Without Aunt Wu hopping outside, the entire Qingshan Village is much cleaner, and the villagers are preparing for the New Year in an orderly manner.
Gu Ye, on the other hand, got into his own pharmacy and was busy preparing the medicinal materials. She was going to send a batch of medicinal materials to Jimintang a few years ago. Her pharmacy, which was originally a utility room at home, was later sorted out to store pharmaceutical tools and some crude drugs. After the wooden house was put into use, it has begun to take shape after several repairs and expansions.
Because other than Gu Ye and his apprentice, almost no one would go in, so it was unclear how many medicinal herbs Gu Xiao and his grandson had collected. Gu Ye smuggled in a batch of herbs from the space, and the others were unknown.
In addition to cooking and laundry, Aunt Yan was also given the task of cutting medicine. Her knife skills are very good, her skills are sophisticated, and she cuts the herbs evenly and meticulously, which is even more perfect than Gu Ye, who has practiced for more than a month.
With her help, Gu Ye felt much more relaxed, and the progress of concocting medicinal materials was naturally much faster. But in five or six days, the crude drugs in the pharmacy were almost finished. Gu Ye sneaked into the space and made a batch of medicines for children.
Gu Ming has not been idle these days. He goes to Uncle Gu San's house every day to read with him. Originally, when his mother was alive, he began to send him, who was only six years old, to Gu San's house to read. When Liu entered the door, Gu Ming had been reading for two years. It was not until Liu Shi was pregnant with Xiao Zhuang that Gu Ming was not allowed to study in order to save money for his son.
For the past three years, Gu Ming has been taking advantage of the gaps in his work to review the knowledge he has learned before, and from time to time he has gone to private schools to steal teachers, or learn from Zhang Lihu and Li Hao. However, compared with those children who have been studying with Gu Sanbo, it is still a little difficult to keep up with the progress.
Fortunately, he is smart and eager to learn, and can endure hardships. Gu Sanbo opened a small stove for him from time to time, and Gu Ming's progress quickly caught up. In addition to reading, he practiced with his grandfather every morning and evening. In winter, when it was minus ten degrees outside, he was sweating all over. The belief in his heart is supporting him. He wants to be the champion of martial arts. He wants to support his sister and become her support!
Witnessing his sister's pharmaceutical talent and business acumen, he felt that he had to speed up his pace, otherwise he would be left far behind if he couldn't catch up with his sister's footsteps! Therefore, whether he practiced or read, he was very hardworking.
In fact, just like Gu Ye's pharmaceutical talent, Gu Ming is also a rare genius in martial arts. Otherwise, Gu Xiao wouldn't let his hard-earned grandson follow this path. With Gu Ming's efforts, his kung fu can be described as a thousand miles a day. Gu Xiao looked in his eyes, and from time to time a hint of admiration flashed across his stern expression.
On the twentieth day of the twelfth lunar month, Gu Sanbo's private school took annual leave. Compared with the days of snowstorms last year, this year's God is too cooperative. The sun has always been shining before the festival. Many villagers in Qingshan Village have decided to go to the town together on this day to buy New Year's goods for the last time.
Gu Ye packed the prepared medicinal materials one by one on the first day, and prepared to send them to the town with everyone the next day. In addition, there are still ten days before the Chinese New Year, so she dropped by to find out if there was any news about Master. Alas, I wonder if he can rush back to celebrate the New Year with her!
It was still before dawn, Gu Xiao and Gu Ming led a horse, while Gu Ye was wrapped in thick sweaters and sat on grandpa's jujube red horse. There are two bamboo baskets on both sides of the saddle, which contain medicinal materials for Jimintang.
Seeing these two tall horses, the villagers couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Li Hao rushed over and said enviously, "Gu Ming, where are the original two mules in your family? Why are they replaced by horses?"
Gu Ming explained: "The two mules were lent to us by Jimintang. Last time my sister went to the border to save people, and she returned after passing through the town. The horse my sister was riding was brought back by my grandfather. It was sent by Major General Chu."
"Major General? It's Grandpa Zheng and your sister who rushed over to save him regardless of the severe cold? Grandpa Zheng saved his life, and sister Ye'er became seriously ill because of it. It's okay to take him a horse." Li Hao Seeing the dark horse being held by Gu Ming, he looked docile and licked his face, "Gu Ming, can you let me hold it for a while?"
"Okay! This horse is very obedient. If you walk ahead, it will catch up on its own. Don't tug on the reins. My grandfather said: No matter how docile a horse is, it has a temper." Gu Ming couldn't help but urged a sentence.
Li Hao took the reins carefully, followed Gu Ming's example, and walked forward with a slightly stiff footstep. The horse was so good-natured that it was led by a stranger, but only paused for a while, gave Gu Ming a gentle look, and continued to walk forward.
The other children who went shopping with their parents in the town looked at Li Hao eagerly. The children in the village didn't play well with Gu Ming before. Some naughty children even joked that he and Gu Ye were unmothered children. However, those children who had bullied his sister were beaten back by Gu Ming. This is also the reason why these children are embarrassed, like Li Hao, to bring up the horse.
However, the donkey of the village chief's family became the target of the children's scramble. The sharp noise almost didn't startle the donkey. In the end, it was the village chief who solemnly arranged the order for each child to lead the donkey, so as not to fight.
The mountain road is long, and even the mountain people who are used to walking on the mountain road gradually feel tired, not to mention that many people have brought their children out, and the speed will naturally widen the gap. Li Hao and Gu Ming are both used to running on mountain roads, and they have been drilled countless times a day by them. In addition, Li Hao also practiced kung fu with Gu Ming for a while, and his legs and feet could keep up.
In the evening, Master Gu Xiao and Li Hao were the first in the village to arrive at the "compound". Li Hao helped Gu Xiao's grandfather and grandson to unload the medicinal materials from the horse's back and moved them into the big kang room one by one, and then eagerly rushed to feed the horse with Gu Ming. Along the way, he got acquainted with Xiao Hei, and he had to touch its head and back every inch.
Not long after, the villagers also arrived at the "compound". However, there are not many people who are willing to spend money to enter the house, except for Master Gu Xiao and the village chief's family.
"That Ye'er" Gu Ye followed behind her grandfather, and was about to enter the room to rest, when she heard a cowardly voice behind her and stopped her. She looked back and saw that it was Widow Li from the village. Behind the other party, a little girl about her age was looking at her with clear eyes.
"Aunt Li, what's the matter?" Gu Ye had never had any interaction with Widow Li's mother and daughter. However, in the original owner's memory, Li Xiuhong, Widow Li's daughter, went up the mountain with the original owner from time to time. When the original owner was seriously ill, she also visited twice. Since she was adopted by her grandfather, the little girl seems to have never come to the door.
In my impression, Widow Li was young and widowed, pulling two children by herself, and living a difficult life. Her family's men are close to the village chief's family. If it wasn't for the village chief's help, life would not have been able to go on.
As for the relationship with the original owner, Gu Ye felt that she could see through the mind of the little girl. She did not hesitate to express her sympathy and help the weak to achieve a psychological balance. Once a person who is not as good as herself suddenly becomes "rich", her mentality is unbalanced, and she naturally becomes estranged.
Widow Li raised her head and glanced at the Firefox fur cloak on Gu Ye's body, then lowered her head quickly, and asked Ai Ai, "It's cold outside at night, does Ye'er have any cold-resistant clothes? I'll borrow Xiuhong to wear it for one night. I'll return it to you early in the morning. "
Widow Li looked back at her daughter's cotton-padded coat with patches on top of each other. The cotton inside was so hard that it was not warm to wear on her body. Looking at her daughter's cold red and swollen hands and her ears with frostbite, she couldn't help but feel sad and blame herself for a while. It was she who was incompetent, the children suffered with her
The little leaf of the Gu family was like her daughter before. She didn't have enough food and clothing, and the two had a good relationship. She should be able to understand her love for her daughter, right? In fact, Widow Li wanted Gu Ye to lend the cloak on her body to her daughter to wear, because Xiuhong looked at the clothes on her former friend with envious and longing eyes more than once along the way.
She didn't know any more, and she knew that the flaming red cloak on Gu Ye's body was something they could never afford to buy in their entire lives. The only thing she can do now is to speak cheekily, borrow the cloak and let her daughter put it on for one night, to satisfy her little hope
From Widow Li's point of view, since Gu Ye entered the big kang room, the big cloak was left unused. They are all from the villagers, so this trivial matter should not be rejected, right? Besides, when Gu Ye was down, her daughter was the only one who was willing to approach her and be her friend. If Gu Ye refused to do such trivial things for her friends, what would the villagers think of her? You will definitely think she is ruthless!
Gu Ye stroked the fire fox fur cloak on his body, and his deep eyes stopped on Widow Li's daughter. Then Li Xiuhong listened to Widow Li's words, raised her head and glanced at her, her mouth moved, her eyes fixed on the cloak on her body for a moment, but she didn't say anything.
There are also people in the village whose families are too poor to buy wedding dresses. When their daughters get married, they will borrow wedding dresses from married daughters from slightly better families, wash them clean and return them after they get married. That is also impossible! However, Gu Ye never imagined that the clothes on his body would be borrowed one day.
Not to mention that this Firefox fur cloak is brand new, even if she wears clothes she doesn't like, she won't be willing to lend it to others. From Gu Ye's point of view, men and clothes are intimate and personal, and cannot be shared with others!
Gu Xiao couldn't see the emotion in her granddaughter's inadvertent little action, so he hurriedly opened his mouth and smiled and said: "Yeah, it's almost New Year's Eve, and the water drips into ice outside at night, we adults can still bear it, children. If you stay outside, you will suffer."