Chapter 328 Concubine
There were more than fifty people in the other two Yuan families with two and three bedrooms, so they all moved to live in Dazhuangzi.
Moreover, the more than 600 acres of paddy fields in Dazhuangzi are all paddy fields, while there are only 300 acres of paddy fields in Xiaozhuangzi, and there are 200 acres of dry land. The soil in the dry land is not good enough, so you can only grow some coarse grains or trees.
But you can’t see harvests from planting trees every year or two, so over the years, the Yuan family has not dared to plant trees, and has only planted various coarse grains.
Coarse grains are not as expensive as rice. After all, two or three bedrooms are more suitable than a large one.
No, because the head of the farm said that the paddy fields over there were rushing to apply fertilizer for the second time, and the farming work could not be delayed. All the people in the second and third bedrooms moved there this morning.
Even Uncle Yuan Sanshu and a group of children moved away in a hurry.
Because people have always lived in Dazhuangzi, there is no shortage of utensils and utensils, including food, vegetables, rice, oil, and salt. When the farmers here were dismissed by Xia Zihan yesterday, they only took away some clothes, bedding, and personal belongings. They cannot take away food and other things.
Therefore, the people in the second and third bedrooms only packed some clothes, bedding and their own supplies and went directly.
Aunt Yuan was a kind-hearted person. When she saw that the Chu family had sent these things, she did not swallow them all. She immediately picked out more than half of them and asked her eldest son Yuan Da and her second son Yuan Er to send them to the second and third bedrooms.
Then, she hugged a piece of blue cloth and cried with joy to Old Yuan Tou and Yuan Zhuang Tou, "Now, you guys can finally wear decent clothes when you go out for a walk."
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She only kept four pieces of cloth, two pieces of blue and two pieces of lavender. One piece of cloth can be used for six clothes, which is just right. There are a total of twelve gentlemen in the big house. Two pieces of blue cloth Just enough to make one for one person.
The other two pieces of purple cloth will be taken to the cloth shop to be replaced by blue and blue ones when someone comes to the city someday, and they can be kept to make one for each of the gentlemen.
As for women, they do farm work at home and don’t go out. They wear the same clothes, good or bad.
With tears of joy in her eyes, Aunt Yuan hugged the cloth and returned to the house.
At this time, Xia Zihan was glaring at Xiaokui in front of him with a gloomy face, gritting his teeth and said, "You said Mrs. Cao gave a beautiful concubine to my father?"
Xiaokui was so frightened by the cold and fierce aura that she exuded that she was trembling all over and almost burst into tears. "Just... that's what happened just now. When I found out about it, I found an excuse and hurriedly informed the county master."
"Xu accepted it?" A trace of surprise flashed in Xia Zihan's eyes.
Although Mrs. Xu appears to be elegant and generous, seemingly not caring about how many concubines Xia Shiming has with her, but seeing that none of Xia Shiming's concubines have given birth to an heir in these years, we know that Mrs. Xu is a very stingy and generous person. A jealous person.
Mrs. Cao would suddenly send a beautiful woman to Xia Shiming to enjoy, probably because she resented Xia Shiming for driving her family out of the Xia family, or maybe...she was planning something?
But Mrs. Xu is not a fool. She knew clearly that Mrs. Cao was a weasel giving New Year greetings to the chicken, but she still stupidly accepted the little beauty.
Unless, what are these two sisters plotting behind their backs?
Xiaokui said tremblingly, "My wife went to the Cao Mansion. When she came back, she brought back a beautiful concubine and specially arranged to live in the yard next to the master's study."
In this way, the two sisters must have reached some kind of agreement, otherwise, Mrs. Xu would not easily agree to Mrs. Cao and be willing to give up her husband to a fox.
Thinking of this, Xia Zihan looked at Xiaokui. Seeing that Xiaokui didn't know much, he sent her back, "Go back and keep an eye on Mrs. Xu. If she does anything strange, come over and report it."
His eyebrows twisted slightly, "As for the matter of my concubine, please leave it alone for the time being."
She believed that her father was not a man who would be captured by beauty. Otherwise, when he was young, he would not have been called a nerd by her mother and grandmother.
However, Mrs. Cao sent such a disgusting thing to her father. During this time, it seemed that Mrs. Cao was living a very leisurely life.
"Chu Fei."
Xia Zihan called out the door.
Chu Fei ducked in and said, "Master, what are your orders?"
"Inform Chu Lin and ask her to check what happened to the Cao family recently?" Xia Zihan ordered.
"As commanded."
Chu Fei felt blessed, turned around and went out.
In the evening, Chu Lin came back.
"Master, I have already found out what you asked me to check."
As soon as she entered the door, she muttered.
As usual, I drank a large glass of water before reporting the information I got.
"Master Cao has completed his term and returned to Beijing to resume his post. No, Mrs. Cao happily took her daughter and son to the Shilibao on the outskirts of the city to greet him when he just arrived in the capital yesterday morning."
"Unexpectedly, there is a very beautiful lady sitting in the carriage with Mr. Cao."
"The beautiful concubine has investigated it and spent five taels of silver to bribe a young man next to Mr. Cao to find out." "The beautiful concubine was appointed by a wealthy merchant after Mrs. Cao came to Beijing in order to please Cao. Master, I specially sent people to Jiangnan to find it. A Yangzhou skinny horse, I heard from the boy that on the first day that the beautiful lady followed Master Cao, Master Cao acted like he had taken stimulants. He and the beautiful lady were locked in the room and did shameful things for five whole days. God did not show up in front of people.”
"Mrs. Cao was very angry. When she was on the outskirts of the city, she didn't dare to do anything to the beautiful concubine in front of Mr. Cao. But this morning, after Mr. Cao went to the Ministry of Personnel to go through the formalities for taking office, Mrs. Cao sent The wife was called.”
"As for what they said, the young man didn't know, but the servant learned from a woman sweeping the floor in Mrs. Cao's yard that there was a deal between Mrs. Cao and the wife, and it seemed that the eldest girl's marriage was also involved. ”
Xia Zihan was stunned, "Why are you involved with Xia Ziqing?"
After a pause, she suddenly had an incredible thought, "Could it be that Madam used Xia Ziqing's marriage to make a deal with Madam Cao?"
Could it be that Mrs. Cao wanted to marry Xia Ziqing for the notorious Young Master Cao, right?
If what she guessed was true, she was speechless.
Xia Ziqing is only Xia Shiming's niece, not his daughter. It's not the Xu family's turn to handle her marriage, right?
Xia Ziqing is the eldest daughter of the Xia family with a distinguished status, and she is not a concubine with no status. She can just let her aunt make the decision on her marriage.
You know, if Xia Ziqing finds her marriage, it will be a help to the Xia family, and it will also be helpful to the careers of several Xia family members.
Her marriage will never be decided haphazardly by the Xia family. It must be done at a high level. Otherwise, Mrs. Xia and Mrs. Xia would not want Xia Ziqing to marry her husband's family in the capital. It's not like there is no such thing in Jiangning City. A good family.
Since you want to find it in the capital, you have to look high.
And the Cao family's family background is not as good as that of the Xia family, not to mention that the young master Cao is already notorious and notorious. I'm afraid no family with any respect in the capital will marry their daughter into the Cao family, right?
Before Mrs. Xu came to the capital, she was entrusted with such an important responsibility by the Xia family, but not only did she not handle it well, she also tried to harm Xia Ziqing at every turn. She didn't know what the benefits would be to her if she harmed Xia Ziqing. You know, her children also My surname is Xia, and I can’t write two characters for Xia in one stroke.
In the past, she still wanted to marry Xia Ziqing to a poorer family, and she also persuaded Xia Shiming.
It would be better now to directly trade Xia Ziqing with Mrs. Cao and sell Xia Ziqing to a bastard like Young Master Cao.
What if her father found out?
Haha...
Xia Zihan felt very happy when she thought that Xu's status in her father's heart would be further improved.
When Xia Shiming came directly from the school to the Chu family, Xia Zihan went to greet him with a smile. After eating, she did not go to tease the twins for the first time and stayed with Xia Shiming for a walk to eat.
The father and daughter walked to the bridge and admired the lotus flowers all over the lake. Xia Zihan smiled and congratulated Xia Shiming, "Dad, congratulations. I heard that your mother has given you a new concubine."
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"What beautiful concubine? Who did you listen to, girl?" Xia Shiming frowned, as if he was thinking of someone, and a trace of disgust flashed deep in his eyes.
"Haha, it's Chu Lin. I met the maid of the Cao family on the street and overheard it."
Xia Zihan casually made up an excuse and subconsciously concealed the fact that she was spying on the Xia family.
Xia Shiming had no doubts, but his brows furrowed tighter.
Xia Zihan added, "I heard that the beautiful concubine was given to Master Cao by a friend of Mr. Cao. Mrs. Cao was very angry and asked her mother to take her back to the Xia family. Dad hasn't come home to see her yet, right?"
"Well, I came here right after I got off school."
It means he didn't see any beautiful concubine.
It seemed like he was expressing some attitude in front of Xia Zihan.
He rubbed Xia Zihan's hair and said, "Don't think too much about some things after hearing them. Dad has read poetry and books all his life and has children. How could he be like some..."
He originally wanted to say that he would not be like those men who were immersed in wealth, but when he thought that his precious daughter was still a young girl and it seemed inappropriate to mention this word in front of her, he changed his mind and said, "Don't worry, dad knows What to do and what not to do.”
Although Xia Shiming is a nerd and doesn't know how to adapt his mind, he is not stupid either. He knows that his daughter must be trying to say something to him when she mentions this matter in front of him.
He could probably guess some of what she was worried about, so in order to appease his precious daughter's heart, he took the lead in making a promise to her.
Sure enough, Xia Zihan smiled brightly, her eyebrows forming a crescent moon, "Dad, if you want to take a concubine, ask your daughter to find someone to find you some innocent girls. But for people with unknown origins, you It’s better not to touch her. No matter how beautiful that kind of woman is, she is still a poisonous snake. If you touch her, you might get bitten by her.”
Especially the people sent by the Cao family obviously had bad intentions.
When Xia Shiming thought of Mrs. Cao, his eyebrows wrinkled into a pair of sea cucumbers, and his eyes were full of disgust.
(End of chapter)