Tang Shirong was obviously stunned.
When he came back to his senses, his eyes were red and he whispered, "I'm sorry for wronging you, Yueyue."
He closed his eyes and calmed himself down: "Yueyue, I want to go home to study. I'm worried about you, I really am... Last time I was not around, grandma sold you, and they beat you like that... I was, I was very anxious, but I didn't expect, I didn't expect that my mother would actually... What is she doing, what on earth is she..."
He broke his sentence into several paragraphs and choked several times, obviously feeling extremely guilty.
Tang Shiyue was a typical person who would not take any hardship, and when she saw the young boy feeling so guilty, she immediately regretted saying too much and said anxiously, "What nonsense are you talking about? Everything has been resolved, why did you come back!"
"It's okay," the boy's expression gradually calmed down, but his eyes were still red. "It's okay. We are all studying anyway. There is no difference between studying in the clan school and studying at home."
"Who said there is no difference?" Tang Shiyue said, "Don't mention that we don't have so many books for you to read. Even if we did, how can studying hard be better than having a teacher explain it? Besides, although I don't understand many exam rules and how to write essays, I know that you can't know these by reading on your own, so you must stay in the clan school!"
She held his hand and said, "Don't worry. Actually, I don't care about these things at all. I can handle them all. I'm just very angry, so I came to you to talk and vent my anger."
"No, no," Tang Shirong choked up and said, "I understand. She is my mother after all. She can do anything, but you... can't do anything. I'm worried that you will suffer."
"Are you kidding me?" Tang Shiyue said with a smile, "Don't worry, she is no match for me. After all, I am so smart." Seeing that he wanted to say more, Tang Shiyue said arrogantly, "In short, you can't come back, otherwise I will tell the clan leader!"
...
...
The two siblings argued for a long time, but finally Tang Shirong was persuaded by her.
When we got down the mountain, we saw mugwort inserted at the door of every household. However, Tang Shiyue followed the rules and weaved the mugwort into a human shape and trimmed the calamus leaves into a sword shape, which were inserted upside down by the door. In addition, she hung a large bunch of garlic and inserted banyan branches and pomegranate flowers. It looked very festive.
Qi Jing brought Qi Yang over, and she also stuffed a handful of garlic and mugwort and calamus into his mouth. Qi Jing took a look and went back to arrange the place in the same way.
After the arrangement was completed, Tang Shiyue carried some meat and vegetables and took the two little dumplings to the small wine shop. Tang Shirong went to make an appointment with Qi Jing and also went.
As soon as I entered the door, Madam Zhou came to greet me and said with a smile: "Yuer, I sewed a few sachets for you. My needlework is ugly, please don't mind it."
Tang Shiyue was stunned.
It is the custom of the Dragon Boat Festival to sew sachets for children to ward off evil spirits. These sachets are filled with cinnabar, realgar and fragrant medicine, and tied into the shape of a rice dumpling with colorful silk threads. The sachets are hung around the waist or tied around the wrist. Wang was good at sewing, but she had no intention of doing this at all. Instead, it was Madam Zhou who came up with this idea.
Seeing Madam Zhou handing over the sachet with a smile, and even giving one to brother Qi Jing, Tang Shiyue's eyes became sore for a moment, and he really recognized this shrewd yet kind woman in his heart.
Qi Jing was also totally surprised. He took the sachet and tied it around his waist. He looked at the small string on Qi Yang's wrist. Madam Zhou still smiled and joked, "I can't give it to you. It's for little kids. You can't snatch it away."
Qi Jing smiled and said sincerely, "Thank you very much."
Several people sat together, making rice dumplings in the bustle of life. The main thing here is the corner rice dumplings, which are sweet dumplings with red bean paste or small dates inside. The glutinous rice is as white as jade, so it is also called white jade dumplings.
Qi Yang could play with them, but Qi Jing couldn't. He sat with Tang Shirong and Tang Junchen and chatted.
Tang Junchen was a very good person. They were afraid that Qi Jing would feel uncomfortable, so they deliberately avoided talking about poetry. Unexpectedly, Qi Jing could keep up a conversation no matter what the topic was. He was even better than them. The three of them gradually got along better and better, especially Tang Junchen, who was very considerate and enthusiastic.
There was a curtain between us, but I could hear clearly what was happening over there.
Tang Shiyue found it a little funny. It was no wonder that Tang Shirong had mentioned before that Tang Junchen was really the kind of person who was particularly suitable to be a younger brother.
Although he appears to be a very modest gentleman on the surface, when he talks to Qi Jing, he always gives people a feeling of impatience as if "Wow, he is so powerful, I want to curry favor with him". After all, he is young and not very sophisticated, so people can see it at once.
But because he was not trying to please others deliberately, nor did he have any serious calculations, he was just simply admiring the strong, so he was not annoying.
Everyone finished the meal happily. Everyone ate one or two rice dumplings to suit the occasion. Tang Shirong sent two rice dumplings and two dishes to Mrs. Wang in advance. He came back after a while, and his clothes on his shoulders were wet, but no one asked any questions and just let it go.
The next day, Tang Shirong had a day off. Tang Shiyue prepared for the whole morning and planned to invite them to eat hotpot.
There were no chili peppers back then, so life lost a lot of fun, but it could be used to make clear soup base.
Tang Shiyue had bought large pork ribs before, and Madam Zhou had some chicken racks left over from her cooking yesterday. She put the green onions and ginger first, then the pork ribs and chicken racks in, brought to a boil over high heat, blanched them, skimmed off the floating residue, fished them out and put them back into clean water, simmered them slowly for an hour, added wolfberries, red dates, and green onion segments, and a little bit of salt, and the base of the pot was ready.
At noon, Tang Shirong invited the two families to come for dinner.
Madam Zhou smiled as she entered the room: "I knew that you bought a hot pot the other day, and you will definitely find an excuse to eat it in the next two days. You are a greedy girl, and I don't know what will happen in the future..." Before she finished her sentence, she saw Qi Jing coming over and immediately changed her words: "Only I know that you are eating it because your brother is here. If it were you, you would definitely not be willing to eat it."
Qi Jing remained calm, as if he hadn't noticed anything.
Everyone worked together and quickly cleaned up the things.
The hotpot of this era is made of ceramic and is called a warm pot. Tang Shiyue has never been stingy, so he prepared a lot of chicken, fish, mutton, mushrooms, tofu, wild vegetables, and hand-rolled noodles. Everyone didn't follow any rules and sat around together, eating and chatting with laughter.
One advantage of Mrs. Wang is that she usually doesn't appear in such occasions.
Because there are village women who she despises, and inconspicuous farmhands like Uncle Tang Si, so she, a lonely orchid in the valley, certainly doesn't want to mix with these people. She is like a little princess living in a castle, only accepting what she wants, and she doesn't know how wronged she was in the Tang family.
Tang Shiyue said: "Actually, I invited you here today because I wanted you to taste the wine."
As soon as she said that, Madam Zhou also remembered: "Yes, such a delicious dish, head of the family, go back and get a jar of wine!"
"No! Wait a minute," Tang Shiyue stopped him with a smile as he was about to stand up. "I want you to taste my wine."
After she said that, everyone became curious. Madam Zhou went back to get the wine bowls, and saw Tang Shiyue carrying out five jars of wine, one by one, from the half-collapsed house next to them.
Madam Zhou smiled and said, "You kid, this is not my wine."
Tang Shiyue opened the letter and said, "No."
"Of course not," said Uncle Tang in a simple and honest way, "I recognize the jar in my house!"
Tang Shiyue smiled and poured a little bit of the bottom into a bowl: "Try it and you will know."
In fact, many wines of this era are green, such as the wine of the winery and the wine of Cheng, but the wine of the small winery is the most common original color, that is, light yellow. But at this time, the color of this wine is a slightly darker yellow, and it has a thick feeling, like honey.
Tang Shiyue said: "Try it first."
They said they wanted to taste it first, but in fact, the children were not allowed to drink it. Normally, Tang Shirong never touched alcohol, but out of curiosity, he also picked up a bowl and touched his lips. While they were not paying attention, Tang Shiyue also quietly picked up the bowl, tasted it, savored it, and spit it out.
It is mellow and smooth on the palate, and its texture is much thicker than previous sake. The wine of this era is actually very sweet, but now it has a medicinal taste, but it is not difficult to drink, just like chocolate, weird, but with a long aftertaste.
It was just a sip of wine, but it made them savor it for a long time. It was okay for Tang Shirong who had never drunk alcohol, but the expressions of Fourth Uncle Tang and even Tang Junchen were a little strange, mixed with surprise and joy.
Then Fourth Uncle Tang asked, "Did you make this wine? Do you want to sell it?"
Fourth Uncle Tang had always been a simple and honest man of few words, but until he said this, he showed some of his businessman's shrewdness.
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