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

Chapter 802 Two Sentences

When Haitang read this part of the letter, she couldn't help but smile.

I don't know where the Jiang family got the confidence to think that an imperial guard and a head of the Ministry of Revenue would be afraid of their backers and could do nothing to them. Hai Jiao has lived two lives. In his last life, he suffered a lot at the hands of the Jiang family. Now he is reborn and returns to the familiar capital. He is entrusted by General Gu to settle the accounts of the Shanhai Guard. How could he let the Jiang family go easily? ! Even if the Jiang family was not involved in the case, he might want to throw a basin of dirty water on his enemies, not to mention that the Jiang family was not innocent? !

Haijiao knew this and must know what to do to avenge his past life, help his people back home, and hide himself. Haitang was so far away and didn't plan to worry about her brother. She just needed to wait for good news at home.

Haijiao then mentioned that he had met Zhou Shigong and his wife Zhou Ma from the third branch of the Zhou family in Beijing. Zhou Shigong received the emperor's summons in November and had to leave immediately without delaying. As a result, he spent the New Year on the road and arrived in Beijing on the sixth day of the New Year.

After Haijiao received the letter, he went to Cheng'en Marquis Mansion to welcome his aunt and uncle. Zhou Ma suffered a lot on the way. Not only was she exhausted, but she also caught a cold. After arriving in the capital, the couple immediately moved into Cheng'en Marquis Mansion and had no time to find a house for themselves. Zhou Ma lay in bed for three days in a row, taking medicine and taking tonics before she could barely catch her breath. She didn't even mention the welcoming banquet. She was lucky to be able to restore her body to normal before the beginning of spring. When she saw Haijiao, she complained a lot, complaining about her husband and her nephews from her mother's family. Only the two grandsons who accompanied her received her praise. In fact, if there were no grandsons to serve her on the road, she was afraid that she would fall ill halfway and would not be able to make it to the capital.

Zhou Shigong was also very tired, but his condition was better than his wife. He only had a few days to recuperate. After the Lantern Festival, the government offices in the capital would start to work one after another. At that time, he would have to report to the six ministries, and maybe even meet the emperor. He had not experienced such a thing for many years and was very nervous. When Haijiao came to pay his respects to him, he did not bother to say much. He just exchanged a few simple greetings and sent him away.

Fortunately, the brothers Liangying and Liangxiong had become very familiar with Haijiao over the years. When they saw their cousin coming, they entertained him warmly and told him about their experiences on the road. This allowed Haijiao to learn some of the inside story.

In fact, the third branch of the Zhou family was once from the military. Although Zhou Shigong was a scholar, he had also learned the skill of riding a horse. He was escorted all the way by the personal soldiers left by the old grandfather. The Zhou family was familiar with this road. The women also rode in good carriages. Zhou Shigong and his wife should not have suffered so much. The reason why they suffered so much on the road was mostly due to the Zeng brothers and sisters and Malusheng and his wife.

These four were spoiled juniors who had never experienced the feeling of traveling in the snow in winter. How could they hold on? Soon after leaving Chang'an, they started to make a fuss, repeatedly finding excuses to stop, slowing down the team's journey. Even if Zhou Shigong didn't take Ma Lusheng seriously, he couldn't sit idly by and watch his nephew and niece suffer. At first, he really stopped several times because he felt sorry for his juniors and delayed the journey.

But he went to Beijing to take up his post, and there was a deadline for his arrival. If he was late, he would be punished. He had finally been reinstated, and he was determined to contribute to the family. Even if he was soft-hearted, he would not miss his own important matter for a few juniors.

He had originally advised the younger generation to follow slowly behind, while he would go ahead with his wife and guards, or even directly send the Zeng brothers and sisters and Ma Lusheng and his wife back to Chang'an to save them from suffering on the road. However, as soon as he said this, the Zeng brothers and sisters and Ma Lusheng and his wife immediately no longer felt that the journey was hard, saying that they were young and strong and could hold on for a while longer.

Zhou Shigong slowly came back to his senses. He was secretly annoyed, but he couldn't get angry, so he had to silently swallow his anger. In order to reach the capital before the deadline, he asked people to speed up the journey, and even when they encountered a heavy snowstorm, they did not stop to rest. In the end, he really arrived in the capital smoothly, but his wife, Zhou Ma, was old, so naturally she had to suffer.

When Zhou Shigong arrived in the capital, he sent someone to send the Zeng brothers and sisters back to the Yingchuan Marquis' Mansion without waiting for the night. He had previously written to the Yingchuan Marquis to discuss the two children, but perhaps because he set out early, he did not receive a reply from the Yingchuan Marquis before leaving Chang'an, and now there was no need to ask again. Anyway, the Zeng family's children should be handed back to the Zeng family for care. What's the matter with them staying in the Zhou family? He thought he was a good uncle and was determined to arrange a good future and marriage for his nephew and niece, but the children did not appreciate it, and there was no need for him to put his warm face on someone else's cold butt. As for Ma Lusheng and his wife, he handed them over to his wife to deal with, with only one sentence, that is, people could not stay overnight in the Cheng'en Marquis' Mansion for more than three days. They and their husbands had to move out, let alone his wife's family members? He would not care how Ma Lusheng planned his future in the capital, and he would not interfere anyway.

Therefore, when Zhou Ma saw Haijiao, she asked him to help her with some work, and first rented a small house outside for Ma Lusheng and his wife to live in. As for the work and future, she would wait until she recovered, and Haijiao didn't need to worry about it.

Haijiao said goodbye to his great-aunt and rented a quiet little courtyard in the capital that day. He sent the brokerage and the contract to Zhou Ma. He paid two months' rent in advance, fulfilling his responsibilities as a relative, and he didn't care about the rest. However, he didn't think Ma Lusheng could find a good job in the capital. Just by listening to the narration of the brothers Zhou Liangying and Zhou Liangxiong, he didn't think Ma Lusheng was a talented person. Maybe the latter could find a job to make a living in the capital, but such a job would probably not satisfy the aunt of the Ma family.

As for the Zeng brothers and sisters, it is said that they have never come out since they entered the Yingchuan Marquis Mansion. Hai Jiao knows nothing about them. He only knows that after the second master Zeng remarried a wife, the couple still stay in Jiangnan. The Yingchuan Marquis Mansion is headed by the Yingchuan Marquis and his wife who have a grudge against Zhou Shuyi. The victim Yingchuan Marquis's son is also there. God knows how the Zeng brothers and sisters will live? But no matter what, they are looking forward to returning to the Marquis Mansion to be a prince and a daughter. Now that their wish has come true, there is nothing to complain about.

After Haijiao finished talking about the news of his hometown and the third branch of the Zhou family, he finally talked about the latest situation in the imperial city.

The rumor about the incident at the palace's New Year banquet had already spread among the imperial guards, and everyone in Marquis Cheng'en's mansion was well aware of it. Even among the martial arts candidates who came to Beijing to take part in the imperial examination, many had heard of it.

Everyone thought that Concubine Sun was crazy, but some people thought that there was no smoke without fire, and that Concubine Xu might not be so innocent. Now that the emperor has not dealt with the matter, rumors are flying everywhere, and people are saying all kinds of things.

Perhaps because the rumors were too exaggerated, on the twelfth day of the first lunar month, the emperor issued an edict to reprimand Concubine Sun for her misbehavior in front of the emperor, demoted her to a concubine, and issued a house arrest order. In addition, the emperor again ordered the Sun family to hand over the witness Jin Wu, but Sun refused again, which angered the emperor, who sent eunuchs to the Sun family to reprimand them in person and ordered them to reflect at home and not to go to the cabinet for questioning for the time being.

The envoy sent by the emperor at that time once said two sentences, which were later spread by someone and became known to everyone. The emperor claimed that he was not a treacherous person and that he would never go back on his word after agreeing to adopt his son as his brother's heir. He also said that Lord Sun was old and should enjoy his remaining years in retirement to complete the beautiful story of the relationship between the emperor and his subjects.

Haitang didn't know what Lord Sun felt after hearing these words, but she knew that some court officials would probably start forcing Lord Sun to step down.

(End of this chapter)