The Rise of the Cold Gate in the Eastern Jin Dynasty

Chapter 80
With the guidance of the old man Cui, the patriarch was full of energy, and he explained the family affairs with the sixth uncle. Early the next morning, he packed lightly and rushed to Jingkou in a light boat. He went back and forth, at least five or six days.

Uncle Six was not idle either. He took the house builders with him and started weeding, finishing the foundation, and building the ancestral hall in the reed marsh of Fengqi Lake. He was extremely busy.

As for Xiao Qinzhi, since he was arrested with the fat old man and Xiao Shu, he was forced to start an extremely regular study life. Every morning, he went to the Immortal Terrace to practice music, in the morning to learn "Xuan" in the Taoist temple, and in the afternoon I studied Confucianism at Old Man Cui's place, and at night I mainly practiced calligraphy, and my eldest sister Xiao Yun accompanied me to study until Haishi.

Yes, let the eldest sister Xiao Yun and his companions read, this bad idea was also proposed by the patriarch, with Xiao's mother's consent, so Xiao Qin was watched all day long, except reading is reading.

A few days passed by in a flash, and tomorrow is the half-fifth day of the lunar month, and it will be Qingming again, so the moon tonight is particularly round, the bright moon is in the sky, the silver light is diffuse, and there are silky insects and the wind, passing through the hall, it is fresh and pleasant.

On a refreshing night, with dimly lit candles and the faint fragrance of orchids, Xiao Qin's mood improved when he thought of taking a bath tomorrow. He estimated that it was almost Haishi, so he simply put down his pen and rubbed his sore wrists.

Practicing calligraphy is hard work, and practicing calligraphy with the wrist hanging is even more strenuous work. What is important is a "stability", so that when writing the pen, it can be done with ease, the pen can be moved smoothly, and the lines of the font are fat and thin.

The faint fragrance of orchids wafted one after another, Xiao Qinzhi followed the fragrance and looked, Xiao Yunzhi under the shadow of the lamp, was concentrating on arranging flowers, a few oncidiums in full bloom, clear but not charming, beautiful but not delicate, bright and beautiful The not-so-glamorous yellow looks like a beauty in a goose-yellow dress. After being illuminated by the lights, it has a hint of shyness.

A vase made of thin bamboo strips, carved and hollow, with yellow oncidium as the protagonist, decorated with anthurium, lily, delphinium, and asparagus, like a group of colorful actresses surrounded by shy beauties in light yellow clothes Among them, stretch out your arms, flick the long sleeves, and the breeze will suddenly blow up, like a butterfly singing and dancing gracefully, it is really beautiful.

Mainly yellow and white, supplemented by green background, dotted with red, different colors are assembled in a small vase, presenting a visual feast, which is very novel.

"Written?" Xiao Yunzhi stared sideways.

"En." Xiao Qinzhi was very curious, pointing to the flower arrangement, and asked, "Sister, when will you meet?"

"It's just a boring work." Xiao Yunzhi spoke casually, frowned and looked carefully, then revised one or two places, and placed the finished flower arrangement in the right corner of Xiao Qinzhi's desk, in a place that was not easy to reach.

"In this case, I will take a rest tomorrow, and it will be Qingming again. If I don't go out for an outing, I will be bored at home all day, and I will be moldy." Xiao Qinzhi suddenly remembered an old incident, and said with a bright face: " Sister, let’s go pick tea tomorrow. The current tea has too much ointment, which conceals the original fragrance of the tea. Isn’t the cart before the horse. Last time I saw an ancient book about how to make tea. You only need to pick fresh tea leaves and spread them out to dry It can be dried, roasted and dried, and when drinking, only a little tea leaves are poured into boiling water to soak, and you can smell the fresh tea fragrance, which is elegant and pleasant."

"By the way, bring Xiao Rong'er and Yunzhi. The boudoir study is more intimate and natural. There is no contradiction between the two."

Xiao Yunzhi smiled and said, "That's fine."

The area around Taihu Lake has a long history of drinking tea. The famous Biluochun tea is produced in Dongting Mountain in Wu County. Its name was first called "Dongting Tea". , shaped like a sparrow's tongue, is the raw material of the top "Biluochun".

Wujin is far from Wujun, separated by Jinling and Wuxi. It is not the production area of ​​"Biluochun", but it is influenced by Wujun, so the local area also has a history of tea drinking.

Tomb-sweeping Day is also known as Outing Qing Festival and Ancestor Worship Festival. In later generations, people gave Qingming Festival more meaning of worshiping ancestors. However, in ancient times, Tomb-sweeping Day was more about going out for youth and getting close to nature.

Like the Shangsi Festival on March [-]rd, on this day, the ladies in the boudoir will go out of the city on an oil wall car to enjoy the scenery, find an elegant place, enjoy the good time of spring, and relieve the boredom of the boudoir.

The accompanying men will hold banquets, such as flowing cups of water, Qinse Yaji, etc., and also provide opportunities for young ladies who have not left the cabinet and unmarried men to get acquainted, so these festivals also imply a blind date between men and women. .

Early in the morning, the eaves were dripping with morning dew, and the outside was filled with mist, Xiao Qinzhi turned over and escaped into a dream again, sleeping soundly, unexpectedly, the door of the room was knocked loudly.

"Uncle, uncle, wake up!" Xiao Rong'er's milky voice came from outside the door. In the morning, Xiao Yun said that he would go out to play today. After waking up my aunt, I called my uncle again.

"Here we come!" Xiao Qinzhi replied, rubbing his eyes and opening the door.

Xiao Rong'er is combing double buns, each with a belt hanging down, wearing a small white Confucian shirt, covered with a pink shirt, looking up, with a pair of water-cut eyes, and long curved eyelashes like black feathers , blinking, with an indescribable charm.

Xiao Qinzhi bent down, picked up Xiao Rong'er, smacked her pink face, walked into the room, put it on the bed, brought in Manjing, dressed and washed.

Little Rong'er put her hands on her cheeks, looked at her uncle who was dressed, and waited obediently, for fear that if her uncle ran away, no one would take her out to play. The child was simple, pure and cute.

Xiao's tea garden is connected with the orchard. It is on the west side of Jinniu Mountain. It is about three or four miles westward after passing the Taoist temple. There is a small path up the mountain. It is as wide as one person. woman takes care of.

In previous years, the tea leaves were picked after Grain Rain, because the tea leaves at that time were large, dark in color, older, and stronger in flavor, which was more suitable for making tea paste. It's a pity that I only treat it as the master's family for entertainment.

Man Gu was waiting downstairs in a small car with oil walls, Xiao Yunzhi was holding Xiao Rong'er, and Xiao Yunzhi was in the car, Xiao Qinzhi and Man Gu sat on the frame of the car and drove the car, the sky was green and the light green was green. It was accompanied by the oil wall cart, followed by a few housewives carrying baskets, and a group of more than ten people walked towards the tea garden.

Generally speaking, the climate in the south is more humid than that in the north, so around Qingming, the seedlings in the rice fields have already grown, and all the seedlings must be planted before the grain rain. If the planting is late, the late rice in June will be delayed. sowing.

There are records of two crops of rice in the pre-Qin period. It was introduced to the south in the Han Dynasty, and it was more planted in the south of the Yangtze River in the Jin Dynasty. It was called ratooning rice, intercropping rice and continuous cropping rice at that time. It was limited by the difference in rice species and the difficulty of planting timing. Although the technology of two-crop rice is still immature, the yield is much higher than that of single-crop rice.

For large-scale rice planting in manors, the planting time needs to be staggered when manpower is limited, so the breeding time must be sequenced. Therefore, as soon as Qingming arrives, the busy planting in the rice fields has already begun.

Xiao Qinzhi looked at the rice fields not far away, which were in full swing. More than a dozen tenants lined up and could plant half of the field in one trip. It's gone, it's crooked, and someone will make it up later, and I can't help being happy with it.

(End of this chapter)