Two hundred and fifty-eight chapters near Zhu Zhechi (5)
In the fifth month, both officials and ordinary people begin to communicate with each other more frequently and prepare for the Dragon Boat Festival in accordance with the festival and the occasion.
The Chief Envoy of Nanchang Prefecture came to the Shen Council House. The second master's temples were bulging, but he didn't feel any joy for the festival. He glared at the second wife and gritted his teeth and said, "You donated all the five hundred taels of silver?"
The second wife took the handkerchief, wiped her tears and said: "Next month is the birth sacrifice of Luo Ge..."
The second master rubbed his forehead and said, "Didn't you donate two hundred taels last month?"
"That was a temple, this time it's a Taoist temple..." the second wife choked.
The second master said coldly: "So the spring shirt is cut in half, the Dragon Boat Festival is not enough, and the favor is not gone?"
The second wife lowered her head and said, "Didn't the master tell me that we should be more frugal than those in Beijing?"
The second master laughed angrily: "That's right. After being frugal with Brother Jue and his two nephews, and then using them to burn incense and worship Buddha, it has really become news. They only accept gifts without returning them."
The second wife said with tears in her eyes: "What are you doing if you don't burn incense and worship Buddha? Now that the master is arresting me like a thief, why am I not ready to leave? Didn't I draw up the gift list again?"
When the second master saw his wife behaving like this, his anger suddenly disappeared.
What's there to be angry about?
In the past six months, I have been disappointed again and again. What were I still expecting?
Not long after leaving the capital, he had to sneak back to the capital; when he arrived in Songjiang, he was arrogant and rude, offending half of the female family members of the clan; when he arrived in Nanjing, he and his uncle and his wife kept arguing.
Seeing all the inappropriate things, I was frightened and tried to persuade him again and again.
As a result, the wife always made excuses for her deceased son, which aroused his sympathy.
After arriving at Nanchang Mansion, although he didn't expect his wife to help him make friends with the lower-level officials and family members, he didn't want to hurt her mistress's face in front of outsiders. He began to slowly relax his staff and entrust the affairs of the inner house, and also wanted to give her something to do. , so as not to worry all the time. Knowing that she was not good at taking care of the housework in the past, she made arrangements for the mother-in-law to teach her little by little.
As a result, after half a year, I had scattered hundreds of taels of silver and gained a reputation as a "merciful person", attracting female monks and nuns to come to my door to ask for alms, but my family became increasingly chaotic.
The female relatives of the superiors do not like to see him, and they learn to ignore the flattery of others; the female relatives of the lower levels look down on him and are too lazy to socialize with him.
After a few words of flattery from the female monks and nuns, the second wife took it seriously. She firmly believed that in the next life, there would be retribution for her misdeeds, so she changed her ways to collect money, give alms, and accumulate merit.
First it was food, then clothes, and now even the favors and gifts were fooled, and the Zhang family's gifts were given to the Li family without any addition or deletion. If Shen Ling hadn't discovered something was wrong, the Shen family would have been embarrassed.
The second master's body was a little shrunken, and he only felt physically and mentally exhausted.
Seeing the aggrieved look on his wife's face, the second master couldn't say a word except sighing.
From this day on, Mrs. Shen, who was not very fond of socializing due to poor health, continued to "recuperate" from illness.
The internal and external affairs of Councilor Shen's family were all entrusted to the family's nephew Shen Ling.
It's just that Shen Ling can take care of foreign affairs, but the officialdom cannot replace the interactions between female relatives, which brings many inconveniences to Counselor Shen's family. As time goes by, there are thoughtful subordinates who know that Mrs. Shen is not in good health and wants to curry favor with the superior, so she has some gifts. There are also some beautiful maids who want to help the second master find a good concubine.
Although the second master was a bit rigid, his character was impeccable. He did not take any opportunity to take in concubines or maidservants, and he politely refused to return any beauties that came to his door.
At that time, among the officials in Nanchang, some people could not help but ridicule the second master for being "henpecked" or for being a fake Taoist scholar. However, when the official family members of the Nanchang Prefecture mentioned Mr. Shen, they only praised him and thought he was a true gentleman.
As for the three young men from the Shen family who came to office with the second master of the Shen family, everyone was paying attention to the heir Shen Jue. As Shen Jue entered the academy to study and did not show much publicity, Shen Ling became more and more involved. The more people there are, the more people will pay attention to Shen Ling.
Because Shen Ling was still young and unmarried, it was not just one or two people who wanted to get married to the Shen family. However, most of them were concubines from the families of subordinate officials. Scholars were picky about marrying girls, and they disliked Shen Ling for not having any fame.
The wife of Shen Liyang's colleague helped him look after her and spent nearly a thousand taels of silver as a betrothal gift. Shen Ling, the nephew of the family, married a magistrate's eldest daughter who had taken the imperial examination and took care of the housework.
These are all things for later, so let’s not talk about them for now, let’s talk about Jingzhong.
The teaching examination for the Ministry of Rites has also been completed. The three Shen family members who stayed in Beijing to take the examination for the Ministry of Rites all got desirable positions and left the capital to take up their posts.
The Shen residence seemed to be quiet, but the mood of everyone in the Shen family was only cheerful.
The second master's reply has arrived in Beijing. Regarding the brother-in-law's request to promote Sister Yu, the second master naturally agreed. The eldest master and the Xu family officially opened a ancestral hall at the end of April and "adopted" Sister Yu to the eldest brother's house. under one's name
Shen Rui and Sister Yu became brothers and sisters from cousins, and Sister Yu became the eldest daughter of Shangshufu from the eldest daughter of the fourth-rank counselor.
Not only all members of the Shen family in Beijing congratulated him, but also people with whom he was acquainted were paying close attention.
In a family with strict rules, it is still inevitable to be picky, but those who had previously asked for marriage for their concubine all stopped talking and did not dare to entertain any more delusional thoughts. Otherwise, it would be a slap in the Shen family's face.
Although people from the right families still choose Sister Yu, who dislikes the title of "eldest daughter" because the number of heirs in the Shangshu Mansion is so small, people from third- and fourth-grade families are starting to ask people to inquire about her.
Here at the Xu family, there is no such urgency, and they plan to wait until the hospital trial is completed.
In the third room, the fourth brother is already eight months old. After more than half a year of conditioning, he looks a bit fleshy, and it is about the time when he starts to crawl.
He is a child who loves to laugh, does not recognize life, and is extremely lovable.
The third wife often carried her son to the upper room and talked with Mrs. Xu.
The third master, under the persuasion of his in-laws, often went to Nancheng Academy to make friends with some exam candidates.
The entire Shen residence is warm and peaceful.
It was at this time that Shen Rui informed the Xu family and invited Gao Wenhu and Brother Shou to his home as guests. He also invited Shen Quan, Mao Chi and He Taizhi to accompany him.
These three people are all good friends with Shen Rui and often come to Shen's house. Xu is familiar with them. They arrived early that day.
Knowing that the guest invited by Shen Rui was a child from a poor family whom she met during the county examination, Mrs. Xu was not afraid that Shen Rui would neglect the guest, but was worried that He Taizhi would be rude. As for Mao Chi, although he was the son of the number one scholar, his family was a craftsman, he was born in the market, and he had a very bad temper. Peaceful. Shen has been here all year round and behaves thoughtfully, so there is nothing to worry about.
He Taizhi was a nephew and not an outsider, so Mrs. Xu privately warned: "Don't look down on your guests because of their origins. Since he is the one your cousin likes, even if he fails the county examination, his character is worthy of respect. "
He Taizhi said sarcastically: "My nephew has grown up, how can he still be so shallow and judge heroes based on their success or failure in exams?"
Thinking about how he was so complacent because he passed the county examination when he went to Songjiang, He Taizhi just felt that "the past is too painful to look back on", and a sense of vicissitudes of life arose in his young heart.
Here, Shen Quan is full of curiosity about the identity of the visitor.
I originally thought that Shen Rui would study behind closed doors and finish the exam in the hospital, but I didn't expect that now I am still in the mood to entertain guests and make friends. It seems that Shen Rui knows that reading needs to be relaxed and relaxed, and he is not going there for the "little three yuan" as outsiders say.
What kind of person is he who can be officially treated as a guest and solemnly invites everyone to accompany him?
As for Mao Chi, as long as he could leave the academy and breathe a sigh of relief, he felt happy and happy, and he didn't care who the guests were.
In addition to Shen Rui's true identity of "Brother Shou", which he did not reveal directly, Shen Rui also explained Gao Wenhu's origins and the identity of the "pseudo beggar" who led the bodyguard of Brother Shou to the three of them in advance.
Otherwise, if these three people really accidentally slighted that person, they might be setting up trouble.
He specially invited three people here, not only to add some excitement, but also to give the three of them a chance to form a good relationship.
At 10 o'clock in the morning, Gao Wenhu took Brother Shou into Renshoufang.
Gao Wenhu later realized that Shangshu was a great official and Shen Rui was the son of a high official. However, because of his generous heart, he did not have much fear. He took Brother Shou to the appointment with a basket of salted eggs in his hand. Coming.
Brother Shou was still dressed in patches and patches, holding half a bamboo pole in his hand. However, because of the hot summer weather, he used fine cotton that wicks away moisture very well to make his clothes. His fair face was no longer plastered, so Yu Jing With the bare ground exposed, this "beggar" really doesn't look like one.
Seeing Gao Wenhu's majestic and high-spirited appearance, Brother Shou couldn't help but curl his lips.
He was very curious, how courageous was Gao Wenhu, and why didn't he know how to be afraid?
Knowing that Shen Rui is a high-ranking official, he has no intention of alienating him. Does that mean that knowing his identity, he can still treat him as he did in the past?
Brother Shou thought about it, his eyes rolling.
Behind the two people, there were about ten people standing intermittently.
In fact, these dozen people were not the only ones sent by the Jin Yiwei to protect Brother Shou today.
Since Shen Rui's post was sent out a few days ago, there have been a lot of spies outside Shen Shangshu's house. The male servants who come in and out of Shen's house have also been listed in Jinyiwei, and there are some idle people who can sneak in.
Although Shen Rui was not waiting for guests at the entrance of the square like Gao Wenhu, he still sent Changshou and Changfu to watch at the entrance of the alley.
When Gao Wenhu took Brother Shou to the door of Shen's house and was thinking about how to call the door, Shen Rui had already gotten the news and came out personally.
"Brother Shen, congratulations, you are first again." Gao Wenhu grinned when he saw Shen Rui.
It has been two months since we last met. Gao Wenhu has changed from "burly" to "black and tall". His face cannot be said to be black, it is also red and black, much darker than when we met in the spring. .
"Why do you have such a tan? Is this... practicing martial arts?" Shen Rui said in surprise.
"Yes." Gao Wenhu nodded and said: "Brother Shou helped me find a place to learn martial arts. I don't need to pay for the lessons, and I also take care of the quality of the meal..."
Shen Rui glanced at Brother Shou, then at the various people not far away whose movements were slightly stiff, and thought to himself: "It can't be the place I thought..."
The Jin Yiwei of the Ming Dynasty were notorious and powerful.
When Brother Shou saw Shen Rui looking at him, he raised his chin with a bit of pride.
Shen Rui looked at Brother Shou's thin arms and legs. It didn't look like he could be good at martial arts: "Why didn't Brother Shou learn from his good skills?"
"I learned..." Gao Wenhu said.
Shen Rui looked at Brother Shou's fair face and didn't quite believe it.
It's summer now, and the sun is very hot, otherwise it wouldn't be possible for him to have turned several shades darker in just two months. Brother Shou's face doesn't look like he's been exposed to the sun.
Brother Shou frowned and said: "Don't look down on people, I can even pull a stone bow now... The place where I learned is not in the same place as Brother Gao..."