Passerby's daily life

Chapter 15 Traveling (Part [-])

As soon as March came out, seven or eight horse-drawn carriages left Shun'anbo Mansion and headed out of the city.

There are four or five villages at the foot of Hongshan Mountain. They rely on mountains to eat mountains and rely on water to drink water. Although life is not rich, no one died of starvation. There are clear water and streams flowing through this place, but it is a very good place.

The old lady's Zhuangzi is located next to Hongshan Village. On weekdays, the villagers rent out the fields, and the output between other landlords and tenant farmers is generally four to six cents, or even thirty to seven cents. The tenants pay the land rent and then pay the poll tax. , can barely get enough food and clothing.But the old lady is benevolent, the land rent is only five or five cents, and the village recruits some long-term servants from time to time, who can earn several hundred dollars a month, making Hongshan Village the wealthiest among the surrounding villages.

The old lady and her party set off at eight o'clock in the morning. They were afraid of the bumps along the way, and the coachman didn't dare to go fast. It took half an hour longer than usual to reach Zhuangzi.

As soon as seven or eight carriages entered Hongshan Village, they attracted crowds of spectators. The four little girls of Susu secretly raised the curtains along the way to look at the scene outside.

Ning Cui entered the mansion at the age of seven, and had been living in the countryside before. Her father was in charge of a large village hundreds of miles away, with thousands of acres of fertile land and mulberry gardens and fish ponds, so she was no longer curious about the countryside.

Yangliu Bisi, who has never been to the countryside, especially Yangliu, keeps asking: "What kind of clothes are they wearing? There are pieces here and there." "Can people live in such a house?"

Ning Cui smiled helplessly and said: "You have been in the mansion since you were a child, and you grew up like a young lady. How do you know that in the countryside, clothes are made once a year, and if the clothes are broken, you don't want to throw them away, so you can mend them. Let's talk about the house To build a three-room main house with red bricks and large tiles, I am afraid that it will cost a small 50 taels of silver, but it is very good for rural people to save two or three taels of silver a year, so how can they be willing to build a brick and tile house?" Yang Liu and Bi Si and even Susu bowed their heads in silence.

In the Song Mansion, they had twelve sets of clothes throughout the year, as well as monthly money for rouge, gouache and jewelry, and they were picky and picky if the food was not delicious. They didn't know how life outside was like this.

Ning Cui was also afraid that she would frighten the three little girls, so she hurriedly said: "We will not be like this in the future, you will know by looking at my mother." Yang Liu and Bi Si breathed a sigh of relief, Su Su smiled and said: " The things that the old lady rewarded me in the past few months are enough to build several green brick and red tile houses, with the kindness that the old lady treats us, how can we be wronged!" Several people laughed and made a noise, and the carriage finally stopped.

When I got out of the car, I saw a large courtyard in front of me. When I entered, I entered it three times. The blue bricks and red tiles were cleaned up very cleanly. The head of the village on the Zhuangzi was welcoming some servants, and the maids and servants surrounded the old man. People enter the main entrance, then pass through the second gate and enter the third entrance. There are five main rooms, three wing rooms on each side, and a kitchen in the side room.

The old man often accompanied the old lady here for entertainment, so the decoration of the house is exquisite, although it is not as good as the mansion, it is much better than everyone imagined.Fast forward ten years, since the old man left, the old lady has never been here, and the former young steward is now in his 40s, and he is going to be a grandfather.

Zhuzhu led the people to tidy up the house, asked the old lady to settle down, and allocated houses to everyone. Zhuangtou took his wife, and the daughter-in-law greeted the old lady. Lizheng also got a letter and asked his wife to enter the village to kowtow to the old lady. .

The Song family used to be a merchant, but now it is a noble family. Zheng also changed people in the past ten years, but the old lady remained the same.Ask someone to move Xiudun, invite Lizheng's daughter-in-law to sit next to him, and the maid serves tea and snacks.

Lizheng's daughter-in-law is only under 40 years old and works all year round. A typical country woman, she was very reserved at the beginning. Fortunately, the maids and women who came with her are quite polite, and the old lady is kind, so this woman is more relaxed. Pulling the basket in his hand, he blushed and said: "There is nothing good at home, this is a pheasant that my boy just went up the mountain to add a dish to the old lady, please don't dislike it.

"The old lady hurriedly asked the maid to pick it up and said with a smile: "I don't dislike it, I don't dislike it, it's hard for you to think of me. " Lizheng's daughter-in-law talked with the old lady for a while, and she left at noon when she had to go home to cook. The old lady said: "I won't keep you, just come and talk with me when you have nothing to do on weekdays. Then he said to Pearl: "Get your aunt some snacks we brought, and wrap two brightly colored rulers." "Pearl was packed up quickly, but Lizheng's daughter-in-law refused but accepted it with a blushing face, and went home happily.

At this time, Xing Momo was also making arrangements for lunch, which was made by Xing Momo, and there were also country dishes brought by the servant woman in the village.

Now there are a lot of wild vegetables, the old lady ate very refreshing, she asked Pearl to reward the woman in the outside kitchen, there were quite a lot of vegetables left, so the old lady let the pearls spread out, Susu got a bowl of pheasant because of her small size Zaizi Tang, even in the Song family, although the meals of the third-class maids include fish and meat, game is not common.

Su Su thanked the old lady, and then deliberately circled around Yangliu, Bisi, and Ning Cui with a bowl. Yangliu knew the fun, smelled the fragrance exaggeratedly, and looked at the soup in Susu's hand pitifully, making the old man amused People couldn't help laughing, Pearl held the old lady's arm and smiled: "I beg the old lady to take pity on this girl and give her a bowl of soup!" My mouth is full of gold."

Susu and the four don't have to stay by the old lady's side all day, so they let the seven or eight-year-old girls and boys in Zhuangzi accompany them to go shopping here and there. If there is anything interesting to tell the old lady when they come back, the old lady's smile I don't know how much more than in the past, even the appetite has gradually increased, Xide Pearl doesn't restrain them, let them play as they please, but someone must follow.He gave the four of them a sling of money and asked San to buy candy for the children in the village.Within two days, the Susu four became the king of children in Hongshan Village.

The rules set by Susu are not to give candies to the children for free, but to exchange them with things, no matter wild vegetables or wild fruits.

When the old lady found out, she patted Susu's head, and praised Susu for doing the right thing: "There is nothing in this world that you can get for nothing. The younger the children, the more they should understand." Shan, although he is not rich, he knows how to be grateful. The host family sent a basket of wild vegetables, and the west family sent a pheasant and wild rabbit. The elder sister was thoughtful in everything, brought the exquisite silver locket and slowly opened the box, finally it was the guest of honor.

There are a lot of fruit trees planted on the mountain that Zhuangzi occupies, and the flowers are blooming just right now, attracting nearby beekeepers to release bees, and hearing that the old lady is here, they also sent two jars of honey, which is very sweet.

(End of this chapter)