The little lady in the dining room

Chapter 112
The next morning, after getting up, Xueli packed up and prepared to go back to the small courtyard. When she went to the inner hall, she found that Ayao was eating breakfast at the emperor's table.

Yu An gave her a small half, and set out all kinds of food.Qi Shi was feeding the porridge by the side, and Ayao took all kinds of steamed buns and steamed dumpling rolls to eat, and when she was happy, she even held out her hand for her father to taste.

Xie Zhao took a bite cooperatively.

When Xue Li saw it, she was holding up a bit of a small siu mai and calling "Father", the rice grains inside were crackling and falling on the desk, she hurried over to block it, and said to A Yao with a smile: "Be good, yourself!" Eat, your father is busy."

Xie Zhao listened to the sound and smiled at her: "Are you awake?"

"Yeah." Xue Li rubbed her eyes and nodded, he was about to ask the palace servant to bring her another meal, she glanced at the pile of things in front of A Yao, and said casually, "No need, I will eat with her."

It is completely enough to eat, and one more person is enough to eat.So Xie Zhao didn't say anything more, and asked someone to add chairs, bowls and chopsticks, Sydney filled with soy milk and drank a couple of mouthfuls, then took a piece of fluffy jujube cake, took a bite, and asked him: "Your Majesty, why are you doing this?" Did you let Ah Yao come over?"

Surely Ah Yao didn't make a fuss to come here, so what's the matter?

Xie Zhaoyi said, "Do you want to go out of the palace to play?"

"Leaving the palace?" Xue Li was taken aback, this question came a bit suddenly.

Then Xie Zhao told her that the small courtyard had already packed her luggage, and also notified the imperial guards to escort her.He asked her to go to the Seventh Prince's Mansion to thank Yi Shi first, and then she could go home, or live in the Wei Mansion for a few days, or she could have fun in Luo'an City if she wanted to. Anyway, with the imperial guards guarding her, nothing would happen.

Thinking about it, Sydney should thank Yi Shi.

The two just made friends at the beginning of this year, and they haven't dealt with each other much since then, so their friendship is not that deep.But yesterday the Empress Dowager came to trouble her, she was willing to protect the child for her when she was not around, this thank you is worth visiting.

As for staying at home for a few days and playing in Luo'an...

Xue Li glanced at him, then at A Yao beside him, then leaned into his ear and lowered her voice: "What's the matter, Your Majesty?"

The small worry in the words is very obvious.

As soon as Xie Zhao turned his head, he saw her face close at hand. With a smile, he tapped the penholder on her forehead, and said in a low voice, "It doesn't count. But the Empress Dowager is in the palace, I'm afraid she will always want to trouble you. It’s good for you to go out for a while, besides, you haven’t been home for eight years.”

That's right!
Sydney didn't ask any more questions.

She has grievances about the previous marriage contract, but if she is asked if she wants to go home, she still thinks more or less.Furthermore, His Majesty obviously wants to drive her away before dealing with the Queen Mother properly!So no matter whether he is protecting her or just thinks that he can take care of her more easily without her, she should cooperate with him this time.

So she finished her breakfast with peace of mind, and Xueli leaned on the emperor's shoulder for a while, both to digest and say goodbye, and then led A Yao away.

She said to Ah Yao: "Mother will take you to see grandpa, grandma, and two uncles." After that, she inevitably explained the relationship between "grandpa", "grandmother" and "uncle", and what is the relationship with mother.

When she returned to the small courtyard, she realized that the battle seemed a little bigger...

Don't you just go out "for a while"?It can't be longer than a month at most, right?What are these things packed with more than a dozen large boxes!

She was dumbfounded and asked Nanny Bai to ask, and Nanny Bai smiled and explained: "Oh! Don't worry about it, lady, it's all done according to the rules. One is the pomp you should have when you go out with His Majesty." You can't be short; the second is that you haven't been out before, so you don't have enough things to prepare, what should you do if you don't have enough? Don't worry, it's okay, ah."

What Bai Momo meant was that if there was no need for it, it would be much more convenient to pull it back intact than to send someone back to pick it up if something was missing.

Makes sense.

After hearing this, Xue Li breathed a sigh of relief, and then took A Yao out again, and looked outside again, and she came back again, and then asked Mother Bai: "How many people are you going to be with?"

Bai Momo smiled again: "I'll show you the yard, and Xiao Quanzi will keep looking after Yu Xiang, and the rest will follow."

Sydney: "..."

Forget it, don't ask, Nanny Bai must be more thoughtful than her.

All she could do was to sit in the main room and wait for her to pack up and set off with peace of mind.Beside, A Yao is saying goodbye with Yu Xiang in his arms.

A Yao rubbed the hair on Yu Xiang's neck and said, "I'm going to see mother's father and mother! Wait for me to come back!"

Yuxiang looked at her, changed from lying on her stomach to lying on her side, as if she wanted her to stroke her side hair.

Ah Yao rubbed to the side again to pet the cat next to it, and said, "You have to be obedient!"

Yu Xiang let out a "huh" breath, and both Xue Li and A Yao imagined that this was an agreement.

Before noon, the group left the palace.There were twenty carriages in a mighty manner.

Xue Li took Ah Yao in a car, and Dou Sha and Qi Shi waited on it.

Afterwards, there is a car for the maids around her, a car for the eunuchs, a car for the maids and nanny around A Yao, and then there are all luggage.

As soon as I left the palace gate, I heard a chaotic sound of horseshoes from all around. Xueli opened the curtain and was about to take a look, when a voice from outside remembered: "Miss, I ordered Shi Zhan, a hundred households in the Fusi of Weibei Township, to order Take good care of the lady, and just give her orders if there is something to do."

Xueli nodded slightly: "Thank you, I am in trouble these days."

They went to the Seventh Prince's Mansion first. After all, the Seventh Prince's Mansion is in the imperial city, the closest.

The mansion also got a letter early and heard that she was coming, and there were already servants waiting outside. As soon as the carriage stopped, she received a big gift first, and felt very embarrassed in her heart—she obviously came to express her gratitude ah!

Then the servants greeted her and went through the second gate of the mansion. Mrs. Yi greeted her, and smiled as soon as she saw her: "What's the big deal? I came here to thank you, and don't treat me as A Yao's aunt." ah?"

This is a polite word, so Xueli hurried back to her politely, saying that I really thank you yesterday, and I was still worried about Ayao all the time.

——It’s just the truth.

Afterwards, she went to the main room of Yi's residence to sit down for tea with Yi, and Ayao was taken to the west wing by the nanny to see Xie Ce. Ah Yao disturbed Ah Test so much that he couldn't sleep.

A child as big as Ah Ce needs to sleep most of the time!
So she wanted to take Ah Yao out, but it was Yi who stopped her and said it was okay, Yi said with a relaxed face: "Ah Che would have cried if he couldn't sleep because of the trouble, he is so happy to be teased by his sister, let them go .”

Besides, the nanny was watching.Xue Li just gave up, and both of them took a sip of tea, and Yi Shi suddenly approached in a low voice: "Hey, when will you add a younger brother to Ah Yao yourself, it will be fine."

Xue Li blushed suddenly: "Why did you say this all of a sudden..."

"Tsk, I'm telling the truth." Mrs. Yi sat closer and said to her, "Look at what happened yesterday, you and I are both the Queen Mother's son, why does she dislike you? Because I There is Ah Che... And think about it, His Highness is the seventh among the sons of the late emperor, His Majesty is the eldest son, and all the younger brothers have children, he is not yet the eldest brother, you don't worry, you can do it for Your Majesty Hurry up!"

Sydney knows that Yi Shi is doing this for her own good.

But it's useless for her to worry about it, it's useless to say it, she can only laugh and scold Yi Shi for taking too much care, and Yi Shi can also say that I am meddling, and you still scold me just to remind you.

Anyway, it's just chatting with each other.After sitting for a while, Ah Yao happily ran out, threw herself on Xue Li's lap and said, "Mother, brother is going to sleep."

Xue Li just took A Yao to say goodbye, so as not to have to entertain them for dinner at Lewis's.

Mrs. Yi sent the two of them out of the mansion, and watched them leave as the long motorcade drifted away before her eyes.Yi Shi sighed, and his shoulders were swept away.

"Your Highness..." She took a look at Xie Han, then leaned over, and after a moment of silence, said, "I persuaded you. But what she said was right, and there is no need to rush this matter. If being anxious is all that matters, there are so many concubines Concubine put it aside, Your Majesty has long since lost track of how many children there are."

"Let's go with fate." Xie Han also sighed and shook his head, "Fortunately, Brother Huang and Xue Li are still young, so there is no need to worry too much. The queen mother... Anyway, I will stand up to her."

Yi Shi nodded, and the two sighed again at the same time, turned around and went back to the house together.

Sydney sat in the carriage and thought about Yi's words for a while.

In fact, she also knew in her heart that Xie Zhao would be more or less anxious to have a child.Especially the prince, he is the emperor, sooner or later a prince must be established.

But there is really no rush for this.Besides, the imperial doctor had shown her a long time ago and said that she was in good health and everything was fine, so she didn't even need to take medicine and supplements, and could only wait for the right time, place and people to reconcile.

So sooner or later there will be a child, so she is not in a hurry, it is best to let her take care of A Yao for a while, A Yao is still too young now!
As a result... as a mother, she is all about taking good care of her daughter before she wants a son. Ah Yao who is next to her keeps saying "Ah Ce is so cute", "Ah Ce is so good", "Ah Chee is so small"—— His eyes are full of love for his brother!

Tsk, sooner or later you will have younger brothers and sisters, don't be bothered by that time.

While laughing like this, Sydney hugged A Yao to rest, and after a while, A Yao fell asleep in her arms. She saw the carriage drive out of the imperial city through the gap in the curtain, but it was still quiet outside. .

"Master Shi?" She called out strangely, and asked, "What's the matter today, so quiet?"

Shi Zhan steered the horse and smiled: "It's nothing, the street was cleaned up a quarter earlier. It's not the same for the lady to go out by herself and follow His Majesty. If the holy driver passes by, at least a thousand households will be there to escort him, and the lady will be accompanied by a hundred. It is better to make sure that the households and streets are clean.”

...too cautious? !
Xueli felt that it was exaggerated enough for a hundred people to protect them and a dozen of them, but she had to clean the street ahead of time, which made her feel quite uneasy.

The silence after the street cleaning lasted for more than half an hour, until the carriage stopped slowly, and Sydney heard some sounds other than the sound of wheels and horseshoes.

Someone outside said: "Come here! Pear is back!"

She couldn't tell whether it was the eldest brother or the second brother, so when she opened the curtain of the car to look, he had already run back to the yard to report the news, so she couldn't see it.

I had to get out of the car first.Qi Shi carried Ah Yao down first, then Xue Li jumped on her own, and the people inside just came out together, and hurriedly shouted: "Slow down!"

This time I will know who is who.The two elder brothers came out together. The taller one was the eldest brother Ruan Song, who was the same age as the emperor, and the shorter one was the second brother Ruan Bai, who was four years younger than the emperor and four years older than her.

Xueli picked up Ayao and taught her to call her uncle and second uncle. The two elder brothers were a little embarrassed. They liked Ayao but dared not touch them. Finally, Ruan Song put his outstretched hand behind his head and scratched his head and said : "This is little Diji, isn't it..."

Xueli stuck out her tongue: "Brother, don't be nervous. Your Majesty specially asked me to go home and take a look, so don't make it so awkward."

Ruan Song and Ruan Bai felt a little more relaxed now, and went in to welcome their sister, telling her about the whole family's arrival in Luo'an while walking.

The house they bought here is not small, everyone lives in a spacious place and there are several courtyards left, and the servants are complete.Who set this up, Sydney doesn't even need to ask.

In addition, there are lands outside the city.Ruan Song said that he had hired people to farm, but his father and the two of them had been dealing with crops all the time, and they still couldn’t be free when they came to Luo’an, a good place, so only two people were left to help with odd jobs. Or cook by yourself.

"I knew you were coming back today, so dad didn't go to the field." Ruan Song led her into the field. When passing by the garden, he saw a [-]-year-old girl running towards them from a distance, calling "Brother "Second brother", but when she was a foot or two away from them, she stopped suddenly.

The little girl looked at her, very hesitant: "Are you, are you sister?"

Sydney was taken aback.

She was eight years old when she entered the palace...how could there be a younger sister two or three years younger than her?

Ruan Bai was a little embarrassed, coughed, and dragged Xue Li to avoid it: "Let me tell you... this is..."

He looked back and continued: "Back when you entered the palace, the more parents thought about it, the more they regretted it, but there was nothing they could do. Later, my eldest brother and I ran into her outside, and we fled with our family to the place where we were thrown. , I left her behind to comfort my parents."

So... it was a good deed after all.

Xueli felt a little sour in her heart, unable to tell what emotion she was in, she smiled slowly and went back to squat down in front of the little girl: "I'm sister, what's your name?"

"Qingli..." The little girl was a little timid looking at her sister who had never met, Xueli smiled again, took A Yao with one hand and the younger sister with the other, and went inside.

When I arrived at the place where my father and mother lived, I only saw my mother, Mrs. Gao, and asked carefully, my father was killing chickens in the backyard.

After finishing speaking, Gao frowned and sighed: "I told him that you are not missing this chicken in the palace, so let him stay here and wait for you to come. He is fine, it's getting late... …I thought the chicken had to be killed, so I ignored it and I went. You said it was disgusting, but he wouldn’t be afraid to scare you if the chicken smelled like blood after killing it!”

...It's still the same on this point!
Sydney remembers that when she was a child, her mother was very protective of her. One of the things was that every time her father killed chickens, ducks, pigs and sheep, her mother would block her from entering the house for at least half an hour. At that time, her mother scolded her and said : "Go out and blow it and come in again! The smell of blood is not afraid to scare your girl!"

Xue Li's eyes turned red when she thought about it, and she smiled again in a flash. Gao Shi also had the same complicated expression. After letting her sit and rest for a while, she led her to the yard reserved for her, and said while walking on the road: "It's not that mother doesn't arrange for you. Ah... the palace came early today, people said that you brought everything by yourself, except for the bed, the cabinet and the table, everything else was moved out. You can see for yourself, if you want to add something, we will go and give it to you You can find it too!"

Sydney smiled and agreed.Entering the yard, I saw that Fugui and the others had packed up. Peng Qizhong and Peng Qiyu were busy carrying boxes inside. When they saw them coming in, they quickly put down the boxes and came over to greet them: "Lady, madam."

"You are busy with your work." Xue Li said softly, "This is my own home, and there is nothing to do at night. If you want to go to the city, you are free, as long as you don't cause trouble."

Of course Peng Qizhong and Peng Qiyu were happy to hear that, eunuchs who were not doing well in the palace had no chance to go out, so the two quickly thanked them, and Mrs. Gao exchanged polite greetings with them, and then took her daughter into the house.

Gao Shi looked outside and asked her: "Is this all specially for accompanying you back?"

"No..." Xueli shook her head, feeling that her mother might have something to say when she asked this question, she pointed to Ayao and signaled the nanny to take a rest in the side room, and then explained to Gao, "All the people who came here today People who usually follow me. Mother, don't be nervous, we get along very well on weekdays, and they know the seriousness."

Gao Shi nodded in relief, but looked a bit embarrassed.

"What's the matter, mother?" Xueli asked with concern, she sat down with her mother, and said, "Is there any difficulty at home? Tell me, if I can help, I can try."

"No, no, everything is fine at home." Gao waved her hands again and again, looked at her intently for a while, and sighed, "I...I want to make it clear to you in advance that you will come back often in the future to see that nothing is wrong, and mother misses you too Well, but you have to remember, don’t give your brothers and sisters too many benefits, just bring small objects to give pictures for fun, you can’t give them too expensive things.”

When Xue Li heard it, she couldn't understand: "Why..."

"Our family has never lived a prosperous life." Gao smiled bitterly, "I think that now that the good times are here, we can live well, but no matter how much we have, we dare not ask for more. People, their minds will change. The more you get for nothing, the more you will be dissatisfied——I am afraid that you will provide too much for the family in the palace, and we will all get used to it, and your appetite will increase, and you will get into trouble sooner or later."

Xue Li suddenly realized, and thinking about it, Gao continued to whisper in her ear: "To count, it's my father and mother who are sorry for you. The most important thing is that you live a good life in the future. These words, mother I told your two elder brothers that they also know what they are, and they definitely don’t dare to think about asking you to go to heaven. Qingli is still young, and now she has lived a good life in Luo’an for a few years. If you're in the past, you won't get married badly... You, just take care of your own affairs and be obedient."

The family was afraid of causing trouble to her, so they planned ahead and spoke openly.

Xue Li felt uncomfortable hearing this. It is said that her parents are peasants, and they are not capable of thinking about such long-term things. Now that they think about it, it can be seen that what they have experienced after coming to Luo'an has touched their heartstrings.

These sounded like the truth on the surface, I don't know how many days and nights they thought about it before they figured it out.

Xue Li sighed, smiled again, and called Dou Sha in.

She ordered Dou Sha: "The original gifts are all free. You take some money and go to the cloth shop, pick some bolts of cloth back, and cut two clothes for my mother and Qingli that can be worn for the New Year... and pick two weekdays from me. Give Qingli any silver hairpins you can bring, that’s all. Father and brother are there, tell Fugui to buy some tea and snacks, my father likes salty food.”

"No." Dou Sha responded without a word of nonsense and went to do so. Gao finally breathed a sigh of relief, shook her daughter's hand, and said: "Then you rest first, and later, you can let her go." The children of your brother's family come to play with A Yao, I will let your sister-in-law come and watch, and I will definitely not let them bully A Yao."

"Okay." Xue Li nodded, and after seeing off her mother, she called Shi Zhan and said to Shi Zhan, "Your Majesty, please call the palace and tell Your Majesty that I have arrived home safely."

"I've already replied." Shi Zhan cupped his hands, took a half step forward, and said, "Your Majesty specially instructed that you don't have to worry about where you want to go these days, as long as the imperial guards are there to protect you."

"Well, I know." Xue Li nodded in response, and after a moment of silence, she suddenly became uneasy.

He protected her so well and wanted her to have fun...but she didn't know how he was coping in the palace.

That's his mother, he must not be hard, probably there will be a lot of depression.

He must not be angry, and don't be so angry that he can't eat well...

Xue Li frowned thinking wildly, turned around and walked into the house with a somewhat distraught look, making Shi Zhan behind him look bewildered.

"Miss?" Zhima just came in to tidy up the bed, and was startled when she saw her look sleepy.

"Alas..." Xue Li sighed a long time, "Prepare a pen and paper for me, I will write a letter to His Majesty."

(End of this chapter)