Once Emperor Xu had doubts in her heart, and saw that King Gong valued Yuan Zhiheng so much, she was no longer so patient with Yuan Zhiheng. He politely sent several beauties to him, but he didn't know how to raise her face, and Emperor Xu directly issued an edict and gave two thoughtful women to Yuan's mansion.

For the people rewarded in the palace, Yuan Zhiheng and his wife couldn't resist the decree on the bright side, so they had to arrange them to go to the courtyard in the west.

These two women are also rules, knowing that Yuan Zhiheng is a cold and hard stone, and Su Rili will not go to him to provoke him unpleasantly. On the contrary, he often went to Diancui to show goodwill, and he was more punctual and attentive than Sister Ci in the morning and dusk of the day.

But Diancui is not stupid, knowing that these two people are Emperor Xu Guifei as eyeliner, blatantly buried in the Yuan Mansion staring at her and Xianggong.

But Diancui is really lazy, and he has to maintain a high degree of vigilance in his own home, so he has to fight his spirits. These two people seem to be very energetic, and they pay close attention to what everyone in this house says and does.

This made Diancui feel very uncomfortable, after all, she was still very close to the wife of the Ministry of Works, and she wanted to do the silk business, in case these two people heard something that they shouldn't hear, and robbed themselves of their own business opportunities, wouldn't it make people beat their chests.

Yuan Zhiheng listened to her sigh at night, it turned out that he was afraid that he would not be able to earn money, so he couldn't help crying and laughing...... He also had to find a way out, but he was afraid that Diancui would be worried, so he deliberately didn't let her know. Unexpectedly, she still had the mind to worry about opening a shop to make money.

One day, King Gong came to Yuan's mansion, and Dian Cui took advantage of the effort to send them tea in the study, and gently prompted a few words, and King Gong's mind was a little clear. On the second day, the queen gave two beautiful women who were like flowers and jade, smart and clever, to Yuan's mansion.

From the outside, Yuan Zhiheng suddenly had four more concubines who were embarrassed to spend their months in the moon, which was really enviable. But who knows, now the Yuan Mansion is in trouble.

The four concubines are like spinning tops that have been whipped, and they refuse to stop for a moment, they are simply magical. The two people sent by Emperor Xu Guifei hollowed out their minds to listen to the news in front of Dian Cui, and were busy currying favor with the maids in the house; The two people sent by the queen went to the courtyard of the two people in front of the music as soon as they opened their eyes in the morning, and they couldn't get rid of what they were doing.

In order to avoid the greetings of those diligent concubines, and to come to complain to each other from time to time, Diancui had to get up with Yuan Zhiheng early, and Yuan Zhiheng sneaked out of the house with him to find a breakfast shop to have some breakfast.

Then Yuan Zhiheng sent her to the teahouse to listen to the play, and he himself went to the palace to be on duty.

"Mrs. Wang, you're here." Dian Cui was eating milk fruits in the teahouse, and when she was drowsy, Mrs. Wang of the Ministry of Industry and Shangshu came with her maid. Today, in addition to making an appointment with Mrs. Wang, she also had the sister-in-law of the Li family and the sister-in-law of the Tang family to eat tea and listen to music together.

"I have great news for you this morning!" Mrs. Wang said happily and sat down opposite Diancui.

When Diancui heard that it was a good thing, this spirit couldn't help but be shocked.

"Didn't Madame mention to me that day that she wanted to open a silk Zhuangzi," Mrs. Wang leaned close to her ear and whispered: "Last night, I talked to the adults in the family, and he said that this matter is a coincidence, the silk business in the capital has been deteriorating in the past two years, and it is not as good as Jiangnan and other places, several shops have closed down and should go to the south to do business, and the taxes collected are becoming less and less, which has caused several yamen to have a hard time, in addition, there are still several female relatives of the prince's family who complain that they can't buy good silk in the capital." ”

The silk business in the south is bigger than in the north, and every year the imperial court collects heavy taxes from the silk shop, and the tax on the capital side is less, and it is difficult for Jingzhao Yin Yamen to do.

"My family went to the court a few days ago, and asked for a decree to reduce the tax by half for the new silk shops!" Mrs. Wang whispered: "But there are only a few places to open this shop, all of which are close to the suburbs, and the adults said to find a prosperous and prosperous place, keep it for Mrs., and let Mrs. pay the money as soon as possible, and this will be decided." ”

As she spoke, she pulled out a title deed from her sleeve. Diancui took it and saw that it was indeed a treasure land, saying that it was close to the outskirts of the city, but in fact it was on the official road to and from the capital, and it was also close to the river of Caoyun. The silk business she did originally needed to communicate with Hangzhou by water, which was more desirable now.

Diancui immediately couldn't help but thank her again and again, and Mrs. Wang didn't shirk it, and said with a smile: "Just for this place, the princess of Prince Yu's family came to me twice, if it weren't for you and I being more in love, I almost agreed to her to go!" ”

Dian Cui pursed her lips when she heard this, pulled her sleeve and shook it, her eyes smiled like a crescent moon, and said You are my own sister, and you will be the first to send it with my sister when I enter the latest silk from Hangzhou.

"I'm just waiting for you." Madame Wang chuckled and said, she knew that Diancui's famous silk Zhuangzi in Hangzhou Mansion and the amount of tax and silver collected by the imperial court from her Zhuangzi every year was staggering. But she also really likes Diancui's temperament, and it is also comfortable to talk coquettishly.

"The fourth sister sneaked out of the house early today and hid." While talking, the two sisters-in-law of the Li family and the Tang family also arrived.

Diancui stuffed the title deed into her sleeve and got up to greet her with a smile, and Mrs. Wang also greeted with a smile, not that Mrs. Yuan came out early, but that the two ladies came out late.

"It's not too late to wake up in the morning, but I came out after breakfast. Unlike the fourth sister, she quietly ran out of the house with the fourth brother early in the morning to have breakfast, and the two members of the Yuan Mansion were like thieves. Tang's second sister-in-law said again.

"You don't know, I talked to the adults in my family about this, but I laughed him badly, saying that the huge capital, and the fourth sister can do such a thing." The sister-in-law of the Li family is gentle and calm, but she can't help but smile.

"Two sisters-in-law, don't laugh at me." There is indeed no wife in this huge capital who hides outside the house in order to hide from the concubine room, and her face is gone.

"You, you!" Mrs. Wang laughed so hard that her stomach hurt, no wonder she asked herself out early to eat tea and listen to music these days, it turns out that there is such a thing.

"Don't worry, we won't spread the word about this matter." Tang's second sister-in-law said, giggling and laughing wildly for a while, and then stopped.

"We can't have children, after all, those four concubines are not ordinary, they are all given by the two most noble mothers, as long as they are not excessive, they will make trouble." Diancui yawned delicately, but he got up too early and was a little sleepy. A thousand books

A few people sat down, ordered a pot of tea, a few plates of snacks, and Sister-in-law Li asked for a japonica porridge for Diancui.

Diancui ate porridge in small bites, and asked the shopkeeper for a cup of osmanthus honey, and poured it evenly, and then ate it satisfied.

"Childish!" Tang's second sister-in-law joked about her, and everyone laughed.

After she finished eating, sister-in-law Li whispered: "Have you heard that the young lady of the Xu family, who is a side branch, hanged herself." ”

Everyone was shocked, and Diancui dropped his jaw even more in shock, Xu Yingzhen hanged himself?

Li Sang served in the Ministry of Officials, and the master of the Xu family was the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, which could be said to be the head of the six departments, and Li Sang naturally heard about his family's affairs.

"Gone?" Second sister-in-law Tang asked in surprise.

"But there is more, I heard that I was half hanged, and I was found by my family and saved." The sister-in-law of the Li family said again.

Diancui exhaled, what did Xianggong and Xu Yingzhen say that day, so that she packed up her baggage and left the Yuan Mansion immediately, she still doesn't know. But according to her understanding of Xianggong, it shouldn't be a gentle and kind word, but she didn't expect her to hang herself so much.

"Fourth sister, you don't have to think about it, this matter has nothing to do with you," Tang's second sister-in-law whispered: "I heard that she returned home from your mansion that day, and she was immediately recruited into the palace by Emperor Xu's concubine, and when she came out of Wan'an Palace, her face was like ashes, and many palace people saw it......"

"I see...... Mrs. Wang glanced at her, this Xu Yingzhen is just the daughter of a side branch of the Xu family, she was pampered and arrogant before, and she was just a chess piece in the hands of the imperial concubine.

"Now that I think about it, when she was in my house, she didn't do anything ......" Dian Cui sighed.

"Fourth sister, don't be soft-hearted, she didn't do anything, that's because she didn't dare, it's not that she didn't want to, if it weren't for the fourth brother, he couldn't rub the sand in his eyes, with your soft temperament, these women couldn't turn the world up when they entered your house! Their pickling methods are something you don't even want to think about. Tang's second sister-in-law hurriedly persuaded.

Diancui nodded slightly, she is not sympathetic, she is emotional, this life is like the story in the book, it is inevitable to make people emotional. She has never had much sympathy, where does the sympathy come from, but her lazy cat-like eyes seem innocent, which can easily arouse others to fight for her, especially a warm-hearted person like Tang's second sister-in-law.

As he spoke, the stage downstairs was set up, and the tea table downstairs was also seated one after another.

"It's so lively downstairs!" Diancui and they were in the private room, and they couldn't help but look downstairs.

"Why don't we go downstairs and find a table to sit down?" Second sister-in-law Tang suggested with burning eyes.

The four of them looked at each other and smiled, although they were all wives, they were only in their twenties, and it was inevitable that they would have some playful thoughts when they got together.

Most of the people downstairs are flat-headed, there are men and women, sitting at separate tables, talking and chatting, eating tea and eating melon seeds, and occasionally there are outside vendors who come in to sell walnuts, pine nuts, candied fruits, bamboo shoots, beans and the like, which is indeed very lively.

The four of them sat down at a table and asked for a few large bowls of boiling tea, and Dian Cui took out two coins of silver and bought a pack of pine nuts, two packets of dried plums, and a pack of pickled bamboo shoots from the peddler.

But I heard a person in short clothes next to him eating tea and gossiping:

"Recently, this world is not very peaceful, there are barbarians in the north who invade the border, and I am afraid that no one will be able to resist General Yue's death. Did you hear that something big was going on in the south, too? One of them said mysteriously.

"General Yue's incident is full of storms in the city, who doesn't know? But I have never heard of what happened to the south. ”

"There's a disaster in the south!" I was afraid that others would not believe me, so I hurriedly said: "One of my mother-in-law's cousins is from the south, and there was a flood in his hometown, the river embankment was washed away, and the fields and houses were flooded, and now there is nowhere to write to say that he wants to come and defect!" ”

"I've never heard of this, but have there been drowned people?" When the people at the table saw what he said, they were skeptical.

"I didn't say anything about this letter, but it wasn't much better, we don't know, and I don't know about it, so someone must be deliberately hiding it. At the beginning, the imperial court allocated a lot of silver taels to repair those river embankments, but it was washed away in less than ten years, can you dare to say this? ”

"Repairing the dam and building the embankment, that's an errand of the Ministry of Engineering, is it ......?"

"Be quiet, you can't talk nonsense about this, if something like this happens, it's a big crime to cut off your head!"

A few people were talking in a whisper there, but the four people here suddenly turned heavy, especially Mrs. Wang, who was even more uneasy, and this matter sounded like a nose and an eye. The adults in her family should not know yet, but the matter is so big that she can no longer sit still. said goodbye to Diancui and the others, and hurriedly went back to send someone to inquire.