The daughter's carefully sewn "cotton boots" made Zhang Bao's popularity among his colleagues a little better, and he decided to choose a good thing as a thank you gift. The little officials at the bottom of the year sent a few new things, among which there was a kind of candle with a fragrance, a total of four, which were red, blue, green and yellow. This kind of candle has been popular in the capital since autumn, but the price is expensive, only the wealthy can afford to use it, compared to ordinary candles, but it is just a little more color and fragrance, but it is very popular with the women of large families. Fengtian City has only been sold for a short time, and it is in short supply just for a few royal mansions, and I don't know how the little official got it. Zhang Bao took this kind of expensive and impractical thing to his daughter, and it didn't cost anything, and it could please her, so he regarded it as borrowing flowers to offer Buddha.

Shuning likes this gift very much, it reminds her of the fragrant candles in modern society, although it does not have that effect, it is good to look happy.

At night, she lit a green candle in her room, and the whole room exuded a faint fragrance of flowers, reflecting a circle of light green light, like a dream. She sighed and lay on the bed in silence.

Chun Xing propped her chin and sat at the table, also looking at the candlelight with her eyes in confusion, and whispered, "It's so beautiful." When I was a child, my father couldn't afford to buy lanterns, so he made a poor stick lamp, put the candle in it, no matter how the wind blows, it won't go out. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a poor stick lamp in years. ”

Shuning looked up and asked her, "Where is your father?" Where is he now? ”

"Whoever dies, falls into the river while fishing, and drowns, that is, in the winter night."

Shu Ning's mood was a little heavy, so she staggered the topic: "What is the poor stick lamp you just said?" ”

Chunxing sat up straight, stretched her waist, and replied, "It's made of ice, and some people call it an ice lamp." My family was originally a fisherman on the edge of the Songhua River, and when I heard that my ancestors wanted to go out to fish in the river at night in winter, they poured water into a bucket, got it out while it was still frozen, dug a hole in the middle of the ice, put candles in it, and put it on the boat as a lantern, and the wind could not blow out. This method has been passed down in our place for decades, and later during the Chinese New Year and the Shangyuan Festival, our people there have no money to buy lanterns, so they use this method to make lanterns, put them at the door to look good, or ask children to play in their hands, it is regarded as a festival. I also played it when I was a kid. ”

It turned out to be an ice lantern. It seems that this is the prototype of the ice lantern, which originated by the Songhua River, why is it not Harbin?

Chun Xing looked at Shuning looking down and thinking about it, thinking that she was wondering why she hadn't heard of such a thing, so she said, "Girl, it's strange that she has never heard of these things?" Actually, it's not surprising. These are all the things of our poor people, how could someone like the girl have heard of it? ”

Shu Ning smiled slightly: "That's not it, I once read Mr. Gu Chifang's "White Maotang Collection" by Mr. Gu Chifang of Qizhou, which mentioned that he built ice and snow in the courtyard and lit candles in it, and the scene was very beautiful. Some people have also written articles about ice lanterns, and I heard that in the capital, there are also people who have exhibited ice lanterns in the Shangyuan Lantern Festival. Why don't we learn from him? You've seen ice lanterns, you know how to do it, right? ”

Chun Xing hesitated a little: "Although I have seen my father do it, but I haven't done it myself, and it's not very difficult to think about it, but why does the girl want to do these poor people's things?" ”

Shuning disagreed: "Who said this is a poor man's thing? Ice and snow are a gift from God, anyone can play with them, right? You just recalled playing with ice lanterns when you were a child, don't you miss it too? Let's do it. ”

Chun Xing was a little moved when she heard this, and was also aroused by her interest, so she nodded and said, "Okay, let's do it tomorrow, do it during the day, and light up the lights at night to play." ”

At that moment, the two of them made up their minds, planned again, and then packed up and went to sleep.

When I woke up the next day, I found that there had been a snowfall in the middle of the night, and the yard, which had been cleaned, was filled up again. Shuning was a little happy, so she said that she wanted to make ice lanterns, and God had a snowfall, which was too face-saving. Chun Xing was a little worried: "The snow is so big, the poor people in the city won't freeze to death, right?" Shuning comforted her: "It doesn't matter, there have been resettlement measures in the yamen since last year, and it was even colder than now, and I didn't freeze to death, so it should be better if I was placed early this year." ”

The second sister-in-law entered the room with a stack of clothes and said to Chunxing, "What's wrong with you?" Don't wait for the girl to dress and comb her hair, what are you doing standing stupidly? Shuning smiled and said, "I don't need her to wait, I'll do it myself." She gently washed her face with a handkerchief, now it is the delicate skin of a little girl, but she can't rub it hard, although she is not a beautiful embryo, but she has to cultivate it the day after tomorrow, and be a beautiful woman.

Chunxing was a little embarrassed, and hurriedly came up to take a hand, and when she finished washing, she took the basin and poured it. The second sister-in-law unfolded the clothes she brought, and said: "Aunt Yang sent it last night, and at the beginning of the year, I was going to make a pine-colored spring dress for the girl, but I didn't find the material for a while, so it was delayed, and now it is made up, and the girl will be on it." ”

When Shuning saw it, it turned out to be a thick robe in pine color, as well as a pair of light brown pants and a cardigan trimmed with red satin rabbit fur. In fact, she didn't make that dress in the spring, she didn't care very much, and she wasn't really a child, so she would get angry if she couldn't get what she wanted, and now it's good to make it up. She said, "Is it a new winter coat?" It's so beautiful, it's hard for you to think about it. It's just that today I'm going to make ice lanterns with Chunxing, let's wear old clothes first, so as not to turn around and get dirty, but let Eniang scold me. ”

The second sister-in-law said: "Make, just what is the ice lamp?" Is it made of ice? Don't get cold. How do girls love to play lately? "Isn't it good? Your family says I'm too old to be a child, and now I'm playing with you, isn't that right? "What's wrong? The girl will play if she likes to play, but she has to be careful not to catch a cold. The second sister-in-law smiled and helped her change her clothes and combed her hair again.

Chunxing had already returned, and when she saw this, she hurriedly took the comb: "I'll come, mom will rest first." The second sister-in-law snatched back the comb and said, "Go aside, the girl has been my comb since she was a child, what do you have to do?" If you have time, go to the kitchen to work, and the nest head can be steamed? Chun Xing had no choice but to go.

Shuning smiled: "Second sister-in-law, don't be angry with her, in fact, Chunxing is very busy, and she has to take care of me and do kitchen work." The second sister-in-law nodded: "I also know that a grandmother just talked about it before, and she wants to hire a cook or cook seriously." Although Chun Xing did a good job, when she was in the kitchen, the girl had no one to wait, and it was really not what she looked like. Shuning said: "I don't care, sometimes it's good to be alone." "She's not an ignorant little milk baby, she always needs someone to take care of her, and she always has to have some private space, right?

In the morning, Shuning dragged Chunxing to the yard, and called Huzi Ah Song to help, prepared shovels, buckets and chisels, and made ice lanterns.

Spring apricot is the main force. She poured the cold water into the bucket, and it was not long before it froze, and told the two boys to carry the bucket to the old man's house, and after a little roasting, the ice mound came out. She dug open the center of the ice mound, poured out the water that had not yet frozen, pulled out a cylindrical space, and said, "All right, put the candle in at night, and it will be the ice lamp." ”

Shuning took it and looked, it turned out that the ice lantern in ancient times was like this, but it was too simple, so it was better to do some tricks. She said, "Even if this one is done, how many more will be different?" We can carve something on it, or get some other colors on it. ”

Huzi was very interested, so he asked, "Then what should I do?" I can carve things a little bit, but I can get the color...... Is it difficult to put the ink on it? Ah Song looked at him and hesitated: "How can it be painted?" I guess I put the paint in water and freeze it, right? There is a smell of "you're not a fool, are you", which provoked Huzi to pounce on him and pinch it violently. Shuning and Chunxing ignored this already strange scene, and discussed what color to use.

The four children played for most of the day, made several ice lanterns, there are red, blue, earth yellow three colors, the tiger also carved some small birds and small fish on the top of the carving, Chun Xing cut a few pieces of red paper, let them be sandwiched in the ice, look at it also a little interesting.

Seeing the children's remarkable results, Tong no longer blamed them for making themselves wet and embarrassed, but only told them to quickly change into clean clothes, and asked someone to burn a big pot of mutton and ginger soup to dispel the cold. It's just that behind the scenes, Chunxing and Huzi were scolded by the second sister-in-law, and ordered them not to mess around anymore. Shuning knew, but she was a little embarrassed.

was in a hurry, changing clothes, burning fires, drinking soup, suddenly there was a rush of footsteps outside, and someone shouted "Yellow coat!" It's a yellow coat! "It seems that quite a few people are running down the street. Tong hurriedly asked Changfu to inquire about what was going on, and after a long time, Changfu came to report: "It was Jingli who sent someone to deliver the decree, and he had already arrived at the yamen, but there were a few circles of soldiers there, and no one was allowed to enter, so I don't know what happened." The minion went back and inquired. Tong waved his hand to let him go down, very worried, wondering if his husband would have anything to do in the yamen.

It was dark, but Zhang Bao hadn't come back yet, and even Mr. Su and Changgui didn't have a letter. Tong's heart was uneasy, so Duan Ning volunteered to go to another house to find out the news, and Ma San'er was also sent to wait outside the yamen. The family is restless.

After a while, all kinds of rumors came out, some said that the officials in the yamen had committed crimes and were arrested, some people said that they came from Beijing to give poisonous wine, and some said that it was rumored that the princes of various prefectures went to Beijing to celebrate the New Year. The people were a little uneasy, and some hooligans and ruffians wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to make trouble, because officials from all over the country gathered in the yamen, and no one presided over it for a while, and after a while, they were dispersed by the people of the city guard's mansion, and a few people were arrested.

After an hour, Zhang Bao still had no news, Ma San'er had already gone back and forth twice, and the subordinates of other families were also waiting for news outside the yamen. However, although there were soldiers there, they did not arrest anyone, but just stood there quietly. The news also showed that no one had been arrested, which made the whole family feel a little more relieved.

Duan Ning came back, and as soon as he entered the door, he was the first to shout: "I'm not here to arrest people!" It's the emperor who is coming to Fengtian! ”