Lingquan after kitchen

Chapter 59
Ouyang Teng came in and said with a smile: "Jinhua, what you picked was the pomegranate fruit that your mother planted when she first married me."

The pomegranate tree was planted by servants sent by the Wang family after their wedding. It has been more than ten years old, and it is older than Ouyang Jinhua.

Wang felt that the pomegranate was fiery red and auspicious, and wished her a safe birth to a daughter and three children, bringing happiness and well-being, and no one was allowed to pick it, but it had to wait until it was ripe and fall naturally.

Ouyang Jinfeng walked towards Mrs. Wang, and said softly, "Mother, I want to visit my sister-in-law tomorrow and bring her some of your pomegranates, so that she will have as many children as you in the future."

"Look at how stingy your father is talking about me." Mrs. Wang stretched out her hand to hold the little hand of the eldest daughter, and said with a smile, "Even if you remove this pomegranate tree, I agree."

Ouyang Jinhua broke open a pomegranate, revealing the plump and beautiful pomegranate seeds inside, broke it into several pieces, and gave one to each of his parents, smiling like a flower, and said: "I won't remove it, let it grow here, It will bloom and bear fruit every year for you to see."

"Today, the beef you made is very fragrant. I couldn't finish eating so much, so I divided it up. I heard from them that the amount of two large buckets was gone in the blink of an eye. There was a little broth left at the bottom of the bucket. Dip the steamed buns and eat." Ouyang Teng happily ate the sweet pomegranate handed by his eldest daughter.

He is straightforward, has no scheming, and has no intention of harming others, but his work is rigorous to the point of rigidity. The officials, guards and yamen servants of the temporary yamen respect him more. Today, he shared the beef sent by the mansion. There is more intimacy.

Ouyang Jinfeng said loudly: "Father, it's bison and wolf meat."

"Oh, there was still wolf meat in it. I was so hungry that I swallowed the dates, but I didn't eat them."

Ouyang Teng said with some expectation: "What are you going to eat tonight?"

Ouyang Jinhua said with a smile: "I thought that what I ate at noon was too greasy, and it would be difficult to digest it in the evening, so I made some light food."

Ouyang Jinfeng immediately shook his head at Ouyang Jinlei, and said sympathetically, "Third brother, you can't get anything to eat, so pitiful."

"You're right." Ouyang Teng said again: "The meat is so fragrant, I'd better cut a few plates and eat it. Jin Lei hasn't eaten in the school at noon, so we'll have some for dinner after eating his light."

Ouyang Jinhua said casually: "Jin Lei can eat meat. I also prepared a copy for his two teachers, and he will send it to Chang'an with us tomorrow morning."

Ouyang Jinlei proudly said to Ouyang Jinfeng: "My father and sister are thinking about me."

"You know how to talk about food, and Xuan Yi laughed at it." Wang Shi had hurried to the Erjin yard just now, and put the tightly clutched object in Dongfang Xuanyi's hands.

Dongfang Xuanyi looked down and saw that it was a very precious white jade pendant, worth at least 5000 taels.

Wang's eyes were gentle, and said: "My good boy, you have seen a lot of good jade, this is nothing, it's just a little love between me and your uncle."

Dongfang Xuanyi hurriedly said: "I like this jade very much. Thank you, aunt and uncle."

Ouyang Jinhua glanced at the jade, and said in his heart: You have such a sweet mouth. If you get a good jade, you will call my mother an aunt instead.

Dinner is different from lunch again, with less meat and more vegetables. The staple food is beef noodles with roots as thin as threads. The noodle soup is bison bone soup, which is thick and fresh but not greasy. It is served with green garlic leaves, sesame and chili oil, which is salty and delicious. tasty.

The whole family enjoyed it very much. Even Dongfang Xuanyi, who likes to eat rice in the southern region all the year round, thought the beef noodles were very delicious. Ouyang Jinhua put a lot of thought into eating this noodle. The noodles eaten by the government are really unpalatable.

"Walk a hundred steps after dinner, and live to be 99 years old." Wang took Ouyang Jinfeng, who had rarely seen each other for a few months, to go for a walk. Ouyang Jinhua followed and discussed with her about going to Ding's house tomorrow.

Ouyang Jinlei had some homework to do, so he went to the study.

Ouyang Teng, Ouyang Jinhua, and Dongfang Xuanyi went for a walk in the back garden, played chess, and talked about state affairs.

Dongfang Xuanyi asked: "Uncle, I heard from Jinyu that you are going to propose to the imperial court to build the embankment of the Bahe River from the end of autumn?"

Ouyang Teng cheered up when he heard this, and replied: "The people in more than [-] villages on both sides of the Bahe River suffer from floods almost every year. I have already written half of the notebook, and I will submit it in a few days. go up."

Dongfang Xuanyi continued to ask: "How high are you going to build the embankment?"

"At least half a foot high." Ouyang Teng gestured at the height and said, "If the imperial court can send me to repair it this time, I plan to spend at least three years building the embankment of the Bahe River to be extremely strong. It won't go down."

Dongfang Xuanyi changed the subject, and said: "The water volume of the Laodao River in the south is much larger than that of the Bahe River. During the flood season, it can rise ten feet overnight, flooding all the downstream villages. Even the mountains can be half-flooded."

Ouyang Jinyu asked: "Are you talking about the Laodao River in the prefecture of Tanzhou?"

"Yes." Dongfang Xuanyi continued: "When my uncle first went to Tanzhou, he spent 20 taels of silver to build embankments for three consecutive years. In this way, seven years ago, when the Xiangjiang River suffered a rare flood in 50 years, the flood did not cross the tributary of the Laodao River embankment, submerged 130 villages, and killed [-] people."

Ouyang Teng's face changed suddenly, his chest was heavy.It is hard to imagine what will happen if Bahe becomes like this?

Dongfang Xuanyi said slowly: "I advised my uncle to clear the silt at the bottom of the river and dig deep and widen the river bed. The Xiangjiang River suffered a rare flood in a century the year before last. Except for the Laoda embankment, all the embankments of the other tributaries collapsed."

Ouyang Teng said in a deep voice, "I saw you mentioning the two floods in the Xiangjiang River in the official newspaper, and I still remember them vividly. It's just that it didn't say that the catastrophic flood happened once in a century."

He has the gift of photographic memory, and he can still remember what he has seen after many years.

"The flood of the Xiangjiang River is not comparable to the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, but it is much more ferocious than the Bahe River." Dongfang Xuanyi looked at the crescent moon, which was swallowed by the black clouds and only showed a corner, with a gloomy gaze, "Every time I come back, I will take away the people's blood." life, property and livestock."

Ouyang Teng asked solemnly: "Are you advising me that if I want to completely solve the flood of the Bahe River, I have to dig out the silt from the bottom of the river and widen the riverbed?"

"That's right." Dongfang Xuanyi nodded and said, "If the imperial court can allocate money and appoint you to deal with the flood, I can give you two people who have participated in the whole process of repairing the Nagging River, and let them assist you. .”

(End of this chapter)