After spending two days in Jinling City, Xu Jianguo decided to take his family to Gusu.
Then I will stay in Gusu for a few days, take my family to visit the beautiful gardens in Gusu, and then go to Hanshan Temple outside the city to see the tranquility and remoteness of the thousand-year-old temple. After that, I will return to Jinling to rest and wait for the day to report to the Army Command College.
The house purchased by Xu Jianguo is located on Pingjiang Road, an old city area in Suzhou that is full of historical charm.
The buildings here are also historical protected buildings, just like the old houses in Jinling.
Although the house is not as spacious as the old house in Jinling, it has an advantageous location. It is located in a bustling city yet is quiet and peaceful, and is close to a gurgling river.
Looking out the window, a poetic picture of a small bridge, flowing water and people's homes slowly unfolds before your eyes.
The exterior of the house is in a typical Su style. The pink walls and black tiles have a soft luster after years of baptism, as if silently telling stories of the past.
The wooden doors and windows are finely carved, with delicate patterns like naturally grown veins, and every carving seems to be singing an ancient ballad.
The flying eaves and brackets are slightly upward, just like the wings of a bird, giving the building a lively and light appearance.
When Xu Jianguo and his family arrived at the old house in Gusu, it was already past three o'clock in the afternoon.
Because we were not in a hurry, the whole family went to the department store in the center of Jinling City in the morning and bought a lot of things.
Daya, Erya and Funniu bought gifts for Lin Hongtao and Lin Hongxia, brother and sister. Wenwen, Lele and Xu Ping'an also used their pocket money to buy a pen for their parents and three aunts.
When the few people received the pens from the three little ones, they were so happy and touched that they could not express it in words.
Xu Jianguo and Wen Sitian, in particular, regard the pens in their hands as treasures.
Of course, the whole family did not forget Xiao Hongdou and bought her a lot of delicious food and fun things, which attracted the little girl to grab this and that, and she always felt that her two little hands were not enough.
The whole family did not go out to eat on the night they arrived in Suzhou, but instead had a home-cooked meal prepared by Xu Xiaoshi at home.
However, after dinner, since it was not too dark, the family walked out of the yard and took a walk along the river.
On the way, you can often see people living nearby walking down the steps to the river to wash and rinse. Although this scene looks beautiful, what Xu Jianguo's family cannot accept is that people upstream have just finished washing pots and pans in the stream, while people downstream are washing clothes by the river. Because it is not early morning, he did not see anyone flushing the toilet, but he thought there should be quite a few people doing this.
It was not until this moment that he felt particularly fortunate that when he asked Fu Bo and his team to renovate the old house in Gusu, he had asked them to apply and file with the street office, introduce running water pipes and repair the bathroom.
The next day after arriving in Gusu, the family went to Canglang Pavilion with great enthusiasm.
There are four famous gardens in Suzhou, namely Canglang Pavilion, Lion Grove Garden, Humble Administrator's Garden and Lingering Garden, which represent the classics of Suzhou-style gardens from the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties of the Longxia Kingdom respectively.
This time, Xu Jianguo did not plan to visit all four famous gardens, but only chose Canglang Pavilion built in the Song Dynasty and Humble Administrator's Garden built in the Ming Dynasty. Canglang Pavilion Humble Administrator's Garden As soon as the Canglang Pavilion entered the garden, the double corridor firmly attracted everyone's attention.
Funiu held Xiao Hongdou's hand and walked slowly along the corridor. On one side was the lush forest in the garden, with towering ancient trees. The sunlight shone through the gaps between the branches and leaves, and the ground was covered with spots of light.
On the other side is the clear river outside the garden. The rippling water reflects the weeping willows and pink walls and black tiles on the bank, just like a natural ink painting.
Little Hongdou looked around curiously, and asked questions from time to time in baby language that ordinary people could not understand.
Wen Sitian seemed to have a special liking for the lattice windows in Canglang Pavilion. She stood in front of a window, carefully looking at the window panes of various shapes, some like blooming plum blossoms, some like floating clouds. Looking through the window, the scenery in the garden was looming, like a beautiful woman holding a pipa with her face half covered, which had a unique charm.
Lattice windows, also known as lattice flower windows or flower windows, are windows with leaky patterns inside the window openings. They mainly serve the purpose of ventilation and lighting, and are a kind of decoration on the walls of ancient buildings in the Longxia Kingdom.
Lattice windows are generally used in enclosed spaces with small viewing distances. They can eliminate the feeling of being closed in small spaces, increase the level of space, and achieve the effect of seeing the big picture in the small.
This decorative style is commonly found in Jiangnan gardens and rarely seen in the north. After leaving Canglang Pavilion, everyone felt unsatisfied, so they took a car to the Humble Administrator's Garden.
As soon as you step into the Humble Administrator's Garden, you will be dazzled by the sight of flowers everywhere.
The lotus pond in the garden is in full bloom. Large lotus leaves cover the water surface like green umbrellas. Pink and white lotus flowers bloom gracefully among the green leaves.
Erya excitedly ran to the edge of the pond, leaning over to smell the fragrance of the lotus flowers, but she nearly fell into the water. Startled, Daya, who was standing beside her, quickly reached out to grab her and tapped her on the head in anger, scolding her, "You are always so reckless. Be careful not to fall into the water and feed the fish!"
Erya stuck out her tongue and made a face at her elder sister, which made Xiao Hongdou, who was not far away, giggle.
Walking along the winding corridor, the stained glass windows on both sides constantly change the framed scenery, as if showing a series of flowing paintings.
Fu Bo continued to act as the tour guide, explaining the history of the Humble Administrator's Garden to everyone.
By the time they came out of the Humble Administrator's Garden, it was already past noon. After touring the garden for the whole morning, everyone felt they had not yet had enough, but their stomachs protested, so they had to stop there.
On the contrary, little Hongdou, holding a bottle of Wangzai milk in one hand and a small egg cake in the other, ate them very sweetly, not affected by hunger at all.
After leaving the Humble Administrator's Garden, Fu Bo and Du Yu drove Xu Jianguo's family to a nearby restaurant called Ya Ba Sheng Jian (Dummy Dumplings). The author loves the flavor of Ya Ba Sheng Jian and always tries it in Suzhou. Personally, I think it's better than Xiao Yang's in Shanghai. Xu Jianguo had the good fortune to eat at this restaurant during his previous life in Suzhou, and the food was excellent. He preferred the flavor here to Xiao Yang's Sheng Jian in Shanghai.
Because it was dinner time, the store was crowded and bustling.
After the family found an empty seat and sat down, Xu Jianguo stood up to order food. In addition to the signature shengjian, he also ordered many special snacks and noodles, such as braised meat noodles, stir-fried eel noodles and pickled mustard greens and shredded pork noodles.
The crust of the pan-fried buns is golden and crispy, dotted with white sesame seeds, like stars.
When the anxious Fu Niu saw her brother picking up his chopsticks, she immediately picked up a pan-fried bun and gently took a small bite. The delicious soup immediately gushed out, making her gasp from the heat, but she was reluctant to put it down, which caused everyone to laugh.
Little Hongdou looked at the steamed buns with greed and drooled. She suddenly felt that the egg cake in her hand was not fragrant anymore. Daya took out a small piece of meat filling from the steamed buns, helped her to cool it down, and put it into Little Hongdou's mouth. The delicious and novel taste immediately made the little girl's face filled with a satisfied smile.
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