Yuan Rui looked at his sister's worried appearance, and couldn't bear to let her worry anymore, so he quickly said his thoughts in detail, his own family release and not participating in the imperial examination for the time being is a temporary move, the current situation is unknown, so he can only wait for the opportunity. Of course, Shimoda is doing these things for others to see, and the other is to see if he can increase his income a little.

"Sister, what kind of character am I, you have known since I was a child, if I don't even believe you, it will be too much of a thing."

Listening to Yuan Rui's explanation, Yuan Qing's face slowly eased, "Hearing the news, I can't sleep for a few days, and I wanted to ask for a long time, but your brother-in-law said that the timing was not right, anyway, it will not be too late in a few days." Father too, even my daughter doesn't believe it, I know you have been thinking about your sister, no matter when, you can't do those tiger and wolf things," said with tears in his eyes.

Yuan Rui could only coax his sister as much as possible, and the two sat there and chatted slowly about the family's shortcomings, most of which were Yuan Rui listening to her, and the most talked about later was the situation of the Lu family.

A girl knocked on the door outside, "Miss, the master called the seventh young master to the front hall to start dinner." ”

Yuan Qing responded, and then ordered: "Tell my mother, we will eat in this house, you go and invite the second grandmother to come over." ”

The two got up and walked outside the house, and said as they walked, Yuan Qing remembered something again, "Father also mentioned that I want to see if there are any school-age girls in the county, and I am going to tell you about family affairs, this matter is not fake, if you want me to say it, I really have to consider this matter." ”

"Do you have any ideas, you can tell my sister, there are really a few good ones over there, I'll pay attention to them."

Yuan Rui's old face turned red and he said a few words, this was originally an excuse to deal with it temporarily, where would he think so much.

Yuan Qing smiled and didn't say anything anymore, as if everything was under control, his younger brother shouldn't have thought so far, he had said this before, he had used the excuse to push it off the imperial examination, and this time it should be an excuse. But since Yuan Rui proposed it, he couldn't let go of this rare opportunity, seeing that he was about to turn eighteen, and he was indeed at the age of getting married.

Back in the front hall, Yuan Rui saluted everyone again, and even said sorry, fortunately, there were no outsiders, even if they knew the reason for the middle, they didn't care, the food was served here, and everyone sat down to eat without mentioning it.

After the meal, after the second uncle and cousin said goodbye and left, the fifth uncle let the other people to the living room.

The eldest prince was not polite at this time, "Second brother, there are no outsiders here, you still have to tell me about the situation, you don't have to hide anything." ”

Hearing his brother say this, the second son stopped being hypocritical and told the truth of the matter.

Most of the Lu family's business is in Yangzhou, Songjiang area, selling some cloth, silk, porcelain to Zhangzhou Tingjiang to the sea, and then from Tingjiang to buy some goods from the South Seas back, sometimes also go to Ryukyu Island, buy a little local specialties, can have a boat back and forth every month. Sometimes, when you can't go to sea, you will also sell it between Tonghai and Songjiang, but this kind of profit is low, and some goods are sold on the spot, which is very messy, so you can say that you can buy and sell whatever you have in the season.

Last year, when there was a large demand for local goods, the Lu family bought several ships of goods from Songjiang and transported them back to the local area. The big ship from the Lu family to Zhangzhou is almost a fixed route, not only the ship is its own, but even the shipwrights are composed of their own families or neighbors, and they are generally rotated once every few months, so as to prevent bottomless collusion with outsiders to seize the goods, the second is that most of these goods belong to the family, and everyone has a share, and the third is that these people are small and are not afraid to play tricks. But for short-distance travel, there are a group of people who are completely entrusted to the transportation, and there are also those who are released to the dart board, and there are family members who lead the team, and then find some helpers who run the boat.

The Lu family had an accident here this time, and as soon as several ships arrived in Yangzhou, they were investigated by Shuyang Mansion, and some contraband was found on the ship somehow, and these contraband didn't even know the shopkeeper who followed the ship, and they couldn't tell it, so they were all detained by people and boats.

The second son later investigated the matter, and several people in his family were sure that they had not seen this goods, and they didn't know where they came out, so they didn't have to worry about selling the goods at this time, and there were more channels to make money, so there was no need to do these dangerous things.

"I later learned from the government that this inspection was a routine inspection, not a temporary surprise inspection, nor was it a report received. After the incident, my father went to the prefect of Shuyang Mansion, Master Cui, and expressed his attitude, he should be punished, and he should be sentenced, and since the Lu family is not strict in housekeeping, he must bear the corresponding responsibility. ”

"Governor Cui also said that the Lu family has never done anything illegal, and he also interrogated it in detail, and after mutual certification, it was proved that the Lu family's own family was indeed not involved, so it was not too strict, but it was ......"

The second prince paused for a moment before he continued, "Later, I asked someone to find the general judgment of Lord Zhou, and Lord Zhou began to agree very well, it should be because of the fact that Governor Cui informed us, so we paid a fine of 1,000 taels first, and took out some irrelevant goods first." Before the holiday, we went to pay a guarantee of 1,000 taels of money, saying that it was for the insurance person, and we also paid it, and when we were ready to pick up the person, there was a problem. ”

Everyone listened to the second son's detailed introduction to the situation, and they all knew that for a family like the Lu family, as long as it was not involved

Rebellion, collusion with bandits, bandits, etc., generally hurting people, smuggling, etc., at most a fine of money, just push a person out to take the blame, there must be a reason for the small things to become bigger.

"We paid the silver, but Lord Zhou first delayed the time, and later said that he still needed to pay another 1,000 taels of security for the contraband before he could release the person first, and we handed it over again, just to solve the matter as soon as possible. Unexpectedly, in less than two days, Zhou Da's tone changed, saying that the circumstances of the case had changed and he could not be released on bail. Later, he told us that when the government checked the contraband, it found that these materials belonged to part of the materials stolen by the Lu family for the Huai army, saying that they had been reported to the officials a month ago, and they were robbed by pirates during transportation, so the case has been dragged on until now. ”

After listening to the introduction of the second son, several people fell into thinking, this matter looks relatively simple, but there are many relationships behind it, once the response is wrong, it will become the focus of contradictions, and it is easy to become the target of attack by all parties.

After all, Yuan Rui has been doing things for so long, and he also has his own analysis and ideas on some things in history, he lowered his head and thought for a while, and soon had a clear logical idea, turned his face to look at the second son, and then turned to the eldest son, and found that he was also looking at him with a smile.

At this time, there was no need for him to hide and hide, he was the youngest, and he happened to be the first to speak, "Although my father has made a general judgment, I really don't know much about the government, no matter how I find out, we don't have to worry about this matter anymore, I agree with Master Lu's approach, it should be punished, and it should be sentenced, so there is no need to consider the problems of the government." ”

The first thing Yuan Rui did was to eliminate the method and let go of irrelevant factors, "There are a few questions we have to think about, suppose that the Lu family was indeed robbed of the goods, but some of the goods were stolen by a ship-running helper before the cargo ship was robbed, and he took advantage of the Lu family's return from transporting the goods this time, so he put the goods together, and it happened to be found out." Of course, there is another possibility. ”

Yuan Rui paused for a moment and worded it slightly, "Someone may have framed it, whether it is the Lu family or whoever it is, they deliberately put the lost goods of the official together with the Lu family, which is aimed at the Lu family." If so, be prepared. ”

Several people waited for Yuan Rui to finish speaking, and they all nodded, this idea is already very clear, find the direction, figure out the crux of the problem, and then find a way to solve it.

"Then according to the meaning of the junior brother, how should I deal with it," the eldest prince's face was as usual, since Yuan Rui thought very clearly, then he would also have his own thoughts about the current situation.

"First, I don't know if it's too late, go to the prison to check, who of the temporary helpers has also done it to the Lu family, if you haven't been to the Lu family directly, you can also check the relationship, see if the relationship is close, for example, whether the one who often runs the boat together did the Lu family's helper last time, whether it was done privately or framed, the clues are in the hands of these people."

"Second, find someone to find out, what the Lu family has done recently, who are close, the Lu family is not the top gateway in Yangzhou, and there is no key trade route, so there will be no fundamental conflict with the Lu family."

Although Yuan Rui's next sentence was not spoken, the others immediately understood.