On a late autumn night, with a layer of autumn rain and a layer of cold, Kumquat walked in after putting Mrs. Wu to sleep. When she saw Li Minglou sitting under the lamp reading documents in the rain, he hurriedly took off his cloak and put it on her.
"Miss, it's getting colder and colder," she said, then lowered her head to look under the table, "Have you put on your shoes?"
There was a mat spread by the window, and Li Minglou liked to step on it with bare feet.
Hearing her question, Li Minglou pulled up his skirt, raised his legs and feet, and smiled: "Look at this."
A pair of feet were wearing black socks.
Jinju stretched out his hand and touched it and made a sound: "These are the woolen socks that Governor Wu sent the day before yesterday."
Li Minglou nodded, stretched out his feet on the mat and touched them, feeling the fur: "It's getting cold today, so I took them out and put them on. I didn't leave them for Madam."
Jin Jue said: "Madam, you don't need to wear this. Madam likes to wear shoes, so she needs to wear socks."
She sat down and stretched out her hand to pinch Li Minglou's feet, like holding two little ducks, giggling.
"The Governor sent this here because you said in your letter that you like to walk around barefoot. My wife doesn't go barefoot. Of course the Governor knows she doesn't need it, so it's just for you."
Having said this, I am busy adding more.
"Miss, we are not short of socks. You see, I have prepared them for summer. I have already found thick socks and brought them out."
Li Minglou smiled, took his feet back and covered them with his skirt: "Of course we don't need it, it's not valuable."
Jin Jue said: "We don't lack anything valuable either."
Li Minglou laughed again.
Fang Er, who was on duty, heard the laughter and looked over. He rarely appeared during the day, but he was responsible for Li Minglou's side at night.
"Madam is in a good mood," he said.
This was said to Baobao on the other side. Baobao didn't need to hold an umbrella at night. He held the black umbrella in his hand like a spear.
"I received a letter from the Governor the day before yesterday, and there are many things." He said.
For couples who cannot meet each other, receiving letters from home with some shoes, socks, furs and furs is the happiest thing in this troubled world.
Fang Er glanced at him and said, "Madam is looking at the autumn taxes sent from various places tonight."
Bao Bao said.
Fang Er continued: "Autumn taxes from various places have been successfully collected in full. In this troubled time, Huainan Road has had a good harvest."
Bao Bao suddenly understood and nodded happily: "No wonder Madam is so happy, it turns out to be a double happiness."
Laughter came from the room again. The high and low laughter of the two women crisscrossed through the pattering rain, adding a bit of liveliness to the dimly lit night.
"Look, Madam is so happy." Bao Bao grinned.
Fang Er was too lazy to talk to him anymore. He twitched his ears and looked forward. He saw a bump in the night ahead. Yuan Ji rushed out of the rain without a raincoat. Behind him was a man wrapped in a black raincloth...
.
"How..." Fang Er asked.
Before he finished speaking, Yuanji rushed over with the man wrapped in raincloth.
"Something's wrong," he just said.
Fang Er could hear the panic in this dull voice and couldn't help but be frightened. What could have happened that could make Yuan Jidu's voice panic? He immediately told Bao Bao to guard the place, and then disappeared into the darkness.
Holding the bag tightly and holding the black umbrella, he stood alert and attentive.
Hearing the footsteps, Jin Jue and Li Minglou both raised their heads and saw Yuan Ji approaching.
Under the lamp, Yuanji's hair and clothes were all wet, and the dripping water on his body gathered at his feet.
"Yuanji, what's wrong with you? It's so late..." Jinju asked in surprise.
Yuan Ji interrupted her and looked at Li Minglou: "Young Master..."
Before he finished speaking, Li Minglou stood up. Chills rushed from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. He interrupted him with a sharp voice: "What's wrong with Mingyu..."
"elder sister."
A voice shouted, and the person behind Yuan Ji rushed over, ran into Li Minglou's arms, and hugged her tightly.
This man was wrapped in a raincloth, and his body was covered with rainwater. Li Minglou seemed to be submerged in the water in an instant.
She looked down at the person in her arms in disbelief, tremblingly lifted the raincloth, and saw a strange yet familiar... young man.
"Mingyu." She called softly, then looked at Yuanji and Jinju, "I'm not dreaming, am I?"
Jin Jue's eyes widened and he covered his mouth with his hands. He pinched his face with his hands when he heard the question. Apparently he didn't know whether he was awake or dreaming.
Yuanji, who was interrupted, said what he had not finished: "Master, he is here."
The rain was cold, and the person in his arms was soft and warm. Li Minglou recovered from the shock and looked at Li Mingyu, this is true, Li Mingyu is really here.
"Cook some hot soup." Li Minglou said, reaching out and taking off the raincloth that Li Mingyu was still wearing.
Jin Jue also came to his senses, hurriedly brought the towel, and went out to make hot soup herself.
Li Minglou wiped the rain off Li Mingyu's face and body, and looked at him. He hadn't seen him for three years. Although he had seen the portrait some time ago, he looked completely different in real life.
At the age of thirteen, he already looks like a boy, the boy she is familiar with.
Li Minglou asked what happened.
After throwing herself into her arms, Li Mingyu kept her head lowered. When she raised her headlight, her little face turned pale.
Without any news, he left Jiannan Road, Shannan Road, which he couldn't leave behind, and ran to Huainan Road, which he couldn't come back from. The last time Li Mingyu acted so recklessly, he heard that something happened to Li Minglou on his way to Taiyuan Prefecture.
It can be seen that what happened this time is comparable to what happened to Li Minglou in Li Mingyu's heart.
Li Mingyu raised his head and then lowered it, as if he couldn't speak.
Li Mingyu and Yuan Ji looked at each other and said they hadn't heard anything happened on the Southeast Road of Jiannan Road.
"I'm going to ask Kumquat to prepare something to eat." Yuanji said and took the initiative to retreat.
Li Minglou put his arms around Li Mingyu's shoulders and said, "Mingyu, as long as you and I are still here, there will be nothing that can't be overcome."
Li Mingyu raised her head, and tears fell down before she could open her mouth: "Sister, Lian Xiaojun said that my father's surname is not Li, and he is not from the Li family."
Li Minglou was stunned, what?
Even when Xiaojun went to Jiannan Road with a desire for revenge, he was still more violent than she expected, and beat Li Mingyu to the point of being knocked out of his wits when he met her.
...
...
Li Mingyu sat down in front of the window and took the hot soup. Although she couldn't drink it, she still held it in her hand obediently.
Jin Jue and Yuan Ji were both called in and stood aside. Li Minglou asked them straight to the point: "Was my father adopted?"
Jin Jue and Yuan Ji looked shocked, and both stammered for a moment: "No, I haven't heard of it." "How is that possible?"
"Mingyu, what did Lian Xiaojun say?" Li Minglou asked Li Mingyu. Seeing that Li Mingyu still didn't want to speak, he advised, "When it comes to his father's life experience, Jinju is a member of the family, and Yuanji is a person close to his father.
They know more about our father than we do. If we don’t know, who else can we ask if we don’t ask them?”
Li Mingyu then raised his head. Although his voice was still trembling, his expression regained his composure when facing Jinju and Yuanji. Lady Osmanthus taught you that you don’t have to pretend to be an adult in your words and deeds, but you should always remember in your heart that you are the elder of Jiannan Road.
Governor, momentum comes from the heart.
This was also the first time in a long time that Yuan Ji saw the young master with his own eyes. Seeing the upright posture of the young man at this moment, he lowered his eyes and treated him with servant courtesy and listened quietly.
"Lian Xiaojun said that his father was adopted by his grandmother. When his grandmother had a bad relationship with his grandfather, he was driven to Zhuangzi. At that time, his grandmother was already pregnant. His great-grandmother did not allow his grandfather to divorce his grandmother and marry another person. She said that the eldest grandson must have a legitimate mother.
But then my grandmother gave birth to a daughter. In order to keep her status as a mistress, my grandmother exchanged the child with the previous family in Zhuangzi who also happened to have given birth."
"My grandmother gave the family a lot of money. After the family exchanged the children, they took the daughter born to the grandmother and left. The grandmother took her father back and was taken back by her great-grandmother in the name of her eldest grandson."
"So my father's surname is not Li at all, and he is not from the Li family at all. He is the son of a poor and humble tenant farmer in a mountain village."
After hearing what he said, Jin Jue and Yuan Ji were stunned.
"The Governor never said that," Yuan Ji said flatly, "Lian Xiaojun was lying, how did he know?"
When asked this question, Li Mingyu had a hard time keeping calm, and her nasal voice became more sobbing: "He said it was his mother who told her, and his father told his mother. When his father was a child, he heard his grandmother tell an old valet that he should go to the temple.
Tell the horoscope of a person's birth date."
Lian Xiaojun was as beautiful as an immortal, and his voice was as clear as music, but the words he spoke were as scary as ghost whispers. He said: "...Your grandmother and the old servant scolded that bitch. She is probably dead.
She keeps pestering me and crying every night, saying that I have harmed her, but I would rather say that she has harmed me. I was supposed to have a boy, but she snatched it away. I had to put in extra effort, and now I am dead.
If An Xin reincarnates and wants to harm me, then I will suppress her in the temple and prevent her from being reincarnated."
Li Minglou, Yuanji Jinju and others were silent when they heard it, as if they were dreaming.
Li Mingyu sniffed to hold back tears and relayed Lian Xiaojun's words.
"My father secretly followed the old servant to the temple, secretly opened the birth date and saw that it was the same as his birth date. He became suspicious at a young age."
"Then more and more suspicions piled up, such as why he didn't look much like his father, mother, sisters and brothers, why his father and mother always quarreled, his father didn't like him, and his mother seemed to like him, but she didn't see her younger brother in her eyes.
Sisters are different..."
"Later, after my father became successful in his studies and gained merit, he arrested the old servant who had returned to his hometown for retirement and asked him the truth."
After Li Mingyu finished speaking, the room fell silent.
Yuanji didn't know what to say. This was something he didn't know. He couldn't talk casually.
Jin Jue was in a daze and didn't know what he was thinking.
"If there is any secret about the love between father and mother, it would not be strange for father to tell mother." Li Minglou smiled and laughed off this shocking incident and said: "But the love between mother and father, how could they tell it?"
Tell Lian Xiaojun your father’s secret?”
Lian Xiaojun was just a child at that time.
And he's not his mother's biological nephew.
Lian Xiaojun naturally knew this question and gave Li Mingyu the answer: "Because I am good-looking and am the most favored in the whole clan. Even my sixth aunt often takes me to play with her."