Aoyama

Chapter 208 Peeping
The rooster crowed.

In Mingquan Garden, the candles had gone out, and the white wax covered the candlesticks like tears.

The charcoal brazier in the room was emitting residual heat. Xiaoman, who had two buns on her hair, huddled on a small stool, nodding her head all night, her saliva dripping onto her knees.

She was startled awake by the sound of a cock crowing. She looked towards the bed and saw that Chen Ji and Wu Yun were gone. She stood up in panic and asked, "Master? Where are you?"

Xiaoman lay on the ground and looked under the bed. In her memory, the young master would hide under the bed when he had a nightmare, but this time there was nothing under the bed.

At this time, Chen Ji's voice came: "I'm in the yard."

Xiaoman pushed open the door anxiously, only to see Wuyun lying on the gray tile eaves of the courtyard wall, with his paws tucked into his lap and his eyes closed. Chen Ji was using a bamboo broom to gather the dust on the ground into a pile.

She looked at the broom in Chen Ji's hand and was horrified: "When did you get up, sir? Why are you sweeping the floor by yourself? Give me the broom!"

Chen Ji said casually: "I have nothing to do anyway, I'll sweep it."

Xiaoman was heartbroken: "Whose noble son sweeps the floor by himself? He is so rich. I have told you so many times that you have to put on a noble air so that they won't look down on you!"

Chen Ji smiled and said, "He is just a bastard, not a noble son."

Xiao Man said angrily, "Who said it doesn't count? If I say you count, then you count. With the Chen family's long history of being nobles and having a rich family, any illegitimate son can be better than the eldest son of another family. When you marry in the future, don't lower your status and marry a illegitimate daughter. You must find a legitimate daughter from a scholarly family."

The concept of family status has been deeply rooted in everyone's bones. Chen Ji disagrees, but there is no need to argue with her.

Seeing that he didn't say anything, Xiaoman took the broom away and leaned against the wall: "I'll go boil some water for you to wash up. After you wash up, you have to go and pay your respects."

Chen Ji shook his head: "No, I won't go to pay my respects anymore."

Xiaoman became suspicious: "Why are you so tough all of a sudden? The sun is rising from the west?"

Chen Ji explained: "I just went to pay my respects to the Madam, and she took the initiative to ask me not to pay my respects to her in the future."

Xiaoman became even more suspicious: "Can she be so kind?"

Chen Ji smiled and said, "Maybe chanting the Buddha's name has brought out some compassion in my heart."

Xiao Man muttered in a low voice: "She has been chanting Buddha's name for so many years, but she has never chanted out any compassion. Why did she chant out compassion today?"

Chen Ji corrected him, "It wasn't her who chanted out the word 'compassion'. It was me who chanted out her word 'compassion'. Sincerity is the key to success."

Xiaoman seemed to understand: "Ah?"

Chen Ji waved his hand: "Go boil some water."

Xiaoman stretched out her voice: "Oh..."

She went to the side room, opened the stove, picked up the coal with tongs and threw it in: "By the way, sir, didn't you have a nightmare last night?"

Chen Ji's eyes moved: "I had a dream, but it was different from before."

Xiaoman poked her head out from the side room and asked, "You didn't dream about that weird battlefield again?"

Chen Ji's pupils shrank slightly.

The "traces" of this world are actually dreaming the same dream as me?

Chen Ji was silent for a long time, and then he asked Xiao Man further: "Now that I think about it, that dream wasn't that scary."

Xiaoman curled her lips and retracted her head back into the ear room: "You said that the dream was scary. There were monsters, beasts and animals everywhere, and many soldiers killing each other, with blood everywhere."

Chen Ji confirmed that it was the same dream.

What is the connection between me and the "traces" of this world? Why do I have the same dream?
Could it be... that this is the key that allowed Master and Li Qingniao to smuggle me down from the Forty-ninth Heaven?
Chen Ji couldn't help but carefully recall what Li Qingniao said, "The people of Uttarakuru are responsible for smuggling you across", "The forty-nine heavens can't keep you, go where you should go".

He suddenly realized that there were two key messages in these words:
The first key piece of information is that the person responsible for smuggling him was from Uttarakuru, one of the forty-nine heavens... Could it be that Master Yao Qimen was also from the forty-nine heavens?
Chen Ji recalled that he once asked his master if he wanted to ascend to the forty-ninth heaven to become a god. His master’s answer was… If you don’t have a hundred thousand years to live, what’s the point of becoming a god in heaven!

The second key message is that the four words "can't keep you" are worth pondering carefully. Who wants to keep him? Why keep him in the forty-ninth heaven?
Thinking of this, Chen Ji always felt that there was a greater crisis looming over him in the sky.

At this time, Xiaoman walked out of the ear room and wiped her hands on the clothes behind her back. Seeing that Chen Ji was distracted, she waved her hand in front of his face and said, "Sir, what did you dream about last night?"

Chen Ji lied: "Last night was a beautiful dream. I dreamed that I made a lot of money, bought tens of thousands of acres of paddy fields, and also bought a silk shop, an inn, and a restaurant..."

Xiao Man muttered, "You are still making money. You are lucky that your money was not cheated away. You really had a restaurant and hundreds of acres of good farmland before, but you were deceived by your wife. Your aunt's 'Gufulou' is in the Dengshikou outside Donghuamen in the capital, where every inch of land is worth a lot of money. It is very famous."

Chen Ji was stunned. Is this true?

He couldn't ask directly what other properties she had besides the Gufu Building, so he could only pretend to be indifferent and said, "Money is something outside of one's body. You can't bring it with you when you are born, and you can't take it with you when you die. I have forgotten what my aunt left behind. You don't have to keep thinking about it. Just give it to my wife."

Xiaoman clenched her fists angrily: "You forgot, but I won't. Nanny Li said that my aunt left you the Gufu Tower outside Donghuamen, the Yujing Garden in the Bada Hutongs, the Chenji Grain and Oil Shop, the Silk Shop outside the Bell and Drum Tower, and 320 acres of fertile land in Changping! Each of them is a property that others can't save up in a lifetime. My aunt must have spent a lot of effort to buy them!" Chen Ji's heart suddenly tightened. So many properties were seized by the Liang family?

He was silent for a moment and then said, "Xiao Man, take out the three volumes of Diamond Sutra in the room."

Xiaoman exclaimed: "Sir, what are you doing with the scriptures?"

Chen Ji said seriously: "Go and pay your respects."

Xiaoman: “?”

She didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "You finally don't have to pay your respects, so don't go. Those properties are like throwing meat buns at a dog, you will never get them back. But..."

"But what?"

Xiao Man said seriously: "Sir, go and take the imperial examination. When you become a high-ranking official, Madam will definitely not dare to monopolize these properties anymore and will return them all to you."

Chen Ji seemed to be thinking about something. Although he didn't have much material desire, the tiger method was spending money like water. Sooner or later, he would take back all these properties.

No, he didn't want to spend a cent, but he couldn't stand seeing others taking possession of his things...

But it is not easy to get it back, so we can only go to the capital and make long-term plans.

Read the error-free version at 69shuba! 6=9+shu_ba is the first to publish this novel.

Chen Ji's mind moved, and he suddenly sighed: "It's been so long, I almost forgot what my aunt looks like."

Xiaoman was also depressed when she heard this: "It's been a long time indeed... But how can you forget Auntie? She is the most beautiful and gentle woman in the world. Auntie is beautiful when she smiles, and she is also beautiful when she doesn't smile. Every time I see her, I wonder how such a woman could marry the master? I'm afraid all the scholars in the capital thought so."

Chen Ji remained silent and did not interrupt.

Xiaoman continued to speak softly: "My aunt taught me a lot of things, but I was too stupid to learn. She never got tired of teaching me again and again. My aunt also asked me to call her mother, but I didn't dare."

Chen Ji recalled that his mother was the same. When he was a child, he could never learn pinyin by himself, as if he just had no idea. His mother patiently taught him over and over again.

His voice softened unconsciously: "Why don't you dare call her mother?"

Xiaoman smiled and said, "Maybe she felt that she was unworthy. How could I have such a good mother? But when I wanted to call her later, she was gone."

Chen Ji didn't know whether Xiaoman was telling the truth or just lying like Golden Pig, Bright Rabbit and Cloud Sheep, so he could only listen to half of it.

But this world seems to have a special magic. When you mention that you haven't seen your mother for a long time, the world will become a little gentler.

It's not good for the mother whom I see often.

Xiaoman asked, "By the way, sir, aren't you curious about who has been trying to buy your whereabouts? We don't know who it is, what if they want to harm you? You can't indulge them like before."

Chen Ji remained silent. He was curious. Of course he was curious.

Some people spend ten taels of silver every month to buy their own whereabouts, which is quite generous.

Who will be the buyer? Liang or Wang Gui?
It couldn't be Liang. As the mistress of Chen's house, if Liang wanted to know what I did, she only needed to call the maids to question them. Who would dare not tell me? Moreover, I had been manipulated by others before, so why would they need to buy my whereabouts?
It’s not Wang Gui. Wang Gui is stingy and can’t bear to spend the money.

Who would that be?
This feeling of having someone lurking around him was too bad, he had to fish the person out today.

Chen Ji thought for a moment and said to Xiao Man, "I'm going to the East Market. You pack up and follow me."

Xiaoman's eyes widened: "Really? You didn't want to take me with you before."

Chen Ji was stunned. He never took Xiaoman with him when he went out before?

Yes, according to Wu Hongbiao, he started receiving secret training several years ago. Those days when he didn't take Xiaoman out, he must have gone to see Wu Hongbiao secretly.

Thinking of this, Chen Ji nodded and said, "I'll take you with me this time. Let's go."

"Sir, wait for me for a moment," Xiaoman ran back to the house and took out a piece of paper and a stone ink pen for drawing eyebrows: "Sir, can you write down the matter of going to the East Market for Sister Liqiu?"

Chen Ji nodded: "I can remember it."

Xiaoman bit the end of the Shi Dai pen, lowered her head and thought for a while, then asked, "Sir, can you remember that you don't have to go to pay respects to the lady?"

"Why can I remember... so much detail?"

Xiao Man said as a matter of course: "The employer will continue to give us money only if he is satisfied. Ten... eight taels of silver every month!"

Chen Ji suppressed his laughter and said, "Then remember this well."

"Oh, don't worry, sir. I will ask you before writing it down." Xiaoman stood aside, in front of Chen Ji, lowered her head, and wrote down carefully on the paper: "On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-first year of Jianing, sir, you took Xiaoman to the East Market."

(End of this chapter)