high official

Chapter 32
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Sitting at his desk, Wang Xian was still in a daze.Life is really full of joys and sorrows. In the morning, he was still complacent about finally becoming an official family member. Two hours later, he began to worry about the miserable days in the future...

Coming out of Li Sihu's room, a white servant led him to the next room, which was full of account books.In the gaps in the account books, there are several tables, and behind each table is a busy white-shirted book office.

The white servant went out after explaining to the people inside. Several book offices raised their heads, looked at Wang Xian indifferently, sympathetically, or gloatingly, or the fat man with a round face stood up and cleaned up for him. Zhang Desk came out, grinning at him and said, "Take a break, I'll be busy first."

Wang Xian smiled gratefully at him, and sat down at the table, listening to the crackling sound of the abacus in his ears, but he didn't know what to do. He wanted to help others, but couldn't intervene, so he had to refill everyone's tea bowls. , and then sat there in a daze.

Fortunately, they didn't stay in a daze for long, when they heard a bang outside, all the scribes heaved a sigh of relief, cleaned up the table, and went out quickly.

When Wang Xianzheng was at a loss, the little fat man walked up to him again and said: "It's time for dinner, I'll take you to eat."

"Thank you, brother," Wang Xian smiled gratefully, "Why don't you avoid me?"

"My name is Wu Wei, and I was given the nickname 'It Doesn't Matter'." The little fat man smiled and said, "I'm just joking, my father showed you illness before."

"Are you the son of Dr. Wu?" Wang Xian suddenly said, "How can I be kind?"

"Hey, let's go, we'll have no food if it's late." The little fat man led Wang Xian and hurried to the cafeteria.

That's right, it's called 'canteen', and later generations just continued to use this name.This was the rule set by Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. Li Shimin ordered all yamen from the central government to the local government to set up canteens so that officials could sit together and eat together.

Later dynasties inherited the canteen, but the function of discussing government affairs has disappeared, and the rest is to eat, so it is called eating canteen.For petty officials and officials with little income, this is also a very considerate benefit, and it is called "eating official meals" by the envy of the common people.

In the Ming Dynasty, canteens were also divided into levels, especially in local prefectures and counties.For example, there are three canteens in Fuyang County. On the left side of the county government office is the official canteen, on the right side is the staff canteen, and there is a Xuli canteen in the front yard. Each of the three canteens is bigger than the other. Of course, the grades are inversely proportional.

Wang Xian and Wu Wei were two, and they entered the canteen for officials, which was considered to be a good number.The cafeteria is actually divided into two stalls, the one inside is reserved for economic officials, and the outside is where non-economic officials like them eat.It can be seen how ubiquitous the concept of hierarchy was in the Ming Dynasty.

As soon as Wang Xian entered the room, he saw white clothes and black hats all over his eyes, sitting around square tables, laughing and chatting and spanking, without delaying chopsticks like the wind.Wu Wei took him to his own table, looked at the bowl without Wang Xian, and said with a smile: "You are late today, the kitchen has already counted the number of people, eat my bowl."

Wang Xian quickly declined, but Wu Wei pushed him on the stool and said, "Just eat, I'll fill another bowl."

Wang Xian didn't say anything more, just nodded and sat down, and when Wu Wei came back with a bowl of rice, he hadn't moved his chopsticks yet.

Wu Wei hurriedly picked up a piece of fatty meat with his chopsticks, pouted and said: "Hands are fast, hands are slow!"

"Yeah." Wang Xian nodded, in fact, he was already hungry looking at the food on the table.Although it is only four dishes and one soup, with meat and fish, it is already a supreme temptation for a person who eats brown rice and vegetable soup all day long.

"I didn't expect the staff's food to be so good..." Wang Xian secretly thought, but he heard scolding in his ears. Many people complained that since Sima Dan was in charge of the food, the food has become worse and worse... Sima Dan He is Sima Qiu's younger brother.

Although there was a lot of scolding, everyone ate very fast. Wang Xian didn't move a few chopsticks, and the dishes in front of him were all empty, and he finally ate a bowl of rice...

.

In the afternoon, Wang Xian offered to help Wu Wei with some work, but Wu Wei dared to ask him to help, "Forget it, if I make a mistake, I have to start from the beginning. You should familiarize yourself with the situation first."

Wang Xian had no choice but to find the house rules of the house, spread out the paper, and practiced calligraphy.

I don't know how long it took before a 40-year-old official in green shirts came in. The secretary office looked up and said, "Ling Shi is here." Ling Shi is the name of the county magistrate in the Han Dynasty. A title of respect for officials.

That Ling Shi never opened his mouth with a smile, waved his hands and said: "I'm busy, I'll take a look at the new kid." As he was talking at Wang Xian's table, seeing him just copying the regulations, he said with a smile: "It's really changed. Ah." He patted his shoulder and said, "Come out."

"Ling Shi..." Wang Xian followed him out of the public house, and when he came out, he saw him smiling and looking at him.

"What about Lingshi, just call him uncle." Lingshi is the housekeeper, named Zhang Hua, who was originally under Wang Xian's father, and was transferred to the house later.When Wang Xingye came back a while ago, he even visited Wang's house, so he should be kinder to him, "I went out in the morning, or I would have seen you here earlier."

"Let's call it Ling Shi." Wang Xian said with a wry smile, "It's not good for Sihu to hear it."

"Hey, he has a good ear..." Zhang Dianli curled his lips and said, "Did he show you color?"

"That's the love of Master Sihu."

"Love a fart, your heart is smaller than the nose of a needle!" Zhang Dianli scolded: "Isn't it because you didn't marry your mother back then? You can't take advantage of your father, so it's no use to bully a junior!"

Wang Xian was stunned when he heard that, he still wanted to go back and ask his father if he and Li Sihu had the hatred of killing their father and taking their wife?After making trouble for a long time, I really got myself wrong.

But looking at Zhang Dianli like this, he also has a lot of opinions on Li Sihu.

But Wang Xian knew very well the truth that "disaster comes from the mouth", and he just listened all the way.

Follow Zhang Dianli to the back of the house, pass through a half-covered door, and see three rows of west-facing houses, each row has eighteen rooms, densely packed and very cramped.

Zhang Dianli took him to the inner room of the second row, opened the door and said, "This is the official house. According to regulations, officials should live here on weekdays and only go home on holidays. Although the management has been loosened these years, you are new. Come here, there are people watching from above, let’s stay here honestly for a while!”

"En." Wang Xian nodded, and followed him in to have a look. Inside was a room with a width of one foot and a length of two feet. There was a thick layer of dust on the floor. There were beds, tables and chairs, and a washbasin stand...

"You clean it up." Zhang Dianli said: "Then get a bedding from home. The yamen is in charge of dressing and eating, but the cost of the bedding doesn't matter... at least it doesn't care about you."

"Yeah." Wang Xian couldn't say anything other than nodding his head.

"Okay, you can clean up here." Zhang Dianli said: "Go home when you're done, you don't need to go to the household room anymore."

"Okay." Wang Xian nodded, sent Dianli Zhang out, looked around the room, and took off his brand new coat and hat.Barefoot and wearing shorts, I went out to find a well to fetch a bucket of water, and washed the floor and household items.

After the house was completely clean, the sun was already in the west, Wang Xian wiped off his sweat, put on his clothes and left the yamen.

When he came to the street, he breathed a long sigh of relief. The strict hierarchy in the yamen is really depressing, especially when there is a boss who hates everyone...

Taking a sympathetic look at the two grain merchants who were still there, Wang Xian walked home quickly. The closer he was to his home, the more people greeted him: "Erlang, are you leaving so early today?" Go back and eat the oranges, it’s cheaper for you..."

Of course, the most common question is, 'Erlang, which room did you get assigned to? '

After hearing the answer from 'Hu Fang', everyone's eyes on him changed...

Wang Xian felt nervous for a while, who did I offend?

"Oh, Erlang, hurry up and take a basket of oranges back to your sister to eat. What, no money? Isn't this a slap in the face of the uncle? After all these years, the neighbor has given you two oranges and you still need money..." The sixth uncle who bought the oranges was suddenly enthusiastic. Doubling it, insisted on giving him a basket of oranges.

"Erlang, this is a silver carp that has just been caught, and it is about to be sent to you for repairing your body. Hurry up and hold it..." Seventh brother, the fish seller, also picked up two fish and moved closer.

"Lao Qi is just stupid, how can he eat fish to make up his body?" Zhu Dachang, the butcher seller, raised his knife and slapped it, chopped off four pig's trotters, wrapped it in lotus leaves, and handed it to Wang Xian: "here , Soybean Stewed Pig’s Trotters, I’ll keep you running all over the place!”

All of a sudden, everyone on the street became loving fathers and brothers, not only giving him things, but also complimenting him without saying a word:
"I said earlier in the morning that Erlang is very promising, what do you think, it has come true!"

"Erlang, tonight at the Liu's Tavern, I'll treat you to a mutton hot pot, with autumn fat!"

"Erlang, this young man, looks like he is expected to be an official, and he will definitely be in trouble in the future..."

"..."

If there is nothing to be courteous about, there must be no good things to do, Wang Xian didn't want anything, he almost ran away, but the neighbors chased him home.He didn't care about it, he hid in the room to practice calligraphy, and left it to his wife to deal with outside.

There were people coming and going outside, and the flattery was so constant that Wang Xian was dumbfounded. This is too exaggerated...

It was not until a long time after dinner that no guests came to the door.Wang Xian came out from the west wing, and saw his old lady happily humming a ditty, packing up the things brought by the neighbor just now in the east wing.At a glance, there is a wide variety of food and use, and there is no need to spend money for a while.

"Your son is doing well." Seeing Wang Xian coming in, the old lady narrowed her eyes and said, "Thanks to you, I finally have a chance to accept gifts again."

"Mother, how could the neighbors give us things for nothing..." Wang Xian was not lofty at all, but seeing his old lady would not refuse her, he had to kindly remind her: "They must ask for something."

"I know, isn't it just that the government wants to re-register the yellow book?" The old woman said with a smile: "The neighbors in the street just don't send anything, so you have to think of a way to let them go?"

"Alas..." Wang Xianxin said, you really think highly of me, but you don't know that I am a clay bodhisattva crossing the river - I can't protect myself!But he didn't want to disturb his old mother by speaking out, so he asked, "Where's my father?"

"Your father is the most treacherous. Yesterday he told people to go anywhere, and today he went to Hangzhou for activities." The old lady curled her lips and said: "It's good for activities, if he is assigned to Yunnan, I won't go with him." Said Looking at Wang Xian, Zhuang Ruo didn't mind and said, "By the way, Miss Lin came here today."

"Oh?" Wang Xian pretended not to notice, but closed his ears.

"Her family will move to Suzhou tomorrow..."

"Oh..." Wang Xian said in surprise, "What are you doing in Suzhou?"

"Where is Miss Lin's grandma's house..."

"Oh..." Wang Xian's eyes darkened.

The old woman glanced at him and said quietly: "Miss Lin is also engaged..."

"Oh?" Wang Xian was startled, jumped up and rushed out.

"What are you doing?" the old lady asked.

"Go out..." Before Wang Xian could finish his sentence, he had disappeared at the door.
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(End of this chapter)