There was a colorful pavilion erected in front of the shop, with servants standing on the left and right, and the shop assistants were busy.
Zhang Shi, wearing new clothes, stood in front of the door and clasped his fists to the visitors from all directions: "Please come in!"
“Xu Dutou, what kind of wind brought you here?”
“Although there is no wine, the food is enough.”
“The official of Zhou Dynasty has left, come back again!”
“Third brother, go get a firecracker and set it off!”
Zhang Yueyiyan picked up the incense and lit a bunch of firecrackers.
But when they heard the banging sound, the children on the left and right covered their ears and laughed to avoid it.
"Third brother, these firecrackers are really good! They're loud enough!" Zhang Shi sighed, "When the shop was burned down, I thought my life was over. I didn't expect that I could still stand here again."
Zhang Yue glanced back at the full restaurant and said, "Brother, there are not enough seats!"
"What are you afraid of? Are we afraid of too many people when we open a store?" Zhang Shi said with a face filled with joy, "Call a few of your close classmates to come and show your support."
“That’s not necessary.”
“Shop! Shop!”
Zhang Yue said: "Brother, a table of guests is calling you."
Zhang Shi and Zhang Yue walked into the restaurant with anxious faces, but saw several pot-bellied men sitting at the table, each holding a pair of chopsticks with greasy meat and said: "How come your pork is so delicious? How can you give us a few?"
You must eat mutton! Don’t lie to us!”
Zhang Shi laughed loudly and said, "Where can I get mutton? It's pure pork. You can do it if you like it."
“Okay, a few brothers and I will come here often from now on.”
“Thank you very much. I’ll offer you a cup of tea instead of wine, and give you a dish of roasted eggplant.” Zhang Shi immediately touched the tea cup to the other party.
“The store owner is really cheerful.”
The person at the table next to him said: "Shopkeeper, your cooking is really good! Please hire the chef from Bianjing!"
Zhang Shi laughed and said: "No way, they are all from our own family."
“Look at this fragrant oil, there’s nothing to say. I’ll come to take care of your business from time to time.”
“Thank you very much!”
Zhang Shi finished his work here, but saw that there was already a queue at the door of the store, and someone shouted.
“How can you be so docile! You are so impatient!”
“If we are not allowed in to eat, we will starve to death.”
“Aren’t you driving the guests away?”
The waiter greeted outside: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry everyone, our store is full, please come back another day!"
“No!”
“No!”
The people who were cursing just now immediately refused.
Zhang Shi was busy for most of the day and finally sat in the back kitchen unable to move. However, he saw that people were still coming in and out of the back kitchen of the food shop, and there was a booming smell everywhere.
“Brother, it’s time for our store to close, but there are still customers waiting outside?” Zhang Yueyan said.
Chapter Shi said: "Then open the door again. No matter how late it is, we have to wait until the guests have eaten and drank enough. Tell the guys that today's wages will be tripled."
Zhang Yue shook his head and said: "Brother, if you continue like this, I'm afraid there won't be much money in the shop..."
"I'm happy..." Zhang Shi interrupted Zhang Yue's words and wiped his tears with his hands, "Brother, I'm so happy today. Do you know how I've lived this year?"
The two brothers were sitting side by side in the back kitchen, and next to their ears could be heard the sound of pots and shovels burning in the stove.
"Do you know how angry I was when my boss came to my door a few days ago? I blame myself for being useless. I can't even keep my two younger brothers. I just watched you go with others."
“Brother, stop talking, I haven’t left yet,” Zhang Yue said.
"No, I also want to say that I used to focus on my second brother's education, so that I could support our family, and we could leap over the dragon's gate. Now I realize that I was wrong. I was very wrong. It is better to rely on myself than relying on others.
.If you are not up to your standards, even if the officials support you, you will not be able to stand up. Now that I finally have this shop, I have given my brother the confidence to stand up. I will run this shop well so that you can study and go to Beijing to take the imperial examination in the future.
, the number one scholar."
Zhang Yue was not very moved after hearing this, but said: "Brother, I am a Jingsheng student. I can't pass the Jinshi exam, let alone the number one scholar."
“I say I’ll hit it, I’ll hit it!”
Zhang Yue thought to himself, brother, you must be drunk! But you didn’t drink!
"Third brother, I know you take everything to heart, just like your second brother. You don't have to force yourself to do what you want because of someone else's words. What should we do? What should we do? People look down on us, so let's not hate them.
In the future, when he becomes successful and becomes successful, others will know that he is wrong. That is when he can truly strive for success, for himself and for his family, do you know that?"
“I understand.” Zhang Yue looked at the red flames under the pot and nodded silently.
“Brother, don’t worry, I will defend this family for you!”
…
Summer passes and autumn comes, and in a blink of an eye, winter comes again.
It has snowed in Pucheng for several days, and the houses and treetops were all covered with a layer of snow powder.
As the residence of the Wu Mansion, one of the four powerful families in Pucheng, this place is not as grand as their mansion in Bianjing, but it is more spacious and covers an extremely large area.
With more than fifty acres of land, water was diverted to form a lake, which became a scene of its own. The original cost of building this pond was more than a thousand dollars.
There was a thin layer of ice on the pond today.
The servants of the Wu Mansion were very busy. Some were cleaning the snow on the stone paths in the courtyard, and some were using ladders to brush away the snow on the green tiles. Some of them were swept away and some were left behind to add to the artistic conception.
Two girls were walking under the eaves. One was wearing a lake-green shirt and the other was wearing a moon-white skirt. Although it was snowing, they only had a jacket on them. From a distance, they looked like they had stepped off a painting of a lady.
The people are average.
“It seems like there is a guest in the house today?” asked the girl in a lake green shirt.
The girl in a white dress said: "Brother, today I invite my classmates from the county school to have a banquet in the mansion."
The girl in the lake green shirt pursed her lips and smiled and said: "Da Langjun is so nice that he doesn't have summer classes in the capital to prepare for the exam next year?"
The girl in the moonlight dress said: "My uncle and father are here in Beijing, and he feels uncomfortable all over. Besides, my brother has no ambition here. Let's go to the study and read."
After walking for a while, I suddenly realized that the other party didn’t seem to be following me.
The girl couldn't help but stop and turned around and asked, "What's wrong?"
After a moment of silence, she seemed to hear the young man's cheerful chatter and laughter coming from far away from the lake.
“It’s nothing.” The girl in a lake green shirt covered her chest with her cheeks slightly red, and there was an indescribable smile on her face.
“You, you!” the other party scolded with an annoyed smile, “How about being seen by a servant?”
"What you, you? So what?" the woman in a green shirt asked slyly.
The other party said seriously: "Before the wedding, the daughter of the county's chief officer met a childhood sweetheart, but her fiancé was bumped into by a husband from your Zhang family, so that she ran away from the marriage and was humiliated!"
“How can someone run away from a marriage? What will happen to the family if this person runs away from a marriage? It’s really pitiful. This uncle is also a real person. How can there be such a narrow-minded person?”
This book is compiled and produced by a public account. Follow VX [Book Friends Base Camp], read the book and receive cash red envelopes!
"Seventeenth Mother, don't go! I'm just joking, don't take it seriously!" the man in a green shirt tried to persuade me.
The moon-white woman turned her head, and a smile broke out on her stern face: "Who said I took it seriously? Let's go read a book."
The two of them walked side by side.
“Seventeen Niang?”
"Um?"
“You had such a beautiful smile just now. The ice and snow have just melted, and the country has been captivated. It’s just like this, it’s a pity... It’s a pity that no other handsome man saw it except me. Do you think it’s a pity or not?”
“See if I don’t twist your mouth.”
Two women chased each other, blue and green dresses flying across the corridor.
After leaving the eaves, the two of them each held up their umbrellas and walked straight towards the study.
Arrived in front of the study, the two of them patted their umbrellas on the stone steps, and then each helped the other to brush off the snow powder before walking in.
“I’ve seen the Seventeenth Mother!”
"Sister Zhang and I will go up there. Maybe some idlers will come in," the Seventeenth Mother ordered.
“Yes, Seventeen Niang.”
Looking northward, you can catch a glimpse of the lake. You can also see dozens of scholars on the waterside pavilion beside the lake raising their glasses, singing, talking about poetry and having fun.
The woman in a moon-white dress was looking for a book among the bookshelves. She looked up, but the gauze window screen was gently fluttering, and the woman in a lake-green dress was leaning on the railing to look out.
She couldn't help but curl her lips and said: "What do you do if you are seen like this?"
“So what if you see her, it’ll make you miss her for a while, isn’t it?” The other party said with a chuckle.
“But with your family background, how can your father betroth you to these county scholars?”
“So what if I can’t get married? Dad didn’t allow me to do it, so I can’t watch it, right? Besides, isn’t Da Langjun also a student at the county school?”
“I can’t explain your clever mouth, I’m going to read a book.”
The woman in a green shirt came back and said with a smile: "Don't say anything about me. Is it because you don't look down on me?"
“When did I say this?”
“Hey, you don’t say it with your mouth, but you can say it in your heart.”
"Think about it, your eldest brother is marrying Fan Zhen's daughter, and your second brother is marrying Wang Anshi's daughter... There are only two of us here, so what if we don't avoid names... Having said that, although your Wu family is not good at marrying
A little, but it’s a good marriage.”
"The eldest sister married Ouyang Fa, the son of Ouyang Xiu, the second sister married Lu Xijian, the grandson of Lu Yijian, and the third sister married Xia Boqing, the grandson of Xia Song. The fourth sister married the best, Wen Jifu, the sixth son of the prime minister Wen Yanbo.
, now it’s your turn, if you want to marry better than your fourth sister, you have to be the prime minister in the future.”
After saying this, the woman in a lake green shirt burst out laughing.
But seeing that the other party didn't speak, the book at hand was turning page by page with the wind.
“I’m a concubine, so I can’t compare to my elder sisters. Even my name is not allowed to be included in the family tree.” Seventeenth Mother said lightly, her expression was cold when she said this.
As he was speaking, he suddenly heard a voice.
“You can’t get in, this young gentleman, even if you have a note from the elder gentleman.”
“This old man, I have been promised by you, I have some spare money here. How about treating you to a bowl of tea?”
Hearing this, the two women couldn't help but smile at each other.
"It's not about tea, it's not about tea...but...I can't tell the truth anyway."
“Old man, I am Zhang Yue, a good friend of Da Langjun. Please don’t embarrass me, it will not look good on Da Langjun.”
The two of them leaned against the window and listened, and their voices gradually became quieter.
“Let’s listen.”
The woman in the lake green shirt took Qi Niang to the east corner, looked down, and saw a young man of thirteen or fourteen years old, wearing a not-so-new blue robe, stuffing money into the guard.
The guard kept resisting and said: "I can't do it, I can't do it."
But I saw that although the boy was young, he could be said to be tall and tall, but his clothes were a bit ordinary. In the snowy day, the boy didn't even have an umbrella to cover him, and there was some snow powder on his eyebrows.
