Nine fast horses galloped on the official road, raising dust and sand all the way.

It is mid to late February, and the further south you go, the stronger the spring, the willow green flowers are red, and the bright color is Shaoguang. But where did Cao Hao, who was right away, have the time to see this scenery, and he was only anxious to rush to Jiangning.

After receiving Kangxi's dictation, he knew that Cao Yin was sick, and Cao Hao was in chaos. Afraid of something, he originally thought that marrying the county lord represented a change in history, who knew that the change was a change, but not in a good direction. Cao Yin died of illness in 51 years in history, and now he is sick to the end...... Cao Hao didn't have the heart to do anything else, so he immediately asked Amethyst to pack up his things and set off for home.

When he received the holy message, Cao Song had just come home from school, and when he heard that his uncle was sick, he was also anxious and shouted to go back. Cao Hao was ready to gallop back on a fast horse, where was he willing to take him, even persuaded to drink, only to suppress him, let him study with peace of mind, he was lightly obedient, with Xiaoman, the Wei family brothers, and the Wu family brothers, a group of six people, led twelve fast horses from Beijing.

Because he rode his horse all the way, he often drove overnight, and as soon as he entered the Shandong territory, he was tired of lying down two horses. Cao Hao was anxious, found a big state capital, replaced six or seven horses with poor physical strength and was already exhausted, and made up twelve more horses, and continued to hurry.

However, the horses bought in a hurry were far inferior to the old horses of the Cao family, and they were not far from Jiangsu, and they were tired and lay down three more. Because the road into Jiangsu is a small town, there are not many horses for sale, and there are no good horses with fast feet, Cao Hao thought that he was almost at the door of the house, so he did not change to a new horse, and felt that he could stick to home.

As he was galloping, suddenly the horses under Wei Hei's crotch screamed, their limbs lost their strength, and they fell to the ground. Wei Hei reacted quickly, and when he heard the horse neighing, he immediately let go of the reins and jumped out sideways, so he didn't fall with the horse. He stood firm, and was about to pull the horse, as if it was contagious, and the horse under the little manchu also neighed, and his front legs folded, and he fell forward.

Xiao Man's skills were much worse, and when he saw that he couldn't dodge, he was about to fall down, but Wei Bai on the side jumped off the horse and lifted his shirt and rolled it aside. Xiaoman was shocked, couldn't help patting his chest, and thanked Wei Bai without a mouth.

Wei Bai patted him on the shoulder for comfort, and then walked over to look at the two fallen horses with his brother. But seeing that the two horses were exhausted, one was already angry, and the other was not dead, but he could not be dragged up.

Cao Hao and the Wu brothers also got off their horses and came over, and when they saw this, they all shook their heads. There are also seven horses, although there are not enough to change them, but there are no two miles to Jiangning.

"Get on the horse!" Cao Hao said helplessly, "If you encounter the town in front, make up a few more horses." Let's go like this first. Everyone be alert, don't hurt yourself. ”

Everyone nodded and got on the horse again, and was just about to set off, when Wei Hei suddenly called out to Cao Hao: "Son, wait!" ”

Cao Hao looked back at him, and Wei Hei pointed to the fork in the road in front of him: "Childe, look over there." The people looked in the direction of his finger, and sure enough, they saw a group of people guarding four or five carriages.

Wei Hei said: "At the moment, these horses are useless, if it is a caravan, we might as well spend some silver money and buy a few horses with them first." ”

Cao Hao also knew that the remaining horses had basically reached the limit of their physical fitness, and if they ran for a while, they didn't know how many more horses they would kill, and when the time came, it would be even more delayed, so it was better to change horses now. At that moment, he instructed the Wu brothers to go over and ask, and buy them a few good horses with a lot of money.

After a while, Wu Mao and Wu Sheng were full of joy, and came back with a middle-aged man who looked like a housekeeper, and said to Cao Hao: "Uncle, the owner of this house agrees to sell us a few horses." ”

Cao Hao thanked him, he thought that when he bought it at a high price, he didn't care about the price, he just thought about changing the horse and getting on the road, but he heard the Wu brothers say that they only used the usual price. Because they wanted to change horses on their side, and these tired horses were not taken on the road, the Wu brothers said that these horses that were replaced, except for the master's mounts, were all added to each other's heads. However, the other party refused to take advantage of this, and sent a steward to assess the price of the horse, and then calculate how much silver he had to make up.

Cao Hao was slightly surprised, businessmen tend to make profits, and there is no one who does such a loss-making business. Cao Hao was polite to the steward, and his eyes looked at the Wei brothers, and the Wei brothers were also suspicious.

As he spoke, the group of people had already approached,—— a few guards came over first, and led more than a dozen horses over to pick Cao Hao and them. The Wei brothers chose eleven horses to come out in the past and nodded at Cao Hao. Cao Hao understood and asked the Wu brothers to pay the bill.

Although the owner of the house has not shown up in the car, he has finally received a favor on his side, and he should thank him for it. Cao Hao turned over and dismounted, and walked with the steward to the most gorgeous one in the convoy.

The steward said a few words through the curtain, and Cao Hao clasped his fists and said loudly: "Thank you for the righteousness of the master's family, for solving our urgent need!" ”

I heard a slightly hoarse female voice in the car: "The little woman is inconvenient to get out of the car to return the gift, please forgive me." But this son is polite, in business, we also have some money to make by selling these horses, so it can't be regarded as purely helping people, and I can't thank you. ”

Cao Hao heard that it was a female dependent, and it was a businessman's tone, so he didn't need to say much, and said politely, then turned around and got on the horse, and continued to drive with everyone.

The Wei Hei and Wei Bai brothers are old rivers and lakes, and they have been paying attention to the condition of this batch of horses, and I am afraid that it will look inappropriate. However, the imaginary situation did not appear, and although these horses were not good horses, they had much more endurance than the ones they had bought in Shandong. Everyone said that it was fortunate that it was not the annihilation merchant that they encountered.

* After several days of hurrying, on February 22, Cao Hao finally returned to Jiangning.

Because it was afternoon, there were many pedestrians on the road, and it was not suitable to ride a horse to gallop, so Cao Hao had to press his eagerness and drive the horse to the weaving house. As he got closer and closer to the Weaving Mansion, his heart hung in the air, for fear of seeing a patch of white. Without Cao Yin's support, can the Cao family still be regarded as the Cao family? Mother Li is not yet forty years old, if there is no husband...... Fortunately, there seems to be no difference between the front of the weaving house and the past, and there are no white lanterns and no white cloth on the plaque.

On the side door, a carriage happened to be parked, and the old housekeeper Cao Fu stood at the door with two small servants, saying goodbye to an old man.

Seeing Cao Hao and others riding over, Cao Fu was in a trance, thinking that he had seen it wrong, and rubbed his eyes vigorously with his sleeves, only to know that he was not dazzled: "Oh, it's uncle!" Uncle is back! ”

Cao Fu was over sixty years old, and he couldn't tell whether he was happy ——, or sad——, his snot and tears flowed down his face, and he wanted to say goodbye to Cao Hao slowly.

Cao Hao turned over and dismounted, stepped forward to support him, and couldn't wait to ask, "Fu Bo, is the master okay?" ”

Cao Fu wiped his snot and tears with his sleeve, and replied: "Uncle, you don't know, in the past half a month, the master has been really dangerous, but now it is fine!" ”

Hearing that there was no big problem in front of him, Cao Hao relieved his mind slightly, because he was in a hurry to see his parents, he didn't have time to ask in detail, and walked into the house quickly. Later, naturally, Xiaoman greeted his grandfather, and the Wei brothers said hello to the old man.

* Weaving House, Kaiyang Temple.

Cao Yin was half-leaning on the head of the bed softly, and Li sat in front of the bed, holding a bowl of medicine in his hand, and feeding him one spoon after another.

Looking at the white hair on his wife's sideburns, Cao Yin was very guilty, and wanted to comfort him, but he didn't know where to start, and he said after a while: "I'm sorry for you!" I'm fine! ”

Looking at her husband's gray face and listening to her husband's hoarse voice, where does it seem like it's okay? It's just that in this scene, for the sake of her husband's peace of mind, Li didn't show a sad look, and forced out a little smile: "Well, the old man has a great fortune, so naturally he is fine!" ”

Cao Yin really didn't have the strength, because he just sat up when he saw the doctor, and after saying a few words to his wife, his spirit was almost used.

Seeing that her husband was so weak, Li was so sad that she hurriedly called two maids to help him lie down. At this moment, I heard the sound of hurried footsteps in the courtyard. Li frowned slightly, because her husband needed to recuperate, she had already sent a message to the people in the courtyard to be silent. However, the next moment, she was a little stunned because she heard her son's voice.

"Mother, how is father?" With the sound of speaking, the dusty Cao Hao strode into the room.

Li Shi turned his head and looked straight at Cao Hao with his eyes. It wasn't until Cao Hao walked up to her that she realized what was going on, grabbed her son's arm, and muttered in disbelief: "Hao'er? Hips? ”

The two maids who were waiting in the house were short and bowed to Cao Hao.

Cao Hao waved his hand and told them to get up, then held his mother's hand and nodded vigorously: "Well, mother, my son is back!" As he spoke, his eyes looked at the bed, just looking at Cao Yin.

Cao Yin's originally lifeless eyes seemed to be a little more happy, and he struggled to sit up.

However, he has not seen him for three months, and Cao Yin is becoming more and more old. The hair on the top of his head was so thin that he was about to show his scalp, and his eyes were deeply sunken, and he was horribly thin.

Despite repeated restraint, Cao Hao's eyes were still red, he put down his mother's hand and took two quick steps to the bed: "Father, my son is back!" ”

The parents of the elders are in good health, and Cao Hao has never had the feeling of "the son wants to raise but does not wait". And in this life, because he vaguely knows some historical trends, he has been worried about Cao Yin's body. Originally, the relationship between their father and son was not deep, and he was worried about Cao Yin's health, most of which was because he wanted to avoid the decline of the family, but now, after witnessing Cao Yin's illness, Cao Hao felt sad from the inside out.

Cao Yin sat up with the support of his wife, the joy in his eyes had not faded, but he put on a strict father's face: "Nonsense, who let you come back?" It's not good to be an errand in Beijing, why are you so reckless? Because of the urgency of the words, I couldn't help but bow up and cough in the end.

Looking at this stubborn old man, Cao Hao just leaned down and patted his back gently, trying to make him breathe more comfortably.

"Did Zhuang Chang send someone to deliver the news to the capital?" Cao Yin's expression softened and asked.

Cao Hao took the pillow and put it behind his father, and then replied: "It's a long live message, saying that my father is sick and ordered my son to go back to Jiangning to serve his relatives." ”

Cao Yin was a little surprised: "Long live the master's message?" Then, with some epiphany, he shook his head disapprovingly: "Tianxing, this guy, these little things, and you have to alarm the Long Live Lord!" By the end, the voice was indistinct.

Cao Hao saw that Cao Yin was exhausted, and he didn't seem to have the spirit to speak, and looked back at his mother with a little worry. Li held back tears and nodded slightly.

Cao Hao felt uncomfortable, but his face was not obvious, and he said to Cao Yin with a smile: "My son rushed back all the way, and his body was a little tired. The father rested first, and then waited for the son to go down to take a bath and change his clothes before coming back to talk to the father. ”

Cao Yin has been holding on for most of the day, but he has no strength, but in front of his son, he doesn't want to show his old state, so he holds on. Seeing him say this, he nodded: "Well, you go down first, and have a good rest, I'm afraid I'm tired of coming back so far!" ”

Cao Hao responded, turned around and went out first, standing at the door and waiting for his mother to come out.

In the room, there was another cough, followed by a vigorous wheezing voice. After the husband was settled, Li ordered the two maids to guard it well before coming out.

Because he was not in front of his husband, Li couldn't restrain himself anymore, holding his son's arm, tears falling down in tears.

Cao Hao put his mother's study to the east, which is separated from the west bedroom by a small hall in the middle, and the two will not talk to Cao Yin's rest.

After helping his mother sit down, Cao Hao asked, "The letter I received at the end of the first month hasn't mentioned it yet, why did my father say that he was sick?" But when you went to Beijing in the new year, you were tired? ”

Li wiped his tears, hesitated for a moment, and finally sighed: "I shouldn't hide this from you!" ”

Cao Yin has been a little weak since he traveled back and forth to the capital years ago, and he has not seen much good. At the beginning of February, a major event happened in the house.

It turned out that Aunt Zhang had not been in good spirits since Cao Shun died, she didn't like to see people very much, and she didn't want to talk. Before entering Beijing, Cao Yin stayed in her room for a few nights, and then, she was a little nervous, touching her stomach all day, saying that she had it.

When Li heard about it, he sent a doctor to check the pulse, but there was no sign of joy. Li did not blame her for the pain of losing her son before, and only told the maid and woman beside her to take care of it.

When Cao Yin came back from the capital, because of his weak body, he rarely went to the rooms of other concubines, and stayed on the Li family to recuperate.

This time, Aunt Zhang personally boiled two bird's nests and brought them over, saying that it was for Cao Yin and his wife. Because Li had just eaten a snack that day and was not hungry, Cao Yin drank the two bird's nests. Who knew that after a while, Cao Yin vomited up and down and coughed up a few mouthfuls of blood. After the doctor saw it, he checked the empty bowl of bird's nest again, and determined that the bowl for Li's was filled with arsenic. Fortunately, with a very small amount of weight, although Cao Yin was poisoned, he was not immediately killed.

Of course, Aunt Zhang didn't admit it, but after an investigation, she found out that when she went out to burn incense in the first month, she went to a pharmacy in the city and did buy arsenic. For a while, Li didn't have the heart to attack her, so he just asked someone to lock her up first. Aunt Zhang shouted and said that she had a body.

After all, it was related to her husband's heirs, and Li didn't dare to be casual, so she asked someone to check her pulse again and confirmed that she was indeed not pregnant. Aunt Zhang still refused to settle down, and cursed Li again and again, saying that she instructed her adopted daughter to kill her eldest son, and now she wants to harm her youngest son in her belly, almost crazy. In the end, he was gagged by several mothers-in-law and pulled down and closed. Unexpectedly, she hit the wall and died that night.

Cao Hao was stunned when he heard this, and couldn't help but be a little afraid, if the arsenic was enough, then the fruit would be unimaginable! Unexpectedly, Liuli, a little woman raised in the house, would give birth to such a vicious heart. At the beginning, in the courtyard of the old lady, she was also a good person, but now it is completely different. Thinking that her mother was angry because of her, and her father's illness at this time was even more because of her, Cao Hao really didn't have any pity for her.

Li Shi frowned, tears flowed non-stop, and he blamed himself very guiltily: "It's all mine, if I could have found out that Aunt Zhang was stunned and asked people to look at her, there would be no such thing." My heart breaks when I look at your father. Why did I say that I was confused, and gave two bowls of bird's nest to your father to drink? If I drink it myself, even if the medicine dies, I will thank the Bodhisattva! ”

Hearing what Li said, Cao Hao hurriedly persuaded: "Mother said this, where are we who are children? Even if we can't bear to lose our father, can we bear to lose our mother? Don't say that, it's all an accident. It is already a great blessing in misfortune that my father was able to get out of danger safely. ”

Cao Hao traveled for six or seven days in a row, and only rested for three or two hours every day.

Li felt sorry for his son and didn't want him to worry about him, so when he heard his persuasion, he nodded and stopped his tears. While beckoning someone to serve Cao Hao to go down and freshen up, he said to him: "When you rest, you will also go and persuade your sister." As soon as this aunt's matter came out, she was also uncomfortable in her heart, afraid that she would take the fault on herself again. ”

Cao Hao responded, and followed the maid back to her yard to freshen up-

(To be continued)