Transmigrating to the Ming Dynasty’s Imperial Examination

Liu Zhuangtou also had no news about the Liu family for many years, but I remember that when the Liu family moved to Yulin, only the uncle Liu Ce of the three young masters in the family became relatives and married the daughter of a colleague, the Qin family. After moving to Yulin, people were sent to send messages several times. It was said that the second master Liu Kuang had done a good job in a Mongolian siege and won the appreciation of the local Zhou Zhenfu and married his daughter Zhou to him.

At that time, although Yulin was far away and was often attacked, the road inside the pass was not very safe. There were not many Cui family going there, but the two families still had contact.

Later, Mrs. Liu passed away in a difficult childbirth, and the Liu family came from the border to express condolences. The Yulin side is no less leisurely than the Taoyuankou side. At that time, there were Mongolians grazing the side. The male of the Liu family was on standby in the camp. He did not come to the funeral, but even the three ladies who had just entered the door for a few months followed.

It was too late to get news there, and because of the war in the border, it took a few months to come. When she arrived at Cui's house, Mrs. Liu had already been buried. Cui Que also felt that Liu’s family was not well-received, and that there was no man presided over such a big matter. Several female families and servants came to the house by themselves. At that time, they were busy marrying the next room presided over, and had a private meal. He refused to meet the Liu family.

Several grandmothers of the Liu family were left out by this, and they felt resentment. The big grandmother Qin simply took the family of his younger siblings to Mrs. Liu's grave and cried, and asked her natal brother to talk to Cui's house, forcing Cui Que to treat the son of the front chamber.

But after the trouble, the two families also broke up, and even the letter was not communicated.

Cui Xie took a pencil full of pages and wrote down the appearance and temperament of his three uncles and aunts. But this happened more than ten years ago. At that time, the eldest uncle was in his early twenties and his third uncle was only fourteen five years old. Now that many years have passed, he is stationed at the most dangerous and desolate border of Ming Dynasty. I am afraid that he has both appearance and temperament. Variety.

Liu's grandparents were both forty people back then, and I don't know if there have been any changes over the years.

Cui Xie pondered for a while, and then asked him: "I don't need to say anything about the past. As a junior, I must first give my own thoughts. Nothing always makes the elders miss me. My grandfather and several uncles and aunts like me. What? Is it better to buy things from Beijing, or go back to the county to pick up some specialties? And Uncle Qin..."

It's reasonable to say that I should also thank others for taking the lead for Xiao Cui Xie, but I can't just because Qin's uncle beat his dad, he is grateful for being a son, so he can give gifts and connect his feelings specially?

This favor is still remembered by Aunt Qin.

He sighed, took a pen to shorthand the preferences of his relatives outside the family, and wrote down the things to give and buy. You can use everything from the shops in your home and those from the fields as a gift, but if Liu Jianan is a general outside, should he still need some weapons and battlefield protection?

Cui Xie himself learned horseback riding and weapons in the Wang family, and he has seen soldiers from Xingtun Youwei wear fat jackets, cotton armor, and leather armor during training. Ordinary people can’t buy and sell weapons at will. I’m afraid it’s not convenient to buy steel. But the family just produces cotton. You can send some cotton and cowhide to make soft armor for them.

At the end, the gift list was filled with a piece of paper, from daily food, shochu, clothing, cotton, leather sheets, to the fashionable "Six Talents Three Kingdoms" and various colored papers. After seeing what I couldn't think of in the end, I stopped writing and asked Liu Zhuangtou: "Is this enough?"

Liu Zhuangtou took a look, and shook his head: "This is too much. How can there be any unborn children who give such things to grandma's family. We...Liu's family also doesn't lack this, thousands of households, old ladies, etc. I just miss you grandson, they will be happy if you write a letter."

If he could go there in person and ask the two elders and a few grandparents to see, I am afraid the Liu family would be happier.

He also knew that Cui Xie was studying in prison, and he had to take care of his parents, who had difficulty in mobility, and a few younger brothers and sisters who hadn't grown up. At this time, he would never get away and go to the border, but he couldn't help but sighed: " The prince looks like his uncle's family, and he looks so good. If you can tell them to see him, where would you not like it?"

What Liu Zhuangtou said was a bit too true. You look so much that you like it with your uncle's family, don't you like it with Choi Sanyi?

He touched his face, conceived to draw a self-portrait and sent it there, but suddenly a thought came to his mind: What the Liu family really wants to see is not his portrait, but the daughter of the married man?

He turned his pen subconsciously, leaned forward and asked: "Do you remember... the old man and daughter-in-law in your family remember what my mother looks like? I want to hear them talk."

Liu Zhuang's head nodded his head: "Remember! My wife was waiting for my wife to comb her hair. She still talks about family affairs from time to time, and she will cry when she mentions it... She also came in with me and gave the son a kowtow. The son wants to see. I will call her now!"

He entered the Cui's house this time and wanted to see Cui Xie, but all he brought with him were people from Liu's house, but he didn't take the tenants. Cui Xie asked them all to sit in the hall and narrated Xu Hanwen, and then left the wife of Liu Zhuangtou and asked her what Mrs. Liu looked like.

She was a maid married to Mrs. Liu. The two had been together for a few years, but now speaking, her voice and smile are still in front of her eyes: "Madam has a small drum face, her cheekbones are hidden in the flesh, she is delicate, The eyebrows are born with a pair of small eyebrows, thin and curved, the eyes are bright, and the eyes turn like flowing waves..."

Cui Xie had to interrupt her artistic expression. A wooden board was slanted by the table as an easel. While deciding the composition of the bust, he asked carefully: "Is the mother round face, oval face or melon seed face? The nose is tall and short? The nose is round. The nose is wide and the wings are wide? Are the eyes big or small? Single eyelid or double eyelid? What does it look like without makeup on the lips..."

He asked Mrs. Liu to sit next to him and correct the wrong place at any time. If there was a problem, he would use a bun to erase and repaint.

The pencil lead is soft and the pen is bald quickly. He uses a knife to sharpen a few strokes, and the tip of the pen is sharpened into a slightly flattened trapezoid, and lines of different thickness can be drawn with a few turns.

In the middle of the painting, the outlines of the facial features, eyes, and nose are set, and the shadows of the eyebrows and the bridge of the nose are slightly punched. This portrait can already be seen as a stranger.

Sister Liu saw him sketch and drew the girl in her memory, she suddenly exclaimed: "How did you paint this son? How can I draw the lady's appearance like a living one by listening to me? Buddhas and Bodhisattvas pity you for filial piety, and in the dark, point you to draw her likeness?"

Cui Xie was unwilling to engage in such feudal superstitions casually. He shook his head and said: "Anyone is not one nose and two eyes, even if there is a small difference, it is not always like that. Although I have never seen my mother, but since childhood Thinking of her, I have described countless facial features in my heart, and now I just picked out a few of the shapes I thought of and put them together, naturally easy to draw."

He just invented the pencil and didn't dare to push out the sketching technique completely, so he stopped, and asked about the cheekbones, muscles and habitual makeup on Madam Liu's face. He wrote it on the side of the paper and prepared to go back. Color on the line and send it to Liu's house in the gift.

The two of them talked about giving gifts to the female family members. Cui Xie opened the drawing paper and added a few things underneath. He took the gift list and the painting and thanked her: "Thanks to Mrs. Liu to tell me this, I can paint. Come out of this painting. This time, Liu Zhuang will have to run to Yulin for me again. Tired you are upset at home. I have treated you badly. When I turn around, I will ask someone to give you an extra money to settle your home."

Sister Liu waved her hand again and again, "scared": "How dare to be a gift from the son! I can see the portrait of the lady again, which is already a blessing from the previous life. If the son wants to reward, I will reward my fellow and look at this pair. Paint it."

Cui Xie smiled and said, "I'll show it to him when the drawing is finished. It's getting late, you go to rest first, and you can go home with the silver tomorrow."

After sending his family back, he went back to the room and continued to fill up the sketch according to Liu's instructions. Then I designed the composition against it, and drew a colorful picture of Mrs. Liu with her child standing between flowers and rocks.

Naturally, that child is little Cui Xie.

Cui Xie first drew a self-portrait in the mirror as a draft, but he deliberately drew a rounder face and slightly larger eyes, setting the body proportion to about six heads, which is exactly what a 13 or 4 year old boy should have.

This portrait is not comparable to the two paintings he painted for Xie Ying, and it may not be exactly like Mrs. Liu, but it should be regarded as a realistic portrait in Daming. I hope that the elders and elders of the Liu family will be a little relieved when they see this portrait, so that they will not even have a sustenance when they miss their daughter and grandson.

And his family finally had a portrait of Mrs. Liu for future generations to miss.

Cui Xie sighed, rolled up the color picture, found a paper tube with a scroll to hold it, wrapped the sketch in oil paper, and carefully put it in the cabinet.

After dealing with these, he changed his clothes and went out to host the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet at the Cui family.

Although there is no hostess and a young master in this family, the Mid-Autumn Festival reunion night is also to be photographed.

Mr. Lu had planned to spend the holidays at his house. He drifted north in the capital to take the imperial examination, and he has never been in the exam. In the past few years, he has been with the Cui family. This year, because Cui Xie was absent, a Cui Xie came out of this family, who were women and children. He was also awkward to stay. He simply found a place to have a drink with a few people in the North Drifter in the same year, and returned after spending the night outside.

When he is absent, the house is really full of women and children. Even Cui Xie, the eldest brother of the family, has not yet been crowned, and is not considered an adult in the traditional sense. Although Mr. Song is a widow, he is still in his 30s or 40s. He is old and not as particular as a young widow. He also sat with them on this rare holiday.

Mrs. Cui also came to the yard, and for the first time in many years watched the moon outside.

Cui Xie led people to move the paper screen, and set up a large paper pavilion in the courtyard for him. The thinnest cotton paper soaked oil paper is pasted on the top, and the shell-ground tile lamps are hung inside and outside, which are bright and convenient.

The thin paper is as transparent as the transparent one, and it is windproof and not obstructive to see the scenery. You can clearly see the moonlight when you look up.

Although their home doesn't have silk and bamboo, the neighbors next door all play and sing, and the breeze sends music across the wall, faintly intermittent, and has a special charm.

The old man occupies a pavilion alone, and the others sit around the table under him. The old lady took her brother and sat on the top, Mr. Song, the guest sitting at the bottom, and Cui Xie and Sister Yun accompany each other at the table in the middle.

Even the concubines placed their first orders and had a lively meal and watched the moon. Rewinding made the courtyard a little more popular.

On the main table are twelve dishes, six gui, six dim sum noodles, fish, chicken, goose, crab, mussels, ham, shark fin and other southern products. Many of the dry goods were delivered by Xie’s family, and they were better than the ones from my own store in previous years. The wine was also the mellow wine that was steamed in a wine steamer for several times, and the taste was clear and pure.

Mr. Song couldn't help but praised: "I used to eat shochu in Zhang's house, but it didn't taste like this. The things in your house are really different.

Sister Yun hurriedly got up to pour the wine for her husband. The fragrant wind rushed through her body, and her delicately drawn eyebrows were also illuminated by the light. Cui Xie was sitting at the table opposite her. Seeing her dark circles that were painted a bit wide, but her eyes were big and bright, she couldn't help asking, "Are you going to learn new makeup from our neighbor again?"

Sister Yun raised her hand and touched her face, pursing her mouth and lowering her head, she said shyly: "This is not what I learned from Sister Xu and Sister Chang. It was when Mr. Zhang took me to visit Mr. Zhang's house, my brother’s classmate. My sister painted it for me. I heard that this eyeliner is a new product from Jinrongtang. It is extremely difficult to buy. Her brother found it for her."

Miss Zhang is really a technical talent. This eyeliner has only been out for a few days, and she can start painting for others!

Sister Yun said that, wouldn't she want it too?

Anyway, it's his own stuff, which is made from pure Chinese herbal medicine. It doesn't hurt the skin. Cui Xie promised to give her a few more boxes to play with, or give it away. After comforting my sister, I raised a glass to police a drink with Mr. Song: "My girl is young and ignorant. She only knows that she is playful. I hope that Mr. Song will be able to teach her."

Mr. Song smiled faintly: "Sister Yun is also a prudent and sensible child. Don't worry about the eldest son. I don't have much to teach, so I try my best to tell her to learn etiquette, read poems, and socialize more with people and meet the world. ."

Cui Xie didn't know how to teach girls. He looked at her younger sister's manners better than usual, and spoke with confidence. He felt that her husband taught well, and entrusted: "After that, I will have to take the younger sister out more. In the situation of our family, she has no good friends to go to, and she is unavoidably lonely at a young age."

Mr. Song said: "I am a widow after all, and I am not as good as someone I don't know. Fortunately, I am still familiar with the Zhang family. Her daughter is about the same age as her sister, but I can get a chance. In the future or There is an opportunity to invite someone to accompany Lingmei, I wonder if the son does not agree?"

Cui Xie smiled and said, "That's also a good thing. It's just that there are few people in the family, and the old lady is not in good health. If someone comes to leave, I have to ask my husband for help."

Mr. Song said: "I know the embarrassment of the son, and I only hope that the son will get married as soon as possible, so that there will be someone in this family."

Cui Xie is a candidate for marriage, but unfortunately he can't mention it publicly. He just smiled and said, "Mr. Song can also see this situation in my family. As the eldest brother, I always have to support him until the younger brothers and sisters have become a family. , Can't I become a relative first and hollow out the family's property, so that they can't find it?

He smiled slightly, laughing so that Sister Yun was ashamed and annoyed, and his brother and brother were still ignorant of what was going on. Mr. Song knew the bitterness in his words, and said with pity: "I am old, so I am not afraid to say something about you-maybe you just haven't gotten your fate, and if you get fate, you will naturally get married. The rich and the poor are willing to follow you."

Well, there is already one.

After dinner, when the women worshipped the moon in the courtyard, Cui Xie also sat on a rockery in the small courtyard and looked at the moon, quietly humming an out-of-tune tune.

What if you can't get married, and can't meet for a while? Inside and outside the palace walls, isn't it still the same bright moon?