Scheme of the Official Descendant

Ren Yaoqi went out after breakfast at Lin's house, and today she was going to visit her grandfather's family in Baoping Hutong.

The matter of Lei's family was already in trouble at this time, when Ren Yaoqi's carriage was driving halfway, he heard even ordinary traffickers and pawns outside talking about this matter.

She is not surprised by the decision made by the head of the Lei family, because the Lei family has no choice now.

If Mrs. Lei's identity issue is not resolved in time at this time, the troubles of the Lei family will only increase in the future.

"Miss, Baoping Hutong is just ahead, and the old lady has sent Aunt Yihong to wait at the entrance of the alley." Xiangqin put down the car curtain in her hand, and turned her head to report to Ren Yaoqi.

When King Xian came to Yanbei from the capital, because Yanbei was a place that even the imperial court could not supervise, and because of the arrangement of Concubine Wan Gui before her death, the imperial court had no way to send someone to take care of it. Under such circumstances, Empress Dowager Yan would naturally not arrange a residence for King Xian, so when King Xian's family first arrived in Yanbei, they lived in a dilapidated temple for some time.

Fortunately, Eunuch Zheng, who was next to Concubine Wan Gui, brought people to find him. At the same time, he also brought the money that Concubine Wan Gui had prepared early in the morning. In addition, there were also a lot of dowry gifts from the Ren family's betrothal wife. The princess bought a five-entry mansion in Baoping Hutong.

Although it is said to be a five-in-one house, Baoping Hutong is not a place where famous and wealthy businessmen live together. It is surrounded by ordinary people with a little wealth. In addition, this house is an old house that has not been renovated for a long time and has long been abandoned. So the price is not high.

Ren Yaoqi opened the curtain and took a look. The alley where the carriage came in was not too wide, but it could allow two or three carriages to run side by side. On both sides of the alley are the Manzi Gate and the Ruyi Gate, which are mostly closed, and the facades are not big. There are also horse-tethering stones or stone lions placed at some doorways.

Ren Yaoqi somewhat understands the reason why King Xian's family chose this house in the first place. There are many people who follow King Xian. These people need to have a place to live, so the house needs to be large, but the place where King Xian lives should not be too ostentatious.

Guixifang, including Baoping Hutong, is a string of alleys extending in all directions. The alleys look orderly but are actually very intricate. It is convenient to escape in case of emergency.

As Ren Yaoqi walked along the road, he found that the alley was very quiet, and many yards were planted with pomegranate trees, peach trees, and gardenia trees against the walls, and they even protruded beyond the walls. This place is not as noisy and messy as those big alleys where people live together, but it reveals a kind of tranquility and peace everywhere.

Because although the people living here are all ordinary people, but because it is close to Yunyang Academy, the largest academy in Yanbei, most of the people who live here are the family members of teachers who teach in Yunyang Academy, the family members of students, or run calligraphy and painting shops around. , a merchant of the pen and ink shop.

The carriage stopped in front of a gate with golden pillars on the front eaves. This gate is obviously higher and more imposing than those seen before. If you ignore the stone lion with half of its ear missing and the mottled red paint on the gate .

Generally speaking, carriages enter and exit through the side door or corner door, but the side alleys on both sides of this house are very narrow, making it inconvenient for carriages to enter and exit. So Ren Yaoqi could only get off the carriage at the front door, and then let someone drive the carriage to the back door and enter the courtyard. As for her, she had no reason to go through the back door.

The mottled red-painted door was half opened, and Yihong had already bowed and waited at the bottom of the steps.

As soon as Ren Yaoqi got off the carriage, she greeted her and bowed her knees to salute.

"Aunt Yihong." Ren Yaoqi called her with a half salute, smiling.

"I know Miss Biao is coming today, the master has been waiting for a long time, Miss Biao, please come with your servants." Yihong personally helped Ren Yaoqi enter the door.

Once bypassing the screen wall, there is a large courtyard. Ren Yaoqi deliberately looked around for a week and found that there was not a single person in the courtyard.

"Today seems very...quiet?" Ren Yaoqi asked in surprise.

She remembered that the theater troupe of Xianwang Mansion practiced basic skills here on weekdays. Some people dangled their voices, some practiced horse stance and some used big swords. It was very lively.

Yihong smiled: "I know you are coming today, the master sent them to the backyard."

Ren Yaoqi remembered that the last time Mrs. Li took her and Ren Yaohua back to her natal home, when she entered the door, she saw a lively courtyard, a horsewhip with tassels flew towards Ren Yaohua's front, luckily Yihong responded Quickly grabbed it. Although it was a false alarm, Ren Yaohua got angry and made a big fuss at her grandfather's house, insisting on forcing her grandfather to sell all the "actors" in the yard, and ended up breaking up unhappy.

Later, Ren Yaohua refused to enter the door no matter what. This time when she came to Yunyang City, Ren Yaoqi originally planned to come with Ren Yaohua, but Ren Yaohua always made excuses to avoid it, and finally she came by herself.

After entering the Chuihua Gate, the yard is still a bit old, but it is still neat and tidy. Did a clump or two of green grass emerge from the gap between the bluestone slabs? It doesn't look messy, but it is more lively and lively.

In this house of Xianwang Mansion, there are no rockery, strange stones, carved beams and painted buildings, no garden, only ordinary rooms. On the contrary, there are some flowers and plants planted in every courtyard you enter, and they are not expensive species. There are only plantains, crabapples, pomegranates, and even clumps of morning flowers growing randomly in Yanbei.

Princess Xian and King Xian lived in the main house in the third entrance. When Ren Yaoqi passed, Princess Xian Rong was holding a pair of small scissors and was pruning a failed jasmine flower in the courtyard.

"You're here." Rong raised her head and smiled gently, and handed the scissors to Chu Chu behind her.

Ren Yaoqi went up to greet Rong's: "Grandfather and uncle are not at home?"

Rong Shi pulled Ren Yaoqi to the main room: "Don't worry about them, they will be back at noon." Rong Shi smiled.

Although Ren Yaoqi didn't come to her grandfather's house many times, she also knew what kind of temperament her grandfather and uncle were. At the moment, she must be drinking tea and listening to little songs or playing with crickets outside.

The main room that Mrs. Rong lived in didn't have any decorations, the only valuable things were the pear wood canopy bed, the Eight Immortals table and four grand master chairs, which were still old. A pair of half-person-high beauty vases with flowers in them looked very delicate, but they were only produced by ordinary folk kilns.

Rong took Ren Yaoqi and sat on the kang, and Chu Chu brought tea.

"Where's Yihong?" Rong asked Chu Chu.

Ren Yaoqi took the tea and smelled the green bamboo leaves, heard Rong asked Yihong and said: "Auntie prepared some things when I came here, I asked Aunt Yihong to go to the backyard to clean up."

Because Ren Yaoqi saved Lin Cen, Ren Shijia became closer to Ren Yaoqi. When Ren Yaoqi went out today, Ren Shijia ordered his mother to prepare a carriage gift, all of which were high-quality ginseng. Supplements such as bird's nest and velvet antler, as well as some clothing materials and ingredients that are easy to store, it is said that it is not too casual to visit grandparents instead of mother. Ren Yaoqi really declined but accepted it. Although Rong was a little surprised when she heard this, she still smiled and said, "You go back and treat me to thank her."

Ren Yaoqi agreed, and Rong said to Chu Chu again: "Then go to Xia Sheng and bring those two children over."

Hearing that Xia Sheng helped find the two little maids, Ren Yaoqi became interested and asked Rong, "Grandmother, what do you think of them? I haven't seen them yet."

Mrs. Rong said gently: "I have asked for a question, those two people look upright, and they are also clever. You are going to be a maid, and some boxing skills are not enough, so I asked Yihong to take them to learn some skills every day." The rules in our family. They are not very old, they should be trained|taught for a few years, and they will be of great use in the future."

After Rong said this, Ren Yaoqi finally felt relieved.

After a while, Chu Chu led two six or seven-year-old girls in. It may be because they were practicing martial arts with Xia Sheng before. They were wearing dusty clothes and trousers, and the cuffs and trousers were tied up with belts.

Both of their faces were sweaty and flushed, and their bodies looked stronger than girls of the same age. Xia Sheng said that they were born as performers, and they must have practiced before.

When they came in, they were a little trembling. After saluting, they knelt on the ground and did not dare to move, and did not dare to raise their heads.

"Eh? You look up." Ren Yaoqi looked at their faces in surprise.

The two little girls didn't dare not to listen to the words, and slowly raised their heads, and they turned out to have two identical faces.

"Are they twin sisters?" Ren Yaoqi was a little surprised.

Rong asked them to stand up and talk: "That's right, because they are twin sisters, and they lived and lived together very closely since they were young. Not only can they pretend to be each other perfectly, but they can also communicate with each other. This is why Xia Sheng likes them. The reason." Otherwise, given the backgrounds of the two sisters, Dongsheng would not have picked them.

Although she already knew the abilities of Xia Sheng and the others, Ren Yaoqi was still very pleasantly surprised to see these two sisters today.

"What's your name?" Ren Yaoqi asked kindly.

The little girl on the right opened the mouth first: "The slaves and servants don't have names. They used to be called Da Ya and Er Ya. I beg you to give the slaves names."

Sure enough, she is a clever girl.

Although Ren Yaoqi chooses a girl because she is loyal first, but it is not a bad thing to be smart.

Rong said with a smile: "You can name them."

The two little girls finally raised their heads slightly. Although they didn't dare to look at Ren Yaoqi, their bright eyes were full of hope, and they even seemed a little excited.

Ren Yaoqi thought for a while: "Which of you is the elder sister and who is the younger sister?"

This time it was the little girl on the left who answered: "The slaves don't know who is older and who is younger. We were bought by our parents before we could remember. The master who adopted us at the beginning always confused us, so who is the elder sister and who is?" My sister doesn't know either."

"Then your name is Leshan." Ren Yaoqi first pointed to the one on the left and then to the one on the right, "Your name is Leshui."

The newly named sisters knelt down and thanked each other joyfully upon hearing this.

Rong laughed and joked, "Wise people enjoy water, and benevolent people enjoy mountains. Your name is so majestic, it doesn't look like a maid's name."

Ren Yaoqi propped her chin and smiled brightly: "Is the name just for people, as long as you like it."

Ren Yaoqi asked the two sisters some more questions, and found that the two sisters were not only smart, but also calm and not impetuous, so she couldn't help but feel more satisfied.

While talking, Ren Yaoqi saw Xiangqin standing at the door winking at her.

Ren Yaoqi said to Rong: "Grandmother, can I go for a walk in the yard?"

Rong didn't know if she saw the interaction between the two masters and servants, but she smiled leniently: "Go shopping if you want, and let Chuchu follow you."

Ren Yaoqi looked at the two little girls, and said with a smile: "Let them follow, I'll come back when I go, she can't leave you by your side."

Yihong is the concubine of her uncle Li Tianyou, Chuchu is the only one who takes care of Rong Shi on weekdays. There are also a few little maids who were bought later, all serving outside, not close. Xian Wang and Rong's close friends only use old people.

When Ren Yaoqi came out of Rong's room, Xiangqin looked at the two little maids curiously, seeing that Ren Yaoqi hadn't sent her away, she continued: "Miss, Apple brought someone here, and came in through the back door. In the backyard."

Ren Yaoqi nodded, and walked to the backyard with a few maids without saying a word.

In fact, Ren Yaoqi had other things to do when she went out today, for example, she sent Apple away after she went out to find Zhu Ruomei.

Although Zhu Ruomei spent most of his time in Bailong Temple, he worked for Xiao Jingxi, and now he also bought a small courtyard in Yunyang City, taking his mother and younger sister over. Ren Yaoqi had inquired about Dongsheng's residence before and knew that he happened to be in Yunyang City in the past few days, so she asked Apple to invite someone to come and see him.

It was inconvenient to meet Zhu Ruomei at Lin's house, but it was much more convenient at Xianwang's site.

The two little maids followed step by step, and Xiangqin asked in a low voice while looking back: "Miss, who are they?"

Ren Yaoqi said: "They are the maids I asked my grandmother to find for me, and they will be raised here first."

Xiangqin didn't understand why Miss Wu still went through her grandfather's house to find a maid and didn't bring her back to Ren's house, but she is also a maid herself, so it's not easy to ask more about this matter, so she wisely didn't ask any more.

But Ren Yaoqi is clean, Leshan and Leshui are not so lucky. Relying on her status as the favored maidservant, Xiangqin began to show her prestige in front of the two young maidservants.

"You walk too wide, and Nanny Zhou will slap your calves when she sees it!"

"Tsk, I want you to take smaller steps, not to let you walk slowly. If you can't even walk well, Mother Zhou must be dissatisfied."

"Why are you so stupid? In the future, you must follow the rules carefully, otherwise Zhou Nanny will not allow you to follow Miss Wu! You can't be a maid around the lady if you want to!"

...

So Le Shan and Le Shui understood one thing before they followed Ren Yaoqi. The maids and elder sisters next to Miss are very majestic, and there is another Nanny Zhou who is very scary. Permission to follow Miss.

The Xiangqin girl successfully showed off her prestige in front of the younger generation, and let Zhou Nanny bear the notoriety for her.

When Ren Yaoqi arrived at the backyard, Apple had already led Zhu Ruomei to the west wing of the backyard to drink tea. When Ren Yaoqi passed by, only Pingguo and Zhu Ruomei were in the west wing with the door open, but in the courtyard Chunsheng was sweeping the yard and somersaulting with two monkey-like children.

Ren Yaoqi knew the particularity of Xianwang Mansion, she could only bring people to the backyard. If Zhu Ruomei wanted to go further in, she couldn't. Although Chunsheng was sweeping the courtyard, he was always watching the movement in the back west wing.

Until he saw Ren Yaoqi coming, Chunsheng took the two children to salute Ren Yaoqi from a distance, and then stood a little further away, but he was still in the backyard.

I don't know who is practicing the opera, and they are singing a passage in the life and death hatred, but I can only hear their voices but not the person. Babbling and babbling plus the sound of Erhu and Yaoqin. With some misty and unreal excitement.

Zhu Ruomei looked at the coffee table with her fingers, she was absorbed in listening, when she looked up and saw Ren Yaoqi came in, she hurriedly got up and saluted.

Ren Yaoqi smiled and nodded, signaling Zhu Ruomei not to be too polite, and then sat on the master's seat.

Le Shan and Le Shui consciously stayed outside the door and acted as door gods alone. Xiangqin thought about it but didn't follow in. After all, she was Miss Third's maid, not Miss Fifth's.

Ren Yaoqi knew that it was safest to speak at her grandfather's house, and she didn't have to worry about anyone eavesdropping with malicious intentions. The people raised by Xianwangfu were not raised for nothing. Even those people she brought from Lin's house, except for those who served her personally, were led by Yihong to nowhere to drink tea and snacks.

"It's not much better than the top performers in the Dexin class." Zhu Ruomei couldn't help admiring, he was fascinated by listening to it just now, and his mother liked to listen to operas, so Zhu Ruomei liked it too.

"My grandfather loved these things so much that he raised a troupe." Everyone in Yanbei knows this.

The theater troupe of Xianwang Mansion is more famous than Xianwang himself. It's just that this theater troupe only sings in Xianwang's Mansion, others don't have the good fortune to listen to it.

Zhu Ruomei also knew about it, so she just exaggerated a few words and didn't ask any further questions.

"Miss Wu has something to do with the younger one today?" Zhu Ruomei asked.

Ren Yaoqi nodded: "I need your help with something."

Zhu Ruomei hurriedly said, "Miss, just do what you say."

Ren Yaoqi thought for a while: "I want you to help me find two people, a woman in her seventies and a girl in her eighties and nine. They disappeared after they came out of Ren's house in Baihe Town a few days ago. gone."

"Missing?" Zhu Ruomei was taken aback.

"It is indeed missing. I have had people search all over Baihe Town. They were just going out for a stroll, but they didn't want to come back once they went out." Seeing that Zhu Ruomei wanted to ask, Ren Yaoqi took the initiative, " My mother-in-law came here to ask about Han Yunshan's background, what should that mother-in-law know, so help me find out if their disappearance has anything to do with the Han family, if it wasn't for the Han family, then I was afraid to hide. "

Zhu Ruomei knew that Ren Yaoqi had some grievances with the Han family, and he was the one who took care of the Han family's affairs last time, so she was not so surprised after hearing this, she just nodded and said: "I'll go find someone immediately, five Miss, please rest assured, as long as they are still young in Yanzhou, they will definitely be found."

Zhu Ruomei said this very confidently, but Ren Yaoqi's heart was moved when she heard it.

If it was before, Zhu Ruomei would never have such confidence. Now that he dares to make such a guarantee, it should be that the affairs of the temple are going well, and Zhu Ruomei may be in charge of the military forces in the temple in Yanzhou or some parts of Yanzhou.

Although he knew that the person in front of him was not someone in the pool, Ren Yaoqi was still a little surprised that he was able to gain Xiao Jingxi's trust and gain a firm foothold in a short period of time.

Surprised and pleasantly surprised. Because it means that she will be more convenient in the future.

In fact, Ren Yaoqi also thought about taking Zhu Ruomei's mother and sister to take care of her before, but then she thought about it. After all, he is a villain. And if Zhu Ruomei's relatives are by her side, Zhu Ruomei's real master's trust in him may be affected.

So Yaoqi finally insisted on the gentleman's agreement.

"If Miss Fifth has no other orders, the younger one will go find someone first. Otherwise, when the city becomes lively, it will be troublesome to leave the city." Zhu Ruomei said goodbye swiftly.

Ren Yaoqi nodded, got up and said casually, "What's going on in the city?"

Zhu Ruomei sighed, "Ms. Fifth must have known that Mrs. Lei's wife had passed away, so she stopped the coffin and was about to go out for the funeral. However, a section of the mountain road at the foot of Qiongji Mountain collapsed early this morning, and now there are people talking about it. The little one just heard Mrs. Lei's family, the Liu family, are on the way, and after hearing about this incident, they are rushing to Yunyang City with all their might, and there may be a commotion at that time."

Ren Yaoqi also knew what the hustle and bustle outside was for. After hearing that the mountain road was blocked, she sneered, and the Han family really made a move.

Asking Apple to send Zhu Ruomei out, Ren Yaoqi took the maid back to Rong's place.

When I heard the news from Lei's family again, it was almost noon when I had lunch.

Rong ordered the kitchen to prepare a lot of dishes, all of which were Ren Yaoqi's favorites, and I don't know where Rong got the information. But the grandfather and uncle hadn't come back yet, Rong said calmly that they would leave a portion for their grandparents to eat, but Ren Yaoqi insisted on waiting.

At this time, Yihong came in and whispered to Rong Shi, and Ren Yaoqi heard her mention Lei's family again, and couldn't help asking: "What happened to Lei's family?"

Yihong glanced at Rong Shi, saw Rong Shi nodding her head, her voice became a little louder: "People from Liu's family have already entered the city, and now they are going to Lei's house."

And at this time, the members of the Liu family happened to have arrived at the Lei Mansion, got off the carriage and went straight to the mourning hall.

The first one was an old lady who was about the same age as Mrs. Lei, panting while walking, her face looked a little pale, as if she was not acclimatized, when she entered the door, she was almost carried in by two strong daughters-in-law. .

As soon as the old lady Liu entered the door, she seemed to wake up suddenly. Before she could stand still, she began to cry. She couldn't catch her breath from crying, which made people worry about whether she would be able to lift up with the next breath.

"Sixth Sister--my miserable Sixth Sister--you died so badly--"

Those behind her who looked like nephews and nephews also started crying, and the Lei family's ancestral hall was very lively for a while.

Brothers Lei Ting and Lei Zhen rushed over immediately when they heard the news.

Liu raised her eyes and saw it, and cried even harder: "Sixth Sister—you committed a crime—look what kind of beasts you raise—"

Lei Zhen couldn't help frowning and shouted: "Shut up, who are you? What nonsense!"