Red Mansions Become Baochai

In fact, it was just a big fat cricket with two protruding tentacles, and its whole body was black and shining with light. He hurriedly stuffed the grasshopper cage back to Xue Pan and said, "A gentleman doesn't take what others like. I never like to play." Chong Dou Niao, cousin should take it back."

Although Xue Pan was a little bit reluctant to give up on the general of Hussars, but he managed to find a loyal brother, so he still put the grasshopper cage in Gu Yunzhen's hands, and said with a smile: "Your cousin doesn't accept me because you look down on me, you don't like fighting crickets , just keep it, and listen to his singing when you sleep, it’s good to relieve boredom.” Gu Yunzhen had no choice but to accept it.

The two entered the house, Xue Pan bid farewell to his aunt, and told him to come and look for him later, and then ran out to play like a gust of wind.Gu Yunzhen was left at a loss for the Hushi General.Afraid to tell the elders, Xue Pan will be punished.It would be even more inappropriate to keep it by yourself. After thinking about it, I'd better take it with me and return it to Xue Pan.

When his mother took him into Mingtang hall, he went to do some needlework with his aunt for the maid, and discussed how to draw it, and asked the maid to send him into the back room to talk to his cousins.He came in and saw the books, pens and inks in front of the Baochai brothers and sisters, he was secretly amused, how many words can the younger sister know when the elder brother reads?Putting out these many books is just a pretense.

The maid brought tea and snacks and went to the outside room. Seeing that there was no elder present, Gu Yunzhen hurriedly took out the grasshopper cage and quietly returned it to Xue Pan. Baochai had sharp eyes, and she snatched it away.

Baochai looked at his cousin and said with a smile: "It's such an exquisite grasshopper cage, let me guess, it must be my brother's naughtiness, he got it from outside, and he is afraid that his parents will find out, so let my cousin hide it for me? "

Xue Pan waved his hand and said, "I sent my cousin, he didn't appreciate it." Then he turned his head and asked Gu Yunzhen: "My cousin doesn't like cricket fighting, so what do you usually play in the winter, untie the chain, and catch the chess pieces are all girls It’s for playing at home, tell me what you like, I’ll let the boys buy it for us to play with?”

Before Gu Yunzhen could answer, Baochai made a grimace to shame her brother: "Obviously you are the one who solves Lianhuan, and you always lose to me in the game of Go, so you don't play Go, and now you lied to your cousin that these are all girls' stuff." .”

Baochai looked at the grasshopper cage, thinking that he could use this thing as an opportunity to educate him, and smiled again: "Now that the grasshopper cage is in my hands, I will give it to any of you who can tell an allusion about crickets, okay?" Woolen cloth?"

Xue Pan scratched his head and said, "I only know that grasshoppers are also called crickets and crickets, what else?"

Baochai stretched out her finger to shave her face and shamed her brother, saying: "Nonsense, a grasshopper is a grasshopper, and a cricket is a cricket. The grasshopper is big, but the cricket is small. If you buy it to listen to it, it is the grasshopper, which is called brother. The aggressive one is the cricket. For example, my brother, the great general of hussars, is considered big among crickets, but smaller than grasshoppers."

Xue Pan felt bored and said: "Who cares if it's a grasshopper or a cricket, it's just a bug anyway." After thinking for a long time, he simply gave up and said: "Anyway, I have already sent the General Hussar to my cousin, sister, you can make things difficult for me. Him."

Gu Yunzhen smiled and said: "I don't know the allusion, but I only remember the poem about crickets, does my cousin want to hear it?"

Baochai smiled and said, "It's better to have poems. My cousin recites them quickly, and I'm ashamed of my brother."

Just listen to Gu Yunzhen said: "First of all, in "The Book of Songs Bin Feng July": July is in the wild, August is in the sky, September is in the house, and October is when crickets come under my bed. There is also a sentence in the ancient nineteen poems: bright moon Bright light, prompting weaving to sing on the east wall."

"Well said," Baochai applauded loudly, then smiled and said to Xue Pan, "My brother doesn't know allusions, and he doesn't know how to recite poems. He only knows how to play with crickets, so today I have to recite an ancient poem as punishment, and write fifty more." big letters."

Xue Pan blushed and said, "I've read poems about crickets there, but my sister doesn't know about it. If my sister can recite poems and tell allusions, I will accept the punishment."

Baochai said: "It's a deal," and made a high-five agreement with Xue Pan. Seeing that Baochai was full of confidence, Gu Yunzhen was very curious about what allusions the little cousin could tell.

Baochai said: "I will recite the poem first. The beginning of "Mulan Song": Chirp and chirp, Mulan is the household weaving. I don't hear the loom, but the sigh of the woman. The one singing next to the Mulan loom here is the cricket."

Xue Pan said: "In this poem it is only said that worms are called chirp, but it is not explicitly said that it is called by crickets."

Baochai said, "Well, I'll recite a poem "The Grasshopper and the Cricket", which is clearly stated in the poem." "

After finishing speaking, he whispered softly:

The earth is poetic and endless.The sun is burning and the birds are singing tiredly, and the trees are shaded and perched.

The bamboo fence surrounds the greenery, and the grass is newly mowed.Suddenly there was a sound, which circled the fence slowly.

It was originally a Grasshopper's song, led by the Joy Canal: Midsummer is full of luxuriance, if the boat is not tied,

The enjoyment is inexhaustible, and the songs come without worry; Occasionally, I feel tired, and I rest in the wild grass.

The earth is full of poetry, endlessly endless: the winter night is desolate, the frosty sky is so silent,

At this time, there is a stove, and the flames warm people's hearts.The crickets take advantage of the elegance and spit out wonderful sounds;

The host sat abruptly, seeming to be asleep and then awake. Could it be that the grasshopper's song came from the green mountains far away.

Xue Pan shouted: "Even if the poem has been memorized, how about allusions?"

Baochai said: "Let's not talk about crickets, let me tell you an allusion about the grasshopper's cage first. Two brothers, you first count the grasshopper's cage. How many beams, how many columns, how many ridges are there?"

Gu Yunzhen and Xue Pan were bought by Baochai, and they all stared at the grasshopper cage with wide eyes and started counting.Xue Pan counted the pillars, but forgot how many beams there were, so he stomped his feet anxiously.

After a while, Gu Yunzhen finished counting and reported: "There are nine beams, eighteen columns and 72 ridges in total. My sister is right."

Baochai said: "Exactly, let me tell you a story first. There was an emperor in a certain dynasty who wanted to build four very beautiful turrets on the outer wall of the palace. , He told the minister of the Ministry of Industry, who was officially converted to the imperial city, that if the turret could not be built well, he would be beheaded."

Xue Pan stood up and shouted, "Then did the emperor behead this minister?"

Gu Yunzhen pulled Xue Pan to sit down and said, "Cousin, don't worry, let's hurry and listen to my cousin's story."

Baochai went on to say: "This unlucky minister received the emperor's imperial edict, and he was very scared. He couldn't think of how to build such a strange turret. He was afraid of being beheaded, so he sent all the craftsmen and carpenters who could build buildings in the capital They caught them and told them the emperor's will. Within a month, they must figure out how to build these four turrets, otherwise, before the emperor cut off his head, he would cut off the heads of the craftsmen first. .”

As Baochai spoke, he stretched out his hand and slashed fiercely, causing Xue Pan to shake his hands and feet in fright.

Continued: "The one-month deadline is coming soon, and these craftsmen can't go back. They just keep trying to build that strange building in various ways every day, but they all fail. Seeing that it's getting dark, the second Tian was about to be beheaded, and suddenly heard an old man's cry: "Buy grasshoppers, listen to the calls, and relieve your boredom if you can't sleep. "There was a kind carpenter who saw that the old man had to buy things so late, so he went out and bought one back. Who knew that the grasshopper cage looked like a small building, and he counted it carefully. It happened to be nine beams and ten There are eight pillars and 72 ridges. Everyone was very happy when they saw it, and they all said that the old man was Master Lu Ban alive, and the cage was presented on the second day, and neither the craftsmen nor the ministers were beheaded, but were rewarded by the emperor."

Xue Pan listened to the story very interestingly, but after hearing it, he said: "This is the story of the grasshopper's cage, not the allusion of the cricket, so it doesn't count."

Baochai looked at his elder brother Laipi, and said again: "I still have some more, and I only talk about the allusions about crickets now. Fighting crickets is not unique now. According to the Tang Dynasty's "Kaiyuan Tianbao Legacy": "Autumn prosperity in the palace, concubines and concubines Store crickets in small golden cages, put them by the pillow, listen to their sounds at night, and the common people's homes also follow suit." "The ancients played with crickets" began in the Tang Dynasty, was written in the Song Dynasty, and is now popular. Brother, do you know that crickets are also called Zhizhi?"

Xue Pan shook his head, and Baochai said, "There was a treacherous minister named Jia Sidao in the Southern Song Dynasty. He didn't like to be an official. He only liked to play with crickets. He wrote a book called "Cricket Weaving", which talked about catching, identifying, and raising crickets. , Fighting skills. Because he played with insects and ruined the country, the people called him "Cricket Prime Minister". In the late Ming Dynasty, there was a treacherous official Ma Shiying who also liked to play with crickets, because he played with insects. Na Jia is like Tao, and the people jokingly call him "Mr. Cricket".

Baochai concluded: "The old man who weaved grasshopper cages saved people because of his skills and was loved by others. The minister who only knew how to play with crickets misunderstood state affairs and left a bad reputation for thousands of years. Brother, if you want to play with insects, you must first Read the book well, so I confiscated this grasshopper cage, do you accept it?"

Xue Pan dejectedly said: "Of course I agree, it's just that my sister must take good care of the General Hushi, and don't let him die." After speaking, he began to accept his fate and began to write big characters.

Gu Yunzhen was very surprised at this time, he didn't expect that his cousin not only had read books at a young age, but also had better knowledge than himself. Seeing her cousin smiling and watching her brother write big characters, her eyes were bent into a pair of crescent moons, and her mouth was a pair of dimples , smiling sweetly, a deer suddenly ran out of my heart, bumping around, hurriedly picked up tea and took a sip to cover it up.

Exactly: the most pitiful children, not yet lovesick

Welcome back to Xue's house for a big reunion

The winter in Jinling is gloomy and cold. The snow falls from the black clouds, turns into water in mid-air, and soon freezes on the ground.In such a wet and cold weather, Mrs. Xue hurriedly ordered the big woolen clothes to be made in a hurry, and let everyone put on to keep out the cold.

Baochai put on a newly made begonia red flowered jacket early in the morning, a sapphire blue crepe silver mouse leather skirt, and a water red silk silk and silver fox cloak. Yes, thanks to the good craftsmanship of the old tailor Wu, it is more luxurious than the costumes of the little masters in the Golden Branch Desire, and he stepped on a pair of deer embroidered with gold and cloud patterns.