Clam Pearl

On the last day of the new year, Gu Zhao took a bath. His feet were finally much better, but he took a bath.

Wearing new clothes and smelling the good fragrance given by Ah Run, Gu Zhao sat in the room looking at the pistils, the flowers are beautiful and soft, and he puts his purse every year, and carries the airs of the old man, doing troublesome things, neatly The four little girls have been coquettish and angry all the time, it's so rare that there is Yingyingyanyan's freshness in Gu Qiye's room.

The purse was embroidered by the embroiderer of the old house in Pingzhou long ago. There are Ruyi, peony, blessing, and auspicious patterns, and the colors are very fresh. Gu Zhao is especially rare when it is bright red. Unfortunately, it is not I know what's wrong, the red that Gu Zhao loves the most has not been printed and dyed in this era, and Gu Zhao has been looking for that feeling for many years, no matter how it is dyed or how it is matched, that kind of red will probably never be seen in this life , leaving nostalgia, Gu Zhao thought, if one day he really dyed that red color, he would hang that red color all over the house, and then he would wear a red triangle scarf around his neck and sing a song in the yard. Five-star red flag or something, this life is enough.

Seeing a table full of bulging purses, Gu Zhao sighed again and again. In two days, the juniors will come to pay New Year's greetings, and he will be at a loss. Except for his brother and sister-in-law, he can't get another red envelope, even though he is only 17 years old, oh, too soon At the age of eighteen, he can get an ID card, but no one issued it.

Tell me, it's so boring, isn't the essence of Chinese New Year just to get lucky money and distribute it to others, it doesn't feel good.

He casually poured out a packed pouch, and the two wish-fulfilling golden lockets fell out, and Nian Nian screamed again.Gu Qiye felt embarrassed, so he had no choice but to respect the working people, rub his nose in embarrassment, stood up, and strolled in the yard.

In fact, gold and silver are not very circulated these days. Rich people can’t put large strings of copper coins into their purses when they pack red envelopes, so they cast auspicious copper coins, as well as various samples of gold and silver in this beautiful pattern. Gu Zhao did not lack these metals for purses, so the gold and silver curns he used for purses were not small, but the amount he gave was in accordance with the rules.

In the yard, brother-in-law Bi Liangli led a group of servants to change the window screens. The combination of red and green can be seen everywhere, but it doesn’t feel ugly. The servants are hanging colorful flowers on the tree by climbing the ladder. Bian's family specially bought him a small theater troupe, and now they are raising them. In addition, they also hired a storyteller to live at home until fifteen. The small theater they raised is singing New Year's songs, and Yiyi can't hear it. It means that year.

Gu Zhao strolled around the yard, this strong Chinese New Year atmosphere was deeply infecting him, this is a smell that he had never been exposed to in the south before... He should be happy, but why? Can't you be happy?

Lazily walking around the yard a few times, Gu Zhao went back to the house and was stuck in the test paper. He didn't know what to do these days, he couldn't eat, he couldn't eat well, he couldn't sleep, and his dreams were unstable. , upset, irritable...

In this way, in a daze, in a blink of an eye, the year will come.

In the early morning of the New Year's Day, after the rooster crowed for the first time, the younger generations of the Gu family put on their best clothes early and stood in the main room waiting.The rooster crowed twice, Gu Yan walked out of the house, the juniors saluted together, Gu Zhao gave half the salute, and the elder brother returned the salute.

After the ceremony, he and his elder brother followed each other, taking the younger males to the ancestral hall at home to worship the ancestors. Except for the clan wife, the other female relatives did not have to follow.

It was hazy and dark along the way, Gu Zhao was surrounded and walked slowly forward, the number of people behind him was getting bigger and bigger, no one was talking, just the sound of cloth shoes rubbing against the brick floor, the team was getting bigger and bigger, The way is getting clearer.

On the left and right sides are male servants carrying red leather lanterns. One by one, the other passes through the three gates of Lao Gu's house, the second gate, the main gate, and finally the family temple.

Every time you pass through a door, the door is opened wide, and lanterns are picked out to hang on the light ring at the door of the house. The whole family crawls to send the head of the family out to worship the ancestors. This kind of etiquette has never been participated in by Gu Zhao before. Pain him and never give up on his lack of sleep, and later... the south is not so particular.

Up to now... the loud creaking and clanging of the door panels, the hanging of the family-lit lanterns written with the word Gu, and the half-blessed wives who sat in the hall raised their With smiling cheeks, Gu Zhaocai has a very unique feeling. He belongs to this group of people, and this group of people is also connected to him. They are inextricably linked together. This is home, right?

It's like that... it's here.

Daozi Shangyuan, Daozi Yuanyan, those headed men surnamed Gu who were separated from the four corners of the city quietly gathered in this garden together, and what Gu Zhao could see There are about forty or fifty, and this is just a side branch of the five lines of Gu Yan's family.

The main branch of the Gu family is in Pingzhou, and there is nothing wrong with Gu Zhao in the ceremony there. First, the main branch has a long-standing grievance with this side, and second, his Zhuangzi is quite far away from the main branch, and there were some unspeakable grievances in the early years , the other side intentionally ignored him. In the eyes of others, if he had to die, Gu Yan felt that the biggest grievance his brother suffered was here, but Gu Zhao just didn't care, so the main branch was embarrassed. Embarrassed, he hung himself up instead.

The Gu family's family and their offshoots have long been known for their discord, and now there is even a bad reputation there, and people's hearts are even more scattered all of a sudden.In addition, the ancestral hall in this temple is now built by Gu Yan himself, and he only enshrined the spirit tablets of his own ancestors, so an even bigger joke appeared.

There is a set of spiritual positions on the main branch, and Gu Yan's family also has a set of spiritual positions.Throughout the year, every solar term, the ancestors of Gu Yan's family had to eat incense twice. Poor ancestors of the old Gu family, are they tired of running back and forth to collect bribes?

The Gu family's sacrificial ceremony, in Shangjing, is simply a miracle.The strangest thing is not only this, but His Majesty's New Year's rewards are also given to both sides, and they are even divided into thick and thin. Therefore, His Majesty supports the Gu family's behavior in disguise. After all, since their grandfather's generation, they have lost The book carries the gold-plated sledgehammer and has followed the late emperor to this day.In addition, there are many literati in the main branch, and the combination of civil and military, so how can the Gu family be repaid?Therefore, it is absolutely impossible to make them peaceful.

The men finally gathered together, the rooster crowed three times, and at three o'clock the wind and clouds in the city sounded together. After the four gates in the capital were opened, a servant from the palace came to proclaim the decree, rewarded the sacrifice, and waited for Gu Yan to kneel down. After burning the rewarded offerings, the family began to stand in seven or eight rows, and under the auspices of Gu Maode, they knelt down, bowed down, and bowed down again and again.Kneeling again, offering again, offering three times, and praying again... It's not hard work again and again.

After worshiping grandpa, worshiping father, worshiping the dead and worshiping little gods, a group of state cadres had a great time engaging in feudal superstition activities in the yard.

After the worship, Gu Zhao couldn't stand for a long time, and Gu Yan was recovering from a serious illness, and he couldn't finish the small rituals after that. Halfway through, he and his younger brother were carried back to their own rooms.He plunged into the bed and fell asleep until the afternoon before he could rest.

In the evening, Mr. Gu sent someone to carry a sedan chair over to ask Gu Zhao to listen to the opera and watch the night. Gu Zhao wore a round-neck gown with green woven clouds and wild goose. Qiu, there are more than a dozen kinds of auspicious pendants hanging on the waist, and there are pleasant collision sounds along the way.

Tonight is the family members watching the night and listening to the opera together. Gu Zhao sat in the main seat with his brother. His brothers are extremely violent and moody people. Therefore, there is silence around them. Occasionally, a bold junior will come to toast and hold a cup. His hands were shaking.Today, Gu Zhao smiled and refused to refuse anyone who came. After a few drinks, his elder brother forbade him to drink any more.

With the beating of drums, a good play started. The small plays on the stage sang seriously, but no one in the audience went to see them. They were all gossiping with ideas.

There is a screen to separate the men and women, the sister-in-law is sitting inside, there are piles of flattery and auspicious words, and the voice of chirping and laughing is very loud, just listening to it makes people yearn for it, oh, that A piece of Yingying Yanyan, the most extreme happiness in life should be in there.

With a coquettish giggle, Gu Zhao raised his eyebrows, and he could hear from the voice that Jiao Hong got out of prison for some reason.I probably want to remind Master Gu of her existence. The voice that laughs is called Shui Ling. I can’t hear it at all. I’m over 40. Modern women don’t have this skill. You can hear through dozens of women’s chattering voices. , Will the laughter pass through the partition screen and only laugh to one person?

Gu Zhao glanced sideways at Gu Yan, and a burst of disdain slowly spewed out of his nasal cavity. Gu Yan squinted his eyes and looked at the stage, smiling unfathomably.

Wu Sheng on the stage gave a passionate cry, and the audience applauded, which startled Gu Zhao.

The troupe that the Gu family hired today was from Pingzhou. Gu Yan didn't like to listen to the opera in Beijing. I can't stand it anymore.

This Pingzhou opera has a high-pitched voice, and the singing, reciting and playing are all exaggerated.The high-pitched part is heart-piercing, the low-pitched part is not tactful at all, and the cloud sleeves are thrown neatly, as if waving the flag and shouting!After shaking, you can go to the battlefield to die!

Gu Zhao has listened to Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera, but most of them are Huangmei Opera and Yue Opera in the south. The tones of those operas are soft and gentle, and they are mainly delicate. It's my life.

After talking to his brother, Gu Zhao went back to the yard, quietly told Bi Liangli to hitch up the car, took Xizai and Xinzai with two big food boxes, and went out quietly. From today until the fifteenth day, The city gates are not closed in Beijing, and you can come in and out freely.

The mule cart left Gu's house quietly, jogged all the way to Biluo Mountain, and when it reached the foot of the mountain, Gu Zhao couldn't help but took a deep breath.Today's Fayuan Temple on Biluo Mountain is extremely lonely under the red fire at the foot of the mountain. Gu Zhao is not embarrassed when he comes to these hundreds of steps again. How to go up this ladder?

The baby brother Bi Liangli came over quietly and leaned over. Gu Zhao was a little embarrassed, looked at the stairs, covered in cold sweat, his feet were going up, absolutely useless.There was really no way, he looked at the food box, and then at the invisible mountain over there, he was really worried about it, and felt that if he didn't see that person today, he might really be hungry forget about it.After thinking for a while, finally... still lying on Bi Liangli's back, Bi Liangli was very happy, walking like a tiger.

Xizai, Xinzai is holding a food box in one hand and a dead wind leather lamp with a crane pattern in the other, quietly leading the way.

That night, Master Huiyi was sitting in the room reading scriptures, when the young monk beside him suddenly said: "Someone has come down from the mountain."

The master stood up and went to the window, watching the two bright lights dangling towards the small courtyard behind the mountain.The master smiled, turned around and blew on the oil lamp in the room, twirled the Buddhist beads on the wrist mountain, and silently recited scriptures.

I came to this familiar small courtyard again, it is still the same here, the walls are the white of the new picture, probably because Yanhe has not written new characters in these few days.The side rooms in the front are bleak with all the lights out. They are dark and squatting, lifeless. It seems that Yanhe is celebrating the New Year at the foot of the mountain.

Gu Zhao stood at the gate of the courtyard, looking at the door of A Run's room, feeling a little worried, feeling uneasy in his heart, what if A Run was not in the room?He stood for a while, coughed in the yard, suddenly there was light in the door over there, and the light became more and more vigorous, and began to slowly go from low to high, from far to near, until he reached the door The front door opened with a creak.

Ah Run was wearing a new cotton-padded coat, holding an oil lamp and looking at the yard. At first, his eyes were calm, and when he saw the person clearly, there seemed to be tens of thousands of lights in his eyes gathered together, reaching a point and finally , Those lights suddenly exploded, full of light, full of brightness, full of brightness.

Gu Zhao was grinning, his feet hurt a lot, although he hadn’t walked much, but he still walked for a long time, probably the old injury was torn open, and he felt wet inside his shoes, that’s it, he was still laughing, with his hands clasped together Sleeve, sang a big fat promise:

"Ah Run, happy new year, I wish you... a happy new year, Gong Xi Fa Cai! I can't wait for tomorrow, so I come to wish you a happy new year."