border cook

"Second brother, what are you looking at?" Chu Huibao asked with a yawn.

Chu Chengmao withdrew his gaze and said, "Look at the stars."

"Stars?" Chu Huibao also raised his head to look up at the sky. After the fireworks exploded, the whole night was gorgeous. Only when the fireworks were burned out, the night returned to its original darkness.

There are indeed stars in the night sky, but they are not bright because of the cover of clouds.

Mrs. Liu urged Chu Huibao: "Huibao, go back to sleep, aren't you sleepy?"

The New Year's Eve dinner was hosted by Xue Shi and Jiang Yanyi, a few sisters. She is the head of the house, and now she has been completely emptied of her rights, and the servants ask Xue Shi for instructions on everything.She has been someone's daughter-in-law all her life, and Xue Shi went to Yongzhou with Chu Chengbai not long after entering the house. She has never achieved the prestige of being a mother-in-law.

It was not easy for the daughter-in-law to come back, and because of the trouble caused by her son, the old lady simply handed over the housekeeping rights to Mrs. Xue, and Mrs. Liu really felt pain in her heart when she thought about it.

Which family's mother-in-law is her role, and other families are all daughters-in-law who coax her mother-in-law. When she comes to her, because the old lady gave Xue Shi the right to be a housekeeper, not to mention that Xue Shi is careful and cares about everything. If she handles it properly, even if she catches a mistake, she can't save old Mrs. Chu's face and teach Mrs. Xue a lesson.

Unfortunately, none of the children could understand her painstaking efforts. The elder daughter couldn't teach well, and Liu wanted to teach the younger daughter well so that the two sisters would not bend their elbows. Liu's heart is tired after thinking about it.

Everyone at the New Year's Eve dinner was laughing, but Mrs. Liu just felt uncomfortable.

The old lady Chu was getting old, and she couldn't stay up at night and had gone back to the room with the old man Chu to rest. She couldn't leave immediately, so she called Chu Huibao, thinking of leaving with the excuse of taking Chu Huibao back to the room.

Chu Huibao was indeed sleepy. When called by Mrs. Liu, she looked at Chu Shubao again: "Where's big sister?"

Chu Shubao was gearing up and said: "I made an appointment with my sister-in-law, Ah Yi, and Jiabao to watch the New Year's Eve together. Huibao, if you are sleepy, go back to your room with your mother to sleep."

Although Chu Huibao was playful, he was really sleepy, so he yawned and walked away with Mrs. Liu.

After watching the fireworks, Jiang Yanyi sent Chu Yan back to his room first.

After all, the atrophy of his leg muscles could not be hidden from Jiang Yanyi. The doctor would come to him every few days to give him acupuncture and hot compresses. Jiang Yanyi also told Chu Zhong to give him massages and massages to relax tendons and activate blood circulation. Now the muscle atrophy is not obvious up.

It's just that even if it was Chinese New Year, he didn't have much joy on his face, and Jiang Yanyi hardly saw him know.

After entering the small courtyard, Jiang Yanyi asked him, "Yangui, do you have something on your mind?"

Chu Yangui twitched the corners of his mouth, showing a somewhat pale knowing face: "At this time last year, when I came back from Pingkangfang with the son of Liu Shilang's family, my mother chased me all over the yard with a feather duster. Let's fight, there are only two of us left this year..."

Mrs. Jiang's death has always been a hurdle in his heart.

Jiang Yanyi sighed softly and comforted him: "Mother is over there, and she also hopes that you will be safe and happy for the rest of your life. Today is Chinese New Year, so don't think about these sad things."

Chu Yangui nodded, and he stroked a thick stack of books on the table: "Sister, do you think it would be nice if I studied hard earlier?"

Jiang Yanyi said, "It's not too late now."

She had already seen that Chu Yangui didn't like staying in the Chu family. Although they adopted Chu Changping's knees and had a good relationship with the younger generation of the Chu family, they lacked a layer of blood relationship, and because the family moved to Regarding the matter of Xizhou, I don't want to cause trouble for the Chu family.

"When spring comes, I'll buy you another house. The noodle shop and Ruyi Building's business has grown, and I'll set up a few more shops for you." Jiang Yanyi has already made plans to buy more houses for Chu Yangui in the future Even if he doesn't know how to do business with the title deed, he can spend his whole life relying on rent collection alone.

Chu Yangui listened, and hurriedly said: "I don't want a house, sister, don't worry about me, I will be successful in the future."

He doesn't want to be a drag on Jiang Yanyi, he will work hard to grow up and become Jiang Yanyi's help.

Jiang Yanyi knew that the half-grown boy had strong self-esteem, so he followed his words and said, "That's natural, my family will definitely be successful in the future."

Being praised so much by her, Chu Yangui was still a little embarrassed, and said: "I'll rest after reading for a while, Sister A and Sister Shubao have made an appointment to play horses, if you don't go, they will probably blame you .”

Jiang Yanyi said: "Okay, I'll be over now, don't read too late, take a rest earlier."

Chu Yangui nodded obediently.

When Jiang Yanyi returned to the front hall, the servants had already set the table. Sister Chu Shubao and Mrs. Xue were sitting on one side, chatting about homework while eating melon seeds.

Seeing Jiang Yanyi approaching, he asked his servants to remove the fruit plate from the table and quickly brought up the horse tag.

"I'll just wait for you, Ah Yi." Chu Shubao spat out the melon seeds and issued the horse tag again and again.

Chu Jiabao echoed, "Second sister can give us some money later."

Jiang Yanyi sat down with a smile: "I'm not good at poker, so I expect you to release the water later."

What Jiang Yanyi said was true, her poker skills were really bad, she kept losing money after several rounds, Chu Shubao was a bit better than Jiang Yanyi, Xue Shi and Chu Jiabao won more.

***

During the New Year's Eve, the guards of the Chu family also relaxed their vigilance and drank a couple of drinks. No one noticed when a black shadow rolled over the wall without a sound.

The black shadow touched the courtyard where Jiang Yanyi was, and was about to turn in, but lost his breath in an instant.

Huo Jianjia kicked open the door and walked into the yard with her big knife wrapped tightly in a scabbard with a cloth strap on her shoulders, looked around vigilantly, and raised her nose like a small animal, as if to discern the odor.

After a while, Huo Jianjia didn't find the source of the smell, and went back to the room with a big knife on his shoulder.

The black shadow jumped from the roof to the back of the house, and entered Jiang Yanyi's room through the back window.

Although the lamp was not lit, there was still no sign of bumps on the bed at a glance.

She is not in the room?

Feng Shuo frowned his pretty eyebrows.

*

At this time, in the front hall of the Chu family, Jiang Yanyi and Chu Shubao, who had been losing money all the time, seemed to be fighting chicken blood, vowing to win the round, while Xue Shi and Chu Jiabao, who had won money, were at ease.

Once the horse hangs, you don't know what time is.

When the clock on the street sounded, Jiang Yanyi asked as if waking up from a dream: "It's still a quarter of an hour before midnight?"

Mrs. Xue was already a little sleepy, so she covered her hands and yawned: "Well, it's almost midnight."

This round was Chu Shubao's worst loss. When she took out the money in her purse, she found that the purse was empty. She couldn't help crying and said with a mournful face: "I don't want to play any more. I'm so tired. I'm going back to sleep."

Chu Jiabao knew her: "Ah Yi loses the most and still hasn't given up. Big sister, don't afford to lose."

Chu Shubao said: "If I have the business under Ah Yi's hands, I'm not afraid of losing."

Jiang Yanyi hurriedly said: "Don't, I'm afraid of losing too."

These words made several people laugh, and Xue yawned all the time: "It's already this hour, everyone go back to the room. Nian'an should wake up at this hour, I have to go and have a look."

Although Chu Chengbai's eldest son, Chu Nian'an, is now fostered under Xue's knees, Xue has never given birth to a child, and the grandmother takes care of the children on weekdays, and she takes care of them when she has free time.

After the game was over, Jiang Yanyi felt tired. She rubbed her sore neck and went back to her own residence.

When she entered the yard, Huo Jianjia heard the sound again, probably from the footsteps, she came out of the ear room this time without carrying a big knife on her shoulder, stood at the door, rubbed her eyes and asked Jiang Yanyi: "My master is back. .”

Jiang Yanyi let out a "hmm" and asked, "Why haven't you slept yet?"

Huo Jianjia said: "I'll sleep again when my master comes back, did my master win any money by playing the horse crane?"

"Don't mention it, keep losing." Jiang Yanyi was a little discouraged because of the warmth of Huo Jianjia's words, and said: "It's so late, you go into the house and have a rest."

Huo Jianjia responded, and then closed the door.

After Jiang Yanyi returned to her room, she didn't find anything unusual in the room. She lit the candles in the candlestick, took off the cold-proof cloak and hung it on the shelf. When she turned around to pour water on the bench, she realized that there was someone sitting on the mahogany chair.

Jiang Yanyi shuddered reflexively, almost screaming in shock, but fortunately he held back.

"When did you come here?" She lowered her voice and asked.

"When you hit the horse hanging."

Feng Shuo's voice was calm, but Jiang Yanyi inexplicably had the illusion that he was running on him.

She said a few times in embarrassment: "I didn't know you would come over secretly. I haven't heard that you will come to visit the house after dinner. I thought you would come here tomorrow."

Today is New Year's Eve, and tomorrow is the first day of the new year.

Feng Shuo didn't answer, but only raised his eyelids to look at her.

His eyes were beautiful, under the orange candlelight, the long and narrow phoenix eyes showed a bit of laziness and casualness, it was really alluring even when he opened or closed his eyes.

He said, "Come here."

Jiang Yanyi just walked towards him in disbelief.

Feng Shuo took her hand, took out an emerald bracelet from his bosom, and put it on her hand.

Her five fingers are slender and slender, as if she has no bones, and her wrist is as white as snow. This jadeite bracelet perfectly matches the emerald ring on her index finger. The overly cold tone gives people a sense of noble alienation .

Quite a bit of elegance and extravagance that can be seen from a distance but not played with.

The so-called do as the Romans do, Jiang Yanyi has to deal with some noble ladies in business. No matter what era, the topics that women can quickly mingle with are either rouge, gouache, or clothes and jewelry. Jiang Yanyi naturally also worked hard on these.

Jade can be divided into two types, jadeite is the best among jadeite, and Hetian jade is the most famous among nephrite.

The bracelet Feng Shuo gave her is a rare dragon stone, which is the best part of the whole piece of jadeite. The color is transparent and pure, and the water head is excellent.

She raised her hand to look at the bracelet on her wrist, and said in pain, "You really don't want to spend the silver as money. If you have the money to buy this bracelet, you might as well save it for recruiting troops."

Such a blemish-free bracelet polished from dragon stone jadeite may cost tens of thousands of taels of silver to buy.

Feng Shuo didn't expect her carefully prepared New Year's gift to get such an evaluation from her. Knowing that she was worried about military supplies, he felt guilty when he was funny—he didn't treat her well enough.

She puts him first in everything, and Ruyi Building and Noodle Shop have to raise money for the military camp when they lose money. He sees many things in his eyes, and if he didn't say it at the time, it doesn't mean he doesn't know.

After letting the people below take over the business of the porcelain kiln, he had already said hello early, and it would definitely make Jiang Yanyi a big profit. This was also a little compensation he secretly gave to Jiang Yanyi.

Looking at the distressed expression on Jiang Yanyi's face, Feng Shuo felt his whole heart soften, and he said: "A few years ago, someone gave me a rough stone, and I just found a jade craftsman to grind it some time ago, and it didn't cost much. .”

Hearing what he said, Jiang Yanyi's eyes lit up.

She couldn't stop flicking the bracelet on her wrist, and she couldn't get enough of it.

Seeing her happy, a smile froze on Feng Shuo's lips, and when the beeping sounded again, he said slowly, "Yanyi, happy new year."

Jiang Yanyi also raised his head to look at him, smiling: "Happy New Year."

Feng Shuo pulled her over and hugged her into his arms: "The concubine mother said to meet you, and she will take you to meet her someday."

Jiang Yanyi was slightly taken aback: "The Empress Dowager..."

Feng Shuo's lips curled up: "I'm cured."

Fang Qing died for more than three months, and the empress and concubine was no longer under the control of drugs, and she has gradually recovered her sanity. Although sometimes she forgot who she was when talking with Feng Shuo, she would never As hysterical as ever.

The doctor in the mansion said that the condition of the empress dowager will gradually improve as the period of withdrawal from the "medication" becomes longer, and in another year or so, she may be able to be the same as a normal person.

Hearing Feng Shuo's words, Jiang Yanyi was also happy, and immediately agreed: "I happen to be going to the palace to pay New Year's greetings in a few days."

Feng Shuo grabbed her hand that was wearing the bracelet. The back of her snowy hand was so attractive, Feng Shuo couldn't help pecking, raised his eyes and said narrowly: "The other hand is for Concubine Dai. Your bracelet."