On a cold winter night, the wind is as cold as a knife.

In the courtyard, an old plum tree with strong branches exudes its fragrance against the ice and snow.

The dotted red plum blossoms in the snow, red as blood, gorgeous but ominous.

In the window lattice carved into the auspicious pattern of "Five Blessings and Longevity", a pair of fighting figures are reflected.

Both sides have scruples, so they don't dare to raise their voices.

But the utensils that were knocked down from time to time, the torn clothes, and the resentful words that seemed to be squeezed out of the teeth still made the boy in the cloister hear clearly—

"What are you and me?! What am I?! ”

"Presumptuous!"

"Who's presumptuous?! Are you or me?! I have been studying hard for ten years, and once the title of the gold list, have I ever used your Gu clan at all?! Since ancient times, everything has been inferior, but reading is high! Even though I was originally a child of a poor family, I have ascended to the Tianzi Hall, and I am no longer the country boy I used to be! You...... You humiliated me like that!! ”

"Humiliating you? Without my Gu family, you are just a Jinshi, can you have today?! You've been in the Tianzi Hall, it's amazing?! For the ignorant Li Shu in the countryside, maybe so! But for me Gu, heh! Don't forget the Son of Heaven who sat in the Son of Heaven Hall, and now he still has to listen to my aunt and grandmother! ”

"Even the emperor of the past doesn't dare to despise a scholar like this, you !!"

"What if I scorn you? The surname is Deng, don't be ignorant of good or bad - this Manchu Dynasty civil and military, all the officials in the world, how many of them are not named on the gold list? ! How noble do you think you are!? Tell you, if God hadn't given you a good look, and you had so many jinshi, I would have chosen you to be promoted?! ”

"Shameless!! Who wants you to lift?! Since I can be on the list in a dignified manner, I can be an official in a dignified manner! ”

"Dignified? Ha ha! Do you believe that if I send someone to the Taishi Temple to say hello, I will ruin your reputation?! ”

"You ......!!!"

"Let's be fun! Although you have a lot of talent, but the world is so big, you are not a person who is not out of the world - without my help, you will be lost to everyone sooner or later! If you are obedient, then Zhu Zigui of the Manchu Dynasty will have your place sooner or later! ”

“……！！！”

"Although my aunt is only a concubine, she was raised by my grandmother's mother, and she cherishes her like a pearl, and she is no different from her grandmother! Based on her appearance, do you know how many people in this capital want it but can't get it, but I persuaded my grandmother to marry her to you - I haven't treated you well enough?! ”

"Turns out, do you remember that you should call me uncle?!"

"If you don't be my uncle, I will have frequent contacts with you, and it will inevitably be known...... I have my own title to inherit, and my aunt and grandmother in the palace to maintain it, what is there to be afraid of?! What about you? I do this, it shows my heart for you, doesn't it? Otherwise, I forcibly kidnapped you and took you to another courtyard, what can you do to me?! Mess around? In that case, you will lose your reputation, and if you are an official, you will be a man, and you will not be successful, right? If you don't make a fuss, what's the difference between that and now?! ”

"Your mind...... Hey! Don't say anything that disgusts me like that! Last time, I didn't notice it, and I didn't even see that you, the high-sounding prince of Guangyang, my nephew, were born like a dog, but you were such a filthy heart, so I drank the tea you handed over without any precautions - now that I am sober, you say that I will stoop to be humiliated for the sake of the future, with the body of an eight-foot man, following the example of concubines and prostitutes?! Are you dreaming!! ”

"Uncle is so ruthless, don't you think about your aunt at all?!"

"Why does a big husband have no wife?! Besides, your aunt has always looked down on my Deng family's small family, when I can't see it?! ”

"Really?" The laughter grew cold, "So...... What about Cousin Yi? Uncle doesn't miss the love of husband and wife, but he doesn't know the righteousness of father and son, has my uncle ever taken it to heart? ”

"Y-you're still not human?! Yi'er is your own cousin!! ”

"My uncle is still my elder, and Cousin Yi is the same generation as me, isn't he? Speaking of which, God really loves me, Cousin Yi was born a little more delicate than your uncle! Although he is young now, after his eyebrows and eyes are opened, I am afraid that he is even better than his uncle! Gee! ”

With the words, the closed window next to the boy suddenly opened, and a pair of hands covered his mouth before he could scream, and carried him into the house from the window, the young man Gu Yan smiled and pinched the boy's pink cheeks, and looked at the disheveled and angry uncle not far away with a smile, "Qing is better than blue, it's about Cousin Yi?" ”

“…… Let Yi'er go! Although he was not well-dressed, the man was still outstanding, he stared at his frightened and ignorant son for a moment, and said word for word, "Let him go, everything is easy to say!" ”

Gu Yan looked at him playfully for a while, leaned over, and put the boy on the ground.

The boy instinctively ran to his father: "Father! ”

Then he was picked up again - and the next ...... What's next?

I can't remember anything.

In a drowsy state, he heard someone sobbing beside his couch, and several people comforted him: "Mrs. Gu is mourning quickly, the husband is newly mourned, and the little son is sick on the couch, this family is pointing to you!" You must not grieve too much, what if you hurt your body, but call the little boy? ”

"yes, yes! The little boy is only so big, and he has no father, if you also have three long and two short, then even if the little boy is good, how pitiful should he be in the future? ”

"Speaking of Deng Hanlin, it's a pity, young ......"

"Shhh

Sometimes the sobbing was absent, and the people who came to see him thought that he was in a coma and did not know anything about the outside world, and said something else:

"Haha, you deserve it! When I saw that she was so bewitching, I knew that it was not a good thing! Sure enough, although he was raised by the concubine's side, this person, whatever life he should have, the more he is raised, the more he can't afford it! Otherwise, why would Deng Hanlin say that he was gone? Obviously unlucky, married the wrong wife, and was killed! ”

"Hey, hey, it's good to go back and talk about it, say it here, and be heard carefully!"

"What about that heard? Haven't the people who are serving here been sent down? It's not that you don't see it, and the people themselves don't want to stay longer! Otherwise, we wouldn't have slipped away as soon as we mentioned her! It's no wonder that when she was in front of the concubine, although she didn't have the title of the county lord, she was so delicate that the serious county lord was not necessarily so pretentious! What do you know? This person who can't govern the family and can't manage things, when Deng Hanlin was there, the people didn't dare to do anything, but now that Deng Hanlin is gone, isn't this person's foundation revealed? Any maid can fool her, but pity the little thing lying inside, I don't know how to live my life in the future! ”

"If you want to talk about the one lying inside, I see, I don't know who is dragging whom! That one is now a widow, but she has only been married for a few years? is still young, and he looks like a bewitching man. If you don't have this oil bottle, maybe you can marry someone who doesn't dislike her in the future! Now that I have this oil bottle, it's not so easy to remarry! ”

"Isn't it? If it is a daughter, she will be pretty, and she will be raised well, and it will be just a dowry in the future, and she may be able to help the family! It's a son! was born at a young age, if it was also passed on to Deng Hanlin's reading ability, in the future, if he wanted to be talented and good-looking, he would compare all the male heirs in his own family, so that the people in the family could be happy? For the sake of an outsider, recruiting his own family is centrifuged, and it can't be worth it! What's more, the Deng family is not prosperous, and it is impossible for him to change his surname even if he is a small family-after cultivating him in this way, the glory is also the lintel of the Deng family, who has a bad brain to do such a loss-making business! ”

"In short, the mother and son will be miserable in the future! The mother doesn't know anything except the wind and snow! As a son, he is young, and now he is still sick - whether this disease can survive is still a question! ”

"If you can't hold on, it's the cheap one, cry and clean up and find a big boss! It's best for this little thing, you can't die if you die, and you can't get better from your illness. dragged no one to marry that one, and he was so ruined for a lifetime! It makes my heart happy! ”

"Haha...... is also said, it's just a concubine, the concubine doesn't have a biological daughter, and she is pitiful to raise and play with herself, but she really thinks of herself as something! Looking at the face of the concubine in those years, we can't do anything with her, but now it seems that this person is watching the sky, and the cheap thing is the cheap thing, and he is proud for a while, and in the end, he will inevitably return to his original shape! ”

"Don't say it, the concubine is still here, that one really can't hold on, maybe he will have to beg the concubine for mercy!"

"So what? It's all out of the cabinet, why should the concubine pay attention to her? ”

"In the end, she was raised by the concubine, maybe the concubine asked her to beg for distress, and still called her to go back to the palace to live - so that she could find a backer again! Besides, remarrying from the Deng family and remarrying from the palace is not the same! ”

"According to the nature of the One. Son, eight out of ten. Nine will do it! Alas, I thought it was finally time for her to be down. Who wants to be so lively or just watch it for a while? ”

"Not necessarily! It seems that none of you know that if the one goes back to the palace alone, he will not say anything. She brought such a golden boy-like son back, so it's hard to say whether she can remarry! ”

"Huh? Why? ”

"It is said ......"

"Wait! The one is coming! ”

And so the voice became: "Alas, look at the poor ...... of this child."

How many days have changed in a similar scene, and the boy in the tent who has been confused is not clear.

I only knew that when he finally woke up, his mother Gu's tears fell on his face one after another: "Yi'er! Yi'er! Why are we so miserable?! Your father left us behind, leaving such a little family business, and the people couldn't bear to pit us-poor for my mother to raise a child in front of the concubine, how could I care about these things?! Now the shop grange is shouting losses everywhere, according to what they said, our mother and son are about to sell their fields and land to get by! You're so small, how long can you sell this field? Besides, they will definitely not sell it to us at the market price...... ...... backwards"

In the end, she decided, "We can only count on your grandmother to hurt us now!" ”