After returning to Qiuji's residence, Cao Hao sat on the chair and didn't want to move anymore, feeling physically and mentally exhausted. Xiuying waited for him for two months, knowing that his young master loved cleanliness the most, and he didn't need to open his mouth to command, so he asked someone to bring hot water from the bath bucket.

Because he hadn't gone to ask his parents for peace, the affairs of the Li family also needed to be discussed with his father, so after Cao Hao took a bath and changed his clothes, he came out of his house. When he was about to arrive at Kaiyang Courtyard, he happened to meet Cao Yi who also came over, and Chunya followed behind with a food box.

Seeing that it was Cao Hao, Cao Yi hurriedly walked over: "Brother is back?" I heard my mother say that my brother went to help my father go to Yangzhou Mansion to run errands, and it would take several days to return. Seeing my brother now, I guess the errand has been handled properly? ”

Cao Hao smiled and nodded, looked at the food box in Chunya's hand, and asked Cao Yi, "Are you cooking for your father again?" ”

Cao Yi shook his head: "It's two plates of dim sum, mung bean cake and minced meat cake, which is delicious when it comes out of the pot." I was delayed for a while, but I don't know what it tastes like! ”

"It's hot, it's just cold! Come in, I'm going to touch the light of my father and mother, and taste it!" Cao Hao saw that she seemed to be a little emotional, so he smiled and catered to her.

When the brother and sister entered the courtyard, they saw Xiuluan and Jinlu coming out of the main house, and when they saw the two little masters, they all smiled and said goodbye. One of the two was going to the kitchen to arrange dinner, and the other was ordered to go to Chun Nuan Pavilion to invite Cao Yi.

Jinlu smiled and said to Cao Yi: "The girl has really fulfilled the maid, but let the maid steal back lazy, and the wife also asked the maid to invite the girl over, the girl should go in with the uncle!" ”

Cao Yi thought of Jinlu's joke when he came over, and his face was suddenly full of shame. Cao Hao didn't notice it, and had already lifted the curtain and entered the house. Cao Yi took the food box from Chunya's hand, sent her back first, and carried it behind her brother to go in.

Cao Yin and the Li family were on the west side, and they felt a little uncomfortable. They had heard Cao Hao mention it, and they knew that Cao Yi had already known his life experience. In fact, Cao Quan and his wife were just invited over, and they also hoped that Cao Yi's relationship with that side would ease before he got married. Unexpectedly, Cao Quan still couldn't help it, and Zhao Jia's family was so vigilant, for fear of suffering a little loss, no one thought that Cao Yi was a second-room parent, but he only took the name of an adopted daughter, and he really owed her too much.

Seeing their son and daughter coming together, Cao Yin and Li were a little surprised. Because of Cao Hao's remarks before going to Yangzhou, Li was also the same as Cao Yi, thinking that he was going to go for ten and a half days, and he helped prepare his luggage the night before. Even Cao Yin was surprised, his son returned so quickly, could it be that the man was rescued in one day?

Although Cao Hao deliberately showed a relaxed demeanor and asked his father and mother to say goodbye, the Li family still found his haggardness, and couldn't help but feel distressed: "Then Yangzhou City is more than 200 miles away from our Jiangning, you set off yesterday morning and turn back today, this is more than 400 miles away!" There's nothing going on at home, why are you in such a hurry? Even if you finish your errand, it won't be so hard to come back after a break! When he said this, he called for someone to order the kitchen to add two more dishes.

Cao Hao sat down on the chair, and Cao Yi put the dim sum on the kang table. Cao Yin and Li were really relieved to see her so filial and well-behaved, and asked their brothers and sisters to sit on the edge of the kang, and the family of four sat together.

Cao Hao ate before coming out of Yangzhou in the morning, although he was sharpened on the way, he didn't eat a few chopsticks, but he was a little hungry, so he took a piece of minced meat and ate it.

Li took his daughter's hand, looked at his daughter, and then looked at his son, thinking that his daughter would get married in a few months, and his son would also go to Beijing on an errand, so he couldn't help but feel a little lonely.

Cao Hao finished eating the baked cakes, took a handkerchief and wiped his hands, and when he saw his mother looking at him reluctantly, his heart moved, and he said with a smile: "Mother, I haven't seen my grandmother for many years, while my son is still in Jiangning, take my grandmother over to live for a while, okay?" ”

Li shook his head and said, "In the past two years, I have also sent someone to take over, but your grandmother is impatient. Every day, just eat and pray for Buddha with your uncle and grandmother, and you love to be pure! ”

Cao Hao had only seen his grandmother once, thinking that the old man really didn't talk much, and his surname was very quiet. But thinking of the Li family, he still opened his mouth and persuaded again: "My grandmother is just a child of my mother, and I must miss it very much, but I am afraid of troublesome our family!" The elderly, when they are old, will inevitably think more, if the mother goes to pick it up in person, how can there be any reason not to come? Besides, I don't know when I will go to Beijing, and my sister will get married in the next two years. Bring your grandmother here, and let us be our grandchildren's filial piety! ”

Cao Yin was listening, but his heart was getting heavier and heavier. Seeing that Cao Hao couldn't wait to instigate his mother to pick up Gao Taijun, it seemed that he was desperate for the Li family, and the accident that happened in Yangzhou was ...... Li was very happy to see his son so caring, and his face was a little more happy: "That's right!" Your sister has set a date for November, and you can stay at home for three or two months at most, so take this opportunity to take your grandmother to live for a while! ”

"Ping'er has set a date for November?" Cao Hao was a little surprised: "When did it happen?" Ping'er is still young, why did she arrange for her to marry so early? ”

Cao Yi was originally sitting next to Li's side, listening to the gossip of his mother and brother, and hearing that he was going to pick up his grandmother, he was also full of anticipation. Unexpectedly, when it came to his own family affairs, he couldn't sit still, so he was busy making tea for everyone and avoided it.

"Your sister is sixteen, and she will be seventeen in the next year, where is she still young? Didn't your sister get married at fifteen? Li smiled and said to his son: "I know that you are reluctant to give up your sister, but I feel that the Luo family has sent a letter to urge, your sister-in-law is not young, and he is an only son, so it is reasonable for people to want to get married as soon as possible!" ”

Cao Hao was still a little reluctant in his heart, but since it was decided by his parents, it was not good for him to have many things, so he nodded to his mother and signaled that he understood.

The mother and son talked a few more gossips, the maid came to report, and the two housekeepers had something to go back and forth to.

The Li family went out, and Cao Haofang told his father about Yangzhou. Cao Yin shook his head when he heard this, whether it was his own son or his nephew Li Ding, they were a little too much. If Li Ding really knew the high and low, he should tell Cao Hao the relevant inside information. Cao Hao should not leave no room for direct threats. At the moment, although Cao Hao and Cao Yin both suspect that the Governor's Mansion is doing something, there is no evidence after all, so it is difficult to say.

But the matter has come to this point, and it is not interesting to talk about anything else, the Cao and Li families are now going against each other, which is really sad, after all, in addition to in-laws, the two families are still friends for several lifetimes. Picking up Gao Taijun over, although it is not the best policy, there is no other better way in front of him. The father and son reached a consensus on this point to urge the Li family to go to his mother's house in Suzhou as soon as possible.

* Because the holy car has been outside the Saiwai, Cao Hao has neither followed nor lost the errand in Beijing, so he can stay in Jiangnan all the time. According to the itinerary of previous years, the holy car will be able to return to Beijing in September, and Cao Hao needs to rush back to the capital before then.

Cao Hao went back, as usual, Xiaoman, the Wei brothers, and the Wu brothers had to go back. The Zhao family heard that Wei Bai was about to leave in mid-August, so they thought about getting married to Wei Bai and Fangcha before that. Because there are many relatives on the Zhao family's side, and Mama Zhao is very old, it is impossible for the old man to marry his granddaughter who went to Beijing to see him, so he has this idea. It's just that the women's family precedes the men's family to form a family banquet that does not conform to Jiangning's rules, and there is more or less suspicion of being involved, and the Zhao family is afraid that Wei Bai will provoke them, so they specially found someone to make peace with Wei Bai.

Wei Bai wished that his daughter-in-law would marry him earlier, he didn't have anything to say, and there were no parents at home, only a big brother, Wei Hei was also looking forward to his younger brother getting married as soon as possible, so he naturally agreed to the Zhao family.

The Zhao family took the birthdays of the two to calculate, and the date to come was May 16, although it was more urgent, but because the dowry of Fangcha was done a few years earlier, Wei Bai didn't care, and it was cheap. Wei Bai used the silver given by Cao Hao before, entrusted Cao Yuan to buy a small courtyard near Zhao's house to make a new house temporarily, and prepared to live here for three months, and returned to Beijing with Cao Hao in August, and this house was rented out, which was also regarded as an industry.

Wei Xin originally planned to go south on May 15 with the silver from [***] Qianzhuang, but when he heard that Wei Bai's wedding date was set for 16, he had to eat the wedding wine before leaving.

On the fifteenth day, the Wei and Jiang families made an appointment to deliver the silver in Linjiang Building.

Han Jiang arrived early, and repeatedly rubbed the rosewood box containing the silver ticket, looking a little uneasy.

A few days ago, when Cheng Wenkui came back from Yangzhou with a million taels of silver, he brought back a piece of news that the Cheng family sent more than 100 people to help Cao Hao suppress the bandits, and it was the young master who came forward in person.

Although Han Jiang's mother is a young lady, she belongs to the side branch of the Cheng family, and her maternal grandfather's house is not very prominent. Han Jiang's own smart since he was a child, he won the favor of the Cheng family, but in the final analysis, it was a layer worse, and several of her relatives and uncles were not very well treated as family members, which also affected her a little. Now she weighs it herself, I'm afraid that she wants to ask her family to help her, but it's difficult to ask her family to do it herself! What did the Cao family do to make the Cheng family so effective?

Since Han Jiang took over the industry from his father, he has carefully explored the forces of all parties in Jiangning. The Cao family has deep roots in Jiangning, although she knows that although she has never underestimated it, she has not taken it too seriously, and the government and business have different paths. Speaking of which, she and the three daughters of the Cao family are all handkerchiefs, because she is quite conceited of the strength of the Cheng family, and she has never thought of using the relationship between the Ji Zhu Society to catch up with the Cao family. It wasn't until that time that Jiang Wenzheng's brothers blocked the door and scolded her, and Cao Hao helped her out of the siege, that Han Jiang's family had some thoughts of clinging to the Cao family.

However, from beginning to end, the Han Jiang clan carried the fine calculations of small businessmen, and wanted to obtain the maximum benefit with the smallest effort - they didn't want to be taken advantage of too much by the Cao family, and they also wanted to use the Cao family as a cover to deter the Jiang family. When she found out that the eldest son of the Cao family was a slippery and non-sticky character, she knew that it was impossible for the Cao family to take care of the Jiang family for her, so the idea of using this guise was stopped, and the idea of starting the Cao family's business instead.

The Han Jiang clan has always regarded the Cheng family as their biggest support, and they are fearless in attacking and retreating because of the Cheng family. Until she heard the news that someone could drive the Cheng family to work hard, she was completely panicked, who was she trading with? Only then did she really believe what Cheng Wenkui said, "If you offend the Cao family, it will be a dead end".

Wei Xin arrived nearly a moment later than the agreed time, and when he entered the door, he first made amends, laughing that he was entangled in mundane things at home, and then asked Cheng Wenkui for money.

Cheng Wenkui pushed the prepared silver ticket over, Wei Xin counted it, signed his name on the deed, pressed the private seal, and handed it to Cheng Wenkui. Cheng Wenkui took the deed and put it into the screen and handed it to Han Jiang.

Han Jiang's family had already signed, so he had to press the private seal. At this time, she didn't take the private seal, but only smiled and praised: "Wei Gongzi is really a refreshing person!" ”

Wei Xin said with a smile: "Mrs. Han doesn't let her eyebrows go, and she buys and sells well, how can Wei not be happy when she does business?" ”

Han Jiang said: "Fifth Master Wei praised it falsely. The fifth master was refreshing, and the little woman shouldn't make any detours, so she said it directly, and the little woman scraped together some silver again, I don't know if Wei Wuye is still interested. ”

Wei Xin was a little surprised, raised his eyebrows, and asked, "I don't know how much silver Mrs. Han took out?" ”

Han Jiang replied: "One million taels." ”

Wei Xin was taken aback, he was already very satisfied with being able to spend 500,000 taels from [***] Qianzhuang, and now that Han Jiang's clan had easily taken out 1 million taels, how could he not be very excited? But without Cao Hao's words, he didn't dare to take this silver, and he was unwilling to let it go, so he said haha: "Speaking of which, 500,000 taels is enough, but Mrs. Han bothered Wei like this, and Wei really didn't want to go." The silver is easy to say, but the profit of this dividend, Wei is afraid that he will not be able to bear it. ”

Han Jiang's tough attitude changed and said with a smile: "Fifth Master Wei said this, but he has seen the outside, and the matter of profit is easy to discuss." ”

Wei Xin narrowed his eyes, pondered for a moment, and said, "There are still some things at home that Wei needs to go back to cook, and I really don't have the time to discuss it with Mrs. Han in detail." Wei will be in Jiangning for a few more days, how about giving Mrs. Han news when the time comes? ”

Han Jiang's family couldn't, so he had to respond, press the private seal, each of them a deed, and politely said goodbye.

Wei Xin rushed to Cao's mansion and told Cao Hao about the attitude of the Han Jiang clan and the fact that he had taken out another million taels of silver.

Cao Hao said: "She wants to add silver to come in, presumably because she figured out that this silver money is easy to earn, and she wants to earn more!" If we take this million taels, we can make more money, but in fact, how many goods can you stock up on in Guangdong? If the business is too big, it will be too eye-catching, this is not a business that can be eaten alone, and it is impossible to tell what will happen when the time comes. It's better to be on the safe side. ”

Wei Xin patted his head and said with a smile: "It's all small, and when I hear this million taels of silver, my eyes will heat up, and I still think about the long-term of my son." Although there are many sources of goods in Guangdong, there are only a few companies that can count the goods that have hoarded 1.5 million taels. ”

Cao Hao nodded: "Go back to the Han Jiang clan!" ”

Wei Xin smacked his tongue and said, "This second lady of the Jiang family has such a big hand, but I didn't expect it. I don't know what she's thinking now, it seems that she still wants to make some profits......" He paused, and suddenly said: "Childe, could it be that there is a problem with her family's business, and she wants to pile up the silver on our side?" ”

Cao Hao shook his head: "What do you want to do here?" If she doesn't take her money, what does she have to do with us? ”

Wei Xin smiled: "It's a little confused." It's just that she's really weird now. That's it, Childe said so, and the little one replied to her. ”

* Zhao family, backyard.

Fangcha sent the two little maids away from afar, squatting under the old locust tree in the courtyard and digging a small pit hard, and heard the maid outside shouting: "Girl, the vanilla sister in the house has come to see you!" ”

Fangcha turned a deaf ear and dug into her own. Vanilla felt strange, and couldn't help but walk up to her and ask her with a smile, "What are you doing here?" What about finding gold? ”

Fangcha didn't look back, and said lightly: "It's nothing." He didn't stop in his hand, but asked her, "Isn't the girl busy over there?" How did you get here? ”

Vanilla squatted beside her: "The girl asked me to come over and stay for the night, watching and helping you with your work." ”

Fang Cha was stunned, bit his lower lip, and didn't say a word. Vanilla sighed: "You told me to treat the girl with all your heart, but the girl always treats you unkindly. According to me, actually, the girl is very worried about you. The girl treats you better than any of us......"

Fang Cha's eyes were red, and she didn't speak, just buried her head in digging. Vanilla looked strange and couldn't help but ask again, "What are you doing?" Shall I help you? Seeing a palm-sized red lacquered wooden box on the side, he stretched out his hand and nodded: "What is this?" ”

"Nothing!" Fangcha didn't raise her eyelids, looked at the pit three inches square, threw the box into the pit, and then shoveled the soil and buried it. At the end, he stood up, stepped on it with his feet, sprinkled some floating soil on it, and cleaned it up the same as the one next to him. Then he patted the soil on his hand and said to Vanilla, "Come and sit in the house." ”

Vanilla looked at her strangely, and didn't dare to ask, and when she walked inside, when the little maid rolled her sleeves for Fangcha to wash her hands, Vanilla found that she was missing a gold bracelet on her wrist, and then looked up, the pair of cat's eye pendants were gone.

(To be continued)