Beloved Concubine

Chapter 38
In the western suburbs of the county seat, there is a huge courtyard.

Inside the wall, there are several wide grass and wood sheds.Under the shed, there are rows of looms, and weavers are weaving towels.

Not a scarf towel, but a face towel.

On the loom, there are white and blue threads, some stretched tightly, some stretched loosely.The shuttle passes through the middle horizontally, a thin stick passes through the loosely stretched thread, and is picked up. A comb under the loom tightens the thread, and when the thin stick is pulled out, a coil is formed.Then the shuttle passes through again, picks up again, and combs tightly again, and so on, and the fluffy towel is produced.

The weavers worked hard, and almost no one spoke, except for the rattling of the looms under the shed.

On one side of the shed, a woman in her thirties did not have a loom in front of her. She had a wire basket on her lap, which contained balls of thread in red, white, yellow, green, and black.She folded each color into twenty strands a cubit long, and the five colors were a hundred strands, and then weaved them into a "baisuo".

Tomorrow is the "Dragon Boat Festival". Nanyue has a custom of wearing "baisuo" on the Dragon Boat Festival. It is mainly worn by children.

The woman was weaving Baisuo when a four-year-old boy ran over from a small door on one side of the wall.

"Mom, dad is back."

The little boy was going to climb up the woman's lap.The woman hurriedly put the wire basket aside and let him climb on her lap.

"I'll go back when I finish weaving the Baisuo."

The courtyard next to the wall is the house where they live.

The woman's name is Zhou Huiqin, she is 31 years old, and she was given to Gao Can by her husband five years ago.

"Mom, what are you making up?"

"Baisuo. Tomorrow is the Dragon Boat Festival. Mother will weave Baisuo for you and brother."

The little boy leaned against his mother's arms, watching the weavers in front of him weaving towels.

Weaving Baisuo is very simple for Zhou Huiqin.She finished weaving quickly, put away the wire basket, and looked at the sky.

The sun was about to set, and the red sun slanted down on the earth, and the light looked very soft.

She said to the Weaver Maid in front of her:
"You guys should probably go back too!"

"okay, got it"

The weavers answered one after another, but they didn't leave right away.

Zhou Huiqin took the child and left.Only then did the weavers seem to breathe a sigh of relief, and began to whisper to each other.

Stepping through the small gate of the wall, here is the courtyard of the house.

Passing through the courtyard and coming to the main courtyard, a man in his 30s was standing by the wall in the courtyard, rinsing his mouth with tea.

Zhou Huiqin walked up to him and smelled alcohol.

"Have you been drinking until noon?"

"Yeah." The man took a sip of tea, pumped his cheeks a few times in a row, grunted a few times, and then spit it out again.

"Are you still having dinner?"

"I won't eat it. I'll do it when I'm hungry at night."

"It's okay, do you want to make you a bowl of hangover soup?"

"I'm fine. Master Liu was drunk and vomited on me, which made me vomit too." Gao Can smiled wryly.

Speaking of which, he is the big shopkeeper of Sheng'an Company, representing Xiling Fang.But in the final analysis, he is just the shopkeeper, not the boss.It is equivalent to being the general manager, not the chairman.

Mr. Liu is an important official of the South Vietnamese Household Department. It is very important to accompany him well and be happy.

"Since you're not eating dinner, I want to go out for a while."

"Where are you going?" Gao Can just asked casually, without any intention of controlling her.

For so many years, Gao Can never asked her to stay out of the house, but Zhou Huiqin seldom went out.

"Tomorrow's Dragon Boat Festival, I made a Baisuo and wanted to send it to Xiao Shitou."

"Baisuo" should be worn before the sun comes out on the morning of the Dragon Boat Festival, or the night before.Usually the mother will tie it on the child herself, wear it until the seventh day of the seventh month, and then untie it and burn it.

"I heard that Xiao Shitou is now at Chunji Snack Restaurant." Gao Can said.

"Ok, I know."

Aunt Shen came to her and told her about it.

"You go, I'll sleep for a while."

Having fun with Master Liu, Gao Can is quite tired.

"Well, then I'll take Cheng'er with me."

The son of Zhou Huiqin and Gao Can is named Gao Cheng.

Gao Can has no objection.He is a very forgiving person.Hitting the concubine at the beginning was because those two women went too far.

Zhou Huiqin was already 26 years old when he gave it to Gao Can, and his two concubines were both seventeen or eighteen-year-old young women.They treated Zhou Huiqin like an old woman, swearing and even beating others.

Before the Shi family closed down, Gao Can had met Zhou Huiqin.She is beautiful, gentle and virtuous, even in her twenties, she still looks like Xiaojiabiyu.

Gao Can is not a womanizer, but a man always has physical needs when he is away all year round.As his shopkeeper, it was impossible to go to prostitution, so he bought a woman to be his concubine.The woman became pregnant, and he bought another woman as a concubine.

Those two had been fighting endlessly before, and Gao Can was already bored.Later, the Shi family went bankrupt, and Shi Zhang offered to pawn his wife to him.To be honest, he was very surprised at the time.

He pledged 400 taels of silver to Huiqin next week.This amount is ten times that of buying an ordinary woman.

He thought that Shi Zhang would take the money to do business well and make a comeback, but he took the money to take risks and died in the end.

When Zhou Huiqin first came to him, he didn't touch her.Until Shi Zhang died, she took the initiative to throw herself into her arms.

Gao Can understood that she was doing it for Xiao Shitou.

She has lost her freedom, once Shi Zhang dies, no one cares about Xiao Shitou.She devoted herself to him in the hope that he would take care of Little Stone.

But that child is very stubborn, pick him up, but he won't come, arrange him to live, but he won't go.In the end, Zhou Huiqin gave Aunt Shen the money, and Aunt Shen took him in.

Nanmen Street, Chunji Snack Restaurant.

Chen Xiao stewed a pot of "Dragon and Phoenix Bringing Good Fortune" with snakes and chickens.

Fang Yu and Xiao Shitou drink snake blood wine, but Chen Xiao does not drink it.

"Why don't you drink?" Fang Yu insisted on giving her half a bowl of wine.

"I've been feeling unwell for the past two days." Chen Xiao came to her period.

Fang Yu looked at it: "What's wrong with you? Why didn't you tell me earlier? Take it here, and I'll help you feel the pulse."

Chen Xiao pushed his hand away: "Since when did you become an old Chinese medicine doctor?"

"I have always been an old Chinese doctor."

Fang Yu forcibly pulled her hand over, feeling her pulse.

"You're fine. What's wrong with you?"

"You can't say it." Chen Xiao shook his head.

Fang Yu stared at her for a long time, and suddenly he seemed to realize it: "Oh! You're having your period."

When these words came out of the man's mouth, Chen Xiao felt very embarrassed.

"I've said it all! Don't say it."

"It's normal to have nothing to say."

"You are a man!..." Chen Xiao was a little ashamed.

Xiao Shitou smiled, Chunhong was ashamed, bowed her head, and ate.

Fang Yu said: "This is a brocade snake with a warm nature. It's best for you to eat now. Come, drink some."

Chen Xiao looked at the wine in the bowl. In fact, her body didn't respond during her period, and she never had a stomachache.But whenever this period, she will still pay attention.

"Don't worry! I'm an old Chinese doctor, you have to trust me."

At this time, someone knocked on the back door of the courtyard.

Chen Xiaobai glanced at Fang Yu and went to open the door.

"Who?"

She said as she opened the door.

I saw a dignified woman standing at the door, holding a child.

"Is the little rock here?"

(End of this chapter)