Throughout the ages, a common excuse for "killing a wife" or "killing a daughter" is that she eloped with someone else.
In ancient times, if someone elopes, she can be dipped in a pig cage, which means she deserves to die.
Yun Qiao accidentally heard about someone who had eloped in the countryside, but she didn't pay much attention to it until she arrived in Yancheng.
This is the third time she has heard the excuse of "eloping". The second wife's natal sister "eloped" before, Xi Changan's childhood sweetheart "eloped" before, and now the fourth wife of the Xi family has also eloped with her stepdaughter.
There are speculations from the outside world and inside Xi Mansion.
But Fourth Master Xi seemed to have resigned himself to his fate. He was depressed all day long and locked himself in his room.
Yun Qiao became the only adult in the fourth room.
Fortunately, there are servants at home, and the three boys in the fourth room are taken care of in their daily life. All I have to do is talk to them at dinner every day.
Half a month later, the Governor's Mansion stopped looking for him and gave up by default. The Xi Mansion also concluded that he must have run away without a trace.
The children in the fourth room were dejected.
"Dad, have you been shutting yourself up all this time?" Xi Wenqing seemed to have grown up overnight and spoke like an adult.
When Yun Qiao first came here, he was only naughty and tried to bully Yun Qiao with his younger brother.
Now, he finally knows how difficult the world is.
"Let him go," Yun Qiao said.
Xi Wenqing looked sad: "We should persuade him and cheer him up. It's not good for him to stay at home all the time."
Yun Qiao: "He suffered a big blow, and he has the right to be sad. Compared with those terrible fathers, at least he didn't get drunk and make noise all night long."
Xi Wenqing seemed convinced.
"The way dad is now is his only effort to maintain a normal life for us in extreme pain. Don't force it." Yun Qiao said to the other two younger brothers.
They both nodded.
Xi Wenzhan and Xi Wenluo are relatively young, and they don't understand the separation of life and death for the time being. In their opinion, their mother has just gone far away, and no one will nag them for the time being.
Only Xi Wenqing knew the seriousness of the matter.
"Sister, you think dad is like this, can he still go to Peking to take office after the Chinese New Year?" Xi Wenqing asked again.
Yun Qiao: "He may want to change his life somewhere, and he will probably go."
"I want to go too. Can you intercede with dad? I also want to change my life." Xi Wenqing said, "There are also universities in Peking where you can study."
"Okay, I'll help you."
Xi Wenzhan said immediately: "Sister, I want to go too."
"Okay, leave it to me."
The youngest Wen Luo joked: "Sister, I want to go with you too?"
Yun Qiao didn't answer his words.
She didn't refuse and make the child unhappy; she didn't agree, she just put the matter aside and waited for him to forget.
Xi Mansion slowly returned to its old life. After Si Ye locked himself in his room for a month, he lost a lot of weight and finally came out to go to the Yamen.
He asked Yun Qiao privately: "Where is she?"
"Ni Yuanming and his wife returned to their hometown not long ago, and she went back with them," Yun Qiao said.
Fourth Master Xi: "I want to take her back to live with her."
"Dad, you can feel guilty, but you have to understand one thing: she no longer has a normal life, and her life is completely ruined. In the remaining days, she needs to rely on herself and the warm memories of her old house to find herself.
.
To her, we are just an intrusion. If we really pick her up, she may lose control and become hysterical. After a long time, she will get bored and you will forget the hardships she has endured.
Then her past days have really become meaningless. It is better to remember her forever, at least make her feel that it is worth persisting in living, and someone will pity her." Yun Qiao said.
Fourth Master Xi's eyes turned red again in front of her.
In the days that followed, Yun Qiao was studying and getting married.
Fourth Master Xi began to pack his things and sent his followers to Peking to buy a house, find a school, and hire people. He planned to leave with his two sons when Yun Qiao got married.