The old residence of the Xue family on Zijin Street.

The unloading of luggage was still in full swing outside, but Mrs. Xue Er, with the support of her daughter, had already arrived at the courtyard reserved for the second bedroom.

Bao Qin was worried that the bumpy journey would cause her mother to get sick again. When her mother sat down in the inner room, he ordered someone to make tea and asked Mrs. Xue Er repeatedly if she was feeling uncomfortable.

Mrs. Xue Er smiled and said: "The prescriptions prescribed by Taiyuan Hospital are indeed different. Plus, my heart has become brighter recently, so I don't think there is anything inappropriate."

My heart is bright, naturally because the Xue family has restored its reputation and the Mei family has also received retribution.

Xue Baoqin breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this, but also felt more and more grateful for Jiao Shun's helping hand, but Sister Lin...

Now was not the time to think about these things. She suppressed these troubles, sat down next to her mother, hugged her mother's arm and said softly: "I see the same, my mother looks much better these days, maybe she won't be able to do it again."

For ten and a half months, even the root cause of the disease has been eliminated."

"How can it be so easy to cure a disease that has lasted for many years?"

Mrs. Xue Er shook her head and laughed, stroking Bao Qin's hair and sighed: "I only hope to live for two more years to see you two brothers and sisters grow up..."

She originally wanted to say 'get a family and start a business', but suddenly she remembered that her daughter had just broken off her engagement, and she felt that this was a bit inappropriate, so she quickly stopped talking.

Just as I was thinking about how to change the subject, I suddenly heard a report from the maid outside that Baochai was here.

Bao Qin hurriedly stood up to greet her. Not long after, the two sisters came in from the outside. They saw Baochai smiling and saying: "It's okay, Auntie. My mother was supposed to be here, but she can't bear the trouble more than you. Just now and I

After chatting for a few words, Auntie Lai's face changed. Fortunately, Auntie Lai noticed something was wrong and asked her to go back to the house to rest. Otherwise..."

After a pause, he then said: "This is our own home. If aunt has anything to do, just give her instructions. When she gets better in a few days, she will ask Baoqin to manage the house with me. Otherwise, I will be responsible for everything inside and outside this place."

But I can’t support it.”

Hearing this, Mrs. Xue Er covered her mouth with a handkerchief and said with a smile: "You are a bride to be married, so you shouldn't worry too much about these messy things. Fortunately, your sister-in-law is coming soon, so she will naturally take care of it when the time comes.

."

"Auntie~!"

Baochai let out a sweet sigh, and couldn't help coughing when she saw Mrs. Xue Er smiling. One of Baoqin and Baoqin hurriedly gave her tea, the other patted her on the back, and called the maid to bring in a spittoon.

After a lot of hard work, Mrs. Xue Er regained her composure, waved her hand to the maid to take away the spittoon, and sighed helplessly: "When your mother and I were young, we didn't worry or make any effort. I think it was back then."

The blessings we have enjoyed are too great, and now things must be reversed to the extreme..."

At this point, she suddenly came to her senses, raised her hand and clapped her forehead and said in annoyance: "Look at me, on this great day, I keep saying some things that are not true - what I actually want to say is that you sisters have gone through experience since you were young.

In the future, they will be designated to be much stronger than us."

Bao Qin interjected from the side: "My sister is naturally strong, but I just want to be like my mother when she was young, a rich wife who can stretch out her hands for clothes and open her mouth for food."

Baochai just smiled without opening his mouth, and looked at Baoqin with a meaningful look.

The three of them chatted for a while, and then Mrs. Xue Er suddenly ordered: "By the way, I have Su Hexiang who is here to relieve troubles. I specially asked a famous doctor to prescribe it before going to Beijing, just because I was afraid of someone on the road...

"

Before she finished speaking, Bao Qin couldn't help but hugged her arm tightly again.

Mrs. Xue Er patted her head with her backhand and said with a smile: "Isn't this a good thing? Go find a bottle and ask your sister to take it back to your aunt."

Baoqin agreed, then reluctantly let go of her mother, and went outside to ask the maid in charge of medicine for Suhexiang.

As soon as she left, everyone in the room became serious.

Since Su Hexiang was kept by the maid, she could just call for it to be brought in. Now Bao Qin was asked to find it. Xue Baochai was sure that her aunt must have something to tell her privately.

As expected, I heard Mrs. Xue Er say: "The second wife doesn't have any connections in the capital, but she does, and they all went with your uncle. It would be fine if we were in Jinling, but we may not be able to go back in a year or two, but I'm afraid of delays."

It’s your sister’s good deeds.”

Mrs. Xue Er was obviously not optimistic that her illness could be completely cured in the capital, so she was worried that if something happened to her, she would miss Xue Baoqin's marriage.

Although Xue Biao has been delayed for a few years, the age at which men get married has always been relatively broad.

But if Baoqin were delayed for four or five years, it would be difficult to find a suitable family.

And the meaning of this is that I want to entrust this matter to the big house.

There are not two characters for "Xue" in this stroke. Mrs. Xue is still ill, so Aunt Xue should be the one to preside over her niece's marriage.

But Baochai didn't agree immediately. After a slight hesitation, he reminded in a roundabout way: "I don't know what I'm thinking about Baoqin Jing this time. Why don't aunt ask her what she means first?"

She hoped that Mrs. Xue Er would detect the difference between Bao Qin and Jiao Shun through inquiring.

But Mrs. Xue Er misunderstood, and waved her hands repeatedly: "Your sister is not the fourth girl of Rongguo Mansion, how can she still be forced to escape into Buddhism and become a sister-in-law because of the affairs of the Mei family?"

"That's not what I meant."

After all, Xue Baochai was just guessing, without any real evidence, so it was difficult to prove it directly, so he had to suggest again: "Anyway, what aunty asked her first was that if she didn't have any other ideas, my mother would naturally not stand by and watch.

"

Only then did Mrs. Xue Er hear something strange, and when she was about to ask what was going on, Bao Qin had already come back from outside holding a small porcelain bottle, so she had no choice but to stop talking and motioned with a smile to her daughter to give the medicine to Baochai.

Baochai thanked her profusely and said goodbye: "I'm really worried about my mother. Now that I've taken the medicine, I won't bother my aunt anymore."

"Baoqin, give this to your sister."

"No……"

After bidding Baochai off politely, Xue Baoqin turned back from the outside to the inside again, and couldn't help but curiously asked: "Mom, what did you say to your sister just now?"

She just sent her out, mainly because she was afraid that she would be embarrassed to hear it in person. Now that she asked her directly, Mrs. Xue Er simply said straight to the point: "I was talking about the life events of you and your brother. Now your cousin

My cousin has already set a wedding date, so our family can’t be left behind."

After hearing this, Xue Baoqin hesitated to speak.

Seeing that her mother looked good, she had thought about expressing her feelings.

But the problem is that yesterday she suddenly discovered that she seemed to have robbed Sister Lin of her way out. Her original firm attitude was somewhat shaken.

After hesitating again and again, he finally just pretended that nothing was wrong, walked up to Mrs. Xue Er and said coquettishly: "Mom just helps my brother. I'm still young, so I should be naughty in front of my mother for two more years."

"You girl."

Mrs. Xue Er stroked her daughter's hair again, but secretly she couldn't help but be suspicious. This girl of hers had never been one to hide things, so she just stopped talking, as if she had something unspeakable on her mind.

She thought about it and chose to pretend not to know for the time being. If her daughter figured it out, it would be best to talk to her. If there was no movement, it would not be too late to make insinuations.

…………

the other side.

Aunt Xue was troubled by "sister's son" and lost her composure in front of Mrs. Xu. Fortunately, Mrs. Xu mistakenly thought that she was unwell, so she did not reveal her fault.

When she lied down on the bed pretending to be tired, she thought she would be ashamed and embarrassed, but instead of covering her heavy conscience, she only felt that her whole body was numb and numb, which could not be said to be comfortable, but she had a different feeling.

For this reason, she felt even more ashamed and ashamed, and the more this happened, the more lingering those feelings became.

After tossing and turning for a long time, I finally couldn't help but get up and lock the door. Then I used the key I kept close to my body to open the small box locked with a chain lock. I took out the wood carvings, poems and paintings from it, and spread them out on the table.

Consider.

At this moment, a soft 'eh' suddenly came from outside the door, and then Baochai was heard wondering outside: "Why did mother lock the door?"

Aunt Xue's face turned pale with fright, and she hurriedly put everything back into the box. When she wanted to lock it again, her hands and feet were shaking wildly, but she couldn't align the mechanism of the chain lock.

She was afraid that her daughter would become suspicious if she delayed for too long, so she had to stuff the box into the cabinet randomly, then opened the door and explained with a forced smile: "I really can't stand the noise, so I just locked the door and quieted down..."

It would have been better if she didn't explain. When she opened her mouth, her trembling voice, which sounded like cheese, immediately exposed her nervousness.

Xue Baochai raised his eyebrows slightly, but did not reveal his mother's panic. He walked in as if nothing had happened and said: "I said, just in time, I got a bottle of styrax from my aunt. I heard that it was specially prepared by someone. Mother, please give it a try and see if it works.

."

As he said that, he handed the Suhexiang to Aunt Xue and secretly scanned the situation in the room.

There was nothing unusual anywhere else, except that a common small box was missing from the dressing table. Xue Baochai vaguely remembered that her mother would secretly hide in the room alone from time to time and play with the objects in it.

She originally thought it was a relic left by her father, but when she saw her mother's voice change, it seemed that was not the case.

Could it be that……

Her face suddenly turned red. When she saw Aunt Xue pulling out the plug to smell the styrax inside, she hurriedly said: "Mother took the medicine and rested. Xue and I were watching outside. Besides,

Yes, Brother Jiao is still here, so there won’t be any accidents.”

With that said, he turned around and ran out of the door.

Although Aunt Xue felt that there was something wrong with her daughter's behavior, she managed to escape easily, so she naturally did not care to investigate further.

So he locked the door again, first put the styrax on the dressing table, and then took out the box. He originally wanted to lock it directly, but Bai Shengsheng put his fingers on it and hesitated for a long time, and finally couldn't help but open it.

Lid, took out the wood carvings, poems and paintings inside again.

This time she simply brought it directly to the bed, placed the poem and painting level with the pillow, and carefully covered the wooden sculpture between the towering trees. She didn't know what she thought of, and her beautiful eyes gradually became blurred...

Let’s talk about Xue Baochai.

When she came out of her mother's house, she felt a sudden shock in her heart.

But shame is shame. She is not a conservative moral teacher at heart. Considering that her father has been dead for several years and her mother is still in her prime, it does not seem surprising or surprising that she would use such a thing.

Too much.
To be continued...