Han Ximeng asked softly, "Ah Mei, do you believe in foreign religions?" ”

The little girl was very polite, stood up and bowed, and replied gently: "Hello sisters, yes, my family has joined the Society of Jesus, I have been baptized, and my name is Candida." ”

"Ha, what a coincidence," Han Ximeng smiled even more, and said with a gentle and kind smile, "Let me guess, is your surname Xu?" ”

The little girl nodded, her expression honestly surprised.

Zheng Haizhu instantly understood that this child was Xu Guangqi's granddaughter.

A few years ago, Xu Guangqi was fiercely attacked by the conservatives of the Beijing Imperial Court because of his close relationship with Western missionaries such as Xiong Sanba and Matteo Ricci, and because he fought for the living space of the parishioners in various places. He resigned in anger and took an idle post in the Hanlin Academy, mainly living in Tianjin, translating the "Geometric Original", but he often returned to Songjiang to mingle with the gentry of Huating.

Songjiang Mansion is open-minded, but it is still rare for the whole family to enter the foreign religion, and the fact that the young grandchildren of the Xu family have been baptized into the religion is well known to everyone in the upper class eunuch circles.

In Han Fuzhong, "Gandhi Great", the teaching name of the little granddaughter of the Xu family, was not unfamiliar with Qian and Han Ximeng when avoiding the third grandmother Yang.

Han Ximeng was about to ask a few words, when a woman behind him called: "Huizhen, this is the sister of the Han family." ”

Han Ximeng turned around and saw that the woman's eyebrows were similar to Xiao Huizhen, so he guessed that it was Xu Guangqi's daughter-in-law Gu, so he said very politely: "Grandma Gu is healthy." ”

Gu's maiden life Lanjie, her mother's family is also from Songjiang, and she is related to Gu Mingshi.

Gu Lanjie, whether from the information of her husband's family or her mother's family, knew that Gu Mingshi's most precious second-room grandson had already married the eldest lady of the Han family in front of him.

She didn't have any unfamiliar greetings to Han Ximeng, she raised her sleeves with a loose expression, and said with a smile: "Today I came to see the harvest of sweet potatoes, and I dressed sloppily, so I just met Miao Atai, which is really rude." ”

"What's so rude, the queen mother was still a silkworm in the past, the daughter-in-law of the Xu family, you are the role model for the ladies of all families in Songjiang."

An old but hearty female voice came from the village road, and I saw that Mrs. Miao had been supported by her mother-in-law and walked over proudly.

After she stood still, she said with a full of anger: "Just now, I told the grandmothers and ladies of each family that a few years ago, Xu Hanlin invested in hiring people to grow sweet potatoes in Sheshan, and the scholars in Songjiang laughed at him. Now those old men should come to see how many sweet potatoes can feed their stomachs in this barren hill and soil slope where rice could not be planted in the past. ”

Huang Zunsu's wife Yao on the side also picked up the conversation and said: "Mrs. Miao is right. Last year, we had a spring drought in Yuyao, and the rice did not come up, but fortunately, the sweet potato was drought resistant and easy to live, saving many villagers. My grandfather said that Sweet Potato was a maritime merchant surnamed Chen, and when he went to Luzon to run a boat, he got the vine root from the Francisnians. ”

Today, Mrs. Miao talked to Yao all the way and had a good impression of her.

Some officials, relying on the smooth career of the old man in the family, do not say that in front of the common people, even in front of the wealthy family whose men are no longer officials, they also love to be picky about Naqiao, and they only want to accept the flattery of the stars.

But Yao's body, but there is no such shallowness, she spoke to Miao's very measured, talked a lot about Yuyao's customs, and asked about Songjiang's school.

At this moment, after listening to Yao's words, Mrs. Miao praised more and more, and nodded again and again: "It's still Mrs. Huang who has insight, that's right, the maritime merchant surnamed Chen is my hometown and Miss Zheng's hometown, and he is also from Fujian." At the beginning, when the Frankians forbade our Ming merchants to bring back any plant seeds from Luzon, Mr. Chen was very clever and smuggled the sweet potato vines in the cable of the sea ship. ”

After that, Mrs. Miao personally came up and took Gu Lanjie's sleeve, and beckoned the well-behaved little girl Xu Huizhen and said, "Let's go, let's eat crabs with my wife and me, no matter how busy you are, you always have to eat." ”

Gu Lanjie excused himself: "Mrs. Miao, I just came out of the ground, and my clothes are so dirty that I can't look at them, so it's not good to go to the table." ”

Shen, the eldest daughter-in-law of the Gu family, who is well-trained, has come up and said affectionately: "They are all relatives, my sister is not outside, we have climbed all the way to the mountain, which one is not stained with grass and mud, let's go." ”

Yao Shi also said: "I originally brought a new robe today, and asked Sister Ximeng of the Han family to show the embroidery, if Grandma Xu doesn't dislike it, I will accompany Grandma Xu to change it when she enters the restaurant." ”

……

After half a burnt incense, in the private room of Heming Tower, the eldest grandmother Shen's personal maid and Han Xiying were shaking off a set of silk jackets and gowns to change clothes for Gu Lanjie.

A moment ago, Han Xiying took the initiative to go upstairs and wanted to squeeze in to help, saying that he was a junior, and it was not good to understand etiquette.

Yao's was surprised, serving and changing clothes was originally the business of the maids, and if the young lady didn't participate, where would she not know the etiquette?

She was secretly muttering to herself that Han Xiying was too lively, and on the circle chair on the side, Shen had already opened her mouth to chat with her: "The cloud shoulders of this pomegranate flower on Mrs. Huang's body, just Ximeng said that she embroidered it?" Ah Meng's embroidery skills are really not picky. ”

Yao echoed: "The pomegranate flowers on the shoulders of this cloud are bright in color, but the outline is extremely elegant, and there are the legacy of the two Song Dynasty paintings. By the way, grandma, I heard that Mrs. Miao's embroidery is also superb, and the marriage between Gu Fu and Han Fu is really destined fate. ”

Over there, Han Xiying suddenly took the initiative to interject: "My eldest sister, I haven't watched Song paintings recently, and I've changed to pondering the things of the Wa Kingdom." ”

"Wa Kingdom?" Shen's complexion changed slightly, and a solemn look appeared between his eyebrows.

Han Xiying still had a childish expression, and said seriously: "Well, it was the family that robbed Miss Zheng by mistake, and gave a piece of clothes from the Japanese Kingdom to pay compensation, and there are a few pictures of beauties. I wanted to look at it together, but Miss Zheng only showed her clothes, not the paintings. Miss Zheng, it's fierce. ”

Gu Lanjie, who was dressed in a gown, caught a glimpse of Shen's appearance out of the corner of his eye, and said warmly: "The painters of the Japanese Kingdom have indeed become famous overseas in recent years, and my father-in-law's Western friends have also mentioned it. As for embroidery, I think that when the Japanese people used to cooperate with my Ming Dynasty, they bought a lot of embroidery, and there were always people with ingenious hands and wise hearts, or they also became the jade of other mountains, and we can learn from them. ”

Shen nodded at Gu Lanjie, turned to Yao's and said: "However, the Japanese are always different from the people in the South and Western Oceans. Mrs. Huang, you Yuyao, you also had trouble back then, right? ”

Yao replied lightly: "It's been troublesome, when Jiajing Ye was in trouble, he destroyed the old Xie Ge's house in the previous dynasty." ”

Shen Shi "hissed" lightly and sighed, "Look at it, it's scary."

Yao Shi then expanded the following: "However, later people said that the descendants of Xie Ge Lao had colluded with my Ming maritime merchants for smuggling, and they wanted to rely on silver, and they collapsed, so the maritime merchants hired ronins from the Japanese Kingdom to wash the Xie family in blood. Therefore, the people fluttering on both sides are actually my Ming people, and the Japanese people are just one of them, hired dogs. ”

After listening to this, Gu Lanjie cast an approving gaze and said politely: "In the past, we had trouble in Songjiang Mansion, and it was similar, some of them were real widows, and some of them were actually Ming infighting. ”

The displeasure on Shen's face flashed, and she quickly stood up and smiled: "Oh, so." Fortunately, it's too peaceful now, let's go downstairs, the old lady of Mojiao is waiting. ”

Yao walked at the end, staring at Han Xiying's curling back, and smacked, this little girl is also sixteen, not like simple and straightforward, but like a slippery one, to orchestrate her sister's deviance.

Since Yao's heart was untied by Huang Zunsu, Zheng Haizhu accompanied and visited Songjiang Town, during which Zheng Haizhu also took the initiative to invite her to teach at the school.

She then made a note in her heart about Han Xiying's revelation that Han Ximeng studied Japanese painting, and decided to find a suitable opportunity to say that she knew Zheng Haizhu.

Everyone is responsible for what they say. Since the little girl dared to discuss, she couldn't stop the old listener from reminding her sister.

……

Mrs. Miao is in good spirits today.

She went to the pond with great interest and personally selected the hairy crabs.

After steaming and serving, a set of silver "eight crabs" was placed in front of each female dependent.

In the Susong area, everyone loves crabs, and everyone will use eight crabs, and everyone doesn't want the maid to do it for them, so they grabbed the strong crab with golden hair and white belly, and put it on the round silver platform in front of them, knocking and beating, picking and cutting scissors.

All of a sudden, countless green jade fingers on the table flew dexterously, wielding waist hammers, long-handled axes, thin forks, round-tipped scissors, chisels, spoons and other tools.

In an instant, the fat white crab meat and orange-red crab roe entered the mouths of the rouge sandalwood.

Zheng Haizhu stood behind Han Ximeng with the chrysanthemum water that washed her hands, and suddenly noticed that the Gu family's grandmother, Shen, used a hammer, scissors, forks, and silver spoons normally, so like other female relatives, she successfully ate crab roe, crab body and crab claws. Only when it came to the crab leg part, Shen was stuck.

The meat in the crab leg needs to be poked out with a long needle, but after Shen cut off the joints at both ends of the crab leg, he tried several times, but he couldn't poke the needle in.

Zheng Haizhu could see clearly, Shen's hand couldn't do this delicate action.

Zheng Haizhu glanced at the big maid behind Shen again, the maid's name was Cui Liu, she was twenty years old, a very smart and clever girl, and she was also staring directly at the hostess's hand at this time, and leaned forward slightly several times, but she didn't seem to dare to step forward to help.

She has a hand disease, she doesn't mind it, she doesn't want to look different from others?

When Zheng Haizhu was thinking silently, the old lady Miao, who was sitting next to Shen, naturally pulled out her hand and pinched the crab leg between Shen's fingers, and with a poke of the fine chisel, a smooth and fat crab leg meat came out.

Shen took it quietly and took it into his mouth.

Zheng Haizhu clearly captured a trace of compassion in Mrs. Miao's eyes.