By the end of April, Cao Yin's health was much better. Because Kangxi gave medicine in March and April, he also ordered to inquire about Cao Yin's condition. Therefore, after Cao Yin was in better health, he also wrote two thanksgiving excerpts by himself.

The holy drive was fortunate to Wutai Mountain in February, and only returned to the capital in March. Now, it seems that he is preparing for the May patrol. After Cao Hao returned to Jiangning, he kept thinking about finding Wenxiu's family. Helpless, I really know too few clues, I only know that she was abducted when she was seven years old, probably born in the twenty-ninth year of Kangxi, or the thirtieth year of Kangxi, her family is quite wealthy, and she has an osmanthus yard. There is a younger sister in the family, and her mother died in childbirth while giving birth to her younger sister.

Because Cao Hao was going to look for Wenxiu's family a year ago, Cao Fang also looked for a lot of people in the past six months, but in the end he was only disappointed. Cao Hao thought of Wenxiu, and there was no way for a while, so he had to expand the scope of the search, and also sent people to inquire about the boundary outside Jiangning City.

Besides, Xifu, it is Zhaojia's family who cried, made trouble, and hanged himself, and 1,280 were unhappy, so what could he do? Cao Quan's concubine, after all, is a private matter, and besides, it is a matchmaker for the chief, so it cannot be refused. Even if the Li family heard it, he was upset for Zhaojia's family, and he could only say a few words of relief. And Cao Yin, as the elder brother, has no reason to care about his younger brother's concubine.

Half a month after entering the house, Lu Mei, who was sent by the Lord of the Road, brought a cup of tea to worship the eldest sister as Cao Quan's second room.

Xifu, main house.

Zhao Jia sat on the upper seat, his face stiff, without a hint of a smile, staring at the shadow that walked in outside the door.

The road's eyebrows lowered his head slightly, looking low and pleasing to the eye. The upper body is a silver pink gauze shirt, and the white silk skirt with pink thread embroidered peach blossoms underneath is not arrogant but also pretty. Because it is a small foot, it was supported by the maid, and he walked swaying and charming. Occasionally, when I looked up, a pair of beautiful eyes were full of brilliance, which was very seductive.

This woman is in such a place where there are many beauties in the south of the Yangtze River, and she can be called excellent, and no one in the Cao Mansion can be called the best.

Zhao Jia's secretly bit a mouthful of silver teeth, and glanced at the maid beside him, who immediately went over and brought a mat over, put it on the ground, and prepared the second room to worship Zhao Jia's ceremony.

The roadman walked over respectfully, first blessed his body in all directions, and then lifted his dress and knelt down on the cushion. When she knelt down, her heart was cold, where was the mat, it was clearly a layer of brocade wrapped on the outside of the wooden board, and she was a stiff man. This is the dismount given by the big house.

Lu Mei gritted his teeth in his heart, still with a smile on his face, kowtowed respectfully, and called him "sister", and then took a small tea tray with a colorful bowl from the maid next to him, held it high above his head, and presented it to Zhaojia's.

Zhao Jia's didn't answer at all, not even looking at it, while fiddling with his tortoiseshell nail covers, slowly squeezed out a smile, and asked kindly: "I heard that Miss Lu's relatives have passed away?" ”

Lu Mei's face was pale, and his brows frowned slightly: "Mei'er's family is unfortunate, and there are no parents in swaddling clothes." Fortunately, with the help of the uncle in the clan, I was able to serve my lord and sister. ”

As she spoke, her face suddenly turned from cloudy to sunny, the corners of her mouth and eyebrows brought out a hint of joy, and she said in a sweet and glutinous voice: "Mei'er is young and discordant, and my sister will have to mention me more in the future." Uncle Zu once said to me, master and sister, you are the most benevolent and righteous, so Mei'er doesn't have to pity her life experience, and said that her sister will take care of Mei'er, and she will not make the Lu family feel cold. ”

Zhao Jia's wanted to point out that he knew that he was an orphan and had no family to fight against, so he told her to be honest. I didn't think that this roadbrow was a powerful ballast, so I moved the roadway out in a few words, and returned a big soft nail.

Zhaojia's mother's family has a very high status, and they don't take a platform in their eyes, but there is a governor standing behind this platform, and it is the territory of Jiangnan, so you can't be polite.

Zhao Jia's heart was blocked, and he raised his eyebrows: "Since she is the niece of Lord Daotai, Miss Lu's family history, presumably the needlework girl is good, and the clothes of the fine material have to be done by Miss Lu." ”

Lu Mei said lightly: "The uncles and aunts of the clan all think that this woman is so angry that they only hand it over to their subordinates to do it, and they refuse to ask Mei'er to touch their hands." ”

Where did the Cao family use the master to make clothes himself, and making purses was just for fun in his spare time. Zhao Jiashi just wanted to press her, but when she said this, he grabbed her little tail, was very proud, coughed, and said: "Miss Lu's words are strange, there is still a daughter in the boudoir who can't needlework?" The Lu family inevitably pampered their daughter. There is no daughter of the Cao family who can't do it, that is, our family is the second girl of Wang Fujin of Pingjun, and she doesn't say that she doesn't stick to needlework. But I don't know what Uncle Ling asked you to do! ”

Lu Mei was not shocked at all, but smiled very brightly: "The Lu family uses poetry and books to pass on the family, and the uncle and aunt of the clan are afraid that Mei'er will be tired of his hands and eyes and will not be able to write good words." Mei'er has been practicing piano, chess, calligraphy and painting since childhood, and now she has a little success, if my sister is bored, Mei'er accompanies you to play the piano and chess, isn't it happy? ”

Zhao Jia's choked enough. She also learned this piano and chess before she left the cabinet, but she didn't have a good one, and she had already abandoned it for many years, where can she still talk about it? She stared at the colorful bowl hatefully for a long time before reaching out and holding it up, taking a sip, and putting it aside.

Lu Mei breathed a sigh of relief, her arms were sore, and her legs were numb, so she was about to signal her maid Fuyun to come over to help her, but when she saw Fuyun motionless, she quietly gave her a look. She didn't know why, and tilted her head to look at the floating clouds, looking surprised. But when she heard the mother-in-law behind Zhao Jia's cough, she woke up to the fact that Zhao Jia's didn't speak, and she couldn't get up.

Lu Mei had already cursed the whole Zhaojia family a thousand and eight hundred times in her heart, and she had to continue to pretend to be docile and docile here, kneeling straight and listening to the words behind the Zhaojia family.

Zhao Jiashi cleared his throat and began to recite the family rules at length, interjecting a few words such as "you should pay attention to ......" and "you must ...... carefully".

Lu Mei hung his head and listened, his brain was dizzy and heavy, his legs were numb and painful, he hated and scolded in his heart, and he almost wanted to collapse, but he only gritted his teeth.

finally waited for Zhao Jia's to say "get up", Lu Mei couldn't stand steadily, he was forced to stand up by the floating clouds, and he staggered when he walked, and his charming posture was completely gone.

According to the rules, Lu Mei is a serious second room, and Cao Quan's concubines are going to worship her. However, she was only done in the side position, and she heard Zhao Jia's say: "My sister is bound to her feet, no wonder it is not convenient to walk." Fuyun, help Aunt Lu to go back and rest! Speaking of this, he smiled and said to Lu Mei: "In the future, sister, you can stay in the yard, don't go out and walk around, and don't hurt your feet." ”

Lu frowned, glanced at the two concubines who were going to come to worship, and saw that although there was no obvious smile on their faces, they seemed to have a little mocking smile. She couldn't help but be annoyed, but she couldn't, so she had to hold back her anger and squeeze out a smile: "Sister Xie is considerate." As he spoke, he took Fuyun's arm, got up and saluted and retreated, and staggered out of the door.

Zhao Jiashi finally pulled back a game, let out a happy breath, and ordered Baodie and Jade to go down with a pleasant voice. When the people were gone, she stared at the colorful bowl and said to herself, "Let's see." ”

* In the blink of an eye, on April 28, it was the birthday banquet held by the Governor's Palace.

This kind of entertainment, because Cao Yin is sick, Cao Hao came to give gifts on behalf of his father. The birthday ceremony is the white jade Guanyin, although it looks unassuming, but it does not look thin.

At the entrance of the Governor's Palace, there was a lot of traffic. Now, except for the always upright governor Zhang Boxing, who dares not to sell the face of the governor Kali in the Jiangnan territory. Although the governor has a bad official reputation, he has the support of the emperor behind his back, and a series of impeachments have come up, which has reshuffled the Jiangnan officialdom. Although many people hate Kali so much that their teeth itch, on the surface, they need to scold him even more, where do they dare to offend.

Because Cao Hao brought Xiao Man, Wei Hei and the Wu family brothers, and they were just dressed ordinary, the housekeeper of the Governor's Mansion didn't take them too seriously, just regarded them as ordinary petty officials. And because he caught up with the Li family to send someone to give gifts, the big housekeeper went out to greet him, and only sent a porter to receive the gifts brought by Cao Hao.

Seeing that the other party was so sluggish, Xiao Man and Wei Hei were very angry and wanted to have a seizure. Cao Hao stopped with a smile, it was better this way, just don't waste more time here. I made an appointment to meet Wei Xin in Linjiang Tower, and finished the errand here early, so that I could go early.

After registering the gift, the other party also gave a reward of two coins of silver in accordance with the rules. However, the other party also saw that Cao Hao did not look like a servant, so he gave the reward to Xiao Man, who was dressed as a servant. Xiaoman took it with a smile and thanked him.

Cao Hao and the others came out of the governor's palace and were just in time for several large cars parked at the door, accompanied by many brightly dressed servants. A man in brocade in his thirties was standing at the door greeting a young man.

Cao Hao saw that he was a little familiar that year, and couldn't help but look at it twice, but it was Li Xu's second son Li Ding. The last time Cao Hao saw this cousin was at the funeral of the old lady, and although three or four years have passed now, Li Ding's appearance has not changed much.

Looking at the few carriages and the more than a dozen long entourages gathered behind Li Ding, Cao Hao frowned slightly. This uncle is also yes, even if he wants to give a big gift to Kari, won't he be more low-key? came over with such fanfare, for fear that others would not know that the Li family had a close relationship with the Governor's Mansion. Thinking about it again, I am afraid that Li Xu deliberately did this in order to make a karma. Could it be that he forgot that there is only one in Beijing who has the final say in this world.

Thinking of these things, Cao Hao really couldn't help but have a headache, it was easy for the family's deficit to be almost over, and his father's illness was gradually improving, but he still had to follow the Li family. He was a little tired in his heart, and he didn't want to stay longer, so he beckoned everyone to get on their horses and leave the governor's palace.

The young man was Li Ding, who came to Jiangning with his father Li Xu to give gifts, because his father went to the weaving mansion first, so he escorted the gifts over. The brocade-clothed man standing across from him was the concubine of Kali, Gandu, and he still had to call "brother".

Maybe it was Cao Hao who glanced over here twice, Li Ding noticed it, and while greeting Gandu, he turned his head to look over there, and only saw a few people getting on the horse. Although Cao Hao could recognize him, he didn't recognize Cao Hao for a while. After all, the last time I saw Cao Hao, Cao Hao was still a twelve-year-old boy, which was very different from now.

As he spoke, Cao Hao had already ridden away. Li Ding didn't care, turned his head, and entered the governor's palace with Gandu.

*Linjiang Building, a famous restaurant on the bank of the Qinhuai River, is one of the properties of Wei Xinjia. Since mid-April, pearl divering families in the north and south and some famous pearl merchants have come to Jiangning one after another. Cao Fang and Wei Xin arranged everyone to live in Linjiang Tower, one is to fight the fertilizer water and not flow into the fields of outsiders, and the other is to know some roots, so as to save people from fishing in troubled waters.

Cultured pearls are something that has never been heard of, and everyone is somewhat skeptical. However, the person who sent the invitation in the past carried the guarantee of the Thirteen Banks of Guangdong. Moreover, the Thirteen Banks also issued a certificate to prove that it was indeed in the summer and winter of the 48th year of Kangxi that he purchased pearls worth nearly 400,000 taels of silver in Jiangning.

In recent years, due to the scarcity of pearl collection, many families who rely on this business have gradually withered, and it is time for everyone to find a way around. The north and the south are peers, whether it is a large pearl diver or a pearl merchant, everyone can say a thing or two with their fingers, but Jiangning, the Cao family, is the first time to hear of it. However, the Thirteen Elements are famous, and it is impossible to use them as a cover for others. Therefore, this pearl meeting is not implausible. When they arrived in Jiangning with apprehension and found that there were many northern and southern counterparts, they naturally began to fight Xiao Jiujiu.

When I met an acquaintance, everyone greeted each other, and when they mentioned the pearl, they all laughed and said that it was nonsense. However, when they returned to their rooms, they began to calculate. If this is true, if you can win this deal at home, then you will make a fortune.

In the meantime, Wei Xin said as if he had unintentionally revealed his mouth, saying that this time the Pearl Club still had to rely on their strength to speak. The secret method of cultured pearls is finally estimated to be the one with the highest price.

Those who are close to Jiangning have already sent letters back to ask their families to send money again. When he came, he came with a large number of silver tickets, smiling and secretly proud. Those who don't have enough money on them, and who don't have time to go back and forth, almost jump to their feet. I want to jump more is the [***] money village. They are not only for pearls, but now that the pearl merchants are short of money, if they borrow money at this time, it will be a great business. But because the Cao family had not yet opened their mouths to allow it, they did not dare to intervene easily, so they could only be secretly anxious. Every day, there are always a few heads who come over to flatter Wei Xin wholeheartedly.

Wei Xin refused to let go easily because of Cao Hao's orders. Everyone should eat, drink, and when it comes to serious things, there is only one "drag" word.

(To be continued)