Of course, Xie Mulin didn't notice the small interaction between Xie Yingrong and the Wanjia brothers behind her, and her attention was all on the conversation between her mother Wen and the other official wives in front of her.

The official wives had already entered the mourning hall under the leadership of the servants of the Zhou family, and Mrs. Zhou and a few concubines knelt inside to cry for the spirits, and when they saw them coming, they all collected their tears and turned their heads to look over. The deacon of the mourning hall of the Zhou family quickly handed over his duties to another decent servant, who took over the reception of the guests, and led the Wen family and other officials and wives to offer incense and worship, and the Zhou family concubines returned the salute one by one.

After the officials and wives finished worshipping, the children of each family came forward to salute. This time, it was the turn of several boys from the grandchildren of the Zhou family to come forward to answer. Then the girls from each family came forward to worship, and it was the girls of the Zhou family who returned the salute. Xie Mulin found that the Thursday girl only stood in second place among them, and the first place was a girl she had never seen, not as beautiful as the Thursday girl, but she had a dignified bearing, and she was quite bookish.

There is also no opportunity for private conversation on such occasions. Xie Mulin and his sisters retreated to the side after saluting, waiting for the wives of the Wen family and other officials to greet the daughters of the Zhou family.

Since another guest came to the door, Wen didn't say much, only said some polite words of condolences, and Mrs. Zhou ordered someone to send them to the quiet room to see tea. The people of the political envoy Si Yamen can be regarded as the subordinates of Lord Zhou, and their family members come to the door early in the morning to offer condolences, of course, it is impossible to leave after the incense, and they still need to stay for a while to talk or something. Mrs. Zhou couldn't spare time at this time, so she could only invite everyone to drink tea first.

So Xie Mulin and the others moved their positions with the Wen family and others and went to the wing room of a courtyard behind the mourning hall. It was some distance from the mourning hall, separated by two or three high walls, and it was quieter, but it was spacious enough to seat so many people. The people sent by Mrs. Zhou were also very careful, and the side room where they led them was a three-room room with one light and two darkness, the main room was occupied by the officials and wives, and the boys and girls each occupied a second room, and they were all safe. The house is also equipped with a little girl in plain clothes to pour tea and run errands, and burn several braziers to serve the guests properly.

A certain young master told the little girl that he wanted to change his clothes, and the little girl also led the people neatly. Looking at the time it took for this young master to go back and forth, it was obvious that the clean room was not far away, probably in this courtyard, which was also convenient.

Xie Mulin sat with his sisters, just a little far away from his mother and brothers, but he didn't care. The environment here is not bad, the Zhou family is also polite and thoughtful, and there are still a few girls in the same room who are not annoying in temperament. Xie Mulin and Xie Yinghui first talked to the girls from the neighbors on the other side, and Xie Yingfen was also on the side, only Xie Yingrong was dedicated to talking to the Wanjia sisters.

This time, she finally found that there were two other girls from the Wan family who came to mourn together. It turned out that when they entered the door, they fell last, and she almost regarded them as the daughters of the Liu family. She heard Aunt Dajin mention that there was a fellow girl in Wanlong, who was Miss Wansan, and she didn't know which one it was. She had the heart to be closer to this future sister-in-law, but Miss Wan looked at her sister unpleasantly, and Miss Wan Si did not speak with her previous politeness, which made her hesitate in her heart, and she didn't dare to say anything to Miss Wan San, for fear of offending Miss Wan and Miss Wansi, and then annoying Mrs. Wan and affecting her marriage with Wan Long.

Wan San girl Wan Liniang also wants to be close to this Xie San girl. Although the sisters and sisters are not happy, but in front of so many outsiders, they will not go too far, at most they will go home afterwards and be scolded and grounded, even if they are hungry for two meals, she is used to it. But Miss Xie San is very likely to become her sister-in-law, of course she needs to know more. Seeing that Miss Xie San looked over frequently, but she didn't mean to talk to her, she was also a little anxious.

Wan Meiniang, the second girl, whispered to her: "Don't worry, the third brother has already prepared." After a while, you and I said that we were going to change clothes, and we would talk again when we went out. ”

Wan Liniang looked at her suspiciously, hesitated, and nodded.

The request of the two concubines of the Wan family to change their clothes did not attract too many people's attention, only the four girls glanced at it contemptuously, thinking that they had just left the house to make such a request in someone else's house, which was really a loss of face for the Pyeongchang Marquis Mansion, and they planned to sue fiercely after returning home. Wan Da girl didn't sweep the corners of her eyes, and she was bent on pulling Xie Yinghui to speak, so annoying that Xie Yinghui couldn't do it, if it wasn't for Xie Yingfen to help play the round, she would have been able to pull down her face on the spot. Xie Yingrong really wanted to get closer to Miss Wanda, but when the latter found out that she was not very close to the two brothers-in-law, he immediately lost interest in talking to her, and only concentrated on Xie Yinghui.

Xie Mulin caught a glimpse of Mrs. Zhou's figure walking outside the window, and immediately rescued his eldest sister: "The mourner has arrived, let's stop talking for now." Miss Wan stopped and set her eyes on the main room.

Mrs. Zhou brought Mrs. Wednesday over to socialize with a group of official wives. In the past, she was the eldest daughter-in-law of Zhou Bu's political envoy, and she could still hold up a stand against the wives of her father-in-law's subordinates. But now, Xie Pu is about to take over the post of political envoy, and it is impossible for Mrs. Zhou to have the same attitude towards Wen. She has now become much more polite and cordial, and she is very grateful to the Wen family and all the officials and relatives who came to pay their respects. Everyone sat down together, and when they talked about the changes in Boss Zhou's condition before his death, as well as the situation of his old man when he was dying, they couldn't help but sigh.

Because Mrs. Zhou lost her wife suddenly, she was already lying in bed and couldn't get up, so Mrs. Zhou is now taking care of Mrs. Zhou inside and out. The guests who came to mourn were mainly Mr. Zhou with his brothers, children and nephews greeting. Wen also inquired that her husband Xie Pu was in another courtyard at this time, saying that he was helping the Zhou family greet guests, but in fact, he was sitting in a warm house, accompanying the representatives of the local family who came to mourn and talking to several clans and generals.

The Wen family and Xie Mulin brothers and sisters were secretly relieved.

During the conversation, people kept coming to ask Mrs. Zhou to show her, and most of them either received the order of the "second wife", or came to talk for the "fourth wife", or asked for silver, or asked for things, or complained about the lack of manpower, and there were more and more things that Mrs. Zhou needed to make decisions, so that she couldn't be idle for a while, and even a few more words of greeting with Wen and others would delay the rhythm of the whole funeral.

Mrs. Wednesday sat on the sidelines, her face a little ugly. Mrs. Zhou's expression is the same, but all the official wives are well-informed, how could they not know that this is the daughters-in-law of the Zhou family who can't get along with the eldest sister-in-law?

What time is it now, there are still people in the Zhou family who refuse to stop, engaging in infighting in front of the guests who come to mourn, it seems that they are really exhausted.

Almost all the official wives coincidentally reached a consensus on the future of the Zhou family.

Wen has always been a gentle and kind person, and when he saw this, he knew that Mrs. Zhou was in difficulty, so he took the initiative to propose that the other party go to deal with the business first: "We have known each other for so many years, and the head of the family is a colleague in the yamen, you have difficulties, can we still care about these trivial courtesies with you?" You can get busy for now, and you don't have to worry about us. If you need any help, please feel free to ask. It is said that distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors, and the house must not follow us outside. All the officials and wives responded one after another.

Whether she was really grateful or not, Mrs. Zhou showed a look of gratitude, and asked her younger sister Mrs. Wednesday to continue to sit and chat with everyone on her behalf, and she turned around and led people out of the room, and the expression on her face immediately turned cold.