West of the city, Cao Fu, Aoi-in.

After Cao Hao took a bath, Amethyst sent the little maid over to invite her, saying that Imperial Doctor Chen was serving tea in the front hall. Cao Hao changed into a plain jacket and went to the front hall.

*

Imperial Physician Chen served tea here, and had already prescribed a prescription, and when Cao Hao inquired, he learned that the person in the Juyuan was suffering from a deficiency caused by the cold weather, and there was no major problem. According to Imperial Physician Chen's prescription, it is good to recuperate for a few days.

After Imperial Physician Chen left, Amethyst finished dealing with the affairs of the Ju Courtyard, and the medicine sent proper people to watch it, and several old women also comforted it.

At the moment of entering the front hall, Amethyst shook her head, Cao Hao has changed greatly in the past six months, and his height has jumped a lot. However, when she saw Cao Hao's dress, she still frowned slightly and complained: "Uncle, I see that I am about to enter October, how can I dress so thinly, if I catch a cold, it is not a joke!" ”

Cao Hao knew that she had good intentions, and said with a smile: "The weather is good on the left and right, and it's not too late to change it tomorrow!" But the one, perhaps because of the southerners, can't stand the autumn cold in the north! ”

Amethyst laughed when she heard it: "This, that is what the uncle can say?" Although he is the same age as the uncle, the month has grown by a few months, and he is the uncle's cousin! ”

Whether it's a cousin or a cousin, it sounds ambiguous enough. But thinking about the identity of the scary show girl, it's better to be a little less curious. Since Amethyst has been arranged to take care of it, Cao Hao is completely relieved.

When the two sat down, Cao Hao asked, "Is my sister's full moon ceremony ready to be prepared?" Although the family has not been rich in the past two years, it can't be short! ”

"Uncle, don't worry, my wife started to buy it when she was in Beijing, and it was ready for a long time!" Amethyst replied with a smile.

Cao Hao thought of the house in the Kwai Courtyard just now, feeling a little cold, and found that there was no charcoal pot in the upper room so far. After the bath water came up, the maids sent a pot of silver carbon. Thinking of this, he opened his mouth and asked, "Is there not much money on the books?" ”

Seeing Amethyst nodding, Cao Hao was slightly surprised: "Didn't we bring three thousand taels to the account when we entered Beijing, in just a few months, how could we spend so quickly?" ”

Amethyst sighed: "Uncle, Jingzhong is not as good as Jiangning, and the monthly favor expenses are too much." Today's red things, tomorrow's white things, everywhere have to be courtesy. The slave maid looked at the account books of the past years, and there was an income of Changping Zhuangzi before, five or six thousand taels a year, and the expenses of the capital were about the same. In addition, there are seventy or eighty mouths inside and outside the house, and three or four hundred taels of silver are used for monthly expenses and chewing. ”

Cao Hao heard the population and asked, "Didn't I release a few people before I left Beijing?" I remember that there were only about 60 people left in the house at that time, why did you add so many more? ”

Amethyst replied: "Mrs. saw that there were not many people waiting around the uncle, and the eldest of the children in the family could not pick out a few neat ones, so she called the tooth woman and bought eight little girls to enter the house." In addition, the two-room family of Zhao Qian brought by his wife from Jiangning, as well as the four long-term followers, are all included in the Beijing Middle School Register, and the population is larger! ”

Cao Hao sighed secretly [***], but he was also able to understand the heart of Li's beloved son. However, he was really not interested in adding a little girl or something to his side, and hurriedly said to Amethyst: "The new little girl, if you have a proper one, send two to my cousin and Mr. Zhuang, and don't arrange people in our yard!" ”

Amethyst responded with a smile: "Knowing that the uncle loves to be pure, the uncle can rest assured!" ”

Cao Hao thought that the money was not enough, and asked someone to bring the blue cloth wrapped box in his luggage. Inside is the field deed sent by the sixteenth elder brother, the gold ingots sent by Tana, and some broken silver and gold leaves: "These will be returned to the account first, if it is really tight, move the silver I gave you at the beginning of the year, don't embarrass Uncle Zhong too much, I have really bothered him in the past few months!" ”

*

The master and servant were talking, and outsiders told them that there was a guest in front of the house handing over a post.

Cao Hao took it and looked at it, signed as "nephew Gu Na", pondered for a moment, and asked someone to invite Gu Na in.

When he was in Jiangning, Gu Na lived in the Cao family for four or five years, and Amethyst had seen him and heard that he had united with outsiders to calculate the Cao family. Therefore, I don't understand why my little master is not angry and annoyed, and he still wants to see this person. She called a little maid to stay here to serve tea, and went to Cao Zhong to reconcile the accounts herself.

*

Gu Na was nearly four years older than Cao Hao, with a slender body, wearing a cyan robe, with a bit of southerner elegance.

"Gu Na, please say hello to Uncle Hao!" After Gu Na came in, he politely bowed.

Cao Hao sat on the chair, didn't get up, nodded his head, and said in return: "Since you're here, sit down and talk for a while!" "It's not that I get grown up by seniority, but I watched this teenage boy grow up little by little, and I couldn't help but treat him like a child.

"Yes!" Gu Na responded respectfully, but the circles under his eyes were already red.

Although Cao Hao didn't get up to greet him, nor did he greet him affectionately, it made people feel a lot of ironing in their hearts. Because his attitude towards Gu Na at this moment is very familiar, just like when he was in Jiangning a few years ago.

Cao Hao saw that Gu Na lowered his head and was silent for a long time, and the atmosphere was really depressed, so he took the initiative to speak: "Is it about to be shortaged, do you want to stay in Beijing, or go down, do you have a charter in your heart?" ”

"After four years in the capital, my nephew wants to go down there to see the world!" Gu Na replied.

Cao Hao looked at Gu Na, feeling a little uneasy, and couldn't help but ask: "Officialdom has its own rules of officialdom, don't be too straightforward, you have been smart since you were a child, I don't need to say much about this, but you have to think twice before you look at everything." ”

"Uncle Hao's teachings, nephew remember!" Gu Na lowered his head in response, and after a while, he raised his head, looked at Cao Hao, and asked, "Lin Xia Zhai, has Uncle Hao ever blamed his nephew?" ”

Cao Hao nodded: "Strange, how can you not blame?" It took several years of hard work to be taken away! ”

Gu Na's face was pale, his eyes were full of guilt, and he muttered, "Uncle Hao! ”

Cao Hao glared at Gu Na: "I blame that fool even more, I have been in Beijing for a few years, and I have gained a lot of knowledge, what is not good to learn, but I just learn to repay the kindness of others!" Even if you don't mention the mother of the Gu family, that is, the grandmother of the Gu family, you are also a blood relative of the Cao family. Between each other's relatives, what if you let you eat white rice for a few years, where is the great kindness, let you sell your future to repay! ”

Cao Hao's mother of the first Gu family refers to Cao Yin's early death of his wife Gu Shi, Gu Na's aunt and grandmother; The grandmother of the Gu family refers to Cao Yin's biological mother, Mrs. Gu, and Gu Na's great-aunt and grandmother.

Gu Na turned his head sideways, not letting Cao Hao see the tears in his eyes, and said in a muffled voice: "My nephew is not a fool, my nephew is just for my conscience!" Since I can remember beating my nephew, I have eaten rice from the Cao family; is older, and he went to school in the Cao family, and his nephew can't watch the Cao family fall! ”

"That's also nonsense, those princes and elder brothers are good friends? Even if you don't think about your own safety, you have to think about your mother. All these years, she has been looking at you with her eyes in the hope that you will be safe! Cao Hao thought that Gu Na was young and stirred into the muddy waters of the capital, and he had the feeling of hating iron but not steel.

Hearing Cao Hao mention his mother, Gu Na was silent. Gu Na's mother, Zhou, remarried the neighbor Chen Liu eight years ago, worked as an errand with Sun Wenqi a few years ago, and later returned to Jiangning to settle down with the help of the Cao family.

"When you went back to Jiangning that year, you were kicked out by your mother, and you did it yourself, making these moths and pouring sewage on yourself! After I came out of Qingliang Temple, I saw her in private and said that you must have a hard time. She is very worried about you, but she can't pull her face for a while, your family letter should be diligent! Cao Hao said, admiring himself a little, this chatter, with an old mother. There is really no way, for Gu Na, Cao Song, and Cao Yi, the children who have grown up, he really feels like an eldest brother and a father.

"Hmm!" Gu Na obediently agreed.

For the cousin in front of him, who was a few years younger than himself, Gu Na was grateful and respectful in his heart. For his gambler father, all he can remember is endless beatings and scolding, and his face can't be remembered clearly. But that person's harm to the Cao family, Gu Na can never forget. Cao Yin's haggardness, Li's serious illness, and Cao Hao's smile when he returned home.

No matter how many people in the weaving mansion know the inside story of Cao Hao's departure from the mansion, it is said that the whole mansion is only regarded as the return of the main mother and the young master from a relative's house.

After hearing the news, Gu Na lay down at the corner gate and secretly watched, but his heart was endlessly panicked. This little cousin has a noble status, and he is the grandson of the Cao family, and compared to him, the son of a sinner, it is the difference between cloud and mud. His father had caused him a great hardship, how could he not want to come back with revenge? Although Gu Na was afraid, he thought about his mother, thinking that as long as he did not implicate his mother, he still willingly waited for the final judgment.

Seven-year-old Cao Hao, holding his mother's hand, returned to the weaving house with a smile on his face.

Seeing Gu Na hiding not far away, Cao Hao did not accuse and abuse, but casually stepped forward and glanced at Gu Na a few times: "I haven't seen you for two months, why have you cleared a lot?" ”

All grievances seem to have never happened.