There is an irrigation ditch on the outskirts of Yihe City in Youzhou. In autumn, the large expanse of reeds is like a vast expanse of snow.
Several villages near the river were scattered among them. A carriage turned from the official road to the small road, bumping non-stop. The groom was a young man in strange clothes with a dull expression.
Behind the groom sat a man in plain cotton clothes, leaning against the wall of the carriage, his legs dangling outside the carriage, swaying gently with the ups and downs of the carriage.
On the small road at dusk, the carriage caught up with an old farmer who had finished his work. When the carriage passed the old farmer, the man in cotton coat turned his head to look at the old man who just cast a curious look at him. The old man had a very ugly face. , ravines and ravines criss-cross, but although he is hunched, he is still half a head taller than those old people in the south, and his footsteps are quite vigorous, which shows that the old man must have been a good mover when he was young.
The man in cotton clothes called out gently, sir, and the coachman picked up the reins, and the carriage stopped slowly. The man jumped out of the carriage, and greeted with a smile, "Fourth grandpa?"
The old farmer was stunned. He didn't know why this face-faced junior called him fourth grandpa. It was probably because he was frightened by the man in cotton clothes.
The man in cotton clothes smiled in the most authentic Youzhou dialect: "I, Chen Wang from the end of the village, fourth grandpa, don't you recognize me?"
The old farmer widened his eyes and looked hard at the young man who claimed to live at the end of the village. Then he suddenly realized that a smile appeared on his wrinkled and vicissitudes of life face, "Xiaowang?!"
Chen Wang grinned and said, "Yes."
The old man sighed, and then wondered: "Why are you back again? Didn't you go to Beijing to catch the exam?"
Chen Wang smiled and said, "I've finished the exam a long time ago, so I'll go home this time and have a look. The fourth grandpa lent me two taels of silver back then, so I don't dare to forget it."
The old man waved his hand and asked curiously, "How did you do in the exam?"
Chen Wang said softly, "It's okay."
The old man groaned, maybe he was worried about hurting the face of the young people, so he didn't ask the bottom line, not to mention the old man who has been dealing with the yellow land all his life, in fact, he couldn't find out why, he just sighed, "It's a pity."
Chen Wang's face was calm, as if he didn't understand the regret in the old man's words.
Chen Wang and the old farmer walked back to the village side by side, chatting about the harvest of this year's crops, about the marriages of their peers, and about whether the elders in the village are still alive.
Through chatting, Chen Wang learned that his ancestral yellow mud house was already dilapidated, and a wall collapsed, which was reasonable. How could the extremely simple house be safe and sound without returning home for ten years to repair it. Chen Wang's parents passed away one after another before the exam, and the houses without owners are not those seemingly weak reeds, which will dry up this autumn and flourish next spring. The old farmer didn't say anything, but after this little Wang came to Beijing, there was a woman in the village who used to clean it often, and kept it clean, just like her own house. Her young people also gave up their hearts, married wives and had children, and the young girl gradually turned into an old girl. It's just that now that she's gone, what's the use of talking to Chen Wang about these things, not to mention that Chen Wang has been in the capital for so many years, maybe he can't remember her, right? Otherwise, if you really have the heart, even if you can't go home for so many years, why didn't you even send a letter back
As he approached the village, the old man raised his head and looked at the village where the smoke was curling up. He couldn't help but sighed. The girl's home was at the village. Such a virtuous child would give a thumbs up for a hundred miles away. The threshold of her family, but she refused to agree, and her parents could do nothing about it. No one expected that such a tragedy would happen in the end. The common people accept their fate, and if their fate is not good, they have no one to blame. It's like getting a disease. If you can survive it, you can live. If you can't survive it, it's because God doesn't reward you with food, so you can just go to the ground for peace.
Chen Wang didn't enter the village, but suddenly stopped and asked, "Fourth grandpa, where is her grave?"
The old man froze for a moment, then lowered his voice and said, "How do you know that she..."
The old man didn't continue talking, and Chen Wang also didn't speak.
The old man pointed to the side of the ferry and said, "That's right there. Even though the grave is small, it's easy to find."
Chen Wang took out a heavy money bag and a piece of letterhead, "Fourth Grandpa, please help me pay back the village account and hand it over to Lizheng or the nearby private school teacher. It is clearly written on it."
The old man hesitated for a while, but finally did not refuse. He carefully took the letterhead and money bag, and asked, "Aren't you going back to the village to have a look?"
Chen Wang shook his head and said, "I won't go. I've visited my parents' graves, and I'm going back to the capital right away."
The old man said with emotion: "This is too urgent."
Chen Wang smiled.
The old man took a few steps, and suddenly turned around and asked, "Xiao Wang, are you really a high official in the capital?"
Chen Wang didn't seem to know how to answer, the high official of Tai'an City? Huang Zigongqing, ranked in the center, was once the ruler
So he just laughed and said, "It's not too big."
The old man reassured: "That's very promising, the fourth grandpa knew very early on that you must be good!"
Chen Wang smiled calmly.
The old man didn't forget to glance at the young man standing beside Chen Wang when he was about to leave. He was full of suspicion when he turned to leave, the clothes looked weird.
Chen Wang walked slowly with the "young eunuch" who was the same age as Guo. The graves of his parents were not far outside the village.
Chen Wang raised his hand and brushed those reeds.
When he was studying hard in the cold window, he didn't dare to think about being a Jinshi or being named on the gold list, and his parents didn't have such extravagant hopes. They only thought that their son's ability to read and write was already a great thing to honor the family. Beiliang is bitter and cold. It is very remarkable that every family can produce a scholar. It is very different from the Central Plains, especially the rich Jiangnan. There are very few people holding books. He just came to Beijing to take part in the examination, and Beiliang was the only one who didn't set up an examination hall in Tai'an City. He was not familiar with the place, and he didn't have the care of seniors from his hometown, so he had to spend the night in a small temple. The Beiliang accent made him wander around. Hitting the wall, the same ancient book would be much more expensive for the store to sell to him. Even though they took part in the palace examination later, they still didn't have the slightest fellowship in the officialdom, and Beiliang was the only one. Jin Lanting's prosperity in Tai'an City, Yan Jiexi became a relative of the emperor, both of them intentionally did not change this out of personal grievances.
And he, Chen Wang, Chen Shaobao in the eyes of civil and military officials in the Manchu Dynasty, a dignified servant of Zuo Sanqi, the future chief assistant who is most relied on by today's world, is determined and powerful, but he just can't do it.
Chen Wang walked slowly, on both sides were reeds taller than people's heads, and huge and soft reed flowers rose one after another with the autumn wind, and he didn't know where they fell.
Chen Wang arrived at the grave, pulled out the weeds, straightened his clothes, knelt down and kowtowed three times.
The son wants to support but the relative does not wait.
The old man who was respectfully called the fourth grandfather by the cotton-padded man may not have known in his life that the two things that the younger generation handed over to him, the money bag and letterhead, the latter only had the value of the last signature "Chen Wang". Daughter.
In the past 20 years in Beiliang, there have been only a few people in Liyang's official circles. Among them, Jin Lanting official to the minister of the Ministry of Rites, Yan Jiexi was awarded a bachelor's degree, and Yao Baifeng, a master of Neo-Confucianism, was in charge of the Imperial Academy. Chen Wang alone carries a lot of weight.
It can even be said that in a large sense, it was this Beiliang scholar who left his hometown, and his two secret letters changed the situation in Beiliang.
On the way back from the original road, Chen Wang met a sturdy man of the same age. After seeing him, the man had complicated expressions, including resentment, awe, surprise, and puzzlement.
The man took a deep breath, then handed Chen Wang a coarse cloth bag with a straight face, "The things left by my sister are all the books you left behind, and I will return them to you."
Chen Wang took the cloth bag and was in a daze.
The man turned around and strode away, stopped, and said in a hoarse voice: "Wangzi, although my sister... But don't think that her death is innocent! She is cleaner than anyone else!"
Chen Wang covered his mouth, looked at the back of the man who used to hook up with him in the early years and called his brother-in-law, and said vaguely: "I'm sorry."
The man murmured, "You tell her that."
Chen Wang was silent, scarlet oozing from between his fingers.
I haven't moved for a long time.
…
Holding the cloth bag, Chen Wang came to the ferry and found the small grave.
The eunuch is missing.
Chen Wang sat cross-legged in front of the grave.
Sitting opposite the small grave.
There was an illiterate woman who would find a clean place under the sun to dry books, spread them out one by one, and put them away one by one.
There was an unmarried woman who would go to the small ferry when there was no one there, waiting for someone, looking from afar and turning around again and again.
Chen Wang gently opened the cloth bag and looked down. There were the familiar "Book of Rites" and "Great Learning", as well as the older elementary school textbook Sanbaiqian.
Back then, he often recited books to her when working in the fields, pounding clothes at the ferry, or picking reeds during heavy snowfall.
There is already a ten-year gap between this year and that year.
He and her are already separated by yin and yang.
Chen Wang closed his eyes, and said softly: "The country is in trouble, the king dies in the community, the doctor dies in the ancestral temple, and the common people die in the countryside..."
"A gentleman says, 'Great virtue is not an official, a great way is not an instrument, a great faith is not agreed, and a great time is not uniform.' Observing these four, you can be interested in learning..."
"Let all the people in the world, Qi Ming wear them in order to carry on the sacrifices. It's as if it's above it, as if it's around it..."
In the twilight, scholars read books.
The wind blows the reed and shakes it gently, like a woman nodding her head and smiling like a flower.