The horse-drawn carriage drove into Yunxian County, and there were many shops on both sides of the street, and there were many hawkers on the streets, and there was an endless stream of merchants and buyers on the road...... All kinds of things outside the window show the prosperity of this small county.

Yunxian can have today, all of which depend on the fourth child of the Xiao family to set up his own door in Yunxian County and gradually prosper.

Although Qiushui County is not what it used to be, it is still far from Yun County.

The street was blocked by pedestrians, and Mei Xiaoren had to get out of the carriage and walk.

The squires who came in splendid carriages also had to walk. Someone sent a servant to ask the street vendor: "May I ask how to get to Xiao Mansion?" ”

The peddler pointed impatiently to the east: "Chengdong Chengdong, if you still don't recognize the road, there is a good chance that these shops on the street belong to the Xiao family, and you can ask all the way." ”

Mei Xiaoren walked in the market, paying attention to the shops on both sides, the most conspicuous is the three-story restaurant in the middle of the market, called "Mei Lou".

The people invited there are all famous chefs, selling famous Jiangnan dishes, even if the price is not cheap, but there is never a shortage of customers who come to patronize, and business is booming all year round.

"If you don't pay back the money you owe to the young master, come on, call me!"

In front of the gambling house, the rich young master beckoned the ruffians to press a man to the ground and beat him severely. The man was punched and kicked, rolling on the ground and wailing.

There were many passers-by, but no one stepped forward to dissuade them.

Some outsiders sighed at the indifference of Yun County, but the hawker on the side said: "The big guys are used to it, then Chu Zifeng, the young master of the Chu family, is a well-known bully here, who can afford to provoke him?" ”

"The Chu family? Isn't the big family here the Xiao family? Passers-by were puzzled.

"Xiao Yuanwai's ancestral home is Xuanzhou, and he only moved to Yunxian County more than ten years ago. The Chu family is a local family, it was prosperous twenty years ago, and now it has declined a lot, but the head of the Chu family and Xiao Yuanwai are world friends, and with the support of the Xiao family, the people of the Chu family can still walk sideways here. ”

Mei Xiaoren silently listened to their comments on the two major families in Yun County, glanced at the people outside the gambling house coldly, and shook the folding fan into the Mei Building.

She entered the first-class private room under the guidance of Xiao Er, and the room was already prepared with what she wanted.

Mei Xiaoren took off her waist seal and took off her coat, untied the layers of chest bindings, and at this time, the ups and downs of her original possession gradually appeared in the mirror, and she recovered a little of a woman's appearance.

Stripping off the man's attire, she took her clothes to the inner room to change.

At this time, there were two people wandering outside the restaurant.

"Childe, we've been waiting for nearly an hour, why hasn't the surnamed Mei come out yet? Why don't we go in? ”

Jiang Rong raised his hand and slapped Aqing on the head, "What should I do if I go in and be seen by the villain?" In case he is allowed to bring his men down and take revenge on this son in someone else's territory, this son may not be helpless to get him. ”

"Childe, are you still afraid of him?"

"The ground snake, if you can't catch it, it will bite!" The corners of Jiang Rong's lips raised, "But this son has a way to hit him by seven inches." ”

It has passed noon, and there are still many guests coming in and out in front of the plum building.

Jiang Rong stood hard outside the door of the restaurant, and never saw an elegant figure quietly leave from the back door and board a brocade sedan chair.

In the sedan chair, she raised the rhombic mirror in her hand and carefully looked at her face.

She has changed her hairstyle, Zhu Hai Huadian replaces the silver crown that binds her hair on weekdays, and the straight skirt on her body has also changed into a lilac-colored gauze skirt, with the beauty of a Jiangnan woman.

The veil covered the lower half of her face, and the knife eyebrows had been depicted as willow eyebrows, even if the technique of drawing the eyebrows was rusty and imperfect, but it did not reduce the beauty of her facial features that matched them very well. A pair of apricot eyes under the eyebrows are bright, and the long eyelashes are blinking, all gentle.

I'm afraid that even Ye Zhi will find it difficult to recognize her now.

The sedan chair went to the east, and the boundary east of Yunxian County belonged to the manor of the Xiao family.

When she lifted the sedan curtain, she could see that the walls of the Xiao Mansion mansion stretched for miles. The walls are densely wooded, and the courtyard is deep and there is no lack of magnificent pavilions.

It was the best mansion she had ever seen, even more spacious than the prefect's mansion. But the merchant's home, no matter how big, is not as solemn as the official's house.

The sedan chair man carried her around the wall for a long time before she walked to the gate of the Xiao Mansion.

There were already servants standing in front of the Xiao Mansion, and when the sedan chair stopped in front of the main gate, two first-class maids hurriedly stepped forward, bowed left and right, and called, "Miss." ”

Mei Xiaoren put away the mirror and walked out of the sedan chair, beckoning the two maids so that they didn't have to help. She has been a "man" for two years, and she has long lost her squeamishness, even in women's clothes, she is used to striding forward, and she enters the house through the middle door in three or two steps.

After entering this door, she regained her original identity - Xiao Mei, the eldest lady of the Xiao family.

Mei Xiaoren is the pseudonym of her woman disguised as a man, and her name was reversed, but her father also added the word "Ren" to her in the back. Her father doesn't want her to go down in history, he only wants her to be a good official who is benevolent and loves the people, and doesn't be spurned by the world.

She served as the county magistrate in Qiushui County, and the people in the house only knew that the eldest lady went to Xuanzhou's hometown.

The maid who followed behind said, "Miss is back, and the old man is still talking about Miss." ”

Mei Xiaoren was silent, and walked towards the hall like the wind. Her serious expression made the servants who followed her dare not say more.

Entering the hall, Mei Xiaoren kept looking at the people on the main seat, walked to him and sat down, leaned back on the chair and asked, "Dad, you asked me to come back, is it really the idea of the letter?" ”

The letter she received that morning was actually a letter from home, which was supposed to be something she was happy about, but what was written on it was not happy......

As Zhou Hu said, her father wanted her to choose a man to marry at the birthday banquet, or choose the previous one.

It turned out that she had been hiding for two years, and this matter was not over.

"Xiaomei, my father is also for your good, you have a daughter's family, and being an official is not a long-term solution."

"Do you want to say that if I didn't go against your will back then and didn't make such a fuss, you would be able to hug your grandson now?" A bitter smile appeared beside Mei Xiaoren.

"Back then, in order not to marry Zifeng, you shouted in a fit of anger that you should not be a woman and a man from now on, for fear that your father would stop you, and you insisted on becoming an official." Father Xiao sighed and said, "At that time, you were only sixteen years old, and your father had no choice but to rely on you, now that you are eighteen, Zifeng's child has been waiting for you for two years......"

Mei Xiaoren picked up the teacup, foamed it carelessly, and raised his eyebrows, "He hasn't died yet?" ”

"Our family has been a business for generations, it is a good thing that you can be an official incognito, if you really want to be a leader, your father can not stop you, but you always have to marry, it is better to marry someone who knows the roots and can keep the secret for you."

"If I dared to oppose it at the beginning, I won't agree now." Mei Xiaoren turned his eyes to look at his father and said very seriously, "Dad, don't persuade me." ”

"Little Plum ......"

Mei Xiaoren shook her head helplessly, she had desperately escaped from the lives of ordinary women, and she did not hesitate to take risks to enter the official career, because her father could only control the official!

But in the past two years, her father, an old stubborn man, has earned a lot of money, but his brain is still stubborn, and he still has the idea of letting her marry Chu Zifeng.

Mei Xiaoren got up to leave, walked a few steps and stopped, stood in front of the door with his back to his father and said, "Dad, I came back to see you, not to recruit any relatives." ”

She was afraid that such a straightforward would hurt the old man's heart, so she took a step back and said: "It's not impossible for me to marry, if there is someone who can make me voluntarily give up all my future and be willing to marry and teach children, then I will marry." ”

"I'm afraid that this person will be difficult for you to find with a lantern......"

Mei Xiaoren smiled helplessly, sure enough, her father understood her and knew that she was taking the impossible to ease his old man's heart.

"Uncle Xiao, why is it rumored outside that Uncle Xiao is holding a birthday banquet to recruit relatives for Amei?"

Before anyone arrives, the sound comes first.

Mei Xiaoren heard this voice like a nightmare, and was about to avoid it, but the person who came was already standing in front of the door, so she couldn't avoid it.

"Xiao Mei'er, are you back?"

Mei Xiaoren glanced at the ecstatic Chu Zifeng, his expression was still indifferent, he turned his eyes to look elsewhere, kept silent, and wrote all the displeasure on his face.

"Xiao Mei'er, you don't really want to recruit relatives, do you?"

She sneered: "What's the matter with you?" ”

"You're my daughter-in-law, why isn't it my business?"

"Why don't I remember what I have to do with you!"

Mei Xiaoren's voice was as cold as frost, but Chu Zifeng didn't know the difficulty and retreated.

"Young Master." A subordinate hurriedly ran over, "The patriarch asked the young master to go back." ”

"Is he annoyed, didn't he see my little sister Mei come back?"

The subordinate hurriedly said: "Young master, someone has set up a grave on our family's territory, and the patriarch and all the uncles have gone, so ask the young master to go too." ”

"What?"

Chu Zifeng frowned inexplicably, and when he saw Xiao Mei looking at her, he immediately straightened his waist, clenched his fists and coughed a few times, and said: "Who dares to spread wild on Young Master Ben's territory, see that Young Master Ben doesn't pick his skin!" ”

Chu Zifeng deliberately raised his voice, he was pretending to be angry to show someone, Mei Xiaoren knew it in his heart. Since she saw Chu Zifeng, her cold face has never been hot, and she has turned a blind eye to Chu Zifeng's majestic appearance.

"Xiao Mei'er, there is something in the clan, I have to go back first, and then I will come to see you after I finish cleaning up those who are looking for death."

Mei Xiaoren was indifferent. Chu Zifeng can also be majestic, the Chu family has been down for many years, the clansmen have withered, and the young master of the patriarch's family exists in name only, and he can only do some bullying on weekdays, who can clean it up?

"Xiao Mei'er, you must wait for me, don't rush back to your hometown."

"Alright, let's go!"

"Okay, I'll go back as soon as I go."

Chu Zifeng walked away. Mei Xiaoren leaned against the door, picked up his hand and said lightly: "Dad, do you want me to marry such a person?" ”

"Zifeng, he is a little cynical, but the Chu family is a prominent family here, not to mention that when my father left Xuanzhou and came here, I had nothing, if it wasn't for the kindness of the Chu family patriarch to take you in, how could my father support you?"

"I know that the Chu family is kind to your old man, but Dad, you have not repaid them all these years, if you hadn't been helping, the Chu family would have collapsed a long time ago."

"Xiaomei, my father taught you that the grace of a drop of water should be reciprocated by a spring."

"That's also a degree, you are not just a spring to reciprocate, you can't wait for heaven and earth to be given to others." Mei Xiaoren walked back to the hall and sat down, and said coldly with a stiff face, "It's your business if you want to repay the favor, even if you empty our house and give it to others, I have no opinion, but I choose my own path." ”

"Xiaomei, if you really don't want to marry Zifeng, then follow what your father said, take a good look at the birthday banquet, you have no opinion on anyone's father."

Mei Xiaoren saw hope and worry in his father's eyes. She thought that her father should have had enough of the loneliness of his wife's separation, so she was afraid that she would be lonely for the rest of her life.

Speaking of which, their father and daughter can have today, it is all thanks to the "relatives" of Xuanzhou Mansion.