The husband's son-in-law

Thirty years.

There is a layer of snow on the ground of Li's courtyard, as well as on the branches of the sweet-scented osmanthus trees planted in the flower beds, which look very beautiful from a distance.

Li Da was wearing a sheepskin waistcoat, which was newly made this year in purple quilted jacket, and a cashmere hat. When he came out of the house, he saw the snow outside and couldn't help sighing: "It's snowing so thickly." , The crops will be better next year, and there will be plenty of rain and snow, but the snow has been falling non-stop, so don’t let the roofs of our village be crushed by the snow.”

"Father, it shouldn't be. This is the capital city. Maybe it doesn't snow in our Xiping Village. Even if it does, someone in the village will help take care of it. If it's heavy, they will help clean it up." Gu Zhao came out and said to his father.

Li Da nodded, "It's true, the second child also has my big brother in his eyes now."

Gu Zhao walked down the corridor to look at the stove house in front, Li Da took the broom and started sweeping the snow, Gu Zhao saw it and said, "Father, it's fine if you don't sweep it, it's okay to walk in the corridor."

"I don't have anything to do, so I just pick a job. The snow is getting hotter and hotter. It's more comfortable than staying in the house, and I feel refreshed."

Gu Zhao didn't say anything, and just asked his father to be careful not to get cold.He and Zhou Zhou had a bit of a fight last night, and now he's not going to work, so Zhou Zhou can sleep in the room for a while, he went to get breakfast, and gave red envelopes to Mother Lan and Fang Liu by the way.

As soon as she left the second gate, Mother Lan packed up her breakfast early, came out to salute the master, and said, "Hello, master, breakfast is ready, you said it will be delivered later."

"I'll carry the meal over there. I don't have anything to do in the morning. You and Master Fang should go back early to celebrate the New Year, and come back in the third year of junior high." Gu Zhao wrapped red envelopes for the two of them, one and a half taels of silver.This is scheduled every week.

Mother Lan took the red envelope and didn't open it to read. Instead, she carried the food box first and said, "I have prepared too much for this one, and the master can't take it. Let me do it."

Fang Liu also took the food box from Gu Zhao's hand.

Gu Zhao let the two of them go, there were only two of them in the big five-layer food box, and he didn't know what Mama Lan had prepared.

After breakfast, Mother Lan and Fang Liu saluted and went out to go home.

Gu Zhao opened the food box and saw that there were dishes and small bowls, eight-treasure rice porridge, millet porridge, fried buns, stewed egg custard, milky steamed buns—goat milk donated by the family’s ewes, and shaped flower petals Jujube paste cake, bean paste cake, pea yellow and so on.

The salty ones include sesame oil pickles, crispy small yellow croakers, and meat pies.

The good guy also has a bowl of broiled lamb.

I don't know what time Lan's mother got up in the morning to make it. I really didn't know how to cook the New Year's Eve dinner. This morning meal is enough for their family to eat until noon.

"Father, Zhou Zhou has dinner." Gu Zhao finished the meal and went into the back room.

Li Zhouzhou washed up early and played with Fu Bao on the bed. It's nothing important anyway, just listen to my husband.This will hear the meal, and then go down.

"Good morning Fufu."

"Fu Fu howling." Fu Bao nodded his head to imitate his father.

Gu Zhao kissed his son's cheek and said, "Let's go have dinner~"

"Second rice cow~"

Fubao can now eat complementary food. Eight-treasure porridge with beans and peanuts is not suitable for Fubao. Millet porridge made from boiled rice oil is very suitable. There are also milky steamed buns. Gu Zhao pinched a piece for his son and let Fubao I hold it by myself and eat it with a few grains of rice in my teeth.

"So much?" Li Da wiped off the snow from his hat outside and came in, took off his leather jacket and hung it on the hanger by the door, the stove in the main room was warm enough.

Li Zhouzhou served porridge for his father, "I have this meal in the morning and at noon, and I will prepare the New Year's Eve dinner in the afternoon. This can't be done."

"It's very rich. When I was in the village in the past, there were so many dishes on the plate." Li Da sat down to take the porridge bowl, took a small mouthful of porridge, and the amount was not much. With a smile on his face, he teased Fu Bao, "Fu Fu What are you eating?"

"Yeah~" Fubao showed his grandpa a grin.

Gu Zhao broke off a mouthful of milk-flavored steamed buns and handed them to his son. Fubao held the steamed buns in his hand and would eat them with rice grains in his mouth. The adults fed him a mouthful of porridge, and after drinking, he held up the steamed buns like a little squirrel. teeth grinding.

"Dad, do you miss the village? It's almost Chinese New Year, so I talked about the village a few days ago." Gu Zhao fed his son porridge.

Li Da took a sip of the porridge, picked up the bowl of roasted mutton with his chopsticks, and said, "Yes, I used to go back every year in prefectures and counties, but it's just like that when I go back alone, and it's fine now."

His son, grandson and brother-in-law are all here in Beijing, so what is he doing back in the village?I have lived in the countryside for half my life, and when the Chinese New Year comes, isn't that what I think about.

Gu Zhao then said: "In the future, there will be a chance for our family to go back together, when Fubao grows up."

"That's true, don't be cold on Fufu."

Fu Bao grinds steamed buns with his teeth, and when he hears his grandpa calling him Fu Fu, he looks at him with round eyes, Li Da laughs and says, "Eat it, grandpa praises Fu Fu's delicious food."

Gu Zhao took a small bun for Zhou Zhou and said, "This one is stuffed with red bean paste, and the one with the folds on the top is flattened with mutton stuffing."

Li Zhouzhou likes to eat sweets, so he sent the mutton stuffed buns on the plate to Xianggong.

The buns are not as big as Fubao's palm, and Gu Zhao eats two of them, saying, "The mutton doesn't taste bad, and the meat is not bad. Let's make a side stove for the New Year's Eve dinner, cut a few plates of mutton, and make a big bone soup pot." end."

"Okay." Li Zhouzhou finished eating the red bean paste buns, and also went to pick up a mutton bun. After tasting it, it really didn't have much fishy smell, and said: "There are four lamb's feet, and I will marinate it with duck later."

Li Da said yes immediately.

The family chatted and ate breakfast, it was all gossip, what to do for New Year's Eve dinner at night.After eating, the couple cleaned up the dishes, and there was only one plate of steamed stuffed buns left. They put together two plates of mixed flavors and sweet snacks, and put them on the table. You can have a bite when you are free. This one is not afraid to let it cool down.

After washing the dishes, Li Zhouzhou started to prepare for the New Year's Eve dinner. First, he cleaned up slowly, killing ducks and washing sheep's hooves. Li Da went to help, and Gu Zhao stayed to watch Fubao and play with his son with wooden toys of lamb and chicken.

In the kitchen, the fire was burning, but it was very warm and not cold at all.

Li Zhouzhou put the washed and disassembled duck in. The first stove was a whole duck. He wanted to sell it for a better look. He just came to the prefecture from the village before, and found that the people in the prefecture and county are dexterous in eating and drinking. , now in Beijing, looking at the table made by Lan Mama in the morning, I know that it looks good.

Just this mother Lan said that she is not considered a serious cook, but just learned a little bit by stealth.

Li Zhouzhou wanted to marinate a whole one and try it out. The fire in the stove was low and slow, for fear that it would fall apart under high heat.But when the time comes, the whole duck looks somewhat ugly and hideous, but it is braised separately, the color is shiny and beautiful, it should be rotten, and it should be strong.

The marinated duck cannot be taken out of the pan immediately, but must be soaked in the marinade to get enough flavor.

Li Zhouzhou chopped the stuffing and began to make dumplings, sauerkraut and pork flavor, you can put the pot in the side stove at night, and sliced ​​mutton, fried pork balls, fried chicken nuggets, cabbage, frozen tofu, etc. Just wash and cut.

Gu Zhao came over from time to time, secretly took a sip, and said, "Father is holding Fubao." He pinched the freshly fried meatballs and brought them to Zhou Zhou's mouth first. Seeing that Zhou Zhou ate them, he ate them himself.

"Well, it's delicious."

The husband is still like a child.Li Zhouzhou thought with a smile in his eyes.

"I'll try the stewed duck." Gu Zhao lifted the lid of the pot and took a look, "A whole one?"

"I originally thought that a whole one would look neater, but it doesn't look as good when it's marinated. When I first cooked, I thought, I can't marinate the whole one, and I have to separate it. Is it possible to put the separate pieces together? It looks all right."

After hearing this, Gu Zhao said, "That's great, packed in a New Year's gift box."

"It's just like a dim sum box." Li Zhouzhou's eyes lit up, and he said, "I thought of it, I ordered a wooden food box, and put duck wings, duck necks, and duck legs, just like dim sum with different flavors, all in one box superior."

Gu Zhao: "The lid of the wooden box can still have Liji's signboard."

He knew that Zhou Zhou wanted to go to the mid-end market. It was too high and unrealistic to attract attention. A duck can’t be sold for more than ten taels, right?That's expensive.But put it in a box, make it more beautiful, and sell it for half a tael.

The money for making food boxes always comes from the diners.

"In this way, each has its own flavor, and each can guarantee the best heat."

Xiao Gu patted rainbow farts like a dog, "Zhou Zhou is so smart, give me a hug from my wife~"

"I have oil on my hands." Li Zhouzhou indicated that Xianggong is taller than him now.

Xiao Gu: "My hands are clean, I'll hug her." He hugged his wife firmly.

The two of them chatted and worked without feeling bored. Speaking of their New Year's gift to Mr. Shi, they had to remind Second Brother Yan that the two posted posts on the same day, or Second Brother Yan was a day earlier than them. also.

After a while, the snow stopped. Gu Zhao took a look and thought that this year should be a good one.

Farmers want snow, but they are afraid that it will never stop. If it falls continuously, it will be a disaster if it falls too much.

Everything has to be measured.

It was dark in the evening, the main room was lit, and the meals were packed, but there was no rush.Happy New Year to Dad and Dad first.

There is a memorial tablet for my father at home, and now the candles and incense are all lit.

Incense one by one.

Fu Bao put on new clothes beaming with joy, and shouted "Yeah yeah yeah".Gu Zhao and Li Zhouzhou also paid New Year greetings to their father and said auspicious words, wishing him a safe and healthy new year.Li Da sent red envelopes to the three of them as a sign of good luck.

Just sat down to eat.

The milk white boiled at the bottom of the big bone soup has no fishy smell. There are only two vegetarian dishes, frozen tofu and Chinese cabbage. The frozen tofu is cooked for a while to absorb the soup. It is very delicious, and the cabbage is crispy and raw.There are more meat, lamb slices, fat and thin, dipped in sesame sauce, especially mellow.

If the taste is a little stronger, it is a dry stewed product. If you want to shabu-shabu, duck offal is much more delicious. Duck intestines, duck tongue, duck blood, duck liver, especially duck blood, are softer than tofu after cooking. But the taste is slightly heavier.

Gu Zhao remembered the duck blood vermicelli soup that he had eaten before, and the noodles below were delicious.

Not enough, the staple food is noodles and dumplings.

While eating and chatting, they couldn't help talking around Fubao's name, and Li Da said: "Fubao is two years old, it's time to name him, hurry up, if you get upset, I will From now on, I looked at the little one from the second child's house, Li Jian'an would be a good name, let's think about it later."

Gu Zhao looked at his son's small teeth, the size of a grain of rice. His family Fubao really just turned one year old not long ago.

"Father, what do you want to change to the last word?"

Li Da: "I think blessing is very good, healthy and blessed."

Gu Zhaonian understood everything, "Li Jianfu."

"..." Li Da seemed to think it didn't sound very good, especially Fu Bao looked at him with big eyes, and immediately refused to admit it, saying: "No, no, you are a father, why did you have such a name, we Fufu are not happy. "

Gu Zhaoxiao, it's best not to become a talent, and he will take the blame.

"Actually, I thought about it before. Xi is not bad. The sun came out when Fu Bao was born." Gu Zhao also thought about it, and after so many names, he couldn't choose left. Fubao has never had a famous name and it is not appropriate.

Li Dan read everything, "Li Jianxi." Nodded, yes, it sounds better than Li Jianfu.

"Zhou Zhou, what do you think?"

In fact, Li Zhouzhou also had an idea in his heart, he said, "I want to have the sound of my husband's name on the second word, can it work?"

"Success." Gu Zhao was stunned for a moment, and soon became happy. In fact, he didn't care about these things. He was originally a foreigner and was alone. It is natural to have Zhou Zhou's surname.

I am happy to know that Zhou Zhou is thinking about him and caring about his face.Although he didn't feel ashamed to be Zhou Zhou's son-in-law.

Li Da nodded, thinking this is good.So they changed their voices and called, Li Guxi, Li Zhaoxi.

In the end, Li Zhaoxi was settled.

Gu Zhao chose, "It sounds good."

On the last day of Kangjing's 56th year, Fubao became famous, Li Zhaoxi.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the Gu family went to Yan's house to pay New Year's greetings with Fu Bao in their arms. It stands to reason that their husband and wife should go with Fu Bao, a junior. His name is the second brother Yan Jinxin, and Yan Jinxin and Liu Fulang will come to his house again later. Happy New Year, this is for Dad.But Dad said that he didn't pay attention to those rules. Once you left, I was bored by myself, so I happened to talk to Lao Yan, so the family went out.

Li Zhouzhou brought braised goods, sugar and wine.

Gu Zhao wrapped Fu Bao tightly with a rabbit fur cloak, only revealing a pair of big black eyes.

The snow outside hadn't melted yesterday, and it was a vast expanse of whiteness. Fu Bao was sitting in Father's arms, kicking his legs to reach out to look out. Seeing that everything was so lively, Gu Zhao secretly opened it for Fu Bao. The corner of the curtain is convenient for Fubao to peek at Chenggong secretly.

Li Zhouzhou took into account everything the father and son did, but he didn't say anything, and let the two be childish and playful.

When they arrived at Yan's house, they greeted each other cordially.

Everyone entered the hall to talk.The main room of the Yan family is warmest with a charcoal stove. Originally, Yan's mother Yan Auntie also said that Dabai would be brought over, and the two of them would take care of him at night. The main room was warm, and Dabai slept with Auntie.

If Liu Shu had agreed before, it would have saved him the trouble of waking up at night. Most of the daughters-in-law in the village were brought up by their mothers-in-law and grandmothers after giving birth. , but now he should have agreed, but the words slipped from his mouth, and he thought that brother Zhou Zhou was the Fubao he brought.

So he refused.

Sleep in the same room with them at night.

Now chatting started, Liu Shu said: "...my Dabai is very easy to bring when he doesn't get up at night. I haven't heard him cry a few times."

Li Zhouzhou was surprised, and immediately praised it, saying that it was very good, and his family Fubao would cry at night during confinement.

But Liu Shu didn't know, he was a dead sleeper, just as Dabai in the crib groaned, Yan Jingxin who was sleeping beside the bed got up and began to take care of Dabai, whether he was hungry or peed.

After talking about the children, we talked about giving gifts to Mr. Shi.

"My family intends to send a bottle of wine to the stewed duck." Li Zhouzhou knew Xiaoshu's character, so he said straightforwardly, "Are you tight?"

The Yan family's money is managed by Willow, knowing that Brother Zhou Zhou was worried about him, so he didn't hide it, saying: "Before confinement and later, I had more than ten taels in my hand, and I spent two taels of silver a month. The monthly silver brought back by Xin can save more than one tael, which is enough, and there are rice grains and meat brought back from the New Year, my family can't finish it, so I took it out and sold some."

That is not rich but not nervous either.

Li Zhouzhou stopped worrying, and turned around to talk about the business of braised ducks, ordering dim sum boxes for ducks, and when he mentioned the business, Liu Shu became interested and said, "I was just about to tell Brother Zhou Zhou, I came back to think about it, Why don't we accept banquets? This is a one-to-one household, and retail households don't sell it, and it's dedicated to accepting three-in-three-out big yards."

"It's too troublesome to receive the banquet, and there are too many preparations. If you don't explain it when you enter the mansion, do you still remember that squire butler ran on us?"

"It is."

"Choose an alley shop close to the main street. The yard is bigger. The ducks are only sold in boxes."

Willow answered, "Then let's make more for Chinese New Year, give some to the Imperial Academy, and let's spread word of mouth."

"this is OK."

It also kills two birds with one stone, it is a warm-up of word-of-mouth, and it also helps the husband and wife establish a friendship with colleagues. It may feel strange to give it normally, but it is not a very expensive gift to give a meal during the Chinese New Year, so it is okay.Li Zhouzhou made up his mind.

Gotta ask when the carpenter's shop opens for food boxes.

The two families don't have any relatives in Beijing, so when Zheng Hui is free, just walk around and pay New Year's greetings.

In the evening of the second day of junior high school, Mother Lan came back.Mother Lan was holding a jar of pickles in her hand. Her family pickled it herself, and it was clean without opening it. She was still worried about whether Madam would want it, but she thought that if Madam didn't want it, she could keep it for herself to eat.

This time when I went back to celebrate the New Year, she couldn’t even take the meat, duck, lamb leg, and white rice that Li’s sent out, so she sent a message back to the guy in the alley of her house in the shop while she was free, and her son came to get it with a cart. of.

Seeing so many, she was still dazed and didn't dare to answer it, and asked her if the nobles knew about it.

"This is rewarded by the nobleman. Your mother, I can do sneaky things?" Mother Lan almost pinched her son.

The son hurriedly apologized for coaxing his mother, "I just didn't expect there to be so many."

This is true.Mother Lan worked in various mansions in the capital. The last one was the longest. She worked as a helper in a five-rank official's stove house. She cut vegetables and cut meat for more than ten years. Why did she leave?

Mother Lan was kidnapped and run away by a trick.

At that time, the monthly money was more than it is now, and the kitchen was full of oil and water. Although it was a bit hard to cut and wash, the previous head of the family ate fine food, and generally they didn’t eat leftovers. Well, the monthly payment is a little less, and it is no better than the maid mother who served her personally, so she doesn't have to look at Madam's face to do things.

But the stove house is the work of two people. The cook has a good relationship with her on weekdays, talking and laughing, but the cook set up a trap. When she left, it was the cook's cousin who picked her up. Aunt.

Mother Lan's heart was chilled, as she was getting older, it was hard to find a job, especially the deed of work, not the deed of prostitution, it was vacant for two months, but fortunately, she ran into Li's family.

The monthly salary is [-] cents less than the previous job, and there is a lot of work. She has the kitchen alone, and she has to wash the clothes. A lot of practicality.

It turned out that it didn't work out, and when the New Year came, the Li family gave the New Year gift very generously.

More than the previous Patriarch.Although Madam said it was an accident and there were a lot more this year, but Mother Lan thought that if she didn't give it to these servants, it would be better to sell it for money.

The owner is still kind.

In the big yard in Beijing, two families lived together. Mother Lan’s family of eight lived in three rooms, cooking and lighting fires. Her husband died more than twenty years ago. It was too hard at that time. She opened her mouth to call her mother and called her hungry mouth, what could she do if she didn't do the work of serving people?

Fortunately, they were carried over.

The whole family was naturally happy when they saw what they took back.Mama Lan's mother-in-law is seventy years old, and she came here just to make ends meet, and asked Mama Lan if she wanted to sell the rice and meat for money.

Let's have a prosperous year.Mother Lan said: "My serving wife said that if you are poor this year, you will have to suffer if your life is not smooth in the coming year."

Mother Lan's mother-in-law gave up.

The grandchildren are happy to know that they can eat meat.

After a happy and prosperous year, Lan's mother packed up and went back to Li's house in the afternoon of the second day of junior high school. The mother-in-law said that the jar of pickles hadn't been opened yet, so you took it home, thank you, and I don't know if you will eat it or not.

Mother Lan never thought of delivering pickles to the official wife before, but this time her heart was shaken, so she wrapped it in a cloth and carried it away.

"Happy New Year, Mama Lan, are you back so early?" Li Zhouzhou was busy working in the kitchen, when he heard the knock on the door, he came out to open the door, and saw Mama Lan.

"Hi Ma'am." Mother Lan greeted with a smile first, and said, "I don't have much to do at home, so I'll come here, within a day and a half. This is a pickle made at home." She didn't know what to say.

Li Zhouzhou thought Mother Lan was eating it by herself, so she said, "I used to pickle pickled vegetables when I was in the village. My husband likes to eat pickled cucumbers, and the wild vegetables in the autumn field are also delicious when pickled."

"I'm going to give it to my wife if you don't mind, I haven't opened this jar to eat yet." Mother Lan said quickly.

Li Zhouzhou didn't want to win people's favor at first, but seeing Lan's mother's nervous expression, it seemed, it seemed that she was specially sent to his house?

"Give it to me? Let's try it, I just made porridge." After Li Zhouzhou finished speaking, he noticed that Lan's mother was relieved, and it was for his family.

In the past two days of the Chinese New Year, there is no food without meat. In the evening, Li Zhouzhou cooked rice porridge, served with the pickles brought back by Lan's mother, which was refreshing and served with rice.

Li Da felt good, he could scrape off the fat in his stomach.

It doesn't matter if Gu Zhao eats it, the pickles are crispy, and he likes to eat crispy things.Li Zhouzhou turned around and thanked Lan's mother, saying that everyone in the family loved it.Mother Lan put her heart in her stomach, and couldn't hide the smile on her face.

Early the next morning, Fang Liu also came back with two loads of firewood.If Mother Lan hadn't mentioned it, Li Zhouzhou wouldn't have known that Master Fang had sent firewood to his family for free, so he would have kept it in mind.

The father and son of the Li family were not born into a wealthy family, they came from a village in the countryside. Now that Gu Zhao is a petty official, the family's officials are not prestigious, and they seem to be set up on the outside, but in essence, The life of a family is full of fireworks.

Even if the status class has changed now, the way people treat things has not changed.

The snow in Beijing fell for half a day, stopped for a while, and started to fall again at night, one after another without stopping, but the amount of snowfall was not very large.

Gu Zhaoshun asked Fang Liu, how is the village outside?

"Our village is fine, but a house in the next village was crushed by the snow." Fang Liu replied.

Gu Zhao nodded after hearing this. It hasn't been a snow disaster yet, but if it continues like this, he won't know.

On the sixth day of the lunar new year, the furniture shop opened. Li Zhouzhou first ordered ten food boxes. He dismantled a duck himself. According to the size of the grid drawn according to the length of duck legs, duck neck, and duck parts, the willow tree Contributed a duck poem written by his man.

When Gu Zhao came back to look, he didn't know how to put his expression on.Li Zhouzhou wondered, "Could it be that the writing is not good?"

"No, the four-character poem is written in a small and exquisite way, and it's catchy to read, which is very popular with the people." Gu Zhaoxiao smiled because the second brother Yan was able to go all out, it must be for Liu Fulang's face, "Excellent." Then he went smoothly After thinking about it, I designed it on the food box at home.

The tenth day box came back, polished smooth and tasteless, Li Zhouzhou also started to wash and scald it, soaked it overnight, and started to make the first batch of food boxes for delivery the next day.

Gu Zhao wrote a New Year's greeting post, which belongs to people and does not go, but gifts are delivered.Except for Mr. Shi, it is naturally different for Mr. Shi. I wrote a greeting card. This is the etiquette here. Mr. Shi is the top leader of the Imperial Academy, and he is also old.

He had asked before, everyone in their review department wrote, but the responses were also uniform. Mr. Shi didn't like noise, so he only replied, and never invited them to a banquet.

After Gu Zhao finished writing the post, Li Zhouzhou and Liu Shu arranged the braised ducks in the kitchen.These things don't come with any soup, and the weather is cold, so I'm not afraid of spilling them.

In a box of braised duck, there are classic items such as duck offal, duck wings, duck neck, and duck collarbone.

There is also an extra piece of skin jelly for Mr. Liang, which is all chopped, and Mr. Liang needs to mix it himself.Gu Zhao wrote a note and put it on the note. Speaking of it earlier, Mr. Liang was curious, so he sent an extra copy when his family made it.

The coachman of Yan's family waited outside, and when the things were ready, he got into the car with a food box, took the greeting card and set off.The same goes for Fang Liu here.There are five families in total, but they are different from each other in the south, east and north, and it takes a day to run.

Shifu.

The concierge accepted the greeting card, and Fang Liu replied: "Hanlin is reviewing the greeting card and annual ceremony sent by Mr. Gu Zhaogu."

"Excuse me." The concierge of Shi's residence was polite, and took the things in Fang Liu's hand, looking strange at first glance.

Fang Liu said: "It's a food box, don't spill it when you're tired."

"it is good."

The concierge took the things into the gate of the house, sent them all the way to the second gate, and said to the rough envoy, "Mom, this is for your lord, Mr. Gu, the reviewer of the Imperial Academy, it contains food, please take it carefully."

"Understood, you monkey spirit."

Shi Mansion is a house with four entrances, it is exquisitely repaired, there are plum blossoms planted in the side yard, and now the plum blossoms are in bud, covered with a layer of snow, half of the bamboo curtains are placed in the house, Shi Mingwen is sitting in it drinking tea with his old friends .

The rough envoy took this box to eat, guessing which one sent the snacks this year, she couldn't help curling her lips, feeling shabby in her heart, probably one of the two adults who only entered the Imperial Academy last year.

I heard that they all came from farming families.

This box of things is how expensive can expensive snacks be?

Thinking this way in her heart, the rough envoy still held it in a regular manner, without daring to show it on her face, and handed it all the way to the door of the house where the wife who entered the door three times lived, explained the purpose of coming in a low voice, and handed it to the maid who served beside the wife.

The maid thanked her and went inside with her things.The poor woman could only take a look, smiled coquettishly and went back to the front. Her rough hands and hands were cooking for the servants in the stove in the outer courtyard and doing some rough work.

It can't compare with the maids serving in other people's houses.

After hearing the servant girl's reply, Mrs. Shi was no stranger to these invitations and New Year's gifts. There were a batch of these every year, and she came to answer the master's reply. She had to go through the New Year's gifts first. Silver and these are mixed in, so when the master replies, send it back no matter how it came, her family doesn't accept these, the master hates it.

The other ones, like calligraphy and painting, pen and ink, etc., are a little bit more expensive, but Mrs. Shi knows that the master likes these, so she will keep them, but the gifts from the reply post are about the same price.

This is all back and forth.

Mrs. Shi is literate, so she opened the letter and took a look. It was signed by the Imperial Academy to review Gu Zhao. Why didn't there even be a word?I guess it was the Tanhualang that the master had mentioned. I heard that he came from a poor family. No wonder, he didn't even have a serious teacher.

"What is it? It looks like a snack box."

The maid came forward holding it.Mrs. Shi looked at it and read it out, "Li Ji Luzhu." Seeing the little poem next to it, she suddenly laughed amusedly, and said, "Show it to the master later."

"Where's my lord?"

The servant girl replied: "Mrs., I am drinking tea with Mrs. Sun in the tea room."

in the tea room.

Shi Mingwenzheng said: "... last year's No. [-] Scholar Yan Jingxin, I watched it for a while, he is solemn and upright, and the articles are well written, quite like you, can't help but accept him as an apprentice?"

"I have apprentices."

Shi Mingwen frowned when he mentioned it, "You said Liang Zizhi, it's been more than ten years, and all your abilities were wasted in the midst of self-criticism, and all your abilities were wasted when he was entrusted to him."

"If you continue to say that Zizhi is not good, I will leave without drinking tea."

"What's your temper—" Shi Mingwen was so angry that he couldn't speak, he really looked like Liang Zizhi, with a stubborn temper, no wonder it was the master and the apprentice.

Mr. Sun poured tea, watched his friend blow his beard and stare happily, and said with a smile: "Okay, I have a bad temper, I have a stubborn temper, for so many years, I have to mutter these things every time we meet, are you not annoying?"

"If you are an ordinary trafficker and pawn, you don't have any skills, and you want to go to the wild cranes, I don't even look at it, I don't care, but you are from the Sun family in Chuzhou, are you willing to have no one to inherit?"

"I have Zizhi——"

Shi Mingwen was getting angry again, he patted the table, "Liang Zizhi!" He seemed unwilling to let it go.

"Don't be angry, I know what you said is rigorous. It's not that I don't want to meet and take the school exam. I'm afraid you don't know. Master Chu also has the heart to accept this..."