The two went to the restaurant. Today, Yuan Shi and Lin Shi did not go back, and they swept the restaurant again.

The three of them were very happy to see Xu Qinyu and wanted to say hello, but when they saw the man beside Xu Qinyu, they couldn't help but become cautious. The three also recognized Pei Weixuan and knew that he was the owner's husband, so they went out. It has been more than a year since I followed the caravan to run the business, and now I suddenly see it, and it is a little strange.

Xu Qinyu also jumped out of the donkey cart and waited for Pei Weixuan and Yuan Shi to bring the kitchen utensils in the car back to the back kitchen. Seeing that the fourth brother wanted to help chop up all the firewood in the backyard, Xu Qinyu hurriedly held him back. "Fourth brother, don't be too busy with this, you've been running outside all year, and you're very tired, you go back to rest first, there's my aunt and me here, but there's nothing else to do, wait a minute. Ma Liu came over to help me bring the letter back, I should go back after this."

She had already carried the two letters on her body when she came just now, and she also asked Brother Cheng to run to the inn, and directly asked Ma Liu to come to the restaurant.

Seeing that the restaurant really couldn't help, and Xu Feng and his brothers, Pei Weixuan nodded and returned to Osmanthus Lane.

Xu Qinyu and a few others cleaned up the remaining shrimp, crab, eel, snails and snails.

It’s not good to bring soup, soup, and water with Ma Liu on the way back to Beijing. Originally, I planned to make the rest of the river fresh in salt and pepper flavors. I thought I would have Cheng brother send Ma Liu by donkey cart later, so I changed it to other flavors, shrimp. Made into salt-and-pepper shrimp, crabs are made into spicy crabs, eels are cooked directly, and snails are also made into spicy snails, which will be sent directly to the boat later.

As soon as it was done, Ma Liu came over, smelling the fragrance in the restaurant, his stomach growled.

Xu Qinyu asked him to eat a few custard buns to pad his stomach first.

As soon as the custard buns entered the mouth, Ma Liu couldn't even care to say a word, exclaiming that it was delicious while eating.

Xu Qinyu served him brown sugar yin rice porridge again.

Ma Liu eats a lot, and one custard bun is the size of a fist. He ate 20 of them directly, and drank three bowls of brown sugar yin rice porridge, which made his stomach round, and when he saw Xu Qinyu, he felt a little embarrassed, "Miss Xu. The food is really delicious.”

He couldn't help eating it.

Xu Qinyu said with a smile; "Today I have done a lot, it doesn't matter if the sixth brother eats it openly. In addition to the custard buns, there are also some milk steamed buns, salt and pepper shrimp, roasted eel, spicy crab and spicy snail, as well as jerky, these are Eat them as soon as possible, it’s getting hot, and it will spoil within two days, but the jerky can be stored for an extra day, but it’s better to eat it sooner.” There are about thirty officers and soldiers in this group, in fact, these things It can be eaten in one day.

After she finished speaking, she took out two letters and handed them to Ma Liu, "I have to trouble the sixth brother to run for me after returning to Beijing."

"Sister Xu, don't say such foreign words." Ma Liu accepted the letter, "I will be happy to run for Sister Xu as many times as I want."

Ma Liu did not write any ink, and followed Brother Cheng to load the food into the donkey cart, and then went all the way to the canal.

When they arrived at the canal, these officers and soldiers were eagerly waiting on the boat. When they saw Ma Liu, they all automatically got off the boat and came to move things without Ma Liu saying anything.

Last year, they also ate the food that Ma Liu brought back from Mrs. Xu, but it was too small. Each person only ate two bites, which was not enjoyable at all. Now they see Ma Liu and Brother Cheng driving a donkey cart here. , There were still big wooden basins and iron pots on the donkey cart, and they couldn't help cheering.

The crowd quickly moved all the ingredients from the donkey cart to the boat and poured them into the kitchen utensils they brought.

He also helped to clean the kitchen utensils in the canal before returning them to Brother Cheng.

Brother Cheng then drove the donkey cart back to the restaurant.

Even if the kitchen utensils have been washed, Yuan and the others have cleaned the kitchen utensils and ironed them again.

The kitchen utensils in the restaurant every day, they will wash and then iron it again, and other places are also clean.

And Ma Liu and his group of officers and soldiers all gathered around to eat after Brother Cheng left, and couldn't help but say, "It's so fragrant, so fragrant, what kind of food is this?"

Ma Liu told the officers and soldiers everything about what to eat. Everyone was drooling when they heard it. All of them were things they had never heard of or eaten.

"Don't talk about Ma Liu, hurry up and eat."

After Ma Liuchao had eaten, he distributed all the food among his colleagues.

Although the little lady Xu made a lot of food this time, she couldn't bear the crowd, the appetite was large, and she was greedy for the food made by the little lady Xu for a long time, and all the morning food was dried up, even if the morning food was not suitable for eating these fragrances They ate all the spicy dishes thoroughly, but there was still a lot of jerky left, so Ma Liu could only give each person a packet, and said, "This jerky can last for three or four days, but it's not enough. You have to finish it as soon as possible, Mrs. Xu said, the weather is hot, and she can't hold back no matter what she eats."

But even if he couldn't let it go, Ma Liu couldn't help but want to let it go.

He didn't bring it back to the old lady and daughter-in-law to eat, but planned to take it back for Xu Xiaoniangzi's parents and younger brother to taste, and wanted them to rest assured, don't worry about Xu Xiaoniangzi, Xu Xiaoniangzi is really amazing.

Others couldn't hold back. When the food was present, how could they hold back their hesitation and finish the jerky on the same day.

It would take six or seven days to go back to Beijing by water from the border town. The package of jerky in Ma Liu has been kept, and it was specially placed in a ventilated place, but on the evening of the fourth day, he smelled the jerky and found that it was a little sour. , I had no choice but to eat up the jerky myself, and it tasted pretty good, just a little sour.

The food made by Xu Xiaoniang is delicious, but it is not a panacea. If it is left for a long time, it will break down, and if she eats it, she will have diarrhea.

So when Ma Liu finished eating until midnight, he started to have a stomachache and ran to the toilet twice.

The next day he pulled for another day, and then it stopped, and he could only give up the idea of ​​bringing food to Mrs. Xu's house.

If Xu Qinyu knew, she would not know whether to laugh or cry. These cooked foods cannot be stored for a long time. It is not a problem to store them for a few days in the cold winter and the twelfth lunar month, but after a few days, the taste has changed. , She was thinking of saving 200 bottles of the wine made this year, and the ham can be eaten in the spring next year, but it can't be eaten raw, but it can be stewed, fried, and fried, and she will send it to the capital for her family. tasted.

I never thought that Ma Liu would dare to put jerky for a few days as summer approaches.

Even if the jerky is fried very dry, there is still some moisture in it, and there are no additives or preservatives. As long as it is meat, it cannot be stored for a long time.

Ma Liu returned to the capital in a depressing mood, so he naturally went to the Marquis of Dechang mansion first.

The Marquis of Dechang was still the same. The third girl, Xu Qinhui, broke her leg and ruined her face. She hadn't been out for more than a year to socialize, and when she had diarrhea, she learned that Yuanbao Town had not been attacked by the Empress Dowager Fu. The officers and soldiers sent to slaughter the town, the second sister and the other relatives of King Shu also survived the diarrheal disease. They were too surprised and fell ill, so they stayed at home for almost a year to recuperate.

The injury on her face is a very light white mark, and she can't see it unless she looks close to her face. She can't see anything after applying rouge gouache on weekdays. Her legs are fine, but she still walks a little bit. Lameness, you can't tell if you don't look carefully. Lang Zhong also said that if you keep it for another two years, you should be completely cured.

But she still regretted it a little, thinking that it would not be worth it in order to stay away from Xindi and Empress Fu.

It would be better to enter the palace and help the new emperor and the queen dowager to eradicate the vertical king, but she has no idea how the vertical king revolted and killed the capital in the first place, and she is also afraid that the crazy old lady Fu queen will kill her if she finds out.

Anyway, it's too late to regret it now.

In the future, it is impossible to be a concubine for the new emperor in the palace, so it is better to think about the matter of the vertical king.

There are still eight years before King Shu ascends the throne, and she still has eight years to ease the relationship between the second sister and the king. Being able to be a concubine for the vertical king, even if the second sister was still alive at that time, she didn't need to worry, because an emperor's harem could not have only one woman.

So the top priority is to contact Shu Wang first, write a letter to Shu Wang, and tell him that it is not her idea to let the second sister marry instead, and it's better to put everything on the grandmother's head.

She is now sixteen, and there are still eight years before the vertical king ascends the throne, and she still has eight years.

For eight years, she believed that she could persuade the vertical king.

Only eight years later she will be twenty-four...

Seeing that she couldn't enter the palace, my mother stopped her thoughts and wanted to kiss her, but she and her father stopped them.

Xu Shuping also hopes that his daughter can marry the vertical king, but it is difficult to say this clearly, so he can block it for his daughter.

Xu Qinhui also knew that Ma Liu helped the second sister send letters to the second room, so she asked Ping'er to help her watch. If Ma Liu entered the house, tell her that she wanted to meet Ma Liu and to know about the second sister. The situation with King Shu's family in the border town.

Lying on the couch that day, Ping'er came in panting, "Girl, Ma Liu is here again to deliver a letter to the old lady in the second room."

Xu Qinhui hurriedly sat up and instructed Ping'er, "Ping'er, go over to the second uncle and second aunt. When you see Ma Liu coming out, tell him that I will invite him over here. I want to ask him something."

Ping'er nodded, and hurried to the courtyard gate of the second room.

Ma Liu gave the two letters to Mrs Xue, sat down and drank some tea and fruit, scratched his head and told Mrs Xue about his embarrassment on the boat, Mrs Xue was dumbfounded.

Ma Liu also wanted to tell the Xue family that he really didn't have to worry about Miss Xu. Miss Xu lived very well in the border town. Even if it was a border town, it was a relatively poor place, but he could see that Mrs. Xu liked to do it. Food is not only for a living, but also what she wants to do most.

After Ma Liu left, Mrs Xue couldn't wait to open the letter from her daughter to her. At first, she felt the thickness of the envelope. She also thought about what her daughter wrote to her. How could it be so thick? Could it be the recipe for her brother? When he opened the envelope and saw that there were two thousand three hundred taels of silver notes inside, Mrs Xue was stunned and hurriedly opened the letter from her daughter to her.

Only then did I realize that what my daughter said about making a lot of money was true.

Yu Niang opened a restaurant, paid taxes, and still earned four to five thousand taels a year. Now she plans to open a wine shop and earn even more.

He also told her not to send money to herself in the future, she was not short of money, and asked her to give the money from her natal family to her uncle, so that he could quickly save enough money to expand the business of barbecue, and said that every year in the future Ask someone to give her a silver note of one or two thousand taels, and let her spend it vigorously.

Looking at it, Xue's heart ached. Her Yuniang was only seventeen, and girls from other aristocratic families in the capital who were about the same age as Yuniang were still well-clothed and well-fed. Hua, and her Yuniang has already opened a restaurant and is busy all day long.

But Yu Niang is so capable, Xue Shi is indeed not that worried, but mostly distressed.

After wiping away her tears, Mrs. Xue put away the letter and the banknotes. When the master came back, she was telling the master that she would definitely not spend the banknotes indiscriminately, and left them all to Yuniang.

She gave the three hundred taels of silver to her natal brothers, so that her brother could set up a shop early to expand his business.

In this way, she can earn more, and she can share some of it, and it is enough to spend this money.

Ma Liu went out of the courtyard of the second room, and saw a maid beside the hanging flower gate.

Seeing him, the servant girl was overjoyed, "Is it Master Ma Jun who dare to ask? My girl wants to invite you over."

Ma Liu frowned, "Who is your girl?"

There are no concubine girls in the Marquis of Dechang, only three daughters from the third house, the girl from the first house seems to be married, and the second wife, Mrs. Xu, is still in the border town. Qin Hui.

Ma Liu's face immediately fell down, and he turned around and left without saying anything to Ping'er.

Ping'er followed behind and shouted, "Hey, Lord Ma Jun, wait a minute."

Ma Liu turned around and sneered, "Just the third girl in your family who knew that her fiancé was going to be exiled, and then asked her cousin to marry her?"

Ping'er's face turned red all of a sudden, and she spoke for her girl, "Master Ma Jun, that's not the case, it has nothing to do with my girl, it's my old lady who dotes on my girl more, and went to the palace to beg her privately, my girl I didn't know it at all, and I got sick after knowing it, and I felt sorry for the second girl."

What a fool, Ma Liu didn't believe it at all, just the old lady of the Marquis of Dechang, a fifty or sixty-year-old old lady, how did she go to the palace to ask, why did the new emperor agree and write an imperial edict? tricky.

Ping'er did not lie. Everyone in the house knew that it was the old lady who went to the palace to ask for the imperial edict. It was because the old lady doted on Xu Qinhui and took this responsibility. Outsiders did not know that it was Xu Qinhui who asked for the imperial edict. went inside.

On weekdays, Xu Qinhui treats the maids around her well, and doesn't know how to beat and scold them, so Ping'er is very protective of the lord, and really believes that the edict was requested by the old lady.

Ping'er continued, "Our girl is very worried about the second girl, and she has been trying to get in touch with the second girl. She was ill for a while, and after she recovered, she went to the temple on the mountain to pray for the second girl, but she broke her leg and hurt her face. I have been in the mansion for more than a year and haven't gone out much."

Ma Liu didn't even bother to listen, so he turned around and continued walking.

He walked a little too fast, and Ping'er couldn't catch up, so he stomped his feet and went back to tell Xu Qinhui.

Xu Qinhui didn't show it on the face, but felt that a stinking officer and soldier dared to throw face at her.

After scolding Ma Liu in her heart, Xu Qinhui was a little discouraged, how should she pass the letter to King Shu?

Forget it, I'd better let my father figure it out, if it's really impossible to let my father pay more attention and find someone to pass the letter on.

She didn't dare to let someone deliver the letter in private, because she was afraid that the people who sent the letter to the Queen Mother and the new emperor would stop it, and it would be over by then.

In any case, the letter was going to be sent.

Otherwise, almost two years have passed, and she hasn't said a word to King Shu.

...

Xu Qinyu didn't know the plan of the second room Xu Qinhui at all, she went back to Osmanthus Alley after seeing off Ma Liu that day.

When went back, found that the firewood in the yard had been chopped.

The fourth brother really can't rest. Now let him go back to the house to lie down. He must not be able to lie down. Thinking of the increase in the number of people in the family, she wants to buy a bigger house to live in.

It happened that Mrs. Wen, Ning Jie'er and fourth brother were all there, so Xu Qinyu said, "Mother, fourth brother, Ning Jie'er, the yard where she lives now is a little small, Ning Jie'er has grown up, and sister Qian and brother Feng have grown up. It’s getting bigger and bigger, and my grandmother will definitely come back to live in the future, so I want to buy a bigger house, and it doesn’t need to be too big. What do you think?"

Wen Shi smiled and said, "I've listened to Yu Niang. I happen to be free today. Would you like Niang to accompany you to take a look at the house?"

Xu Qinyu shook her head, "No, mother, you can rest at home, I'll just go out with my fourth brother."

Anyway, the fourth brother can't be idle anymore, it's not like she goes out to see the house together.

She prefers the Laixi Lane in front of her. There is a river in front of the alley. On weekdays, women are washing their clothes, and children are playing and playing by the water. It is very lively and has a lot of fun in the market.

And the sister-in-law of the Xia family lives in Laixi Lane.

Brother Shao of the Xia family is a little older than Sister Pei, and the children of the two families can play together.

The yard here is not for sale. She has lived for nearly two years, and she has some feelings for the yard. In addition, she is not short of dozens of taels of silver. It is better to keep it and use it as a warehouse in the future.

After speaking with Pei Weixuan, Pei Weixuan also thought that the house in Laixi Lane was good.

The two went out the door, ready to come to Xixiang.

Not far from Laixi Lane, Xu Qinyu did not drive the donkey cart. It was also because the yard at home was small, the donkey and the cart were not easy to put, and the backyard was not big, just an aisle, so Xu Qinyu wanted to buy a bigger one. 's house.

Going out the door and walking to the entrance of the alley, they bumped into a donkey cart. It was Mrs. Luo and her son Luo Dagen at the end of Guihua Alley.

Mrs. Luo's face was ashen, and Luo Dagen's face was not good-looking, her face was earthy, obviously something happened, even Xu Qinyu and Pei Weixuan passed by them, they didn't notice, and they passed by in panic.

In the past, if Mrs. Luo ran into Xu Qinyu and Pei's family in Osmanthus Lane, she would definitely roll her eyes.

Xu Qinyu raised her eyebrows, what happened to the Luo family?

She remembered that in the first two months, Luo Dagen brought back a girl in her twenties. She thought it was Luo Dagen who had married a bride, but she heard from the aunts in Guihua Lane that they had not married yet. This girl has no father at home. No mother, no relatives at all, she is the only one left, and somehow she was fooled by the Luo family and moved directly into the Luo family.

Xu Qinyu felt that the girl was stupid. Even in the future, it is best not to live in the man's house before marriage, otherwise she will be despised.

This is still ancient, really don't know what this girl thinks.

She has also seen the girl several times. She has a good appearance, a little charming, and a pair of fox eyes, but she is very nice. People who see Osmanthus Lane will greet her, and every time she sees Xu Qinyu, she will nod to her.

Xu Qinyu also heard from people in Guihua Lane that they reminded the girl that the Luo family was not good, that Mrs. Luo beat and scolded her former daughter-in-law and granddaughter, and wanted to sell her granddaughter to a kiln, saying that Luo Dagen Occasionally, he would beat his daughter-in-law and tell the girl to run away. The Luo family just wanted a son, but they didn't want to pay a betrothal gift, so they fooled her into the house.

But this girl looked fine, but she was stupid, and said to them, "Don't worry, Auntie, Dagen and her mother-in-law treat me very well, and they will definitely give me a dowry."

Everyone in Osmanthus Lane thought that this girl was really a fool.

Seeing that he could not persuade him, he did not persuade him, thinking that Luo Dagen would soon let this silly girl get pregnant.

Seeing Mrs. Luo and Luo Dagen come back in a hurry at this moment, Xu Qinyu's intuition might have something to do with the girl.

Sure enough, the first few aunts who were chatting in front of them saw Xu Qinyu and said, "Oh, little lady Xu, isn't this your husband? Your husband is back?"

Xu Qinyu and Pei Weixuan stopped, and Xu Qinyu smiled, "Yes, Aunt Liu, my husband is back, so the restaurant is closed today."

Several aunts looked at Pei Weixuan, but did not dare to look directly at him. They always felt that Xu Xiaoniangzi's husband was a little more solemn and calmer than before, and he had an aura that no one dared to ignore.

They heard that Mrs. Xu's husband went out to run a business, and he only made a few silver coins a year. He didn't make a lot of money in a month. Hey, this Pei family is really lucky. It's so good to marry Mrs. Xu. daughter-in-law.

A few aunts asked what the two of them were doing, Xu Qinyu smiled and said: "Go to Laixi Lane to see the house. The family has a large population, and Sister Xian and Brother Feng are getting bigger and bigger. With the addition of the donkey cart, Some of them can’t afford to live in it, and want to buy a secondary house in the front.”

The women all said that they should buy a bigger house, and they moved closer and said, "Miss Xu, did you see Mrs. Luo and her son just now?"

"I see." Xu Qinyu's heart moved slightly, "But the faces of both of them are not very good-looking, did something happen?"

The woman laughed out loud, and told Xu Qinyu in a low voice, "Didn't Luo Dagen cheat an orphan girl back before? She dreamed of making the orphan girl pregnant so she wouldn't have to give a dowry. As a result, Mrs. Luo and Luo Dagen just now Dagen went to the Yamen to report to the officials, saying that the orphan girl ran away with all the money in their family."

How did the aunts know that it was because Mrs. Luo went out to ask them if they had seen her daughter-in-law at noon, and she said that she hadn’t seen her since she woke up in the morning, but every day her daughter-in-law would go to the river in front of Xixiang starched and washed clothes, but didn’t see them until noon today, so asked them if they saw them.

Naturally they didn't see them, Mrs. Luo went back muttering, and then rushed out after a while, her face was pale, and she asked in a trembling voice, "Have you seen my little bastard, she took all my money and ran away?" Ah." It turned out that after Mrs. Luo went back, she finally found that the locks on the cages at home were all unlocked, and when she searched for them, the little money she had saved was gone, and the boxes where her son and old man Luo saved money were also gone. Open it, and all the money inside disappeared.

The result couldn't be more obvious, it was the orphan girl who could pick the lock, took all the money and ran away.

The aunts were stunned when they heard Mrs. Luo patting her thigh and crying: "Our family's forty taels of silver, there is not a dime left, this cheap hoof that kills thousands of knives, how can there be a girl's house?" If you don't love yourself, you are willing to live in a man's house without getting married, so you are a liar!"

It was all the silver money of her family, and the money that Lin had given for more than a year, it was all in it.

Mrs. Luo was crying while cursing, Luo Dagen came out driving the donkey cart, and called to her with an ugly face, "Mother, hurry up and go to the Yamen to report to the officials."