The eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty did not all live in the palace, but those who had been boiled out for many years often had one or two private houses outside the palace, and there were even more emperors who gave them residences, giving one or two palace maids as their wives.

Although Jing Bule said that Xiao Jing was simple, in Xu Xun's imagination, since Xiao Jing had been in three dynasties and was also the eunuch of the master of ceremonies, the private house outside the palace must be neat and tidy, not to mention three entrances and four entrances. So, when he got out of the carriage and saw the low door, he could hardly believe his eyes. If it weren't for the fact that there was a brocade wrestler in a new jacket in front of the door, he would have thought that he had come to the wrong place. According to his thoughts, there must be a hole in the sky after entering this small door, but unexpectedly, there was nothing in the huge courtyard such as the big light wall, and there were only a number of various flower pots placed against the wall, and probably because of the weather, the flowers of various colors in it had withered a lot.

An old man in a green shirt was facing away from him, carrying a jug to water the flowers, and humming a tune while watering it. Xu Xun thought it was a gardener and the like, but he found that Sun Bin stood beside him, lowering his hands and bowing his head with a respectful face, how could he not understand that the old man was most likely the main person he wanted to see on this trip, and he couldn't help but stare at the back carefully for a while.

After a while, the old man turned to look at the two of them, and then bent down to lay down the kettle. At this time, Sun Bin took a few steps forward, saluted to the old man's side, and said, "Ancestor, people have already brought." ”

"Hmm."

Xiao Jing is sixty-five years old, he is older than Fu Rong, his gray hair is combed warmly, but he is only wearing a simple scarf, the robe on his body is neither silk nor fine kudzu, but ordinary Songjiang standard cloth, and under his feet is a pair of black cloth shoes that have been cleanly washed, and even the white edge of the sole is snow-white. At this time, he stepped forward with his back hand, because he saw Xu Xun saluting but not bowing, he squinted his eyes and looked at it for a while and smiled faintly.

"Sun Bin, you are watching outside, our family took him to talk in the house. Xu Xun, come in with our house. ”

Xu Xun straightened his waist, only to find that Xiao Jing had already walked in front with his hands behind his back, and hurriedly hurried up. After entering the second gate, he saw that there were only two entrances inside and outside this courtyard, and the regulations of this inner courtyard were the same as the small courtyard in the Gongfang Garden of Wei Guo where he lived, at most it was just the scene of three positive two ears and four wings. At this moment, there was only one servant woman in the courtyard who was bending down to sweep the floor, and when she saw them come in, she hurriedly bent down deeply and bowed her head again and began her work.

Following Xiao Jing into the east wing, Xu Xun quickly took a look at the situation here. The three rooms are not separated, and there are seven or eight rows of bookshelves in the huge space, which actually has the meaning of a library, and in the window there is a piano, and next to it is a large fir bookcase. A table, a chair, a few stools, are just ordinary, and you can't see any delicate knick-knacks.

Xiao Jing saw at a glance that Xu Xun's face was different, and after sitting down, he asked with a smile: "What's the matter, but do you think that our family here is very different from Fu Song'an's place?" ”

Knowing that the two lives together are less than half of Xiao Jing's seniority in the palace, of course Xu Xun will not play tricks when they meet at the first time, and immediately said truthfully: "Yes, the kid thought that his father-in-law must be a beautiful room, but he didn't expect it to be so simple." ”

"Nanjing is the land of famous gold powder and the hometown of wealth, Fu Song'an is old and plans to be a rich man, so he transferred from the post of celebrant and eunuch to Nanjing garrison, of course, to enjoy the blessings. As for our family, countless people in the capital are staring at it, and if they only care about their own pleasures, the impeachment will be at least three or four times more. As for those juniors, they all have another place to live, and countless people live here all day to meet and flatter, how can they be successful! ”

Xiao Jing smiled, then looked directly at Xu Xun and said, "So, you can make a lot of trouble in Nanjing, and it's best to put it away in this capital." You must know that this is the place where the whole body is really affected, even if a small thing is big, it will be affected up and down, even the emperor may not be able to protect you. ”

"Yes, the kid wrote it down."

agreed like this, but Xu Xun knew in his heart that Xiao Jing was in a high position, who couldn't train him for many years? This trip didn't travel thousands of miles to get him into the capital, and even supported Fu Rong to round up his life experience, isn't it his audacity and informality? Therefore, after Xiao Jing taught a few words, he said: "The kid came to the capital from Nanjing this time, and Gonggong Fu also asked the kid to bring some things to Gonggong Xiao......"

Before he finished speaking, a laugh came from outside: "Yo, Grandpa Xiao is so blessed, Fu Song'an actually asked someone to bring you good things from Nanjing?" Those who see it have a share, since our family is here, you must score some points! ”

Hearing this, Xiao Jing's face suddenly changed, and he hurriedly stood up and greeted him in person. Seeing this, Xu Xun knew that the person who came was not trivial, and he followed closely. As soon as he got out of the house, he saw that Sun Bin was following behind an old man with white hair in a panic, he couldn't help but look a few more times, but unexpectedly, the old man suddenly set his eyes on him.

At this time, Xiao Jing hurriedly reminded: "Don't you hurry up and see Gonggong Li?" Gonggong Li is the oldest old man with the highest qualifications for the celebrant supervisor! ”

This is the eunuch who once served as the eunuch of the palm seal of the celebrant in the last years of Chenghua, and only later was recalled from Huai'en of the Xiaoling Sixiang, which lost the position of the palm seal of the celebrant for many years, and the eunuch Li Rong? It is said that this person is older than Xiao Jingqu, and now he is in his early seventies, but when he sees it today, he is in good spirits, except for his beard and hair, where is how old he is?

Xu Xun's heart jumped, and he was about to step forward to salute, but unexpectedly, Li Rong strode over, looked him up and down, and suddenly slapped him on the shoulder, and said in a loud voice: "You are the kid from Fu Song'an?" ”

"It's the kid Xu Xun."

Seeing Xu Xunchang saluting, Li Rong bowed his head slightly and said: "Before, the limelight in the capital was not good, and our family and Gonggong Xiao couldn't take care of Fu Song'an's side for a while. ”

Xu Xun had already heard from his fellow Jing Bule that Li Rong was older, and the reason why Huai En did not get the position of the palm seal of the celebrant after his death was because this one put everything on his face and mouth, so he had some grievances with many civil officials, and at this time, seeing that Xiao Jing was really frowning when he heard this, he immediately said humbly: "Father-in-law Fu said that he was able to pass the test smoothly this time, thanks to the two fathers-in-law in Beijing. If you want to talk about wind and waves, Nanjing is just a backwater, but the capital is stormy, thanks to the two fathers-in-law at the helm, this can smoothly avoid danger. ”

"Hahaha, Fu Song'an is getting better and better at talking!" Li Rong smiled heartily, looked Xu Xun up and down again, and the topic just now came to mind for a while, "By the way, what good things did Fu Song'an let you bring?" ”

Xiao Jing has always been simple, and there are only three or four servants in this private house, but at this time, he was annoyed for the first time. If there were so many people, how could Li Rong break into the door so loudly, and even almost heard those fatal words? So, he glanced at Sun Bin coldly, and was about to make a round for Xu Xun, but unexpectedly, this young boy smiled and bowed again.

"The things are in the carriage outside, Gonggong Li, please wait, the kid will go and get it."

Seeing Xu Xun hurriedly go out, Li Rong glanced at the back, and couldn't help but smile at Xiao Jing: "This Fu Song'an, this time he saw the right person and sent a sensible and reasonable boy." By the way, what's his name? ”

"It's called Xu Xun."

Xiao Jing knew that Li Rong's surname was not as good as before, so he explained with a smile, raised his hand and invited Li Rong to sit in the house, and motioned Sun Bin to look outside with his eyes, don't make such mistakes again. When Li Rong was invited to take a seat, he went to the side and made tea in person, and then he tentatively said: "Why is Brother Li free to come here today?" ”

"It's not that you asked for leave to go back to the private house, but a few folds were transferred to our family, and our family committee couldn't make a decision, so I asked for a surname to borrow an excuse to come out to find you. If you want our family to say, the Ministry of Officials and the Metropolitan Procuratorate was ordered to inspect the Beijing officials, which is good, but Ma Wensheng, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, is really old and confused, and have you heard of it, his son himself is not clean......"

Li Rong nagged and counted Ma Wensheng's nonsense, but Xiao Jing just sat quietly and didn't interject. He knew that Li Rong and Ma Wensheng had always had old grievances, but Jiao Fang, the servant of the ministry, was friendly with him, so he was naturally clear about the intention of these words. Only on such a level of things, he has never expressed his opinion easily, and at this time, he has always talked about him in the name of Tai Chi, seeing that Li Rong is gradually relying on the old and selling the old, he frowned and was about to speak, when there was a noise outside. The next moment, I saw Xu Xun and a young man who looked like a small guy carrying a big box into the house.

"Ouch, it's such a big box? Fu Song'an is a big deal this time, what good goods did he give? ”

Seeing that Li Rong was startled, and then stood up and went to open the box in person, Xiao Jing became more and more unhappy in his heart. It can be seen that Xu Xun just smiled and let it go, he was a little relieved in his heart, when the lid of the box was opened, Li Rong took out a letter of sandalwood from it, he was stunned, and when he saw Xu Xun take out a book one by one, he was really stunned. Immediately afterwards, I only heard Xu Xun speak: "Father-in-law Fu knows that the two fathers-in-law believe in Buddhism, in addition to the rare Buddhist scriptures he has collected over the years, it is the special sandalwood of Qixia Temple, which is the favorite of good men and women in Nanjing, but there are only twenty or thirty covers every month, and it is still the face of Father-in-law Fu to get these." ”

"Oops, that's a good thing!"

Li Rong had a sandalwood in one hand and a Buddhist scripture in the other, and his eyes narrowed with a smile. Almost none of the eunuchs in the palace do not believe in Buddhism, and often people begin to find a good place for themselves to build a tomb temple in advance when they reach fifty, and invite monks to pay their slaves as monks, and the most decent is to ask for a royal pen plaque. And Li Rong is the most superstitious one of them, and he can only recite Buddhist scriptures twenty or thirty times when he sleeps. Seeing Li Rong's elated appearance, Xu Xun took out another bag from his arms and handed it over with both hands.

"Father-in-law Li, when the kid came from the canal and passed through the Linqing Banknote Customs, he had a deal with when he saw the tax supervisor Du Jindu's father-in-law. He learned that the boy would see Gonggong Li when he went to Beijing this time, so he deliberately entrusted the boy to bring this talisman. He said that this amulet was obtained when he went to an ancient temple a few years ago and met a holy monk sitting down. According to the instructions of the holy monk, he recited the sutra a hundred times before going to bed, and it took five years to make the offering. He asked the kid to transfer it to Gonggong Li, saying that he wished the ancestor a long life and a hundred years of good fortune. ”

(To be continued)