"Rong'er, you don't have to worry about sleeping in the wilderness tonight."
Although there is a horse-drawn carriage for accommodation, and it is somewhat sheltered from the wind and rain, but after all, it is snowing heavily, so how can the temperature inside the carriage be warm?
Seeing a village appear in the distance, like a drowning man seeing a piece of driftwood appearing in the river, "Drive--" Guo Mo waved his whip and rushed towards the village.
When we got closer, we discovered that the village was not actually next to the main road. It looked like it was at least more than a mile away from the main road to the north.
"Longwangzhuang" - a village name with Chinese characteristics. In the vast land of China, there are not many villages with such a name.
The village is not big, with only one main street and a few hundred or so households.
Guo Mo drove the carriage back and forth twice, but he couldn't find an inn where he could stay.
"Rong'er, this 'Dragon King Village' is sparsely populated and there is no inn where we can stay. How about we find someone else to stay at? How can we solve the problem of food and drink?"
It was already getting late, and it was still snowing heavily. This place was unfamiliar to me. If I missed it, I didn’t know where to find it.
Huang Rong also came out of the carriage and sat on the other side of the carriage. Looking at the snow and wind in the sky, she was eager to have some fun.
"Brother Mo, I listen to you. I am also a little hungry. The cooking cakes and beef I brought are also hard and not delicious."
Seeing that Huang Rong did not object, Guo Mo spurred the vehicle to the east end of the village.
When I passed by just now, I saw a quite large yard there. It looked like it was the richest family in "Longwangzhuang".
When they came closer, they parked the carriage and jumped off the shaft. They saw a plaque "Zhang Zhai" hanging across the door.
In ancient times, door plaques were very particular. If a house had a door plaque with the word "Zhai" on it, it must be a well-to-do home.
"Dang, Dang, Dang," Guo Mo stepped forward and knocked on the door knocker.
Maybe it was because of the heavy wind and snow, but no one came to open the door after knocking for a long time.
Guo Mo was helpless and couldn't care less about shocking the world.
While knocking on the door knocker again, he used his inner strength and shouted: "Is anyone at home? People passing by come to disturb me and ask Haihan."
"Dang Dang Dang——"
"Come on, come on -" Not long after, I heard a man's voice coming from inside.
Immediately afterwards, there was a "crunch, crunch" sound in the snow, and "bang, squeak -" the door was opened from the inside.
A middle-aged man in his forties, who looked like a housekeeper, stretched out his head and looked at Guo Mo and Huang Rong.
I saw two young men and women. The man was gentle and elegant, with a heroic face, and the woman was pretty and radiant.
The middle-aged man relaxed his guard and asked, "What's the matter with you two coming to Zhang's Mansion?"
Guo Mo stepped forward and replied: "This uncle has invited me. My brother and sister are passing by here and don't want to get lost in the mountains. It's freezing cold and we missed Sutou."
"I want to stay at your house for one night and leave tomorrow. I'll pay you the price when I leave. I hope uncle can make it easier for me." After saying that, Guo Mo bowed deeply.
The middle-aged uncle hurriedly stepped away, not daring to accept this courtesy, "This little brother is too polite. In this case, I can't make the decision. You two will go and report to my master later."
The middle-aged man closed the door, turned around and left, and heard the sound of "crunch, crunch" stepping on the snow again, gradually fading away.
Not much time passed, just a cup of tea, and the sound of stepping on the snow came again.
The door opened, and there was still the middle-aged man, followed by what looked like a boy.
"You two, I just told the master about you two. The master said that it is not easy to be away from home, so I promised you two to stay in the guest room for one night. You two come with me."
Then, he opened the gate and saw that Guo Mo and the others were still driving the carriage. He hurriedly asked the boy to drive the carriage to the backyard, and there was a special person to wait on him.
It seems that they are really a wealthy family, and they are also quite particular.
Seeing how considerate and polite he was, Guo Mo didn't dare to neglect him. He hurriedly took out five taels of silver from his arms and handed it to the middle-aged man.
"Thank you so much, uncle. You can take this little money first."
"The two of us haven't eaten much all day, so I'd like to ask uncle to prepare some food. In addition, these three horses also need to be fed."
To be polite, the middle-aged man was particularly happy to see Guo Mo get five taels of silver out of his hand. He agreed wholeheartedly and personally took Guo Mo and Huang Rong to the guest room.
"Don't be offended, you two. I don't live here on weekdays. I just happened to be here to do some things these days, and you two just happened to catch up." This butler is also a talkative person.
"It's a pity that no one comes to this house on weekdays. This is the only guest room that can be accommodated for the time being. Fortunately, you are brothers and sisters, so you can just make do with it for one night."
As the middle-aged man spoke, he took Guo Mo and Huang Rong to a wing on the east side of the yard.
I opened the door and turned on the light. The room was very cold, but fortunately it was clean. It seemed that someone had cleaned it on weekdays.
"You two sit down for a while, and I'll ask the kitchen to bring dinner over, and then ask someone to bring over a charcoal basin." After the middle-aged man finished speaking, he turned around and went out.
Guo Mo took a look at the house. It was quite decent, with two rooms inside and outside, complete with tables, chairs and benches, and even a wardrobe. However, there was only one bed in the inner room.
Fortunately, Guo Mo and Huang Rong have been together for so long, and they both know each other's feelings.
Although everyone stayed in an inn in a room, they often slept in the open, not to mention that during those few months in the "Daiyu Mountain" valley, they didn't just live in a cave.
It was not long before the middle-aged man knocked on the door again and came in, followed by the boy carrying a food box in his hand.
He opened the food box and brought out three dishes, two bowls of porridge, and a few steamed buns.
During the Song Dynasty, Chinese food reached a very high level. Take this steamed bun as an example, the steamed buns at this time were obviously different from the steamed buns of later generations.
The steamed buns at this time were actually steamed buns in later generations, with fillings, including sour fillings and meat fillings.
Sour stuffing is plain steamed stuffed buns. During the Chongning period, sour stuffing was also called "a bag of vegetables" (Cai) to satirize Prime Minister Cai Jing.
Every year on the seventh day of the first lunar month, wealthy families in Kyoto would put small pieces of wood into the sour stuffing, with official titles or auspicious words written on them, which meant rising high.
It's just that this kind of steamed buns is still popular among officials or students, and the public still eats a lot of cooking cakes. I didn't expect to see steamed buns in this small village.
The other three dishes include stir-fried tofu, an egg with green onions, and a chicken, which is quite rich.
"You two can make do with it. There is nothing to entertain in this small village. This is brought from Runan City."
"Hey, uncle, you're welcome. This is already a lot." Guo Mo quickly thanked him.
"Uncle just said 'Runan' city, is this the boundary of 'Runan'?" Guo Mo just thought that he was lost, but he didn't expect to be so far away.
Runan City is in the northeast corner of Xiangyang, about three hundred miles away.
When the middle-aged man saw Guo Mo's surprised look, he remembered that he had just said that the two of them were lost. He was about to introduce it in detail when suddenly another boy ran in from outside.
"Butler, butler, it's not good, the little boy's illness has recurred again."
"The master asked you to go there quickly. You might have to drive overnight to Runan City."