Dou Zhao couldn't tell whether he was jealous or envious; his blood rushed to his chest and he felt extremely uncomfortable. He was afraid that if he looked at his son one more moment, he would do something that he would regret.

"Take the cards to the prince." She told Cui Leng, "and tell him what I said. From now on, Zhu will take care of not only the prince's room, but also the second master and Yinjie'er's rooms."

"Mother!" Wei Ge raised his head and felt something unusual.

"Madam, no!" Zhu's voice was shrill and her face turned pale in an instant.

After all, it was the person you chose, so you understand everything.

With her watching over the children, they can also be on guard against those evil tricks.

Dou Zhao closed his eyes and waved his hand: "I'm tired and want to rest for a while, you all go down!"

"Madam!" Zhu kowtowed to Dou Zhao with tears in her eyes.

Wei Ge'er looked at Zhu in confusion.

Dou Zhao waved again and turned his back.

"Ma'am, don't worry. I will take good care of the young master and young lady even if I sacrifice my life." Zhu murmured, kowtowed to Dou Zhao again, and retreated with Wei Ge'er.

The room became quiet, with a sense of desolation and loneliness as if no one was there.

Dou Zhao was filled with grief.

If Wei Tingyu was more capable and willing to take on the responsibilities of a man, how could she, a woman in the inner house, take the lead in managing the affairs of the Wei Mansion? How could she ignore the abnormalities of the two children?

If the mother-in-law had cared more about her two grandchildren and not always prayed to the gods, how could the two children regard Zhu, who had no blood relationship with them, as their closest relative?

Or did she just choose the wrong person?

If Mrs. Zhu was a greedy, bullying, rude, and gossipy person, the two sons would not have been obsessed with her.

But how could she allow such a person to stay by her son's side and teach him?

She doesn't even know who to resent!

Whenever this happened, Dou Zhao would think of his deceased mother.

She was so young, how could her mother bear to leave her alone?

If her biological mother were still alive and taught her how to be a wife and a mother, wouldn't she have to suffer so much and take so many detours? Would her children have not become estranged from her?

This is an unanswerable answer.

Dou Zhao just felt a sense of weariness all over his body.

She covered her head with the quilt and buried herself in the silence.

Dimly, she heard a series of cries. She wanted to open her eyes, but her eyelids seemed to weigh a thousand pounds and she couldn't lift them. Wei Tingyu was crying softly in her ear, "What will I do if you leave?" After a while, the voice became Mrs. Guo's, "Don't worry, Wei Ge'er is my grandson-in-law, I will do everything I can to keep him safe."

Am I dead?

Dou Zhao struggled to open his eyes and found himself sitting on a warm kang. The sunlight shone on the snow in the yard and reflected through the windows covered with Korean paper, making the room bright as snow.

A pretty young woman with a red mole on the corner of her mouth sat opposite her, playing cat-and-tumble with her. There were also four or five maids between ten and fifteen years old sitting around the kang, doing needlework.

They all wore fine cotton jackets and coarse skirts, and either wore small silver cloves or silver hairpins. Their simplicity revealed the elegance of little girls, which made people smile knowingly.

Dou Zhao didn't know any of the people in the room, yet he felt very friendly.

In the past, when I was at my mother's home in Zhending County, the maids would dress like this in the winter.

It turned out that she had entered a dream again.

Dou Zhao laughed and slid off the kang, wanting to see what the maids were doing with needlework, but her feet didn't reach the ground and she was hung on the edge of the kang.

Several maids smiled with their lips pursed.

The pretty young woman hurriedly helped her off the kang, still muttering, "What does Fourth Miss want? Just ask the wet nurse! The wet nurse will get it for you."

It turns out this is her wet nurse!

Dou Zhao couldn't help laughing.

The wet nurse in the past was a plump white steamed bun, this time she was a cute flower on the branch, I wonder what she will look like next time?

She ran towards the maids who were doing needlework, and suddenly found that she had become much smaller. The tables, chairs and benches that seemed very ordinary to her in the past were now more than twice as tall.

Ha! This dream is really well done!

The little maids who were doing needlework all raised their heads and smiled at her kindly.

The older ones among them were sewing shoe soles, while the younger ones were knitting weaving. All of them were skilled and it was obvious that they were used to doing these tasks.

A biting cold wind blew in.

Dou Zhao looked up and saw the warm curtain being lifted, and several maids escorted a woman in.

The people in the room stood up and saluted the woman, calling her "Seventh Grandma".

Dou Zhao stared at her blankly.

She was no more than eighteen or nineteen years old, of medium height, slender, with a long face, willow-shaped eyebrows, and a cherry mouth. She wore a pink floral jacket with a vase pattern, which made her skin as white as snow and more beautiful than a flower.

This is her mother!

I don't look like my mother at all.

She was tall, with exquisite curves, an oval face, long eyebrows, plump red lips, white skin, and a slightly sharp look in her eyes, which gave her a heroic and aggressive look. She looked like a copy of her father. When she first married into the Jining Marquis's mansion, she trimmed her long eyebrows and drew them into willow-leaf eyebrows to make herself look softer. She would talk with her eyelids half-closed, and she could pretend to be three times as charming as her mother.

Mother came over with a smile on her face.

She saw more clearly.

My mother's face is as white and crystal as the finest jade, without a single flaw, and is extremely beautiful.

She bent down to scratch Dou Zhao's nose and joked, "Shou Gu, what's wrong? You don't recognize your mother!"

Shougu?

Is that her nickname?

She never knew she had such a nickname.

Tears suddenly came.

She hugged her mother's thighs madly.

"Mother, mother!"

Crying like a helpless child.

"Oh my!" The mother did not feel her sadness at all, and asked the wet nurse with a smile, "What's wrong with Shougu? Why are you crying for no reason?" She did not doubt or blame the wet nurse at all, and it was obvious that she trusted the wet nurse very much.

"She was fine just now." The nurse was also surprised and could only say, "Maybe she came to see you. When a daughter sees her mother, she will cry for no reason."

"Really?" The mother carried her to the warm kang. "This child has wet my skirt with her tears."

Dou Zhao was stunned.

Shouldn't a mother be most concerned about why her child is crying? Why is she most concerned about her skirt...

Is she really her mother?

Her eyes widened.

There were still two lines of crystal tears on the little face.

The mother laughed, took out a handkerchief to wipe her tears, and said to the wet nurse, "This child is silly!" Then she hugged her gently, kissed her little face, and said, "Your father is coming back soon, are you happy?" Her eyes and eyebrows were filled with joy.

Dou Zhao was about to jump up with an "ah".

How could she forget such an important thing!

She didn't know the details of what happened between her parents. However, according to Tuoniang, her father met her stepmother when he went to Kyoto to take the provincial examination. But her poor mother knew nothing about it. When she saw her father's letter saying that he was going to travel around Kyoto, she didn't suspect anything, but just waited anxiously at home every day. She was also worried that her father didn't have enough money, so she thought about secretly sending her companion Yu Daqing to give some money to her father. Later, somehow her grandfather found out and scolded her, so she gave up.

The provincial examination was in August, and it was already snowing outside. It should have been the height of winter by then, and my father had not returned yet. But my grandfather was still alive, so it was impossible for him to spend the New Year away from home. In other words, it was not too late to warn my mother.

But the mother held Dou Zhao tightly. Dou Zhao struggled several times but failed to stand up. She was so anxious that she shouted "Mom" loudly.

"What's wrong with Shougu today?" The mother was puzzled by her daughter's unusual noise and looked at the wet nurse sternly.

The nurse looked a little nervous: "I stayed with the fourth young lady until noon, and had a bowl of millet porridge, a meat bun, and a flower roll..."

"Didn't I tell you to give Shougu a cup of warm water every morning when you get up?" Mother interrupted the nurse in a deep voice, "Did you give her water this morning?"

"Drink it, drink it!" the nurse said hurriedly, no longer relaxed, "I followed your instructions, first covered her with a quilt, put a close-fitting small blouse on her, and then served her warm water..."

Oops! Why are you saying this now?

She grew up with her grandmother on a farm in the country until she was twelve years old. In the summer, she went fishing with the children of the farm workers. When she was thirsty, she drank water from the creek. In the winter, she went to the mountains to hunt sparrows. When she was hungry, she roasted the sparrows and ate them. Yet she lived to adulthood well.

Dou Zhao shook his mother: "Mom..." He wanted to tell her "Daddy is going to bring back a woman", but as soon as the words came out of his mouth, he felt like his throat was blocked by something, and the perfect sentence turned into the vague words "Daddy...woman..."

Seeing Dou Zhao start to speak, her mother turned around, looked at her with a smile, and said patiently, "Shou Gu, what do you want to say?"

"Mother," Dou Zhao said with difficulty, "Daddy...woman..." This time his words were clearer, but still not clear.

She was so anxious that sweat broke out on her forehead.

The mother smiled happily, ignoring the word "woman", and said happily: "It turns out that our Shougu also misses Daddy! Gaosheng sent a letter back saying that your father will arrive in the next two days, and he also bought a lot of fireworks, firecrackers, lanterns and candles for the New Year. They are fireworks and firecrackers from Kyoto! They can emit a myriad of colors, not to mention Zhending County, even Zhending Prefecture doesn't sell them..."

At this time, who cares about fireworks and firecrackers!

Dou Zhao was so anxious that he just kept saying "Daddy" and "woman" over and over again.

The mother's expression gradually became serious, and she said seriously, "Shou Gu, what do you want to say?"

Dou Zhaoru felt relieved. He took a deep breath and said word by word: "Dad, Dad has brought the girl back..."

The voice is childish, but clear and loud.

As if she had been slapped in the face, the mother's face showed an expression of shock, suspicion and astonishment.

The wet nurse and the maids looked at each other in panic.

There was dead silence in the room.

The warm curtain was thrown aside with a swish, and a little maid with three buns on her head ran in breathlessly: "Seventh Madam, Seventh Master is back, Seventh Master is back from Kyoto..."

"Really!" Mother's eyebrows lit up immediately, she picked up her skirt and ran out, ran two steps, stopped, thought for a moment, turned back and hugged Dou Zhao, "Let's go pick up Daddy together!"

It seems that the mother has become suspicious.

Dou Zhao breathed a sigh of relief, hugged his mother's neck, and said "Okay" loudly.