The axe was fetched.

An Guangmao also seemed to become more sober, and most of his alcohol was gone.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew in the courtyard from nowhere, and autumn was bleak.

Against the cool autumn wind, An Guangmao took the axe from Annan's trembling hands. The wooden handle was old and almost decayed, but the blade was silvery, as if it had recently been finely polished.

Seeing An Guangmao's difficult steps, An Nan couldn't help but speak: "Or let the eldest brother ......"

"I'm not dead yet!" An Guangmao suddenly said fiercely.

Annan hurriedly stopped. With concerned eyes, he watched An Guangmao carrying an axe and walking step by step towards the camphor tree in the courtyard.

The wind blew harder, and the loquat tree planted at the other end of the yard was blown off a large handful of leaves, which hit Annan one after another. He squinted his eyes to prevent the wind and sand, and his eyes were firmly following An Guangmao, who was constantly moving forward in the wind.

In the front yard of An's house, two trees were planted, a low, thin loquat tree, whose leaves were often sparse and scattered, and the fruits that bear fruit every year were quite sweet.

The other is the camphor tree that An Guangmao is walking towards at this time. The trunk of the tree is straight, the branches are luxuriant, although the age of the tree is not more than ten, but it is already towering.

Annan watched his eldest brother and father plant the tree in the courtyard. That year, his sister An Qing was born, and his mother also fell ill because of giving birth to An Qing, and since then she has been bedridden all year round, and her complexion is rarely good.

The wind is getting stronger. The leaves of the loquat tree whistled through the courtyard with sand and soil.

Annan turned his eyes to look under the eaves and saw An Xingguo's figure. Like him, he stood silently, his eyes following his father closely.

An Guangmao finally walked in front of the camphor tree.

"I finally gave birth to a girl, what should I call it?"

"You, other people's families want fat sons, it's not enough for you to give birth to two, but you want a daughter. ”

"Isn't this the birth of a daughter, and you won't feel lonely in the future?"

"I said Lao An, no matter if you give birth to a boy or a girl, it will be the same in the end. The son goes out, and the daughter has to get married after all. ”

“......”

"Haha, look at what scares you, it's been this virtue since you were a child, and it's the father of three children, and you can't change it. I think this kid might as well be called An Xiaoscare, and scare you every day in the future. ”

“...... The weather is so good today, let's call it Anqing. ”

At that time, in order to prevent his daughter from being called An Xiaoxiao so casually, he had an idea to come up with a name that still sounds quite good to this day.

Unexpectedly, the pale woman who was still lying on the delivery bed covered her mouth and laughed.

"What a fool. She said, "If the youngest daughter follows you, I don't know what man will trick her to the ends of the earth." ”

Since the day An Qing and Zhao Wu'an returned to Qingdi Township together, An Guangmao had found the axe from the depths of the utility room that was piled up at home. Get up early every day to scrub and wash, and to this day, it is finally sharp.

This tree was also planted from the day An Qing was born.

Caressing the thick trunk of the tree, An Guangmao raised the axe, tried to open his eyes, and pondered the position of the axe by the starlight.

The first axe must be cut smoothly, and if it is cut down, it cannot be diverted, and it is necessary to steadily split half of the roots of the tree, which is called a horse Pingchuan.

An Guangmao chopped the first axe, but it was not crooked, but it was shorter than expected. He gestured with his hand, and it wasn't much of a problem, but it would take a lot of effort to cut it in next.

Two more axes were added to the surroundings, and seeing that it was almost there, An Guangmao went around to the back of the tree, lifted the axe to a slightly higher place, and slashed it down steadily. It's getting more and more handy.

He is not a woodcutter, so it is inevitable that he will be rusty to do this. However, even if more wood is chopped and cut down in this life, this one is the only one, and it can't be bad no matter what.

The wind was blowing through the small courtyard, the leaves were fluttering, and the canopy of the trees slowly fell to the side.

An Guangmao shook, as if he couldn't avoid his body, and seeing that he was about to be hit by a big tree, An Nan and An Xingguo under the eaves hurriedly rushed out.

"Don't come here!"

An Guangmao, who has always been benevolent, did his best at this time and stopped his two sons.

The big tree narrowly brushed An Guangmao's body and fell, and the branches scratched his face. An Guangmao was not afraid.

An Xingguo and An Nan stopped and glanced at each other, their eyes full of worry.

An Guangmao slowly walked to the fallen camphor tree, holding an axe, and cut off the excess branches and leaves on the tree little by little, leaving only the thick trunk.

The remnants of wood on the base are made into a jewelry box. The pearl pendants and jade bracelets that An Guangmao has saved up to buy over the years have all been put into it. When Mrs. An was young, her family was still generous, so she bought two or three pairs of jade bracelets, and this time she had to take out all of them.

Counting the half from the crown downwards, cut off the excess branches and leaves, hollow out the middle, and pound them into a flat suitcase. In addition to the wedding dress that must be worn on the wedding day, the clothes of the four seasons and the replacement of shoes and hats are all indispensable.

From the root to the middle of the tree, a large section of light and strong wood was split in half and nailed, and then the pair of silk pillows that had been dried in the back room for several days were put away.

An Guangmao thought as he waved the axe in his hand. Cut it here, knock it there, do it while you think about it, and pour a bowl of cold tea to refresh yourself when you are sleepy.

Annan brought an ink ruler and a hammer, and An Xingguo also went to the inner room to bring out two stools, sat down next to the collapsed camphor tree, and beat them along the wood drawn by An Guangmao.

An Guangmao squinted, didn't make a sound, and continued to do the work in his hands.

The bright moon sank in the west, a touch of fish belly white rose in the eastern sky, and the morning chicken at the head of the village began to cluck again.

The father and son were busy all night, but there was not the slightest look of exhaustion on their faces.

A large camphor tree with lush foliage was also in their hands, turning into several boxes of different sizes.

An Guangmao put down the axe that he had been holding all night and looked at the back room. His wife had always slept lightly at night, and I don't know if she had been disturbed last night.

Annan and An Xingguo carefully moved the largest box to a corner of the courtyard, raised their heads, and wiped the sweat from their faces.

"It's almost painted. Anxing National Road, "Let me come." ”

There is an unwritten rule in Qingdi Township that when a daughter gets married, her biological father needs to cut down the tree and the eldest son paint it.

An Guangmao didn't say anything, just nodded.

————————

Somehow, An Qing woke up very early today.

As soon as the rooster at the head of the village crowed, she opened her eyes.

Brushing her loose sideburns to the back of her head, An Qing sat up, only to find that the other half of the bed was empty. She was stunned and panicked for no reason.

After all, it was the last night before getting married, and at the behest of Mrs. An, An Qing hugged the futon early last night and slept on the largest bed in the house with her mother.

The two hugged the quilt and said that it was very late, and An Qing was so sleepy that she couldn't open her eyes in the end, so she barely fell asleep, but she woke up early this morning.

As if hearing the movement in the back room, Mrs. An in the hall pushed the door and entered, combing her hair while looking at the sleepy-eyed An Qing.

"Awake?"

An Qing nodded blankly. "Why did my mother get up so early?"

Mrs. An held the wooden comb and struggled to comb her messy hair neatly, and a smile appeared on her face, which looked a little thin because she had been sick in bed all the year round: "Today is also the day of your marriage, and my mother naturally wants to dress up well." ”

An Qing didn't come back to her senses in a daze, so she heard Mrs. An continue softly: "Then, I'll help you dress up." Qing'er must be the best-looking girl in ten miles and eight towns today. ”

An Qing blushed slightly.

Mrs. An chuckled and held up the wooden comb and said, "Come, let me comb Qing'er's hair." ”

————————

Around noon, the door of An's house was filled with guests who came to congratulate one after another. The neighbors who take care of each other on weekdays are naturally not a problem, and there are more than 30 people in the yamen where An Guangmao is located, from servants to servants, and the dark official uniforms occupy half of the road.

In the previous Blue Ghost case, none of the three families involved in the case appeared at the scene, but Mrs. Duan still sent a good congratulatory gift.

An Guangmao stood at the door to pick up guests, and when he saw this congratulatory gift with the name of the Duan family, he was also stunned for a long time, but still accepted it with a smile.

Thinking about the green ghost case in Qingdi Township back then, it shocked the big case of ten miles and eight townships. Aside from the mystery of the mass grave, the killing of the father and the son alone is sensational enough. After Kong Baisang was imprisoned, Mrs. Kong went crazy not long after, and she didn't know where she ran away on a dark and windy night, and the former Kong family is now a barren.

The other two families survived tenaciously. Mrs. Duan dragged her sick body, supported the entire crumbling Duan family with one hand, and succeeded a nephew from a distant relative, and the days seemed to have returned to the time before Duan Bangcai died.

When it comes to the Blue Ghost case, I have to think of another person. An Guangmao looked left and right in the crowd, and sure enough, he saw the person he was looking for.

Zhang Chen also came, still wearing a sackcloth and a white veil, but a saffron was pinned to the veil.

When it was her turn to be in front of An Guangmao, she didn't hand over anything, but just bent down slightly and said: "I have been wearing linen for my nephew for three years, and now I am still in the period, I think I can't afford to eat this wedding banquet, so let's send a wish." ”

An Guangmao said with a pleasant face: "It's okay, go in and sit, there are several tables for this wedding banquet." ”

Zhang Chen shook his head stubbornly and said, "How can this wedding banquet accommodate a woman dressed in linen...... Besides, I didn't have any congratulatory gifts for me......"

"Let's go inside. ”

Another gentle voice rang in my ears, and it was hard to refuse. Zhang Chen was stunned, raised his head, and saw Zhao Wu'an in a bright red wedding dress beside him.

An Guangmao was also stunned, and then smiled: "The groom official spoke, but he had to obey." ”

Seeing the main lord appear, the crowd gathered in front of An's house let out a burst of cheers.

After a long time, when he saw Zhao Wu'an again, Zhang Chen somehow burst into tears.

She looked solemn and bowed deeply to Zhao Wu'an.

Zhao Wu'an smiled bitterly and helped her, and said softly, "It doesn't have to be like this. ”

"Thank you. Zhang Chen was still stubborn.

Zhao Wu'an scratched his chin, "You don't need to call me Engong...... After all, I haven't changed anything, and I haven't brought Zhang Jinzhou back to life. ”

Zhang Chen shook his head stubbornly.

"The Zhang family is poor, and they don't have much to do, only a few songs in Liyuan in the early years. I would like to sing a song 'Congratulations to the Bridegroom' for Engong at the wedding banquet. ”

Pity the hearts of parents all over the world.

Zhao Wu'an didn't know that what Zhang Chen wanted most was that he was afraid that he would sing this song to congratulate the groom at Zhang Jinzhou's wedding banquet.

It's just that it won't get its way.

So he gently tugged at Zhang Chen's sleeve and smoothed out the folds on the woman's clothes.

"I see, sing it. He said leisurely.