school days in ancient times

Nine hundred and ninety-nine stone rock steps go up the mountain, and both sides are crowded with stalls of various vendors, selling vegetarian cakes, pear water, blessing purses, and fortune-telling. It is as lively as going to the market along the way. .

Ye Mian stood panting in front of the Kuiyuan Temple on the top of the mountain, wiping the perspiration from his forehead.

"Wen Xun didn't come here because he knew he had to climb the stairs?"

Kuiyuan Temple is not only the students of Guozixue who come to worship on this day, students from various government schools and private schools in the capital come to pray for blessings. The "pressure of crowd flow" in the temple is huge, so Guozixue does not require every student to go to Kuiyuan Temple If you don't want to go to worship, you can take a rest at home for a day.

Wei Angyuan stepped up to the last step, threw the bamboo basket under his feet, bent down and put his hands on his knees, panting, and said, "Otherwise, this guy will miss the delicious food along the way?"

The four of them followed the crowd into the temple, knelt down and worshiped Kui Xingxiang, and handed the longan, hazelnuts, and peanuts in the basket to a little novice in front of him. It just landed in the bamboo basket in front of Ruan Yunsheng.

Ye Mian clapped her palms and said happily: "Oh, this is incredible! The Ruan family is going to leave Tanhualang."

"Hey! Really!"

"Haha...Could it be that Yun Sheng is going to leave the examination room in the future?"

Several people joked around for a while.

Ruan Yunsheng stared at the peanut for a long time, bent over to pick it up and put it into his blessing sachet, turned around and smiled with one corner of his mouth: "Let's go to Taoli Garden to enjoy the flowers!"

There is a peach and plum garden in the backyard of Kuiyuan Temple, which was quite famous in the Dawen Dynasty. On the crooked stone at the gate of the garden, there is a saying "Peaches and plums in the world, the garden is full of flowers" written by the ancestors, and the students who lived in the Dawen Dynasty were famous all over the world.

Because the meaning of this garden is so good, and it has been "eating" incense in the backyard of Kuiyuan Temple, it has become a holy place for students to pray. Every year, students from all over the country come here to pray for blessings by hanging on a tree they like. Purse, I hope to be named on the gold list in the examination room!

Later, also because of the "passenger flow pressure", Tao Li Yuan was only open to Guozi School and a few government schools in the capital since a few years ago, and students from other private halls and schools from other places were not allowed to enter.

Ye Mian and the others showed the bracelets on the wrists of the soldiers guarding the garden, and they were let into the garden.

As soon as Ye Mian entered, he knew that the nine hundred and ninety-nine steps were not climbed in vain today. He thought that Taoli Garden was just like the plum grove in the school, a large area of ​​fruit trees. Who would have thought that the covered bridge and plank road inside would bend back and forth, and the peach and plum trees would be uneven. It turned out to be an exquisite garden.

It is not the season for flowers to bloom, but the flowers are full of flowers, pink and white, dotted with clusters on the branches, and the green leaves are about to bloom, making the whole garden full of vitality.The energetic students, dressed in spring clothes, shuttled in the veranda, or bowed down to the branches hanging with their own blessing purses, or chatted and laughed with friends.

As soon as he entered the garden, he met a lot of acquaintances. Ye Mian greeted them while strolling around. There were also a few people who came to Qirui Courtyard first. When they saw Ye Mian, they called them over loudly.

"Ye Mian, Ang Yuan, come here!" A young man stepped on the spring bench and waved his sleeves and called loudly: "There is a good tree here!"

"Hurry up, we've been here for a long time, and we were almost robbed by Kai Tak Courtyard. Is the sign in your place?" Another student asked.

"It's here with me, don't worry." Ye Mian took out a palm-sized ebony plaque from the front of his shirt, and the wooden plaque was engraved with "Guozixue Qirui Academy".

According to the tradition of Guozixue, each college will be given an ebony card with the name of the college, and students from the same college will hang their blessing purses on the same tree, and those who don’t come will be left behind. One day, I handed my purse to my classmate, and hung it on a branch to pray for blessings together.

Ye Mian picked a branch with more flower buds, just about to hang the courtyard sign on it, but after thinking about it, she retracted her hand.

"Why did you pick a plum tree?" Ye Mian asked.

"What's wrong with Li Shu, isn't it good?"

Ye Mian shook his head: "It's not that the plum tree is bad, but it's not as good as the peach tree."

Ye Mian jumped off the porch chair: "Let's go! Let's go find a peach tree."

The boy who was guarding the plum tree just now was not very happy, "Why do you want to change it? This tree has been robbed in many yards just now. We have been guarding it for so long."

"It's just a change, why are you so wordy?" Wei Angyuan was impatient.

The young man who spoke just now didn't dare to speak, and drooped his head dejectedly.

Ye Mian explained with a good temper: "Do you still remember what was said in "Book of Changes"? Zi, Wu, Mao, and You respectively represent the south, north, east, and west of the four elephants. When the four elephants meet, it is a peach blossom. Blooming day."

Everyone stared blankly at Ye Mian, but Li Zhao didn't understand what he meant, and asked, "What's the matter?"

On the contrary, Ruan Yunsheng let out a chuckle, "Four elephants meet, marriage is bound together, some people don't want to study today, but want to seek luck~ Don't be ashamed!"

Li Zhao laughed loudly: "It turns out that Yuanzi's spring spirit is too strong."

Only then did the teenagers understand, and they had a great time, even Wei Angyuan turned his head to hold back his laughter.

"Tao Zhiyaoyao, burning its flowers, I don't believe you haven't thought about marrying a wife," Ye Mian thick-skinned, didn't care about their teasing, and added: "Let's seek marriage together through study, the incense here is so good, it must be spiritual .”

Everyone was aroused by him. At their age, it was the time when they were "not yet in love" but always started to think about something.

"Let's go, let's look inside, there are many peach trees over there!"

A group of people went deep along the curved and staggered corridors, but they couldn't get through after crossing a wooden covered bridge.

Ye Mian looked at the curtain in front of him and the women guarding over there, and asked puzzledly, "Why is this blocked?"

Ruan Yunsheng looked at him jokingly and said with a joking smile: "Aren't you already thinking about spring? You don't even know?"

Ye Mian gave him a blank look: "What is Spring? It's so ugly."

It took Ruan Yunsheng a long time to hold back his laughter, coughed and said, "There are girls' students over there, they enter the kindergarten from the other side."

After listening to Ruan Yunsheng's speech, Ye Mian knew that on the ninth day of March, the students of the women's school would also come to Tao Li Yuan to admire the flowers and pray for blessings. They would hang ribbons of various colors on the peach and plum trees, and each color had a different meaning. , For example, red is to pray for official luck for father and brother, green is to pray for the safety of family members, and pink is to pray for marriage for oneself.

But what's interesting is that female students who are interested will find "his" ebony courtyard card in the garden, and then tie their own pink ribbons to that tree. In recent years, many women have secretly told themselves after they got married Husband, I tied a pink belt on that tree for him back then, and there are many good stories.

Ye Mian knew about this women's school. In fact, it was next door to Guozi School. Its full name was Boya Women's School. It was the only official school in Beijing that accepted women, so everyone called it Women's School and went to study. All of them are ladies from the high school. His sister-in-law Jiang Nanchu went to school there when she was a daughter. It is said that the masters who teach them in the women's school are not much worse than Guozixue.

Ye Mian, like them, wanted to pick a very tall and strong peach tree, but changed his mind after hearing what Ruan Yunsheng said, and found a "short, thick and fat" tree, and hung up the ebony courtyard signboard of Qirui Courtyard go up.

This time even Wei Angyuan couldn't bear it anymore, the corners of his eyes twitched and he asked, "What are you doing?"

"What's the purpose of hanging it so high?" Ye Mian said while seriously tying the courtyard card on the branch: "What if there is a lady in the girls' school who admires us and can't reach the branch, what should I do? "

Wei Angyuan was very speechless, and said angrily: "What's the matter with you? They are all assigned to Senior Brother Kun Zisheng, so stop being so sentimental!"

Ye Mian was unhappy: "Isn't it just a few years younger than them, what's the difference? Let's bet, we'll come back in the afternoon to see if there's no pink tape on it, I'll carry you down the mountain!"

The teenagers laughed and applauded.

Wei Angyuan cast a disdainful glance at Ye Mianxia three times, and muttered, "I want to marry a daughter-in-law before the next one is ready..."

"Wei Angyuan, you fart!!" Ye Mian was so angry that he rushed towards him.

Wei Angyuan was unprepared, and was immediately thrown to the ground by him, "I have always been older than you! Do you want to take out the bibi?"

All the teenagers laughed, and Li Zhao and Ruan Yunsheng crouched on the ground with their stomachs in their arms, so happy that they couldn't stand upright.

Ye Mian was having a lot of fun, when he suddenly heard someone calling his name, he turned his head and looked behind, then stopped, Wei Angyuan seized the opportunity to overturn him, and rode up instead.

Just as Wei Angyuan was about to beat him with a wave, he realized that Ye Mian had given up his strength and could not resist, so he subconsciously turned his head to look, and saw a group of more than a dozen people from Qinanyuan coming over, cursed "bad luck" in his heart, and stood up to hold Ye Mian back. Mian also pulled up.

As soon as the two of them were covered in dust and flowers and leaves on the ground, Ye Mian simply patted on his clothes, and helped Wei Angyuan take off two leaves from his hair, then led Qiruiyuan and several people to welcome them to meet King Rongnan Greetings.

Rongnan County Wang's phoenix eyes were long and narrow, and he only slightly raised the corner of his eyes to glance at Ye Mian and Wei Angyuan, and nodded slightly in response.

Wei Angyuan cursed secretly in his heart, but Ye Mian didn't care too much, smiled and looked at Lu Lizheng who called him just now, and asked, "Why did you come here at this time?"

While helping Ye Mian pat the dust off his clothes, Lu Lizheng said, "It's been a long time ago. The king of the county took us to see Master Huiwen, and I just came out of the meditation room."

Ye Mian raised his eyebrows. The abbot of Huiwen of Kuiyuan Temple is an eminent monk who is courteous to all the saints today. No more than one hand has ever entered his Zen room to listen to the scriptures. This Rongnan County King... ...How much sesame oil did you donate?

Ye Mian couldn't help but take another look at the God of Wealth in front of him.

"Brother Mian, have you hung up your blessing purse?" Lu Lizheng asked.

"Not yet, I just picked a tree, and this is it." Ye Mian pointed to the dwarf peach tree on the right.

In fact, the peach tree that Ye Mian chose looks pretty good. Although it is not tall, it has luxuriant branches and leaves, and the flowers and buds are densely packed on the branches. It looks very happy.

Lu Lizheng excitedly ran over to point to another tree next to Qirui Courtyard, and said to King Rongnan, "Brother Zhuang Jue, shall we choose the tree next to it? I want to share the blessing purse with Brother Mian's Hang it closer."

The tree that Lu Lizheng pointed to was close to the tree in Qirui Courtyard, and it was also a short, plump peach tree. Some of the branches and leaves of the two trees were intertwined because they were too close to each other. It's like holding hands.

"This tree is too short, it's not good," someone from Qinan Court immediately objected.

"Yeah, it's not as good as the Li Shu I saw earlier."

Zhuang Jue seemed to ignore the words of these people, and only handed the ebony courtyard card in his hand to Lu Lizheng. Lu Lizheng immediately smiled, took the courtyard card and tied it to the tree.

Those in Qinan Courtyard were secretly depressed, but dared not speak out. The King of Rongnan County had always treated Lu Lizheng differently from them. He was always called "Brother Zhuang Sui".

While tying his own blessing purse on the branch, Ye Mian explained to Lu Lizheng, "The reason why we chose a dwarf tree is because the students of the female school will tie ribbons to the person they like later. It's too high, ladies can't reach the branches, we men should be more considerate."

Lu Lizheng looked at Ye Mian with his mouth half open, and nodded with a vague understanding, but the few young masters from Qinan Courtyard who were not very happy just now, changed their minds before, and went forward to find the branch they liked. Purse.

Ruan Yunsheng looked at Ye Mian, then at Lu Lizheng, raised one corner of his lips and let out a soft "sneer".

In order to meet Lu Lizheng's request to be closer to him, Ye Mian hung their purses on the place where the branches and leaves of two trees intersected. Rongnan County King who was standing still: "Brother Zhuang Jue, do you want me to hang up for you?"

King Rongnan County glanced at the attendants around him, who lowered their heads in response, and hurriedly handed the purse to Lu Lizheng, and after Lu Lizheng took it, he tied Zhuang Jue's purse there as well.

Because of the bet with Wei Angyuan, Ye Mian was not in a hurry to leave after eating vegetarian food in the Kuixing Temple. They stayed in the temple until the sun was about to set, and then returned to Tao Li Yuan.

The garden keeper is not surprised.

When Ye Mian led a few people there, he saw many Kun Zisheng seniors wearing brown vajra rattan bracelets, pointing around the two handle trees in Qirui and Qinan courtyards.

Ye Mian felt strange in his heart, and was shocked when he walked in and saw it clearly, and then he was ashamed and angry!

"Didn't you say that they are all assigned to Senior Brother Kun?" Ye Mian asked Wei Angyuan gritted his teeth.

Wei Angyuan stared at the pink ribbons floating on the tree full of Qinanyuan, and then looked at the few purses hanging empty on the tree in Qiruiyuan next door. He was also shocked. He didn't expect them to be able to It's pink, but it's too ugly.

The two trees are so close together that it is not an exaggeration to say that they were executed publicly!

The teenagers of Qirui Courtyard stood there helplessly, embarrassed and annoyed, and the senior brothers Kunzi couldn't wait to vomit three liters of blood. More than half of the powder belts in the garden were hung on the short tree in Qinan Courtyard, and the hair was still covered with hair. The Qizi students who are not long have their beards cut off. These days, do they still have the face to go out to socialize and drink?

Everyone knows that the female school next door has been paying attention to every move of Guozixue, just like any talented girl in the female school who is in the limelight, they will go to inquire and judge, but they really underestimated Zhuang Jue's coming to Beijing The uproar caused by women's schools, "transfer students" are already easy to attract attention, and Zhuang Jue has a "traffic halo". As soon as he arrived in the capital, he was already targeted by the noble girls of various families, and then he was named the king of the county. , got a territory and a feudal city, swept the first place in all subjects in the Qizi student examination a few days ago, isn't this another "Mr. Duanhua" who is about to be born, what else can it be?

It is said that the second young lady of the Jiang family in the Yong'an Hou Mansion was quick, accurate, and ruthless, and caught all the ladies who were still reserved and secretly promised by surprise. Now she has to marry Yulang and her husband and wife are loving, who would not envy?Now another "Duanhua" has reappeared, and he is still a county king with a fief. If they don't start at this time, wouldn't they be out of their minds?

Ye Mian didn't believe this evil, so he ran under the tree and fiddled with the place where the branches and leaves of the two trees intersected. There were the most pink ribbons tied there, maybe a few of them were tied to Qiruiyuan, right?

He was looking up and searching carefully when he heard someone calling him from behind.

"Brother Mian, what are you looking for?"

Ye Mian turned around and saw that it was Lu Lizheng and Duan Lv from Qinanyuan, so he said angrily, "Looking for a wife! Why are you arguing?"

Duan Lu suppressed a smile and coughed twice, while Lu Lizheng scratched his head and said, "Let's get brother Zhuang Jue's purse."

"how?"

Duanlu cupped his hands and said: "It's inconvenient for the king of Rongnan's personal belongings to be left outside. Let's just accumulate some good fortune for the scene today. If it's convenient for Master Ye Si, can you help us untie the purse of the king of the county?" ?”

"Oh."

Ye Mian nodded indifferently, then turned to pick Zhuang Jue's black-gold purse, but when he reached out to untie it, he found that his purse was entangled with Zhuang Jue's, and the ties on the two purses were messed up. There are several buttons tied around the ground.

While dismantling, Ye Mian complained in his heart, the wind must have disturbed it, and it was all because Lu Lizheng hung their purses too close.

Ye Mian raised his head and untied it for a while, his nose was sweating but he didn't untie it. He turned to Li Zhao and asked, "I can't untie it. Bring your dagger."

"It's absolutely impossible," Duan Lv over there hastily stopped.

"What's the matter?" Ye Mian looked at him impatiently.

Duan Lu coughed and said in a low voice: "This Taoli Garden is very spiritual, how can the purse that prayed for blessings be damaged with blunt objects, and the gods in the temple will also be unhappy, so it's not good to blame it."

Ye Mian paused, since he arrived in the Dawen Dynasty, he has been very taboo about ghosts and gods beliefs. Duan Lv said so, how could he dare to move, after a little thought, he stretched out his hands and grabbed two purses With a strong tug, the newly drawn twigs in spring snapped off.

Ye Mian tossed the two purses that were still entangled together to Duan Lv, and said, "Take it back, and let the dexterous servant next to your county king untie it."

Ruan Yunsheng twitched at the corner of one eye, Ye Mian, a fool, what's the matter with giving away the purse he asked for marriage to others?

Duan Lv had already put away his purse, thanked Ye Mian and took Lu Lizheng away, Ruan Yunsheng looked at Ye Mian speechlessly, endured for a while and finally did not mention it again.

It was getting late, and the few people were not in the mood to visit the garden anymore, so they slowly left the Taoli Garden and prepared to go back home.

At the gate of Kuiyuan Temple, a few people were booing Ye Mian to give in to Wei Angyuan and go down the mountain, when Lu Lizheng touched him with a red face.

"Brother Mian," Lu Lizheng lowered his head and handed the things in his hand to Ye Mian.

It was Ye Mian's purse, the azure webbing on the purse had been twisted off, leaving only half of it pitifully falling there.

"Didn't you say you can't use a knife???"

Lu Lizheng just lowered his head and didn't dare to speak.

Ye Mian took the purse, weighed it with his hands, and smiled angrily, Gu Zi muttered: "Isn't this going to ruin my marriage?"

"Brother Mian..."

Before Lu Lizheng finished speaking, he was interrupted by Ye Mian, and he said angrily: "Go back and send a message to your Rongnan County King, and say that if my relationship is not going well in the future, he will never want to marry a wife." Come on, let's play bachelor together!"