Reborn in the last years of Kangxi

Chapter 38

West of the city, Cao Mansion.

Cao Yong got up early to exercise in the yard.After cleansing the face with clean water and gargling with green salt, Cao Yong returned to the room.Maid Zhuer held a wooden comb in her hand, waiting to comb Cao Yong's hair.Cao Yong touched his bare forehead, a little helpless, and a little funny.I am completely corrupt now, if I don't have a maid to serve me, I can't do it, at least the one-meter-long braid is not something I can clean up neatly.

Zhuer is one of the two little maids brought by Amethyst from Jiangning, who was chosen by Li Shi personally before Cao Yong entered Beijing.Another little maid named Cui'er, Cao Yong didn't bother to think of a new name for them, so he called them by the original name.Mrs. Li originally wanted to choose a housemate for her son, so the two maids she chose were fifteen or sixteen years old, with pretty looks and quiet and docile personalities.The two also harbored some hope for their master in their hearts, but although Cao Yong was easy-going, he seldom made fun of the maidservants, and they did not dare to be presumptuous.

Cao Yong had a lot of troubles, including the rise and fall of his family and his own life and death, so he didn't notice that he was about to become a gentleman.It is not uncommon for a son of an aristocratic family to experience human affairs at the age of twelve or thirteen, but it is rare for a boy like him to be fifteen or sixteen.However, because Cao Yong was in the monastery just in time for the filial piety two years ago; after returning to the mansion, he was preparing for coming to Beijing, so no one would have thought of this problem

Even though the two little maids are delicate and cute, Cao Yong shows no signs of moving.After all, he is also a good young man who has received education in modern society. In his eyes, the following women are just children.If you are tempted by a child, is that still a human being?
However, when Amethyst appeared, Cao Yong was a little embarrassed.Although he was drunk last night, he vaguely remembered talking nonsense with Amethyst before going to bed, and thinking about the pair of pants he changed in the morning, Cao Yong felt that there was no place to put his old face.

Amethyst is the same as before, but there is no difference, with a few small maids to arrange breakfast for Cao Yong.

When he was on duty for one day, he caught up with the six-day rest, and Cao Yong happened to be able to visit relatives and friends of the Cao family in these few days.As the eldest son of the Cao family, socializing will be an important part of his life.As early as in Jiangning, he accompanied his father to participate in some social activities; now in the capital, he wants to stand out independently.However, there are still a lot of things to pay attention to when visiting someone's house. Post a post in advance and wait until the other party replies to the post before officially visiting the door.

After breakfast, brothers Wei Hei and Wei Bai talked back and forth.Wei Hei returned to Liufang Alley in the early morning, and after meeting Wei Bai, the two brothers pretended to leave, but actually stayed in the hidden place to observe secretly.

Lu Dai ordered the servant girl to take care of Lu Yunniang, who had a broken arm, in the room. After dawn, they called a carriage, and the four of them went to the Prince's Mansion of Pingjun together.After a while, Pingjun Wangfu came out for a few rides, and the destination was Liufang Hutong.

After these people returned to the Prince's Mansion, a carriage came out of the Prince's Mansion, surrounded by several stewards of the Prince's Mansion, and went to the Yamen of Shuntian Mansion on Gulou East Street.Afterwards, the Shuntian Mansion Yamen dispatched a lot of yamen servants to go to the yard in Liufang Hutong.The two brothers Wei Hei and Wei Bai were afraid of attracting the attention of interested people, so they did not follow.

Cao Yong is not worried that this matter will be implicated to the Wei brothers. If Prince Ping wants to use the government to find out this matter, he will definitely not want to make extra troubles and confess two masked knights who have disappeared without a trace.Probably the best way is to find two guards with better martial arts, take on the role of brothers Wei Hei and Wei Bai, and define the killing of those people as legitimate self-defense.

In the past few days in the capital, Cao Yong has been hesitating whether to go to Si Age's mansion in person.The prince cannot make friends with foreign ministers. In order to avoid suspicion, it is best for him, the son of foreign ministers, not to have any relationship with the princes.However, the fourth elder brother and the thirteenth elder brother can save his life.

After arriving in the capital, it should be reasonable to visit the two benefactors.It's just that Cao Yong himself didn't know whether he wanted to visit him out of pure gratitude; or he wanted to quietly hug the future emperor's thick leg in the name of thanking him.Don't be too deliberate, don't need to be too close, and resolve the future disasters of the Cao family within the range that everyone can accept.Brother Thirteen seems to be in a very bad situation since the prince was abolished last year, and was imprisoned in Yangfeng by Kangxi's order.

Before Cao Yong made a decision on whether to go to Si Age's mansion, the housekeeper Cao Zhong came to report that Xiao Gege from Ping Wang's mansion brought a young lady to visit.

Cao Yong shook his head, these children are really troublesome, even if they don't take into account the difference between men and women, don't they know that it is impolite to be such an uninvited guest?

*
Cao Mansion, front yard, main hall.

Baoya sat on the chair and talked to the girl in the red dress and flag dress sitting next to her: "Sister Yongjia, do you think Cao Yong can defeat those Mongolian Tartars?"

"Gege!" Yongjia frowned slightly: "Change your words quickly, how can you say the word 'tartar' casually, if one day it reaches the ears of the Queen Mother Lafayette, you will be able to eat it!"

Bao Ya knew that she had made a slip of the tongue, and stuck out her lilac tongue: "My good sister, Bao Ya knows I was wrong!"

Seeing Bao Ya's cute and pretty appearance, Yong Jia felt a little more pity in her heart, but still said with a straight face: "Ge Ge is getting older, so let's change this behavior of entering the house in the future, fortunately, it is a relative's house. Otherwise, it will make people laugh and affect Princess' reputation."

Baoya smiled and nodded, but her eye circles were red: "I have never had a mother since I was a child. Although my brother married a good sister-in-law in the past two years, she is too busy to teach me. It is sister Yongjia, Always worried about me."

Yongjia looked at the maid who was waiting at the door, and glared at Baoya with a smile: "Are you here as a guest, or are you borrowing someone else's place to gossip, your eyes are red, are you ashamed?"

Bao Ya smiled and pouted her nose, and put on a very elegant posture.Yongjia looked at her, but the image of a young boy appeared in his mind.

Baoya lived in Jiangning with her parents for three years because her father was the commander-in-chief of Jiangning.Although Cao Yong has not seen her, but she has seen Cao Yong.A few years ago, in the carriage not far from the Mianhuadi Ferry in Jiangning, Yongjia had seen Cao Yong, a young man with a bit of arrogance riding on a horse.Facing the little girl's pleading, Cao Yong's expression was indifferent: "If you have this heart, why have you only been doing nothing for four years?"

Yong Jia saw Cao Yong who was still a young boy through the gap in the curtain in the carriage.Cao Yong's indifference, Cao Yong's arrogance, and Cao Yong's inadvertent loneliness and sentimentality all attracted her attention inadvertently.Since then, she began to quietly follow his news.The eldest son of the Cao family from a Jiangning family, named by the Long Live God himself. He was intelligent since he was a child, and he knew the scriptures before he was ten years old; at the age of ten, he celebrated his grandmother's birthday and planned Linxiazhai; at the age of 11, he was praised by the Long Live God; At Qingliang Temple, he kept filial piety for his deceased grandmother; he went to Beijing at the age of 12 and entered the guard camp as an errand as a third-class guard.

Yongjia only felt his heart beating violently. What will he look like four years later?But still so indifferent, still so arrogant, but still so lonely and sentimental?The answer is right in front of you.

Regardless of welcome or not, Cao Yong still dressed neatly and came to the front hall to meet the guests.

Seeing him coming, Baoya immediately got up from the chair, walked forward with a smile: "Cao Yong, I'm here to play with you!"

Cao Yong sighed secretly in his heart, could it be that he was playing with his younger siblings in Jiangning, and would he still be a babysitter for the children after arriving in the capital?That's not okay, it's too boring.He quietly took a step back and distanced himself from Baoya: "Why is Gege here? The prince and Fujin are safe, how is everything in the mansion?"

Baoya replied: "My brother and sister-in-law are safe, but the house outside Mr. Lu's mansion seems to have been burglarized, and I heard it was reported to Shuntian Mansion." Speaking of this, he smiled and said: "Why did I come, didn't I just say Well, I just came to play with you!"

Cao Yong shook his head: "Meng Gege loves you so much, Cao Yong shouldn't refuse, but respecting my father's order, I am going to pay my respects to several elders today, and I hope Ge Ge will forgive me!"

Baoya didn't expect Cao Yong to refuse so readily, his eyes were red, and tears flowed down.

Seeing Cao Yong, although he felt a little troublesome, he still couldn't feel bored with the poor little girl. He handed over a handkerchief and comforted him: "Gege will be my guide some other day and take me around the capital. good?"

Baoya stopped crying, nodded with a smile, and then frowned again: "Another day is another day, today is today, I just asked someone to post a message to Tana before I came out from the palace, and asked her to At [-] o'clock in the morning) go to the Anding Gate to compete in archery." Speaking of this, he looked at Cao Yong with a bit of complaint in his eyes: "You lied to me that archery is not good, and you won Detehei again in a blink of an eye, and you took me for a fool I don't blame you for this, but you have to accompany me to compete with the Mongols in archery today, lest they be arrogant and look down on us Eight Banners warriors."

Cao Yong could not bear to see the little girl cry at first, but he was very impatient when he saw what she said next, so he ignored her and found a seat to sit down.Knowing that he competed with Detehei in archery, it seems that Nalan Chengping must have said it.

Thinking of the carriages and dandies he met when he entered the city that day, Cao Yong felt bored. Could it be that he just followed the little girl's wishes and followed the people around her to accompany her around.Those kind of days are too boring, everything is hard to find, I'm still angry with this little girl, and keep my ears clean.So, Cao Yong said to the maid outside: "Serve tea!"

Bao Ya and Yong Jia's tea came in the morning, so the little maid only brought Cao Yong a cup.

Cao Yong picked up the teacup and glanced at Bao Ya.Serving tea to see off guests, should you go obediently this time?Not wanting to, but Baoya followed, staring at him with big eyes: "Cao Yong, you are thirsty, so you have to talk to me!"

Cao Yong was speechless, so he heard a "pop" and someone laughed out loud.Cao Yong saw that it was the girl in red who came with Bao Ya, covering her mouth with a handkerchief and laughing lightly.

For some reason, Cao Yong saw that the girl in red was somewhat familiar, as if he had seen her before.He wondered in his heart, apart from his own sister, he rarely had contact with girls outside, so why did he seem to know her.

(End of this chapter)