On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival, eat glutinous rice balls and enjoy the lanterns.

The Xu family as a county order, united with several wealthy families in the county to jointly hold a Lantern Festival feast, Xu County order hung a name, the real money is naturally those rich families, the banquet has sharp-eyed people found that the Xu family ladies and ladies, all dressed plainly, sent people to inquire, to hear the theft of the Xu Mansion, these old fritters in Huachang County will not really believe what Xu He said to the outside world, over the years of dealing let them understand, can make Xu He care about the official reputation, the second is money, Now the Xu family is dressed up so poor at this kind of grand event, isn't it that the Xu Mansion has no money, and immediately there is a clever arrangement like this, and when the Xu Mansion people come back from a round walk around the banquet, there are already several carriages waiting at the back door.

Xu Qi went to the Qinglou with a group of fox friends and dog friends after the banquet today, and then he was drunk at the moment, and he came back with the help of the little guy, and he didn't know how many people were in a daze, and his ears were hazy as if he heard a bang, and then the cold and biting cold water was poured from head to foot, which immediately made him sober up.

It was dark in front of me, and the floor was cold, so it wasn't a warm and comfortable room at all.

"Who left Young Master Ben here, someone is coming." Xu Qi slowly got up from the ground, shouted for a long time and no one came, couldn't help but be annoyed, the water droplets on his face had not been wiped clean, and he was blown by the cold wind, and he was even more excited.

He looked around, and found that he was on a rockery, and across from him there was a man sitting there, who was not clear for a moment because he was against the light.

"Who are you? What am I here and what do you want to do? Xu Qi hurriedly asked.

The person on the other side seemed to chuckle lightly, then stretched out his foot and kicked the stone under Xu Qi's feet, and somehow, the stone had a faint feeling of loosening, which frightened Xu Qi and immediately withdrew his foot and put it in front of him.

It was dark all around, and Xu Qi couldn't see where he was, so he could only raise his voice and threaten: "I am the son of the county commander of Huachang County, and my father will find out that I am missing after a while, and he will definitely come to look for someone, and if he knows me, let me go quickly." ”

The man on the other side smirked and said, "The second son doesn't even know his own family?" ”

Listening to the voice, it turned out to be a woman?

Xu Qi frowned when he heard this, looked around with the inconspicuous moonlight in the sky, and carefully checked under him, it was the familiar rockery, so he was in his own garden?

The familiar environment made Xu Qi feel a lot more at ease, and he frowned: "Which room are you from, don't help me down quickly." ”

The man said: "I'm afraid that if I help him, the second son's intestines will be repentant in the future." ”

Mrs. Xu was strict with him, and never allowed the maids in the house to get close to this precious son, Xu Qi thought she was afraid of punishment, so she said: "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone, and I won't let you be hurt." ”

Unexpectedly, the man laughed out loud when he heard this, and sighed: "The second son even defends his subordinates so much, but why can he poison his fiancée?" ”

A cold wind blew, Xu Qi stiffened, and at this moment, he couldn't wait for the person in front of him to disappear quickly.

"Why are you here, maid, what do you want to do?" As soon as the voice came out, it was already gritting teeth.

Tan Ran said with a smile: "The tryst of the fiancé, the idle people naturally have to avoid it." ”

Xu Qi's blood surged for a while, and he said without words: "Don't dream, I won't marry you, don't think that this can scare me, you yourself don't have a shame and no name, it's you who say it's embarrassing, what if you have a marriage certificate, I tell you, in the end, you must not be able to marry into the door of my Xu family." ”

"For example, kill people?"

"What did you say!" Xu Qi's face was bloodied when she heard this, did she know something, no, it couldn't be, he didn't show up, how could she suspect him.

Tan Ran took out something from his arms, put it in the palm of his hand, and then asked, "I want to ask why the second son has this jade pendant, and why did he give it to others?" ”

Xu Qi stared at the past, and suddenly the whole person seemed to be struck by lightning, and his brain was blank, it was the jade pendant he stole when Tan Ran was not paying attention, and later he transferred it to Xu Wu, how did it return to Tan Ran's hands?

He tried his best to calm down, and said stiffly: "What's wrong with a piece of jade pendant, the Xu family has a lot." ”

Tan Ran didn't have much patience to grind with this son, and kicked the rocks on the rockery again, and said, "Second son, I don't think you want to try the feeling of falling off the rockery yourself, let's say, what's going on?" ”

On a night when the moonlight was not very clear, Xu Qi didn't know the expression on the face of the person opposite, but there was no one at the moment, and the vicious thoughts in her heart were like poisonous snakes, rolling and tormenting in her heart with her tongue out, anyway, no one saw it, no one heard it, so what if she knew?

Once he thought about it clearly, Xu Qi didn't hide it anymore, and said angrily: "Yes, what if I did it, I knew that jade pendant was extremely important to you, so when you weren't paying attention, I took it." ”

"So you deliberately tricked Tan into bullying Tan ...... Xu San, who was the most of me, asked her to deliberately tell me that the jade pendant was on the rockery and tricked me over, and you took the jade pendant away early, but you moved on the rockery and wanted to kill me, right? ”

Xu Qi laughed: "I didn't expect you to even guess this, that's right, I did it, but unfortunately, you didn't die." ”

"Why?"

"You still ask me why?" Xu Qi said hatefully: "Who told you to appear embarrassed, originally I was the son of the county order, and I was admitted to the child early, the classmates of the academy don't know how to envy me, only stayed for two years to participate in the scientific examination, it is a bright future, but you appeared, you are vulgar, your father is even more ashamed of everyone, on the surface, those people say that my family is benevolent and generous, but who doesn't know, in private, they are laughing at me, when the time comes, I want to marry the daughter of a criminal minister, what face do I have to face outsiders?" ”

"Your family is not satisfied with this marriage contract, why didn't you directly understand it at the beginning, do you think I will rely on your family to make it?"

Xu Qi blurted out: "Do you want our family's reputation, if we cancel the marriage contract at that time, what will outsiders think of my family?" ”

Tan Ran laughed angrily: "So in the past year, your family has endured humiliation and burdens, and spread rumors about me everywhere, just waiting for the right time to cancel the marriage contract?" ”

Xu Qi: "That's right, I didn't want to interfere with it, but who told you to suddenly appear in front of my classmates and make me laughed at, I can't help it anymore!" ”

It's ridiculous isn't it, a human life was killed by such a ridiculous reason, Tan Ran couldn't help it, laughed lowly, and then laughed louder and louder, faintly with tears of sorrow.

Xu Qi looked at the person in front of her and smiled, not knowing what nerves she was sending.

After a long time, Tan Ran stopped laughing and looked at Xu Qi expressionlessly: "You owe me a life." ”

As he spoke, he jumped off the rockery and was about to leave, but Xu Qi shouted from behind: "I will never marry you." ”

Tan Ran paused: "You don't have this chance." ”

Xu Qi doesn't know what this means, but it doesn't matter, she must make it clear to her mother that no matter what means are used this time, the marriage book will be destroyed!

When she was twenty, Mrs. Xu received a reply from Uncle Tan Ran, and she was happy, so she only took the letter to Tan Ran, and said with a smile, good boy, your uncle will reply to the letter, and he will pick you up in ten days, take care of it.

After speaking, he brought the doctor over again and diagnosed Tan Ran up and down, and four more maids and two mothers-in-law were added to the yard, staring at her day and night.

Tan Ran didn't say anything, since then the door was closed, staying in the room all day, and did not come out, Mrs. Xu looked at the end of the heart, for fear that this girl would come out of something at the last moment, always asked the maid to come in from time to time to take a look, and when she entered the door, she only saw this young lady watering flowers, hoeing weeds, picking leaves, washing leaves, or holding a book, looking at it from time to time, or just keeping pacing in the room. There's nothing out of the ordinary.

In this way, in the expectation of the whole Xu Mansion, and in the heart and liver of Mrs. Xu, Uncle Tan Ran finally knocked on the door of the Xu Mansion on a cold spring morning.