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

Chapter 186 Brother and Sister Reunion

As soon as the door was closed, blocking the sight of the neighbors, Mrs. Ma immediately put away the smile on her face and glared at Mrs. Ma angrily: "What was Mrs. Second Aunt doing just now? Taking care of things at home. Aren’t you afraid of being laughed at if you talk about it randomly? Are you in the Ma family?!"

Madam Ma sneered: "Sister-in-law doesn't even want to do superficial things, so it's weird that she has to tell the truth."

Uncle Ma's wife said with a straight face: "I really have something to do, and I don't have time to wait for you at the alley. Didn't I ask Erlang to greet you? It's the same!"

Ma turned around and said, "Since they are all the same, let's change the gifts for my eldest brother and sister-in-law and replace them with local specialties from Suzhou. The gifts are light on gifts but the affection is heavy on affection. I guess my eldest sister-in-law won't be surprised, right?"

Uncle Ma's wife hurriedly said: "What about that? You just said that you would use all the rent from your house and the compensation from the previous tenant to make gifts. Is that true? Isn't it an exaggeration?"

"What are you doing?!" Mr. Ma sneered, "Anyway, the money is already in my sister-in-law's pocket, and you won't take it out again. You might as well make this favor visible, so as not to suffer the consequences of losing money. I can’t even go back to my parents’ home!”

Uncle Ma's wife said a little sarcastically: "It's not that I'm greedy for your money, it's actually that my family's livelihood has been difficult in the past few years, and it's also for the sake of the master, his children and grandchildren..."

Ma turned to look at Ma Lusheng: "Erlang, you can't do this. If your children and grandchildren have no future, they will affect the livelihood of the two elders in the family. When has the Ma family ever been in such a downturn? You have to live up to your expectations!"

Malusheng could only laugh.

Mrs. Ma couldn't bear to see her beloved little son being wronged: "Why does the second aunt blame the child for doing this? It's not his fault."

Mrs. Ma raised her eyebrows: "Then the Ma family's livelihood is difficult, is it my fault? I deserve to have given a thousand taels of silver as a supplement to my parents' family, but I still have to look at my sister-in-law's face when I come back?!"

Mrs. Ma's wife turned away with twinkling eyes: "What does this little money mean? You Haijia family has a big business, but you still lack this little money?" Then before Ma could refute, she pulled up her sleeves and walked into the house. , "Master has been waiting for you for a long time. Come into the room and talk quickly. Don't keep him waiting."

Mrs. Ma pulled back her sleeves and gave a loud snort to Uncle Ma's wife before calling her grandchildren and walking into the house.

Mrs. Ma went back to Ma's house today to visit relatives rather than to be a guest, so she walked through the hall and went straight into the main courtyard at the back.Uncle Ma's legs and feet are not good, and he is currently recovering from illness. At this time, he is still lying on the big kang in the upper room of the main courtyard.

Mr. Ma entered the upper room with familiarity, and when he came to the big kang in the east room, he saw his brother who was described as much thinner and older.As soon as the joy of reunion between brother and sister hit her heart, the sadness in her heart overflowed first. Before she could open her mouth, tears fell involuntarily: "Brother!"

Uncle Ma was sitting on the kang, with many pillows stuffed behind his back. His upper body was tightly dressed, and there was a quilt around his waist. Although he had difficulty moving, he looked pretty good. He also smiled when he saw his sister: "Little sister Are you back? It’s been more than ten years, so it’s been a while since your family returned to Chang’an! Has it been smooth sailing along the way? You’ve suffered a lot in the border towns over the years, right?”

Mr. Ma sat by the kang and had so many words to say that he didn't know how to say them, so he cried solidly first.

Brother and sister Hai Jiao and Hai Tang looked at each other.Without their grandmother to introduce them, they stood in the room stupidly, not knowing how to greet them.

Haijiao was in trouble, but Haitang acted first.She pulled Hai Jiao forward to greet Uncle Ma and his wife, calling her "uncle" and "aunt". She introduced herself and her brother's identities, asked about their bodies, and said that their family came from Suzhou. The trip to Chang'an went smoothly, and the elders in the family are in good health. Please don't worry.Uncle Ma hurriedly asked his youngest son Malusheng to help the two children. The more they looked at them, the more they liked him. He said to Ma, "Little sister, your grandson is born brave and your granddaughter is also clever and charming. You are so lucky!"

Ma was crying at this time. Hearing this, he burst into tears and said with a smile: "Brother, don't look at these two monkeys who are so well-behaved now. When they were young, they were so naughty that it gave people a headache."

Uncle Ma hurriedly asked his wife to arrange for the children to sit down, and then asked his youngest son to get the greeting gifts he had prepared and distributed them to Haijiao and Haitang brother and sister.

The greeting gifts were quite generous. Both brother and sister had a ruler and a purse.The material of the ruler head is new, one is elegant bamboo green, suitable for young people studying; the other is delicate begonia red, just right for a little girl to make new clothes.The purse contained two coins made from gold. It was larger and thicker than ordinary coins. It was heavy in the hand and quite substantial.This kind of greeting gift was considered generous in the capital more than 50 years ago, when high-ranking families exchanged courtesies with each other.Haitang didn't expect that with the current financial situation of the Ma family, Uncle Ma would be able to prepare such a generous gift for their brother and sister, and she was a little surprised.

Uncle Ma's wife watched the two children accept the meeting gifts, with a distressed expression on her face involuntarily.

Ma also said to her brother: "Brother, what are you doing? Since the family is struggling to make a living, why do you prepare such a generous gift for your child? Why are you so polite to your own sister?"

Uncle Ma smiled and said: "I'm not being polite to you. We haven't seen each other for more than ten years. This can be regarded as making up for the missing gifts in front of me, and it also prevents my brother-in-law from having to pay for the gifts. This is still a small amount, and my eldest brother still wants it. Please don’t dislike it, little sister. It’s not that the elder brother is stingy. He has only been able to give his children this kind of thing for more than ten years. He is really short of money and can’t come up with anything better.”

How could Ma possibly dislike it?He hurriedly asked his grandchildren to put away their things, sat aside, and then began to ask about his brother's current condition.

Mr. Zhou Ma had already told Mr. Ma about the basic situation in advance. Uncle Ma and Mrs. Ma would talk about it again. The situation was pretty much the same, but they were introduced in more detail.

Uncle Ma's main reason was that his legs caught cold when he was marching westward with the frontier army. Later, he failed to take good care of his legs and fell into a serious illness. His knee bones were defective. When the weather was windy, rainy and cool, the pain was severe. When winter comes, I basically have no choice but to stay on the kang.It's not that he can't walk, it's just that it's difficult for him to walk. When the old problem is severe, he can't even sleep well.After ten years, everyone has become so thin that they have lost their shape, and their whole bodies have become haggard and old, and they have long lost the charm they had in their prime.

After hearing this, Ma couldn't help crying again.She still has fresh memories of that war, and even her only son died at that time.Unexpectedly, even my brother suffered a serious crime and suffered lifelong illnesses.When she thought about it, her hatred for the Hu people became even deeper.

She said to Uncle Ma: "Brother, don't worry, the Hu Khan King who started the war is dead." She relayed to her everything that her husband had told her about the changes that had happened in the Hu Khan Kingdom in the past two years. The elder brother knew, "The old Khan has committed suicide. His wife and children are all idiots, and his family will be defeated sooner or later. His former confidants will also fight to the death with his wife and children for the sake of his son. Let's just wait and see how they die." Bar!"

Uncle Ma was in a daze. It had been a long time since he had paid attention to the news from the border... In recent years, he had already exhausted all his energy just to keep his position in the guard station, and he really had no time to care about anything else.He smiled at his sister: "It's good if we don't have to fight. Now that your family is back, I don't have to worry about you anymore."

Ma also knew his brother's biggest worry at the moment: "Big brother is like this, why can't he retire and recuperate? If it were another family, the children and grandchildren in the family would have taken over. No matter how good the two nephews are, they won't even be able to defeat Xiao Qi. You can’t even take it, right? At that time, they were serious enough to study in health schools.”

"Now Commander Du of the Chang'an Vanguard has re-established the rules." Uncle Ma sighed, "Brothers Lu Yuan and Lu Sheng can't catch his eye, and he's reluctant to ask them to be the leading soldiers..."

Commander Du of Chang'an Vanguard?Is Uncle Ma actually one of Du Boqin's men?

Haijiao and Haitang suddenly became stunned.

(End of this chapter)