Chapter 1919 Meeting
When Manbao and the others were feeling a little sleepy after dinner, Mr. Zhuang came back leisurely with his hands behind his back and a guard.
He called the three of them into the room and questioned them. After hearing Manbao say that he wouldn't necessarily fight for the inheritance, he nodded and said, "I went to sit in a teahouse today and thought that since you are here, why not communicate with the students of Shangzhou Prefecture School? This can also be considered as a study tour."
He said, "Give me your invitations and I'll deliver them to you tomorrow. After you've dealt with your clan affairs in a couple of days, you can go and visit."
Study abroad, study abroad, the word "travel" comes before the word "study", Bai Erlang nodded repeatedly and immediately went to get paper and pen to write the invitation.
Bai Shan's heart moved, and he smiled and nodded, then turned around to write the post.
Manbao wanted to use her official letter to make up for it, but Bai Shan pulled her aside and said, "You should write a few letters now. Either you can have them compiled by the Chongwenguan, or you can give yourself a pseudonym and write "Master."
Upon hearing this, Mr. Zhuang stroked his beard with satisfaction and said to Manbao, "There's no need to specify that it was compiled by the Chongwen Academy. I heard that the Shangzhou Prefecture Academy holds literary and poetry gatherings every ten days. Not only do the doctors and scholars of the Prefecture Academy attend, but officials from the prefecture and county magistrates also occasionally come to participate."
He said, "Manbao, you are an official. Since you have come to Shangzhou, even if it is not a government job, you should greet the local officials. If you don't want to bother, just write a confession letter and have someone bring some local gifts from the capital to the door."
Manbao: "Will people misunderstand me as taking advantage of my power and asking for help from them?"
Mr. Zhuang said, "You were just asking them for a favor anyway, so why are you afraid of what others might say?"
Manbao and the other two: ...
Mr. Zhuang said, "No matter how small the Xia family is, they are a clan born and raised in Shangzhou. If they really want to cause trouble without any regard for the people, it will not look good on the Shangzhou officials. You should make some advance arrangements. Even if they don't show favoritism, it's okay if they consider you polite and fair."
"Besides, are the earthenwares you brought from the capital very valuable?"
That's not expensive.
Although they had no feelings for the Xia family, they were still visiting relatives, so the Zhou family still prepared gifts.
Well, since they had never met each other and had no friendship, they prepared the local rituals that were particularly famous in the capital, which were cheap and famous.
For example, the famous sauces in Beijing are not expensive at all and are often prepared when visiting relatives and friends in Beijing, because almost every household needs them.
Mr. Zhuang said, "Pick out a few and send them with the invitation. It's OK as long as it's not rude."
Manbao: "Send the guards to deliver it?"
Mr. Zhuang nodded. "You're a Beijing official. Just be friendly. There's no need to be too humble."
Manbao and Baishan looked at each other and nodded.
The three of them suppressed their sleepiness and went back to the house to get paper and pen to write the post.
Manbao had an especially large amount to write, not only posts for literati, but also posts for officials.
As for the list of scholars, Mr. Zhuang gave them a list and said, "These are the more famous students from Shangzhou Prefecture School that I learned about today. You can take them and write them down."
Manbao and Bai Erlang took the four treasures of the study and went to meet in Bai Shan's room in a very tacit understanding.
She first wrote visiting cards to those scholars and students, and then looked at Bai Shan.
Bai Shan had already finished writing. Seeing this, he reached out and took a piece of paper and said, "Let me help you write two."
Manbao cheered and planned to copy him.
Anyway, it is for officials, so it doesn’t matter if it is the same. Just change the name on the title.
Bai Shan tapped her head with a pen and said, "Be more serious and sincere. Maybe you can even make a good relationship with me. If it's not just for the sake of the ceremony, then I'll give you some favor because you have such a good article and sincerity."
Manbao became more serious.
So early the next morning, everyone in Shangzhou City, from the magistrate of Guo County to the governor of Shangzhou, received Zhou Man's invitation and local gifts.
The official rank of the Shangzhou governor was one grade higher than Zhou Man's, but Zhou Man was a Beijing official and he was a local official. According to convention, the two were almost of the same rank.
He was a little confused when he received such a gift, and frowned when he saw the note saying that she was returning home to visit relatives.
Although he had never met Zhou Man, if he remembered correctly, this first female official should be from Mianzhou, Jiannan Road, right?
When did Shangzhou become her hometown?
After thinking about it, the governor sent for Magistrate Zhai. He intended to have him investigate, but Magistrate Zhai didn't even bother to investigate. He directly explained Zhou Man's relationship with the Xia family and said, "The Xia family's people should be here at noon today. Would you like to go and take a look?"
The governor thought for a moment and shook his head, "You should mediate. It's not appropriate for me to go."
County Magistrate Zhai also felt that it was inappropriate for him to go. When he heard that he was not going, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief and agreed with a smile on his face, saying that he would mediate between Lord Zhou and the Xia family.
At this time, Xia Xia's carriage stopped at the door of the inn. Xia Rui jumped off the carriage and was about to go in to look for someone. When he looked up, he saw Zhou Dalang and Zhou Wulang whom he had met yesterday. He couldn't help but stop.
Zhou Dalang and Zhou Wulang also saw Xia Rui and quickly turned to Manbao and said, "This is Xia Rui."
Manbao looked up, then at the carriage behind him. He stepped forward and saluted with a smile, "Is that Uncle Xia? Is that Uncle Xia in the carriage?"
Xia Rui looked at her with a complicated expression and said, "Yes, you are Xin Niang's daughter, right?"
The people in the car started coughing, and Xia Rui quickly turned around to open the curtain. "Father, why don't you go back first? I can take them up the mountain."
Xia Xia shook his head. "No need. Your great-uncle's granddaughter is coming back, and I'll go and tell him in person no matter what. Madam, please get in the car. I'll take you to meet your grandparents."
Man Bao responded and said, "Please wait a moment, Uncle. My parents and master are going too, and we need to bring some things with us."
Old Zhou and Mrs. Qian not only prepared incense, candles, paper money and other things, they also paid the inn to help steam a big rooster. If conditions allowed, they would actually like the inn to help steam a pig's head.
It took Xia Xia a moment to realize that Zhou Man was calling her uncle and aunt "Dad and Mom". She leaned against the wall of the car and lifted the curtain to look outside.
Old Zhou and Mrs. Qian were still lagging behind and just came downstairs at this moment. The waiter helped them carry the offerings onto the cart, and their eyes met as soon as they looked up.
Looking at Xia Xia, who wasn't much older than him, Old Zhou hesitated for a moment before calling out, "Uncle-in-law..."
He has a high seniority in the village, and he feels a little uncomfortable being of a lower seniority than others.
Xia Xia hadn't expected that the father Zhou Man was talking about was actually about the same age as him. After a moment's hesitation, he forced a smile and said, "This must be my nephew Zhou, right? Come on in the car, this is the first time I've met him..."
He looked at Old Zhou carefully and found that he was somewhat similar to Zhou Yin, especially in face shape and eyes.
He took a closer look and forced a smile, saying, "Even if your in-laws didn't tell us, we'd recognize you if we saw you on the street. You look a bit like Zhou Yin."
Old Zhou said proudly, "Of course we are brothers, born from the same parents, how could we not look alike?"
It’s just that the age difference is a bit too big, Xia Xia thought, if he ran into him on the street, he would definitely think he was Zhou Yin’s father.
See you tomorrow
(End of this chapter)
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