In the drizzle, in the middle of the carriage and horses, Zhu Wuzhan, the patriarch of the Zhu family and the old lady of the Zhu family, sat in the middle of the carriage.

The old man's expression was extremely solemn, and his hand holding half of the jade pendant stiffened.

He looked up out the car window, and he didn't know whether he saw the wilderness of the stream or the room of the fort where incense was burned all year round.

He remembered the incident that had been hidden by him in the Zhu family's house five years ago, the lucky boat full of corpses and rivers of blood, and the last words that his unconscious son said to him......

Everyone thought that he was rushing to Bacheng overnight for the death of Zhu Dayu, the second master of the third room, in fact, he didn't care about the cruel nephew at all, he didn't even care about the radical brother's unforgettable hatred for himself, he even intended to let the third room gradually seize the power of the Zhu Mansion in Bacheng, Zhu Wuzhan never thought about fighting for anything, because he didn't have to fight at all.

The third room, the sixth room, and even the second and fourth rooms, which were once dominant, did not understand the pain of the long room, and they were all jealous of the power in the hands of the long room, and the so-called secret that was considered by the people in the family to be the treasure of the world.

However, no one knows that that is the curse on everyone in the Zhu family, and the source of all the pain and misfortune in the long house, for this reason, the second and fourth rooms are extinct in the family infighting, and now, no one knows, the long house has also reached the verge of collapse, and the heir of the Zhu family's house is cut off.

The evening before yesterday, loyal to his own Maofeng Lane unpacking shopkeeper sent someone to send half a piece of jade pendant, there was no time to say anything, the old man immediately drove to Bacheng, in Maofeng Lane unpacking the library and the shopkeeper had a secret conversation, according to the old shopkeeper, the pawn of the jade pendant is a Taixi sailor, and the jade pendant is likely to come from a certain disaster at sea. The old shopkeeper said it very tactfully, and promised to continue the investigation, but it was the same for the old man, which meant that his only grandson was likely to have died at sea......

The old man's complexion changed, first pale and frightened, then crimson and angry, then sad and painful.

In the end, all that remained on the old man's face was bitterness and self-deprecation.

……

The Zhujia fort is built around the bay, with three layers inside and outside, and the outermost parapet wall is built with mud outside a thick wooden wall, which is extremely strong, and the Zhu family has resisted many large bandits and small countries. Ever since the ancestors of the Zhu family settled here a hundred years ago, the Zhu family has been systematically building a fortress that can protect itself, both for the purpose of defending against bandits, and also rooted in the fear of the north.

The wind and rain gradually disappeared, and Wang Hao, the steward of Zhujiabao, was waiting anxiously at the gate of the village.

Wang Steward is a descendant of Chinese and Malayans, his origin is not ordinary, it is said that he was a thief across the sea, was framed by the opponent's design, lost his livelihood, was rescued by the old man and brought back to the fortress when he was hungry and cold, and since then he has worked in the Zhu family, and was slowly promoted to the fortress steward. The Zhu family is in Batavia, not more than those wealthy families in the mainland of the Qing Dynasty, but the Zhu family manor has nine in and nine out, the more inward the more luxurious, the porter, servants, house slaves, slaves, inner court servants, outer court servants, three, six and nine, etc., are clearly distinguished, the class is clear, and the barriers are strict, if there is no ability and means, it is impossible to control the scene, but the king has been in charge for ten years, and everything in the inner house is safe and sound, which shows that his ability is extraordinary. It is precisely because of this that Steward Wang has become the trusted and valued arm of the old man of the Zhu family.

At this time, as soon as I saw the old man and his entourage appear, they hurriedly opened the gate of the village, prepared ginger water, and replaced their coats, and prepared all the preparations to greet them at the gate of the village.

"The hosts! You're back! ”

Steward Wang helped Zhu Wuzhan out of the carriage and arranged for the slave to lead the horse, and he held a clean and washed coat and respectfully guarded the side, helping the old man put on a Zhan velvet cloak to keep out the cold.

Zhu Wuzhan dusted off the dew on his coat, his tone was flat, and asked, "What happened in the village?" ”

"Nothing happens in the village! The host is reassured. Steward Wang smiled and said: "The old slave is to say hello to the master, not long after the master went to Bacheng, the young master woke up again last night." ”

"Oh!" Zhu Wuzhan finally heard the good news and was overjoyed.

Steward Wang guessed that the old man was anxious to know his son's current situation, and reported the good news to the old man with a smile: "The young master drank two bowls of porridge in the morning, and his spirits are very good, and the people have been taking care of him, and he ate another bowl of bird's nest soup at noon, and he should still be resting at this time." ”

The old man finally laughed: "Quick! Take me to see it! ”

"Yes." The king's steward was duty-bound, bowed to the old man, and walked to the front to lead the way conscientiously.

The sea breeze blew from the harbor, which seemed to bring a burst of rose fragrance, and the group passed through several earthen walls and gatehouses, and saw that they were about to arrive at the small building where Zhu Dayou lived, the old man took a deep breath and asked in a low voice: "After Dayou woke up, did he ...... What did he say? ”

Steward Wang turned around and said respectfully: "Master rest assured! The subordinates who serve in the young master's house are all selected by the old slaves, with strict mouths and few things, since the young master has sobered up, only the old slave knows about it now, and it has not been passed on. ”

The old man nodded, since the accident five years ago, Zhujia Fort has been covering up the rumors of the murder of the heir of the long house in the name of "cultivating on behalf of the family".

Steward Wang led the old man all the way to the front hall, bowed and said considerately: "The master and the young master must have something to say, the old slave is here to stay, and the master can summon the old slave at any time." ”

The old man pushed open the door to the antechamber and stepped quickly through the threshold.

Zhu Dayou is the eldest son of the long house, the interior is not inferior to the palace court, the old man turned the inner hall, and saw the maid serving in the room coming out with a basin of water, the maid saw the old man, bowed and knelt, and after the old man passed, he got up and went out.

When the old man saw his son, Zhu Dayou was sitting on a low couch, with a jacquard silk quilt covered with Jiangnan hook silk of the Qing Kingdom on his lap, and his eyes were stunned looking at the candle flame on the low table in a daze.

The old man's eyes moistened, and he sighed softly.

"Daddy!" Zhu Dayou was shocked, and when he looked up, he saw Zhu Wuzhan.

The old man walked closer, sat down on the brocade pier next to him, held his son's cheeks with both hands, and two lines of old tears flowed down, and cried bitterly: "Wu'er! You've suffered! ”

Zhu Dayou didn't cry, only choked back tears, and his voice was choked: "The child is not good, tired father has been worried for five years, and he has been thinking about saving the child. ”

The old man sighed, wiped his tears silently, and said, "It's all father and son, why is this so?" ”

Zhu Dayou choked for a long time, flipped over the jacquard satin quilt, and saw that under the body, his legs were broken and empty, and he said with a blank expression: "Now that the child's body is crippled, he looks like a wasted person, and there is no need to ......."

"Shut up!" The old man said in a low voice, "Even if you only have one arm and one eye left, you are the heir of my Zhu family!" Don't give up on yourself like this! ”

Zhu Dayou said gloomily: "The heir of the long house...... In the past 100 years of the Zhu family, has there ever been an incomplete family head? The Zhu family has three bedrooms and six rooms, are you willing to obey me, a cripple who is only half of his body? Daddy...... You...... Don't be delusional......"

The old man was silent, and Zhu Dayou continued: "The last time the child woke up, the father asked the perpetrator, and the child was furious, and he couldn't sleep for a long time. These days, children have been in dreams for a long time, and they have stabbed enemies thousands of times? However, the matter has come to this, and the child dares to ask his father. The Zhu family has been fighting for a hundred years, fighting in the same room, killing each other, and the tragedies are numerous, and the second, fourth and fifth rooms are all cut off for this, do you still want to continue to keep that secret and let the infighting in each room continue? Do you really want to become unsucceeded and cut off children and grandchildren? ”

"Alas......"

Zhu Dayou said: "The child meditated deeply today, and realized a little, the secret of my Zhu family is neither glory nor treasure, but a curse, each room only knows one, I don't know the other, why can it only be borne by the long room?" If Daddy is willing to make it public, this misfortune will be solved, why is it kept secret? Otherwise, in the long run, my Zhu family will really be cut off. ”

The old man said in a deep voice: "What my son is worried about is very much, but it is just ......"

"Just how?"

The old man Zhu Wuzhan was silent, thought about it again and again, and then made up his mind and said: "I don't know, the secret that my Zhu family has guarded for generations is not just that one......

"Huh?" Zhu Dayou was taken aback.

Zhu Wuzhan said: "Back then, my father only told you that the secret of my Zhu family was a suicide note, but there was still a picture and a treasure outside the suicide note. ”

……

"I don't want the ancestors to have this heart back then!"

After a long time, Zhu Dayou's heart fluctuated, and he said worriedly: "Father is good, the child has something to ask for!" ”

Zhu Wuzhan nodded, and Zhu Dayou said: "The child fell in love with the Liu family in Guangzhou five years ago, and the Liu family is also pregnant with the child's own flesh and blood, and the child came back to report and ask his father for permission to get married......"

The old man's heart suddenly ached, and his right hand secretly clenched the half of the jade pendant in his sleeve, but his face tried his best to pretend to be calm, and interrupted: "Don't worry, my son, Wang Hao has told his father about this matter, and his father will definitely send someone to Guangzhou." You're weak, so it's better to rest early. ”

Zhu Dayou grabbed his father's cuffs and pleaded: "If you can't solve the heart disease of each room, the child really doesn't want the flesh and blood to be involved in this filthy infighting, please father must agree to the child!" ”

The old man looked at his son, but he thought of the possible grandson in his heart, and couldn't help but burst into tears, and said in a trembling voice: "Why don't you want to ...... old man?"

*********************************************

"Stop! You give the old lady a stop! Little cub, see if the old lady doesn't catch you! ”

A little woman in a light green shirt and linen skirt chased a five-year-old boy with a laundry stick in her hand and ran all over the yard, the little boy in front of him cried and cried and didn't dare to stop, and went straight to the crowd to dodge. One big and one small, one in front of the other, one after the other, made the whole yard a mess.

The little woman was tired of chasing, stood in the middle of the courtyard, opened her mouth and scolded: "Little cub, you don't go to inquire, who am I, Baya?" Do you dare to be lazy under the nose of the old lady? If you don't wash these dozen pots of clothes today, you just want to eat, and you think you are the little brother who calls for wind and rain in the Spring Breeze Courtyard? This is the raccoon washroom! If your aunt is happy, she will entertain you, and if she is not happy, she will beat you up to see who dares to support you! ”

Her mouth is like chopping vegetables, and she keeps scolding, looking forward to it, with a brutal and domineering attitude who dares to rebel, her eyes are shining, and she scared more than a dozen slave girls into standing solemnly, and she didn't dare to let go of her fart.

Baya, a native of Java, was sold into the Zhu family at the age of eight, and is now twenty-seven years old. She has a light brown complexion, straight and soft hair, a pair of willow eyebrows and phoenix eyes, a high nose bridge and thin lips, she is an out-and-out beauty, it is the kind of person that the fourth grandmother strictly guards, and naturally she can't allow her to show her face in front of people, so she has been arranged in the Huan bathroom for many years. Although the man who has been married twice by the master has died, there are still many men in the house who are secretly sought after, until some time ago, the new forecourt steward Jia San sent a five-year-old new slave.

The child is said to have been very favored, but now that the master is not there, and the boy is not treated by the fourth grandmother, he was sent to the Huan bathroom by the fourth grandmother at will.

Since this child was sent to the Huan Washroom, this Huan Washroom has been a lot more lively, at first the people in the six rooms have come to see him, and the executives have come every once in a while, with these people, Baya didn't dare to bully people too much at first, and then the executives and others gradually stopped coming. Jia San came to the door every day, and he liked to see the child being beaten and punished, as if he was addicted, and Baya rarely saw one or two powerful people, flattering them in every possible way, doing what they liked, and having the courage to rectify the boy. It's just that as the days go by, Jiasan's goal has changed from a boy to a little woman, and the east side of the courtyard of the Huan Washroom is an independent wing, which was originally a place to store a change of clothes, and now it has become a secret room for Baya and Jiasan's tryst. In this way, Baya became the forbidden body of the first three, and as he came and went, those slaves who had illusions died of their hearts.

Since then, Baya's temper has gradually grown, especially for the little boy, other slave girls have to wash eight pots of clothes every day, and the little boy himself has to wash more than a dozen pots, and if he can't finish washing, he will either starve or be beaten, so there will be a chase battle every day in this washroom.

"Little cub! Send these washed clothes to the big granny's room, be careful on the road, dirty or less, and watch your bones! Baya finally said.

The boy held a stack of clothes and walked slowly on the road, the pavement of the inner house was paved with pebbles, and it was firm and smooth when he walked up, but the boy was very cautious, for fear that if he accidentally dropped his clothes on the ground and got dirty, he would be beaten again. In fact, he is not afraid of being beaten, what he is most worried about is that he is afraid that he will not find his only relative, the brother named Gao Sheng.

The boy remembered that he was originally in a boat, and met a group of murderous villains, he was very scared, and closed his eyes tightly, and when he opened his eyes again, a beautiful big sister was hugging him and crying, he felt very kind, and the sister wanted to play games with him, but talking didn't count, he slept in the cupboard for a long time, and when he climbed out in the early morning, the whole small building was empty, and there were large white silk sheets at the door and on the wall, and the scene frightened him, so he ran out quickly, and he couldn't help but fall out of his head and be covered with blood. Later, the boy was taken to a strange place where there were many people, and in the middle was tied the sister who didn't talk much......

He will always remember that day, when the tragic image of his sister's death always woke him up at night. He was so sad, he felt that there were many other reasons besides fear, but he didn't know it.

Turning the corner gate outside the garden, and bypassing a rockery, the boy hurried a few steps in a panic, bowed his head to the wall and walked against the left side of the road, not daring to turn back, because on the other side of the road, there was a small building that made him inexplicably afraid.

The boy tightened his clothes and ran as fast as if he were a man-eating tiger behind him.

Of course, there was no tiger behind him, but there was a pair of hateful eyes......