After the August Festival, the weather gradually cools down. Although the heat of the day still torments people, the cool breeze in the morning and evening makes people feel more comfortable. Everywhere you can see that the leaves have begun to turn yellow; The Girl's River, which flows from the south side of the market town, has become calmer and gentler, and a large group of bare-bottomed dolls can be seen splashing and rolling in the clear water every day after noon. Wild geese flew in flocks from behind the mountains; They lined up in the air, cooing and quacking, greeting each other and flying south.

When the first flock of southbound geese passed over Huojiapu, people knew that autumn had arrived unconsciously.

For the vast majority of people living in Huojiabao, this autumn is not much different from previous autumns. After paying the taxes and deducting the necessary living expenses such as salt and oil, they once again found that even though God has always been open-minded from the beginning of spring to the present this year, there is no drought and no waterlogging in the spring and summer, and the wind and rain are smooth, but the food at home is still not enough to eat, and they still have to use miscellaneous grains and vegetables to fill the gaps. If you want to pull two new clothes for the mother-in-law doll, you can only pick through your own teeth......

There are also some people who feel that this year is better than usual. After paying the taxes, they cut out the necessary expenses, and suddenly they were pleasantly surprised to find that the food in their hands had been saved!

There is not much food surplus, and this surplus also appeared after they thought about how to mix miscellaneous grains into the grain according to the habits of previous years, but after all, this is the first thing that has appeared in many years! This is a great event!

So some people began to think about what to do with the surplus food. Hoarding is naturally a good way, selling to the grain store for money, and then exchanging it for a variety of rare things that mother-in-law and dolls have been coveted for a long time is also a way, of course, these fine grains are used to fill the stomach, and it is even more difficult to think about it, which makes people feel beautiful.

Some people were pleasantly surprised and began to think about what was going on with the surplus food. They grow the same grain as others, and the land is the same as in previous years, and they don't sweat much more on the ground than others, but why can they produce more of these harvests than others? It can't be said that God is taking care of the Buddha's manifestations, right? If you want to say that the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas take care of it, then why don't they take care of the people next door? The mother-in-law next door ran to the temple twice in three days, donating more incense money than anyone else, but his family's harvest was not as good as his own......

Some people with brains and tricks have been keenly aware of the problem - all the farmers with better harvests than in previous years have without exception replaced with new styles of farm tools according to Huo Qi's family, from hoes, shovels, rakes, and plows to the sickles for harvesting wheat and the household goods for threshing and drying wheat, all of which flow out of Huo's family. It's worth thinking about. It is even rumored that the wheat harvest of Huo Seventeen's family is even more remarkable, and it is almost one percent more than in previous years......

Beat an extra 10% of the grain? Is this still worth it? can think about it carefully, others have their own people's truth, not to mention anything else, just look at how the two long-term workers of the Huo family serve the crops one by one, deep ploughing, weeding, pressing fertilizer and watering...... Obediently, it is more delicate than serving the ancestors, and it is no wonder that people have such a good harvest!

But in previous years, I had never seen the long-term workers of the Huo Seventeen family do this; This seems to be the guidance of that foreigner merchant monk.

Speaking of the honest man Liu Laozhu, a relative on the long road, and this monk who is a monk who is a monk and a layman, people can't help but give a thumbs up and praise. Let's not talk about the way of life in the crop field, rusty is unfamiliar, but people quietly reveal their skills, and teach some old tricks in the field to look at him differently; Not to mention the craftsmanship of craftsmen, it is rare for small workers to take the money of craftsmen; Even his ability to endure hardships is incomparable to ordinary people. But these are not the reasons why people praise him, it is his duty to endure hardships one by one, and it is his life to exert his strength and suffer, which is nothing to boast about; And there are so many such people around, is it difficult to praise them one by one? Even if Shang Cheng participated in the suppression of bandits in Quzhou last month and killed two bandit leaders, it can only make people sigh at his bravery. It's just bravery. Because as an important town in the north of the Great Zhao Dynasty, the people of Yanshan have been martial arts for generations, and all men over the age of fifteen have the identity of Xiangyong, some of them have even been on the battlefield, suppressed bandits and fought against the Tuqi people, and the things that Shang Cheng did were nothing more than this in their eyes. In fact, what Shang monks cannot but admire is not his ability or bravery, but his humility and modesty. As time goes by, people are surprised to find that no matter what this person says or does, he leaves room for others, and sometimes even prefers to let himself suffer a small loss, which is the most respectable virtue in the eyes of the bankers. It is precisely because of this virtue that many people no longer treat him with the attitude of treating a foreigner. In fact, this change in attitude is the greatest recognition of him, and it is too difficult to make these villagers with strong clan concepts and xenophobic ideas completely accept a person......

There is a more direct reason why people no longer regard Shang Cheng as a foreigner: he has now bought a small courtyard in the market town.

For the farmer, owning his own house is more important than owning his own land. A house of one's own, even if it is a thatched nest that does not shelter from the wind and rain, is also the foundation of life. More importantly, it is a silent declaration to those around me that I have roots here, that I will put down roots here, that I belong here now as you are, and that my children and grandchildren will also be here......

When people accepted Shang Cheng in fact and in their hearts, they looked at Shang Cheng differently, and they no longer felt his story, but were jealous of his luck.

How nice that courtyard in Old Locust Tree Lane is. Two steps out of the street is to go to the street, turn the corner is the well, want to wash a cloth shabu, walk a few steps is the girl river. There is also an osmanthus tree in the small courtyard, and when the flowers bloom, the golden flowers are adorned with branches, and the rich fragrance can be intoxicating across several streets. The three mud and straw houses were only paid for by the officials the year before last, and the yellow mud walls were sturdy and slippery, and no cracks were seen until now. Alas, it can be regarded as letting the monk pick up the treasure!

After Liu Laozhu led a few small workers to plaster the walls of the three big houses, lay the grass and rebuild the courtyard doors, and rebuilt the low courtyard walls, there was a new courtyard in the old locust tree lane; It mingled with a large gray hue around it, and it seemed somewhat out of harmony. Whenever people pass by here, they can't help but look at this uninhabited courtyard a few more times, sigh a few times at the flat dam and the red-painted doors and windows, and then shake their heads with envy and leave. There are even some people who rely on the unique cunning and shrewdness of the Zhuang people to begin to make friends with Liu Laozhu openly or secretly, and inquire about some things they care about. They had obviously realized a fact: since Shang Cheng could run such a courtyard for himself in more than half a year, then he might not be just a hard-working person in the future, and at worst, he would not be a poor bastard. Now that Shang Cheng is still working outside, then settling with his uncle Liu Laozhu will also benefit from it.

Some people even began to trust the media, wanting to marry their daughters to Shang Cheng. And there are quite a few people who think this way. It is said that during this time, the Liu family received several letters of light matchmaking, and there were more people who verbally proposed marriage, and the matchmakers in the village before and after almost ran towards the Liu family on their heels. Liu Laozhu, who has been honest for half his life, is now a figure in Huojiabao, whenever the matchmaker comes to the door of the Liu family, he will try his best to make a smile on his withered bark-like face, and then tell the matchmaker reservedly: "This matter has to wait for him to come back and get an idea......

Yue'er taught him this, as for the reason...... Although he is clumsy, this does not mean that he benzene, in fact, he has to be more refreshing than anyone else in many things.

If the eldest girl and the merchant can live together, it would be a good thing. He was very happy with the matter. If you want to come to the Huo family, you won't object to this family. Even if his brother and daughter-in-law are unwilling, he can still persuade him with his old face. Now the only worry is on Shang Cheng, what if he refuses to do so in the future? And he has never heard this idea from Shang Cheng, and he is still worried about his heart one by one, will Shang Cheng have a family in his hometown Jiazhou?

After thinking about it, Liu Laozhu decided not to mention this matter to the Huo family first, and waited for Shang Cheng to come back and ask him what he thought before making plans.

Because he did it safely, he didn't know that doing so would teach others a lot more worries.

The one who worries is the big girl. Every time I watched the matchmaker go in and out of the Liu family, the eldest girl felt an indescribable discomfort and anxiety in her heart.

By the time of the month, the eldest girl should be sixteen. According to the customs of the township, a woman of her age should have been married a long time ago, and in the past two years, people have continued to come to the door to propose relatives as matchmakers, but her mother does not look down on the family background of those people, so it has been delayed until now. Seeing that the sisters who grew up together around her have become married one after another, and some have even raised dolls, she secretly hopes that she can have that day. But she couldn't look at any of the descendants in the market town who boldly threw their eyes at her and said sour things, and the matchmaker's introduction couldn't satisfy her, until Shang Cheng, a strange-looking "monk", suddenly came to her......

When she saw Shang Cheng for the first time, she immediately liked him, how handsome he was! Look at his broad forehead, thick black eyebrows, and straight nose...... Yikes! This market town is even surrounded by ten miles and eight towns, and no descendant can compare to him! It's a pity that he is a monk...... This caused her pain for a long time.

But he soon stopped being a "monk". Although she knew that the monk's identity was fake, she was still happy for several days.

Later...... She carefully sewed a purse, embroidered the word "Shang" on both sides of the purse, and then generously gave the purse to him. He accepted the purse, which actually meant that he had accepted his heart, and then she waited patiently for him to come to the door while looking forward to the happy days in the future. But there was no one on the left, and no one on the right, until he went to Quzhou, and there was still no matchmaker. She was so sad that she couldn't eat or sleep, and she was obviously full of words, but she couldn't find anyone to talk to. At this time, she remembered her good friend Lian'er, and then she found an excuse to go to her grandmother's house alone. But what happened to Li Jiazhuang made her even more painful, one by one, she saw the purse she gave him at Sister Lian'er's house. She thought that he didn't cherish himself at all, and she hated him for many days, you just don't look down on me, and you can't give the purse I gave to others!

After that, she met him in the county seat.

That's when she realized that he didn't actually know what "sending a purse" meant. She immediately found a good reason for him in her heart: he was a southerner, and he certainly didn't know the folklore of this area. And she was also sure that he actually liked himself in his heart, because he didn't hesitate to hand over the deed and keys to himself, what it meant to do so one by one, he couldn't have been unaware!

Originally, she thought that her mother would oppose this family affair, because her mother always thought that since her father was a showman and had a good chance of being admitted to the Juren, then her husband could not be a white man. So when her mother came to the city to pick her up, she gave them to her mother. She remembered vividly that her mother was just a little stunned and took the things. At that moment, she was so happy in her heart that it was like a deer jumping around, which actually meant that her mother had agreed to this family affair!

The mother approved it, that is, her father and mother approved it, and this family affair almost became a one-by-one messenger, and he invited an elder to come to the door to say goodbye. She has even thought about the elders he invited to propose marriage, one by one, it can only be Uncle Zhuzi.

Now, all the worries are out of the way, just waiting for him to come back!

The eldest girl is not in a hurry at all, because Nanzheng and Yi County are not far away, one hundred and eighty miles of mountain roads, and you can go back and forth in three or five days. But it's been another month since he left. He didn't come back in the Mid-Autumn Festival, he didn't come back in the beginning of the autumn, Bai Lu still didn't come back, and seeing that the cold dew was coming soon, he hadn't come back yet......

At noon that day, the eldest girl said that her embroidery needle should not be broken, and she would go to the street to buy it. Her father sat in the hall drinking water and reading a book, but only said "hmm" softly, and then she pretended not to hear her mother say "no", and opened the courtyard door and went out into the street.

She bought two needles on the street for three dollars, and bought a few packs of colored thread and two pieces of white silk in the embroidery shop, and came alone to the courtyard in the old locust tree lane. Since the courtyard was tidied up, she had to come over almost every morning and evening to take a look, and sometimes she went out to buy vegetables and sell oil and salt, and would rather take a detour to take a look outside the yard.

The compound is still quiet. Huang Chengcheng's "general lock" on the courtyard door is still buckled, indicating that he still hasn't come back. Because the owner has not yet moved in, there is no portrait of the door god on the door, but two red cloths are hung. There was no couplet on the door frame, and it was pressed with two pieces of red colored paper. Looking through the low courtyard wall, the door of the hall was also locked, and the couplets on the side of the door and the horizontal links on the door beams were not raised, only a few strips of red cloth were nailed; The yard is relatively clean, there are not many yellow fallen leaves, it seems that Uncle Zhu or Yue'er have already come to clean it once.

Although she had expected such a result, she was still a little disappointed.

She stood outside the courtyard wall for a long time, then turned around and prepared to go home.

After taking a few steps, she stepped back and walked in the other direction. She wants to try her luck at Liu's house, maybe he's already back?

Before she turned the corner of the alley, she heard the giggles of Sister Yue'er, and then she saw Uncle Zhuzi turning out of the fork in the road with two copper keys in his hand, and then she saw a familiar tall figure......

*******

The next chapter will be updated on the evening of the 16th.