The first spring rain of the second year of Zhongping soaked me all the way home. Mixed with the encouragement of spring thunder, my heart also became cheerful. Thinking about being conferred a title at the age of seventeen, I was still wondering if I was too vain, but it was indeed a pleasant thing, and after leaving that messy place, I was in a good mood.
But when I entered the house, my sister didn’t welcome me, but was looking for something. When she saw me, she just said happily, “You’re back, help me find this guy Kong Ming, he’s been playing hide-and-seek with me, I don’t know where he’s hiding, I’ve looked everywhere, Uncle Zhang and Aunt Zhang didn’t see him either, come and help find him too.” It seems that my brother and sister have been getting along very well during the half month I was away. I put down my luggage and started looking for him. Our house is not big, but my sister couldn’t find him. I can even walk around the house with my eyes closed. Wait, I thought of something. There is a place that my sister will definitely look for but definitely thinks he’s not there, and can’t see him. That place…
"Sister, have you looked for the woodshed?" The woodshed is where we store sundries and it is also where our family takes a bath. Because it is a woodshed, its beams are very short and wide.
"I've searched all the firewood. I thought he would hide there. When we played hide-and-seek, I hid there. Where do you think he would go?" I went under the beam, stood on tiptoe, and then picked up a máomáo ball from the beam in front of me. "Who do you think this is?"
"Kong Ming, why did you run up there? It's so high, aren't you afraid of falling down?" His sister didn't blame him at all, she was just concerned and caring, and Kong Ming smiled brightly. Without saying a word, he just shook his head, "How did you get up there?"
"Isn't this simple? Look, the window is so low, and there is a bundle of firewood below. He stepped on it, climbed up the window, followed the window pane, and finally stepped on the top slanted grid, grabbed the beam, and climbed up." I explained the whole situation again, and used actions to demonstrate it below, but I suddenly found a problem. I think my sister has also found it, because she suddenly smiled and said to me: "Kong Ming doesn't seem to be that tall, right?" I know my sister found it. Kong Ming is too tall. A very thick fox fur jacket wrapped Kong Ming like a bear. He definitely can't reach the distance between the window and the beam. I also remembered that when I was five years old, I could only barely reach it. Kong Ming was much taller than me when I was five years old. He couldn't climb up. How did he get up? "You really want to know clearly, have you climbed like this before? What did you do when you climbed up before?" This is troublesome. If she knows what I did when I climbed up, I will definitely die, so I decided to never confess even if I was beaten to death. I really blame myself for being too talkative. Why did I do this? But Kong Ming had a gloating look and laughed even more happily beside him.
"How did you get up there?" I thought this would divert my sister's attention.
"I asked Uncle Zhang to carry me upstairs. When you go to their room to look for me, I asked them to help you find me. Then don't leave the room. Then you certainly won't think that they hid me for me." Kong Ming chuckled as he spoke, making his sister unable to get angry with him.
"Uncle Zhang dotes on you too much. I have to go with him." My sister finally found a new target, and I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
However, a guest suddenly came to the house, disrupting the sister's plan to ask for the crime.
"Uncle Jiang, what brings you here?" Zishe's father seldom comes to my house because he is busy with his business, so he must have something important to tell you.
"Zi Rui? You're back? Where's Zi She? Why didn't he come back with you?"
"How do I explain this to you? He is married, and this is the letter he wrote to you." I hurriedly took out the letter Zishe wrote to his father from my arms.
"You beast, you didn't even discuss this with me. You don't want your dad anymore when you have a wife." But the cursing turned into helplessness after a moment, and then a happy look after another two moments. After another three or four moments, it was as if Old Man Jiang had married a wife himself. He was just happy. I immediately became interested in the letter, but Uncle Jiang immediately folded the letter and stuffed it into his arms, so my curiosity could only wait for Zishe to tell me himself. I didn't know if he was willing to tell me. Seeing that he left his father who had been a widower for many years aside as soon as he got married, it seemed that there was no hope for my brother.
"Zi Rui, I'm going out to buy some goods. Can you help me and Zi She take care of this kid from our family for a few days?" Then she brought out a boy who was no more than two years older than Kong Ming from behind. "Sure, it's just right for Kong Ming to have a companion." My sister must have been exhausted by Kong Ming and wanted to find someone to play with him so that she could take a break. This kid, with his big eyes, exuded an indescribable wisdom and talent, but he seemed a little worse than our Kong Ming. I don't know where the difference was. My sister seemed to realize this, and she put her head behind my ear and said, "Finally, I found someone who is uglier than you when you were young."
"Uncle, may I ask the name of this child?" I decided to ignore my sister's provocation and asked the merchant who was mounting the horse.
"His name is Pang Tong. I remember the one in your family was called Zhuge Liang, with a Chinese character. The one in our family is also called Shi Yuan. It seems that the parents of these people..." Suddenly he felt that he might hurt the child's feelings, so he immediately kept silent, nodded at us, and rode away.
I immediately hurriedly followed her out. My sister called me, and I walked quickly while turning back and shouting, "I have to deliver a letter to Zisheng's family, in case I forget it. If Uncle Jiang hadn't come just now, I would have almost forgotten all the letters they gave me." I have a really bad memory. If I can't improve it, I really don't know what will happen in the future.
Zisheng's house is not far from mine, just two streets away. The rain had stopped and there were more people on the street, so I didn't ride a horse to avoid causing chaos on the street. I thought it was a good thing that Uncle Jiang came over, as it saved me from having to run to the other side of the city.
The changes in Zisheng's parents' expressions were almost exactly the same as those of Zishe's father. I really don't know how they made their parents happy. But Uncle Zhong didn't seem to want me to read the letter. However, I saw a person next to me. If Kongming was a kind of God-given spirituality and Pangtong was a kind of spontaneous shrewdness, then this one must be a kind of simple wisdom. He felt older than Kongming and the same as Pangtong. He came over and bowed to me, "Brother Zirui, is Kongming at home?" I immediately had a good impression of this polite child.
"Yes, you want to find him." The guy nodded quickly.
"Shu'er, don't disturb my elder brother and his family's rest."
"It's okay." I quickly told him that Pang Tong was also in our house. "Why not let me take him over and let them get to know each other and make friends. You know, when Zisheng and I met, we were still wearing open-crotch knuckles."
"Okay, okay." Auntie came over with a smile, bent down and reminded the guy, "Remember to come back early, don't make trouble there and make people worry." The child nodded quickly, as if he was not very willing to talk.
To be honest, I want to know who my parents are. Maybe Zisheng's parents are too good. But it would be better if my parents were like Zishe's father, so that the family would be more interesting. But thinking about it, they are all dead, so it doesn't matter whether I know them or not. Knowing them may just add to the sadness.
I held the guy's hand and went home happily. His features were pretty, but it was hard to find a child prettier than Kong Ming. The guy was tired, and I knew what was wrong. I put him on my shoulders with guilt, because my steps were too big and he couldn't keep up with me. However, the guy seemed to be afraid of the height and kept his eyes closed.
When I put him down, he still turned a blind eye to make sure it was safe, but when he saw Kong Ming, he ran over by himself. From the situation, it seems that during the time I went to Luoyang, this bastard and Kong Ming have already established a good friendship. My sister sat in the living room and watched these two things chase each other back and forth, and gave them a few words of advice from time to time. I sat down next to my sister and watched the three things gather together and discuss for a while, and soon they chased each other again in the hall.
"It seems like that" I suddenly remembered "that guy called Shu'er, what's his name? I don't think I know it yet, but he seems to be very familiar with Liang'er."
"Didn't you ask at Zisheng's house?" The elder sister was surprised. "You are so inconsiderate when doing things."
"That's enough. Stop imitating our teacher's tone all the time." Maybe because I often imitate my teacher's tone at home, my sister has also developed this bad habit.
"That child's name is Xu Shu. ... Zisheng's family lives close to ours, so it's fun for a child to play with people who are about his own age. You can't understand this, but I do. You have two super best friends, Zisheng and Zishe, and a bunch of cronies. But when I was young, I only had a silly brother who was five years older than me."
"Four years old." "Five years old."... We knew that this kind of argument would lead to no results, so my sister and I quickly turned to another topic, which was my trip to Luoyang. I told my sister all the stories. My sister immediately opened my bag, took out my seal, saw that there was still red ink on it, blew on it, and stamped it on my bag, six neat seal characters "Ping An Feng Yun Hou Seal".
"You climbed up again? Ah, the name is quite nice. I didn't expect that you are now second to none in Jingzhou."
“What do you mean by climbing up again? Am I that kind of person?” My sister always thinks that I am successful, which makes me really... It seems that I am really a successful person.
"I'm not going to argue with you anymore. I have to go and take care of my business." My sister pretended to be serious and put on a stern face, then turned and went in. I thought I had to go and see everyone, so I asked Uncle Zhang and Aunt Zhang to help look after these three people. I also changed into the official uniform made for me by the court and came out.
"Ah, your official uniform is really nice." My sister also changed into an official uniform. I really don't know what she does now, but it's not the same official uniform as before. But it looks like she is still doing clerical work.
"Sister, shall we go to the office together?"
Although the rain has stopped, the clouds have not dispersed. The world now is just like the weather: the heavy rain has just stopped, but it is still gloomy and cold, and new wind and rain seem to be coming at any time.
My sister and I came to the governor's mansion. It happened that the teacher was talking to Ziyuan. When he saw me, he said to me, "Come to me later." Then he continued to talk to Ziyuan. I went to her office with my sister. My sister was now the chief accountant in charge of Xiangyang's business. I was very interested in flipping through the account book casually. After taking a closer look, I immediately called my sister, "Oh my God, sister, are you sure that your tax collection is so high?"
"More? Xiangyang, probably. The tax on traveling merchants is the lowest in the whole Jingzhou. That's why there are so many merchants here." My sister never lies to me, or I know when she lies to me, so I completely believe that my sister is not lying to me.
"Compared with the taxes levied on ordinary people, this tax is still too heavy." My sister used to be the chief clerk of grain and fodder, and I used to be the prefect of Changsha, so I am not unaware of the amount of tax.
My sister pointed upwards, and I looked towards her roof. My sister reacted immediately. Then, I covered my head and saw my sister holding a roll of bamboo slips angrily.
"Why are you so stupid, or are you a monkey? I mean the people above me are from the imperial court. Why don't you take care of things? Sooner or later, one day you will be bothered by these things all day long." I felt like my sister was cursing me. I'm such a lazy person. If it really happened as she wished, I don't think I would last more than a month.
Let me stop thinking about those annoying things and go check on my classmates first, so that my sister won’t think I’m in the way and that I’m taking up space if I don’t move.
After meeting with classmates, I only saw a few. The officials in Xiangyang are probably the strangest ones. They have never been assigned to a post. Unless they gather for a meeting, many of them sleep until the afternoon. However, they all feel that there is too little to do, and I think so too. Xiangyang is too small for us. We should still have our world outside. There seems to be only one exception, that is the governor, my teacher, but he seems to be indifferent to our behavior. He doesn't care, and the monkeys below certainly don't care even more. But I can't call them monkeys in person in the future, otherwise I will be the victim, because they know that I have been granted a title of nobility, just like my sister, and they always say that you are already a marquis (monkey), if you want to make trouble, go somewhere else (tree), and don't bother them to do official business. And I stutter when I quarrel, so I can only let them do it.
When I went to look for the teacher, the clouds in the sky had dispersed, the sun had set, leaving behind the afterglow of the sunset, which cast a pale red hue over the entire Xiangyang. This should be a beautiful sight, but in my heart I always felt that something was about to pass away.
"Come on, why don't you come in?"
"Teacher, how did you know I was coming?" I was standing outside the door, quietly enjoying the sunset, and the teacher actually knew I was coming, which made me very surprised. This was the first question I asked after I pushed the door open and went in.
"The lattice on my door is so high, if I can still see a head, it must be you." The teacher smiled and called me over. "Do you know why I called you here?" I shook my head.
"I will go to invite your master tomorrow and bring my family back at the same time."
"Do you have any family?" I immediately felt that I had asked a stupid question, and also felt like I was questioning the teacher's ability.
"What do you mean! Some of my students are married, but I'm still single? Wouldn't I be too miserable? Let me tell you, I already have two sons." Fortunately, the teacher knew that I was a fool. At least for them, the teacher's tone of reprimand was still tolerant and loving. "Your teacher's wife has a strange temper. She refuses to come even after I wrote to her. It seems that I have to go there. And that Huang Hansheng has also come to help me. I have no choice but to run away." The teacher sighed after finishing speaking, feeling completely helpless as if he encountered his naughty younger brother making trouble.
"Then why did the teacher call me here?" Although I understood why the teacher left, I still didn't understand why he came to see me specifically.
"How can your sister stand you? Why are you so stupid about these things?" The teacher seemed angry. "How can I trust you to take care of Jingzhou temporarily while I'm away?"
"I am the acting governor of Jingzhou!" This was probably the most shocking thing I have ever heard. "Me?" I pointed at myself, totally unbelieving what I heard was true.
"Yes, you will be the governor of Jingzhou." The teacher also pointed at me and nodded affirmatively.