The Second Master of the Red Chamber

Chapter 13 Melon Fields
Did not go to Rongxi Hall to say goodbye to Jia Zheng.

After all, they are just uncles and nephews, so there is no need to go to greet him every day too hypocritically, everyone finds it troublesome.

So usually Jia Lian would not go to greet Jia Zheng and Mrs. Wang. If something happened, the two of them would directly order someone to call him over.

Besides, Jia Zheng is probably still sleeping soundly in Aunt Zhao's room with her arms around the beauty, so it would be too naive to disturb her so early in the morning.

But Jia Amnesty had to go there.

Of course, Jia Amnesty just didn't see him.

When Shi Shiran came out of Dongkuayuan, Zhao'er and the others were already waiting outside with their horses and men.

On this trip to the south, he wanted to shorten the itinerary, so he didn't bring too many people with him.

In addition to the young servant Zhao'er and the long follower Wang'er, there are only five adult nurses.

The so-called nursing homes are those who are physically fit and strong are selected from the family members to take care of the home and the nursing homes, and they also have the duties of servants and attendants at ordinary times.

However, Jia's ancestors made their fortunes through military exploits, and many servants in the family followed several princes to send troops and herd horses.Although they have been stable for many years now, and the older generation is dying, the old are old, but their children and grandchildren are still serving in the government.

Yesterday afternoon, Jia Lian personally tested it. Many of these guards outside the second gate can still perform some military fighting skills, presumably taught by their father and grandparents.

So Jia Lian picked a few of them who seemed to be the most agile, thinking that with these escorts, they would be enough to deal with ordinary little thieves on the road.

"Second Master..."

Zhao'er brought over the white horse that Jia Lian often used when going out, patted the horse and said with a smile: "It's a journey of more than 1000 miles from the capital to Yangzhou. The slave is afraid that my body will not be able to bear it, so I specially equipped this for my master. Please touch it." How do you feel?"

Jia Lian heard the sound and saw that it was Zhao'er who added a layer of fur on the horse's back, like ermine.Coupled with the good appearance of the clean white horse itself, it really looks more noble and extraordinary.

"This thing is soft and sweat-absorbent. When the second master rides on the road, he must be able to suffer less."

Riding a horse for a short distance may be a kind of enjoyment, but running for hundreds of miles or thousands of miles is definitely a labor-intensive thing.

Therefore, Zhao'er was able to consider for him so appropriately, and Jia Lian was very satisfied.

After getting on the horse, Jia Lian smiled and said, "It's too late to regret it now, this trip must be very hard, if you want to go to Yangzhou to see, you can go down with Xing'er and the others. Don't be brave now, when the time comes, you will complain on the road."

Zhao'er smiled and said, "Thank you for your compassion, but I am not afraid of you. What is there to be afraid of? Besides, the slave is used to serving the master. If you don't follow the master, the slave will not feel at ease."

Well, as soon as I heard it, I knew it was a proper dog leg.

Jia Lian stopped talking nonsense, and seeing that the others were also ready, he tightened the reins and shouted:
"set off!"

……

In late summer and early autumn, the weather is hot.

Even though Jia Lian and the others took advantage of the early hours of the morning to hurry on their journey, after leaving the capital for more than a hundred miles to the west, the sun became really hot.

Traveling under such a sun, even the gusts of wind brought by galloping horses can't blow away the heat from the body.

"Second Master, there is a forest ahead, let's rest there, it's too hot to run..."

Zhao'er had long felt exhausted, and wanted to rest when passing by several tea pavilions and restaurants, but Jia Lian refused to allow it, so she could only persevere.

At this moment, I really felt that the heat was unbearable, and seeing that I was going to pass through a dense forest, I hurriedly shouted.

Afraid that Jia Lian would still disagree, he quickly winked at the others.

Laiwang said: "Yes, Second Lord, even if we can bear it, the horse can't bear it if we hurry. If the horse is exhausted, it will really delay the journey. Let's rest before we go. .”

"It's just..."

In fact, Jia Lian felt no better than Zhao Er.The reason why he persisted on the journey was to reach Yangzhou as soon as possible, and to see the limit of his body's endurance and strength.

The result was not bad, although Jia Lian used to be extravagant and licentious in the past, fortunately because he was young and often went out to do errands, his physical fitness was not bad.

But after turning his head to look at those nursing homes, Jia Lian felt that he needed more exercise.

Most of them are just panting a little, unlike him who has wiped his sweat secretly for a few times...

Thinking that what Wang'er said was reasonable, Jia Lian didn't insist anymore, and asked everyone to refresh in the forest, and also fed some water to the horses along the way.

I was sitting and gossiping with a few unfamiliar nursing homes to learn about their home conditions so as to calm down.

Suddenly seeing Zhao'er rushing out from the tree-lined path next to him, he laughed loudly and said, "Second Lord, take a look, what is this?"

Jia Lian looked over and saw this kid carrying a huge watermelon from nowhere!

"You boy, where did you get this?"

Laiwang, who was serving the horses to drink, said with a smile: "Second master doesn't know, there is a melon field opposite, and this monkey must have sneaked over to pick it up."

Zhao'er chuckled, "The weather is so hot, wouldn't it be refreshing to eat some of this before going on the road?"

After finishing speaking, let other people draw their knives out, cut the watermelon in disorder on the big rock, and then sent Jia Lian the best piece over.

Jia Lian took a sip and found that it was very sweet and tasted better than the ones eaten by later generations.

"Eat it too, and watch me do what I do."

Hearing Jia Lian's order, everyone rushed forward.

Zhao'er jumped anxiously, rushed back, only grabbed a small piece, and immediately started cursing at Laiwang and the others.

The others just laughed, and one of them said: "Look at your stinginess, after we finish eating, we will pick two more, and then you can eat two more yuan."

Only then did Zhaoer reluctantly accept it.

Jia Lian finished eating the melon in his hand, threw the melon skin into the grass behind him, stood up, and said: "It's not easy for farmers to grow melons. Let's just pick one and try it. If we want to eat enough, we need to pay for it." Just come and buy.

Let's go, let's go and have a look together. "

……

Down the official road along the path, there are indeed several large melon fields here, and it is the ripening season. The watermelons, large or small, are hidden in the field, and they are full of fruits at a glance, which is really gratifying.

Seeing a house on the top of the hillside, which must be the place where the melon guard was, Jia Lian and others left two people to watch the horses, while the others walked up the slope together.

"Wow woof~~!!"

Suddenly there was a bark of dogs, and two ferocious dogs appeared.But they were all tied with chains, so the crowd didn't panic.

One person behind Jia Lian even smiled at Zhao'er: "If you can steal melons under the eyes of two vicious dogs, you must be smarter than dogs."

"Fuck your uncle..."

Not long after the barking of dogs sounded, an old man and a young man appeared on the slope.

The old man was about fifty years old, skinny, and a half-grown boy behind him, presumably his grandson.They are covered with coarse linen clothes, and they are real farmers at a glance.

Seeing Jia Lian and his party, he seemed to be a little afraid. Although he stopped the dog from barking, he hesitated to go forward.

Jia Lian took a step forward, cupped his hands and said, "You don't have to worry, old man. We're passing through here. Because of the heat and thirst, our servants don't know how to behave and stole a melon. The younger generation and others are here to make amends."

The old farmer felt relieved when he heard the words, and quickly waved his hands: "It's just a watermelon, you don't have to be like this, you don't have to be like this..."

"Thank you, old man. But the younger generation still wants to buy some more melons from the old man to take with us on the road. Is it possible?"

"If you guys want to eat, just pick it up, it's worthless stuff..."

The old farmer saw that Jia Lian was dressed richly and behaved politely, and that Lai Wang and others behind him had different manners, so he guessed that they were noble sons from a big city.Du Qi is not a vicious person, and he greeted: "It's hot summer, you might as well come up, have a bowl of herbal tea before you go on your way."

Thinking of something again, he pulled the grandson beside him, "Sanba, go home quickly and bring some clean bowls!"

While speaking, while fending off the fierce dog that was staring at him, he smiled and invited everyone up.

Jia Lian saw the enthusiasm of the old man, and saw the obedient young man running down the slope quickly. For some reason, Jia Lian thought of grandma Liu, grandparents and grandchildren.

Most of the peasants who come to this world are simple people...

As the old farmer went up, here was a thatched cottage facing east and west, presumably built for guarding the melon fields.

Next to the house, there is a moderately large locust tree, which can just provide shade. Under the tree, there are two low stools and a wooden table.

Such a simple and quiet farm residence, actually aroused Jia Lian's intention of returning to farming.

The old man respectfully asked Jia Lian to sit down, but Jia Lian didn't delay, but ordered Laiwang to come up with five hundred dollars.

"How can I use so much..." The old farmer hurriedly waved his hands, how could he accept it.

Jia Lian said with a smile: "The money is firstly for compensation, and secondly for buying melons. The old man should accept it, otherwise the younger generation and others will feel uneasy."

"My lord, stop talking about apologizing. As for the melons in the field, if you guys like them, just pick some and eat them. I really don't dare to take your money..."

As the old man spoke, he sighed helplessly.

Zhao'er didn't want to stay here any longer, and he didn't care much about their tea. Seeing the old man talking, he said, "You can take what our master gives you. Why don't we force us to take advantage of you? It's not like we can't afford the money. "

"Oldness doesn't mean that..."

Jia Lian waved his hand and asked, "What kind of trouble has the old man encountered?"

Jia Lian seemed sad when he saw the old farmer.

The old farmer hesitated for a moment, and sighed: "It's rare that you are kind, but how dare you accept the money from you? As you have seen, the melon harvest in our fields this year is really good, but we really can't make any money."

A nursing home laughed and said: "You old man is so dishonest. This year's watermelon has been sold for more than ten yuan a catty in the capital! I see that your large land is worth at least a few thousand catties, but you are with me. Our father said we can’t make money?”

"A dozen texts..." The old farmer's eyes became more and more sad, but he was still busy explaining:

"That's the price in a big city. In our case, it's really worthless... To be honest, our family, together with the surrounding melon growers, could still make some money in previous years, but this year is different. ...

Li Yuanwai from the West Village sent someone early in the morning to ask everyone to sell all the melons in the field to him for a price of three Wen.

Although the price was a little lower, we thought he could accept it for us and save us trouble, so we agreed.

only……"

Jia Lian heard this and asked, "So, he later regretted not wanting it?"

"It's not that I don't want it, it's just that he said that this year's melons are harvested everywhere, and that they can't be sold if they are transported to the city, so he only gave us a penny! The young master doesn't know, according to his price, we can't even pay for the land rent. If you can’t afford it, how can you agree to it?”

After hearing this, Jia Lian sighed.

Sure enough, there are middlemen making the difference at any time!Thinking about it, the transportation is inconvenient in this era, the information is not developed, and there are people relying on wealth and power to make huge profits from it, the price difference between them can be imagined.

"We didn't follow, but he didn't force him, he just said whether he wanted to sell it or not.

Our family originally wanted to ask the previous traders to collect it, but they were all afraid of the power of the Li family and dared not come.

So we can only find a way by ourselves, let the boys from each family push them to the nearest town to sell, although the price is low, they can't sell much.

Seeing that autumn and winter are approaching, I am afraid that those melons will only rot in the ground in the end.

Therefore, if you like it, you can just pick some and eat it, but you dare not accept the money. "

The old man smiled wryly.

However, Jia Lian felt that the old farmer was a little bit interesting. He said that his own melons could not be sold and he wanted to buy them, but told him that he didn't need money.

Thinking about it, he thought that for a few of them, they could pick two or three melons at most, enough to eat, so how dare they sell them for five hundred Wen?To say that he only accepts a dozen or twenty Wen, isn't it intentional to make him look like a rich or noble son?

Or maybe it's because of their hospitality and they just don't want to make money from them.

In this way, Jia Lian made up his mind.

(End of this chapter)