Beautiful step by step

Chapter 63

Capital
Sitting in front of the vanity mirror after washing her face, Mother Wei accurately picked up the only horn comb among a whole box of combs of different styles.While combing her hair, she unconsciously looked at the treetops outside the window. The chicks who had been looking out of the nest a few days ago disappeared throughout the night.

After fixing her bun, she turned her head and looked to the side, but she only saw the dark tables, chairs and benches.The daughter who had watched over there eagerly since she was a child has already gone to the Northwest with her husband.

Young children, like fledglings, will one day grow up and fly away.

Just in this way, the nest prepared for them will be empty, and the whole house will be very empty.

"Auntie, I'm back."

The child's voice came from the courtyard, from far to near, and Wei's mother put away the trace of melancholy.With a smile on his lips, watching the small body run so fast that it almost made people worry that he would bump his head against the door panel.

Yan Yun slammed on the brakes in front of the door, and before Wei Wei and Yan Heng got married, he had already stayed in the capital for two months.For the past two months, he ate delicious and steaming food every day, wore exquisite robes, and slept on soft bedding, living his life as if in heaven.Under the delicate care, his small face turned pale, and some flesh grew on his face, matching the extremely delicate facial features, anyone who saw it would want to be surprised.

No, Yishan layman kept him in the house yesterday in the name of celebrating his birthday.

Ah Yun respected his master and performed very well that day, but he always missed his Aunt Wei who was excellent to him.Waking up early in the morning, he insisted on going back to Wei's house in the name of taking a rest every ten days.

The little man looked like an arrow, and the Yishan layman's beard was straight up with anger.

Although he blew his beard and stared at him, the old man admired him in his heart.His little apprentice has a conscience, and he can do everything at a young age, which is really a treasure.

Then he happily threw a bag over, and all the things in the bag were shipped from the northwest.

"Auntie, guess what good things I brought back for you?"

good stuff!
Ever since she and Brother Heng went to the Northwest, every time Ah Mao sent letters from home, she went to the official post.The first time she went to the official post to get a letter, she met a member of the Liu family. She didn't know what the other party said to the master after returning home. The second time the letter was sent by someone from the Liu family.

Ah Yun came back from Liu's house, could it be...

Seeing him standing in front of him alone, with his small body unable to hide anything, Mother Wei knew it.

But seeing him so excited, she still frowned in distress: "Good thing, could it be the mask that brother Yun secretly hid, let me look for it."

Bending down, Mother Wei quietly scratched Ayun's itchy flesh.

"No, it's so itchy, my aunt is bullying people."

Wei's mother stopped, pretending that she didn't see the piece of envelope protruding from his chest: "Then I can't think of it, what kind of good thing is it?"

A Yun has always respected the old and loved the young, so he didn't make things difficult for Wei's mother. He took out the envelope with his little hands, pinched a corner of the envelope, and handed it over with both hands.

"It was sent back by Sister Ah Mao, and there are two big paper bags. The paper bags are at the back, Man Fu... Hurry up and bring the bags."

Man Fu is a servant assigned to Ah Yun by Wei's mother. He is in his early ten years old.At first, Layman Yishan wanted to assign a book boy to his apprentice, but after observing Manfu for a few days, seeing that he did a great job flipping through books and grinding everything, he never mentioned this matter again.

Man Fu had been standing outside the door, listening to Ah Yun's shout, and hurried in with his bag.

"Mom, the girl brought this from Liangzhou along with the letter. The Liu family said that they brought three copies, one for the heir of the Zhenbei Hou Mansion, the other for the Jijiu Mansion, and the rest is for you. "

Although Wei's mother has become independent, the servants in the courtyard are still used to calling her mother.She has been used to being called for most of her life, so she never changed her words.But Wei Wei, she forced everyone to call "girl" instead, and the punishment for saying something wrong was very simple, with monthly deductions.

After two months of subtle changes, now everyone has almost forgotten that Wei Wei used to be Hong Ling, the servant girl in front of the old matriarch of the Zhenbei Hou Mansion.

After Man Fu retreated, Mother Wei sat casually on the chair next to the round table, and Ah Yun dragged another chair over, and the older and the younger sat in a row, and the two began to read Wei Wei's letter.

Wei's mother was born at home, even if she was lucky enough to be with the old matriarch, she was not as lucky as her daughter. Since she was a child, she had a son who liked to teach maidservants how to read.She doesn't know many words, and the ones she is most familiar with are the numbers used in accounting, and she is always in charge of accounting.

Although Ah Yun learned to read and write with Yishan Layman, but he is still young, and it is impossible for him to know all the characters clearly.

One large and one small sit in a row, and when they encounter unfamiliar characters, they will check each other's gaps and fill in the gaps.So in the East Wing, there was the intermittent sound of reading letters. Wei's mother started to read first, but when she got stuck on a certain word, A Yun tilted her head and continued to read.He knows a lot of characters and can basically read them, but he just reads a paragraph and stops at a simple place.Mother Wei knew the simple words, so she continued to read.

Wei Wei's family letter is very thick, and she wrote down everything she saw and heard along the way from the capital to the northwest.In the first letter after arriving in Jiuquan County, she even wrote all about Yanjia Village and Wei's grave relocation.

Ayun followed his elder brother all the way from Liangzhou, and he had seen all the scenery along the way.When Wei Wei wrote something that was not too detailed, he chirped to explain it to Wei's mother.His expressive ability is extremely strong, and he can expand the few lines in the letter into vivid scenes.In the past month, with Wei Wei's family letter and the little tour guide A Yun, Wei's mother has traveled half of the country in Da Viet.

Today's letter from home is the same as before. When it comes to Webster's moving the grave, the little guy's face is full of excitement.

But after the excitement, the last point made him puzzled.

"I know chestnut rice. My father and stepmother have eaten this since childhood. It's delicious."

Mother Wei touched his little head: "Then what does Ah Yun eat?"

"I eat corn, which is called cobs in the countryside of Jiuquan. When chestnut rice and corn are ground into flour, the taste is actually similar, except that the taste of corn is a bit rough."

After explaining, Ayun asked puzzledly: "Auntie, I don't understand. Why does Sister Ah Mao call Limi Xiaomi, and even weirder names like "Liufuyingmen" and "Bazhenhexi".

The last paragraph is not complicated, and Wei's mother can understand it at a glance.

"It's because the chestnut rice produced in Yanjia Village is good. Brother Yun sees that special things always have special names. Just like the set of teapots and tea bowls on our table, they are much thinner than those used by the merchants who sell large bowls of tea on the street. , so it is called Jingdezhen official kiln blue and white porcelain."

Ah Yun understood somewhat, but he still had doubts.

Yanjia Village is the place where he has lived the longest. Is the chestnut rice grown there really different from other places?
Reality quickly gave him the answer. Mother Wei opened the bag, and there were indeed two bags of samples inside.One bag is flatter and the other bag is longer.The flat ones are six catties. She carefully cut a hole with the scissors, and poured out grains of brightly colored and round millet, along with a special fragrance of rice.

He ordered his servants to take it to the kitchen to cook porridge, and after she finished reviewing the family letter, the steaming millet porridge was served on the table.

The mother-in-law who has been working in the courtyard for decades is amazed: "Mom, the girl is really filial to you. The chestnut rice with such a fine quality is sent back from a long distance, which is better than what we buy at the rice shop in the west of the city. It is specially for the dignitaries in Beijing to eat those. It's even better. It won't take long to put it in the pot, and the aroma will come out, and you don't need to put it in, the porridge will be thick and fragrant."

A smile appeared on the corner of Wei's mother's lips, and she stirred it with a spoon. There was not so much rice in the porridge, but there was a strong taste in her mouth when she drank it.Having run a rice shop for many years, she knows a lot about food. From a bowl of porridge, she can tell that what her daughter sent is definitely the best chestnut rice.

No, it should be called Xiaomi now.

"It's delicious, even more fragrant than what I've had at home."

Ah Yun drank two large bowls in one breath, clutching his hot stomach, and let out a satisfied sigh.

The porridge was delicious, and because of her daughter's filial piety, Wei's mother even had a big appetite, so she drank porridge without eating anything else.The servants were still waiting for the master to have some leftovers, and they also tasted it, but who knew that they waited and waited until the bottom of the pot was scraped clean, and the master still had more to say.

On the same morning, the same situation happened in two deep mansions in the west of the city.

Liujia
Although the relatives are far away from the Yishan layman, his peer Zhongliu Jijiu admires his elder brother's talent the most.Seeing that the clan brother who was originally depressed, cheered up every day after accepting apprentices, and even occasionally behaved a little naughty as a young apprentice, he looked at it heartily.

Not only that, since the acne marks on her face can be covered, her daughter has become much more active, and she no longer stays in her small courtyard all day long.Getting along with outsiders a lot, now she even comes out to have breakfast with her family without putting on powder, and occasionally even scares her three-headed little nephew with acne marks on her forehead.

Madam Yan brought all these to the family, not only that, she also brought him to know Ding Youde.Thinking of Ding Youde, Liu Jijiu was all satisfied.He liked to study small things all his life, but because of his family relationship, he was admitted to the Imperial College.For many years, I could only listen to the sound of reading aloud, and secretly miss the Ministry of Industry on the other street.

But it's different now, the Ministry of Industry has repaired all his people!When I am interested, I want to make some small objects and take them home to amuse my grandchildren. It is so convenient.

The three major regrets in Liu Jijiu's life have never been revealed to outsiders, but Wei Wei made up for all of them by himself.It is conceivable how good his impression of Wei Wei is.Mrs. Liu didn't have so many regrets, but her biggest heart trouble was her daughter, so she was more in love with the girl from the Wei family.

The husband and wife were very happy to see her bring something back from the northwest, even though it was just a little worthless millet.

People like them really don't lack any gold, silver and jewelry, what they want is this kind of heart.

The two giants of Jijiu House nodded, and the kitchen paid special attention to these two big bags.On the day I arrived, I had already eaten dinner, and it was too late to make porridge.After waiting all night, the next morning, the fragrant millet porridge was served on the dining table of Jijiu Mansion.

The young grandson of Jijiufu, who has already turned one year old and is adding complementary food and plans to wean, expressed a great welcome to millet porridge.This morning, he no longer looked at the breasts of the nanny behind Tianhe (mother) like a cowherd and a weaver girl, eagerly asking for milk.

Surprised, everyone tasted a bowl, and they felt the difference after tasting it.

"I used to make chestnut rice porridge at home, and it tastes different from this."

The first one to speak was Eldest Brother Arong, who had passed the examination ten years ago and is now participating in the work of compiling books in the Imperial Academy.

A Rong teased his little nephew, scooped up a spoonful of millet porridge, blew it cold, and handed it to the mouths of the three little dolls.When he opened his mouth eagerly, she took it and drank it in one gulp, making the little baby scream.

"Auntie, bad!"

"Arong is really, he didn't even call me."

The second sister-in-law of the Liu family ran out on her sister-in-law rather dissatisfied, and then imitated her by putting the spoon near his son's mouth and swallowing it by herself when he raised his hopes.

Being teased repeatedly, Santou felt that the whole world was against him.Putting his last hope on his grandmother, he cried in despair when he saw his usual backer concentrating on drinking porridge.

The table was full of people laughing, and Mrs. Liu, who was pretending to be drinking porridge, picked up her little grandson and shook her: "Don't cry, don't cry, grandma."

The nanny brought a small bowl and spoon for three heads and a body, and fed it with a spoonful of millet porridge, and the baby stopped crying.But he held his grudge, and the little finger full of pitfalls pointed at the unscrupulous duo.

"Mother, bad. Auntie, big bad guy."

A Rong and his second sister-in-law looked at each other, then continued to laugh unconscionably.

After they finished laughing, the three heads in Mrs. Liu's arms had already turned their heads, begging to be fed face to face, leaving only the white and tender buttocks of the two aunts and sisters-in-law.

After breakfast, the maid removed the plates and chopsticks from a large table, waited for each master to wash his hands and mouth, and served hot tea.

Liu Jijiu was busy going to court, and left early in the middle.Mrs. Liu sent him to the gate of the courtyard according to her usual habits, but this morning he specially ordered something.

Thinking of her husband's request and hugging her little grandson, Mrs. Liu said, seemingly unintentionally, "This year's Mid-Autumn Festival, the family will use the millet sent by Mrs. Yan to send the five blessings to other places."

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a festival of good harvests, so the Five Blessings Colored Pot, as the name suggests, is a colorful ceramic pot fired into five grids, with the five most widely planted crops in Dai Viet placed in the middle.Rice and wheat are indispensable. In order to look good, wealthy people usually choose beans that are more eccentric but more colorful in previous years.And millet, or chestnut rice, has a yellowish color somewhat similar to wheat, and the rice grains are small and not perforated, so it is generally not used by people.

The eldest sister-in-law of the Liu family took a look at the matter, thought it over and over again and said euphemistically: "Mother, Mrs. Yan only sent a little over. Our whole family doesn't have time to eat, so it's not enough to give away."

Mrs. Liu put down the teacup: "You don't have to worry about that. The child Ah Mao gave to us was delivered by the official post, so the speed is naturally faster. She will bring a lot later, and she will be able to reach Weiji in the west of the city in a few days." Rice shop. The color of this rice is quite bright, and adding it is just a little new.”

Speaking of novelty, she glanced at Liu Rongchu with vague eyes, and seeing this, the sister-in-law of the Liu family also understood.My sister-in-law had reached her age two years ago, but was wasted because of acne.Now she is seventeen years old, although she can't be said to be old, but she can't delay any longer.

This Mid-Autumn Festival, the emperor is going to tour the west, and the father-in-law is also on the list. The family has already decided to take the sister-in-law to relax.There are quite a few children of great masters who followed the west tour, and when she comes back, the family will almost have a happy event.

Thinking of the troubled sister-in-law, she pursed the corners of her lips: "Mother is very thoughtful, and when the rice arrives in a few days, I will send someone to the east of the city to order."

Zhenbeihou Mansion
After a month of studying in the Imperial Academy, the changes in Chu Lian are obvious.Although he still has that scholarly face, the stability of his whole body is increasing day by day.He is gentle in dealing with affairs, has excellent knowledge, and is serious in doing things. When he encounters something he doesn't understand, he puts down his airs and humbly asks for advice. Although he came in through the back door at first, after a month, the Hanlin Academy has already praised him.

No one knew better than Chu Lian that all his changes were due to Ah Mao.

Ah Mao persuaded him to use his strength to restore the glory of the Zhenbeihou Mansion; Ah Mao told him before getting on the sedan chair that she envied the Wu family, and she also hoped to have a powerful elder brother who spoiled her so much that she dared to do anything wrong.

Caring about Ah Mao has long been an instinct engraved in his bones, and has nothing to do with the relationship between men and women.This thought supported him until he integrated into the Hanlin Academy.

(End of this chapter)