Aunt Cui and Aunt Ma returned to Haijia with Mrs. Wednesday's answer.
Haitang followed her grandmother and listened all the way. After listening, she asked curiously: "Who is Yijun?"
Ma told her: "She is your aunt's granddaughter. She is about the same age as you, only two months younger than you." When Zhou Yijun was born, the Hai family had already left Chang'an. When her father Zhou Jinlin went to Ganzhou to take up a post, the Hai family She has settled in Suzhou, so she has never met the Hai family. But thinking that she was her eldest sister's biological granddaughter, Ma felt a natural feeling of closeness in her heart. After Aunt Ma and her daughter-in-law arrived at the Hai family, they introduced the current situation of Zhou Ma's children and grandchildren to Ma, so Ma also had a certain understanding of these juniors.
She told her granddaughter Haitang: "When your aunt's son first joined the army, he learned and experienced under General Zhou. General Zhou taught him step by step how to be a good general, and only sent him out when he was able to stand on his own. Now he Our family is all in Zhongwei, Ningxia, which is too far away from Suzhou, so we have not corresponded with us for many years. However, your cousin grew up with your father when he was a child, and he has been thinking about you and your brother all these years. You When my parents first went there, we even received a letter from him, and they were on the road for more than half a year!"
This means that there is a little family affection between the two parties, but not much, and the younger generation has never had any contact with them.
Haitang blinked and asked again: "After listening to what my aunt said, I thought the third bedroom of the Zhou family was very alienated from the Zhenguo government. But Sister Wenjun seems to be very close to Yijun, and it doesn't look like they have a bad relationship. .”
Aunt Ma told her: "Our second master has been staying in Ganzhou for several years. The old lady has always been the head of the family. She said that the uncle and grandma were short of people in the courtyard, so they refused to allocate the servants and wives who had been serving for many years to the second master and two grandma. The second mistress had to leave the dowry nanny to take care of the marriage property, so the people she brought to the post were all young girls. At first, Ying Ge'er was not accustomed to the local environment in Ganzhou, so the second mistress had to be busy taking care of Ying Ge'er. Later, I was pregnant with Brother Xiong and had to raise the baby. I didn’t have a capable helper around me, so I was too busy, so I had to entrust Sister Yi, who had just turned one year old, to the care of the eldest lady of the eldest room. Sister Yi and Miss Wenjun were together When she grew up, Miss Wenjun loved her as if she were her own sister. That year, the second master was transferred to Ningxia Zhongwei. Miss Wenjun couldn't bear to leave Sister Yi and kept her in Ganzhou for several years. Until three years ago, Sister Yi just went to Ningxia Zhongwei to reunite with her second master and second grandma."
Cousins Zhou Wenjun and Zhou Yijun have been together for so long, so their relationship is certainly extraordinary. Now Zhou Yijun is going back to Chang'an for the New Year. She said she wants to greet her grandparents on behalf of her parents and brothers. In fact, it is because she is getting older and cannot find a good match in Zhongwei, Ningxia. Therefore, after discussion, Zhou Jinlin and his wife decided to reluctantly send their daughter back. Coming from the original family in Chang'an, he was educated by Zhou Ma's family, so it would be convenient for him to see each other in Chang'an in the future.
Zhou Jinlin and his wife don't mind choosing a mate for their son in Ningxia, but they hope that their daughter can marry somewhere more stable and prosperous, so that she doesn't have to suffer in a border town. Who else could they turn to but their mother?
It can't be their step-grandmother Madam Ma, who has always been unfriendly to them, or their father Zhou Shigong, who is obviously more partial to his eldest brother, right?
Aunt Ma also told Ma and Haitang: "Second Master wrote a letter back at the beginning of the year. My wife knew that my granddaughter was coming home. She was as happy as anything. She started preparing the yard for Sister Yi early. She had already finished it on the edge of the garden. One place was snatched away by Sister Luo from the uncle's house, saying that she liked the scenery there. The wife was angry and refused to give in. The old lady blamed her for being unkind to the uncle's children, and the master also blamed her for too many things. The wife cried. After a fight, I had to clean up the west courtyard of the main courtyard and leave it to Sister Yi.
"Although that place is smaller, the advantage is that it is right under the nose of the madam. I am not afraid that others will bully Sister Yi. The eldest grandma was not happy again when she saw it. She even went to the old lady's place to make trouble. She said it was the second master. My daughter is not of the eldest daughter’s blood, so why should she live in the main courtyard? The wife has been arguing with the eldest grandma for two months over this matter. The eldest grandma also threatened that she would never let the second master’s daughter steal her daughter. The place where I will live in the future. My wife has been wary of mischief there, and no one mentioned it until the uncle proposed to build a glass workshop."
Because Zhou Jinpu had the idea of getting married to Zhou Ma, he couldn't think about fighting for the small courtyard for the time being.
Ma was speechless: "Now the eldest sister and brother-in-law live in the main courtyard of the Zhou family's three-bedroom house. By the time Zhou Jinpu can move in, his two daughters will have already married. I'm afraid they even have grandchildren, so how can they move in there?" The small courtyard next to it? That was originally a place prepared for my concubine. If Zhou Jinpu's daughter-in-law hadn't been so troublesome and occupied the courtyard that the eldest sister liked, the eldest sister would not have wronged her direct granddaughter to live there! Zhou Jinpu is unfilial and rude, and his daughter-in-law It’s not reliable. What future can the children raised by these two couples have? They will compete with their sisters for the yard at a young age."
Haitang couldn't help but be amazed.
The third room of the Zhou family is really messy. Forget about the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law dispute between Mr. Zhou Ma and Mrs. Ma, the younger generation Zhou Jinpu is the dominant one in the family, while Zhou Jinlin has been squeezed out to Ningxia, but the former still wants to occupy all the resources. Refuse to give in. What kind of family is Zhou Shigong in charge of? He still favors the eldest son who lost his mother when he was young. Do you think this approach is best for the eldest son? The mediocre and incompetent dandy eldest son offended his siblings to death. Will he be able to support the family by himself in the future? Or does he expect Mrs. Ma’s biological children and grandchildren to help him?
Also, Zhou Shigong was too ruthless towards the children born to his step-sibling Zhou Ma. When Zhou Jinlin first went out to work, the eldest son of the family was still young, and the eldest daughter had just turned one year old, so she had to go to Ganzhou with her parents. Zhou Shigong even ignored the needs of his second son and his wife and allowed his stepmother's eldest son to detain the servants who could be used at home, causing the second daughter-in-law to fall into a shortage of manpower in Ganzhou. Haitang did not believe that Mr. Zhou Ma would ignore the difficulties of his son-in-law and refuse to help. Whether it was keeping his grandchildren at home for a few more years or sending more people to help his daughter-in-law, it was normal operation. As a result, the Zhou Jinlin family Still traveling in a hurry. Without Mrs. Ma's deliberate attempts to make things difficult and Zhou Shigong's acquiescence, this would never have happened.
Mrs. Ma has her own position, and it is impossible to have much care for the unrelated juniors, but what does Zhou Shigong think? Isn't he worried that his grandchildren are young and weak and will die during the arduous journey, causing great pain to his second son? If he didn't like children other than his eldest son, why would he remarry Zhou Ma and have two children with her? He thinks he is a loving father to his eldest son, so doesn't he care about being a scumbag father to his second son?
Haitang didn't want to comment on this, but secretly took note of the interpersonal relationships within the third room of the Zhou family, in case she would be tricked by someone from the third room of the Zhou family when she went with her grandmother to visit her aunt Zhou Ma. The mean people in the family who were nurtured and indulged by Mrs. Ma cannot be treated with common sense. God knows what bad things will happen to them?
When Hai Xiya returned home in the evening, Mrs. Ma told him about Mrs. Zhou's words and couldn't help but sigh: "Isn't it too lenient to treat the third bedroom in the Zhenguo Duke's mansion? After such a big thing happened, they took it lightly. Let it go. If they can pass the test by hiding honestly for two months, are they not afraid that the stepmother and son in the third room will not learn a lesson and will dare to act recklessly in the future? Even for the sake of the third old master, they still deserve to be punished It's a punishment. I worked so hard in Suzhou to build a workshop. I didn't even make a few bucks. Chang'an wanted someone, but I gave it to him without saying a word. Isn't it all for the sake of the border troops? Why? He, Zhou Shigong, can pursue his own interests without caring about the life and death of the border troops! I’m so unconvinced!"
Hai Xiya patted the back of his wife's hand gently and said nothing.
(End of chapter)
