Relief

There are [-] mu of Liangtian, [-] hectares of fertile land, white sails on the water, red water chestnuts on the bottom and green reeds beside the water.

The spring scenery of Taihu Lake is full of birds and swallows, and the lake water is green and jade cup.

The maids walked along the willow embankment of Taihu Lake, stepped on the wet soil, and came to the lake with the washbasin, and the clothes and pestles splashed snow-white water amidst the laughter.

"Hey, this is the young master's robe, why is it stained with wine?"

"Haven't you heard? Yesterday, the young master was going to present the spring bottle, but the eldest lady refused, and there was a quarrel, and the young master was poured all over the wine in the front hall!"

"We've been arguing for more than ten years, and it's not over yet?"

"Shhh, do things well and stop chewing your tongue."

The spring breeze was green over the bank of willows, and a young man in brocade clothes came on the bank. He had a fair face, big eyes, bright eyes, and a warm smile that made people feel good.

"Hey..." The little girl looked at him curiously and pushed the sisters beside her.

Xie Zhixu made a bow to the girls from a distance, "Excuse me for disturbing you."

The girls laughed and jostled each other, and the older one asked, "What's the matter with you?"

"I'm coming down to find an old friend named Ni Tang, who used to be a maidservant of the Su family. I heard that she often comes to the Taihu Lake. Have any of you ever seen her?"

The girls looked at each other and said they didn't know.

"Maidservant of the Su family?" The older one looked back and looked at one of them, "Cuisi, is that your friend?"

The one called Chusi, Xie Zhixu noticed from the very beginning that her eyes seemed to flicker.

Before Chuisi could respond, Xie Zhixu hastily added: "The Su family's name is Haitang."

The older one said: "That's right, that's her, isn't it Chusi."

Chusi hesitantly responded.

"Then you should make it clear to this young master, we will take back the clothes first."

Xie Zhixu observed that Chusi looked uneasy at the backs of several companions leaving.

"Didn't Haitang return home? I don't know her very well... It's just that she likes to play by the lake in her spare time, but I haven't seen her recently. Why don't you ask someone else..."

Xie Zhixu: "I heard that Haitang was also in the Liang family before?"

Chusi was taken aback: "Oh...you know? Well, it was true before, but she left when she was 12 years old, so I don't know very well."

Xie Zhixu had a flash of inspiration after listening, and asked, "Are you really not sure?"

"What do you mean?"

It is really a crime to force such a small and lovely girl, Xie Zhi humbly held his hands together regretfully, and said: "Dare to ask the girl's age? She must not have watched Haitang grow up, right? Since even Haitang left the Liang family at the age of 12 Clearly, I would venture to guess that the girl and Haitang must have entered the Liang family at the same time?"

Chusi seemed a little angry, her cheeks puffed up: "Just because of this?"

"one left."

Xie Zhixu smiled, and felt a little guilty after laughing, because Chusi was staring at him dissatisfied.

Chusi raised her eyes and asked, "What else?"

"..." Xie Zhixu said honestly, "Caisi Haitang."

It sounds very imaginative, but in fact it is not without basis. Most of the rich and noble people have particular attention to naming their servants.Poems, songs, flowers, birds, insects and fish, different houses and different owners have different styles, and they can often be clearly distinguished.

This is Xie Zhixu's personal experience.

Chusi lowered her eyes and was silent for a moment, and finally said helplessly: "You guessed right, Haitang and I have played together since we were young, and we used to work by the young master's side. After Haitang left, I was also transferred, and then she went to Suzhou. Home, we just get together by the lake occasionally. But she really left some time ago, I didn't lie to you, why are you looking for her?"

One or two of the people who came to Suzhou to inquire were unaware of Ni Tang's tragedy, and the county magistrate's personal recommendation for Xie Zhixu finally came in handy.

Xie Zhixu showed it to Chusi: "Ni Tang has died, do you know anything unusual about her in Suzhou?"

Chusi exclaimed, covered her mouth, her eyes filled with disbelief.

"How... how is it possible?!"

Xie Zhi humbly moved: "How is it impossible? What do you know?"

"I..." Chusi stretched out her hand to snatch the letter paper with the official seal for a closer look, her eyes sparkled, "Are you really from the county government?"

Ni Tang's abnormality in Suzhou did not appear recently. It should be said that it began when she left the Liang family when she was 12 years old.When Ni Tang was very young, Liang's family bought her to be the young master's personal maid. The young master gave her the name Haitang, and her partner was Chuisi.Accompanying the young master until he was nine years old, Ni Tang was twelve years old. Because of a mistake, he was kicked out of the mansion by the eldest lady and went to work in Su's house instead.Sometimes Ni Tang would come to the Taihu Lake to have a reunion with his childhood friend Chuisi, but he was bumped into by the eldest lady once, and he was punished with twenty sticks and ordered not to go near the Liangjiazhuang.The eldest lady hated Ni Tang very much, almost to the point of beating her every time she saw her. Even though 13 years have passed, no one in Liang's mansion still remembers the former little maid Haitang, and the eldest lady still regards her as a thorn in her side.If Ni Tang had any enmity with anyone in Suzhou City, it would probably be Mrs. Liang's family.

"What did 12-year-old Haitang do that made Mrs. Liang hate her?" Xie Zhixu asked.

Cui Si said: "Because of her negligence, the young master was kidnapped and suffered a great crime."

There was commotion and noise from the direction of Liangjiazhuang.

Hanging like a frightened bird, he hurriedly covered his mouth with his hands and looked.

A black figure soared into the sky from the high walls of the Liang Mansion, stepped across the sky, and rushed straight towards the lake shore.There are still a few figures that cannot be shaken off behind him like maggots attached to their bones, all of whom hold guns uniformly configured by the Liang Mansion.

The black shadow in the fur robe was flying, and it was flexible and flexible in the air. It made the guards of the Liang Mansion behind him hold the crossbow and couldn't aim for a long time.

"Help—" Hei Qiu Gaogao saw Xie Zhixu under the willow tree by the lake, shouted and rushed over.

Xie Zhixu: "..."

Where did the little maid, Chuisi, have seen such a battle before? She was so frightened by Heiqiu's eagle-like aura that she slipped and almost fell into the lake, but Xie Zhixu grabbed her arm.

Yue Guanshan threw himself in front of Xie Zhixu, and before he could speak, he turned around and raised his hand, knocking down the guards of the Liang Mansion with a move of Ye Yu hitting the tiles, and then pressed Xie Zhixu's shoulders, panting for a few breaths: "Brother, brother ...I'm sorry, I exposed it, there are too many Liang family members, I have to run for my life..."

Xie Zhixu simply doesn't understand why Yueguan Mountain is causing trouble all the time: "..."

In the direction of Liang's mansion, countless guards with crossbows appeared from the blackness on the high wall, swooping down with great momentum.

Yue Guanshan was shocked, his throat creaked, Xie Zhixu felt the hairs on his black fur stand on end.

Yue Guanshan took out something from his fur jacket, and slapped Xie Zhixu on the chest: "Fortunately, I did not disgrace my life! See you later!!" He immediately turned around and fled.

"Where is he! Run after him!"

Wu Yangyang, a group of guards rushed across the shore of the lake.

Xie Zhixu and Cuisi watched them go away, looking at each other speechlessly.

"Then I...I'll go back first." Cuisi took a look at Xie Zhixu, then said timidly, "You must not tell others what I told you today."

Xie Zhixu returned to the second floor of Fuyunju with the deed book of the Liang family that Yueguanshan had stolen for him. Wu Li found a reclining chair from somewhere, placed it by the railing of the corridor to bask in the sun, and leaned on the chair leisurely On his back, in his hand was the crystal clear and creamy Fanqing Baiyun Cake, he took a bite and drank some wine, leisurely and comfortable.

Seeing Xie Zhixu's return, Wu Li couldn't get up, he raised the pastry plate as a greeting.

Xie Zhixu asked politely, "Brother, don't you have anything to do today?"

Wu Li was puzzled: "What's the matter? Didn't you say you came to find someone yesterday?"

Xie Zhixu choked, didn't say much, pushed the door open and entered the room.

The Liang family's deed books were divided into different categories, and each had its own thick stack. The part that Xie Zhixu asked Yueguan Mountain to bring out was relatively old.He moved a stool and sat by the window to take advantage of the daylight to flip through the deed book, carefully reading every page.

The old paper is yellowed, the ink marks are somewhat unclear, and the names are densely packed.

After searching outside for half a day, he just sat down and had to concentrate when he came back. Xie Zhixu poured himself a glass of water, and heard Wu Li in the corridor outside the door yelling at Xiao Er to serve him wine.

"I want the lamb wine presented by Chunzun... What? No? Aren't you and the other side operating together?... Go and buy it for the errand expenses. Good wine and sweet cakes are the best."

Xie Zhixu listened to his ears and thought to himself, it seems that the senior brother paid the money from himself, right?

Subconsciously turned the purse upside down.

It seems that I have lost a lot of weight...

A lot of names were crossed out in the deed book, Xie Zhixu focused on this part, he expected to find cook, coachman, old lady and Haitang in the crossed out names, and lock a certain big family in Suzhou to the Liang family.Sigh, I'm really efficient, it's much better than a brother who can let go of someone in front of his eyes and only knows how to eat, drink and have fun.

Fingernails made scratches under the name, and when the pages were turned over, the old paper made a unique and textured movement, which reminded Xie Zhixu that since he entered the Qiongshan Master's School, he had more and more opportunities to read books.

In Qiongshan, the third senior brother did the most things like reading books.There are two places in Shimen's library, one is in Wuli's study room, which is rich in ancient and modern knowledge, and there are all kinds of books in the world; the other is in Wuli's mind, which is a walking humanoid database.

Two hours later, when the day was approaching, Xie Zhixu checked the results, closed the deed book, stretched his waist to relax his stiff shoulders, and opened the door to go out to breathe.

Wu Li was still sitting in his original position, and the angle of the afternoon sun was so wonderful that his whole body was warmed up.The Fanqing Baiyun Cake on the porcelain plate has turned into bright green jujubes.

"Hey," Wu Li greeted naturally without any sense of laziness, "Have you read the roster?"

Xie Zhixu walked over, picked up a jujube and bit it off, the juice was full: "What are you doing, brother?"

Wu Li tilted his head towards the railing: "Where is the supervisor?"

Outside the railing is the backyard of Fuyunju, next to the Shantang River, built a gazebo, rockery, and fishing platform, which is clearly a spring scene of a small river, but the harmony of the picture is destroyed by a huge dome.

The dome almost occupied most of the backyard, but the giant was not inside. The fourth child was sitting on the ground with his hands outstretched, while the person below was washing his nails with a brush.

Xie Zhixu narrowed his eyes, and recognized that the brush was made of horse hair, and the person holding the brush was Yue Guanshan.

Xie Zhixu's jaw almost dropped from shock: "What is he doing?"

Wu Li: "Can't you tell, wash the nails of the fourth child."

The fourth son's nails are very thick, and the cuticles are as hard as rocks. Before Xie Zhixu brought the fourth son's special nail clippers - the famous ancestral sword "Qingjingtian" to join the Qiongshan School, Wu Li had been grinding the fourth son's nails with granite.

"It's been a while since I came out. There's too much dirt in the nails, so it's hard to wash them. It's more convenient to hire a part-time worker," Wu Li said.

Xie Zhixu was puzzled: "You asked Yueguan Mountain to do a short-term job?"

Probably because the work was too hot, Yue Guanshan took off his black fur coat and threw it aside, and the sleeves of the samurai uniform with waist and legs rolled up, revealing his forearms with muscular lines despite being too fair.He carried a horsehair rinse on his shoulder, a bucket of soap locust by his feet, stepped on his nails with one foot, and had sex like washing the floor.

"I didn't invite it," Wu Li said, "Didn't he want to compete with the fourth brother? I asked him to discuss it with the fourth brother himself, hahahahaha."

The senior brother smiled treacherously.

Of course, Yueguanshan couldn't communicate with the fourth child, he made Qinggong fly to the fourth child's eyes, and the fourth child's eyeballs couldn't reflect his shadow.

Finally, he figured out a way to wash the fourth child's nails to get closer.

Xie Zhixu was really impressed.As the son of the same family, compared with the proud Liang Ting, Yueguan Mountain is much more down-to-earth.Yue Guanshan sneaked in and stole the Liang family's identity book for Xie Zhixu, as an apology for fighting with Xie Zhixu yesterday.

"Why did you tell him about us?" Wu Li asked.

Xie Zhixu said: "He waited for me at the gate of Fuyunju all morning, I really have never seen such a persistent person."

Wu Li looked sideways at the yard, and threw a jujube into his mouth: "You have helped us so much, the young master of the Yue family is still diligent." Yue Guanshan used the light work of stepping on the void to fly up and down The fourth child has the other hand.

"Hey," Wu Li said with great interest, "Qinggong goes to the top of the mountain."

Xie Zhixu said: "He is diligent, much more diligent than our own."

Wu Li withdrew his gaze, and looked at Xie Zhixu inquiringly.