"Let her in. Shen Shu commanded.

But after a while, I saw that the curtain of the door was raised, and Aunt Zhou brought two maids in and gave Shen Shu a courtesy in a proper manner.

"Sit down. Shen Shu said. After Aunt Zhou sat down, she asked directly, "You come over here, but what's the matter?" She would ask this because when she first occupied this body, she directly told Aunt Zhou that she didn't have to come to greet her again in the future, and if there was nothing wrong, it was best not to disturb her.

Aunt Zhou is also obedient, and she really hasn't set foot in Shen Shu's house since then. To be honest, Shen Shu quite likes Aunt Zhou's cooperative attitude.

It has been half a month since she settled down in the Quanzhou Mansion, and Shen Shu and Aunt Zhou have never even met each other, but now that she suddenly visits, Shen Shu acquiesces that she is in trouble.

When Aunt Zhou heard this, she said with a smile, "I heard that Sister Hui has improved a lot two days ago, but Sister Xian'er and Brother Yi are a little bad, and they can't pull away for a while, and today they fell asleep, so I thought about coming to see Sister Hui, and when I got there, I heard that Sister Hui came to Mrs. Hui'er, so I looked for it." While talking, her eyes fell on Sister Hui on the side, her eyes were full of concern, "Sister Hui, is there anything uncomfortable?"

Sister Hui'er's face was still a little pale, her long eyelashes cast a shadow under her eyes, and she only shook her head when she heard Aunt Zhou's question, "Thanks to my mother's careful care these days, I have been fine." ”

Aunt Zhou is a Jiangnan woman, her temperament is as gentle as water, her voice is always soft when she talks to people, she has an excellent appearance, and she has a soft and slender figure like a weeping willow in March, and a pair of eyes seem to be filled with spring water in Jiangnan, clear and gentle. Everyone in the Xie Mansion likes her and praises her for having a bodhisattva heart.

Sister Hui knows that under this kind face, this twisted and dark heart is hidden. When her father was still alive in her previous life, this Aunt Zhou took great care of her, and she was not much more reckless than her own two children. However, after her father passed away, everything changed, and Aunt Zhou treated her little on the surface, but secretly she did not use any means to frame her.

Aunt Zhou listened to her reply like this, and looked at her carefully. She knew Sister Hui'er's attitude towards Shen Shu, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that she hated her, but now she became close to Shen Shu without warning, and the maid she arranged in Sister Hui's room couldn't tell what the reason was, so she personally came to the East Courtyard today to see what was going on.

Since Shen Yu's death, this backyard has been in charge of her, she was originally worried that Shen Shu would fight with her for power after she got married, but she didn't think about it, but she didn't want to do anything, she didn't fight for power or favor, and later even the daily routine greetings were waived, and Aunt Zhou was even more happy to see it.

However, last night, Sister Hui asked her uncle to stay in Shen Shu's room, and she couldn't sit still. Shen Shu is the main room, and if she is favored again, it will inevitably affect the interests and status of her and her two children.

But she didn't expect to hear Sister Hui speak out to defend Shen Shu again, which made her more and more suspicious.

Aunt Zhou had the heart to listen to the situation, but Shen Shu and Sister Hui didn't talk much, Sister Hui asked and answered, and never left Shen Shu, Shen Shu was simply silent from beginning to end, sitting there quietly and not knowing what she was thinking, and she didn't even give Aunt Zhou a superfluous look.

After a while, it was lunch time, Shen Shu didn't want to leave Aunt Zhou for dinner, and the latter didn't want to stay and serve people to eat, so he didn't need Shen Shu to drive away guests, so he said goodbye with interest.

Sister Hui and Brother Zhen stayed to eat with Shen Shu. Fortunately, she ate relatively lightly, so she didn't need to prepare another one for Sister Hui'er.

Shen Shu was accustomed to eating alone, and when she stretched out her chopsticks to pick up the vegetables, her eyes inadvertently fell to the left hand, and she saw Brother Zhen staring at the fried crispy pork in the middle of the table with big black eyes without blinking, Shen Shu was stunned, and then looked at it, and Brother Zhen'er's small short hand seemed to be out of reach, so she asked, "Is this it?" She pointed at the fried crispy meat with her chopsticks.

Brother Zhen heard the sound, his body shrank, and his eyes looked at her like a frightened rabbit, he glanced at Shen Shu and hurriedly turned his head to ask for help from Sister Hui'er, who just smiled at him and didn't speak, he was stunned for a moment, his eyes went back and forth between Shen Shu and the table several times, and finally nodded with difficulty.

Shen Shu gave him a dish with chopsticks.

"Say thank you to your mother. Sister Hui reminded at the right time.

Brother Zhen blushed, and finally the mosquito hummed and said thank you.

Shen Shu smiled, "You can tell me whatever you want to eat." ”

Having said that, after the meal, Brother Zhen didn't say a word to Shen Shu again, and kept his head down and only ate the dishes in front of him.

After eating, after sitting for a while, Shen Shu took the two sisters and brothers to the garden for a walk to eat.

There is an artificial lake in the garden, which leads the water of the Tianshui River in, and an octagonal pavilion is built near the water, which is surrounded by flowers and plants. It is the season of spring when everything is recovering, the plants and trees have sprouted, and the flowers are blooming brilliantly. A few peach blossoms are planted in the corner, and the red peach blossoms and the tender green new leaves set off each other, showing a vibrant scene.

Shen Shu walked around the garden with her two children, and saw a sawn off stump in the corner of the wall, and on the flat cut surface, there were circles of annual rings.

I don't know why the valve of memory opened all at once.

Shen Shu used to be a person with both parents and had a very happy childhood, when she was young, she was overly curious, and even the weeds growing on the side of the road had to ask. I vaguely remember that when she was five years old, the big tree at the entrance of the community was cut down because of road planning, and my father sighed at the time, "It takes hundreds of years to grow so big, but it takes less than an hour to cut it down, it's a pity ......"

At that time, Shen Shu asked her father how she knew how big the tree was, and her father took her to the only remaining stump, pointing to the lines on the cross section and telling her that it was the age of the tree, and a circle represented a year. At that time, Shen Shu was already able to count to a hundred, she squatted next to the stump, stretched out her little hand and counted in circles, from one to a hundred, and only a little more than half of the count. Her father told her to count from the beginning until the end of one hundred and eighty-nine, and the tree that was cut down lived for one hundred and eighty-nine years.

……

"Mother, what are the annual rings?" Sister Hui'er's voice suddenly sounded in her ears.

Shen Shu came back to her senses when she heard this, her eyes looked at Sister Hui with a little dazed, seeing that her face was full of curiosity, and so was Brother Zhen next to her, she retracted her gaze and found that she had come to the stump in the corner of the wall at some point, and her fingers touched the cross-section.

Did she fall into the memories and say something unconsciously?

"Mother, what's wrong with you?" Sister Hui asked again.

Shen Shu shook her head, "I'm fine." She straightened her skirt, squatted down beside the stump, and then stretched out her hand to beckon to the two sisters and brothers, and the two children understood, and also squatted beside the stump, and the three of them surrounded the city.

"That's the rings. Shen Shu pointed to the lines on the cross-section, "A circle represents a year, and as many circles as there are, the tree will live for as many years." Count and see. ”

Sister Hui nodded and counted in circles. Brother Zhen'er's little face was full of curiosity, looked at Shen Shu, and then at Sister Hui'er, and finally stretched out his little fat hand to count them one by one, but he got stuck when he counted to eighteen, flattened his mouth, squatted there aggrievedly, and watched Sister Hui finish counting.

"There are twenty-seven circles in total, and if one circle represents one year, that's twenty-seven years. Sister Hui said at the end, and her tone suddenly felt a little emotional. In her last life, she didn't live to be twenty-seven years old.

The wooden door in the corner not far away creaked open, and the three of them followed the sound, only to see an old man with white hair and hunched over from the door, and the old man also saw them, walked over slowly, and saluted with difficulty.

This is Fauber, who has been here for dozens of years. Local officials serve a three-year term, not all of them can drag their families to take office like Xie Changning, and some even only bring one or two servants to come, and someone must always take care of the huge government and official residence, if nothing goes wrong, some people will guard here for the rest of their lives. There have been countless changes in office, but some of the servants are still the original.

Shen Shu looked at Fu Bo who seemed to be a little unstable, she subconsciously stood up and helped her, which scared Fu Bo. Shen Shu was not reluctant, so she let go of her hand.

When Fu Bo saw that the three of them were around a stake, he asked what was the matter, and Sister Hui told her about the annual rings. After hearing this, Fu Bo laughed, "This tree was planted by me back then, and the previous official thought that this tree was blocking the place, so he let people cut it down, and it has been exactly twenty-seven years now." ”

Sister Hui and Brother Zhen originally didn't believe Shen Shu's words, but when they heard what the old man said, they immediately stopped doubting it. Sister Hui didn't say anything, but Brother Zhen looked at Shen Shu with sparkling eyes, "Mother is amazing." ”

This is the first time he has called Shen Shu's mother.

Shen Shu smiled, "I also learned about it from my father. "It's just a father in a past life, not a father in this body.

In her world, the method of measuring the age of trees by annual rings has been recorded since ancient times. As for whether there is this world, Shen Shu doesn't know, because she hasn't been exposed to relevant literature. But even if there were, a considerable number of people in this era probably wouldn't know that girls are trapped in boudoirs all their lives, learning all kinds of knowledge and skills to please men, boys entering school to learn the words of sages, four books and five classics, from the township examination to the palace examination, how much time has been wasted, and countless teenagers have studied in China but can't even get the qualifications for the township examination. In such an environment, how many people will pay attention to those partial knowledge.

The three of them stayed in the garden for a while before leaving. Sister Hui went back to her yard, but Brother Zhen refused to leave, nor did she speak, so she looked at Shen Shu with those big black and shiny eyes, and Shen Shu was inexplicably soft-hearted, and after telling him a few small stories, he was a little sleepy. Shen Shu asked him to go to the couch for a nap and took a blanket to cover him for him.

Shen Shu was going to sleep on the soft couch for a while, but found that Brother Zhen was grabbing the corner of her clothes and clutching it tightly, she had no choice but to lie down next to him and fall asleep.