back and forth outside the door, as if he has encountered something urgent, and his head is full of sweat.

Li Rizhi ran into Zheng Gangling's small courtyard and shouted, "Uncle, have you eaten, shall we eat together?" ”

"Okay, let's eat together!" Zheng Gangling had finished dancing the sword and wiped his sweat, and then sat down at a small table in the courtyard, on which was a plate of Hu cakes, a large bowl of meat sauce, and a small pot of white rice porridge.

Ordinary people in this era generally only ate two meals a day, only rich and noble families would eat three meals, and officials like Zheng Gangling sometimes ate four meals and added a late night supper.

Zheng Gangling pointed to the meat sauce and said with a smile: "This meat sauce is made by Ah Zhuxin, and the taste is excellent, you can taste it." ”

Li Rizhi hummed, dug out a little meat sauce with a wooden spoon, smeared it on the Hu cake, tasted it, and it was really good, it seemed to have pepper in it, and the method was different from his mother.

He said: "Uncle, Sister Azhu is not married yet, is she waiting for her fiancé to come?" ”

Zheng Gangling frowned, feeling that this kind of thing is not something that children should ask, but he felt that Li Rizhi was not a child, so after thinking about it, he said: "I heard that she wanted to wait, but her mother thought that the news was slim, and maybe the other party had already broken off the idea of welcoming relatives, so it seemed that she had booked a family affair for Azhu again, and Azhu was very annoyed." ”

Li Rizhi swallowed the meat sauce cake in his mouth, and said very vicissitudes: "Things between men and women are always very annoying!" Not only the tone is vicissitudes, but even the expression is also vicissitudes.

Zheng Gangling was amused by him, laughed out loud, shook his head and said, "You are so young, what do you know, you act like a little old man." ”

"Then Sister Zhu likes her fiancé who grew up together very much?" Li Rizhi has a lot of questions.

Zheng Gangling was quite patient, thought about it, and said: "When you were separated as a child, what can you remember, it's like you had a girl you liked when you were five years old, and then separated, and now you're ten years old, can you remember what she looks like?" ”

Li Rizhi shook his head and said, "No." ”

"Isn't this enough, you can't remember five years ago, not to mention that Azhu's fiancé hasn't seen her for ten years, and you shouldn't be able to remember anything." Zheng Gangling came to a conclusion, he felt that discussing these things with a little child was completely boring.

Li Rizhi said: "Uncle, I said it can't be because I don't have a girl I like, but a few years ago, there was a boy who I liked very much......"

"Shut up, eat, finish eating, copy the Analects for me a hundred times!" Zheng Gangling pricked up his eyes, this little nephew, the more he talked, the more unkind he became.

At the side door of the county government, Ah Zhu stepped out of the threshold and said to Du Shi, who walked over quickly: "Mother, why are you here again?" ”

Du Shi didn't speak first, took Azhu's hand, and pulled her to a place where no one was, and then said: "Good girl, I think that Liu Fugui will definitely not be able to come back, so my mother has set a family affair for you again, it is Jiao Erbao, the second owner of Shuangbao Gambling House, and the bride price has been collected, a full sixty-six times, quite a decent number, this is called sixty-six Shun!" ”

Azhu was taken aback, she was angry and anxious, and said: "Mother, I didn't agree to accept Liu Fugui's money at the beginning, and now you accept Jiao Erbao's money, what are you going to do, do you want one daughter and three marriages to be unacceptable, do you want me to be a man?" ”

Du Shi was very unhappy when he heard such reproachful words, and said: "Isn't this still for your own good, I can't let you be twenty years old and still can't get married, isn't my mother in a hurry, and then the fortune teller said that you Kefu, whoever marries you, who doesn't want to live for a long time, my mother didn't believe it at first, but now I see that Liu Fugui can't come back, so I believe it now, this Jiao Erbao looks very hard, I guess I'm not afraid of you!" ”

If outsiders hear Du Shi's words, they will feel upside down and can't understand it, but Azhu can understand it, and the more he understands, the more scared he becomes!

It turned out that Azhu's father was a small landlord with a lot of property more than 20 years ago, and after reading for a few years, he was a little talented, and he met a scribe who came to Xingyang County from other places to work, and the scribe's surname was Xu, and the two had a good temper and became friends.

Coincidentally, at this time, the wives of both people were pregnant, and the two made an appointment, if they were born boys, they should be brothers of the opposite sex, if they were two girls, let them become sisters, if it was a boy and a woman, then they would be dolled, and let the two children be husband and wife in the future.

Pregnant in October, once delivered, Azhu's mother Du Shi gave birth to a daughter, which is naturally a beautiful Azhu, and Xu Shuyi's wife gave birth to a son, so that the two families set a baby kiss, in this era, baby kiss is very popular.

In this way, Azhu grew up with the boy of the Xu family, until he was ten years old, Xu Shuyi felt that it was difficult to mix up a good future in the yamen of Xingyang County, so he relied on the relationship, transferred to another place, and sought an official position in the county, and the whole family moved away and left Xingyang.

In ancient times, the traffic was not convenient, for ordinary people, a place a hundred miles away, it was equivalent to another world, the Tang Dynasty has a vast area, the place where Xu scribe worked, it is said that there are hundreds of miles away from Xingyang, at the beginning there were intermittent correspondence, but after a few years, there were fewer and fewer letters, until there was no more.

Azhu's father also specially asked someone to find Xu Shushi, but he heard that Xu Shuzhi had a lawsuit, as if the corruption was discovered by Shangguan and punished, and the whole family had left the county seat where he worked, and he didn't know where to move.

A few years later, Azhu's father died of illness, and only Du and Azhu were left in the family, because the Zhu family still had some acquaintances in the yamen, and the orphans and widows were afraid of being bullied, so Du sent Azhu into the yamen as a maid.

Seeing Ah Zhu grow up day by day, Du Shi was anxious, she decided that the Xu family would not come to greet her, so she set up a family affair for Ah Zhu again, the man was a solid family in the city, Liu Fugui, a merchant who sold pepper, and received a dowry of thirty times.

Ah Zhu did not agree with this family business, but she was powerless to resist the orders of her parents and the words of the matchmaker, but she was able to stay in the county government and not go home, so that Liu Fugui could not welcome her relatives, Liu Fugui did not dare to come to the yamen to rob people, he was a businessman, and he was a timid and cautious businessman, and he would never dare to offend the government.

At the end of the year before last, Liu Fugui went out to do business, and he went for more than a year, and he didn't come back until now.

Du Shi thinks that since Liu Fugui is dead, then his daughter naturally wants to marry someone else, as for the dowry given by Liu Fugui, of course she does not have to pay it back, it is Liu Fugui who does not come to marry, but it is not that she refuses to marry her daughter, so of course the dowry does not have to be returned, as for Liu Fugui, whether he is dead or alive or not, it is his own business, which has nothing to do with her.

So, Du's head turned again, and he set up a family affair for Azhu, who is the rich man in the city, Jiao Erbao, who has a gambling house at home, and it is nonsense to make money every day, but it is easy to enter a few times a day, and it is not difficult to reach thousands of times a year, such a good son-in-law, Du Shi is happy just thinking about it.

However, there are many more things in the world that are unsatisfactory, Du Shi has not been happy for two days, but he didn't think that Liu Fugui came back, found Du Shi, and said about getting married, Du Shi was stupid at the time, she didn't expect that Liu Fugui was still alive.

There is no way, Du Shi only needs to say that he wants to return the dowry and give it to Liu Fugui for 30 times, but Liu Fugui is unwilling, how can there be a reason to return the dowry if he gives it out, he made it clear to Du that he really likes Azhu, and no one else will marry except Azhu.

If Du Shi does not marry Ah Zhu to him as agreed, it is malicious to want him to be a bachelor, whether it is tolerable or unbearable, he will have to play with Du Shi!

Du Shi couldn't, so he had to go to Jiao Erbao and said that he would return the dowry of sixty-six yuan, but Jiao Erbao didn't do it, he didn't want money, just Azhu, if Du refused to marry a daughter, then he would have to play with Du's life, and he called all the thugs in the gambling house to play with Du Shi together!

Du Shi was so frightened that he almost peed his pants, and when he had nothing to do, he came to the yamen to find Ah Zhu and asked Ah Zhu what to do about this?

Azhu was very angry, and after listening to his mother's words, he said angrily: "Mother, what nonsense are you talking about, do you say that about your daughter, if you want to talk about Kefu, who can be better than you, my father died early, it was you who died!" ”

Du Shi was dumbfounded, her husband left her early, and it seemed that she insisted on talking about her Kefu, which was not unreasonable!

Ah Zhu shook off Du's hand, and said: "Mother, you give him the money and return it to both families, if they are not convinced, let them come to the yamen to find me, I will talk to them face to face." ”

Seeing that Azhu was angry, Du Shi showed a frightened expression, and said hesitantly: "He is not easy to mess with, but it's okay, the key is, it's ......"

Ah Zhu said angrily: "What's it, could it be that you have set a fourth house for me?" ”

Du Shi stubbornly said: "The key is that the Xu family is also here, Xu Duwen came in person, and also said that he wants to marry you, and now the three men of the three families are going to marry you home, this matter is a big trouble, I don't know how to deal with it, and now I am so scared!" ”

Xu Duwen is Ah Zhu's fiancé, Ah Zhu suddenly heard this name, and was immediately stunned, and after a long while, she muttered: "He, he's back, come back to marry me?" ”