Chapter 768: Night Talk at Shangshu Mansion
Although the snow has stopped, the night wind is still a bit stronger than yesterday.
Zhao Baogen was leaning on the couch, holding a heater in his hands and wrapped in a cotton ball under a quilt, but he left the door open, letting the cold wind blow in.
He did this not because he had nothing better to do, but to ensure that he could rush over as soon as the master in the study opened the door and greeted him.
Alas~
It's not easy to be a slave.
Just as I was wondering whether I was mocking myself or thinking about it complacently, I heard a few "bang bang bang" sounds of gongs, and it was already three o'clock in the morning.
Zhao Baogen stood up hesitantly, wrapped in a quilt, and walked to the door. He looked at the candlelight in the study and felt torn.
According to the lady's instructions, it is time to go and remind the master to go to bed early.
But recently there has been an uproar within the Ministry of Revenue, with everyone saying that a huge scandal had occurred, otherwise no one would have dared to take the risk and endanger the life of Lu Mingsi, the Censor of the Ministry of Revenue.
As my master is the Minister of Revenue, one can imagine how he feels these days.
It's not worth it to get a few beatings just for a reminder.
As I was hesitating, I suddenly saw a streak of fire from the north coming straight towards this side, and the shadows looked like two lanterns.
At this time, the only person who has the courage to come to the study and disturb the master is probably the mistress!
Zhao Baogen quickly threw the quilt onto the bed, left the hand warmer behind, and without bothering to go around the corridor, he trotted all the way to meet him.
Sure enough, when they got closer, they saw two maids and a woman servant, accompanying the white-haired mistress.
Without waiting for Zhao Baogen to come forward and greet her, the old lady made a gesture for silence, walked forward alone, opened the door, and walked in quietly.
As soon as I entered the room, I saw four tallow candles lit on both sides of the desk, with the flames swaying and rising high.
The old lady sighed secretly, walked to the table silently, took out the wick cutters that looked like crooked tweezers, and cut the wicks of the tallow candles one by one.
"Come and grind the ink for me."
Seeing that the candle flame had stabilized, the old man behind the desk suddenly gave a faint order, and it was obvious that he had already noticed his wife's arrival.
The old woman didn't think it was surprising. She walked around to the side of the desk, picked up the large piece of Hui ink that was resting on the Duan inkstone, and ground it slowly.
The old man was annotating official documents as usual.
This went on for about a quarter of an hour before the old man at the desk raised his head, sighed dejectedly, reached out to take off the glasses on his nose, and tried to rub his eyes with his hands.
“Yes.”
The old woman seemed to have expected this and immediately took the cup of half-warm tea and put it into her husband's hand.
The old man put the teacup on the table, soaked his right thumb and index finger in it first, rubbed them back and forth several times, and then used the tea to wipe his eyes.
"Tea improves eyesight..."
Mumbling something that sounded like chanting or talking in a trance, the old man stretched his body to the side with his eyes closed.
The old lady, who understood the situation, immediately put her handkerchief on the surface, but she couldn't help scolding, "Next time you spit, ask someone to change it for a new one - you don't mind it, but the children and I are afraid that we might get sick from it."
"That's all right, that's all right."
The old man said this casually, then suddenly remembered something, turned around and said with a smile: "I remember the first time you accompanied me to read and write at night, it seemed to be the first sunny day after the snow, right?"
"Who can still remember clearly what happened forty years ago?" The old lady spoke pretentiously, but her eyes revealed deep affection.
The two sixty-year-old men looked at each other and smiled. Although they never spoke again, their words were worth thousands of words.
Unfortunately, this peaceful and tranquil scene was soon broken by the shouting outside.
"Master, Master!"
Before the old man could frown and respond, someone outside the door reported loudly: "I don't know what the people in the Dali Temple have done. In the middle of the night, they suddenly sent people to question officials from the Ministry of Revenue. Moreover, they arrested more than a dozen officials from the fifth to the eighth rank!"
The old man was stunned when he heard this, and then his face turned gloomy.
He sent someone to question him in the middle of the night, so he must have some confidence - could it be that the Ministry of Revenue under his jurisdiction had actually caused a conspiracy? !
Thinking of this, the old man - the Minister of Revenue Zhao Hong, could not help himself and strode around the desk to the door.
Just as he was about to open the door, he suddenly stopped, frowned and pondered for a while, then sat down at the desk and replied casually, "Since the Dali Temple is arresting someone, they must have evidence - if they find us later, just cooperate with us. If it doesn't affect me, we can talk about everything tomorrow."
"Master, Minister Zhou is now in the front hall..."
"Confused!"
Zhao Hong's voice suddenly became louder, but he calmed down immediately and said calmly: "Go and tell Zhou Chang that if this matter is related to him, he should go directly to the Dali Temple to surrender - I only handle financial affairs here, not criminal cases!"
It was quiet outside for a moment before hurried footsteps were heard.
When the footsteps faded away, Madam Zhao said, "Isn't Young Master Sun currently suspended pending impeachment? Why did he suddenly cause such a scene?"
The old man asked curiously, "How do you know it was him?"
"If it's not him, could it be Wei Yi?"
The old lady rolled her eyes at her husband in annoyance, as if she was angry that he insulted her IQ.
Zhao Hong laughed, raised his head and lay back on the chair, staring at the beams of the house, not knowing what he was looking at. After a long while, he muttered to himself, "It's great to be young. If it were thirty years ago, I would have argued with him face to face."
"At your age, you are bragging."
The old lady responded by saying, "Thirty years ago, you were still a county magistrate in another place. When you met a fourth-rank official, you probably didn't even dare to breathe!"
The old man smiled, then said seriously: "But it is not always a good thing for a young man to succeed. If everything goes smoothly, it will be fine. But if things go wrong, and if you disobey the order, I am afraid that Sun Jia Erlang will be in big trouble."
Having said this, he suddenly became energetic again, picked up his pen and wrote an impeachment memorial in a short while.
Zhao Hong blew the petition dry, looked at it carefully, turned back and warned: "If I submit this impeachment tomorrow, you should quickly arrange to go to the Sun family to propose marriage."
"Propose marriage?"
This time, Zhao's wife was really confused by her husband and asked in surprise, "Who are you proposing to?"
"Who else could it be? Of course it's your precious granddaughter!"
"Are you crazy?"
The old lady said angrily, "On the one hand, you are impeaching them in the memorial, and on the other hand, you are sending people to propose marriage. Aren't you afraid that Ying'er will be disliked by her husband's family after she really marries him?"
"Hey, you don't understand this."
Zhao Hong chuckled, "As the saying goes, a tree that stands out in the forest will be destroyed by the wind. It's better to learn a lesson now than to fall from a height and be smashed to pieces. With the ability of this Sun family's Erlang, it's only a matter of time before he gets back on his feet."
"By then, our Ying'er will be the 'wife who sticks with me through thick and thin'!"
When Zhao's wife heard this, she finally realized what was going on. She couldn't help but shove her husband and scolded him with a smile, "You are the only one who has so many evil ideas."
But she hesitated again after thinking about it: "But what if that little Sun Shaoqing successfully finds the real culprit this time?"
“This…”
Zhao Hong hesitated, then picked up his pen again, this time writing a memorial of apology.
The old lady was dissatisfied and said, "I'm not asking you this. I'm saying that if he makes more contributions, Ying'er's marriage..."
"Let's leave it at that."
Zhao Hong spread his hands and said helplessly: "Our Ying'er is really a bit dull, and her appearance and talent are not satisfactory..."
"That's just like you!"
"My son is like me, but isn't he a handsome man?"
"Pah~ You're obviously following me..."
The parents-in-law were just arguing when they heard someone report from outside: "Master, Minister Zhou really went to the Dali Temple, but he said he didn't go there to turn himself in, but he refused to sit by and watch his colleagues and subordinates being harassed by the Dali Temple."
Zhou Chang went to Dali Temple?
Zhao Hong frowned when he heard this. Zhou Chang has always adhered to the doctrine of the mean. Although he cannot be said to be completely irresponsible, he seldom takes responsibility on himself.
Now he suddenly behaves so positively, could it be that...
