Reborn in the last years of Kangxi

Chapter 6
Jiangning Weaving Mansion, side entrance.

Several young and strong men led the horses and stood in front of a carriage.

When it was two quarters away (06:30 in the morning), the side door opened, and Cao Yong came out, followed by two handsome little book boys in their teens, carrying packages containing pens, inks, papers and inkstones.

Among the men, there was a man in blue cloth, 25 or [-] years old, strong and strong, looking like everyone's head, when he saw Cao Yong coming out, he came forward with a smile: "Little master, I will carry you into the car!"

Cao Yong searched in memory, this man is called Cao Fang, the son of the family, the second son of the housekeeper Cao Fu, who is responsible for Cao Yong's schooling.

Seeing that Cao Yong was silent, Cao Fang thought he had acquiesced, and leaned over and carried him to the car.There are seats on the inside of the car, and there are small armrests on both sides, which seem to be tailor-made for Cao Yong.Through the bamboo curtain, Cao Yong saw the coachman on the left shaft, two children on the right shaft, and everyone else on the horse.

"Wait!" Seeing that the coachman was going to raise his whip, Cao Yong hurriedly raised the curtain and shouted.

Cao Fang pulled the rein of the horse, lowered his head and asked, "Little master, what happened?"

Cao Yong pointed to the two little bookboys: "Let the two of them come in and sit!"

"Little master, this is against the rules!" Cao Fang just nagged, and saw Cao Yong looking at him with a half-smile, feeling inexplicably uneasy, and said with a smile on his face: "Xi Mo, Nong Mo, you two Monkey, why don't you hurry up and thank the master for your compassion!"

Xi Mo and Nong Mo got into the carriage with a smile on their faces, and the carriage left the side door and headed for Zu Xuexing a mile away in the back street.

The seat of ethnology is a courtyard with three entrances, the front is for the long followers who follow the students to rest, the middle entrance is the school, and the innermost is the residence of the master.

Today, the master of the ethnology is Cao Yuan, who is about the same age as Cao Yin, so he is Cao Yin's uncle and Cao Yong's ancestor.Cao Yuan was a rare talent and famous. He won the Juren when he was in his twenties, but after more than 20 years of examinations, he still failed in Sun Shan. Later, his family Zhang Luo donated him a seventh-rank county magistrate.Because he didn't understand current affairs, he was dismissed in less than half a year, which made Cao Yuan disheartened, so he gave up the idea of ​​becoming an official and defected to his nephew in the south of the Yangtze River.

Cao Yin saw that although this little uncle was not well-versed in the world, he had solid knowledge, so he entrusted his family study to him.

In addition to the children of the direct and side branches of the Cao family, there are also children of relatives who come to the school, so there are twelve or three students.The older ones are thirteen or fourteen years old, and the younger ones are six or seven years old.Cao Yong is the grandson of the eldest son, the seat is in the middle of the first row, and Cao Song's seat is on the right.

When Cao Yong arrived, before the class started, Cao Song had already arrived. Seeing him coming, his little face was full of joy, and he almost danced.On the seat to the left of Cao Yong was also a ten-year-old child, wearing half-new clothes, not as mischievous as Cao Song, sitting there obediently, speaking plausibly.Cao Yong heard that "he is also filial and fraternal as a person, but it is rare for him to offend his superiors", and "a filial younger brother is also the foundation of benevolence", which is the content of the opening volume of "The Analects of Confucius".I just heard from Cao Song that the master is going to teach the Analects today, so it seems that the kid is previewing his homework.

"Hum, I'm used to putting on a show!" Seeing that the little boy attracted Cao Yong's attention, Cao Song muttered.Seeing Cao Yong's doubts, he said in a low voice: "It's a relative of my aunt's natal family. You won't come to the attached school in the past few days. My husband prefers to arrange the seat in the front."

Just as he was talking, Cao Yuan walked in with square steps. Seeing Cao Yong arrived, he pointed to the little boy on his left, and said, "It seems to be all right. This is your new classmate, Gu Na." Gu Nadao: "This is Cao Yong, the son of your uncle Cao's uncle, you should call him cousin."

Gu Na stood up, flicked his sleeves, and gave a salute: "Nephew, please greet uncle!"

Seeing two bookworms, big and small, Cao Yong held the corner of his mouth: "You're welcome, please get up!"

The homework in ancient times was very monotonous. First, the master led everyone to recite the first volume of "The Analects of Confucius" three times, and then pointed to the two older students in the back seat to lead everyone to recite.For two full hours, I did nothing else.Cao Yong's mouth is parched from reading, but luckily he can rest for a quarter of an hour every half an hour, and two bookboys pour tea and bring it up, all brought out from the mansion.

At [-]:[-] p.m., it was lunch break time, the master went back to the inner house, and the students' homes sent all kinds of snacks to eat.The students sat in groups of three or five according to their closeness.Only the three small ones in the front are different from everyone else.Cao Yong and Cao Song are two brothers, forming a school of their own, served by a few book boys for meals.The Gu Na family did not send lunch, so they took out a paper bag from their school bag, which contained a white flour steamed bun and two slices of pickles.A small mouthful of steamed buns, a small mouthful of pickles, tastes elegant.

There were boos from behind, some people wanted to ridicule, but because they were concerned about Cao Yong, they didn't dare to say more, they just said in a strange way: "You are so poor, how can you sit in such a good seat!"

Cao Song was blunt, seeing Gu Na opening the paper bag, he shouted, "Why are there steamed buns and pickles again!"

Gu Na's face was watery, calm, and he was still eating a small mouthful of steamed buns and a small mouthful of pickles.After eating half of it, wrap the remaining steamed buns and put them back in the school bag.

Cao Yong watched from the sidelines and saw how calm such a child could be. He was curious in his heart. It seemed that he came from a poor family, but he didn't know what kind of parents could raise such a sensible child.Cao Song couldn't see that others were bad, and he was already very embarrassed for accidentally yelling just now. With a chicken leg in the lunch box, he walked to Gu Na and put it on his desk.

Gu Na just ignored it, took out "The Analects of Confucius", and began to recite it in a low voice.Seeing that he ignored him, Cao Song became angry and threw the lunch box on the table. The chicken leg flung out and slipped from Gu Na's sleeve to the place, and his clothes were dirty.

"You!" Gu Na stared at Cao Song, his face flushed red.

Cao Song glanced at Gu Na, and returned to his seat triumphantly.

Cao Yong stretched out his hand and patted his forehead, kid, what a trouble.At this time, the students sitting at the back all saw the change in front, and booed "oh", "oh".

Gu Na stood up from his seat and walked in front of Cao Song: "You stained my clothes, why don't you pay for it?"

Cao Song glared: "I don't, I don't!"

"I'm sorry!" Gu Na said with a firm expression.

Cao Song turned his head away from looking at him.The students in the back, who wanted to make trouble, all gathered around. Some said, "Second Uncle, teach him a good lesson", and some said, "Don't even look in the mirror. If you want to bully Second Cousin, you must first ask Young Master." fist".

"Bah!" Cao Song patted the table, stood up, and pouted his mouth: "Okay, okay, it's my fault, it shouldn't be your clothes dirty, it's okay!"

Guna nodded and returned to his seat.

Cao Song turned his head and shouted shamefully at those good students: "It's all gone, it's so hot, don't you bother me!"

Cao Yong saw that his little brother was kind-hearted and didn't bully others, so he got closer to him.

Half an hour after the lunch break, the master came to the school again.In the afternoon, the lecture content is to recite "Sound and Rhythm Enlightenment" and write big characters. "Sound and Rhyme Enlightenment" is an enlightenment book for mastering the rhyme and rhythm. Today's teaching content is:
Clouds face rain, snow faces wind, and night shines against clear sky.Laihong is facing the going swallow, and the old bird is facing the singing insect.The three-foot sword, the six-jun bow, Lingbei faces Jiangdong.The Qingshu Palace on earth, the Guanghan Palace in the sky.The willows and willows are green at dawn on both sides of the strait, and the apricot blossoms are red in a spring rain in a garden.Two winds and frosts on the temples, a visitor who travels early on the trip; a cloud of mist and rain, an old man who fishes late by the stream.

Along the opposite revolution, the difference against the same, the old man against the yellow boy.The river wind is against the sea fog, and the shepherd is against the fisherman.Yanxiang is ugly, Ruantu is poor, and northern Hebei faces Liaodong.The water in the pool washes your feet, and the wind blows outside the door.Emperor Liang taught scriptures in Tongtai Temple, and Emperor Han bought wine in Weiyang Palace.I'm ashamed to look at hundreds of refined bronzes.

Poor versus rich, stuffy versus connected, wild old man versus Xitong.The temples are green against the eyebrows, and the teeth are bright against the lips.The sky is vast, the sun is melting, and the sword is facing the bow.The half stream is green and the water is green, and the thousand trees are red.Wild crossing swallows wear willow rain, Fangchi fish play with lotus wind.The woman has slender eyebrows, and a crescent moon appears under her forehead; the man is vigorous, with a long rainbow in his chest.

The students shook their heads and read it fluently, which was much more fluent than the boring "Analects" in the morning.The showy ones in the middle are already expecting the master to come up with a pair, so that they can show off.The master knows that teaching should be done step by step. After seeing everyone recite it several times, he asks the students to get up and recite the first paragraph one by one. Half of them can recite it.Then, the master told everyone to memorize the remaining two paragraphs when they got home.

After reciting "Enlightenment of Sound and Rhythm", the master asked everyone to prepare pens, ink, paper and inkstones, and watched everyone write big characters, but the content was the "Hundred Surnames" and "Thousand Characters" taught earlier.It's okay not to have homework, this Cao Yong is very caring, in order not to be illiterate, he still reads and writes well.

Before it's too late, the school is over.The chief attendants of each prefecture picked up their little masters, those who rode horses, those who drove cars, and dispersed separately.

Cao Yong was sitting in the carriage, very bored. He had read books for nearly 20 years in his previous life, and it has only been a few years since he had to start all over again. He felt a headache when he thought about it.

Weaving Mansion, side entrance.

A man with a wretched expression nodded and bowed to the porter. He looked about thirty years old and was dressed in crumpled satin clothes.The concierge was impatient, rolled his eyes, and cursed a few words.

The man was still talking, the concierge called out two thick men and yelled a few words before scaring him away.

Cao Yong's carriage arrived, and after he got off, he saw a dirty and thin man staring at him not far away, looked at Cao Fang, and asked: "Who is that man?"

Cao Fang replied: "That's Gu San. He is a relative in our house. Speaking of which, he used to be the son of everyone. His family was ruined and he went to the master. But he is not up to date. He only knows whores and gambles. The master is bullying men and women outside under the guise of the master, so angry that the master kicked him out!" At this point, he paused: "His son is also studying now, I heard that his wife came to beg his wife a few days ago."

I really didn't expect that this dirty-looking man turned out to be Gu Na's father.Cao Yong was secretly surprised when he thought of the child who was so gentle even when he ate steamed buns.

Cao Fang sent Cao Yong to the second gate, where Huobi was already waiting there with two little maids.

That Gu San hung around in the casino for a few days, and gambled away his last copper coins. He wanted to go to the weaving mansion to play the autumn breeze, but he couldn't even enter the gate, and his stomach was filled with anger.He was afraid of being beaten, so he didn't dare to complain at the door, and when he was far away, he spit out: "You bastards, when the third master gets rich, I'll make you look good!"

When Cao Yong got out of the carriage, Gu San looked at him from a distance, wearing brocade, a collar around his neck, and a jade pendant on his belt, and couldn't help thinking about it.It wasn't until Cao Yong's master and servant entered the door that he sneered and turned around.

In theory, Gu San is the nephew of Cao Yin's deceased wife, Mrs. Gu.Cao Yin hated him for his ignorance, but he didn't want to be too ruthless when he saw his dead wife. Although he was kicked out of the house, he still rented a small yard in the back street for his family to live in, and gave them some money and food every month.Gu Sanjuan was often asked to gamble, which made the family's life very difficult. It was only thanks to Gu San's wife, Zhou's weaving and embroidery, that the family could not stop cooking.

When Gu San came home, Gu Na was having dinner with his mother Zhou Shi.Mother and child, each with a bowl of stick noodle porridge.There was still half a white flour steamed bun on the dinner table, which was left over by Gu Na at noon, and he pushed it to his mother, Zhou Shi, for her to eat.

Mrs. Zhou didn't agree, so she pushed the steamed buns in front of her son, and drank porridge with a few slices of pickles.

After Gu San entered the house, he went to the kitchen to look for something to eat. When he saw a steamed bun with white flour, he picked it up and took a bite.

When Mrs. Zhou saw it, she stepped forward to stop it: "This is for my son to bring food to school tomorrow, I'll get you some porridge!"

Gu San lost the money and got angry in Cao's mansion. He was full of evil fire and had nowhere to vent. Seeing his wife's nagging, he stretched out his hand and slapped Mrs. Zhou twice; The door, I didn't go well!"

Zhou covered her mouth and cried.Gu San stepped forward and kicked: "What mourning, I'm not dead yet, don't think that I don't know what you're thinking, so I cursed me to die early, so I can find a bad face."

Mrs. Zhou was kicked to the ground, her face turned pale with fright, and she was so wronged that she shed tears.Gu San still wanted to make a move, but he saw Gu Na stretching out his arms to protect his mother behind him, looking at him with a tight face.

Gu San just felt bored, and muttered: "Go to school!" Looking at his son again, his eyes rolled away, not knowing what to think, "haha" laughed twice, lifted the curtain and went out.Behind him, Zhou's cry came.

(End of this chapter)