Ordinary clear day

Chapter 165
Shu Ning was taken aback, and hurriedly asked: "Why? Wasn't it always good before?" Although she was always a little ashamed of Chen Liangben's stallion traits, she also admitted that he was a good official and a smart person. Well, how can you let your father get angry?

Tong Shi was also a little angry when she thought about it. Seeing that Zhang Bao's face was still dark, she took her daughter to the next room and explained the reason to her in detail.

Today, when Zhang Bao came to visit, he followed the etiquette and did not lower his family status.Mr. Chen Liangben had a stern face for some reason, but forced a smile.Later, during the conversation, Chen Liangben always said some things that made people puzzled. Seeing that Zhang Bao didn't understand why, he said it sternly and frankly.

In general, three things.

One was that when someone impeached him in spring, many officials who had good relations with him suffered disasters. Zhang Bao was fine, but he didn't help, and even avoided the capital outside the capital. Many officials of the Chen faction were dissatisfied with this.

The second case is that Chen Liangben's friend of the same year, the former magistrate of Daming Prefecture, complained to him that his son had accidentally caused some small troubles, and was attacked by political opponents of the Chen faction, and almost lost his life. He was targeted by the imperial envoy and lost his official position.Zhang Baoming knew that he was on good terms with Chen Liangben, but he helped others to use false confessions to harm his own son.

The third one happened recently.One of Chen Liangben's political achievements in Jiangnan was to overthrow corrupt officials and recover the salt tax. Someone told him that Zhang Bao secretly took in the son of a big corrupt official, perhaps to harm him.

What Chen Liangben meant, the first one might just be Zhang Bao's timidity, which is not a crime, but the last two are a little too much.He directly asked Zhang Bao if he was dissatisfied with him, and now he came to give gifts, could it be that he came here because he was still a high-ranking official with a generous salary, and he wanted something from him.

Zhang Bao was so angry that he could hardly speak, and asked Chen Liangben directly, what kind of villain he was.Chen Liang was a little hesitant at first, but unexpectedly his second wife came out at this moment, and returned the gift that Zhang Bao sent back, saying that he "used this kind of old thing that no one wanted as a gift, but he didn't pay attention to my husband." inside".

Zhang Bao didn't say anything, just rolled up the gift and left. After returning home, he kept sulking.

After hearing this, Shu Ning couldn't help being furious.It seems that the stallion surnamed Chen can't even tell right from wrong recently, what kind of nonsense is he talking about? !She hurriedly said to her father: "Ama, don't be angry, there is no need to spoil your health because of that kind of anger. He can't even recognize who is right. Let's see when he gets into trouble."

Seeing his daughter so angry, Zhang Bao felt better, and said in a deep voice, "He has never been this kind of person. Although I haven't had much contact with him, I know what he is like. Now it seems that someone is treating him. Into slander, and he has just returned from Jiangnan, so he is not very clear about the affairs in Beijing, and there may be misunderstandings."

Shu Ning also calmed down a little at this time, and felt that her father's words were reasonable. After thinking about it, she said, "If this is the case, we should clarify the matter as soon as possible. As the saying goes, three people make a tiger. Today, Ama brought a gift Coming out angrily from the Chen residence, someone must have seen it. If any gossip is caused, it will damage Ama's reputation. And let Chen Liangben know that Ama was wronged earlier, so that the real villain will have nowhere to hide .”

Seeing that Zhang Bao's expression had softened, Mrs. Tong was also happy in her heart. After hearing what her daughter said, she asked, "It's just that Chen Liangben has prejudice now, how can we clarify it?"

Shu Ning thought of a person: "Let's find Lord Yuheng. He has always been on good terms with Ama, and he has been in Beijing all the time. He is clear about these things. Gu Quansheng's conversion of slave status has to be registered in Shuntian Mansion. It’s on the record. Besides the matter of the prefect of the Daming Prefecture, I’m afraid he also has resentment in his heart, you must know that the son of the former prefect of the Daming Prefecture died under his Shuntian Prefecture.”

Zhang Bao nodded: "That's fine, but I heard that he may be transferred to another post recently, so it's time to go as soon as possible."

In order to prevent the night from having many dreams, Zhang Bao went to visit Yuheng that night at the urging of his daughter, and told him everything, including the fact that the gift was an ancient inkstone from the previous dynasty. Attached are several good seal stones.Yuheng has been very interested in seals lately, so he was ready to help him explain to Chen Liangben, and complained about the former magistrate Yitong along the way.His son's crime caused Shuntian Mansion to be charged with the crime of "not investigating", and his salary was deducted in the first place, and those months were wasted. You know, in this Qingshui yamen, many officials are He has to live on his salary. As an officer, he is shameless.

Yuheng acted quickly, and approached Chen Liangben the next day to explain everything clearly.Back then when Zhang Bao left Beijing, he really wanted to avoid trouble, but he, a middle-level official with Ding You at home, couldn’t help him in that situation; Zhang Bao was just stopping that dude from robbing people; as for the son of a corrupt official, he was the only son of the county magistrate Gu and became an official slave. The ones who knew the file were not taken in privately, but were assigned to work in the village.etc.

Yuheng also said bad things about some officials of the Chen faction who were at odds with him, claiming that during Chen Liangben's departure from Beijing, they formed a clique for personal gain, excluded dissidents, and caused conflicts between the DPRK and China, which caused Chen Liangben a lot of trouble. Now the Chen faction has been damaged The tragedy is all caused by them.After talking like this for a long time, he left.

But Chen Liangben has been upset for the past few months.The situation in Jiangnan was more complicated than he had imagined, and there were always people in the court holding him back. He racked his brains and managed to make some achievements, but was transferred back to Beijing, and some of his plans had to be stopped.The wives and concubines at home didn't make him feel at ease, they quarreled every day, and occasionally caused one or two incidents outside, which hurt his reputation.

Because the emperor felt that he had been wronged some time ago, but he couldn't make it up to him clearly, he promised to seal a royal order for one of his concubines.Chen Liangben chose the one who came from a wealthy family, but he didn't expect that the other concubines would not agree. Even the well-behaved Xiaojia Biyu cried and said that he was biased. Resigned to fate, but now she is not even as good as a merchant's daughter.The daughter of a rich family thinks that she has made great achievements through hard work and deserves to be ordered, so she quarrels with them.The situation in the backyard of the Chen family has risen again.

Chen Liangben was already tired enough to deal with other officials at the court every day, and he couldn't be quiet when he returned home, so he was naturally unhappy.It happened that two officials from the Chen faction switched to the Suo faction, which made him even more angry.At this time, someone slandered him, saying what about Zhang Bao, and he couldn't help being angry. When he saw Zhang Bao coming to the door, it seemed that nothing had happened, and he seemed to want to curry favor with him, so he couldn't help but sarcastically .He didn't see the gift clearly either, but he believed it when he heard that the second wife who was born in a rich family said it was worthless.

It wasn't until Yuheng came to tell him that he knew that Zhang Bao had been wronged, and he began to be wary of some people who made irresponsible remarks.He inadvertently complained to the second wife a few words, but there was another commotion in the backyard.Chen Liangben was exhausted, so he had no choice but to write a letter to Zhang Bao, with an apology attached, saying that he knew the truth and everything was a misunderstanding. , and so on.

Zhang Bao has always been a good-tempered person, and after receiving the letter and the apology, his anger disappeared.But he always had a knot in his heart about this matter, and he could no longer be friendly and trusting to Chen Liangben as before.

Seeing this, Mrs. Tong advised him: "Forget it, we used to rely on him, so it was inevitable that we would be low-key. Now we have other sources of support, so we should stop dealing with him too much. He is not well-known outside now. best."

Zhang Baodao: "It's just that he helped a lot in the past, but now that he's not going well, I just let go, and others will gossip. I feel very sorry for myself."

After hearing this, Shu Ning said: "Ama has already had a estrangement with him, why bother to make a deal with him? And this time he wronged Ama, it's not our fault, if we still make friends with him, it will appear that we want to It seems to be fawning on him. To be honest, Ama only got in touch with him because of Mr. Yuheng's relationship at the beginning, and his achievements as an official were all earned by himself. He just helped a few juniors. Busy, do you still want to work for him? Besides, we have given him a lot of good ideas. He heard a few gossips from others, and he wanted to turn against you. Lord Yuheng please talk about Xiang, who knows what will happen?" The stallion is full of troubles now, it's better to stay away.

Tong Shi was a little scared when she heard it from the side: "Shu'er is right, I heard that several officials who used to be friends with him have become closer to Mr. Suo'etu, and two of them have been arrested recently. Reported something illegal, it is spread outside, he is taking revenge."

Zhang Bao sighed: "These are just rumors. I have known him all these years, and I can still trust him as a person. Because of a misunderstanding, I alienated him... I really don't want to do this. What's more, he also said that he would recover for me. The prefect of Jinan is a good position, and my brother-in-law is there, so I can take care of him."

Shu Ning couldn't help but secretly sighed that her father was too soft-hearted, thought for a while, and said: "Since that's the case, Ah Ma shouldn't get too close to him, and don't need to openly distance himself from him, let's see the situation first."

Zhang Bao hesitated for a moment, agreed, and put the matter aside for the time being, and became concerned about his son's participation in the inspection by the Ministry of Officials.As long as Duanning passes the exam, he will be able to obtain a low-level official position. He has prepared for this for a long time, and Mrs. Tong even greeted her natal family.

On the day of the fourth elder brother's wedding, Zhang Bao, Tong's family and Duanning were both invited, but they were just ordinary guests, staying with the Tong's family, and the gifts they gave were all ordinary items, and no one else became suspicious.No one expected that another carefully prepared gift was quietly sent to Pumpkin Alley, which included several winter clothes made by Mrs. Tong himself, a squirrel fur coat, and two women's dresses trimmed with fur. The sleeved cloak was specially prepared for the fourth elder brother's wives and concubines.

On this day, because both parents and elder brother went out to attend the wedding banquet, Shu Ning stayed in the earl's mansion to accompany her younger brother.After lunch, she saw Xianning's eyelids began to droop, so she entrusted Mrs. Liu to take care of her, and let him and Xiaobao both go to take a nap.She went back to the house alone, let the jasmine holly out for a walk, and planned to squat on the bench for a while.

After an unknown amount of time, she felt in a daze that there seemed to be someone in the room. When she opened her eyes, she saw a woman in a pink cheongsam with her back turned to her.She stood up and looked more carefully, it was actually Wanning!
Wanning was sitting on the chair, staring at the front in a daze, when she heard a sound behind her, she turned her head and said with a smile: "Sister, are you awake?" She brushed her hair, turned around and asked, "Second Sister, why are you here? You don't even call me when you come."

Wanning smiled, with a look of desolation in her eyes: "I really envy you, you don't know anything, as long as you live your life with peace of mind. And I... know too much, it's not a good thing..."

What's all this mess?Shu Ning frowned, and was about to speak when she smelled alcohol: "Second Sister, have you been drinking?!"

"What's the matter? It's just a few glasses of rice wine, not Moutai." Wanning waved her hand indifferently, "I'm... happy today, of course I have to drink a few more glasses. This is a happy event, a happy event!"

Shu Ning is very sure that she must be drunk, her maid is not around, why is there no one around her?After thinking about it, he poured a cup of tea and handed it over: "Second Sister drinks a cup of tea sober, what are you doing here today? There must be a reason?"

Wanning took a sip of the drink, and suddenly sobbed: "Why... is this so? She said she was a good friend, and I went to see her specially, but I couldn't see her at all, saying that a bride can't see outsiders, bah! I'm not Man, what's the matter?!" She cried and scolded, but her words became a little unclear: "Woo...he is so cruel, he never gave me a chance, and now he is a wife and a concubine, hmph... ...Be careful of kidney deficiency...Men are not good things. They clearly said they only love me, but they turned around and married someone else. Damn it, what do you think I am?! Do you think I will really give up?!"

Shu Ning was confused, who is talking about this?Why doesn't it sound like a person?But she gradually guessed most of it. It seems that Wanning drank to soothe her worries because of the fourth elder brother's wedding that she had been thinking about all along, and because she heard that the fifth elder brother was going to marry a concubine.

Seeing Wanning's embarrassed face, she kindly handed over a handkerchief to pour tea, but suddenly Wanning grabbed her hand, and saw the other party smiled strangely, and giggled, "Third sister, you are so virtuous and virtuous, I don't know you After marrying in the future, what will you think of that room full of concubines?"

Shu Ning was taken aback for a moment, then suddenly a person rushed in, but it turned out to be Qiao Yun.She insisted on helping Wanning up, thanked Shuning hastily, and forced a smile: "Third Miss, our girl accidentally drank too much today, and all she said was drunk and nonsense! Don't be surprised, just pretend you didn't hear it." Go." Then desperately dragged Wanning away half-supported and half-dragged.

Shu Ning stood there frowning for a long time, until someone came into the room to change the water, then she shook her head and went to practice calligraphy.

Not many people noticed Wanning's drunkenness. Although there were some gossips in the house, they were quickly distracted by the good news that the monthly money was paid out in advance. Next came the day when Fangning was hired again. When it was over, no one thought about it.Wanning lay in bed for two days afterwards, saying that she was not feeling well, but nothing happened. Shuning saw her after a few days, only to find that she looked a little gloomy and listless.

Just after entering October, Zhang Bao received a letter from Chen Liangben, saying that the prefect of Jinan had been reserved for him.Zhang Bao and his wife were very happy and felt that Chen Liang himself could be trusted.Unexpectedly, a few days later, when the court ordered that another official got the position, and this official was not only the nephew of the official who had followed Chen Liangben the longest, but he had also just hired Chen Liangben's rich daughter Ru The wife's niece is a concubine.

(This chapter has been revised three times... I will go on a long trip starting tomorrow, and I will probably not be able to return home until the evening of the second or the morning of the third. The number of words in these two days will be less, and automatic updates have been set. If there is time to update it, it may be later, everyone, please come back on the [-]rd. There may be some delay in posting these days, please forgive me~~~ ^_^ I wish you all a happy National Day~~~)

(End of this chapter)