After entering the city, the emperor drove back in the direction of the palace, and then people from various palaces also separated in separate ways.
With a few exceptions, the officials accompanying this time were all above the third rank. Those whose mansions were built in the city were mostly in prosperous places.
Therefore, among the crowd of carriages and sedans, one of the carriages rushing to the old residential area in the south of the city stood out particularly.
The spacious and comfortable oil-filled carriage approached the residential area and stopped slowly at the entrance of the alley.
The alley is narrow and carriages cannot pass.
The driver of the carriage was a guard in civilian clothes. He jumped down from the shaft seat, raised the curtain of the carriage, stretched out a hand and helped the people in the carriage out.
Because the injury had not healed, the young man wore a cloak on top of his gown.
Even so, when he suddenly got out of the carriage and the warm early summer breeze blew by, the man still coughed for a while.
He looked in the direction of the alley, but his feet did not move for a moment, as if he felt a little timid about being close to home.
After watching in silence for a while, he raised his feet and walked into the alley slowly.
The guard had obviously already found out where the residence was. At this time, he stopped in front of a small courtyard and said, "It should be this household." Then he went up and knocked on the courtyard door.
"Who is it?"
A woman's voice came from the courtyard.
The guard raised his voice and said, "Master Zhan is back. Open the door."
"... Mr. Zhan?"
The woman opened the door from the inside and said in confusion: "Which Mr. Zhan? How come I have never heard of him? Is he a Mr. Zhan from the Zhan clan?"
When the door was opened, the woman cast curious eyes on the young man who looked a bit sickly.
"Where is my mother?" The young man's voice was weak but revealed a hint of trembling and urgency. As he spoke, his eyes had already been cast in the direction of the courtyard.
"I don't know about this young master..." Before the woman, who looked like a servant, could finish her question, she saw the young man walking into the courtyard.
She frowned and said "Hey", and when she was about to stop him, she heard a soft "crack" sound, and the young follower actually pulled out a long knife from behind his waist and held it in front of her.
The servant woman was so shocked that her face turned pale and she almost left her body and ascended to heaven.
"Master Zhan is following His Majesty's instructions to visit his mother. Don't let anyone stop you -" the guard warned coldly.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty..." The servant girl was extremely surprised and murmured: "Master Zhan... this lady's son? Didn't he commit suicide by drowning himself long ago?"
Due to the clear sky and daylight, the possibility of encountering ghosts is too small... So, could it be that the person is not dead and has come back?!
After all, I said at the beginning that the body had not been found yet!
Thinking of this astonishing possibility, the maid looked back at the young man walking into the hall. Anxious to watch the excitement, she hurriedly explained to the guard: "My lord has misunderstood, and the civilian woman has no intention of obstructing him."
, The civilian woman came to take care of the wife of the Zhan family at the behest of our Jifu Yin. She just didn’t know the identity of the young master, so she couldn’t let him in rashly..."
Seeing the flattering smile on her face, the guard put the knife back expressionlessly.
The servant girl bowed to him indiscriminately and hurriedly followed him, shouting: "I will lead the way for the young master, my wife is in this room!"
"The roof of the back room that was used as a bedroom was leaking, and I didn't have time to get anyone to repair it. I was afraid that my wife would get wet and cold, so I temporarily tidied up this room..."
The maid took Zhan Yunzhu to the side room, pushed the door open as she walked in front, and said happily: "Madam! Your young master is back!"
"……who?"
The wife of the Zhan family, Jia Shi, who was lying on the bed, turned her head slightly and asked in a low voice.
She just thought that she heard it wrong, or that she was dreaming again as usual.
"It's your young master who's back!" The maid stepped into the room, stepped forward with a smile, and helped Jia to sit up.
Jia, who was so sick that only a handful of bones were left, let her help him sit up, and still asked in confusion: "Who are you talking about...?"
Long-term illness and depression made her look dull and dull from the inside out.
The maid stuffed a pillow behind her for her to lean on, then smiled and stood aside, pointing her finger in the direction of the door: "See who it is!"
There can't be someone pretending to do something like this, right?
But this was indeed the first time she had seen something like this that she had only heard about in playbooks!
The servant woman's eyes flickered back and forth between the mother and son, curiously distinguishing the true from the false.
Looking at the young man standing inside the door, Jia's originally gray and cloudy eyes suddenly widened, and her thin, sunken and saggy cheeks trembled with excitement.
"Jinping...is it really you?"
"Mother, it's my son who's back." Zhan Yunzhu responded in a hoarse voice.
The next moment, he lifted up the corner of his robe, knelt down, and kowtowed heavily in Jia's direction: "My son is unfilial and came back late."
Jia shook her head, with red eyes and said excitedly: "...Hurry...come to mother, let mother take a good look!"
Zhan Yunzhu responded "Yes" in a respectful tone, stood up and came to the bedside, holding the trembling hands that kept waving towards him.
"Jinping...my son...my son is really back!"
Mrs. Jia's eyes were fixed on her son's face tightly, not daring to blink: "Mother knows that you have been so sensible and filial since you were a child, and there is no way you would abandon your mother!"
As he spoke, tears rolled down from his dark eye sockets.
Zhan Yunzhu raised his hand and stroked his mother's messy and pale hair, and his eyes turned red: "It's all because of the son's unfilial piety that made my mother suffer..."
"No, mother won't feel the pain after seeing you back! That's great, that's great!" A smile began to appear on Jia's face, her eyes always looking at the person in front of her almost greedily.
The maid on the side wiped her tears.
In fact, she and this Mrs. James didn't talk much on weekdays, but she had the problem of being easily unable to hold back tears because of other people's stories.
At this time, Zhan Yunzhu turned to her and said, "Thank you so much for taking care of my mother these days."
The servant girl smiled hurriedly and said: "Young Master Zhan, you're being polite. This is Master Ji's explanation. I'm just doing what you're told."
It is said that the person who took care of the Mrs. Zhan was someone hired by Miss Xu from the Zhenguo Palace. After Miss Xia's case was settled, the Lord took pity on the Mrs. Zhan and asked her to come over and change her.
She does things for a living, so she has nothing to thank others for.
"I will personally thank Mr. Ji another day."
Hearing what the young man said, the maid smiled and nodded.
She should express her gratitude to Mr. Ji. After all, Mr. Ji reluctantly hired her with his own money.
At this time, I heard the young man say again: "I want to have a few words with my mother alone -"
