Duke Zhongguo's Mansion
Grandma Gao held a letter in her hand and went straight to the small Buddhist temple where Grandmother Pei was.
"Miss, there's a letter from the prince! He also sent back a lot of mountain products. I asked someone to collect some of them and put them in the warehouse. I will cook the rest for you tonight." Nanny Gao was obviously very happy. They had talked about the prince the night before, but she didn't expect to receive the letter early this morning.
Unlike Grandma Gao who looked happy, Grandma Pei was happy at first, but suddenly her face darkened and she sighed.
Grandma Gao was very puzzled: "The prince is so filial, why are you sighing?"
Grandmother Pei said, "It's only a dozen days until the Chinese New Year. I received Che'er's letter now, which means they won't be coming back for the Chinese New Year this year. Tell me, is Che still angry with me?"
Grandma Gao had not thought of this at first, but she understood after listening to her explanation. Before she could nod, Grandma Pei had already said the last sentence, so she had to stop nodding and shake her head instead.
"Miss, why do you think so?" She said with a look of disapproval, "The prince is the most filial, he will never get angry with you over a small matter. He must be too busy with official duties if he doesn't come back. Besides, officials like them who are sent to serve in local areas are not allowed to leave without a transfer order. The prince is a loyal person, how could he not take the imperial order seriously?"
Her earnest words of consolation made Grandmother Pei feel better. She took the letter from the table and started reading it.
Sure enough, after greeting her, Pei Che tactfully told her that he couldn't come back for the New Year. In the letter, Pei Che sincerely expressed his regret for not being able to come back for the New Year, and his guilt for not being able to accompany Grandmother Pei. His innocent heart comforted Grandmother Pei, and her unhappiness had long since disappeared.
After closing the letter, Grandmother Pei said, "Cangzhou has always been a poor place. I guess even if you have money, you can't buy anything good. Take a few people with you to pack the things they need for the New Year, and send a few people to deliver them."
Grandma Gao agreed, but Grandma Pei was still obviously worried. She said, "This is the first time that Che'er is not with me during the New Year. I am always worried about him. Since he can't come back, why don't I go to Cangzhou to see him?"
Grandma Gao was shocked by her old lady's sudden willfulness. She said quickly, "No, Miss!"
"Why?"
"Not to mention that it's the end of the year and the weather is very cold. Even on normal days, your body can't stand sitting in a carriage for a long journey. If the prince knew that you had such an idea, I'm afraid he would disobey the ban and rush back to spend the New Year with you. You, please don't make everyone worry!" Her young lady is old and lives a life of luxury on weekdays. She will probably complain within a few hours of setting off. Why bother rushing to Cangzhou
Grandmother Pei was a little angry, but she could do nothing about it. What Grandma Gao said was absolutely right. If Pei Che disobeyed the ban and ran back, she would regret it even more.
The first time he disobeyed the imperial order, Pei Che married a businessman. If he disobeyed the imperial order the second time, he didn't know what would happen to him.
Pei Che and Jiang Miao, who were far away in Cangzhou, didn't know the news yet. If they knew, they would probably write a letter to Grandma Gao to thank her for persuading Grandma Pei. Otherwise, they would be in big trouble.
The mountain products transported from Cangzhou to Liangjing were all sold by Manager Chen, both the top-quality and the mid-quality. In fact, there were some special products among them, which he would not sell. He packed them up and divided them into several portions and sent them to the Duke's Mansion, Feng Mansion, Jiang Miao's second uncle's house, Xiaoyu's sister's house, etc., so that they could taste the authentic flavor of Cangzhou.
In addition to the things, they also sent letters to everyone, telling them that they would not be returning so that they would not worry about them.
Actually, Pei Che wanted to go back to Liangjing at first, but unfortunately, when he calculated the time, he found that he didn't have such a long vacation. The round trip would take nearly 20 days. Instead of going back in a hurry, showing up at various relatives' homes and leaving again, it would be better to stay in Cangzhou honestly, save up some vacation time, and think about it later.
Although Cangzhou is poor, it is still very lively during the Spring Festival. Every day, many people rush to the city to buy cheap food and some New Year goods.
There is a long queue outside the Fengshou Grain Shop every day. Whether they are buying grain or selling mountain products, they all have smiles on their faces.
In such an occasion where everyone is happy, some people leave sadly.
That morning, the guards who were sent to follow came back to report that the group of people from Datong Trading Company were packing up and preparing to leave. From the things they brought, it can be seen that they had hardly sold any of the goods they brought.
Pei Che nodded to show that he knew, and asked about the news of the grain store and mountain goods store of Datong Trading Company. When he learned that these two stores had no plans to move, Pei Che knew that they had no plans to give up their business here.
Manager Xu of Datong Commercial Bank really thought so. During his time in Cangzhou, he was looking forward to the Fengshou Grain Shop closing down because it could not sell grain. However, every few days, a convoy would arrive at the city gate carrying a large amount of grain.
After his business was disrupted, he wanted to threaten to close the store and let the people of Cangzhou force Pei Che. But he didn't expect that this move would completely shoot himself in the foot. Now if he opened the store, no one would come to disrupt it, but they couldn't sell their products. He also sent people to do bad things, but within a day, those people were caught and paraded through the streets.
At present, the people of Cangzhou have been conquered by Fengshou Grain Store. Manager Xu was afraid that if he opened the store now, some people would instigate the people to come and cause trouble. After thinking it over, he decided to stay out of the spotlight for a while and come back for more plans.
Three days before the arrival, Pei Che led everyone to seal the official seal. During the period before the seal was opened on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, he finally didn't have to be busy all day.
Jiang Miao had to take care of the New Year's affairs and the grain store business, and was so busy that he couldn't bear to see him idle, so he came to conscript a man and asked him to sort out the things Liang Jing had just sent. In addition to the Duke Zhong's Mansion, the Feng family also sent two carts of things over, with all kinds of food and daily necessities, and every aspect was considered very carefully.
In addition to Pei Che, Jiang Miao also called Xiao Shitou and Pei Mu over. The two had been on holiday a few days ago, and after finishing their homework every day, they started to act naughty. They either scooped up the fish fry that Jiang Miao had just put into the lotus pond to feed the cat, or took Xiao Baidian to climb the tree and the house, without stopping for a moment.
Every time Jiang Miao wanted to beat them up, he would be defeated by two pairs of blinking eyes. This time he threw the two of them to Pei Che to take care of, and his ears were finally free for a while.
Now it was Pei Che's turn to have a headache. Fortunately, the Feng family sent a large box of toys, which were obviously for the two boys. With new toys, the two finally stopped making trouble.
Pei Che sat aside and opened several letters sent from Liang Jing one by one. He found out that Pei Pu and Pei Min had already agreed to a marriage last month, and they were waiting to make a decision in March next year and get married in August.
The other letters were all sent by the elders to express their longing for them. Pei Che held his grandmother's letter with mixed feelings. The reason for this was that the entire five pages of the letter were all about him. Not even a single word was mentioned about Pei Mu, let alone Jiang Miao and Xiao Shitou.
Sometimes he felt that his grandmother actually treated him as his father, because the way she looked at him always made him feel as if she was looking through him to see other people. This preference made him often feel a little heavy and depressed in front of his grandmother.
"Brother, what's wrong with you?" Pei Mu came to Pei Che, with some worry in his eyes. His eyes lingered on the letter, trying to see what kind of thing would make his brother distracted.
Pei Che came to his senses and immediately turned over the letter which showed no concern for Mu'er. Facing Pei Mu's puzzled look, he realized that he had overreacted.
"Nothing." Pei Che looked around and began to change the subject, "Mu'er, where's Xiao Shitou?"
"Xiao Shitou should have gone to find Xiao Baidian. Among the things grandpa sent, there was a cloth mouse, and Xiao Shitou said it was for Xiao Baidian to play with..." Pei Mu did not doubt him and expressed his judgment.
Pei Che looked at him standing in front of him in good health and confidence, his eyes full of relief. The image of him talking freely was far different from the image of him being taciturn and only looking down to play with the jade pendant. His heart once again arose with infinite love and gratitude for Jiang Miao. If it weren't for A Miao, he probably wouldn't have realized that he was not actually a qualified brother. Whenever he thought of those years when Mu'er was left alone in the small yard to be bullied, he would feel very sad.
"Mu'er, will you blame your grandmother?" Pei Che asked the question in his heart as if by some strange coincidence.
Pei Mu was suddenly interrupted. He was stunned and uttered a questioning "ah". It was obvious that he had not thought about this strange question at all.
"Would you blame your grandmother? She's your grandmother, but she doesn't care about you. Would you blame her?"
Pei Che asked again, and Pei Mu frowned and thought carefully. After a while, he shook his head and said, "Don't blame her."
Pei Che looked into his clear eyes and knew that he was telling the truth.
"Why?"
Pei Mu thought for a moment and said, "Because I don't care about her. If I don't care about her, I won't blame her."
In Pei Mu's heart, his only relatives are his brother, Miao Ge and Xiao Shitou. As long as they treat him well, he doesn't care about others. What does it matter if they treat him well or not? Who cares how a stranger treats you
Pei Che opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say. Was he going to say that his grandmother didn't do this on purpose, and that she was just angry at him because she suddenly lost her child? But what was Mu'er's fault? When his grandmother lost her son and daughter-in-law, he also lost his parents.
Perhaps the best way for them to deal with it is to treat each other as strangers. Because he could not convince his grandmother to change her attitude towards Mu'er, nor could he force Mu'er to please the person who had always ignored him.
Pei Che couldn't sleep at night, but he didn't dare to toss and turn for fear of waking Jiang Miao again. He just stared at the dark ceiling of the bed with wide eyes.
However, after sleeping in the same bed for so many days, Jiang Miao could already distinguish his breathing in different states. Seeing that he hadn't said anything for a long time, he asked, "What's wrong with you?"
Pei Che was startled and said apologetically: "Did I wake you up?"
"I haven't fallen asleep yet." Jiang Miao said, "I asked you to pack your things this morning, and you're still depressed now, right?"
Pei Che chuckled, knowing that Jiang Miao was teasing him on purpose. He said, "How could I be so stingy? It's nothing. You're tired after a day, go to sleep."
Jiang Miao leaned over and said, "You have aroused my curiosity. If you don't tell me, I won't be able to sleep all night."
Pei Che didn't want to say it, fearing that Jiang Miao would think he was being hypocritical. But if he didn't say it now, the consequences would be more serious, so he told her what happened in the morning.
Jiang Miao was silent for a while after hearing this, then he said, "Everyone has their own fate. Even among relatives, there will be differences in closeness. If there is no fate between them, then don't force them to get along. I was raised by my grandparents since I was a child. My parents are still alive, but they have formed new families. No one wants me and they never come back to see me. So, I have always regarded them as dead. If biological parents can do this, what about those who are a generation apart? Treating each other as strangers is the best choice."
Pei Che listened patiently. It turned out that A Miao had experienced such an experience. He didn't know what kind of cruel parents would not want such a well-behaved and sensible child. In such an environment, A Miao could still live such a positive and optimistic life, which made him admire him a little.
But didn't A Miao's parents die after giving birth to Little Stone? Jiang Miao suddenly froze, realizing that he had let the cat out of the bag. His heartbeat quickened, as if it was about to jump out of his mouth.
Just when he was wondering what excuse to make up to make up for it, Pei Che suddenly hugged him and said, "I understand, A Miao. Thank you for making up a story to comfort me."
"Haha... Yeah! Go to sleep!" Jiang Miao didn't expect Pei Che to be so easy to fool, and slid down the ladder he gave her.
Pei Che smiled, said "OK", and closed his eyes. Holding Jiang Miao's slightly stiff body, Pei Che thought: There are so many flaws in A Miao's body that he can't count them all. Could he think that this is the first time he has been exposed
(End of this chapter)