"He'er, look at this pair of earrings. Do they look good on me?"
Xu He was sweeping the floor. He looked up when he heard the sound. Xu Shaochun sat beside the charcoal basin with a bronze mirror in front of him. He was holding a pair of painted ceramic earrings and comparing them back and forth in front of his plump profile.
He nodded: "It looks good."
There were a pile of gift boxes on the table, all of which were as high as a mountain. They were all the spoils Xu Shaochun had received during the Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year was really busy, with many people giving gifts, and she also had to visit relatives and friends. She hadn't had time to open many of the gift boxes to take a look, and she hadn't been able to give the ones she didn't like to Xu He in time to return them to the givers, so she could only accept them all.
Fortunately, during the New Year period, everyone has more money in their hands. To be more precise, they are more willing to spend money than on ordinary days. Therefore, the gifts they send are more valuable than usual, which makes Xu Shaochun very satisfied.
The second sister was satisfied, and Xu He was also satisfied. During the New Year, he often ran around to build bridges and give gifts to young talents in the village, and he saved up dozens of coins for himself.
"Mother said that my aunt is coming to visit today, so you have to cook early. My hands and feet are not as clumsy as yours, so I will just chat with my aunt when the time comes."
Xu Shaochun was very satisfied with her younger brother's answer. She took some time to glance at Xu He. Seeing how shabby he was even during the New Year, she shook her head secretly.
Xu He responded. Anyway, he didn't like talking to elders, and the elders didn't like talking to him either. After all, they couldn't talk to each other.
"Then I'll go out and get busy."
"Um."
Xu He walked out of Xu Shaochun's warm house, which was filled with the fragrance of flowers collected and dried in spring, to carry some firewood from the yard into the kitchen. There were many guests coming and going during the New Year, and firewood was burned in the kitchen every day. The firewood was used up very quickly, and the full stove of firewood he had stored before the New Year was almost burned out.
"Brother He!"
He was hunching over and carrying some firewood when he heard someone shouting towards him from a distance. Xu He straightened up and looked at his aunt, whose hair was combed smoothly and flatly. She walked up from the edge of the field with a rosy face and twisted her waist. He went over and opened the gate.
"Knowing that my aunt is coming over, you're planning to cook so early?"
Xu He also said politely: "It's not easy for my aunt to come here, I should treat her well."
"well."
Xu Shaochun in the room heard the sound and quickly packed up his things and ran out: "Aunt!"
Liu Xiangmei looked at her niece, who was as beautiful as a flower, and immediately left Xu He and walked forward: "Shaochun has grown a lot taller. Let your aunt take a good look. She has become more and more lovely."
"Aunt, please come inside and sit down. Mother has been saying for the past two days that Aunt will come over today. Shaochun specially lit a charcoal fire in the house so it will be warm now. We can't let Aunt go back to the village and catch a cold."
"This little girl is talking sweeter and sweeter. Come inside. Your aunt has brought you some gifts."
Watching the aunt and nephew entering the house talking and laughing, Xu He went to the kitchen with firewood.
His aunt married in the city and lived a better life than in the village. Every time she came to visit, his mother Liu Xianglan would take out the best things to entertain her, just because she didn't want to be inferior to her sister from the city.
Xu He knew all this very well. Even if her mother didn't tell him, he knew to go to the ice well and get a piece of the best meat. Not only that, he had to at least catch an old hen.
He lit the fire and put the rice in the pot, thinking about what dish to cook.
Old hens are definitely used to make soup, and the soup can be stewed with some mushrooms that were collected and dried in the spring but not eaten; chicken offal can be stir-fried as a side dish, and chicken blood can be used to make a soup and then poured over a steamed fish. Every time my aunt comes to our house, the food is definitely better than during Chinese New Year. Thinking about these dishes, they are not less than those on New Year’s Eve, so I guess they are almost the same.
While the chicken feathers were being scalded, Liu Xianglan came to the kitchen with an oil paper bag. She first checked the dishes Xu He had arranged for today and was quite satisfied with them. Then she put the things in her hands on the stove and said, "Your aunt brought some pig's trotters and cooked them for lunch. You can do whatever you want."
Liu Xianglan was dressed very smartly today, and even put the silver hairpin that she was reluctant to wear when going to the city in her bun.
Xu He responded and decided not to use their own pork.
It's easy to deal with pig's trotters. Just use the winter bamboo shoots left over from the previous year to stew a trotter soup. His aunt likes it anyway, so every winter she will ask his mother to dig some in the village and send them to the city.
Liu Xianglan didn't even offer to help Xu He light the fire, and went back to the main hall with a twisted waist.
"Hey, do you know what Zhang Fangyuan, the fifth child of the Zhang family in the village, is doing?"
Liu Xiangmei cracked the melon seeds that Liu Xianglan brought out and started chatting.
Liu Xianglan was also puzzled. Ever since her elder sister married and moved to the city, every year when she came to visit her relatives in the village, she would talk endlessly about the happy and good life in the city. This was the first time she talked about the gossips in the village.
"He was just fooling around in the city. I don't know why he suddenly wanted to get married a few years ago. He asked a matchmaker to look for a wife everywhere, but when it came to..."
Liu Xianglan vividly described the bizarre incident in the village to her sister. During the Chinese New Year, when visiting relatives and friends, everyone would talk about this incident and sigh: "After he caught the thief, everyone's opinion of him changed a little, and he stayed in the village longer."
Liu Xiangmei listened with great interest. After all, she was from Jijiu Village before she got married. If there was such a big gossip in the village, she could tell others about it when she returned to the city. "So, has he found a partner yet?"
"I haven't heard of it. He was very anxious at first, maybe because he was upset about what happened to the Guang family. Now no one has said anything to him, but he hasn't continued to ask for marriage."
Liu Xiangmei smiled meaningfully upon hearing this and patted Liu Xianglan's thigh: "I think you probably don't know that I've rented a stall in the city and started doing business!"
"Ah? What business does he do?"
Liu Xiangmei said: "What kind of business can a butcher do? He buys and sells livestock and sells meat at the meat market! This young man is very easy to talk to. I bought this meat from his stall today. He recognized me at a glance and asked me to go back to the village."
Liu Xianglan opened her mouth in disbelief, finding it hard to associate the person her sister was talking about with the burly and ferocious-looking Zhang Fangyuan.
"On the way, I asked him about his carriage. Guess what? He bought it himself, and uses it to carry goods for business." The more Liu Xiangmei talked, the more satisfied she felt. "You are a big and strong young man. I think you can try Shaochun."
"Don't mistake me for someone else!"
Liu Xianglan glanced at her sister suspiciously. With the carriages and horses and doing business in the meat market, it sounded like a crosstalk. But if the person was Zhang Fangyuan, she would find it weird.
"Hey, why don't you believe me after I've been telling you for so long! He said he was Zhang Fangyuan from the fifth son of the Zhang family, the one whose parents are no longer around. Could it be that there are other Zhangs in the village with the same background?" Liu Xiangmei frowned and pointed outside, saying, "I got off the car on the road over there, and they were driving their carriages up the road. Isn't Zhang Fangyuan's home over there?"
Liu Xianglan was speechless immediately, and murmured: "Maybe he has reformed."
Liu Xiangmei advised earnestly: "You, you only focus on the past. You need to look at the present and the future and think carefully. Since Shaochun was born with such conditions, we must choose a good family for him. You and your brother-in-law have no sons, so you will have to rely on your son-in-law in the future."
Speaking of the daughter that made Liu Xianglan proud, her face flushed and she said confidently, "I've probably already picked out a husband for Shaochun. I've already chosen one."
Liu Xiangmei raised her eyebrows when she heard this: "Oh?"
Liu Xianglan said in high spirits, "You know the Fei family in our village. They are a family of scholars. Their only son passed the examination for a scholar a long time ago and is studying in the city. I heard that he has great literary talent and will take the imperial examination this spring."
"The lady from the Fei family has had tea with me twice, and we have already communicated with each other. She will come to my house to propose marriage after the college entrance examination."
Scholars have good conditions, they can write, and they are rewarded with money and gifts by the imperial court after they have achieved success. Everyone is jealous of them. They are extremely popular candidates for sons-in-law in the city, not to mention rural residents. However, "How can it be so easy to pass the exam? What if you fail?"
Liu Xianglan felt that her sister was short-sighted. "If you can't do it this year, you can take the exam again next year. It's rare to pass the exam in one go. You have to take your time. Fei Tongsheng is a very talented person. There are many people in the village who want to marry him. Even the village chief's family has hinted to the Fei family several times, but they didn't agree. And why would a scholar like the village chief's fat daughter?"
Liu Xiangmei ignored her sister's smugness and said, "Be careful and take a closer look. That one looks really good from a distance."
"If sister thinks it's better to keep that photo far away, just tell her about our Yuanyuan."
Liu Xiangmei knew her sister was trying to provoke her, so she said unhappily, "I said this to you with good intentions, but you still didn't agree. Yuanyuan has already been engaged to her cousin, as you know. I regret agreeing to it so early and not looking into it more carefully."
Xu He was peeling bamboo shoots in the small room next to the main hall. He heard what his mother and aunt said. He was a little surprised that Zhang Fangyuan was doing business in the city. No wonder he hadn't seen him for some time. He put the bamboo shoots side by side into the basin, thinking that this guy was really amazing, as even his picky aunt from the city took a fancy to him.
Seeing her sister showing such a rare look of regret, Liu Xianglan thought that she really looked up to Zhang Fangyuan, so she said, "I'll wait and see. If he is really stronger than the one from the Fei family, I'm not sure, so there is still a chance for us to turn things around."
Liu Xiangmei felt relieved when she heard this, but she also knew that her sister preferred scholars: "Hey, He'er isn't a child anymore, and he's only a few months older than Shaochun. She's going to get married anyway, so why don't you consider it..."
Before he finished speaking, both of them knew what it meant. Xu He, who was about to return to the kitchen, didn't expect the topic to fall on him for the first time, and he couldn't help but stop.
"That's a nice thought. Look at He Ge'er. It's good enough that two men in the village want her. Zhang Fangyuan used to hang out in the city. I heard he even worked as a brothel owner. He has seen all kinds of beauties. Even if he can't get a wife, I'm afraid he won't like He Ge'er's looks. He can't talk and only knows how to work."
"In fact, when he came to our house to slaughter pigs, he secretly watched Shaochun..."
His heart ached. In fact, Xu He had heard such words many times, but for some reason, he felt depressed today.
Xu He didn't make a sound. He tightened the basin around his waist and returned to the kitchen silently.
Liu Xiangmei sighed slightly. Zhang Fangyuan looked like someone who could easily find a smooth marriage. His current conditions were so tempting. If his reputation returned, he would be so greedy that even his eyes would grow to the top of his head.
Zhang Fangyuan is also smart. He knows to put forward the conditions first and is not in a hurry to propose marriage.
Thinking of this, she found that Zhang Fangyuan was becoming more and more capable.
Thinking that he only had one sister with whom he was close, and that there were really no other girls or boys he could talk to, he laid out the matter in detail and gave his sister a lecture on persuasion.
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