[Red Mansion] Adopted daughter and child

Maybe it's due to his experience in Jinling, or maybe it's because the grain merchants in Huaiyang are too inexperienced. This time, Lin Liu didn't even stay in Huaiyang for a month, and he already took all the local grain business into his pocket. middle.

After dealing with the matter in Huaiyang, Lin Liu didn't say to go somewhere else, but went back to Gusu directly by boat as planned before.

Because the people in the old house were not notified in advance this time, Lin Liu thought that no one would be waiting for her at the pier when she arrived.Unexpectedly, before she got off the boat, she saw a few servants wearing Lin family's matching clothes standing in twos and threes at the upper corner of the pier.

She froze for a moment, then took a closer look and found that Xinghua was even among them.

Lin Liu could see that, except for Xinghua, the attitudes of the other servants were casual, as if they were just waiting here, even if the ship arrived, no one looked in her direction.

On the contrary, it was Xinghua, with a pair of eyes staring straight at the boat.

Although Lin Liu understood the other servants, it was inevitable that she liked and appreciated Xing Hua more because of her attitude.

but……

Lin Liu chuckled, maybe they were waiting for her at the pier?

Just as she was thinking like this, Xinghua, who had been looking at the moored boat, suddenly waved in her direction.

Lin Liu was taken aback for a moment, but also waved at her.

Xinghua confirmed Lin Liu's identity, and immediately yelled: "The eldest girl is back, you pack up quickly, go and pick up the eldest girl!"

As he said that, he ran up first, and ran directly to the place where the boat was parked and waited.

When Lin Liu got off the boat, she went up to greet her directly: "Why did the eldest girl come back half a month early? If it weren't for the fact that Uncle Song didn't worry about letting us wait at the pier every day, I'm afraid no one will pick you up when you come back."

Lin Liu smiled softly: "Whether there is anyone to pick it up, what's the problem? I still have a lot of servants around me, and I don't have much luggage. Even if no one comes to pick it up, don't I know where my home is?"

As he spoke, he and Xinghua stood aside, waiting for the others to unload the luggage.

Because things were handled faster than he imagined, before leaving, Lin Liu deliberately bought some specialties in Huaiyang.

However, transportation is well developed in various parts of the south of the Yangtze River, and the special products from Huaiyang can also be found in Gusu, but the price is more expensive and the quality is slightly inferior to the local special products.

Xinghua used to be by Jia Min's side, so she knew the names, places of origin, and quality of all kinds of things like the palm of her hand, but now she only glanced at the packaging of those things that Lin Liu bought, smelled them, and roughly guessed what was inside. quality.

She smiled and said: "Miss and Uncle Song have a really good relationship, and I will not forget to buy him some nourishing things when I go out."

Lin Liu didn't think it was a big deal: "He's going to take the township test soon, and studying is a waste of his brain, so he always needs to make up for his body, otherwise what should we do when the time comes?"

Xinghua subconsciously recalled Uncle Song's figure, thinking that every morning when he woke up, he had to exercise his body for half an hour, and the food he ate every day was specially provided by a specially hired chef. The combination of meat and vegetables was nutritious and healthy. tasty……

If she remembers correctly, Uncle Song has been studying hard for the past few months, not only did he not lose weight, but he also became much stronger, right?

But the eldest girl also has a heart of loving her younger brother, so it is normal to feel this way.

While the two were talking, they waited for the servants to lift all the luggage and load it on the drawn carriage.

After everything was settled, the group left the pier in a mighty way and returned to the old house.

When Lin Liu came back, Gui Ling was not studying in the study.

She was stunned for a moment, and asked someone to come over to ask, only to know that some time ago, local scholars in Gusu organized a poetry club, and the initiator of the poetry club came to invite them personally. Go to.

Unexpectedly, after he left, Gui Ling made a big splash at the poetry conference.

Now the entire Gusu city knows that the young scholar who the Lin family came back from the capital to take the exam is a talented person who is not inferior to other older scholars.

Although the exam does not emphasize poetry, but from Guiling's poems, it can be seen that he has extraordinary knowledge and is familiar with classics.Others naturally want to make friends, so whenever there are any activities, they always like to invite Guiling.

Gui Ling kept in mind that the purpose of his visit to Gusu this time was for the provincial examination. Basically, those invitations would be rejected. Only when he attended the banquet for the first time, he hit it off with a certain scholar, and he would always agree to the invitation out of ten times. twice.

It has been less than two months since Lin Liu left Gusu, but Guiling has already made nearly ten appointments.

Counting the frequency, Lin Liu couldn't help frowning.

So after some tidying up, she placed a chair at the door of Guiling's study, ready to wait until he came back.

But until the sunset, Guiling never came back.

Lin Liu asked Jin Qiu to come over: "You have been with Gui Ling during this time, does he always stay so late at night?"

Jin Qiu quickly shook his head: "Although Uncle Song has participated in other people's invitations more frequently during this period, he has always been very measured, and he will come back every time after lunch."

Upon hearing this, Lin Liu immediately became anxious: "Do you know where Gui Ling went this time? Is there someone following him?"

Jin Qiu nodded: "I know, Uncle Song will tell us the place of the banquet every time he goes out, and he always has two servants by his side."

Lin Liu got up directly: "You lead the way ahead, let's go over and see what's going on."

The address that Gui Ling left for Jin Qiu was a restaurant, but when Lin Liu arrived, the shopkeeper of the restaurant said that they left immediately after lunch.

Lin Liu asked: "Do you know where they went?"

The shopkeeper glanced at Lin Liu, and reminded vaguely: "Yangxuelou. The place is not very clean. The girl hasn't left the pavilion yet. Even if you are worried about your family, just remember to take a few servants to go in. Don't go there yourself. Walking inside is bad for your reputation."

Lin Liu was stunned for a moment, and then furious: "Thank you for reminding the shopkeeper, I will pay attention."

After he finished speaking, he asked about the location of Yangxue Tower, then returned to the carriage, and led a group of servants and maidservants straight to Yangxue Tower.

She originally thought that Yangxuelou should have the kitsch look of people coming and going on TV, but when she arrived, even if she looked in from the door, she could see that the decoration inside was quite elegant, not like a brothel at all. On the contrary, it is more like a girl's boudoir.

Lin Liu looked out from the carriage, and his eyes fell directly on the plaque of Yangxue Tower, and then looked at the decoration inside, and suddenly frowned: "Da Lin, I'll wait outside, you bring all the servants in, hurry up Bring me Guiling out!"

Lin Da also knew the seriousness, and immediately rushed in with a group of servants.

He is best at dealing with people, and also knows how to use both soft and hard tactics, intimidation and lure, so he took out the room where Guiling and others were located from the mouth of the boy at the door in a short while, and led them directly to the second floor.

Afterwards, a faint crackling sound was heard, and after a while, Lin Daxie carried Guiling, who had already passed out, out of the gate of Yangxue Tower.

Lin Liu opened the curtain of the carriage and asked Lin Da to put Guiling on the carriage.

She carefully observed the clothes on Guiling's body, and made sure that she was wearing them in good condition and had never taken them off. She felt relieved: "Jin Qiu, come and see what's going on with Guiling."

Jin Qiu didn't dare to delay, and hurried into the carriage.

After looking around and asking about everything, she breathed a sigh of relief: "Don't worry, girl, Uncle Song is just drunk, there is no other serious problem."

Only then did Lin Liu feel relieved: "Da Lin, let's go back first."

……

The next day, as soon as Guiling opened his eyes, he met Lin Liu's cold gaze who was sitting on the bed, he was so frightened that he sat up from the bed in an instant: "Sister, when did you come back? Why don't you tell me."

Lin Liu sneered: "If I had notified you in advance, wouldn't it be impossible to know that my good brother has gained courage, not to mention studying hard, and even followed a group of cronies to such dirty places."

Hearing that Lin Liu belittled her friend, Gui Ling subconsciously wanted to refute.

But seeing Lin Liusenhan's expression, he swallowed and chose to shut up obediently.

Lin Liu paused for a while, and then said, "Tell me, how much wine did you drink yesterday to get yourself drunk?"

Guiling blinked blankly: "Drunk like mud? No, I remember that I just picked up the wine glass and just took a sip. I feel spicy and want to vomit..."

Lin Liu frowned: "And then?"

Guiling blinked, with an innocent expression: "I forgot. I just remember taking a sip of wine, and I don't remember anything after that."

Just had a sip of wine?

Lin Liu looked at him dubiously: "Are you sure you only took a sip of wine?"

Guiling nodded quickly: "I really only took a sip of wine."

Lin Liu looked into Guiling's eyes seriously, making sure that he was not lying, and suddenly couldn't laugh or cry: "He pours it in a cup, but you pour it in one gulp."

If it wasn't for Jin Qiu and the doctor who came here to say that Gui Ling was just drunk and nothing unusual, Lin Liu would have wondered if someone had given Gui Ling some perspiration medicine.

But even if those friends of Guiling didn't drug him, they definitely didn't have good intentions.

Lin Liu leaned on the back of the chair, looked at Guiling with a half-smile: "Do you know where Yangxue Tower is?"

Guiling was at a loss for a moment: "Isn't it just a restaurant? I went to an appointment in the morning and played until lunch in the afternoon. I planned to come back, but some friends said that the food in Yangxuelou was delicious and wanted me to try it too. That’s how it went.”

Lin Liu sneered: "You really have been cheated."

She said, Guiling has been very quiet since he was a child, and he always remembers his responsibilities. He has never made a mistake, so how could he know where Yangxue Tower is and still sneak into it.

Guiling didn't understand Lin Liu's words, and hearing her tone, she was also a little angry: "Sister, you haven't seen my friend before, so why are you saying everything that belittles my friend?"

He would not get angry with Lin Liu because of this, but he also hoped that his sister could treat his friend with normal eyes.

Lin Liu rolled his eyes at him: "I didn't want to hit you at first, but since you haven't come back to it, I can only tell you. Yangxuelou is not a restaurant, but a brothel, Chuguan. Girls are well-known even in Jinling, Huaiyang and other places. Why, you have been in for so long, have you not seen a single girl?"

Gui Ling was stunned: "The Brothel Chu Pavilion? Sister, you can't make a mistake, right? I have been in the door for so long yesterday, and I have never seen a woman..."

After a pause, he frowned, but he could smell a lot of fragrances along the way.

It's just that when a friend interrupted him, Guiling just thought it was his own illusion and directly left it behind.

Lin Liu saw him come back, and sneered: "I heard from Jin Qiu that in less than two months since I left Gusu, you have already gone out with your friends no less than ten times, Lin Guiling, Do you really remember what you did when you returned to Gusu?"

Originally, Gui Ling didn't think there was anything wrong with going out with friends, but now that he heard that he had gone out ten times in the past two months, his heart suddenly turned cold.

He paused, and explained: "Most of my friend's invitations are rejected. I only agree to go to the appointment occasionally when I can't shirk it. I thought it was just going out occasionally, but I didn't expect to go out so many times."

Seeing that the regret and anxiety in his eyes did not seem to be fake, Lin Liu couldn't help sighing: "I know you are young and like to play with your friends, but now is the critical moment, even if you want to play, you have to wait until the end of the provincial examination, understand? ?”

How dare Guiling refuse?Immediately nodded and agreed: "I will ask someone to send a letter to my friend, they should be able to understand."

Lin Liu raised his eyebrows: "You still don't plan to break ties with them? Yesterday they could trick you to Yangxuelou, who knows if they will trick you to other more serious places in the future? When the time comes Set a trap, with your undefended temperament, do you think you can still escape?"

Guiling defended: "They won't treat me like this."

"How do you explain that they tricked you into Yangxue Tower?" Lin Liu still has lingering fears, "You just can't hold a glass of alcohol, if it wasn't like this, you would feel like you were in Yangxue Tower yesterday, waiting for you to get dizzy Huh, what might happen?"

If it's just peach blossom debts, it's fine, but if Guiling's "friends" are more ruthless and set him up as a fairy trick, can he still escape?

Seeing that Gui Ling was still a little bit reluctant, Lin Liu immediately took heavy medicine: "Do you know what Lin Da saw when he entered Yangxue Building yesterday? When he saw you lying on the table alone, all your cronies hugged each other alone. You are holding a girl, and she is doing that mediocre thing. You treat your friends as a gentleman, but your friends are afraid that you are a pedantic scholar."

Guiling was stunned, unable to recover for a long time.

Hearing Lin Liu's words, it was as if a picture scroll unfolded in front of his eyes, and a group of men and women on the picture scroll were depraved and indulging, it was really disgusting.

This is completely contrary to the impression those few people gave themselves.

What made him even more angry was that although his sister didn't see this scene, she still learned about it from Lin Dakou.

Gu Ling thought that all this was because of herself, and her face turned pale immediately: "Sister, I understand, I will not contact them again."

Lin Liu looked at Guiling's shocked appearance, and couldn't help sighing: "You are young, so you don't know the dangers in the world. Now that the provincial examination is coming up, many people feel that they have no hope, so they want to go to crooked ways and try to pull other students down. , in order to achieve the purpose of allowing oneself to be taken."

"And there are too many ways to pull other students down." Lin Liu was reluctant to tell Gui Ling about these things before, but now he has to tell him the dangers, "but it is the least easy to be discovered At the same time, it will not implicate myself, even if it is discovered, the method that will not affect myself is to lure other students to degenerate, wait for them to indulge in beauty, waste their studies, naturally they will not pass the exam, and that harmful The chances of the scholars getting it will be even better.”

"There are also some courageous ones who will give drugs to those more outstanding students, so that people will have diarrhea during the exam; there are also some who secretly throw a note into someone's basket during the exam, so that people will be found out as 'cheating', and they will live forever. Those who can no longer take the imperial examination; and those who gave their friends sweat medicine on the eve of the exam, making them miss the exam time, and have to wait for another three years..."

One of the most difficult to guard against is actually spending money to bribe other scholars who bond with the students, so that they will be found out, and other people will naturally be implicated at that time.

"If you don't believe me, you can ask someone to inquire about it. Jiangnan's style of writing is prevalent, and many talented students emerge every year, but how many of them make it to the end, and how many of them fall halfway due to other reasons."

Such things happen several times a year in the Jiangnan area, and it is really nothing new.

Otherwise, why was Lin Liu so careful before?

She was about to shake her head, and couldn't help reaching out and pinching the flesh on Gui Ling's cheek, "You must not have the heart to harm others, and you must have the heart to guard against others. You still have too little knowledge and are too naive."

Gui Ling pursed her lips with a frustrated expression: "I know I was wrong."

Lin Liu smiled: "Fortunately, it didn't make a big mistake, just be more careful in the future. There is still more than a month, and the rural examination will start. You should not go out during this time."

Guiling naturally agreed, and she really didn't go out much after that.

Those friends saw that the invitation letters were sent like mud cows, and there was no news at all, and they also understood that Lin Guiling's family already knew their plan.

At this time, those people suddenly learned that Lin Guiling's father was a first-rank member of the imperial court, they were frightened and had nightmares again and again, the whole person was in a daze, and completely lost the vigor and vigor they had when they met Guiling.

Not to mention reading and reviewing homework, even the pen will tremble.

In the end, because they were too scared, all the scholars who had made friends with Guiling all gave up the rural examination.

Some were particularly timid, and even left Gusu with others, and went back to the countryside to avoid the limelight.

Lin Liu was still skeptical at first, but after knowing the reactions of these people, he immediately became convinced of his guess.

But she doesn't need to do anything, as long as Lin Ruhai stays alive for a day, these malicious people will never dare to take part in the scientific examination again.If it is delayed for ten or eight years, even if Lin Ruhai retires from the court, these people will be abolished.

Such a person doesn't even give them a look.

Lin Liu did not tell Guiling the news——

Now that the exam is approaching, she stopped all news that might affect his mood.That's how it is so that Guiling can review and prepare for the exam with peace of mind.

Not long after, it was the day of the provincial examination.

Before dawn that day, the Lin family drove a carriage and swayed to the examination room with lanterns on.

When they arrived, there were not too many people, so Lin Liu called a boy to help Guiling line up.

It is now August and the weather is already a bit chilly.

But in order to prevent candidates from cheating, they still can only wear a single shirt.

Lin Liu was worried that Guiling would catch the cold, so she simply asked him to stay in the carriage to catch up on sleep. After the examination room opened and the yamen servants began to check the candidates, she woke Guiling up and let him go to line up by himself.

There are three township examinations, one for three days, with only one night's rest in between each.

Every time it came to the end of an exam, at noon, Lin Liu would drive to the entrance of the exam room in a carriage, and when Gui Ling came out, he would take him home, wash and eat, and then sleep.

After finishing the provincial examination, Guiling lay on the bed and slept for a day and a night.

After the exam, Gu Ling relaxed.

It was also at this time that Lin Liu told Gui Ling the current whereabouts of his friends: "I just asked someone to disclose your family background to them, and they gave up this rural examination with a guilty conscience, and some even fled directly to the countryside .Guiling, you should understand what this means, right?"

Guiling sighed and nodded: "I didn't find those people during the exam, so I vaguely guessed some of them."

After finishing speaking, he let out a long sigh, and said with some fear, "Fortunately, there was no danger this time, and my sister came back in time, so I didn't get tricked by them. Don't worry, sister, I will be careful in the future, and this will never happen again." This is the case."

Lin Liu patted him on the shoulder in fear: "I know you want to make friends, but before you become friends, you must observe carefully to make sure that the other party is the same on the outside and is really speculative with you."

Guiling nodded, keeping Lin Liu's words in mind.

After that, they waited for the test results. During the period, the siblings went to Panxiang Temple again to fulfill their wish.

But this time the two didn't hear the laughter again, and they left soon.

After waiting for the test results to come out, it had been a while, and Guiling unexpectedly passed the No.1 Jieyuan test.

The reason why Xiucai got the top spot in the previous exam was because he had accumulated enough, and the exam for Xiucai was really nothing to him.But neither Lin Liu nor Gui Ling himself expected that his results in the provincial examination would be so good.

As soon as the test results came out, Lin Liu wrote a letter and asked the people at the post station to send it back to the capital.

It was useless for Guiling to stay in Gusu, so he simply took Lin Da and a few servants and took a boat back to the capital first.

Lin Liu continued to stay in Gusu to handle matters related to grain merchants.

Because what she wants to do is to control the whole country, so she travels around all day and rarely returns to Gusu.

But in order not to lose contact with her family, and to keep up with the news from the capital, she always came back every two or three months to see if there was any letter from the capital.If so, she would always write back.

Exactly two months after Gui Ling left, Lin Liu returned to Gusu from Changzhou. Just as he disembarked from the boat, before he got home, he saw two familiar figures standing on the pier——

Jia Lian and Wang Xifeng.

Lin Liu was stunned, and stepped forward after getting off the boat: "You are not doing business in Jinling, why did you come to Gusu? But what trouble did you encounter?"

Thinking of Jia Lian's gaze, she really doubted that these two people opened and closed the grain shop again, right?

Jia Lian quickly shook her head, and looked at Wang Xifeng with a smile on her face: "I have good news, do I want to tell you as soon as possible? A while ago, Xifeng was not feeling well. After calling for an examination by the imperial physician, she was found to be pregnant!"

After finishing speaking, the husband and wife looked at each other and smiled, and there was a tender feeling between them.

Lin Liu was stunned for a moment, then laughed: "When did you find out? How many months?"

The two looked at each other, and looked at Lin Liu together: "I've been pregnant for more than a month, and I found out just half a month ago."

Lin Liu counted the time and found that the time was not right: "Is Yuzhui'er okay?"

Jia Lian and Wang Xifeng looked at each other with awkward expressions.

Wang Xifeng was the first to speak: "After you gave me the jade pendant, I wore it every day and almost never left my body. Who knows that the jade pendant has never been broken. Slowly, I took it off and didn't want to wear it anymore. It was some time ago that when Jia Lian came back, he didn’t see me wearing the jade pendant, so I asked a question, and then I put the jade pendant on. Who knows, it didn’t take long before it was found out that I was pregnant.”

Lin Liu was a little puzzled after hearing this: "Jia Lian came back some time ago?"

Wang Xifeng nodded: "That's right, Jia Lian got a new grain store some time ago. Although the grain store has its own supply channels, he always needs to fetch grain by himself, so he left Jinling."

Lin Liu thought about it for a long time, and finally pulled out from his mind the nearest grain warehouse near Jinling, which was in Xuzhou.Transporting food is no different than others. The road needs to be protected from moisture and moisture, and you have to be careful along the way to avoid any accidents.

If transporting food from Xuzhou back to Jinling, there would be a delay of two or three months on the way.

It turned out that Wang Xifeng took so long to get pregnant because of this.

She smiled: "calculating the time, the child in your stomach should be conceived in October, and when it is born, it will be in July next year..."

Lin Liu was stunned, July?If she remembers correctly, sister Qiao seems to have been born on Qiqiao Festival on the seventh day of July?

Originally thought it was because Jia Lian went out that the two were not pregnant, but now it seems that it is not just that.

She was a little curious: "Has the jade pendant turned into ashes?"

Wang Xifeng nodded: "Of course it's broken, otherwise how could I have conceived a child?"

Lin Liu couldn't help being surprised, if counted according to time, the one in Wang Xifeng's stomach should be Qiaojie.But the jade pendant she gave Wang Xifeng was also broken, and it was the jade pendant that made her pregnant with a son...

She lowered her head and looked at Wang Xifeng's unconcealed belly, a little curious——

Wang Xifeng's baby will not give birth to a pair of dragon and phoenix twins, right?

In the eyes of the superstitious ancients, this was a good omen.When it was reported back to the capital, maybe the old lady would change her attitude towards Jia Lian.