Yuanba came to the back house where the inner family lived, the Yang family stipulated that the children of the Yang family over the age of fifteen were not allowed to enter the inner house at will, Yuanba was not among them, although Mrs. Zheng strictly ordered him not to enter the inner house, but after seven years, this order has long been forgotten, but Yuanba never entered the inner house.

It was also a coincidence that Yuan Ba had just entered the inner house and happened to meet Mrs. Zheng.

Generally speaking, the husband and his concubine are officials outside, and the wife serves her in-laws at home, which is the practice of officialdom, but since the appearance of the illegitimate son of Yuanba, Mrs. Zheng has broken this convention, and for seven years, she has been following her husband as an official in other places, only returning to the capital on New Year's Day and Mid-Autumn Festival.

Mrs. Zheng is in her thirties this year, and she has two sons and two daughters, the eldest son Yang Jun is 15 years old, and even the youngest daughter Yang Jiaohua is 6 years old.

After seven years outside, Yang Xuangan has long stopped taking Yuanba to heart, but she will not forget, she is a woman, how can she forget that her husband has an illegitimate child, every year she has to review the money given to Yuanba, and others have increased, but she is not allowed to add money to Yuanba, she feels that Yuanqing is a big threat to her children.

Although Mrs. Zheng did not forget the person Yuan Ba, she forgot what Yuan Ba looked like, and the sudden appearance of the tall and strong young man in front of her made Mrs. Zheng startled.

"Who are you?"

She shouted: "This is the inner courtyard, who let you break in!"

Yuan Ba recognized her at a glance, with high cheekbones, thin lips, and a sour and mean appearance, Yuan Ba was extremely disgusted with her in his heart, but the slave contract between the aunt and Niuniu was pinched in her hand, so that Yuan Ba had to endure the disgust in his heart.

"I'm Yuanba, and I have something important to report to my mother. ”

"Yuanba?"

Mrs. Zheng took a step back and looked Yuan Ba up and down, that child had grown so tall seven years ago, and a trace of jealousy suddenly appeared in her heart, her son Yang Jun was fifteen years old, but he was shorter than Yuan Qing, it was really unfair.

"What are you doing here?" Mrs. Zheng asked coldly, her disgust overflowing, she didn't like Yuan Ba from the beginning, and now Yuan Qing was taller than her two sons, and she was even more disgusted in her heart.

Yuan Ba felt the disgust in Mrs. Zheng's tone, he held back his anger, and still said respectfully: "I have something important to report to my mother, it is inconvenient here. ”

"I'm not your mother, just say anything you want!" Mrs. Zheng said coldly.

"Well, I have a rare treasure to dedicate to Madame. ”

Yuan Ba took out the small golden knife from his arms, under the sunset, the gems on the scabbard shone brightly, Mrs. Zheng's eyes lit up, and her greed was born, she pretended to think about it for a while, and then nodded, "In that case, go to my room and say." ”

She turned and walked towards her own courtyard, followed by several of her maids, Mrs. Zheng's courtyard was a very quiet courtyard, surrounded by green bamboo, with a pond in the middle, and a small white jade bridge that zigzagged to her bedroom.

Mrs. Zheng is the daughter of the Zheng family of the great family of Xingyang, and has been deeply influenced by poetry, books and music since she was a child, but no matter how elegant her temperament is, it is difficult to hide one of her great hobbies, she loves gold and jade jewelry, in fact, this is also the common nature of women, few women do not like, but she behaves differently, other women are jewelry gold and jade as a kind of wealth, and she is a kind of collection.

She was particularly fond of precious stones, and when she married, one of her main dowries was a necklace made of twenty-four precious stones.

Although she was extremely disgusted with Yuan Ba, but Yuan Ba's gem gold knife made her very tempted, the gem gold knife was in her hand, under the soft light, her white fingers gently stroked the fine gems on the scabbard, especially the rare water sapphire on the handle made her heart pound.

"Where did you get it?"

Mrs. Zheng's sharp gaze pierced Yuan Ba, she was very strange, she only gave them five yuan a month, how could he have such a thing worth a thousand gold? She wanted to know.

Yuan Ba smiled faintly, "Because my regular money is not enough to eat, I went hunting for a living, which I exchanged for a money leopard and Hu Ren." ”

After a pause, Yuan Ba smiled self-deprecatingly again, "I know that my identity is not worthy of such a precious thing, so I will dedicate it to Madame." ”

Although there was a hint of sarcasm in Yuan Ba's words, Mrs. Zheng's mind was completely attracted by this gem and gold knife, she didn't hear Yuan Ba's ridicule, from the point of view of self-esteem, she shouldn't accept this golden knife, but the brilliance of the gems on the golden knife had made her heart irresistible.

"And what do you want?"

Mrs. Zheng stared at Yuan Ba again, she was very shrewd about this, she knew that Yuan Ba would not give her a golden knife for no reason, there should be no mother-son affection between them.

"It stands to reason that I should not make any requests, this should be my filial piety, but I also know that Madame will not accept my filial piety, so I will let Madame accept it with peace of mind. ”

Yuan Ba's eyes were raised, and he also stared at Mrs. Zheng's eyes with the same sharpness, and he said word by word: "I use this gem and gold knife to ransom the slavery of my nurse and her daughter." ”

The court stipulates that male slaves follow the male master, female slaves follow the female master, Yang Yin rewarded Shen Qiuniang to his son Yang Xuangan, and the slave contract between Shen Qiuniang and Niuniu fell into the hands of Mrs. Zheng, although He Ruoyunniang, the master mother of the Yang Mansion, can arrange for Shen Qiuniang to be assigned to the horse steward, but to remove the slavery of Shen Qiuniang and Niuniu, it can only be decided by Mrs. Zheng, and He Ruoyunniang cannot be the master.

Mrs. Zheng pondered for a moment, she knew that Shen Qiuniang was going to ration Ma to manage things, her mother-in-law He Ruoyunniang had already greeted her, she had no objection, she had to give her mother-in-law this face, she had already thought of changing someone to raise Yuanba.

Of course, there is no problem with exchanging this rare treasure in her hands with two female slaves, but she is thinking about how to explain this matter to her mother-in-law, which will make He Ruoyun Niang unhappy, and she has also been trying to ease the bad relationship between her husband and He Ruoyun Niang in the past two years.

Yuan Ba knew what she was thinking, so he reminded her: "It was my father's decision that she was my nurse back then, and if she wanted to be matched, at least her father should agree." ”

One sentence reminded Mrs. Zheng that Shen Qiuniang is Yuanba's nurse and is now raising Yuanba, how can she match people at will, this is indeed a reason, and she can also say that her husband has already removed Shen Qiuniang's slavery, anyway, her husband has returned to the state the day before yesterday, and there is no way to prove it.

The key is to find an excuse, Mrs. Zheng didn't believe that He Ruoyun Niang would turn her face against her husband for a slave girl, and a smile appeared on her face, which was the pride that she was about to get this gem and gold knife.

"What's their name?"

Yuan Ba handed her a note prepared in advance, and Mrs. Zheng glanced at it, 'Shen Wanqiu, Zhang Chuchen', and she immediately got up and walked into the inner room.

Yuanba was a little nervous, his heart was pounding, the most critical moment had come, whether the aunt and Niuniu could be free or not was in one move.

Soon, Mrs. Zheng came out of the back room with two yellowed pieces of paper in her hands, this is the slave contract between the aunt and Niuniu, generally in duplicate, one for the master's family and one for the government.

Mrs. Zheng took the pen and signed her official name in the column of permission to go to slavery below, pressed her handprint, and handed it to Yuan Ba, "Okay, tomorrow you will go to Daxing County Ya to change your nationality." ”

Yuan Ba took the two yellowed pieces of paper with trembling hands, and he only felt a pungency in his nose, and tears couldn't help but burst out of his eyes.

Yuan Ba left, Mrs. Zheng carefully played with this gem gold knife under the light, she was very proud, with two female slaves in exchange for this rare treasure, you know, a good female slave in the market is only sold for 20,000 yuan, that is, 200 hangs, and this gem gold knife is worth at least a thousand gold, this deal is too cost-effective.

She gently stroked the water sapphire, suddenly, she found a line of small characters engraved under the handle of the knife, it was difficult to find without paying attention, she leaned under the lamp and looked carefully, it was a line of Chinese characters, engraved: The knife of the Turkic Turkic Khan.

Mrs. Zheng was shocked, and she was taken aback.