Beijing, Dajinger Hutong, Jueluo's house.

In the warm pavilion of the inner courtyard, Seshtu sat cross-legged at the kang table, chatting with his mother Hitara while swinging a small hammer and smashing walnuts. Because his skills are really not good, it took him a long time to smash more than 20 walnuts, and the corners of his forehead were already faintly sweating.

When the Hitara clan saw this, he felt sorry for his son, and persuaded him with a smile: "That's it, my son, I can't eat so much." Don't smash it, rest! ”

Seshtu peeled the walnuts in his hand, threw the nuts into the food box on the side, and pushed them to his mother's side: "Eniang taste it." ”

Hitara smiled and picked up a slice, put it in his mouth, and pushed the box back again.

Seshtu waved his hand: "It's so tiring to get so much, my son is reluctant to eat it, so let's eat it!" After speaking, he picked up a hazelnut and chiseled it twice, but he couldn't open it at all, and couldn't help laughing: "This walnut is big, I'm afraid it's easy to peel, but I don't know how to peel this hazelnut." If you meet Miss San again, you have to ask her well! ”

When the Hitara clan heard his son mention Cao Yi, he sighed inaudibly.

When Seshtu returned from the hot springs, he brought two bags of dried fruits such as hazelnuts, walnuts, and pine nuts, saying that they were gifts from the Cao family. Hitara said that his teeth were no longer good, and asked his son to take it and eat it himself, but Seshtu took out a food box with several shelled nuts in it.

It turned out that when the third day of the junior high school was scheduled to return to the fourth day of the junior high school, Cao Hao mentioned that there was no other property in the villa now, only some dried fruits to give back, so that everyone should not dislike it, and it would be a little bit of heart to take some back.

Thinking that his mother's mouth was not good, Seshtu politely declined the gift on this ground. As a result, when he left in the afternoon, Cao Yi gave him a food box with peeled nuts in it, saying that someone had peeled them out in a hurry. Although it is not much, but how much is a meaning, please take it back to Mrs. Jueluo to taste it, those that have not been shelled can be kept for hospitality or given away. Seshtu couldn't refuse again, so he accepted it.

Xitara's heart was warm, and he repeatedly praised Cao Yi for his careful and considerate thinking, and carefully asked his son about the situation of going to Changping.

Seshtu roughly talked about the arrangement of the Cao family's Zhuangzi, and picked them to hunt and visit the yard or something interesting to tell his mother.

When the Hitara clan heard her son's words, she realized that the Cao family's wealth was far beyond her imagination, and her expression darkened again, and she only sighed in her heart that this marriage could be met but could not be sought.

* Today, the peeled nuts have been eaten. On a whim, Seshtu peeled walnuts for his mother. Who knew that this work was quite ingenious, the technical content was quite high, and he was tired and sweating and had no results, so Fang Youna had to ask Cao Yi how to peel hazelnuts.

Seshtu didn't notice his mother's abnormality in the slightest, and tried twice seriously, either smashing it or breaking the hazelnut kernel. He really didn't have a clue, and said to his mother a little apologetically: "Eniang, go back and ask someone to buy the shell in the fruit shop!" These shelled ones were sent back to a few of my sisters, who remembered that they also liked to eat when they were at home. ”

The Hitara clan nodded with a smile and patted his son's shoulder: "Busy with your go, I've been detained here for a long time!" ”

"Hmmm! The son went to deliver dried fruit to his sisters. Seshtu got off the kang, dusted off the crumbs on his clothes, and then turned his head and asked his mother, "Do you want to say anything to E-Niang?" If you have something to eat, I will buy it for E-Niang when I come back. ”

Hitara shook his head: "Go and tell them that E-Niang is fine, don't worry about it, just do it." You don't need to buy anything. ”

Seshtu nodded, saluted, and withdrew.

Seshtu walked out on the front foot, and the little maid outside the back foot went back and forth, and the third lady of the Cao family came.

The Hitara clan was overjoyed, and almost without thinking, he said to the little maid: "Go and call the uncle back!" ”

The little maid just turned around and ran out, but was stopped by the Hitara clan: "Forget it, don't go!" ”

The little maid looked at her wife in a daze, at a loss, and wondered what was wrong with her today.

Hitara smiled lightly and waved his hand at her: "Please go to the East House with the third lady." ”

Cao Yi entered the door to greet the Hitara clan, and thanked her for the white jade hanging strings and snacks she had given.

The Xitara clan smiled and thanked the Cao family for entertaining their son, and then pulled Cao Yi to sit on the kang and asked her father how he was.

As usual, Cao Yi chatted with the old man for a while before turning to the main topic and telling the Hitara clan that he was going back to the south with his father.

Hitara's hand holding the long string of Buddha beads in the front was tight, only to feel that the beads were unusually awkward, so he quickly let go, his face showed reluctance, but he still asked her with a smile How much let's go back, what kind of road to take, how long it will take to get home, and said that the road was bumpy in the cold and frozen, and told her to prepare more medicines such as Huoluo Dan.

Cao Yi was moved in his heart, answered them one by one, said with red circles in his eyes, please take care of the Xitara clan, and said that he said that he would go to Beijing to see the old man again in the future. It sounds polite, but it is sincere and heartwarming.

The Hitara clan finally couldn't help but take Cao Yi's hand, looked her up and down again, and sighed in her heart, such a good girl, I don't know who can make her!

After Cao Yi said goodbye and left for a long time, the Hitara clan was still immersed in melancholy emotions. It wasn't until the little maid came in and changed the hot tea that she came back to her senses, and then began to count the Buddha beads one by one and think about it seriously.

* On the eleventh day of the lunar month, the holy car arrived at the camp in Qingshan.

Regarding whether someone forced the Cao family to marry him, Cao Hao asked his father two days ago. Cao Yin didn't answer clearly, but said that everything has its own Long Live Lord, even if there is no similar thing, Cao Hao's marriage is not something that his parents can determine.

Cao Hao listened, and was silent in his heart, is this the emperor's trick of scheming? On the one hand, show kindness, and on the other hand, prevent it from sitting big. Kangxi doesn't want his courtiers to marry privately, does he have another intention? Would it be too villainous to think like this? Kangxi loves face like this, since it is a "grace", he will definitely find himself a daughter of everyone who is from a noble background and has no real power. No matter what the other party's appearance is, this kind of marriage where he can't make his own decisions at all really makes people feel very bad.

For some reason, after seeing the love between Ning Chun and Qiu Niang, Cao Hao also thought about marriage intentionally or unintentionally. In this world, although I have parents and relatives, I am faintly lonely in my heart. If you have a gentle wife, give birth to three or four children, and enjoy the joy of your parents, it will be a more comfortable life.

Cao Yin wants to return to Jiangning before the year, and he has to go back to the capital to pick up his daughter before, and the time is already very rushed. Therefore, after arriving at the Qingshan camp with the car, he had to leave with Kangxi. Cao Hao remembered one thing, that is, cinchona. The former governor of Jiangnan, Shao Mubu, died of malaria in June, and Kali took over. I vaguely remember that Cao Yin also died of malaria in history, and after Kangxi got Cao Yin's serious illness, he also gave cinchona cream. However, before the medicine reached Jiangning, Cao Yin died.

Cinchona cream is an alkaloid extracted from the leaves and bark of a tree called cinchona, which has a special effect on the treatment of malaria. In the thirty-second year of Kangxi, Kangxi suffered from malaria, and took a lot of medicines that were ineffective, and the doctors were tied. French missionaries and Portuguese missionaries Liu Ying and others presented cinchona. After taking it, Kangxi malaria was cured quickly, and since then cinchona cream has been respected as the "holy medicine".

When Wei Xin went to Guangzhou, Cao Hao had instructed him to pay attention to the missionaries there to see if he could buy cinchona cream from them. As a result, the news that came back was that cinchona cream was respected by the imperial court as a "holy medicine", and at the same time, it also became the exclusive use of the royal family. In order to obtain the permission of the imperial court to preach, the cinchona frost imported from Europe by the church there paid tribute to the imperial court.

Cao Hao had no other way, for the sake of Cao Yin's surname, he had to think of "asking for medicine" from Kangxi's side. Therefore, when Cao Yin's majesty resigned, he deliberately went with his father.

After the monarch and the ministers said goodbye to each other, Cao Hao knelt down and respectfully said his request to Kangxi, that is, to ask for a cinchona for his father.

Seeing Cao Hao "begging for medicine" for his father, Kangxi frowned slightly, and couldn't help but look at Cao Yin with some worry: "Dongting's body is inappropriate?" I have asked you many times, why do you have to hide something? ”

Although Cao Yin was ill for more than a month due to the death of his young son in August, but now he is cured, he doesn't know why his son is "asking for medicine". However, since it was Kangxi who inquired, he didn't have time to think about it, and hurriedly replied: "How dare a slave deceive Long live, it's really good." Children are ignorant, so they will behave like this. After replying, he reprimanded Cao Hao in a low voice: "Nonsense, don't go down yet!" ”

Kangxi looked at Cao Yin carefully, and saw that although he was old and very thin, he was not sick, and he was relieved. Because Cao Hao is filial piety, he did not blame, but opened his mouth to comfort: "Cao Hao, Cao Hao, get up!" I guess you've heard that 'cinchona cream' is a holy medicine, and it is regarded as a cure-all. It is only a cure for malaria, but it is not effective for other diseases. ”

Cao Hao didn't stand up according to the rules, but still knelt and expressed his worries. My father said that he was getting old, his health was not as good as before, and he had no resistance to diseases at all, and he was most vulnerable to the invasion of diseases. The south of the Yangtze River is hot and humid, and many people get malaria every summer. Even among civil and military officials, there are many people who die of malaria. Although he is gracious, he has been given the break of malaria by officials, and he often gives cinchona frost. However, Jiangning is separated from the capital by more than 2,000 miles, and it takes five or six days to deliver medicine through the post station at the earliest. In the case of a young official's illness, he could naturally wait, but his father's health ...... Hearing the words, Kangxi and Cao Yin were both a little moved. Both of them thought of Shao Mubu, the governor of Jiangnan, who died of malaria in early July, and his death due to malaria was still on Cao Yin's book. Shao Mubu was a few years younger than Cao Yin, and he contracted malaria at the end of May, and then turned from malaria to dysentery, and died in early July. You must know that the cinchona cream is only effective for malaria, and if it turns into dysentery, the medicine will not be right, and it will even be dangerous.

Thinking of this, Kangxi nodded: "Get up, I've agreed, it's hard for you to be honest and filial!" After speaking, he said to Cao Yin: "Dongting only has one son, but it is no less than ten sons. That cinchona cream is a spring and summer medicine, and there may not be one here in the camp at the moment, so I will write a book with you later, and go to the Internal Affairs Office to pick it up after returning to Beijing. ”

After Cao Hao and his father thanked the emperor for his kindness, he came out of the imperial tent. Now, the deficit is expected to be paid off, and the cinchona is also ready, Cao Hao is relieved, he has done everything he can, and the only thing left is to do his best and obey the destiny of heaven.

Then, after Cao Hao went to say goodbye to the sixteenth elder brother, Detehei and others, he escorted Cao Yin out of the camp and returned to Beijing. Now, it is the eleventh day of the lunar month, and even if it is a fast horse, it will take three or five days to reach the capital. At that time, I am afraid that I will not be able to rest for two days, and Cao Yin will set off for Jiangning.

Unlike when he left Beijing, Cao Hao did not insist on riding a horse, not because the weather became colder, but to talk to Cao Yin more. Even if Cao Yin was reluctant to mention Cao Hao's family affairs, Cao Hao also had other questions to solve, such as the Cao family's secret errand in Jiangnan, such as the identity of Mr. Zhuang Xizhuang.

Listening to Cao Hao's question, Cao Yin was very surprised. Jiangnan Tongzheng Department is not heard of by the world, although there have long been rumors in the officialdom that the Cao family is the emperor's eyes and ears in Jiangnan, but the rumors are rumors after all, and few people have evidence to believe this. The son is just a yellow-mouthed boy, how can he believe that the Cao family does have a dark difference, and he also opened his mouth to persuade himself to let go.

"How could you say that? Where did you know these things, but what rumors about Jiangnan did you hear in the capital? Cao Yin couldn't help but ask.

Cao Hao looked at his father, shook his head, and thought in his heart to find a reasonable explanation, he couldn't tell him that the "secret" of the Cao family was known after three hundred years, and he was a person in later generations.

Cao Yin is a more traditional literati, if Cao Hao dares to say this, he will not believe the so-called gods and ghosts, and it is estimated that he will think that his son is stunned.

I really couldn't think of good words, so Cao Hao directly pointed out that the Cao family has been operating in Jiangnan for nearly 50 years, which in itself is a big anomaly. The Sacred Heart is unfathomable, and the word "grace" can explain it. Regardless of whether the Cao family has a secret errand or not, it is time to withdraw. Otherwise, if it drags on like this and waits until the new emperor ascends the throne, I am afraid that it will be self-inflicted.

Similar to this, Cao Hao is not the first time to talk about it. Four years ago, he mentioned not only the situation of the Cao family in Jiangnan, but also the problem of shortfall. Before long, the imperial court really began to check the deficit, and the Cao family became the first major debtor in the Manchu Dynasty.

The father and son remembered the old things and were silent.

(To be continued)