The weather is getting colder and colder, but Xu Shiqiu has not heard any news except for the first time when he sent a letter back.

Although the family knew from the beginning that Xu Shiqiu was going to the northern frontier this time, it was not as easy to send a letter to the family as the last time he exterminated the horse bandits, but after so long without news coming back, the family was still worried.

Mrs. Xu can be regarded as having experienced Xu Zhenbei going out for several months without news coming back, but Dong Shu has experienced this for the first time.

At this time, Dong Shu hugged Yuan Xi and looked at Mrs. Xu above, wanting to ask, but she was worried that because of her inquiry, Mrs. Xu would be even more worried.

How could Mrs. Xu not see Dong Shu's embarrassment, but thinking that these were all things she had to experience, she didn't break it.

"Recently, the wind in the capital is not quite right, you will tell them to pay attention to it when they go out to buy New Year's goods." As soon as Mrs. Xu opened her mouth to say something, Dong Shu immediately put away her original worried emotions and became serious.

As soon as the lunar month began, the prices in the capital doubled, especially for rice and meat, and the price was one price a day.

As for vegetables, in summer and autumn, basically every household will dry a lot of vegetables, and now large households can still eat some fresh vegetables, ordinary people's homes, except for a few vegetables in winter, most of them live on dried vegetables and pickles.

The Xu family has their own Zhuangzi, whether it is rice, meat or vegetables, they are all sent from time to time.

Originally, they couldn't notice this, but the people left by Xu Shiqiu found out about this and reported it to Dong Shu, who told Mrs. Xu again.

After all, Mrs. Xu is a person who has experienced ups and downs, and as soon as she learned about this, she guessed that the capital was really going to be unstable.

Today is the sixth day of the lunar month, and in two days it will be the eighth day of the lunar month, and now every family has begun to prepare for the New Year's goods, that is, the Xu family, and it is inevitable that they need to go out to buy some.

Therefore, Mrs. Xu will have such an explanation.

Dong Shu listened to Mrs. Xu's explanation and nodded constantly, and at the same time thought of something that Xu Shiqiu had explained to herself before.

"The father-in-law mentioned to me a New Year's gift for the housekeepers at home, but originally he said that I would take care of the family, and he would be responsible for the outside stewards. Now that the minister is not at home, I don't know what kind of New Year's gift the outside steward will prepare. ”

As soon as Dong Shu finished saying this, Mrs. Xu understood what she meant, "This matter has been used to in previous years, except for the basic things that have regulations, the rest depends on how they are in charge of affairs this year, and then add or subtract." Mrs. Xu said carefully, and Dong Shu listened carefully.

This is the first time that Dong Shu has been in charge of these things as a housewife, and the Xu family has been in Xiahe Village in the past few years, and some relatives and friends have sent each other New Year's gifts for long distances, which are a little different from normal New Year's gifts.

But this year, everyone is in the capital, and these things are naturally different from previous years.

Dong Shu kept what Mrs. Xu said in her heart, and according to her own judgment, she made some slight adjustments to the annual gift list for each family.

Dong Shu is busy again, and the time to miss Xu Shiqiu is much less, but what Dong Shu didn't expect is that although Xu Shiqiu has not yet sent news, Yan Ye secretly climbed over the wall and entered the Xu family's Shihuan Courtyard on the night of the seventh day of the lunar month.

Fortunately, the people who were keeping vigil tonight knew Yan Ye, and as soon as they saw that it was him, they immediately stopped the attack, and helped to call Dong Shu, who was just about to sleep.

"Third aunt, don't be busy, I'm just a little frozen, just give me a bowl of hot soup, I brought my own dry food." Yan Ye saw that Dong Shu was going to the kitchen to cook dinner for herself, and hurriedly called her.

After Dong Shu heard Yan Ye's words, not only did she not stop her movements, but sped up a little, "Don't worry, because you have to cook laba porridge tomorrow morning, there is always a fire in the kitchen." Now that your new son-in-law is coming to the door for the first time, I must make you a bowl of noodles. It just so happens that there is mutton soup stewed in the afternoon in the kitchen, and I will cook you a bowl of mutton noodle soup. ”

Dong Shu insisted on making bowls for Yan Ye, the new son-in-law who came to the door for the first time, and even the old lady Xu who came from the main courtyard after hearing the news also nodded at Yan Ye and said, "Just listen to your third aunt, these are old traditions, it's rare that she still remembers them." Our grandparents and grandchildren are talking in Shihuan Courtyard, waiting for your third aunt to make noodles for you to eat. When you finish eating, go to the courtyard before Yanzhu gets married, where someone has been cleaning up. After saying this to Yan Ye, Mrs. Xu continued to ask, "Why did you come to the capital at this time?" What about Yanzhu? ”

Yan Ye will be waiting in the front yard of Shihuan Courtyard, where Xu Shiqiu usually uses to receive juniors.

He paid attention, although he went directly into the courtyard of the third aunt, but he also knew that there were always people in Dong Shu's courtyard, not her.

What's more, Shi Huanyuan is directly adjacent to the outer wall, so it is more convenient for him to enter.

Otherwise, he would not have risked the reputation of offending his elders and came directly to Shihuan Courtyard, after all, he knew that Xu Shiqiu was not at home.

Of course, Dong Shu and Mrs. Xu have no opinion on Yan Ye's direct visit to Shihuanyuan, not only do they have no doubt about the loyalty of the people in Shihuanyuan, but more importantly, the location of Shihuanyuan is good.

At times like these, they don't pay that much attention.

At this time, Dong Shu saw that Mrs. Xu had already rushed over, so she walked quickly to the small kitchen of Shihuanyuan and began to cook noodles.

The kitchen has a cook and good noodles, which is prepared for fear of her or Yuan Xi being hungry at night, which will just save time.

Because there was not much noodles, Dong Shu scooped half a bowl of mutton in the bowl, and she was afraid that she would get tired of the night, so she took a small plate and put two plates of appetizers.

Just when Dong Shu was preparing mutton noodle soup in the kitchen, in the room, Yan Ye was also answering Mrs. Xu's words.

"After I received the news from you and the third uncle, I was ready to come to Beijing, but there happened to be some things at this time, so I was delayed for a few days." After saying this, Yan Ye felt that after the brazier in the room baked, his originally frozen body finally warmed up.

Because of the warmth of her body, Yan Ye's tone couldn't help but lighten a little, "Because I was worried that I wouldn't be able to go back for the New Year, I stayed at home with Yanzhu for two more days, and after entrusting her to Sun Lao, I hurried to the capital." Before I arrived in the capital, I received news from my subordinates, and they found out that Ye Jingche was preparing to do it on the New Year. ”

Old Mrs. Xu only knew that Ye Jingche was unwilling to do it, but there was no accurate news, and when she heard Yan Ye's words, she finally knew the exact time.

"There are still twenty days left, and I don't know if he can rush back if he can send news to your third uncle now."

After Mrs. Xu said this, she sighed, and before she could speak again, she heard Yan Ye slightly hook the corners of her lips and say: "I just received the news, so I sent my confidant to the north to send a letter to the third uncle. The sooner I got the confirmed news, the sooner my uncle could have prepared. ”

Hearing Yan Ye follow Yan Zhu to call Ye Jingxing, the fifth uncle, 'uncle', Mrs. Xu just looked stunned, and then said as if she hadn't heard Yan Ye's title just now: "Since that's the case, then you can go take a bath and rest early after eating." Tomorrow we will not only send Laba porridge to relatives and friends, but it is estimated that your aunt will also come to the door to give New Year's gifts in person. Otherwise, she is afraid that she will not go out. ”

At this time, there must be many people staring at the Five Princes' Mansion, maybe Ye Jingche has someone staring at the Five Princes' Mansion.

So the closer she gets to the end of the year, the more Xu Nuanwen doesn't like to go out, but although she doesn't like to go out, she still comes to Xu's house occasionally.

It's just that every time she comes to Xu's house, on the way to and home, she always meets some people or something happens.

This also led to Xu Nuanwen returning to Xu's house a lot less often.

But tomorrow is Laba, according to custom, the girl who marries outside is going to come back to give her mother's family a New Year's gift, Xu Nuanwen has not had the opportunity to return to her parents' house in Laba for more than ten years, and she will definitely not miss it this year.

So Yan Ye took advantage of the night to sneak to their house to wait, it was a good way, just after breakfast at dawn, it was estimated that Xu Nuanwen should arrive.

Yan Ye also had this in mind, so he would hurry up in the past two days and rush to the capital on the evening of the seventh day of the new year.

Just when Mrs. Xu and Yan Ye were talking about this, Dong Shu also entered the house with a tray.

The aroma of mutton noodle soup also drifted into the tip of Yan Ye's nose as Dong Shu walked in, which was really tempting for Yan Ye, who hadn't eaten a good meal for two days and just relied on snow water and dry cakes.

Old Mrs. Xu and Dong Shu could see Yan Ye's embarrassment, especially his bloodshot eyes, which looked like he hadn't rested well recently.

"This mutton soup has the medicinal herbs specially prepared by Dr. Du, you eat more, sweat, and I will ask the Wang family to bring a few servants to send more hot water to Yanzhu's courtyard later." Speaking of this, Dong Shu paused before continuing: "I estimate that Yanzhu also has your clothes in the yard, they should all be made by her when she was at home before, you can look for them in the cabinet after you go, and you will definitely be able to find them." ”

Dong Shu came to her from Yan Ye over the wall, and guessed that he didn't want too many people to know that he was here, so after thinking about it, he didn't send someone over to serve.

Yan Ye was very satisfied with Dong Shu's arrangement, and when she heard her say that Yanzhu's yard had prepared her own clothes, she was even more happy to grin.

took out a few letters wrapped in brown paper from his arms and handed them to Mrs. Xu, Yan Ye began to eat noodles with her head down.

First drank a sip of rich mutton soup, because there were green onions in the soup and some expensive scary pepper, a mouthful of soup into the stomach, Yan Ye felt that the whole person was refreshed.

Mrs. Xu glanced at Yan Ye, who was eating noodles with her head down, with a smile on the corner of her mouth, and then picked up the letter sent by Yan Ye and looked at it.

Just by glancing at the envelopes, Mrs. Xu knew that these letters were written to them by Yanzhu.

Mrs. Xu handed the letter with the words 'Third Aunt Personally Opened' on the envelope to Dong Shu, wrote it to herself, and put it away, ready to read it later when she returned to her yard.

For the rest, she glanced at it and handed it to Dong Shu and said, "For your sister, you take it first, and then give it to her tomorrow." After saying this, Mrs. Xu yawned and continued to Dong Shu with sleepiness: "You go and arrange for the Wang family to boil water for Yanzhu's yard, remember to remind them to light the brazier in the house, and the bed should be thicker." ”

Dong Shu heard Mrs. Xu's instructions, hurriedly put away the letter she handed over just now, turned around and walked outside the house.

After Dong Shu left, Mrs. Xu looked at Yan Ye and reminded: "You sleep peacefully tonight, I will send my henchmen to guard Yanzhu's courtyard, and no one will disturb you." Seeing you like this, I know that you haven't rested for many days, and tomorrow morning you will sleep until you wake up naturally. And your third aunt doesn't know so many things, when you talk to your aunt tomorrow, avoid your third aunt. After saying this, Mrs. Xu thought for a while and continued: "If their family comes, I will let the two of them go to Yanzhu's courtyard to find you." ”

Yan Ye chewed noodles in her mouth, and it was difficult to answer Mrs. Xu's words, so she could only nod vigorously at her.

Yan Ye has not felt the care from his elders for many years, and the care that Mrs. Xu gave him was different from that of Sun Lao, but because of his identity, Sun Lao taught himself more academically.

But the old lady's concern for these small things made Yan Ye feel the strong love from the elders again.

Mrs. Xu is old and refined, how could she not see Yan Ye's mood changes, she didn't say anything, and when Yan Ye finished eating a bowl of noodle soup and left Shihuanyuan, she also left.

Tomorrow is the eighth day of the lunar month, and there is still a lot of work at home.