The eldest gentleman paid his respects to the old lady, chatted with her for a few words, excused himself and went back to the study in the outer courtyard. He met a few Qing guests and handled a few yamen errands, and saw that it was already dark. At this time,

The little girl named Qiu Ling came in and replied: The seventh girl has been kneeling for an hour and has gone back to her small courtyard. The elder waved his hand nonchalantly and told her to go down without saying anything.

He could only see his seventh daughter a few times a year, and he didn't even want to think about it, because every time he thought of her, it would bring back a very unpleasant memory.

A steward came in and asked him if he wanted to pass on the food now. He felt that he was not very hungry, so he shook his head and said, "We'll talk about it later. You go and call the second and third young masters over. I haven't seen them in a few days."

In my life, the master has been successful in studying, marrying, and serving as an official. The only drawback is that he has not had many sons. He only has two sons, and they are both concubines. It is inevitable that he feels a little desolate. Over the years, he has gotten older and older.

The two concubines also paid more and more attention to it. Seeing that the two children were about to take the boy's examination, he did not dare to relax.

The manager agreed and went down. After a while, he took the second young master Chengye and the third young master Chengzong into the study with bated breath. As soon as they entered the room, the two young masters knelt down and said, "Greetings to father."

"Get up, stand aside and talk." The tone was very unkind. In fact, he loved his two sons very much, but in Dachu, what is important is a strict father and a filial son. It is the rule to hug the grandson but not the son. The son is afraid of me, so he will be punished.

It's all normal. Father and son don't look like relatives, but like enemies.

The two sons stood up and stood aside with their heads lowered. The elder took a sip of tea and asked: "When will we finish school today? What did the teacher talk about?"

"Replying to my father," Chengye replied: "Considering that the time for the government examination and college examination is approaching, Mr. Fu's class time is longer than before. In the past few days, it has been two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon.

Today, my sons each wrote an article. Mr. Fu corrected our article and lectured on The Analects of Confucius for half an hour. We didn’t break up until the time was up."

The elder saw that he handled the situation appropriately. Although he was only fifteen years old, he had already grown into a good man. He was somewhat charming and suave, much like himself when he was young. He was somewhat satisfied. He still had some feelings for this son.

Particularly partial, look at Chengzong next to him. Although he is taciturn, he is full of maturity and calmness. He is several years younger than Chengye, but his calm demeanor is actually much stronger than that of his elder brother.

I couldn't help but feel even more happy.

He taught his son a lesson: "You are all descendants of my Yang family. Our Yang family has nothing but reading to nourish our energy and work hard on knowledge. When the old man was your age, he had already passed the examination.

Look at you again, how many girls and women are waiting for you when you are eating and dressing? This time, if not talking about anything else, all the boys have been given to me. Especially Ye'er, you are already fifteen years old. If you don't have the reputation of being a scholar anymore

, the Yang family does not have such unworthy descendants as you!"

"Son, don't worry!" The two men quickly bowed and agreed.

"It's rare that I have some time. I want to test your homework." After thinking about it, he didn't take the "Analects of Confucius" he just talked about, but casually pulled out a copy of "The Doctrine of the Mean", pointed at Cheng Zong and said: "Zong'er comes first.

." Then they began to test their homework.

Chengzong was unhurried and seemed confident. He first recited a passage from the book as required, and then explained the meaning of the scripture. Although the elder didn't say anything, the look on his face became more relaxed.

After asking Chengzong, the elder was still very satisfied. He turned around and asked Chengye again. Chengye's palms were sweating at this time. These days, my aunt has sent four or five girls, all of whom are very pretty.

. He has the most sympathetic and caring character. Among them, there is another one named Huang Ying. Not only is she pretty, but she is also quite talented. When she is reciting poems or painting, she is always distracted and distracted when her husband is giving lectures.

Where can I find time to study books after studying?

Outside, the boys encouraged him to meet a few of the young men in the capital. When they saw that he was the young master of the Chief Minister's Mansion, they all wanted to fawn over him. There was nothing wrong with these people. Under their temptation

, spending the whole day hanging out with friends and going out to restaurants to hold poetry gatherings. Although it was not like sleeping in flowers and willows, a lot of schoolwork was wasted.

Now when the old man asked him about his homework, he was a little confused. He could not recite a passage of "The Doctrine of the Mean" and the meaning of the scriptures was explained in an awkward manner.

The older the man got, the angrier he became. He slapped the table hard and said, "You evildoer, how come you don't make progress in your homework but fall behind? Is it possible that all your books went into the dog's belly?"

Chengye was so frightened that he fell to his knees and kowtowed repeatedly: "Father, please calm down. My son is stupid and has made you angry. When I go back, my son will definitely have his head stuck in his butt. He will work hard and make progress. He will never dare to make his father angry again." Chengzong saw his brother kneeling down.

He couldn't stand still, so he knelt down next to him.

Chengye didn't say it was okay. The more he talked about it, the older the old man became angrier. A teacup was thrown at his feet and smashed into pieces with a "snap" sound. Even the tea and water splashed all over Chengye's pants. "Do you think you are?

I don't know about those dirty things! I think you are already so old, so I can leave you some dignity! You don't know how to introspect yourself and be careful. You know how to flirt with women at a young age. Look at what you have in your waist.

The purse is bright red, are you a woman?"

After a while of scolding, Chengye only responded and did not dare to reply. The elder scolded for a while, and finally ordered: "Go out now, kneel in your own yard and memorize the book for an hour. Before the boy's test,

In addition to studying at home, you can stay in your own yard and study for me. If you dare to step out of the yard, I will give you a hard time! Get out!"

After sending his sons out, he called in some of the young men who usually served Chengye and interrogated him. The young men were trembling with fear and only said that the second young master followed the rules and occasionally made friends with literature when he went out of the house. There was nothing wrong with it.

Seeing that he couldn't get anything out of the question, the master had no choice but to order: "Good job! If anyone dares to take my brother to learn something, don't blame me for knowing that I know how to deal with it. I will beat him to death and feed him to the dogs!" Seeing the little boy,

The servants were so frightened that they trembled, so they were allowed to go down.

He walked around the study room irritably, thinking of Aunt Liu who had been shadowy in the past few days, always hinting to him that the eldest lady was uneasy and well-intentioned. He knew the eldest lady very well, and she was mean and stingy and could not be tolerated. Seeing that she had never been

Short of Brother Ye's expense, I originally thought that she would finally take care of the overall situation, but realized that her future dependence would ultimately fall on these two unrelated bastards.

Seeing Brother Ye becoming more and more dissatisfied, could it be that this was really prompted by the eldest lady, and that the eldest lady had such a vicious intention?

His relationship with the eldest wife has faded a long time ago, and he knows that the eldest wife can't bear to see him doting on Aunt Liu. But after all, the eldest wife is the niece of the Queen Mother, and even as a husband, he still has to leave some dignity for her.

.

The more I think about it, the more irritated I become.

Just at this time, the steward came in again and asked if he wanted to serve food. The elder said: "Go to the second door and call back. I will have dinner at my wife's place today."

When Yi Ningju got the news, the eldest lady had already had dinner. The eldest man had not been to the main courtyard for a few days. The eldest lady hurriedly ordered the small kitchen to cook a few dishes that the eldest man liked to eat on weekdays.

Under the service of his wife, he changed his clothes, made a new bun, and put in some pearls and jade jewelry. As soon as he finished dressing up, the eldest gentleman entered the courtyard gate.

The eldest lady hurriedly welcomed the eldest man into the main room and said, "Master, haven't you eaten yet? I have asked the people in the small kitchen to prepare it, and it will be ready soon. The cook is from Ma Gui's family, and you usually like her most.

Cooking." The girls brought in warm water, and the eldest lady took it and personally waited on him to wash his hands and face.

"You should rest, there are such girls, just let them take care of them!" The elder couldn't help but be a little moved when he saw her busy and thinking carefully about herself.

After all, she was the wife of the main wife who was married with three books and six etiquettes, and she had such a prominent family. The eldest man had never thought of pampering his concubine and destroying his wife.

The eldest lady said with some resentment: "It's hard for you to sit here. I usually just want to serve you, but I haven't had this chance yet." The eldest man felt a little guilty after hearing this.

The curtain was raised, and the eighth girl Yuxin came in. The eldest lady felt sorry for her biological daughter. She was not allowed to go out to live alone in a courtyard even though she was twelve years old. She was still raised in the main courtyard.

The eldest man looked at Yuxin with a critical eye. The eighth girl was unruly and willful. Although she was his legitimate daughter, he was not liked by the eldest man. The eldest man did not come to Yiningju very often on weekdays, so there were fewer opportunities for the eighth girl to be in love with him. He saw her wearing

Zhou Zhou looked neat and tidy, but his brows were full of arrogance and willfulness. The elder felt slightly unhappy and could not help but frown.

"Greetings to father!" The eighth girl said her greetings carelessly, and sat down on the little stool at the bottom. The old man looked at her twice and said with a smile: "I have grown taller."

The subtle change in the elder's expression could not be hidden from Yu Xin. She is a straight person, with a firecracker's temper. The elder dotes on Aunt Liu from Hexiang Pavilion and has a pair of children. She has already complained about it, and she was even more upset after hearing these words.

Angry, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly and he said: "My father's heart is focused on his second brother and five sisters all day long, so naturally he has no time to pay attention to me."

How could the elder not hear the hint of sarcasm hidden in his tone? He couldn't help but sink his face, and slammed the pastel tea bowl on the table: "Have you ever talked to your father like this? How old are you?

, all you do one day is cause trouble, bump into your sister in the school, beat and scold the girl in the yard, I really don’t know where did you learn the rules? "

It was okay if he didn't say this. When he said this, Yu Xin became even more angry and sneered: "Did father see us quarreling? How do you know that it was not the fifth sister who bullied me, but me who collided with the fifth sister? Did the fifth sister say that?

Has it become a fact? Whether it’s me or the seventh sister, we are always in the wrong anyway. In your heart, we daughters, together, are not worth a hair of the fifth sister! You ask

Among these servants, who doesn’t know that Seventh Sister is steady, generous, gentle and polite, and even though she was bullied by Fifth Sister, she was punished by you for kneeling down and grounding me! If you don’t like me, you might as well ground me too!”

Secrets cannot be hidden in the inner courtyard. The news of Yulan being punished by the eldest master has long been known inside and outside. After hearing Dasheng's hatred of the same enemy, Yuxin is now firmly on Yulan's side.
Chapter completed!