The day of departure back to Beijing was delayed for a few days. Because Tong was unwell, when she asked the doctor to diagnose her, she found out that she was pregnant and had been for nearly three months. Zhang Bao was overjoyed, in order to be safe, he had to wait until he was three months old and the fetus was stable before he set off. Tong blushed and accepted her husband's considerate arrangement.

They finally left Mukden in late spring and set out on their way back to Beijing. Shuning sat in the car with Tong, waiting for her to get up and sleep, and in her spare time, she listened to her mother tell about the Earl's Mansion in the capital.

Her grandfather, named Harqi, was knighted as a first-class Weiyuan uncle, inherited from his great-grandfather who followed Emperor Taizu in his expeditions to the east and west. Grandmother Ilgen Jue Luo, her maiden family is a red belt, but it has declined. Grandfather has always been less in charge of family affairs, but grandmother is the master of the whole family, and she can't bear to have a junior disobey her.

The eldest uncle, Jin Bao, and the eldest aunt, Nala, have often corresponded with their parents for more than a year, so they are relatively familiar. The eldest uncle was originally in the camp in the west of the city, and now he has been transferred to the forbidden army, and his official position is the general of Zhengsanpin, and he is currently the highest official among several brothers. He and his eldest aunt have two sons and a daughter, namely the eldest son Qingning, the second son Shunning and the second daughter Wanning, and the eldest daughter Fang Ning and the youngest son An Ning. Qingning has already married a wife, and her daughter-in-law is the young lady of the Li family. The second daughter, Wanning, is known for her beauty and intelligence, and is deeply loved by her grandmother.

The second uncle, Xingbao, is now idle at home, but his subordinates manipulate several large restaurants and shops, and they make money every day, which is equivalent to mastering the important financial resources of the whole house. The second aunt Suo Xue Luo, whose mother's family is a prominent family living in Jilin, gave birth to two sons and a daughter with the second uncle, according to the family ranking, it is the third son Chengning, the fourth daughter Yuanning and the six-year-old fifth son Weining. Among them, Yuanning is only a few months younger than Shuning.

The fourth uncle, Rong Bao, was born in the palace guard, trained in the Tianjin camp for several years, became a guerrilla general, just returned to the capital a few years ago, and became the chief of the guard again, and his grade is higher than before. married his wife Shen, whose family is a scholarly family for generations, and for some reason married his daughter to a military attaché. The two are very affectionate, and they have a three-year-old son named Chunning, who is ranked seventh (Anning in Dafang ranks sixth).

These are all the immediate family members of their family.

Shuning was almost dizzy by the pile of "Ning", thanks to Tong's tireless back and forth, she remembered all the names and rankings, and then gasped: It turns out that my family has so many relatives? And it's all the kind that you have to live in one home.

Then Tong told her that in addition to these people who are the head of the family, there is also an aunt, who is two years older than her father, her daughter's name is Fuli, her mother-in-law Shu Shujue Luo, who is also a generation lord, her husband's name is Na Ride, and she has a son of the same age as Duanning named Ah Sen, and a daughter named Su Su, who is also ten years old this year. Uncle Na Ride was an official in Jiangnan, and their family went with him, so he was not in Beijing.

Tong Shi introduced the situation of the big family in the Earl's Mansion in this way, and when he was tired, he lay down and slept for a while. Shuning sat on the side very filtily, always paying attention to tucking the quilt corners for her. The second sister-in-law sat in front and came in from time to time to see the scene of the Tong family.

There is no way, the Tong family has not given birth for so many years, and when she gave birth to her daughter, she was still very angry, and her health has not been very good for many years. Zhang Bao was very careful about this tire, in order to find a stable and sturdy good carriage, he also personally ran all over the major carriages and horse shops, and finally it was the carpenter who was familiar with Shuning and his second sister-in-law, who personally shot a car with enough material. Shuning couldn't make a spring or something like that to absorb the shock, so she put on a lot of bedding. She summoned the maids to open the storage room and find old quilts that had not been used for a few years, and piled them all in the wagon.

Although everyone is worried that Tong will be uncomfortable on the road during pregnancy, it seems that this new brother or sister is very well-behaved and has no signs of rebellion in the mother's body at all. Tong's eats and drinks well and sleeps well every day, and the joy is not serious, which makes the whole family feel relieved.

Eighty percent of the roads along the way are newly built in recent years, which are very stable and the weather is getting warmer day by day. One evening, the group soon arrived at the post station where they had spent the night, where they were going to rest for the night, and set out early the morrow morning, so that they could return to the Earl's Court before dark.

The room of the post station is quite clean, the food can also be entered, now only Zhang Bao's family is staying here, the post is waiting very carefully, even the wine and food of the people who follow are not sloppy, and also asked the servants to prepare fresh forage for them to feed the horses.

When Zhang Bao was eating, there was the sound of carriages and horses outside the post station, and the post had already gone out. Ma San'er looked at it for a while, and came back to report: "It was sent to suppress a few prisoners and their families, and there are twenty or thirty people who want to spend the night here, it seems that they are repeat offenders." Zhang Bao frowned, didn't care about him, only asked Tong if he was full, and urged his daughter to eat more meat.

When the dinner table was removed, Zhang Bao ordered his daughter to help his wife go back to the room to rest, and then he summoned Ma San'er, and gave him such an order to go.

Ma San'er took a pot of wine and two small plates of peanut and tofu curd, found a post station officer who was idle, drank and chatted with him, and blew it all over the world, and then pulled back to the new gang just now. The officer drank most of the jug of wine, and said it without paying attention to it.

"I know that group of people, it's the prisoner over there in Anhui, brother, haven't you heard of it? The governor there heard that he had colluded with a mountain king, killed people and sold goods, and robbed a lot of gold and silver treasures, even the tribute sent to the court from the south. Whoever is against him, he will ask the gang of robbers to kill and rob the whole family. Hey, this guts is fat enough, brother, don't you say? ”

"yes, why is he so bold? So, there is this governor among those people? ”

"Where can I be? He had already cut off his head, and these were all with him and were accomplices. It was a big fate, and the whole family was assigned to Ningguta and enslaved with the batch of armor people. Why do you think this emperor is so magnanimous? They have harmed so many people and spared their lives, but those people still don't appreciate it, crying all day long, and the two escorted brothers just now complained to us......"

The servant chattered and talked for a long time before he drank the last drop of wine and ate the last peanut and left. Ma San'er took a long breath and went back to talk back to Zhang Bao.

After listening to this, Zhang Bao discussed with Mr. Su for a long time, and finally Mr. Su came to a conclusion: "The case of the former governor of Anhui is very involved, I am afraid that half of the officials in Anhui have been pulled down, and there will be a large number of vacancies. Zhang Bao agreed.

==================I'm the dividing line of the next room next door====================

Shuning accompanied Tong back to the room, and asked someone to bring a basin of hot water, personally washed her feet with her mother, and said while washing: "After a day of driving, my mother is also tired, wash my feet with hot water, and I will definitely sleep well at night." Tong's heart was soft, and he smiled faintly: "Although I have been on the road for a day, E-Niang doesn't have to go by herself, what are you doing washing your feet?" ”

Shuning was stunned for a moment, thought about it, and smiled: "Even if you don't have to go, it's more comfortable to wash." The second sister-in-law and Chunxing both laughed.

As soon as he finished washing, Zhang Bao came in and asked his wife, "How is your body?" Is there any discomfort? Shuning hurriedly picked up the basin and beckoned the others to go out together, leaving a world for the two of them.

Tong Shi lazily leaned next to the head of the bed and said, "I'm fine, this child is very well-behaved, and he rarely tosses me." ”

"Oh?" Zhang Bao sat on the edge of the bed, "It seems that most of them are a girl, so they are so well-behaved." ”

Tong was a little worried: "I still want to give you one more son, only Duanning is too little." ”

Zhang Bao didn't care: "How can it be less?" Wouldn't it be much better to have an extra daughter like Shuning, who is smart and well-behaved, than to give birth to a bunch of demon kings in other families? ”

Tong was coaxed by him, laughed with him for a while, and then fell asleep. He was sleeping in a daze, but he heard a commotion outside, and he was startled, and he hurriedly got up, saw that his husband had gotten up, and was asking the people waiting outside what was the matter.

Zhang Bao turned around and saw that she was awake, and said, "Don't be busy, you can sleep for a while, and I'll go see what's going on." Then he opened the door and went out, and when he came to the front yard, he saw that his son and daughter were already there, and they were staring blankly at the people running in front of them, and asked them, "Why are you up?" What about those who are waiting for you? What the hell is going on? ”

Shuning opened her mouth, but she didn't know how to say it, Duan Ning calmed down and told her father the answer: "It's the Jingzhong Express Horse reporting along the road, and the Empress Dowager is here." ”

Zhang Bao was stunned for a moment.

Mr. Su walked over in a plain robe and said to him: "My lord, the news that came overnight, the Empress Dowager is going to Shen Shi, and the emperor has announced a national funeral. The post has already called for someone to pick the tassels and remove the red lanterns. Then he turned his head to look at Shuning, "I'm afraid that Miss will have to change her clothes too." ”

Shuning came to her senses at this time, looked at the water red flag suit she was wearing, glanced at her father and brother, and then gave a gift and went back to the room to change her clothes.

Xiaozhuang actually died so early, how could she remember that in the Qing Chuanwen she had read, the heroine had shown her skills in front of Xiaozhuang and won her favor? If you die now, those brothers are just children, right?

But she soon put all these things behind her, and hurried back to her room to find plain clothes. Chunxing also followed to help find it, but she was worried while looking for it: "The girl's clothes are mostly brightly colored, either red or yellow or pink, and there are only a few light-colored summer clothes in plain clothes, but it's still cold this day." ”

Shuning stopped what she was doing, thought about it, and said to her, "Isn't there a blue cloth flag in that big mahogany box?" Take it out and put it on for me first. Chunxing's eyes widened: "But it's cloth, and the girl wears it just to resist dirt." ”

Shuning insisted on wearing it, and Chunxing followed. After changing her clothes, Shuning remembered that her father was discussing things with Mr. Su in front of her, and her mother might be alone, so she went to her room to take care of her, but saw that Tong had already dressed and got up.

Tong Shi wore a cyan robe, looked at the clothes on her daughter's body, sighed and said: "That's it, it's a national funeral now, whether you wear cloth or not, presumably the people in the house won't gossip." ”

After tossing for a night, Tong and Shuning did not sleep again until the fourth watch. The next day, I had to get up early to hurry, and everyone was silently carrying luggage and loading the car with black circles under their eyes. Shuning saw that the post station had all been replaced with white paper lanterns, and the hats worn by the servants were all gone, and when she looked back at her father, she also took off the red tassels on her hats.

Without a word, they hurried away, the scenery outside the window gradually became prosperous, and there were more pedestrians, and near evening, they finally arrived in the capital. Shu Ning didn't have time to visit the gate of the ancient capital of the two dynasties, there were already people from the Earl's Court waiting there, and after a few pleasantries, he changed the person who drove the car and went to the Earl's Palace at dusk.