In the study, the fragrance of tea lingers.

Xiao Cong took a sip of Shen Qingyi's special lung-moisturizing tea, the tea fragrance entered his throat, and the heat was ironed in his heart.

He soothed his eyebrows, drank a cup of tea, put down the teacup, and motioned for Duanyan, Bai Su and other slaves and maids to retreat.

"Ah Yan is from a merchant lady, and both mother and son live in Jingyuan." He said to Shen Qingyi.

"The scenery of Jingyuan is like the south of the Yangtze River, which was specially built by my father for the merchant lady, and no one else is allowed to enter, even my mother ......" Xiao Cong stopped.

After a pause, he said again: "Father said that the merchant lady is weak and needs to live and recuperate. Except for his father, no one in the house has ever seen a merchant lady. Even if he is at a family banquet in the house during the New Year's Festival, he never attends. Later, when Ah Yan was one year old, he heard that the merchant lady had angered his father, and his father ordered Jingyuan to be sealed, strictly forbidden people in the house to enter, and people from Jingyuan were not allowed to come out. After a long time, except for our brothers, I'm afraid that not many people in the house know about Shang Niangzi and Ah Yan. ”

He glanced at his wife and hesitated, "I asked my mother about the reason for the situation. Mother said that Jingyuan's slaves and maids did not serve wholeheartedly, and were all killed by their father's canes......"

Shen Qingyi's heart sank.

"Ah Yan's matter, you just know it in your heart." Xiao Cong rubbed his forehead.

Shen Qingyi nodded slightly, his cold eyes gloomy.

Xiao Cong called the chief steward Xiao Rong and instructed: "Seventeen Langjun is here, don't let the slightest wind go out!" ”

Xiao Rong got Xiao Chengzhong's report early in the morning, and had already made arrangements, and immediately replied: "Lang Jun rest assured, who dares to say more words, and will be killed directly!" ”

Xiao Cong nodded.

***

Xiao Yan returned to Qingning Courtyard, and happily went to report to her mother about the trip to Chenghe Courtyard, complaining that Xiao's Mansion was too big, and she didn't meet anyone after walking for a long time.

For a moment, she seemed to have made up her mind, "Big deal, from tomorrow onwards, drink a bowl of beef...... Oh no, goat's milk. ”

Shang Qing looked at the scroll and didn't raise his head, his tone was still cold and indifferent, "Aren't you afraid of giving birth to the smell of sheep?" ”

Xiao Yan: "......"

The noble families in the north have the habit of drinking cow and sheep milk, and after the Lanling Xiao family moved from Jiangnan to Hexi, many diets have been grounded, which not only maintains the food elegance of the scholar family, but also absorbs other favorable customs, such as cow and sheep milk that strengthens the body. However, Shang Qing didn't like it, so Xiao Yan didn't eat it since he was a child, and later listened to Qi Niang's persuasion, saying that he couldn't be too thin to practice martial arts, so he added cow's milk every day, but goat milk was not used. In fact, it is her psychological effect, and they Tang people are not like the Hu people, who mainly eat meat, how can they have that kind of fishy smell of sheep?

Xiao Yan decisively ignored her mother's teasing words.

For the sake of height and long legs, she, she fought hard......

Xiao Yan had a tragic expression, and she couldn't figure out what she thought she was.

Shang Qing called into Qi Niang, "From dinner, Xiao Wunian will add a bowl of goat milk." ”

Xiao Yan: "......"

Qi Niang couldn't help but smile and winked at Xiao Yan, and bowed and withdrew.

"Say, when you meet a servant girl...... "Shang Qing reads the scroll leisurely," continued. ”

The corners of Xiao Yan's mouth twitched.

Fortunately, she has become accustomed to her mother's speaking style, and her self-regulation ability is also very strong, and in a blink of an eye, she put aside the depression of "I want to drink goat's milk tonight", and talked about the "Four Happiness Pills" with crooked eyes, laughing hahaha, saying that people blush like naphthalene fruit, or the kind that worships ancestors and paints cinnabar.

She grew up in Jingyuan since she was a child, she hasn't seen any peers, Xiao Cheng who is troublesome to her is not counted, although Xiao Cong treats her well, but the age difference is too big, and now she sees a little bit younger than her, beautiful and cute little maid, and she thinks it's funny.

She talked about Xiao Cong again: "Brother is too thin...... frowned, very worried.

Speaking of Shen Qingyi again: "The new fourth sister-in-law, oh no, it's the new sister-in-law, the fourth sister-in-law, she looks a little like you." Well, it's not that it looks alike, it's temperament. Xiao Yan smiled with a pair of eyes, "Temperament Qinghua, this is like you, but you are still the best-looking." ”

Shang Qing glanced at her, "Do you know what 'temperament Qinghua' is?" ’”

"Of course." Xiao Yan was very dissatisfied with her mother's low literary literacy, and chanted a four-word poem in a low voice, "The air is clear and beautiful, the frost is autumn, the cold is high, and the jade is icy." ……”

Shang Qing raised his eyebrows, "It seems that you have a good impression of the new fourth sister-in-law." ”

Xiao Yan coughed, "It's not the new fourth sister-in-law, it's the fourth sister-in-law." "It's as if the fourth brother is marrying a wife again.

"Isn't that what you called?"

“……”

Xiao Yan sighed and said, "But the fourth sister-in-law is too cold." The cold was so cold that it almost made me draw my knife - I didn't bring it with me. Could it be that the fourth sister-in-law is a master? Xiao Yan frowned, his face suddenly clouded and uncertain, patted his leg for a long time, and sighed, "The fourth brother must be the one who was pressed." ”

She had a suffocating expression.

Shang Qing: "......" Can she say that this kid thinks too much?

After a while, she spit out a sentence lightly: "It's not that you are being pressed." ”

Xiao Yan: "......"

In an instant, her eyebrows, which were as thin as knives, were raised, and she smiled proudly, "Of course I'm the one who oppresses people." ”

Shang Qing said lightly, "Oh, do you know how to press?" ”

“……”

The eleven-year-old boy, oh no, the girl, began to think seriously: Do you want to find a few spring palace pictures to look at?

***

Half a month has passed in the blink of an eye.

This day is April 25th, which is the day of "five".

After Xiao Yan sent a congratulatory gift to his relatives last time, he did not "come over every Friday" as Xiao Cong said - on April 15, Xiao Chengzhong went to Jingyuan, but came back alone, and reported that "Seventeen Langjun can't come", Xiao Cong was very disappointed.

Now that there is another "every Friday", Xiao Cong told Xiao Chengzhong early in the morning not to forget to go to Jingyuan to pick up Seventeen Langjun.

Xiao Chengzhong promised.

At nearly noon, Xiao Cong called in Xiao Chengzhong again and asked him to remember to go to Jingyuan to pick up Seventeen Langjun.

Xiao Chengzhong was silent, and responded with a wooden face: "Huh." ”

Duan Yan lowered his head and smiled.

Shen Qingyi stared at the medical book for a moment, Xiao Cong really cared about him, the seventeenth brother.

At noon, the couple had a snack in the study. Xiao Cong has the habit of taking a nap in the afternoon, but today he has no sleep. Shen Qingyi took the medical book and sat in front of the couch and talked to him.

In a few moments, Xiao Yan actually came.

"Brother, sister-in-law."

"Yan, come and sit down." Xiao Cong's entire eyebrows and eyes smiled.

Xiao Yan wore a round-necked narrow-sleeved robe that Tang Langjun wore when he went out on weekdays. Shen Qingyi saw that the clothes she was wearing were still plain and elegant, unlike the robes of the children of the Gaomen clan who had embroidered patterns such as flowers and beads, which was similar to Xiao Cong, but saw that her face was covered with a silver mask, only the bottom of her eyes, nose and mouth were exposed.

Shen Qingyi couldn't help but be stunned.

On her way to Hezhou, she listened to the anecdote of the Xiao family that she had reported with the maid. It is said that most of the Xiao clan's children have commanders, and when they train and march to fight, they will cover their faces with masks to maintain the tradition of the scholar family's white-skinned beauty - but what kind of mask will they wear at home?

Xiao Cong was already laughing in surprise, "Why did Ah Yan wear a mask?" ”

Xiao Yan sat down with a wooden face, "The day before yesterday, my father asked me to bring it, and I said that Jingyuan had to wear it." Hmph, I can't see anyone! There was indignation in his tone.

Xiao Cong coughed, stretched out his hand and stroked her cold thin silver mask, and smiled: "How can Ah Yan meet no one? People can't see you! Such a beautiful young man, only

I'm afraid that people will see it, and I will hit the pillar when I walk. ”

"How can it be so exaggerated as Brother said?" Xiao Yan blushed.

Xiao Cong said: "It's not an exaggeration at all. Ah Shen, did you say? ”

Shen Qingyi said quietly: "If you go out on the seventeenth day, you have to take a five-horse cart." ”

Xiao Yan was dumbfounded, "Why do you want to take a five-horse cart?" "The five-horse chariot seems to be a prince-grade person who can only sit.

Xiao Cong coughed and said, "The car is not big, how can it hold the fruit?" ”

Pan Lang traveled, with a wonderful appearance, and a group of girls threw fruit and car.

The slaves and maids in the study knew this allusion, and lowered their heads and laughed.

Xiao Yan even turned red at the root of his ears, and said indignantly: "Hmph, brother and sister-in-law make fun of me together!" ”

Xiao Cong laughed more cheerfully, Shen Qingyi brought him the tea soup on the case, and said clearly: "Don't laugh in a hurry." ”

Xiao Cong took a sip of her hand and said with a smile: "It's okay, it's really nice to smile like this." He said to Xiao Yan again, "Ah Yan don't be angry, you must know that our Lanling Xiao clan's first Hexi Metropolitan Governor is the 'golden-faced Wenhou' who makes the Hu people fearful!" ”

"Golden-faced Wenhou?" Xiao Yan's eyes widened in surprise.

Wenhou she knows, Fang Tianji, Red Rabbit Horse, Wenhou Lu Bu, is the strongest general in martial arts in the late Han Dynasty princes, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Liu Bei The three of them joined forces and failed to defeat him, and they are worthy of the name of the three armies.

The ancestors of the Xiao family were also so brave? But what does "golden" mean?

I heard Xiao Cong say: "When our ancestor Xiao Wenhou was the governor of Hexi Province, the Anxi Protectorate had not yet been established, and the Western Regions were Turkic, Tiele, Tuyuhun, Huifu, Tubo, and Xianbei Liuhu were rampant. The land west of our river is the place where the Hu people invaded the Tang Dynasty for the first time. Every time the ancestors go to the battlefield, they have to wear a golden mask, ride a red horse, and make a seven-foot Mo knife with their arms, and they are as brave as the reincarnation of Wenhou. Whenever the ancestors go to war, there will be thunderous cheers, and the soldiers will not compete for the first, and there will be no cowardice. ”

Xiao Yan was fascinated when he heard this, his eyes were rippling, and he came back to his senses for a moment, thinking of the topic, "Why did the ancestors wear masks?" ”

Xiao Cong said with a smile: "Ah Yan, you have forgotten, our Lanling Xiao clan is the Liang Shi clan, and the white skin is precious, if the face is not covered with a mask, and the wind and rain in the army, within a year, it will be black skin and rough flesh, and the demeanor will be greatly reduced." ”

He said and laughed, "Of course, there are also white-faced generals who can't tan anything, like my father and my eighth uncle." However, if you have been in the army for a long time, you will inevitably have rough skin, and if you don't take care of it, you will only be ridiculed as a 'reckless man with a cold face and a black face'. Before, all our Xiao clan disciples led the troops to wear masks. Nowadays, the Liang Shi clan is not as expensive as it used to be white, but there are still many people who regard white as beauty. ”

Xiao Yan listened to it with relish, no one told her these anecdotes about the Xiao family, her mother didn't mention it, her father didn't mention it, and she hadn't seen the gate of the courtyard, but she still knew that the Gaomen clan regarded white as beauty, just like if she forgot to wipe her face fat hand cream or something after practicing martial arts and bathing, Qi Niang must be chattering - "The skin is black and the flesh is rough, how can I find Meilangjun in the future!" ”

(l~1`x*>+``+