Picturesque Rivers and Mountains in the Red Chamber

Chapter 224 Chapter 4.20 Laner meets her uncle
Volume Four

4.20 Laner meets her uncle
Zhou Yang naturally thought carefully about handing over the Jingcheng Xue brand business to Li Wan, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Zhou Yang relies entirely on himself in the capital and has no substantial power. This is not because he does not want to do it, but because of his status, he simply cannot sustain himself in the Four-Nine Cities where officials are worse than dogs and clans are everywhere; under such circumstances , the only one he can trust and rely on is his own sister.

Dongfang Bing is naturally the most outstanding one, but the problem is that her current identity and job have already determined that she will not have enough time to spend on business; Zhao Qiying is second, but she will follow her to Daye in the future; Yingchun’s character determines , she is not the one to lead the party, and then there will be no
Princess Yongchang?Even if we don't mention the royal secret guards in her hands, it's hard to say whether she is considered "my sister" now. At most, she can be asked to help take care of her before leaving; and as for Fu Qiufang, let's forget about it; think again and again. After all the calculations, it turned out that only Li Wan was reliable.

In terms of ability, as the daughter-in-law of the former steward of the Rongguo Mansion, her abilities have been proven and recognized by the older generation of servants in the Jia Mansion; in terms of character, it can be analyzed from the original work that she should be calm and cruel when she should be. There will be no hesitation at all; the only problem is identity. After all, she is still the granddaughter-in-law of the second wife of Rongguo Mansion, which actually doesn't matter.

Not to mention that the current Rongguo Mansion has long been in decline. Even if it is really powerful, there is no place for her in the huge mansion, so she can only "take her sister-in-law's needlework girl with her" every day; her only obsession now is, It's her son Jia Lan, which is the easiest thing to do, because as long as she takes care of Xue Zihao's business, Jia Lan's benefits will be indispensable no matter what.

Of course, that doesn't mean she doesn't have a little trouble.

"Ziyang, I usually have plenty of time, but it's not convenient for me to come out." After thinking about it for a while, Li Wan understood that it would be beneficial to both parties to take over the capital branch of Xue Zihao, so he didn't say a word about declining, but directly Pointing out the difficult problem, "Xue Zihao's current business cannot be like the three or two storefronts I have left, which I don't have to worry about for ten days and a half."

"Is that Sun Xing still honest?" Zhou Yang thought of Li Wan's dowry, which he hadn't mentioned for a long time. This person hadn't thought of it for a long time since he was punished once.

"Uncle Sun is getting older, so I asked him to stay in the Li family's old house and work as a concierge instead of going out as before." Li Wan said softly, "I also asked Sun Xing and his family to move back to the old house. In the reverse room in the front yard, only Sun Xing and his wife continue to stay at the west corner gate. The two people who use it most on weekdays are the two servants you left in the old house, and they also live there."

"So, I need to arrange three more servants. With so many precautions, Sun Xing can still be used. At least he can send a message - is he literate?" Zhou Yang understood what Li Wan meant, "Let It should be okay for him to send messages, right?"

"Why is a slave literate?" Li Wan said calmly, "Don't worry, when I had to rely on the Sun family and his son, I didn't let him see any problems, let alone now."

"Very good!" Zhou Yang smiled and nodded. Since he didn't have to worry about him peeking, he turned to Yang Xin and said, "That's good, Shopkeeper Yang. If anything happens to you in the future, please send a trustworthy woman." Enter through the west corner gate of Rongguo Mansion and report to Mrs. Li. The gatekeeper Sun will arrange everything. Just say that he is an old slave of the Li family.

Madam, your yard is full of places to deal with problems, but the main problem in your house is difficult to solve. How many slaves do you have in your yard now?Can these people be trusted or accepted?If not, is there a solution? "

"When I got back, I used the excuse of 'noisy Lan'er's study' to send the two women in the opposite room out. Anyway, these two old people are of little use." Li Wan thought for a while and said, "Suyun didn't The problem is, I have also seen over the years from Su Yue's words that she does not have a temper that can be kept. I will report to my ancestors to let her out before you leave, which can be regarded as a small kindness.

In my yard, few people come to the door on weekdays. The three girls in the family—well, even if the two girls come, they will only be in the living room or the bedroom, and they will not be interested in going to the east rooms on both sides. , I will arrange the things there; just a Feng Lazi is dishonest and she is illiterate, so don’t worry about what she saw. "

"In this case, there is only Suyun, which is indeed a bit lacking. Will she not be able to serve you and Lan'er well?" Zhou Yang asked worriedly, "Shopkeeper Yang, is there any smart little girl in Shilipu? Buy it. two."

"No need, let's leave it like this." Li Wan sighed helplessly, "I can't get in touch with anyone entering the house. Even if they buy something, they may not be sent to my yard; if they want people to come in again, they will be sent to my yard in a short time. I can’t find anyone I can rest assured in. When the time comes, I’ll just ask two little girls to help Suyun sweep it, so you don’t have to worry.”

"That's okay!" Zhou Yang nodded slowly and said to Yang Xin, who was already pale, "Remember to arrange for two smart women, I will prepare two pairs of cards and give them to you. At that time, I asked them to go to the west corner gate of Rongguo Mansion to find Mr. Sun and his wife with the right cards. They must recognize the cards but not the person. Do you understand?"

"Understood!" Yang Xin clearly guessed Li Wan's identity vaguely, and his face was pale with fright at this time, "Old slave will definitely arrange it, never."

"Okay, don't look like this. Rongguo Mansion is not as scary as you think." Zhou Yang directly admitted Yang Xin's guess, and the result was that the old shopkeeper's face became even paler, "Then the person you are looking for remembers his words." Be strict, I believe you should understand some things, and once something goes wrong that shouldn't happen, you also know the price!"

"I understand, I understand!" Yang Xin began to kowtow.

"Master, can this slave come in?" Fortunately, Su Yun's voice came from the door, which saved the old shopkeeper's life.

"Okay, go down and remember to arrange things as soon as possible. I must check it before I leave." Zhou Yang waved his hand impatiently, signaling Yang Xin to get out, "Also, you can look around the city. Let's see if there is a suitable restaurant coming down. There must be a place for our people to come and stay." "Yes, old slave, please resign!" Yang Xin crawled back to the door of the living room, and then left tremblingly.

"Hehe, who is this old man? He looks very interesting." Su Yun jumped into the living room with a smile. After seeing Zhou Yang and Li Wan sitting side by side on the main seat, he knelt on the ground with a strange look on his face, " This slave has met the master and the wife!"

"Damn hoof, acting like a monster again!" Li Wan finally reacted and almost jumped up in embarrassment. He rushed to Suyun's side in a few steps and lifted her up by twisting her ears. "You know how to play and laugh, Lan'er. Woolen cloth?"

"Uncle Xiaolan probably fell asleep because of the hard work on the road. Sister Qingwen was kind enough to stay and take care of her. She couldn't leave Zhe'er." After saying this with a smile, Su Yun looked at Zhou Yang eagerly, her beautiful eyes almost watering. , his cheeks gradually turned crimson, "Master——"

"Do you have any dignity with your hooves?" Li Wan tried to twist her ears again in shame, but she smiled and threw her into her arms, rubbing her against him, making her dumbfounded.

"You guys!" Zhou Yang's heart felt hot when he saw it, he just smiled and hugged him, and dragged him directly into the study, "Since you are here, I will show mercy, and I have to give you the reward you deserve!"

When the study finally became quiet, it was already past noon. Zhou Yang stood up with a smile, helped the two limp girls clean up a little, and then took them to the inner courtyard bathroom, where they were thoroughly cleaned. When they returned to the inner courtyard living room, Seeing that Qingwen had already set up lunch, all three of them couldn't help laughing just seeing how her little mouth was pouted so hard that she could tie a donkey.

"Mother——" Jia Lan, who was only ten years old or not, was obviously hungry. She was sitting at the dining table, looking at Li Wan with rosy cheeks with an aggrieved face, "Today's dishes are delicious!"

"Lan'er, be good, mother is back late." Li Wan hurriedly stepped forward and patted his son, but then raised his head and glanced at Ai Lang and said, "Don't rush to eat now, come here and kneel down!"

"Gong Cai?" Zhou Yang was slightly taken aback, he pressed Li Wan to pull Jia Lan in front of him, and then pressed him to kneel down, really puzzled.

"Lan'er, kowtow!" Li Wan looked at his son seriously and said, seeing that Jia Lan still didn't relax after kowtowing, "Kowtow two more!"

"Palace Judge!" Zhou Yang frowned, already vaguely guessing what she meant.

"Lan'er, remember, from now on Uncle Zhou will be the person you are closest to!" Li Wan ignored Zhou Yang and still said seriously, "Well, except for your mother, the person you are closest to is your uncle. Listen. do you understand?"

"Lan'er pays homage to uncle!" Jia Lan obediently kowtowed again.

"Palace Magistrate, the child is still young, don't scare him." Zhou Yang sighed and gently lifted up the cute cub kneeling on the ground, "Lan'er, be good, let's eat first. After eating, we can go to the garden to play, okay? good?"

"Well, thank you, uncle!" Jia Lan nodded vigorously and looked at Li Wan again. After getting her permission, he sat at the dining table again. He watched Zhou Yang and Li Wan take their seats, and saw Suyun and Qingwen sitting on the two sides one after another. When he was next to someone, he eagerly said to Li Wan, "Mother, can you eat? Lan'er is hungry!"

The meal was so heartwarming. Seeing Jia Lan loving almost every dish, Zhou Yang felt that his heart was about to be warmed. It was like a real family at the table, picking up each other's dishes and helping each other. They all felt it. Unprecedented warmth.

"Palace Judge, in the future -" After dinner, Zhou Yang watched Jia Lan follow Qingwen to the garden happily, then turned to look at Li Wan and said softly, "If you can, are you willing? "

"Of course I do!" Li Wan understood what he meant, and said softly in Ai Lang's arms, "If there ever comes a time when you want as many as you want, Wan'er will have as many as you want!"

"What if I let Lan'er's surname be Zhou?" Zhou Yang teased.

"It's up to you. Anyway, he will always be my Lan'er!" Li Wan rolled his eyes at him and said softly.

(End of this chapter)