83. Chapter 83

This article has a subscription ratio of ≥50% and can be read normally, otherwise it will need to be delayed for three days, and the supplement can be read immediately. Jiang Wu looked sideways at the girl who was smiling wantonly, with a strange light shining in his eyes. Fortunately, Daqing knew the road and was docile, otherwise he would have led a car of three people into a ditch beside the road.

When Xue Tingyan from behind saw this scene, her face was as dark as the bottom of a pot.

He was so upset and angry that he actually forgot about Jiang Wu.

In that dream, Jiang Wu had been coveting Zhao'er.

Jiang Wu was two years older than Zhao'er, but he never married. If Zhao'er hadn't been his child bride, the Jiang family would have come to propose marriage.

Even so, Jiang Wu never gave up. Once, he even came to him and told him that he wanted to marry Zhao'er, asking him not to be so selfish and letting Zhao'er free. He also said that he and Zhao'er would support him in his studies and treat him as his own brother. Only then did he find out about this.

He was shocked and angry. At the same time, he also remembered that Zhao'er had always been unwilling to marry him. He mistakenly thought that Zhao'er had an affair with Jiang Wu, so he took advantage of his parents' orders to marry her by force. Later, by chance, he married her. Then I realized that he had wrongly blamed her.

This incident has always been a scar between the two of them. Even though they never mentioned it again, there was a gap. After that, he was busy with his career, while Zhao'er was busy with business. The two didn't see each other for a long time, and even if they did, they rarely talked until he went to Beijing to take the exam after winning the imperial examination.

The man in the dream once thought after Zhao'er died, if he had not been so despicable and forced it on his parents' orders, Zhao'er would not have died.

But this thought was like a dragonfly on water, just passing by in a flash. Thinking about it at this time, he was probably despicable in his heart. Even if he was not the Xue Tingyan in the dream, he never thought of letting Zhaoer go.

She was supposed to be his, but when he still seemed to understand, someone would always point at her and say, this is his future wife, right?

"Brother Jiang Wu, you'd better watch the road. This road is uneven. Don't lead us all into the ditch."

Xue Tingyan's voice successfully interrupted Jiang Wu and Zhao'er's chatter and laughter, as if a very ignorant person suddenly appeared, causing the originally warm atmosphere to suddenly cool down.

Zhao'er laughed dryly: "Look at me, I was only talking to you about the business, and I forgot that you were still driving. Fortunately, Daqing was smart, otherwise he would have fallen."

Daqing shouted, looking very proud.

Jiang Wu subconsciously glanced back and met the young man's dark eyes. These eyes made him feel guilty for no reason, but he soon felt confident again.

He knew that the Xue family's son-in-law didn't like having children, and he also knew that the second wife of the Xue family originally took the son-in-law as a daughter-in-law, not a child bride. The idea of ​​a child bride was just passed around from person to person in the village, and the second wife of the Xue family entrusted her with it before they died.

Not only that, he also knew that Zhao'er only regarded the other party as his younger brother and had no intention of getting married to the other party.

The young man was undoubtedly thin. Although he was handsome, his face still looked a bit childish. Such a young man made the strong and powerful Jiang Wu feel inexplicably condescending. He smiled heartily and said nonchalantly: "Don't be afraid, dog. You, Brother Jiang Wu, drive every day and can walk back with your eyes closed."

Xue Tingyan said nothing, pursed her lips and lowered her head.

When Zhao'er saw this, he immediately understood whether the name Gouzi made the little man feel uncomfortable again. But facing Jiang Wu, she couldn't put on a cold face. She could only smile and say: "Brother Jiang Wu, I told you that the dog has a name. It's called Tingyan, Xue Tingyan."

"The name is quite elegant."

"Yeah, so don't call me a bitch anymore, because it doesn't sound good."

While talking, the car had already arrived at Yuqing Village.

Jiang Wu inertly walked around to the end of the village before stopping. Zhao'er and Xue Tingyan got out of the car.

"When will the deal be done? Just tell me a time and I will pick you up then."

"Aren't you going to be busy in town tomorrow, and you have to pack up those clothes. When I'm ready, I'll go to your house and give you a letter."

Zhao'er also thought that in two days there would be a competition between Xue Tingyan and Xue Juncai. She would have to wait until this matter was over before she could think about doing business.

"OK."

*

Now that the matter was settled, they said goodbye to each other.

Jiang Wu drove home, while Zhao'er and Xue Tingyan walked home together.

Xue Tingyan didn't say anything along the way, just walked silently.

Zhao'er glanced at him: "What's wrong? He seemed a little unhappy. Was Brother Jiang Wu angry when he called you a dog just now? He didn't know you were famous either. I told him that he would never do it again in the future. That’s what it’s called.”

He suppressed the jealousy in his heart and said in a low voice: "Why are you so familiar with him?"

"You said Brother Jiang Wu, we haven't known each other since we were children. You forgot that Heizi was brought back by his dog after giving birth. Brother Jiang Wu is a very nice person and helped me a lot."

Xue Tingyan said nothing and stopped.

Zhao'er walked forward for a while, only to realize that he had not followed.

She came back after a few steps and asked in confusion: "What's wrong with you? Why are you acting weird?"

He held his breath: "Don't forget, you have a man."

Zhao'er was stunned for a moment, then looked at him and laughed. But he just smiled and said nothing, which made Xue Tingyan angry and annoyed.

Don't think about it, she must have nothing good in mind.

Seeing that his fair face was red with anger, Zhao'er said hurriedly: "Okay, don't be angry, I know I have a man."

There was a teasing tone in her voice, and even though he knew she was trying to coax him, his heart still jumped several times.

With the experience in the dream, Xue Tingyan knew that this was not the time for quarrels. Besides, there was Jiang Wu next to him who was eyeing him. He didn't want to repeat the experiences in the dream again.

He couldn't help but reiterate: "It's also for your own good, so as not to be seen by the villagers and make irresponsible remarks." He didn't dare to look at her, but stared at the ground aside, feeling confident and confident. Distracted.

Seeing him talking about himself like an adult, with a fair face and a slightly childish face, I didn't know why but I wanted to rub his head.

She did the same and said at the same time: "Okay, okay, you are right, I will listen to you."

He suddenly became even more angry, and felt a sense of powerlessness and discouragement.

Why does she always treat herself like a child!

*

Early the next morning, Zhao'er and Xue Tingyan went out.

When we arrived, Dongli House had just opened its doors. Xue Tingyan went to the clean room yesterday to continue copying books, while Zhao'er went to the yard behind the shop.

She discussed with Boss Chen and used this place to pack her clothes. Zhao'er had seen those clothes before, and they were all second-hand clothes. Since she wanted to make money, it was not good for the things to sell well, so she came here mainly to do this work today.

She borrowed the bamboo mat used to dry books in the shop, poured out the large package of clothes, sorted them first by men's and women's styles, and then divided them into several piles by texture and thickness, and then began to check the clothes one by one for tatters. The place.

If there was a hole somewhere, she would sew it up with the needle and thread she brought. Zhao'er's needlework is pretty good, but he's not good at embroidery or anything like that, but he can sew and make some clothes or something.

After finally clearing up the pile, she looked at the sunny weather outside and went to fetch water from the well in the courtyard. There was a windlass on the well, which was very convenient for fetching water. Zhao'er fetched a basin of water, soaked the clothes in the large wooden basin, and rubbed soapy water on them to wash them.

After washing and rinsing, the rice soup in the kitchen is also ready.

Although Boss Chen and the others didn't cook in the shop, they still needed a place to boil water and make tea, so the fire was also turned on in the shop, and Zhao'er borrowed the stove to cook a large pot of rice soup.

She took out the cooked rice soup, poured it into a wooden basin, and added some water to it. It was best if it was slightly hot to the touch. Fang poured all the washed clothes into it and stirred it with a stick.

Stir it evenly, let it sit for half a cup of tea, pick up the clothes from the tub, and rinse them with water again.

This is what is called starched clothes. Starched clothes are straight and look like new ones as long as they don't fade. Some discerning people would even iron it, but since they didn't have the conditions, Zhao'er didn't plan to do that.

During this period, Boss Chen came in. Seeing that Zhao'er was very busy, he pointed at the clothes of various colors hanging in the yard and said with a smile: "That's good of you. You treat my place as your own place. It was originally a place of elegance, but now it's You make it look like a laundry room."

Nowadays, there are places like laundry rooms. Some people don’t want to wash their clothes at home, so they send their clothes to the laundry room to be washed. The price is not expensive and it saves time and effort.

Knowing that Boss Chen was joking with him, Zhao'er also joked: "After Uncle Chen said this, it gave me another idea. When one day I run out of business, I will buy a laundry room. Uncle Chen brings you the clothes and I will wash them for you for free."

"You girl, you are such a businessman." Boss Chen shook his head and laughed, and went back to the front.

The room where Xue Tingyan copied books was in this courtyard, and the big window happened to be facing the courtyard, so Zhao'er's every word and deed could be seen before his eyes.

Normally he could focus on nothing, but today it was better. He always looked at her intentionally or unintentionally.

Looking at her running around in the yard, looking at her face that looked particularly lively in the sun, and looking at the beads of sweat on her forehead, she had no intention of copying a book, and she only copied less than two pages in the morning.

Boss Chen walked in and took a look, then followed his gaze and looked at Zhao'er: "You are lucky to have such a woman in the stall."

Xue Tingyan said nothing.

Boss Chen asked again: "By the way, where have you reached in your studies?"

"I have finished studying the four books, but I can only read them but not understand them."

"It's not enough that you can only read but not understand. Now that you have entered university, you should start to study the Ming Jing. But in rural private schools, many teachers know little about it and can't teach anything. You can read more when you have nothing to do. Reading books such as "Four Books and Chapters" and "Zhu Xi's Annotations" will not allow you to fully understand the scriptures, but it will be somewhat helpful. The most important thing is to find a good school and have good teachers to guide you. "Boss Chen pointed out.

After a pause, he added: "I heard from Zhao'er that he wanted to send you to Qinghe Academy. Instead of spending a lot of money to go to that kind of place, I would suggest you go to Qingyuan Academy."

"Qingyuan Academy?" Xue Tingyan was stunned for a moment and said.

Boss Chen thought that he didn't know, or that he was like the common people who had heard some rumors and been deceived by the illusion, and said: "This Qingyuan Academy is one of the oldest schools in Huyang Township. It was once well-known throughout Xia County. At that time, Half of the people who pass the county examination in our township come from Qingyuan Academy, and there are also a lot of scholars who pass the examination. It’s just that in recent years, Qinghe Academy has become a bit declining.”

Boss Chen's voice was low, as if he was sighing endlessly, but suddenly turned high and very angry: "Everyone in the world values ​​fame and wealth, and is easily fooled by illusions. Little did they know that Qinghe Academy used opportunistic methods. The owner of the museum, Gao Youzhi relied on his close relationship with Magistrate Hu, and Chuyan succumbed to him. All the money allocated by the imperial court to the county to support local social studies and village studies flowed into Qinghe Academy, and the two worked together to enrich themselves.

"The owner of the Qingyuan Academy is an upright person and does not want to associate with him. In addition, the Qingyuan Academy already gives many preferential treatment to the children from poor families. Without this silver subsidy, we can only support him. The county who presides over the county examination The capital has taken a new look at Qinghe Academy, and students who want to enroll there have also flocked to it. In recent years, the reputation of Qingyuan Academy has gradually declined. "

==Chapter 15==

When Zhao'er walked out of the street where the bookstore was, she realized that she had no place to go.

She had come to the bookstore with her little man today. The work in the embroidery workshop could no longer be done, and she hadn't picked up the vegetables for many days. Now it was too much trouble to go back to the village and wait for the afternoon.

She calculated in her mind what day it was and decided to go see her second sister.

Zhaoer's second sister Wang Zhaodi is not in Huyang Town, but working as a maid in Shen Mansion in Xia County. From Huyang Town to Xia County, it only takes half an hour by mule cart, but it is a bit expensive, costing fifteen cents.

By the time Zhao'er arrived at the county seat, it was already three o'clock in the morning. This was the right time to meet someone. If it was too early or too late, her second sister might not have time to meet her, and she would have to wait for a long time.

Zhao'er came all the way to the south of the city. Before he entered the archway where the Shen family was located, he saw two large flags over five feet high erected in front of the Shen mansion.

This is the Jinshi and rank flag. Only someone in the family can set up this flag.

This merit flagpole is divided into two structures, the flagpole sandwiching the stone and the flagpole.

The flag poles on the flagpole are also very particular. If you have a formal imperial examination background and pass the imperial examination, you can have two flagpoles with flag poles. If he is the number one scholar, he will have three flagpoles. If there is a member of the third rank or above, he will have four flagpoles.

There are two big flags in front of Shen's house, one with three buckets and the other with four buckets. In other words, the Shen family had a champion and an important minister in the court.

The reason why Zhaoer, a country girl, knows this is because her second sister told her when she came to visit her.

The main entrance, the side entrance and even the corner entrance were not accessible to Zhao'er's status. She went around in a long circle before arriving at the back entrance of Shen's mansion.

The back door was ajar, and Zhao'er didn't dare to barge in. He respectfully went over and knocked on the door.

The door creaked open, and a chubby woman walked out and asked her, "Who are you looking for?"

This woman was just a doorkeeper, but she also wore a satin gown and jewelry on her ears and hands, which was enough to show the wealth of the Shen family.

The Shen family is indeed wealthy. In this Xia County, it can be said that if you stomp your feet, the county will tremble. The Shen Mansion here is the ancestral home of the Shen family. Except for the eldest and second masters of the Shen family who are working as officials, everyone else in the Shen family lives here.

"Hello, mother-in-law, I'm looking for Su Lan. I'm her brother and I came here to see her."

This mother-in-law's attitude cannot be called warm, but she doesn't look down on others. At least from this point of view, it can be seen that the rules of the Shen family must be very strict. She asked Zhao'er to wait, then closed the door and went inside.

Zhao'er waited for a full stick of incense before the back door opened again, and a very beautiful woman walked out. I saw that her skin was as bright as snow, with phoenix eyes and red lips. She was wearing a water-red jacket and a moon-white pleated skirt. Her long, thick black hair was simply pulled into a bun, with a gold hairpin inserted into it.

Obviously her clothes and hair accessories were ordinary, but all these on her gave her a sense of beauty that no one else had. Her chest is bulging, but her waist is extremely thin, and she has a good figure.

This person is Zhaoer's second sister Wang Zhaodi, but she changed her name to Sulan when she arrived at Shen Mansion.

Zhao'er couldn't help but frown. The second sister had changed a lot since the last time she saw her. Not only the material of his clothes, but also the jewelry on his body, his complexion and even his figure have changed a lot.

She felt a little panicked, grabbed Su Lan, and walked to the corner where there was no one around.

"Sister, did you really do it?"

Seeing her sister scratching her sleeves carelessly, Su Lan asked impatiently: "What can't you do?"