To be honest, the winter of the Chu Dynasty this year did come earlier than in previous years. It was only at the end of November and before it entered December, the capital had already ushered in the twenty-sixth year of Fu Rui.
The first snow.
The snow started to fall at night, and by the time Xijing City, known as the largest city in the world, woke up again after a night of repairs, it had already been covered in a silvery coat.
"Auspicious snow heralds a good year!"
Grand Master Lu Xiangrui stood alone in his yard looking at the falling snowflakes from the sky, always looking a little uninterested.
Occasionally, he would stretch out his hand to catch one or two snowflakes and watch them carefully until the snowflakes finally melted in his hands.
In fact, there are many wealthy families who staged this scene in the capital. Those who can become officials, especially those in the capital, have studied for several years, so they, like most literati, have an appreciation for snow scenes.
a preference.
Just like the first snowfall in the capital today, in the mood of warming wine and watching the snow, the literary politicians in the capital can use this as a theme and at least write hundreds of poems.
But what is different from these wealthy families is that common people or poorer families don't like snow, especially the men who are the heads of the families in these families.
They are not interested in the snow scene at all, because snow means that really cold days are coming.
In contrast, they are more concerned about whether they can earn more money in the last few days to buy another set of clothes for their wives and children at home, or whether they can earn more money so that they can spend the New Year in previous years.
Add an extra meat dish to the dinner table.
The construction sites of the newly-started academy and the restaurant in the capital are still in full swing. The person who built the academy was the imperial court, and the person who built the restaurant is said to have great hands and eyes.
Therefore, they are very considerate of the migrant workers who work. Not to mention that the wages are 40% higher than usual, and there is also a piece of pork belly in their lunch every day.
But even though there was meat, almost none of these men who did rough work spoke. They all chose to take out a piece of oil paper and wrap it up, ready to take it to their children at home after work.
That’s why there’s an old saying: Parents in this world, if they can be very good themselves, how can they be willing to leave even half of it for themselves?
Poor parents in the world!
…
Different from the capital city, when it started to snow in the capital city, it had already snowed for three consecutive days in Gusu City in the south of the Yangtze River. Because of this, the whole city of Gusu turned into a silvery white world.
"Read, read, read, you're reading nonsense! I'm a jock who practices knives and swordsmanship, what's the use of these things?"
The owner of this voice was naturally Jiang Ergou, whom he had not seen for many days. Ever since he and the old man Wang Xuanlang lived in Gusu City, he had been forced to read for two hours every day.
It's not like he hasn't resisted before, but every time he resisted, the old man would use the excuse of accompanying him to practice martial arts to teach him a lesson that would be worse than death. After many times, he no longer dared to resist openly.
The reason why he dared to complain like this today is because Chen Mu took his master and the little girl Chen Xici to enjoy the snow, leaving him alone in the house.
At this time, don't think that Ergou can be lazy while they are away. The old man made a statement to him before leaving. If he can't recite the article designated by Chen Mu when they come back,
, Wang Xuanlang will accompany him to practice sword practice for an hour.
"A few of these dishonest people went out to enjoy the snow without me. Why did they run out without cooking? Didn't they ask me to drink the northwest wind?"
After reading the book diligently all morning, Ergou was finally able to memorize most of the article.
After feeling hungry, Ergou planned to go to the kitchen to find some food, but after he went in and rummaged around, he realized that the kitchen was cleaner than Ergou's face.
Returning to the study, he stayed there for nearly an hour with unbearable itchiness. Ergou was so hungry that he couldn't stand it anymore, so he chose to cook by himself. In fact, Ergou's cooking skills were pretty good, and he was not so hungry that he couldn't even eat.
the point.
During the more than twenty years that the old man and I lived together in that mountain stream, Ergou had been cooking for as long as he could remember. Although the taste was not very good, he would not eat people to death.
Fortunately, the old man is not picky either.
In addition, since he has deep internal strength, he doesn't have to worry about being poisoned. Generally, he will eat whatever Ergou does. This also gives Jiang Ergou great confidence.
He was busy for a long time, from mixing the dough to kneading the dough, then turning the dough into noodles and putting them in the pot to cook, plus a few fried eggs, which delayed Ergou for two hours.
But at the end of the day, this fragrant egg noodles was cheaper than others.
Ergou had just picked up his rice bowl and was about to start eating when the few people who had gone out to enjoy the snow came running back. Without any explanation, Wang Xuanlang scurried to Su Ruyu's side to relieve him of the burden, and then snatched his noodles along the way.
"Old man, what are you doing? I wonder if there's anything else in the pot? Don't you know how to fill it yourself?"
While Ergou complained, he stood up and was about to serve himself a bowl of noodles again, but just as he stepped into the house, he happened to see Chen Mu and Chen Xici coming out with rice bowls.
"Damn, that's so sloppy."
When Ergou hurried to the stove, as expected, there were no noodles left, only a bowl of noodle soup left.
Ergou was a little lost in thought while looking at the noodle soup. Gradually, he became more and more angry as he thought about it. Finally, he made up his mind to knead a new dough.
There was no way, one of the two old men outside was powerless, and he couldn't beat the other. Apart from the two of them, there was only one lively and smart little girl. How could he still rob her?
By the time Ergou finished cooking another pot of noodles and put the noodles into his mouth, the other three were already lying in the yard to rest.
Seeing the three people enjoying themselves, Ergou was very angry. Even if he didn't have a share in enjoying the snow, why should he still cook?
But he still didn't dare to stand in front of them, and he didn't know if it was because Old Man Chen, who forced him to study, didn't memorize his homework just because he looked at the bowl of noodles.
In line with the mentality that it is best to be knowledgeable, Ergou had no choice but to quickly retreat into the house and pretend to read a book...
It has been snowing for three days in a row. Instead of stopping, the snow in Gusu City has become more and more intense. So when Ergou woke up the next day, the snow on the ground was already up to his ankles.
"call out."
Suddenly, a snowball hit the unsuspecting Ergou.
"Brother Ergou, come and have a snowball fight with me!"
Ergou turned around and saw that it was the weird Chen Xici who was causing trouble. Her little hands were now red from the cold.
After throwing a snowball at Ergou, she looked at Jiang Ergou with a wicked smile.
"Have a snowball fight with me, Xici, aren't you afraid that I will make you cry?"
Ergou replied to the little girl's words and bent down to rub the snowball on the ground.
"Huh? I don't know how! It will definitely be Brother Ergou who is going to cry in a while."
"Okay, since... you don't believe it! Then I'll let you see how powerful I am."
After saying that, Ergou grabbed a handful of snow from the ground and rushed out, trying to catch Chen Xici, but she ran away and dodged him.
Seeing Chen Xici running towards the inner courtyard, Ergou had no intention of letting her go, so he chased after her.
"Run! Let me see where you run!"
When Ergou entered the inner courtyard, he was dumbfounded when he saw the scene inside. Chen Xici had already piled up dozens or hundreds of snowballs here before he knew it.
"Brother Ergou, look at the snowball!"
Without waiting for the stunned Ergou to shout something unfair, the little girl took action directly.
Since there was enough ammunition, Chen Xici didn't care about the accuracy of the shot. Anyway, she just picked it up and threw it away. But even so, Jiang Ergou, who was standing opposite her, was still a little confused.
In fact, it was not that Ergou never thought about counterattack while he was hiding here. On the contrary, he also thought of many ways to counterattack, but every time he failed due to lack of preparation, being too hasty, and having too little firepower.
After he couldn't think of any other solution, Ergou was ready to resist. He didn't believe that the little girl's snowballs were endless and there would always be a time when she would finish throwing them.
"Bang...bang...bang!"
Every time the sound sounded, it meant that Jiang Ergou had suffered another heavy blow. As time went by, the snowballs prepared by Chen Xici continued to decrease, and finally reached the point of exhaustion.
"Hahaha, I finally waited for this opportunity! Xici, I want to see where you can run this time!"
"stop!"
Just as he was about to rush over and teach her a lesson, he was stopped by the little girl.
"Brother Ergou, how about our snowball fight ends here today? How about we build a snowman? If Brother Ergou is not satisfied, we can come back tomorrow."
"What?"
Ergou's face was filled with disbelief.
"Then the beating I just received was in vain! My sister Xici, you are being unreasonable!"
"Well... (girly drawl), Brother Ergou, can't you be a little more humble to girls? Besides, Brother Ergou, are you sure you want to reason with a girl like me?
?”
Ergou has grown so big that he has never seen many girls, and he has been spoiled by girls, so he was defeated in less than a second.
"Chengchengcheng! Whatever you say is what it is! Anyway, I can see clearly that you just wanted to come over and bully me today."
"Hehehe, brother Ergou, are you going to bully me? If I can bully you for the rest of your life, that would be the best!"
"Let me go, little Miss Chen Xici, I must tell you very seriously, you are going too far! How about we talk about building a snowman?"
A trace of loneliness flashed across Chen Xici's face unconsciously, but she soon smiled happily again.
"Okay! Okay! You can also build a snowman. I want to build a big snowman!"
As if Chen Xici had prepared everything, he took out a shovel from somewhere and handed it to Jiang Ergou.
"Brother Ergou, rough and tiring work is not suitable for girls, so I will give you a hard time."
"no problem!"
Jiang Ergou generously took the shovel and started to use it. Fortunately, this girl had pinched dozens or hundreds of snowballs here, so that the place itself was already full of snow, saving Ergou a lot of time.
effort.
But even so, he was still too tired. Ergou only started to pant after shoveling for more than ten minutes, and his hands were blue and red from the cold.
Just when Ergou was about to take a breath, he looked up and saw Chen Xici squatting aside and staring at him.
"Xici, aren't you going to build a snowman? If you don't come to help, are you still here just watching?"
"Yes, can't I still give you a lot of encouragement from Brother Ergou when I'm here? But I think it's enough for me to just look at Brother Ergou!"
Chen Xici's eyes sparkled and she said it as a matter of course.
"No, I mean, if you can help me, we can finish it faster!"
"It's okay, Brother Ergou, you can be later."
She still looked at Jiang Ergou without blinking, with no intention of helping him at all.
"I mean, I...well, you win."
After saying that, Ergou continued to work honestly, and Chen Xici also laughed with satisfaction, and continued to stare at Jiang Ergou with a smile.
After nearly an hour of hard work, the snowman that Chen Xici expected was finally completed with the unremitting efforts of Ergou.
The shape of this snowman cannot be called ugly, but it definitely cannot be called beautiful. But even with such an ordinary snowman, Chen Xici was still very happy.
She picked up a branch and wrote the words Jiang Ergou on the snowman's forehead.
But in fact, there is a small snowman about three inches in the hand behind her back, which she has prepared a long time ago. It looks like a girl, with the three beautiful characters "Chen Xici" written on its forehead.
When Jiang Ergou wasn't paying attention, she took out the little snowman from behind and placed her next to the big snowman. Then, she laughed like a silly girl!
In such a snowy scene, where can the word love live?