Chapter One Thousand and Forty-Nine

Just when Yujie and Yuqing were hugging each other to catch up, Erfu had already led the children to the village.

The Grange on the outskirts of Beijing is a small village that doesn't even have a serious name, and if it weren't for Erfu's sudden mention of providing for the servants of the palace in the palace, most of the tenants here would not know that the land they rented was the property of the Fourth Master's Mansion.

Along the winding dirt road, the carriage rattled leisurely outside the Zhuangzi.

Erff took Poet's arm and carefully got out of the carriage, she looked at the dilapidated courtyard and potholed dirt road in front of her, sighed silently, and then looked at the incomplete wooden fence outside the village, which showed that the village was not rich enough.

She came in a hurry, and did not arrange for anyone to come to report the news, and in this busy farming season, of course, no one would greet her outside the village.

Erfu, who has never paid attention to pomp and circumstance, doesn't care, but Mo Yaqi, who is rarely able to justifiably ride out of the carriage with the badge of the Four Masters' Mansion, feels that she has been neglected.

She was already bumpy all the way, and her face became more and more ugly.

However, because Erfu was still in front of her, she didn't put up a shelf for the prince, but just looked at everything in front of her with disgust, she regretted it a little at this time and came out with Erfu and Xiaoqi, I thought that Erfu, the concubine, must go to that kind of picturesque place, who knew that Erfu would lead the child to run to such a place where birds don't.

Mo Yaqi, who was not happy, caught up with Erfu who was walking forward in a few steps, and provoked softly: "Yan Erniang, the head of this village is so unruly, you have arrived, but he has not come out to greet him!"

"I didn't greet the head of the village here, so how can he come out to greet him!" Erfu said indifferently, and told Shiqing to go to the back and ask Iltai, the commander of the well-guarded guards, to come over and speak.

Yiertai is a disciple of the Eight Banners under the leadership of Zhengbai Qizuo, and the fourth master is the owner of the Zhengbai Banner, and Yiertai can also be regarded as a subordinate that the fourth master relies on, so the fourth master is also willing to hand over some things to him to deal with, such as at this time.

Erfu told Iltai to go to the field and find the head of the village to come and talk.

In fact, a few horse-drawn carriages that looked good were parked outside the village, and the people in the village had already walked out of the house curiously, just because the labor force in the prime of life had gone to work in the fields, and these women and children did not know the identity of the people, and they were afraid of colliding with the masters who did not seem to be ordinary people, so they did not go over to speak, but just hid far away under the wall, carefully looked at the people, and guessed the identity of the people.

The Grange on the outskirts of Beijing was not big, and Iltai rode a fast horse, and his feet were fast enough, and before Mo Yaqi, who was being watched like a monkey, became impatient, he brought the head of the Grange steward from the field to Erfu.

Zhuang Tou surnamed Han, was originally a farmer in the Beijing suburbs of the Grange, but because of the disaster at home, he led his wife and children to sell themselves to the village, the fourth master saw that he was literate and hyphenated, and he was also down-to-earth, so he handed over the Beijing suburb Grange to him to take care of, and he did not live up to the trust of the fourth master, although there are not many fields here, and it is not fertile, but the income sent to the house every year is a lot.

Han Laohan is an authentic farmer, looking at Erfu and the others in gorgeous clothes in front of him, the whole person is stupid.

He was a little flustered under Iltai's reminder, and made a real kneeling bow to Erf, and kowtowed three times in a row, before he stumbled to introduce his identity.

"Zhuang Tou should get up and speak!" Erph did not feel slowed down, and bent down with a smile.

Han Laohan was still wearing a short set of coarse cloth for working in the field, a pair of mud-stained straw sandals on his feet, and his trouser legs were pulled high to the crook of his legs.

Erfu was amused by Han Laohan's movements.

However, she didn't shake off Han Laohan's hand in disgust, pulled up Han Laohan, who was kneeling on the ground and couldn't get up, with a smile, asked about the harvest in the village, and at the same time asked people to lead the way to the Zhuangshang courtyard.

Don't look at Han Laohan's clumsy tongue and not good at words, but he is a well-known farmer in ten miles and eight villages, talking about what he is good at, although it is not endless, but it is not as flustered as just now, if it is not for the fact that Erfu and his party are all women and children, it seems that they are going to take Erfu to the field to have a look.

Erfu and his party, talking and laughing, soon came to the outside of the Grange Courtyard.

The courtyard of the Grange on the outskirts of Beijing is not big, three into the small courtyard, the main courtyard is a large tile house with three rooms, with ear rooms on both sides, although it is not spacious, but it is enough for Erfu and the children and servants to stay, as for the accompanying guards, they live in a second courtyard next to the courtyard.

"Head Han Zhuang, I don't need you to be there at any time. Erfu, as the concubine of the house and the concubine of these children, lived in the main room of the small courtyard without concession, she saw that the room was quite clean, and explained that Shilan brought in all the luggage she brought with her, turned her head to Han Zhuangtou, who rubbed her hands and didn't know what to do, and ordered, and at the same time ordered Shiqing to send a reward that had been prepared a long time ago.

Han Zhuangtou hurriedly shook his head and waved his hand to excuse himself, but he couldn't hold a few good words of poetry, and left the small courtyard with his purse.

"This Zhuangtou is really silly, it's no wonder it's called Lao Han!" sent Han Laohan out of the small courtyard, turned around and returned to the upper room to serve Shiqing, thinking about Han Zhuangtou's performance just now, shook his head a little funny and said.

"Oh, what's wrong?" asked Erph, who had slept all the way in the carriage, curiously.

Shiqing smiled, put the celadon tea set in his hand on the table in the inner room, turned back to Erfu, and said with a smile: "The slave maid just sent him out, and he thought that the slave maid followed him out to share the reward with him, took out the purse from his arms, and stuffed it into the slave's hand. After saying that, she smiled and shook her head, looking like she didn't know how to evaluate it.

"He is an authentic farmer, where do you understand the rules in the mansion, he is also afraid that he will accidentally offend you, the servant girl next to Ben Fujin, and lose the errand in his hand, even the whole family has no food, but he is also an affordable person, looking at him just stretched out his hand to let me support this, you can see one or two. After hearing this, Erfu also shook her head funny and angry, but she still explained, lest the poetry be careful, thinking that Han Laohan was looking down on her, and secretly put small shoes on Han Laohan.

"The slave doesn't see it that way, the slave thinks he's playing tricks, even if he doesn't understand these rules, but he has been the head of the village for many years, and he is not a person who has never dealt with the house, how can he not understand it!" Just when Shiqing was about to respond, Shilan, who had been leading the little palace maid to make the mattress and quilt in the inner room, came to Erfu and raised objections.

"Why?" asked Erph curiously, not thinking that Shilan's speculation was reliable.

However, Shilan is not a nonsense personality, since she would say this, she has found something, she raised her hand to send away the little palace maid who made the bed in the room, and then leaned in front of Erfu, and whispered about her discovery: "Because the slave maid saw that his hands were wrong."

When the master helped him up, he looked like he was afraid of soiling your hands and wiped his hands on the placket, but the slave noticed that there was no trace of dirt on the placket of his clothes, and the slave maid had just asked Lord Iltai, and Lord Iltai said that when Han Zhuangtou came out of the field, he had already cleaned his hands with a wet handkerchief, and obviously understood the rules, but just now in front of you, he behaved like an ordinary farmer, and the slave maid felt that he was deliberately pretending to be this simple and stupid look。 ”

"It's not impossible. When Erf heard this, she was a little pensive.

Thinking back carefully about the details after meeting Han Laohan, she also felt that she might have underestimated Han Laohan, a farmer-born farmer.

She is a modern person, she will feel that it is normal for men and women to shake hands, or some physical collisions, but in ancient times, when the defense of men and women was relatively stricter, no man would take the initiative to reach out to women, unless it was those prodigal sons, but Han Laohan was obviously not included in this range, and even if Han Laohan did not understand the rules in the courtyard of the deep house, it was impossible not to understand the difference between men and women, and the different customs and etiquette between master and servant, but ......

However, she didn't think that Han Laohan had ulterior motives, at most she was just pretending to be stupid.

Han Laohan is leading his wife and children to sell himself, although he has won the attention of the fourth master and has become the head of the Grange in the suburbs of Beijing, but he has no foundation in the house, and if he wants to keep the position of the head of the village, he must strive to reflect his own value, so it will inevitably conflict with the tenants who rent the land, and it is not easy to do things to fill his pockets, so he thinks that he has no long things, if he really provokes her disgust and loses the errand in his hand, his life will not be able to go on, so the cleverness of the farmer made him choose this safer way to pretend to be stupid, after all, no one will be too concerned with a person with an honest character, such as the current Erfu, even though she already suspected that Han Laohan was pretending to be stupid, she didn't take it seriously, and some of them asked Shilan and Shiqing not to care too much about these details.

"The slave is afraid that the master will be unprepared and calculated by him. Shilan is not a talkative person, seeing that Erfu listened to her own words, and did not have the idea of taking away Han Laohan's errand, she smiled and nodded, and then turned back to the inner room to sort out the luggage brought from the house.

Don't look at Erfu and Xiao Qi's entourage just to stay in the village for a few days, but they brought a lot of luggage, from furniture such as soft couch screens to tea sets and dishes.

When the furnishings in the room were almost summarized, Erfu led Shilan and Shiqing to look at Xiao Qi and Mo Yaqi who lived in the wings on both sides, and when the two of them were also sorted out, they beckoned the two children to come over to the room for dinner.

Don't look at the ingredients in the kitchen are all ordinary things, but my father-in-law still has a table full of delicious dishes.

Erfu led the two children back to the round table in the upper room and sat down, waved her hand and sent away the palace maid who was going to come forward to prepare vegetables, even Shilan and Shiqing, she did not stay in the room, and directly let them all go down to eat, turned her head to Xiao Qi and Mo Yaqi, who changed into muslin dresses, and said softly: "Don't be restrained by either of you, you can eat whatever you want." ”

After speaking, she sandwiched a piece of red braised pork ribs for both children, and picked up the rice bowl herself.

Leaving the deep lock of the four masters' mansion, came to the village, don't look at the place is not as magnificent as the mansion, but there is a little more free taste, even with Erfu to look at Mo Yaqi is a lot more pleasing to the eye, so this meal, she ate very happily, but also because the road is really tired, after eating, she accompanied the two children in the yard for a walk, and then lay directly on the futon that had just been laid, and fell asleep without even changing her clothes.

When she woke up, it was a little dark outside.

Erfu, who had never been redressed, stood on the corridor in front of the upper room, looking at the wisps of cooking smoke rising outside, beckoning Xiao Shengzi to move the pickled meat slices and washed and picked vegetables to the courtyard, and greeted Mo Yaqi and Xiao Qi, who were resting in the room, like ordinary women: "Come out to eat, let's eat barbecue today." ”

Hearing the word barbecue, Xiao Qi, who was lying on the bed playing a rolling game, came to his senses.

I saw that she haphazardly put her messy hair in a bun, and ran to Erfu's side in three steps and two steps, and Mo Yaqi was the same, because she had long wanted to taste the iron plate barbecue studied by Xiao Shengzi, although she was not as frizzy as Xiao Qi, but she also forgot the four words of dignified etiquette, but before she ran to her father-in-law who was busy in the courtyard, Grandma Sun, who also heard the movement, had already wrinkled her brows.

To say that Mama Sun, the mama who taught Mama Xi, is really intimidating in the minds of Xiao Qi and Mo Yaqi, before she could find fault with the rules of the two, Xiao Qi and Mo Yaqi had already turned into skilled noblewomen, and their gestures were steady and dignified, and one by one they came to Erfu in a regular manner, and bowed to Mama Sun, and then stood by Erfu's side.

Mama Sun bowed slightly, and also followed the two of them to Erfu, and bowed her knees and said: "The old slave has seen Fujin, and Fujin is auspicious." ”

When Erfu screamed, she stood up straight, but then she was picky about Erfu's various things, a face as calm as the bottom of a pot, and reminded in a low voice: "Forgive the old slave for being straightforward, Fu Jin is the mother of the little masters in the house, and every move must pay special attention to the rules and etiquette. ”

Erfu scratched her head a little embarrassed, and whispered in defense: "What Mama said is reasonable, but I think that it is difficult for the children to leave the house, so let them be more comfortable." ”

After saying that, she resigned herself to her fate and went back to her room to get dressed.

Who let this grandmother Sun be sent by Emperor Kangxi!