Mrs. Chen and Mrs. Chen were boiling maltose in the courtyard. As soon as they stepped into the gate, the sweet aroma of malt came to their faces.
"Auntie!" Yu Yuan stepped forward to greet Mrs. Chen.
Mrs. Chen wiped her hands with the apron around her waist, and asked with a smile: "Ah Yuan, are you here to look for your uncle? He went to deliver rice cakes to shopkeeper Tong, and I'm afraid he won't be back before noon today. What's the matter? If you don't want to tell me, go to the study and leave a note for your uncle."
Tomorrow is the new year, and all the things for the new year have been prepared. Rice cakes are a must-have food for Chinese New Year in every household, and making rice cakes is Chen's forte. However, in previous years, Chen's health was not good, so he didn't do much. Although Chen's health is still not as good as that of ordinary people this year, it is much better than in previous years. Not only Yu's family is happy, but Chen's is also very happy.
"I'm here to look for A-Tang!" He said while helping Mrs. Chen move the maltose that was boiled next to it into the kitchen, "Is A-Tang there? We saw some new patterns when we went to Hangzhou last time. I want to discuss it with her."
Chen didn't doubt that she had it, and said with a smile: "She's in the study!" After finishing speaking, he cut a piece of malt candy with a knife, put it in a bowl, and handed it to Yu Yuan, "Here, you brothers and sisters, try it if it's delicious."
Yu Yuan happily agreed, and went to the study with the bowl in hand.
Holding a lake brush in his hand, Yu Tang was drawing something at his desk.
The warm winter sun shines in through the window sash covered with Korean paper, coating her figure with a layer of golden light, which is warm and soft.
Yu Yuan was stunned for a moment before calling out "Amei".
Yu Tang raised his head and immediately laughed.
Smiles burst out of her eyes layer by layer, making her look lively.
"Brother, why are you here?" She put down her pen, stood up from behind the desk, and welcomed Yu Yuan to sit on the grand teacher's chair by the window, "Aren't you busy preparing something for the Xiang's family for New Year's greetings?"
The wedding date has been fixed, the marriage certificate has passed, and although the wedding has not yet been held, Yu Yuan is already the uncle of the Xiang family. It stands to reason that Yu Yuan will go to the Xiang family to pay New Year's greetings in the second year of junior high school. The Wang family is worrying about the New Year's greetings and blames Yu Yuan I didn't take this matter to heart, and I didn't buy anything when I went to Hangzhou City.
Yu Yuan chuckled, completely forgot about this matter, he said: "Isn't there my mother and aunt? I don't understand this kind of thing. If I buy the wrong thing, I might as well not buy it!"
The last time someone from the Xiang family left a bad impression on him, he was a bit repulsive about going to the Xiang family, but for the sake of Miss Xiang's face, he decided to put all of this behind him and go to the Xiang family with a humble attitude. pay a New Year call. But that doesn't mean he likes to talk about it.
He put maltose on the small table, and said to Yu Tang: "Auntie gave it, try it if it's delicious."
Mother got up early in the morning and started to boil sugar.
When she was young, she would wait impatiently by the stove at this time, and would be forcibly taken away by her mother every time, and ended up crying and being stuffed with a piece of malt candy.
It wasn't until she was ten years old that she burned her mouth because she ate maltose for stealing. She consulted a doctor and took medicine for more than a month.
To Chen and the others, this only happened five or six years ago, but to her, it was more than ten years ago.
Feeling emotional in her heart, she smiled and went to make a bowl of maltose water for herself and Yu Yuan, said "Brother, try it too", and sat down opposite Yu Yuan again.
Yu Yuan tasted the syrup, it was fragrant, sweet but not dry, he couldn't help but praised: "I didn't expect my aunt's maltose to be so good, this year we are lucky."
In addition to offering sacrifices to the Stove King and entertaining relatives and friends who came to pay New Year's greetings during the Spring Festival, most of this maltose was prepared for Yu Yuan to use when he got married.
Yu Tang pursed his lips and smiled.
Yu Yuan hesitated, not daring to talk about maltose anymore, and said what he wanted to say: "I have thought about it carefully, just like you said, I will help manage the farm and forest at home, we will plant the kind of tree you mentioned , make candied fruit."
Yu Tang guessed it would be the same.
In her previous life, Yu Yuan's business was doing so well, but her uncle was still worried, and had to guide Yu Yuan from time to time. In this life, Yu Yuan was just doing odd jobs behind her uncle, and it was even more impossible for her uncle to let go of the shop. The business here was handed over to him.
"I was just about to talk about this with my brother!" Yu Tang said, got up and went to the desk, and said, "Brother, come and see, the painting here is the kind of tree I mentioned. This Chinese New Year, in the All the merchants outside have come back, can you invite those who are merchants outside to take a look and see if anyone knows this kind of tree?"
Yu Yuan walked over and looked at it carefully for a while, then quickly rolled up the painting, and said: "Okay, I will leave this matter to me. I will give you news before the fifteenth."
Yu Tang heaved a sigh of relief, but still felt uneasy. After Yu Yuan left, she drew a new picture of a seabuckthorn tree, and showed it to Yu Wen who had just returned from delivering rice cakes from shopkeeper Tong Da: "Do you know what kind of tree this is?" Can you find someone who knows this tree?"
Many of the literati like to grow flowers and plants, and there may be someone they know.
Yu Wen smiled and said, "What kind of problem are you giving me?"
Because Yu Tang suggested that when Yu Yuan got married, all the respectable country gentry in Lin'an City and the scholars who were admitted to the scholar's office should be invited to their home for a wedding wine. In the blink of an eye, Yu Tang drew another inexplicable tree for him to recognize...
Yu Tang smiled embarrassedly, hugged his father's arm and acted like a baby: "This tree is called seabuckthorn, brother and I are going to plant this tree on the mountain of our house, father, please help me ask! Anyway, you have to help Brother, go invite someone!"
He was very happy when his daughter acted like a baby to him when he had a happy event. He teased Yu Tang a few words, and he still took the painting with him when he went out to deliver wedding invitations.
To Yu Tang's surprise, the one who knew about this tree was Shen Shanyan, the instructor of the county school.
He smiled and asked Yu Wen: "Why are you asking this? Although this tree is rough, it can't grow in our place. If you don't believe it, you can go to Xia Guang's house to see. There are several trees in their house. Zhou Zijin brought it back when he went to Gansu in 2009. It still bears fruit there, but after returning, it only grows tall and no fruit. Because of this, Zijin even made a joke of Xia Guang, saying that the soil and water in their house no."
Yu Wen didn't expect this to be the result, he stayed for a long time, and finally said: "It's my daughter, I don't know where I heard someone said, I want to plant this tree in our family's forest, let me help to find out!"
Shen Shanyan escaped from the world here, and had heard about Yu Wen's character. Later, he got to know him a few times, but he also got a good temper. Occasionally, he would go to enjoy flowers and go for a walk together. Hearing the words, he couldn't help laughing and said: "You girl, what a pity. If I were a son, I would be able to do great things even if I don't study."
Who is Shen Shanyan, a son of the Shen family, a talented scholar from the south of the Yangtze River, it's amazing for an ordinary scholar to get a word of praise from him, let alone a girl.
Yu Wen's face was full of joy, but he said modestly: "Where, where, she just likes to toss."
Shen Shanyan said sincerely: "It's already amazing to be able to make troubles, and to be able to make troubles in a famous way." Then thinking of Miss Yu's marriage, he couldn't help saying: "Your daughter's marriage, you have to be careful, don't betroth others indiscriminately. It is."
"Definitely, definitely." Yu Wen nodded repeatedly.
Even if Shen Shanyan didn't say such a thing, he would still be reluctant to betroth his daughter to someone else casually. Now hearing what Shen Shanyan said, it made him more determined to find a good son-in-law.