Peasant Girl Bookseller

Chapter 16 Go or Stay?

Mai Xiang bounced back home, she was so excited, after traveling to this unlucky mountain village, she didn't expect God to give her another kind of compensation.

But how would she use this relationship?In the 16th year of Qianlong, how many manuscripts did Cao Xueqin write?Who is Zhiyanzhai?Whose son is Cao Xueqin?How could she borrow his manuscript?Also, if she remembered correctly, Liu Huilan seemed to have died of illness within a few years, and Cao Xueqin returned to Nanjing and married another wife.By the way, before Cao Xueqin died, a large pox broke out, and his son died from the pox. What year did this happen?
Just 2 minutes after Mai Xiang was excited, she thought of a lot of questions. She beat her head in frustration. If she knew that she would travel to the Qing Dynasty, she would just read more books or comments about Cao Xueqin.

"Mai Xiang, what's the matter with you, beating your head alone?" Mrs. Sun went out to pour water, saw Mai Xiang standing at the entrance of the yard, and felt that the child was acting strange today.

"Third Aunt, it's okay. I just went to the next door, and the aunt next door taught me how to comb my hair, but I forgot again." Mai Xiang answered her words very naturally.

"Don't tell me that I haven't noticed, I think you are a little weird today. It turns out that you are more neat than usual. Not to mention, the daughter-in-law of the master's family is very handy, and she gave you this flower?" Sun noticed. A pair of peach-red gauze pile flowers were inserted on Maixiang's head. It looked like a good thing, and it tasted delicious.

This pile of flowers was dug out from the dowry box by Liu Huilan. She said that she had put them away for many years and was unwilling to throw them away. She didn't wear them properly, so she happened to give them to Mai Xiang.

"Yes. Third Aunt, I'm going to see my mother." Mai Xiang didn't want to grind her teeth with her.

Mai Huang in the room heard what Mrs. Sun said about her head, so she lifted the curtain and came out, looking at Mai Xiang's head.

Mai Xiang knows that she likes beautiful things, but she doesn't want to get used to Mai Huang's faults, as if anyone who has good things will let her, so Mai Xiang said: "My sister's hair will start tomorrow, you and my sister Let’s take turns, one person for one day.”

"Elder Sister, did you really give it to us?" Mai Huang seemed a little disbelieving.

"Of course, didn't the eldest sister say that my sisters should be humble to each other and not be lazy and play tricks, do you remember?" Mai Xiang seized every opportunity to correct Mai Huang's problems.

"Remember." Mai Huang readily agreed with his eyebrows curved.

After breakfast, Mai Xiang took the initiative to ask Mrs. Zhao to take over the mending work. She had to learn how to hold a needle and mend first, and then she had the foundation to learn embroidery.

"Mother, does our family have an old almanac?" Mai Xiang knew that the only books such a family could have were almanacs.

"No one in our family can read, why spend money on that?" Mrs. Zhao curled her lips.

Mai Xiang remembered that my aunt had a copy, and thought that every family had it, but it was hard to ask further.

"Why do you ask this?" Mrs. Zhao asked.

How could Mai Xiang dare to say that she wanted to practice calligraphy. She planned to learn brush calligraphy after learning how to read from Liu Huilan. Only when she learned how to write would she have the opportunity to copy "Story of the Stone" by herself.

The problem is that I have no money to buy pens, inks, papers and inkstones, so how can I have the opportunity to practice calligraphy?This lowercase script cannot be practiced in a day or two.

"Oh." Mai Xiang suddenly thought of a big problem, and when she was distracted, her hand was pricked by a needle, which really hurt.

"What are you thinking? You're so stupid, you can't even sew a dress well, and you can still point to you to learn embroidery?" Zhao murmured.

Mai Xiang ignored her, what Mai Xiang would think about is, if she wants to transcribe "The Story of the Stone", this cannot be done in a short time, she must stay, what should I do?
She remembered that the earliest copy of Zhipingben was the Jiaxu edition, which was kept in Hu Shi’s hands for many years before it was taken out. The incomplete sixteen chapters, when asking the question, Mai Xiang only knew that it was the 16th year of Qianlong, but she didn’t know whether it was the Jiaxu year or not. How many years has it been since Qianlong, has the Zhiping version of "Story of the Stone" come out?

Whether Mai Xiang should stay or go is a new problem.

After thinking about it, Mai Xiang's head grew big after a while, how would she live if she stayed here?If she leaves, will she still have a chance to meet Cao Xueqin in the future?Is she willing to miss this great work?
The more Mai Xiang thought about it, the more headache she got, she just threw away the old clothes in her hand, and went to lie down on the kang.

How can the family be divided, and how can she earn money? Only when she has money can she help the impoverished Cao Xueqin, keep Liu Huilan alive, and have the opportunity to touch the manuscript.

When Mai Xiang was struggling, Dafu, Erfu, and Sanfu also quarreled on the mountain. The reason was naturally that Sanfu raised the topic of family separation.

"Third brother, why haven't you given up on this idea? What did your parents tell us yesterday?" Dafu was a little disappointed with Sanfu. Although he was kind, he was not stupid, so he naturally knew that Sanfu had suffered. Sun's influence.

Before getting married and marrying a daughter-in-law, it can be said that these younger brothers in the family were all brought up by Dafu, and they were all close to Dafu.You only think about your own little family, and don't think about your parents?
"Brother, don't be in a hurry to object, and don't be in a hurry to get angry. Think about whether my words make sense. We are separated. Our days will definitely be better than today, and we don't care about our parents. Parents have a year of filial piety from several of us, plus the production of the field, isn't life easy? Second brother, do you think what I said makes sense?" San Fu still wanted to persuade him.

Er Fu thought about it for a while. To be honest, he is not very interested in family division. He has no special skills. , is still a boy, can eat, eats a lot, two mu of land is deducted from tax, and two seasons in a year are combined, and he can only receive a little more than three stones of grain. It is difficult to support himself, how to support the family?What's more, he had to take out food for his parents. He gave his parents the harvest of two acres of land, so what else could he have?
Of course, he can go to the landlord's house to rent a few acres of land to plant or open up wasteland, but his son is still young, how much farm work can he do with a single labor force?
In this way, everyone will make do with it together, with Dafu’s hunting money to subsidize to buy food, and my mother-in-law can also save a few private houses in winter leisure. Although there is not enough to eat, life is not too bad.

But this family will be divided sooner or later, and Er Fu thinks about dividing it a few years later. At that time, his son will be able to help him do things together, and his wife will have more private houses, so he can marry his son a wife in the future. .

"Third brother, what you said makes sense. Life will not be bad if we separate from each other, but the elder brother's words also make sense. We can't make our parents sad, so I don't know what to do?" Erfu chose Neutral, holding his head in distress.

"Third brother, can't you wait for a few more years? Parents have said that the family will be separated when the eight blessings get married. Anyway, I don't agree with the separation now. Mother was so angry last night." With a bow and arrow in search of prey.

Seeing this, Sanfu had no choice but to follow.

Back home, Sun found out that Dafu hadn't been touched. When she got angry, she made an excuse for Sanfu, saying that she caught a cold on the mountain and would have to take care of her for a few days before going out again.

Liu Shi and Ye Tiezhu knew that the third child's family was having trouble, but there was nothing they could do about it.

Mai Xiang is looking forward to it, Sun and Sanfu will have a big fight this time, and if the family is divided, she won't have to worry about whether to stay or go.

But after all, she overestimated the ancients. After all, Sanfu was brought up by feudal ethics. No matter how unfilial he was, he was afraid of his wife, but he did not dare to disobey his parents. The second child went up the mountain.

Ye Dafu and the others have gained something from going up the mountain these few times, and they never empty their hands every time, either pheasants or hares. Buy a bucket and a half of coarse grains.

This is what Mrs. Liu has been talking about in the past two days. There are still many places where the family needs money.Mrs. Zhao is about to give birth, and Wufu wants to marry her, and she has to set aside money to buy food, because the family's food is not enough every year.

Because of this, Mai Xiang knew the prices of the current dynasty. In this way, she can only support herself by embroidering two handkerchiefs a day like my aunt. Isn't this labor too cheap?No wonder Liu Huilan is good at needlework but her family is still so poor.

Mai Xiang has had breakfast these few days, arranged things at home, took a sewing basket and went to the next door, and learned sewing and reading with Liu Huilan. She had seen the underwear and cotton jackets Liu Huilan made for children, and Liu Huilan used them. Handkerchief, so I know that she can do a good needlework, but Mai Xiang just doesn't know if she has used her craft to make a living.

(End of this chapter)