Chapter 5 Homecoming

　　Father's carriage is parked in the second doorway, a few boys are busy moving things inside, father is wearing a treasure blue calabash pattern silk straight jacket, draped in gray rat skin cloak, jade tree standing next to the carriage, is talking to Gao Sheng about something. 　　Hearing the commotion, he turned back and smiled shallowly, handsome and plump, like the clear wind and moon. 　　Dou Zhao's heart stuttered slightly. 　　She knew that her father was good looking. 　　But she had never seen a father like this. 　　In her impression, her father always frowned slightly, even if he laughed, his brows also carried a few points of depression that could not be dissolved. Especially when he looked at her quietly, his eyes were uninteresting, like an ancient well of a thousand years, chilling one's heart. 　　Unlike now, young, handsome and sunny, like a carefree teenager, looking at him warmed one's heart. 　　"Shou Aunt," her father's smiling face appeared in front of her eyes, "Father came back and didn't even shout!" He reached out to pinch Dou Zhao's nose. 　　Dou Zhao subconsciously twisted her head to avoid her father's hand. 　　Her father froze for a moment, then laughed without being displeased, taking out a windmill from the carriage behind him, blowing it to a rattling sound, then holding it up in front of her, "This is the one that daddy bought for you from Kyoto. Is it good?" 　　If she was really a child, she would have been flattered to be attracted to this windmill, but she was already the mother of three children, the one who bought the windmill to coax her children to play with it, so where would she put it in her eyes? 　　Dou Zhao stretched her neck towards the carriage to look at it. 　　Mother, however, was red-faced, looking at father with affection, seemingly petulant, saying, "It's good that you're back safe and sound, but what else do you want to buy for us? Home has everything." 　　"That's not the same!" Father took Dou Zhao from mother's hand, "This is what I bought for you specially from Kyoto." 　　Mother's face turned even redder, like she had drunk aged flower carvings, and her eyes went hazy. 　　Dou Zhao leaned over and tried to pull open the curtain of the carriage, but her small body and short arms could never reach the curtain. 　　Her father sensed her intentions and gently patted her buttocks, placing her on the carriage: "What are you looking for?" 　　Dou Zhao ignored him and dove headfirst into the carriage. 　　The carriage was covered with thick bedding, a few scriptures such as the Four Books Annotated were casually thrown on the bedding, and in the corner was a tea bucket for warming tea, and when the lid was opened, there was an alabaster tilting pot. 　　Other than that, nothing else. 　　Dou Zhao stood in the carriage, looking around blankly. 　　Could she have misremembered? 　　Or was ...... what Tou Niang said simply not true! 　　※※※※※ 　　Father's first return from a long trip, the first thing to do is naturally to go to Grandfather to ask for peace. 　　On the pretext of arranging a family banquet, mother went back to the upper room and called all the servants working in the upper room to the hall. 　　"Which asshole told Sis'er to say those filthy things? Stand out for yourself!" She slammed the table and lashed out, "If Sister-er points it out, it won't be a matter of working in the outer courtyard and being penalized for a few months! I'm going to report to the old master, call the man's teeth, and sell her to that poor ravine, never want to eat a white bread for the rest of her life!" 　　The room was dead silent. 　　The tea cup on the table was clanging by my mother, "Good! Surprisingly, none of them came forward. You think I can't find out, don't you? Sis'er is only a few years old and can't even speak clearly, so you all are urging Sis'er to talk nonsense in front of me. This if sister child is a little older, will not be abetted by you guys bad ......." 　　Dou Zhao was accompanied by a small maid, sitting on the hot bed in the inner room of the upper room, sighing from time to time. 　　It was her own idea, who would jump out and admit it! 　　But Dou Zhao didn't defend those servants. 　　She is now a child who can't even speak well, with her mother's knowledge, "father brought a woman back" such nonsense words are naturally taught by the servants around her, if she defends those women and servants, her mother will only be more skeptical of someone's evil intentions, and it will be even more difficult for those servants to get out of the way. 　　She asked the little maid beside her, "What do you call ......?" The throat is still like a blockage, can not speak a complete sentence. 　　The little maid was flattered and said attentively, "Back to the words of the fourth miss, the slave girl is called vanilla." 　　She said, "I want ...... Tou Niang!" 　　The little maid's eyes widened in curiosity, "Who is Touniang?" 　　Dou Zhao was dumbfounded. 　　Someone loudly reported, "Grandma Seven, Master Seven is back." 　　There was a ringing outside. 　　Mother instructed in a slightly tense tone, "Sister Yu, you take the people in Fourth Miss's house back first. Fourth Miss will rest here with me tonight. The rest of you, do what you need to do." 　　An old voice respectfully answered, "Yes." 　　Then there was another ringing sound. 　　Not long after, the mother walked in with her father in a smiling voice. 　　Seeing Dou Zhao sitting dumbly on the bed, her father smiled and touched her head: "This child, what's wrong today?" 　　The mother could not tell her husband that Dou Zhao had been abetted by someone, and smiled vaguely and said, "Maybe I'm too tired from playing, I'll be fine later." 　　Father no longer pursued the question. 　　The maids brought water and pancreas in, and mother served father to clean his face and change his clothes, and Dou Zhao was also carried down by the maids to freshen up and change his clothes, and together they went to Grandfather's. Grandfather lived on the west side of the mansion, in the middle of the city, in the middle of the city. 　　Grandfather lives in the west side of the house, because of the center of the hall wrote a "Crane Shou Tong Nian" plaque, was called "Crane Shou Hall". 　　In front of the house was a pond and a rockery, and behind the house were vines and flowers, making it the best view in the house. 　　In Dou Zhao's memory, she had been to Heshoutang twice. Once when she was nine years old, her grandfather died, according to her grandfather's will, the spirit hall is located in the Heshoutang, she came back to the funeral; and once she came back to participate in the ceremony of her grandfather. 　　On both occasions, it was so noisy that she didn't even have a chance to take a close look at the Hall of Heshou. 　　This time, in her dream, she looked around on her mother's shoulder. 　　The pond was frozen, the rockery was covered with snow, the trees had already withered, and the vines were nothing more than withered stems. Although it was all in a state of depression, due to the elegant layout, it was hard to hide its brightness. 　　She could not help but nod secretly. 　　No wonder those old Hanlin in Kyoto mentioned grandfather praised him for his talent. 　　It's a pity that grandfather was impatient with his career, and at less than thirty years old, he resigned and returned to his hometown to become a field house owner. 　　In the midst of their thoughts, they arrived at the door of the Crane Hall. 　　A charming middle-aged woman welcomed them in with a smile. 　　Dou Zhao looked at the beautiful woman and straightened her eyes. 　　How could she have dreamed of Aunt Ding? 　　If she wanted to dream, she should also dream of her grandmother! 　　She had grown up with her grandmother since she was a child. 　　Just as she was thinking, Aunt Ding smiled and stepped forward to pinch Dou Zhao's small hand, and said to her mother: ''What's wrong with Aunt Shou today? Disheveled, and not calling out to anyone ......" 　　Mother made a wink towards Auntie Ding and quietly said, "I'll talk to you later." 　　Aunt Ding understood and smiled as she hugged Dou Zhao and accompanied her mother into her grandfather's study. 　　Dou Zhao's heart was in turmoil. 　　Grandfather's knees were still empty in his forties, and his first grandmother made the decision to give grandfather two concubines. One of them is Aunt Ding, and the other is Grandmother Cui. Aunt Ding, like her first grandmother, had no children, and her grandmother had only one father, so their family was not prosperous. Later, the stepmother came to the door, gave birth to a younger brother, Dou Xiao, grandmother of the heir of the merit, the Dou family only then changed their name to call her "Mrs. Cui", although the father still shouted "aunt", the grandchildren but called "grandmother! The grandchildren were called "Grandmother", and Aunt Ding was always Aunt Ding. 　　After his first grandmother passed away, his grandfather decided not to renew his marriage, and Aunt Ding presided over his family's feeds, which were handed over to his mother when she entered the family, and Aunt Ding only took care of things in his house. The grandmother is living in a field house fifty miles away from Zhending County, only in the annual Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Spring Festival back to stay a few days. 　　Dou Zhao felt vaguely uneasy in her heart, as if something had happened and she had been kept in the dark. 　　She did not move to observe the personnel around her. 　　During the dinner, Dou Zhao noticed that the bowls and plates containing the dishes were a set of Yutang Spring colored celadon, and the bowls, plates, cups, and spoons were all in one place. 　　While her grandfather was asking his father questions, Dou Zhao was left to play on the hot bed in the study. 　　She saw the pair of rosewood paperweights sitting on her grandfather's desk. 　　Dou Zhao thought about it and stood on her tiptoes, counting the glazed beads on the spike of the Longquan Treasure Sword hanging on the wall. 　　She had seen all of these things before. 　　At that time, they had been placed in the coffin as a burial object as her grandfather's beloved possession. 　　She also remembered that there were only four bowls, two plates, one cup, and five spoons left of the Yutang Spring-colored celadon tableware; there was only one paperweight of purple purlin wood; and the glazed beads on the spike of the Longquan Treasure Sword were five. 　　It was as if time had turned back and erased the years left on those objects. 　　Listen again to my grandfather's words: "...... This is from the Analects of Confucius - Gongzhi Chang. You use 'The heart of the great doctor is abundant and public, loyal to the strategy also' to break the title, and then use 'If the abundant is Qi gain and loss, public is equalization of things and I, and Zi Wen thought that the loyalty is carried out, and the benevolence is that I do not know also' to carry on the title, it is very good, and it is evident that you in the 'variant ' method has been deep in which the three flavors ......" 　　Dou Zhao's hands and feet were cold. 　　Although she knew the characters, she had never read the Four Books and Five Classics. How could one imagine such words out of thin air? 　　"Mother, mother!" Dou Zhao was terrified in her heart as she shouted loudly for her mother, tears falling uncontrollably. 　　Grandfather, who was in the midst of talking with father, sank his face. 　　Mother, on the other hand, ran in from the hall in a panic: "Eunuch, I'll take Aunt Shou to the side to play." 　　Her face was full of apologies as she carried Dou Zhao out of the study. 　　Aunt Ding greeted her. 　　Mother was having her evening meal at the same table as grandfather and father, and because the nursemaid didn't follow her today, Aunt Ding fed Dou Zhao first, and by the time Dou Zhao was full, the people at the table had dispersed, and there were only some leftovers left over from the evening meal, which she was using haphazardly just now. 　　"What's going on here?" She touched Dou Zhao's forehead, "It's normally fine. Could it be that you ran into something unclean?" 　　Dou Zhao wrapped her arms around her mother's neck in a death grip, feeling the warmth of her mother's neck nest, as if this would prove that what she had encountered was not a bunch of ghosts. 　　"It can't be?" Her mother shivered and hesitantly said, "Could it be that the person who instigated Shou Gu moved?" 　　"It's fine." Aunt Ding said confidently, "Even if someone did something, I'm not afraid, we're a family of good deeds, the Great Immortal will bless us with peace and prosperity. Later on, I will ask for two watches in front of the Great Immortal for Auntie Shou, you sweep it over Auntie Shou twice and then burn it, Auntie Shou will be fine." 　　Mother nodded her head uncontrollably and gritted her teeth, "If I find out who is unsettled, I'll skin her!" 　　"Luckily it was said in front of you. If you had said it in front of the Seventh Master, it would have been troublesome." Grandma Ding sighed as a boy ran in and reported, "Old Master, Seventh Master, Seventh Grandma, Grandma Ding, the Third Master from the East Mansion has come over."