Su Jintian asked Yang Pingcui to fight to the death in front of his yamen.
Mother Chen thinks it’s really not particular.
"No. He recently wanted to be promoted to Qianhu, but the old people in the palace are still discussing it, and the Ministry of War is still in trouble. Maybe he usually offends people."
While Cao Xi was warming himself by the fire in the small kitchen and catching fish at night, he explained to Chen's mother, "He took too many leaves this month. Although the Marquis gave him a good mark on the assessment, if he was not in the Baihu House that day,
, if the censor who patrols the city catches him unawares, he will be rated as inferior in the military and personnel evaluations this year. It will be difficult for him to be promoted."
"..." Mother Chen was silent, "It's not easy for him either."
"No."
Mother Chen didn't believe her nonsense. This battle was scheduled to take place on Nanhe's own territory. Wasn't this because Jin Yiwei had no lower limit and wanted to fight in a group?
Su Jintian unexpectedly failed to get promoted to a thousand households, which seemed to be a signal.
One day, the Marquis came out of the palace with his chariot, his expression as usual.
But at night, he did not return to the inner house, but rested in the study outside. He walked around in the plum forest with red plum blossoms in full bloom late at night, carrying a cage, and his brocade robes were covered with snow.
Because Qing Luo, who usually followed him, was not there and no one added a cloak for him, Song Chengming fell ill again.
A few days later, Mrs. Hou finally found an opportunity and tactfully asked Mr. Hou if he had anything on his mind. The girls quietly spread the word, and Cao Xi got the news late.
It turned out that the Marquis was reprimanded without shame by His Majesty for the first time in the palace.
The reason was that an old stallion in the palace suddenly died of illness, which may have been a bit strange.
When she heard this, she was stunned and puzzled: "When someone died in the palace, it was inspected by the Secretary of Ceremony. The body was collected by Bureau 24. What does it have to do with the Jin Yiwei? We only guard the palace gates in the palace. The key is still with the eunuch."
It’s on hand. How can we dare to control eunuchs?”
When he said this, the second steward summoned Qin Cheng, added two charcoal stoves, and then sent the servants back to let her sit down.
In the small flower hall, three people sat around a round black table, sorting out volumes of books and documents that looked like mountains.
"The Marquis wants it." Liancheng spat out, and she had no choice but to come.
But where is the small flower hall in the outer house as comfortable as the warm pavilion in the main room of the inner house?
She sighed, held her chin, and frowned. It was not as warm as in the small kitchen. After all, there were seven or eight stoves in it, and the cooks were sweating like rain. She thought, even her little kitchen was not as warm.
The flower hall was empty, and the cold wind filtered in through the cracks in the window. She was shivering from the cold. At first, she stretched out a few fingers to flip through the pages of the album and helped read several volumes of documents. Later, she simply held the hand stove and shivered.
This made Liancheng and Qin Cheng look up at her from time to time.
Qin Meng felt that Qing Niang's pale face, shivering look, and the pills she poured out and held in her mouth were all saying: It's so cold, she's freezing to death.
But the three charcoal stoves in the flower hall were clearly at her feet.
Cao Xiwan has her own dignity. Now that she is here, she stubbornly refuses to order hot tea or scalding pots. In the past, there was no such rule in the yamen. She can endure any suffering.
She missed Mrs. Hou. She was such a good wife. She hid in her bed during the day and did not work, and she never talked about her.
If Mr. Hou asked: "Where is Xiaowan?"
"It's cold, let her help me copy some Buddhist scriptures in the room, and give them to the old lady in a few days." My wife always answered like this.
"Did you write this volume?" Liancheng suddenly asked.
Cao Xiwan took a look at it and saw that it was the files of important figures in various rooms in the Hou Mansion in Jinyiwei. It was a big pile of files.
The masters, wives, young masters and young ladies of each house, as well as the housekeepers and servants. At least half of them were written by her.
She looked at her handwriting when she was a girl. She also worked for several old clerks in the Jinyiwei Experience Department. They were all serious civil servants, and they later became county magistrates and state officials.
She sighed, squinted her eyes, and finally saw the booklet in Manager Lian Er's hand.
Mrs. Hou Lou Shuluan.
Her expression remained unchanged, and she wanted to fool her. But Qin Cheng stopped and looked over calmly, obviously listening. Now he is in charge of the guards in the house.
She could only nod: "I wrote it."
"Didn't you miss anything?"
"What can I miss in Mrs. Hou's file?" She was very dissatisfied. "The person coming is Xiaobi, Xiaoyu. The second manager has called you. The second manager wants to have tea because it's cold."
She angrily asked the boy to bring hot tea and hot food.
Even the second manager paid no attention to her because she avoided answering and he just stared at her.
She stared back, but because of her guilty conscience, she still explained: "I am not from the Clerical and Experience Department. I asked you to write it, but you didn't. What bad words could I write? What if Mr. Hou thinks that I am treating Mrs. Hou?
Disrespectful?”
"...You are also doing old errands in the Yamen. I think so. I don't write it because I am not familiar with Mrs. Hou."
"I'm not familiar with it either!" Was she being scolded by the second manager? Cao Xiwan was startled, and immediately put her unused brain into action, using the yamen's scapegoat technique, "The hidden stake in the building is...
Second, take care of the people you sent."
Lian Cheng didn't argue with her, he just opened the book and read: "... In the twelfth year of the Dragon and Phoenix years, Mr. Hou and Miss Lou had a private meeting at Zizhu Bridge in Yanjing City. Miss Lou was fourteen years old and Mr. Hou was seventeen. They seemed to be a good match. Although.
I don’t quite understand.”
This booklet was written by her alone. Only Mr. Hou has read it.
Lian Cheng read it directly and pointed at it, "I sent a hidden stake to the building, but the hidden stake didn't know anything about these things."
She was startled and waved her hands worriedly: "I can't say, Qin Meng is listening. My wife has a very bad temper. What if she finds out."
"Well, you wrote that your wife has a bad temper. Do you want to change it?"
"..." She heard it, it was a threat.
Because even the second steward had a straight face and a business-like air, Qin Meng, who was now in charge of inspecting the inner house, did not avoid it. She sighed to herself, it seems that the Marquis's reprimand from His Majesty was not only what the rumors said, this situation
, you have to screen everyone in the house, and even your childhood sweetheart and your wife are worried?
"Qing Niang, what else is missing?"
"..." She remained silent.
"How did Mrs. Qing meet Mother Chen? I heard you said that she owed you a favor?"
She was startled and shook her head solemnly: "I didn't know him before."
Because she was telling lies with her eyes open, Qin Meng was secretly puzzled. Manager Lian looked at her and asked, "You and Mother Chen have been getting closer these past few days. What are you discussing."
She has long been accustomed to the fact that there are eyes everywhere in the house, and now she can only hide the affairs of the inner house from the second manager, and secondly, Qin Meng must also know about it. These two people conspired to trick her? She was alert.
Qin Meng shook his head slightly, which reassured her a little.
Cao Xiwan thought for a while and answered truthfully: "On the 12th, we want to go out to watch the battle between Qin and Huai."
This is a perfect explanation, Manager Lian Er thought to himself.