Chapter 26 Chapter Twenty-Six

In the summer of the fifth year of Jide, in a village in the south of Dayin, a small river flows around the houses of the people's homes, moistening the seedlings in the field so that they are verdant.A group of eight or nine-year-old girls dressed in coarse cloth huddled together to examine their own reflections in the river. A little girl in a pink cloth said triumphantly: "Look at the red string my daddy bought for me, how beautiful it is tied. It's made of silk." "It's a pity that you are not good-looking enough. It would be a pity to use it. I am prettier than you, but my father doesn't buy me silk ropes..." A girl in blue pouts beside her.

"Swallow, you are not ashamed. How are you so good-looking? Your eyes are so small. Look, my eyes are twice as big as yours." Another girl said unconvinced. "What's the use of having big eyes? Look at the face first. My mother said that I have an oval face and I must be a beauty when I grow up." There were other girls competing for comparison. "I'm the prettiest!" "I'm the prettiest!" Six or seven girls chattered and argued. "Don't argue, let me tell you, it's better to caress." The little girl in pink finally concluded.

"Huh?" The little girl on the far right was startled. When they were arguing that she was the prettiest just now, she didn't interrupt because she didn't have the money to buy beautiful hair ties, and even her clothes were the oldest among them. Also, with patches of different colors. "Yes, yes, caressing is the best." "Fufu not only has an oval face, but also has the most energetic eyes. There is also a beauty mole on his right eyebrow. Fufu is prettier than us!" Several friends stopped the quarrel just now and said one after another. The little girl named Fufu looked up at the water again in disbelief. This was the first time she had some understanding of her appearance.

"Look, I'm dressed the worst. Your clothes are so gorgeous. My blue dress is a bit whitish..." Fu Fu compared the left and right, and said with a little inferiority. "It doesn't matter, what does that matter! The Tang Guifei who is often sung in the opera, there is a sentence called "naturally beautiful..." or something. It must be talking about your situation." The little girl in the pink dress had the most idea, as if He is also the one who knows the most. "Natural beauty is hard to give up on, and once she was chosen on the side of the king." Fufu added.

"That's right, that's the sentence. Pete, don't look at your simple clothes, but your clothes are the neatest, and your actions are much more refined than ours." After thinking about it, maybe it is.Her mother has set many rules for her since she was a child. She is not allowed to run around when she walks, and she cannot drink water like other families. "Fufu, your father is a writer in the village, do you know how to read?" The little girl named Yanzi asked curiously and expectantly. Fu Fu shook his head and turned back, "My father said that it is not a good thing for girls to be literate. But when he wrote couplets for others, I learned a few secretly, and I can already write my own name."

"That's great!" The other girls envied. "Fufu, I have envied your name for a long time. Fufu, Fuxian, how poetic, this is clearly the name of your young lady." "He Xiang, you are already much better than me. When my mother gave birth to me, she heard the swallows on the eaves of the back room calling, so she named me Yanzi directly. The name is very vulgar." "If you say it like this, I'm the worst. My father likes to settle accounts. I'm the third child in my family, so I'll just call him Sanniu." The little girl in pink said. Several little girls were laughing and teasing each other. Suddenly, a child pointed to the high slope ahead and said, "Look, it's Mrs. Xian Yin's sedan chair!"

The girls were all attracted, and saw a green and blue tasseled sedan chair being carried forward slowly by four bearers, with two people clearing the way in front and a maidservant on the side of the sedan chair. The girls stared blankly at the sedan chair passing in front of their eyes, caressing it even more foolishly, how magnificent and majestic this scene is!If one day, I can sit in such a sedan chair and be carried by others, that would be wonderful. But after thinking about it, I felt a little lost, this is absolutely impossible.Even if he is good-looking and is favored by the county official, he can only be a concubine in terms of status, and there will be no such opportunity.

It wasn't until the sedan chair left that the girls came back to their senses and sighed. "Fu Fu, isn't your family from a local? San Niu and the others are foreigners. Most of us who came here to open a restaurant are surnamed Chen. Only your family name is Dan in the whole village." He Xiang was curious about Fu Fu and asked her. Fufu nodded, "I heard from my mother that we moved here from the north, not from the local area...but I don't know where my ancestors are from." "Fufu, I almost forgot, I was just about to tell you!" said the third girl in pink, "I heard the wine chatter the other day, and I mentioned that the Empress Dowager of this dynasty is also named Dan! The one in your family The name is so rare, there may be more than one generation in the same family! You can check the genealogy when you go home, haha!"

"It would be really great if that was the case. I'm not the oldest in the family. I have a brother and sister who died on the way. If they were here, I wouldn't have to work so hard now..." Fufu said, suddenly remembered something and immediately Standing up and patting the dust, she said, "Oh no, my mother told me to go to Jishang to buy colored thread, and I'll be scolded if I go back too late!" After saying that, she waved goodbye to the other girls and hurried away. After Fufu went to Jishang to buy a good color thread, he ran home panting again.Although I was talking and laughing with my friends just now, and I became the focus, but when I got home, everything returned to reality, and the house was still barren, poor and simple.

At this time, her mother was holding her two-year-old brother in her arms, and when she saw her, she scolded her, "Where did you go crazy just now, and you came back so late, I didn't see that I am so busy now. Sigh, you are also a bad boy!" I know it hurts people..." After speaking, he handed over his brother to her, and then he went over to split and string the threads, and continued to puncture half of the peony-patterned clothes. "Why hasn't your father come back yet? It stands to reason that he should have come back long ago..." Caressing the younger brother, he glanced at the mother who bowed her head to embroider, and asked, "Mother, do you still have our family tree?"

Her mother seemed surprised, she raised her head and said, "Genealogy? Why did you suddenly think of asking this? That thing has been confiscated long ago and is not at home." "Today, Sanniu told me that the current Empress Dowager is also named Dan, and asked me to find out if we and her belong to the same family?" Unexpectedly, Fu Fu Niang's face suddenly changed, and she warned: "You can't say this in front of your father, otherwise..." While talking, the door of the house was suddenly knocked open, and Dan Chengsi came back drunk.Seeing this, Fufu turned her head away, thinking that the family might be in trouble again. She heard from her mother that her father was not like this before, but after her elder brother died of fever on the road, her father became disheartened, and he has been depressed ever since.What Fufu just didn't understand was why he was in such a hurry, knowing that his brother and sister had contracted the cold, so they should seek treatment from a doctor on the spot. Sure enough, her mother put down her work and went up to meet her husband. Seeing her husband's appearance, she was shocked and said: "Master, you, you won't go to drink and gamble again, right? Where is the thirty Wen that Chen Feng received from your family?" Dan Chengsi waved his hand to stop her and said, "You are a woman, what are you talking about? Let me sleep for a while." "Master, you didn't really spend the money, did you? There is not much rice in the tank, and the fourth daughter is still sick..." At this time, there was still a girl lying on the bed, unconscious. "Earn after spending, what are you crying about?" Dan Chengsi said impatiently. "The village doesn't often ask you to write couplets for weddings and weddings. Without that money, how will the five of us survive on what to eat in a few days..." Seeing Fufuniang crying, Dan Chengsi said angrily in pain: "Is it all my fault! The current life is not caused by me, so can you blame me!" Fu Fu Niang cried for a while, gradually calmed down, then lowered her head and said, "Why don't you marry Fu Fu." "What?" Dan Chengsi and Fufu looked at her in surprise. "Today, rich man Chen from the west asked someone to talk to him. He said that Fufu was pretty and liked her very much. He wanted to marry her to his fifth son. His child was about the same age as Fufu, but he was not in good health, so he wanted to marry her as soon as possible. Marriage... He gave a lot of gifts. I think the money can not only treat the fourth daughter's illness, but also buy some land, so you can live in peace and contentment, sir. Besides, this is for Fufu , can be regarded as a good marriage, after all, I went there to be the wife, it is better than marrying a farmer to work in the fields..." "Nonsense! How can a tiger girl marry a dog? What's so great about a rich man, because he can't read a few words! Isn't his fifth son born to a concubine? He looks sick and doesn't know how long he will live. Caress to be a widow! Why would you want to marry her to that kind of place!" Dan Chengsi objected fiercely. "Master, I can't help it, you still treat us as..." Fufu Niang said again with tears. Fufu looked at her parents in surprise, she would not agree to marry the rich man's fifth son, she didn't want to marry so early.But her father seemed to have other meanings in what he said. It seemed that the man was not worthy of her, but in fact, Mr. Chen's family was much richer than her own. Fu Fu sensitively feels that the family affairs are unusual, if she doesn't ask now, maybe she will marry someone else.So she knelt in front of Dan Chengsi and asked, "Daddy, are you hiding something from us? What's going on with our family? Our family is different from other families. Where did we come from?" Facing Fufu's series of questions and her longing eyes, Fufuniang and Tan Chengsi looked at each other in embarrassment until Fufuniang sighed and said, "Master, let's tell Fufu before she gets married." , I can't let her be confused for the rest of her life..." Fu Fu Niang knelt down and said to Fu Fu: "Daughter, didn't you ask about the genealogy just now? Mother is now telling you that the Dan family has been a family of military officers since ancient times. Your great-grandfather was a first-rank general, and your grandfather was also a first-rank general." , your grandmother is the daughter-in-law of the military inspector. Your father has two older sisters. Your eldest aunt is the concubine of Xianzong Shu. I don’t know if she is still alive. Your second aunt...is the current empress dowager... ..." Fu Fu stood there in shock after hearing this, she felt her heart pounding, she wanted to ask something, but she couldn't speak for a moment. Dan Chengsi's face was gloomy, and he explained her doubts in a deep voice, "But she doesn't recognize the Dan family at all, let alone me. So she drove us out of the capital, and sent someone to snatch the genealogy back. She is not considered a family tree at all. Our relatives! If it wasn't for her, our family wouldn't be reduced to what it is now!" Hearing all this, Fufu didn't know what mood she was in for a while, but she felt an uncontrollable excitement, and finally she said: "Mother, I don't want to marry into the rich man's family, I want to enter the palace." Fufuniang and Dan Chengsi looked at Fufu in shock, they didn't expect their daughter to say such words suddenly. "Didn't someone come from the Yamen a while ago and say that the palace called a medical girl? My daughter is going. My daughter is going back to the capital, to the place that should belong to us." "Fufu, what silly things are you talking about?" "Father, isn't it right? After we became nobles, we should have lived in the capital, clothed and fed every day, and all we needed to do was play the piano, compose poems, and sing songs, instead of worrying about tomorrow's food in this rustic village. I want to enter the palace, to broaden my wisdom, to get close to the core of power, I don't want to hand over my life to a villager or landlord." "Do you know that it will be very dangerous for you to do this! It may even harm our family!" Dan Chengsi objected fiercely. "It's all right, I'll pretend to be the daughter of the Chen family." After Fufu finished speaking, he went to beg her mother, "Mother, the court will also give you five taels of silver when you enter the palace as a medical girl. It's the same as marrying the rich man Chen." Isn't the family not much different? But my daughter doesn't want to marry such a person, so you can promise her." Fu Fu Niang couldn't bear it, but after thinking about it, even if she didn't enter the palace, Fu Fu would still have to marry into the rich man's family.But she still couldn't bear to say: "Then you might as well go to the palace and become a maidservant. Working as a medical lady is degrading and filthy. It's really..." Fu Fu shook his head, "Being a medical girl can read and learn a craft. My daughter believes that this will always be useful. The monthly salary of a medical girl will also be more. My daughter doesn't spend it herself, so I will send it to you." ...Father and mother, you just agree." Dan Chengsi stood up and said: "Father does not agree with you to go! You can't go, the farther you can get away from that woman, the better! Let's talk about the marriage later, don't think about it, you have to understand that we are no longer It’s no longer a noble family.” Fu Fu wanted to say something again, but was sternly stopped by Dan Chengsi. Fufu didn't speak anymore, and she didn't mention it again in the next few days, until the last day when the medical girl's registration was closed, she quietly packed her bags and left the home with nothing. She looked to the north, and felt that there was a strong call to herself, and she felt that something must happen there to change her destiny.