Before Eru could speak, the outspoken girl in blue shirt answered first: "It's Eru and Tao Kuo who are taking off their silk. In the language of our Xi tribe, her name is Golden Lotus, and my name is Blue Feathered Bird!"
Following the girl's vivid explanation, Xu Dayan and Li Xu understood the meaning of Eru and Tao Kuo's shedding of silk. Nasturtium is a common wild flower deep in the grassland. The buds are not big, but they are very beautiful when they bloom. Especially
Set against the sea of green grass, it is as bright and eye-catching as a gem. The blue-feathered bird is a legendary bird similar to a peacock. It has colorful feathers and a graceful body. Where it appears, it means good weather and prosperous pastures.
.And their Han Chinese names also come from this. The girl in the yellow shirt is named Zuiju, and the girl in the blue shirt is named Suilan.
"Aunt Qing must be good at painting!" Xu Dayan speculated with certainty after listening to the girl's introduction.
"Hey, how do you know?" the girl in blue shirt asked in surprise. The girl in yellow shirt opened her eyes wide, full of admiration.
Seeing the soft light in Zuiju's eyes, Xu Dayan was a little proud, and explained with a smile: "Can someone who has such a painterly name not have a painting in his heart? I'm afraid you, Aunt Qing, is a master of painting!"
"Yes, Aunt Qing can even draw the traces of the wind blowing on the grass!" the girl Suilan said with admiration.
We were all young people, so we quickly became familiar with each other after we had a common topic. The girl Sui Lan told a few more anecdotes about Aunt Qing's debut and her amazing skills. Suddenly the topic changed, with a bit of pride.
He asked with an expression on his face: "The two of us have learned writing and painting from Aunt Qing since we were young. According to the rules of you Central Plains people, we should be considered Aunt Qing's disciples?"
"She should be a direct disciple and heir to the mantle!" Xu Dayan replied with a somewhat flattering tone. The late Emperor of the Sui Dynasty emphasized learning. Except for far-flung barbaric places, government-run schools were established in almost every county in the country.
.In these schools, the imperial court paid for the hiring of teachers, and the government was responsible for providing food and accommodation for the students. Both Li Xu and he had benefited from this policy, and they were deeply touched when they thought about it.
After the popularization of county schools, each student has several teachers, and each teacher also has several students. However, those who can be called each other's master and disciples have nothing to do with each other. Once they are called each other by this title, it means that the teacher is ready to
Give all you have learned throughout your life to a certain student. The student will regard the teacher as his father throughout his life and will never abandon him.
"What is heir to the mantle?" The girls couldn't understand Xu Dayan's compliments and asked with wide eyes.
"Literally speaking, she handed over her clothes and rice bowl to you. It can be understood that you accepted the skills she relied on to make a living!" Xu Dayan replied with a bitter smile, secretly cursing himself for being confused. With two foreign girls
If you miss the article, you are simply looking for trouble for yourself.
"Teach me the skills you need to make a living?" The girl in the blue shirt blinked and thought for a moment, but still didn't understand the meaning. "Does it mean that if you teach others, you must starve? So you must use clothes and a rice bowl.
To use a metaphor?"
"We have a lot of people in the Central Plains. If everyone knows a craft, we won't be able to make money. Just like the leather goods on your grasslands, the more there are, the less valuable they are!" Li Xu found a vivid example to explain.
Suilan laughed softly, clapped her hands, and sighed: "I understand. Fortunately, Aunt Qing doesn't live by selling paintings!" She thought for a moment, then added with a smile: "But, who has such painting skills?
Is Aunt Qing like that? If she were really willing to paint people's portraits, I'm afraid she would sell five hundred rawhide sheets and people would rush to buy them!"
The people of Lin are accustomed to bartering, and they still don't have a complete concept of money. Today, traders use rawhide to trade most goods, so girls also use rawhide to metaphor the master's painting skills.
"Aunt Qing's painting skills are so high, then you two are the best disciples of famous teachers!" Xu Dayan complimented sincerely, but he was more and more surprised in his heart. Learning to paint is quite difficult. Unless you are born with a natural talent,
He has a wonderful pen. Otherwise, from the beginning of writing and inking, to being able to capture people's faces and expressions in an instant, it would be difficult to achieve within ten years of hard work. And painting is not as good as calligraphy, and you can't use branches dipped in water to modify the charm on the stone tablets.
.So the paper money wasted every year is a very large expense. The girl said that Aunt Qing's painting skills are so superb, I am afraid she is not an ordinary civilian girl who was abducted and sold to the grassland.
"Of course Aunt Qing's painting skills are very good, but neither of us have learned it. The paper you Han people sell is too expensive, and sheepskin is not as easy to ink as paper!" The girl in blue shirt pouted her lips and replied with some annoyance.
The experience of helping the family in business told Xu Dayan that what the girl said was the truth. Although the paper is thin, its weight is amazing. A stack of paper half a foot square is often much heavier than bricks of the same thickness. And that thing is on the grassland.
There are few people using it, and the vendors think it is slow to ship, and they are afraid of fire and moisture when holding it in their hands. Therefore, it is not worth it to go all the way to sell paper on the grassland without twenty times the profit.
Thinking of this, Xu Dayan patted his chest and promised: "Next spring, I will definitely have someone ship a batch of good paper over, specially for you to learn painting!"
He was born into a wealthy family, and he could show off his arrogance by spending a lot of money to win over beautiful women. Naturally, he didn't notice the price of the paper. However, the two girls from the Xi tribe were overjoyed, looking at Xu with big eyes, their faces filled with tears.
It was an expression of disbelief: "Really? Are you not making money anymore?"
"May the chariots and horses wear light fur...!" Xu Dayan quoted half of the Analects of Confucius and suppressed the second half of the sentence. This is what Zilu said to Confucius when he expressed his ambition, "May the chariots and horses,
Wear light fur and share it with friends, and you will have no regrets!" When he was studying, what Xu Dayan liked most was Zilu's frank and bold character. Unknowingly, his behavior was influenced by him. But with
It was definitely inappropriate for two girls to say these things. First, the other party was not his friend. Second, after saying this, the girl would definitely ask where his carriage was hidden.
Li Xushi, on the other hand, took half a step forward and explained to the two girls in a low voice: "Paper is not as expensive in our Central Plains as on the grasslands. People don't want to bring it, mainly because there are few people buying it here. If the paper seller doesn't
If he raises the price very high, he will definitely lose money."
"I won't let my friends suffer. If you bring me two packs of paper next year, I will harness the fastest horse and give it to you!" The girl named Sui Lan was the most generous and patted Li Xu's hand.
Back, said.
After taking the photo, Li Xu's face turned red again. The two girls were very happy. The man, who was both Han, was actually shyer than the woman from the Xi tribe. As they laughed and laughed, the four of them became more familiar with each other, and they were already laughing and joking unknowingly.
Then we walked to the deepest part of the Suchubu camp.
In the Lin people tribe, the status of the patriarch is extremely respected, but the patriarch’s home is no more luxurious than the homes of ordinary tribesmen. The only sign that can distinguish the felt bags of Su Cuixil’s family from other tribesmen is that the ten knives in his family
There is an unpainted wooden fence erected around several felt bags, but there is no fence outside other people's felt bags.
The felt bags belonging to the two girls of the Xi tribe and Aunt Qing were inside the fence, mixed with the felt bags belonging to the other minor children and wives of the patriarch Su Chuixil's family. All the felt bags were wrapped in white felt, with the tops
It is inlaid with a piece of silver satin. Just because of the wind and sun, the white felt and satin have long lost their original luster, turning white and yellowish, as if there is a layer of dust floating on them.
"The innermost felt bag is where Aunt Qing lives. If we sneak in, we will definitely scare her!" The girl in blue pointed at a relatively clean felt bag in the back of the courtyard surrounded by a fence, and pulled it
He picked up Li Xu's arm and pulled it inward.
However, the two teenagers refused to mess around with her, so they stood outside the fence and asked the two sisters to go in first to report the matter. The girl argued with her several times, but when she saw that Li Xu and Xu Dayan refused to give in no matter what, they had no choice but to pout.
It was a disaster.
This time, it took half a stick of incense to turn around. The girl in blue felt that she had lost face in front of the guests, so she explained unhappily: "Aunt Qing is really wordy. She sent someone to report to her father, and she also asked for orders.
She washed the tea set. The copper pot used for making tea was actually washed three times by her..."
The girl in yellow shirt was calmer than her younger sister. She apologized to Xu and Li first, then stopped her from chattering and invited the guests from far away to have tea on behalf of her master.
Although Aunt Qing is not the biological mother of the two girls, she is her mother's sister in terms of seniority. So Xu and Li entered the felt bag and greeted them as the Central Plains people would when they meet their elders. The women in the room had already dressed up to treat them.
, suddenly saw the etiquette of his hometown, and quickly stood up to thank him. He spoke and behaved gracefully, but his voice gradually became hoarse.
Xu Dayan secretly looked at each other and saw a beautiful middle-aged woman wearing Han clothes standing in front of him and Li Xu. Judging from her skin color, the woman should be less than forty years old. But her temples had already been stained by frost.
, with a bit of haggardness in his grayish hair.
"Two distinguished guests, please take a seat. I rarely have guests here, so I have to spend some time preparing!" The woman adjusted her mood and said in Central Plains dialect with a slight Jiangnan accent.
"It's the juniors who came here in a hurry. Please forgive me, elders!" Li Xu and Xu Dayan handed over their hands to apologize again, and then took their seats in the order of guest and host. If they were in the Central Plains, they would have come so late to see a middle-aged woman.
, the other party will definitely refuse to allow entry. Therefore, the trouble mentioned by the girl in blue shirt is a normal etiquette in the eyes of Xu and Li. Although it took some time, they felt more cordial in their hearts.
The young woman nodded slightly, approving the young man's knowledgeable and reasonable behavior. Then she casually asked a few polite words about whether the journey was tiring and whether he was used to living in the Xi tribe. She stood up again and held out two exquisite azure flowers in both hands.
Here comes the magnetic bottle.
The two girls stopped talking since the guest came into the room. They had never seen the etiquette of Han people meeting guests and host. At first glance, they were very curious. When they saw the young woman taking out the azure porcelain that she never refused to be touched.
Bottle, he was even more surprised in his heart, and his two big eyes widened.
At this moment, the copper pot that had been scrubbed by the young woman in advance was bright and shiny, and the copper pot filled with water and placed on the charcoal fire was already making a faint sound. The young woman walked over with the magnetic bottle in her arms, squatted down with half of her skirt, and then put the magnetic bottle in the distance.
He straightened the charcoal basin a little further away. Then he slowly stood up, took a very clean silver spoon from the cabinet, scooped out a small half spoonful of snowflake-white refined salt from one of the two magnetic bottles, and opened the copper pot.
Put the lid of the pot gently into the water. (To be continued)
