It had just snowed in the morning, and the weather cleared up after the snow. The sun was warm, shining on the snow, reflecting a golden glow.
In such cold weather, eating hot pot is the best choice.
The steaming pot was bubbling, and thinly sliced beef and mutton were put on. When the meat slices changed color and curled slightly, they were quickly taken out and dipped in a little spicy sauce...
Hiss -
the taste was so delicious that it made people drool!
"Xiu girl! Xiu girl -"
Zheng Xiu came back to her senses from her memory of hot pot. The person who spoke in front of her was a sharp-faced woman in her forties wearing a cotton skirt, with high eyebrows and long and narrow eyes. She looked very smart and a little mean.
It was not someone else, but Zheng Xiu's second aunt Zhu.
Zhu continued, "Don't blame Second Aunt for nagging. It's all for your own good! You'll be sixteen soon after the Chinese New Year. Girls in our village are married when they're ten, and they're married when they're thirteen or fourteen. It's already so late for you, why aren't you anxious?"
Zheng Xiu nodded in agreement, but in fact she didn't agree.
Most of the people in the village were farmers who worked in the fields, and their conditions were not very good, so they got married very early.
But in her family, her father was a man of honor and talent. People from all over the country came to be his students.
Not only did she receive generous tuition every quarter, but students also came to give gifts during festivals.
Although the gifts were not expensive, there were always plenty of chickens, ducks, fish and meat.
With her family's situation, not to mention in the village, even in the town, they were counted as
one of the most prominent. Besides, she was not from this era. She traveled from thousands of years later. In her era, getting married in her twenties was considered early, not to mention that there were people who never got married in their entire lives. For example, in her previous life, she worked hard in a big city until she was twenty-seven or twenty-eight, and took a supervisory position in a medium-sized company. She worked overtime every day to make a living and had no time to fall in love. But her life was still fulfilling and nourishing. When she was busy, she devoted herself to work, and when she was free, she went shopping, watched movies and had spa treatments with her besties. Who could say that she was not happy?
In general, Zheng Xiu felt that living a good life was the most important thing. And getting married would be the icing on the cake, but not having one would not be a matter of life or death.
She agreed to Zhu because she was afraid of her nagging.
Zhu was still chattering: "The family that Second Auntie told you about is not a bad one. He is the only son of Mr. Feng in the town! How many girls dream of becoming a young lady! When you marry well, you can bring your father and your brother to the town to enjoy life."
The Feng family in the town is indeed a wealthy and good family, but Mr. Feng's only son is a big fat man with broad shoulders and waist, who looks like he weighs two or three hundred pounds! Being fat is nothing. Not long ago, it snowed heavily. Zheng Xiu went to the town to deliver winter clothes to her father, and she met Mr. Feng's son. The fat and big-eared Master Feng's eyes seemed to be piercing her. He had a lewd look on his face. When
Zhu came to tell Zheng Xiu about this marriage, Zheng Xiu almost vomited the rice she had eaten the previous night.
Zheng Xiu was not a soft-tempered person, and was even a little bit spicy. She immediately asked with a fake smile: "Such a good marriage, why didn't Second Aunt save it for Sister Xian?"
Zheng Xian was Zhu's precious daughter. She would be thirteen in the coming Chinese New Year.
Zhu was stunned, and then stammered: "My little girl Xian is still young. Besides, she has an unmarried sister like you above her. No matter what, she can't be allowed to get ahead."
Zheng Xiu wanted to laugh.
Her Second Aunt had only these few plans in her mind, and they were all written on her face. It was obvious that they wanted to move their family to the town, and then all the land under the name of his grandparents would belong to them!
The old man and the old woman of the Zheng family gave birth to three sons and a daughter. In the early years, during the famine and war, one son and one daughter starved to death, leaving only two sons.
They were the eldest, Zheng Xiu's father Zheng Ren, and her second uncle Zheng Quan.
Her father was a promising man who passed the imperial examination. In the early years, he was an official of medium status in the capital. Her second uncle was interesting. He indulged in eating, drinking, whoring and gambling, and he wanted to divide the family in the early years. Old man Zheng and old lady Zheng couldn't persuade him, so they gritted their teeth and divided the family.
Within two years, her second uncle had squandered all the land and went back to live with the old man and the old woman. Now he makes a living by cultivating the land of his parents and eldest brother.
The two elders were very angry about their youngest son's failure to make progress.
Zheng Xiu also roughly knew that the land left by her grandparents would probably be given to her second uncle.
Those things belonged to her grandparents, and how to divide them was up to them. Zheng Xiu had no opinion.
But since she had gotten her own family's things, she had no reason to give them away!
Zheng Xiu raised her eyebrows, crossed her arms, and looked at Zhu indifferently.
Zhu felt a little guilty when she saw her, and she tried to defend herself by saying, "Is it possible that they don't care about your reputation as a 'husband-killer'? You'd better think about it carefully. If you miss this opportunity, you'll never get it again!"
Yes, Zheng Xiu had been engaged to two men before.
But that was the original Zheng Xiu.
One was an engagement arranged for her by her father when he was an official in Beijing. The other party was also an official.
After her father retired and returned to his hometown, the two families were far apart and gradually reduced their contact.
When Zheng Xiu was ten years old, Zheng Ren asked someone to go to Beijing, only to learn that the family was involved in a court struggle and all the members of the family were executed. The grass on the grave was half a person tall.
So Zheng Ren helped to find another family.
He was one of his favorite students, a young talent with great talent.
Zheng Ren said that he had a promising future.
The boy was indeed a genius. He passed the examination for a scholar at the age of a dozen, and was appreciated by a great scholar and accepted as his student.
But after that, the boy changed his face and brought his family to cancel the engagement.
It was said that he wanted to marry the daughter of the great scholar.
The way he ate was really ugly.
On the way back from the cancellation of the engagement, the boy's family encountered bandits and the whole family lost their lives. What genius, what success, all turned into bubbles.
Because of these two marriages, Zheng Xiu's reputation as a "husband-killer" became more and more popular.
Because of this, the little girl was worried and anxious. Soon, she caught a cold, which turned into a high fever that lasted for a long time and took her life. Then there was the present Zheng Xiu who
traveled through time and space. Zheng Xiu was about to stab Zhu in the back, but she saw her younger brother, Zheng Yu, trotting over in a hurry.
She came to deliver something to her second aunt that day. It was Laba Festival and many students in the family sent Laba porridge. Zheng Ren asked her to deliver it.
Zheng Yu didn't get along with the boy from his second uncle's family, so he seldom came.
He came in a hurry at this time, of course he had something to do.
From a distance, Zheng Xiu shouted: "Why are you running? Is there a dog chasing you?!"
This brother is more than seven years old and very naughty. If he is not punished for three days, he will go to the roof and tear off the tiles.
Zheng Yu ran to her and panted: "Sister, it's bad, grandma went to sell the dog!"
"Sell a dog? Sell what dog? A dog picked up on the roadside?"
Grandpa and grandma lived with the second uncle's family. There was not enough food in the house to feed the people, let alone raise a dog.
Zheng Yu scratched his ears and cheeks anxiously, "No, I want to sell our dog!"
Zheng Xiu couldn't stay any longer!
She picked up a black dog with a shiny black body at the doorstep of her house half a month ago. It had erect ears and drooping tail, and sharp eyes. It looked a bit like a modern wolfdog.
At first, she was a little scared and warned Zheng Yu to be careful when going in and out.
The wolfdog lay at the doorstep of her house without moving, and she didn't know if it was hungry or what.
Zheng Xiu wanted to get rid of it quickly, so she picked a piece of sausage from the beam and threw it to it.
Unexpectedly, the black dog didn't leave after eating the sausage. It lingered at the doorstep of her house every day.
Later one day, Zheng Yu had a fight with a child from the village, and the fight went all the way to the doorstep of her house.
The black dog jumped out from nowhere and barked at the children, scaring them so much that they ran away like beasts.
One child was so frightened that his legs went limp and he had no strength to run away.
Seeing that the black dog was about to catch him, Zheng Xiu hurried out of the house to stop him.
But the dog seemed to understand human nature. It was originally fierce and evil, but suddenly it whimpered softly and lay back at the door.
Not to mention Zheng Yu, even Zheng Xiu would have praised it as a good dog!
Zheng Yu begged his sister to raise a black dog. Zheng Xiu thought about how her father was teaching in the town and would only come back every few days. There were only her and her brother at home. Although her second uncle's house was only a few steps away, she was unwilling to have much contact with her second uncle. Raising a dog is indeed a good choice for guarding the house.
Zheng Xiu found a hemp rope, tied the dog to the door, and fed the dog with leftovers every day.
The dog was not picky about food and ate everything. After a few days, its fur became darker and brighter.
Once, Zheng Xiu got up in the middle of the night to relieve herself, and went to check the gate. However, she found that the rope tied to the fence at the door was hanging empty on the ground. The dog on the other end of the rope was gone! At that time,
Zheng Xiu cursed the dog with a lot of words like "no conscience" and "ungrateful". She served the dog delicious food and drinks every day (of course, she didn't think there was anything wrong with leftovers, as most families in the village didn't eat as well as hers), but the dog ran away like that! She stood by the door and complained for a long time, and then she saw the black dog coming back in the moonlight, shaking its black fur that seemed to glow. She didn't know whether the dog didn't notice Zheng Xiu in the dark, or didn't care about her at all, but just rolled on the ground, rubbed its head in the rope loop, and then it was tied up again. After adjusting the rope loop, the black dog lay down by the door and began to sleep. Zheng Xiu was very surprised and thought, this is not a dog at all! This is definitely a dog spirit! After that, she treated it better and better, like half a family member, and worked with Zheng Yu to build a simple doghouse with wooden boards at the door of the house - at least to give it a place to shelter from the wind and rain. Zheng Xiu's principle in life is that no matter what you do with other people's things, it is their freedom after all. But if it is her things, others cannot touch them with even a finger! Seeing that she was about to leave, Zhu hurried forward and grabbed her arm, "Don't go, I haven't finished what I want to say!" If it weren't for the fact that the order of seniority was very strict in this era, Zheng Xiu would not want to pay attention to her. At this time, she naturally didn't care about anything else. She pulled back her arm and quickly walked towards her home, pulling Zheng Yu: "Which direction did grandma go? Take me there!" Zheng Yu was small, but his legs were flexible. He pulled Zheng Xiu and ran all the way. The two soon arrived at the entrance of the village. Zheng Yu explained: "Grandma's legs are slow. I guess she just reached the roadside and walked a short distance. We should be able to catch up with her along the main road to the town." There was a market in the town that day, and there were many pedestrians coming and going. The Huaishu Village where they lived was next to the main road to the town. Zheng Xiu thought that the old lady's legs were so weak that it would take an hour to walk to the town. But she was afraid that the old lady would sell the dog to pedestrians on the way. Not long after they walked, they saw a thin figure with a hunched back in the distance. Old Mrs. Zheng was walking slowly, holding a long rope in her hand. At the other end of the rope was, of course, the majestic black dog of Zheng Xiu's family. The black dog walked fast, and stopped after walking a few steps. It waited for Old Mrs. Zheng to catch up before continuing to move forward. It was very well-behaved. Old Mrs. Zheng also liked this black dog very much. Earlier, she heard that Zheng Xiu had picked up a black dog to raise, and Old Mrs. Zheng had come to see it in person. Zheng Xiu heard her recall that she also raised a black dog when she was a child and loved it very much, but the world was not good at that time, and the black dog was eventually killed and eaten. After so many years, even though Old Lady Zheng is so old, she still remembers that bitter and inexplicable feeling. Before Old Lady Zheng caught up with the black dog, she would gently stroke the black dog's head. When Zheng Xiu and her brother got closer, they could vaguely hear Old Lady Zheng saying to the black dog: "I'll sell you to a good family, and you won't suffer. I hope you'll be fine in the future." As she was talking, a passerby happened to pass by and saw it, so he asked: "Old lady, are you going to sell this dog?" Old Lady Zheng nodded and said: "Yes, I'll sell it for half an ounce of silver." The man was surprised and said: "Why is it so expensive?" One ounce of silver is enough for people in the village to eat for a month. Old Lady Zheng said, "This dog is very human, very well-behaved, and can protect its owner. I won't sell it just because I see money. I'll only sell it if you're sure you can treat it well." As they talked, they attracted the attention of many passers-by. But there were so many people asking, so few people were willing to buy. Old Lady Zheng was not in a hurry, and she walked forward slowly with the dog. If someone asked, she would patiently say a few words. Zheng Xiu's eyes were filled with tears.
She was brought up by her grandparents. I remember that she once had a quarrel with her grandmother and insisted on a new toy. At that time, the family had no money left after paying the tuition, but she kept crying and her half-blind grandmother fumbled out with her beloved white cat that she had raised for many years.
Later, her grandmother brought back money and bought her a new toy. However, the white cat never appeared at home again.
Probably at that time, her grandmother was also like the old lady in front of me, asking one person after another, selling one person after another, and finally sold her beloved white cat and exchanged it for money to buy her toys.
Although Zheng Yu was young, he was very smart. Seeing Old Lady Zheng like this, he felt sad.
Seeing her sister about to cry, he hesitated and said, "Sister, are you okay? Our dog..."
Zheng Xiu raised her sleeves and wiped her eyes, "You must come back!"
The turn was too fast, and Zheng Yu couldn't accept it for a while.
Zheng Xiu had already stepped forward and called out, "Grandma!"
Old Lady Zheng was a little hard of hearing, and Zheng Xiu's shouting was very powerful.
It attracted many passers-by to turn around.
But when they saw that the person calling was a pretty young girl, they couldn't help but take a few more glances.
Old Lady Zheng turned around hesitantly, and when she saw that the person coming was Zheng Xiu, she was panicked and at a loss.
"Xiu, Xiu girl, why are you here?" Old lady Zheng hid the rope in her hand behind her body subconsciously, as if she had done something wrong.
Zheng Yu quickly followed her sister's steps and walked in front of Old Lady Zheng.
"Are you taking the dog out for a walk?" Seeing Old Lady Zheng's awkward look, Zheng Xiu, who was a little annoyed, couldn't bear to blame her, so she said this and gave her a step down.
Old Lady Zheng lowered her head and said nothing.
"Go over and help grandma!" Zheng Xiu glanced at Zheng Yu.
Zheng Yu stepped forward to help Old Lady Zheng, and Zheng Xiu took the rope and led the black dog back.
They also arrived, so naturally they would not let Old Lady Zheng go to the town again. Instead, they walked back together.
Old Lady Zheng murmured, and finally spoke: "Your second aunt said that you will marry to the town and become a young lady in the future. This dog will have no way to survive if he stays in our house in the future... These two days, A Rong has been clamoring for a set of four treasures of the study, and said that he would not go to school without it. I was thinking... Xiu girl, don't blame grandma." The
"A Rong" that Old Lady Zheng mentioned was Zheng Rong, the son of her second uncle. He was also the youngest among the children of their generation in the family, and Old Lady Zheng was particularly partial to him.
What could Zheng Xiu say? She cursed her second uncle's family in her heart, but she couldn't blame Old Lady Zheng.
"Ah Rong is talking about 'Zhihe Zhai'. That set of four treasures of the study costs several taels of silver. The money you sold this dog is far from enough." Old Lady Zheng
was surprised and asked, "Is it so expensive?"
Zheng Xiu said, "Isn't it? If I really need half a tael of silver, I would give it to you if I have it."
Old Lady Zheng was quite embarrassed: "How can I take money from your family again?"
In the past few years, after the youngest son came back, the old man and the old woman have been living more and more tight, and often rely on the eldest son for financial support. The old lady might think that selling a black dog picked up by Zheng Xiu was not a big deal, but she felt bad about taking money from them again.
Zheng Xiu and Zheng Yu carried old lady Zheng all the way back to the village.
Zheng Xiu asked old lady Zheng to stand for a while, then turned around and told Zheng Yu a few words. Zheng Yu ran home on his short legs and came back soon.
Zheng Xiu asked him to go home to get the silver, not more, not less, just half an ounce.
Old lady Zheng refused to take it, but Zheng Xiu forced it on her.
Of course, she did not come for Zheng Rong, but for Old Lady Zheng, who had been honest all her life and now had no choice but to come secretly to sell her granddaughter's dog.
If she did not bring some money back, Second Aunt would not give the old lady a good face.
After sending Old Lady Zheng to the door of her house, Zheng Xiu and her brother did not go in and went home.
On the way, Zheng Yu pouted and said, "Zheng Rong doesn't want to go to school, so he wants such expensive four treasures
of the study. In our place, except for our father, who can use such expensive things." Zheng Xiu agreed with her brother's opinion and nodded, "After the New Year, you will also go to school. You can't learn from that kid!"
Zheng Yu shrank his neck and did not respond.
Playing nonsense like Zheng Rong? He must dare to do that!
His second uncle and second aunt are so tolerant of the child, but when he comes to his house, his father and sister are no pushovers! When
the two of them walked to the door of their house, Zheng Xiu suddenly turned around.
Zheng Yu was startled by her sudden action, "Sister, what are you doing?"
Zheng Xiu asked suspiciously, "When I came back from the main road, I felt like someone was following me."
Zheng Yu also looked back.
There was no one behind them, but there were people walking not far away, but they were all familiar villagers.
"No way, is it possible that someone is just passing by and returning to the village?" Zheng Yu said.
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