The town's exterior walls are made of native bluestone, and the south is damp, rainy, and moss-covered, and although it looks low and shabby, it is really difficult to climb. A five-zhang wide moat is full of water, the water is green and I don't know how deep, a stone arch bridge is facing the city gate, the city tower is not big, very dilapidated. The pedestal is five zhang wide and two zhang deep, and the height is the same as that of the stone wall, about two zhang. Passing through the city gate is a small street paved with bluestone slabs, with all kinds of shops on both sides, and the sound of various workshops shouting trumpets, weaving cloth from looms, and blacksmiths striking iron are very noisy in the alleys on the side. The flow of people in and out of the store is also very lively.

The streets were full of people, including coolies carrying goods, shopkeepers talking, and women carrying baskets. It is said that Guangdong beauties are out of Chaoshan, and this street is not bad, and it is a young lady with some eye-catching eyes. But Li Jing didn't bother to glance at it, nine of the ten wealthy families in this town have the surname Li, all of them are members of the same family, except for those who work as wharf coolies, and those who are tenant farmers are foreigners, and those who are dressed decently are basically relatives of Li Jing and their family. If you really want to take cabbage to tease a girl on the street, you can't figure out which young lady is his aunt's. In the end, he was either broken by his grandfather's leg or kneeling in the ancestral hall.

Li Jing took his little sister and cabbage, all the way to the end of the side street, a tall mansion gate, a pair of white marble stone lions in front, and a large plaque hanging on it, with two big characters "Li Mansion" written on it. This is Li Jing's home.

Qian San, the family at the door, saw that the young master was back with the young lady, so he hurriedly bent down to give a salute, Li Jing waved his hand and went directly to the East Cross Courtyard.

Li Jing's grandfather and grandmother, and more than ten concubines of his grandfather lived in the middle courtyard of the back house. Li Jing's family is a big house. Li Jing's siblings lived in the East Cross Courtyard with their parents and several of their father's concubines. Li Jing's uncles are all concubines, and their status is much worse, the five uncles' families are all living in small courtyards and separate rooms in the West Cross Courtyard, and there is a second uncle whose family lives in Chaozhou Fucheng and is responsible for taking care of the family's business.

The area of the east cross courtyard is very large, in addition to the main house of the three entrances, there is also a small garden with a pond in the middle, and on the north side of the pond is a two-story embroidery building, where Li Jing's four sisters lived before they got married. Now most of those houses are empty, and only the little sister and the personal maid Qiguan live partly.

In the center of the pond is a narrow and low rockery, which is used to shelter the embroidery building behind, and to the south is the small courtyard where Li Jing lives.

Li Jing took his little sister to the middle hall where his parents lived, the middle hall had already set up the dishes, and his parents were already waiting for them, his father was white and slightly fat, and he looked like a kind Confucian student, and when he saw Li Jing coming in, he looked at Li Jing's face with concern, and did not speak. Li Jing and his sister-in-law hurriedly gave gifts to their parents.

The mother looked at Li Jing with concern and said, "Jing'er, are you better" Li Jing hurriedly sat down and hugged the little sister to her mother. "Let the mother worry, the child is much better, but he feels a little more depressed, and he just goes to the river to blow the wind.

Li Jing's father, Li Chengxun, persuaded Yan Yuese: "Madame, don't worry, look at the complexion of Wu'er, find a good gentleman for Jing'er in the New Year, study the eight shares well, and get a fame and glory for the ancestors."

Li Jing was shocked, although the memory is all there, and the calligraphy foundation is no problem, but the eight strands are really not fun, how can he have any talent for writing eight strands. hurriedly said: "After the child's serious illness, I was confused, I couldn't remember a lot of the four books I had learned before, and I had a terrible headache when I read the books."

When my father heard this, he was a little nervous, "This soul disorder is so powerful, how can this be good."

"The child already has the identity of a showman, and he is still young. I am not in a hurry to be lifted, I want to rest for a period of time to nourish my brain disease, and reading is the most brain-consuming, which is not good for my condition. Grandpa also asked his father to persuade him a lot, taking advantage of the past few years of recuperation, by the way, to familiarize himself with the family's industry, saying that it is better to read thousands of books than to travel thousands of miles, and the child plans to take a look around.

"Jing'er don't worry, your grandfather will tell you for your father, and you will be free for a few years and take care of your body. Iron striking still needs its own hardness, and the coming day is long, and my father was twenty-seven or eighteen years old when he was in middle school. How old are you, studying is not only to be an official, but to be clear-minded, to have real talent and real learning, what kind of talents can be produced by the eight shares, the cage of my generation of scholars, otherwise being an official is also a faint official, and it will harm the people in other places in vain."

Li Jing was overjoyed, and a big stone fell to the ground in his heart, so he was afraid of revealing his stuffing.

After blowing the river breeze for a day, the stomach was already beating, and today I inadvertently started the light curtain, which suddenly made Li Jing feel that there was hope in life, and I felt that life was gray in this upcoming troubled world, and the general trend of history could not be leveraged by one person. Half a life is a mess, I wanted to be a rich kid and forget it all my life, but at this time I suddenly felt open-minded, and the long road started from my feet.

There are four meats, six vegetables and two pots of soup on the table, the taste is really good, they all say that Chaocai is the first of Cantonese cuisine, and it is really delicious in the world. was eating happily, suddenly felt something under the table, fluffy rubbing on his thighs, looked down, it turned out to be the bastard of cabbage, secretly ran to the bottom of the table, looked at the pitiful little eyes of the cabbage, from time to time with his butt to touch Li Jing's feet, Li Jing sighed from the heart. This evil animal is really a debtor in my previous life, taking advantage of the fact that my parents and little sister are not paying attention. Quietly threw a big chicken leg under the table, the cabbage quickly grabbed it, ran away quickly, turned the corner of the room, put the chicken leg down, looked at the huge chicken leg, the warm feeling of the cabbage was overflowing, the little master was finally normal, and his good life was back.

Pour the soup into the rice bowl, stir it, and eat it in a big gulp, the little sister saw that her brother was eating sweetly, and shouted: "I want it too, I want it too."

Li Jing said: "Children are not allowed to eat rice, they must chew carefully, chew it badly, or they will have a stomach ache at night."

Cicada said: "Brother deceives people, so he won't have a stomachache"

"If you don't have a stomachache, you'll fart, but it stinks"

When the little beauty saw what he said, she felt a chill and finally put the spoon down. His mother glared at him, "How can you be an older brother like this." Li Jing hurriedly lowered his head and quickly picked up two bowls of rice. Put down the bowl.

"I'm ready to eat and go back to sleep."

After saying that, he got up and went out. The little beauty shouted "Brother, don't forget my lollipop" in the back. Li Jing didn't look back and made an OK gesture. This is the code of him and his little sister, which means to wrap around me.

Li Jing's residence is backed by a rockery, and the plaque at the door reads Xue Xuan's three lines of grass characters, and the whole building is divided into two parts from the position of the beams. In the middle of the front is a central hall of about 20 square meters, on the left is the study, on the right is the living room, and from the right room there is a corridor into the back half, in which are the two bedrooms of Li Jing and the four maidservants, a bathroom, and a storage room.

Back at the residence, he commanded Mei Lan Zhuju and the four maids to make lollipops.

Guangdong was the world's largest sugar producing area in this era, and the white sugar in Europe was basically supplied by Guangzhou, and the merchant ships of Spain and the Netherlands unloaded silver in ships and shipped sugar, porcelain, and silk to Europe.

First melt the white sugar, boil it into syrup, boil it with tangerine peel to make it into an orange flavor, boil it with mint leaves to make it into a cool taste, on the marble slab, pour it into a spiral Stephen Chow version of the lollipop with a spoon, grind and dye it with dried flowers, put a small wooden stick while it is hot after it is done, separate it with a knife after cooling, and make ten lollipops for Xiaoju to send to Xiaomei. In the coquettishness of the four maids, one more made two for them. It's dark when it's over.

Xiaolan had already boiled the hot water and poured it into the bath bucket, and Li Dashao lay in the bath bucket, enjoying the warm soak, humming comfortably.

After taking a bath and wiping off the water droplets on Li Jing's body, Li Jing walked into the bedroom and was faced with a big stepping bed, which was antique and exuded the fragrance of sandalwood. The four walls are hung with landscape banners, red sandalwood cabinets, cages, hangers, and yarn lamps. Starting in the living room, the polished floor is recognizable. Some of the floors are covered with thick scarlet carpets, on which they are as soft as clouds.

The bedroom is in the middle of the north side, and there is a small door on the east and west sides of the bed leading to two small bedrooms, which are four maids and two bedrooms. The bedroom is facing the north window, and the Ming Dynasty style window is a floor-to-ceiling window with a vertical lattice, pasted with window paper, and the light transmission is very good.

Facing the floor-to-ceiling north window, the whole bed resembles an enclosed cabin, with only a double moon door on the front.

kicked off the silk shoes, sighed, arched into the quilt and stretched comfortably, ready to gather with Zhou Gong.

Xiaomei and Xiaolan blew out the red gauze lamp and lowered the inner and outer curtains from the golden hook. Walked out lightly.

The bed quickly plunged into darkness. Li Jing lay on the bed and thought that he would have a period of freedom, the light curtain only accepts gold, and the common currency of the Ming Dynasty is silver, it seems that his money-making plan is about to be arranged. Thinking about it, I quickly fell asleep.