Wen just told the girls in the family that Zhou Laobu's political envoy was afraid that he was dying, and the funeral was just a matter of a few days. Sure enough, it became a prophecy. In the middle of the night that day, a word came in from the porter, saying that Mr. Zhou had died.

In the middle of the night, the Zhou family suddenly heard a shocking cry, and then there was chaos. After a while, a fast horse went out of the gate and went straight to the Yanwang Mansion to report the funeral, and then several horses went in different directions, presumably to the relatives and friends of the Zhou family. The Zhou family also began to hang white cloth and plain lanterns at the gate. The gatekeeper in the nearby neighborhood heard the movement, opened the door and glanced at it a few times, who didn't know that this was Lord Zhou finally swallowed his breath? The heads of each family had already prepared for this, and they were instructed how to deal with it, and the porter of each family immediately sent a message to the inner courtyard, so that the master and mother of their own family would not get the news late and be rude.

When Xie Pu got the letter, he had just slept for less than two hours, and he was still sleepy, but he still struggled to get up. Wen naturally woke up, and hurriedly got up to wait for him to wear plain clothes, and called the girl to find out her plain clothes, and planned to go to Zhou's house with her husband. Xie Pu stopped her and pressed his wife back to the bed: "In the middle of the night, I got a letter and rushed over to say hello, you don't have to follow." Wait until tomorrow morning, when you have eaten and drunk enough, ask the children to dress warmly, and then take them to Zhou's house to mourn. Remember, you don't have to wait until the sun rises to go, you don't have to rush too early. ”

Wen was puzzled: "Why is this?" Our house is on the side, and Mr. Zhou is the boss of the master, and he has always waited for our family to be very kind. ”

Xie Pu said lightly: "I know, so I received the love of the boss and rushed to see him off in the middle of the night." But the rest of the Zhou family may not be happy to see that our family rushed over early, but it seems that the whole family is waiting for the boss to breathe, so they came to the door as soon as they got the letter. My official position was asked for by myself, and His Royal Highness King Meng Yan appreciated it, and the appointment documents of his subordinates were not a gift from Lord Zhou. Over the years, Mr. Zhou has treated me well, but I have always shared the worries of his old man, so he can easily be the shopkeeper for a few years, and the Zhou family has benefited a lot. I don't owe anything to the Zhou family.

"If it seems too diligent, I can even endure the words of his family scolding Huai, as if I have no temper at all, and no matter what his family does in the future, I can tolerate it. If I seem too indifferent, it is easy for people to say that I am cold, but I give the Zhou family a chance to pretend to be pitiful and bite me back. Therefore, it is just right to pass by the dawn tomorrow morning, when there are still few people who come to the door to mourn, and it seems that we are respectful enough, and we will not be tired of your mothers. ”

Wen has always obeyed Xie Pu's wishes, and agreed when he heard this, but also reminded him: "You have only slept for a while, just go over and help, don't work too hard." The descendants of the Zhou family are flourishing, and there is no shortage of you. If you have something to do, send someone home to get it, and if you see that you have time, it is good to go back to your house and rest for a while. When you go out, by the way, you instruct the people in the front yard to burn the kang in the flower hall, and take a nap on it with a kimono, which is better than holding on all night. ”

Xie Pu responded, pressed his wife back into the quilt, tucked the corners of the quilt for her, and then took the pure black thick cloak handed over by the girl, and strode out of the room.

Although Wen didn't sleep peacefully, he fell asleep, and when he got up, the sky was already gray and bright. She was worried about her husband, hurriedly got up to freshen up, asked Ma Lu Yao's house, and learned that Xie Pu went to Zhou's house for most of the hour, and then returned to his own flower hall, lay down on the big kang and took a nap for a while, and then went out to Zhou's house when it was almost dark, and had breakfast before he was relieved.

Ma Lu Yao's family also reported to her: "Mrs. Wan, Mrs. Liu and several other wives of our political envoys and above have sent people to deliver letters, asking when Mrs. will go to Zhou's house, saying that they will go with Mrs. at that time." The wives don't often deal with the old ladies, wives, and grandmothers of the Zhou family, and they don't know the rules of everyone very well, so they are a little stunned in their hearts, saying that they will be more confident to follow their wives. ”

Wen smiled. Others are upside down, where is Mrs. Wan who doesn't understand the rules of everyone? It is clear that the Zhou family acted too much in the past, and the shelves were too high, and they only interacted with the most powerful officials, clan royal relatives or prestigious families in Beiping, and the female dependents were not popular in the circle of middle and lower-level officials, even if someone was willing to climb up to curry favor, they would not get any benefits, so everyone did not like to associate with the Zhou family. Now that Mr. Zhou is dead, Xie Pu's promotion to the political envoy is a sure thing, and the family members of the officials under the political envoy Si Yamen are naturally more willing to tie up the Wen family than to stick to the cold face of the Zhou family's daughters. Mrs. Wan also joined others to have fun, but she also had the idea of friendship.

Wen did not refuse, and also instructed Ma Lu Yao's family to make an appointment with several other officials, and then asked which families had gone to condolence so far, and learned that in addition to Xie Pu and Senator Wan who went earlier, it was Mrs. Xu's son-in-law who brought his entourage to help, but his family representative did not appear. As for the members of the Xu family, Mrs. Zhou and several representatives of Mrs. Zhou's maiden family, they all showed up when the day was about to dawn, after the head of the Yanwang Mansion brought people to mourn. I heard that King Yan will bring someone to come to condolence in person later, but there are really not many relatives, friends and colleagues of the Zhou family who come to the door at the moment. After dawn, the family members of the Xie family brought the families of other officials of the political envoy and the Yamen to the door, which was already very face-saving, and no one could find fault with the number of courtesies.

Seeing that her husband was not bad, Wen was more convinced, so she ordered someone to send a message to the children in the family, and let them wear plain clothes and come to the main courtyard to have breakfast together. Except for Xie Jinzhi and Xie Hui, who went to Changping with the Song family in the second room and Xie Meijun's mother and son, the other two sons, four daughters and six children all had to go to the Zhou family to incense and be annoyed. Speaking of which, this is also the first time that the children of the Xie family have officially appeared in public since they came to Beiping, and the Wen family does not want anything to go wrong for the sake of their own reputation, so they still need to tell everyone before going out.

But she's too worried. The children of the Xie family have lived in Huyin's hometown for a few years, and they live in a big family on weekdays, and they always have to send away a few old people every year, and then eat a few wedding wines and birthday banquets. Even everyone's plain clothes are made in four sets every year, corresponding to different seasons. The word of Wen had just been passed down, but within two quarters of an hour, all the children had been dressed and gathered together in the main courtyard.

Wen carefully checked everyone's clothes to make sure that there was nothing wrong, and by the way, he asked Xie Yingrong to replace the embroidered handkerchief he was holding in his hand with a pure white plain handkerchief, and changed Xie Hanzhi into a thick cloak that was more able to keep out the cold, and added a hat, before ordering someone to have breakfast and everyone eat together. This breakfast is also specially prepared, it is all noodles with no peculiar smell and fullness, and the water content is not high, so as not to let everyone stay in Zhou's house for a long time and have any inconvenience.

After breakfast, everyone cleaned their hands together, and each of them wore a cloak of cloak and hat of a hat, and each of them was given a small white copper hand stove that could be hidden in his sleeve. Wen checked back and forth to make sure that it was correct, so he beckoned: "Let's go." There are other people waiting for us! The six brothers and sisters of the Xie family followed behind her and walked towards the gate in a majestic manner.

Xie Yingrong was sandwiched between the sisters, and her eyes showed a little excitement and expectation.

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