Good morning Mr. Zhongtang

Chapter 21

Although the small courtyard is not as spacious and ornate as the big one, it is small in size and easier to clean and organize. This small courtyard located in the westernmost part of Fucha Mansion has only two rooms in total, plus a study room. There was a hut inside, with a stove and a pot, but there was nothing but a few bowls. Tong Wanrou dropped two of the only bowls when she was cleaning them.

Looking at the impoverished yard, Fu Heng stood in the middle of the yard for a long time, until Tong Wanrou came out of the kitchen cabin with a pen and paper.

After Tong Wanrou made some statistics in the kitchen, she made up a list of items that needed to be purchased, and handed them to Fu Heng for a look. Fu Heng also felt the same, so he talked to Mrs. Li, and the husband and wife went out to buy things. went.

Originally, Fu Heng wanted to pull Tong Wanrou out through the former side door, but Tong Wanrou pulled him through the back door, and told Fu Heng a lot along the way, telling him not to care about these useless details:

"The roads in this world are all made by people. There is no distinction between high and low roads. As long as you can walk and reach your destination, they are all good roads. Anyone can walk."

Tong Wanrou's gauze hat couldn't be brought out from the side yard, so she folded it in half with a handkerchief, wrapped a thin string around the corners of both sides, covered it from the bridge of the nose, hung it on both sides of the flag head, and used two flowers picked by the roadside. The small flowers cover the knots, giving it a fresh flavor.

Seeing her fairy eyes looking around, Fu Heng seemed to be very curious about everything. Thinking of the two times when he took her out, she was always wearing a gauze hat. It turned out that her eyes would be so moving while walking, and he couldn't help feeling Even more guilty.

"I won't let you live this kind of life for too long."

Tong Wanrou was watching the two children on the side of the road spinning tops, and didn't hear Fu Heng's words at all. Fu Heng waited for a long time but didn't wait for her to respond, and didn't even say "Got it" at the very least, and followed her gaze. Go, I saw her staring at the spinning top with shining eyes.

Feeling helpless in my heart.

The two bought everything they needed to buy according to the list they had made in advance. Only rice and salt were left and they had to go to the next street to buy them. Wait for him, he will come when he goes alone.

Tong Wanrou thinks about it, let him go back quickly.

After Fu Heng left, Tong Wanrou moved the things to the gate of a tea house. There was an eave in front of the gate, which was just enough to cover the setting sun.

Two younger brothers walked out of the teahouse, one walked to the door to post a notice, the other started to knock with a gong, and shouted while knocking:

"Everyone has passed by and heard that Moben Tea House and Donglin Academy jointly hold a painting and calligraphy competition. Regardless of the ranking, as long as you participate, you will get two boxes of candied fruit from Fushanju."

The younger brother who posted the notice also joined the shouting ranks. After the two yelled several times, they collected the gong and returned to the tea house.

Tong Wanrou was close to the water tower, first read the notice, and understood the general meaning, and then heard what the second brother in the teahouse said, although she didn't know what the calligraphy and painting competition was, it sounded like it was not difficult, and regardless of the ranking, if you participated, you would There are two boxes of candied fruit from Fukuyamaju.

It has to be said that those two boxes of candied fruit are still very attractive to Tong Wanrou now, thinking about taking them back and giving Li Shi a taste, maybe she will be happier.

Thinking so, he walked into the tea house.

I saw that there was going to be a competition inside, so the hall was empty, with colorful flags and cloth streamers floating above the floor, and various landscape paintings hung all over the walls. The room was indeed full of books and elegant charm.

Seeing someone walking in, the waiter at the teahouse hurried up to greet him, and seeing that it was a woman walking in, they couldn't help but look at each other, one of them stepped forward and said to Tong Wanrou:
"Miss, this tea house is closed today, if you want to drink tea, please go elsewhere."

Tong Wanrou took off her veil, and smiled gently at her younger brother: "I'm not here to drink tea, I'm here to write."

Another younger brother laughed and said, "Miss, are you kidding me? Even though you can write a few words, do you think you are qualified to participate in the selection of Donglin Academy? You know, the winning work this time is very likely It will be sent to Ouchi for royal viewing, you should go home and embroider."

Tong Wanrou was not angry when he laughed at him face to face, but pointed to the outside of the tea house politely, and said calmly:

"Isn't there no requirement for those who participate? If you don't want women to participate, you can write it in the notice, right?"

The younger brother was choked by her words, although the notice did not state that women are not allowed to participate, but there are so many talented women in the world, even if there are a few who can read and write, they are not the mainstream after all, and not many are willing to show their heads I participated.

Just as he was about to drive Tong Wanrou out, two pedantic old gentlemen walked in. After asking about the quarrel, one of the gray-haired old men looked Tong Wanrou up and down, and then said impartially:
"It is true that the notice outside does not state that women are not allowed to participate. Since the young lady is interested in it, it's okay to give it a try. Brother Zhushan, what do you think?"

After the gray old man finished speaking, he asked a slightly younger middle-aged man with a goatee and clasped his fists in salute.

"Brother Lu is right, and I think so too. Since the notice did not specify the requirements for participants, everyone can participate."

This middle-aged man who was called Zhushan's younger brother by the gray old man has an extraordinary bearing. He looks like he has read a lot of poetry and books. His meaning is also very clear, that is to say, he agrees with the woman in front of him to come and join in the fun because it is indeed Their negligence when writing the notice did not expect that a woman would come to the door. Since he came, he would not beat himself up and drive her out.

Tong Wanrou blessed him, her posture was really stable and graceful, the middle-aged man couldn't help but his eyes lit up, and he invited her to the back of the desk arranged beside him as a scholar, and asked:
"Miss, do you want to write Xiaokai or Xiaozhuan?"

The gray old man's attitude was very kind. He personally brought the handbook and asked Tong Wanrou to choose it. After Tong Wanrou finished it, she nodded to the old man and said, "Thank you, sir."

Then she turned to pick a writing brush on the desk, her pen box was at home, and it was impossible to go back to get it, so she had to pick a relatively handy one here to write.

Looking around, Tong Wanrou picked up a long pen with the thickness of a thumb. It looked like a bristle. It was not a good pen, but it was strong enough, which was suitable for a person like her who lacked wrist strength.

Seeing the pen Tong Wanrou chose, the old man was surprised and said:
"Miss, that's in big characters. Here's the small pen."

After the old man finished speaking, the few scholars around him started to laugh, and they couldn't even distinguish the pens and came here to write.

Tong Wanrou ignored the others, nodded to the old man and said, "Well, I write big characters. I don't have much time today, small characters are too time-consuming."

"..."

This remark made everyone laugh, this woman is crazy, everyone knows that she must have come here for the gift, and it’s fine to write the small characters that women are good at, but she is here to say that she is not ashamed It's time to write lower case, and to write big characters, she can write any good big characters with her thick and thin wrist.

The scholars around couldn't help whispering and criticizing her behavior.Tong Wanrou didn't mind either, she walked aside to choose the right paper.

The old man and the middle-aged man glanced at each other. The middle-aged man stroked his goatee and looked at Tong Wanrou calmly. She skillfully picked out another piece of rice paper the size of a plaque. It was specially selected from rice paper.

The middle-aged man was delighted to see it again. Raw Xuan was used for splash-ink painting, and cooked Xuan was used for calligraphy and large characters, but this woman chose cooked Xuan when she went up, and after only touching it, she could tell that cotton, sandalwood and leather Xuan were not used all the year round. Touching, it is impossible to distinguish such details at all, and I can't help but feel full of curiosity about the words she wants to write.

After Tong Wanrou flattened the rice paper, dipped the nib in the ink, took a look at it, and then put it into the inkstone again. The middle-aged man couldn't help but stepped forward and said:
"Miss, do you want to try a pen?"

He thought that Tong Wanrou put down the pen because she wanted to test the strength of the pen first. Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Tong Wanrou raised her head and glanced at him. Then she quietly shook her head, dipped the pen into the ink layer by layer, and raised her head after confirming that it had penetrated inside. I glanced at the landscape paintings hanging between the floors of the tea house, and then wrote four vigorous characters——Ci Zhu Feng He.

This is a congratulatory speech, it was originally a birthday speech, and Tong Wanrou only remembered it when she saw a picture of the deep sea in a bamboo forest around her.These four characters are said to be difficult to write but not difficult to write, but they are extremely difficult to write.

Because the vertical strokes in large characters can best reflect the strength of the strokes, if the strokes are not strong enough, it is difficult to write a vertical stroke in the large characters, either inclined or bent, but there are three vertical strokes in the four characters Tong Wanrou picked, so after knowing how to do it From the human point of view, these four words are not easy to write.

After Tong Wanrou wrote the words in a flowing manner, she changed to a small pen and wrote a line of small characters on the bottom left of the paper.

After finishing writing, Tong Wanrou put down the pen, walked up to the little boy by the door of the tea house and said to him:
"I'm done writing, is Fushanju's candied fruit here?"

Xiaotong saw that everyone was looking at her handwriting, it was obvious that she had written it, and her husband had told him that as long as it was finished, she could give someone a gift.

Then he bent down and took out two boxes of candied fruit with the title of "Fushanju" printed on it.Satisfied, Tong Wanrou walked out of the tea house with two boxes of candied fruit.

Fu Heng happened to have bought salt and rice, and pushed the cart towards her. Tong Wanrou went up to meet him, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his cuff, put the candied fruit in his hand on the cart, and put the teahouse's I told Fu Heng about the matter, and Fu Heng knew her hobbies, so he praised her a lot. Tong Wanrou was very happy when she got the compliment from her husband.

Seeing this, Fu Heng took out a thin paper-wrapped thing from his arms and handed it to Tong Wanrou. Tong Wanrou opened it and saw that it was a small top with a soft whip. She picked up the top and asked Fu Heng in surprise:

"How could this be?"

Fu Hengyang raised his eyebrows: "I thought you must have never played with it when you were young, so I bought one for you."

"..."

Tong Wanrou knew that she must have stopped by the side of the road to watch some children playing spinning tops. He saw it, so he kept it in his heart, and bought one for her along the way.

Thinking that he had her in his heart, Tong Wanrou couldn't stop smiling, put the top on the ground, and started beating like those children, but no matter how she whipped it, the top fell down after spinning twice.

Fu Heng picked up the top from the ground, put it on the cart, then stretched out a hand to hold hers, and said softly:
"Let's go home, I'll teach you how to play when we go back."

The two walked hand in hand under the setting sun, and the afterglow elongated their shadows, making people feel that they were a couple made in heaven.

(End of this chapter)