A small courtyard with a single door in the city of Fengyang Mansion.

"Madame, has Miss slept?" Aunt Xing brought the meatball soup and asked softly.

Dian Cui, who was haggard, had tears on her face at this time, and hugged Sister Ci'er, who was sleeping very unsteadily in her arms.

She was crying with joy, and her sister was back.

"Let's take the meatball soup, and then make some halva cakes that Sister Ci'er loves to eat." Diancui whispered.

Aunt Xing took the soup bowl down, and left the two Cui Niang in the house.

"Mother, I want to eat halva." Sister Ci'er closed her eyes and snorted twice.

Diancui kissed her eyebrows, and said Let's sleep first, and the halva will be ready when you wake up.

At this time, the door creaked open again, and Dongxue came in, took out something from his sleeve and handed it to Dian Cui, and said softly that one of the children was wearing it when he bathed the children at this time.

Diancui took it and couldn't help but be stunned.

This is a dragon-shaped jade.

Diancui is the beginning of the jewelry shop, in the past, peonies and phoenix folk could not be used, but now it can be done, because the husband's family has an official body The official lady can also wear it. But only this dragon-shaped thing, not from the Huang family, can not be worn by anyone around.

At this time, Yuan Zhiheng also took a shower and changed into a hurry of clothes, came in, took Sister Ci in Diancui's arms, and carefully held it in his arms.

Sister Ci'er smelled her father's smell in her sleep, and her frowns, which had been frowning uneasily, slowly opened up. Yuan Zhiheng saw it in his eyes, and he became more distressed and afraid.

"Xianggong, look." Dian Cui put the dragon-shaped jade jue in his hand into Yuan Zhiheng's palm.

Yuan Zhiheng was also surprised, this jade jue is a majestic black domain, the shape is simple and simple, but it exudes a sense of mystery that makes people awe-inspired. The person with such a jade Jue must be a prince or a prince, but there are only two princes today, and the eldest prince has been demoted from the crown prince to King Gong, and I heard that the second prince will soon be crowned king.

When the saint was young, he fought in the north and south, and only after forty years did he have two princes one after another, although these two were not very old, they had already accepted the princess. I heard that Princess Gong gave birth to a daughter, who is only three years old this year, and is about the same age as Sister Ci. The second princess gave birth to a son, but it was only a few months old.

So who is this child with Yujue?

"Don't make a noise in advance," Yuan Zhiheng patted Diancui's hand comfortingly, and said: "These children were brought back by Sister Ci and me, but it is always too eye-catching to bring so many children all the way to Beijing." We have to think of a way to place them first. ”

Diancui touched the broken hair on Sister Ci's forehead, and said with a smile: "How to place these children, I think we have to wait for her to wake up and ask her." ”

Don't look at Sister Ci'er is just a child less than four years old, but she has a big idea. Coupled with the things she did along the way, Diancui felt that her daughter was different.

"Eat them all, it's sweet, it's delicious." Sister Ci'er wore a flower-sprinkled gown with silver trim, and sat on a small stone table in the courtyard to greet her friends.

Diancui looked at her so big, and among the children who were all a head taller than her, she spoke and acted with the arrogant look of her father a few years ago.

These children are not polite, grabbing those sweet and soft dim sum and eating them. Between them, there was only one child who ate the rules of the sven manners, and no other child was surprised and gluttonous in the face of these snacks.

Dian Cui and Yuan Zhiheng glanced at each other, although this child was thin, but in detail, he actually had sword eyebrows and starry eyes, his ears were hanging down his shoulders, and there was a faint sense of grandeur and nobility on his body.

But obviously this kid is very wary of adults like Yuan Zhiheng, in fact, he is very wary of everyone, and Dian Cui found that he seems to only be willing to talk to Sister Ci.

Sister Ci pointed to the jade jue in his arms and asked what it was?

He said that his mother said that it was given by his father.

Sister Ci asked who your father is? He shook his head. Sister Ci asked again what about your mother? His eyes were red.

It turned out that there was no mother, just like all the children here, there was no mother. Sister Ci felt that they were all pitiful, and hugged her waist at night and said that her mother would not leave me.

Yuan Zhiheng Diancui and his wife discussed softly with Sister Ci that they could not bring these children into the capital together, and even if they did, they could only bring one or two pretending to be little girls or scholars.

Sister Ci'er has been a lot more sensible after what happened, and she didn't cry this time. went to the children, chattered, and finally went back to talk to the father about the conditions.

Roughly speaking, you have to bring three, two boys pretending to be retinues, and one girl pretending to be maids. The rest asked my father to arrange a place to go, and when I entered Beijing, I would try to pick everyone back.

Yuan Zhiheng and Diancui laughed, how old a child is, he will plan to dish, is he too smart.

Diancui pointed to the older one and asked, what's your name?

The child touched his head and said, "My father called me an iron pillar."

"Iron Pillar ......" Diancui looked at his height and asked, "Is there a big name?" ”

Tie Zhu shook his head, and Dian Cui asked him what his father's surname was, and Tie Zhudao's surname was Ye.

"That's called Ye Hong."

Leaf red? Tie Zhu was stunned, Sister Ci'er clapped her hands and said red, and then giggled. 202 eBooks

"It is the Hong of the abyss, and the sea is deep and wide." Diancui patted the back of Sister Ci'er's head.

Although Tie Zhu couldn't understand the poems in the lady's mouth, he felt that this Hong was very powerful, so he immediately responded.

"What about you?" Dian Cui didn't expect her daughter to choose the child with Yujue, even if she didn't choose, this child couldn't easily stay here. No matter what his identity is, since he saved him, it is safer to take it with him.

"His name is Brother Ye." The child was silent, and Sister Ci'er said for him.

Diancui smiled, this child really ignored no one except Sister Ci'er. I asked the girl again, and she shook her head and said she didn't know.

No name.

Diancui looked at her, although she was small, her red eyebrows were a little heroic, very beautiful, she thought about it, and said, "It's called sunset, okay?" ”

The little girl happily responded, but she was still a little afraid of life, and always hid behind Sister Ci'er. Sister Ci talked to her, but her face was full of seriousness and trust.

Dian Cui originally wanted to find a loyal and reliable personal maid for Sister Ci'er, although this looks beautiful, but her eyes are very pure. Among several girls, Sister Ci chose this alone, thinking that she was a good child.

Since he agreed to his daughter, Dian Cui seriously settled a few children. She rented a yard in a village on the outskirts of the city, and spent 20 taels of silver to ask the village patriarch to find two honest and diligent mothers-in-law for her, who were responsible for cooking and washing several children. He went to the private school in the village and arranged for them to study and learn to read and write.

After all, it is a good partner who has been with each other for several days day and night to catch rabbits and fight bad guys, and the child's heart is simple and affectionate, and she wiped her tears and said goodbye to Sister Ci, who promised her father that they would be taken to the capital within three years.

Yuan Zhiheng and his entourage, although they added three small ones, they were not eye-catching, and the journey was quite smooth.

In the meantime, they encountered several groups of suspicious and unidentified people, as if they were looking for someone, although they tried their best to cover it up. But Yuan Zhiheng saw that they were especially careful when they looked at the children passing by.

Yuan Zhiheng whispered a few words in Diancui's ear, and Diancui understood, called Xizhao and Brother Ye into the carriage, and instructed Dongxue two sentences.

When the two came out again, they saw that Xizhao was wearing Brother Ye'er's clothes, and her hair was erected to dress up as a boy, and her eyebrows were already heroic, so she couldn't even tell that it was a girl.

As for Brother Ye, he was originally fair-skinned, with red lips and white teeth, Dongxue gave him a bun and put on a goose-yellow skirt. It's a quiet little girl.

Ye Hong and Xue Qiu glanced at each other and laughed. Qiu Yue coughed twice, and Xue Qiu quickly restrained her smile.

Sister Ci'er stepped forward and pulled Brother Ye'er's bun, thinking it was very good-looking, and pulled off a string of pearls and silver bells from her head to plug it into him, and nodded with satisfaction.

When he was in the carriage, Dongxue also wanted to put a plain silk flower for Brother Ye, but he turned his head and resolutely refused. This time he endured it for some reason, but in order not to teach the bell above his head to ring, he stood and sat more carefully, and Dongxue couldn't help but laugh.

Approaching the capital, this checkpoint is getting more and more, in addition to the official errand checking the passers-by one by one, there are many people in strong clothes who look at the faces of the children next to the adults from time to time.

"My lord, they are all the people of the second prince." Qingyun rode close to Yuan Zhiheng and reminded softly.

Yuan Zhiheng frowned, it seems that Brother Ye'er's child must be a member of the royal family. The second prince was able to shoot so many people secretly searching for it along the way, and he didn't know what mysteries there were in this child.

"My lord is so bold, take in one Qingyun, and now take in another person from the royal family, aren't you afraid of ......," Qingyun teased.

"I'm not afraid of itching when there are more lice, and it's not my temperament to be timid." Yuan Zhiheng raised his eyebrows, rode a tall horse, and walked forward.

Qingyun arched his hand at him, didn't say much, and followed closely.

"Stop, routine checks." The carriage was stopped at the city gate.

Yuan Zhiheng took out the official disc and said that I am the prefect of Hangzhou, and I was ordered to enter the city, followed by my guards and families, and I also wanted to guard the city and let me go.

Shoucheng took the official plate, and after taking a closer look, the prefect of the four products is nothing. This is the capital, and there are high-ranking and powerful Beijing officials everywhere, but when they come to his local faction, they all have to be inspected.

A bow of the hand said that this adult is polite, this is the gate of Kyoto, no more remote than other places, I was ordered to check, but also hope that the family behind the carriage, after I have checked, the adult can enter the city without worry.

In his eyes, Hangzhou Mansion has become that remote place. Yuan Zhiheng frowned, his face was unwavering, and he said, please.

The carriage stopped, and Diancui took Sister Ci'er out of the carriage, along with Qiuyue, Dongxue and Brother Ye, who pretended to be a maid.

Shoucheng looked at it carefully, and asked Xiang Diancui if there were any boys?

Diancui smiled and said that there were a total of four carriages, one for himself, his daughter and the maid beside him, and the first one was a young master and his scholar and Chang Sui, all three of them were boys, and the last two were all soft luggage.

"Get out of the car!" As soon as the guards heard that there were three boys, they immediately walked past the carriage behind and shouted.

The first to jump out of the carriage was Xizhao, followed by Xue Qiu, Ye Hong, who was sitting on the wheel, held a dog's tail grass in his mouth, raised his chin and glanced at the guarding city, and never got out of the carriage.

"Bold! Didn't you hear you when you got out of the car? This little guy is so arrogant, and the defenders of the city are dissatisfied and angry.

Ye Hong touched his nose, jumped out of the carriage slowly, and the guards and his subordinates stared at him for a long time, flicked his sleeves, and impatiently let him go.

"Wait!" An old man with a pale face and no eyes suddenly said: "There are a lot of adults in this group, and there are only five or six children. ”

The defense of the city had already been released, but this person dared to stop it in public, and he couldn't help but make people look sideways. But he didn't expect that the defender of the city would really obey, which made people can't help but speculate about the identity of that person.