Shuning smiled and said: "It's just a little thought, if you can help Amma, it will be your daughter's creation." ”

It turned out that Zhang Bao was out in the rain for days, the official raincoat could not withstand the rain for a long time, and the umbrella and coat were not very useful, and he would come back wet every day. In order to prevent him from catching a cold, Tong ordered Changgui to bring another clean official uniform to follow him, and change it when it got wet. But at the beginning, Tonggong only made two official uniforms, where could he afford to change them in half a day? If you change into civilian clothes, it is not appropriate to meet Shangguan.

Shu Ning thought of a modern raincoat, so she looked everywhere for suitable clothing, and accidentally found a material that the locals used to make rainproof boots, although it was harder, but the rainproof performance was very good, so she took it according to the modern hooded long-sleeved raincoat, made a one, and sewed buttons made of wood. When Zhang Bao put on his body, he buttoned up, put on a raincoat and hat, and then buttoned up an official hat, and stepped on rainproof boots made of the same material.

After trying the raincoat, Zhang Bao felt that it was very convenient, and it was lighter than the raincoat, so she asked her to take someone to make a few more clothes and give it to Mr. Su who went out with him on weekdays. A group of them walked outside, a group of black crows, and at first they scared the people outside.

Shu Ning also secretly laughed at them secretly that they were ancient raincoat monsters, but when she heard from Ah Song that many people in the official office learned to make such raincoats, and within a few days, all the officials in Guangzhou Prefecture would become raincoat monsters, she was only dumbfounded.

After dinner, Shuning finished her work and went to the upper room. Zhang Bao was teasing his son, holding him up and down, Xianning seemed to like this thrilling feeling very much, and kept screaming "ahhhhhh Tong Shi hurriedly said: "I just fed milk, don't make him vomit." Zhang Bao regained his son's grip and put him on the bed.

Shuning accompanied her father to play with her younger brother for a while, and then said to Zhang Bao: "Ama, don't you want to race a dragon boat on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival?" I heard that it's very lively, so let's go see it too, okay? Tong Shi on the side glanced at her, and she snickered.

Zhang Bao twisted his beard and said: "Actually, this year's dragon boat race is sponsored by the government, so all the officials of the government have to go to see it, and their families can also go." This matter has been fixed for five or six days, and I have forgotten to tell you in such a hurry that I have forgotten to tell you. ”

Shuning was overjoyed, but Tong frowned: "It's raining all day and night, who has the heart to go out?" ”

"It doesn't matter." Zhang Baodao, "There are still a few days of effort, I heard from the experienced old people in the yamen that it is estimated that from tomorrow, the rain will become lighter, and it will stop in two days." When the time comes, the people below will set up a shed by the Pearl River, and we just sit in the shed while drinking tea and eating zongzi, while watching the dragon boat. ”

Sure enough, early the next morning, the rain became lighter, and by the third day, it was already cloudy, and the sun would show its face from time to time. The whole family happily took their clothes, shoes, socks, boxes, food, medicinal herbs, etc., to the yard, in the garden, or on the rooftop, and spread them out to dry. Ah Yin cooked a few pots of soup for the whole family to drink, saying that it was "dewet". Shuning felt that the taste was a little strange when she drank it, and after asking, she realized that it was chicken feet eyebrow pea soup, with the addition of soil poria, which was the method that Mrs. Chen taught Ah Yin.

When Zhang Bao returned home that day, he also brought good news. The day after tomorrow, the prefect Lord Liang was going to send someone to send something to the capital, and Zhang Bao had already told him that he would ask his people to help bring some things back. Tong was overjoyed when he heard this, and was about to send something to his son in Jingli, when a ready-made messenger came to the door.

It's just that Zhang Bao instructed her: "Don't bring too valuable things, and don't write too long letters, after all, they are piggybacked, and they can't compare to the people we sent from our own family." Tong nodded in response.

Shuning rushed back to her room to write a letter to her brother. Her painting skills have improved a little now, and when she was bored on a rainy day, she painted a few portraits of her little brother, although her kung fu was not yet home, but it looked very cute. In the letter, she described in detail the process of her younger brother growing up, and asked Duan Ning to convey her greetings to Tongying. She was glad that her brother didn't have much contact with the princes, but she was happy to have a good friend she could trust.

When she handed over the finished letter to Tong, she saw that Tong was putting a stack of stationery into a flat box, and stuffed a few pieces of tissue paper in the mezzanine of the box.

Shuning asked, "E-niang, aren't you afraid of being taken away by others?" Tong shook his head: "The materials used in this box are not expensive, and there is our mark on it, so it can't be sold." I have made it clear in my letter that your brother will find the silver ticket. He is alone in the capital, and it is always good to have more silver around him. ”

Shuning nodded silently and helped her mother wrap the box in a cloth.

The letter was delivered. Tong sat in the room for a long time, Shuning hugged her little brother to her, she came to her senses, pressed her forehead embarrassedly, and said to her daughter with a smile: "The zongzi are all wrapped, right?" How about giving it all away today? Shuning nodded, and didn't laugh at her.

The family members were sent out to send the Dragon Boat Festival gifts to the homes of Zhang Bao's boss and colleagues. The Tong family also specially asked Wang Er's family to wear decent clothes, carry a large basket of zongzi and a large basket of snacks and fruits, and two rulers, called a small car, and went to Liu's house in the south of Xianyang Street to give gifts.

After Wang Er's family came back in the evening, Mingli replied to the Tong family that everything was going well, but when he turned around, he avoided people and whispered to her: "The old man of the Liu family doesn't seem to be good, he has been sick for some time." The slave maid looked at his wife and looked at the two grandmothers a little unpleasantly, and spoke thorny in the open and secret, as if complaining that they lived at home and refused to remarry. When the slave maid was in Grandma Liu's room, she heard her say outside the house that the good relatives they found for them were pushed by them, not only did they not get the gifts, but they also lost the matchmaker's money, and now they don't even have money to buy medicine. Grandma Liu threw her a few taels of silver, and Grandma Liu was crying. ”

Tong was silent for a while, told her not to spread the matter, and sent her away.

Early in the morning of the Dragon Boat Festival, the prefect led a bunch of officials from the government to the Nanhai Temple to offer incense, praying for good weather this year, and no more summer floods and autumn droughts, Zhang Bao also followed. Tong pinched the time, and at about the same time, he hugged his son, took his daughter, and took a sedan chair to the Pearl River outside the city.

Luckily, she didn't get sick today.

This dragon boat race is a major event within a radius of 100 miles, not only the people of the Guangzhou Mansion have arrived, but also the people of the Governor's Yamen, the General's Mansion and the Nanhai County Ya, and the Panyu County Yamen have all come, and the best place on the riverside has set up a shed along the high platform, and a few of them are still tied with colored silk.

Zhang Bao's family and Liang Governor's family were crammed into a shed, but it was located between the sheds of the Guangzhou general and the governor of Guangdong, which seemed a little strange.

Tong took the child into the shed, and greeted Mrs. Liang, because she had never had any contact, she thanked their family for helping to deliver the letter, and after a few words of greeting, she sat down on an empty table next to her. Someone had already brought a pot of tea and a pot of realgar wine, and two plates of zongzi and fruits were put on the table.

Before the dragon boat race began, Shuning looked from afar and saw that people seemed to be pretending to be dragon heads and tails, so she sat down to eat tea. Tong Shi took a sip of tea, asked someone to open a zongzi to try, saw a piece of fat pork inside, frowned and said, "Greasy, who eats this?" ”

Shuning thinks it's very fragrant, and the zongzi is filled with spiced peanuts, which has a unique flavor. Seeing that her mother didn't like to eat, she smiled and said: "Don't eat it if your mother is tired, when you get home, we just made a small red bean dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaves yesterday, and my mother can eat that." ”

Tong smiled, hugged his son and teased him, and pointed out the river in the distance and the people and trees on the bank.

After a while, five or six dragon boats were launched. A loud horn sounded, and the voices of Ying He sounded on both sides of the Pearl River at the same time, followed by the drumbeat, and the game began.

The dragon boat was twenty or thirty meters long, and there were about 30 people on each dragon boat, all of whom were men in the prime of life, wearing only short clothes, shirtless, with cloth towels of the same color as the dragon boats, listening to the drums on the bow of their respective boats, and rowing neatly.

On the silver-white dragon boat at the head, the drummer shouted after a few beats, and was far away, so that he could not hear what he was saying, and gradually their dragon boat became faster and faster, and it had gotten rid of most of the other dragon boats, and only one crimson one was still following them closely.

The red dragon boat was different from the white one, the drummer did not say a word, just beat the drum with a very special rhythm, and the men behind him were just paddling, and after a while, they were only five or six meters away from the white dragon's head.

Several dragon boats rowed across the waterway in front of the shed where Shuning was located, and headed east. Shuning looked nervous, jumped up and took two steps forward, and looked forward on tiptoe. The two dragon boats, one red and one white, competed fiercely, and the people watching on the shore also became excited, shouting loudly and loudly, and the sound was about to shake the sky.

When they were near the end, the red one was faster, and gradually passed the white one, and then the white one overtook back, and the red one refused to admit defeat, and quickened the rhythm of the drum, and slowly, little by little, caught up, and in a moment, it was flush with the silver-white one. The voices on both sides of the strait were deafening, the drums became more and more rapid, and a sprint-

The red dragon boat crossed the finish line first, and dozens of big men on it shouted loudly with joy, and two of them even threw off the pulp. The man on the silver-white dragon boat slowed down his paddling speed and drooped his head in frustration.

Shuning couldn't breathe when she saw it, and Chun Xing was still shouting on the side, which made Su Yun look at her frequently.

The shouts of the audience were so loud that even Shuning couldn't help but cover his ears, and Tong also wanted to cover Xianning's ears, but he was not afraid at all, but instead shouted with a pair of big eyes, dancing on the ground, the louder the shout, the happier he screamed, and Tong was so troubled by him that he couldn't cry or laugh.

Even Mrs. Liang joked on the side: "The little boy is so clever, such a momentum, my children will be so scared, but he is so happy, he must be great when he grows up." ”

Tong thanked him with a smile, and also complimented her five or six-year-old son a few words, and beckoned her daughter to come back and sit down.

This is followed by a ceremony to award red envelopes to the winners. Zhang Bao hurried to the shed, and Tong asked Su Yun to pour him a cup of tea, and he sat down to rest after drinking it. Shuning asked him if he had seen the event just now, and he nodded with a smile and said, "Naturally, I saw it, it was really lively." When I go back, I will follow Lord Liang to meet the other adults, so you can go back first. Tong Shi responded. Then Zhang Bao asked Su Yun to be the messenger, conveyed the message of the Liang prefect to Mrs. Liang, and left in a hurry.

Shuning followed her mother to go home in a sedan chair, and soon after entering the city gate, she heard a noise in front of her, and the sedan chair stopped. She sat in the sedan chair and asked the people outside what was going on, and after a while, Wang Er came to report that two carriages had collided in front of her, and she had to wait a little longer to pass.

Shuning had no choice but to sit in the sedan chair, and after a while, she heard a few strange words coming from outside, and when she listened carefully, it was a bit like French. She was excited in her heart, so she lifted the corner of the curtain and looked out, and sure enough, it was a brown-haired and blue-eyed foreign man, wearing a long coat and a tricorne hat, followed by a Chinese in a robe, buying rice dumplings on the street. After a while, I finished buying and leaving.

This is the first time that Shuning has seen a Westerner since she crossed over. She thought to herself, I wonder if there is a chance to get up close and personal?