Peasant Girl Bookseller

Chapter 44 Minglin
Of course, Mai Xiang remembered the second girl Jia Baoyu met in the countryside when Qin Keqing was going to funeral. Zhi Yanzhai's comment seemed to be "a grass snake with a gray line, and the veins are thousands of miles away." Unfortunately, there was no news of her in the first [-] episodes.

"Well, I haven't thought about it yet." Cao Xueqin smiled.

After hearing this, Mai Xiang guessed that "Story of the Stone" should not be finished at this time, otherwise, Cao Xueqin would not have said so.

"Speaking of which, how many chapters has Mr. written these days? Our two brothers don't think about eating and drinking because of Mr.'s books, so we will visit Mr.'s house every few days." Dun Cheng asked with a smile.

"There are a lot of things going on in the past few days, and I haven't finished writing a chapter yet." Cao Xueqin said.

"Sir, is there anything we can do to help?" Dun Min asked.

"No need, you have a family too, so you don't have to run to me all the time. Recently, I borrowed the light from our Mai Xiang, and my life is pretty good." After Cao Xueqin finished speaking, she patted Mai Xiang's head again.

"Mr. is laughing at me again. What kindness can be greater than saving lives? Mister saved the lives of four members of Mai Xiang's family."

After Mai Xiang finished speaking, she was about to leave when Cao Xueqin suddenly said, "Mai Xiang, don't you want to learn to write? I'll teach you how to write ten characters now, so you won't have to come back later."

"Okay." Mai Xiang followed them into the study next door.

This is the first time for Mai Xiang to enter Cao Xueqin's study room. It is also a large kang. The kang is full of scattered manuscripts. The end and the top of the kang are full of manuscripts and books. There is a set of pens, ink, paper and inkstone on the kang table. Other than that, there seems to be nothing else.

When Cao Xueqin was explaining the meaning and strokes of the characters to Mai Xiang, Dun Min and Dun Cheng picked up the manuscripts on the kang and arranged them skillfully. It seemed that they often came to help Cao Xueqin organize the manuscripts.

"By the way, sir, I met Minglin just now, did he come to your place?" Dun Min asked suddenly.

"Ming Lin?" Cao Xueqin shook her head.

Mai Xiang searched her mind for a long time. It seems that there is a man named Mingyi who wrote twenty poems about "Dream of Red Mansions". It can be regarded as a reflection after reading it. What is the relationship between Minglin and Mingyi?
When Mai Xiang was bowing her head in thought, there was the sound of a horse barking in the yard, and another visitor came to Cao's house.

Dun Min rushed out to greet her, and Mai Xiang went to find Liu Huilan to pack her things and was about to say goodbye. When she passed by the door, she took a look outside.

The guests in the courtyard had already dismounted. Mai Xiang saw that this person was about the same age as Dun Cheng, in his twenties, but his family background was better than that of Dun Min and Dun Cheng.

"It's a coincidence that Cao Cao is here." Dun Cheng clapped his hands and laughed.

After hearing this, Mai Xiang knew that this was Ming Lin, and secretly thought that Cao Xueqin was surrounded by mostly young friends.

"Sir, it's too embarrassing. No one told me such a great news about Lin'er. If I hadn't met an acquaintance today, I wouldn't have known about it."

"You really know how to catch up with the time. I happened to find a jar of Nuuhong, and I planned to have a drink with my husband today. It's just right that you came." Dun Min also smiled, and it was obvious that he welcomed Minglin's arrival.

"Auntie, who is this person?" Mai Xiang was really curious if Minglin and Mingyi were from the same family, so she asked Liu Huilan.

"His name is Minglin, Fucha Minglin."

"Fucha's family? The current empress's natal family's Fucha's family?" Mai Xiang still doesn't know that Empress Fucha is dead at this time.

"It's her family, but the queen died three years ago, and the current queen is the Wulanara family. But this Minglin is not the main branch of the Fucha family, and naturally she is not as rich and powerful as the Fucha family." Liu Huilan patiently Explained a few words.

After finishing speaking, Liu Huilan seemed to feel something was wrong again, she looked at Mai Xiang and asked, "Don't you remember that Empress Fucha passed away three years ago?"

The death of Empress Fucha three years ago, the whole country mourned together, the grand event was unprecedented, Mai Xiangna should be remembered.

"I was a little impressed when you said that. How old would I be, and I can't even eat enough to eat, so how can I care about these things?" Mai Xiang said casually.

"Then how old are you now, why are you so curious about Mr.'s affairs?" Liu Huilan noticed that Mai Xiang liked to ask about everything about Cao Xueqin.

"I'm just curious. By the way, Auntie, I heard that my husband has a friend named Mingyi. Is he with the Minglin family?" Mai Xiang then asked.

"Mingyi? No, I've never heard of this person." Liu Huilan thought for a while, then shook her head.

"How do you know that my family has a younger brother named Ming Yi?" Ming Lin came in to see Liu Huilan and the child, just in time to hear Mai Xiang's words, and looked at Mai Xiang suspiciously.

"Ah, I heard it from someone else, maybe I heard it wrong." Mai Xiang was embarrassed, she was a little worried that she would reveal her truth, because she was not sure what Mingyi's age was now.

Seeing Minglin staring at her, and when Mai Xiang was worrying about how to explain, Cao Xueqin came in and said with a smile: "Your Fucha family has a big business, and Mai Xiang has been wandering around the Temple of the Reclining Buddha these days, and heard a few news about your family. What's so strange?"

Dunmin Duncheng followed in and asked, "What's the news about your Fucha family recently?"

"If any news reaches my ears, the whole street will know." Ming Lin replied, and then glanced at Mai Xiang.

Any news about Fucha's family will not be Mingyi's news, because Mingyi is only a child of seven or eight years old, how does Mai Xiang know Mingyi's name?

"Don't talk about that, you are much better than us anyway. Let's go and drink." Duncheng dragged Cao Xueqin out.

After everyone left, Liu Huilan looked at Mai Xiang and asked, "Have you met someone from the Fucha family? Have they made things difficult for you?"

Interrupted by these people, Liu Huilan also forgot that Mai Xiang originally asked if Mingyi was a friend of Cao Xueqin.

"No, I just heard a few words from others, but I didn't hear the truth. By the way, when it comes to this, I seem to hear that Mr. also has a younger brother. What is the name of the village?" Mai Xiang suddenly thought of another question.

Later generations of red scholars basically judged that Cao Xueqin was Cao Fu's son because of the mention of "his younger brother Tangcun" in a sentence, because the possibility of Ma's remarriage was unlikely.

"I just talked about you, and you asked again. After asking about Mr.'s friends, he asked about Mr.'s family. That is his uncle's son, a cousin, named Tangcun. Mr. grew up with his uncle's family. What's the difference between relatives and cousins?" What about it?" Liu Huilan pointed Mai Xiang with her finger.

Taking advantage of the situation, Mai Xiang hugged Liu Huilan and said coquettishly, "I just like my aunt and husband, so I'm curious. If it's someone else, I won't ask."

"Got it, I like our Maixiang too." Liu Huilan stroked Maixiang with her hands.

Mai Xiang and Liu Huilan got bored for a while, and heard that the neighbor had already poured wine and talked loudly, so Mai Xiang had to leave Cao's house quietly.

As soon as Mai Xiang entered the house, Mai Qing and Mai Lu were pouting and angry, and Mrs. Zhao was cursing in the room, her voice was not high, and she was still not angry.

"what happened?"

"When we were about to eat egg custard for our parents, the second aunt came with Mai Jin in her arms. She said that Mai Jin's milk was insufficient and she wanted to eat something good, but all the money in the house was cleaned up by the third aunt. The two silver coins should be paid by us, because the second uncle saw that we were in trouble and carried it down by himself, so he came to us to borrow a few eggs and a scoop of polished rice. My father and mother couldn’t get out of bed, and my sister and I couldn’t stop it. Pour polished rice grabbed a few eggs and left. Huh, he also fed most of the custard we made for parents." Mai Qing cried aggrievedly as he spoke.

"Where's your second sister?" Mai Xiang didn't see Mai Huang, but Mai Huang was there, and with Mai Huang's more aggressive temper, Qian shouldn't be able to get any advantage.Mai Qing is only five years old, and has a weak temper, so she can't play much role.

"The second sister went to mow the grass with a basket after she finished making the custard. She said that the eldest sister could sell the grass, so she went to cut more."

"Why didn't you call Mama?" Mai Xiang asked again.

Similar things happened before, but it was a few little boys who were greedy and came over to have a tooth-beating festival. Mai Huang always called Liu Shi to solve it, and he didn't suffer any losses. Mai Xiang couldn't understand why Qian Shi If you want to do this, what is the difference between this and stealing other people's things?
Because Mai Xiang didn't believe that Qian would return the things.

(End of this chapter)