Late at night, a two-person sedan chair stopped at the back door of Baifu in Wujiang County, and a slender figure walked out of the sedan chair, which was quickly introduced into the mansion by the Baifu servant and disappeared into the courtyard of the deep house.

Zheng Zhi followed the little maid of Baifu to the gate of the courtyard of the eldest prince of Baifu, there were already two housekeepers waiting at the gate of the courtyard, and when she saw Zheng Zhi coming, her anxious face was relieved, and she immediately put on a smile: "Miss Zheng is here, the son is already in the room, we have cleaned up the room, the brocade and the curtain have also been replaced with red, although it is ......" A mother-in-law was interrupted by another slightly chubby mother-in-law wearing pearl earrings halfway through her words: "Why are there so many words, let's let the girl go in quickly." ”

Zheng Zhi slowly looked away from the tip of her shoes, took a deep breath, and raised her eyes to look at the two mothers-in-law in front of her, one fat and one thin, one tall and one short, the only similarity was their flashing eyes.

When looking at her mother-in-law, Zheng Zhi had already subconsciously pushed open the courtyard door in front of her. "Squeak-" Xu is courtyard is deep, Xu is late at night, and the sound of opening the door is particularly clear and harsh at this time. The spacious room is not as gorgeous and rich as imagined, as far as the eye can see, I can only see a fragrant sandalwood stuffy household cabinet with Ru kiln flower sacs, and there is only a glazed green jade vase on the crescent moon table in the corner, and there is a bookcase on the other side.

I didn't see Mr. Bai in the outer world. Zheng Zhi hesitated whether to leave, and at the moment when she just wanted to turn around, a person walked out of the room. Dressed in a green shirt at home, he stood tall and tall, with Sven's facial features and dark eyes, and he was looking at Zheng Zhi quietly at this time. Zheng Zhi was embarrassed for a while, and she also stood in place and looked at the man opposite. The two stared at each other for a while, and the man spoke first: "Miss Zheng, in Xia Bai Ziyi, I am glad to meet." A gentle voice sounded faintly. "Bai Gongzi is polite." After Zheng Zhi returned the salute, the two fell silent again. Suddenly, Bai Ziyi chuckled, stepped forward and gently grabbed Zheng Zhi's hand and walked in the direction of the inside, Zheng Zhi involuntarily shrank but did not struggle in the end.

Yes, she came to her distant cousin Zheng Rui for a trial marriage. After her father died five years ago, she had to live with her mother. His father didn't do much during his lifetime, so he could only rely on the Zheng clan to live. After the father left, the life of the mother, who had no son and only one daughter, was even more difficult. The ridicule and intolerance of the Zheng family made their mother and daughter unable to cope with themselves. At this time, Zheng Jiangde, who was quite influential in the Zheng family and was a magistrate in Huating County, expressed his willingness to take her and her mother to live in the past. She and her mother had no other choice, so they defected to Zheng Jiangde.

When he first came to the county government, Zheng Jiangde treated them very kindly, and the food and clothing were all on the scale of clan relatives. Before coming to the county government, Zheng Zhi knew that Zheng Jiangde had a sixteen-year-old daughter-in-law, Zheng Rui, although she was one year younger than her, she already had a marriage match, and the other party was Bai Ziyi, the eldest son of Baifu in front of her. Wujiang Baifu is the largest cotton and silk merchant in the area of Nanzhili, with strong financial resources and rich wealth. But it's just businessmen. It stands to reason that Zheng Jiangde is the county governor of Zhengqipin, and he can climb the branch of the Beijing official in the court for his only concubine, or find the son of a local colleague. But he let his daughter marry him. Zheng Zhi didn't know the reason, and she didn't want to care about such idle things. But it didn't take long for this idle matter to find her.

The sun was just right that day, and she came to the county government for more than a month. Xiaocui, the maidservant girl next to Zheng Jiangde, suddenly came to invite her, saying that Zheng Jiangde had got a few fine silk horses for Zheng Rui to pick with her. When she came to the middle hall, she didn't see the silk and didn't see Zheng Rui, she only saw Zheng Jiangde sitting alone and drinking tea.

Zheng Jiangde squinted his slender eyes when he saw Zheng Zhi coming, she was one year older than Zheng Rui, but she looked much more stable than her daughter, and her slender figure was already very slender, with a goose egg face and fair skin. Zheng Jiangde laughed unconsciously: "Zhi'er is here, come and sit down." These days, are you still used to coming to the house? Zheng Zhi sat down and nodded with a smile: "With my uncle's care, everyone in the house has taken care of me and my mother, and I have a very good life." Zheng Zhi made herself look as clever as possible, there were too many days under the fence, and she was used to making herself look docile and well-behaved.

"It's good to live in the habit." Zheng Jiangde smiled, "Then get used to getting along with Zheng Rui." Zheng Zhi didn't know why he suddenly mentioned Zheng Rui as soon as he changed his words, in fact, Zheng Zhi was not familiar with Zheng Rui, and after coming to the county government, they only met a few times, and Zheng Rui had a lukewarm attitude every time. Zheng Rui is undoubtedly a beauty, and Zheng Jiangde's only daughter-in-law, since the stars held the moon, Zheng Zhi only felt that she was a proud and willful lady.

Zheng Jiangde didn't wait for Zheng Zhi's answer, and said alone: "Zheng Rui is going to marry into Baifu at the end of the year, I don't feel at ease if she goes alone, I think it would be good if there was a girl of the same age to accompany her." It just so happens that Zhi'er, I see that Zheng Rui also likes you, so you can accompany her. ”

No matter how cautious Zheng Zhi was, she couldn't have imagined that Zheng Jiangde wanted her to be a dowryman. But the people who marry are generally personal maids, and no matter how down-and-out she is, she is still the daughter of the Zheng family. "Uncle, Zhi'er doesn't want to leave her mother so early, my mother has often been in poor health since my father left, and she still needs my care."

Zheng Jiangde seemed to have expected Zheng Zhi's reaction a long time ago, he was still unhurriedly holding the blue and white porcelain tea bowl and blowing the tea soup, while staring at Zheng Zhi, "Zhi'er, don't worry, your mother is also my brother-in-law, I will naturally take good care of her." You see that there are so many people in my house, how can I treat her badly? And the tonic medicine needed for your mother's illness is more precious, and I guarantee that your mother will not lack these needs after you go to Baifu. You must know that in the clan, I am the only one who has this condition, and I am the only one who is willing to take in your mother and daughter. In fact, it is not difficult for me to do what I want you to do, Rui'er does not have a caring person around her, Rui'er is arrogant, but you are very gentle, as long as you help Rui'er to establish a foothold in Baifu, your mother will spend the rest of her life in my county mansion. ”

After hearing these words, Zheng Zhi wanted to laugh angrily, in fact, she also laughed, but her appearance was more ugly than crying: "Uncle, Zheng Rui's cousin is your concubine in the county, or a beauty in Huating County, why bother to marry a businessman, even if she has already decided to marry and can't regret it, the daughter of the county is already a high climb in Baifu, they will treat her cousin well, how dare they bully her?" Zheng Zhi didn't understand how a person like Zheng Jiangde could let his daughter get married, and now he wanted to drag her into the water.

Zheng Jiangde raised his eyebrows, and didn't seem to be angry at all about Zheng Zhi's collision, and still said calmly: "Zhi'er doesn't know anything, it seems that she is married now, and it is impossible to say in the future." You don't need to know these things, you just need to know that I want you to go over and help Rui'er. In addition, what you said is a bit right, now from the outside, my house is to marry a daughter, if it is too grand to let the clan women marry together, so I need another reason. At present, when the royal family and dignitaries marry their daughters, they will secretly let the personal women of the right age go to try marriage before, and then decide whether to marry their daughters after spending the night with the married man. So, when the time comes, I will send someone to send you to Kashiwa Mansion first, so that you can get acquainted with your future husband first. ”

Zheng Zhi had a "buzz" in her head, her limbs were already cold, and her palms were already covered with a layer of fine sweat. Since her father left, she knew that although she couldn't climb the ranks and dignitaries with her life experience, it was still okay to talk about a normal and serious family's family affairs. And now Zheng Jiangde actually asked her to be a concubine.

"Uncle, you see that my temperament is not dexterous, I'm afraid that I didn't help my cousin when I arrived in Baifu but caused trouble, why don't you find a clever girl in the mansion to accompany my cousin?"

"Looking for a clever girl? There are clever girls, but the status is too low, and the weight is not enough......" Zheng Jiangde snorted lightly.