Ordinary clear day

Chapter 67
The rain is not heavy, it can only be regarded as rain.Several servants complained that it was raining at this time, so they couldn't take out the bedding to dry it before using it.But Adi and Ahua were obviously overjoyed. They hurriedly collected the things hanging in the yard, but they had smiles on their faces.

Shuning then asked Ah Di: "Why are you so happy?"

Adi said: "It has been dry for many days, so of course I am happy when it rains. My lord and wife are really noble people. Noble people go out to attract wind and rain. When you come, it will rain. It is so good."

Shu Ning smiled along with the black thread, and when she saw the things they took back, she asked, "Is this bacon? What is that?"

"It's dried vegetables. Miss, haven't you eaten it? It's best to eat this in autumn. The sun is so hot these days, so I dried some bacon and dried vegetables."

Huh huh?Is this the vegetable for soup?But it seems that it has not been completely dried, and it still has a little blue color. I am afraid it will take a few more days to dry?

The rain stopped after a while, and the sun reappeared.Unlike other people who happily took out the quilt to dry, Ah Hua showed a disappointed look, while Ah Di muttered: "Why did you do this?"

The man from Wang Ruibao's family happened to pass by her carrying his own quilt, and when he heard this, he gave her a hard look.

There was a commotion from the front, and then Changgui's voice: "Master is back." Shuning ran out quickly.

Zhang Bao's clothes were half wet, and he looked a bit embarrassed.Asking someone to bring him a dry face towel, Tong asked, "Why don't you find a place to hide and come back after the rain?"

Zhang Bao wiped his face and said: "I just came out of the yamen and met them not long ago. I didn't cover up and didn't bring an umbrella along the way. I thought it was not raining, so I just came back directly. Look, it just stopped. ?”

Tong said: "I heard that it hasn't rained for more than 20 days, who would have thought that as soon as we came today, there would be a rain."

Zhang Bao smiled: "That's good. Just now in the yamen, I heard Master Liang, the magistrate, say that the grain has been harvested here a few days ago, and some vegetables and sweet potatoes are being planted in the field. When it rains, the long-term It's even better."

Tong said with some surprise: "I thought it would be slack after the autumn harvest, and there are still things to grow here?"

Zhang Bao smiled even more happily: "Isn't it? It seems that I don't have to worry about food here. I don't have any other skills, but I still have some experience in farming. After all, I also did the return to the village back then, didn't I? "

Shu Ning interjected with a smile: "Ama, don't talk too early, the things planted in Fengtian are different from those planted here."

Zhang Bao pretended to drive people away: "Go ahead, you, Ama, I am a little ambitious after all, why are you here to pour cold water on me?" Before he finished speaking, he was already laughing.

Shuning smiled and hid behind Tong Shi, made a face at Zhang Bao, then turned to Tong Shi and said, "Er Niang, what are you having for dinner tonight? I haven't eaten well for more than a month, Er Niang, please eat well." Make it up."

Tong Shi nodded her forehead: "I have already sent someone to buy fresh meat and vegetables, you girl, you are obviously greedy, right?"

Shuning was a little embarrassed and said: "Why did Er Niang say that about me?"

Tong turned her head and said to Zhang Bao: "The local people speak a lot of dialects, but we can't understand them. There is a girl who came to help. She said that she is the girl from your yamen, named Adi, who knows how to speak official dialect. We For the time being, I can only rely on her to buy things. It's just that this is not a long-term solution, what good idea does the master have?"

Zhang Bao rubbed his head: "For the time being, that's all we can do. The local dialect cannot be learned in a short time. Let's let the locals help with the work first. It will be much more convenient when the servants at home learn to speak and speak. I Seeing that most of those colleagues are from other provinces, they must also have this trouble, why not ask someone to ask, maybe there will be meat and vegetable sellers who speak official language, we just go to them to buy."

After recovering her spirits, Mrs. Tong quickly took care of the housework in an orderly manner, and their family finally settled down.

In the evening, Wang Er reported that he had found out that the Liu sisters' uncle lived in the south of Xianyang Street, not too far away, and it took only a quarter of an hour by car.Tong ordered him to report to the door.After dinner, Uncle Liu drove over in a cart. After thanking Zhang Bao and his wife, he took the two nieces home.The Liu sisters and Tong Yiyi bid farewell, and they both agreed to see each other again in the future.

The old doctor Chen stayed at Zhang Bao's home as a distinguished guest, and only sent a few old family members back to the hometown to report the news and clean up the houses where they lived.

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Early the next morning, Shu Ning woke up from her sleep feeling refreshed.She got up to wash and comb her hair, and looked around her room again.

This is a typical embroidery room for young ladies in the southern region. It is on the second floor. The room is not big. Distant scenery.

She slept last night on a very delicate gold-painted and carved bed, or a double-entry bed.When I saw it for the first time, I couldn't help but burst into tears.

This kind of art that will definitely be collected as a museum in future generations, she can actually sleep on it, and she can sleep on it for a few years...

Stop, don't be so shallow-sighted, this is ancient times!She is a lady from an official family. It is very common to sleep on this kind of bed. Don't make a fuss and let others laugh at you. Didn't you see Chun Xing's stupid look when she saw this bed last night? Did Qiao Yun make fun of her at that time? ?
But one thing that is more confusing is that there is a toilet outside the big bed. Although the body of the toilet is very clean and the lid is tightly closed, there is no peculiar smell, but it is still comfortable to sleep less than two feet away from it. It's very confusing, so she asked someone to put the toilet at the end of the bed last night.

The furniture in the room is very simple, except for the big bed, there is only an equally beautiful dressing table with many small drawers on it, a carved wardrobe, a small case, a chair, a washbasin stand, that's all .All the furniture is very delicate, although it is all half-new and not old.

After washing up, she asked Chun Xing and learned that her father had gone to the yamen early in the morning, but before her mother got up, she went downstairs by herself, had some breakfast in the dining room, and then ran into someone who came to collect the dishes Ah Hua.

Speaking of which, Ahua and Adi's sister-in-law and sister-in-law are not simply here to "help".There are two servants in the Tongzhi yamen who are Zhang Bao's personal servants. One is Zhao Asheng and the other is Hu Dong. Zhao Asheng is Ahua's husband and Adi's brother.They come to the house as "helpers", but they are actually more like "helpers", providing housekeeping services and receiving wages every month.Because most of the officials are not locals, almost every family has such local "helpers".

It seems that in this southern coastal area, the germination of capitalism has already begun.

Ah Hua asked Shuning, "What would you like to eat for lunch, miss? Why don't you make some soup?" (What would you like to eat for lunch? How about making soup?)

Shu Ning listened carefully, guessed what she meant, thought for a while, and said: "It's good to cook pork bones with dried vegetables, you need to add more ginger."

Ah Hua thought for a while, then smiled and said she understood.

Huh?It seems that the dialect barrier is not so difficult to overcome.

Sending A Hua away, Shu Ning felt a little bored, and thought to herself, why not take a good look around this new house.

This house has a strong Lingnan taste, with gray carvings on the ridge and roof, which looks very delicate, but the overall layout has a northern color.The houses are all made of water-polished blue bricks, and there are many wooden structures inside.

Entering the gate is a rectangular yard, empty, with a row of flower pots on the side, and a two-story building on the right, where Mr. Su's master and servant now live.

On the left is the kitchen, three houses are lined up, and two trees are planted at the corner, just half covering a small door, and you can see a small courtyard inside.

In the front hall, there are typical Eight Immortals tables, high-backed chairs, crane pictures, and porcelain vases with fresh herbs in them. On both sides are tea tables and chairs for guests.The tables and chairs can be seen as a set, carved with simple floral patterns.She recognized that it was in the shape of the commonly known jade stamen flower, but it was actually more like the passion flower of later generations.

There is a small side hall on the left, and outside the door is a small courtyard with a well. In the courtyard, two or three bamboo poles are set up to hang some servants' clothes to dry.A door in the corner leads to the kitchen, and another moon door leads to a row of seven or eight servant rooms.

The decoration of the flower hall on the right side of the main hall is more exquisite.Round tables and stools made of rosewood, inlaid with light blue slate tops.A few antique shelves were placed against the wall, and only two or three worthless vases were placed.There are calligraphy and paintings hanging on the wall, all of which are dilapidated. Later, Mrs. Tong will ask someone to replace them with the ones she brought.

Beyond that is a study room, which is said to be a room, but in fact it lacks a wall.Going down the steps on the side of the gap, a few clumps of bamboo are planted, and there is a small corner gate on the side, and behind it is Qingyun Lane.

Although this study is poor in terms of shelter from wind and rain, the lighting is excellent.

The aisle of the flower hall leads to the back, and there is a small tea room halfway.Diagonally opposite was an empty room with a very high ceiling, probably connected to the second floor. There were many ventilation holes on the wooden wall, and the light was not bad.

At the end of the corridor is a stairwell with doors on three sides, the right one leads to Qingyun Lane, the left one leads to the dining room, and the front one leads to the backyard.

There are rosewood tables and chairs in the middle of the dining room, and there are some shelves and cabinets around, with several large vases and fresh flowers.There is a room on the left, which is now the old doctor Chen's residence, and the aisle next to it leads directly to the left side hall we just saw.

Going back to the stairwell, walking up the wooden steps, you will see a profile on three sides, the embroidery room where she lived on the left, the room in the corner on the right, where Qiao Yun and Chun Xing live now, and another room, because There are some beautiful carved windows that let in a lot of light, and she is planning to use them as her study.Looking down through the window, it happens to be the left side hall on the first floor.At the end of the corridor, up a short flight of stairs, there is a small door that leads to the third-floor landing.

Standing on the platform and looking around, you can see many houses like this nearby, probably the residences of city officials.

The platform is about one foot square, almost empty, except for a bamboo broom, there are only two dustpans, one is dried fish and the other is mushrooms.

Well, they are all delicious.

Go back down the stairs and go to the backyard. There are hand corridors on both sides.The front house is the main house where Zhang Bao and Tong lived.In the middle is the place where Mrs. Tong lives and manages housework on weekdays. The one on the left that she thought was the side room is actually the master room.There is also a stairwell on the right, where Suyun lives, and the upstairs is full of vacant rooms, where the luggage brought by their family is now placed, and it will probably be used as a warehouse in the future.

The veranda on the right has an opening leading to the garden.

The garden is very small, just over an acre, but there is a half-acre pond.There is a small bamboo pavilion by the pool, and there are a few willow trees, and a lot of bamboos are planted along the wall, and the grass on the ground is already very tall, with a few small flowers sprouting.In the corner of the garden, there is a corner door, which opens into Qingyun Lane, and at the end, there is a closed back door, and the sound of pedestrians walking outside the door.

It seems that this new house is very good. Although the sparrow is small, it has all internal organs.As long as you tidy it up, you can live comfortably.

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When imagining this house, I took the site of the Xiguan House in the Liwan Museum in Guangzhou as the prototype, but made many modifications and added a lot of things, and then canceled the exquisite Manchurian windows made of stained glass. Modern pianos and kerosene chandeliers with British accents.After all, the Xiguan Mansion was a wealthy businessman's residence that emerged in the middle and late Qing Dynasty. Many things in the house were not available in the Kangxi Dynasty.

Interested readers can go and have a look, although it is not the same, but it is a prototype after all.

(End of this chapter)