Five hundred years later.

The grandson of the grandson of the first family in the south of the Yangtze River has a ninety birthday, and the guests are invited to a big feast. If you want to talk about this Gongsun family, it can be said that everyone knows it. In the 38 prefectures of the four provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, all the number one tea, silk, and money business belong to the Gongsun family, and not only that, but even the dozens or hundreds of friends in the business field who point to the Gongsun family for dinner are also wealthy. So how grand is this birthday banquet, the Gongsun family specially renovated the courtyard in the courtyard a year ago, and now it is full of three or four hundred people, and the famous actors invited to sing from three days before the feast, several teams are singing in turns, and it is said that they have been singing for nine days. Unsurprisingly, the troupe owners were rewarded with a large bounty, and although they were as tired as a mule, the corners of their mouths were so happy that they were about to bend to the back of their heads.

The old lady Gongsun is a fool, although he is stupid, but he is not stupid at all in his life. In Gongsun Yu's impression, although his family was also solid in his childhood, it was far less brilliant than it is today, and he can only be said to be a slightly better family. But the old lady has a good brain, a sweet mouth, and a sharp leg and feet, and finally led his family to earn this mountain of gold and silver when he was less than sixty years old. The good living habits of his youth have laid a good physical quality for him, although he has been ninety years old, but the old lady is not dazzled or deaf, at this moment the old lady Gongsun Yu is twisting his white beard on the Taishi chair to listen to the play, serving fruits, cakes, cigarettes and tea, a row of people.

"Guangxiao," the old lady turned his head and asked the second son Gongsun Guangxiao, who was accompanying him, who is also the current speaker of the Gongsun family, "You let them all go down." After speaking, he pointed to the people who were waiting beside him.

Gongsun Guangxiao waved his hand at his subordinates, and the male and female servants were ordered to retreat without saying a word.

"Daddy. After all the subordinates retreated and waited, Gongsun Guangxiao came to Gongsun Yu, and his communication habits over the years let him know that the old lady had something important to say.

"Guangxiao," the old lady called the name of his second son again, "You are also in your sixties this year, and you will be seventy in a few years, and your life will be rare in seventy." There are some things that should be decided early. When it comes to business, let go as much as you can and give as little support as possible to those who don't need support. I had already let go of some of the more important businesses to you a long time ago, and that's when I discovered your talents, right? ”

"Dad, in fact, the eldest brother, the eldest sister, the second sister, the third brother......" Gongsun Guangxiao was humble, and just wanted to praise his brothers and sisters first, but was interrupted by Gongsun Yu.

"Okay, okay, I know, I just want to ask you, among these descendants surnamed Gongsun, who are you most optimistic about?"

Gongsun Guangxiao just put his head back in front of his father, and a young man walked from behind the shadow wall of the theater, looking white and handsome, but his eyebrows and eyes looked frivolous and exaggerated, he was carrying a bird cage in one hand and a folding fan in the other, and was trying to use the fan to tease the chin of a maid, but unfortunately he was seen by Gongsun Guangxiao who was bent over.

"Bastard, you come over to me. Originally, Gongsun Guangxiao was ashamed of this matter, when it comes to successors, in fact, there is not much room for the Gongsun family to choose, the reason is that from his generation, I don't know which god he offended, he always gave birth to more girls than boys, and those who are over thirty years old must not be able to do it, there is no potential for cultivation, and those who are less than twenty are not qualified enough, and they are really too young. Now it is suitable to be observed as a successor, stretching out a palm to count, and there is still a surplus on the fingers, there are only four people in total, including this little boy brother who carries a cage bird, that is, the official grandson of Gongsun Guangxiao, Gongsun Shenghua.

"Grandpa, grandpa. Gongsun Shenghua was arrested, so he had to come over respectfully to pay respect.

"A subordinate, embarrassed......" Gongsun Guangxiao hated so much that his palms were itchy, and he almost slapped him.

Gongsun Shenghua lowered his head and didn't dare to speak at all.

"Okay, let's go, there are a lot of guests coming these days, and we must pay more attention to these aspects, so as not to lose the reputation of the Gongsun family. Gongsun Yu waved his hand to his great-grandson, and when he walked away, he said to his son in a relaxed tone, "You're still young, didn't you marry a wife when you were so old." Besides, if everyone was competitive, then there would be no you and me now. ”

"Dad, you're getting used to these great-grandchildren now. Don't talk about me, my eldest brother was his age, he had been working with you for a long time, and the children were all five years old. "Gongsun Guangxiao is still angry.

"I'm old, my days are numbered, I'm happy every day, and I'll leave my worries to you. Gongsun Yu smiled, beckoned his subordinates to him again, picked a piece of gummies in the food box, put it in his mouth and slowly sipped it. Seeing this scene, Gongsun Guangxiao politely left.

On the day before the birthday of the old lady Gongsun Yu, when it was close to dusk, there were more and more guests who came to celebrate his birthday. The Gongsun family had already vacated two five-story two-story courtyards for important guests to live in, which were in the east and west directions, but it did not affect the living life of the family at all. When it was about to get completely dark, I heard the concierge outside the gate shouting loudly: "Mr. Zhou is visiting!"

It is said that if the Zhou family says that this medicine can not be found, then you can not find it when you fly to the moon, if the Zhou family promises that you can match this medicine, even if it is the gall of the dragon's beard and phoenix, you can rest assured that you will wait at home, and it will definitely be sent to the house in less than two days.

This is not the most critical, the most critical thing is that no one can say clearly at all, since when the Zhou family will have a woman marry into the Gongsun family, no matter whether the Gongsun family is rich or poor, and no matter whether the women of the Zhou family are handsome, ugly, fat or thin. The people of the Zhou family are always the guests of the Gongsun family. said that it was Zuxun, I had never seen black and white, it was an agreement, and now among the four generations of the Gongsun family, except for the oldest woman of Gongsun Yu's generation, who has passed away, the remaining three generations have a woman surnamed Zhou, and no one has ever seen such a long agreement involving so many people. These two are so deeply tied that outsiders are not only admiring but envious. It is said that dragons give birth to dragons and phoenixes, so they must be the right people, looking at the grandson family and the Zhou family, isn't it a typical representative.

Mr. Zhou is of medium height, with a thin face, slightly sunken eye sockets, and a long beard above his lips and chin. He was wearing a pale cyan robe and spotless cloth shoes on his feet, and slowly leaned out of the palanquin. There is a sedan chair and a few hikers in the back, Mr. Zhou did not enter the door after getting off the sedan chair, but turned around and walked to the front of the sedan chair behind, opened the sedan curtain with a look of pity, the sedan chair first stretched out is a pink embroidered shoe, after standing still, the whole person walked out under the support of Mr. Zhou, it was a big beauty who fell like a peach blossom in early spring. The goose-egg-like face, the smoky hair, like the skin of congealed cream, and the two watery eyes were full of brilliant colors when I looked up.

"Hello Mr. Zhou, hello Miss Xue. Mr. Zhou took the gift from the hand of the family and sent it to the woman, and the woman hurriedly waved her hand and said, "Mr. Zhou's gift, I dare not accept it, you should give it directly to the old lady, the old lady has been talking about you for a month." After speaking, he covered his mouth and smiled, which shows that they are very familiar with each other.

"It's okay or fine," Mr. Zhou laughed happily after listening to the words of the female dependent, "I'm afraid that the old lady has already slept." ”

"At this time, the old lady has just finished eating tea, you go to his backyard to find him, you must be listening to the play. ”

Mr. Zhou was also not polite, and led his daughter Zhou Xue directly to the old lady's backyard, and it seemed that he was familiar with the road.

In another room, two young men were talking softly.

"Second brother, I heard that there is a particularly important thing to celebrate Grandpa's birthday in the past few days. Do you know?" the questioner was a young man in his early twenties, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, and a tall figure, wearing a gorgeous silk outfit on his body, which did not look exaggerated at all, but set off very well.

"There are more than 100 people in the family, and there are so many things every day, how do I know which one you are talking about, I am not interested in inquiring. The one who replied was Gongsun Shenghua, who was criticized by Gongsun Guangxiao before. At this time, he was lying on the table, and there was a birdcage made of fine rosewood on the table, and in the cage a red finch was jumping around, and Gongsun Shenghua was teasing the bird with bird food in his hand.

"Second brother," the young man who spoke before said in a slightly impatient tone, "a little bird, and can't speak, you carry a cage to tease around every day, I don't even know what you're trying to do." ”

"You don't understand this, come on, come on, I'll give you a good lesson. Speaking of the bird, Gongsun Shenghua suddenly became interested, no longer lying on the table, twisted his whole body over, and faced his cousin Gongsun Shengqiu head-on, "This canary, there are many varieties, so there are many coat colors, this one of mine is a top-grade pepper red, you see, from here to here, there is no trace of variegated feathers......"

"Okay, okay, okay, it's so hard to find you something serious. Gongsun Shengqiu waved his hand, indicating that he did not want to listen any further.

"What the hell is going on, it's like you've lost your soul, and you have something to say. ”

"The second grandfather is planning to choose a successor, take over the class of the entire family, be the head of the family, and talk to people. Gongsun Shengqiu said the content angrily.

"Successor? Gongsun Shenghua rolled his eyes and continued to turn around to tease the bird.

"Don't you want to be the head of the family in the future?" Gongsun Shengqiu commanded his cousin's army.

"Come, little pepper, it's time to eat, come on, come on. Gongsun Shenghua didn't answer, and was bent on teasing the birds.

"Okay, you play with yours, I'll go back to sleep. Gongsun Shengqiu saw that he was talking as if he was playing the piano to a cow, so he lost interest at all, got up and went out, and when he opened the door, he suddenly seemed to remember something, so he turned his head back and looked at his second brother who was facing away from him and said, "By the way, I met a bird dealer a few days ago, and I remembered that you like birds, so I asked you a few words." He said that the most interesting bird in the south of the Yangtze River is a bird of prey called 'Hu Falcon' in the Western Regions, and the powerful Hu Falcon can even catch rabbits. ”

"Is this true?" Gongsun Shenghua suddenly turned his body to look at him, his eyes shining.

Mr. Zhou walked in front, and his daughter Zhou Xue followed a few steps behind him. Zhou Xue of the Gongsun family has also been here many times, and she knows a lot of heirs of the same age. Mr. Zhou had just turned a porch, and a person with his head bowed suddenly rushed out of the dark corner, and Mr. Zhou, who was unprepared, was frightened.

"Oh my eldest nephew, you almost didn't scare my soul out. Mr. Zhou saw that the person who came was Gongsun Shengqiu, who had just come out of Gongsun Shenghua's room, and he wanted to be angry and laugh.

"Hello Mr. Zhou," Gongsun Shengqiu saluted Mr. Zhou, and then saw Zhou Xue behind him, and politely hugged Zhou Xue, "Sister Xue is also here." ”

"Brother Katsugaoka is good. Zhou Xue nodded in return, generous and decent.

"I'll go to your grandfather's place to celebrate his birthday, do you want to go with me?" Mr. Zhou asked Gongsun Shengqiu.

"Don't go, I've already seen Grandpa at dinner, I'll go back and have some of my own things, Mr. Zhou, you go slowly, I really won't accompany you." Gongsun Shengqiu said goodbye politely.

Gongsun Shengqiu returned to his room, made a pot of tea, poured out a cup, and then sat down on the chair and let out a long breath. The cup was steaming, the freshly brewed tea leaves were still floating up and down like golden needles in the cup, his eyes began to become refined, and after a little thought, he took a pen and ink, quickly wrote a paragraph on the paper, and then quickly folded it neatly, took out an envelope and stuffed it in, and stuffed it with a silver ticket, and then carefully sealed it. After all this was done, Gongsun Shengqiu shouted outside the door: "Yusheng, Yusheng ......"

The door was pushed open, and a young subordinate bent down and walked in with a smile on his face: "Young Master Shengqiu, what do you command?"

"Go, send this letter to me, if the family asks about you, you can say that you will go out to buy noodles for Zhou Xue according to my instructions, and just bring a noodle person back after sending it." ”

"Or the same place last time?" asked Yusheng softly.

"Yes, go and get back. After Gongsun Shengqiu said this, he closed his eyes and stopped paying attention to others.