Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 15 0014 [Children's Songs of Hometown]

It was already dark, and only the father and son and the child were left in the courtyard.

Shen Erniang's boudoir name is Shen Yourong, her parents are present at home, and she has two older brothers.

Bai Qi is a posthumous child, and his father died before he was born.In his memory, if a man came to the house, he would always be beaten and scolded by his grandmother with a stick.

But the two men in front of them, not only were not beaten or scolded, they were actually left to eat, and they seemed to be sleeping at home at night.

It looks amazing!

Especially that big brother, who can write a lot of new characters, my mother is very happy, he must be a great talent like my father.

Bai Qi was a little introverted, and sat with his head bowed the whole time, but secretly looked at the father and son.Then, he saw an outrageous scene. The big brother who was good at writing picked up a grain of corn by the table and stuffed it into his mouth with lightning speed.

Zhu Guoxiang said contemptuously, "Are you serious?"

Ju Ming smacked his lips, recalling the taste of millet porridge: "I'm not full."

"It's enough. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law didn't eat much, and all the food went into our stomachs." Zhu Guoxiang said.

Zhu Ming was actually picky: "If this millet can be shelled, it will definitely taste better."

Zhu Guoxiang said with disgust: "Don't say you are my son in the future."

Bai Qi interrupted suddenly, expressing his opinion with a serious expression: "I have eaten shelled corn porridge, it tastes very delicious, and I always remember it."

"Haha, heroes see the same thing," Ju Ming said amusedly to the child with a slap in the face, "Come on, give me five!"

Bai Qi heard a question mark in his head. He didn't know what it meant. Facing the expectant eyes of his elder brother, he subconsciously stretched out his little hand.

Snapped!
The high five was successful.

Perhaps it was due to mental tension for half a month, but at this moment he finally relaxed. Zhu Ming let himself go and wanted to do something to have fun: "After high-five, you have to say yeah. Follow me, yeah!"

Bai Qi said stupidly, "Yeah!"

Ju Ming started rehearsing again: "Now let's do a full set. I said Give me five, let's high-five, and say yes after high-fiving!"

"Remember." Bai Qi felt that he was learning some high-end etiquette.

Ju Ming smiled even more happily: "It's started, Give me five!"

This kid Bai Qi is very savvy, he quickly clapped his palms, and shouted seriously: "Yeah!"

Zhu Guoxiang was sitting next to him, putting his hand on his forehead, and couldn't bear to look directly at him, he was so fucking childish.

Suddenly, a sound came from outside the courtyard.

Zhu Guoxiang thought it was a visitor, but turned his head to see, but it was the thin horse in the archway, and he wanted to come in because of the excitement in the courtyard.

Zhu Ming played more and more vigorously with the children, and even wanted to sing: "I'll teach you a nursery rhyme, do you want to learn it?"

"Think." Bai Qi showed expectant eyes.

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "This nursery rhyme is called "The Lonely Brave Man". It is very famous in my hometown, and even three-year-old kids can sing it. Come on, learn from me sentence by sentence..."

The corner of Zhu Guoxiang's mouth twitched, what the hell did he have?
When Shen Yourong made the bed and came to the courtyard again, she suddenly heard a beautiful nursery rhyme: "I love you walking alone in a dark alley, I love you when you don't kneel..."

Seeing Zhu Ming standing up again, he said to her son, "Don't just sit and sing, do a few poses, and play some accompaniment. Move it again, move it again, Yo Yo Yo, check it out!"

Bai Qi stood up in a daze just like the upper body of a ghost, earnestly learning to sing and dance: "Move every time, every time, every time, yo, yo, check!"

Zhu Ming had a smirk on his face: "You've learned well, I'll teach you a little chick dance some other day."

In this small farmyard in the Northern Song Dynasty, the ancient pastoral style quickly collapsed.

Grandma Yan stood under the eaves, her face was a little anxious, and she whispered to her daughter-in-law: "This Zhu Dalang, is he suffering from hysteria? He looks crazy."

Shen Yourong took the initiative to excuse Ju Ming: "Auntie, don't panic, extraordinary people do extraordinary things, and high-level people often do extraordinary things."

"I'm afraid he will bring Brother Qi to ruin." Grandma Yan said worriedly.

Shen Yourong was silent for a few seconds, then said quietly, "Brother Qi hasn't been this happy for a long time."

Grandma Yan was startled when she heard the words, and looked at the more lively grandson, and immediately raised her brows: "That's right, dolls are supposed to make trouble. Those who can play with dolls happily must not be some kind of villain... These two fathers are so desperate Very, they are all stinky and stinking, you go and boil some bath water, and I will find two clothes to change."

Before the bath water was ready, Grandma Yan had already come out with her clothes.

Grandma Yan held the clothes and said: "Mr. Zhu, Zhu Dalang, these are the clothes my son used to wear when he was alive. If the two gentlemen don't dislike them, they can take a bath and change into make do with it."

Zhu Ming was playing nonchalantly with the child, when he heard this, he immediately became serious, cupped his hands and said, "How dare you dislike it, the old lady has a heart!"

Zhu Guoxiang also stepped forward to thank him, and took the clothes from Grandma Yan.

While waiting for the hot bath to heat up, Zhu Ming asked, "Madam, can I borrow some salt? The animal outside the door hasn't eaten salt for several months, so I need to get some salt water for it to drink."

"Yes." Grandma Yan went to fetch salt again.

Not long after, a bowl of salt water was brought and carefully handed to Zhu Ming.

Zhu Ming put the skinny horse into the yard, and the horse stuck out its tongue and licked it. It was so excited to taste the salt, that it buried its head and didn't lift it up again.

Shen Yourong came quietly, and said in a low voice: "Auntie, the water has boiled, there is not much left in the jar, I will go pick some up."

Both father and son were watching the horse drinking salt water, but they didn't notice that Shen Yourong went out in the dark with a bucket.

After serving the animals comfortably, Grandma Yan said: "The bath water is ready, which one of you will wash first?"

Zhu Guoxiang said: "You go."

Zhu Ming was not modest either, and followed Grandma Yan to the bathing place.The bath water was a bit hot, and some cold water had to be scooped up to mix it in. Zhu Ming soon discovered that the water tank was about to bottom out.

He ran back to the courtyard and said to his father: "There is not enough water in the tank, and Mrs. Shen is not here, so I must have gone to fetch water."

"I see, you go take a bath." Zhu Guoxiang nodded.

Zhu Ming went to take a hot bath, and Mrs. Yan turned and went back to the house.

The tables and benches in the yard have not been cleared away, and the oil lamps are still on.Grandma Yan came out with her needle and thread, sat beside the dim oil lamp, and buried her head in silently examining the soles of her shoes.

Zhu Guoxiang pulled the child into a dark place and asked, "Where do you usually get water?"

Bai Qi replied: "In the river."

Zhu Guoxiang ordered: "Go back to grandma and don't run around."

"Yeah." Bai Qi nodded obediently.

Zhu Guoxiang reckoned the direction to go to the river, the distance was quite far, at least one mile.Moreover, the fields are criss-crossed and winding, probably for a mile and a half.

There is a crescent moon in the sky, the stars are dotted, and the visibility at night is less than one meter.

After walking for a while, Zhu Guoxiang finally heard the movement, and Shen Yourong came back panting heavily with water.

"Miss Shen, let me come." Zhu Guoxiang said.

There was a sudden sound in the darkness, which startled Shen Yourong, and when she heard it was Zhu Guoxiang's voice, she quickly said, "No, we'll be there soon."

"Let me come, I have strength." Zhu Guoxiang blocked the path.

Shen Yourong had no choice but to put down the bucket, and said rather embarrassedly: "Excuse me, honored guest."

Two buckets of water weighed dozens of catties, and Zhu Guoxiang lifted them with ease after his physical fitness improved after crossing.

Shen Yourong followed behind, seeing that he carried water very deftly, obviously he had done farm work, so he couldn't help being even more curious about the origins of the father and son.

All the way without a word, back outside the courtyard, Shen Yourong hurriedly stepped forward to open the door.

Grandma Yan heard the noise, looked up to see Zhu Guoxiang carrying water, she put down the soles of her shoes and went to help, she scolded her daughter-in-law, "How can you let the guests do it?"

Shen Yourong smiled, but did not speak.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "It's us who are causing trouble, and it doesn't matter if you carry a bucket of water."

Zhu Guoxiang carried the water and continued to walk in, quickly unloaded the burden, poured a bucket of water into the water tank, and poured another bucket of water into the cauldron.He also took the initiative to sit in front of the stove and add firewood to the stove that had not been turned off. This pot of bath water was for himself to burn.

Grandma Yan watched Zhu Guoxiang busy up and down, and muttered, "There should be a man in the family."

"What did aunt say?" Shen Yourong asked.

Mrs. Yan dragged her daughter-in-law into the back room: "In the past few years, you have suffered too much."

Shen Yourong said: "Auntie, don't talk about these things."

Grandma Yan sighed: "The family is orphaned and widowed, it is inevitable that people will miss it. My old woman is not very capable, so I can only fight off those rascals. There are more than one or two who come to the door to make matchmakers, and you don't give them good looks." look……"

"What exactly does aunt want to say?" Shen Yourong interrupted.

Mrs. Yan is still going around in circles: "When your uncle (father-in-law) was alive, our family still had [-] acres of land. My unlucky son spent a lot of money on studying, and sold the land every year for money. All the tile-roofed houses were sold, but in the end they died outside. Now, my family’s land is only about [-] acres, and there is no man in the family, so it won’t last a few years to support Brother Qi’s education.”

Shen Youronghui got it wrong, and swore: "Don't worry, aunt, the daughter-in-law will never remarry, even if she begs for food, she will raise Brother Qi. If you don't count on what you say, I'll let Lord Hades cut her tongue when she dies!"

"That's not what I mean," Mrs. Yan pointed to the kitchen, "I'm afraid the father and son are also from rich families, and they have drank ink in their stomachs. I saw Mr. Zhu, who works very quickly, and he must have fallen down in recent years." .The two of them wandered into our village. They didn't even have enough to eat. I'm afraid they have nowhere to go. How about..."

"Why not?" Shen Yourong asked.

"It's better to recruit a wife," said Grandma Yan, "Then Mr. Zhu, he looks very upright, and he's not too old, so he's quite a good match for you."

Shen Yourong didn't have such thoughts at first, but when her mother-in-law said it, she blushed instantly, and couldn't help but think about Zhu Guoxiang's appearance.The more he thought about it, the more ashamed he became, his face flushed, and he lowered his head and muttered: "Others are full of talents and have great abilities, why would they want to marry a widow?"

But Grandma Yan had a good plan: "No matter how knowledgeable you are, you will starve to death. You can tell him in advance that you will only marry half of the marriage."

"Half the marriage?" Shen Yourong didn't understand.

Grandma Yan explained her plan in detail: "He moved to live in my house, he didn't change his name and surname, and he gave birth to a child with you, and he can also be named Zhu in the future. But Brother Qi's surname is still Bai, and he has to raise Brother Qi. The two of them are knowledgeable and can teach Brother Qi to read, so the tuition can be saved a lot. There are two more men in the family, and they are not afraid of being missed. If there is no more man in charge, the twenty A few acres of land will be occupied by the villagers sooner or later."

Shen Yourong thought of Zhu Guoxiang's appearance again, and couldn't help but glanced at the kitchen, this pretty widow was obviously moved.

Grandma Yan continued: "The land at the east end of the village was occupied by a row last year, and that damned Baiford moved the ridge. I went to ask the old white staff to judge, but Baiford refused to admit it, relying on the number of men in the family. , just to bully our two widows. When you have a man, you won't be so useless!"

"But..." Shen Yourong was both happy and nervous, with some hesitation and worry.

Grandma Yan was still saying: "The men who tried to get your ideas in the past didn't have any good intentions. This father and son are different. Although they just met today, their eyes are very correct. My old lady must be right about people. That Zhu Dalang , and can play with Brother Qi. That Mr. Zhu, who knows how to carry water for you, will love others. Don’t be afraid of remarrying, Brother Qi will be bullied by his stepfather. My old lady is not stupid. In his hands, how can two foreigners take it away from him? My family’s 20 mu of land is not afraid of being missed by foreigners, but the locals of the village will come and rob it!"

Shen Yourong thought about it carefully, in terms of land property alone, foreigners are indeed more reliable than villagers.

Grandma Yan suddenly sighed again: "It's really impossible to have no men in the family, and those tenants will have evil intentions. They also have to support Brother Qi to study, and even if they sell all the land, they can't support it. The old woman really has no choice."

Shen Yourong clenched the sarong with both hands, tight and loose, loose and tight, lowered her head shyly, and said as thin as a mosquito: "Auntie, I would like to marry. It's just... I'm a country widow, I'm afraid I won't be able to catch Mr. Zhu's eyes .”

Grandma Yan said, "Leave them here for a few more days, and I'll go find out what's going on first."

(End of this chapter)