Visit Xishan Tingyu to meet old friends

Cao Xueqin wrote the Red Mansion in despair

However, it was said that Yang Mingshi was arrested by a holy decree in the tenth year of Yongzheng and taken to the prison temple because of the deficit of treasury silver in Xiu'er Sea in Yunnan, and was imprisoned in the criminal department for three years. Qianlong issued a general amnesty decree, released him from the prison temple, changed into clean clothes, and went to the military aircraft to see Prime Minister Zhang Tingyu.

The Military Aircraft Department is still on the west side of Yongxiang, and it is still the original three rooms. The Kangxi Dynasty was the place where the guards rested, and the Yongzheng Dynasty chose this place to set up the military aircraft office. Because the emperor summoned most of them in the Yangxin Palace, which is closer and convenient than the upper study, the minister of the upper study, who is also the minister of military aircraft, also handles government affairs here. Over time, this place became the core of the cardinal, and the upper study was useless.

Yang Mingshi followed Zhang Tingyu in, only to see a big kang in the east, and the four underground weeks were all large cabinets inlaid with copper leaves.

Yang Mingshi was Zhang Tingyu's protégé, but since the first year of Yongzheng and Zhang Tinglu served as the chief examiner of Shuntian Mansion in a fraud case, he has been releasing foreign officials. first in Guizhou, then in Yunnan, and finally in the prison of the Criminal Department. There is also a sense of seclusion from everything in the Forbidden City.

"The Prime Minister is nothing more than that, isn't he?" Zhang Tingyu seemed to be overwhelmed with emotion. While inviting Yang Mingshi to sit down, he said, "I have been in the study since Kangxi was forty years old, and it has been thirty-four or five years in the blink of an eye. ”

Yang Mingshi owed his body on the chair and said:

"The teacher is loyal to the king, cautious in everything, since the founding of the country, he can be the prime minister of the three dynasties, and no one can beat the teacher."

"The whole beginning is quite pertinent," Zhang Tingyu sighed, "The whole end has to look backwards." I have been in three dynasties, and I have seen a generation of power such as Mingzhu, Suo Etu, and Long Keduo, and I have seen them build high-rise buildings, I have seen them sing and dance, and I have seen their buildings collapse. I'm famous now, but it's actually hard to deputy, and I really want to retreat from the rapids! ”

"Teacher-" Yang Mingshi looked at Zhang Tingyu intently, wondering in his heart, calling him in, just to say these words? Then he said carefully: "Since the teacher has taken it into account, it has nothing to do with it." ”

"It's been a long time for the big officials to work, and it's a little difficult to ride a tiger." Zhang Tingyu sighed to himself: "There are more than 70 people in the Zhang family who are officials in the court, ranging from one or two grades to eight or nine grades. With so many people, it is inevitable that there will be a mixture of fish and dragons, and whoever has a little accident will easily get caught up with me. The incident between you and Tinglu still lingers in my heart! ”

"Zhongtang!"

Zhang Tingyu said to himself:

"You are now going to enter the palace to wait for the emperor's elder brother, and you are following the path that my father and I walked back then. This mission is well done, and the future is limitless. But this messenger cannot be light, and there are also unsuccessful ones in the royal family. This master is not easy to be! Back then, Tinglu relied on Shanghongshi...... Almost killed! ”

"What the teacher said, the students should keep it in mind." Yang Mingshi said sincerely, "With my brothers, I would like to have a moral relationship, be persistent and not biased, and follow the sentiment to guide reason." When the name is famous, it will never live up to the teachings of the teacher. ”

"That's it." Zhang Tingyu stood up and said, "You have been studying and running errands all these years, you may not have these insights, and I just gave a few words in vain." The emperor asked me to arrange a house for you in the capital, and you don't dare to ask for it if it's too luxurious. There is a courtyard house outside the Donghua Gate, which was originally Cao Yin's property. If you have returned to the public, the emperor has rewarded you. You just move there - it's also closer to Yuqing Palace, is there enough people to do it? ”

"Master Xie is thoughtful, everything is fine." Yang Mingshi got up and said goodbye and walked out of the military aircraft department, and there were several grain roads in Shanxi, Henan, and Hubei outside, waiting in line for Zhang Tingyu to meet him.

After a busy day of government affairs, Zhang Tingyu returned to the house, calmed down, and always felt uneasy. Mrs. Wang had passed away the year before last, and now she was waiting for him in the side room. Zitong is also a in her forties, but her body is very strong, smiling all the time, carefree and looks more than ten years younger than her actual age. She not only manages the marriage of men and women in the house, red and white ceremonies, and favors between the north and the south, but also takes care of Zhang Tingyu, the old husband, and is a good wife and mother, inside and out.

Zitong saw that the old man seemed to be restless when he returned home, so he carried a pot of wine, took two "palace officials Yaji cups", and came to the study, planning to accompany Zhang Tingyu to drink a cup to relieve the boredom in his heart.

"Hengchen," Zitong didn't pay attention to so many rules as Mrs. Wang, she felt that calling her name was more cordial than calling her master, "You're too tired!" How about a concubine to accompany you to drink a glass of wine and relieve your fatigue? ”

Zhang Tingyu took the wine glass with one hand and patted the back of his head with the other, and suddenly remembered what annoyed him. From the palace bureaucracy Yaji Cup, he thought of his father, and thought of his father's irreversible friendship with Cao Yin's family. He drank the wine and said,

"Zitong, will you accompany me to Xishan for a day tomorrow?"

"Of course." Zitong couldn't think of why the old man suddenly wanted to go to Xishan, "Have time tomorrow?" ”

"Tomorrow is the Double Ninth Festival, the emperor has an arrangement, and the minister will have a day off."

"How did you come up with the idea of going to West Mountain?"

"Do you remember Cao Xueqin?"

"Remember, Cao Yingong's grandson."

"Cao Xueqin lives in Xishan."

"You're going to see Cao Xueqin?" Zitong couldn't think of why the old man suddenly wanted to go to Xishan to see Cao Xueqin, it is said that the emperor of the previous dynasty copied his home, even if it is still a little taboo in the current dynasty.

Zhang Tingyu borrowed wine to drown his sorrows:

"I'm sorry for the Cao family, and I'm powerless to protect the Cao family. Today, I rewarded Yang Mingshi with a house that Cao Yin had been raided in the capital. I feel so uncomfortable! Li Wei once told me that Cao Xueqin now lives in a place called Huangye Village in Xishan, and I wanted to go to see him. ”

"Great," Zitong saw that Zhang Tingyu's wine was almost drunk, so he put away his cup and chopsticks and said, "Master, drink here tonight, rest early." I'm going to Xishan tomorrow, but I have to sleep well and eat well! ”

The so-called West Mountain, in fact, is the Yanshan Mountain Range in the northwest of Beijing and the nearest branch of Gyeonggi, at the foot of Shou'an Mountain in the north of West Mountain, there is a famous temple - Shifang Pujue Temple, because there is a statue of Shakyamuni Reclining Buddha of 500,000 catties cast in the temple in the Tang Dynasty, so it is also called the Reclining Buddha Temple. Located on the gentle slope on the left side in front of the Wat Pho Temple, Huangye Village was still a very desolate place. The sparse ancient trees and thin bamboos, the half-human-high artemisia grass and thorns, are dotted with more than a dozen lonely cottages like chess pieces scattered all over the place, this is Huangye Village.

Huangye Village is on the side of the ancient castle, there is a low couch bungalow with one horizontal and five corners, and there is a wall of the same height as the eaves in front of it, and the double door is open on the wall. The entrance is a small courtyard with a long strip, and the first jujube tree with a crooked neck on the right is just growing in the notch of the "grinding horn" of the half of the "grinding horns" that stretches out, and the intricate branches of red dates are hung on the roof of the "grinding horns" that stretches out in the middle of the stretching out. When it came to the Chung Yeung Festival, the fruits were ripe, and the northwest wind blew overnight, and the red dates rolled down from the roof and scattered all over the small courtyard.

But the owner of the house still slept on the earthen kang and refused to turn it over. Could it be that this jujube tree is a wild jujube, and the jujube is bitter and unpalatable, so it can't arouse the owner's interest? Definitely! A few days ago, my friends Duncheng and Dunmin brothers came to visit, there was nothing to entertain, and the host also took a ladder to climb the roof to pick dates! Duncheng was eating red dates and groaned:

Persuade the gentleman not to play the diner,

Persuade the gentleman not to detain the rich door.

The remnant cup is cold and virtuous,

It's better to write a book about Huangye Village.

This person who climbed up to the roof with a ladder to pick dates to entertain friends, and wrote a book in Huangye Village to recount the "old dream of Qin Zhun" is Cao Xueqin, the grandson of the once famous Jiangning weaver Cao Yin. Since the Cao Mansion was raided twice in the Yongzheng Dynasty, the Fujia Jiangnan has been a hundred years long, and the Cao family, which is "a hundred-legged insect, dead but not stiff", finally collapsed. After his grandfather's family property in the capital was confiscated, his father Cao Fu was sent back to Beijing, cut off his flag and demoted to a commoner, and after suffering humiliation and cruel warmth and ruthlessness in the world, he fell ill and died two years earlier.

Cao Xueqin, who grew up in the "Grand View Garden" of Jiangning Weaving Mansion and the pampering of many maids, was later brought back to Beijing by Kangxi, and once accompanied the emperor's grandsons, lived in the prince's mansion, and then entered the country to study. Where can withstand such a heavy blow as the suffering of the family! It was as if he had fallen from heaven to hell, from the dream-like and beautiful Tiangong Yao Pond to the eighteenth layer of hell of cruel reality. He couldn't see a little light, he couldn't see a little hope of life, he thought about death, he wanted to become a monk, but in the end he chose to escape from the world and came to Huangye Village, which no one knew in the wilderness.

Because Cao Xueqin has something to say, he is unwilling to die in obscurity like this! He wants to protest, he wants to shout, he wants to roar! "Boxes full of gold, full of silver, beggars are slandered in the blink of an eye", it's ridiculous, it's ridiculous! Emperor, what is an emperor? The holy grandfather Kangxi is nothing more than a man who grew up drinking the milk of my Cao family's great-grandmother. Grandfather Cao Yin was Kangxi's attendant, if it wasn't for his grandfather and Wei Dongting's guards to help Kangxi destroy Aobai, the Qing Dynasty would have changed hands long ago.

The emperor is the family of the world. In order to fight for the "dragon chair", fathers, sons and brothers killed each other, and innocently killed how many meritorious people! The Forbidden City is actually a demon palace built on a pool of blood. If the emperor wants you to be rich, you will be rich, if you are poor, you will be so poor that you will be inexplicable, and if you want to die, you will have to thank the "emperor's grace" when you are beheaded, and even the nine clans, open the coffin and kill the corpse......

Who gave the power to the emperor? "Imperial power is bestowed" and "imperial power is bestowed", is this heavenly god so unfair? The land on which all living beings depend for their survival has been deprived of imperial power, and "the whole world is not the king's land", and those ordinary people who have been deprived of their land, in order to survive, have to take risks and rebel against the imperial court. The Miao people in the southwest rebelled, and the Junggar Mongol iron cavalry in the northwest refused to accept the control, and now even in the Central Plains and Jiangnan, there are "thieves" who gather in the cottage from time to time, and occupy the mountain as the king to challenge the imperial power.

Rebel! Rebel...... It's time for these common people who are accustomed to slavery to rebel against their masters and seek a chance to survive as "people".

From the collapse, disintegration, and decline of her own family, Cao Xueqin seems to see that the entire Qing Dynasty is also lurking in the crisis of collapse, disintegration, and decline. He settled in Huangye Village and decided to write a novel to lash out at current politics and express his rebellion, hatred and call for humanity for the emperor, and his yearning for a better and equal life.

Cao Xueqin's life has fallen into extreme poverty, relying on the help of the princes and nobles he originally met, and after a long time, his best aristocratic friends have gradually left him. With a few new friends, Cao Xueqin had to sell paintings for a living, occasionally earning a little money to fill her belly. He is very good at painting stones, and his friend Dun Min once inscribed the stones he painted:

Proud bones like the world has been strange,

The craggy is even more fragmented

Cao Xueqin is arrogant, unwilling to go along with the despicable, evil and lewd aristocratic society, so she can only be a stubborn stone with different customs. He put pen to paper on a pile of manuscript paper and wrote in thick ink:

Stone Notes

He borrowed the myth and legend of Nuwa refining stones to mend the sky, and in the first chapter, he opened his mouth with a stone and wrote this "one":

There is no material to make up for the sky,

In vain into the red dust for many years;

This is a matter of the past and the aftermath,

Qian who remembered to be a legend.

Although Cao Xueqin used himself as a "stone", "hiding the real thing" and "using fake village dialect", he repeatedly confessed his whipping of social reality and current politics:

"This book did not dare to interfere with the imperial court. Anyone who has to use the government will only use a slight stroke to bring it out, and he will not dare to write about his children and write about the court. ”

“…… Although he was involved in the state of the world for a while, he had to talk about it, but it was not his original intention. ”

"Although some of the words that refer to treachery and degrade evil and evil are not intended to hurt the time and scold the world; As for the king, benevolence, good father, and filial piety, wherever everyone is concerned, they are all praised and praised, and their dependents are endless. ”

Cao Xueqin was born in the world of Kang, Yong, and Qian, and knew the tragedy of the literary prison. Lu Liuliang whipped the corpse, Zeng Jing and Zhang Xi dragged it to the Qianlong Dynasty, and finally they were beheaded and abandoned in the city. He wrote these words in the novel as nothing more than a "cunning" pen trying to escape the prison of words.

As soon as "The Story of Stones" began, Cao Xueqin was out of control. He lived with his characters day and night, although the family background was broken to the extent of "thatched rafters, tile stove rope bed", "the whole family eats porridge and wine often on credit", but with the characters in the novel, he returned to the Daguan Garden of Jiangning Weaving Mansion, and appreciated the old dream of Qin Zhun experienced in childhood, "Yan City Song cries and sorrows, Qin Zhun remembers prosperity", and sang the elegy of "nothing can be done" for his family and the emperor's "family world".

On this day of the Double Ninth Festival, as usual, Cao Xueqin got up at dawn, went to Huangye Village to walk around her legs and feet, and by the way, she took two or two pots of old wine on credit at the village head hotel, and it was already the time to return home. He poured two two pots of old wine into a Panlong goblet that was originally a palace thing, grabbed a handful of broad beans that seemed to be fried fragrant and crispy as bait, and walked towards the brightest study in the east. Sit down in front of the bookcase, slowly grind the ink pen with one hand, fill a broad bean into your mouth with the other and take a sip of wine. At the same time, in front of his eyes, the characters he had just written last night came to life again, bringing his pen to a new story and a new round......

The gold dragon inlaid jade goblet was stolen from the Lama Temple by the third elder brother Hongshi and given to him. How many imperial treasures of the Cao family have been confiscated for several generations, scattered, and turned into unbearable memories, but this wine cup followed Cao Xueqin and migrated, and finally came to Huangye Village. First, wine is Cao Xueqin's favorite thing, and secondly, it can be regarded as a small commemoration of Hongshi, who was viciously killed by Yongzheng. The tiger is poisonous and does not eat children, but Yongzheng, who is more vicious than the tiger, killed his own son Hongshi. Therefore, the emperor, whether it is Yongzheng or the current Qianlong, lacks humanity and is not qualified to be a man, so he can only be a beast and livestock.

Cao Xueqin used this court wine glass from time to time to remind herself that she could no longer go astray and be in the same league with the emperor's family. He gave up the life of a young master in the capital, who was drunk and drunk, gave up the career scenery of the township examination and tried the first high school to go to the Qionglin banquet, and even in the situation of poverty to the point of "gluttony and sometimes not continuous", selling paintings was still "not his own, although he was not paid", and even the invitation of the emperor's painting garden was rejected by him.

His friend Zhang Yiquan wrote a poem and exclaimed:

Spoon tune is not envious of the green lotus pet,

Yuan Zhao is unforgettable.

But it is said that on the day of the Double Ninth Festival, the sky is high and cool, and the autumn sun is in the sky. After the sun rises in the sky, the cold air of last night is gone, and it is warm indoors and outdoors. Cao Xueqin buried her head in writing for an hour, looked up and saw that the sun was about to reach the top, and suddenly felt hungry in her stomach. To save time and energy, he has become accustomed to eating only two main meals a day. He stopped his pen and was carefully cleaning the nib of the pen and preparing to put on the cap and close the inkstone, when suddenly he heard the sound of horses' hooves and the shouting of the villagers outside the courtyard.

Cao Xueqin walked out of the study in surprise, looked out of the courtyard gate, and saw a blue tweed curtain long car, quacked in front of her house. He thought, could it be that his friends Zhang Yiquan and Dunmin brothers are visiting? However, they did not have such luxurious chariots, nor were they allowed to ride in the official cars of this kind of blue tweed curtain. So who is it? It can only be Fu Heng, who has also been a companion in Yuqing Palace, Fu Heng is suave, less treacherous and cunning of many royal nobles, and is on par with Cao Xueqin's age, among the aristocratic sons, this is the only one who still maintains a friend relationship with Cao Xueqin. But I haven't met for a year and a half, Fu Heng is now promoted to Shangshu and is becoming popular, how could he not know that he would come to visit rashly?

A coachman in the costume of a servant jumped out from the front of the long car, a local villager who led the way, and amid the cries of countless children from the mountains and villages, a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl came out of the curtain first, followed by a woman in his forties and a sixty-year-old man in his sixties who carefully carried it down. Cao Xueqin was a little dazed and at a loss. The old man looked at the momentum, he must be a court official, but he was dressed in civilian clothes, walked over with a slight smile, stared at him tightly and asked:

"May I ask if this is Cao Xueqin-Cao Zhan's home?"

"It's Cao Zhan below......" Cao Xueqin carefully looked at the elders who seemed to be a little familiar, and asked embarrassedly, "Excuse me...... Yo, aren't you Uncle Zhang Hengchen? How-"

"Today, the old man and the inside-in-law came to see you" Zhang Tingyu pulled Zitong forward and said with a smile, "Do you remember this Aunt Zitong?" She is from Tongcheng, and when you went to Tongcheng with your grandfather, she hugged you. ”

"Remember, aunt, uncle, hurry up and enter the cold house...... Cao Xueqin held Zhang Tingyu with one hand, and pulled Aunt Zitong with the other, and walked to the study of the "cold house". The old minister walked inside, looked around and said:

"Xueqin, how did you find such a wonderful place to live in seclusion?"

"It's hard to say, sit down, sit down." Entering the study, Cao Xueqin moved the yellow rattan chair that she usually used to write books to sit on with a small hole, and sat for Zhang Tingyu first. I went to another room to find two wooden chairs, brought them over, and said with an apologetic face, "Aunt Zhang, please sit down quickly...... Humble house, it's really a cold house, the two elders are coming, and they don't know a word, and the family has nothing to prepare. This, this is really ......"

He walked around the room.

At this time, a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl put her head in to watch the excitement, Cao Xueqin patted the girl's shoulder and said:

"Yanyun, go to your house and bring a pot of boiling water, and tell your mother that there is a distinguished guest at Brother Xueqin's house."

Yan Yun nodded and smiled and left.

Zitong stood up as if he had returned to his own home, and said while pressing Cao Xueqin's shoulder to ask him to sit down:

"Xueqin, you sit down and talk to your Uncle Zhang, making tea, eating, everything is up to your aunt to Zhang Luo."

Cao Xueqin was pressed to the wooden chair by Zitong and just sat down, and stood up like a fire under her buttocks: "The matter of making tea" is easy to say, there is still a tube of tea in the kitchen that the Dunmin brothers sent from the last visit, but what about the "matter of eating"? There is a pot of gruel on his stove, and there is only a plate of mustard head and old radish head pickles in the cupboard, how can he not let Zhang Hengchen, the prime minister of the three dynasties, drink gruel with him! Zhang Tingyu seemed to see Cao Xueqin's confusion and embarrassment, moved the rattan chair to the bookcase, pulled Cao Xueqin to sit down and said:

"Xueqin, Xishan Lingxiu, although Huangye Village is good, it is good to cultivate oneself in the hidden world, but people always have to live, to survive! You're already in your old age, why don't you see you participating in the scientific expedition? ”

"The official career is not what I want, officialdom-" Cao Xueqin suddenly thought that the biggest "official" in the officialdom was sitting in front of her, and it turned out that those words that could laugh and scold and damage the officialdom slipped to her lips and shrank back.

"Officialdom is dark and corrupt, isn't it?" Zhang Tingyu took over and said, "You Uncle Zhang has been in the officialdom for thirty or forty years, and you know the darkness and corruption of officialdom best. However, there have been clean officials in all dynasties, so can't you pass the scientific examination and become a clean official? ”

"What are you going to do that?" Cao Xueqin and Zhang Tingyu are already incompatible, if you want to distinguish it, he will definitely not be able to distinguish the eloquence of this famous minister of the three dynasties, so he simply didn't say anything, and said with a few words just written last night:

The world knows that the gods are good,

Only fame cannot be forgotten;

Where will the past and the present meet?

The barren mound is gone, and the grass is gone.

The world knows that the gods are good,

Only gold and silver cannot be forgotten;

In the end, I only hate to gather much,

After a long time, his eyes were closed.

The world knows that the gods are good,

Only the wife can't forget;

Say kindness on Jun's birthday,

The king died and went with the others.

The world knows that the gods are good,

Only children and grandchildren can't forget;

Infatuated parents came to me from ancient times,

Filial piety to the descendants who have seen.

After hearing this, Zhang Tingyu was stunned and couldn't make a sound for a long time. After waiting for a while, he said:

"Virtuous nephew, your Cao family has suffered great misfortune, but you can't see through the red dust, the four are empty! When Emperor Yongzheng was in the mansion for more than 40 years, he also said that he saw through the red dust, believed in Buddhism, and was full of Zen language, but later the holy grandfather Kangxi died, didn't he still be the emperor? Your "Okay Song" is completely a negative and escaping thought. ”

"The foolish nephew is not a retreat - he just doesn't want to go through the field to ask for an official position like ordinary people." Cao Xueqin put together the manuscripts that had been written one after another on the bookcase, and said, "I live in seclusion in Huangye Village, precisely to enter the WTO, to do a vigorous and vigorous event that will be passed on to future generations." I have no material to make up for it, but I can write about the corruption, decline, and cruelty of this ancient family that I have personally experienced to warn the world. This is the "Stone Record" that I am writing. ”

"Are you writing a book? Writing a novel? Zhang Tingyu took a stack of manuscript paper with neat words written in small letters from Cao Xueqin's hand, and asked in a somewhat surprised tone. In fact, the Zhang family, from Zhang Ying, Zhang Tingyu, Tinglu to Ruo Ai and Ruo Cheng, all yearn to be a farmer and live a life of writing books. Zhang Tingyu's sons are almost as good at danqing as Cao Xueqin, and some have simply become court painters. Hearing that Cao Xueqin was writing a novel, Zhang Tingyu picked up the manuscript with great interest and read it.

At this time, Zitong and Xiaohong, the maid who carried it, came with piping hot tea. The young coachman successively moved in the food boxes, wine and snacks in the car, and Cao Xueqin hurriedly moved an old dining table in the kitchen and set up a table in the study. Cao Xueqin looked at the delicacies of the mountains and seas that had not been seen in the food box for many years, and said very reluctantly:

"Auntie, I'm sorry to ask you to bring something from the city to eat."

"Xueqin," Mrs. Zitong took out the two wine glasses of the "Palace Officials Yaji Cup" that she specially carried, filled Zhang Tingyu and Cao Xueqin with wine, looked at Cao Xueqin and said with concern, "If Auntie remembers well, you are almost thirty, why haven't you married a relative at home?" ”

"Aunt," Cao Xueqin said with a wry smile, "You have already seen my too illusory realm, inside and outside the stubborn stone study." Hehe, what girl is willing to cultivate here and suffer such hardships with me! ”

Cao Xueqin and Mrs. Zitong had already sat down at the table, and Zitong asked Zhang Tingyu, Xiaohong and the coachman to sit down together, while reviewing Cao Xueqin and said:

"Xueqin, I heard Brother Ruo Ai say that your Danqing is worth a lot of money in the market, why did you make such a family with four walls? I really don't know, I was shocked when I came. Master, you should put down the manuscript first, fill your belly and read it. You are all like this, writing and reading books, as if you can stuff your stomach with a book, haven't you heard 'three days of wind and four days of rain, where can you see the article boiling in the pot'? It's already noon, so let's eat it. ”

Cao Xueqin took her own goblet and poured wine, handed the other palace official Yaji cup to Mrs. Zitong and said:

"Ma'am, drink less, too. Do you two drink or not? He turned to the two subordinates of Zhang's mansion, "Do you want to go and get two more cups?" ”

"No, no, we don't drink." Xiaohong and the coachman waved their hands again and again. At this time, Zhang Tingyu put down the manuscript that he had read for a while, moved the rattan chair over, and said to Cao Xueqin meaningfully:

"Yes, 'Three days of wind, four days of rain, I don't see the article boiling in the pot!' But the world's good articles are more than 100 times, 10000 times, 10,000 times stronger than food, wine and food! That's it for Xueqin's article. ”

Then, he hummed the four lines of the poem that he had just seen from the manuscript of the "Stone Record":

Full of absurdities,

A handful of bitter tears,

Du Yun is an idiot,

Who understands the taste.

"The old man has read the painstaking work of the late life," Cao Xueqin brewed a cup of long-lost Moutai alcohol, and a fire immediately flowed all over her body in her heart, and it bubbled up to the cover of the heavenly gate, "It doesn't matter if it's a fake village dialect, it's too illusory, but I want to use an excuse to say what I want to say." ”

"The beginning of "The Story of the Stone" is good," Zhang Tingyu slowly sipped the wine, while looking at a list of characters written by Cao Xueqin for "The Story of the Stone", and said in amazement, "From the second time: 'Mrs. Jia died in Yangzhou City, Leng Zixing gave a speech in Rongguo Mansion', and the words of Jia Yucun were also written heartily: 'Heaven and earth give birth to people, except for great benevolence and great evil, the rest are no different; If the great benevolent person is born at the right time, the great evil person should be born in the catastrophe, and the fortune will be born in the world, and the world will be in danger. Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, Zhou, Zhao, Kong, Meng, Dong, Han, Zhou, Cheng, Zhu, and Zhang were all survivors; Chiyou, Gonggong, Ji, Xu, Shihuang, Wang Mang, Cao Cao, Huan Wen, An Lushan, Qin Hui, etc., are all survivors of the robbery; The great benevolent ones rule the world, and the great evildoers disturb the world. Qingming Lingxiu, the righteousness of heaven and earth, and the benevolence of the benevolent; Cruel and perverse, the evil spirit of heaven and earth, and the evil one...... 'Yucun's long talk is also somewhat insightful. There are so many characters, rights and wrongs involved at this time, I don't know how many characters and how many times do you want to write? ”

"I have to write hundreds of people and write more than 100 times," Cao Xueqin said slowly, "It's only the beginning now, and the straw sandals are not the same. ”

"Just the minions of Rongguo Mansion, you have written eighty-five people, and the minions in Daguan Garden have written nearly twenty people, and you have to write more than 100 people for slaves alone, as well as the master of Rongning Second Mansion, 'Jinling Twelve Hairpins', officials, princes, eunuchs, palace maids, concubines, no less than 300 people, write down no less than 300 people......" Zhang Tingyu seemed to be weighing the weight of this "Stone Record", thinking and saying, "Such a huge project, Xueqin, you can't complete it in three or two years!" What your aunt said is right after all, the article can't be cooked and eaten. If you want to finish writing this book, you have to find a way to fill your stomach, so do you want me to arrange a job for you in Shuntian Mansion, you only receive silver, but you don't have to go on a trip? ”

"No, I'm not in officialdom."

"Oh, I forgot," Zhang Tingyu said self-deprecatingly, "You can't even ask for an official and a half-position in the field, why do you want this official for nothing?" So can you sell paintings to cover your mouth? ”

"If you have enough time to draw, you should have no problem."

"How are the paintings selling?"

"It's all door-to-door."

"Oh, you write books all day long, and you have some spare time to dye Danqing?"

"If you're hungry, you'll have it!" Cao Xueqin laughed to herself. He had already drunk quite a bit, and he hadn't drunk such good wine in recent years. What's more, in such a lonely place, I met my grandfather and father's friend, the deceased.

When Mrs. Zitong saw Cao Xueqin wearing a shabby gray robe, thin, drinking and eating vegetables, she was already full of tears:

"Young master, it turns out that in Jiangning Weaving Mansion, in Pingwang Mansion, where have you suffered all this! I think you'd better have a family. Radish and cabbage, each has its own love, and you can be an official if you don't want to. If you have a family, whether you are selling paintings or words, a cultured person will never go hungry. Maybe, you can make a warm and welcoming home. ”

"Thank you, aunt and uncle, for your concern." Cao Xueqin knew that she was drunk, put down the wine glass, and the girl brought by Zitong was very careful, and hurriedly went to serve tea to Cao Xueqin. Mrs. Zitong glanced at her husband's old man, took out a silver ticket from her handbag, handed it over, and said:

"Xueqin, this is what Uncle Zhang ordered you, you can use it to make some clothes and furniture, and keep the rest for a living. If you have any difficulties in the future, just come to you Uncle Zhang. ”

Cao Xueqin took it and saw that it was a silver ticket with a dragon head of three hundred taels. He knew that Zhang Tingyugui was the prime minister, but he was a rare clean official, and he would never accept the ill-gotten wealth below. These three hundred taels of silver are almost half a year's official salary, maybe Aunt Zitong has squeezed out of the household from the family in the past few years, little by little, from between her fingers, how can you ask for it?

"No, no, no." He pushed the silver ticket over.

Zhang Tingyu stood up, held the teacup, paced from the study to another house, turned around and said:

"Xueqin, you don't want to get married, and you don't collect cash tickets, so let's leave Xiaohong's girl for you, and I'll get you three meals a day. This silver ticket, even if we pay Xiaohong's living expenses, is it good? ”

"It's getting more and more outrageous," Cao Xueqin said with a blushing face, "I can't cause the little red girl to suffer with me." ”

"That's it." Mrs. Zitong thought this was a good idea, and said with a smile, "Xiaohong, you just stay here, help Cao Gongzi make tea and rice, and serve him to write books." ”

"Xueqin," Zhang Tingyu saw Cao Xueqin's resignation, and said in a long voice, "Do you know that your grandfather and my late father are inseparable friends?" ”

"Yes."

"Do you remember that when Wenduan Gong was at the funeral, your grandfather took you to the Zhang ancestral hall near Zhang's Mansion in Liuqi Lane to keep a watch, and all the distant guests left, and your grandfather took you to stay in Liuqi Lane for another half a month?"

"Yes."

"Isn't this enough," Zhang Tingyu took Cao Xueqin's hand and said to Cao Xueqin while walking towards the outhouse, "Xueqin, copying the Cao family is the will of Emperor Yongzheng of the previous dynasty, the will of Uncle Zhang Hengchen, and the poor of Li Wei's office." The Zhang family and the Cao family have the same relatives, and Li Wei and the Cao family have no grievances, which are all strict orders of the emperor, and they can't help themselves as courtiers. You just let Uncle Zhang show his heart, and I will go to the world of Yama to meet your grandfather in the future. ”

"I have received Uncle's wishes," Cao Xueqin said with emotion, "You must not take the matter of the intention to heart." The monarch wants his ministers to die, and he has to die, the central and central powers, and all living beings are the emperor's world. Who can stand against this great master? All the people in the world are his slaves, I really don't understand how this Heavenly Dao God arranged! If there were not thousands of ministers in the world who enslaved the common people for this great master, would he be able to? This is the real reason why Cao Xueqin is reluctant to step into officialdom. ”

Walking outside the courtyard and seeing that the sun was slanting to the west, it was not very far from the top of Xiangshan Mountain, Zhang Tingyu was silent for a while. He learned to be rich and five cars, of course he knew what Cao Xueqin said about the emperor. Since Qin Shi Huang unified the world, this country has become the emperor's home. The emperor controls the people through his ministers, and the emperor's clansmen and concubines enjoy the wealth of the world, and the ministers also share a piece of the pie from the emperor. That's it, do you think it's reasonable or not? Is it fair or not? It has lasted for one or two thousand years, and even the sage of Kong said that the monarch and the minister, the father and the son, this position is set, you can be a Cao Xueqin who does not enter the customs, but can you still turn it around?

"Xueqin," Zhang Tingyu came to the carriage and stopped, "I originally wanted to accompany your aunt to the Reclining Buddha Temple to see the Great Reclining Buddha, but now it is getting late." We said goodbye and had the opportunity to see the reclining Buddha in the future. I hope that after your brilliant masterpiece is completed, Uncle Zhang will be able to have a sneak peek. ”

Cao Xueqin helped Mrs. Zitong into the carriage, and wanted to pick up Zhang Tingyu again, Zhang Tingyu waved his hand and said:

"Don't be busy, let's follow the car for a while, and take a look at Huangye Village."

So, Cao Xueqin and Xiaohong, holding Zhang Tingyu, an old man with a sixtieth birthday, from both sides, followed the slowly moving carriage and walked towards the outside of the village.

Zhang Tingyu pointed to the valley behind the Reclining Buddha Temple and said:

"Holy Ancestor Kangxi died, and Fang Bao lived in seclusion in that valley, which seems to be called the Zhou Family Garden."

"Yes, it's called Zhou's Garden." Cao Xueqin said, "I often go to it, but it is very quiet. ”

"I've been there twice, it seems to be the garden of a certain prince in the former Ming Dynasty, but it's a little deserted."

"Next time, my little nephew will accompany you to visit again."

"Alas," Zhang Tingyu sighed, "wouldn't it be good for the old man to be able to take a break and live in seclusion in this valley if he doesn't return to Tongcheng." ”

"That's great," Cao Xueqin said happily, "to have an old man as a neighbor—but that's a blessing that can't be cultivated in a previous life." If the old man does not return to Tongcheng, he will definitely not come to such a lonely place, long live will give you a good garden. ”

"Okay, send you a thousand miles, and there will be a farewell." The long car stopped, Zhang Tingyu climbed into the carriage, turned around and said, "Xueqin, if you want to enter the city, you must come to Hanlu to talk about it!" ”

"Definitely, definitely."

As soon as the coachman flicked his whip, the horse galloped quickly and rushed down the gentle slope of Huangye Village, where Cao Xueqin and Xiaohong stood waving their arms until the car disappeared among the treetops with yellow leaves.