Fortunately, he has a memory, and the original owner's hands are also skillful, and Song Lingxue can barely comb the ancient hair, but he simply pulled a bun on the top of his head, wrapped a light blue turban, and inserted the slightly reddish wooden hairpin.

Looking at the person in the bronze mirror that is not very clear, duck egg face and willow eyebrows, double eyelids and big eyes, small nose, although it is not a cherry mouth, it is not big, and the facial features are quite thoughtful, but it is too thin and the cheekbones are a little protruding, and a little bit of appearance is folded in vain.

The skin was also a little rough to the touch, although it could not be seen in this vague bronze mirror, but Song Lingxue knew that the original owner's face was a little black and red, which was the result of working in the fields for a long time, and women in the countryside here are generally like this.

By the time Song Lingxue packed up and was about to set off with the basket on her back, the eastern sky began to have wisps of morning glow appearing, the fifth watch was completely over, and the sun was about to come out.

Yaojia Village leans on Xiaoyu Mountain, although it has not rained for nearly half a year, and the forests in the mountain are a little wilted, but when the sky is not bright, it is still dense from a distance.

It's just that there is a lot of dust on the country road, and the roads on both sides of the road should be full of wild flowers and lush grass this season, but they turn yellow because it doesn't rain for a long time, and occasionally a flower bone is still dry, and it seems that it can't bloom.

Song Lingxue had just left the village not far from when she found that the blue cloth shoes she had newly changed into this morning had become gray.

Ignoring the complaints, Song Lingxue quickened her pace, taking advantage of the fact that the sun had not yet come out and there was still a cool breeze on the road in the mountain village, otherwise she would have to die of heat if she was thirty miles away, not to mention exhaustion.

With the tenacity and endurance of the original owner's body, Song Lingxue didn't stop to rest along the way, but took out the kettle and drank a sip of water in the middle of the way, and then continued to move forward.

Finally caught up with the moment when the sun was rising in the east, Song Lingxue rushed to the Gushui River five miles outside Huaihua Town, and saw from a distance that there were many simple wooden stakes on the left side of the riverbank.

There was a row of stove pits under the straw hut at the very edge, and a few village women in gray clothes and culottes were busy among the stoves, and the smoke was rising from the simple chimney outside the shed, presumably preparing for cooking.

On the right, there are many marching tents, which look much more comfortable than the straw huts, and there are curtains around them to hang up, which is ventilated and mosquito-proof when resting. These are the places where the officers and soldiers and small officials sent by the Huishui County government to supervise the process live, even the food is also specially built with fire sheds, and there are cooks recruited from all over the country to cook, and the three meals a day are much better than those of the people.

There is also a low mountain forest not far away, which is actually a small hillside without a few trees, and there is a dilapidated dragon king temple there, perhaps because of the reason for digging the channel, and some incense was offered, probably to pray for the dragon lord to rain quickly.

As I continued to walk forward, I came to the front and back of the straw hut, and saw the people working on the dry riverbed in the distance, most of them were wearing coarse cloth short sweatshirts, some were holding shovels and grabbing heads to dig the ground, and some were carrying the soil up with baskets of soil.

Although the main channel of the Gushui River is thirty miles away from Yaojia Village and not very close to Shili Eight Village below Huaihua Town, the branches of the Gushui River are connected by several small rivers that pass through the farmland of these villages.

Originally, the water flow of those small rivers was definitely enough to irrigate the farmland, unless there was a major drought that had not been encountered in ten years, those small rivers were drying up day by day, and this time it was like this, there was no rain for several months, and the water of the small rivers could no longer support the irrigation of the farmland in the villages, and the crops relied on that one acre and three points of land, if there was no water for irrigation, the crops were destroyed, and the family had nothing to do.

Therefore, the government recruited the people to come and dig the channel, although it was very hard, but everyone also knew the stakes, and there were not too many complaints, although there was no salary to get, but they still managed two meals a day, and most poor families were considered to have saved two meals of food at home.

Therefore, although Song Lingxue saw the hard work of these people, she also knew that these people were working sincerely, and hoped to dig the canal as soon as possible, so that the farmland could have sufficient water for irrigation, so that this year's autumn harvest could have a good result.

I remember the last time I came, I found several people to ask for a sentence, and only then did I find the three fathers and sons of the Yao family who were working in the channel, so before leaving last time, I said when they would rest and let her come over again, so this time they should be resting in the shed.

It's just that except for the forty or fifty-year-old women who are cooking, the others are all men, and the weather is hot, so it is difficult to guarantee that no one will dress indecently for coolness, so Song Lingxue did not go directly to the shed to look for it.

After looking around, I saw a young man dressed in a gray soap coat, about seventeen or eighteen years old, patrolling along the river.

Song Lingxue walked up quickly, with a smile on her face, stopped the soap official and said: "This little official, I know where Yao Dazhuang from Yaojia Village is, the slave family is his insider, and he came from home to send him some things." ”

The soap officer glanced at Song Lingxue, and his face was not as fierce or arrogant as those officers and soldiers who went to the township to collect taxes and grains before, but thought about it carefully, and then said with a smile: "This sister-in-law is polite, I am just a miscellaneous servant of the yamen, and I can't afford the title of official, the people of Yaojia Village are all living in the third shed over there, you can go over and ask." ”

Song Lingxue saw that he was very polite, and he was very kind to show her the way, so she smiled again, went over with her hand behind her back, and took out a lard meat scrap pie wrapped in lotus leaves from the back basket.

So the pie was still a little hot when she got it in her hand, Song Lingxue handed the pie to the little official, and said with a smile: "The little official is too modest, our family makes their own pies, if you don't dislike it, you can taste it." ”

"This sister-in-law is polite!" The pie was wrapped in lotus leaves and still exuded a fragrance, which made the little official's stomach a little hungry before eating, and he was not welcome, he reached out to take it, and then smiled heartily: "My name is Chen Qi, thank you sister-in-law!" ”

Song Lingxue was afraid that staying longer would cause misunderstanding, so she said goodbye to the little official named Chen Qi with a smile, and went to the third straw shed on the outside of the river with Chen Qi on her back.