058 Thousands of Trees and Thousands of Pear Blossoms
In mid-October, the temperature dropped sharply, as if it went from bearable cold to subzero overnight.
At night, Xu Yue, who was sleeping on the kang, suddenly felt that all the warmth was being sucked out of her body, and a hard cold penetrated her back and froze directly to her heart.
Xu Yue woke up from the cold.
When I reached out and touched it, I realized that the fire kang had been extinguished at some point and had lost its temperature.
A winter quilt stuffed with reed catkins and fragments of old linen clothes could keep warm under the presence of a fire, but as soon as the fire went out, I suddenly shivered from the cold.
When she got on the kang before going to bed, it was still warm, even a little hot, so Xu Yue only wore a single piece of clothing to sleep.
Unexpectedly, I woke up from the cold.
There was a faint sound of wind coming from outside the house. The window panel at the end of the kang was not closed tightly, and the wind made a "bang bang bang" sound.
Daqing's papermaking industry was underdeveloped, and it was later transformed by a eunuch named Cai that paper could be written on, so the windows of ordinary people's homes were completely different from what Xu Yue had seen in costume TV dramas.
Windows throughout Beicheng are divided into two layers: inside and outside. The inside is a hollow vertical rod window lattice, and the outside is covered with a whole wooden board to prevent wind and rain. Normally, when the wooden board is propped up, it can transmit light, but when it is lowered, it blocks the light source.
Therefore, when it really snowed, Xu Erniang's previously imagined romantic scene of sitting by the window and watching the snow could not be realized at all.
If the window panels are lifted and the wind and snow roll in, people can freeze to death.
The "whirring" sound of the wind leaked in from under the window panel along with the "rustling" sound of rice grains. Xu Yue crawled out of bed, put on her coat and went to the window in the dark. She gently pushed open the window panel, and a glimmer of light came through.
Come in.
Under the gray sky in the early morning, the ground was covered with silvery white. The salt-like snow particles blew on her face with the wind. When it touched the warm skin, it instantly turned into water, which made her feel cold.
Snowing!
Not caring about admiring the snowy scenery, Xu Yue hurriedly lowered the window panels, and the room fell into darkness again.
Xu Erniang also woke up and asked confusedly: "Is the kang extinguished?"
Xu Yue hummed and told her sister that it was snowing outside.
Xu Erniang clamped the quilt tightly, feeling the chill at this moment, and could no longer think of anything romantic or romantic.
Now she just wants a magic robe that can maintain a constant temperature.
What's pity is that now she can't even buy the fabric to make a magic robe. Perhaps what's even more tragic is that there is no fabric to make a magic robe here!
Since they couldn't fall asleep anymore, the sisters simply got dressed and got up to go out for a visit and start the kang again.
However, the moment the wooden door opened, the two sisters felt the stinging pain and coldness like a knife, and immediately retracted their stretched out feet.
I turned around and went back into the house, went to the low drawer cabinet made by my grandma, and took out all the clothes in it and put them on me.
I put on two tattered old linen clothes, two new single clothes, put on new cloth socks, and tied clogs under the linen shoes. I was ready before I dared to go out.
The sky and the earth turned white, the snow reflected light, and the sky was so bright in the early morning that there was no need to light up the lights at all.
The two sisters went to the kitchen connected to the room and took a look. The kang hole where the fire was burning was not covered and was extinguished by the snow.
The two sisters rekindled the fire, and noises were heard from other rooms. Wang, Xu Da, and Xu Dalang all got up.
The reaction was exactly the same as that of the two sisters. First they were awakened by the sudden snowy weather, then they hurried back to the house and put on all their clothes to keep out the cold, and then walked out.
"It's only mid-October, the snow is falling a bit early." Xu Da said with emotion as he stood under the eaves with his sleeves rolled up.
Xu Yue and Xu Erniang called daddy and ran into the main room behind Xu Da.
The couple did not sleep on the same kang. There were four rooms in the house. Xu Dalang slept in the west room, Xu Yue and his sisters slept in the east room, Xu Da slept in the living room of the main room, and Wang slept in a small side room next to the main room.
The kang in the main room was large and warm. Because the kang was burned in the house, Xu Da paid more attention to the fact that the fire was still burning brightly and had not been extinguished.
The two sisters hid in their father's quilt, breathed into their little hands and absorbed the warmth of the fire pit, finally feeling relieved.
But the reality is cruel, none of the things she talked about are available here.
Maybe there are, because they are all in the homes of rich people and have nothing to do with her, a little girl from the slums.
Wang and Xu Dalang entered the house one after another. Wang took the newly bought bow and arrows in his hand and seemed to be going out.
"What are you going to do?" Xu Da asked doubtfully.
While packing up, Mrs. Wang said, "I'm going out of the city. I'm going to go hunting in the mountains before the snow is too heavy. I'll give the children some fur clothes to wear."
As he said that, he looked up at Xu Da who had not started to clean up yet, "Didn't you and Wang Da also pick up the beds from several houses? Go early and come back early. I may not be able to come back today. You come back early to take care of the children."
"What?" Xu Da frowned, "Just go out on a snowy day. Aren't you afraid of freezing to death on the mountain if you don't come back at night?"
"Second mother, young mother, grandma is gone. Don't save firewood. Keeping warm is important. If someone comes to sell firewood later, buy more."
Ignoring Xu Da at all, Wang finished explaining to the children, put on her straw hat and went out.
"Wang Xu!" Xu Dachong shouted at the figure behind him.
The only response he received was the sound of the door slamming.
Xu's atmosphere was overwhelming, but his eyes were clearly full of anxiety and concern, but the person was already gone, and he could only pray that this girl's kung fu was high enough and she would come back safely as soon as possible.
Xu Da walked into the house and put on the only sheepskin fur coat in the house.
The garment is knee-length, and is not made of good material. The wool is very stiff, and the outside is sewn with thick silk.
A very ordinary fur coat, something that Mr. Xu would never even look at before, costs nearly two thousand dollars.
The jade bracelet that Wang gave him before was not enough, but later he asked the young lady to bring out an extra string, which was enough.
Calculating now, the young lady should only have a string of bracelets and a small piece of gold cake left.
There are four taels of that little gold cake, one pound is sixteen taels in Daqing, one pound of gold is worth ten thousand taels, so this little gold cake is only 2,500 taels.
The jade bracelet cost 900 yuan, plus the 1,000 yuan for the five pieces of linen he earned in the past half month by helping people make bed beds, the total was only 4,400 yuan.
Even if children's fur clothes are cheaper than adult fur clothes, it is far from enough to buy one for each of the other four people in the family.
Thinking of this, Xu Da suddenly felt a little ashamed. Previously, he wanted to lie down on the kang and sleep, but now when it snowed, he realized that he didn't even have basic food and clothing.
He has never been so poor in the four hundred years since he was born, and Xu Da expressed that he was tired.
But no matter how much I complain in my heart, my body still acts honestly.
He told Xu Yue and Xu Erniang to take good care of the house, but without eating breakfast, Xu Da braved the wind and snow to call Wang Dayou and continued the journey of Pan Kang that they had not yet completed.
