Lucky husband

Waiting for Bai Zhiwen and the others to arrive at the wharf in Changping County, Bai Zhiwen still didn't say anything.

Looking at Li Chengzhi and Li Chengshi who came to pick them up, Bai Zhiwen finally swallowed what he wanted to say, and decided to wait until Li Mingde got married before he started to propose marriage.

No one knew what was going on in Bai Zhiwen's mind. Along the way, Li Mingde only noticed that he sometimes hesitated to speak, but Bai Zhiwen didn't ask if he didn't say anything, and he would naturally say it when he wanted to.

After returning to the village, Li's family and Bai's family got together, they were close to each other, the two children studied in the same school, and they went to the exams together, and became scholars at the same time, so they simply held a banquet together to celebrate together, so as to save two troubles.

Originally, Mrs. Li made this proposal because she thought that the orphans and widows of the Bai family had little money. Anyway, the two families will get married in the future, so this time the Li family will pay more for the banquet.

Unexpectedly, Bai Yao generously took ten taels of silver for the banquet, and reassured Mrs. Li that she did not empty out her family's fortune with the ten taels of silver.

It would be even better if there was silver, and no one would take advantage of the other. The two families each prepared ten taels, which was enough for a feast of water.

Setting up a floating banquet is different from ordinary banquets. A banquet requires you to be invited before you go there. When you go, you have to think about what gifts to bring.

Different families will prepare different gifts or cash gifts depending on the people who invite guests, the level of richness of the prepared meals, and whether the two families are close or not.

For example, if the person hosting the banquet is holding a wedding banquet, the things must be prepared in pairs, and the gift money without bringing anything must have a good meaning. For example, 99 copper coins represent longevity, which sounds auspicious and pleasing.

As for the flowing water mat, generally speaking, it is good to go there by default. No matter what gift you bring, even a cheap cabbage, you can have a meal at the flowing water mat.

However, there is a habit of running water mats in Shanghe Village—that is, you have to bring your own bowls and chopsticks, and the people who run the running water mats will not provide them.

There are only large bowls of food on the table, and there is basically no preparation for stools. If you come early, you may have a stool to sit on. If you come late and there is no place, you can stand and eat with the bowl.

When Jiang Qiming from Xiahe Village was selected as a scholar before, because the Jiang family had limited extra money and the Jiang family was not well-known in the nearby villages, they were relatively low-key and only invited close people to have a meal.

It's different when we get to Li's house. After all, the second house of Li's house is a family that has produced regenerated rice. People in the nearby ten miles and eight villages know that Li's family is such a family as long as they farm at home.

Therefore, this time, there were a lot of people coming to the running water banquet jointly organized.

Two days before planning to open the flowing water banquet, Village Chief Bai led people to help the Li family and the Bai family sort out a vacant space in the east of the village, and brought in square tables from every household to form long strips, as well as various large bowls.

At the same time, six temporary stoves made of bricks were built around, one was used to steam rice continuously, the other two were used to cook vegetables, two were used to make stews, and one was used to stir-fry vegetables.

Having purchased enough meat one day in advance, including pork, chicken and fish, Zheng Orion and Zheng Shan made a special trip to the back mountain and brought over twenty fat gray rabbits to the Li family.

The meat is fully prepared, and the various vegetables that need to be used are much simpler. You can just buy them directly from the villagers. Village Chief Bai coordinates with them, and the price is the same as buying them outside, so that everyone will not suffer.

At the same time, the master chef who invited to take the spoon brought the apprentices to bring their food - a big frying pan and a big steamer.

This time the Li family and the Bai family celebrated their children's passing of the talent examination, making the whole village as happy and busy as it was during the New Year.

Finally, when it comes to the flowing water banquet, the daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law spontaneously come to help, washing vegetables, cutting vegetables, collecting dishes, and washing dishes are no problem for them.

Li Mingde and Bai Zhiwen, the protagonists of the running water banquet, don't need to do anything else, just keep smiling and accepting other people's congratulations. Seeing the happy faces of their family members, they rubbed their stiff faces and continued to greet those who came to the banquet. guests.

In the afternoon when the running water banquet was at its least crowded, Zhang Anhao brought Fu Bo and Wen Zhu over. He had a major event and a minor event to tell his two disciples.

The big thing is that he is about to leave Changping County and return to the capital.

In the blink of an eye, Zhang Anhao has been in Changping County for six years. At the beginning, he never thought that he would stay in this small county for so long. Maybe because the small county has beautiful scenery and no worries, his old problems have improved a lot. , people look younger.

But the son and daughter in the capital were worried that he was alone in the field, and every time they wrote letters, they urged him to return to Beijing.

Zhang Anhao saw that the two young disciples had both passed the examination of scholar, and it was time for them to go to study outside to make friends with some classmates, so he asked them to go to Fucheng government school next, and he went home.

So he promised his son to return to Beijing in the last reply letter, and the time was set at the turn of spring and summer this year, the most suitable season for traveling.

Another thing is that he intends to leave the boy Wenzhu in Changping County. Wenzhu is an orphan. He is not a domestic slave of the Zhang family. He was picked up by Zhang Anhao on the side of the road when he was five or six years old. There happened to be a plant of asparagus bamboo growing stubbornly, so Zhang Anhao named it asparagus bamboo, without a surname.

Wenzhu has been taking care of Zhang Anhao in Changping County for the past few years. He met a girl he likes to start a family. When Zhang Anhao decided to return to Beijing, he asked him if he wanted to join him.

Zhang Anhao thought it would be good if Wenzhu stayed, firstly Wenzhu could help take care of his two disciples, and secondly Wenzhu could also take care of the small property he had bought in the original Han province over the years.

When Zhang Anhao bought these properties at the beginning, he thought that the two disciples had no money at home, so he prepared them for the exams, but he didn't expect to be unable to use them until now.

A few years have passed and these industries have developed quite well, so he simply wants to leave this time, and simply hand them over to the two disciples, and they can do whatever they want.

The small industry that Zhang Anhao talked about is not small in the eyes of the Li family and the Bai family. There is a restaurant with shops in the prefectural and county towns, and a tea house. There are three shops in total, except for the tea house. It was a bought shop, and the two restaurants were rented.

After the income from restaurants and teahouses offset the initial investment costs over the years, there are still about [-] taels left on the books.

He wrote the names of the two disciples on the house deed of the teahouse, not counting the current monthly income of several shops, just their current value added up to thousands of taels.

These things were sent out by Zhang Anhao lightly, but Bai Zhiwen and Li Mingde refused without even thinking about it. How could they accept such a large sum of money casually.

Zhang Anhao saw that they were more and more satisfied with the two disciples, and said to them: "These properties are nothing, they are the travel expenses prepared by the teacher for you."

"In the past, the teacher didn't give it to you when he saw that you didn't lack money for the exam. Now that I'm back in the capital, I probably won't come out casually. If I don't give these things, am I going to sell them?"

"It's also your bad luck. It just so happened that last year was the provincial examination, and the next round will take two years. If you fail to pass the provincial examination after two years, don't come to visit me when you arrive in the capital. I think it's embarrassing."

Having joined Zhang Anhao's family for six years, Li Mingde and Bai Zhiwen were surprised for a while when they learned that their teacher was the famous Mr. Dehui, and then gradually got used to their teacher's background.

I think that when Bai Zhiwen met Zhang Anhao for the first time, he felt familiar. It should be because he had seen a portrait of Mr. Dehui in a certain school before.

Therefore, Li Mingde and Bai Zhiwen both agreed to Zhang Anhao's request that they win the exam in two years. This is exactly their goal, and they will work hard not to lose face of their teacher.

Seeing this, Zhang Anhao thought for a while, and decided to tell them about the provincial examination questions, anyway, they will find out after they go to the government school: "The rural examination is not as difficult as those outside people say, and the questions I gave you before the college examination include I think you answered quite well to the questions of the provincial examination. If you continue to study hard in the government school for two years, it will not be difficult to pass the exam at the level of the two of you. The goal I set for the two of you is not just ordinary juren."

The scholar has the head of the case and the student, and there are only Jieyuan and ordinary candidates. The teacher wants them to fight for the position of Jieyuan?

Bai Zhiwen and Li Mingde looked at each other in blank dismay. They really never thought that among the questions they did before, there were the questions of the township test. Although they didn't know which of the questions they did back then were the questions of the township test, but judging from the teacher's words, they They should have done a good job, and they didn't even think about fighting for the position of Jie Yuan.

"What's wrong with Xie Yuan, the only difference between you and that Cheng Xiuzhu in the college exam is fame. His articles are not as good as yours, but his reputation is greater than yours. That's why Xuezheng chose his desk. You two have studied hard in the past two years. It is not difficult for a child who beat him to pass the exam."

In the past, Zhang Anhao seldom said with certainty that his two disciples were good at studying. He was worried that the young people would be unstable, and after being praised for a few words, they would not study hard. Usually, he would first say a few words about their writing, and then immediately Pick a mistake.

When studying with Zhang Anhao, there were no other students to compare with, which made the two of them underestimate their strength all the time.

In fact, Zhang Anhao felt that his two disciples could take the provincial examination with their current knowledge, as long as the questions they encountered were not particularly bad for them, it would be no problem to pass the examination this year, but it would be better to wait for another two years.

After a few words of encouragement to the two apprentices, Zhang Anhao left the house deed and the previous account books, and left Shanghe Village with Uncle Fu, leaving the asparagus bamboo behind.

Wenzhu is the person left by Zhang Anhao to take care of the two disciples. His role is not to be a servant, but a housekeeper. If there is no accident, he will often deal with people from the Li family and the Bai family in the future.

At first they didn't know what was going on, thinking that the young man next to Mr. Zhang was staying to receive the guests together with Li Mingde and Bai Zhiwen on behalf of Mr. Zhang.

For a long time, although Li Mingde and Bai Zhiwen did not tell the family members of Mr. Zhang's real identity, both the Li family and the Bai family could see that Mr. Zhang's status was noble, and he would definitely not personally meet these people with his status as an old man. The country folks who came to eat the flowing water banquet exchanged, and it was already a shame to leave a servant.

This paragraph is purely for everyone to make up. In fact, Mr. Zhang will not look down on illiterate people, because he himself was born in the army, and most of the soldiers who worked with him were these peasants. That memory is very important to him. Words are precious.

And when there is nothing to do, Mr. Zhang will let Wenzhu or Uncle Fu drive a carriage with him to the villages near Changping County. When he is not smiling with a straight face, he looks like a not very rich Some courageous farmers see him coming here often, and they will talk to him about the things in the field between work.

Mr. Zhang did not stay for long today, mainly because after he came over, he could obviously feel that the people in the running water table couldn't help but look towards him, everyone's voices also lowered, and there was no previous excitement. It seemed that he was worried about offending the distinguished guests of the Li family and the Bai family.

The reason why Li's and Bai's families held this banquet was that they hoped that more people would come to congratulate their children on being admitted as a scholar. Mr. Zhang felt that the atmosphere at the banquet should not be like this.

Indeed, after Mr. Zhang left, the atmosphere on the running water table returned to its previous enthusiasm. Although there was an asparagus present, the asparagus was only wearing ordinary muslin bunts, which looked not much different from everyone else.

Moreover, Wenzhu usually comes into contact with all kinds of people, and he quickly became friends with these spectators, so that everyone couldn't help but ignore the fact that he came here with Mr. Zhang.

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