"Yes, but today Grandpa Jin's house invites dinner, so we don't work for the rest of the day, we can come out to play."
Today the whole village is as festive and lively as the Chinese New Year, not only killing chickens and ducks, but also killing pigs and sheep.
At this time the sun was already in the middle of the sky, and all the people working in the fields had returned. Knowing that Zhou's family was going to have dinner at night, and it was lively there, many people came to help after washing their faces.
Zhou Man and the others came back with the remaining fruits, and only a few fell into their hands in the end.
"This is my home," Zhou Man took Mingda's hand, led them in, walked around to the north courtyard, pointed to a door and said, "It was my room before, but now..."
"It's yours now," Feng Shi passed by, and interjected, "You still have a lot of books and things inside, and we don't know if you can move them, so we only clean them on weekdays, without moving anything."
She glanced at the princess, couldn't help but smiled flatteringly, leaned closer to Zhou Man and whispered: "It's so noisy outside, take the princess to sit in your room, and I'll serve the butcher dish in a while, you guys are here Eat in the yard?"
Zhou Man nodded in response, and said to the servants of the Bai family: "Go back and tell the old lady that we also ate here at noon."
"yes."
Zhou Man happily pulled them into his room.
The room has been unoccupied for a long time. Fortunately, it has been winded for a long time before, and it must have been smoked, so there is only a touch of moisture.
Bai Shan asked his servants to go home to get an incense burner to burn incense, and the group sat down in the outer room. .
There are still some books on the bookshelf next to the screen, and more bamboo utensils. There is a shallow lotus-shaped basket that is very beautiful, and some small things are stored in it.
Yin Ju looked at it curiously, "I heard you said that your second brother is good at weaving bamboo, did he weave it for you?"
Zhou Man nodded, "Yes, all the bamboo weaves in this room are made by my second brother."
Bai Shan took a ball from the top of the bookshelf and handed it to him, "No, brother Tuesday made this too."
"Do you know how to play Cuju?" Yin Or took a look, raised his eyebrows, and looked at the three of them suspiciously, "I've only seen you before, but I don't seem to have seen you kick it before."
Bai Erlang said: "When we were young, we were the top players in the village, and we were the ones who played the best football."
Bai Shan nodded, "It's just that you can't compare with people who really know it."
When Mingda heard it, he couldn't help laughing out loud, "No wonder you never kicked in the capital."
"Princess, Prince Consort," a servant of the Bai family approached and reported outside the door: "The county magistrate of Luojiang County has handed over a greeting card, and wants to come to greet the princess."
After the words fell, Jiulan also reported back: "Master, lady, our family has also received invitations."
Several people in the room looked at each other, Bai Shan thought for a while and said: "Please come tomorrow, the county magistrate."
"yes."
Bai Erlang: "He's well informed. We just got home yesterday afternoon."
Bai Shan: "Luojiang County is not big, and we have so many people, it's impossible for him not to know."
He paused and said, "Ask Shanglizheng and the village chief to come and see you when the time comes."
The outside suddenly became lively, not only the sound of loud talking, but also the sound of crackling firecrackers. Zhou Man got up when he heard it, "It must be my uncle and the others. You sit and play by yourself. I will see them."
Bai Shan raised his son in his hand and asked, "Do you want to bring the child?"
"No need," Zhou Man said, "There are too many people making noise. It's better for the children to join in the fun less. I'll come when I see you. You take them with you."
Uncle Qian and the others set off three firecrackers and were welcomed in happily.
Several in-laws of the Zhou family invited the Qian family to visit today, and the rest had to wait until after tomorrow before the son and his daughter-in-law returned to their natal home to have a look.
As soon as Aunt Qian arrived, she took Little Qian to see her, and saw that she was more energetic than when she left a few years ago, and she didn't look old, so she knew that she was doing well, and the smile on her face was even bigger, "Where are your two nephews? "
Five years ago, two children of the Qian family joined Zhou Zhoulang's caravan and began to go home once a year.
Xiaoqian said: "They are in Qingzhou. The fourth brother said to let them watch the shops and business over there, so I didn't bring them with me when I came back this time."
Aunt Qian heard them talk about it several times, but she still didn't know where Qingzhou was, she only knew that it was near the sea, "How are they doing?"
"It's good, Liwei is there too, there is support," said Xiaoqian, "and the fourth child is now going back and forth through Qingzhou."
"What about Lizhong and Lixue, how old are they now?"
Xiaoqian said: "Lixue is a county magistrate outside, and he can't come back, but this time Lizhong and his wife came back. The father-in-law said that he would open an ancestral hall and remember his wife, and the children. In the past few years, we I didn’t come back, and the children I gave birth didn’t have time to be on the score.”
"Lizhong is back. Old Sigang didn't say anything. Who is his wife?" Aunt Qian turned her head excitedly to look out, and asked in a low voice, "His wife is also an official like Manbao?"
"That's right, the current official rank is the same as Lizhong, and it can be promoted in the future. It must be more promising than Lizhong." Little Qian looked out, pointed to a young woman who came back with a basket of vegetables, and said, "That's right. Her maiden name is Liu, and her name is Sanniang."
After finishing speaking, she went out of the kitchen door and said loudly: "Sanniang, come quickly and see your grandmother."
Liu Sanniang immediately stepped forward to pay her respects, but was grabbed by Aunt Qian, "Well, well, good looking, our family is very lucky."
Liu Sanniang bowed her head and smiled embarrassedly.
Zhou Man came quickly from the yard next door, and when he saw her, he shouted, "Auntie!"
Aunt Qian was also very pleasantly surprised when she saw Zhou Man, she immediately let go of Liu Sanniang, and went towards Zhou Man's hand, "Man Bao has grown so big? Oh, it looks so good, but she lost a little weight, did she not eat well? Your cook's skills are not to your liking?"
"I've grown up, I'm not thin." Zhou Man firmly refused to admit that he had lost weight. After looking around, he asked, "Where are my uncle and the others?"
"Just walked in the door and wandered around before being dragged out. It was said that there were too many people in the yard to sit down, which delayed the work in the kitchen." Aunt Qian glanced outside and said, "either in the open space at the door or at the entrance of your village. It’s under the banyan tree, and your father is outside.”
Old Zhou Tou was indeed outside, and he was surrounded by three circles of people, all of whom were old men and women around his age.
Relying on their seniority and age, they occupied the best open space in the village—under the banyan tree.
The children who liked to run around the tree were chased away by them. A group of old men and old ladies sat under the tree to hide from the shade and talked, mainly because they asked, old Zhou said.
"Then have you met the Emperor?"
"See you, I've seen you. I see you every year." Every year during the Chinese New Year, the emperor would go up to the tower of the imperial city to have fun with the people. I can see you every year.