Red Mansions Become Baochai

Leather boots, hiding in front of the big mirror in the back room for a long time.

At this time, the Chinese pay attention to tradition, because the winter solstice will be two days away. According to the old saying, the winter solstice is like a year, and the husband will not give you money if you don’t let it go. The winter solstice is like a year, and the boss will not let it go. With the doors closed, Xue Pan and Gu Yunzhen don't have to go to school.

According to the rules, the ancestors were to be worshiped on this day. Except for their three children, everyone else in Manfu was extremely busy.Xue Ke took people to the Xue family's ancestral grave, preparing to go to the sacrifice and "Shangtu" on the winter solstice.Mrs. Xue is responsible for cleaning and arranging the ancestral hall...wiping several cases of gold and silver offerings, preparing three animals and other sacrifices, and even Aunt He also helps to prepare various gold and silver porridge, red bean glutinous rice balls, rice balls and long strings for festivals. Noodles, good to send with relatives and friends.

It just so happened that on this day, Mrs. Wang's companion, Zheng Hua, and Wang Xin, the steward of the Wang family, brought this year's New Year gifts. Mrs. Xue hurriedly let them enter the outer courtyard, and brought them good wine and food to entertain them.

Baochai came out with her two elder brothers to have a look, but Xue Quan'an, the head housekeeper, didn't smile at all, and asked a few servants to unload the gifts from the cart, register them one by one in the booklet, and then send them to the storeroom.

Baochai counted and remembered that Mrs. Xue sent to the capital, not counting the annual silver, but also twelve carts full of annual gifts.Now there are only three cars parked at the gate.Mrs. Xue gave gold and silver clothing materials, jewelry and medicinal materials as local products.Looking at the gifts returned by Wang and Jia's family, they are indeed all human things.It was said that it was reciprocation, but Xue's family gave away a pig, and shared a piece of meat and a few bones.

Let me talk about Jia's carriage, a pair of soup pigs, a roe deer, and a deer occupy half of the space, and some other clothes and utensils are also common.Grandma Liu visited the Grand View Garden once, and got half a carload of things. Mrs. Wang is a much more stingy sister than Jia Taijun.

The two uncles of the Wang family each sent a cart full of gifts, and the clothes from the eldest uncle's family were vaguely produced by the Xue family.But the second uncle, Wang Ziteng, did not spend much on the gift, but it could be seen that it was carefully prepared.In Baochai's family of four, everyone has two sets of clothes and two pairs of shoes and socks.Uncle Xue's family is one person.In addition, everyone also had a separate gift, Xue Ke's dragon tail stone inkstone, and Mrs. Xue's a set of agate heads.There is also a gold necklace of ruby ​​and ruby ​​for Baochai, and a pair of bracelets of gold star and small leaf red sandalwood.Xue Pan is a small bow made of oak wood and made of leopard tendons. It is said that it was Wang Ziteng's favorite thing when he was a child.There is also a small Western silver sailboat ornament with a beeswax base.When Xue Pan saw it, he took it immediately and shot the white crane with the unsharp bamboo arrow in the quiver.Mrs. Xue was so panicked that she was afraid that Xue Ke would see her, so she coaxed her from Xue Pan's hand and hid it quietly.

Baochai saw that everyone had gifts, and thought of his cousin who was young and underestimated, and his tribe was snobbish, and now he was living in his own house with his mother, and no one gave him these gifts. He was afraid that he would be sensitive and angry when he saw these things. Divide up the bracelets you just got and give them to him.Seeing Xue Pan, he followed suit and gave the western boat decoration to his cousin.Gu Yunzhen couldn't bear to shake his brother and sister's fists, thanked him with a smile and accepted it.

The three little men were sitting around the kang table looking at the ornaments. Baochai saw the words engraved on the sail. Although she didn't know what it meant, she could tell that it was in Spanish. The scale of the real ship was reduced. Xue Pan pulled the thin cable, and the sail could be raised and lowered. After trying it, the rudder could also turn.Baochai was afraid that Xue Pan would dismantle the western boat, so she quickly grabbed Xue Pan and was talking when Mrs. Xue came in like a gust of wind and said, "Come out quickly, children. Your second uncle's family has already arrived outside the city. We're going home."

Mrs. Xue was waiting outside the second door with her children and Aunt He, and Xue Ke hurried back home.After only waiting for half a quarter of an hour, three or four people could be seen riding horses from a distance, followed by seven or eight carriages.

In the convoy, a handsome young man was riding a big chestnut horse. When he saw someone at the door, he whipped the horse and galloped towards Xue Ke. , the size of the family is okay?" Xue Ke had tears in his eyes, was very moved, and hurriedly pulled and dragged his younger brother to get up.

Baochai knew that this must be her second uncle Xue Shen.Different from his father's elegant and restrained, Xue Shenrong has a long face, only wearing a black Ning silk wind-fur cloak, a mink hat, and a pair of small black-soled court boots on his feet, looking very neat and easy.

Xue Shen saluted Mrs. Xue with a smile, then turned to the Gu family mother and son and said, "I have received all my brother's letters, and it was my fault that I didn't think to bring your mother and son here earlier. One place, parents will be happy to know it in heaven." Aunt He was about to cry again, Xue Shen touched Gu Yunzhen's head and said, "Good boy, I'm your second uncle." "" was deleted, and he felt more affectionate, so he hurriedly greeted Xue Shen.

Because Mrs. Xue asked Baochai and Xue Pan to salute his second uncle, Xue Shen smiled and pulled the two children up and said, "It's freezing cold, the children are still young, get up quickly." Looking at him, he hugged him and said, "Is Chai'er recovering now? I heard that you were ill in autumn. I was about to wait for the boat to come back to see you. I received a letter saying that you were well. Are you still coughing?" Baochai laughed. He replied: "I don't cough anymore, thank you Second Uncle for thinking about it."

Seeing that he was about to enter, Mrs. Xue laughed and scolded: "You came here on horseback first, and your wife and the others were left behind. They are so big, and they still have a disregarded temper."

Xue Shen smiled and said: "Sister-in-law knows me," because he turned his face and said to Xue Ke: "This time I went home with a good brother, because I met a group of robbers on the way to escort the goods. Saved by the brothers, the goods and population must be preserved.”

Everyone heard him say such a thrilling thing calmly, and they all knew that he was afraid of scaring his family.Xue Ke said: "It's a life-saving grace. I should meet such a person in person."

I saw a bearded officer, who laughed and led his horse over and said, "Master Xue, you don't need to be polite. Brother Xue Shen and I have already married each other. If you don't think I'm a rough man, I'll call you big brother." .”

Xue Ke has seen a lot of people from all walks of life in the business world. He Xi, an officer with a bold personality, said with a smile, "I have thanked my virtuous brother for saving my life on behalf of my second brother. Please come in and talk about it."

Just as he was talking, a green-covered Zhuying eight-treasure cart arrived at the door of the house. Basho, the maid of the second room, came over, lifted the green curtain of the cart, and helped Mrs. Xue's second wife, Mrs. Liu, and the young master Xue Biao down.

Baochai saw that the second aunt was wearing a scarlet-colored flower-style wool coat, and an autumn-colored lake crepe moon dress underneath. She had a melon-seeded face with hanging eyebrows, big eyes, a slightly red face, and the corners of her mouth were slightly raised. Have an assertive look.Standing next to her was Xue Biao, with a handsome face and a very refined manner. He followed his mother and greeted everyone with courtesy.

Mrs. Xue pulled him into her arms and said with a smile: "Our Xue scorpion has grown taller again." Yin asked Liu Shi again: "Where is the younger one?" Take a rest, I'm afraid she'll sweat in the big woolen clothes, and it's not good if the wind blows outside."

A group of people finally finished their salutes before entering the house.Mrs. Xue and Xue Shen said: "Your brother is looking forward to the day and month, and finally brought your family back. If you go out and sleep in the open, you can stay at home next year, right?"

Xue Shen said: "Next year, I have decided to go to Yunnan and Guizhou. Sister-in-law, there are strange mountains and rivers in this world. I only saw one stop in ten stops. Where can I stay at home?"

Mrs. Liu said with a smile: "Sister-in-law, don't try to persuade me. I am married to a horse without a bridle, so I have no choice but to run around. If it weren't for me and the children following me this year, he would have gone to Jiaozhi by boat to become a foreign son-in-law. gone."

Mrs. Xue said: "Bodhisattva of Heaven, where can we get that barbarian land?"

Xue Shen smiled and said: "Barbarians are human beings, so we can go if they live there. If the imperial court lifts the sea ban, I will ask my brother to let me form a fleet, learn from Zheng He, and go to a foreign country next time. Let’s see if the round sky and the earth mentioned in the book are true.”

Baochai was speechless, what is Xu Xiake?The second uncle of the Xue family is not just an ancient travel enthusiast, but also has an ideal, to be China's Magellan!

See Baoqin Baochai with emotion

Uncle Xue's family rushes back every year before the end of October, and leaves in February and March of spring.I came back a little late this year, which made Xue Ke and his wife very worried, and sent people to visit outside the city every day.The whole family was reunited today, the whole family gathered neatly in one place, and everyone in Xue's house was beaming with joy.

Xue Shen went to Ningbo, Quanzhou, and Zhangzhou this year, and sold the tea, lake silk, and satin from Xue's shop, and then used the money to buy the next year's goods for his own shop.At that time, although the imperial court imposed a sea ban, the people in Fujian were strong and strong, and there were often people who built ships privately and smuggled them to Southeast Asia and even went as far as Koryo and Japan to do business.It's not like the Guangdong Sea where there are many customs duties, not to mention the cheap goods, and if you are lucky, you may even encounter rare seafood smuggled by foreign merchant ships.

Good sucrose from Taiwan, sesame peanuts, cool and warm hats, butter, beef tendon, sea cucumbers and whitebait from Quanzhou Port, pepper, sumac, sandalwood from Luzon Islands, Korean ginseng and colorful flower mats from North Korea , as well as Japanese brass, lacquerware and other things, they pulled two boats back.

In addition, there are various gifts for the four-horse carriage brought to the family.They were all bound firmly with big brown boxes with splints.After the women untied the rope, they went to the splint and opened the lock to have a look.There are two boxes of western fabrics, such as Japanese satin, serge satin, Goryeo cloth, and woven gold felt. Baochai picked up a cloth belt and looked at it. It was clearly French lace, but I didn’t know that this lace was used to decorate Hanfu. Will it be nondescript.

There is also a box wrapped in tarpaulins