A few days after Chen Damao accepted Xia Ji's offer, he took Li Yue to live in Xia Mansion and officially began to work for Xia Mansion.

Working for a pair of missed lovers has never been thought of before.

However, Li Yue didn't know Xia Ji's true identity.

Because Chen Damao was not familiar with the situation in the Xia Mansion, Xia Ji did not announce to everyone that she had the intention of letting Chen Damao serve as the head manager, but let Chen Damao serve as Jiang Lu's assistant first, and told Jiang Lu that Chen Damao was the future housekeeper of Wanqiu Bailu, and now follow him to assist and learn to manage the Xia Mansion.

And Li Yue helped Xia Ji clean up the things she bought from Gusu and put them in a special room.

Xia Ji brought all kinds of things, although Li Yue knew the names of these things, but they were not useful, such as the clumps of pure wool wool, in her opinion, they were just rolls of rope.

There are long bamboo skewers of different thicknesses in the supporting products in the wool, and what surprised Li Yue was that the smart master began to use two or three bamboo skewers to start knitting sweaters, woolen pants, and woolen socks for the child.

Xia Ji bought a lot of wool because the wool can be disassembled and reused after being used as a sweater, and the pure wool sweater has excellent cold resistance.

A few days later, Uncle Xia Yu told Xia Ji that the Bailu in Wanqiu had been renovated, and asked her to go and see it and stay for more than ten days.

It's winter, and although it's not snowing yet, it's getting a little cold.

Uncle Xia Yu and Xia Ji took Xia Zhengshu and marched towards Wanqiu, accompanied by Chen Damao and his wife and a group of entourages and guards.

Since it is not too far, it takes less than an hour to arrive at Bailu.

Entering the gate of Bailu, Xia Ji was attracted by this exquisite mansion.

Compared with the ruggedness of the Xia Mansion and the simplicity of the Bamboo Garden, the design and decoration of the Bailu are unique, and the appearance of the house is exquisite and elegant; The garden design is a scene in ten steps, and it seems that every tree and stone has been cleverly arranged.

The layout in the house is also elegant and generous, and it does not affect the comfort, so that Xia Ji secretly marvels that the design is simply to cater to herself, maybe the deposed Peach Concubine has a similar aesthetic taste to herself.

This time when she came to Wanqiu, Xia Ji didn't let Jiang Wei accompany her, and the cooking was handed over to Chen Damao, Xia Ji wanted to see how the apprentice skills of this Qu Hao taught.

At noon, when the dishes made by Chen Damao were put on the case of Uncle Xia Yu and Xia Ji, Uncle Xia Yu and Xia Ji were very surprised.

Xia Ji was surprised that the dishes were like those of a modern hotel, with good color, flavor and presentation, and the presentation was very exquisite, not inferior to the level of professional chefs, and with soy sauce and other seasonings, the taste was first-class.

And Uncle Xia Yu was surprised that these dishes were so similar to what he had eaten in the Qingya Teahouse in Yingdu, and the dishes that he thought could only be eaten in Yingdu before were actually eaten at home.

Uncle Xia Yu didn't understand Xia Ji's high salary to hire a former coachman as a housekeeper before, but now after eating the dishes made by this person, he realized that Chen Damao still had some real skills, and said to Xia Ji: "Madam, it seems that you are really discerning and talented, with these dishes made by Chen Damao, he came to our Xia family to pick up a treasure."

"Huh, huh? The princess was happy and the concubine was relieved. ”

"This Chen Damao's cooking is better than Jiang Wei's, and he will bring Xia Yuzhi's family another day, he and his wife have said that they will come many times, but they have been blocked by me."

"Okay. Xia Zhengshu should also meet his relatives and see the world. However, Wanqiu is so far away, it is inconvenient for them to come here. ”

"Now it's not far from the New Year's Pass, they may come to visit the New Year in advance, although Wanqiu is far away, they can also stay here for a few days, and the family has a rare opportunity to reunite." Uncle Xia Yu said.

"Okay, listen to your arrangement. Oh, by the way, Xianggong, what is the origin of the name Wanqiu? I only know the poem "Wanqiu", the first sentence is: The soup of the son, the top of Wanqiu. It means dancing on Wanqiu, but I don't know what Wanqiu means. ”

"Oh, Madame is Princess Zheng Guo, and it is rare to know Chen Guo's poems so clearly. This Wanqiu is literally understood as a flat place with a high surrounding base, and Wanqiu refers to a mound on a mound. This mound has a large earthen platform with a mound in the southeast of Wanqiu City. ”

"Oh, there's something specific to it, it sounds like a dancing stage."

"yes. There is also a poem that also describes Wanqiu's dancing, and the poem is written like this: The East Gate, Wanqiu's Life, Zizhong's Son, and the Son. Uncle Xia Yu said.

"How do you understand that?" Natsuhime didn't understand at all.

"It means that the white elm trees outside the east gate shade the sun, the oak trees on the Wanqiu are luxuriant, and the little girl of Zizhong's cardamom years dances beautifully under the green trees." Uncle Xia Yu explained.

"Wonderful and timeless."

"But Wanqiu is not just a place to dance, dancing also has its purpose."

"What do you mean by that?"

"It's the moon now, and the top of Wanqiu is no different from the wilderness at this time. And if it is in the beginning of spring in February, the spring in Wanqiu is the most wonderful. ”

"Xianggong is saying that the scenery of Wanqiu in spring is very beautiful, right?"

"Definitely. Wanqiu is not a wonderful spring scenery, but an intoxicating spring color. ”

"Doesn't that mean that?" Xia Ji didn't know what Uncle Xia Yu meant by spring.

"February is the time of spring, and it is also the day when our Chen Kingdom worships the god of fertility. At this time, young men and women gather on the Wanqiu to sing and dance, and they can let go of taboos and find a partner of the opposite sex or even have sex on their own, so love songs and music and dance are particularly prosperous at this time. ”

"Huh? And such a thing? Natsuhime was taken aback, never expecting that this kind of free love would appear in what modern people consider conservative antiquity. However, Xia Ji knew that China at this time was not conservative at all, because Confucius, who advocated the great defense of men and women, and the incompatibility between men and women, would not be born until fifty years later.

Xia Ji remembers a lecture she had given when she was a sophomore in college, and an expert said that in ancient times, the population was small, and if a woman refused to marry when she reached the age of marriage, she would be punished, because it was a woman's responsibility to have children.

But even so, she didn't expect it to open up to this point: the festival of worshipping the god of fertility would allow men and women to freely fall in love and even have wild marriages, and the point is that this love and wild unions are not for the purpose of marriage, but for the purpose of reproduction.

"Madame, don't underestimate the place of Wanqiu, in addition to the spring of Wanqiu in February, this is also the birthplace of the world's culture."

"What do you mean by that?"

"This is the place where the Taihao Fuxi clan built its capital."

"Huh?" Xia Ji was surprised, she studied ancient history in high school, she clearly remembered that Taihao Fuxi was a historical figure in ancient China, Taihao Fuxi was called "the first hundred kings" by later generations, the "head of the three emperors and five emperors", and the ancestor of the Chinese nation.

Not only that, Xia Ji went to the Taihao Mausoleum in Fuxi with her mother when she was in junior high school, but she remembered going to Huaiyang District, Zhoukou City, Henan Province, not Wanqiu, which seems to be an ancient name.

"Xianggong, can you still see the capital of Fuxi?" Natsuhime asked.

"The capital city has long been gone, and now all you can see is the Taihao Mausoleum of Emperor Fuxi, but it was also rebuilt by Zhou Tianzi hundreds of years ago." Uncle Xia Yu said.

"Oh." Xia Ji was sure that Wanqiu was the Huaiyang she had been to. She remembered that the scale of the Taihao Mausoleum in Huaiyang, Zhoukou in modern times was not small, and she didn't know what the Taihao Mausoleum looked like in the Spring and Autumn Period, so she couldn't help but look forward to seeing it.