Chapter 795 Daily Life
As Sun Shaozong expected, when the Minister of Works Zhang Qiu learned the whole story, he became furious. He called out his second son and wanted to beat him again in front of Sun and Liu.
Sun Shaozong naturally tried his best to dissuade him, and after much persuasion, Zhang Qiu finally ordered his son to apologize to Liu Xianglian.
What followed was naturally a great time for both the host and the guests. Sun Shaozong and Zhang Qiu recalled the scene when they were invigilating the examination in the Imperial College, and talked about the current situation of the candidates in that subject. They became more and more interested as they talked.
Of course, this is just appearance.
In fact, it was Zhang Qiu who took the initiative to humble himself and lowered his posture to please Sun Shaozong, which made the two of them have a pleasant conversation.
Although Zhang Qiu did not say it explicitly until the end, Sun Shaozong vaguely realized that the Shangshu might need him, which was why he seemed so enthusiastic.
So by the time they had eaten and drunk their fill, the two had already established a considerable degree of "revolutionary friendship".
…
When I came out of Zhang Qiu's house, the moon was already above the willow branches.
After saying goodbye to Liu Xianglian at the door, Sun Shaozong saw that Li Xian's home was not far away, so he went to visit him.
After returning to Beijing, this was the first time he met Li Xian's father Li Sheng. Compared with the decadent and sick man two years ago, Li Sheng's mental state has improved greatly. When he talked about excitement, his face was flushed and his mouth was foaming.
But his body was completely broken down.
Every inch of skin and flesh was shriveled and stuck to the bones, and it seemed that even the internal organs had shrunk.
It is estimated that after the next spring examination, regardless of whether Li Xian can pass the high school entrance examination or not, he will breathe his last.
It is evident that incompetent officials harm the people.
After bidding farewell to Li Xian and his son, Sun Shaozong sighed all the way. After all, if you really want to make a fuss, he was also jointly responsible for not supervising strictly in the first place.
So when he returned to the mansion, he first called the doorman Wang Jin and ordered him to send a message to Hong Jiu early the next morning.
First, the official status that Hong Jiu wanted has now been settled, and it would be best to quickly decide who should be the transferee of his title of Beggars' Headman .
Also, it is important to deal with the aftermath properly and not leave any evidence behind - if nothing unexpected happens, the beggar baojia system will have to undergo drastic adjustments, inspections, and replacements in the near future.
The second reason was to order him to spread the deeds of Li Xian and his son widely in the capital.
When he took the imperial examination next spring, Li Xian would be only fifteen years old.
This young genius was both a gimmick and a burden - when Zhang Juzheng took the imperial examination at the age of thirteen, wasn't he deliberately held back for three years just because he was too young?
In order to avoid this situation, it is natural to spread the news of Li Xian as early as possible, and build a golden statue of him with filial piety as the most important virtue, so that others will not dare to dismiss him because of his age.
Wang Jin agreed to all of them. When Sun Shaozong had finished explaining, he did not rush to leave. Instead, he bowed and reported, "Second Master, the eldest wife came back from Rongguo Mansion today and specifically instructed that she would take time to visit you when you return home."
Did Jia Yingchun go back to her parents' home today?
Sun Shaozong immediately asked, "Did the Rongguo Mansion send someone to invite her, or did the first wife take the initiative to return to her parents' home?"
"The Rongguo Mansion sent someone here early in the morning."
Tsk~
Most likely Jia She couldn't wait any longer, but it was not easy for him to urge him directly, so he wanted his daughter to hint at it indirectly.
But besides this, there may be other explanations...
He took out his pocket watch and glanced at it, and found that it was almost 10 o'clock in the evening. How could the brother-in-law go to see the sister-in-law at this time?
He immediately ordered, "Find a maid to go home and tell them that I will be working in the study tonight."
Wang Jin agreed and then bowed and left.
Sun Shaozong took the lantern from Zhang Cheng and rushed to the study in the backyard.
Not to mention, Zhang Qiu's wine tastes mellow but has a strong aftertaste - especially when it's blown by the wind, it makes your face feel swollen and your heart feel hot.
Fortunately, he is still conscious.
After entering the study, Sun Shaozong first blew out the lantern, then lit two candlesticks with a tinder, and placed them in front of the desk to create the illusion that he was working by candlelight.
After everything was ready, Sun Shaozong quietly went behind the rockery, moved half of the 300-pound stone horizontally, and after entering the secret passage, he carefully put it back to its original place.
After walking in the dark for more than a hundred steps in the secret passage and reaching the end, Sun Shaozong tapped the stone slab above his head with his fingers, three short and two long knocks.
Before he could finish striking the signal, he heard a mechanism click, causing the stone slab above his head to move sideways, revealing a patch of light.
"Second Master."
Xiu Ju held up the candlestick and said happily, "I knew you would come tonight, and I have been waiting here."
When Sun Shaozong came out of the secret passage, Jia Yingchun had already come to meet him. She stared at Sun Shaozong with affection but said nothing - she was always like this, otherwise she would not have been called a fool .
But Xiu Ju was a chatterbox. While closing the mechanism again, she said with a smile, "Second Master is indeed drunk - please wait a moment, I will bring the sobering soup."
Having said that, he walked out on his own.
Sun Shaozong was about to call her back to avoid alarming others.
Unexpectedly, she turned around and went to the corner, took out a food box as if presenting a treasure, and took out a hangover soup and two plates of light side dishes from the food box.
At the same time, Jia Yingchun silently handed over a hot towel for Sun Shaozong to wipe his hands and clean his face.
"It's past 8pm, and the Second Master hasn't come yet. Madam knows you must be drinking today, so she specially prepared some hangover soup."
Xiu Ju said, and took credit for her master, "Our Madam always keeps her worries to herself, but when it comes to caring about the Second Master, she is no less than anyone else!"
Because his eldest brother was not in the capital, Sun Shaozong was afraid that he might accidentally create another "black household" that could not be shown in public, so since the last time his uncle and his sister-in-law got along harmoniously, he never set foot here again.
And he had just returned after being away for two years. Jia Yingchun and her servant had been left out for so long that they were inevitably feeling a little uneasy, which was why Xiu Ju said these words.
Sun Shaozong chuckled and took the silent Jia Yingchun into his arms. He rubbed her wildly and put his mouth close to her ear and said some nonsense.
In just a few moments, Jia Yingchun was reduced to mud and had no intention of resisting at all.
Seeing that he didn't even have time to drink the sobering soup, he was about to enjoy some harmonious music in the hall, when he suddenly heard a noisy commotion outside.
Sun Shaozong was relatively calm, but Jia Yingchun jumped up immediately and pulled her collar in panic to cover her beautiful chest.
Seeing this, Sun Shaozong took the opportunity to pick up the hangover soup and casually ordered, "Go out and see what's going on outside."
After receiving the instructions, Xiu Ju hurriedly removed the bolt, opened a small gap, and crawled out like a shadow puppet.
Not long after, she returned to the hall and reported helplessly: "Don't be afraid, Madam. It was my uncle from the east courtyard who drank a few more cups and is walking around the yard barefoot and drunk."
It turned out that Xing Zhong was drunk again...
Sun Shaozong was quite speechless. Ever since Xing Zhong had stayed in the Sun family, he had initially tried to sell his daughter to them. But later, when he saw that Jia Yingchun was easy to get along with and that his daily food, clothing and other expenses were much better than when he lived in the Rongguo Mansion, he gradually forgot his original intention and just wanted to live a life of idleness and waiting to die.
Sun Shaozong was speechless for a moment, but Jia Yingchun misunderstood him, so she hurriedly said, "I'll ask Yuanyang to think of a way to send them back to Rongguo Mansion tomorrow!"
"No need."
Sun Shaozong shook his head and said, "After all, he is a relative, and we don't have another idle person in our family - he can stay as long as he wants."
As he spoke, he bent over, picked up Jia Yingchun, and walked towards the inner room.
Jia Yingchun quickly stretched out her arms and put her arms around his neck, but what she was thinking in her heart was: Could it be that the Second Master really has some feelings for that cousin Xiu Yan?
