When the Lantern Festival is over the fifteenth, there are lanterns to see in the city of Guangzhou. Shuning had already told her father that she would take her to see it. Tong said that he wanted to take care of his youngest son and did not go.

Before Shuning went out, she went to the kitchen to see if the rice balls were ready. This year, in addition to the traditional sesame lotus paste peanut stuffed rice balls, Shuning also made two "fresh" fillings of green tea and pork, Chun Xing and others have long been curious, counting on getting out of the pot soon, so that they can taste what the pork stuffed rice balls will taste.

Among the servants in the family, several of them had already obtained permission from the hostess Tong because of their excellent performance, and they could go out for half an hour at night to see the famous lanterns in the city. Su Yun and Qiaoyun have both, and they prepare the clothes and jewelry to wear at night early, and even Su Yun, who has always been steady, is so excited that he can't sit still.

Chunxing had already been promised by Shuning that she would take her to see the lights together, and now she walked around proudly in front of the fan official and other rough girls, and kept talking about the light market at night, which caused a group of people to roll their eyes.

After dinner, Zhang Bao set off with his daughter. Also going with him were Mr. Su's master and servant, Changgui, Wang Er and Chunxing.

The light market is located on a street next to the downtown area in the center of the city, surrounded by several high-rise restaurants, all of which have two or three floors. Zhang Bao went to the second floor of a restaurant contracted by Guangzhou government officials. He greeted his boss and colleagues and subordinates, and asked his daughter to come forward to pay a respect, and after a few words of greeting, he was led by the prefect, and a large group of people went to a more luxurious restaurant next to it. It is said that the general of Canton and the governor of Canton covered the second and third floors there, respectively.

Shuning stayed and sat at the table, looking over the railing by the window to see the various lanterns on the street below.

At a nearby table sat the families of other officials, many of whom were children, but the younger ones were too noisy, and the older ones were too old. She doesn't like to play with boys, and girls seem too formal, and they are very boring to get along with. Maybe there would be more interesting peers in the upstairs next to her, but Shuning lost interest at the thought of going through the dense crowd downstairs to get there.

After a while, the lantern parade began, and Shuning finally cheered up. Almost the entire second floor was crowded to the window.

These lanterns are made of thin bamboo strips to make shapes, most of them are flowers, birds, insects, fish or animals, such as tigers, and then covered with bright colored paper or silk cloth, and then used a paintbrush to make some decorations, make shapes, and then light one to several candles inside. Many businesses use four-wheeled carts to install lanterns, and then drag them slowly with cows, horses or donkeys, so that people around them can clearly see their beautiful lanterns.

In the eyes of Chun Xing and Wang Er, two natives of the Qing Dynasty, this kind of lamp is really beautiful. But for Shuning, it's good-looking and interesting, but it's not enough for her to look at it intently. Presumably, the local economy and culture have not yet developed to the most prosperous period in the history of the Qing Dynasty, so even the lanterns are only unsatisfactory.

Shuning looked at it for a while, and saw that the next lanterns were old, so she turned her head to drink tea and eat snacks. The dim sum is the same as a small shortbread filled with bacon, and the same is a small dumpling with cabbage and pork, although the taste is good, but it is not as delicious as the Cantonese dim sum in my impression. She was a little strange, so she beckoned Xiao Er to ask, "Why don't you see siu mai shrimp dumplings or something?" ”

The little two said: "There is a barbecue to buy, do you want pork to order beef?" Just fresh out of the shelf, shrimp dumplings have, but not fresh shrimp to do, Miss Mi wants to try? (Is there siu mai, pork or beef?) Freshly baked, guaranteed freshness; There are shrimp dumplings too, but they are not made of fresh shrimp meat, do you want to try them? ）

Shuning nodded, and the little two took two cages. It's okay to sell siu mai, but how are the shrimp dumplings made of ordinary dough? After taking a bite, it turned out to be a stuffing made by chopping dried shrimp and mixing it into pork, is this still shrimp dumplings?

asked Xiao Er, but he said that he had always done this, but he said that he had never heard of the kind of shrimp dumplings made of translucent skin and whole shrimp filled in by Shu Ning.

Shuning let him go down, and secretly thought in his heart, could it be that those delicious morning tea snacks have not appeared in Guangdong now? It is indeed very possible to think that Guangdong will really prosper after the Qianlong Dynasty, and maybe those dim sum will not appear until then.

Hey? I wonder if she can make these snacks come out in advance.

While eating snacks, she thought about it in her heart for a long time, but she remembered one more thing.

The Cantonese dim sum she had eaten before the crossing was all made of something that seemed to be called Cheng noodles, but where did she find it now?

This is the most basic problem, but she can't solve it, so she has to sit there alone and worry.

"Girl, look, it's a beauty!" Chun Xing suddenly screamed, woke Shuning up, and looked downstairs with her, thinking, "Don't worry about it for now, and then find a way to solve it later." ”

The so-called beauty is actually a woman standing on a lantern cart, dressed in a costume, full of pearls, posing in a very beautiful posture, singing a festive tune, and the sound can be heard by people in the surrounding buildings. Looking at her appearance, willow eyebrows and apricot eyes, cherry lips and pink cheeks, she is indeed very beautiful.

Shuning was sighing in her heart, but she heard a man at the table say to the people around him, "Have you seen it?" That's the old man who was specially invited back from the Qionghua Hall in Foshan, and he is the best Danjiao, and he looks beautiful, right? ”

The man nodded: "It's really beautiful, I can't tell it's a man at all." ”

Shu Ning was shocked, stared at the "woman" seriously and looked at it a few more times, but she couldn't see it at all. But as far as she knows, most of the people who sing opera now are men, which is true.

As soon as this "beauty" appeared, it won the applause of everyone around him, and many rich people threw silver and two belongings to him, and Shuning guessed that it might be a way to reward. A boy dressed in red had already picked up the belongings that had fallen on the ground and handed them over to a middle-aged man who was following the lantern cart.

In the tall restaurant next to it, there was also a long word "reward", and a servant gave out a gold ingot on a tray, and the onlookers gasped.

"What a big gold ingot!" Chunxing couldn't help but sigh. "At least thirty taels!" Wang Er also joined along.

The "beauty" was very calm, and only paid a blessing in the direction of the building, and saluted.

Shuning looked at the tall building, and could only see that the lights were bright and there were many people, but she couldn't see who was so generous. But the person who dares to do such a thing in front of so many people is probably one of the two highest-ranking officials, right?

She looked back at the "beauty" and thought, the generous person who rewarded me didn't know if he knew that this beauty was a man? However, she thought that the Qing Dynasty seemed to be very popular in raising prostitutes, and then she thought that southerners especially liked beautiful boys......

She shuddered and stopped thinking about it. Although she has also read Tanmei books, she has no plans to develop Tanmei in the Qing Dynasty.

Zhang Bao came back after more than an hour, and most of the people who came to see the lanterns were scattered. Shuning handed her father a cup of tea and a few snacks, Zhang Bao said, "Don't eat it, wait until you go home and eat hot rice balls." Then he beckoned the people to prepare to leave.

When they returned home, Tong had already ordered someone to cook rice balls with various fillings, and when he saw them come back, he asked someone to serve them.

She smiled and said, "Are the lanterns looking good today?" I heard Su Yun say it's beautiful. It's cold outside, isn't it? Eat a bowl of rice balls to warm up your body. The two new fillings that Shuning thought of, I thought green tea was good when I ate it, and the meat filling tasted like meatballs, with only an extra layer of glutinous rice skin......"

Shuning took the bowl with a smile and ate a few bites, her heart warm.

====================I'm the dividing line of spring, the dividing line====================

After the Lantern Festival, Ah Di and Ah Hua came back to work, and one day later, Ah Yin also returned. A group of maiden daughters-in-law gathered in the small courtyard next to the kitchen, chattering about the New Year. Chunxing also specially told others what she saw and heard on the Lantern Festival Lantern Parade, which made a few little girls stunned.

Shuning tried to roll out the dumpling wrappers made of flour very thinly, wanting to achieve a translucent effect, but the craftsmanship was not at home, and she failed several times, so she had to hand it over to Ah Yin and two other daughters-in-law to make. They did it for a long time, and finally made the "translucent" dumpling skin that Shuning said, wrapped some shrimp filling, and tried to steam it to eat, although the taste was good, but it was far from the imaginary refreshment, Shuning had to sigh, handed over the remaining dough to the daughters-in-law, and asked them to make some dumplings for later use.

In February, the weather is gradually getting warmer, and Zhang Bao is about to start busy with business again, in addition to preparing for spring sowing, he also has to check whether the water conservancy dikes in various places are ready and secure. Tong Shi packed his simple luggage for him and prepared for him to go to a nearby township in two days.

Jingzhong's reply finally arrived, and Wang Ruibao and his wife did not come back, but the servant who delivered the letter brought back a middle-aged male servant named Friday Fu, who was Zhou Zhoulin's brother, and it was Wang Ruibao's shortage.

Zhang Bao called his wife and daughter to the main room, let the maids and daughters-in-law go out, and then began to read the letter.

The first is the letter from grandfather Khalzi. He was very happy to add another grandson, and specially asked the messenger to bring a silver longevity lock as a full moon gift for his little grandson. He had already given his little grandson a big name, called Xianning, hoping that he would be a virtuous person in the future, and also instructed his son and daughter-in-law to take good care of his grandson.

He also said that Duan Ning is very good in Beijing, willing to study hard, and is also very diligent in martial arts, and can be regarded as one of the best among all his grandsons, and it is rare that he also gets along well with his cousins. Because Duan Ning's performance was very satisfactory to him, he also specially gave Duan Ning the horse whip he used when he was young as a reward.

Grandfather also mentioned that before the end of the year, the emperor had ordered the Zongren Mansion to select the prince to accompany the children of the noble family and the hundred officials of the imperial court in Beijing, and the selected teenagers were accompanied by several older elder brothers other than the prince. Duan Ning is also on the shortlist, just waiting for the results to be announced next month.

Zhang Bao didn't feel anything, but a strange look flashed on Tong's face.

Then came my grandmother's letter. The letter was very long, first he talked about all kinds of trivial things about taking care of the baby, and also gave a pair of jade lock plates as a gift, and then he wrote to Tong's teachings, housekeeping, waiting for her husband, raising children, and a lot of things. Shu Ning listened to it from the sidelines, and she was almost dizzy.

For the name "Xianning" given by their father to the little baby, Zhang Bao and Tong both think it is good, the children are named "Duan", "Shu" and "Xian", and they must be honest people in the future, and they are very satisfied. Shuning was a little regretful that the few names she thought of were not adopted, but the current name is not bad, and she accepted it.

She was now more anxious to see the letter that Duan Ning wrote to herself, so she confessed to her parents, took the letter that Duan Ning wrote for her, and returned to her room.