Wear ancient times with a house

Chapter 130 Apprenticeship
People in Zheng Hanlin's family are quite interesting in life.It looks inconspicuous from the outside, but the courtyard looks quite elegant, especially in such a hot summer, a few stalks of bamboo are planted in the corner, and the small rockery in the middle of the courtyard is half-hidden and now there are several vigorous and strong green plants. Among them, it brings a faint fragrance, which makes people feel that even if the heat enters this yard, it will disperse in a circle.

The person who came to receive Zheng Hanlin's son, who is also Song Nian's future junior, is Zheng Mao. He probably decided to get rid of the endless road of scientific research. He looked chic and relaxed, talking all the way They kept going, not at all like the faintly nervous expression of the Song family.

Zheng Mao spoke frankly and enthusiastically, praised Song Nian as "the student my father has been waiting for for more than half his life", and praised Song Ce and Song Zhen, "These two nephews seem to be good seedlings for studying", facing Song Yun , He must not be able to mention studying, so he said that Song Yun was "smart and cute", and asked Song Yun to play with his daughter.

After boasting for a while, he said that Mrs. Song and Mrs. Chen were "blessed" and "wait for the elder brother to earn your life for you." He said the old lady so happily that even Mrs. Shen showed a smile.

It's not that no other scholars have praised Song Nian and his son for their good studies, but many of them are more reserved.Some friends like Song Nian, occasionally come to the house, and they have to say a few nice words to the elders, but they can't wait to use eight allusions in one sentence, so gorgeous that the old lady is dizzy.

On the other hand, Zheng Mao's way of speaking, except for those who are being praised feel a little ashamed, others are very happy to hear it.

Fortunately, the courtyard of Zheng's house is not very big, so after walking a few more steps, we arrived at the main hall.

There is an unsigned picture of fish playing with lotus leaves hanging on the front wall, which is quite appropriate for the occasion, and there is a high probability that the Zheng family painted it themselves.On the high table in the corner stands a blue vase with a narrow neck, with a branch of wintersweet protruding obliquely.

Song Yun was puzzled, how could she remember that wintersweet blooms in winter, isn't there a line in the poem "There are several branches of plums in the corner, and Ling Han blooms alone"?

She couldn't help but poked her head and looked a few more times, when a little girl's voice came in:
"This is a dried flower, but it has been preserved better, so it looks like fresh."

"It's amazing," Song Yun sighed, and turned around to see a girl who was a head taller than her. Seeing Song Yun looking over, the other party introduced herself:

"My name is Zheng Mei, and my younger sister is Ajun, right? Our names are very fateful. You are Zhu, I am Mei, and I have a cousin named Lan. With Ju, we can become four gentlemen."

"Amei, don't drag your sister to listen to your nonsense. Good boy, don't stand at the door, come in quickly. If you like this plum blossom, I will send you a few plum blossoms. We made a lot of plum blossoms years ago. .”

Song Yun looked back and saw a young woman in her 20s, who was obviously Zheng Mao's wife. She saluted quickly and called "Auntie".

This time, Song Yun's curiosity was not indiscriminate, and she was dragged by Mrs. Zheng for a few steps, and sat down on the small embroidered pier. She glanced left and right, good guy, the Zheng family alone sat eleven People, this is not counting Zheng Mei's younger brother who was held in her arms by her grandmother.

Zheng Hanlin was so picky about accepting apprentices, Song Nian was actually the first apprentice he formally accepted, maybe the only one.So the Zheng family was also very solemn. The eldest daughter's family who married out came back, and even the two-year-old grandson, who was still talking a little bit, was carried out to watch the grandfather accept his disciples.

Because Song Nian is already an adult, the eldest son Song Ce should be an apprentice, so Zheng Hanlin didn't insist on the etiquette of apprenticeship, and he wouldn't go through every step like he did to a newly enrolled Mengtong.

Zheng Hanlin just asked Song Nian to worship the statue of Confucius and served him tea, and then he took out a few books from the box on the side, saying that they were the annotations he made during the imperial examination.

Song Nian also respectfully raised the gift he had prepared for his husband above his head, handed it over, and then it was considered that he had officially completed his apprenticeship.

Both parties attached great importance to this ceremony, and neither of them lost the chain, so when the last step was completed, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and then they were in the mood to chat and laugh.

Mrs. Zheng asked her grandson to entertain the Song Ce brothers, and Zheng Mei and her cousin Chen Lanying to entertain Song Yun, so that the adults could sit together and talk.

So Song Yun was taken to Zheng Mei's boudoir. She lived with her parents, and there were not so many houses for her to set up a study alone, so the book case was also placed in the bedroom, and there were only a dozen books on the bookshelf leaning against the wall. The books looked brand new, but there were a few sheets of paper scattered on the table, and there were traces of scrawled writing.

Zheng Mei followed Song Yun's gaze, and quickly cleaned up, explaining while cleaning up:
"I recently read a book about arithmetic by my grandfather. I thought it was very interesting, so I tried to do it. What kind of books does my sister like to read?"

"I like reading travel notes, it's easier to understand."

Chen Lanying didn't want to get involved in this kind of topic, so she quickly waved her hands:
"Don't even ask me, I get a headache when I read a book."

Zheng Mei added:
"My cousin is very good at embroidery. She is learning from Xue Xiuniang in Jinxiufang."

Seeing Song Yun's confused face, Zheng Mei realized that she was not from Fucheng, so she didn't know much about it, so she added:
"Xue Xiuniang is not an exaggeration to be called a master, but it is said that this is a handicraft passed down to her by her grandmother. Unfortunately, she has not fully learned it, so she is only called Xiuniang by others. But the rich and powerful people in Fucheng recognize her very much. If you are capable, a pair of medium-sized embroidered pictures can sell for seven to eight hundred taels."

Song Yun didn't quite understand Xue Xiuniang's superb skills, but when it came to the price, Song Yun instantly understood.Seven 800 taels, even if it is a powerful family, they will not easily pay such a sum of money, just to buy an embroidery picture, it can be seen that Xue Xiuniang is indeed very good.

Song Yun can only sigh with emotion:

"It can be seen that sister Lanying is also very talented, unlike me, she hasn't started learning yet."

Zheng Mei held Song Yun's hand with concern:
"I did learn a little bit, but my mother couldn't stand my clumsiness anymore, so she didn't teach me any more. Then my grandfather said, if you can't learn how to do needlework, you should learn how to calculate accounts. You can take care of your dowry in the future, and you can make more money." Buy a maid to do it for me."

This seemed to be Song Yun's goal. Song Yun instantly felt that this young lady was very kind. It turned out that everyone was going to work hard to earn money and distribute work to servants.

Chen Lanying is older than Song Yun and the others. She is already 13 years old, so she understands that she is different from her cousin. Her family has only two or three servants, but there are more than 20 masters. Money to buy her a maid as a dowry, so I can only learn by myself.

(End of this chapter)