Caishu smiled as she helped Dou Zhao cover the traced paper on the sticker, then took a fan and fanned her gently.

"Sister Caishu," Dou Zhao said with a smile, "the weather is so hot, you should go and have a rest! Tuoniang will take care of you here. I can't write while you are here."

Caishu smiled and said, "Okay, I'll be waiting outside the door. If you need anything, just call me."

Dou Zhao nodded with a smile and whispered to Tuo Niang: "Watch at the door, and cough when someone comes."

Tuoniang nodded, tiptoed to the door of the study, and listened to the noise outside.

Dou Zhao pulled out a piece of paper and wrote a letter to his uncle: "…The Second Madam said that if Aunt Wang is made the legal wife, Aunt Wang's father will not compete with Uncle Five for the leadership of the party. If you don't write a letter of consent, I will sue Aunt Wang when I grow up."

It was just a few sentences, and she didn't have much strength, so it took her almost two incense sticks to write. Fortunately, the handwriting was still neat.

Dou Zhao used fine sand to absorb the ink, folded the paper into a small strip, then waved to Tuo Niang and whispered to her, "Do you still remember the address that Aunt Peng asked you to memorize?"

"Remember." Tuoniang recited it in a low voice.

Dou Zhao was very pleased and handed the note to Tuoniang: "Go ask for leave from your sixth aunt later..."

She told Tuoniang her plan.

Tuoniang nodded repeatedly: "Don't worry, I will definitely make a fuss." Then she pointed at the small piece of paper and reminded her, "Miss Four, it costs ten taels of silver to deliver a letter. If you write a small piece of paper, it will also be counted as a letter. If you write ten pieces of paper, it will also be counted as a letter. You might as well write a few more words, so it will be cheaper."

Dou Zhao couldn't help laughing, and then said with emotion: "If my uncle still doesn't understand what to do and just keeps getting angry with the Dou and Wang families, no matter how much I write, it will be useless. It's better to pick him out here, so as not to let those self-righteous and cunning villains be proud."

Tuo Niang didn't understand.

"Just follow my instructions." Dou Zhao said with a smile, "Don't worry about the rest."

Tuoniang carefully hid the note close to her body, served Dou Zhao lunch, and asked for leave from Ji Shi as Dou Zhao instructed: "The young lady asked me to go back and bring her orchid grass pillow."

Ji asked Caishu to call a carriage to accompany her.

"No, no." Tuo Niang said hurriedly, "It will only take a moment, I can just walk over." She made all kinds of excuses.

Ji became suspicious.

But she was never willing to get involved, so she smiled and nodded. When she looked up, she saw Dou Zhao writing with sweat all over his forehead.

His little face flushed red with heat, but he still sat up straight as she was instructed, doing everything seriously and carefully, without any sign of slacking off.

Her heart softened instantly.

If it were Zhi'er, he would have thrown himself into her arms and acted coquettishly long ago.

A child without a mother is like a weed. No matter how hard or tiring it is, he has to just endure it, right?

She changed her usual temper. As soon as Tuoniang turned around, she immediately called a maid named Caiwei over and whispered, "Go and see what Su Xin is going to do."

Caiwei responded and left.

Ji sat next to Dou Zhao, watching her trace the characters and telling her what to pay attention to from time to time.

After writing two large characters, Ji asked Caishu to bring in some mung bean soup: "Shou Gu, take a rest and cool down."

Dou Zhao was also a little tired. He was sitting there drinking mung bean soup with Ji when his sixth uncle came back.

Before Sixth Aunt had a chance to greet her, Sixth Uncle said in a deep voice, "All the servants in the house, please stand outside in the yard."

There was a rustling sound in the room, and suddenly only Dou Shiheng, Ji Shi, and Dou Zhao were left.

This is when the benefits of being a child begin to emerge.

The Sixth Uncle touched Dou Zhao's head nonchalantly and said directly to the Sixth Aunt, "The family has asked Zhou Xuezheng to come forward and return the Seventh Brother's Engagement Letter. Mother and Uncle are still in a stalemate in the house. The Third Brother asked me to go and check the situation first. You don't have to wait for me for dinner."

So fast!

Dou Zhao was surprised.

Sixth Aunt was also surprised and asked, "Why do you suddenly want to cancel the engagement?"

"Wang's second wife Pang gathered her brothers from her mother's family to cause trouble at Zhu's house. Zhu could not bear the loss of face, so he stayed indoors. As soon as the Pang family left, he went to the state overnight to invite Zhou Xuezhen to come over." Sixth uncle said, sighing, "Zhou Xuezhen and Zhu Juren are good friends. It seems that Zhu Juren is determined to cancel the engagement."

"Then you should go over quickly!" Sixth Aunt frowned, "If you can avoid cancelling the engagement, then it's best not to do so. Otherwise, the Wang family will become even more chaotic."

"That's what I thought, too." Uncle Six said, "I've already sent a steward to look for Master Pang. If he continues to make trouble like this, he won't be able to do business in Northern Zhili anymore."

The Sixth Aunt obviously agreed with the Sixth Uncle's idea and said, "Be careful and don't let anyone catch you." Then she gave the Sixth Uncle a few more instructions and sent him out.

Dou Zhao drank the mung bean soup slowly. He saw his sixth aunt sitting in the yard for a long time after seeing his sixth uncle off before returning to the house.

"Aunt Shou, do you want to visit me?" Sixth Aunt asked her, but Caiwei turned back.

"Sixth Madam," she whispered, "Su Xin returned to the West Mansion and started arguing with Yu Zan, another senior maidservant of the Fourth Miss. From the tone of her voice, it seemed that she wanted to count all the things in the Fourth Miss's room. Yu Zan accused her of meddling in other people's business, and she called Yu Zan a thief. The two started fighting... I didn't dare to stay any longer and hurried back."

He just told her to make some noise and take the opportunity to tell Ji about Yuzhuan's theft. He didn't expect Yuzhuan to react so strongly that the two of them actually started fighting.

However, Tuoniang was strong and Yuzhuan was no match for her. Besides, Tuoniang was the one who accompanied her to the East Palace. Even if Nanny Yu knew about it, she would not dare to keep Tuoniang in the West Palace, let alone punish her. Otherwise, it would be revealed that Yuzhuan had stolen things from her room to please Daqing's wife.

The maidservant has bullied the master of the house. The ladies and grandmothers in the East Mansion, who are also members of the master's family, cannot just let it go for the sake of scare the monkeys. It will not just be a matter of being beaten with a few sticks and kicked out of the house.

Dou Zhao was not worried.

As soon as Ji heard it, he knew what was going on.

Her face changed drastically, and she said, "Don't say anything about this. Report it to me as soon as Su Xin comes back."

Caiwei retreated in response.

Ji took out a copy of Three Character Classic as if nothing had happened and began to tell her to recite it.

When the sun was setting, Tuo Niang came back and pretended to take an orchid pillow.

Ji asked Tuo Niang directly: "You and Yuzhan had a fight, what did Yu Ma say?"

Tuoniang muttered for a long while, looking like she didn't know what to say.

Ji did not ask any more questions, but said thoughtfully: "It is not my place to intervene in this matter, but you can write a letter to Shougu's aunt and ask her to ask any lady in our house to help take care of it. I think no one in our house will sit idly by and watch Shougu being bullied like this. As for Yuzhan, you can tell Yuma tomorrow morning that the fourth lady is used to having her own maids, and I have to help the sixth master pack up the boxes these two days, so let her come over to help. I have my own ideas."

Seeing that things turned out just as Dou Zhao had expected, Tuoniang was so happy that she couldn't help grinning.

Ji also laughed as she watched, saying, "You are a loyal and honest person, I like you very much. From now on, as long as you continue to serve Shougu well, you will have a good life."

Tuoniang felt that she was living a good life now, but it was still a happy thing to receive the praise from the Sixth Madam.

She nodded repeatedly and smiled even more brilliantly.

Seeing the sun setting, Ji thought that Dou Zhao had been cooped up at home all day, so she took her hand and walked around the yard. She pointed at the flowers and plants in the yard and told Dou Zhao what they were.

The second, third and fifth cousins ​​came to see Dou Zhao together.

Ji was instructing the maid to arrange the fruits and vegetables when Dou Zhengchang and Dou Dechang came home from school. The fair, tall and thin Dou Huanchang and the radiant Dou Qijun also followed them.

"We are here to visit our fourth sister (fourth aunt)."

Ji praised the two of them highly.

The third cousin's wife had a bright look on her face and she was laughing so hard while holding her son's hand.

Dou Huanchang greeted Dou Zhao with a gentle smile: "Fourth sister, are you used to living here? Is the East Mansion fun?"

Dou Zhao had no intention of establishing any connection with them and just smiled shyly.

The younger generation of the East Mansion had dinner in Room 6.

In the evening, my sixth uncle did not come back, but my grandfather hurried back.

At noon the next day, news came that the Zhu and Dou families had canceled their engagement.

Dou Zhao didn't think it was a pity.

If a woman thinks a man is a good man simply because he is willing to observe mourning for his wife for three years, it shows that her knowledge is very limited.

She snorted softly and quickly put the matter behind her without thinking about the deeper reasons - in her heart, her mother was a woman as pure as water and as strong as fire. In this world, no woman could be more genuine and pure than her mother, and no one could replace her.

Dou Zhao asked where Tuoniang was going.

Cai Lan smiled and told her: "Su Xin and Manager Wang went to Zhending Prefecture and will be back tomorrow afternoon."

According to Dou Zhao's speculation, after Ji knew about this, she would definitely help her secretly. In order not to attract the attention of the Dou family, she would most likely ask the Ji family's shop in Zhending Prefecture to help deliver the letter, and Manager Wang was Ji's companion.

The corners of her mouth curved.

Yuzhan followed Caiwei in with a bag on her shoulder, feeling nervous.

Dou Zhao was tracing the red characters. Ji was sitting beside him, as if she had not heard the report and she did not even lift her eyelids. She fanned Dou Zhao and whispered to him praising his good handwriting. She left the jade hairpin hanging like this for more than half an hour. When Dou Zhao finished tracing the red characters, Ji washed his hands personally and fed him a few sips of lotus seed soup brought by the maids. Then she said, "Are you the jade hairpin that serves the fourth young lady?" as if she had just seen her.

Yuzhan's legs were trembling as she stood there, and her clothes were soaked with sweat, but she didn't dare to move. When she heard Ji's question, she hurriedly said, "In reply to Sixth Madam, I am Yuzhan." Her attitude was very respectful.

Ji simply said "Go down", then with a smile on her face, she scooped a spoonful of lotus seed soup and handed it to Dou Zhao's mouth, patiently and gently coaxing: "Our Shou Gu is so good, she almost finished a bowl of lotus seed soup!"

When did the ladies in the East Palace become so close to Seventh Grandma?

Even though Seventh Grandma is no longer around, she still holds Fourth Miss in her hands like a treasure.

Yuzhin looked at it, confused for a long while.

A maid came forward and gently tugged at the corner of her clothes: "Why don't you get out of here quickly?"

She came to her senses and hurried out of the inner room. Someone's low voice of ridicule came to her ears: "Didn't you say you served the Seventh Mistress before? Why do you look so stupid to me? Did you sneak in to fish in troubled waters?"