A lively figure in front suddenly turned around, put her hands behind her back, walked backwards, and squinted at Ouyang Rong's expression.
"nice."
Ouyang Rong nodded seriously and replied:
"The teacher has good taste. This house looks low-key from the outside, but there is something wonderful inside."
Someone looked intently and pointed at the night view of the garden outside the corridor:
“The garden has a wonderful landscape, lush greenery, and is located on the bank of the Xunyang River. The river breeze is gentle and the forest is full of wind. It has the charm of being hidden in the city.
"Living in this house is a feast for my eyes."
Xie Lingjiang nodded, his pretty face slightly cold: "Huh, what senior brother is best talking about is the house."
Ouyang Rong had a frowning expression on his face.
Xie Lingjiang pouted, turned around, and strode forward.
Ouyang Rong followed calmly, and suddenly a clear voice came from the front:
"I bought these yesterday when I went shopping in Funingfang with my mother Webber and sister Guo'er. They wanted to pick out a few pieces for me."
Lady Xie, who once disliked red makeup and preferred male makeup, moved her eyes away to look at the scenery outside the corridor:
"I didn't like to wear such fancy clothes before. It prevented me from wielding a sword and drawing a bow."
Ouyang Rong intervened and warned: "Junior sister can no longer walk around in skirts casually."
Yi Qianying, who was walking in front of him, put her little hands behind her waist and raised her braids and said, "You care about me?"
Her red lips curled up, "I'm a professional. Do you think anyone is as crooked as you, senior brother? Humph, who dares to look around, cut out a dog's eyes, and throw it into a frying pan."
Ouyang Rong's eyes... were the first to avoid it.
He said softly:
"Mother and Mrs. Weber are really thoughtful. In Xunyang City, junior sisters must wear more formal clothes, like Miss Li."
"Why?"
Ouyang Rong squinted his eyes to look at the night in the distance, and exhaled slightly:
"Xunyang City is different from Longcheng, a small county. Our path cannot be too wild. Many people are watching."
After a pause, he joked:
"Coming here is like sitting on a decent card table. You have to change the way you play and be more dignified."
Xie Lingjiang said with a smile: "So senior brother can't lead me to ransack my house?"
"Searching your home? No, in Junior Sister's mind, I am like this kind of person? Besides, whose house is being searched?"
Ouyang Rong laughed.
"That's impossible to say."
Xie Lingjiang looked at the calm senior brother, tilted his head and asked:
"Did the governor named Wang Lengran suppress the senior brother? Did someone blind in the Jiangzhou government office jump out and give the senior brother eye drops?"
When she said this, she frowned slightly: "But as a long history senior brother, there should be no one who acts foolishly."
Ouyang Rong smiled:
"It's not bad, the atmosphere in Jiangzhou's officialdom is quite interesting.
"In the prefectures and counties, there are many demoted officials from all over the world. There are many idle cranes, and there are also many old fried dough sticks hanging high in front of the house.
"Looking back, the struggles I went through when I was demoted to Dragon City are indeed quite conspicuous.
"As for Governor Wang, well, he's quite amiable. There's nothing going on at the government office for the time being."
Ouyang Rong nodded and praised.
Xie Lingjiang couldn't help but look at his expression and said crisply:
"I've been here for more than half a month. Apart from recommending Yan Liulang as the chief historian, I haven't seen any movement from my senior brother. I'm already sick.
"I heard from Yan Liulang that senior brother leaves early and comes back late, follow the rules step by step, well..."
Her tone suddenly seemed a little hopeful and excited: "Are you observing carefully to prepare a big..."
Ouyang Rong pointed at his own face and asked with a serious face:
"Does the junior sister have some prejudice against me, acting like a conspirator?
"You should clean up your workplace wherever you go, right? If trouble doesn't come to me, I will go to trouble?"
He shook his head and sighed: "Actually, as long as the fundamental interests of others are not touched, there will be so many people fighting to the death."
Xie Lingjiang nodded as if he understood.
Her pretty face still maintained a somewhat suspicious look:
"It's impossible to tell. Senior brother sometimes hides things from even me. It's so unethical."
"Okay. Don't hide it anymore." Ouyang Rong nodded, "I'll get things sorted first."
Xie Lingjiang hurriedly avoided the big brother's chestnut.
The brother and sister joked for a while, walked down the corridor and came to the door of the house.
Ouyang Rong stopped and looked around at no one. He said seriously:
"Uncle Li is restored to power, and Prince Xunyang's Mansion reopens. There will always be some strange people approaching, a mixture of good and bad, so pay attention to screening.
"Junior sister is taking care of you over there. My status is inconvenient. You are invited to attend a gathering of some noble families. You will accompany your uncle and aunt to attend. If there is any trend, please inform me as soon as possible."
Xie Lingjiang nodded: "Don't worry, Senior Brother, Uncle Li and the rest, apart from you and me, old people from Longcheng, Master Luoyang, and Prince Xiang's Mansion, no one will believe it easily."
She thought of something and complained and muttered:
"Recently, I often wear these formal dresses and accompany Sister Guo'er to those ladies' gatherings and poetry gatherings. It's really boring. I don't know why she likes to socialize. She is much more active than her brother who is immersed in studying in the study."
Ouyang Rong raised his eyelids and said nothing.
"Okay, Senior Brother, just send it here."
Xie Ling Jiang Lian stepped out of the house, waved his hand without looking back, and said goodbye in a teasing tone:
"Elder brother is also on the way. You've finished eating after dinner, right? Go back and stay with your little concubine. A long separation is better than a wedding."
The shadow in a goose-yellow skirt floats away without any trace of confusion.
The corner of Ouyang Rong's mouth twitched slightly. The junior sister has become more and more fond of teasing him recently, no matter how big or small.
He shook his head, but stood in front of the door without moving. He took a few more glances at the beautiful figure walking away gracefully in the distance with her hands behind her back.
"It's strange. I feel like my junior sister is not so clingy now. She comes when she should come and leaves when she should go. It's like she doesn't care about some things at all, which is kind of interesting."
Ouyang Rong couldn't help but laugh, touched his chin, and thought about the changes in his junior sister since she came to Jiangzhou.
Before today, before Mrs. Zhen, Ye Weilai and other female family members arrived, the junior sister would come to the Huaiye Lane residence from time to time to cook noodles for him on duty, buy some autumn clothes, etc., and quietly take care of him. life.
But she was very calm and unhurried in her comings and goings, and she never asked for credit or acted coquettishly. She just did it quietly... Ouyang Rong had not felt anything before.
But now that aunt and Wei Lai have arrived and can take over her, the junior sister is very decisive in letting go and evacuating.
On the contrary, this made Ouyang Rong a little nostalgic for the quiet, comfortable and silent world between the two of them before, and he felt a little reluctant to let go.
This made Ouyang Rong... actually want to take the initiative to find her.
Go get her back. As for what he did after he got back, and what he talked about, he didn't know.
Anyway, Ouyang Rong just wanted to get the younger junior sister's attention, teasing her to break away from her cold face and scold her with anger and laughter.
In particular, the junior sister has recently been wearing high-waisted pleated skirts and other serious and dignified aristocratic lady outfits.
It made a certain senior brother want to tear off this layer of filter with a sense of coldness and unfamiliar distance, and pull her down from the mortal world.
Well, as we all know, men have two major hobbies: pulling good girls into the water and persuading prostitutes to be good...
In front of the house, Ouyang Rong stood under the light of the red lantern, watching for a moment, and couldn't help but fell into a little thought:
"Something's wrong, little junior sister. Is this a 'moistening thing silently'? Are you teasing me...wait a minute, little junior sister must have realized what the trick is."
Ouyang Rong, who had some free time recently, gradually thought about it and was puzzled...
Just when someone was wondering, they were at the corner of the long street ahead.
Xie Lingjiang, who was wearing rusty clothes, quietly stopped and glanced back at the Huaiye Lane house like a cat.
"You still haven't come after me to keep me? Are you... don't care at all?"
This noble lady of the Xie family stood under the dim light, gently patted her slightly hot cheeks with her jade palm, tilted her head and said to herself:
"Hey, thank you Lingjiang, thank you Lingjiang, why did you go back so early? If you stay a little longer, even if you ignore him, you can still talk to Aunt Zhen. It's great, and it won't hinder anything..."
After feeling self-pity and self-pity for a short while, her face cheered up again, and she touched her moist red lips with her index finger coated with cardamom:
"Well, my words should have some effect. Senior brother's expression when he said goodbye just now was obviously a bit reluctant. Senior brother, do you want to keep me chatting for a while?"
Xie Lingjiang tried her best to remember, and after thinking about it for half a cup of tea, she suddenly smiled sweetly, clenched a small fist and raised it towards the distance:
"Humph, my father's opinion is better. It seems that you can't get too close to your senior brother, just like a follower.
"My father said that this is called 'watching from a distance but not playing with it'. My mother used to trick him like this, but my father only kept pestering my mother more and more..."
"Men, there is always a turmoil in the heart when it comes to things that are hard to get and far away from. This person should be no exception. Let's see how long he can endure it. Hmm, I don't believe it..."
Xie Lingjiang left lightly, leaving behind a sigh:
"Listening to your father's words is worth ten years of fighting."
…
Ouyang Rong "reflected" in front of the door for a while, then turned back home.
It was still early, so he went to the lobby first, sat and chatted with Zhen Shuyuan for a while, and listened to some matters about his hometown.
Half an hour later, Ouyang Rong said good night, stood up and left.
"Tanlang..."
Zhen Shuyuan suddenly stopped Ouyang Rong, handed over a gold-gilt name card she had received during the day, and told him about giving way in the morning.
Ouyang Rong's face was calm. After listening, he comforted softly: "Nothing, just accept it. If there is any 'accidental encounter' later, aunt remember to tell me."
Zhen Shuyuan agreed with relief, and Ouyang turned around and left the main hall.
On the corridor back, he opened the name card. The gilded paper exuded a faint gardenia-like fragrance. Ouyang Rong lowered his eyes and took a look:
"Pei Shisanniang..."
Ouyang Rong had some impression of this name. He seemed to be the talker of a large chamber of commerce in Xunyang City. That group of wealthy businessmen spent money like water.
Xunyang City in Jiangzhou is an important commercial port where boats and cars come together and merchants gather.
There are many merchants from Jiangnan Province and Lingnan Province, and many of them have formed interest groups in the form of hometown chambers of commerce. Moreover, these foreign wealthy businessmen are very enthusiastic about making friends with the leadership of Jiangzhou officialdom.
Otherwise, where do you think the money for the most expensive Xunyang Tower in Jiangzhou City, which stands on the bank of the river, where people are singing and dancing, reveling in life and staying up all night, comes from?
He shook his head slightly.
In the more than half a month since he took office, Ouyang Rong has received many similar invitations to banquets, mostly from businessmen, and the name of Pei Shisanniang seems to have been seen many times, and the invitations are quite frequent.
Moreover, during the day today, when Ouyang Rong, as the chief officer, went to inspect the city department in Xunyangdu, one of his subordinates mentioned this name unintentionally.
"Ah."
He casually stuffed the name card into the gap of a passing screen wall and asked a maid who was destined to clean it.
The Zhulin Yayuan where Ouyang Rong lived was called Yinbingzhai. His mentor Xie Xun took it from him and he did not change it.
On the way back to Yinbingzhai, Ouyang Rong bumped into the figure of a Silla maid carrying a bowl.
"Haixi, come here."
Ouyang Rong called Banxi to a waterside pavilion on the roadside and looked up at her.
He seemed to have a clear understanding, and his face turned red: "Mr. Lang, the matter of binding was not spread among the slaves. It was... the eldest lady guessed it."
"..."
Ouyang Rong was speechless:
"I'm not going to talk about hobbies today... No, it's not a hobby. Anyway, I won't talk about binding." He said with a straight face: "Let me ask you, when you were in Longcheng, you went to Yunshui Pavilion to hire the person who was hired by your aunt. Cook, do you still have any impression?"
Banxi was stunned for a moment and nodded vigorously: "Yeah."
As the evening breeze blew in his face, Ouyang Rong turned his head and whispered softly: "Tell me about it and tell you what you know."
Tell the whole story, down to the smallest detail.
After about a cup of tea, Ouyang Rong left the waterside pavilion with a thoughtful expression.
Returning to Yin Bing Zhai, he pushed the door open and saw the silent figure of a white-haired girl lying on the bed in the back room making the bed.
Ouyang Rong said hello, and Ye Weilai's face suddenly became happy, and she obediently ran to boil hot water for him to take a bath.
After bathing and changing clothes, Ouyang Rong, dressed in a snow-white inner shirt, came to the desk, sat down in a chair, took a long breath, and murmured:
"It seems that it is really her, the mute girl named Xiu Niang. Does she know that this is my home? Did she come here intentionally or unintentionally?
"If it's the former and it's not a coincidence, then what exactly is she trying to do? Also, is the woman who was bitten by me also her..."
Ouyang Rong pursed his lips.
It would be great if I had a chance to meet her again.
After a while, he came back to his senses, rested his chin on his hand, stared at a candle in front of him, and thought for a while.
Suddenly he reached out and took out a letter from a thick book.
It was Xiufa who they sent from Luoyang, the capital of the gods.
The little novice monk revealed an important event in advance in his letter.
"Will Your Majesty build a Lotus Buddha in the south of the Yangtze River? It will probably be located here in Xunyang City?
"If this is the case, the imperial court estimates that 80% of the time the government will ask Jiangzhou Prefecture to provide the money... I don't know how much silver it will cost this time.
"Several counties in the state have just experienced floods and major corruption cases in Jimincang at the beginning of the year. Recently, I checked Jiangzhou's annual expenditures through year-end accounting and accounting statistics. Except for Longcheng County, which was slightly better, It was almost a total loss, it was simply terrible.
"Although Xunyang City is prosperous in commerce, it is only regarded as a transit place. The merchants are cunning and shrewd, and there is not much money to keep to nourish the finances."
"Building Buddha statues again...can't afford the trouble anymore, so don't waste your life and money again."
In the dark room, in front of a solitary lamp, Chang Shi, the weak crown who has also become obsessed with settling accounts recently, sighed slightly and felt a little headache.
(End of chapter)
