Chapter 67: Reunion Dinner
The next day, Lin Dai followed Shen Xi to the pharmacy to help, and when she was doing things, she always seemed to be distracted, and she was in a daze at the dustpan containing the medicine when she was fine.
Shen Xi took the dried medicinal herbs over, and seeing Lin Dai's dull eyes, he shook his hand in front of her a few times in curiosity, but the little girl didn't even blink an eye.
Shen Xi thought to himself, what did this little Lori get her soul for?
"Hey! What to do? ”
Shen Xi whispered something in Lin Dai's ear, which immediately startled Lin Dai.
"You...... What are you doing? ”
Lin Dai woke up from the fugue and stared at Shen Xi with a pout, but after staring at Shen Xi for a moment, her face softened.
Shen Xi said: "Why should I ask you why, my mother asked you to pick out the medicinal materials, it's been a morning, and you picked up such a little?" ”
"Ah...... I ......"
Lin Dai looked at the dustpan in front of her, and lowered her head a little ashamedly, "I'm thinking about what happened to Daiyu, who told you that the story only told you a little...... Hmph......"
Shen Xi squatted down to help Lin Dai sort the medicinal herbs, and said in his mouth: "Obviously it's my aunt and grandmother, you fell asleep last night, can I tell you when you sleep, can you hear it?" Keep a little God, if your mother sees it, she will scold you...... I want to hear the story and I'll tell you it in the evening. ”
Lin Dai's face looked better, and she was working hard at the moment, and the two of them cooperated seamlessly, but they really looked like a young couple.
In the afternoon, Zhou went to the street to buy some New Year's goods, because of the chaos outside the city, many shops in the city were closed, and there should have been a boom in supply and sales and did not buy too many things, but chicken, duck, fish, rice, glutinous rice flour and other good things were bought, although the price was almost double than usual. Bai Du Yixia performed a new chapter of the Song Hall to cut the mouth of the L section
"Mother, what are you doing when you buy so much, we can't finish eating." Shen Xi has seen what Zhou has bought, except for what he eats.
Zhou scolded while cleaning up: "What do you little kid know, this is called Jigu hunger prevention...... Perhaps after the year, the thieves outside the city will be more violent, and it will be difficult for the city to buy some food and meat. Quickly pack up and carry it back, anyway, there are no customers in the store, your aunt will come back from the new shop soon, let's sweep the house in the afternoon, and it will be good for the New Year. ”
Zhou called Xiao Yu, who was idle on the counter and had nothing to do, to help move things to the Shen family's yard together.
Although the three new maids are supposed to be the guys of the pharmacy, basically they can call whatever they want to do with the affairs of the two families, and these three people dare not have the slightest complaint.
When the arrangements were made, Zhou wanted to go out to the street to find someone who went to the direction of Taohua Village to tell the old lady that he would not go back, but he didn't find anyone after looking for a long time, and he asked in detail to know that the thieves were making a lot of trouble, and yesterday another caravan was robbed, not to mention five dead, and four other women were plundered, and now no one dares to go out of the city again.
Shen Xi can see that the current county magistrate Han Xie has been transferred to Nanjing because of his meritorious service in controlling the plague, and he is about to set off, he naturally doesn't want to care about this thief, and wants to push the matter to the successor, but the successor will not come until the new year, so even if the government says that it wants to quell the chaos, it just shouts slogans and shouts loudly, and comes out to collect money and collect it happily, but the people on the side of the Yamen's patrol and inspection department have no action.
The inspection department began in the five dynasties, flourished in the two Song dynasties, and was also established in the Yuan Dynasty because of the Song and Jin relics, usually a non-permanent organization that governs sparsely populated places, in addition to no administrative discretion, there is no permanent chief official management, and its function is mainly military. The Ming Dynasty followed its rules, but supplemented with administrative power.
Zhu Yuanzhang once instructed the world to inspect and say: "I set up inspections in Guanjin, briefly, investigate treachery and hypocrisy, and work in the people and people, and there is no difficulty in business travel." It is not difficult to see from this that Guanjin and the key places were the main places where the inspection department was set up, and later mines, places where merchants converged, places where ethnic groups intersected, areas where prefectures and counties bordered, places far away from the administrative office, and places where displaced people gathered were also set up successively.
The main task of the Inspection Division is to check passers-by, and at the same time, it is responsible for inspecting people who have no way to go out, arresting spies, intercepting deserted soldiers and prisoners, cracking down on smuggling, and maintaining normal business and travel exchanges.
However, the soldiers of the Inspection Division are not regular troops, but similar to the existence of Xiang Yong, it is okay to catch a few smugglers or deal with organized and armed thieves, and no one will move forward bravely if they hide behind.
In the afternoon, Hui Niang came back from the new shop very early, and even Xiu'er, who was going to stay to watch the shop, also brought back, and the family began to clean the house, preparing for the Spring Festival two days later.
In the local area, there are many celebrations of the Spring Festival, from the first day of the new year to the fifteenth Shangyuan Festival, it is very lively, especially the lantern festival of the Shangyuan Festival, which can be said to be the most lively time of the year in the city.
But just after the plague, there were bandits outside the city, and this Spring Festival was an extraordinarily depressed place, and even most of the shops along the street did not hang festive red lanterns as in previous years.
In the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve, the Zhou family originally hoped that Shen Mingjun would come back early for Chinese New Year's Eve, but when it was almost dusk, Shen Mingjun asked people to bring back words, saying that there was something on the main family's side, and even the Spring Festival could not be returned, and Zhou's original high interest fell to the freezing point.
Shen Xi and Hui Niang both said a few words of comfort.
Zhou's mouth scolded and scolded, but in fact, he was worried about Shen Mingjun in his heart, and at the same time felt that something was not quite right, he followed Wang Changnie to Huguang Wuchang Mansion to visit the imprisoned Wang family and the son of the Wang family didn't go home, and now he didn't even come back for the Spring Festival, obviously there were only a few steps, so he couldn't say anything.
scolded and scolded, complained and resented, but in the end Zhou still admitted it. In fact, Shen Mingjun's not coming back is also a good thing for the two families. After all, Hui Niang's side really hopes to be together with the Shen family for the New Year, but Hui Niang is a widow after all, and it will be inconvenient if Shen Mingjun comes back.
In this way, the two families prepare the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner together.
When it was dark, Hui Niang asked Xiu'er, who can climb tall and weight, to hang the lantern at the door.
This Spring Festival is not lively at all, and after the sky gets dark, there is no firecracker in the city or outside the city. But no matter how bleak the days are, when the time comes, Hui Niang decided to put some firecrackers on it, so that there is hope for the coming year.
Chinese New Year's Eve rice is cooked well, not much different from usual, the south is mainly rice-based, and the New Year does not cook dumplings, but steamed rice cakes, wrapped rice dumplings and kneaded rice balls.
In this year, Hui Niang's pharmacy did well, although at the end of the year, she bought a big shop and bought three maids back, but she still had some balance on hand.
On this day, the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner was very rich, Hui Niang and Zhou personally cooked, two stoves in the two yards cooked vegetables at the same time, and everyone in the family went to help except for the small ones.
Lin Dai and Lu Xi'er, the two little guys, moved a small bench and sat down in the back hall of the pharmacy, surrounded Shen Xi, and listened to him tell the story of "Dream of Red Mansions".
For Lu Xi'er, who is not yet six years old, the story is a little profound, and she can only listen to a rough idea, and then she will follow the blind coaxing, and Lin Dai is completely like a little resentful woman, substituting herself into the heroine of the story, as if the illusory life is what she will face in the future.
“…… Mrs. Wang hugged Baoyu, only to see that his face was white and weak, and he was wearing a green gauze coat with blood stains, and she couldn't help but take off the sweat towel to see, from the buttocks to the shins, whether blue or purple, whole or broken, there was no benefit, and she cried loudly unconsciously......
Lin Dai blinked and blurted out: "He deserves it, who made him naughty and not study well." ”
Shen Xi couldn't help coughing, this Lori's reaction was really abnormal, shouldn't the focus of attention be Baochai and Daiyu's reaction?
Oh, or maybe Lin Dai has already thought of herself as Daiyu and said her feelings.
"Eat, eat, go wash your hands, don't hurry up, it's not your share when you're done." At this moment, the Zhou family came to Zhang Luo, and the first reunion dinner for the two families to gather together officially began.
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PS: The first update is sent!
It's still three more today.,I'll send the remaining two chapters later.,The Son of Heaven continues to ask for collection and recommendation votes for support!