Chapter 84 The Young Master is Back
Old Man Yue did not even change his clothes. He just wore that coarse grey coat, rode on a tall and fine horse, and accompanied Qi Huaijing, who was dressed in gorgeous clothes, he slowly walked into the capital city where the ground was covered with flowers.
Chen Tang sat in the car, looking at the old and the young, who were of similar figures, chatting and laughing on the horse, and couldn't help but smile.
No wonder Mrs. Yue has a simple nature, but Qi Huaijing is so cunning and unruly. I think he inherited it from his grandfather who raised him.
The capital was a prosperous city. After the group of carriages and horses entered the city gate, they walked for half a day before arriving at the gate of the Yue family.
In this capital city full of powerful people, the Yue family can be considered an upper-middle class merchant family. Their house is much larger than that of the Qi family, with wide halls, flying eaves and black tiles. Perhaps because the courtyard is too deep, it seems a bit empty.
This house used to be very small and lively.
Back then, when Mr. Yue had just made his first fortune, he bought a small two-courtyard house in the capital and moved in with his wife, Mrs. Zhong, and their two children.
As his children grew up, he gradually gained a foothold in the capital, renovated his house, and expanded the garden. His daughter picked flowers and fought with herbs in the garden, and hugged her mother, Mrs. Zhong, around the neck and acted coquettishly... until she met the son of the Qi family from Guangling City.
After the daughter married and moved far away in Guangling, the family was very quiet for a while, but soon the son grew up, got married and had children, and the house was renovated and expanded again, and the family became lively again.
That year, his business was booming, and he was preparing to go to the south of the Yangtze River to buy a shipload of silk, which was in great demand. His son, who had just become a father and had learned a lot of skills by his side, volunteered to go south to do business.
Half a year later, the ship returned as scheduled and the goods were selling like hot cakes. However, the son who returned from afar contracted malaria. The family tried every possible way to seek medical treatment and medicine, but to no avail.
Starting a business from scratch and marrying off a daughter thousands of miles away are not as painful as losing a child in middle age.
His son was so smart, so strong, so handsome, and so filial, but he just passed away, leaving behind his daughter-in-law who had just been married for three years and his grandson who was less than two years old.
And he and his old wife.
Mrs. Zhong cried until she fainted at her son's funeral, and when she woke up, she was in a state of confusion and barely recognized anyone. Her daughter-in-law, Cheng, was determined to remain faithful to her husband, and she cried all day long, and her health was not good either.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the daughter had a disagreement with her husband and took her grandson back to her parents' home. Not long after, the deceased son's wife gave birth to a posthumous daughter.
It’s not that we can’t afford to support him.
If he hadn't had three small children at home who were noisy all the time, he would have hardly been able to get through that period.
He likes children, he really likes children.
Among his three grandchildren, he liked Qi Huaijing the most. This child from a different family looked the most like his beloved son.
…
A year later, Grandpa Yue brought his most beloved grandson back home again, and he couldn't help but smile all the way.
He was wearing a coarse grey coat and walked into the magnificent main hall of the rear house. A group of beauties dressed in silk and satin and with pearls and jade on their hair were already waiting for him.
The house, which seemed empty just now, suddenly became lively.
"Master, you are back~"
"Oh, my cousin is back. It's been a long time since we last met~"
"Oh, I've finally waited for it~ my granddaughter-in-law is here too!"
All the beauties in the room came over. Chen Tang had a cute smile on his face, but his scalp was actually tingling. He secretly complained that the old man had said before that the children were all out and the house was deserted...
How could this house be so quiet?
Qi Huaijing had not originally planned to live in the Yue family, and he had deliberately avoided talking about the Yue family in front of Shen Tang. It was only after he entered the door and got out of the car that he quietly passed the message to her and gave her a brief outline.
It turned out that Mr. Yue had experienced the pain of losing his son in middle age and his wife in old age, and he was depressed, so he took seven or eight concubines in a row...
People laughed at him for being a romantic man in his old age, but he was very confident - with such a large family business and only one grandson under him, it was natural for him to take in many concubines and have many sons and daughters so that they could inherit the family property.
…Although she didn’t have a child, at least she had a house full of beautiful girls. Seeing that the youngest concubine was only in her early thirties, Chen Tang had to call her… Auntie!
When Mr. Yue saw a group of beauties surrounding him and talking at the same time, he felt very annoyed and waved his hands.
"Everyone go back! You can come out to meet the guests after the banquet in the evening."
The beauties responded like the chirping of orioles, and walked away in groups of two or three, smiling happily.
Old Man Yue waved to the crowd again.
"You stay."
Chen Tang looked carefully and found that the woman who was left behind was the oldest, with wrinkles on her smiling face. She was also dressed most solemnly and appropriately, with the demeanor of a mistress of the house.
Qi Huaijing tilted his head and whispered in Shen Tang's ear, "This is Madam Du."
Chen Tang nodded in understanding, having already guessed it.
Du was the first maid bought by the Yue couple after they came to Beijing. She helped the mistress to make fire, cook, and take care of the children. Later, as the Yue family's business prospered, there were more and more maids serving in the mansion. As she grew older, she left the mansion and got married.
A few years later, she became a widow again.
Later, after losing her son, Mrs. Zhong became mentally ill and only recognized old people. Du Shi moved into the mansion again to take care of her.
Before Mrs. Zhong passed away, she suddenly became lucid for a while. Seeing that her daughter-in-law was frail and sickly, her children were young, her daughter who had returned home had no talents, and the family business was busy, she took the initiative to take the widowed Du as her concubine and take charge of the household chores.
Mrs. Du had no children and was an old lady. Even Mrs. Yue was raised by her, and she treated her grandchildren as her own.
She is the only one who can talk to Grandpa Yue about the children in the family.
Now, this concubine who was born as a maid is the actual mistress of the Yue Mansion. No matter how young and beautiful the concubines who come later are, they cannot surpass her.
Because she was old and dignified, Mr. Yue also respected her and everyone called her Mrs. Du.
Madam Du already knew that she would have to stay to meet the guests, so she nodded with a smile and stepped forward to hold Chen Tang's hand.
"Good boy, I've finally got you here. If you don't come, I'll have seen through the city gates!"
She was older, and was the proper grandmother of the couple, so Shen Tang hurriedly bowed.
"Greetings to my old aunt and grandmother."
Mrs. Du quickly helped her up.
"I don't deserve it, good boy, get up quickly."
After Chen Tang met, Qi Huaijing also greeted them. Madam Du took one of them in each hand and escorted the couple to their seats. She had already prepared expensive gifts for the meeting.
Qi Huaijing was the child she had watched grow up. Now he came home with his new wife. She was so happy to see him again after a long separation that she almost cried, causing Old Man Yue to laugh at her.
"Look at this old woman, she has a woman's heart!"
The old man never mentioned that he had been pushing a lot of business. He waited outside the city gate for two days, fearing that he would miss his grandson and his wife's carriage.
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