Free
After receiving the money, Fu Zhiqiao went directly to the ancestral hall of the Fu family mansion.
The ancestral hall door was pushed open, letting in light. Fine dust particles swirled in the air, and the rich aroma of burning incense filled the air.
Upon entering, one is immediately struck by rows and rows of memorial tablets, so densely packed that it is unsettling to look at. Fu Zhi Qiao's gaze swept over each tablet in turn, finally settling on the last one.
That's Fu Changyue's memorial tablet.
Fu Zhiqiao knelt before the memorial tablet.
To her, Fu Changyue was a true father figure. In her memory, she had overheard Fu Changyue and Yu Roulan discussing finding a son-in-law for Fu Zhi Qiao, so she could stay in the Fu family for life and not have to marry into another family and be subservient to her in-laws. It's just a pity…
Fu Zhiqiao snapped out of her thoughts and kowtowed three times earnestly before Fu Changyue's memorial tablet.
After kneeling and bowing, she carefully removed the memorial tablet and placed it in the box.
Logically, Fu Changyue's memorial tablet should be placed in the Fu family ancestral hall for worship, but she had no intention of returning this time, so she was going to take Fu Changyue's memorial tablet with her. She and her mother had both left, and she couldn't leave her father here alone.
Back at Tingxue Hall, Granny Cui and Ginkgo were packing things up.
Yu Roulan was packing clothes in the bedroom. Halfway through, she hugged Fu Changyue's clothes and tears streamed down her face. She was already feeling reluctant to leave even before she was done. After all, this was the home she had lived in for more than ten years.
Upon seeing Fu Zhi Qiao enter, she quickly wiped away her tears and forced a smile: "Qiao, you're here!"
Fu Zhi Qiao pretended not to see the tears in her eyes, "Mother, let's bring Father's memorial tablet too."
"Good, good, good!" Yu Roulan said "good" three times in a row, staring intently at the brocade box, and could no longer hide her sobs.
Fu Zhiqiao didn't say anything and quietly withdrew.
After she left, Yu Roulan burst into tears.
Fu Zhi Qiao stood at the door for a while, listening to Yu Rou Lan's crying inside the room. She gently stroked the Buddhist beads on her hand, her eyes lowered, until she heard the sounds from inside the room gradually subside before she turned and left.
She found Granny Cui and calmly instructed, "Granny, give the order that we will be leaving the manor soon. If anyone in the courtyard wants to leave, give them money to be dismissed."
Granny Cui hesitated for a moment, then said nothing. She summoned the maids and servants in the courtyard, and a dozen or so of them stood there. She took out a stack of indentures and conveyed Fu Zhi Qiao's words.
"I'm sure you all know why I called you here today. You've all been long-time members of Tingxue Hall. If any of you wish to leave the manor, you can come here and get your indenture from me and then leave."
As soon as she finished speaking, the servants began to stir.
"Really? We're being sold into servitude unconditionally?"
Granny Cui nodded, telling them to think carefully about whether to stay or leave.
Since the ladies and young misses were all leaving the mansion, there was no point in the servants staying. They all announced their names and said they wanted to leave the mansion and return to their hometowns.
"Wherever Madam and Miss want to go, we will go. Granny Cui, please beg Madam and Miss to let us stay!" Two maids knelt down with a "plop" and hugged Granny Cui's legs, pleading bitterly.
Granny Cui glanced at them and sighed slightly. She had personally chosen these two maids to be used for cleaning in the courtyard. The two girls were originally servants who had been sold off by disgraced officials after their property was confiscated. They had signed a death contract and had nowhere else to go except the Fu family.
In the end, the two maids stayed.
Granny Cui, Yinxing, Defu, Wenjiang, Wenshan, and the two maids who had signed a death contract went to Qingzhou with them.
For two days in a row, the gates of Tingxuetang were kept tightly closed, and no one was allowed to enter.
Granny Cui and Yinxing, along with two maids, quickly packed their luggage. The other maids and servants were dismissed. Fu Zhiqiao and Yu Roulan also rolled up their sleeves and packed their luggage together. Household registration and travel permits were essential. They took all the valuables with them. It took them two whole days to finish packing.
On the third day, the gates of Tingxuetang were opened, and Fu Zhiqiao asked Defu to contact the escort agency to escort them all the way to Qingzhou.
The journey from Yuzhou to Qingzhou would take at least ten days, and they might even have to camp in the wild. Safety was Fu Zhiqiao's top priority, and being careful would prevent any problems.
The luggage filled three large carriages. Defu, Wenshan, and Wenjiang each drove one carriage, along with about a dozen burly men carrying knives, all of them tall, imposing, and with sharp eyes.
Although bodyguards are expensive, they're worth it!
The burly bodyguards surrounded the carriage, feeling completely safe.
The Fu family mansion is located in the wealthy district of Yuzhou, surrounded by prominent people. But even the most prominent people love to watch the excitement.
On the day of departure, the sounds of carrying luggage aroused the curiosity of many "enthusiastic" neighbors, and every now and then someone would send a servant over to inquire about the news.
Everyone in the Fu family knew that because of the unexpected death of Master Fu, Madam Fu was unable to accept it and fell seriously ill. Fu Zhi Qiao, as her daughter, wanted to take her mother to the countryside to recuperate.
When the neighbors learned that Fu Zhi Qiao had taken Yu Rou Lan to recuperate, they sighed with regret but also praised her for her filial piety.
Of all virtues, filial piety is the most important. Anything related to filial piety will be understood.
Zhao Xialan, along with Fu Yan'er and the women from the third branch of the family, stood at the door to bid a reluctant farewell to the mother and daughter.
Inside the carriage, Fu Zhiqiao was in a good mood. Of course, she would cooperate with Zhao Xialan's act of a harmonious family. However, behind the scenes... she couldn't avenge Fu Changyue for the time being, but causing trouble for the second and third wives was a piece of cake for her.
No sooner had they left Yuzhou than the news spread throughout the streets that the two brothers from the second and third branches of the Fu family had joined forces to drive their widowed sister-in-law and the eldest brother's only bloodline out of the house. Just thinking about Fu Mingjie's angry face made Fu Zhi Qiao laugh out loud.
The coachman cracked his whip, and the carriage emerged from the alley until it passed through the city gate and reached the main road, where the view gradually opened up.
Fu Zhiqiao lifted the curtain of the carriage, a gentle breeze caressed her cheek, and when she looked up, there was an endless sky.
That's great, she's free!
*
In this era, there were no other means of transportation, only horse-drawn carriages and oxcarts, making travel extremely slow. The group traveled for nearly ten days until the scenery on both sides of the road changed from sparsely populated to bustling and prosperous.
On the third day of the fifth month in the twenty-third year of the Great Wei Dynasty, they finally arrived at Qingzhou City.
The soldiers guarding the city checked the household registration and travel permits, and the group entered the city smoothly.
Qingzhou and Yuzhou are about several hundred miles apart. Geographically, Qingzhou is sandwiched between Yuzhou and the capital, and is the only way for Yuzhou to reach the capital.
Qingzhou is the provincial capital, with a large population, convenient water and land transportation, and thriving commerce. Merchants, farmers from outside the city, and even people from surrounding towns would come to participate in buying and selling, making it a bustling metropolis.
The house that Fu Changyue bought for Yu Roulan was located in Lingshui Lane in the north of the city. Stone lions stood at the entrance, and the two characters "Fu Mansion" on the plaque were written in a very imposing manner.
The new Fu Mansion is a three-courtyard complex, with a main house, side rooms, and servants in each courtyard. The inner courtyard has five spacious rooms on each side. Elm and willow trees are planted in the courtyard, and in the height of summer, the trees are tall and lush, making the whole courtyard very beautiful.
The person guarding the courtyard here is Granny Huang, Yu Roulan's former maid.
Fu Changyue bought this house to please Yu Roulan. After the two got married, Cui Mama accompanied Yu Roulan to Yuzhou as part of her dowry, while Huang Mama stayed here to help her look after the house.
Granny Huang and her family lived in the small courtyard behind the Fu residence. She would come over to the main courtyard from time to time to tidy it up, so that the house would not be abandoned and fall into disrepair due to lack of human presence.
The Wen brothers, Wenjiang and Wenshan, had come early to make arrangements. The old stone lions were replaced, and the plaque was newly hung up. They also bought several servants and maids locally to serve them, threw away the broken things and replaced them with new ones, and cleaned and tidied up for three days until everything was spotless, just waiting for the lady and young lady to come and move in.
When Fu Zhiqiao and his group arrived, it was already dusk. The two large lanterns hanging at the entrance were shining brightly and were very conspicuous in the darkness.
Granny Huang led everyone to stand at the door to greet them. Yu Roulan looked her over carefully. More than ten years had transformed her from a thin maid into a plump woman.
Granny Huang held Yu Roulan's hand all the way to the inner courtyard, then suddenly burst into tears like a child, "Miss, Miss, I thought I would never see you again in this life..."
Yu Roulan choked out a sob.
Granny Cui laughed until tears streamed down her face. Since Yu Roulan married into Yuzhou, the three of them, mistress and servant, had not seen each other for more than ten years. Now that they met again, they had a lot to talk about.
After the three of them finished catching up, Yu Roulan introduced Fu Zhiqiao to her.
Granny Huang wiped away her tears and carefully examined Fu Zhi Qiao. "Good, young lady, you are so beautiful, you are just like the young lady..."
Yu Roulan: "How old am I? Why are you still calling me 'Miss'?"
Granny Huang lightly slapped her own mouth, "Look at my mouth! Madam, I should call you Madam now!"
The atmosphere of the long-awaited reunion was very pleasant.
Although Huang Mama had not seen Yu Roulan for many years, the bond they had formed since childhood remained. She expressed her desire to stay by Yu Roulan's side and take care of her. Yu Roulan agreed and gave her the title of "housekeeper mother".
The newly purchased maids and servants in the Fu family mansion have also started their jobs. They are busy unloading luggage from the carriages. Everyone is busy, and the mansion is finally full of life.
The layout of the Fu residence is very similar to that of Tingxue Hall. The main courtyard is for Yu Roulan to live in, Fu Zhiqiao has a separate courtyard, some side rooms are available for entertaining guests, and the rear rooms are for the servants to live in.
There was also a specially prepared Buddhist hall to enshrine Fu Changyue's memorial tablet.
Since the house was big and had many rooms, Fu Zhi Qiao let Cui Mama arrange it.
Soon, the servants boiled water and brought it into the room. Fu Zhi Qiao soaked in the bathtub, and the warm water dispelled her fatigue. She took a comfortable bath.
"Ginkgo!" After calling out, Ginkgo came in carrying a set of clothes and placed them on the stool next to the bathtub.
After changing into clean clothes, Yinxing helped her dry her hair. It was already very late, so Fu Zhiqiao told Yinxing to go to the side room to rest, and then she lay down on the bed and fell asleep.
Outside the door.
"It's getting late, everyone should go back to their rooms and get some sleep! We have a lot to do tomorrow morning!" Seeing that the things were almost packed up, Granny Cui told everyone to go and rest.
"yes!"
The noise gradually subsided.
After a long and tiring journey, everyone rested and recuperated at home on their first day in the new house. Early the next morning, Yu Roulan assigned tasks to everyone at home, while Fu Zhiqiao wanted to take Yinxing out for a stroll to experience the local customs and culture.
Yu Roulan was worried about her going out alone, but Fu Zhiqiao said she would just wander around nearby and come back soon. Seeing her daughter's excited appearance, Yu Roulan didn't want to keep her from leaving. After telling her to be careful, she let her go out.
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