"The second brother's house is really magnificent."
When he arrived at the door of Zhu Ping'an's house, Uncle Zhu Shouren looked at the huge red brick and green tile mansion and couldn't help but sigh. Uncle Zhu Shouren hadn't been to Zhu Ping'an's house for a long time. Some time ago, Zhu Ping'an's house was renovated and it was much better than the number one landlord's house in the village. When he saw it for the first time, he couldn't help but sigh.
"Second brother, our parents are here to see you."
Without knocking, my uncle Zhu Shouren shouted outside the door and pushed the door open first. Then Mr. Zhu and Mrs. Zhu followed in, then my aunt and her family followed in, and finally my third uncle and his family.
At this time, Chen, the mother, was cutting silk cloth with her daughter-in-law Juan'er on a long table in the yard, preparing to make two sets of clothes for Zhu Ping'an during the slack season. The silk cloth was left by those who visited her some time ago, and Chen picked out a few pieces of cloth that felt comfortable to the touch and kept them for Zhu Ping'an to make clothes.
Zhu's father was sharpening a hoe beside the well in the yard. The family had a lot of land and used a lot of farm tools. It was a time-consuming task to sharpen them one by one before work, but Zhu's father liked to do it.
The eldest brother Zhu Pingchuan took over his father's job and was driving a ox cart back and forth between the town and the village, so he was not at home.
Hearing the voice of their uncle Zhu Shouren, the three people who were busy in the yard looked up and looked at the people in the Zhu family's old house in surprise to see that all of them had arrived.
"Dad, Mom, and big brother, you are here." Father Zhu put down the work in his hands and came over.
"Dad, Mom." Chen stopped scissors in her hand and shouted.
"Grandfather, grandma, please sit down. I'll go pour you some tea." Zhu Pingjun's wife Juan'er put down what she was holding, went into the house to move chairs and stools, and then went to serve tea and water.
"Cough, cough, um." Uncle coughed and nodded.
"Oh, sister-in-law, this is the best silk. Oh, look at the beautiful color." When the fourth aunt saw the silk spread on the table in the yard, her eyes sparkled green and she shouted. She rushed to Chen in one step and couldn't help but put her hands on the silk and started to touch it.
"Oh, look at how bright the color is. Oh, how come it's so thin and light. It feels so soft. I've raised silkworms at home, but I've never touched silk. Sister-in-law, you are so lucky."
Aunt Xiao Si touched the silk with her hands, moaning from time to time, and was reluctant to let go.
Zhu Pingjun's wife narrowed one eye, looked at Fourth Aunt with disgust, and pursed her lips in disdain.
"This color is too plain, it's for Zhu'er. I have half a piece in my room, if you like the color, take it. Of course, the same applies to my parents, my eldest sister-in-law, my second brother and his wife." After hearing the fourth aunt praise herself for being blessed, Chen smiled. She was originally planning to give some cloth to the old house, and now she took the opportunity to be a good person.
The eldest aunt was always strong-willed, especially in front of Chen. Now that Chen showed up, she was not willing to be outdone.
With all her dignity, the eldest aunt also walked up to Chen, pretending to look at the silk, but she deliberately lifted the hair at the roots of her ears, showing off the pair of gold earrings on her ears. She also deliberately shook them in front of Chen.
"It's hot today, and my ears feel uncomfortable because of the stuffy hair." The aunt said in front of Chen while lifting the hair at the base of her ears and shaking her gold earrings.
Chen took a look at her aunt's gold earrings and looked a little strange.
Seeing this, the aunt thought Chen was envious, so she shook even harder.
"That's right. The weather is getting hotter. I've only been working for a while and my hands are already hot."
As Chen said this, she rolled up her sleeves. Then a golden bracelet appeared in front of the aunt, almost blinding her.
Great aunt...
"Oh, this, Shouyi insisted on buying it, and I couldn't convince him..." Chen seemed to have just noticed the look in her aunt's eyes, she exclaimed, and put her sleeves down again.
Upon hearing this, Zhu's father looked up. Chen immediately glared at him hard, and then Zhu's father lowered his head again.
It's not me who has to buy it, it's you who has to buy it.
If it were modern times, Zhu's father would probably use an expression like this, which shows that the baby is feeling sad but can't say it. At that time, Chen followed Zhu's father to the town to look at the shop and saw such a bracelet. After just one look, Chen couldn't walk.
In fact, the bracelet was made of silver with a layer of gold on the outside. Zhu's father felt that a bracelet cost more than three taels of silver and was not worth it. However, Chen liked it, and under the roar of the Hedong Lion, Zhu's father had no choice but to spend money to buy it.
Great aunt...
When the aunt encountered setbacks, Zhu Pingjun's wife stepped forward and said something about how much of this silk their family had, and how it would get infested with bugs if they couldn't wear it all, and that their family had a shop that sold silk and satin and so on.
Then the eldest aunt became very excited again, and raised her hand and pointed two fingers, "Yes, yes, don't you know that the shop of Jun's wife's family has a gross profit of this much a year?"
It means two hundred taels of silver. After saying this, the aunt felt that she had the upper hand again.
Just then someone else came into the yard. There was the sound of a carriage outside, and then a man who looked like a master came in, followed by the steward and servants.
After greeting, he explained his purpose. He was an official from the next town and came to visit Zhu Pingan. Of course, he knew Zhu Pingan was not there. After a brief exchange of greetings, he brought a gift list and told the steward and the servants to take the gifts off the carriage.
Not to mention the gift boxes and other items that were unloaded from the car, just the first item on the gift list, the gift money of one hundred taels of silver, made his uncle Zhu Shouren, who was reading the gift list on behalf of the man, smack his lips.
One hundred taels
This is a free gift. Upon hearing this, the aunt looked at Chen and her eyes instantly became jealous like a rabbit. She was extremely greedy.
Just for this visit, he gave a hundred taels of silver. In the past period of time, there were 10 to 20 carriages visiting every day. How much money would that be? No wonder he wanted to study. No wonder his father always said that there is a golden house in books. It turns out there is.
Thinking about it, the aunt's eyes became even redder. As for what she just said about Jun Xifu's shop making an annual income of two hundred taels, it was nothing compared to this.
When the aunt thought about what she had just shown off, her face turned red, and of course her eyes were even redder.
As for Little Fourth Aunt, if Little Fourth Uncle hadn't been quick to pull her back, she would have pounced on the gift and screamed like an airport security agent.
Just as the aunt was jealous, Chen felt even more uncomfortable.
"No, no, we don't accept gifts, not money, not expensive things, no matter how much money you put in."
Chen's expression was as if she was about to have her flesh cut. She tilted her head and deliberately ignored the various expensive gifts that were unloaded from the carriage. She shook one hand vigorously at the visitor and firmly refused.
Of course, his other hand was pinching the flesh on Zhu's father's arm.
God knows how difficult it was for Chen to refuse, and how painful it was in her heart, it was more painful than cutting flesh.
Well
Of course, Zhu's father should know about this, as his arm was almost blue from being pinched by Chen.
Chen's idea was simple. Her son said that accepting gifts would be bad for his future, so she would not accept them. Although she felt bad about it, she was determined not to accept them for the sake of her son.
"What?"
Uncle Zhu Shouren almost tore up the gift list in his hand when he heard this, not to mention Aunt and Fourth Aunt. Their surprised expressions were a hundred times more shocked than when they saw a ghost.
In the end, at the insistence of Chen and Zhu's father, all the valuable gifts on the gift list were taken back by the visitor, leaving only some not very valuable things such as food, and a piece of cloth, which was the result of the visitor's insistence.
Otherwise, according to Chen's intention, it would probably be enough to just leave a box of pastries as a token of appreciation. (To be continued.)