After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 431 The old lady in the fourteenth room

The old lady in the fourteenth room, Mrs. Lu, is over sixty years old. She is tall, has gray hair, has a strong appearance, and is dressed plainly. She has a similar style to the military widows often seen in Chang'an City. Compared to Mrs. Ma, who still pays great attention to maintenance at her age and wears gorgeous and exquisite daily clothes, she is obviously much younger, but she looks ten years older than the former.

The Lu family's late husband, Zhou Kegang, was originally the younger brother of Zhou Kejin, the third wife of the Zhou family. He was much younger than his eldest brother. Mrs. Lu was his first wife. When she first got married, Mrs. Ma had not yet given birth to a son. However, years of hard life as a widow and the heavy burden of raising all her children made Lu show her age early on. Nowadays, anyone who sees her and Mrs. Ma standing side by side cannot believe that she is actually much younger than the latter.

Zhou Ma politely welcomed Mrs. Lu into the upper room of the main courtyard, calling her aunt, and even poured tea for her to moisten her throat. The Hai family brothers and sisters also followed Ma to meet her.

In fact, Mrs. Zhou Ma has always respected Mrs. Lu, the old lady of the fourteenth room. It's just that in the past, Mr. Lu looked down upon Mrs. Ma because of how much she slandered her. She didn't dare to get close to her for fear of being scolded. Now that both parties have fallen out with Mrs. Ma, Zhou Ma feels that this aunt should be much kinder to her, right? When she visited the fourteenth room in person yesterday, didn't her aunt kick her grandfather and grandson out?

Unexpectedly, Mrs. Lu, the old lady in the fourteenth room, could not help but scold her as soon as she sat down: "My niece-in-law, what on earth is your man thinking?! When did this happen? Such a big thing happened in our third room, he He actually wanted to hide it from others. I, the elder, came to ask him, but he dared to avoid it?! Was he fooled by Ma’s mother-in-law? What about scholars? Why don’t you say that scholars should respect their elders today?”

Zhou Ma suffered the disaster and could only laugh dryly: "It's you who are wrong, aunt, don't be angry..."

Although he knew who the "Ma" that Mr. Lu was scolding was, because he was also Mr. Ma, Mr. Ma was embarrassed to speak.

However, Ms. Lu was very straightforward and turned to Ms. Ma: "I'm not talking about you from the Hai family. Although you sisters are all from the Ma family, I know that Mr. Ma is a fake and not from your Ma family. Education. But no one knows her last name, so I have to continue to call her Ma."

Ma twitched the corners of her lips: "You're too polite. We sisters all know in our hearts who you really hate, so we won't misunderstand what you mean."

Mr. Lu waved his hand and glanced in the direction of the outer study: "If I had known that Shi Gong would develop such a temper, I might as well have taken my son with me and raised him personally! Although Shi Cheng is that Ma family He is of the same flesh and blood, but because he was raised by his eldest brother himself, his temperament is not as awkward as that of Shi Gong, and he still looks like a child of our Zhou family! Jin Pu was also raised by that mother-in-law, so he is not very talkative. By marrying into our Zhou family, she has harmed many good children. Isn’t she really a spy of the Hu people?”

Ma said: "Although the evidence is not sufficient, right now everyone is guessing that she is from the capital and is most likely of the clan's bloodline."

Mrs. Lu said angrily: "The emperor has tormented our Zhou family to no end! The Zhou family has worked hard to ensure that he sits on the dragon throne, but he is just ungrateful. Instead, he has made our northwest soldiers and civilians suffer for more than thirty years, without enough food and clothing." Nuan, we have to protect our family and the country for him. This is not enough. He also wants to marry a vicious woman to our Zhou family, causing harm to the children of the Zhou family. Do we, the Zhou family, owe it to him in the previous life? "

This was purely a matter of venting anger. When Emperor Deguang first ascended the throne more than 30 years ago, Mrs. Ma had already been married into the third room of the Zhou family for more than ten years. There was no way Emperor Deguang had arranged this marriage.

No one here took Lu's words to heart. Zhou Yijun hurriedly stepped forward to pour her another cup of tea, and then moved the snack box to her hand: "Uncle, please have some tea and a cushion. This half day You have worked hard."

Mrs. Lu calmed down a little, drank two cups of tea, and ate several snacks. After scolding her for a long time, she was really tired and hungry, so she just took the opportunity to satisfy her hunger.

After she had eaten and drank enough, she put the tea cup down, wiped her mouth, and said, "Tell me, what do you want to ask me? If Zhou Shigong hadn't gone over in person and pulled you away yesterday, you would have had a lot to say. Do you want to ask me?" Zhou Ma nodded quickly: "Yes, yes, there are many old things that I don't know about, and I don't know who to ask, so I had to ask my aunt for help..."

Ma also helped: "Sister Er wants to know what happened when Mrs. Wang of Liangzhou and Mrs. Ma were in contact. I heard that your family is related to the Wang family by marriage?"

Mrs. Lu glanced at Mr. Zhou with disgust: "You are so old. You have been married to this family for more than 30 years, and all your relatives have seen it. Even if your mother-in-law refuses to give you advice, don't you understand yourself?" See with your eyes? Listen with your ears? You should have learned these things a long time ago, but now you are asking me! No wonder your mother-in-law always says bad things about you, but you are too stupid!"

Zhou Ma blushed and lowered her head at what she said. Although she felt aggrieved, she did not dare to object.

Ma had no choice but to stand up again: "Don't blame me, eldest sister. Mrs. Ma didn't let her know, where did she go to school? Who made her so bad that she had to have such a mother-in-law? Now she only needs to be the head of the family at such an age. She doesn’t dare to ask Mrs. Ma for advice anymore, for fear of being taken to the pit. Can’t she just ask you for advice?”

Lu's expression softened: "That's true. Instead of counting on that evil bitch, why don't I work harder and give you some more advice!"

So she really started to explain to Zhou Ma the relationship and interactions between the third branch of the Zhou family - including their branch of the fourteenth branch - and the Wang family in Liangzhou.

The Lu family's eldest daughter-in-law is the granddaughter of the Wang family, and the fourteenth room was quite familiar with the Wang family in their early years. Over the years, in order to find a good future for her son and grandsons and find a good match for her daughter and granddaughters, Mrs. Lu has thought of every possible way. In addition to trying to please Mrs. Ma, the eldest daughter-in-law's family was also someone she considered asking for help. Unfortunately, the Wang family was burned down by a fire. After the eldest daughter-in-law's family lost their in-laws, their strength was greatly reduced and they could not help much. But in the past, when she wanted to ask for help, she made a lot of inquiries in private.

Now, Mr. Lu has almost forgotten all these past events. Yesterday, Ms. Zhou Ma and Zhou Yijun's grandparents came to talk about it, which reminded her of the past. She spent the whole night thinking about the past. Now that the Ma sisters asked about it, she immediately remembered it all.

They already knew many things about Haitang, but there were also many details that they didn't know before.

The maiden mother of the eldest daughter-in-law of the Lu family is Mrs. Wang's eldest sister-in-law. The relationship between the two sisters is average because the former dislikes the behavior of the latter. For example, Mrs. Wang actively went to Beijing to cling to powerful people, which she disapproved of. I complained a lot to my in-laws and daughter.

Not long before the fire broke out in the Wang's Grain Store, Mrs. Wang had just returned from Beijing. She checked around the fourteenth room, left a few local rituals, and then returned to Liangzhou. Within two days, the eldest daughter-in-law of the Lu family received a letter from her cousin Zhou Shuyi, complaining that Mrs. Wang had lost her face by asking her to help introduce dignitaries in Beijing, and so on.

Zhou Shuyi's wording was very unpleasant, and Mrs. Lu's eldest daughter-in-law was already angry. Mrs. Ma even called her over to ask her about all the details of Mrs. Wang's stay in Beijing, what she said when she came to the fourteenth room, and so on. I was sulky for several days.

Later, news of a fire in the Wang family came from Liangzhou. Mrs. Wang, mother and son died, and the whole house was burned down. When the eldest daughter-in-law of the Lu family learned that her mother was grieving and fell ill, she was busy taking care of her mother while also dealing with Mrs. Ma's troubles. She felt very angry. Later, she simply left Chang'an and went to the border with her husband.

(End of this chapter)