Ordinary clear day

Chapter 72 The Lantern Festival
On the fifteenth day of the Lantern Festival, there are lanterns to see in Guangzhou.Shuning had already agreed with her father, asking him to take her to see it.But Mrs. Tong said that she wanted to take care of her youngest son, so she didn't go.

Before going out, Shuning went to the kitchen to see if the glutinous rice balls were ready.This year, in addition to the traditional glutinous rice balls stuffed with sesame lotus seed paste and peanuts, Shuning also asked people to make two kinds of "fresh" stuffing, green tea and pork. Try what the pork stuffed rice balls will taste like.

Among the maids and servants in the family, because of their outstanding performance, some of them have already obtained the permission of the hostess Tong to go out for half an hour at night to see the famous lanterns in the city.Suyun and Qiaoyun were both involved, and prepared the clothes and jewelry to be worn in the evening early. Even Suyun, who was always steady, was too excited to sit still.

However, Chun Xing got Shu Ning's promise long ago that she would take her to see the lanterns together, and now she proudly walks up and down in front of Fenguan and the other rough girls, talking non-stop about the lantern market at night, which finally annoys her. A group of people rolled their eyes.

After dinner, Zhang Bao set off with his daughter.Mr. Su's master and servant, Chang Gui, Wang Er and Chun Xing also went with him.

The Lantern Market is located on a street next to the downtown downtown area, surrounded by several tall restaurants with two or three floors.Zhang Bao went to the second floor of a restaurant jointly contracted by officials from the Guangzhou government.He met with his superiors and colleagues and subordinates, and asked his daughter to come forward to meet him. After a few pleasantries, the magistrate led a large group of people to a more luxurious restaurant nearby.It is said that the general of Guangzhou and the governor of Guangdong covered the second and third floors there respectively.

Shu Ning stayed and sat at the table, looked over the railing by the window to see all kinds of lanterns on the street below, the waiter had already served tea and two baskets of snacks.

There were family members of other officials sitting on the tables nearby, many of them were children, but the younger ones were too noisy for Shu Ning, and the older ones were too mature.It's not easy for her to play with boys, and the girls are too well-behaved, it's very boring to get along with.Maybe there will be more interesting peers upstairs in the next building, but when Shu Ning thought of going through the dense crowd downstairs, she lost interest again.

After a while, the parade of lanterns started, and Shuning finally pulled herself together.People from almost the entire second floor flocked to the windows to watch.

These lanterns are shaped with thin bamboo strips, most of which are flowers, birds, insects, fish or animals, such as tigers, and then covered with bright colored paper or silk cloth, and then decorated with paintbrushes. Make a shape, and then light one or a few candles inside.Many merchants install lanterns on large carts with four wheels, and then drag them slowly with oxen, horses or donkeys, so that people around can clearly see their beautiful lanterns.

In the eyes of Chun Xing and Wang Er, who were born and bred in the Qing Dynasty, such a lamp is extremely beautiful.But to Shu Ning, it was considered pretty and interesting, but not enough to make her stare at it intently.Presumably, the local economy and culture have not yet reached the most prosperous period in the history of the Qing Dynasty, so even the lanterns are not satisfactory.

Shu Ning looked at it for a while, and saw that the next lanterns were all out of date, so she turned her head to drink tea and eat snacks.The dim sum is also a small shortbread stuffed with bacon, and the same is a small dumpling stuffed with cabbage and pork. Although the taste is good, it is not as delicious as the Cantonese dim sum in my impression.She was a little strange, so she invited Xiao Er to ask, "Why don't you see siu mai shrimp dumplings?"

The waiter said: "There is siu mai, do you want pork to order beef? It was freshly baked, and there are shrimp dumplings, but they are made of fresh shrimp. Miss, do you want to try?" (Is there siu mai, or pork? Beef? Just out of the oven, guaranteed to be fresh; shrimp dumplings are also available, but they are not made of fresh shrimp, do you want to try it, Miss?)

Shu Ning nodded, and the little girl brought two cages.The siu mai is fine, but why are the shrimp dumplings made of ordinary dough?I took a bite, and it turned out that dried shrimp was chopped and mixed with pork to make stuffing. Is this still shrimp dumpling?

Ask Xiao Er, but he said that he has always done it this way. As for the kind of translucent skin that Shu Ning described, shrimp dumplings filled with whole shrimps, he said he had never heard of them.

Shu Ning let him go down, thinking to herself, could it be that those delicious morning tea snacks haven't appeared in Guangdong now?It is indeed very possible to think about it. Guangdong will really prosper and develop after the Qianlong Dynasty. Maybe those snacks will not appear until then.

Huh?Maybe she can make these snacks come out in advance.

While she was eating snacks, she was flirting in her heart, thinking happily for a long time, but she remembered one thing again.

The Cantonese dim sum she ate before time travel was all made of something called cheng noodles, but where could she find this kind of thing now?
This was the most basic problem, but she couldn't solve it, so she had to sit there alone and worry.

"Girl, look quickly, she's a beauty!" Chun Xing suddenly called out, waking Shu Ning up, and looked downstairs with her, thinking: "Leave it alone for now, let's find a way to solve it later."

The so-called beauty is actually a woman standing on a lantern car, dressed in a costume, with a head full of jewels, posing in a very graceful posture, singing a festive tune, the sound spread to the surrounding people in several upstairs buildings. can hear.Looking at her appearance, with willow eyebrows and almond eyes, cherry lips and pink cheeks, she is indeed very beautiful.

Shu Ning was sighing in her heart, but she heard a man at the table say to the people around her: "Did you see that? That is the old man specially invited from Qionghua Guild Hall in Foshan. He is the best actress and looks beautiful." Bar?"

The man nodded endlessly: "It's really beautiful, it can't be seen that it's a man's disguise."

Shu Ning was shocked, and stared at the "woman" carefully for a few more times, but she couldn't see it at all.But as far as she knew, it was true that most of the performers were men.

As soon as this "beauty" appeared on the stage, he won applause from the people around him. Many rich people threw money and belongings at him. Shu Ning guessed that it might be a way of rewarding him.Long ago, a boy in bright red clothes picked up the belongings that fell on the ground and handed them to a middle-aged man following the lantern cart.

There was also a long "reward" from the tall restaurant next to it, and a servant sent out a gold ingot on a tray, and the onlookers gasped.

"What a big gold ingot!" Chun Xing couldn't help sighing. "At least 30 taels!" Wang Er also agreed.

That "beauty" was very calm, she just bowed towards the direction of the building and saluted.

Shu Ning looked at the tall building, she could only see the brightly lit lights and the shadows of people there, but she couldn't see who was so generous.But the person who dared to do such a thing in front of so many people was probably one of the two highest-ranking officials?
She looked back at the "beauty" and thought to herself, does the generous person who gave the reward know that this beauty is a man?However, she also thought that child prostitution seemed to be very popular in the Qing Dynasty, and then she thought that southerners especially liked beautiful boys...

She shivered and stopped thinking about it.Although she has also read Tanmei books, she has no plans to develop Tanmei career in the Qing Dynasty.

It took Zhang Bao more than an hour to come back, and most of the people who came to see the lantern had dispersed.Shu Ning handed her father a cup of tea and some snacks, Zhang Bao said: "Don't eat, wait until you get home and eat hot glutinous rice balls." Then he called the servants to leave.

When they got home, Tong had already ordered people to cook glutinous rice balls with various fillings, and when they saw them coming back, he asked people to serve them.

She smiled and said: "Does the lantern look good today? I heard from Suyun that it is very beautiful. Is it cold outside? Eat a bowl of glutinous rice balls to warm up your body. The two new fillings that Shu Ning thought of, I think green tea is good after eating, then The stuffed meat tastes like meatballs, only with an extra layer of glutinous rice..."

Shu Ning took the bowl with a smile, took a few mouthfuls, and felt warm in her heart.

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After the Lantern Festival, Adi and Ahua came back to work, and a day later, Ayin also came back.A group of maids and daughters-in-law gathered around the small yard next to the kitchen, chattering about the New Year.Chun Xing also specially told other people what she saw and heard during the Lantern Festival parade, scaring the little girls for a moment.

Shu Ning tried to roll the dumpling wrappers made of flour very thin, trying to achieve a translucent effect, but the craftsmanship was not perfect, and she failed several times, so she had to hand it over to Ah Yin and the other two daughter-in-laws.After working for a long time, they finally made the "translucent" dumpling wrapper that Shuning said, wrapped some shrimp meat filling, and tried to steam it to eat. Although the taste was good, it was far from the refreshment as imagined, Shu Ning had no choice but to sigh, and gave the remaining dough to the daughters-in-law to make some dumplings for later use.

In February, the weather is gradually warming up, and Zhang Bao has to start busy with business again. In addition to preparing for spring sowing, he also needs to check whether the water conservancy dams in various places are ready.Tong Shi packed the simple luggage for him, preparing for him to go to a nearby town in two days.

The reply letter from Beijing finally arrived, Wang Ruibao and his wife did not come back, but the servant who delivered the letter brought back a middle-aged manservant named Wu Fu, who was Zhou Lin's brother, who was able to fill Wang Ruibao's vacancies.

Zhang Bao called his wife and daughter to the main room, told the maids and daughters-in-law to go out, and then began to read the letter.

The first was a letter from Grandpa Halzi.He was very happy to have another grandson who was born on the same day, so he specially asked the messenger to bring a long life lock made of silver, as a full moon gift for his little grandson.He has already named his little grandson Xianning, hoping that he will be a virtuous person in the future, and he also asked his son and daughter-in-law to take good care of his grandson.

He also said that Duanning was very good in Beijing, he was willing to study hard, practiced martial arts very diligently, he was one of the best among all his grandsons, and what was rare was that he got along well with his cousins.Because Duanning's performance satisfied him, he specially gave Duanning the riding whip he used when he was young as a reward.

Grandfather also mentioned that before the end of the year, the emperor ordered the clan mansion to select the prince from among the sons of noble families in Beijing and the court officials to accompany him to study, and the young people selected were accompanied by several older princes other than the prince. elder brother.Duanning was also included in the shortlist, and he just had to wait for the announcement of the results next month.

Zhang Bao didn't feel anything, but a strange look flashed across Tong's face.

Then came a letter from my grandmother.The letter was very long. First, it talked about various trivial matters of taking care of the baby, and gave a pair of jade locks as a gift, and then it was written to Tong's instructions, housework management, serving her husband, and raising children. a lot.Shu Ning was listening, almost dizzy.

Both Zhang Bao and Tong felt good about the name "Xianning" that their father gave to the baby. The children are named after "Duan", "Shu" and "Xian", and they will definitely be people of integrity in the future , they are satisfied.Shu Ning was a little regretful that the names she thought of were not adopted, but the current name was also good, so she accepted it.

Now she was more anxious to read the letter Duanning wrote to herself, so she apologized to her parents, took the letter Duanning wrote to her, and went back to her room.

(End of this chapter)