"Master Zhou didn't come out after he went in. I took this opportunity to inquire. It seemed that it was not difficult to inquire about it. I asked the nearby grocery store and found out. There was a lady living in this family, a female household, surnamed Ruan, who lived here for more than ten years. Except for Miss Ruan, there was only one mother and one maid in the family. The mother and maid were the relatives of grandparents and grandchildren. The mother's surname was Ji, who was in her fifties, and the maid was named Rimei, and fourteen years old.

Mrs. Ji was very fierce. In the years when Mrs. Ruan moved here, some people bullied her family as a female household. She came to make trouble several times and was beaten out by Mrs. Ji. Some women who like to talk nonsense and spread the gossip about Mrs. Ji heard about it and then ran into the door. After a while, no one dared to provoke Mrs. Ruan. Although Mrs. Ji is old, she is still very fierce. People who sell vegetables and meat nearby have to be honest when they see her and don’t dare to lose weight.”

When Yan Xuehuai heard Zhenzhu say this, she became interested and asked, "Where is Madam Ruan, what kind of person is?"

"The people from the grocery store said that Mrs. Ruan always wears a hat when going out. Although she has been a neighbor for more than ten years, they have never seen Mrs. Ruan's appearance." said Zhenzhu.

Yan Xuehuai thought for a while and asked, "Miss Ruan is a female household, what does she rely on for a living?"

"The people from the grocery store said that Madam Ruan has a shop in the city. Once on the street, she happened to see Madam Ji collecting rent. On weekdays, both Madam Ji and the maid named Mimei are very generous. They always buy expensive things in the grocery store. The grocery store does neighborhood business and checks out monthly. Every month, Mimei will take the initiative to check out the bill, and never need to urge you."

After saying that, Pearl pointed to the basket of oil, salt, sauce and vinegar that he brought back: "These things were bought to inquire about the news. I thought we could use them too, so I bought more."

Even if you can't use it all on the boat, you can still bring it to Pingcheng, and there is also Li Shiji in Pingcheng.

Yan Xuehuai smiled and said, "Okay, go and report the account with my mother."

Pearl said again: "I was talking to the aunt who runs a grocery store. The aunt suddenly pointed to the mule cart passing by at the door and said that the cart was from Ruan's house. She saw wintersweet through the car window.

So I came out of the grocery store and returned to the cabbage alley. I saw that the mule cart was indeed parked at the entrance of the alley. A girl dressed in a maid got out of the car and gave the car money, so I walked into the alley.

I stopped the mule cart and gave me some copper coins. The handlebar type told me that the family often rented his mule cart, and this time I went to the Silver House."

Hearing the word "Yinlou", Yan Xuehuai felt aroused and asked, "Is that maid wearing a pink jacket and holding a mahogany box in her hand?"

Pearl nodded: "That's right, the maid is wearing a pink jacket and holding a box in her hand. Hey, young master, how did you know?"

Yan Xuehuai took a deep breath, fate!

"When I went to Yinlou, I happened to meet a maid dressed like this, but I didn't expect it to be such a coincidence."

Zhou Hong dressed up as if he was going on a blind date, and the lady Ruan also asked the maid to retrieve Xinying's head and face.

"Did you see my uncle come out from it later?" Yan Xuehuai asked.

Zhenzhu shook her head: "No, I waited for a while. Seeing that Master Zhou didn't look like he was about to come out, I came back to say it to the young master and put the things I bought back first. It's inconvenient for me to take these outside to do business."

Yan Xuehuai nodded and said, "Do you still remember the silver building we went to when we were passing by Xu Yang?"

Pearl remembers that when Zhou Dada took Li Qiniang and Yan Xuehuai to Yinlou, he also followed him.

"I remember." Pearl said.

"Just remember, you go now and check the customers who took the pearl head today. How many people can they check? No good beads were received in the shop for a while, so the customer brought their own good Nanzhu." Yan Xuehuai took out the certificate of her ordering the head in the Silver House and handed it to the pearl, "I just said I would add two more bracelets with one or two glossy faces and let the shopkeeper rewrite a document."

Pearl breathed a sigh of relief. The young master is such an understanding fairy. It costs money to find out the news. It’s okay to talk about oil, salt, sauce and vinegar. The things in the silver building...there are not enough money on him.

When Zhenzhu left, Li Qiniang came over and asked, "What did you ask Zhenzhu to do? How did he buy a basket of oil, salt, sauce and vinegar?"

Yan Xuehuai looked around seriously. In fact, there was no one from Zhou Hong on the ship, she was just pretending to be mysterious.

Li Qiniang was indeed itchy and urged: "Good daughter, tell her quickly."

In the past, Li Qiniang didn’t have so much curiosity. Now she is so anxious. First, she is bored on the boat, and second, she guessed that it was related to Zhou Hong.

Yan Xuehuai leaned into Li Qiniang's ear and lowered her voice and said, "I suspect that my uncle hid a woman in Xuyang City, and she had been hiding for more than ten years."

Li Qiniang was shocked and opened her mouth wide for a long time before closing.

Yan Xuehuai shook her hand and walked back into the cabin from the deck. Li Qiniang followed her all the way and entered the cabin. Li Qiniang asked, "More than ten years? Really more than ten years?"

Yan Xuehuai nodded with a smile: "You see, Zhou Wanqian and Zhou Xiaobai are also in their teens. Although they don't know the specific time, they can roughly match it."

Li Qiniang sighed and said, "This place is so far from Qingyunling. He wants to raise someone else, and he doesn't choose a place closer. The two children are not taken care of by their own mother. How pitiful."

Yan Xuehuai said: "My uncle may be interested in Xu Yang's prosperity, and it's a mansion. If it were a small place, a single woman would have a hard time living. This lady Ruan is a female household, with only one old lady and a maid around her. Although some people were talking nonsense at the beginning and came to find trouble, she had lived safely for more than ten years."

Li Qiniang felt that her daughter was right, and she thought she could quickly gain a foothold in Pingcheng when she brought her daughter to her. On the other hand, Wen Xiu couldn't live in the countryside. The smaller the place was, the harder the helpless woman would gain a foothold.

Yan Xuehuai originally thought that Zhou Hong would come back first than Zhenzhu. After all, Zhou Hong said that he would invite her mother and daughter to Lao Bai’s house to eat mutton, but Yan Xuehuai did not expect that Zhenzhu would come back first.

This time, Li Qiniang was even more anxious than Yan Xuehuai: "Tell me quickly, what have you found out? The boss lady will make you glutinous rice and roasted wheat tomorrow."

Pearl swallowed his saliva. He has loved to eat glutinous rice and roasted wheat since he was a child. He has never eaten it since he got on the boat. Moreover, it was made by the boss's wife, but it was much better than what Xia Erjie made.

"The news I have heard may disappoint the boss lady and the young master. That guest is not a regular customer, and they are the first time they have dealt with him. I have never seen such a master. Both times, the maids came over. The maid said that his surname was Ruan, and his own style and drawings were also provided."

Li Qiniang and Yan Xuehuai were indeed a little disappointed.

Yan Xuehuai had seen that set of face, both the beads and the styles were very good. She thought she would be a regular customer in Yinlou, but she didn't expect it was her first time to go there.

"The drawings are made of my own. It seems that the person has a good taste, but the style of the head is not suitable for older women, and it is more suitable for me to wear."

After Yan Xuehuai said that, he was stunned.

When Li Qiniang remembered that when she was choosing her head, her daughter looked uninterested and said angrily: "Do you dislike your mother's bad taste?"

Oh, her mother is jealous. This is not enough. Only fools think there is too much gold. Although Yan Xuehuai doesn’t like wearing gold, this does not prevent her from collecting gold. Yes, she wishes she could sleep with gold in her arms!

"Mom, of course not. Your taste is the best in the world. You are the best in the world. Mom. If you like to buy me gold, you should buy it boldly. If you want to buy as much as you want, your daughter will not care about it."

Li Qiniang was happy and touched her daughter's hair. She was about to let her daughter try the newly bought set of 888 now, but Yan Xuehuai said first: "Mom, I was thinking about the only twelve pieces of pearls. I liked that style at first glance. Do you think Zhou Wanqian likes it too?"

This time it was Li Qiniang's turn to be stunned. Yes, the style her daughter likes is suitable for the daily wear of a girl. Zhou Wanqian is also a girl.

At this moment, the big bull's voice sounded outside the cabin: "Boss, the master is back."

Yan Xuehuai walked out of the cabin, and Zhou Hongzheng walked over here, carrying a bag in his hand. The bag was square and obviously a box.

Zhou Hong did not come to their boat directly, but went to the boat he was on first. When he got off the boat and came to Li Qiniang and the others, the bag was gone.

"Brother, why have you been there for a day? We thought you wouldn't come back tonight?" Li Qiniang asked calmly.

Zhou Hong smiled and felt a little embarrassed: "I haven't seen you for a long time with my friends. I've been chatting and missed the time. Are you hungry? Let's go, I'll take you to Lao Bai's house to eat mutton."

Yan Xuehuai narrowed her eyes and showed a silly, white and sweet smile: "Uncle, your friend is a woman, right?"

Zhou Hong's old face turned red, and even the scars on his face became red and bright: "You girl, if you talk nonsense, I won't take you to the restaurant."

Listen, how pale and powerless.

Yan Xuehuai raised her eyebrows and quietly pulled Li Qiniang's sleeve. Li Qiniang held back her smile and said, "Brother, Sister Huai'er is right, your friend is really a woman? We might as well stay here for one more day. I will take Sister Huai to visit tomorrow. How are you looking?"

Zhou Hong was startled and waved his hands repeatedly: "What kind of woman, how can you be naughty? A Qi, why are you naughty with Sister Huai? Are you still going to have a meal? Lao Bai's business is very good, and if you go late, there will be no seats."

Redirecting the topic again.

Li Qiniang knew that she couldn't ask anything from Zhou Hong today, so she took Yan Xuehuai and followed Zhou Hong downstairs to have dinner.

The mutton from Lao Bai's family is indeed very good, and it is the taste in the northwest. Zhou Hong was worried that Li Qiniang and her daughter would not be used to it, but they didn't expect that both of them liked it very much, especially Yan Xuehuai. Before leaving, she bought cooked mutton and took it back to the boat.

The next day, the boat left Xuyang Wharf and continued to move forward.

Yan Xuehuai has a newly bought notebook and snacks, and is not lonely. However, Li Qiniang always wants to tell her daughter about the matter of Miss Ruan. Yan Xuehuai had to put down the notebook and imagine with her mother. If Miss Ruan was really the eldest aunt, why would she live in Xuyang City over the past ten years?

The mother and daughter have been guessing for a whole day, but they have not guessed the reputation. They have been separated from Zhou Hong for too long. They only know the superficial experiences of Zhou Hong over the years, and they don’t know anything about the specific things.

"Oh, your uncle didn't let Miss Ruan live in Qingyunling, maybe he felt sorry for her and was worried that she wouldn't be used to living in the cottage."

Yan Xuehuai didn't think so: "He couldn't bear to let Miss Ruan live in Qingyunling, but he was willing to let his children? Zhou Wanqian and Zhou Xiaobai were both brought back when they were very young."

Li Qiniang sighed, her daughter was right, if it were her, she would definitely not be willing to suffer such a young child on the mountain.

As long as I think of Zhou Wanqian and Zhou Xiaobai, Li Qiniang feels so distressed that she has not had her own mother since she was a child.

"Wanqian's child, when he first came to our house, he had never even applied ointment. Your uncle is a rough man, so how can he know how to take care of children? It's fine if Xiaobai is a boy, but Wanqian is a girl's house."

Yan Xuehuai agreed: "Yes, she didn't wash her feet when she first came."

Li Qiniang glared at her and said, "All the girls are big girls, so don't mention this."

"You were not much better when you were a child. If you could, you wouldn't wash it. Every time you had to urge you to wash it."

Yan Xuehuai immediately leaned over with a smile: "That's why I said you are the best mother in the world."

Li Qiniang's heart was melted, and she made up her mind to save more gold for her daughter.

There was nothing wrong with it all the way, and more than ten days passed in a blink of an eye, and it was already very close to Pingcheng.

Before March, although the ice in the river had melted, the weather in the north was still not warm. Yan Xuehuai often looked at the river and regretted that she had gone to the river to swim when she took a boat south last time, but this time, she could only rub her hands at the cold river.

Another day, the boat arrived at Hongxian Wharf. This is a small wharf, and there are not many boats docked here. The reason why Yan Xuehuai and his friends wanted to park here is because there was not enough charcoal on the boat and they had to replenish supplies here.

Zhou Saochen told Li Qiniang and her daughter that Hong County was very young and chaotic. During the war two years ago, the magistrate of Hong County and his whole family were killed by refugees. Later, no suitable person came here to be an official, and he was always under the jurisdiction of the neighboring county. It was not until recently that the Ministry of Personnel sent a new magistrate. The new magistrate only set off seven or eight days earlier than them, and should have taken office now.

After hearing what Zhou Saochen said, even Yan Xuehuai had no idea of ​​getting off the boat for a walk and relaxing his muscles.

The new official has been in office for less than ten days, and he can do nothing, so it will still be chaotic in Hongxian County. No wonder their boats did not stop here when they last went south.

However, Yan Xuehuai still wanted to go to the deck to take a look. As soon as she walked to the deck, she heard crying from the dock.
Chapter completed!