There are five main rooms in Xuanruitang, facing south and facing north, and they are built according to the identity of Mrs. Yipin. In the middle is the hall, under the wall facing the door, there is a four-panel black lacquer sitting screen with a high height, on which is painted "Lao Tzu Teaching the Scriptures", under the screen is an ebony case, on both sides of the case is a wide chair carved with the pattern of plum birds on the back of the chair, which is the main seat. In contrast, there are eight chairs arranged with goose wings on the left and right sides, which are also made of ebony wood, which can be regarded as guest seats.

The two rooms on the west side are the living rooms of the old lady of the Sun family, the middle is separated by a screen, and the outer room is built on the north side of the house in accordance with the customs of the north, and a two-foot-high low kang is built on the north side of the house, the kang head is a lattice cabinet with a high ceiling, and a soft couch is placed on the kang, and there is a small table with two ruyi handles on it. On the floor are two rows of chairs, covered with half-used bamboo mats, and it seems that family members or regular customers are entertaining here.

In the inner room is a large bed carved from ebony wood, and the matching dressing table is the old lady's dowry. Back then, the Sun family and the Cao family married, but the Cao family climbed high, so the old lady's marriage was extremely luxurious. Behind the big bed, Baibao is a dark pavilion, which is the old lady who can't stand the cold and cold of the southern winter after he is old, and deliberately rises in the warm pavilion behind the bedroom, using geothermal heat. Because the back window uses a green curtain, it is also called the Cui Pavilion. Later, Cao Yan was born, and the old lady hugged him to raise him personally, and the Cui Pavilion made Cao Yan's bedroom. Because it is not the morning sun, it is cool in summer, and it is very comfortable to live.

The structure of the two rooms in the east house is similar to that of the west, but there is no dark pavilion, and the inner room is a bed, and the outer room is a kang, and sometimes the female dependents of relatives are stayed, which is half a guest room.

When Cao Yan returned to the main room, the old lady was leaning crookedly on the soft couch outside the west room, and the two maids knelt on the kang to pinch her shoulders.

Seeing Cao Yan come in, the old lady's face was a little more joyful, and she sat up. For this grandmother who loves him very much, Cao Yan is close from the bottom of his heart, when he was born in the last life, the elders on the paternal and maternal sides have passed away, although his parents and brother and sister-in-law are also spoiled since he was a child, but it is still different from this kind of doting on the next generation.

When Cao Yan first arrived in another world, he was not only worried about the ups and downs of the Cao family, but also missed his family in his previous life, and the loneliness in his heart was indescribable. And this grandmother, who dotes on her grandson unconditionally, just arouses his ardent admiration, and is a little more sincere than others. Therefore, when I entered the house, I walked a few steps briskly, and when I arrived at the side of the kang, I said according to the old name: "The ancestor is up, the summer is long, and it is boring, and the grandson will accompany you to play the leaf card?" ”

Seeing that her grandson was looking up with a little face, so well-behaved, the old lady felt as if she had eaten honey, and nodded her head while holding Cao Yan's hand. The amethyst and citrine who followed Cao Yan into the house were both clever people, and when they heard the words, they did not wait for Sun's orders, so they took the cards and took the money boxes.

Leaf card, is the ancient paper mahjong, there is no white and southeast and northwest wind, divided into "Wen", "Suo", "10,000", "ten" four doors, each door is one to nine, in addition to "plum", "orchid", "bamboo", "chrysanthemum" four flower cards. Flower cards can be used as empty cards, sometimes also on behalf of the God of Wealth, double when you catch a win or loser, two double, and so on. The gameplay is similar to that of modern society, with a clip or a single hang, and also with a cannon.

Although Cao Yan is only seven years old, he can accompany the Sun family to play leaf cards for several years, of course, it is not as complicated as adults play, just draw a few cards than the size of the points, but also the pastime of the grandfather and grandson when they have nothing to do.

The two maids on the kang are called coral, one is called tortoiseshell, one is fourteen or fifteen, and the other is twelve or thirteen, and they also have the eyesight to see.

The old lady saw that there were few people and were bored, so she asked Citrine to join hands with Coral, Amethyst helped her look at the cards, and the tortoiseshell went to pour tea. After serving the tea, the tortoiseshell remembered that Cao Yan had little rice in the morning, and it would take an hour or two for dinner, so he retreated, went to the small kitchen to make two servings of lotus root flour, and took a plate of mung bean cake that the old lady liked, and a meat muffin that Cao Yan liked, and put them on a small plate and brought them to the upper room.

Everyone has played several games, but Lao Taijun and Citrine won, and Cao Yan and Coral lost. Cao Yan was hungry, and when she saw the tortoiseshell coming in with food, she couldn't help but rub her stomach, and her face was a little more happy. In the Qing Dynasty, in addition to being frightened, people who are not used to eating and eating are accustomed to three meals, let him eat two meals, how can he not be hungry and panic.

Seeing Cao Yan looking at eating, the old lady put down the cards in his hand, sent the coral handkerchief to Cao Yan to wipe his hands, and then nodded to the tortoiseshell with a smile: "Good boy, it's hard for you to be careful!" He said to Cao Yan angrily: "I'm hungry, why don't I open my mouth, the snacks in the kitchen are all read, and you can't be wronged if you're hungry!" ”

Cao Yan just laughed, such a big person, it is understandable to pretend to be a child to coax the elderly, after all, it is considered filial piety for this body, and it will be a little embarrassing if you open your mouth to eat. Although I was hungry, after all, it was a child's body, and my appetite was small, so I drank half a bowl of lotus root flour and ate two meat muffins to be full.

Amethyst went to wash the veil and handed it to the old lady with both hands. The old lady wiped her hands, saw that Cao Yan was eating sweetly, drank two tones of lotus root powder, ate half a piece of mung bean cake, and then asked a few maids in the house to share the rest of the dim sum. Although the dim sum looks like two plates, there are only four pieces per plate, so the coral hawksbill turtle is almost empty for one per person.

While talking, after eating the snack, Amethyst and Coral asked the little girl outside to pour new water, wash two more handkerchiefs, wipe the hands of the grandparents and grandchildren, and the maids also cleaned up. After that, everyone picked up the cards again and started playing.

Cao Yan just wanted to make the old man happy, and he didn't care about winning or losing, but when he saw the winning cards on the old lady's side, he couldn't help but pay attention, only to find that Amethyst was playing points with gestures behind the old lady. Coral is sincere, every time the points are bigger than the old lady, he will deduct the card and admit defeat, only saying that the point is small; Citrine was naughty, seeing that the points were bigger than themselves, the cards were deducted and the cards were admitted, and the points were small, so they won the cards triumphantly.

Where does the old lady care about these little money, accompany her baby grandson, and have fun with both wins and losses. Cao Yan saw through the gesture of Amethyst, so he also learned coral, and when the points were greater than the old lady, he deducted the card and admitted defeat, asking the old lady to win a few more. However, Cha Jing's luck was broken, and he lost several times in a row, and as a result, most of the strings of copper coins in the names of the four people were piled up on the old lady's side. The old lady won the eyebrows and smiled, but he was lucky today. Cao Yan and a few maids were also smiling, and the room was full of joy.

After playing a few more games, seeing that the copper coins in front of Coral were gone, and there were only a few big coins left on Cao Yan's side, the old lady was afraid that his child's family would lose and be unhappy, so he refused to win again. When encountering a small point, it opens the card to compare the size, and when it encounters a large point, it also deducts the small card.

Amethyst stood behind the old lady, her face changed and changed, and she didn't make a gesture for a long time. Cao Yan guessed the reason, and his heart was quite moved, and he won a few handfuls in a row, and his face was full of joy of winning.

The old lady saw that her grandson was happy, happier than she had won, and began to lose happily. Coral was old, and he also saw the old lady's intentions, so he lost more and won less, coaxing the two masters to be happy; Citrine is heartless, where would you think so much, taking advantage of everyone's small deductions, winning a few handfuls ruthlessly, but also returning a lot of capital.

There was a lot of laughter in the room, and the little maid outside had already raised her voice: "Old lady, the second wife is here!" ”

When the old lady heard this, she put down the card, and the smile on her face faded a lot.

The second wife is the wife of Cao Yin's brother Cao Quan, a native of Manchuria, whose maiden name is Zhaojia, and his father Cheng Lin served as the prefect in Shandong. A few years ago, when Cheng Lin was in Jiangnan as Zhizhou, he married the Cao family, and originally wanted to marry his daughter to Cao Yin as his stepfamily, but because Cao Yin married the Li family, he married his daughter to Cao Yin's cousin Cao Quan.

At that time, Cao Quan served as a county official in a county under the Hangzhou Prefecture, and he was a seven-pin official. Although Zhaojia's father is only from Wupin, Zhaojia is a Manchurian surname, and her uncle Marhan is a high-ranking official in Beijing. After Zhao Jia's family married into the Cao family, he also brought a few small surnames, and he always felt that the Cao family was just a coat of the white flag, and his background was too lowly. Although Cao Xi and Cao Yin's father and son successively served as Jiangning weaving, they were just five-grade petty officials. Because he did not live in Jiangning at that time and was not suppressed by his elders, Zhao Jia's family flew up and put up the spectrum of his aunt and grandmother, and made her husband Cao Quan obedient.

A few years ago, Cao Quan was promoted to Jiangning Mansion, and the second room moved to Jiangning. Cao Yin favored this younger brother in his heart, so he built a house for him on the west side of the weaving mansion and cleaned it up properly. Bi Zhaojia is a refusal to settle down, because his sister-in-law Li is filling the house, and she is a few months younger than herself, so she is sluggish and arrogant, and she also copes with it in front of Mrs. Sun.

The old lady has been a "Jingqi Mama" for more than ten years, and she is the most particular about everyone's rules, where can she tolerate Zhaojia's rudeness, not to mention the family law, and let Cao Quan write a letter of resignation.

Zhao Jia's family went back to her parents' house and cried, wanting her father to make decisions for herself, so she only changed two big-eared scrapers. Cheng Lin told his daughter about the connection between the Cao family and the royal family, and told him the identity of the Sun family. Because the Cao family has always been low-key, these things are not known to outsiders. Cheng Lin also learned from the news in the capital after marrying the Cao family. Cheng Lin and his wife came to the door to apologize, and Zhao Jia's family was careful, which made the old lady angry. In the future, Zhaojia's rules will be up, and he will not dare to take it big.

It wasn't until two years ago that Cao Yan was awarded the title of "First Class Light Car Captain", Zhao Jia's family was alive and wanted to give his son Cao Song some benefits, knowing that the future of the younger generations of the Cao family was all on the old lady, so he thought of a way to be courteous. The old lady was so noisy that she was exempted from the rules of every day, and only allowed her to come over and wait on the first and fifteenth days of the new year. Even so, it didn't stop Zhao Jia's thoughts, and he still came to visit twice in three days. Zhao Jia's family is also clever, every time she comes, she either holds her daughter or holds her son, and the old lady is not angry in front of her grandchildren.

This said, in addition to Zhao Jia's family and the accompanying maid mother-in-law, she was followed by the eldest daughter Cao Ying, the eldest son Cao Song, and the second son Cao Shuo in the second room. Cao Ying is twelve years old, two years older than Cao Yan in the big house, and she is ranked high, so both governments call her Miss; Cao Song was a little Cao Xiao for half a year, and his uncle ranked second; Cao Shuo is only one and a half years old, and his uncle is the third, and he is learning to speak.

Several granddaughters and grandchildren first greeted the old lady, and then greeted each other with Cao Yan. Although the old lady didn't like Zhaojia's family, she didn't want to give her no face in front of the child, so she asked someone to carry Cao Shuo to the kang and coax the little grandson to talk. Cao Ying took the two little maids to find Cao Yan.

Cao Song has always been naughty and active, and he couldn't sit still in the room, so he pulled Cao Song to the porch. is different from Cao Song's delicate spirit, Cao Song has a tiger head and a tiger brain, a small body and strong bones, and his height is half a head taller than Cao Yan.

"Why don't you go to school for a few days, are you afraid that people will bully you, don't be afraid, there is me!" Cao Song waved his little arm and said very righteously.

Cao Yan only thought it was funny, obviously he was still older, seeing Cao Song's cute appearance, he couldn't help but want to tease him, so he pretended to be old: "Second brother, I am the elder brother, the elder brother protects the younger brother, where is the reason that the younger brother protects the elder brother?" ”

Cao Song rolled his eyes, revealing an expression of "you are stupid", and said seriously: "I am my brother!" Doesn't it say that the big month is one year old, and the small month is two years old! As he spoke, he stretched out his fleshy little hand, waved a few fingers and said, "You are eight years old, and two years old is six years old; I was seven years old, and I was five years old. I was born in the first month, you were born in early July, am I not half a year older than you? But those adults are confused, and they want me to call you brother! ”

Where had Cao Yan heard such an algorithm, and he couldn't help but smile a little more. Cao Song only thought that he was moved, looked around, and saw that the maids were far away, so he took out a plum-sized grasshopper cage made of reeds from his arms and stuffed it into Cao Song's hand: "It's for you to play, the ancestors raised you like a girl, and you are not allowed to go out, how boring!" Although it was given out, his eyes did not leave the small cage, which seemed to be a beloved thing.

Cao Yan couldn't bear it when he saw it, and put the grub cage in Cao Song's hand: "I'll just take a look, or you can take it and play with it!" ”

Cao Song refused to accept it, patted his chest and said, "How can there be anything that was sent out and taken back, what has become of it?" I bought it for you, you are not in good health, what can you do if you get sick again! As he spoke, he no longer looked at the little cage. It seems that it is given from the bottom of my heart.

Cao Yan looked at Cao Song's appearance as a little adult, and felt a little more moved in his heart. Although he is a little smaller, he is also his little brother. I had an older brother in my previous life, but because of the large age gap, I have always respected him as a father, and the brotherhood is not as straightforward as the villain in front of me. Thinking of this, he reached out and touched the little bald head in front of Cao Song. Cao Song did the same, and also touched Cao Yan's forehead. The two brothers both laughed "haha", with a little silly and a little warmth.