Cheng Chi didn't know whether to laugh or cry after hearing Zhou Shaojin's words. He pinched her cheek affectionately and said with a smile, "Why do I feel like you're wishing I could be driven back home by the court as soon as possible?"
"No way!" Since Cheng Chi likes water management, she naturally supports him. Even if Zhou Shaojin thinks so in her heart, she dare not say it, "I am afraid that I will regret asking my husband to seek a title when I suddenly see the willow trees on the street."
"After all, you just want me to accompany you!" Cheng Chi and Zhou Shaojin flirted with each other and whispered in her ear, "Don't worry. I will take good care of you when I get back and won't let you have any 'boudoir resentment'."
The ambiguous tone and suggestive teasing made Zhou Shaojin's ears turn red.
She didn't know what to say, so she fled: "I, I'm going to go see if the dry food I prepared for you is ready?!"
Cheng Chi laughed out loud.
When Zhou Shaojin appeared in front of him again, he couldn't help but hold her in his arms again, and said softly: "I'm sorry to let you go back alone. I have written to mother. If you are afraid, I will let mother accompany you. If you want to be alone, let Shang Ma accompany you to live in Yuqian Hutong for a few days. If you have nothing to do, you can visit your sister's house. I will talk to mother. Just say it is my arrangement, and mother will not be dissatisfied with you. Don't worry!"
Will this warm embrace disappear in a moment
Is she going to be alone again
Only at this moment did Zhou Shaojin feel the sense of separation.
She felt like tears were about to fall.
"I want to go back to the house at Chaoyangmen." There was their room there, and she would become his wife there. She wanted to stay there and guard it there. "Mother and Madam Yuan don't get along, so it's better to let her stay in our house..."
As Zhou Shaojin spoke, he felt a little sympathetic towards Madam Guo.
Such a strong, powerful, yet compassionate old lady, now old, has nowhere to go of her own. If she doesn't want to follow her eldest son, she can only stay with her youngest son.
She couldn't help but ask, "Can't Mother live with us? Do we have to go back to Xinglin Hutong?"
Cheng Jing is the eldest son, the one who will inherit the family business and support the family. If the family is divided, and Mrs. Guo lives with the youngest son, rumors will spread that Mrs. Guo is dissatisfied with the eldest son and his wife, which will be very unfavorable to Cheng Jing's career. When the time comes to divide the family, Cheng Jing and Mrs. Yuan will not agree to the division just for this reason.
Cheng Chi liked her calling the house in Chaoyangmen "home" and also liked her calling her mother "mom".
"Are you willing to split up?" Cheng Chi asked her.
Zhou Shaojin hesitated and didn't say anything.
Of course she is willing to split the family.
If we split up the family, we won’t have to deal with Cheng Xu anymore.
But she also knew the principle of "as long as the parents are alive, the family should not be divided", and the current eldest branch of the family was different from other families. They had just split up, and she could not influence such a big thing because of her own preferences. However, she did not realize that she subconsciously felt that Cheng Chi would do something for her that seemed unorthodox to others.
Cheng Chi smiled and shook his head, saying: "Shao Jin, I clearly know what you are thinking, do you know why I am still asking you?"
Zhou Shaojin shook his head.
Cheng Chi sighed and said, "I hope you know that no matter how unreasonable something is, you can tell me if you want..."
Just like when she said she was reborn, Shilang believed her immediately
Zhou Shaojin buried his head in his arms.
Cheng Chi smiled helplessly yet dotingly.
There is ample time!
He patiently guarded the flower until it bloomed quietly.
Cheng Chi stopped forcing her, and said with a teasing tone, "I'll give you another idea. If your elder brother and sister-in-law don't want to split up because of mother's matter, you can go and tell your second sister-in-law in private that I'm not at home and you're afraid to be alone at home. If mother lives with your elder brother and sister-in-law, can you bring her to Chaoyangmen to live, and then during the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, when she needs to worship her ancestors, she can go back to Xinglin Hutong..."
Zhou Shaojin couldn't help but hit Cheng Chi lightly after hearing this, and said coquettishly: "You are so bad! You ordered me to use my second sister-in-law as a pawn."
"What do you mean I'm bad?" Cheng Chi said shamelessly, "Even if you want to use your second sister-in-law as a pawn, she has to be looking forward to the separation of the family as soon as possible!"
Zhou Shaojin said, "Rang'er is getting older. The house in Xinglin Hutong was originally small. After my eldest brother entered the cabinet as an assistant minister, he had more social activities. I heard that the study room alone was expanded twice. If this continues, when Rang'er gets married, I'm afraid I don't know where to put his new house. Why doesn't the second sister-in-law want to divide the family? Even if she doesn't divide it herself, she can buy some property for Rang'er, and let him live in Xinglin Hutong when he gets married. But she feels more comfortable when she thinks that she can move out at any time. Even if there are any conflicts, it won't cause a rift between them. How can the second sister-in-law not want to."
Cheng Chi was a little surprised when he heard this, and said with a smile: "So you know everything!"
Zhou Shaojin glared at him and said, "I'm not a fool, how could I not know!"
But since she doesn't have to worry about it on a normal basis, she doesn't worry about it.
Cheng Chi smiled and hugged her, saying, "It's good that you know. Now that you know, I can go to Jining with peace of mind."
Zhou Shaojin hugged him back reluctantly and wanted to ask him "When can you come back?" But the words were on the tip of his tongue, but he was afraid of delaying Cheng Chi, so he quickly swallowed the words. He just leaned against Cheng Chi's chest lingeringly, listening to the strong "thumping" sound of his chest, and gently closed his eyes.
Cheng Chi was also reluctant.
He left his mother and home when he was young. In his opinion, as long as he felt at ease, anywhere was home. He did not expect that in just a few days, he would start to miss the little person in his arms so much, like a kite with a string pulled on it. Although the person is flying freely outside, the other end of the string is always the direction of his return.
Maybe he should really think about how to transfer back to the capital!
The two of them muttered a lot of incomprehensible things, from having dinner every night to taking a walk in the garden to assigning a boy to look after Snowball when the garden grew big, and so on. It was not until Huaishan came to urge them, saying that the horses were ready and if they didn't set off now, they would miss their lodging place. Only then did Zhou Shaojin reluctantly see Cheng Chi off.
At night, she slept alone in her bed with a heating system, but she was shivering with cold.
Where did Shiro go
Did you miss your place of stay
The wind is so cold at night, will Huaishan give him a hot water bottle
He has always been used to ordering others around. When he goes to Jining, will he be impatient when those imperial censors ask him questions
If he was dismissed from office because of this, would he feel embarrassed
Will it ruin his ambition to control floods
Zhou Shaojin tossed and turned, and when he heard some movement in the yard, he was shocked to realize that it was already daybreak.
She got up with a sigh, had a quick breakfast, and said goodbye to her father and Li.
Seeing that she looked unhappy, Zhou Zhen and Li Shi tried to comfort her: "Zichuan is not the kind of rookie who has just started out. He knows when to advance and when to retreat. Even if he is in trouble, he still has his elder brother to support him. He asked for leave to come back and get married, and he reported it to the Ministry of Works. The censor will not make things difficult for him."
She knows.
She just missed him!
Zhou Shaojin forced a smile, cheered himself up, said goodbye to his father and Li, and returned to Beijing under the protection of Qin Yang.
On the way, she no longer had the mood to appreciate the scenery along the way. She only wanted to rush back to the capital, and to return to her and Cheng Chi's home. She missed the post station several times because she insisted on hurrying on the road and had to sleep in the wild. Fortunately, there were many dignitaries traveling on the official road from Baoding to the capital, and there were no bandits. Qin Yang had traveled in the rivers and lakes with Cheng Chi and had rich experience in sleeping outdoors. He knew Zhou Shaojin's eagerness to go home, so he arranged everything along the way. The journey that was originally seven days only took four days to reach the capital.
Who knew that not only did Mrs. Guo bring Yuan to pick her up, but Qiu and Cheng Wei were also there.
It would have been fine if it was just the Yuan and Qiu families, but even Cheng Wei came, which really gave Zhou Shaojin enough face.
She hurried forward and saluted.
Yuan and Qiu returned the greeting, while Cheng Wei stepped aside.
Madam Guo pulled her hand and said, "What happened? Silang didn't explain it clearly in his letter. Why did you call Silang back, and why did you send him back so urgently..."
Zhou Shaojin tried to comfort her mother-in-law, "I heard that the court was going to send an imperial censor to check on the progress of the river works. That was my husband's business, and he knows it best, so Lord Yang sent people to Baoding Prefecture... My husband, this is also official business. You see, my father couldn't leave even to marry his daughter, and the fourth master was able to take leave to come back and get married, which was a grace from Lord Yang, Elder Song, and the court. Jining is in trouble at this time, how could he stand by and watch, and stay out of it? Don't be angry. Water control is a major event that benefits the people and will be a great achievement for generations to come. You also hope that Silang will be remembered in history, right?"
Madam Guo laughed and said, "You kid, you wait for me ten times for every one I say. Just let him do whatever he wants, and don't cry in front of me when the time comes!"
If it were in the past, Zhou Shaojin would definitely say that she would not do it, and would support Cheng Chi in doing whatever he likes. But the separation in the past few days made her feel like she was gnawing at her heart and lungs, and she couldn't guarantee that she wouldn't cry secretly, so how could she dare to say something like "no".
She smiled shyly.
Which mother-in-law would be unhappy if the daughter-in-law is willing to spoil her son
Mrs. Guo was complaining about her son, but she was very happy to hear Zhou Shaojin's answer. She pulled Zhou Shaojin's hand and said, "Good boy, you've worked hard on the way. Let's go back quickly so you can rest comfortably."
Zhou Shaojin answered "yes" obediently, and helped Mrs. Guo get into her carriage.
Yuan took a look at Zhou Shaojin's carriage and said to Qiu disapprovingly, "We all had our husbands leave home a few days after we got married..."
Qiu hurriedly smiled and said, "Fourth brother's wife is young!"
"We weren't much older than her at that time, right?" Yuan said indifferently.
Revealing some dissatisfaction.
Qiu remained silent.
Yuan sneered in her heart.
She and Qiu have been sisters-in-law for so many years, and she has never heard her say a word bad about either of them.
It shows how defensive she is against herself!
It’s better to have less contact with sisters-in-law like this!
Yuan thought about it and turned around and got on her carriage.
Qiu heaved a sigh of relief.
Decided to move out early.
My fourth brother’s wife has just gotten married, so I’m afraid there will be some trouble in the future.
She is already feeling very exhausted now, and in the future, she will definitely be stuck in the middle and feel like a nobody.
※
Dear friends, today’s update!
I'm a bit busy today, so the update will be around 10 o'clock in the evening.
O(∩_∩)O~
※(To be continued)