As soon as the boat arrived at Yangsu Ferry, Zhuangzi's master came to greet him. They placed me in Zhuangzi properly and never asked me a word about my whereabouts.
I stayed here for a few days, and it started to rain heavily outside. Late one night, I had another nightmare, and then I sat up in shock. The attendant who was sleeping in the side room heard the movement and quickly got up with the lamp.
"Master Shen." He approached and called out hesitantly. My chest heaved violently, and I didn't wake up until he touched my shoulder.
"Master Shen, you, why are you... crying?" he asked.
It was only then that I realized that I didn't know when, but tears flowed down my face. I raised my sleeves and wiped away my tears and sweat. After a while, the fear and sadness lingering in my heart gradually faded away. The attendant guarded me to lie down, and when he tucked me in, he said: "Master Shen hasn't slept very well these past few nights, he's always talking in his sleep."
I asked, "What did I say?"
The attendant thought for a while: "The villain can't hear clearly, I can only hear it... Guan, there is wind or something..."
I slowly closed my eyes, lay down on my side, and said softly: "It's nothing, you can go down."
For this Northern Expedition, Xu's eldest son was granted the title of Commander-in-Chief, and he was awarded the Tiger Talisman to lead the army in the battle. Wuxu is not as numerous as our army, but I heard that Wuxu's men are all brave and good at fighting, especially, the Khan who just came to the throne is not only a god of soldiers, but also very cunning and resourceful. It is said that he only brought 10,000 elite soldiers and defeated Heavy defense in the north, invading three cities.
I had nightmares for several days in a row, and my spirit was a little weak. The servant boiled the decoction for nourishing Qi and invigorating the spirit. I drank it for a few days, and it was really effective, and I no longer tossed and turned at night.
I stopped talking in my sleep, but the heavy rain never stopped. Soon, it was heard that the upper reaches of the Yanjiang River broke its embankment, and the river flooded, flooding several places.
The Yanjiang River flooded every few years, and it has always been difficult for local water control. During this period, I stayed in Zhuangzi all the time and didn't go anywhere. Firstly, it was because of the flood, and secondly, it was difficult to maintain public security due to the swarming of refugees. During this period of time, in Yangsu City, there were people begging everywhere. Along the way, I didn’t know how many times I was stopped by those hungry and dizzy children. hard working.
Back at the village, I mentioned this to the principal.
The master also sighed and said: "Master Shen doesn't know something, those victims sell their sons and daughters, that's all. There is a food shortage in the south, even the bark of the tree has been eaten clean, and there are people who exchange their sons for food. It's really inhumane. .”
I pondered and said: "I saw that the granary in the village is full, and there are even moths. So why don't you open the granary and donate, wouldn't it be a waste to keep it?"
The chief hesitated and couldn't explain why, and then said: "There is a surplus of food in the village for donation, but the number of victims is so large, it is easy to invite looting, and in addition, villains, villains don't dare to make decisions on their own... "
What he said is not unreasonable.
I have been traveling around for a year and a half. Along the way, I have seen proud sons and daughters, the gardens are full of spring, and I have also experienced the sophistication of people and the coldness of the world. In this world, not all flowers are blooming like brocade, nor is it all dark.
After thinking about it for a few days, I ordered someone to go to the local yamen with Xu's jade token.
With the government sending people to guard, the matter of giving alms will naturally be much smoother. The local magistrate was also quite capable, and ordered the cook to set up a pergola outside the Yamen, and those who came to receive the porridge every day had to be registered in the register. Several big households in Yangsu City heard the news that they wanted to sell the face of the government, and they also opened warehouses to donate to alleviate the disaster.
Until June, when the tide receded, various places gradually improved, and luckily there were no disturbances in Yangsu City.
Soon, I secretly found out that the head of the village was full of private pockets, and he was arrested before he destroyed the evidence.
I asked people to hand over the master who made the mistake to the government, so that Zhuangzi would be short of someone to take care of him. The letter brought back by the person sent to Beijing only stated that if Mrs. Shen is willing to take care of it, please stay. If you don't want to, you can stay or stay as you like.
I touched the flowing handwriting and sat quietly for half a day.
I was penniless when I married into Xu's residence, and I was also penniless when I left. Along the way, I have also been taken care of by the Xu family. I have always been self-aware. Whether I want to have anything to do with it or not, this matter can be regarded as the Xu family's kindness to me, and I should return the favor.
In this way, I stayed in Yangsu's Zhuangzi, and it would not be too late to leave until Beijing sent a new steward.
There are more than one hundred people in this village, and there are more than twenty shops. After all, I am young, and they don't know who I was before, and there are people who are dissatisfied. Fortunately, I once learned stewardship from Zhang Yuan, and walked with him for three months. Although I can't learn very well, I only have six points, which is more than enough to manage this small Zhuangzi. Furthermore, the two servants left by Zhang Yuan are also very capable. After all, they were trained by the chief manager. To be honest, I am only in the light of them.
However, I never thought that this delay would last for several months.
In a blink of an eye, it's the end of the year again.
As soon as I finished talking about something, I returned to Yangsu City from a neighboring county before the city gate was closed. I was sitting in the carriage, holding a stove in my hand, when I was in a trance, the carriage suddenly shook.
"What's going on?" The servant opened the curtain and asked with his head out.
The coachman panicked: "Just now there was a desperate—"
The attendant called "Master Shen", and I said, "Go down and have a look." After a while, he came back and said, "Master Shen, he is a child, luckily he stopped in time, and he should be fine."
Hearing this, I got up and got out of the car. In the snow, a young boy about seven or eight years old was standing. He was thin and shivering in the cold wind. When he saw me, he knelt down with a "plop" and begged: "I beg Master Shen to save my father!"
"Who is your father? It's really a shame to disturb my Lord Shen." The boy servant couldn't help but sarcastically said.
When the young man heard it, his face turned red, but he said boldly: "I heard that Mr. Shen of Jinxiu Village is a great kind man..." Then he kowtowed, "I beg Mr. Shen to be merciful and save me." My father! The villain is willing to be an ox or a horse for Master Shen in return for his great kindness!"
I stopped the attendant and didn't let him go any further: "You don't need to be a cow or a horse." I said, "Come on, let me go and have a look."
Just now, I noticed that the boy called "Daddy". Generally speaking, children refer to their biological father as father, and the title "A Dae" is more common between children and fathers.
I followed the boy to a grass shed. The shed was leaking from all sides, and it was actually colder inside than outside. I saw a skinny man lying on the kang.
Seeing us waiting, his eyes showed panic, thinking that the child had caused trouble, and before he could ask for mercy, he coughed heavily. I looked around here, and seeing him like this again, felt pity secretly, so I ordered someone to invite the doctor, and I also asked the servants to bring the stove to light the fire.
After the man drank the medicine, a trace of blood finally appeared on his face. After he regained his composure, he was about to kneel down to me: "Thank you, little man... thank you, sir..."
I was not afraid of contagious disease, so I supported him and said, "You don't need to thank me, I'm not an adult."
The young man patted his father on the back and said, "Father, he is Master Shen. They all said that Master Shen is a good man, and he really is."
"Shen..." the man murmured, his eyes lit up suddenly, "Your Excellency... are you the son of the Shen family?"
I was taken aback, I didn't expect this person to know the Qi clan of the four families in central Beijing. He thought he was too excited, so he coughed again. I brought hot water and asked him to drink it, and I saw that his lips were bruised and purple, I am afraid that the time is not long, but there is a strange light in his eyes.
"Small... The villain was originally the husband of the Fan family in Beijing. Back then... the case of Empress Chen, the Fan family was also implicated..." he said intermittently. When I heard this, I couldn't help being surprised. It turned out that this person was once Fan's wife. It is said that back then, it was Fan Xiurong who brought the poison himself, which killed Empress Chen, so the Xie family ransacked the family's home. Although the Fan family was only a small household in Beijing, even if innocent people were involved, they would not escape. The entire Fan family was exiled. As the husband of the wife, the fate can be imagined.
Just look, he is only in his twenties, but his face is as old as forty or fifty years old.
In fact, this world is not just unfair to the scorpion. In the final analysis, those who have a low status cannot help themselves. But as a scorpion, it will be even more miserable to fall into this field.
He grabbed my wrist abruptly, and said desperately: "Villain, villain, I have a merciless request." He pushed the child beside me to my eyes, and said, "This place... is originally a wedge from Fan's family. Ask for riches and honor, only for Master Shen...give him a bite of food!"
I turned to the boy. But he looked at his own father, then looked at me timidly, and called softly: "Father?"
That "Daddy" made me dizzy.
In a trance, I seemed to see the bright red swaddle, and I could vaguely hear that crisp giggling...
"Master Shen, someone brought it here."
My heart trembled, and I opened my eyes. It was snowing outside, and the servants in the village brought a child over. He was dressed in linen and filial piety, with red eyes drooping. As soon as he saw me, he knelt down and bowed deeply to me.
"Get up, get up quickly." I walked over and helped the child up.
Holding back his tears, he choked up and said, "My father is gone."
I raised my sleeve and wiped the tears from his eyes: "I know."
I took that child in, and after Fan was convicted, he changed his name to Meng Qing after his father's surname. I left Meng Qing in the village, gave him enough food and clothing, and asked a gentleman to come and teach him how to read and write. Wei Zi was born with extraordinary intelligence, and he suffered great changes, so he is calmer and more sensible than ordinary children. I also regard him as a foster son and never wrong him in terms of food and clothing.
Since the beginning of spring, it has been reported that the front line has won successively. In June of the following year, King Wuxu Khan withdrew his troops to the north and sent envoys to send Liangju food and grass, and the two dynasties negotiated peace.
"A gentleman takes righteousness as a quality, etiquette to practice it, grandchildren to show it, faith to make it, a gentleman is—"
Autumn leaves are falling, and the sound of a boy reading aloud can be heard in the room.
I walked through the corridor and couldn't help but stop, looking at the child who was studying. I didn't regain my senses until the attendant called me.
The attendant asked considerately: "Lord Shen has been distracted a lot these days. But is there anything on your mind?"
I just smiled and shook my head, the attendant looked inside and said: "This kid is really hardworking." Everyone in the village knows that Meng Qing studies very hard, and he gets up to practice calligraphy and reading every day before the fourth watch. The attendant regretted, "It's a pity that he is the son of a sinner, otherwise he might be able to make a fortune in the future."
I didn't answer him. After all, Meng Qing is the orphan of the Fan family, even if he has changed his name and surname, he will never be able to enter Beijing, let alone gain fame and become an official in the court. However, looking at the past and the present, among the exiled solitons, it is not that there are no outstanding people, it depends on their own good fortune.
The moon is full during the Mid-Autumn Festival, so I gave the servants a holiday and asked them to go out to watch the lanterns. I sat alone in the room and read the accounts, and when I heard footsteps, I knew it was Meng Qing and the others who had returned.
"Master Shen!" When Meng Qing first came to Zhuangzi, he was quiet and cautious. As soon as I turned my head, I saw a young man running towards holding a lotus lantern, holding it high in a rare childish way, panting, "Look, Master Shen, this is what I won. Lantern!"
The servant joked: "It took this kid thirty renminbi to guess the answer to a riddle, and he bought a lamp for only ten renminbi." After that, he poked Meng Qing on the head, "What a prodigal son!" Son."
When Meng Qing heard this, he immediately became embarrassed. Knowing that he is dependent on others, he is more cautious than others. The servant is only a joke, and he can seriously listen to it. I called out: "Tiaoyun."
The attendant knew that he had made a slip of the tongue, and hurriedly bowed his body and said, "The little one said something wrong, please don't be offended, Mr. Meng."
Meng Qing blushed, waved her hands indiscriminately, and then grabbed me and said urgently: "Brother Tiaoyun is right, but Meng Qing is stupid, and he didn't guess it after several times of guessing. I beg Lord Shen not to blame Brother Tiaoyun!"
Seeing him so nervous, I couldn't help but smile. The attendant pushed Meng Qing secretly, and the young man just remembered, handed me the lotus lantern, blushing and said: "Master Shen, this lantern is for you."
"Send it to me?"
He nodded like a pounding garlic: "Yeah!"
I smiled even more and took the lotus lantern. I just saw that this lamp was made so vividly, and the candle flame was as faint as a fluorescent light. I looked at it, and my mind gradually became distracted. In a vague way, there seemed to be a handsome face in front of my eyes...
At this time, the thread that tied the lamp broke for some reason. The lotus lantern fell to the ground and caught fire in an instant.
"Ah!" The servant was startled, and hurriedly raised his foot to stamp out the fire.
Seeing that there was no fire, several people breathed a sigh of relief, only Meng Qing was slightly disappointed. After the servants cleaned up the remnants of the lamp, I let them go to rest.
That night, I was always restless and woke up with a start, sweating profusely.
Early the next morning, I received an urgent letter from Beijing, which only wrote one sentence: The third brother is seriously ill, return quickly.
A little explanation:
Zhang Yuan dumped two people and Sanxi, and said that Sanxi would sell them if he didn't want them, which meant that Sanxi couldn't go back to Xu's mansion if he really didn't want these two people, so Sanxi kept two people. With them following Sanxi, it would be difficult for Sanxi to endure hardships. After all, it is illogical for the three wives to let the master go out to live a hard life, right? He must be grateful in his heart, but this kindness and kindness were not enough for him to go back to the prison (for him at that time), he stayed in Zhuangzi later, and he also had a sense of repaying it (of course the Xu family wanted him stay). Sanxi wanted to go out because he didn't want to be locked in the inner house, and didn't want to end up like San Yiniang and Xiao Chen. There were good and bad outside. He saw all the prosperity of the world, all the joys and sorrows. Gradually grow stronger, and understand the difficulty of fate between people. At this time, I was struggling with whether he would spend the Xu family's money when he left home. Let's not talk about whether it is necessary for me to write about Sanxi's life and death. People swiped his credit card before he opened his mouth. In addition, he can't show his integrity by setting up a stall in the wind and rain and living a miserable life. I feel that the latter is more disturbing and hypocritical. Judging from his temperament, without the Xu family, he would not be able to live in poverty, but with the Xu family's care, he would live better, that's all.