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  Because she thought that fleeting profile was particularly familiar, Xia Zhi took a few more glances, until the man's back disappeared into Gui Fang Zhai and could no longer be seen. She then glanced at the people standing at the entrance of Gui Fang Zhai again. Those were obviously not guests, and their faces looked quite unpleasant.

  Xia Zhi hurriedly led Xiao Hei to quicken their pace, and only after they had left the entrance of Gui Fang's residence at a distance did she gradually slow down her steps. However, she couldn't help but turn her head back for another glance, but didn't see that person come out.

  "Old uncle, I just saw someone and he looked very familiar, unfortunately I didn't see clearly." Xia Zhi then asked if Little Black Fish had seen him.

  Xiao Hei Yu'er replied that he hadn't, and he didn't look in the direction of Gui Fang's house just now. "Does it look familiar? Who could it be? Let's go back and take another look."

  Xia Zhi thought for a moment and shook her head. If it was really the person she suspected, then there would be no need for her to look for him; that person would come knocking on her door himself.

  Back at Xia Dagu's house, Xia Zhi didn't mention the matter again. She didn't plan to go out again today and went back to the west room on the upper floor to sit down. Guo Yuhuan came again and was chatting with Zhenzhu on the kang when she saw her return, immediately stopping what she was saying, then warmly greeted Xia Zhi.

  "Fourth sister, where did you go to play?" She asked, still stretching her neck to look out the window.

  Xia Zhi knew she was Zhang Wang Da Qing, but didn't say it out loud, and only replied that she had gone for a stroll on the street.

  "It's great to be born in the countryside, you can go wherever you want." Guo Yuhuan said with a tone of complaint, "Unlike me and Zhenzhu, every time we go out, we have to beg at home for half a day, and we need to be accompanied by adults from our family. We can't even bring a young servant boy, for fear that someone will bump into us."

  Xia Zhi smiled. Guo Yuhuan wasn't admiring her, but rather boasting about her own noble status and mocking Xia as a country bumpkin who could casually walk on the street.

  But this is somewhat ridiculous. Guo Yuhuan's family situation was all told by Xia Dagou. A small wine shop, at home using a rough servant and a young maid, both of whom were temporary workers and didn't even live with them. To say that Guo Yuhuan is a "small family jade" is already an exaggeration.

  However, it is precisely this kind of person who has the most power and always looks down on those they think are inferior to them. If they were truly from a high-ranking family, they wouldn't be like that.

  Du Zhenzhu was very tolerant and forgiving towards Pearl, but when it came to Guo Yuhuan, she wasn't so polite.

  "Guo Yuhuan is really pitiful." Xia Zhi pretended to show a sympathetic expression, "If your family was like the Pearls', you would have bought several servants to attend to her. Then she wouldn't be so miserable and unable to go out."

  Guo Yuhuan was speechless, her face turning red and white by turns.

  The pearl couldn't help but laugh.

  Guo Yuhuan immediately became somewhat angry with Zhenzhu: "I don't have the good fortune of being a pearl. The Pearl family is much wealthier than ours."

  Zhenzhu thought that Guo Yuhuan's words were not wrong, so she didn't make a sound. Guo Yuhuan was even more angry and wanted to say something sarcastic about Xia Zhi. However, when she saw Xia Zhi's smiling face, she remembered the sharp words they had exchanged earlier and her heart skipped a beat.

  She hadn't had much contact with Xia Zhi, but it was clear that Xia Zhi wasn't someone to be trifled with. At this moment, she faintly heard the sound of a dog barking coming from somewhere, and couldn't help but shiver. She dared to come find Pearl today because Xia Dagu had said before that he would take good care of the dog. And when she entered the house, she carefully checked and didn't see Da Qing, so she dared to enter.

  She is still afraid of what happened yesterday. Although Xia Dagu said something pleasant to hear, she knows in her heart that the big green dog was actually brought by Xia Zhi.

  Yesterday she had just spoken ill of Xia Zhi, when suddenly she was almost pounced on by a big green dog. She couldn't help but feel guilty, so the sarcastic words towards Xia Zhi could no longer be said out loud.

  Guo Yuhuan became more honest. The pearl took the initiative to talk to Guo Yuhuan. In her opinion, she was still closer to Guo Yuhuan, and they belonged to the same level. Xia Zhi was not unpleasant, but still a rural poor girl.

  Xia Zhi didn't want to play with these two little girls either, thinking it was boring. At this time, she heard Da Qing calling in the yard. She was just about to get up when Xiao Hei Yu ran over.

  "Sixteen, let's go, come and play with me." Little Black Fish pulled Xia Zhi out of the door.

  Xiatu was willing in her heart, so she politely said a word to Zhenzhu and Yuhuan, then followed Xiaohuier out of the upper room. She asked Xiaohuier: "Old uncle, where are we going to play?"

  "Let's go to Changsheng's place." said Xiao Heiyu. Guo Changsheng was at home and hadn't gone out.

  Guo Yuhuan stood in the house with her ear against the wall, listening to the movement outside. Hearing that Da Qing's voice seemed to be getting farther away, she quietly came out of the west room and walked to the door of the main hall, hiding behind the door and looking outwards.

  She watched as Xia Zhi and Xiao Hei Yu'er passed through the Moon Gate and into the Longevity Courtyard, then she ran back to the west wing, telling the whole thing to Zhen Zhu.

  Zhenzhu didn't think much of it. "If I'm going, then I'll just go. My brother is at home today anyway."

  "When are they leaving? I see Xia Zhi is quite familiar with your place, she can go anywhere." Guo Yuhuan said to Pearl.

  "My mother said let them stay for a few more days." Pearl took out the jump rope and played with Guo Yuhuan.

  Guo Yuhuan was somewhat indignant: "She must be willing to stay longer, it would be better if she could stay here often. What does she eat and live at home? What does she eat and live here? She's willing to do that. Pearl, your family has money, but you can't afford to have poor relatives coming to your door all the time. Our family doesn't make as much as yours, but we don't have poor relatives showing up at our doorstep."

  "Don't be poor relatives, poor relatives, let my mother hear that she won't be willing." Pearl had turned out a new pattern of rope and was waiting for Guo Yuhuan to come and turn it over. "She didn't eat or live in my house for nothing."

  After being repeatedly taught by Xia Dagu, Pearl is now willing to speak up for Xia Zhi. She told Guo Yuhuan that Xia Zhi went out to eat and brought back sauced beef for them, then bought eggs and flour himself, making delicious snacks for everyone to eat. And about the box of pastries, Pearl also told Guo Yuhuan.

  "My mother wouldn't even let me eat it, I don't know what to do?"

  Guo Yuhuan felt increasingly uneasy after hearing Pearl's words. She thought of the things her father and mother had said to her in private. "Pearl, has Xia Zhi fixed a date for the engagement yet?" Guo Yuhuan asked quietly.

  "There shouldn't be, I've never heard Mother mention it." Pearl replied, she wasn't concerned about Xia Zhi's affairs.

  "That's right, there isn't." In fact, she was very certain about this matter. Yesterday, Xia Dagu went to her house for a visit, and her mother specifically asked about this question. "Zhenzhu, I'll tell you something, it's that my uncle's street has an old Huajia who also runs a grocery store, do you know?"

  Pearl shook her head. Guo Yuhuan hastily continued to speak. She told Guo Zhenzhu that the old Huahouse had a poor relative who came to live with them, and the girl from that family stayed on and wouldn't leave, entangling herself with the son of the Huahouse, until finally the Huahouse had no choice but to have their son marry that girl.

  The dowry was not much, but the bride's family took a lot of things. After she got married and moved in, she took everything back to her parents' home, even emptying out her younger sister-in-law's room. The old Huas' annual income was all taken by her back to her parents' home. Old Mrs. Hua told my uncle and aunt that they didn't marry a daughter-in-law, but rather someone who came to collect debts.

  Then she told Pearl: "That family let the girl come and live with them, but they didn't have good intentions. They just wanted her to marry the son of the old Huahouse."

  The pearl is somewhat bewildered, but seems to have understood something.

  Guo Yuhuan looked at her and knew she had to make things clearer. "Zhenzhu, I think Xia Zhi is not bad-looking, just average. Is she better-looking than your brother or you?"

  Zhenzhu thought for a moment and nodded her head, she really felt that Xia Zhi was more compatible with her brother Changsheng.

  Guo Zhenzhu didn't want to say anything more, and only affectionately tapped Zhenzhu's forehead: "You silly thing, you let people cheat you and still give them money!"

  Pearl unhappily pushed away Guo Yuhuan. "What's being sold or not." She didn't want to hear such words. Who was she more foolish than, how could she be sold and still have people count her money.

  Some of Guo Yuhuan's words still make sense.

  Zhenzhu was no longer happy and her mind was elsewhere while jumping rope. Guo Yuhuan looked at her face, guessed what she was thinking, and immediately felt better.

  Across the courtyard, Guo Changsheng was taking Xia Zhi and Xiao Heiyu on a tour of his residence.

  His yard is much smaller than Xia Dagu's, the upper house has two rooms and a hall which was separated from Xia Dagu's yard. He lives in a three-room wing. He likes flowers and plants, so he planted many flowers in his yard, including peonies brought back from Xia Zhi's home.

  Apart from the moon gate that connects to Xia Dagu's courtyard, there is also a narrow passageway next to Changsheng's courtyard. This passageway leads further back and has another door with a lock on it, which appears to be rarely opened.

  Looking back from Xia Zhi, the other side of the door seems to be a large courtyard.

  Changsheng glanced at Xia Zhi along his line of sight, then explained to her. Behind the courtyard where their family lived, there was another small courtyard, also a property of his family, which had been separated and rented out by Guo's uncle.

  Uncle Guo is indeed a meticulous person. The whole family now lives in a house that is just enough, but not spacious. Moreover, due to its proximity to Xishi Street, it's noisy every day.

  If they lived in this house without separating it and renting it out to others, it would be spacious enough and quiet enough.

  The entire layout of this mansion is arranged in such a way that the last courtyard is the inner house.

  "I hadn't fallen yet before I was born, this courtyard was also rented to others, and your great aunt lived in the front courtyard." Guo Changsheng said with a smile.

  This is too meticulous. In the front yard, there is a warehouse to be built, and apprentices will live there, and one room is for receiving guests, and the rest are cattle sheds and so on. Xia Dagu and Guo Gufu live there, it must be very crowded and inconvenient.

  The summer solstice in mind, about Guo's uncle's meticulous calculation or stinginess has a further understanding.

  (。)