The driver came down, opened the curtain of the bullock cart, and helped the woman inside to get off.
The woman had a fair face and looked about forty. She was dressed in a dark green gown and an emerald headdress in her hair. She was completely different from the gray villagers around her.
She turned around and got out of the car. A boy in bright red brocade got out of the car and said indulgently and lovingly: "Huan'er, it's not that you're tired of riding in the car. This is the time. I'll have someone clean up the place so you can relax."
." After saying that, he entered the yard and began to instruct the servants to move things.
The little boy was born fair and fair, with only a sickly look between his brows. He didn't look very healthy. He looked around and saw either farmers with tanned legs covered in mud or dirty children with snot in their noses, with a look of disgust on his face.
He shouted: "I want to go in." But then he seemed to think of something, rolled his eyes, turned around and shouted in the direction of the mule cart at the back: "Hey, go clean the room for me quickly, brother?"
The woman had already opened the door and went in, and did not see his behavior. The little boy was a little annoyed when he saw that there was no movement on the mule cart, so he rushed over in a few steps, and was about to lift the curtain and curse.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the car and was about to reach out his hand, the curtain swung towards his face and slapped him.
He felt a pain on his face and was stunned for a moment, and then he cried out with a "wow" sound: "You! Ahem! You did it on purpose!"
None of the villagers in Erlizi Village had ever seen this good show. They didn't dare to get close and stood around from a distance to see what was going on.
A young man in ordinary clothes got off the mule cart. He looked about fifteen or sixteen years old.
He didn't explain anything after getting out of the car, he just looked at the boy crying with calm eyes.
The child named Huan'er was a little frightened by the sight, and his crying gradually became smaller. Finally he couldn't stand the look in his eyes, so he turned around and ran into the yard. Then he heard the woman's urgent and distressed voice and the boy's cry accompanied by coughing:
"Ahem, he bullied me! Ahem, mother, look at my face being swollen!"
The servants packed the things in the car silently, turning a blind eye to the young man standing next to the mule cart. Finally, when they were almost done, an old man who looked like a butler walked over and said to the young man: "Young Master, hurry up and get your punishment."
, otherwise the madam will have to sue the master."
"I know, Uncle De." The young man nodded. He was indifferent to the curious and puzzled expressions of the surrounding villagers. He just walked into the yard calmly and closed the door.
This play became famous in the village. When Zhuang Keqing passed the two plum trees in the center of the village, he heard Aunt Wang and several young wives talking together.
"Oh, you haven't seen this new family. They are so grand and their luggage is so big." Aunt Wang said with great joy. She picked up a handful of melon seeds in her hand and refused to put them in her mouth. There was a mouth on the side.
The greedy wife wanted to beg for two, but she rolled her eyes.
Zhuang Keqing thought of the convoy he met when leaving the village and saw that the time had come long ago.
"I heard that after a child of the Shen family was admitted to the Juren Examination, the whole family moved away. Now I don't know what they are doing when they come back. You see, it's just a mother with two children. There is no man except servants."
"Aunt Wang, tell me, it's not because something happened outside and you came here to avoid it, right?"
"Don't talk nonsense! I don't think so!" Aunt Wang was still thinking about how she could establish friendship with that rich man, and how could she allow her little daughter-in-law to guess around here.
Zhuang Keqing didn't know about Aunt Wang's teasing of Mrs. Liu, but when she saw her speaking and acting, she didn't sound like a kind person. Besides, he wasn't interested in such gossip, so he walked away from her.
"Hey? Isn't that the banker's girl?" A sharp-eyed daughter-in-law saw the figure leaving in a hurry.
"My men love to eat that tofu, and they eat it every meal. I am annoyed that I have to rush early to buy it every day, and when I get there late, I still can't buy it."
"It's the same in my family. Grandma has a bad tooth, so this is what she likes."
"Yes, yes, we only sell two boards every day, which is too little!"
The topic quickly changed from the wealthy family that Aunt Wang showed off to Zhuang Keqing, which made her anxious. However, she never bought tofu once, and even if she said a few sarcastic words, she was quickly ran away from.
I pretended to be angry and went back, only to find that the second oldest child in the family had secretly cooked tofu and ate it. He almost lost his breath and passed away.
The weather suddenly changed in the afternoon. As soon as Zhuang Keqing arrived home, there was a thunderous sound and then it suddenly started raining.
The rain was quite heavy, and the villagers who were still outside were looking for places to take shelter from the rain, but inside the Shen family's ancestral house, it looked completely different.
The house has been almost tidied up, the tables and chairs have all been wiped down, and the porcelain ornaments have been found and arranged properly. Mrs. Zhou is talking with her son Shen Huan in the main room, and the old housekeeper Uncle De is standing next to her.
Although there is no male master, the relationship between mother and son is full of warmth, and it is also a harmonious relationship of mother's kindness and son's filial piety.
If you ignore Shen Ling who is kneeling in the heavy rain outside the hall.
Because of the incident with the door curtain at noon, Mr. Zhou exempted him from lunch and made him kneel outside the hall for two full hours.
"Madam, please see if this rain can let the eldest son..." Uncle De, the housekeeper, couldn't bear it.
This eldest young master was favored by his master and his wife back then. How could he suddenly live like this? He is not even as good as a servant in the house.
"What eldest son?" Ms. Zhou, who had been smiling at her son just now, suddenly turned serious and said word by word to Uncle De: "There is only one serious young master in the Shen family, Huan'er. You have to remember that!"
"Yes. Yes. I know my mistake." Uncle De bent down and admitted his mistake over and over again.
Shen Huan stood aside, with no marks on his face. In fact, he was more frightened at noon and was not injured at all.
But unlike my mother who cried more miserably, how could this bitch be punished?
He knew that he actually hated and feared Shen Ling in his heart, but at this moment when he saw Shen Ling kneeling in embarrassment in the heavy rain, he felt extremely relieved, and he turned around and flirted with his mother.
Shen Ling just knelt down, looking at the small piece of bluestone in front of him with his dark eyes, his face still as calm as before.
I planned to go out to deliver tofu to the village chief in the afternoon, but now that I have taken a dip in the soup, I will simply go to Lu Shimao's house tomorrow. Zhuang Keqing plans to make an extra plate of tofu and give it to him on the way, so as to express his sympathy and let him hurry up. Make a good stone grinding.
As soon as the beans were soaked here, the mother over there came to the kitchen.
"You're back, you're not wet in the rain!" There was a sound of rain outside, it was so loud, and Man Bao was crying just now, Mrs. Qin didn't even hear her daughter come back.
She thought about cooking dinner, but when she came in, she saw her daughter busy.
"Stop it, I'll do it." Taking over the work from Zhuang Keqing, Mrs. Qin rushed her to eat: "I've made bean dregs cake for you on the stove over there. The green onions are very fragrant. Eat some first. Come on, I’ll light the fire and make porridge later.”
"Mom, I'm not tired. I decided to do the grinding today, but the deposit is not enough. I have to make a trip tomorrow."
After pinching a bean dregs cake that was still warm and putting it into his mouth, Zhuang Keqing and his mother reported the results of the day.
"Well, you go, we have a mother at home." Mrs. Qin nodded. She is now postpartum and does not have to stay in the house every day. That is to say, her daughter is very particular. When she gave birth to her before, she did not go to the fields to work right after the birth. , I don’t have time to do anything during the confinement period.
"By the way, mother, do you know the Shen family in the village?" Zhuang Keqing became a little curious at this time, thinking of the topic caused by the large group of cars in the village today.
"Shen family?" Ms. Qin frowned. Is there anyone named Shen in their village?
"When I left the village today, I happened to meet a motorcade. When I came back, I heard someone said it belonged to the Shen family."
When she said this, Qin Manzhi remembered. "Are you afraid that you are not the Shen family you are talking about?"
"Which one?"
"Exit the house where people were raised."
"Juren?" Zhuang Keqing almost choked on the bean dregs cake.
"Well, the Shen family has always been a wealthy family in the village. They only have an only son. After he was admitted as a scholar at a young age, the family moved to the town to study. It is said that he later won the imperial examination. The family even sent people back to the village to send wedding gifts. "
Thinking of the little boy's behavior today, Zhuang Keqing couldn't help but click his tongue. How long had this family been out of farming? Do they look down on farmers? And since they have been admitted to the Juren Examination for a long time, they should either continue to take the Jinshi Examination or be elected officials. Officer, why did you come back to Erlizi Village? It's not the Qingming Festival or the Double Ninth Festival. When it comes to the festival, the time is wrong.
Only the female family members of this family came back with their son, and the male master was not there, so I was afraid there might be some problem.
Thinking of this, Zhuang Keqing made up his mind to walk around that family in the future and never wade into any muddy water.
