In the north of early spring, the cold wind grinds against the ground, and it is the time when the cold heart penetrates the bones.

Su Shi and her three delicate daughters sat on the big kang near the window where she usually lived, embroidering flowers, soles of shoes, and sewing clothes, which can be described as happy. There was a faint fragrance of freshly blooming daffodils wafting in the room, and the sunlight outside the house drifted in through the panes, illuminating the faint floating dust in the air.

Su Shi looked at the eldest girl Zhenyuan, with a goose egg face, beautiful eyes with autumn water, willow eyebrows bent like a crescent moon, and an indescribable stunning appearance. Look at the fourth girl Zhenyi again, on her innocent and childish face, her eyes are silent with affection, and there is an indescribable cuteness between her frowns and frowns.

The third girl, Zhenxiu Zhengna, embroidered the upper of her shoes, and embroidered two honest gourds on her face. When she saw Su Shi looking at this and that, the smile on the corner of her mouth couldn't stop overflowing, and she pouted: "Mother looks at it all day and night, is it possible that she can look like a pretty gentleman for the eldest sister and the fourth sister?" ”

Before Su Shi could speak, the fourth girl Zhenyi pursed her mouth and kicked her legs, and happened to kick on the soft flesh of Zhenxiu's calves, she was not wearing socks, and her slightly long toenails scratched the soft flesh on Zhenxiu's calves, and she pretended to pat Zhenxiu and said, "I hate it!" ”

Although Zhen Yuan did not respond, her face lost the peace of Fang Cai, and her eyebrows gradually gathered. Seeing this, Su Shi glanced at Zhenxiu and said, "Can you speak?" I won't speak, and I'll go back to your house. ”

Zhenxiu moved her buttocks into the kang, grinded the needle in her hair, and pouted, "Why? I can sit on a hot kang if I am so beautiful that I am told to cook on the cold bed without a charcoal stove? ”

Su Shi still glared at her and said, "Then don't speak, no one treats you as a mute." ”

Zhenxiu snorted coldly and glanced at Zhenyi, secretly remembering that she had just eaten Zhenyi's secret loss, and stopped talking.

Seeing that Zhenyuan was still frowning, Su Shi comforted her and said: "We will be able to go to Beijing in May, you have such a good appearance and style, and you are the granddaughter of the Gongzheng family, and you are worried that you can't find a good husband?" ”

Zhenyi leaned over Su's shoulder, lay down in Su's arms, twisted her body and hummed: "Why hasn't May come yet, when the eldest sister finds a good husband in the capital, I will first go to the gold shop to put on a good outfit and save it, and then make some good clothes in the silk shop, so that I can have the same style as Zhenyu." ”

Before Su Shi could speak, Zhenxiu sneered first: "Zhenyu is also what you can call?" She is an upright lady, and when you arrive in Beijing, you must first kowtow to others. ”

Zhen Yi glared at Zhen Xiu and said, "It's just that I said this on our own kang, and when I stay in Beijing, I naturally know some etiquette better than you." ”

A few people were gossiping, and suddenly there was a rush of footsteps outside, and a girl of fifteen or sixteen years old lifted the curtain and stepped in. Glancing at the kang, a pair of eyes widened on his wheat-colored face and said, "It's a good spring outside, and you are still hiding in this house, do you think it's not enough to cover it in winter?" ”

Zhen Yi is the youngest, and now she still has two hanging buns on her head, she got up from Su's arms, cut her hair and said with a smile: "The second sister came back really early today, it seems that she didn't meet her lover today." ”

The second young lady Zhenshu looked at the white-faced steamed buns covered on the kang and the daughters of the Song Mansion, Zhenyi was the youngest, and she was the best at coquettish and secret words. She sat on the edge of the kang angrily and said: "It's not that you said that it is too hard to bind your feet, and you want me to pick up some alfalfa that has not yet sprouted for you to satisfy your appetite, I just went with Ah Xiang and Ah Xiang to rip Zhiwei for half a day. ”

Zhen Yi covered her mouth and smiled: "If that's the case, thank you second sister." But dare you say that you didn't go to see that Tong Qisheng? ”

Zhenshu glared at her and said, "You don't want to be cheap and behaved." ”

Zhenxiu interjected: "The second sister is a person who does big things quietly, and she wants to let you know about the idle things, and she refuses to let others know if she does it." For example, in her sleep last night, she was still ......"

Zhenshu picked up a ball of silk thread in the sewing basket and threw it over, shouting, "Zhenxiu, shut up!" ”

Zhenshu Zhenxiu lived in a room with the two, and at night she couldn't really say what Zhenxiu heard in her ears.

Zhenxiu took the group thread and said: "Hmph, I won't shut up, you called that Tong Qisheng in your dream last night I don't know how many times......"

Syllable!

only heard a crisp slap, Zhenxiu covered her face and trembled her lips with tears in her eyes and said, "Mother, what are you doing beating your daughter well?" ”

Su Shi saw that several girls were frightened and silent, so he sat up straight and said: "No big or small, Zhenshu is your third sister, she has never promised to marry someone in the boudoir, you slander her like this, although she is in her own house, but the wall has ears, if it really spreads outside, how will she marry in the future?" ”

The girls were silent when they heard this. Su Shi said again: "It turns out that it is because we have been staying in this Caijiasi village, and I haven't taught you any rules, and the sisters are also screaming like this between sisters." But now it's different, we will go to Beijing in May, and the ranking between your sisters will naturally be sorted according to the Song Mansion. How many times have I said it, Zhenshu is ranked third, and Zhenyi is ranked sixth. Zhenxiu, you are naturally the fourth. Since the generations are like this, from now on, they will call each other according to the generations of the Song Mansion, but you always refuse to listen......"

Zhenxiu got up and hugged Xiupin and got off the kang before turning around and said, "If you call each other wrong, everyone is at fault, how can you only beat me alone?" ”

Su Shi pointed at Zhenxiu angrily and said, "You actually make noise about your third sister like this, and you still don't know what is wrong?" ”

Zhenxiu flicked her sleeves and said: "Who in this Caijia Temple doesn't know that she and that Tong Qisheng have hooked up since childhood, but you want to keep her in this village to give you a pension for the elderly, so you deliberately let her hook up with that Tong Qisheng, am I wrong?" ”

Su jumped up angrily and was about to hit her, but Zhenxiu ran out of the house with her head covered and ran to her room.

Zhenshu didn't laugh angrily, stopped Su Shi and said: "Mother, you don't care what she does, her wrapped feet can't run fast, don't let you chase and fall." ”

Su Shi sat on the kang again, stretched his neck and shouted, "Mother Cai! Cai's mother! ”

Zhenshu said: "Mother Cai is preparing dinner for Zhenyi Blanching Alfalfa in the kitchen, what do you have to call me to stop?" ”

Su Shi covered his chest and said: "This Cai's mother is getting lazier and lazier, she doesn't even boil some hot water, and I want to drink a bowl of hot tea because of my angry chest tightness." ”

Zhenshu said: "Okay, I'll soak it for you, just don't call again tomorrow and drink tea and don't sleep all night." ”

Zhenshu went out of the door, and saw that the pane of the lower room in the west was supported, and the window was faintly moving, so he knew that Zhenxiu must be peeking outside behind the curtain. She didn't pay attention to it, she went to the east kitchen to boil water to make tea, and when the tea was made and served to Su's, she made another cup and brought it to the main room of the outer courtyard to her father Song Anrong, who was reading in the study.

Song Anrong is the concubine of Song Gongzheng and Song Shihong who went to Beijing, ranking second. The men of the Song Mansion have never had a long life, Song Shihong died at the age of fifty, and then his wife Zhong Zhang Luo split the family, and sent the remaining two concubines out of Beijing, one in Hui County, which is this Song Anrong, and the other is in Wen County, which is Song Anyuan of the third line. Because the eldest son died early, and there was no male son, there was no one in the house to receive the ceremony, so the fourth-ranked concubine Song Angu was left in Beijing, and the eldest brother performed the sacrificial rites on behalf of the eldest brother at the fourth time of the year.

Zhenshu brought tea into the room, and saw that his father was reading in the evening light of the west window, so he tiptoed over and pulled the book in his hand, and giggled: "Father hid a good book again, and peeked at it by himself." ”

She put the tea tray on the table, saw that the title of the book was "Qingping Shantang Script", raised her eyes and asked with a smile: "Why haven't I seen this book, but Uncle Zhao sent it yesterday?" ”

The old man Song Anrong Siwen, looking back and seeing that it was his daughter, smiled dotingly and said: "These books should not be read to children like you." ”

Zhenshu picked a chair and sat down, turned the pages on his lap on the bookstall and glanced twice, and saw his father coming and standing beside him, as if he wanted to snatch it back. She hurriedly put the book back and said, "Where can I still call the child?" Ah Xiang's sister is only sixteen this year, and she has hugged a fat boy when she returned to her parents' house yesterday. ”

Song Anrong said: "I hope you never grow up, how good is it to be my innocent little daughter forever?" ”

Zhenshu closed the book and got up and said, "You have four daughters, and you haven't loved enough?" ”

Song Anrong smiled silently, and went to drink the tea.

Zhenshu went out, humming a tune and holding the book in his arms and returning to the small west house where he lived with Zhenxiu, only to push the door into the house, and saw Zhenxiu hiding something in her arms, she couldn't see it, put the book in the big box in the corner of her bed and locked it, and then went to the kitchen to help Cai's mother cook.

When Zhenxiu saw her go out, she took out another piece of show work from her arms, and said to herself in a cold voice: "Look at her seriousness on the surface, and take some obscene words from the outside and come home." ”

After dinner, Su and Zhenyuan Zhenyi embroidered flowers on the hot kang, Zhenxiu annoyed Su because of her speechlessness, and she didn't dare to go to the main room, so she asked Zhenshu for a soup woman to cover the bed and sit on the bed to embroider flowers.

Zhenshu and Cai's mother rekindled the kang for the Su family, and went to the outer courtyard to renew the hot kang for his father Song Anrong, and boiled hot water to serve the whole family to freshen up, and then rubbed their hands and entered the small west house.

Zhenxiu saw her undress and go to bed, and suddenly shouted, "Hurry up and get a spittoon for me, I can't hold my urine now." ”

Zhenshu glared and said, "You didn't shout when I was outside, but you screamed again after taking off your clothes this time." You have to go on your own. ”

"Second sister!" Zhen Xiujiao shouted: "People have forgotten about jì, please!" My dear second sister. ”

Zhenshu took out the book from the box and spread it out, and said without replying: "Don't go, you don't know how cold it is outside." ”

Zhenxiu glanced at Zhenshu and said: "You are a big foot, you should have done these things for us, what if I run two more times and run a big foot?" Be careful, I call my mother to cure you. ”

Zhenshu said twice: "You are shouting!" ”

Zhenxiu recalled that she had eaten a slap from the Su family in the afternoon, and at this time she was afraid that the Su family's anger had not subsided, and she was really afraid that she would be the one who would eat first, so she gritted her teeth angrily, and sneered for a while: "You read these obscene songs sent by Tong Qisheng again, if you don't pick them up, I will go to the Wei River to promote them for you tomorrow, so that the people of the entire Caijia Temple will know." ”

Zhenshu ignored her and sat on the bed flipping through the books.

Zhenxiu waited for a long time, and when she saw that she was still silent, she knew that she was not moving tonight, so she got up and went out angrily, took a spittoon and came in to relieve her drowning, and then took a spittoon out, went back to the house, closed the door and blew the lamp, went to bed and wrapped the quilt and went to sleep.

Zhenshu was reading an article called "Jane Tie Monk", which told the story of a monk's beautiful wife and full of plans to break up, she was watching interestingly, and suddenly Zhenxiu turned off the light, and breathed a long sigh of anger, but she had to close her eyes and sleep.

In the haze, she gradually felt a little sleepy, and when she was about to fall asleep, she suddenly heard Zhenxiu whispering: "Second sister......"

Seeing that Zhenshu was speechless for a long time, Zhenxiu must have really fallen asleep. Then he got up and quietly took out an oil lamp from the head of the bed on his side and lit it, and took an embroidery from the cabinet at the foot of the bed, and embroidered it on the lamp.