The Ren family started out by leasing coal mines and operating coal kilns and settled in Youzhou, Yanbei for generations.
During the decades when Youyan Sixteen Prefectures were trampled by the iron cavalry of the Liao people, even though the family property was scattered and the clan withered, the Ren family did not leave this land and moved south with the imperial court.
After that, Xiao Qishan, the fourth king of Yanbei, did not fall into the prestige of his ancestors, and led a cadre of cadres to recover the sixteen states of Youyan, intercepting the Liao people outside Jiajing Pass, and returning the Yanbei area to Dazhou.
At the time when all wasted, Bao Ming, the director of Renjiajia at the time, took out three gold bars that his wife hid under the toilet compartment, and despite the objection of his family, he desperately bought several untouched places in the west mountain outside Yunyang City, Youzhou. Lord's barren hills.
Xu Zhen's family has been running since then. This Xishan is actually a treasure trove of coal. The coal dug up from the four or five hilltops bought by the Ren family is especially high-quality. The annual output can not only supply the entire Youzhou area, but also be trafficked to the surrounding prefectures. .
In addition, the owner of the Ren family is good at drilling camps, but in a few years, the coal depots of the Ren family have been opened all over Yanbei.
The wealth and atmosphere are thick, and the Ren family has since claimed to be a noble family in Yanbei.
After the initial settlement of Yanbei, the number of aristocrats in the Yanbei area sprang up like mushrooms overnight.
In addition to guarding the Yanbei Palace for generations, which is the uncrowned king of Yanbei, some old northern families who moved north after the war, such as the Yun family, and the Su family who rose to prominence in the Northern Expedition following the King of Yanbei, and The Ren family who made a fortune by various means of luck.
The old and new aristocrats are dissatisfied with each other, the upstarts can't bear to see that the old-fashioned aristocratic families are obviously poor, but they still pay attention to the top.
It was not until the King of Yanbei reconciled, and the Yun family and the Su family, the leaders of the two factions, made peace first, and the situation in Yanbei was truly stabilized.
Over the past few decades, although there have been occasional disputes between the new and old families, most of them have been able to coexist peacefully under the strong pressure of the Yanbei Palace, and many have become in-laws with children.
The wife of the current head of the Ren family, Yonghe, was born in the Qiu family, an aristocratic family in Jizhou. Although the Qiu family's father's lineage was not the direct branch of the Qiu family, he adopted the Qiu family's elder brother because the Qiu family had no children. The patriarch of the Qiu clan is actually the elder brother of the old lady Ren, the Qiu family, and because of this relationship, the Qiu family has become more straight in the Ren family. After all, although the Ren family reluctantly ranks among the noble families in Yanbei due to fate, compared to the old-fashioned families like the Yun family and the Qiu family, they are still a little less confident.
The main residence of the Ren family is located in Baihe Town at the southern foot of Xishan Mountain, which is more than 90 miles outside Yunyang City. Although Baihe Town is not as prosperous as Yunyang City, the first city in Yanbei, it is prosperous because it is located on the north-south traffic fortress. It has always been a battleground for soldiers.
The Ren family's house occupies a very wide area, with carved beams and painted buildings, and the beauty of pavilions and pavilions is no less than that of Nandu Gardens.
It is said that this place used to be the ancestral house of a famous family before, but the house was sold at a low price due to the family moving south. It was later purchased by the owner of the Ren family and moved in after some repairs.
Ren Yaoqi has lived here since she was born. Before she left the Ren family at the age of sixteen, she seldom walked out of this place, which was renovated with tiles and painted walls.
After recovering from illness, Ren Yaoqi walked out of the Ziwei Courtyard for the first time, but when he walked under the nine-curved corridor and looked at the mansion again, he had a different mood.
In all fairness, her great-grandfather, the previous owner of the house, had some discernment when he purchased the mansion. Leaving aside the exquisite house, the feng shui of the whole house was excellent.
It is high in the southeast and northwest, backed by the west mountain, and there is the Xiaobai River in front of it. In addition, because of the long-distance, ups and downs and windings of the West Mountains on which it is based, it has become the source of "life" for the mansion, making the whole mansion a place for Tibetan wind and Qi gathering.
The pavilions are like clouds, the houses are high and low, and they are scattered, and the roads and paths echo in all directions. The Ronghua Garden, where the owner lives, is located in the center.
If the land is good, the seedlings will flourish, and if the house is auspicious, the people will be prosperous.
The person who built this mansion in the first place must have been an unparalleled master of quanyu.
It's just that such a mansion can be lived even by the sons and grandsons of the dragons, and although the Ren family can temporarily borrow its fortune, after a long time, it will not be able to suppress its extravagance. .
No wonder she had heard people talk about the decline of the Ren family a few years after leaving the Ren family, and the house had changed hands again.
As for where the other people living in this house went, she was no longer interested in asking.
Passing through the tall gate with glazed tiles and piers in the Ronghua Courtyard, the first thing that catches your eye is the giant Lingbi stone placed in the shallow pool in the center of the courtyard. squat".
It is said that this stone was brought back from Anhui by the former head of the family, Bao Ming, at a huge cost. It is also a wonder of Renzhai.
Bypassing the Lingbi Stone are the three vast flower halls of the Ronghua Courtyard. They are all closed on weekdays. They are only open during Chinese New Years and banquets.
Passing through the hall is the front courtyard of the main house of Ronghua Garden.
The old lady of the Ren family, Mrs. Qiu, has a quirk. She doesn't like flowers and trees, and she dislikes those flowers and green things that attract insects and ants. Therefore, there is only a bluestone ground with neat seams in the entire courtyard, and only a little green can be seen when a small grass or two suddenly emerge from the root of the wall in spring and summer. The rough woman who cleaned the yard was uprooted.
The heavy snow fell for two consecutive days and then cleared up, and the snow was blown into hard ice by the north wind before it bloomed. Ren Yaoqi walked all the way through the corridor or on the ground covered with cotton lichen.
The courtyard of Ronghua Garden was clean without any trace of ice and snow. It had already been cleaned so that only the unchanging bluestone floor could be seen.
At this moment, two twelve- or thirteen-year-old little girls were kneeling on the bluestone floor in the vestibule of the main room.
They were wearing indigo blue winter clothes, the second-class maid of the Ren Palace, kneeling upright and pious with their foreheads on the ground, but their bodies were fighting like the few dead leaves hanging on the branches, and they didn't know whether they were frozen or frightened.
Ren Yaoqi walked past them, and when he stepped on the foot pedal attached to the platform of the main room, he could hear their snot snorting.
"It's Fang'er and Hui'er who are waiting in front of Miss Eighth." Qingmei, who was one step behind, glanced at the two of them and hurriedly caught up with the first two steps, pretending to be mysterious and half-covering her mouth and reporting in Ren Yaoqi's ear, it was not unpleasant to hear. Out with the excitement of having a good show to watch.
Ren Yaoqi turned a deaf ear, standing outside the curtain and waiting for the old ladies to report to the inside.
The rules of the Ren family are very great, especially the Ronghua courtyard of the old man and the old lady. If there is no answer in the main room, you cannot enter. On the day Mr. Li came back, it was because Mrs. Ren didn't give her an order to let her in, so she knelt in this corridor for more than an hour.
Fortunately, the old lady didn't want to toss Ren Yaoqi today, and the old woman at the door quickly put a curtain on Ren Yaoqi: "Fifth Miss, please."
The warm wind in the house came oncoming, and Ren Yaoqi walked in.
The main room of the Ronghua Court sits in five rooms facing the north and south, and the middle one is the Ming Hall, but it was empty at this time, with only two maids standing in front of the carved moon cave door in the second room on the right.
Seeing Ren Yaoqi come in, the two maidservants bowed their knees and bowed, pulling the brocade curtain with the Fu character pattern open, and a slight sound came from the right room, mixed with the scent of a branding box.
It's almost time for the old man and the old lady to have breakfast.
The juniors of the Ren family came to invite Anto on an empty stomach, and they could only go back to the yard to eat after the elders had finished their dinner.
When Ren Yaoqi went in, he saw the eldest wife, Mrs. Wang, leading her eldest daughter-in-law, Mrs. Zhao, to set up the kang table.
On a large kang by the north wall, more than a dozen kinds of breakfast food, large and small, have been placed, and a few maids are standing aside with a few unopened food boxes.
The eldest master Ren Shizhong led his sons and nephews to sit on the top of Nanmu on the east and west sides. The third young lady Ren Yaohua, the fourth young lady Ren Yaoyin, and the ninth young lady Ren Yaoying stood under the south window.
Ren Yaohua and Ren Yaoqi are in the same courtyard, but they have never come in and out together when they come to the Ronghua courtyard to ask for safety. When Ren Yaohua was in Ren's house, half of each month he lived in the warm pavilion in the east of Ronghua Courtyard, and when he lived in Ziwei Courtyard, he came every day earlier than her.
Ren Yaoqi swept the room and bowed his head to greet the elders.
The eldest lady turned her head to look at her and smiled and said, "The fifth girl is in good health? The old lady also said yesterday that she wants you to rest for a few more days, so you don't have to rush over in the morning and evening."
Ren Yaoqi lowered his head and said, "It's all done. If you don't get lazy, you can't justify it."
The eldest lady smiled and nodded: "Good boy. Don't forget your Aunt Fang's credit for recovering so quickly. Although the aunt is in charge of the house, it is entirely up to you to ask a doctor for medicine this time. Your aunt is making a case."
Ren Yaoqi glanced at the eldest wife, smiled, bowed her head and said yes.
The wife of the Wang family has a good reputation in the Ren family, and she handles things fairly with clear rewards and punishments.
Open one eye and close one eye if you shouldn't.
She doesn't take the credit, and naturally she doesn't have to bear the responsibility.
After Ren Yaoqi and the eldest wife had finished chatting, they walked under the south window and stood with Ren Yaohua and the others, and bowed their knees to salute the third and fourth misses, Ren Yaohua and Ren Yaoyin, who were older than her.
Ren Yaohua turned a blind eye to her as always, but the fourth young lady, Ren Yaoyin, smiled kindly at her and returned the salute. Ninth Miss Ren Yaoying, who was younger than her, pouted and gave her a hasty salute reluctantly. Ren Yaoqi just nodded and stood beside Ren Yaoyin.