The Little First Grand Secretary in My House

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Xue Tingyan looked at the woman who was talking to him, smiled and said, Auntie, I'll just go for a walk.

It was just a casual remark, and the woman didn't say anything more to him. She turned around and went into the house to get something. The mother-in-law in the house asked her: Third wife, who were you talking to just now?

The dog in the second room of Xue Lianxing's family. Hey, mother, it's strange for you. Just now he walked past the door, and I didn't recognize him for a moment. I always felt like he was a different person.

Her mother-in-law disapproved: What can he become, and he can't change his body. I remember that kid has been ill recently.

The daughter-in-law said: I think I am planning to go to the back mountain. There is a mountain behind Yuqing Village, where the deceased villagers of the village are buried, and the ancestral graves of the Xue family are also there.

Hearing this, her mother-in-law sighed: Not to mention, it's a pity that the second son of the family has been born. The couple has left, leaving only a baby. It's a pity.

This was just gossip between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and while they were talking, Xue Tingyan had already taken Heizi into the back mountain.

*

The back mountain is called the back mountain, the mountain behind Yuqing Village.

This mountain is nameless and not high, but it is very deep. Anyway, so far, no villager has been able to walk back and forth from this deep mountain and old forest, and most of them do activities outside the mountain.

The ancestral tomb of the Xue family is built on a hill not far from the village. Not only the Xue Tingyan family, but the entire Xue family are buried here.

In the center of such a large mountain is the clan leader's lineage, and spreading out are the various branches. Mr. Xue's lineage is at the foot of the southwest mountain.

The second wife and her husband died young, and Xue Qingsong died in an accident, so they were buried on the edge.

When Xue Tingyan arrived at the place, he began to pull out the grass around the grave.

There were not many weeds. They had just been cleaned up during the Chinese New Year. He gathered them randomly and placed them on the ground, then sat down in front of the grave.

There are two small tombs on a piece of mountainous land. In front of each tomb stands a small bluestone tablet, with the names of the couple's husband and wife crudely written on them.

This monument was originally built by Zhao'er himself.

Nowadays, there are three types of people who cannot erect monuments when they die: those who die suddenly, those who die young, and those who have no offspring. Xue Qingsong died a violent death.

Although no one said it, they felt that people who died violently would have resentments after death, which was not conducive to the feng shui of ancestral tombs, so no monuments were erected. I also want him to forget who he is, so as not to cause trouble by being ignorant.

But at the same time, there is also a saying that if you don't erect a monument, you will be a lonely ghost after you die, and you can't stand the incense of future generations.

The Xue family had arranged the funeral for the couple, and they defaulted to following old customs. Xue Tingyan was still young at that time and didn't understand this at all, but Zhao'er did.

She told the Xue family about erecting a monument, but was blocked. The Xue family took turns to persuade her. Later, Zhao'er didn't tell anyone, so he paid someone to make these two simple monuments and erected them in front of the grave.

By the time the Xue family found out, it was already too late. They couldn't tear down the monument in front of the villagers. They could only pretend that it didn't happen. After all, they still felt guilty at that time.

The villagers were also surprised when they saw this monument, but when they thought about how the second son of the Xue family died, they all understood.

Therefore, Xue Qingshan also gained a good reputation. He would rather ruin the family's feng shui than erect a monument for his brother. He was so kind and righteous, let's not mention it for now.

With various thoughts running through his mind, Xue Tingyan took out a piece of cloth from his arms and slowly wiped the tombstone.

The words on it were still written by him, and the brushstrokes can be seen to be immature, but people can still clearly distinguish what is written on it.

…

Today is the death anniversary of Mr. Zheng. Zheng Hu took his two sons to pay homage at the grave.

The country people are not that particular. They just prepare some steamed buns, wine and meat, etc. The father and son burn the paper money in front of the grave, and forget about it.

Zheng Hu had always had a deep relationship with his father, so it was inevitable that he would feel depressed, so he asked his two sons to go back first while he sat in front of the grave, smoking a cigarette and talking to his father.

After talking for a while, he stood up and planned to go back.

There was still work waiting to be done in the fields. Zheng Hu didn't want to waste time so he planned to take a shortcut. When he was walking near the ancestral grave of Xue Lianxing's family, he suddenly heard someone crying.

There are graves on the two hills nearby. On one side are people named Xue and on the other side are people named Zheng. This kind of irregular day is not the anniversary of the death of an elder in the family like Zheng Hu, but no one would come to such a place.

In particular, there may be many dead people buried here, the trees are dense, and sometimes the sky and daylight are gloomy. Under such circumstances, hearing this strange sound made Zheng Hu so frightened that his hair stood on end and his legs became a little weak.

After all, he had lived for decades. He listened attentively, and it took him a while to understand that it was a boy's voice speaking.

Thinking again about whose grave this was, he bravely walked closer, walked around a big tree, and saw a young man in blue clothes sitting in front of the grave with his back turned.

Next to him was a big black dog with a wagging tail.

He is the dog of the second wife of Xue Lianxing's family.

Zheng Hu breathed a sigh of relief, and the voice of the voice came to his ears again: ...Dad, what do you think I should do? My uncle wants to send Brother Juncai to a school in the town, and I thought I could do it too Go...but my aunt came home a few days ago and asked me to give way to Brother Juncai, obviously before...

The young man's voice was full of hesitation and confusion. Zheng Hu did not expect to hear the Xue family's private affairs in such a place. He was so surprised that he dropped the dry cigarette in his hand without realizing it. It wasn't until his foot was hit by the cigarette pot that he realized what he was doing, hurriedly picked up the cigarette pot and left.

He didn't know that after he left, the helpless young man in his eyes stopped crying.

In the past few days, Xue Tingyan has been thinking hard, trying to find a suitable opportunity, and somehow he remembered Zheng Hu.

Zheng Hu's father, Mr. Zheng, died during spring plowing. It was not a mourning event, but an accident. He was accidentally squeezed under a field ridge by his own cattle and fell to death.

The field ridge was not very high, and countless villagers fell down every year. Mr. Zheng was the only one who died unluckily. This incident had been widely circulated in the village for a while, so Xue Tingyan remembered it very clearly.

Since it is the anniversary of his father's death, his son Zheng Hu will definitely come to visit the grave. Zheng Hu likes to take shortcuts and will definitely pass by this area, so who else is more suitable than him.

The most important thing is that Yuqing Village may not seem big, but in fact, the two surnames Xue and Zheng have always been different from each other. Zheng Hu's uncle is Li Zheng. If he knows, Zheng Lizheng will also know.

Xue Tingyan didn't stay long and quickly took Heizi back home.

There was still silence in the yard. He found a pistachio and placed it in front of the door. He sat there quietly and basked in the sun, thinking about Zhao'er who had gone to town.

*

Zheng Hu walked quickly all the way and went to Zheng Lizheng's house without even returning home.

Zheng Li is Zheng Li of Yuqing Village and the leader of the Zheng clan. The family's house is naturally the only one in Yuqing Village. If it can be compared with it, it is the house of the Xue clan chief's family.

It is a large blue brick house with tiled roofs. The courtyard walls are also made of blue bricks. The most conspicuous thing is the Zheng family's ancestral hall in the front. However, this ancestral hall will not be opened until certain times. The two black doors The Paulownia gate is closed all year round.

Going around to the side is the yard of Zheng Lizheng's house.

The yard is huge. Unlike other houses where the livestock sheds, barns, kitchens, etc. are all in the front yard, the front yard of Zheng Lizheng's house is a large empty yard, with only two sycamore trees planted in the yard. Whenever there is any big event in the village, this courtyard will always be densely packed with people.

Facing it are three main rooms, with east and west wing rooms on the left and right, all of which are made of blue bricks and black tiles, which is particularly grand.

When Zheng Hu arrived, only Zheng Lizheng and his mother-in-law Tian were at home.

When Mrs. Tian saw her nephew coming, she said hello: Huzi, why are you here at this time? Do you have anything to do with your uncle?

Hey, something happened.

With that said, Zheng Hu hurried into the house. Tian shook his head, thinking that something really happened. Zheng Hu was always very steady.

Zheng Hu entered and turned toward the east room.

Sure enough, his uncle Zheng Li was sitting cross-legged on the big kang in the east room, smoking a cigarette.

Why, so anxious.

Zheng Hu sat down on a pillar under the kang, breathing heavily and unable to speak for a while.

Zheng Lizheng is in his sixties, with a long face and a pair of medium-sized eyes. From the outside, he is just an ordinary old farmer, even wearing ordinary clothes. There is only that immovable calmness, which at first glance shows that he is a man who has experienced the world.

With the cigarette holder in his mouth, he pushed the teapot forward on the kang table. Zheng Hu was not polite, stood up, poured a bowl of tea, and drank it down.

Uncle, let me tell you, I encountered something today.

What's the matter?

Today is not the anniversary of my father's death. I brought him with me early in the morning...

Halfway through Zheng Hu's words, Zheng Lizheng sat up from the kang and looked like he was listening attentively.

As soon as he saw his uncle like this, Zheng Hu knew that he had come to the right place. After hearing the crying words of the second son of Xue Lianxing's family, he realized that this was an opportunity, an opportunity to suppress the prestige of people named Xue in Yuqing Village.

He spoke in more detail, repeating almost every word, while Zheng Lizheng narrowed his eyes while smoking a dry cigarette.

*

Zhao'er didn't come back until the second half of the afternoon, and his face looked a little bad when he came back.

Xue Tingyan looked at the backpack behind her. In the past, every time Zhao'er came back, the basket was always full, but now she could tell at a glance that there was nothing in it.

What's wrong?

Zhao'er was thinking about it when he was asked by the little man. He was stunned for a moment and then said: Nothing, I brought you meat buns from the town. I will heat them up for you to eat later.

How could it be nothing? There is obviously something.

Xue Tingyan glanced at her face, but since she didn't want to say more, he didn't want to press her.

Zhao'er went back and forth to the town and was covered in dust. She went to the stove to boil water and took a bath in the bathroom. The Xue family has a special room for bathing in the vegetable patch in the backyard. The house is not big, just three meters square. The floor is paved with bluestone slabs. There is a drain outlet in the corner of the room. The bath water can flow directly through the outlet into the vegetable patch.

After taking off his clothes, Zhao'er took the soap locust and rubbed it on his body, but he felt a wave of sadness in his heart.

In fact, something really happened, but she was afraid that the little man would be worried, so she didn't say anything.

The money she finally found was robbed.

The person who robbed it was none other than the owner of the embroidery workshop who took her finished products and embroidered the shoes.

In fact, Zhao'er was quite smart and bought the rags from the owner of this embroidery shop, but the finished product was not sold to this shop, but to another shop. But she didn't expect that the two bosses were actually related, and she didn't know how the other party knew about it. When she went there again, the other party actually didn't want to sell her rags anymore.

Not only did this embroidery workshop have no rags, the owner of this embroidery workshop also ordered people to buy all the rags from other embroidery workshops. Zhao'er only found out about this after visiting several embroidery workshops.

She had already made plans to pay for the little man to go to the town to study. She had asked about Qinghe Academy, and it cost five taels of silver for beam repair every year. Because many students live too far away, they can choose to study in boarding schools. If you study in a dormitory, you will need another one or two silver dollars per month including food, accommodation, etc.

Zhao'er wanted to study in Xue Tingyan's dormitory. She felt that the Xue family was not a good place to study. There were too many problems at home, which meant that she had to prepare six taels of silver to send her little man to the school.

She originally thought that she would be able to collect enough money by doing this business twice, but who would have thought that this would happen.

While she was thinking, Zhao'er had already taken a bath. She wrapped her hair with a scarf, put on her clothes, and then returned to the house.

Xue Tingyan was sitting on the kang reading a book, and he was reading the only book he had, Young Learning Qionglin. Seeing her come in, he looked up at her and said, It's still cold, so dry your hair quickly.

Hearing this, Zhao'er felt warm in his heart.

The little man has changed a lot these days compared to before, and this change is naturally good, so even though she was worried, she couldn't help but smile.

She climbed onto the kang and took out the towel from the kang cabinet. Xue Tingyan was sitting on the edge and inevitably had to step aside to give way to her. As she passed by, a fragrant scent mixed with soap came into the tip of his nose. He couldn't help but move his nose, and his eyes fell on her body, which was close at hand.

I know you don't like me, but I've been like this for many years and I can't change it! I don't plan to change it either!

Look at Hong'er, does he look like you?

…

Xue Tingyan suddenly felt someone shaking him. He opened his tired eyes and saw the dim inner room. Hu San's face, which was no longer young, and even the lines on the tent were so familiar. Only then did he know He was just dreaming.

It's just that the dream was too clear. The scent of sorghum in the air and the stubborn curve of her mouth made him immersed in it. There were also her tears of anger, which were crystal clear and shining with colorful light. He wanted to reach out and touch them, but was shaken awake.

Sir, it's time to drink medicine.

Xue Tingyan was propped up and given medicine. He was extremely ill and had to be served by someone even to drink medicine. How could he look like Xue Shoufu, a highly respected minister who had dominated the court for decades.

Oh, no, he is no longer the chief assistant.

He has written to beg for his body and plans to return to his hometown for retirement, and the Holy Spirit has approved it, but he has no place to return to and no relatives to rely on.

In fact, he had no intention of going back.

Master Zhang, Master Wang and Master Li and Master Cao all came to visit you, but they blocked the door according to your orders. They have been here every day, and they are here again today. Do you want to see them?