Chapter 17: Osmanthus Falls
Watching the chief historian leave, Master Shi relaxed and sat on the chair with a loose expression. The housekeeper Lian Jin stood outside the hall and waited for the master without saying a word.
After sitting for a quarter of an hour, the master got up, and the housekeeper hurried over to support him. The two didn't say a word and went into the backyard.
At this point, Master Shi has made up his mind in his heart, no matter what is in danger, he must seek a stable life for Wanying, not for anything else, just for the Aunt Lin Yuxin who has been silently by his side for a lifetime.
Summer goes to autumn, and the will of the palace reaches the palace before the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Holy Decree Dan wrote: "The statues of Shi Wanyun, the daughter of Yin Shi Zhongyuan of Shuntianfu, and the two young ladies of Shi Wanying, and the eight characters of their birthdays, were sent to the Cabinet Office on the third day of the first month of September for *selection. Chin this. "It is said that it is for * selection, but in fact it is a sure thing, just waiting for the portrait to be sent, and the queen mother and the emperor will look at it and set the title.
On that day, the master and his relatives in the mansion welcomed the holy decree, and when she heard that Wanyun was the girl to be drafted, Aunt Gao was so surprised that she almost lost her heart. Wanyun was also overjoyed. It's just that Wanying knew that her mother didn't like her to enter the palace as a concubine. Although it is a happy event, there is no way to be happy.
One afternoon, the sun was still warm, Wanying was in love with a few osmanthus plants in the back garden, and it was the time when the flowers were attacking, so she took a light gauze tent with Hongfu and went over.
Out of the attic that the aroma is more intense and fragrant, all the way to the back garden more and more fragrant, the more familiar to find the few osmanthus, Hongfu took out the tent, spread under the osmanthus tree.
"Miss, after waiting for the osmanthus to fall, make a few bottles of osmanthus oil first, and then wash and dry, and there will be a year's worth of osmanthus tea." Hongfu said.
"It's very true, the hair oil of my mother is almost bottoming out, and the ones bought outside are not as good as those made by yourself." Hearing Hongfu say this, Wanying also remembered that a few days ago, she saw that on her mother's dresser, the bottle of osmanthus head oil made last year was about to run out.
"Miss, rest assured that you will hand it over to Hongfu, and the osmanthus oil that will be made when you keep it is good and fragrant." Hongfu said this, bending down in the yard to look for stones.
This stone is used to hold down the gauze tent, so it must be the kind of pebble with a smooth surface and no sludge. After a while, Hongfu held a handful of smooth pebbles and put them down one by one along the four corners of the gauze tent. He said, "I have wiped this stone with a cotton cloth to ensure that there is not a trace of sand." ”
The osmanthus is finely broken, and the sand mixed in it is difficult to wash, and Hongfu always thinks about these details one by one. The master and servant laid out the gauze tent, and Hongfu helped Wanying to walk in the garden.
In the early autumn afternoon, the warm breeze is warm, and the sun shines through the fine and dense pine and cypress branches and leaves, sporadically sprinkled on the face, looking up, the light is like a dense starry, shining brightly.
The breeze rustled the bamboo leaves, the chrysanthemums of all colors sprayed fragrant and sprang, and unconsciously walked to the Reading Green Pavilion, Hongfu had expected that Miss Wanying would sit in the Reading Green Pavilion, and the soft cushion had already been prepared in the basket, and she took it out and spread it on the stone bench, and after laying it neatly, she took out a small fur blanket from the basket and put it on the wood-carved railing. That's how Wanying sat down.
Wanying took Hongfu's hand, put the basket on the stone table in the middle of the pavilion, and said with a smile: "Wanying really enjoyed your blessings, but it is difficult for you to always take care of me in everything." Even I didn't think to come out and bring these foreshadowings. ”
"Although it is not long in autumn, the weather is still cold, this stone bench sits down coldly, and you have to use the young lady's body to warm up, won't the young lady's body lose? If the cool air invades the body, sooner or later it will cause illness, and the young lady's body will not be guilty? Hongfu talked about her own theories for a long time, and Wanying's heart was warmly melted. Wanying pulled Hongfu, lifted her skirt and sat down against the railing.
This reading green pavilion was originally called Zhengyi Pavilion, and the Zhengyan Hall of the outer courtyard, the Zhengxing Hall, the Zhengshen Hall where the wife of the inner courtyard lived, and the Zhengxiao Hall used as the ancestral hall, are all buildings on the central axis of the division's mansion. A few years ago, because of Aunt Lin's sentence: "The wind blows the jade around the Green Pavilion", the Normal University changed this Zhengyi Pavilion to read the Green Pavilion. This good story was circulated in the house for a while at that time. Reading the Green Pavilion can also be regarded as a testimony of the love between the teacher and Aunt Lin.
Wanying didn't like the name Zhengyi Pavilion very much, a rotten smell of rigid old pedants, with the word 'reading green', not only this pavilion has aura, but even the garden Wanying looks a lot more colorful. In addition, this green pavilion is a testimony of my father's deep love for my mother, and I have more attachment to this pavilion in my heart.
It is said that the ancestor of Shifu was originally from Suzhou, Wanying's great-grandfather followed Emperor Taizu to fight the world, and her grandfather followed Emperor Gaozu to sit in the country, and the family moved to the capital. Emperor Gaozu remembered the two generations of the Shi family, and ordered the construction of this mansion. The buildings in the palace are all over the place, needless to say, since it is a northern mansion, so magnificent and magnificent. Only this back garden was built by my grandfather in memory of the homesickness of his daughters, and compared to the garden of the old house in Suzhou. Therefore, although this pavilion is also a corner of the cornice, the eaves teeth are high pecked, but in addition to the magnificence, there is also the softness and gentleness of the Jiangnan garden.
What makes Wanying fascinated is the scenery of the four seasons in this garden, every time she walks in it, she always lingers and never misses home. For example, in front of you, although it has been autumn for a long time, the garden is still full of greenery, red is fruit, pink is flower, thriving, lively.
Good wind, good scenery, good season, and the heart can't help but open up. Wanying turned to Hongfu and said, "Go get the tea set." Shall we make tea together? ”
"I know that Miss's tea addiction is coming up again, so Hongfu will go get it." Yan Bi turned around and went down a few steps, along the path between the peony garden and the autumn chrysanthemum garden, and walked out of the door of the back garden.
After a while, I saw Hongfu and Lu Rong, one carrying a tea box, and the other carrying a small stove for cooking tea, coming straight to the Reading Green Pavilion. Hongfu placed the tea box on the stone table in the pavilion, which is a pear wood carved half-moon-shaped box, untie a small clip in the middle, twist it slightly, and transform it into a prototype tea set shelf, which contains Wanying's favorite tea cups, all kinds, there are more than a dozen. Hongfu opened a small drawer in the middle and took a small jade cup that was round and one finger high, and Wanying knew that she was going to cook osmanthus tea. I am very relieved in my heart: I am worthy of following myself for so many years, and I still know what I think in my heart.
"Appreciating osmanthus and drinking osmanthus tea, it's really our young lady's elegant tightness." Hongfu said.
Wanying smiled and said nothing, all the rights and wrongs that have happened in the past few months have been left behind. At this moment, I watched Hongfu and Lurong cook tea wholeheartedly.
A gust of breeze, with wisps of cinnamon, is blowing in the face. Wanying turned her head and saw Aunt Ruichun carrying a delicate basket into the garden, thinking that she was coming to the garden to pick flowers and insert vases. Seeing Wanying in the pavilion, she went straight over, and said before entering the pavilion: "Do you say that there are many strange people and strange things, what kind of stupid people are there in this world?"