The early morning smoke had not yet cleared, and while the hoarders were weeding and composting in their fields one after another, the carpenter Ah Shan asked loudly from outside the fence.
Aya came out to open the door with her baby in her arms, and let Ah Shan into the yard with a smile.
Naturally, the passing households and neighbors living nearby saw it.
They suddenly realized what they were doing.
No wonder there were girls from Chongming who came to watch plays and sideshows before, but Ah Shan was nowhere to be seen. Logically speaking, this hot-blooded young bachelor shouldn't be so cold-blooded. Isn't it right to keep his dead wife alive?
In recent days, everyone finally got a clue. It turns out that this guy is very smart and he has taken a liking to Mrs. Zheng's subordinates.
Although this Aya was young, she was able to organize a boatload of people to land on Chongming Island, and healed the rotten hooves of several mules and horses as soon as they arrived. Mrs. Zheng and Manager Wu didn't talk to her like they did to their servants.
tone.
Thinking about it, Ashan is skilled and smart. If he gets married to the young widow Aya, he will be more likely to be valued by Mrs. Zheng.
Ah Shan calmly pushed the firewood door open, blocking the meaningful glances of fellow villagers. When he turned around, he was already smiling and said, "Xiao Doubao, come here to see something fun."
Xiaodoubao is Aya's daughter, she is over two years old. Girls have been born early, and Xiaodoubao has been running around with her mother since she was a baby. She has a good sense of security and knowledge. At this young age, she is already very experienced in dealing with adults.
Constitution.
She glanced at her mother's face, then stepped forward with determination, happily dragging the wooden pony with wooden wheels, ran up a few steps, then turned back to Ah Shan, and picked up the wooden pony from the hollow frame on the horse's back.
Each wooden mechanism came out and he asked Ah Shan in a sweet voice: "Uncle, what are these? How to play them?"
Ashan squatted down, grabbed four curved wooden crutches, aligned the tenons, and clicked them a few times to form a perfect circle. As it slid to the ground, the wooden circle rolled up, and Doubao hurriedly chased after it, giggling.
Dehuan.
Aya said softly: "These tenons are so interesting."
Ah Shan raised his eyes and looked at her: "Yes, our ancestor Lu Ban gave us food to eat, and carpentry has been passed down for two thousand years. Now in our Ming Dynasty, there are dozens of types of mortise and tenon joints. What kind of thing can't be done?
If I take out a disciple in two years, we can connect the master and the disciple with tenons and build a bridge over the small river outside, so that it will not collapse for a hundred years."
Aya's face was relaxed, but her brain was in a state of high reception of information. She was memorizing every word of Ah Shan, and then quickly made a preliminary judgment and looked for doubts.
Zheng Haizhu gave her the task of investigating Ah Shan and helped her get started. A few days ago, Zheng Haizhu chatted with Ah Shan leisurely that Xiao Doubao was his goddaughter and asked Ah Shan to make some wooden gadgets for her.
It is better to make children happy than to make those dull and fragile clay dolls in the county.
Aya then sent Ah Shan several meals in the name of gratitude, took the opportunity to chat, and asked a lot of questions with a woman's natural curiosity and compassion.
According to Miss Zheng, if Ashan made up his source, then he might give different details to different people at different times on the same question.
But after chatting several times, Aya wrote down the answer and reported it to Miss Zheng. She saw a slightly disappointed look in Miss Zheng's eyes.
Obviously, there is no inconsistency in Ah Shan’s remarks.
At this moment, Aya came into the room and brought out some tea, handed it to Ah Shan, and sat down to watch the man demonstrate how to connect the mortise and tenon to the doll.
In this pleasant atmosphere under the sun, Aya said harmoniously: "It's not simple. People in Liaodong are good at blacksmithing, but there are very few skilled carpenters."
A hint of pride flashed in Ashan's eyes: "Famous teachers produce great apprentices. My master was originally a famous carpenter in his hometown in Shandong, making furniture for wealthy families."
"Then why did you go to Liaodong and outside Kuandian Pass?" Aya asked suddenly.
Ah Shan's movements of building a bridge for the bean buns never stopped: "The master is fond of wine. He hurt people when he was drunk. After being punished, he could not be bullied. He escaped from the customs and settled in our village."
He spoke very naturally.
This is the truth, Ashan thought to himself. If there had not been such a Shandong master, he would not have been doing carpentry since he was a child, he would not have learned a Chinese with a Shandong accent, and he would not have been involved in the plan to come south this time.
Four Baylor has been entrusted with important tasks.
Aya asked again: "Then your master is still in Liaodong?"
Ah Shan sighed: "Master is dead."
"He was also killed by Tatars? Dog Tatars!"
"No, my heart hurts, it hurts like hell," Ah Shan's face suddenly turned cold and he stared blankly at the lumps in front of him. He spoke again after a moment, "But you are right, Tatars are dogs, no, even dogs are
It's better that the Tatars killed my mother. When she was alive, my mother could also build tenons, and she told me that when she has grandchildren in the future, she will accompany them to build small bridges, cars, small tables and chairs."
Aya stared at Ah Shan, unable to find any flaws in the way the other person was not looking at her, because it was not because he was dodging, but because he was crying.
The man's tears are not ripples, but they are still tears, falling one by one on the tenon.
Xiaodoubao, who was playing so enthusiastically, quickly stopped his hand, tilted his head to look at Uncle Ah Shan's eye sockets, then wiped away the scattered sawdust in his palms, and raised his hand to stroke away the tears hanging on Ah Shan's cheekbones.
Ah Shan's heart moved.
He remembered that when he was a child, Amma was not good to E Niang and allowed Fu Jin to bully E Niang. He also helped her wipe away her tears like a little bean bag countless times.
Ah Shan touched Xiao Doubao's furry little head, grinned and said, "Come on, let's continue building this small bridge."
Then, he raised his head again and looked deeply at Aya: "Sister, Doubao is so sensible. You are so lucky."
Ah Shan mastered the tenderness of a man towards a woman, which was not difficult for a Beizi like him who was married in Hetuala.
On that day, Zheng Haizhu suddenly appeared in the workshop. Although he encouraged him to work hard on the cart and showed no signs of suspicion, Ah Shan looked back and reflected on himself, remembering that Si Beile had said when he and he were hunting together that the traps must be covered.
The grass, leaves and dead branches should be similar to those around them, otherwise they will arouse prey's alertness.
He then realized that he was a legitimate young bachelor, how could he show no interest in finding a wife.
Therefore, the day Aya appeared next to Zheng Haizhu, he pretended to glance at her several times.
However, at this moment, the quiet mother and lovely daughter in Chaifei's courtyard made Ashan feel that the pretense of acting was not so clear.
He even thought carefully about Aya's accent, and finally understood why he felt a strange sense of familiarity after only a few interactions with this Nikan woman (the Jurchen name for the Han people).
A certain final sound in Aya's Chinese dialect is particularly similar to the accent of Concubine Meng Guzhezhe, and the latter is Ye He Jurchen.
Ashan and Aya, both of whom had Jurchen tribe blood, but each had his own master, were secretly harboring different thoughts when the sound of gongs was heard outside the courtyard, accompanied by Tang Po's loud and powerful voice.
"It's vaccinated, it's vaccinated. Everyone at home should go to the entrance of Mrs. Zheng's house to be vaccinated. The doctor has come over from Songjiang."
After Ashan heard the shouting clearly, he asked Aya: "What kind of vaccination?"
Aya said: "This is the way to prevent smallpox."
When she arrived in Chongming this time, Zheng Haizhu asked her if her daughter had ever had acne. If not, it would be a good time to get vaccinated.
Boss Fang, the leader of the Yiyang Opera class whom Zheng Haizhu met, was born in Yiyang, Jiangxi Province, which is the place where Ming Dynasty is best at blowing pox. The serous fluid from chickenpox caused by smallpox patients was diluted with well water and blown into the nasal cavities of healthy people.
When it comes to immune effects, many doctors in Yiyang are well aware of this.
But after Zheng Haizhu asked about this method, he told a local doctor in Songjiang recommended by Huang Zunsu to extract the acne scabs that were about to dry up. Although it was less active, the immune effect was not bad, and it might be safer. Moreover, it is best to use the "acne picking method"
, that is, the crusted chickenpox powder is extracted from patients who have been vaccinated but still have flower seeds. After five or six times, the symptoms of high fever in the vaccinated people are reduced, and the risk is further reduced.
Before the emergence of the cowpox method in later generations, starting from the Longqing period of the Ming Dynasty, people in the area from Jiangnan to Ganzhou in the Ming Dynasty were familiar with the methods of vaccination and smallpox prevention, so they did not resist them.
After the Liao residents came over, in addition to Granny Tang's personal testimony, Zheng Haizhu also invited several students from Chongming County who had gone to Suzhou Prefecture to take the exam to preach the vaccination method to the hoarders to dispel the doubts of the northerners who did not know the whole story.
But Ah Shan still didn’t believe it.
He remembered that Sibeile had said many times that many Jurchen and Mongolian warriors were infected with smallpox and died by Ming people who went out to do business.
How can you take the initiative to get dirty things from someone with acne!
So, when Aya picked up her daughter and turned around to ask Ah Shan why he didn't get vaccinated, Ah Shan said: "I had acne when I was a child."
"Oh?" Aya stared at him, "What's wrong with your face..."
"Why are there no pockmarks, right?" Ah Shan touched his cheek, "I came out early, and my mother tied my hands and refused to scratch them. After the acne scabs fell off, I didn't fall into the trap."