Idle courtiers

Chapter 81

The autumn of the 38th year of Jiajing was so short, the autumn wind only rose for two days, and the bone-chilling icy rain enveloped the entire Andong County.

At night, the rain turns into goose feathers and heavy snow falls one after another, making the sky and the earth white.

Winter is here, and the people in the city are busy, preparing charcoal, firewood and vegetables for the winter.

All the vegetables and cabbages in Zhou Nan’s vegetable garden were harvested and piled up under the window, forming a neat hill.Just like that, before the vegetables in the field were harvested, Yunniang and Xiaolan were busy in the yard early in the morning.

Sitting in the room, seeing the familiar scene in front of him, Zhou Nan seemed to have returned to the modern society in a trance.At that time, he was still young, and every winter, he would push a cart with his father to transport thousands of catties of cabbage home and neatly stack them on the balcony. This was the source of vitamins for the family of three throughout the winter.

Counting it, the father and mother in modern society have passed away for many years.Now, God gave himself a home in this distant Ming Dynasty.

Huai'an Mansion actually belongs to the north, and the customs are the same as those in the north.Storing cabbage is the biggest event in early winter, presumably other people in this city are as busy as Yunniang and the others, right?
Not to mention, the house given to Zhou Nan by the Shui family is dilapidated and not worth a lot of money, but it has all the facilities that a home should have.For example, floor heating, such as the sandwich wall with a flue.Since last night, when she felt that the weather was not right, Yunniang turned on the floor heater to make it very hot.Zhou Nan was so fierce that he was still sweating a little while wearing only a cotton shirt.

"My husband is thirsty, how about I make you a bowl of tea?" Yun Niang asked after she finished ordering vegetables at the window.

Through the lattice of the window, one can see her gentle smile.

"I'm not thirsty, no need. Yunniang, you're tired too, come into the room to rest, I have something to tell you."

After Yunniang finished washing her hands and came in, Zhou Nan pondered for a long time before slowly saying: "Yunniang, how much cash do we have?"

Yunniang is a standard ancient woman who doesn't care much about money.After thinking for a while, he said, "It's not much money anymore. Mr. Mr., you almost used up all your family savings to buy a boat, and now you still have 12 taels or three dollars left."

"Two or three dollars for 12, it's not enough to add more than one or two pockets I have on hand." The settlement on the salt ship is settled every month, and it will take a while to see the money. Zhou Nan has a bit of a headache: "From Yue Zhang How much can you borrow?"

Yunniang: "Daddy and Arita didn't buy a boat either, and money is even tighter. I'm afraid there aren't many. Is there any urgent need, or I'll go back to my mother's house tomorrow to have a look."

"Yes, the father-in-law of Mount Tai probably doesn't have much money, so you don't need to borrow it. There is a saying that the water poured out by a married daughter always makes you go back to your mother's house to talk, but you are wronged .” Zhou Nan shook his head.

That's right, he was thinking about how to deal with Sister Su's debt.

In the past, when Mei Yuanwai was pressing for debts, the Mei family had a big business and did not want to offend the yamen, so naturally they would not tear themselves apart and force them into the yamen.For Miss Su... This woman is crazy, and she won't be surprised by anything she does, not to mention that I offended her too hard.

When that day came, I really couldn't get down from the stage.

300 taels of silver is simply an astronomical figure, and Zhou Nan can't get it all at once.He saved up the idea of ​​paying in installments, and first put together a few dozen taels for the down payment, so as to appease Sister Su first.

Yun Niang continued to smile: "It doesn't matter if you feel wronged or not."

"Forget it, don't go back, I have my own way...don't you ask me what I'm doing with the money?"

Yun Niang: "Men do things outside to make money, of course there are men's reasons, but I can't ask."

"You, you!" Zhou Nan sighed, took her hand and shook his head.

The snow was even bigger, and it was three fingers thick on the ground in a blink of an eye.There was a slight creaking sound from the roof from time to time, which was frightening to hear in the dark night, for fear that the house would collapse if you were not careful.

Yunniang was also afraid in her heart, she couldn't help but thrust her body into Zhou Nan's arms.

Zhou Nan smiled: "Don't worry, it won't collapse. I've seen this house. The beams and purlins are thick and solid. Even if it takes another 30 to [-] years, it won't be rotten. I'll find a craftsman to come back and have a look tomorrow... hey , don’t be afraid, forget it, I won’t be able to sleep anyway, I’ll get up and climb on the roof to sweep the snow.”

As soon as he got out of the hot quilt and put on his clothes, before he could go out, there was a knocking sound on the courtyard door outside.

Xiao Lan, who lived in another room, asked loudly, "Who is it, came here in the middle of the night?"

A man's voice came from outside: "Master Zhou, get up quickly, it's not good, something serious happened."

Zhou Nan ran out, and at this time Xiaolan had already opened the courtyard door, and saw the Lin brothers and a watchman standing outside holding a lantern. There is a circle of hemp rope used to bind people.

Xiaolan kept muttering: "Come here in the middle of the night, so that people can't sleep?"

Seeing them dressed like this, Zhou Nan looked solemn again, and felt that something was wrong, so he hurriedly asked: "Ah Da Er Er, what's the matter, what are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

Lin Ada said flatteringly: "Today is the second duty night. Master, although you have gone to the ceremony room, there is no master in the delivery room. If there is anything to do over there, you have to be the master."

It turned out that the commissioning room was a standard secretarial institution in ancient yamen.In addition to sending and receiving foreign official documents every day, people are also kept on duty at night.The brothers of the Lin family are Zhou Nan's confidantes. They used to be humble folks, so they had to be supported by him to become official yamen servants and make up for the use of the subsidy.

Among the two brothers, especially Lin A'er, Zhou Nan was the only one in his eyes.He only asked Zhou Nan about the issue of housing, and he would not sell anyone's account.

Zhou Nan frowned: "What time is it now? The city gates are closed, so what's the big deal?" The county towns of the Ming Dynasty had to close the city gates as soon as it got dark and impose a curfew.Watchmen and yamen servants will patrol the streets from time to time, and if they see you wandering the streets in the middle of the night, I’m sorry, but I’ll go to the prison in the yamen for a night.

Therefore, the law and order in the ancient county was quite good, quite like a police society.

In such a tightly-ruled society, what could happen in the middle of the night?

Watchman: "If you go back to Master, it's already three watch."

Lin Ada said in a low voice: "Huo Chunfen, a boy from Huo's Dyeing Workshop on Jiangxi Street in the south of the city, beat Niu Er to death just now."

"Murder?" Zhou Nan was taken aback, this is serious!The ancients had a slow pace of life, a simple social structure, and poor mobility of people.In fact, there are very few cases in the situation. The prison room deals with trivial matters every day. When encountering small cases, it mostly focuses on persuading peace, just like the aunt of the neighborhood committee.

In the past ten years in the entire Andong County, there has only been a vicious case of Zhou Xiucai killing the young master of the Mei family.

Now that there is such a murder case again, it is a great event.

Zhou Nan: "Niu Er, but the Niu Er who opened the restaurant at the gate of the yamen, why was he beaten to death, he is quite an honest person! He always smiles when he sees people, and he doesn't want to offend people easily."

"Yes, that's Niu Er, my brother is eating there today." Lin Ah Er replied.

He had a look of regret, to be honest, although Niu Er's fly restaurant is dirty and the dishes he cooks are just home-cooked dishes, the craftsmanship is pretty good.Especially the Maoxuewang, topped with spicy oil and sprinkled with chopped green onion.Red and white complement each other, the best in the world.The people in the yamen wanted to get closer, but liked his cooking skills, and most of them settled for lunch at his place.

After the death of Niu Er, where will everyone eat their lunch, it is a pity that Maoxuewang will never be heard again.

Lin Ada said: "Master, yes, this Niu Er is indeed a kind person. But people are always confused, especially when they are beautiful. I heard that he drank alcohol today and climbed into the courtyard wall of Huo's dyeing workshop. He wanted to plot against Widow Huo, but he didn’t think that the widow was also a virtuous woman, so he screamed, and then Niu Er was beaten to death in the yard by the buddy Huo Chunfen who heard the screams.”

"Widow Huo..." Zhou Nan was a little speechless, he had almost become a professional widow, and after traveling to the Ming Dynasty, he only dealt with women whose men died.

(End of this chapter)