The Grand Secretary’s Pampered Wife

Chapter 527 Joy (two more)

At the palace banquet on New Year's Eve, the emperor and the Empress Dowager Zhuang escaped together, leaving only Empress Xiao and the prince to preside over the overall situation, and invited Princess Xinyang and other royal family members to celebrate the victory of the border war and welcome the new year.

This is really the first time in the world.

The emperor entered the courtyard without any psychological pressure. Where the queen mother is, he will be there!

Eunuch Wei looked at his majesty without a word.

Ever since he believed that he had taken the drug, His Majesty has been on the road of letting himself go forever. Do you want to remind Your Majesty that what he took was just a hair growth pill?

"Queen! Here I come!"

The emperor immediately turned into the little tail of the Empress Dowager Zhuang.

Eunuch Wei covered his eyes, damn it! I didn't see it!

Gu Jiao originally wanted to enter the palace to report to her aunt that she was safe, since her aunt is here, there is no need to go through a lot of trouble.

Gu Jiao and her aunt entered the main room.

I didn't observe too carefully before, but now I'm wandering around the house with my aunt, only to realize that the family has actually changed a lot in the three months since I left.

The vegetable garden in the front yard has been enlarged, with a variety of shallots and radishes. The small fish pond opposite the vegetable garden has been filled in and replaced with a large fish tank.

This was proposed by Xiao Jingkong. He said that there is a younger brother in the family, and the younger brother should have his own place to play. Even though the younger brother is still so young, he still contributed his small fish pond without hesitation.

Furthermore, the passage from the backyard to the next door is no longer a passage, that wall has been completely pushed down, and now the backyards of the two houses are connected together and become a large courtyard.

"Grandpa bought that house." Seeing Gu Jiao looking at the opened courtyard with a look of astonishment, Xiao Heng explained softly beside her.

"It's not cheap." Gu Jiao murmured.

Xiao Heng nodded: "Well, it cost one thousand taels."

It wasn't so expensive before, but since a new No. 1 scholar was named, Bishui Hutong has gained the title of No. 1 Hutong, and the price of land and house prices has soared.

Just this thousand taels is still a friendly price.

Gu Jiao asked strangely: "Where did my uncle get so much money?"

If she remembered correctly, Guozijian's salary for Jijiu doesn't seem to be that high.

Xiao Heng twitched the corners of his lips: "Just... sold an official position."

Gu Jiao: Grandpa still does this kind of thing!

The operation of the old Jijiu to sell his official position is like this. First, he releases the news that he wants to buy a house, and then someone with evil intentions comes to him.

Bribe Lao Jijiu with a lot of money.

The old Jijiu directly carried the gold to the emperor's imperial study, and told His Majesty with righteous indignation: "I, Huo Xian, have been clean and honest all my life, and I will be loyal to Your Majesty without any second thoughts! To think of bribing me is simply wishful thinking! My minister swears here, even if all All civil and military officials in the court have been bribed, and the humble ministers will not be bribed!"

The last words of the old Jijiu successfully aroused the emperor's deep thinking. The emperor has encountered many things since he took office, and suddenly understood some of the decisions made by the Empress Dowager Zhuang back then.

The emperor and the Empress Dowager Zhuang are completely different in employing people. The emperor can't rub the sand in his eyes. It has never violated the law or violated the principles of ethics.

Empress Dowager Zhuang is more open-minded. She pays attention to employing people's strengths and tolerant people's weaknesses. The most typical example is Tang Yueshan.

Tang Yueshan is a man of great success, and his uncle and sister-in-law are unreasonable. If he were an emperor, he would never reuse him.

But after the battle of the frontier fortress, the emperor suddenly felt that Tang Yueshan was better than worse.

The emperor began to think about Empress Dowager Zhuang's way of governing, and found that there were many things in Empress Dowager Zhuang that were worth pondering.

When the water is clear, there will be no fish.

Just like the shadow official system handed down from the ancestors, it is absolutely impossible to ban it. It has shaken the interests of too many dignitaries and scholar-bureaucrats, but the empress mother easily solved the problem with a six-part assessment system.

Although there will still be yin officials, but the mediocre qualifications and years of service of yin officials are reduced to the greatest extent, which is a perfect balance.

The emperor felt that the matter of buying officials would exist no matter what.

The old Jijiu refused, and there was no guarantee that the other party would not find another one. Instead of finding the name of an unknown official, it is better to let the old Jijiu accept.

In this way at least he knows which officials were bought, and everything is under control, and when Chao Gang is completely stabilized, he will wipe out this group of people!

So Lao Jijiu accepted bribes openly with the emperor's permission, and bought the mansion next door to the champion!

Empress Dowager Zhuang and the emperor sat down in the main room, both of them had a lot to say to Gu Jiao.

Lao Jijiu quietly went to the kitchen to make brown sugar glutinous rice cakes.

Xiao Heng intends to help the teacher, but is ruthlessly rejected by the old Jijiu.

Do you have no idea how much your own cooking skills are?

"Heng, come over and help post the couplets." Yao said with a smile.

"Okay." Xiao Heng went out, carrying a bucket of paste, and took a few young men at home to paste couplets at the door.

The Empress Dowager Zhuang didn't mention anything about the battlefield. Those things can be brought up after the new year. She was talking about things in the village.

The eunuchs and guards she sent to Qingquan Village saw Xue Ningxiang. Zhou Zhuang and Dean Li asked Xue Ningxiang to marry him at the same time, which caused a great sensation in Shili Baxiang.

Xue Ningxiang is a little widow, most of the country people look down on her, but she has evil intentions and wants to touch her. It turns out that when Gu Jiao's family and Zhou's mother are around, those villains can restrain themselves.

Later, Gu Jiao's family left, Zhou's mother passed away, and Gu Yan's two hidden guards also returned to Beijing. Xue Ningxiang's situation became more difficult.

Once she slept until midnight, the hooligans from the next village climbed over the wall and entered her house, pressed her on the bed and bullied her, or Gouwa woke up, crying so loudly that the villagers were shocked and did not call him succeed.

There is no way to hide the news in the countryside, what just happened at night spread throughout the countryside the next day.

That hooligan is called Li Dazhu, and his wife came to the door the next day to have a big fight with Xue Ningxiang, calling Xue Ningxiang a vixen, a little bitch, a little whore... stripped naked in the sorghum field to seduce her man, and told her man to go find him in the middle of the night. she.

Xue Ningxiang has changed from a victim to a vixen who seduces people, and it is hard to explain.

There were many such things, and Xue Ningxiang never mentioned it in the letter. If the Empress Dowager Zhuang's people had not gone to the countryside, they would not have known that Xue Ningxiang had suffered so much grievance.

Rory was protecting Xue Ningxiang, but the more he protected, the more gossip.

In the end, his inside and outside became inhuman.

After Dean Li learned about this, he wanted to take Xue Ningxiang to the town, but at this time, Zhou Zhuang came back.

How the incident caused such a commotion is no longer known to everyone. In short, the whole village knows that Xue Ningxiang was attracted by her brother-in-law and the dean of Tianxiang Academy. To be precise, they think that Xue Ningxiang hooked up with them.

Xue Ningxiang was scolded miserably.

Her natal family, who was hundreds of miles away, also got the letter, and came over and grabbed Xue Ningxiang and scolded her severely.

Sometimes human nature is like this. After seeing Xue Ningxiang struggling in the mud, I don't want to see her crawling out of it.

In the eyes of many people, a widow who killed her husband should be cast aside, why should she live a life of superiority?

Of course, there is a solution to all of this. People dare to scold a stone that blocks the road, but almost no one scolds the mountains in front of and behind the village.

Empress Dowager Zhuang directly turned Xue Ningxiang into the tallest mountain in the village.

"My queen mother wants to invite Mrs. Xue to the capital."

As soon as the eunuch said this, people from all over the world knelt down.

The biggest official they know is the magistrate. What is the queen mother? It is Bodhisattva, it is Buddha, it is Heaven! It's a finger, no, without a finger, a powerful existence that can kill the whole village in one breath!

The eyes of everyone looking at Xue Ningxiang have changed from jealousy to panic.

They can't afford to be jealous.

Of course, Queen Mother Zhuang didn't really want to call Xue Ningxiang to the capital forcibly, it was just to support her.

The people sent by the Empress Dowager Zhuang told Xue Ningxiang that the Empress Dowager supported her so that she had nothing to fear, even if she wanted to marry ten or eight husbands, no one would dare to gossip about her.

Xue Ningxiang was terrified by these rebellious words, what ten or eight husbands, she didn't think so!

However, after such a conversation, Xue Ningxiang really became more courageous.

Both Zhou Zhuang and Dean Li are very good men. In ten or twenty years, maybe Xue Ningxiang will choose the high-spirited boy Zhou Zhuang. But at her age, who is only two years older than Gu Jiao, she is more inclined towards a fatherly man like Dean Li, bearing all the ups and downs.

He is mature and stable, he is considerate and meticulous, he is tolerant, and he still has money.

Furthermore, Tuesday Zhuang is Xue Ningxiang's brother-in-law, and Xue Ningxiang can't get over that hurdle in her heart.

Finally, and most importantly, she is a mother, and sometimes what binds a woman is not a man, but a child.

Gouwa likes Dean Li, and recognizes a father out of nowhere, what can she do as a mother?

Madam Li's love for Xue Ningxiang and Gouwa is a plus.

To put it bluntly, Xue Ningxiang was tired and wanted to find a man she could rely on to live the rest of her life in peace.

Regarding Xue Ningxiang's choice, Queen Mother Zhuang expressed her understanding.

Not everyone in this world can be as strong as Gu Jiao, Gu Jiao is unique.

She never seeks security from anyone, her heart is strong enough and full of strength.

Naturally, there is a price. No one is born strong, but there are too many things that she needs to carry on her immature shoulders.

She was so delicate that she could bear it all.

Xue Ningxiang doesn't need to be the second Jiaojiao, she just needs to live her little life easily.

In addition, Xue Ningxiang wrote a letter to Gu Jiao. The Empress Dowager Zhuang kept it in her poker purse, and she handed the letter to Gu Jiao.

This time, Xue Ningxiang didn't report good news or bad news. After all, the Empress Dowager Zhuang knew everything, and it didn't make any sense for her to hide it.

In the letter, she asked about the situation of the queen mother, why the queen mother knew her, was it because Xiao Liulang, the new champion in the capital, was doing too well in the capital, or Gu Jiao met with the Hou's mansion, and then gave the people from the queen mother's side to him. Startled?

Xue Ningxiang thought that she didn't have that much face.

"...The old lady who got leprosy can't be the Queen Mother, right? I'm not that lucky, so I just cooked for the Queen Mother? The Queen Mother also helped me look after the baby? It must not be... My ancestral grave There is no smoke..."

Gu Jiao thought for a while, then picked up a pen and replied: Would you like to go back to your family's ancestral grave?

"Jiaojiao! Jiaojiao!"

It was Xiao Jingkong who ran over holding a letter.

He was posting couplets, but when he suddenly saw Gu Jiao reading the letter, he remembered that he also had a letter.

That's how it is with small children.

"Jiaojiao, brother Ming'er sent me a second letter!"

"Want to show me?" Gu Jiao asked.

Letters are very private things, Gu Jiao will not open and read Xiao Qingkong's letters at will just because he is a child.

But if he wanted to share it with her, Gu Jiao would gladly accept it.

"Yeah! I want to show it to Jiaojiao!" Xiao Jingkong nodded.

Gu Jiao opened the letter, which was filled with greetings from the children. In the last reply, Xiao Jingkong mentioned some interesting things about his family and the Imperial College, which successfully aroused Ming'er's motivation to study.

Ming'er told Xiao Jingkong that he also went to the Imperial College for classes.

However, he was taking martial arts lessons.

The Guozijian in Liang State is slightly different from that in Zhao State. It is divided into civil and military. It is probably because the imperial examination in Liang State includes not only literary examinations, but also military examinations.

When he read this letter for the first time, Xiao Jingkong didn't feel much. Now that he read it again with Gu Jiao, he suddenly felt that he was very envious of Brother Ming'er.

He also wants to practice martial arts.

He wants to protect Jiaojiao.

Along with the second letter came the thank you gift about the music score of "Zhaoying" mentioned by Ming'er in the first letter. The letter was sent by flying eagle and came quickly. It was slow.

The gift of thanks was prepared by Prince Yu and his wife. They were some special products of Liang State plus a dozen kinds of children's toys, which were quite thoughtful.

In addition, Princess Yu knew that Xiao Jingkong was talented and intelligent, and she was learning the languages ​​of various countries. She specially selected ten books that were only available in Shangguo, all of which were suitable for Xiao Jingkong's level.

Xiao Heng made a plan for Xiao Jingkong. He read a little every day, and he improved a lot in the three subjects of Mandarin.

In order to prove his progress, Xiao Jingkong jumped off the chair, ran back to the house, and brought over his three books of Shangguo poetry: "Jiaojiao, I'll recite it to you!"

Then he put his small hands behind his back, shaking his head and carrying them back.

...as if Gu Jiao understood.

It was the first time for Gu Jiao to travel far away. In the past, it was Xiao Heng who went out. Every time Xiao Heng came back, Xiao Heng could feel the changes at home, but this time, it was Gu Jiao's turn to feel these changes.

Gu Xiaobao has grown up, Gu Yan and Gu Xiaoshun have grown up, Xiao Jingkong has long hair, and he can memorize many, many poems from Shangguo...

This feeling is a bit novel.

Dinner was not ready so quickly, but the hot water was boiled first, and Yao asked the children to take a bath.

"Hurry up and take a shower and wash out the clothes. I don't do laundry on the first day of the new year." Yao said.

"I'll go take a bath first!" Xiao Qingkong turned into a good baby who loves to take a bath for a second, and completely forgot how much he resisted taking a bath during the three months when Gu Jiao was not around!

"Jiaojiao also go wash." Yao said gently to Gu Jiao.

"Okay." Gu Jiao agreed.

The boiling water is only enough for two people to wash for the time being, and the rest will have to wait for the next wave.

"Brother-in-law, thank you, please help me take a bath." Xiao Jingkong came to the door and said very politely to Xiao Heng who was pasting the couplet.

The corner of Xiao Heng's mouth twitched: "Oh, you didn't seem to say that last time, if you dare to catch you to take a bath again, what will happen to you?"

runaway.

"Cough." Xiao Jingkong cleared his throat, spread his hands, and said helplessly, "Who hasn't been young and frivolous?"

Xiao Heng: "..."

Xiao Heng took Xiao Qingkong to the west room to take a bath.

The charcoal fire in the Westinghouse was burning vigorously, but it was not cold.

Gu Jiao also went to take a bath.

Only then did she realize that a new wooden barrel had been added to the house, which was so big and deep that her whole body could be submerged in the water when she sat down on it.

call.

so comfy.

Her little toes were tense under the water.

After jumping for a while, she suddenly remembered something.

She came back unscathed, should the husband's promise to her be fulfilled?

...

When Xiao Heng came out from the west room, he saw that Gu Jiao had finished taking a bath and washing her hair, and she was sitting in the main room dressed warmly.

Xiao Heng was slightly taken aback: "So fast?"

Xiao Qingkong is still playing with water in the wooden bucket, the water is a bit cold, he went to the kitchen to pump hot water for Xiao Qingkong.

Gu Jiao looked at him with wide open eyes.

Empress Dowager Zhuang went to the kitchen to eat brown sugar glutinous rice cakes, and the emperor followed, leaving only Gu Jiao in the main room.

The sky was actually a bit dark, but Gu Jiao's eyes were so bright that it was impossible to ignore.

"Why... look at me like that?" Xiao Heng asked.

"I'm not hurt." Gu Jiao said.

"Yes, I know." Xiao Heng nodded.

After he finished speaking, he realized something, his expression froze, his eyelashes trembled, and his cheeks began to heat up.

Gu Jiao looked at him with her chin resting on her hands, her little eyes of anticipation were right.

Can I ask for a monthly pass?