Idle courtiers

Chapter 233
The concierge got Zhou Nan at least five or six pieces of silver in one go just now, and the receipt was good, and he was in a good mood, so he said: "Who said it's an inner house, and you are not a relative of the Prime Minister's house, how can you get in. Didn't you understand, yes Another courtyard. Ah Jiu is there now, you will know when you go."

After finishing speaking, he led Zhou Nan to surround the formidable red wall of Xu Mansion for about a mile, and saw an alley surrounded by dilapidated small courtyard houses.

The concierge said: "Master Zhou, this is the other courtyard of the Prime Minister's Mansion, you can find someone yourself!" After saying that, he walked away.

Seeing the situation here, Zhou Nan was taken aback, it was really dirty.

But he saw hills half the height of a person everywhere in the alley, a flock of crows and two dogs planing food inside.Turn over the snow that covered it, revealing the domestic garbage below, including vegetable leaves and coal ash.

This place is simply a slum!
Zhou Nan understood in his heart that this block should be owned by Xu Jie.The people living here are servants and servants of the Xu family.To put it nicely, it is another courtyard, but to put it bluntly, it is the shanty of the Xu family. It turned out that the ninth son lived here.

This place is an open community where people come and go freely.If I had known that I would have come here directly to find someone, I told the concierge to swindle some money.

Just as he was getting annoyed, someone suddenly patted him on the shoulder: "Aha, why did Brother Zhou come here today, what a coincidence."

Looking back, it was the ninth son.

Today, Ah Jiu is still dressed as a man. She is wearing a short shirt, a cotton cap on her head, a sheep belly towel that cannot be seen from the original color on her shoulders, and a hoe in her hand. farmers working in the fields.

It's just that unlike those Xu family members who are surrounded by hardships, Mr. Jiu has a bright smile and beautiful white teeth.

"Where is such a coincidence in the world." Zhou Nan didn't expect that the handsome Jiu Gongzi in the past would be so down and out today. He was surprised and said, "I have something to ask for your help."

"Help, okay!" Jiu Gongzi's eyes lit up, knowing that the opportunity to make money has come.She looked around: "This is not a place to talk, you and I can come into my room and talk."

So, the two entered a small courtyard next to the alley.

There should be several families living in this yard, each of which has built a stove under the eaves, and a few kids are chasing each other in the yard, which is a bit noisy.Ah Jiu put the hoe under the eaves, and entered the house with Zhou Nan.

Unlike the clutter outside, the house is clean.It is divided into two rooms, inside and outside. On the outside, a woman in her forties is peeling beans with a dustpan.The man was dressed in shabby clothes, his face was wrinkled, and he was thin and small.

Ah Jiu introduced that this woman was her mother.

Zhou Nan hurriedly stepped forward to salute: "My junior, Zhou Nan, has seen my wife."

Ah Jiu's mother stretched out her hand and groped in front of her: "Zhou Nan, I've never heard of this name before, did she just enter the mansion?"

Only then did Zhou Nan realize that the woman's eyes were empty, but she was blind.He hurriedly moved his face forward, and felt that her hand was warm, but extremely rough.

Ah Jiu was unhappy: "Mother, Mr. Zhou is not from our house, he has an official position, and he came to find his daughter today to discuss something."

The woman was taken aback, and Zhou Nan hurriedly said: "I'm not an official, I'm just a low-ranking person. I live in the yamen. Madam, you can call me by my name. If you can't, you can call me Zimu."

After all, Ah Jiu's mother was from a prime minister's mansion. She had never seen any kind of official before, so she smiled and said, "Zimu, have you eaten? I'll find you some snacks."

After finishing speaking, he put down the dustpan in his hand and stood up, opened the cupboard beside him, found a pack of snacks and stuffed it in Zhou Nan's.

Ah Jiu: "Mom, it's been more than a month since I bought this snack. Why haven't you eaten it? It will go bad after a long time. Also, why don't you wear the clothes and jewelry I bought for you?"

Ah Jiu's mother smiled kindly: "I'm old, and everything I eat is a waste. Ah Jiu, you are growing up, so I have to save it for you. Besides, I am an old woman now, so who can show me what to wear so well?" ah?"

Jiu Gongzi raised his eyebrows and was about to get angry.Zhou Nan hurriedly said, "Master Ninth, I'm thirsty after walking a long way, can I ask for a bowl of tea?"

Only then did Ah Jiu and Zhou Nan walk into the back room, and they sat cross-legged on the kang.

The back room is very elegantly furnished, with a shelf of books and a pot of blooming daffodils on the long case.

The tea is good, the best Longjing.

After taking a sip of tea, I ate two expired sweet snacks.

Ninth Young Master swung open the folding fan and shook it: "Tell me, what do you want me to do?"

Zhou Nan: "According to my opinion, Zou Yinglong and the ninth son have a good personal relationship. I want to visit Mr. Zou. Can you introduce me?"

In the outer room, Jiu Gongzi's mother interjected: "Zimu is talking about Mr. Zou Yinglong. When Ah Jiu was young, he liked it very much. He often hugged and played with him. He also said that in the future, our Ah Jiu would do it for him. daughter."

Ah Jiu said dissatisfiedly: "Mom, we are talking about business, please don't interrupt."

"What's the matter, you have a baby." The blind woman began to peel the beans again, and sighed: "Ah Jiu, you always say you want to make money, what do you do with so much money, we have a lot of money in the prime minister's mansion." Short clothes."

Ah Jiu was in the period of rebellion, and shouted: "Mother, why don't you eat and wear constantly, look at what you eat and wear now, just like a servant, you were an aunt at any rate back then, you are now like a maid It’s not as good as I’ve been deprived of my status a long time ago. I’ll earn more now, and I’ll buy a house and land outside in the future, and then I’ll ask my uncle to pick you up. Don’t worry, I’ll let you live a better life than before. Life was a hundred times better when I was an aunt. If you don’t have money, can you do it? If you have money, you don’t have to suffer.”

The woman smiled and said, "Silly boy, I'm a blind old lady, so I'm going to have a hard time. As long as you get married in the future, you can come back to visit me from time to time and let me hear your voice."

"It's really wordy." Ajiu was annoyed, jumped off the kang, slammed the door shut, and said to Zhou Nan, "Pretend I didn't know that Zou Yinglong is currently presiding over the examination in the pedestrian department. If you have something to say to him, why do you want to find him?" Come on me. You must have been punished by Mr. Zou, and you want to ask me to intercede. 200 taels, 200 taels, I will let you see him."

"What?" Zhou Nan was very annoyed, this little girl's film was purely in the eyes of money, and she didn't talk about human feelings at all.

She was about to have a fit, but after thinking about it, Ah Jiu was filial to her mother.

He suppressed the anger in his heart and said: "Yes, last time I ruined Lord Zou Yinglong's errand, this time I will have trouble if it falls into his hands. If I go directly to the door, I'm afraid they won't want to see me. Please help to talk about Xiang so as not to be rejected. Ninth Young Master, a man must be righteous! The marriage between you and the Yan family is not what I think, so what if you reciprocate and help me once?"

Ah Jiu thought for a while, then nodded: "That's right, in the business world, if you really want to be reasonable, I will help you once. But..." When she said this, she looked annoyed: "Yesterday, the mansion mentioned me and Yan again. I couldn’t hold back my anger about the gray grandson’s marriage at home, so I ran to my grandfather to make a fuss, but I was tricked. My father wanted to rule me with the family law, so my shitty mother sent me here to do hard work. I'm going out."

The bullshit mother in her mouth should be her father's wife: "If you go to find Zou Yinglong today, I'm afraid there will be another trouble after you come back. The house is full of villains who are stalking people, so it's hard to guarantee that they won't come to seek my bad luck." .My son is not afraid, but I make my mother worry."

"Ninth Young Master, don't worry, if you take me to see Zou Yinglong this time, not only will you not be subject to family law, but it will be a great achievement if you say otherwise."

Ah Jiu: "Really?"

Zhou Nan: "It's fine if you don't believe me."

"You are a bit of a ghost, I believe you." Jiu Gongzi jumped off the kang nimbly, and said with a smile: "Go, go, I'm so suffocated in this other courtyard."

As he spoke, he dragged Zhou Nan out of the house.

As soon as he went out, he saw a servant in his 40s running aggressively, and shouted: "Ah Jiu, you are lazy, you haven't finished your work, and the dung truck has arrived, but you can't see you. Tell everyone to wait for you."

After finishing speaking, he threw the hoe to Young Master Jiu and urged him, "Go quickly, go quickly."

"Pull out the dung..." Zhou Nan was dumbfounded, and then burst out laughing again.

The ancient city of Beijing did not have a complete sewage system. Household feces were piled up in septic tanks, and when a certain amount accumulated, they were sold to manure banks and pulled out of the city to be used as fertilizer for the fields.

Thinking about how domineering and domineering this ninth son was in the past, now because he hated her grandfather and father, he was actually sent by the people below to be a manure boy.It is precisely that a peacock with hairless hair is not as good as a chicken, and the prince and grandson are as miserable as a dog.

In a big family like the Xu Mansion, the children of concubines who do not get the favor of their masters are even worse than dogs.

Hearing Zhou Nan's low laugh, when did Jiu Gongzi be so embarrassing in front of outsiders, his lips trembled slightly, and there were tears in his eyes.

Seeing her sad like this, Zhou Nan felt a sudden pain in his heart, and then he blamed himself deeply.He suddenly stretched out his hand and "slapped" it to the servant's face, and said coldly: "Get out!"

The servant was stunned by the slap, his mouth was crooked, and his nose was bleeding.Covering his face, he shouted: "Who are you, how do you beat people, Xiang's mansion is not a place to run wild."

"Someone is Zhou Nan, a pedestrian from the Pedestrian Department. I have business to find the young lady of your house. If you talk nonsense, I will interrupt your dog legs." Zhou Nan untied his waist card and threw it over: "Open your dog eyes and see."

The servant looked at the badge and was startled.He is a seventh-rank official of the Xiangfu family, and he is more or less knowledgeable. He knows that the pedestrians in the Pedestrian Division are all Jinshi masters, so he can't afford to provoke them.

However, she refused to accept it verbally: "This is a family matter of our prime minister's house. My wife told me to ask Ah Jiu to dig out the cesspit. It's still not the adult's turn to take care of it."

Zhou Nan: "Your master is Xu Fan, isn't he? Is the ninth son his own daughter? How does he manage the family by allowing his wife to harm his concubine and have children? I would like to ask him personally. Xu Fan, get out!"

As he spoke, he raised his hand and slapped him again.

"Yes, yes, I'll go back to my wife right away." The man gave Ah Jiu a bitter look, and ran away with his head in his arms.

Seeing his distressed appearance, Ah Jiu giggled: "Happy, happy."

Seeing her coquettish smile, Zhou Nan suddenly realized that the little girl was actually quite cute, and couldn't help but reach out and pat her head to kill her.

(End of this chapter)