Just as Wang Xiao sat down, the little girl next to him softly called out: "Hello, Third Brother."

She was only eight or nine years old, with a very good appearance, but she seemed a little timid. After saying hello, she lowered her head and looked at her toes, as if she didn't expect her demented third brother to respond.

"No, no courtesy." Wang Xiao responded subconsciously.

Aunt Shen burst out laughing over there and said with a smile: "Look at the exchange between Third Brother and Fifth Girl. His demeanor is like that of a high-ranking official, hahaha."

After hearing the words "Five Girls", Wang Xiao realized that this little girl was Aunt Zhang's daughter and should be named Wang Yu'er.

Sure enough, after hearing this, Aunt Zhang, who was standing there, looked at her daughter, feeling quite pleased and loving.

"Ms. Shen, don't make fun of yourself in front of your children." The next moment, the woman sitting on the throne turned her head and glared at Aunt Shen, and said calmly.

Wang Xiao glanced around and knew that this woman was his stepmother Cui just by looking at her clothes and accessories.

Ms. Cui is already in her forties and is already showing her age. With her rigid appearance, her appearance is naturally much worse than that of the young and beautiful Aunt Shen. In addition, she has a mean demeanor, which makes her a bit unpleasant. People like it.

The Cui family is one of the largest grain merchants in Beijing. When Ms. Cui was young, she was engaged to be married, but the other party passed away before they got married. She had a bad temper and stayed at home and became an old girl. She eventually married and her wife died. For Wang Kang, who has three sons and two concubines, it is difficult to say who got the better of whom in this marriage. It can only be said that they were well-matched.

At this time, Mrs. Cui finished speaking and said to a young man beside her: "In that case, Bao'er, you should also take your sister to say hello to your third brother. He will soon be the Prince Consort, so take advantage of him." You are considered to be married to the royal family. Hey, maybe if you go and say hello, he can give you a royal estate."

When she said this, along with her tone and expression, it was as if Wang Yuer had an ulterior motive for saying hello to Wang Xiao for no reason. And the sentence "You also take your sister" distinguished her son and daughter from Wang Yuer, the concubine. .

Aunt Zhang's face looked a little embarrassed, and Aunt Shen, who was still smiling, stopped laughing, and Wang Yu'er next to Wang Xiao buried her head lower.

On the contrary, the young man in front of Ms. Cui smiled. His name was Wang Bao and he was only one year younger than Wang Xiao. After hearing his mother's words, he showed a contemptuous expression on his face and even murmured to himself. One sentence: "Idiot Prince Consort".

The voice of this self-talk was quite low, somewhere between audible and inaudible.

Everyone in the hall acted as if they had not heard anything. When it came to discussing the truth, what Wang Bao said could be regarded as objective reality.

Wang Xiao squinted his eyes slightly. The intrigues between big families are always used as much as possible. Let's look at it clearly before talking about it.

Then Wang Bao led a five-year-old girl over, and they both called out: "Hello, Third Brother"

"No, no courtesy." Wang responded with a smile.

In this atmosphere of brotherly love, Wang Bao suddenly leaned into Wang Xiao's ear and whispered: "Fool, I will bully your Ying'er later."

The voice of this sentence was quite soft, but the tone contained great disgust and provocation.

After hearing this, Wang Xiao suddenly felt a strong sense of fear and rejection in his body.

This feeling was extremely strange. He was still thinking disapprovingly in his mind, "It's just a junior high school student who wants to mess with me", but his body had a muscle memory-like reaction, and he wanted to do it like a conditioned reflex. escape.

He suppressed the discomfort and looked at Wang Bao, only to see a deep anger between his half-brother's brows.

Boys aged fourteen or fifteen are already in their rebellious stage, when they are most likely to go to extremes. Cui's mother obviously did not cultivate her child's character well, and it seems to have had some negative effects.

At this time, Wang Bao's expression looked extremely naughty, with a deep malice that wanted to bully Wang Xiao to death.

Feeling the primitive fear in his body, Wang Xiao realized: He, a demented child, had been bullied by Wang Bao a lot in the past.

But, things are different now.

So Wang Xiao smiled softly, as if he was too lazy to pay attention to Wang Bao. He thought to himself, the suspect who slapped the sap will be increased by one.

Wang Bao was prepared to see Wang Xiao cry in anger, but when he got such a reaction, he was stunned for a moment, and became furious in his heart.

"This idiot dares to deal with me with such an expression!"

However, this was not the occasion for an attack, so Wang Bao sneered in Wang Xiao's ear, "Just wait and see." After saying that, he took his sister Wang Huan'er and retreated to his mother Cui.

Looking at Cui's mother and son again, Wang Xiao shook his head a little in his heart.

After dealing with all this, three more children, a boy, two girls, came to say hello. This time they were all called "Uncle Three". They must be the children of Wang Zhen and Wang Zhu. The three children are quite cute, especially the youngest.

The girl was only three or four years old. She had a milky voice and was very attractive. She seemed to be the only daughter of her second brother Wang Zhu.

Seeing these big and small heads swaying in front of his eyes, Wang Xiao felt unbearable. Just remembering the names gave him a headache.

Those who greeted me were all juniors. I think most of the people left in the hall should have gone to say hello themselves.

Thinking of this, Wang Xiao couldn't help but feel lucky that he was a demented child. Otherwise, the complicated human relationships in this era would not be something he, a modern soul who is used to living alone, would be able to accept for a while.

After a while, Wang Kang changed his clothes and came out.

When he went to the outskirts of Beijing to do business, he wore civilian clothes. When he returned home, he changed into comfortable silk clothes, which made him look quite noble.

Wang Kang was forty and eighty years old, and still looked young and vigorous. He was obviously handsome when he was young, but now he has three long beards and has a somewhat majestic appearance. He does not look like a merchant, but more like an official.

Mrs. Cui quickly went up to help Wang Kang, and asked attentively: "Why is it that I came back by myself, but I didn't see my second brother?"

Wang Kang said: "There is something going on in the shop in the city, so he went to take care of it first."

Mrs. Cui then smiled and said, "This kid is really working hard and he works non-stop."

Wang Xiao listened to this exchange and took in Cui's expression. He deduced in his heart that Cui was obviously extremely afraid of his second brother Wang Zhu. In this case, either Cui was a soft-spoken person who was afraid of the tough, or Wang Zhu was

Quite powerful.

Next, the children of his own group went up to pay their respects to Wang Kang, and Wang Xiao followed Wang Zhen and followed suit.

"Zhen'er wishes my father well."

"Bao'er, send your regards to your father."

"Yu'er..."

"Huan'er..."

Only then did Wang Xiao discover something

Wang Kang has a total of four sons and two daughters, the eldest son Wang Zhen, the second son Wang Zhu, the third son Wang Xiao, the fourth son Wang Bao, the fifth son Wang Yu'er, and the sixth queen Huan'er. Apart from himself, the names of the other five children are "Zhuzhu Bao"

The name "Yuhuan" is somewhat similar to that in "The Red Mansion", which is a commonly used naming method in ancient times.

This is obviously looking down on a moron like himself.

Thinking again that Wang Bao was only one year younger than himself, it meant that after his biological mother, Su, passed away, Wang Kang clearly married Cui without stopping.

Wang Xiao looked at these things from the perspective of a bystander, so he didn't feel any aggrievement at this time, but he didn't look at Wang Kang with the same awe as others.

After the sons and daughters had greeted Wang Kang, it was the grandchildren's turn to step forward and salute.

Sure enough, the pink and jade-carved little girl is the only daughter of the second brother Wang Zhu. She has not yet been given a big name. She only has a nickname, Wang Sisi.

All the children and grandchildren paid their respects. Everyone except Wang Xiao was scolded by Wang Kang. Only when it was Wang Sisi's turn, Wang Kang showed a smile like a grandfather. I don't know if it was because Wang Zhu was more promising or because of this little daughter.

The baby is indeed cute.

Interestingly, even Mrs. Cui smiled and spoke to Wang Sisi, presumably for Wang Zhu's sake.

Then everyone sat and talked.

It was said to be a conversation, but everyone took advantage of Wang Kang, the head of the family, to report on their skills and raise difficulties while he had a cup of tea.

At this stage, Wang Zhen's wife, Mrs. Tao, seemed quite lively. She talked about the expenses in the inner courtyard, which maids and women were good, and she seemed to also talk about the farm, which made Mrs. Cui a little unhappy.

Only then did Wang Xiao realize that the financial power of the inner court was actually in the hands of his sister-in-law, Mrs. Tao, and not Mrs. Cui.

He didn't care about this kind of thing. He thought he was going to get away with it like this today, but who knew that Wang Kang would point to him as soon as he opened his mouth.

"The most important thing in the house now is Xiao'er's marriage. Madam, please take care of this matter yourself. There is no need to check all expenses, so as not to lose the dignity of our Wang family." Wang Kang said calmly.

Mrs. Cui over there held the handkerchief and answered, with a happy face on her face.

Wang Kang added: "There is also Xiao'er's etiquette. Zhen'er, you can teach it yourself. I should memorize the makeup poems and thank you words as soon as possible, so as not to make a fool of myself. He is duller, so he should prepare for these things in advance.

."

Wang Xiao felt a little unhappy. How could he speak ill of someone in person like this?

As he was talking, he suddenly heard someone shouting "Big Brother". Wang Xiao turned around and saw a man who looked somewhat similar to Wang Kang walking into the hall. He thought it was his uncle Wang Jian.

But Wang Jian said: "Brother, have you visited? How are those fields? How good is the harvest?"

Wang Kang looked a little hesitant, rolled his sleeves and hummed: "The emperor is marrying a daughter, it is such a big event, but you don't worry about it! But each one of them is in front of me to inquire about the princess's dowry, and I will annoy you to death."

Wang Jian had no choice but to murmur: "I'm just worried that there won't be enough food to make wine this year. How can I come to inquire about it?"

Wang Kang's knock was enough, and he said calmly: "I'm just annoyed by being asked, and it's not directed at you."

Wang Jian said again: "Have you heard? There is another locust plague in the pass, and the court seems to be banning alcohol..."

"Let's talk in the front hall." Wang Kang said, putting down the tea cup, standing up, pointing at Wang Jian and Wang Zhen, and walked to the outer courtyard.

Wang Zhen also stood up and told Wang Xiao to wait for him to come back to learn etiquette before following Wang Kang.

The men who were the masters of the house left, and the women and children in the hall talked sourly for a while before the gathering this morning could be dismissed.

Only then did Wang Xiao find out that the farm in the suburbs of Beijing was the princess's dowry. No wonder Daozi said, "The farm clearly belongs to our young master, but it is coveted by others."

When he came here today, he didn't see any good looks, but it sounded like a group of people had sold themselves in exchange for the land, and now they were all thinking about how to divide it, so he felt a little boring.

After leaving the lobby, I saw Ying'er and Wang Zhen's maid Tanxiang standing together.

Seeing Wang laugh, Tanxiang came up to him and said, "The eldest young master asked the third young master to wait for a while until he comes back after talking to the master."

Then Tan Xiang asked Ying'er to go back first, saying that she would naturally send her third young master back when he turned around.
Chapter completed!