A very small courtyard, an adobe house, covered with gray-black tiles, and the courtyard gate is the kind of wood that is crisscrossed horizontally and vertically, or there is a special word - firewood.

If you don't see it with your own eyes, who can believe that this is the residence of the officials of the Ming Dynasty, anyone who looks at it will feel that this is an ordinary people's home, or a relatively ordinary kind.

Xia Yuan took the roster in his hand and compared it, and then took a look at the courtyard through the firewood with his feet, but he didn't see anyone.

In the end, he simply pushed the firewood and went in, and just took a few steps forward.

"Who?"

A woman's voice came from the house at hand, and then a woman pushed open the small dark wooden door and leaned out half of her body.

Almost at the same time, Xia Yuan also turned his head to see that it was a young woman, looking at her twenties, wearing a thick coarse cotton jacket, without any powder on her face, and without any accessories.

The appearance of the plain face reminded him of the little camelina in the past, when the little camelina also wore coarse cloth clothes all day long, but now it is different, and now she wears silk and satin all day long.

"Dare to ask you yes."

The woman noticed the clothes on Xia Yuan's body, whether it was a robe or a fox fur cloak, which showed that she was either rich or expensive, and her tone couldn't help but be a little hesitant and helpless.

"Your husband's name is Liu Jiyu, and he works in the Guozijian?"

Hearing this, the woman's expression suddenly darkened, and her face obviously showed a bit of sadness, thinking about it, she also knew that her husband was imprisoned, but then she cheered up and said: "It's the father-in-law, I don't know if the adult is my father-in-law's official?" ”

"Yes."

Xia Yuan didn't think much about it before admitting it, and the woman wiped her clothes a few times with her hand, and walked out and saluted, "I've seen my lord." ”

At this time, a little head poked out from behind the door, it was a little girl of seven or eight years old, and when she looked at her, Xia Yuan smiled very kindly at her, and the little girl timidly retracted her little head.

Withdrawing his gaze, Xia Yuan asked, "Is this your daughter?" ”

"Yes, I'm eight years old this year, but I'm timid and afraid to see people, but I make adults laugh."

"What's laughing about this, I also have a timid girl at home."

The woman looked at Xia Yuan's extremely young face, and couldn't help asking, "The adult has a daughter now?" ”

"Oh, yes."

Xia Yuan was embarrassed to say that it was his daughter-in-law, so he answered vaguely, and just put his hand into the cuff, but the little girl poked her head out again, "Mother, is the bun ripe?" I'm hungry."

Hearing this, the woman said to Xia Yuan with some embarrassment: "Wait a minute, my lord, I'll go in and have a look." ”

As he spoke, he bowed down apologetically, and then entered the small black wooden door.

Xia Yuan stood outside to look, it turned out that there was a stove room in this wooden door, at this time it was just dark, and there was still a little light outside, but the stove room was dark, only the firewood in the stove flashed fire.

The woman lifted the lid of the steamer on the stove, and a large white heat steamed throughout the stove, and in the steamer were more than a dozen black steamed buns.

The little girl standing by the stove had her eyes lit up, twitched her nose vigorously, opened her mouth and said happily: "Mother, there are so many steamed buns." ”

The woman wiped the moisture on her forehead with her hand, reached out and touched the black bun in the steamer, retracted her hand hotly, and then touched it again, and finally endured the heat and picked one up, and turned it back and forth in the palm of her hand. Then he broke it in half and handed half of it to his daughter, "Finch, you can eat this half today, and keep the rest for later." ”

The little girl swallowed her saliva, stretched out her little hand to take the bun, took a small bite and put it in her mouth, and then nodded sensibly.

"That's all you eat?"

The woman turned her head, only to find that the adult walked in at some point, Xia Yuan didn't look at her, just stared at the cage of steamed buns, black steamed buns, should be steamed with sorghum noodles.

The grain of the Ming Dynasty is also divided into grades, rice, white flour are refined grains, the price is expensive, and this kind of sorghum flour is relatively cheap.

In his previous life, he heard the old people in his family say that this kind of steamed steamed bun with sorghum or peach millet will cause stomach bloating and constipation when eaten.

"How much rice is left in the house? That's all? ”

Hearing these questions, the woman seemed to be a little at a loss, but she couldn't see her expression clearly in the dark stove, and she just hummed softly.

"My father-in-law's money has not been paid for a few months, and I have paid the monthly rent of this yard, and the family really has no money left to buy grain and rice, so it can only be like this."

Talking about the current predicament, the woman took out a black steamed bun from the cage drawer, "My lord, there is nothing to entertain at home, if the adult does not dislike it, please use it." ”

Xia Yuan didn't take the steamed bun, and took out the twenty taels of silver ingots from his cuffs, "Take this silver and go to the street tomorrow to buy some rice and meat, pull a few pieces of cloth, and save the rest for keeping." ”

Looking at the silver ingot, the woman was even more at a loss, and waved her hand again and again, "My lord, this. I can't ask for it. ”

Xia Yuan didn't answer, put the silver ingot on the stove by himself, and then said: "It's the New Year, pull a few pieces of cloth for your daughter to make a few new clothes, and eat some good ones, not to mention that you can't eat more steamed buns with sorghum noodles, it's not good for the stomach." ”

Speaking of this, Xia Yuan smiled, and looked at the woman with bright eyes, "What's more, this silver tael is not given by me, but a debt issued by the imperial court, which has dragged on for a few months, although you are in prison when you make a fuss, but the emperor also knows about it, and he allocated the silver taels from the inner treasury and issued this arrears, which is deserved, take it." ”

“.”

After listening to these words quietly, the woman was silent for a while before she said softly, "Master Xie." ”

Hearing this, Xia Yuan knew that she didn't believe this statement, but she really needed this silver, so she tacitly said: "You should thank the emperor, thank me for what?" ”

"Your Majesty."

"Okay, I'll go first, and your husband doesn't have to worry about it, although he will have to suffer some hardships, his life is safe."

After saying this, Xia Yuan turned around and walked out of the dim stove room, and after walking a few steps, he heard a thud behind him, he stopped slightly, did not look back, and continued to walk forward.

It wasn't until he pushed away the firewood and walked out of the small courtyard, and before getting into the carriage, he asked the coachman who was also the guard: "Lao Wang, do you think it is good to be an official?" ”

Lao Wang is not surnamed Wang, but surnamed Shi, Shi Dashan, who was brought back from Puzhou, his wife and children in Puzhou are all gone, and he has nothing, so he followed Xia Yuan back to Beijing.

All the maids in Xia Mansion live in the same small courtyard, and next door to the courtyard wall lives Shi Dashan, and Xia Yuan called him Lao Wang.

Shi Dashan didn't know what this old king meant, in Xia Yuan's mouth, this was called a new name and a new life.

He felt that it made sense, and now when he heard this question, he was stunned at first, and then shook his head loyally, "I don't know, I think it's good to be a guard for the young master." ”

"Well said, I will give you a big red envelope on Chinese New Year's Eve."

After saying this, Xia Yuan opened the door and got into the carriage, after a whip, the carriage moved slowly, he lifted the curtain of the car window and looked out, and looked at the small courtyard, as well as the yellow mud house.

Withdrawing his gaze, Xia Yuan picked up the booklet again, he wanted to go one by one in person, but so many people were really lacking in skills, and they caught up with the New Year.

"Lao Wang, turn around and go to the eastern suburbs."

(End of chapter)