The Wei family's grange in western Beijing has thousands of acres of land, and this is not the largest.

The largest Zhuangzi is Xiaxian County, which is 500 miles away from the capital, with 3,000 acres.

These fields were all rewarded by the imperial court at the beginning of the knighthood, which was regarded as a sealed field, and it was also the main property of the Zhiyong Mansion.

In addition to growing grain, the grange also grows mulberry and silkworms, grows vegetables, raises poultry and livestock, and even raises fish and shrimp in the canals, which supply the government with the surplus and sell the remainder.

Therefore, the steward of the grange must be a man who can be trusted by the master.

Now the housekeeper in this Zhuangzi is a distant relative of the Bao family, and after the Bao family became a duchess, many poor relatives took refuge in her.

During lunch, I occasionally heard the sound of a dog barking not far away.

Bao asked: "Are all the dogs on Zhuangzi bolted?" Don't scare the young masters. ”

The housekeeper on the Zhuangzi hurriedly said, "Madame, don't worry, it's already tied firmly." ”

The granges of the Great Zhou Dynasty all raised dogs, with a dozen or fewer dogs and dozens more.

The Wei family's grange is full of big wolf dogs, with fierce temperament and huge physique, and ordinary people dare not approach it.

"Don't run around your children's house," Mrs. Zhu said worriedly: "Don't say it's a dog, it's not good to be bitten by some poisonous insect." ”

Wei Changan and others hurriedly agreed.

After the meal was over, everyone went to the arranged accommodation to rest, all of them were one person in one room.

Wei Yining was worried about Mother Lin in her heart, so she said to Chunjiao and Xiao She'er: "You two make the bed first, and then sprinkle some realgar powder on the corner and under the bed to prevent snakes and insects from coming in." I'll go out and come back after a little dissipation, and you don't have to go out to me. ”

She went out of the house alone, ready to go out to find Mother Lin.

Wei Yiwan was asking the maid who followed her to smoke the house with incense at this time, and she thought that the bed curtain hung on the grange was not good, so she asked the maid to take it off and replace it with the cicada wing yarn brought from home.

She looked out of the window by herself, and happened to see Wei Yining walking over.

Wei Yiwan's heart moved, thinking that Wei Yining went out alone most likely to do unsightly things.

She thought that Wei Yining was probably looking for Shao Yang, so she ordered her maid Chunyu to tell her to follow Wei Yining quietly behind.

Wei Yining took a detour to the place where the people lived, and was about to find someone to ask where Lin's mother lived, when he saw an old woman walking over with a burden, and two buckets were carried at both ends of the flat burden, which contained live fish and shrimp.

The bucket was heavy, and the emaciated old man was so tired that he bent over and staggered.

Wei Yining stepped forward slowly, the old man was raising his sleeve and laboriously wiping the sweat on his forehead, it was Mother Lin.

"Fifth Miss!" Mother Lin saw that it was Wei Yining, and couldn't help but be happy and surprised: "Why did you come to this backyard, this is not the place you should be, it's dirty and messy." ”

"Mother Lin, I'm here to find you," Wei Yining said distressedly, "How do you do such heavy work?" ”

"I'm used to it, Fifth Miss, there is no unbearable sin in life," Mother Lin didn't complain at all, and said, "I heard that the old lady you came here to escape the summer, how are you doing in the house these days?" ”

"I'm fine, Mother Lin, you don't have to worry about it." Wei Yining said: "There are many people in this place, and I want to find a quiet place to talk to you." ”

A few days ago, the people of the Wei family gave Wei Yining a lot of thank-you gifts, and some of them were given to other people in the Zhiyong Mansion, and she still had a lot left.

She has always been thinking about Mother Lin's family, but unfortunately she can't meet easily.

A few days ago, she asked Chunjiao to take a jade hairpin outside, exchange it for a few hundred taels of silver, and fold it into a silver ticket, which is easy to carry.

For things like this, the maids know the way, and it doesn't take much effort.

This time, she specially brought some money to Lin's mother, but there are people walking around here from time to time, and it is inconvenient to take it out.

When Mother Lin heard this, she said: "We are not idle during the day, and we can't finish the work assigned to us, and we can't eat and walk around." Unless you have some time to spare after dinner. ”

"I don't know anything about Zhuangzi, is there a more secluded place here? We'll meet there in the evening. Wei Yining said.

"There's an abandoned firewood house in the northwest corner, it's easy for no one to go there, I'll be waiting for you there at night!" Mother Lin said: "Be careful when the fifth girl comes. ”

When the two of them were talking, a middle-aged man with a shy stomach and a turban shouted to Mother Lin angrily in the distance: "You old thing! It's waiting in the kitchen! If you can't do this errand, you can just go and water the ground! ”

Mother Lin heard this and hurriedly said to Wei Yining: "Fifth Miss, I have to leave quickly." ”

Watering the land in the summer is the worst task, because it is not suitable for watering the crops due to the sun during the day, and it is often necessary to irrigate it at night.

The light is not good at night, and there are many mosquitoes, and if you water the ground overnight, you will have to be bitten hundreds of bags.

If you are unlucky, you may die if you are bitten by poisonous insects such as scorpions and snakes.

After all, these things like to come out at night to feed.

Wei Yining turned around and walked back, and saw a figure in green clothes in front of him from a distance, and it should be the spring rain next to Wei Yiwan.

No wonder she felt that someone was following her just now, Wei Yiwan somehow liked to go against herself, maybe she was the person with the most sensitive sense of smell in the Wei family!

However, Wei Yining didn't take this matter to heart, Wei Yiwan's means are limited, and he generally only needs to see the move.

When they returned to their residence, Chunjiao and Xiao She'er had already cleaned up the house, made a mat on the bed, and burned a stove of herb incense, which was light and light.

Wei Yining lay on the pillow and fell asleep quickly, she had a calm temperament and was never in a hurry.

But there are only two things that are particularly fast, one is eating and the other is sleeping.

These are all habits developed in exile.

When I was in Lao Linghe, I had to do a lot of things every day, so I had to hurry up when I ate and slept.

Especially when hunting, sometimes in order to catch a prey, you have to squat in the wild for several days, nibble a few mouthfuls of dry food, eat a few mouthfuls of snow, and you can deal with it all day.

After Chunyu went back, he told Wei Yiwan about tracking Wei Yining.

Wei Yiwan had no impression of Mother Lin for a long time, and the spring rain was far away, so she didn't hear what they said.

Wei Yiwan said: "You find the housekeeper in the afternoon, let him quietly take a few people to tie up the old woman, and then bring me for questioning, I want to see what tricks this fifth girl is going to play." ”

Chunyu agreed, knowing that this was not a difficult thing to do, the housekeeper on the Zhuangzi was a distant relative of Mrs., and she usually couldn't stammer.

Asking him to do something is naturally like commanding a dog.