"It will lead to the river!" At this moment, dozens of miles away from Xi's house, a group of people were slowly climbing the mound.
Under the mound, there is a wasteland overgrown with weeds. This season has turned yellow. The autumn wind blows, and a golden wave, layer upon layer, rushes into the distance.
The leader of the old man, with a pale face but sharp eyes like an eagle, stroked his short beard under his chin and said with emotion, "If it weren't for the people here to lead the way, who would have thought that this is the site where the river used to be connected? What a great change, what a great change!" "
"Dad, your majesty has made up his mind to reopen the canal." A crisp voice came from behind him and said with a smile, "I even sent you to come and preside over the matter in person! No matter how desolate the scene in front of you is, sooner or later It will return to its original appearance. But why should you feel uncomfortable?"
The speaker was about fourteen or fifteen years old, dressed as a young man, but he could not hide the mood of his daughter's family. His skin was like snow, and he was shining with hope. At this moment, because he accompanied the old man to climb the hill, there were some beads of sweat on his forehead and on his cheeks. She was blushing and looked very charming. She stepped forward and pulled her sleeves to act coquettishly, "Okay, we've already seen it here. Let's go to the next place to see it as soon as possible. After this trip, I want to respond to Tianfu's search for Jing Yuan. My sister is playing!"
"Even if the old appearance is restored, it will not be able to connect to the river as it was before." The old man said with a smile, half teasing and half reproachful, "What did you say when you set off with your father? You will definitely be obedient, you will definitely be able to You are sensible, you will never disturb your father when he is running errands for His Majesty, and you will do your best to help your father... But you have only walked a few places, and you are tired of it? Yaonv, you don't mean what you say, but you can't !”
This girl was obviously used to being pampered. She didn't care when she heard this and continued to coquettishly say: "How did I know that this road would be so remote? It was so easy to find a decent restaurant to have a meal in the past two days. We met a frustrated dandy! The most hateful thing is that after asking around in the past two days, people outside said that some of the waiters have offended us because they don’t have eyes! This is really funny: although we are traveling in hiding this time, we are all accompanied by servants and guards. Come on, who is stupid enough to see our formation and still dare to neglect us?! It’s obvious that he’s trying to force an innocent guy to take over!”
At this point, she was still a little angry and snorted, "If Wen Xianyun hadn't been so sensible, I really wanted to clean up the Wen family!"
"Don't talk nonsense like this!" The old man looked at her with a smile on his face, but when he heard the last sentence, he frowned and warned, "Don't forget the errand your Majesty gave me as a father!"
Seeing his daughter looking at him in confusion, he sighed helplessly, "Did you say that the dredging of the Huihui River was done just because my father came over for a trip and summoned the craftsmen to do the work? Not to mention that the river has been blocked for many years, and there have been many changes in the past. There are many changes in the terrain. It is such a big project to repair it to the point where it can be opened to navigation again! Let’s talk about your Majesty’s purpose of opening the North-South Canal... When we left Yingtian Mansion, what was the noise there like? Have you heard something about it?"
"Although His Majesty is resolute, there are quite a few ministers in the temple, and behind them are the powerful and wealthy households in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, including those officials who have been protected by His Majesty the Emperor Taizu's edict... Who is not opposed to moving the capital?" the old man mumbled, "If you can't convince your Majesty, how could they not do anything else? The Wen family is the leading wealthy family in Dongchang Prefecture. It is considered a wealthy family in the whole of Shandong."
"If they are willing to support this matter, they will dredge the river. They will get twice the result with half the effort!"
"If they deliberately cause trouble... although the court has its own thunderous means to deal with them, it will be troublesome."
He glanced at his daughter who was curling her lips and said in amusement, "That's not the case. My father had already killed those two dudes who dared to take advantage of the family to tease you. Will he still give Wen Xianyun a chance to apologize?"
Yaonv said: "If you don't kill those two dandies, they will definitely go out to tease others in the future! The others will inevitably suffer a loss if they don't have a powerful elder like you, daddy to rely on! Wouldn't it be a disaster to keep them?"
He added, "That Wen Xianyun is different from them. He seems to be very polite. In the past two days, I heard from people below that he is dedicated to his fiancée and her family. He is considerate and has a recognized good character... which is really strange. , those two dandies who bumped into us are said to be his cousins? They come from the same family, with such a big difference in personality, the Wen family's upbringing obviously has some shortcomings. "
The old man smiled and said: "Then Wen Xianyun is indeed good, but his character is not necessarily... Yaonv, you haven't been searching carefully enough for the past two days: you only know that the two dudes who teased you are Wen Xianyun's cousins." Brothers, but they didn't know that Wen Xianyun's father and the fathers of the two brothers had competed for the position of the head of the Wen family in the early years. In the end, Wen Xianyun's father won, but it was said that the victory was very difficult at the beginning, so over the years, I am always on guard, for fear of being overturned by my opponent.”
"After those two dandies offended us, Wen Xianyun was very obedient. It seemed that as long as we could calm down, any conditions would be acceptable... Do you really think that he was asking for forgiveness regardless of the cost? You must know that everything he has offered these days is... From those dandy parents!"
"Not only that, no matter what those dandy parents think, they have to admit that they owe Wen Xianyun a huge favor!"
"You said if there is any dispute between the two parties in the future, how can they not be short of breath?"
After the Yaonv was stunned for a while, she said: "But didn't they find it themselves? If they had taught their children well early, how could they have caused such a disaster?"
He added, "Moreover, the two families had enmity in the past, but Wen Xianyun was still willing to mediate for them. Although he was not selfless, he always took the overall situation into consideration."
The old man smiled: "Then let me tell you one more thing, father: when you were in Luofengpo, you were still a little resentful of the Wen family, so you asked who owned the shops on the busiest street there. , did you say anything about beating up the Wen family? What did Wen Xianyun do after that?"
Without waiting for his daughter to ask, he said to himself, "He planned to sell all those shops to his prospective father-in-law! He also bribed his father-in-law's people and instigated Xi Zongwang to lose all his money to buy the shops!"
Yaonv's eyes suddenly widened: "What?! Doesn't he like his fiancée very much?! How could he treat his in-laws like this?!"
"Like it?" the old man said disdainfully, "My father has also inquired about his engagement with the Xi girl in the past two days: the Xi girl's only brother is the most outstanding scholar in Dongchang Mansion in recent years. He was already a scholar at the age of five, and he was almost the one who was the head of the crime! After the Wen family heard the news, they were almost entangled in every possible way to get married! "
"However, although the talent for studying is good, the fortune is not enough. He just passed the provincial examination a few days ago and the person is gone!"
"Without such a promising future brother-in-law, how could the Wen family continue to let Wen Xianyun marry that daughter of the Xi family?"
"It's just that they had pestered the Xi family to agree to this marriage in the first place, and it wasn't the Xi family who took the initiative to get involved with them! If they break off the engagement because they have lost the seeds of studying, even if the Wen family is powerful in Dongchang Mansion, the people below will inevitably discuss it. !”
He smiled, "I don't know if this idea came from Wen Xianyun himself or from the elders in his family, but it is quite vicious! This is a deliberate attempt to force everyone in the Xi family to death so that they can escape easily!" "
Yaonv reminded: "Dad, if Wen Xianyun values reputation very much and the Xi family falls into a situation of bankruptcy, if he doesn't care, won't people outside say the same thing about him?"
The old man laughed: "Yonv, you are so naive! Do you think Wen Xianyun's methods will end here? Just look at it, no one in the Xi family will survive! And Wen Xianyun can take advantage of this opportunity. This is an opportunity to confidently eliminate a group of people he doesn't like! To be honest, this plan is all this kid's own idea. He is really a talent! If he is willing to follow his father, he will definitely not treat him badly. of!"
The youngest daughter was unhappy: "If what you guess is true, I don't want such a person to follow you, daddy! He is not a good person!"
"A good person?" The old man laughed dumbly and said, "If you think about it from the perspective of the Xi family, of course Wen Xianyun is not a thing. But if you think about it from the perspective of the Wen family, Wen Xianyun is not an ordinary member of the Wen family. , he is the eldest son! His wife will be the mistress of the Wen family in the future! In this case, if he marries the daughter of an ordinary squire family, or even the elder and younger of the in-law family, it would be great if it does not hinder him! "
"Do you think this is what Zongzi should do?"
"And if he breaks off the engagement, shouldn't he cherish the reputation of the Wen family that has been operating in Dongchang Mansion for many years?"
"This man is not a good son-in-law, but he is a qualified eldest son... So what's wrong with my father wanting to use him?"
Seeing that his daughter was still pouting, he shook his head fondly, "You kid! You promised to go out with your father to broaden your horizons. Why don't you like to listen to me when I tell you these things seriously?"
"Anyway, he is not a good person!" Yaonv stretched out her hand to hold his arm and hummed, "I thought he was a good person... Who knew he was a beast in disguise! He is so cruel to the Yue family, what else can't he do?"
One person came to mind, "It is said that Brother Shen is coming here soon? I will tell him then that Brother Shen will invite Wen Xianyun to visit the Jinyi Guards so that he will know what he is doing." End!"
"Don't be ridiculous!" The old man said with a stern face, "Shen Diaolan has received a serious errand to do things this time. This is the wish of their old man, and he even got the approval of the Crown Princess... It's okay for you to bother me as a father. Well, if you disturb him and he doesn’t care about you, their old man and the princess will be offended!"
He added, "Of course, if you are sensible and obedient, and you find it boring to follow your father, it's okay to go and play with him... Anyway, our two families are family friends, and you are considered childhood sweethearts. You are used to seeing each other since childhood, so you don't have to be so particular!"
He said it calmly, but Yaonv clearly sensed the matchmaking intention. She couldn't help but blush with embarrassment, and forcefully changed the subject: "I wonder what Wen Xianyun's Yue family is like now? Poor Miss Xi's family, only I'm scared to death that I don't know what kind of person my fiancé is, who I have a reputation for, right?"
"If that noble man is really related to the imperial court's plan to dredge the Huitong River, then our Xi family will be even more in danger!" But at this moment, Xi Fuwei was whispering to Xi Lian in Xi's mansion, "From what I heard, My family used to stalk my brother after he was selected as a scholar, and I saw that they now have plans to get involved with the officialdom. How can they be so humble to my brother, a scholar, let alone a noble person from heaven? I I suspect that Wen Xianyun has already hooked up with this noble man, and even has ambitions to marry Ying Tian. In this case, he not only has to get rid of me, but also has to clean up to prevent him from being able to marry a noble man. female!"
After all, although the Wen family is the leading family in Dongchang Mansion, it is far behind the nobles in Yingtian.
People from high-ranking families are not fools, and it is not uncommon for their daughters to marry young. However, they must carefully investigate the talents and conduct of their son-in-law to avoid encountering white-eyed wolves.
If Wen Xianyun really had the idea of taking a shortcut because of his contact with the noble man from Yingtian... Xi Fuwei and the Xi family would be nothing more than a stumbling block in front of him that he urgently needs to move away!
This means that the current danger level of the Xi family and the possible storms are more severe than previously expected!
Xi Fuwei bit her lip and thought quickly about countermeasures.