Daming Yinghua

Chapter 41
Han Ximeng asked softly, "Sister, does your family believe in foreign religion?"

The little girl was very polite, she stood up and bowed her body, and replied gracefully: "Hello, two sisters, yes, my family has joined the Society of Jesus, and I have also been baptized. My Christian name is Candida."

"Ha, what a coincidence," Han Ximeng smiled even more, and said with a gentle humor, "Let me guess, is your surname Xu?"

The little girl nodded, her expression was honest and surprised.

Zheng Haizhu instantly understood that this child was Xu Guangqi's granddaughter.

In the past few years, Xu Guangqi was fiercely criticized by the conservatives in the imperial court because he had a close relationship with Western missionaries such as Xiong Sanba and Matteo Ricci, and fought for living space for the Christians in various places.He resigned in anger and took a idle job in the Imperial Academy. He mainly lived in Tianjin and translated "The Original Geometry", but he often returned to Songjiang to make friends with the gentry in Huating.

Songjiang Mansion has a liberal atmosphere, but it is still rare for the whole family to enter foreign religions. The fact that the Xu family's young grandchildren were all baptized into religions has spread to everyone in the upper-class official circles.

In Han's house, "Gandhi Da", the Christian name of the little granddaughter of the Xu family, is no stranger to Zheng Haizhu, who has heard it mentioned several times by Qian and Han Ximeng on the occasion of avoiding the third grandma, Yang.

Just as Han Ximeng wanted to ask a few more questions, a woman behind him called out, "Hui Zhen, this is the elder sister of the Han family."

Han Ximeng turned his head and saw that the woman's features were very similar to Xiao Huizhen's, so he guessed that it was Xu Guangqi's daughter-in-law Gu, and said very politely, "Grandma Gu is well."

Gu's boudoir name is Lan Jie, and her natal family is also from Songjiang, and she is related to Gu Mingshi in the same line.

Regardless of the information from her husband's family or her natal family, Gu Lanjie knew that Gu Mingshi's most precious second-bedroom grandson was engaged to the young lady of the Han family in front of her.

She didn't have any unfamiliar greetings to Han Ximeng, she raised her sleeves with a relaxed expression, and said with a smile, "Today I came to see the sweet potato harvest. I was dressed sloppily, and I just met Mrs. Miao. It's really rude."

"What's so impolite, the Empress used to kiss silkworms, daughter-in-law of the Xu family, you are the role model for all the women in Songjiang."

An old but hearty female voice came from the village road, and old Mrs. Miao was already supported by her mother-in-law and walked over boldly.

After she stood still, she said in a confident voice: "Just now I told the grandmas and ladies of each family that Xu Hanlin paid for and hired people to plant sweet potatoes in Sheshan a few years ago, and the scholars in Songjiang laughed at him. Now those old masters, Everyone should come and see how many sweet potatoes can be harvested from this barren mountain and slope that could not grow rice in the past."

Huang Zunsu's wife, Yao Shi, also picked up the conversation and said: "Aunt Miao is right. Last year we had a spring drought in Yuyao, and the rice didn't come up. Fortunately, sweet potatoes are drought-resistant and easy to live, and have saved many villagers. My master It is said that the sweet potato is a vine root that a sea merchant surnamed Chen got back from the Frankies when he went to Luzon to run a ship."

Today, Mrs. Miao chatted with Yao Shi all the way, and she already has a good impression of her.

Some officials and family members, relying on the success of the family's master's official career, let alone the common people, even when they are in front of the rich and powerful families whose men are no longer officials, they like to pick on Naqiao, and they only want to accept the flattery of the stars.

But Mrs. Yao didn't see this kind of superficiality. She spoke to Mrs. Miao in a very measured way. She talked a lot about Yuyao's customs and customs, and asked about Songjiang's private schools.

At this moment, after listening to Mrs. Yao's words, Mrs. Miao applauded more and more, nodded and said: "Mrs. Huang is still knowledgeable. That's right, the sea merchant named Chen is the hometown of Miss Zheng and me. At the beginning, Fran The Jiren forbade me, a businessman from Ming Dynasty, to bring back any plant seeds from Luzon, and Mr. Chen was very clever, he caught the sweet potato vines in the cables of the sea boat, and smuggled them out."

After saying that, the old lady Miao came up to take Gu Lanjie's sleeves in person, and then greeted the well-behaved little girl Xu Huizhen, "Come on, let me eat crabs with the old lady. No matter how busy you are, you will always have to eat."

Gu Lanjie declined and said, "Auntie Miao, I just got out of the ground, and my clothes are so dirty that I can't see it. It's not good for me to attend the banquet."

The eldest daughter-in-law of the Gu family, Shen Shi, has come up and said affectionately: "They are all relatives of our own family, and my sister is no stranger. We have climbed all the way up the mountain, who is not covered with grass leaves and mud balls, let's go."

Mrs. Yao also smiled and said: "I brought a new robe today, and I asked sister Ximeng of the Han family to show the embroidery. If Mrs. Xu doesn't mind, I will change it with Mrs. Xu after entering the restaurant." superior."

……

After half a stick of incense, in the private room of the Heming Tower, the eldest maid Shen's personal maid and Han Xiying were shaking off a set of silk jacket and beanie to change Gu Lanjie's clothes.

A moment ago, Han Xiying took the initiative to go upstairs to squeeze in to help, saying that she was a junior, so she didn't understand etiquette.

Yao Shi was surprised, changing clothes is originally the job of maids and women, if the young lady doesn't participate, how can she not understand etiquette?
She was muttering to herself that Han Xiying was too lively, and on the armchair beside her, Mrs. Shen had already started chatting with her: "Mrs. Huang, the pomegranate cloud shoulder that Ximeng said was embroidered by her just now? Ameng's embroidery skills." , there is really no choice."

Mrs. Yao echoed: "The pomegranate flowers on the shoulders of the clouds are bright in color but elegant in outline, reminiscent of the paintings of the Song Dynasty. By the way, grandma, I heard that Miao Atai's embroidery skills are also superb. Gu Fu and Han The government's marriage is indeed a predestined fate."

On the other side, Han Xiying suddenly took the initiative to intervene: "My eldest sister, I don't look at Song paintings these days, and I'm thinking about Japan instead."

"Waguo?" Shen's complexion changed slightly, and a look of solemnity appeared between his eyebrows.

Han Xiying still had a naive look, and said seriously: "Well, the family who robbed Miss Zheng by mistake gave a Japanese dress as a compensation, and there are also some pictures of beauties. The eldest sister looked at it and thought about clothes all day long like a treasure. I want to observe together, but Ms. Zheng only shows the clothes, not the painting. Ms. Zheng, you are so fierce."

Gu Lanjie, who had put on the beige, caught a glimpse of Shen's appearance out of the corner of his eye, and said softly: "The Japanese painters have indeed become famous overseas in recent years. My father-in-law's Western friends have also mentioned it. As for embroidery I think the Japanese bought a lot of embroidered items when they visited and cooperated with me in the Ming Dynasty, and there are always people who are skillful and intelligent, and they may also become the jade of other mountains, and we can learn from it.”

Shen nodded at Gu Lanjie, turned to Yao and said, "However, the Japanese are different from the people in Nanyang and Western countries. The Japanese have a long-standing hatred with me, Ming Dynasty. It is better to have less ink and calligraphy of the Japanese. Huang Ma'am, you Yuyao, you also had Japanese troubles back then, right?"

Yao shi replied indifferently: "There was a quarrel, it happened during the time of Lord Jiajing, and the old family of Mr. Xie Ge was wiped out."

Shen made a soft "hiss" and sighed "Look, it's scary".

Mrs. Yao went on to expand on the following: "However, later people said that the descendants of Mr. Xie Ge had colluded with my Daming maritime merchants to smuggle them. They wanted money, and when they collapsed, the maritime merchants hired vagrants from the Wa Kingdom to wash Xie's family with blood. So, the ones on both sides are actually my Daming people, and the Wa people are just one of them, hired dogs."

After listening to it, Gu Lanjie cast an approving look, and said in a gentle voice: "In the past, the Japanese pirates in our Songjiang Mansion were similar. Some were real Japanese, and some were actually Ming people's internal strife."

The displeasure on Shen's face flashed past, she stood up quickly, and smiled: "Oh, so. Fortunately, everything is peaceful now, let's go downstairs, don't tell the old lady to wait."

Yao shi walked last, staring at Han Xiying's curvaceous back, smacking, this little girl is also sixteen, she doesn't seem simple and straightforward, but rather cunning, trying to arrange her sister's deviant behavior.

After Yao was relieved by Huang Zunsu, he was accompanied by Zheng Haizhu and visited the town of Songjiang. Zheng Haizhu also took the initiative to invite her to teach in a private school. Han and Zheng two women made friends.

So she made a note in her heart that Han Xiying revealed that Han Ximeng was studying Japanese painting, and decided to find a suitable opportunity to tell Zheng Haizhu about it.

Everyone is responsible for what they say.Since the little girl dared to talk, she couldn't stop the mature listener from reminding her sister.

……

Mrs. Miao is particularly healthy today.

She went to the pond with great interest and chose the hairy crabs herself.

After steaming and serving on the table, a set of silver "eight crabs" is placed in front of each female relative.

In the Susong area, everyone loves crabs, and everyone knows how to use eight pieces of crabs. They don't want their maids to do it for them. They happily grabbed the golden-haired and white-bellied crabs, put them on the round silver platform in front of them, and beat them. Hit, pick, pick, cut, cut.

All of a sudden, countless green and green fingers on the table flew nimbly, holding round waist hammers, long-handled axes, thin forks, round-headed scissors, chisels, small spoons and other tools.

In an instant, fat white crab meat and orange red crab roe entered the mouths of those rouge sandalwood one after another.

Holding the chrysanthemum water for washing hands, Zheng Haizhu stood behind Han Ximeng, and suddenly noticed that Shen Shi, the eldest grandma of the Gu family, used hammers, scissors, forks, and silver spoons normally, so she ate crab roe, crab roe, and crab meat like other female relatives. body and claws.Only when it came to the crab legs, Shen's shell got stuck.

The meat in the crab legs needs to be poked out with a long needle, but after Shen cut off the joints at both ends of the crab legs, she tried several times, but couldn't get the needle in.

Zheng Haizhu could see clearly that Shen's hands couldn't do this delicate movement.

Zheng Haizhu glanced sideways at the maidservant behind Shen's back. That maid was Cuiliu, a 20-year-old girl who was very alert. She was also staring at the hostess' hand, leaning forward slightly. Several times, but seemed afraid to step forward to help.

She has a disease in her hand, she is very concerned about it, and she doesn't want to look different from others?

When Zheng Haizhu was thinking silently, the old lady Miao, who was sitting next to Shen, naturally squeezed the crab leg between Shen's fingers, poked it with a thin stick, and a smooth, tender and fat crab leg came out up.

Shen took it calmly, and pursed it into her mouth.

Zheng Haizhu clearly caught a trace of compassion in the old lady Miao's eyes.

　Today, there are [-] words.Yesterday was too busy.The author writes articles part-time and spends most of the day taking care of business, otherwise the workers and masters would have nothing to eat.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)