Chapter 97:

Yanting County is big or small. I haven't met my former classmates yet. For Xu Yi, it's not a big problem.

He even felt that it would be nice not to meet him.

Therefore, this man named Feng Jiangliang wanted to take Xu Yi to a nearby tea shop to talk, but Xu Yi politely refused.

"It's rare for us to meet each other, why are you so polite?" Feng Jiangliang paused and looked at Xu Yi with an incredulous look, "Don't you think you still hate me?"

Xu Yi remained calm. Looking at him, his mind quickly searched for the memory of this person.

At this moment, a memory fragment that did not belong to him finally appeared in his mind.

He knew who Feng Jiangliang was.

Although they were said to be former classmates, in fact the two of them did not have a close relationship. And the grudge he mentioned was not a big deal. It was just that at that time, the original person had mortgaged all his belongings at home and sold them to the Changsheng Treasury, but he was still short of silver. When he was desperate, he asked him to borrow two taels of silver to buy medicine.

But Feng Jiangliang refused with embarrassment, saying that he had no money and could not lend it to him. Turning around, I saw him chatting and laughing with several wealthy children in a teahouse.

Xu Yi: "..."

He didn't know what the original person was thinking, and he didn't really care.

Otherwise, this person would not have been completely forgotten.

Xu Yi didn't like the coy look on this man's face and had no intention of getting close to him.

However, this kind of misunderstanding still needs to be explained. Xu Yi said: "It is natural that you don't want to lend me money. Why should I bear grudge against you."

Feng Jiangliang: "..." Today's When a scholar speaks, how can he say it so directly to his face.

What's more, he is unwilling to borrow money.

Feng Jiangliang looked unhappy, looked at Xu Yi with a cryptic look, and asked: "Since you don't hold grudges, why did you reject me?"

He wanted to see the emotion of forbearance on Xu Yi's face. It was obvious that Xu Yi's face There is no unnecessary expression at all.

Do you really not hate him? Then why did you act like you didn't recognize him just now?

Feng Jiangliang thought that since he heard the news that Xu Yi had stopped studying, he would sigh with emotion when meeting people: "You said he... stopped studying a long time ago." To express his regret, some classmates Comforting him, "Are you worried about him? Anyway, people like this will stop studying if they don't want to study."

But looking at it now, Xu Yi seems to be living a good life? Wearing brand new clothes, the wide sleeves are edged with dark blue brocade corrugated sleeves, and wearing a sapphire blue headscarf. He still looks like he is sleeping with a book on his pillow.

Feng Jiangliang asked with concern: "Xu Yi, how are you doing these days?"

Xu Yi raised his eyelids slightly, not trusting his words at all: "Well, it's good."

"Then you..." Feng Jiangliang I would like to ask Xu Yi what his future plans are.

Xu Yi's attention was diverted elsewhere, to the stall not far away.

Xu Yi walked towards the stall, squatted down, and took a look at the small jars placed on the stall. This is a famous Song Dynasty pot with a short neck and an open mouth, rounded shoulders, and a tapered belly. The lines are simple and graceful, with different colors on the top and bottom. There is a circle of yellow glaze on the bottom, which shows the aesthetic quality of the master who fired the pottery pot.

The old man selling the pottery pot saw him looking at it carefully and shouted with a smile: "Young officials have taken a fancy to this pottery pot? My pot is made of the best clay. It has been used for generations." It's bad."

After saying that, he watched Xu Yi touch the texture on it and happily introduced, "The yellow glaze on it will not change color when exposed to fire. It can not only be used to hold grain, but it is also good for cooking and eating. "

Ceramic pots are unlike other things. If used well, they can be passed down for dozens of generations and continue to be used for hundreds of years.

The clay pots sold by this stall owner are far better than other ordinary clay pots in terms of style and quality.

Xu Yi excitedly asked him what the price was.

"The big one is fifty cents, and the small one is twenty cents." said the stall owner.

At this time, Feng Jiangliang, who was following, suddenly said: "The price is not cheap, Xu Yi, do you want to buy it?"

He meant something, and the stall owner also looked at Xu Yi after hearing this.

Xu Yi said: "I want to buy a few back."

"..." Feng Jiangliang was stunned again.

Why was it different from what he thought? In the past, Xu Yi loved to bargain when buying things. He didn't look like a gentle scholar at all, and it was even more insulting to gentleness. After returning home, he would put on a short brown to work in the fields.

Xu Yi ignored him and picked two large and two small ones in front of the stall. After paying the stall owner the money, he put the jars into bamboo baskets.

He wanted to leave, but Feng Jiangliang couldn't stop him and could only watch as he left carrying the bamboo basket on his back.

...

Meeting Feng Jiangliang had little impact on Xu Yi. When he came back with his things on his back, he gave them to A Xu to deal with.

A Xu got the new clay pot and asked Xu Yi how to arrange these.

"Replace the old grain cans with new ones." Xu Yi said thoughtfully, "Wash the old ones and I will use them to make medicinal wine."

Hearing that they would be used to make medicinal wine, A Xu happily hugged the new ones. For clay pots, use a bamboo brush to scrub and dry them.

Then put it upside down under the beam to dry in the sun for several hours before it can be filled with grain.

Xu Yi went into the house, changed into clothes that were convenient for working, and came out. He then entered the kitchen, took a dustpan the size of a wooden basin, and selected several medicinal materials from the cabinet.

As early as the Jin Dynasty, "Southern Grass and Trees" recorded how to add plant juices and branches and leaves to the koji making process to make koji with medicinal aroma. By the Song Dynasty, it was very common to use Chinese medicinal materials as ingredients for distiller's yeast. In the "Beishan Hai Jing" alone, there are sixteen flavors recorded. [Note 1]

Today, in addition to tasting the delicious taste of medicinal wine, people also pay more attention to the health-preserving and curative effects of medicinal wine.

In Yanting County, there are many wine shops selling various flavored medicinal wines, and the prices are not cheap.

Among them, most medicinal wines sold in wine shops use the cold soaking method and the hot soaking method. However, in recent years, the wine cooking method has gradually become more and more widely used.

Xu Yi's idea of ​​making medicinal wine only came up in the past two days. The more than 200 silver coins he had saved previously were used to buy a house.

It costs money to renovate the home, it costs money to build new furniture, it costs money to do everything.

This gave Xu Yi a sense of crisis due to lack of money.

He thought about concocting new pills, but other pills were not as good as Xiaoshi Pills. Xiaoshi Pills have been a common medicine in homes for hundreds of years. Although it treats food accumulation, it can also be used for gastrointestinal discomfort, belching, and abdominal bloating caused by spleen and stomach deficiency. Take.

On the other hand, other pills simply do not have such innate backup conditions.

As for Huoxiang Zhengqi Pills, another pill that is always available at home, it has the same effect as Xiaoshi Pills. After thinking about it, Xu Yi decided on medicinal wine.

In particular, medicinal wine can be brewed with different medicinal effects based on different medicinal materials.

For example, there are medicinal wines for treating bruises, medicinal wines for tonifying the liver and kidneys, medicinal wines for treating internal injuries and old diseases, and medicinal wines for beautifying the skin, etc.

Xu Yi could think of many medicinal wine recipes and wanted to try them immediately.

However, he was not familiar with the current method of making wine. He only knew that the Song Dynasty already had a method of cooking wine.

You need to use sake, add the medicinal materials required before preparation to the wine, and then heat it over water.

Thinking of this, Xu Yi picked several herbs such as safflower, angelica, myrrh, Panax notoginseng, Salvia miltiorrhiza, Ligusticum chuanxiong and Sappanth. These herbs have the functions of promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, promoting qi and dysmenorrhea, reducing swelling and relieving pain.

Xu Yi picked out the things, took the dustpan to the yard, and planned to crush the medicinal materials in the yard with Huiyi trough.

After the rain and snow, the weather became a bit colder again.

However, there is a charcoal fire burning in the house. You cannot stay in a narrow room for a long time. The air is not circulated. Inhaling too much charcoal smoke is not good for the lungs.

Not only does he love working in the yard, but he also often reminds A Xu and A Jin not to stay in the kitchen for a long time.

Seeing Xu Yi come out, Ah Jin came out with the embroidery basket in his arms, placed it on top of the door pier, used his legs together as a support, put the embroidery basket on top, held the embroidery needle in one hand, and held the embroidery needle in the other. Unfinished brocade bag.

Speaking of embroidered brocade bags, we should also remember that after Xu Yi went to the Xing family last time, he promised Xing Yuesen to make soothing sachets for his grandparents.

Ah Jin had a half-made brocade bag in his hand. It was made of the best materials. This material was brought over by Xing Yuesen's Amu. Ah Jin used various colored threads to embroider the patterns of wealth, auspiciousness and wishful thinking on it according to Xu Yi's description. .

"Lang Jun, please take a look, can I embroider like this?"

After a while, Ah Jin came over with a brocade bag that was almost embroidered and asked Xu Yi.

Xu Yi looked at the patterns she had embroidered and praised: "Yes, Ah Jin's embroidery is getting more and more exquisite."

Ah Jin's face turned red after being praised, and she laughed and said, "It's all thanks to Mrs. He." , she taught me a lot, and the stitching techniques I use today are what she taught me, but my work is still not as good as Mrs. He. "

Ms. He has more than 20 years of embroidery skills, and A Jin can't learn it alone. A girl who is half a year old is naturally unable to compete with her.

Xu Yi knew that Mrs. He usually took good care of A Jin. In response, he smiled and said, "Remember to thank Mrs. He."

"A Jin understands." After A Jin finished speaking, he told Xu Yi , out of the eighty cents she received last month, she took out forty cents and bought a silver-plated begonia hairpin as a gift to Madam He.

Xu Yi listened as if it was an anecdote. He continued to grind the medicinal materials in Huiyi's tank with his hands, and asked her with a smile: "Ms. He took it?"

"It was confiscated at the beginning." Ah Jin described it in an eccentric way. Referring to the scene at that time, "Ms. He blamed me for spending money indiscriminately and told me to save the money, but I said, 'Ms. He, if you don't take it, I will never dare to come here again.'" Mrs. He heard my tone. Seriously, I dare not stop."

She imitated Mrs. He so beautifully that Xu Yi couldn't help but laugh heartily.

Then, Ah Jin said, "I bought a hairpin for Mrs. He and made new shoes for Mr. Hu."

Xu Yi raised his eyebrows: "?"

Ah Jin put down the brocade bag in his hand and ran to the house. Come out with a small package.

She made leather boots for Xu Yi. The outer part was made of waterproof deerskin, and the inner part was made of very comfortable silk fabric. It was not only smooth to the touch, but also not easy to deform.

It took her half a month to make these boots.

She took it out and gave it to Xu Yi. Her two dark eyes were bright and bright, and she said happily: "Mr. Lang, please try to see if it fits."

She has done several things for Xu Yi in the past few months. A pair of straw sandals and cloth shoes, and he already knew the size of Xu Yi's feet well.

But when Xu Yi put on the shoes she had made, Ah Jin was so happy that she almost jumped up from the ground.

She was still thinking that she was from a girl's family, so she endured the excitement in her heart and asked Xu Yi if he liked it.

"Not bad." Xu Yi liked it very much.

With leather boots, he won't have to worry about his feet getting wet when it snows in the mountains in winter.

Xu Yi tried on the boots, but did not take them off immediately. Instead, he asked her: "In order to make these boots, do you still have any money left last month?"

Ah Jin pursed her lips, and she spent all of it.

The deerskin cost one penny, and the silk cloth was expensive, so she cut off two pieces of cloth, which cost her twenty pence.

Ah Jin didn't dare tell Xu Yi how much he spent, but Xu Yi didn't know the price of these things.

Especially the leather sold by hawkers in winter. How can you buy such a big piece without hundreds of cents.

At this time, A Xu came out with two empty clay pots, intending to put them in the corner to dry.

When he saw his sister bringing the newly made boots to his husband, he was stunned for a moment, and went back to the house without hesitation.

Not long after, Xu Yi had an exquisite twelve-square makeup box in his hand.

Xu Yi: "..."

"Is this?" He looked at the excited A Xu.

A Xu explained excitedly: "Have you forgotten, Mr. Lang? Last time you told me that it would be great if there were separate boxes for fragrant pills. I went to the market yesterday to select for a long time, and finally I found it."

This makeup box is divided into two layers, upper and lower, each layer has six grids. Each grid is about the size of a baby’s fist, which is really good for separating incense pills.

However, this is a makeup box. The items used by ladies and ladies in the boudoir are not simple. Most of them are painted with various patterns of flowers and birds, which are as exquisite as works of art.

"Lang Jun, don't you like it?" A Xu looked at Xu Yi's face and asked anxiously.

Xu Yi pinched his eyebrows and said, "The stuff is good, but it's not suitable for me to use."

A Xu glared: "The box seller said that this is the latest style from Bianjing, and many people are vying for it. . I, I spent sixty yuan more to buy it."

Xu Yi: "..."

Who says it isn't?

Regardless of whether it is the latest style from Bianjing, this makeup box is indeed a good thing in the eyes of the lady.

Thinking of this, Xu Yi's thoughts of admonishing calmed down. In the final analysis, these two children were just trying so hard to please him.

He accepted the gifts carefully prepared by the two of them in a good mood, saying that they would not have to spend so much money in the future.

"As long as it is something you make with your heart, I will like it." Xu Yi touched their heads.

...

On the other hand, after Feng Jiangliang said goodbye to Xu Yi, the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. He always felt that Xu Yi had changed too much and was not as depressed and inactive as he thought.

The next day he came to the private school and while chatting with his classmates, he seemed to mention Xu Yi casually.

"I wonder what Brother Yi did after he left the private school." He sighed while drinking tea.

Next to him, a classmate asked him: "Is that Xu Yi you are talking about?"

Feng Jiangliang nodded, smiled slightly and said, "Apart from him, I don't know anyone else named 'Brother Yi'."

The classmate echoed him. : "He has always been from a poor family. He stopped studying, so he will naturally work in the fields again."

Feng Jiangliang had a smile in his eyes, but his tone was quite regretful: "He worked very hard when he was studying, which is really a pity. "

You are so kind-hearted that you still care about people like him. Maybe the other party has long forgotten you as a classmate."

Feng Jiangliang's mouth twitched slightly. Although the classmate didn't mean it, he still told part of the truth.

At this moment, another classmate passed by them, listened to what they said, and couldn't help but said: "The Xu Yi you are talking about, he did not go to farm, but gave up literature and medicine. I heard a while ago , He also knows the fifth master of the Xing family, and the fifth master Xing can be friends with Xu Yi. I think he is doing well."

Feng Jiangliang: "?"

The classmate looked at him with a stunned expression. Asked him: "You don't know?"

Feng Jiangliang subconsciously replied to him: "I should know?"

The classmate looked at him with a strange expression and said: "You usually care about him, have you never gone to him? "

As soon as he finished speaking, several other people also looked at Feng Jiangliang in confusion.

Yes, they often heard Feng Jiangliang mention Xu Yi, but they never seemed to hear whether he had found him.

...

The next day, Xu Yi put the crushed medicinal materials into gauze bags, and then he went to a wine shop on West Street and bought his family's highest alcohol sake.

Sweet and delicious sake is not cheap, costing 60 cents per dime.

Xu Yi bought more, and the shopkeeper of the wine shop was so happy that he gave Xu Yi a bamboo tube to hold the wine.

After buying the sake, Xu Yi asked the shopkeeper: "Do you sell medicinal wine?"

"Medicinal wine? Of course we do. Do you want to buy it?" The shopkeeper asked with a smile.

Xu Yi asked him what kind of medicinal wine he had.

The shopkeeper laughed and proudly said to Xu Yi: "There is a signature wine in my store called tonic wine. This wine is not ordinary. It was brought back from Suzhou and Hangzhou by a traveling merchant. It contains many precious tonic wines." Medicinal materials are as expensive as oil. A dime costs a few cents."

After hearing this, Xu Yi silently estimated the value in his mind.

If it's really so expensive, I'm afraid it's not only because of the medicinal ingredients, but also the secret recipe for making the koji.

Furthermore, it was transported from the Suzhou and Hangzhou areas, which was a long journey and required a lot of manpower and materials.

Xu Yi looked at the shopkeeper and asked him: "If I have a medicinal wine in my hand, will the shopkeeper take it?"

The shopkeeper looked confused when he heard this. Isn't this person here to buy wine? How did he become a wine seller? !

He hesitated and said: "I have a winemaker in my wine shop, and there is no shortage of wine to sell. Besides, not everyone can afford this medicinal wine. If I can't sell it, it will be in my hands."

In this way, If you want to sell medicinal wine to a wine shop, I'm afraid it won't work for a while.

The shopkeeper asked: "Xiao Langjun, do you want this tonic wine?"

Xu Yi thought for a moment and nodded: "Yes, shopkeeper, please weigh half a bucket for me." When the shopkeeper heard this, he immediately smiled: " Okay

!"

After buying the sake, Xu Yi immediately went into the kitchen to study how to make the medicinal wine by boiling it.