Value peace

Chapter 42

Liu Zuocheng didn't want to hang around in this circle anymore, he interrupted Liu Wen and asked, "What's the problem?"

Liu Wen replied: "The one who met on the way was Yan Guogong's personal guard... He didn't show any face at all, so he chopped off the soldier on the spot and confiscated all his goods."

Liu Zuocheng narrowed his eyes and pupils, and calmly told Liu Wen, "Take a good rest", and then walked out of the orchid courtyard quickly.

Wang Shun was sweating profusely and followed Liu Zuocheng into the study again. Liu Zuocheng told Wang Shun in a deep voice: "You should do two things quickly. One is to make a list to see which are important merchants, and I will negotiate in person; The second is to send someone to write an envelope to the head of the family, and use the official post road to pass it to the south of the Yangtze River, and ask the old man to come in person."

Wang Shun kept nodding his head, hesitantly: "Then, Twelfth Lord..."

Liu Zuocheng's eyes were gloomy: "I have to ask the shopkeeper to take care of this matter, and see if there is any way for us in Shengjing..."

Yandi is located in the north of the Xia Kingdom, separated by Jindi and a Songjiang River. There are also prohibitions that "the vassal king should not make friends with his close ministers" and "not leave the vassal land until it is approved". Moreover, a wealthy businessman who started in the south of the Yangtze River, even Xizhao's feudal officials may not have any relationship with Yandi.

Wang Shun murmured: "Should I inform the young master, no matter how you say it, he is always from my own family..."

The "eldest young master" in Wang Shun's mouth refers to Liu Caixia's elder brother Liu Mantian, who was a Jinshi in the second list in Xizhao 285. He is known as a child prodigy in Jiangnan. He is only 33 years old now. A senior member of the third rank has been "excellent" in the performance appraisal for six consecutive years in the official department.His father-in-law Anyuan Hou Hongqi was just a lord who had nothing to do at home, but his mother-in-law was the eldest princess of the dynasty, Princess Chaoyun, the current emperor's direct sister, and the biological daughter of the Empress Dowager Fang.For such a prominent in-law, Liu Sanduo only met once.It's not that the Hong family is showing off, but the key lies in the eldest young master of the Liu family. Like his mother, he looks down on merchants the most, and merchants are the ones he dislikes dealing with the most. When he was a little county magistrate, he once It is said that "businessmen don't care about production, buy cheap and sell expensive, and take advantage of others, which is the root of social instability." The most ridiculous thing is that, when he said this, every year Liu Sanduo gave him a penny of money. take.

This kind of person usually pretends to be deaf and dumb when the Liu family has a business dispute. You can count on him to help you with this kind of thing that can copy the nine clans and destroy the family!
Liu Zuocheng shook his head with a wry smile: "No need!"

Wang Shun is an old man in the family, so how can he not know the power of this, it's just that he was impatient and took medicine randomly for illness.Hearing Liu Zuocheng's answer, he also shook his head helplessly, and said: "Then we can only find the Gu family uncle. In recent years, he has not lost money... His life will be difficult if we cut off our source of income. As he said this, Wang Shun sighed infinitely in his heart: How could a man as shrewd and capable as the third master have such two children who cannot be raised or supported!
When Liu Zuocheng was annoyed, Gu Xiyan was also a little annoyed.There was no news from the palace, and Mr. Gu did not look for her again, as if her running away from home was a dream, and after waking up from the dream, there was no trace, and everything was calm.But she felt that things would not end so simply, especially with Master Gu, the current situation was like the calm before the storm, which was only temporary, which made her feel uneasy and even a little restless.

Gu Xiyan now goes to Mrs. Gu's place to greet her every morning, and then goes to Cui Baoyi's place to listen to her lecture on "Four Books", and then learn some court etiquette from her.After coming back, she had lunch and took a nap for an hour. In the afternoon, Madam Zhao would come to Wuyuan to do needlework with her, that is, to teach Gu Xiyan how to embroider.

Gu Xiyan didn't know how her peaceful life would end, and she didn't know when it would end. The sense of crisis in life and survival made her adopt a superficial way of life.For example, to learn embroidery, she first communicated with Madam Zhao advancedly, summed up several embroidery techniques, and then drew patterns according to the requirements of these embroidery techniques for partial repeated practice, so as to achieve practice makes perfect the point.

Zhao Nanny didn't understand at first, but then saw that Gu Xiyan embroidered quickly and quickly embroidered a pair of insoles that were barely visible even though the stitches were jerky, then she suddenly understood.

She whispered to Duanniang in private: "It's always a little wrong, you have to calm down."

Duanniang didn't take it seriously: "There is no way to do this, let's deal with it for now. Isn't there still someone in the sewing class?"

Zhao Mama couldn't say anything more, so she had to ask Gu Xiyan more severely when she was teaching her to embroider.

There is a reason for Duanniang's answer.

Since Gu Xiyan returned to the mansion, there have been two "door gods" at the gate of Wuyuan, looking inward every day, and checking the ingredients for a long time when they come in for cooking.After finally going out for a trip, the members of the Jiang family were not willing to pass it on at all, which made Duanniang return without success, and she was always suppressed in her heart.

On this day, Gu Xiyan went to pay her respects to Mrs. Gu again, but she saw servants coming and going in and out of the guard garden. Everyone was silently packing up their things, and all the old camphor wood boxes were carried out.

Gu Xiyan asked Liu'er in a low voice: "What's wrong?"

Liu'er whispered: "Madam will personally send the young master back to Jiangnan!"

After entering the house, Mrs. Gu was instructing Ji Yeer to pick up the box and cage: "...Put away this piece of silk tapestry and eight treasures, I will take it back to the master..." When she saw Gu Xiyan coming in, she said with a smile: "Here we come!" The voice was brisk, and the thin cheeks also had some radiance, compared with when Gu Xiyan first came back, she was much more energetic.

The two entered the inner room, Gu Xiyan greeted Mrs. Gu, and the maids brought tea to Gu Xiyan. Mrs. Gu took Gu Xiyan's hand and looked at her very seriously. Said: "Your Majesty asked me to send Panxi back to the south of the Yangtze River. I just took this opportunity to go back to my mother's house. After I leave, you will have to worry about the affairs of this mansion!"

Gu Xiyan showed a look of reluctance: "Your Majesty, this is for the sake of my younger brother's studies. It's good for my mother to take this opportunity to go to Jiangnan to relax."

Madam Gu nodded with tears in her eyes, looking very satisfied with Gu Xiyan's answer.

Gu Xiyan sighed in her heart, and asked, "Have all the mother's things been packed? Is there anything I can ask my daughter to help?"

Mrs. Gu thanked her with a smile, and the two of them sat on the low couch to discuss the arrangement of the family affairs after Mrs. Gu left, the specific matters had not been fully discussed, Liu Er came in and reported: "Master Seventh Uncle is here! "

Gu Xiyan hurriedly avoided to the warm pavilion next to the inner room.

After a while, Gu Xiyan heard the sound of boots and tables and chairs coming from the inner room.

Liu Zuocheng drank the tea served by the maid, and called Mrs. Gu's boudoir name: "Caixia, I'm afraid it will take some time before I can return to Jiangnan."

Mrs. Gu was taken aback.

Without waiting for Mrs. Gu to speak, Liu Zuocheng asked, "What has Mr. Gu been up to these days? I begged to see you a few times but said I'm not at home."

Madam Gu was startled again, and said bluntly, "I haven't seen him for a few days, and I don't know what he's up to."

Liu Zuocheng said, "Can someone let me take a breather?"

Mrs. Gu couldn't sit still any longer, she said in shock, "But what happened?"

Liu Zuocheng said as if nothing had happened: "There is something trivial and I want to ask Mr. Gu for help!"

Liu Caixia was surprised.Although no one has spoken to her in the past few years, she knows it.After the Liu and Gu families got married, Gu Baozhang helped the Liu family a lot in the open and in the dark, but Gu Baozhang was also greedy, and every time the Liu family paid a lot of money, so these three or four years, it was not a big deal. Everyone dare not ask Gu Baozhang for help at will.She hurriedly called Liu'er to come and ask Master Gu about the situation, and chatted with Liu Zuocheng for a while.

After a while, Liu'er came back to report, saying: "Master hasn't come home these days, and I don't know what happened there."

One of the duties of Honglu Temple Minister is to receive the vassal kings who come to Beijing.

Hearing what Liu Er said, Liu Zuocheng had a faint idea, and was afraid that he would guess wrong, so he passed Mrs. Gu and told Liu Er directly: "Go again, go find out what the master has been up to these days? "

Liu'er looked at Mrs. Gu hesitantly. Mrs. Gu frowned deeply, and shouted: "My uncle ordered you to do something, why are you still standing there stupidly, why don't you go!"

Liu'er responded hurriedly and hurried out the door.

Seeing that Liu'er had gone out, Mrs. Gu was about to ask Liu Zuocheng what happened in detail, but who knew that Liu Zuocheng would speak first: "Caixia, have you been to the eldest young master's house these few days? Can you see your sister-in-law?"

Mrs. Gu's complexion has changed, her elder brother is not close to anyone in the family, if she hadn't married Gu Baozhang, she probably wouldn't even have any contact with her.Liu Zuocheng first asked Gu Baozhang, and now he brought up his elder brother. Something must have happened at home, and it was a big one.But after all, she is the married daughter of Liu's family, so she can't express her desire to ask in this situation.She thought about it for a while, and said solemnly: "I still met my sister-in-law during the Chinese New Year. But, if you want me to do anything, just ask me to do it!"

Liu Zuocheng nodded in relief, but did not speak.

The two sat in silence for a long time, the atmosphere was oppressive and contemplative, even Gu Xiyan in the warm pavilion could feel it, she couldn't help waiting for Liu'er's reply in silence just like Mrs. Gu.

Instead of waiting for Liu'er, they waited for Deacon Ding instead.

(End of this chapter)