Last night the wind was very strong, and the leaves of the old elm trees were scattered all over the yard, and they were all withered and scorched, and they broke off when they were swept away, and Du Mei followed the stones and swept them again, and then the yard was cleared.

The clouds in the sky were piled up, the sun was lazy, the probe was retracted again, and the coldness of late autumn and early winter was gradually revealed.

The women of the Lin family got up early and helped in the kitchen, and when they saw Du Mei, they talked to her enthusiastically, and Du Mei also kindly reminded them that winter was coming, and they should wear more clothes.

"Let's eat." Xu Shijia wore a dark purple and light-lined gown, her body had suffered a lot before, and if she wanted to recover, it was also extremely slow, and she always had to wear a little more than others in this gloomy weather.

The bowl is still hot sweet potato porridge, the sweet potatoes at this time accumulate the best sugar, boiled in the japonica rice porridge, the slightest wisps of sweetness make this cold morning hot all of a sudden.

There are two pots of freshly fried pickles on the table, and two baskets of cakes that are yellow and clear, as well as more than ten hard-boiled eggs and salted duck eggs.

The work in the fields waits for no one, and after eating, Du Zhong took people to the field to do things. Du Shu went to the mountains and forests to dig yellow mud, because there was a lot of need, the stone set the ox cart and rushed to the mouth of the fish mouth to help, so that it could be pulled back in one trip.

Du Shu was worried about burning grass and wood ashes, he cleaned up several pits where the ashes were burned last time, because the pit walls were burned hard last time, and the dried wild persimmon branches were particularly good to burn this time, he lit a handful of dead grass with a fire fold, and the burning branches made a crackling and crisp sound, and the orange flame jumped up in the old high.

The stone and the Du tree dug up four baskets of yellow mud in the mountain forest for a while, because the weather was dry, the loose yellow mud was as fine as white flour, and the stone drove the carriage back, and scattered all the way. Du Shu stayed on the river beach to watch the ashes of the fire.

"Don't clean up, go to your third uncle's house to have a look." Xu Shi handed the basket of eggs to Du Mei and urged.

"I'll wash the dishes before I go." Du Mei was really reluctant to go.

"Or do you want me to go?" Xu sighed.

"I'd better go." Du Mei reluctantly took the basket.

Unexpectedly, it was Ma Rong, a long-term worker in the third room, who came to open the door for Du Mei, who wore a flower apron around his waist, which looked a little funny. Ma Rong was also surprised when he saw that it was her, and blocked the door, not knowing for a moment whether to invite her in or push her out directly.

Du Mei raised the bamboo basket in his hand to him, Ma Rong saw the eggs inside, and knew that he had come to visit the confinement, so he turned sideways and got out of the way, and Du Mei walked into the courtyard of the third room.

The yard was a mess, three hens with one foot tied huddled in the corner, and white greasy was pulled everywhere. The chicken had probably just been killed next to the well, and the chicken feathers were wet and piled up, and there was a bright red blood stain next to the well that had not been washed away, and it was bright and dazzling.

In the center of the courtyard, a large basin was soaked in unwashed clothes, Du Mei glanced at it, as large as the futon, as small as the diapers were mixed together, and the white middle coat and navy blue robe were also among them, and a basin of muddy water, no longer able to distinguish any color.

Chicken soup was simmering in the kitchen, probably because it had just been boiled, but it was a smell of chicken, mixed with other smells in the courtyard, which was really not good.

Du Mei wrinkled her nose and walked straight to the main house, she was about to knock on the door, but unexpectedly, Du Sanjin came out of the door from the inside.

"Meizi, you're here early in the morning." As soon as Sanjin saw Du Mei standing outside, a tired smile appeared on his face.

When Xie gave birth to Du Xing and Du Jie, the three brothers of the Du family still lived under one roof, and the Zhou family was clumsy, under the pretext that he had three boys, and he didn't come to help at all. Almost in the blink of an eye, he grew up with a pair of children.

Wei because Du Zao is a female doll, since that day he was born to ask, other times have not appeared again, Sanjin knew that his father was not in good health, and did not dare to go over to disturb, so he had to do everything himself, this only knew how hard it is to take care of a baby, Du Zao was born only a few days, feeding, changing diapers, coaxing has tossed his back pain, haggard, he felt a deeper layer of guilt towards Xu at this time.

"My mother asked me to send some eggs." Du Mei pointed to the bamboo basket.

"Come in and see your cousin, she's a pretty peugeot girl." Sanjin knew that Du Mei was reluctant to come, but he still took the bamboo basket and let her in.

The house was as messy as the yard, clothes and diapers were piled up haphazardly, brown sugar and dumpling scraps were spilled on the table, and leftover soup bowls had not yet been cleaned up.

"Sit down." Sanjin was a little embarrassed on his face, and he hurriedly threw the clothes on a chair onto the bed and said.

"Let me look at her." Du Mei approached the cradle beside the bed.

Du Zao fell asleep very obediently, drank milk for a few days, the folds on her face were stretched, she looked pink and white and tender, her eyebrows and eyes were very similar to Du Xing, perhaps because of premature birth, the color of her hair and eyebrows was very light, only the eyelashes were long and curled, lined with the cinnabar mole under her eyes, she was really a beautiful child.

"Her name is Du Zao." Sam Kim lovingly shook the shaker.

Although taking care of Du Zao made him bitter and tired, he experienced a kind of joy of being a father, which he had never really experienced, Du Xing ran away from home, which made him cherish this little daughter very much.

"It's a good name." Du Mei smiled. She looked at the little man in front of her, as if she saw her brother who she was trying so hard to protect.

Du Zao in the cradle was probably woken up by the sound of the two of them, opened his eyes and looked around, such a small baby was obviously invisible, but he turned his head and smiled at Du Mei, the smile was as clean as a peach blossom in March, pink and tender, and it touched Du Mei's heartstrings.

"Look, she smiled! Zao'er also knew that the big sister came to see her. Sanjin smiled and said happily.

Du Mei is a female doctor, and she knows that such a young child does not know how to laugh, but this child laughs innocently and purely. She couldn't help but lean over and reach out her fingers to touch her little hand, but she grabbed it firmly.

"Zao'er also has to be touched by the blessings of the big sister!" Seeing this, Sanjin's eyes were full of love.

When Sanjin and Du Mei were talking at the door, Xie Shi turned around and lay on his side, pretending to sleep.

She almost died when she gave birth to Du Zao, it was her own fault, and when she saw the baby for the first time, her heart that had been hanging day and night suddenly settled down. This little doll is too similar to Du Xing, there is no doubt that she must be a child of the Du family. It's just that the cinnabar mole under her is not good, and the old man always says that people with tear moles have a bad fate. Now that I see that she likes Du Mei, I really hope that she can be blessed by Du Mei.

The more Xie Shi thought about it, his thoughts flew wildly, Du Mei didn't like their family after all, and after standing for a while, he took his leave.

"Wait for the full moon of jujube to make wine, and your family will come over for dinner." Sanjin returned the bamboo basket to Du Mei and admonished.

"We'll talk about it then." Du Mei replied vaguely.

When I walked into the courtyard, I saw Ma Rong wearing an apron washing the basin of clothes and bedding, and the sewage was meandering. Du Mei frowned and glanced at him twice, he was a long-term worker, he should only be in charge of the affairs in the field, how could he do these trivial things of washing and cooking? Besides, some of these clothes are worn closely, and it is very awkward to ask an irrelevant man to wash them.

Ma Rongben has a personal relationship with the Xie family, and Du Zao is his child, so let alone laundry and cooking, even if he is willing to be a cow and a horse.

Du Mei walked out of the three-room courtyard, and just walked a few steps home, she heard someone calling her behind her, she turned around and looked, it turned out to be Du Huaibing who hurriedly walked over with the county Cheng.

"When the county lord came yesterday, the widow went out, and when he went out today, he told me to come and collect the lint, and the Dingbei Army urged me tightly." The county man walked in front of Du Mei, and did not say hello, but said directly.

"I've already prepared it at home, just waiting for you to be weighed and shipped away." Du Mei was sealed, and taxes and forced labor were exempted, so she didn't have to pay food from this year

"Wait a minute, I'll go move the scales and catch the car." The county Cheng hurriedly returned to Du Huaibing's house.

"Did your grandma look for you?" Du Huaibing and Du Mei walked back together and asked quietly.

"No, isn't it that the effect of the medicine hasn't passed?" Du Mei shook his head and asked.

"You must control this amount of food, and you can't let him become addicted quickly, otherwise, I don't know whether to save him or harm him." Du Huaibing said with a solemn expression.

"I know." Du Mei knew very well in her heart that Zhong Yu only gave such a small jar, which was to use her grandfather's life.

The two entered the courtyard and stopped the topic very tacitly, and Xu saw that Du Huaibing was coming, so he hurriedly made tea to entertain him. After a while, the county magistrate also came with a carriage and a servant.

The stone led the officials to move the twelve big bags ~ lint to the yard, the sacks were too big, only one could be weighed at a time, and they were weighed more than ten times.

"Let's count it as ten quintals." Du Mei glanced at the numbers and said briskly.

"Thank you for the mercy of the widow, this is sixty taels of silver, and the widow will take it." The county man took out a whole fifty taels of official silver from the money pair, and took out some scattered silver coins and handed them to Du Mei.

Twelve bales ~ lint piled up the three wagons, and the county had to instruct the officials to send the cotton back first, and then transport the grain.

Without the servants, Du Huaibing had to follow the county Cheng, and he had to help collect taxes and grain. This year's tax is 30% higher than last year's, six and a half buckets per mu. Because he still has to buy cotton, Shen Zhanghua is especially allowed to use cotton to pay taxes this time, because the price of cotton is high, and the villagers are more willing to pay excess cotton.

The county has collected summer grain and autumn grain for more than ten years, and he is still the first to recycle cotton, he is not good at this, so he has to ask Du Huaibing to help identify the grade.

————

Found out today that a collection was dropped. For an author who has written millions of words, this seems to be a long time ago, but Yunmeng is still sad.

There is a voice in my heart: Yunmeng, you have been abandoned!

Depressed and sad me: Wow......

It turns out that I am a person like Fu Xiaoxue.