Chapter 17: The Country
Lin was frightened by Gu Yutang's pitiful appearance when he was motion sickness just now, and was worried that Gu Yutang's condition would recur, so he personally took her into his carriage and took care of her personally.
Although she is taking care of it personally, Mrs. Lin is old after all, and her eyes are not very good, and there is still Gu Yubai, the little demon king of the Gu family, in the car, where can she divide her heart to take care of Gu Yutang?
Mrs. Lin called Mrs. Deng, who treated Gu Yutang's motion sickness, and asked her to be by Gu Yutang's side at any time, and Ah Hua was also instructed to take care of Gu Yutang every step of the way. Fortunately, Mrs. Lin's carriage was not stacked with cages, and seven or eight people sat in a carriage, but they didn't feel crowded.
Compared with Gu Yutang's carriage, Mrs. Lin's carriage is much wider and more luxurious, and the carriage is divided into two rooms with a bamboo screen embroidered and rich, and the one in the back is Mrs. Lin's pantry, which is dedicated to serving Mrs. Lin's food and tea.
The outer room is where Mrs. Lin rests, and there is a carved table of rosewood fixed in the middle, and an iron chessboard is placed on the small table, and the chessboard is still sucking the chess game that Mrs. Lin played with Gu Yubai before, and the curtain of the carriage is made of pearls the size of lotus seeds, and there are a few yellow tassels below.
Mrs. Lin sat on the golden silk soft pillow of Baoxiang blue, because of the heat in the car, Mama Liang on the side took out the ice cubes from the carriage behind, broke them and put them in the lotus-patterned bowl of blue and white porcelain, and brought them to Mrs. Lin's carriage to cool off.
Mama Liang stood beside the ice cube and fanned it, and said with a little smile: "It's only March and April, and the weather is so hot, if the old lady hadn't reminded me and told me to prepare the ice, I'm afraid that our carriage would have become a steamer by now." When we arrived at our hometown, we were the meat buns that had just come out of the pot. ”
When Lin heard this, he laughed, picked up another green bamboo fan on the small table and fanned it himself, "I'm not afraid of becoming a bun, I'm afraid that my two children will be hot, such a hot day, stuffy in such a hot carriage, if there is no ice to cool off, I'm afraid that my body will be hot and prickly." ”
As he was talking, Lin suddenly turned his head to look at Gu Yutang, who was still asleep on the pillow, the abdominal pain had been relieved a lot, but the bumps along the way tired Gu Yutang, who had never been far away, was tired of fine beads of sweat on his forehead, on the bridge of his nose, and on his wrists.
"Good boy, are you better? Are you still sad? Does it still hurt?" Old Mrs. Lin took the warm handkerchief in Ah Hua's hand and carefully wiped the fine sweat on Gu Yutang's forehead. Mrs. Lin looked at Gu Yutang, who slowly opened her eyes, and countless guiltes crossed her heart, thinking that this child should be the first time to go out of the house, otherwise she would not have fallen crooked on the pillow as soon as she got in the car and slept from beginning to end.
"Grandmother, Tang'er is much better, not so dizzy. Tang'er accompanied her grandmother to the countryside to serve her grandmother, so that her grandmother could have someone to talk to on the way. I didn't think that my grandmother was taking care of me now, because I was sleepy, and I didn't say a few words to my grandmother. Let her grandmother suffer every day, Tang'er is really unhappy. Gu Yutang said, using all the strength of his body, to give the Lin family a salute.
"Silly boy, what are you doing here? Don't be so confused, I'm good to you, just remember, and you can be as good to me as I am to you, so that my grandmother will be very pleased. Mama Liang, there was a bump on the road, so I went to help the three girls up. Lin twisted the handkerchief that wiped Gu Yutang's sweat just now in the copper basin, and Mama Liang on the other side hurriedly came over and helped Gu Yutang up.
At this time, the driver suddenly stopped the carriage, if it weren't for Gu Yutang's quick eyes and hurriedly went over to help, Mrs. Lin might have fallen because of her unstable center of gravity.
Gu Yutang helped Mrs. Lin to the soft pillow, and hurriedly shouted to the driver who was driving outside the car, "Is something happening outside?" How can it stop all of a sudden?"
"Third girl, I don't know, the carriage in front of me suddenly stopped, and I stopped with it, I got out of the car and went to the front to take a look, the third girl and the old lady were in the car!" The coachman who drove was Huang Er in the Lin family's yard, and the coachman who drove Gu Yutang's carriage before were two brothers, and they were all subordinates who had been serving in the Gu Mansion for many years. And her net worth and life are all in the Gu Mansion, so Mrs. Lin is very relieved of the two brothers, and every time they go out, the two brothers drive.
"You also go down to take a look, Huang Er can't compare to his brother, he is a casual person, I can rest assured that you will go down to help." The Lin family was frightened just now, but fortunately they were supported by Gu Yutang in time, and nothing major happened. drank a cup of tea handed over by Mama Liang, and then instructed Mama Liang.
Mama Liang has been by Lin's side for the longest time and is her most considerate person. Leave things to Mama Liang to do, she is always the most at ease.
After a while, Mama Liang returned to the carriage, lifted the curtain, and helped Lin and Gu Yutang and the others down. As soon as Gu Yutang got out of the carriage, he saw a little girl kneeling on the ground wearing coarse cloth clothes, yellow face and thin muscles, and her hair was scattered and knotted.
"Chunming, what's going on? Where did this girl come from?" Lin Shi flicked the golden silk nanmu Buddha beads of one hundred and eight sons in his hand, and asked Mama Liang behind him.
Before Mama Liang could speak, the little girl who was kneeling on the ground had already crawled to Gu Yutang's side, grabbed the colorful butterfly embroidered shoes on Gu Yutang's feet and cried, crying and shouting.
"The old lady of the official family, miss, Da Han was originally the daughter of a tenant in Pengpu Township, because she was born in February, my father and mother tabooed me, and put me in my uncle's house when I was a child. A few days ago, my uncle fell ill and died, and my aunt kicked me out of the house when she said that I was living and wasting food. When I got home, I found that my father and mother had died at home, and their bodies were rotten at home for several days, and no one came to collect the bodies. The old lady of the official family, the young lady took pity on me, bought me, and let me have the money to bury my father and my mother. ”
The little girl wept and cried, and rolled on the ground. But he still grabbed Gu Yutang's embroidered shoes, Gu Yutang was frightened by this sudden scene, and suddenly took a few steps back, and then looked at Mrs. Lin on the side.
There are elders on site, and no matter what you do, you need to ask for the permission of the elders. Although she had the heart to give the girl a few taels of silver, but the Lin family hadn't spoken yet, how could she take the lead?
Mrs. Lin looked at the girl who was already crying on the ground, and looked at the coarse cloth clothes she was wearing, there were many holes, and there was a scarred wound at each hole.
In the past few years of continuous drought in Yunnan, the harvest in the fields has also decreased and decreased, and after the tenants paid the rent, there was not much ration left. The family has four or five children to raise, and the palms and backs of the hands are full of meat, where is the willingness to let the children go out to be raised by others? Presumably, the girl's parents had no choice but to send her out, hoping that after she was sent out, she would not starve to death. But people's hearts are unpredictable, who can think of these things later?
"Girl, get up, and I'll give you ten taels of silver. You take these ten taels of silver to the town and invite a few masters, and when your father and mother are buried, you can find a good place to bury them! Don't complain about your parents sending you out, if you don't have a choice, and they want you to live, how can they be willing to send you out?" Mrs. Lin said, with a little tears in the corners of her eyes, she seemed to see her original self from this girl.