On the eleventh day of the first month, the ban on the Heishui River was lifted, and the thirteenth young master of the first month returned to Xiaowangzhuang. He brought back many New Year's goods, and there were dozens of large and small bags. There were a few silk horses assigned to the young grandmother, one of which was the kind of lake green; There is also a wooden hanging bell, the size of a Buddha box, which cries out every hour and sounds like a cuckoo.

Martin got a box of cigarettes and an umbrella. The cigarette was an authentic cigar, and Martin threw the cigarette pouch and pot away at first sight. The umbrella was black, and it looked so thin that it was just a crutch on top of it, and he paced it up and down in the narrow part of the lower room, and then he simply went out into the street.

There was a sense of happiness on his face, and he wanted to play with himself. The people of the town were familiar with him, and when they saw him holding an umbrella in the winter, his cotton robe bulging like a stupid bear, they all smiled at him, and the children took the back of his cotton robe and followed him back and forth, as if holding a big tail for him. He hadn't been so happy in a long time.

Wu's mother got an embroidered handkerchief. The fool got a white towel the size of a chopping board.

Wu's mother said, "Let's change."

"Why?"

"I have a lot of oily hair and want to cover my pillow."

"No, I'll give it to you."

"Okay, I'll pay you back with something else later."

She didn't say much, pulled out the towel and left, but her eyes were full of gratitude. Recently, she has been sensible a lot, since the Mei family knew that the young grandmother was pregnant, she begged the immortals to fight hexagrams, and decided that she was a son in the womb, and the left corner courtyard was expensive overnight.

Another maid slept in the same compartment with Wu's mother, taking turns serving them day and night. Jin Feng is a careful person, and every move of the young grandmother is in her eyes.

The young grandmother is at the threshold, Wu's mother wants to forget to help, Jin Feng is a few words when she opens her mouth, not like an old maid, but like a cold-faced mother-in-law. The eldest young grandmother couldn't be her own master, and Wu's mother was also miserable.

Martin was also miserable, it was inconvenient to sit in the porch, and he could only watch the shadow of the upper room from a distance through the pond, and it was not convenient to see, and he had to put on a posture of watching the fish and the water, and from time to time he threw a stone and tile into it. But it's useless to look at it. The young grandmother rarely went out, and her handsome white face seemed to have disappeared.

The fool hid in the earroom and watched Martin through the window. He is still dressed in a dress, wearing a thick cotton robe and looking stupid and pitiful, in a daze!

He inadvertently rubbed the tip of his nose with the sleeve of his cotton robe to wipe off the frozen snot. He couldn't do that in a dress. He looked like all the men in Qinglong Town with his two hands on his sleeves, and he himself was afraid that he would not be able to recognize where he came from.

The fool pities him, and he pities himself. He looked forward to seeing the smile of the young grandmother in the sunlight, and hoped that her face and her heart would calm down and relax. Martin was afraid of the dead air in her eyes.

As soon as the young master came back, he added vitality to the lifeless Mei Mansion. He now walks with the wind, straightens his waist and raises his eyes, as if nothing bad has happened. He sorted out the Mei family's business that was open outside, and smoothed out several muddy accounts, and he couldn't sit on this ass if he didn't close the river.

The big festival in Meifu is not good, and the young master is open, and he wants to make the Lantern Festival of the fifteenth day lively. He took out large bundles of bamboo paper from the warehouse of the paper yard and distributed the money to the tenants, so that the families of all ages could make their own mistakes. Fearing that they would not be able to make a noise, they asked the servants to carry out baskets of candles and distribute them on the steps outside the gatehouse.

When the fifteenth day came, there were children running around the street with hand lamps while the sky was still bright, and when they saw the stars, the tile lamps under the eaves were also lit up. There are figures gathered by the Heishui River, waiting for the Mei family's brigade to release the river lanterns.

The fool went to the river to see the wind and water potential, the small north wind, there was no backwater, and the waves did not sweep the shore, it was simply a celestial phenomenon specially arranged by God.

The front yard and the main courtyard were full of servants and servants who were pasting lamps. Wu's mother took bamboo blanks and bamboo paper, filled some paste in a bowl, and said that the young grandmother was bored in the house and wanted to try to paste a lotus flower.

Before midnight, the Mei family gathered in the dining hall to eat Lantern Festival, and the only outsider sitting at the first table was Martin. Moment before the Lantern Festival was cooked, Jin Feng and Wu's mother came with the young grandmother.

The fool saw her so close for the first time in so many days. She was fat, white, and had a startling faint smile on her face. She saluted and sat down with her brow bowed. The second aunt and the third aunt leaned over to greet each other in a low voice, sourly smiling.

"How many months?"

"Three months, huh?"

"The body is so good, I can't see it"

"Kindness conceived when you were recuperating from your wounds, right? Sister, be careful, eat more honey and eat more fish skin, otherwise the child will grow up and burn, like his father. ”

The eldest grandmother didn't speak, pursed her lips, and smiled a little. When the Lantern Festival basin was served, the heat immediately enveloped the table. He stood behind the pillar, and found that when everyone else was laughing at the strange appearance of Martin and the Lantern Festival, the face of the young grandmother was darkened, and when she raised her eyes, she met the fool's gaze and immediately turned her face away.

The fool changed to another pillar and continued to stare at her. He couldn't figure out what he was going to do, but he could see what was behind the smile if he went on like this.

The old lady rarely has a good complexion, and blows a hot Lantern Festival hard. The half of the Lantern Festival in the old lady's mouth seemed to be forever chewed.

The young master said happy auspicious words to everyone. The people at the table didn't laugh, but the servants under the table secretly laughed enough.

The fool didn't seem to hear what he said, he only looked at the young grandmother. Her red mouth bit the white Lantern Festival, and the two rows of broken teeth glistened in the heat. The Lantern Festival rolled up, drowning her thin red lips.

At this time, Martin said inexplicable words: "Master Cao, I like your family."

And he said, "I, that's me, I miss my mother."

The people at the table were silent, and they all looked at him.

The young master said, "Mr. Martin, are you planning to return to China?"

"Yes. Be. I like you guys. I'm going back! ”

He was so nervous that his chopsticks slipped, and Lantern Xiao rolled to the ground. He wanted to find it, but the fool hurriedly ran over and stretched out his hand to scratch the rotten Lantern Festival away. His big nose was oozing with beads of sweat, and his face and neck were red. The young master put side dishes in his bowl, looking very polite. No one at the table was silent, and the young grandmother looked at her bowl.

The young master said: "Look, after you came, the Mei family's business has become bigger and bigger, and there are more and more religious believers, why do you want to leave?" ”

Martin didn't seem to understand, he couldn't say what he wanted to say, and hurriedly said a string of foreign words. He immediately understood that others could not understand it, and he sighed and shook his head in embarrassment, and his shoulders shrugged like a fool. The young grandmother asked something in foreign language. Martin was stunned for a moment, and quickly gestured and spoke seriously. Martin and the young grandmother didn't look at anyone, and most of the time they stared at the large porcelain basin containing the Lantern Festival. When translating, the young grandmother looked at the young master very respectfully, and her tone was very elegant.

She said: "Mr. Martin is saying that he plans to go to Haicheng to open up a market and sell the Mei family's goods to Haicheng!" Then, his mother was old and in poor health, and he could not leave the old man for a long time. Mr. Martin, please help him so that he can leave Qinglong Town sooner. He said he often couldn't sleep at night and thought about it all the time. ”

The old lady nodded lightly and looked at the young master.

The young master said, "Father, what do you see?"

The old lady said: "It's rare that he has this filial piety, let him be."

Martin seemed to understand, but the young grandmother still translated it to him. The two of them threw away others, and you and I said it one by one. The fools didn't understand, but they knew better than anyone else that they were taking the opportunity to say something else. The sentences are very short, unhurried, but in a hurry. The eldest young grandmother stopped first and looked at the old lady with a respectful smile.

"Mr. Martin said his mother had only one son," she said.

She glanced at Martin and paused. And he said, "Mr. Martin said that he would never forget the people here for the rest of his life. However, he wanted to go home early, as soon as possible, and if it was convenient, he would want to leave here tomorrow. That's all he said, gone. ”

Martin couldn't tell that it wasn't exactly what he meant, so he could only endure it and say, "I, that's me, like you!"

The old lady said, "Let's go, Renhou, you can arrange it for him." It's not early, dress warmly, and go to the river to put the lights on. ”

The old lady said, "Shuping, don't go, be careful of getting cold."

When everyone left the table, they gave way to the elders, and the old lady stopped in front of the young grandmother and looked at her very seriously.

The old lady said: "You have a way of helping benevolence do things, I didn't expect that you would speak foreign words, marrying our family really bent you." Jin Feng, you are careful to serve me, if something goes wrong, I'm sorry for the Mei family. ”

The old lady didn't wait for the old lady to finish speaking, and slowly walked out of the dining hall. In the courtyard, the candles were being tested for the river lanterns, and the stars were lit up like stars. There was a loud and low cheer on the other side of the Blackwater River, and the people of the town were already waiting impatiently. The young grandmother stopped him, saying that she had pasted a lotus lantern and asked the fool to put it in the Heishui River for her.

Together, they walked to the courtyard on the left. The young grandmother and Wu's mother are in the front, and the fool and Martin are in the back. What did Jin Feng do, he didn't keep up for a while.

On the way, the fool and Wu's mother were silent, listening to the young grandmother and Martin say something they didn't understand through the night. The tone of those words was vague, and I don't know whether it was about the weather or the heart. The meaning of their words is not always as casual as their appearance, and their casual appearance is made to be seen by outsiders. This can be hidden from Wu's mother, but it can't be hidden from a fool.

The fool came to the pavilion, walked a few steps in a playful manner, and when he got in front of the young grandmother, she really stood down.

She said, "Mother Wu, fool take the lamp."

The fool deliberately rubbed in the house and asked Wu's mother to find a line to reinforce the lamp shelf. The lamp paste is really good, three lotus flowers let the bamboo billet and the bamboo bracket stand up, two are in full bloom, one is budding, and the thick white ash is inserted on the bamboo skewer, which is enough to burn enough to make the lantern float out of the ground for five miles.

The thought that Martin was leaving, the fool was excited. He turned around and suddenly opened his arms and took Wu's mother into his arms. She seemed expecting the move but was still panicking. In the tight hoops of those strong arms, Wu's mother's panic quickly dissipated, and she calmly pressed her cheeks against her chest that exuded a strange aura.

He let go of his hugs and cupped her cheeks. She felt his warm lips against her eyes and sucked, and she couldn't help spasming and her legs went limp: the warm lips squirmed slowly against the side of her nose, and her heart fluttered with it; The warm, strange lips moved to hers and froze, and then they sucked violently; Her body trembled uncontrollably, and she suddenly felt a bang in her chest, like a loud bang in the theater watching Agarwood swing an axe to split Huashan.

She gradually came to her senses after experiencing that inner roar, and broke free of his arms: "It's time to go out!" With that, he stretched out his arms and wrapped his arms around his shoulders, pressing his burning cheeks against his face.

The fool said, "I have tasted your tears, which are sweet." ”

The fool weighed the time and came out with the lamp with Wu's mother. The young grandmother and Martin stood in the pavilion, across the stone table, motionless and silent, as if what had to be said had already been said.

The fool said, "The buds are too heavy here, don't turn over in the water."

Wu's mother said, "I can't turn it over, move the stick."

The fool said, "Try it!"

The fool put the lantern on the stone table and asked Martin for a match, but Martin did not move, as if he did not hear. The fool beckoned him one more time, and he handed him the match. Fool, I lit the candle and let everyone take a closer look, and suddenly found that the young grandmother had tears in her eyes, and she hurriedly said that it was very good, and blew out the light in one breath.

The fool and Martin walked out, and they could hear Martin calling out to the young grandmother in a low voice, like a cherished and a goodbye. The fool's heart is sour, and he thinks that all this is strange and touching.