Seeing that it was almost done, Liu Ziguang couldn't help but feel overjoyed and asked: "Where did the concubine and the princess escape to?" But Mrs. Yang shook her head and said: "I don't know, the world is so big and the sea of people is so vast, who can know their mother?"
Where did the girl flee to? Concubine Nan’s natal family is in Beijing. When the Tatars entered the customs, her family was ruined. In such a situation of being unaccompanied, it is possible to escape to any place."
"There are always some clues. If we continue searching like this without any purpose, we may not be able to find it even if it takes ten years." Liu Ziguang shook his head in disappointment.
"Nan Fei is very clever and handy, especially good at cooking. In her early years, she won the favor of the late emperor because she made a pot of delicious fish pots. She was promoted from an ordinary palace maid to a concubine, and she also gave birth to a princess and a concubine.
The prince was promoted to a concubine, and because of his surname Nangong, he was canonized as Concubine Nan. I guess that Concubine Nan may make a living by her cooking skills, so you might as well start from this aspect, maybe you can gain something."
(Small fish pot is a Ming Dynasty palace dish)
"The little fish pot collapsed! The eldest princess's name is only the word orange!" Liu Ziguang's mind flashed like lightning. The mother and daughter by the Hongze Lake were so similar! The noble temperament of Jing Chai, the wife of the Zeng family, could not be concealed in her sarong.
, is an expert in cooking, and the name of the Zeng family’s daughter also matches the eldest princess. Looking back carefully, the facial features of the Zeng family’s mother and daughter seem to have some similarities with Zhu Youxiao.
"My lord, my lord." Seeing that Liu Ziguang was in a daze and didn't say a word for a long time, Mrs. Yang bravely shouted twice.
"Oh, it's okay, Mrs. Yang, please come back." Liu Ziguang woke up from his deep thoughts. After sending Mrs. Yang away, he sent someone to call Song Yingxing.
When Liu Ziguang left Hongze County last time, he entrusted Song Yingxing to take care of the Zeng family's mother and daughter. However, Song Yingxing moved his family to Liguo Iron Works not long after. He never had the chance to ask about the Zeng family's mother and daughter. I don't know.
How are they doing?
Song Yingxing had already fallen asleep when he was woken up. He heard that he was asking about the Zeng family and his daughter. The old man said that when he left Hongze County, he helped the Zeng family and his daughter open a small restaurant, and also provided money to Su County.
The order said hello and asked him to take care of him. Liu Ziguang castrated Pan San and scolded the county magistrate there to suppress his reputation. No one in Hongze County would dare to bully the mother and daughter.
What Liu Ziguang showed to Su Zhixian at that time was a fake Dongchang waist badge. But now that the old Dongchang has collapsed, who can guarantee that the deterrence at that time has not been used until now? Pan San's family, Hua Laowu, and the bully and fear of the strong
Saidongpi, the magistrate of the county, with these people around, the safety of the Zeng family and her daughter is in danger.
Regardless of whether they are relatives of the emperor or not, bringing them back to the capital is a matter of urgency!
After Liu Ziguang left, the mother and daughter of the Zeng family renovated the house with the five hundred taels of silver left by him. They also opened a small restaurant under the care of Song Yingxing, selling some casual food and drinks, and their lives were pretty good.
Everyone in the county knew that the mother and daughter had a fierce relative in Dongchang, so ruffians such as Hua Laowu did not dare to come to provoke them. The county magistrate also often came to take care of business, but a pair of dishonest thieves were always on Zeng Chengslim.
spinning on the waist...
Zeng Cheng missed Liu Ziguang every day. The green shirt Liu Ziguang left behind was washed and washed and starched again and again, as if it could relieve his longing in the process of washing clothes.
"Mom, do you think he will come to pick me up?"
"Mom, do you think you can come when?"
"Mom, what do you think I should wear when the time comes?"
"mother,………"
As long as no one was around, Zeng Cheng would hold her cheeks and look at the peach blossoms outside the window. While thinking about that person, she would discuss these meaningless topics with her mother. Her mother would always smile kindly and say:
"Silly boy, he will come, he will come to pick you up."
Missing is like opium, the more I think about it, the deeper I get. This hope gradually intensifies as time goes by. The scene in the fantasy of Liu Ziguang coming to pick her up has also been added to several versions. From the original one, riding a white horse and carrying a sedan chair,
It evolved to the point where she was dressed in the No. 1 Scholar's uniform, draped in red and colorful decorations, and was crowded with people on the street to welcome her. Then she wore a golden helmet on her head and wore a golden armor, leading a large team of people to pick her up with the sound of gongs and drums. She even appeared in her dreams several times.
The magical scene of Liu Ziguang stepping on colorful auspicious clouds and landing at the door of her small yard.
The peach blossoms bloomed and withered, and in a blink of an eye, spring passed, and the long and hot summer passed. Instead of expecting it, my beloved received unexpected news: the situation of the imperial court changed drastically, and the nine-thousand-year-old Dongchang was replaced by the current emperor.
and the Queen Mother were defeated in a joint fight, the people in the city were not happy about it. After all, the things in the capital had little to do with everyone, and life went on as usual. However, with the arrival of this news, the Zeng family
The situation has changed dramatically.
First, there was something wrong with the food and wine sold in the small restaurant. Several county government officials had severe stomach pains after eating it. It was said that they had vomiting and diarrhea.
After being fined several hundred taels of money for decoctions and medicines, it was unable to make ends meet and closed its doors miserably.
Then Hua Laowu and his gang of thugs began to appear near Zeng's courtyard every now and then, kicking down the door in the middle of the night and cursing during the day, scaring the mother and daughter so much that they dared not take off their clothes to sleep at night.
Fortunately, the magistrate of Saidongpi County extended a helping hand in time and hired Zeng Cheng as a rough maid in the mansion. At this time, the Zeng family was so poor that they had no overnight food, and they couldn't make ends meet by doing some sewing work. I don't know.
Why, the wealthy households in the county seemed to have calculated that no one was willing to pay for them to do work, so they had no choice but to accept the invitation from the county magistrate. Zeng Cheng endured Sai Dongpi's unbridled lustful eyes and went to the house every day.
They do some rough work like washing clothes and sweeping the floor, fetching water and peeling garlic. The magistrate’s wife is a tigress. Under her supervision, the magistrate is relatively honest for the time being. But the tigress is really fierce and picks on Zeng Cheng.
His nose was raised, and he either disliked this or that. Sometimes the floor was not cleaned, and sometimes the clothes were washed badly. The light was scolded, and the worst was violently whipped with a feather duster. The delicate skin on Zeng Cheng's body was scratched.
There were dark red traces, but in order to make some income for the family, I gritted my teeth and endured it.
Early that morning, Zeng Cheng took advantage of his free time before going to work and wanted to wash Liu Ziguang's green shirt again. He squatted by the wooden plate and rolled up his sleeves and was about to do it, when his mother happened to see the blood stains on her arms.
.
"Cheng'er, what's going on? Tell me quickly!" The wife of the Zeng family was shocked. She didn't even know that her daughter was beaten like this.
"It's okay, Mom, I accidentally hurt you." Zeng Cheng was afraid that his mother would be worried, so he quickly put down his sleeves to cover up.
"How can the bruises be like this? They were obviously beaten. Was it the murder of the county magistrate? Let's not do this job anymore!" Mrs. Zeng's wife had tears in her eyes. She felt very sorry for her daughter and gently stroked Zeng Cheng's arm.
scars on.
"Hiss~~" Zeng Cheng gasped in pain, and then smiled and said: "It really doesn't hurt. The master and his wife treat me very well... Besides, if my daughter doesn't work as a servant, what will we and my mother have to eat?"
Seeing how sensible her daughter was, Mrs. Zeng couldn't help but burst into tears. She hugged Zeng Cheng and cried, "Cheng'er, you've suffered. We really can't do this job anymore. Mom, go to the neighbor right now."
Let’s borrow some rice from home.”
Zeng Cheng wiped her mother's tears and said, "Mom, don't cry. Can't we just bear it? If we bear it for a few more days, he will come to pick us up. Then we will have a good life and eat white rice every day."
, there is meat to eat every meal.”
"Cheng'er, you should go to the county magistrate's house and resign right now. Even if you are begging for food, I can't let you be bullied like this..." Madam Zeng's tears fell like broken beads, making Zeng Cheng's nose sore.
The two mothers hugged each other and cried for a while, but in the end they couldn't get over their mother's wishes. The two women divided into two groups, one went to borrow food from a neighbor's house, and the other went to the county magistrate's house to resign.
The neighbors around the small courtyard of the Zeng family are all ordinary people. The past two years of the Ming Dynasty have been relatively smooth. No matter how bad the neighbors are, they still have a few buckets of food left over. However, they don't like to interact with outsiders like the Zeng family. The wife of the Zeng family has just
When I arrived at the door, before I could open my mouth, the door was slammed shut. After several rejections, a family named Zhou finally showed kindness and gave Mrs. Zeng half a bushel of rice.
Zeng Cheng came to the Su Zhi County House. It happened that today my wife went to her natal brother's house and the master did not come to the house. She did not dare to go to the master. She only went to the housekeeper and told her that she planned to resign.
"Girl from the Zeng family, you haven't worked for a full month. Not only will you not get paid, but your wages will be deducted for three months. Have you thought about it?" the housekeeper said in a strange tone.
"Why is this? That's not what the master said when he hired me. Three months' wages...that's three taels of silver. Where can I find that much money?" Zeng Cheng suddenly became anxious.
"Then I don't care. If you have any opinions, go to the master." The butler rolled his eyes and said.
Zeng Cheng gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, then I'll go find the master for comment."
The master was studying Su Dongpo's collection of poems in the study. When he saw the housekeeper coming with Zeng Cheng, he quickly put down the book and asked kindly: "What's the matter? Xiao Cheng."
"Master, this girl who doesn't know how to appreciate others is here to resign. I don't know why our Su family has failed her..." the housekeeper said with an unhappy look on his face.
"Resign?" Su Zhixian was surprised, "Didn't you do a good job?"