Chapter 116: Concubine's wish

Jiangning, Qingliang Temple, Back Mountain.

Cao Yong sat on the ground, with two open paper bags in front of him, one with smoked chicken and the other with pork trotters in it, both cut. Opposite him, a young monk wearing a green monk's robe sat, plucking his head, clasped his hands together, looking at the two packs of meat piously.

"Little monk, do you really want to take the precepts tomorrow? No more careful consideration? Although you are said to be pure in becoming a monk, there is also the interest in the world of the world. It is better to be free and at ease in your life. Why use these rules and precepts to restrain yourself!" Cao Yong couldn't help but persuade.

He is just a greedy boy, but he has no Buddha nature!

The little monk is the novice monk Zhiran from Qingliang Temple. He was calmly stretching out his hand and gracefully broke a chicken leg and sent it to his mouth. After listening to Cao Yong's advice, he said indifferently: "Great freedom means discomfort, and discomfort is great freedom. Donor Cao doesn't need to persuade him anymore!" After saying that, he had already bitten the chicken and nodded while eating, and seemed to be very satisfied with its taste.

Cao Yong shook his head in disagreement: "You are only sixteen. You have grown up in Qingliang Temple since you were young. You have never seen the flower world outside... Even if you have been out for two years, it will not be too late to decide whether you are taking the ordination!"

Zhiran quickly finished a chicken leg, took half a piece of pig's trotter, and said while eating: "If you can't stand the loneliness of practicing cultivation, even if you are seventy-eighty-year-olds and eighty-year-olds return to secular life, what is it? The master only has a little monk and one disciple. If the monk cannot formally take the precepts, the master will be very disappointed!"

Cao Yong smiled. This little monk was both greedy and filial, and was far from being pure in the six senses. Forget it, let’s just follow him and help him when he wants to return to secular life.

Zhiran thought that it had not been eaten for a long time. In a blink of an eye, he ate two packs of meat in a row, and then said to Cao Yong: "A new batch of incense is made in the temple at the beginning of the month, preparing for the Buddha's birthday next month. The master thought about what Cao donor mentioned in his letter to the New Year, so he left a portion. This time the donor is here and can take it back."

"Is it a freshly made incense?" Cao Yong was very happy. This was a good thing for "bribing" the Fourth Prince. He was so close to each other. He also made the Cao family become an invisible "Four Party".

The two talked for a while, and Cao Yong mentioned that they would come to watch the ceremony tomorrow. The young monk Zhiran solemnly thanked him. He was an abandoned baby, but he was thrown at the door of Qingliang Temple while he was in his cradle. He was pulled up by his master since he was a child. He really had no relatives and only Cao Yong was friends.

When he returned to the weaving house, he saw Zhuang Chang frown and come out of the second gate. Although Cao Yin has been getting better recently, he still cannot get out of bed. Zhuang Chang is old and has not been so much taboo. Some official duties that need to be discussed with Cao Yin go to Kaiyang Courtyard and discuss with him.

Cao Yong went forward and asked, but when he saw Zhuang Chang frowning, he couldn't help but ask, "Sir, are you worried about the decree of the previous few days?"

Zhuang Chang nodded: "According to the regulations, I have handed over the mailing staff of the Weaving Office these days, and I have to go to Suzhou. In the future, the young master will need to take care of him more!"

"Li family?" Cao Yong didn't know whether he should be grateful for the Cao family or sad for the Li family. But after all, the two families are really closely related and have too close contact. In the eyes of others, the three major weaving Cao families in Jiangnan, the Li family and the Sun family "prosper and prosper together, and lose together."

Li Xu is different from Cao Yin, and is more like a bureaucrat. He was born like Cao Yin, but he has always been under Cao Yin for many years. Now he can directly be loyal to Kangxi and become the head of the Tongzheng Department. I am afraid that he will be obsessed with power. In the past few years, he had embezzled the silver money from the salt course to fill the deficits that Suzhou faced. Cao Yin once advised him several times, but he did not know how to avoid disaster and restrain himself.

Thinking of this, Cao Yong and Zhuang Chang were a little worried. Zhuang Chang sighed and said, "After all, they are the mother tribe of the young master. If the young master can help, he will help him. If he really can't help, he must think about picking off the relationship and not being implicated. Otherwise, these things will be in vain! As for me, I will be a sixty-year-old man next year, so I have no choice but to pray for illness."

It was all heartfelt words, Cao Yong nodded and responded.

Zhuang Chang said again: "Although I am not in the mansion here, my cousin, the young master, can be trusted. When he was young, he received the favors of his sons and fathers, and he was only grateful to the Cao family and would not have any other intentions."

"Mr. I'm worried too much. Even if my husband is not in the mansion here, my father is still close friends. Mr. Jingchengzhuang, I always treat him as a teacher, and I will never dare to be as simple as possible!" Cao Yong said solemnly.

Zhuang Chang nodded: "Young master is pure and has the style of an adult when he was young. I'm too long-winded!"

After the two of them left, Cao Yong entered the second gate and still went to Kaiyang Courtyard to pay tribute to his parents.

After more than a month of conditioning, Cao Yin's expression improved a lot and he leaned on the bed. Li sat on the little scepter in front of the bed, peeling lychees in his hand, and then handed them to her husband's mouth.

Cao Yong stood at the door and saw this scene, and felt warm. These days, as Cao Yin's health gradually improved, Li's mood also improved. After careful calculation, there were not many days for the couple to stay like this for several months. In previous years, Cao Yin had a lot of official duties to deal with, and he spent most of half a month in various parts of Jiangnan every month, and he had very little time left in the weaving mansion.

"The uncle is here!" The big maid Huan Xiuluan next to Li came in from the outside and saw Cao Yong.

Li stood up and turned around, and then he saw his son coming. Seeing him looking at him with a smile, he felt a little embarrassed.

Cao Yong sighed in his heart that his mother was so shy. She just fed lychees for her husband. What's the matter? However, she didn't show any of her face. She took a few steps forward and asked her parents for peace.

The father and son said a few gossips, and Xiuluan whispered to Li, saying that the food in the kitchen was ready, should we serve the meal now?

Although Cao Yong had just seen the little monk eating two packs of meat, he had not eaten anything and was a little hungry. He smiled and said to Li, "Let's have a meal with my mother today! I'll call Ping'er later. Our family may not have eaten together for a long time!"

Mrs. Li looked at her son and smiled kindly: "It's not possible today. The doctor asked your father to clear his stomach these days. I'll accompany your father to have porridge! Besides, Ping'er has prepared it long ago, waiting for you to have dinner together! There are guests, you can change your clothes and go, don't let others wait for a long time!"

"There are guests in the third sister?" Cao Yong was a little curious: "Whose daughter of the family is the ladies whom the sister had come and go when she was at home? I went there, but it was inappropriate?"

"It's not those people. You will know when you go. Change your clothes quickly and go there!" Li just kept his son from selling it and refused to say it directly.

When he returned to seeking his own residence, Cao Yong changed his home clothes and wiped his face. When he saw Xiuying coming in, he asked, "Have you ever been to Chunnuan Pavilion? Do you know what kind of guests came to the girl?"

Xiu Ying knew it and replied with a smile: "It's Miss Zheng that's here. When my maid went to his wife's side in the morning, she happened to meet Miss Zheng to pay her respects. Later, when the third girl got the news, she also came to see Miss Zheng, as if she had left Miss Zheng to stay in the mansion!"

Cao Yong shook his head with a wry smile. No wonder he felt that his mother was smiling strangely. His father also looked like a show. It turned out that Zheng Woxue was here. Because of the matter of pearl breeding, Cao Yin was unwilling to let Zheng Woxue leave the Cao family. Cao Yong could understand this. However, since he had come up with the idea of ​​transferring the breeding method, there was no need to involve her on him anymore.

No matter what he thought, Cao Yong changed his clothes and went to Chunhunting Pavilion. After all, the Zheng brothers and sisters were involved in the Cao family because of his reasons, and this conclusion must be solved. In addition, when he met the Zheng brothers and sisters, he promised to help them avenge their brothers and sisters. Now, he is getting older. If the brothers and sisters have such ideas, he will also try his best to help achieve it. In this way, it will be a waste of both of them working hard for the Cao family for many years.

Before we reached the door of Chunnuan Pavilion, we saw Qiu Xuan and Dong Zhi and the other two walking towards each other. When we saw Cao Yong, we were blessed: "Uncle, we are back, the girl is waiting!"

Cao Yong waved his hand and ordered the two of them to get up. After entering the Chunhunting Pavilion, he was hearing Cao Yi's voice: "The winter in Beijing does not have to be south of us, but it is really cold. However, the colder the weather is, the better the hot spring village is!"

"Hot Spring Village?" A strange and soft female voice.

| "Well, my brother built a very big farm and took us to play. The hot springs there are not only in the house, but also in the yard! Water vapor is lingering, and people walk in it, like a painting. Originally, Bao Gege said that he would wait for the peach blossoms to bloom this spring before everyone went, but he missed the season!" Cao Yi said with unsatisfactory words.

Cao Yong went in for a long time, but neither of them noticed it, and they were having a happy chat. Even if they were not saying anything, Cao Yong was embarrassed to eavesdrop and coughed gently.

Cao Yi smiled and stood up: "Brother is back!" The woman who was originally sitting opposite Cao Yi, with her back facing the door, also got up and turned around. It was the Zheng Woxue who had not seen in many years.

Compared with the more ordinary southern daughter, Zheng Woxue is quite tall, a fist higher than Ping'er. She is wearing beige clothes and has a bamboo green teeth-pinching vest on her outside, which looks very refreshing.

"Woxue has seen the young master!" When he saw Cao Yong, Zheng Woxue bowed slowly.

"Miss Zheng, it's been a long time since we saw each other!" Cao Yong didn't know what to say for a moment, so he had to politely take care of him.

Cao Yi was beside him, looking at both of them being so rude and said with a smile: "If it weren't for Sister Zheng's words, I wouldn't have known that my brother and second brother were the little overlords of Jiangning back then! I really didn't expect that my brother would have such a silly time!"

"At that time, I was not doing a lot of things inappropriately!" Cao Yong said with a little regret.

Zheng Woxue just smiled slightly, but Cao Yi didn't believe it: "When I hit me, I looked steady when I saw my brother. I really can't think of a time when my brother is still naughty!"

Vanilla brought Chunya and a few dishes to serve. Cao Yi asked his brother to sit in the main seat, and asked Zheng Woxue to sit down and accompany him. Although Zheng Woxue was quiet and didn't talk much, he was unfamiliar after all. Cao Yong hurriedly used a bowl of rice, put down his chopsticks, said "use it slowly", and then got up and came back to seek his own residence.

It is not advisable to talk about the revenge of brothers and sisters in Zhengzhou in front of others. It is better to ask Zheng Hu what he meant when he saw Zheng Hu. Cao Yong thought about this and let the Zheng family go in advance, and then remembered the few packets of Buddha incense brought back from Qingliang Temple. He should send someone back to Beijing before the Buddha's birthday. Thinking of the capital, thinking of the people in the capital, the 16th Prince arranged a meeting but failed to catch up. There was also the new garden in the mansion, I don't know how it was built; Cao Song, Zijing and Mr. Zhuang were all good...

Just as he was thinking, he saw the little maid Cai'er talking back and forth. It turned out that Xiaoman was at the gate of the yard and said that he had something to look for the uncle.

Since Xiaoman returned to Jiangning, his grandmother and mother both tried to nourish him. After a month, he gained a lot and both had double chins. Seeing Cao Yong, Xiaoman hurriedly smiled and said, "Master, have you used supper?"

Seeing his eyes flashing, as if there was a ghost, Cao Yong smiled and said, "Stop talking nonsense, what the hell is it?"

Xiao Cao grabbed the back of the head and laughed twice: "Uncle, the young man has no choice but to be forced by the Zheng brother-in-law." At this point, he lowered his voice: "He wanted to see the old man, but he was suppressed by his sister. He did not dare to come to find the old man directly, so he begged the young man to pass the message to the old man."

The "Zheng brother-in-law" mentioned by Xiao Cao is Zheng Woxue's brother Zheng Hu. He married the granddaughter of the housekeeper Cao Fu and Xiaoman's cousin as his wife two years ago.

Cao Yong frowned slightly and asked, "Have he returned to Jiangning too?"

"Well, are you waiting for news at the Zhang family's teahouse on Qian Street? Will you see me?" Xiaoman replied.

Cao Yong nodded: "Let's go and see, I'm looking for him if I have something to do! But you, not long after you came back, you're a promising!" At this point, he glanced at Xiaoman indifferently. Although he had never thought Xiaoman was an outsider, his attitude towards taking things was really unsatisfactory.

Xiaoman followed Cao Yong for four years and knew that although he had a good temper all day long, he was tired of the troublesome people around him. He immediately turned pale and said pitifully: "Uncle, I don't dare to do it anymore!"
Chapter completed!