Qingliangshan Prince's Mansion, this morning, a young woman walked out and an old man walked in. Both of them have deep connections with the Xu family.
The old man's name is Wang Linquan, and he was a veritable pawn beside the old King of Liang in the early years. He was even familiar with people like Lin Doufang, so this time his daughter was not able to be the concubine of Beiliang, and she also served as the deputy supervisor of Beiliang City. The old man who was employed was sick at home.
At this time, Wang Linquan was taking a walk by Tingchao Lake with the only queen, Chudong. Looking at the daughter who was still carefree, the old man was both relieved and worried. The relief was that the daughter should not be angry here, and the worry was that her identity would eventually change in the future. No matter how easy it is to get along with the in-law's family in the world, after a long time, it is inevitable that there will be no unexpected bumps and bumps. My daughter is so simple, how can she intrigue with others, how can she do the thing of competing for favor? What's more, Wang Linquan has always disliked the woman surnamed Lu who also came from Qingzhou, and he even sneered at Lu Dongjiang, a celebrity who talked about the Qingzhou very early on. To be honest, Wang Linquan has never made any complaints about the Lu family in Beiliang. , but Wang Linquan also knew that the son-in-law hoped that he could get along well with the Lu family, and even help the Lu family in some matters, but Wang Linquan thought that he was never a sage or a perfect person, and he would never be a bad person. If you can't help your opponent, it's tantamount to defrauding your own good deeds. Fortunately, the young feudal lord wanted to think about it, and never asked him to do anything, so Wang Linquan was happy to play dumb, watching the Lu family's embarrassing blindness.
Wang Linquan stopped, looked around quickly out of the corner of his eyes, and then said softly: "Girl, you will be married soon, and your parents don't want you to run back to your mother's house after being wronged, no matter how close you are to your mother's house , It's just... But if you really suffer a lot of grievances, you still have to tell your parents, the water spilled by a married girl is a bastard, don't take it seriously."
Listening to his father's contradictory words, Wang Chudong grinned.
Wang Linquan hurriedly reminded: "My dear daughter, how many times has your mother told you to smile without showing your teeth?"
Wang Chudong made a lively and playful grimace.
Wang Linquan said helplessly: "You will never grow up, how can your parents rest assured that you will marry someone?"
Wang Chudong smiled and said: "Father is reluctant, then I will not marry."
Wang Linquan raised his hand as a gesture to hit him, but he, the father who was famously doting on his daughter in Qingzhou back then, was really willing to do it, let alone hitting him, even if he said something serious.
Wang Chudong twisted his hands behind his back, raised his head and said softly: "Father, I actually know that even if Sister Lu doesn't become the concubine, it won't be my turn. It should be the woman surnamed Jiang from Xichu, the woman the prince really can't let go of." It's her, but she is not suitable to be the princess of Beiliang. So sister Lu is not easy. Father, I know you are afraid that I will be angry, but in fact I am not angry, nor unhappy. Every time the prince returns to Qingliang Mountain, he will I took the time to ask my daughter about the various lines in the book "Snow on the Head", and said that when he is really free in the future, he will definitely watch me write a novel about his three trips to the rivers and lakes, how to write a hero, I told the prince that it’s okay to write him as chivalrous and soul-stirring, but the heroine he likes must have the surname Wang, and must be beautiful, and the prince agreed.”
Wang Linquan was speechless.
Today's young people really don't understand.
Wang Chudong squinted his eyes and smiled into a crescent moon, "Father, drink more tea with that Mr. Lu when you have time. Didn't you love arty before, dad? You sat at the same table with the well-known literary master Lu Boke, and rumors spread a lot. It's face-saving, isn't it?"
Wang Linquan said with a stern face: "The threshold is so high, your father is old and can't pass it."
Wang Chudong shook Wang Linquan's arm.
Wang Linquan's face was a little heavy, "Is it the prince who instructed you? Do you want me to take the initiative to show affection to the Lu family?"
Wang Chudong shook his head, and said seriously: "Father, no."
Wang Linquan looked into his daughter's eyes for a moment, then finally nodded and said, "I believe in my daughter, and I also believe in the son of the great general."
Wang Chudong wrinkled his nose and said, "It's wrong, it's wrong, I believe our prince in Beiliang, and of course you also believe in your son-in-law!"
Wang Linquan didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and said helplessly, "Father just listens to you."
Wang Chudong suddenly said cautiously: "Father, can we really get along with the Lu family as relatives in the future? The ones that are not far or near, the ones with a little icing on the cake?"
Wang Linquan sighed and rubbed his daughter's head, "Got it, Dad will take care of it. Hey, Dad is afraid that I have good intentions. That Lu Boke didn't appreciate it, and mistakenly thought that Dad had ulterior motives. That's all. That's all, in fact, father also knows that he has a good relationship with the Lu family, in the final analysis, it is better to let his daughter be a better person here, but I always felt that my heart was blocked, and it was because my father was narrow-minded."
Wang Chudong lowered his head, "Father, it's my daughter who made you feel wronged."
Wang Linquan laughed happily and said: "Silly girl, unless they are really ignorant girls, there is no daughter in the world who makes father angry. Who said that girls grow up with their elbows turned outward? Isn't that true in our family? Daddy is very happy, really!"
Wang Chudong smiled brightly.
Wang Linquan said in a low voice: "Girl, your mother is right. Between women, if there is no dispute, there will be great dispute."
Wang Chudong smiled, like a little fox who had just cultivated in the deep mountains and wild forests, "Father, what did you say, my daughter didn't hear it."
Wang Linquan laughed out loud and didn't say anything more.
…
The Lu Mansion, decorated with lights and festivities, ushered in a rare guest who was reasonable but definitely unexpected.
Lu Chengyan, who is light and simple, is a surefire future concubine of Beiliang.
The servants with foreign surnames in the family kept secret about the indifferent relationship between this woman and the Lu family, which is almost well-known in the official circles of Beiliang. Everyone is afraid and resentful, with complicated emotions.
In the first year of Xiangfu, the Lu family was quite prosperous in Beiliang, but in the second year of Xiangfu, it was more difficult, but there was a turning point after autumn, and this year, only spring, there will be a big happy event.
As for Lu Chengyan's visiting relatives returning home, now the Lu family, whose backs are much stiffer than last year, actually have some eccentric chatter, yo, didn't you threaten to no longer care about our Lu family's life and death? What, just heard Said that your father is about to become the governor of Liangzhou, so you remember that there is such a mother's family? I don't know how to be ashamed, so I came here to greet your father at the beginning of the first month? Could it be that you are in Qingliang Mountain, but you are far less comfortable than what the outside world claims? Lu Chengyan went straight to Lu Dongjiang's small courtyard under the leadership of the groveling old Lu family steward.
At this time, Lu Dongjiang was indeed writing big characters with a broom dipped in water in the courtyard.
The proud contemporary head of the Lu family saw his daughter appearing at the gate of the courtyard, and did not immediately put down the special broom. He waited until the remaining small bucket was completely empty, then handed the broom to a graceful young maid, and then took it. After wiping her hands with the towel, she turned around leisurely and said with a smile, "Eng Yan, here we come."
Lu Dongjiang actually had more complicated thoughts about this daughter whom the old Lu family enshrined highly than ordinary Lu family children.
This daughter, who had never been close to her father since she was a child, has too many marks of the old Patriarch Lu Feichi on her body.
Even before, many people believed that if Lu Chengyan was not a daughter, it would not be Lu Dongjiang's turn to be the head of the Lu family.
Lu Dongjiang knew that this was not absurd words. That night at the door of Qingzhou's house, if Lu Chengyan was not his daughter but his son, then he would definitely not be able to take over the humble bamboo lantern held by his ancestor.
More than anyone else, Lu Dongjiang hoped that the Lu family could flourish in Beiliang, and more than anyone else, he hoped that if the ancestors knew about it, they would be glad that they handed the lanterns into their hands!
Lu Chengyan said expressionlessly: "Do you know why the Lu family can produce a Lord Inspector?"
Lu Dongjiang was stunned for a moment, and said with a sneer, "Even if there are all kinds of reasons, at least it's definitely not because of Cheng Yan blowing the pillow wind."
Lu Chengyan twitched her lips, "Looking at the current governors of Beiliang Dao, Liuzhou Yang Guangdou, Chen Xiliang, Lingzhou Changsui, Song Yan. As for Youzhou, Biejia's position has been vacant for two years, only the governor Hu Kui."
Lu Dongjiang answered the joke with confidence and said with a smile: "Compared with the other three prefectures, Liangzhou is now one level higher in rank, and Biejia has been suspended for a long time. Whether it is Tian Peifang, the governor of Liangzhou, or Song Dongming, deputy governor, both I have a good relationship with your father, although there is no mutual exchange of wine, but the friendship between gentlemen is as light as water... "
Lu Chengyan stared at the man she hadn't called daddy for a long time, her eyes were dark, with deep sorrow hidden, and asked: "Does the Lu family know that after having a second-rank governor of Liangzhou, Xu who retreated repeatedly? family, you are about to start reasoning with the Lu family instead of thinking about favors everywhere? Then do you know that your move is equivalent to monopolizing the energy of two entire generations of the Lu family?"
Lu Dongjiang said angrily: "Lu Chengyan, don't forget that I am your father!"
Lu Chengyan smiled wryly and said: "Lu Dongjiang, if I really forget, what am I doing here? Don't you think that the reason why I broke up with the Lu family and put on a posture of never getting in touch with each other is just to make him feel right in his heart." Is the Lu family more guilty? Do you think he doesn’t know my selfishness, Lu Chengyan? It’s not that he doesn’t know, it’s that he pretends not to know! Do you really think that Tian Peifang’s old fox, Song Dongming, is enough to support him? The pillar of a country's government will treat you as a person who manages the world and the people because you, Lu Dongjiang, can write big characters with one hand? Are you stupid or are they stupid? There is no one in the big Lu family who is not open-eyed A blind person?"
I don't know if it's anger, fear, or regret.
Lu Dongjiang tremblingly stretched out a finger, pointing at this increasingly unfamiliar woman, "Lu Chengyan, you bastard! Get the hell out of Lu's house!"
Lu Chengyan actually smiled, "Don't worry, I will get out, but before that, I will take away the hanging portrait of the old ancestor from the ancestral hall, I am afraid that the old man will die when he looks at such a house every day."
Lu Dongjiang stared angrily, "How dare you?!"
Lu Chengyan narrowed her eyes and said coldly: "Lu Dongjiang, since I, Lu Chengyan, decided to come here today, I no longer regard myself as the Lu family, I am just the daughter-in-law of the Xu family, so if you still want to be the governor of Liangzhou, give me I shut up!"
Lu Chengyan repeated: "Shut up, do you hear me?"
Lu Dongjiang's face was livid, but for some reason, he couldn't say a single word of cruelty.
In the small courtyard, not far from the father and daughter, the pretty maid Lu Dongjiang got from Xinna in Yanzhi County was so frightened that she could not wait to close her eyes and cover her ears and squat on the ground.
On this day, when Lu Chengyan with a calm face left the Lu family holding a scroll, no one saw him off.
When Lu Chengyan sat in the carriage, she tightly hugged the portrait of her ancestor, lowered her head, bit her arm with her mouth, to prevent herself from crying, and did not want the groom whose real identity was Song Yu, the chief steward of the palace, to hear.
Suddenly, not only did the carriage not drive to Qingliang Mountain immediately, but before Lu Chengyan went out, he seemed to have met by chance, and also seemed to have a temporary intention to act as a groom for the future princess, so he lightly tapped on the curtain of the carriage.
Lu Chengyan suppressed her sobbing, and asked softly, "Guan Song, what's wrong?"
Song Yu said through the curtain of the car: "Before the lord left home, he told the villain to give the princess a small kit when she returned to her natal home and returned to Qingliang Mountain."
A corner of the car curtain was lifted slightly, and Song Yu handed over a delicate kit that was carefully kept.
Lu Chengyan opened the kit in a daze, and there was only one page with a sentence in it.
Lu Chengyan burst into tears.
This lucky woman who is said to be "a match made in heaven" with the young feudal lord according to the horoscope, this silly woman who once quietly lit the life-changing lamp and exchanged her life for his, this strong woman who independently supported the family's destiny after the death of her ancestors, this can The crazy woman who told her father to shut up, cried so recklessly for the first time in her life.
On that piece of paper, the handwriting was familiar and meticulous, and it said "Don't cry, we are a family in this life."
…
On this day, the civil and military officials of Tai'an City, who had just passed the new year, were frowning on their way to participate in the first morning court of the new year.
Even Yan Guogong Gao Shizhi and Huaiyang Marquis Song Daoning looked solemn after getting off the car.
In fact, yesterday, the two of them entered the palace overnight to meet His Majesty the Emperor. Not only them, but also the prominent ministers from the three provinces and six ministries had gathered to meet. Under the banner of Nan Guangling, he broke into Hezhou without authorization. The tone of the cloud was calm and breezy, but the emperor's suppressed anger was clear to everyone present. In the end, there were not many substantive countermeasures. Among them, Jin Lanting, the minister of the Ministry of Rites, suggested that Xu Gong, the minister of the Ministry of War, withdrew from the Liangliao border and led the elite from the capital to Guangling Road to reinforce the coach of the Southern Expedition, Lu Shengxiang. His Majesty did not agree or refuse. Go south to Guangling, and go hand in hand with the two lines of the servant Xu Gong. There was an elderly servant of the household department who didn't know which tendon was wrong, or he was afraid that the ten thousand Beiliang cavalry would not go to Guangling Road to quell the chaos, but turned around and went straight to Tai'an City, so he told the emperor His Majesty suggested that the king of Shu might as well draw out 10,000 more soldiers from the territory under his jurisdiction. At that time, the young emperor's face changed slightly. Fortunately, Tan Tanweng made amends, and quickly added a sentence, saying that the 10,000 soldiers and horses could be temporarily "loaned to "Xu Shilang from the Ministry of War.
Gao Shizhi looked at the boy beside him whose face was pale because of the cold, and asked softly, "Why don't you change into a thicker fur?"
Song Daoning said bitterly: "I didn't sleep all night last night, and the study room was warm, so I took this piece casually at that time. It's not like you don't know my temper. I probably didn't look very good when I went out. How dare the people in the house come together?" Asking for trouble around you."
Without saying a word, Gao Shizhi took off the furs on his body, and changed them with Song Daoning, like a servant of Huaiyang Hou's mansion, helping the Marquis in front of him to change them with his own hands.
Song Daoning said softly: "Old Gao, you said that if one day Tai'an City can see the smoke of gunpowder, we have to go to the top of the city to shoot the enemy with a bow. Will you die first or I will die first?"
Gao Shizhi poohed a few times, and said angrily: "For those who celebrate the New Year, can you not say bad things?!"
Song Daoning laughed and said, "Take it as a child's words, children's words, haha."
Gao Shizhi lowered his voice, and said, "I can't guarantee anything else. Take ten thousand steps back, even if Gu Jiantang from the Liangliao rebelled, Xu Fengnian from Beiliang would not have reached Tai'an City."
Song Daoning asked curiously: "Could it be that Xu Fengnian really just went to save a woman from Western Chu, just like the rumors in the street? I didn't believe it at first, I just thought it was a joke."
Gao Shizhi gritted his teeth and said: "That guy, what can't be done? Ordinary people, can they single out Deng Tai'a and Cao Changqing? Ordinary people, dare to go to Qintianjian to fight in and out?"
Song Daoning stopped, and asked in a deep voice: "Is the identity of the woman the empress of Xichu, as in the absurd rumors?"
Gao Shizhi shook his head and said, "It's hard to say, God knows if it's true or not."
Song Daoning asked the bottom line: "Gao Shizhi, do you know when the story of the Xu family in Beiliang's privately hiding the subjugated princess of Chu was spread in Tai'an City?"
Gao Shizhi had a headache and said: "Actually, this kind of rumors have been around for a long time. The old sesame seeds and rotten millet have been spread for many years, but it was not widely spread at that time, and it never caused a big wave. But last winter, it suddenly started to spread. There is a lot of uproar in the city, and it is out of control. Your Lord Marquis's house has strict rules, so you don't hear such unrefined gossip. "
Song Daoning fell into deep thought.
Gao Shizhi said with a smile: "What's there to think about? Let me see. It must be that Jin Lanting who no longer has a beard is making waves. Gao Tingshu Wu Congxian and the few helpers running errands can't escape. I wonder Why, why does this Beiliang person hate Beiliang even more than us out-and-out Beijingers?"
Song Daoning sighed softly: "People in the countryside want to compete with the village for water, and officials in the officialdom compete with each other for chairs. It's the same reason. Anyway, some scholars are unreasonable, and you can't say anything."
Gao Shizhi wondered, "Aren't you a scholar?"
Song Daoning stared and said, "For those who celebrate the New Year, why are you swearing?"
Gao Shizhi was speechless for a moment.
Damn it, our brothers are surrounded by the most outstanding scholars in Liyang. If you are the Marquis of Huaiyang, if this word gets out, you will not be drowned with saliva.
Gao Shizhi and Song Daoning walked side by side, "Daoning, you think that kid from the Xu family won't be really rebellious?"
Song Daoning asked with a smile, "Are you afraid?"
Gao Shizhi murmured: "Beiliang Cavalry Army on the west front, Beimang barbarians on the north, and Cao Changqing on the south, if this is the case, aren't you afraid?"
Song Daoning played with taste: "Who just said that Beiliang will definitely not come to Tai'an City to play the autumn wind?"
Gao Shizhi said with a bitter face: "The world is unpredictable. If the young man surnamed Xu is really the kind of infatuated type who doesn't want the country and wants the beauty, then he will hang up."
Song Daoning's complexion was not looking good either, "To be honest, what are you afraid of?"
Gao Shizhi blushed, and said in a low voice, "Beimang Xichu is afraid of a bird, I am afraid that Beiliang will leave the picker and not guard the gate."
Gao Shizhi originally thought that after saying this, he would be laughed at by his good brothers, but he never thought that the Marquis of Huaiyang said softly: "I am also afraid of Beiliang cavalry. Do you think there is anyone in the temple who is not afraid?"