Liu Zuocheng didn't want to go around in this circle anymore, he interrupted Liu Wen's words and asked, "What's the problem?" ”

Liu Wen replied: "What I met halfway was Yan Guogong's personal guard... didn't give face at all, and cut the soldier on the spot, and confiscated all the goods. ”

Liu Zuocheng's pupils shrank, and he indifferently asked Liu Wen, "You have a good rest", and then walked out of the Orchid Courtyard.

Wang Shun sweated profusely and followed Liu Zuocheng back into the study, and Liu Zuocheng told Wang Shun in a deep voice: "You hurry up and do two things." One is to make a list to see which are the most important businessmen, and I will personally negotiate them; The second is to send someone to write an envelope to the head of the family, use the official post road to send it to the south of the Yangtze River, and invite him to come to the old man in person. ”

Wang Shun couldn't help nodding, and his expression was a little hesitant: "Then, the Twelfth Master..."

Liu Zuocheng's eyes were gloomy: "This matter still has to ask the big shopkeeper to bother, see if we have any way in Shengjing..."

Yandi lives in the northern cold of the Xia Kingdom, separated by the Jin land and a Songjiang River, and there are prohibitions of "the vassal king is not allowed to make friends with close ministers" and "he is not allowed to leave the domain without Fengzhao", not to mention that the wealthy businessmen like the Liu family who live in Jiangnan and start in Jiangnan, even the feudal officials of Xizhao may not have anything to do with Yandi.

Wang Shun groaned: "Do you want to inform the eldest young master, no matter how you say it, it is always your own people..."

The "eldest young master" in Wang Shun's mouth is Liu Caixia's brother Liu Mantian, a two-list jinshi in Xizhao for 285 years, known as a prodigy in Jiangnan, and now he is only thirty-three years old. He has been an official to the political secretary of Pingyuan County, and he has been a member of the three grades, and his performance has been "excellent" in the Ministry of Officials for six consecutive years, and he can be regarded as a teenager in the same year, and he has enjoyed official luck. His father-in-law, Anyuan Hou Hongqi, is just a Hou Ye who is idle at home. But his mother-in-law is the eldest princess of this dynasty, Princess Chaoyun, the current emperor's sister-in-law, and the biological daughter of Empress Dowager Fang. is such a prominent in-law, but Liu Sanduo has only seen it once. It's not the Hong family. The key lies in the eldest young master of the Liu family, he, like his mother, despises the most is a businessman, and the least likely to deal with is a businessman, when he was still a small magistrate, he once said that "businessmen do not produce, buy cheaply and sell expensively, and take advantage of it, which is the root of social instability." The most ridiculous thing is that he said so in his mouth, but Liu Sanduo gave him a lot of silver every year.

This kind of person, usually the Liu family pretends to be deaf and dumb when they come to the door with a business dispute, this kind of thing that can copy the nine clans and destroy the door, you can count on him to give you strength!

Liu Zuocheng smiled bitterly and shook his head: "No need! ”

Wang Shun is the old man in the family, how could he not know the power of this, but he was in a hurry and fell ill. Listening to Liu Zuocheng's answer, he also shook his head helplessly. said: "Then there is only one way to find the Gu family's uncle, and in the past few years, he has not taken less... If we are cut off from this way of wealth, it will not be easy for him to live in the land. Saying this, Wang Shun sighed infinitely in his heart: How could a person as shrewd and capable as the third master have such two children who can't be lifted and can't be supported!

When Liu Zuocheng was annoyed, Gu Xiyan was also a little annoyed. There was no news from the palace, and Master Gu didn't look for her again, as if her running away from home was a dream. After waking up from the dream, there was no trace, and the wind and waves were calm. But she felt that things would not end so simply, especially with Master Gu, the current scene was like the calm before the storm, only temporary, which made her feel uneasy. It's even a little frivolous.

Gu Xiyan now goes to Mrs. Gu every morning to say goodbye, and then goes to Cui Baoyi to listen to her talk about the "Four Books". Then follow her to learn some court etiquette. After coming back, after eating lunch and taking a nap for an hour, Mama Zhao will come to Beyuan to do needlework with her in the afternoon. That is, to teach Gu Xiyan embroidery.

Gu Xiyan didn't know under what circumstances her peaceful life would end, and she didn't know when it would end, and the sense of crisis in life and survival made her adopt a superficial lifestyle. For example, to learn embroidery, she first communicated with Mama Zhao, summarized several embroidery techniques, and then painted patterns according to the requirements of these embroidery methods and practiced them locally and repeatedly, so as to reach the point where practice makes perfect.

Mama Zhao didn't understand at first, but then came to see Gu Xiyan proceed quickly, and soon she was able to embroider a pair of insoles that were jerky but barely visible, and then she suddenly realized. She whispered to Duan Niang in private: "It's always a bit inappropriate to do this, and you have to calm down." ”

Duan Niang disagreed: "There is no way to do this, let's deal with it for the time being." Aren't there still people in the needlework class? ”

Mama Zhao didn't want to say anything, so she had to ask Gu Xiyan more strictly when she taught her to embroider.

There is also a reason why Duanniang replied like this.

Since Gu Xiyan returned home, there have been two "door gods" at the gate of Beyuan, and they look inward every day, and they have to check for a long time when they bring ingredients in to cook. finally went out for a trip, but the people of the Jiang family were not willing to spread the word at all, so Duanniang returned in vain, and she kept pressing a fire in her heart.

On this day, Gu Xiyan went to ask Mrs. Gu for peace again, but saw the servants in and out of the garden, everyone was silently packing up their things, and the old camphor wood boxes were all carried out.

Gu Xiyan asked Liu'er in a low voice, "What's wrong?" ”

Liu Er whispered: "Madame wants to personally send the young master back to Jiangnan!" ”

Entering the house, Mrs. Gu was directing Jiye'er to collect the cage: "... Put away this silk eight-treasure group flower, I want to take it back to the old man..."She saw Gu Xiyan come in and smiled: "It's here!" The voice was brisk, and the emaciated cheeks also had a little brilliance, and they were much more energetic than when Gu Xiyan first came back.

The two entered the inner room, Gu Xiyan asked Mrs. Gu to say goodbye, and the girls brought Gu Xiyan tea on the embroidery pier, Mrs. Gu took Gu Xiyan's hand and looked at her very seriously, and said, "Niangniang asked me to send Panxi back to Jiangnan, and I just took this opportunity to go back to my mother's house." After I leave, you will have to worry more about the affairs of this house! ”

Gu Xiyan showed a reluctant expression: "Niangniang, this is for the sake of my brother's studies, and my mother should take this opportunity to go to Jiangnan to relax." ”

Mrs. Gu nodded tearfully, looking very satisfied and relieved by Gu Xiyan's answer.

Gu Xiyan sighed in her heart and asked, "Has my mother's things been packed up, is there any place for my daughter to help?" ”

Mrs. Gu smiled and thanked her, and the two of them sat on the low couch to discuss the arrangements for all the things in the family after Mrs. Gu left, and the specific affairs had not been completely discussed, Liu Er came in and said, "Uncle Seventh is here!" ”

Gu Xiyan hurriedly avoided the warm pavilion next to the inner room.

After a while, Gu Xiyan heard the sound of bags and boots and the sound of moving tables and chairs from the inner room.

Liu Zuocheng drank the tea served by the maid, and shouted Mrs. Gu's maiden name: "Caixia, I'm afraid it will take a while before I can return to Jiangnan." ”

Mrs. Gu was stunned.

Liu Zuocheng didn't wait for Mrs. Gu to speak, and asked, "What has Master Gu been busy with these days?" I asked to see him several times, but I said I wasn't home. ”

Mrs. Gu was stunned again, and said bluntly: "I haven't seen him for a few days, and I don't know what he's busy with." ”

Liu Zuocheng said: "Can you let people take a breath." ”

Mrs. Gu couldn't sit still anymore and exclaimed, "But what happened?" ”

Liu Zuocheng said casually: "It's a little trivial and I want to ask Master Gu for help!" ”

Liu Caixia was taken aback. Although no one has squeaked around her in the past few years, she also knows it. After the marriage of the Liu Gu family, Gu Baozhang helped the Liu family a lot openly and secretly, but Gu Baozhang was also greedy, and the Liu family paid a lot of price every time, so in the past three or four years, it was not a big deal, and the Liu family did not dare to ask Gu Baozhang for help at will. She hurriedly called Liu Er to come and ask about the situation at Master Gu's side, and chatted with Liu Zuocheng for a few more words.

After a while, Liu Er came back to report the news, saying, "The master hasn't come home for the past few days, and I don't know what happened over there." ”

One of the duties of Honglu Siqing was to receive the vassal kings who came to Beijing.

When Liu Zuocheng heard Liu Er say this, he faintly counted in his heart, and he was afraid that he had guessed wrong, so he crossed Mrs. Gu and directly instructed Liu Er: "Go again, go and visit what the master has been busy with these days?" ”

Liu Er hesitated and glanced at Mrs. Gu, Mrs. Gu frowned deeply, and shouted: "Uncle told you to do things, what are you doing there stupidly, don't you go quickly!" ”

Liu Er hurriedly responded and hurriedly went out.

When Mrs. Gu saw Liu Er go out, she wanted to ask Liu Zuocheng in detail what happened, but who knew that Liu Zuocheng actually opened his mouth first: "Caixia, have you been to the eldest young master's house in the past few days?" Have you seen your sister-in-law? ”

Mrs. Gu's face changed, her brother and the people in the family are not close, if she hadn't married Gu Baozhang, I'm afraid she wouldn't even have a relationship with herself. Liu Zuocheng first asked Gu Baozhang, and now he mentioned his brother again, there must have been an accident in the family, and it was a big deal. But after all, she is the daughter of the Liu family who married, and she can't say what she wants to ask in this case. She thought for a moment and said solemnly: "I still saw my sister-in-law during the Chinese New Year. But if there's anything you want me to do, just tell me." ”

Liu Zuocheng nodded with satisfaction and did not speak.

The two of them sat in silence for a while, the atmosphere was depressed and calm, even Gu Xiyan in the warm pavilion felt it, and couldn't help but wait for Liu Er's reply with bated breath like Mrs. Gu.

They didn't wait for Liu'er, but waited for Deacon Ding.