These Taoist nuns at Qingyang Temple have always been under the care of the Yang family, and they send white flour and oily rice during festivals. Some of them are not familiar with the children of the Zheng family. Naturally, these people are on the Yang family's side and bow to the Yang family.
When Mr. Yang came here, he was cheered in front of him and crowded in front of him, and the scene was so spectacular.
But now Lishu is here. Although she is young, she is the serious daughter-in-law of the Zheng family. The Taoist nuns were even more afraid to make mistakes, but they were more than respectful to Li Shu, but not sincere, because they knew very well that the county magistrate was not as good as the current one.
Therefore, when they saw the two of them arguing, they did not dare to come forward to persuade them.
But some of them are also partial to the Yang family, "Grandma Hao, you don't know that if we don't strike first and wait for these people to rush into the government and complain, our Zheng family's reputation will definitely be damaged."
Yang snorted coldly when she heard this, without explaining, as if she was treating her like a donkey with good intentions! I feel that Li Shu is a young person who will bring trouble to the Zheng family with her passion.
Li Shu smiled: "In that case, I will go out and ask for details."
As soon as she heard that Li Shu was going out, Yang immediately changed her face and pulled Li Shu anxiously: "My nephew and daughter-in-law, who are you? How can I tell your parents-in-law if you meet these people and are seen by others?" ?Okay, okay, I’ll have people disperse them right now and won’t send them to see the official.”
Yang seemed to be helpless against Lishu. Lishu achieved her goal and borrowed Poxia's donkey: "Auntie loves me so much, then I will listen to auntie."
Mrs. Yang also breathed a sigh of relief and immediately ordered her servants to give porridge again and drive the people away instead of sending them to the official position again.
But one of them was at odds with each other. After Lishu returned to her room, she ordered another bowl of mushroom noodles and continued to eat. Zhulan and Lamei thought that grandma could still eat at this time, and she was really in a good mood.
After Lishu finished eating, she saw them looking at each other and couldn't help but smile: "It's not a big deal, why are you so scared?"
Lamei handed over the tea to Li Shu to rinse her mouth, and then said worriedly: "I'm afraid the clan won't understand your sincerity, and if those victims cause trouble, you will become the target of public criticism."
"Well, it's not me who is timid. Since I think it's right at the moment, I won't change my attitude even if a lot of people criticize me in the future." Li Shu didn't care.
Of course Yang was very angry, but if she really wanted to curse in front of these Taoist nuns, she couldn't do it, so she could only say angrily: "After all, she is a grandma."
To her confidants, Mrs. Yang was rude again: "Mother Zhong, what kind of person do you think Mrs. Liu is?"
Mother Zhong is Yang’s nanny and her confidant. Therefore, Mother Zhong spoke more bluntly: "Madam, I didn't find out anything. It's just that the Zheng family decided on this marriage in the early years. This girl Liu has an excellent family background, beautiful appearance, but she has a good belly. I gave birth to two sons one after another, and then it was natural for me to become a housekeeper.”
"Is there anything else?" Ms. Yang asked. They will get along for three years in the future. If Mr. Liu dares to disgrace her now, I'm afraid it will be difficult to get along with her in the future.
Mother Zhong thought for a while: "There is only one thing. I heard that Uncle Hao has a clean and tidy family, not to mention concubines, not even the girls in the same room. You can see how many concubines the sick man has."
Yang thought for a while: "I have indeed never seen her come out with a few waiters around her."
"Mrs. Yi, what are you going to do?" Mother Zhong asked.
Yang laughed at herself: "Even so, I can't easily go against her. She is the future clan wife, and Brother Hao is a bachelor's degree student at the Hanlin Academy. The wife is as valuable as the husband. It's really a fight, who is hurt the most?"
Yang still has this sense of propriety, just like her younger sister, who is not as good as her in appearance, talent, and talent, but her husband is a promising man. Although he is not from a noble family, he has passed the imperial examination and has a prosperous official career. Now he is a fifth-grade Tongzhi. .
But so what, the Zheng family is a thousand-year-old family, what does the Zhu family have?
She was thinking so in her heart, but she looked very relieved to Mother Zhong on her face: "The old lady has been buried in the past few days. Go and go to the magistrate's house for me and invite my sister's family to come and meet. Speaking of which, We sisters haven’t seen each other for many years.”
Mother Zhong smiled and said: "Isn't it? My aunt must have missed you too. Over the years, she and you have often exchanged letters. My aunt is impatient, and she is overwhelmed by the so-called aunt at home. Thanks to you Always open the solution.”
Yang pouted.
Li Shu said that Ms. Yang is really a person. Yesterday she was so angry that her face turned the color of pig liver. Today she is back to her original state without any grudges. She even talked about this matter with Li Shu and only said that she did it herself. Not thoughtful.
Li Shu smiled and said: "What did Auntie say? Auntie is my elder, and it is my duty to teach me how to do things. However, I have been taught by the court since I was a child, and my family has repeatedly taught me to pity the poor and cherish the weak, so I have the kindness of a woman. I must learn more from my aunt in the future."
Yang was also impressed by Li Shu, because what she said was very beautiful, but she still insisted that she had done a good job yesterday and was very articulate.
From this point of view, Yang was very afraid.
One person staged a "harmony between generals and ministers", and the abbot of Qingyang Temple said: "Oh, one of them almost made me break out in a cold sweat yesterday."
Lishu and Yang looked at each other and laughed. They walked out of the door and got into their respective carriages before putting down the smiles on their faces.
As far as Lishu is concerned, it is better to let others know her bottom line first than to pretend to be a pig and eat the tiger. It is not pleasant at all to endure injustice for many years on the surface and then fight back decades later.
Therefore, this also means that many troubles cannot be found on her.
The carriage took a long time to arrive at Zheng's house. As soon as Lishu came back, before she had time to kiss her two sons, she changed her clothes and said that Mrs. Tan was here.
"What is she doing here at this time?" Li Shu thought to herself, but she still let people in.
As soon as Mrs. Tan came to see Lishu, who was so tired, she apologized: "I didn't want to disturb my sister-in-law, but there are funerals at home these days, and there are many people coming and going. I don't know who left such an object."
Because of the previous incident between Tan and Qiu Rulong, he was especially frightened by this kind of thing. Therefore, when I saw Sister Xiang picked up such a sachet in her hand yesterday, with a lock of hair and two silver holders inside, I immediately wanted to disassociate myself from it.
Li Shu opened it and blushed. This silver holder is used by men when couples have sex. Generally speaking, when a man clearly cannot do it but insists on having sex, he will put the silver holder under the man. , then tied with a rope, using the hardness of the silver holder to achieve the effect.
The clan clan now observes filial piety, Zheng Hao and Zheng Qing both live in the outer courtyard, and Mrs. Zheng in the family is older and more cautious. There is a concubine in one room, but Ningxiang is also a serious concubine.
Because there are funerals, people come and go in the Chengri clan family. If an outsider accidentally leaves it behind, that's fine. But if the girl or daughter-in-law in the family has an affair with someone, it will not be good. The housekeeper will be the first to bear the brunt of the lax housekeeping. Li Shu.
"Where did Sister Xiang pick it up? Does anyone else know?"
"As for her naughty spirit, sister-in-law, you know it. I asked her wet nurse and took her to play in the rockery and picked it up. Ningxiang carried her back for me and discovered this. She doesn't know more than three Personally." Mrs. Tan also wanted to see how Li Shu would handle things.
Li Shu took the purse and looked at the material first: "This is a lilac-colored purse, made of brocade satin. This brocade satin was made by the Nanjing Weaving Bureau. It is generally used for royal clothing of emperors and concubines, and for palace curtain cushions." This is also used on the couch, which shows that people who can use this are not ordinary people after all. I remember when I was a child, my grandfather was rewarded with damask, so our sisters used that to make clothes. If you have nothing to do, you can go back first, and I will look for it slowly. Touch, this matter should not be made public."
After saying that, she threw the purse aside, and Mr. Tan also dumped the hot potato, not daring to stay long.
After she left, Lishu called Tingxue over and asked her first: "Who wandered near the rockery yesterday? Go ask Mrs. Ning? Ask her to find out quickly, and remember, don't make it public. "
In fact, this was Lishu's first time dealing with such a matter. She was often with Yang these days, and people kept coming to worship at home, so it was inevitable that she was beyond her reach.
It was like one wave after another. Li Shu took a sip of hot tea, but she didn't show any eagerness.
Mrs. Ning came over soon. She told many people that these things were possible for everyone. Lishu had no choice but to call Zheng Hao over, because if she kept this thing for a long time, it would be bad if others thought it was hers and used it to slander her.
I originally thought that I could have some rest when I returned to Zheng's house, but I didn't expect that it was still very windy here.
But what she is least afraid of is fighting.
Zheng Hao came over in a hurry. Li Shu smiled and glanced at the purse next to her. Zheng Hao was stunned.
"Open it and take a look?" Li Shu asked.
Zheng Hao opened it and blushed: "What is this and why does it appear here?"
"My brothers and sisters said that Sister Xiang picked it up while playing in the rockery yesterday. I don't know who it belongs to. If it was accidentally omitted, it would be fine. If it was an affair with someone in our family, then the problem would be big. "Lishu said.
Zheng Hao took out the strand of hair. It was a woman's hair. There was no white hair at all, and it was still black and shiny. It should be a young woman.
"Shu'er, you were very strict with the housekeeper when you were at the Zheng family. Nothing like this has ever happened. Now you are letting it go." Zheng Hao trusts Li Shu very much.
Li Shu nodded: "Of course I know. Now that the funeral is over, there is no need for Mrs. Juyi to come over to take care of it. I will resume the previous rules of vigil and patrolling. However, when we came back, many familiar people were in Beijing before, but now There are quite a few people here who were sent by Mrs. Ju Yi, and I don’t have much trouble using them.”
Zheng Hao thought that although Li Shu was young, few could compare to her in terms of ability.
Now back home, Mrs. Ju Yi is taking care of the family affairs. Although she is older, she is not necessarily better than Li Shu. These days are being managed by Mrs. Ju Yi, and his Lishu has to accompany the last person. Just after the funeral, such a problem arises. If Lishu had taken care of it, it would never have been like this.
Therefore, Zheng Hao said: "Grandma has been buried. No one else needs to come over. In the future, you can use whichever one is convenient for you. If you are not comfortable with which one, just give it to Mrs. Ju Yi, and let Yazi send it over for careful selection."
"Hey, it's not that Mrs. Ju Yi is not good. Speaking of which, I offended her yesterday and I was afraid she would blame me." Li Shu told what happened yesterday again.
Zheng Hao frowned after listening: "Why would you sacrifice someone to die for a few acres of land? In today's world, the rich are everywhere and the poor have no place to stand. It's not a good thing. When I won the election, many of them wanted to send their fields to others. Everything in my name was rejected.”
Li Shu did not expect that Zheng Hao was as opposed to this kind of land transfer as she was. Because of this, except for Li Zhen, the other daughters of the Liu family did not get much land as dowries.
This purchase of land means buying land from farmers, and land is the foundation of farmers. Who would sell their land? As the saying goes, a person will not be rich without windfall, and a horse will not be fat without night grass. Of course, Li Shu knew that there was actually a problem with Mrs. Ju Yi's purchase of land.
Although there is a drought this year, the government is preparing to build canals. She is afraid that she will know in advance where water can pass through. Using the prophet, she will first encourage farmers to sell their land and buy it back at a low price. After the ditches are dug, the dry fields she bought will immediately become paddy fields. One acre of land can earn a price difference of six taels.
The contract was settled early, and Mrs. Ju Yi had the contract in hand, so she could not be said to have been forced to buy or sell, but to some extent, this had taken away the hard work of the people.
Seeing that Zheng Hao was filled with indignation, Li Shu said: "I think this must have happened more than once."
This is Li Shu. She doesn't directly scold Mrs. Ju Yi. She has no grudge against Mrs. Ju Yi. Now she will tell Zheng Hao. One is to eliminate the suspicion of silver entrustment, and the other is to let Zheng Hao understand that Mrs. Ju Yi is greedy for profit.
She will inherit this family in the future, but now it is being managed by others, and she has no understanding at all. Will she suffer the consequences of being mute if it turns into an empty shell when she takes over? At that time, Mrs. Ju Yi didn’t know if it had been passed on to her daughter-in-law again.
Mrs. Zheng can leave it alone, because she has handed over the role of the patriarchal wife to her now, and what happens in the future has nothing to do with her.
No matter how good his tribe is, if anything happens in the future, Zheng Hao will not be implicated.
Otherwise, if something happened to Song Mingcheng alone, how could his whole family be punished?
It wouldn't matter if Mrs. Ju Yi was really nice, and it wouldn't even matter if she enriched her own pockets. She was afraid that she would take advantage of her, do wrong things, make more mistakes, and end up harming the clan. She had to watch slowly.
Starting from the next day, Lishu asked the housekeeper and the gatekeeper to come to Maochun Hall together. The first thing she restored was the rules of night watch, especially the gatekeeper, which she repeatedly warned.
"If I knew that you were gambling and drinking, I would never be lenient. You also have sons, daughters-in-law, and relatives who are working in the house. They know that you have been stripped of your pants and beaten. Even I am worried about your old face." Li Shu said sharply.
The mothers-in-law trembled in their hearts when they heard this. In the past, there was a mother-in-law in Beijing who even threatened to commit suicide. She thought she was senior, so what if she gambled a few times? In the end, the fake act came true, and he really died. The eldest grandma was not afraid at all. She didn't even give her a lot of money. Instead, she divided the old woman's money from the old woman who had done a good job a month ago.
In Lishu's view, if the door is not tight at night, it is easy to attract rape and robbers.
Therefore, the small door was originally open here for Mrs. Ju Yi to come in and out. Last time the Zheng family did not come back, Mrs. Ju Yi came in through the small door. Unexpectedly, when she came over that day, the door was closed.
Mrs. Ju Yi asked someone to knock on the door and ask, but the woman who opened the door was very polite and just smiled and said: "It was our grandma who said that except for the east corner door, the back door and the small door are locked, and the old slave is only responsible for sweeping here. "
It turned out to be her. Mrs. Ju Yi lowered her eyes and said, "Don't all your kitchens go to the back door? Now that it's closed, is it easy to move?"
"Our grandma said that the back door of the kitchen should be kept open no more than two hours a day and should be locked at all times. Otherwise, some people would not know how they sneaked in." The mother-in-law explained clearly.
Mrs. Ju Yi's maid, Lu Rong, smiled and said, "In that case, we have already come here today, and we will leave through your east corner gate tomorrow. Isn't that enough?"
The mother-in-law was startled: "Mrs. Ju Yi, it's not that I don't want to be accommodating, in our family. Grandma always enforces orders and prohibitions. We dare not disobey. If grandma finds out, she will definitely be very good to you. But those of us who are slaves..."
Mrs. Ju Yi didn't expect that a young girl could be so majestic, even the mother-in-law was afraid of her.
The mother-in-law smiled coquettishly, but refused to give in. Mrs. Ju Yi had no choice but to come through the east corner gate. She was here to hand over the account book. This is the account book of the funeral. How much money was spent, people outside are now asking for money.
Normally, she would meet Li Shu, but now, she came to see Mrs. Zheng first.
At this time, Mrs. Zheng had just finished acupuncture, she was sweating all over, and she changed her clothes. Hearing that Mrs. Ju Yi came to pay the account, Mrs. Zheng said to Chengxin, "Just go out and ask her to go directly to Brother Hao's daughter-in-law."
Mrs. Zheng is not stupid. She now leaves everything to her daughter-in-law. When someone comes to pay the bill, she steps in again, and Mrs. Ju Yi pats her butt and leaves. By then, there will be a gap between her and her daughter-in-law. The gain outweighs the loss.
Mrs. Ju Yi didn't expect Mrs. Zheng to really let go, and then she found Li Shu.
At this time, Li Shu and Zhu Lan were eliminating candidates one by one: "It shouldn't be Mr. Qing Yi. During the period of my grandmother's death, he was in the mourning hall with the uncle to welcome the people who came to pay homage. Have you asked about the children of our clan, who is more romantic? ?”
"That's a lot." Zhulan was a little embarrassed. She was a big girl, and she only knew what a silver holder was today, but she was now the confidant of the eldest grandmother. She couldn't tell others about this matter, and she had to do it.
When Zhu Lan was about to speak, someone said that Mrs. Ju Yi was coming, and Li Shu got up to greet Mrs. Ju Yi again.
Mrs. Ju Yi was here to settle the account. She said first: "When we received the news of the funeral, we repaired the ancestral hall. You also know that we, the Zheng family, have been serving as ministers for generations. It cost no more than 20,000 yuan to build a small ancestral hall like other people's. Besides, The old lady is a first-class official, so it cost me fifty thousand dollars to build the ancestral hall even if I had no control over it."
"This is how it should be." Lishu took the account book and flipped through it to the end, gasping: "How can you get 80,000 yuan? Our old lady has already prepared all kinds of gold and silver utensils, ceramics and silk fabrics for burial. We have already prepared them from the warehouse, and I originally planned to spend no more than 5,000 yuan."
After hearing this, Mrs. Ju Yi said calmly: "Fortunately you have thought carefully, otherwise it would have cost more. Just look at this. What a coincidence, the old lady's auspicious point happens to be on the main road to repair the river." , I have to spend money to buy some things - these expenses are unusual, we can't let people occupy our old lady's auspicious points because of the river construction."
Lishu frowned: "The old lady has a Bodhisattva heart. If you really want to build the river, you can tell us first and we will settle in another place. Wouldn't this be bad for the people?"
Mrs. Ju Yi was really eloquent: "But at first you didn't come back and you didn't say you wanted to change. It was your father-in-law who said to use the previous auspicious point."
Li Shu looked at the account book carefully. Some of the accounts here were made by Mrs. Ju Yi when she was with her. The expenses of Monk Dao were only a large amount, and there were also bits and pieces, which seriously exceeded expectations.
"I'd better go to the ancestral hall first. I remember that when my mother-in-law came to Beijing, she asked you to take care of it. Since we send someone to take care of the ancestral hall every year, why do we spend so much money?" Li Shu was really distressed. Four thousand taels has now become eighty thousand taels.
She didn't believe there was anything fishy in this. She had heard her father tell a joke before at home. Every official had to build a road wherever he went. Even if the road in front had already been built, he would have to build it again, just to make more money by building it one more time. money.
In any case, Li Shu had already decided that even if she didn't care, she couldn't leave it to Mrs. Ju Yi. This person was too greedy.
Mrs. Ju Yi looked like she was asking for permission. Anyway, the ancestral hall had been renovated, so she could tell with her eyes how much it would cost. Who can calculate how many cubic meters of earth were used underneath, how many jade slabs, and what the carvings were like.
But Lishu really figured it out. She was educated in the family, and her father was good at repairing rivers. When she was at the Hedao Yamen, Lishu would sometimes go into her father's study, and her parents would often discuss it.
Therefore, as soon as she entered the ancestral hall, Mrs. Gu Yi was dumbfounded when she heard Li Shu talking incessantly.
"I did the math. Auntie, you asked someone to mainly repair the east side, while the west side was just patched up. The ground on the west side was re-founded. It is roughly ten square meters of land, and there are thirty tons of river sand. It can be used again with lime, clay and sand. No matter how much, I only needed a few hundred taels for repairs in Beijing, but the price quoted here is thirty thousand taels. There are also six fans made here, and they are not made of small-leaf red sandalwood, but purple sandalwood, which is also called black sandalwood. Sandalwood belongs to black rosewood. This kind of material has many cracks and hollows. The price of small-leaf red sandalwood is more than five times that of ebony. I asked how to build an ancestral hall. It takes about ten square meters and costs so much money. Now this There are really more and more liars in the world." Li Shu gave Mrs. Ju Yi a meaningful look.
Mrs. Ju Yi didn't expect her to be so powerful. The price for these six fans was more than 20,000 taels. She was confident that few people could tell the difference, so how could she know that this woman would see through it at a glance.
Her vest was soaked with sweat: "My nephew and daughter-in-law, what should I do? I have assigned it to the Qing brothers in the clan. They are young after all. You see, they are really unruly. They regard Ebony as a small leaf." It’s red sandalwood, luckily you reminded me.”:,,
