Chapter 12: The Way to Return ()

"Uncle, uncle!" Xiu Yuan saw Cao Yong sitting by the bed in a daze and called anxiously.

"Oh, what's wrong with this? Master!" Mr. Sun said in a crying voice.

"Why are you still standing stupidly? Why don't you report to your wife quickly! If the old man has something to do, you and I can take care of it!" Cao Fangluo said angrily.

Cao Yong heard it in a daze and turned around and said, "Don't go, it's okay!" After saying that, he looked on the bed. Wan Yunlong's body shrank a lot, and his face was covered with wrinkles. He smiled with a smile on his mouth, his face seemed to be asleep, but his stiff arms that drooped to the edge of the bed indicated that he had been there for a long time.

Cao Yong felt a little uncomfortable, and raised his hand to stroke his chest, and a foreign object was placed in a hard palm. He thought of every bit of what he had just now, and felt very unreal. This is the plum blossom ring, the token of the Hongmen helm that Wan Yunlong mentioned.

Cao Yong had a vague expectation when he was able to meet the legendary martial arts figure. Not to mention that every man has a dream of martial arts, he was looking forward to the fate of being able to exercise his body and avoid premature death. What kind of martial arts secrets are? He passed on his internal strength. Even if he asked someone to give something, he would give him some thanks. Why is this old man so rude? Forget it, the dead are the most important, what are he scruples with him? Cao Yong comforted himself like this.

"Don't scare my mother, buy a coffin and bury it at dawn!" Cao Yong suppressed his melancholy and disappointment, and told Cao Fang beside him that he was stunned after saying that. He touched his throat, and it was still a little itchy, but it was not as swollen and painful as before. He still spoke hoarsely, but he could speak in full.

"Dahong Mountain, Wu Tiancheng!" Cao Yong looked at Wan Yunlong's face, secretly recorded the address and name he mentioned, and said silently in his heart: "Don't worry, even though he has never met before, he will definitely live up to his entrustion!"

The sound of the bangs of the husband came from afar, and it was already the fourth day. Although Cao Yong was not sleepy, everyone else in the room was holding on. Cao Fang repeatedly mentioned that it was unlucky to die in the room, so he asked the uncle to return to the inner courtyard. Cao Yong took a last look at Wan Yunlong, nodded, and allowed the two servants to carry him away.

Jiangning, weaving house.

The sky was getting brighter outside the window. Cao Yin reached out and took out his pocket watch from under his pillow and took a look. At the moment of Mao, it was time to get up. He returned to Jiangning the day before yesterday. Yesterday, he was busy welcoming the imperial envoy who came to the capital to give medicine. Today, he had to do a lot of things. He handled the affairs of the yamen and sent someone appropriate to Hangzhou to deliver the imperial gift of Snow Lotus, and Xuan participated in the "Tiger Bone Interrupt Ointment" and other medicines. I don't know how his wife and children are in Hangzhou, and the mother and son celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is too deserted. Thinking of this, Cao Yin turned to look at a strand of black hair beside the pillow, and felt a little guilty.

The day before yesterday, when he returned home to see the old lady, he said that Li was feeling uncomfortable and the mother and son came back in a few days. The old lady was unhappy when she didn't see her grandson, and she couldn't help but take the anger on Li. She just remembered that Liuli had not yet taken over the house, so she took advantage of the festival to make her face.

"Uncle, you are awake!" Liuli's face was blushing, her eyebrows were lowered and her eyes were covered with clothes, and she got out of bed: "I will wait for you to get up!"

It was the bride who was so cruel that Cao Yin had to drink last night. Liuli was a little inconvenient to walk, frowned slightly, and looked particularly pitiful.

Cao Yin couldn't bear it, so he let Liuli wear it for himself, and said, "When it's dawn, after the old lady and your sisters have seen the gifts, let's rest and ask the kitchen to make a portion of black chicken soup."

Liuli responded in a low voice, unable to express his joy. In the Manchu family, which maid is as blessed as her? The master is handsome, his wife is a kind man like a Bodhisattva, and both concubines are honest and responsible, and he is trained by the old lady. From now on, the brothers of my mother will be considered uncles, so who dares to underestimate it? If you have a strong belly and have a man and a half woman, then how can you explain the benefits of the future?

Li, who is far away in Hangzhou, didn’t know that her husband had already given a new love, and even if he knew, he wouldn’t find it strange. Since the old lady gave her early instructions, she would have to come in sooner or later.

On August 16th, Li heard from Sun's wife that the thief entered the front yard last night and died in the yard, and chanted "Amitabha". She originally wanted to instruct her servants to report to the official, but when she heard that her son asked to bury the man, she agreed.

Cao Yong tossed and turned in the middle of the night, and did not sleep until dawn, so he woke up at noon. Li felt sorry for his son and did not urge him. He only asked people to make delicious food and prepare it in the kitchen.

After lunch, Cao Yong remembered Wan Yunlong's funeral and called Cao Fang to come. He knew that he had been buried. He asked him clearly about the burial place and secretly remembered it in his heart.

On August 17th, the doctor who was responsible for caring for Cao Yong's condition came back from the village outside the city to change the medicine for Cao Yong's wound. After carefully checking Cao Yong's wound, the doctor looked happy and said that it was better to heal the broken bones, and he should be able to walk in a few days. Li was very happy and asked someone to give him a reward of twenty taels of silver.

Cao Yong knew that his injury was getting better, and he was very happy. His legs and feet were inconvenient for nearly a month. Now he felt an indescribable energy all over his body. In the past, he could sit on a chair to read and write, but now he really wanted to run and jump.

Cao Yong's leg injury improved faster than the doctor expected. When the imperial medicine from Jiangning came, he was able to hold the bed and walk two steps. Because of the throat, Cao Yong had been using snow lotus for these days, but what was sold outside could not compare with royal tributes. According to the doctor's advice, after taking it for a few days, Cao Yong's throat recovered as before. In addition to the external tiger bone paste, he almost recovered.

On August 26, Li took Cao Yong and Liu Ping to leave Hangzhou and return to Jiangning. Two honest families were left here in the Hangzhou villa. Zhang Gen's family was careful to take care of Liu Ping, so Li ordered a few people to accompany their family. Although Li repeatedly emphasized not to show off, the maid and the mother also used five or six carriages. The person Cao Yong was most reluctant to leave in Hangzhou was Master Song, who once sincerely asked Master Song to accompany him, but Master Song wanted to take care of his father and was unwilling to travel far, so the teacher and student had to say goodbye.

The weather was getting cooler and all the way was, it was peaceful. Last time I came to Hangzhou, Cao Yong was on the water route, but this time he was very curious about the outside world on land. When he was tired of riding a carriage, he arranged to ride a horse. Li could not persuade him, so he ordered Cao Fang to take him. Seeing that his brother was outside, Xiao Liuping kept lifting the curtains and looking around. Li was worried that his son's legs and throat were all improved now, and he felt much more and more happy, so he indulged him.

On August 30, Li and his party arrived in Suzhou. Li Xu, a cousin of Li’s cousin, had already received news and asked his two sons, Li Nai and Li Ding, to take people out of the city to greet him. Li was originally Li Xu’s cousin, but because his father died early and had no brothers, he grew up in Li Xu’s mansion since childhood. The two brothers and sisters were 17 years apart, and Li Xu raised a sister as his daughter. Gao, the widow of Li’s wife, accompanied his sister-in-law Wen, and ate vegetarian food in the inner courtyard.

Li Nai is the eldest son of Li Xu. When Li got married, he was only seven or eight years old. Now he is a 20-year-old boy. Although Li Ding Eleven is born in a concubine, he is very lively and cute because of his father and brother.

After Cao Yong was kidnapped, the Li family sent people to search inside and outside Suzhou Prefecture, so Li Nai knew about his cousin's abducted. However, when his relatives met again after a long time, they would not say those disappointing words.

When Li and others entered the city to Li's mansion, Li Xu's mother Wen, Li's mother Gao and Li Xu's wife and concubines were waiting. Li's wife and concubines were all waiting for her twelve years of marriage. Li's eyes were full of tears when he returned to his parents' home for the first time. He took his son to kowtow to his aunt Wen first, and then greeted his mother Gao and his sister-in-law. Wen and Gao met Cao Yong for the first time, and heard that he had suffered a serious crime a few days ago, and they were both hugging him and shouting "baby" and were heartbroken. It was noisy and it took a while to calm down and talk. After learning that his grandson was in good condition, the two old ladies were grateful. At this time, they noticed the little girl with apricot kernel eyes and a smart face following Li. Because it was related to the reputation of the Cao family, Li was not convenient to talk about Liu Ping's true identity, and concealed the identity of Cao Quan's daughter, and only talked about the part where Cao Yong helped him in Hangzhou.

The two old ladies had a little liked this girl when they saw her well-behaved and clever. They heard that she was the little benefactor of her grandson, and she had a pitiful life experience and became more and more pity. They asked someone to prepare big and small gifts for her.

On that day, Li Xu held a family banquet to welcome the Li family and his son. He was a little older than Cao Yin, and he was slightly fatter, and he was more like an official than Cao Yin. A few years ago, when Emperor Kangxi visited the south, Li Xu had accompanied him to Jiangning and met his nephew Cao Yong. Now, he was very glad to see that he was healed and acted generously and properly.

The incident of Cao Yong's kidnapping spread to the capital. The emperor was furious and withdrew the governor of Zhejiang, dismissed the governor of Hangzhou, and practiced the magistrate of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to crack down on villains and rectify the public security in the province. The gangsters and hooligans did what the governors and prefects were just venting their anger. There was some intention to comfort Cao Yin. The Cao family was in charge of Jiangnan for forty years, and Cao Yin was still only a fifth-rank official to the outside world. Among the accompanying Kangxi, Cao Yin was famous for his civil and military affairs. If he stayed in the capital as an official, he would probably have entered the cabinet and become a prime minister now. Cao Yin worked diligently and was a witness to the emperor in Jiangnan without any complaints. Although he was powerful, the most valuable one was to keep in mind the duties of his ministers and had no trace of transcendence for many years. Even his only son was kidnapped, he did not use the power of Tongzhengsi.

If Cao Yong knew about this, he would definitely find it strange. Isn’t this the “critical crackdown” in ancient times?

Cao Yong stayed in Suzhou with his mother for three days. Cao Fu, the chief steward of the Cao family, brought people to Suzhou to pick up his wife and the little master back home. It was really the old lady who talked about her grandson and repeatedly urged her to order Cao Fu to pick up the people in Suzhou. Cao Yin delayed for a few days, afraid that the old lady would be suspicious, so he ordered Cao Fu to walk slowly and go to Suzhou to wait for his wife and the others. Because Cao Yong's injuries were healed quickly, he set out from Hangzhou earlier than Cao Yin expected, so he arrived in Suzhou a few days earlier than Cao Fu.

Li left home for more than a month and was very worried. He told his two old ladies and cousins ​​that he would return to Jiangning the next day.

Because of the old lady of Sun, Li Xu couldn't help but stay, so he borrowed two official boats from Suzhou Prefecture to send Li and his son back from the water. In addition to Cao Yong, Liu Ping prepared various gifts, as well as Cao Yan's gifts, and the Cao family were also prepared. Wen and Gao sent two decent women to accompany Li to Jiangning to pay tribute to the old lady of Sun, and to help Li to lie.
Chapter completed!