Yamen has never been a place where secrets can be hidden. What's more, if a person who has been dead for more than ten years comes back with such an identity, people can't help but pay attention to it.
The legend of this matter is so great that no one needs to go out of their way to publicize it. It spread throughout Jinzhou officialdom in just an instant.
Everyone felt that Sang Fuyue's visit this time was not a good one, and Jinzhou was afraid that there would be excitement.
Those who had nothing to do with themselves were hanging around, even in a good mood, waiting to watch the fun; as for those who had done shameful things, they were all like mourning concubines, waiting with trembling fear for the guillotine to fall at any time.
But who wants to die if he can still live?
Because of this, even before the Sang family settled down, those who were still flexible were thinking about whether they could offset their merits. Is it because they just went astray temporarily, can you not make this matter known to everyone and give them a chance to change their ways?
Opportunities are earned. In order to survive and secure their future, these people had to give up the idea of taking chances and quickly received generous gifts and invitations.
After Sang Fuyue read it briefly, she threw the greeting cards aside.
After their parents passed away, what sufferings and sins did my sister and brother endure, what kind of people were owed to their family, and what were the enemies to them; what’s more, to whom did the Sang family’s earlier property fall? It was the accountant and shopkeeper who betrayed their master again. Lei Shuanghan had already found out clearly.
...If he had come back ten or eight years earlier, maybe this wouldn't be so easy to investigate. But time has passed so long that many people in Jinzhou have forgotten or even didn't even know that there was a great bookseller Sang family in Jinzhou. With the Sang family's past wiped out, those people thought that no one would continue to pursue the matter, so they could rest easy. They opened the door to do business openly, and the owner behind them didn't even think about covering up. They were already at this point. If Lei Shuanghan didn't know who was taking advantage of the situation, then he would have lost his brain. .
According to Lei Shuanghan's intention, he came to Jinzhou with no intention of settling the matter. If he doesn't stir up trouble, return the panic that his younger brothers and sisters suffered earlier, and doesn't recover all the family property and let the evildoers get retribution, then he won't be called Lei Shuanghan.
But not now, now he just wants to pay homage to his parents and take a good look at the place where he grew up.
The old house of the Sang family has only been guarded by a deaf and blind old man in these years. It is only cleaned during New Years and holidays, and it is very dilapidated to the naked eye.
Even if Chang Minjun and Sang Nuanyue sent people to repair it as early as possible, now they only replaced the broken tiles on the roof and repainted the walls in the yard where Lei Shuanghan and Sang Nuanyue lived.
The whole courtyard still smells of dilapidation, but this courtyard is an ancestral residence. When it was originally built, all the best materials were used, and the layout was very elegant. Even though the courtyard is now empty, lonely and dilapidated, it is not difficult to see that as long as the courtyard is well repaired, it will definitely be good.
Sang Nianyue took her brother, sister-in-law, third brother and nephew, and they walked around the central axis and went straight to the ancestral hall at home.
The Sang family's ancestral hall is in the west courtyard, and the ancestors of the Sang family are enshrined in the ancestral hall. It's just that there has been no worship for many years, and even the ancestral hall has fallen into disrepair. Fortunately, the cleaners had cleaned every corner of the ancestral hall in advance, so it didn't look so shabby.
The rows of tablets in the ancestral hall were arranged neatly up and down. Sang Nianyue looked at them, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. With a muffled "pop", she knelt down on the futon.
Lei Shuanghan and Chang Minjun also knelt down, and with the sound of thunder and thunder, the three little guys knew that they were recognizing their ancestors and returning to their clan. The people above were all their ancestors, and they all behaved themselves. Kneel down and kowtow.
There were suppressed cries in the ancestral hall. Chang Minjun kowtowed and offered incense, then pulled Lei Zhan and the other three out, leaving Sang Nianyue and Lei Shuanghan crying inside.
Lei Zhan had never seen his father cry before, and he was shocked for a moment. Normally, this kid would have jumped out and laughed at me. Now that I think about it from his perspective, I can't help but feel that if it were him, he would be no better than his father. He didn't want to be shy, he just held the memorial tablet and howled... He couldn't think about it. When he thought about all the bad things his family had gone through, he felt extremely heavy.
The mother and son were guarding outside, but the child was still young and couldn't stay there. Chang Minjun asked Nanny Wang and the nun beside her to take the children to the place where they would be placed tonight.
And she waited quietly for Lei Shuanghan and Sang Nuoyue to come out of the ancestral hall with red and swollen eyes.
Lei Shuanghan's expression had calmed down, but Sang Nuanyue still had tears in her eyes, and her face turned pale from crying.
Chang Minjun supported his sister-in-law and reminded her, "Don't cry anymore, you are pregnant. I know you miss your parents, but you also have to think about the child."
Lei Shuanghan looked at his sister's belly. He had completely forgotten about this matter just now.
Sang Nianyue had actually forgotten that she was pregnant. At this time, after being reminded by her sister-in-law, she quickly stopped sobbing and said, "I remember, I am not feeling unwell, sister-in-law, don't worry about me." That's what he said, but Looking back at the memorial tablets of my parents, I can’t help but think of my parents’ voices and smiles. It's a pity that this person has passed away, and her parents can no longer stand in front of her, making fun of her for her gluttony, sleepiness, and laziness, and she doesn't know who she resembles.
Thinking of these, tears overflowed from her eyes uncontrollably. Sang Nuanyue turned her face sideways, wiped away the tears without leaving a trace, and her expression gradually calmed down.
Next, while the three of them went to the main courtyard, they discussed when to go to the ancestral graves to pay homage to their parents, and when to record the names of Chang Minjun and the three children in the genealogy.
Some of these things can be done by themselves, but some require witnesses.
But the Sang family is already very thin, and even if there are some blood relatives, most of them are from the fifth level. And because Sang Nianyue did not hand over all the family's property to them, the two parties were very unhappy.
Sang Nianyue briefly mentioned it, and Lei Shuanghan immediately made the decision, "Since the fifth server has been released and we haven't interacted with each other in these years, there is no need to interact with him."
Sang Nianyue looked over and hesitated, "There are several cousins among them who were quite close friends with the eldest brother before..."
Lei Shuanghan understood her unfinished intention and said calmly, "If they are good and they protected you at the beginning, then that's it. If you just watch their elders bully you based on their status, they are sitting back and enjoying the results." , or even hide behind the elders and make bad ideas, then we will never interact with them again."
Sang Nianyue nodded, "We can talk about these later. There are several elders here. I think the eldest brother should visit them earlier." This is the most important thing now.
Two of the elders Sang Nianyue mentioned were close friends of her grandfather. They lived longer than their grandfather, and after his death, their father often took them to visit him. The old men had ignored the matter for a long time, but after hearing about the tragic situation in her family, they took action in time to protect the siblings. It was precisely because of their dignity that she and Qing'er were not directly eaten alive. The two elders took pity on them and wanted to take them home to raise them, but at that time they were all in their twenties. They didn't even care about their children and grandchildren, and lived in seclusion and lived a leisurely life. day.
She felt that she and her brother had caused too much trouble to the two elders and were too naive, so she did not agree and then took her brother to her uncle's house...
But she said that the last time she returned to Jinzhou, the two elderly people were still alive. Now six or seven years have passed, and she still doesn’t know whether the elderly people are healthy.
Sang Nuanyue told her brother, "Let's visit the two old people first. They will be very happy to see that my eldest brother is still alive."
Speaking of the other elders, they are all my father's close friends. These uncles and my father had similar interests and had frequent contacts. It's just that most of them are scholars, aloof and arrogant, and they can't get rid of the sand in their eyes. They have status, but they do not have a noble status, let alone a prominent family background or wealth. This resulted in that when someone took advantage of the situation to rob and carve up the Sang family's property, they could scold those people with righteousness and righteousness, and even relied on public opinion to prevent those people from using too unbridled means. But they can't stop it for a while, but they can't stop it for a lifetime. Because of this, some elders felt ashamed of them and told their father silently. After that, they stopped seeing them and only handed over some money to her for emergency use.
Regardless of whether these uncles helped in the end, their hearts were always good.
They were the ones who gave Sang Nuanyue time in times of need, so that she could safely complete her parents' funeral and bury them.
It was because of their secret management and care that she was able to hide some of her family property; what's more, even when they arrived in Jinzhou in a calm way, instead of dying in the hands of some water bandits halfway, someone was taking special care of them.
Sang Nianyue said: "Although I kept these kindnesses in my heart before, I was unable to repay anything. Today is different from the past. The eldest brother is back, so the eldest brother will repay the favors that my younger brother and I owe. "
Although others may not be able to use them to repay the favor, it doesn't make sense that they didn't say a word when they came back. Taking the initiative to visit your home is the proper etiquette. It also makes it clear that people in the Sang family never forget their roots. They know clearly who is kind to them.
Lei Shuanghan responded with a stiff voice, "Okay."
Next, the three of them came to the main courtyard.
The main courtyard is the residence of sang father and sang mother. In ordinary families, when the elder in charge of the family passes away, the new head of the family will move in. Firstly, it is to confirm authority, and secondly, it also represents a kind of alternation between old and new.
Sang Nuanyue asked Lei Shuanghan in a hoarse voice, "Brother, do you want to move here?"
Just as she thought, Lei Shuanghan shook his head and said, "No, this is my parents' yard, we keep it for them."
Sang Nuanyue responded, "Okay."
The main courtyard is a three-entry courtyard, which is actually very large. Every plant and tree inside was carefully decorated by Father Sang, and elegance and care can be seen everywhere. Sang's mother was a meticulous woman. She took care of these things very carefully during her lifetime. She often sat in the yard for a long time.
But Sang's father and mother passed away, and now no one is cleaning the place carefully, and everything is deserted.
The house still retains the things that the owner usually uses: teapots and teacups are placed in their original places, clothes are packed in boxes and cages, there is an hourglass behind the door, and there is a bronze incense burner with cranes and lotus flowers near the corner... everything. Everything seemed like the head of the house and his wife who had traveled far away would come back at any time, but they would never come back.
That night, Sang Nuoyue slept in her boudoir, a rare night until dawn.
When he got up the next morning, Lei Shuanghan explained the house repairs and asked his wife and sister if they wanted to go out with him to visit the elders.
Yesterday, he sent people to send greeting cards to all the houses mentioned by his sister, and those houses immediately responded and sincerely welcomed him as a guest. Unfortunately, an old man has passed away, and now even in the past, only his descendants can be seen.
When Sang Nuanyue heard this, she glanced at her sister-in-law, and then they both nodded, "I have to go." It is the right thing to do to pay homage to the old man.
The three of them went out, and the three younger ones also wanted to follow. Lei Shuanghan was not that patient with his son, and directly asked the civil and military masters to press the child to go to class. As he walked, he murmured, "I rush to join in the fun of everything. I don't know who this problem looks like."
Chang Minjun glared at him angrily, while Sang Nianyue looked at her sister-in-law and then her eldest brother with a guilty conscience.
Who can my nephew be like?
Not like a big brother.
I remember when my eldest brother was at home, people would rush to wherever he heard there was excitement.
If you can't find him at home, go look for him in a busy place on the street, and you'll be sure to find him right away.
This style was very rude and ungentlemanly, and my father repeatedly threatened him. If the eldest brother dared to squeeze into the crowd again, he would break his legs... Of course, the legs were not broken. After all, the eldest brother was like a monkey, and he could He can run, jump and flee. As a scholar, his father is no match for his eldest brother. He always allows his eldest brother to escape smoothly.
The three of them went out, and there was an obvious silence outside the house for a moment.
The Sang family's mansion is on Fushou Street. Although this is not the main road, because the street is wide and close to the Yamen, generally Xiaoxiao will not do evil here, so there are many vendors setting up stalls and selling things here.
The three of them went out, and Sang Nuoyue saw a familiar mother-in-law again. The mother-in-law selling candy has been setting up a stall near Sang's house for many years.
Sang Nuoyue nodded to her mother-in-law and smiled, and the mother-in-law immediately called out, "You are really a big girl, and you have the eldest young master. Oh, we eldest girls understand the eldest young master. At that time, many people said that we are big." The young master will definitely not survive. Only the eldest girl believes that the eldest young master is still alive. Now it is good, the emperor has paid off, and the eldest girl has hoped that the eldest young master will come back. "
"Young master, do you still recognize me? Before, my grandson was seriously ill and you sent him to the hospital for treatment."
"Young Master, I was accused of stealing before, but it was you who upheld justice for me and restored my innocence. Young Master, I will never forget your kindness..."
