In the autumn of the sixteenth year of the Republic of China, the weather in the small town south of the Yangtze River was very hot.

Old people like Mrs. Zhao like to talk about the weather the most, and she talks every day that this kind of weather has a "sign of war". Xu Yu'an was the most impatient to listen to this kind of words, whenever Old Mother Zhao looked at the sky, stomped her feet again, sighed, and sighed, he dragged out his voice in a weird way: "Grandma Zhao is really 'Xiucai doesn't go out, but she knows the world's affairs-'." Mrs. Zhao was immediately ashamed, and closed a mouth with a tooth and a missing slit tightly, Mrs. Zhao was very proud that she could "know the world", but she couldn't afford this "showman". She has never studied, and she will recognize dozens of words over the years. "Don't go out" is no longer accurate, in addition to shopping for vegetables in the past ten years, Zhao's mother has not been to a larger place in Hangzhou. The biggest thing in the world has to do with her, that is, to make a quote when chatting, which can be used to show off the knowledge of the old man, and coax Xu Yu'an's mother and grandmother Xu to also follow the heartbeat, which shows her status as Zhao's mother.

Old Mother Zhao was very unhappy to be robbed by Xu Yu'an, she couldn't be idle for a while, and then counted Xu Yu'an: "Brother An, Nong Fa has to read for a year or two, and he looks down on the old woman, the autumn of the first year of the Republic of China is also such a hot law, what happened Nong always knows, the Great Revolution, hey, the old woman watched it with her own eyes." Nong Bei Vaxin, look at this good mile, what is there to deceive Old Lady Zhao to you? ”

She was only halfway through her words, and Xu Yu'an ran away. He really looked down on Old Mother Zhao, her mouth was broken and mean, and his ears were calloused when he was a child. He has just finished elementary school, and the "Xinhai Revolution" has been learning for a long time, and he is still waiting to listen to Mrs. Zhao's teaching. It is precisely because I grew up and recalled the cocoons on my ears in the past that I judged how much of it was mixed with water, so I became more and more disdainful of Zhao's mother. Since he grew up, he didn't have a good impression of the servants and helpers in the family, but fortunately, the nurse went back to his hometown half a year ago, and the responsibility of taking care of Xu Yu'an fell on the coachman Agen. Although Ah Gen only needs to send Mr. Xu to work every day, he is becoming more and more lazy because of his lack of work, and he looks at Brother An without a glance, and both sides are at ease.

Whether this year is a big year for Bingge, Xu Yu'an doesn't know, but it is indeed a big year for him, this autumn, he is in middle school. At the age of thirteen or fourteen, I had a strong ambition in my heart and felt that I wanted to fly to the sky in the wind. Although the weather is hot, the sky is high and cloudy, and it is very magnificent, and he likes this weather.

In this kind of weather, he couldn't stay at home, so he ran out of the door in the afternoon, said hello to Agen and said, "I'll go to West Lake with Rui Ge'er to play." ”

Ah Gen poked his head out from under the shade of the shade of the tree, stretched his neck and shouted: "Brother An'er come back early, school is about to start, be careful that the master will test your homework!" As soon as he had said this, he fulfilled his duty, lazily pulled his neck back, and rested again under the tree.

Rui Ge'er is the child of the neighbor's Gao family, named Gao Zerui, and Xu Yu'an's classmate, the two are the same age. He squatted on the edge of the stone lion at the door of his house for a while, and when he saw Xu Yu'an coming, he yawned first and said, "Wait for me to die, Brother An." Then he squeezed his eyebrows and said, "Isn't it the maid at home who has stumbled?" ”

Before Xu Yu'an could say a word of greeting, he was stuck in his throat. He kicked Gao Zerui: "Where did you come from, there are not." "Gao Zerui always knows a little earlier and a little more about this kind of thing. Gao Zerui's family is still an old-fashioned family, with three generations in the family, a big family, a lot of trivial things, and adults don't care about children. Xu Yu'an is a new-style family, Mr. Xu Xu Hongqi has even stayed abroad, although in addition to Mrs. Xu, there is also an Aunt Lan in the family, but there is no room girl at all. Not to mention being tripped by the maid, Xu Yu'an has never even seen a maid who is about the same age as him at home.

Gao Zerui's rickshaw driver, Ah Guo, pulled the rickshaw out of the small door, and asked for an interview in front of Gao Zerui: "Hello Ruiguan'er, yo, where is An Guan'er, where are you going?" ”

Gao Zerui casually ordered: "Go in the direction of West Lake, we are happy to jump out of the car and play." He pulled Xu Yu'an into the car, and muttered about what happened to his family.

There are three generations of the Gao family, and the old lady Gao is still in charge, and the whole family is strictly hierarchical, and the rules of the servants and the young master are very clear. The custom here in Jiangnan is that the third generation is called "official" or "baby". Therefore, the servants of the Gao family honestly call Gao Zerui Ruiguan'er, if they call him "brother" like Xu Yu'an's family, and are heard by Mrs. Gao, they will be scolded. Strict rules are also beneficial, Gao Zerui, the coachman of the Gao family, can be sent at will, which is exchanged for Xu Yu'an to send Agen to drive to West Lake, and Agen is going to scare him with his rotten eyelash eyes, "I'll sue the master." So Xu Yu'an likes to go out with Gao Zerui's car.

Gao Zerui said mysteriously: "You know, there is a maid in our family, it is Sister Yiyun, you have seen it before. ”

Xu Yu'an thought for a long time: "Which one?" Which one? The one with a round face? ”

Gao Zerui was very dissatisfied, Xu Yu'an had no impression of the red face and troubled water in the story he was going to tell, which seriously affected the effect of the secret he was going to tell: "No, that's Sister Manyun, Sister Yiyun is a goose egg face, more handsome." ”

"Oh, oh-" Xu Yu'an responded, but he didn't think about it at all, there were a lot of maids in the Gao family, "It's her." ”

"Exactly!" Gao Zerui was happy again, he patted Xu Yu'an's leg and asked, "Then, my uncle, do you remember the four-eyed dog?" ”

Xu Yu'an snapped his fingers, and he didn't count how much Gao Zerui's uncle ranked, in fact, he visited the neighborhood during the Chinese New Year, but it has been more than half a year since now, and he has long forgotten about it. "Four-eyed dog?" He said blankly.

"Eh!" Gao Zerui pinched the thumb and index finger of his two hands into a circle and clasped them to his eyes, "It's this 'four-eyed dog'!" ”

"Oooo This time Xu Yu'an really remembered that it was the well-mannered scholar who wore gold wire glasses, "It's him!" ”

"Everyone in our family said that my father had fallen in love with Sister Yiyun for a while, which made my mother angry, but my mother couldn't control it, and the old lady acquiesced, so can there be two words? At this time, my uncle stood up and said that Sister Yiyun was his good friend, and the two of them had already agreed to be white, and it was impossible to give it to the second brother. ”

Xu Yu'an actually didn't understand the twists and turns here: "That's not right, the uncle makes a couple, and the second aunt doesn't have to be angry." ”

"Eh!" Gao Zerui slapped Xu Yu'an on the thigh, "Why don't you understand?" The old lady didn't agree, the uncle was still a scholar, and the old lady was looking forward to him getting ahead, and then he would be sent abroad to drink foreign ink, which made him and a maid in the family decide early on 'one life and one couple', and that hard work is not 'bamboo basket to draw water - a void'! ”

Xu Yu'an nodded, and poured to the other side like grass on the wall: "That's better to separate." ”

"How can that! My uncle definitely knows that since this matter broke out, Sister Yiyun won't be able to go on, a maid has a relationship with the young master, so it's okay! Don't you break your backbone? So he has to resist hard, he won't live without Yiyun, and the old lady can let Yiyun live. ”

Xu Yu'an smacked his lips: "Why are your family's affairs so messy." ”

Gao Zerui responded: "Exactly! Originally, our family was the kind of old family chaos, and everyone was used to the same chaos. ”

Xu Yu'an sneered: "It's still in order." ”

Gao Zerui said: "Brother An, don't believe it, it's this sentence that is orderly in chaos." But the uncle has been studying for a long time, and he has brought the foreigner's theory of equality to the house, isn't it a mess? ”

The two of them lived not far from the West Lake, and they arrived after a while, Ah Guo stopped the car and said to Gao Zerui with a shy face: "Guan'er, the West Lake has arrived, what does the official want to do?" ”

Gao Zerui waved his hand and said, "Ah Guo, let's go around casually, don't follow, we'll come here to find you again." “

Ah Guo nodded and said, "Okay, I'll wait for the official here." ”

Xu Yu'an waved at him: "Ah Guo, don't wait for us in the sun, you can find a shade to rest for a while." ”

Ah Guo hurriedly said: "Thank you Guan'er, thank you Guan'er." ”

After walking a few steps away, when he reached a place where Ah Guo couldn't hear it, Xu Yu'an whispered: "I don't think much of your family's set of servants who don't treat servants as people." ”

Gao Zerui sighed and said, "But our servants don't necessarily treat themselves as human beings. Hey, don't laugh at it, I can see it when I'm so old, this thing is 'Zhou Yu beats Huang Gai - one is willing to fight and one is willing to suffer'. He didn't say a word, and went back to his uncle's anecdote: "But my uncle had to pierce the window paper, and I listened to him talk back to the old lady that day, and he said, 'When I had not studied before, my house was dark, and I was like a blind man, and I could still get by; But now, the 'Mr. De' and 'Mr. Sai' in the West have opened my eyes, this dark pickled face, how can I endure it anymore? Now that I've opened my eyes, how can I close them again? He helped the unnecessary "glasses", and breathed slowly, imitating the uncle's appearance of chewing words to the fullest.

Xu Yu'an laughed: "Then your old lady is not angry." ”

Gao Zerui said: "Exactly! The old lady was furious on the spot, knocked on his dragon head cane and scolded: 'You deceive the teacher and destroy the ancestors! You learned a crooked mind, did you come back to vent anger at home? Bai Yang is so big, your elbows are turned outward, what 'Mr. De' and 'Mr. Sai' have paid for your tuition? "It's really funny to me, my old lady still thinks that 'Mr. De' and 'Mr. Sai' are really people! ”

Xu Yu'an asked, "Then what did your uncle say?" ”

Gao Zerui said: "My uncle sneered on the spot and said: 'I only said that my father sent me to study, because I was looking forward to my success and morality. ’”

Xu Yu'an was shocked: "Your uncle dares to say anything." ”

Gao Zerui said: "No, he said that some of their students are making revolutions, and a few years ago, my uncle was also involved in the May Fourth riot. It's a pity that this set can only be used by outsiders, and when I return home, I am not punished to kneel in the ancestral hall. ”

Xu Yu'an said: "Hey, it's difficult for a Qing official to cut off family affairs. ”

Gao Zerui said: "Anyway, my mother told me, uncle's reading of this book, the original intention is actually to gild, in the future, it will be easy to find an official and a half-position in the government, and it is useless, she told me to be smarter, and the house will be covered in the future, but don't read it stupid." ”

Xu Yu'an was quite surprised: "Then what do you think." ”

Gao Zerui said: "My mother used to read it from Jinling Girls' High School, I guess she has thought about everything I want, can there be anything wrong?" ”

Gao Zerui has listened to the whispers of countless female relatives in the family, and has seen people imitate them one by one, and there are few words of Gao Zerui's own words. Xu Yu'an couldn't say what he thought after hearing it, Gao Zerui parroted his words, was satisfied, and stopped commenting.

Xu Yu'an was silent for a while, and said: "I took out a book in the bookcase in the west wing of our house, Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities". ”

Once it came to the knowledge in the books, Gao Zerui couldn't answer and asked, "What did you say?" ”

Xu Yu'an said: "I told the story of a doctor in Paris and London. “

"What is Paris and London like, is it fun?"

"I haven't finished reading it yet, but it's probably not about whether Paris and London are fun...... It's about the corruption of the aristocracy, the revolution of the common people, and so on. ”

"Eh, what's so fun about that. After staying in the big family for two days, you know that it is not easy in the big family. ”

"Makes sense, too." Xu Yu'an said.

Gao Zerui told him about watching a martial arts fight two days ago, which was called a heroic and sassy man. He picked up a folded willow from the ground and imitated the sword flower of Wusheng. The two of them frolicked in the woods on the edge of the West Lake. The willow trees in the south of the Yangtze River lose their leaves one after another in autumn, like a green snowfall. Gao Zerui and Xu Yu'an exchanged swords in this heavy snow, feeling like ancient chivalrous warriors, not being touched by inch leaves. They are still at a heartless age, lively and lively, and they don't feel distressed when they see the fallen leaves, and they always feel that they can get out of the wind and fall even if you are up and down.