Chapter 21 Chapter 21

In the Qingming Festival of the coming year, it will be the season for flying grass, miscellaneous trees and flowers in the south of the Yangtze River.Spring came earlier in Hangzhou this year, and the tea-picking girls all over the mountain have already picked the golden buds that are shaped like sparrow tongues and eagle claws. Jilong Mountain is very close to South Tianzhu, and the tea business is flourishing.Even Uncle Cha Qing's Qing family is green.On the root of the old tea tree that has been cut to the ground, new branches are drawn out thinly and obliquely.Some of the new tea seedlings planted three years ago, as if injected with soul, have already burst out new shoots, because it will take another year to pick them, so they are carefully raised.The new tea canopy is not picked by anyone, and it quickly grows into a thick green, and deeply covers the new grave, life and death are also embellished.In the city of Hangzhou, the busy living became excited for the dead in the suburbs.

Wu Sheng, a newly emerging young tea merchant in Houchaomen, single-handedly, surrounded by a mighty army of tomb-sweepers, unexpectedly meets Xiaocha who is going to Shanghuafen with heavy make-up. Xiaocha only brought her youngest son, Jia Qiao.The eldest son Jiahe has always lived in Yangbatou, and all activities follow the main room, and the small tea in the side room is on a different level from his.What's more, Lin Ouchu has been sick and depressed since Cha Qing was afraid of death, and he can't do without Jiahe's company.It so happened that Jiacao was also sick and was lying at home, only Jiaqiao accompanied her to the grave.Jiaqiaopi was dying, and when she went to the grave, she made a mess of Qingming dumplings and dates wrapped in ginger drums.Xiaocha went to the graves of the ancestors of the Hang family one by one, and finally added a few shovels of new soil in front of Uncle Chaqing's grave, planted green bamboo branches, hung white flags, burned incense candles, burned paper money, and kowtowed and wept.Looking up, it's broken, Jiaqiao is running happily in the tea field with the green bamboo branch on her back.Xiaocha was so angry that she wanted to scold, she sat down on the yellow muddy ground and got a fresh hand of soil: "Jia Qiao, you little monkey, you have no rules in front of your ancestors, you are going to piss me off!"

Jiaqiao didn't pay attention to her mother at all, and there were white flags hanging on the green bamboo branches, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, blowing in the wind, floating in the sky, Jia Qiao was having fun.Looking back, Mom was approaching out of breath, frowning and frightening, she threw the bamboo sticks and ran away, bumping headfirst into a man.Jia Qiao shouted: "Go away, go away, my mother is going to kill me." The man immediately picked him up and said, "Don't be afraid, with me, your mother will listen to me." If Zhao Jike is the hero in Jiaping's heart, then Wu Sheng is the savior in Jiaqiao's eyes.Who said there is no love for no reason in the world?When Jiaqiao opened his arms and leaped onto Wu Sheng's arms, and when his little hands embraced Wu Sheng like angel wings, Wu Sheng, who had already married a wife and had children in the countryside of Huizhou but had not brought them to the city yet, had his eyes warm. I thought, this child should be mine.

Xiaocha resignedly met Wu Sheng in the tea garden at the foot of Jilong Mountain, and she was at a loss for what to do.The way Wu Sheng looked at her was completely like a wolf, burning with desire, exposed, if it wasn't in broad daylight, Xiaocha knew that this man would pounce on her and swallow her.Xiaocha's beating heart couldn't calm down, so she lowered her head, desperately trying to recall the other pair of cold eyes that seemed drunk but not drunk, once full of affection, but now gradually indifferent and confused.However, the cold eyes and hot eyes made her blank at this moment.She was only vaguely aware that if she didn't get away soon, she wouldn't be able to.

She called, "Jia Qiao, come back quickly, let's go home." Wu Sheng's face was flushed, even the whites of his eyes were red, and he said, "Don't go home!" Jiaqiao then shouted outrightly: "Don't go home!" Wu Sheng put Jia Qiao down on his side, patted his little butt, wiped him far away, and said, "Go, let's play." Xiaocha wanted to go up to catch it, but Jiaqiao had already run far away. Wu Sheng stopped him, grabbed Xiaocha's wrist, and watched the surrounding movement with his eyes as if nothing had happened. Tight, the words came out from between the teeth.In front of Xiaocha, Wu Sheng is eager to show his ruthlessness to the fullest, but in front of Xiaocha, Wu Sheng doesn't talk about rules.

Xiaocha twisted her wrist and looked around in fear: "What are you going to do?" She asked something irrelevant, and she couldn't think of anything else for a moment.Having been the side house of the Hang family for more than ten years, she is still a servant under the stove. "You have to sleep with me!" Wu Sheng gritted his teeth and said, his face had a kind of confident ferocity that he never had before, and he lacked the triviality of the shop boy that he used to have.This can be said to have benefited from the old man lying in the loess right now.The old man used to be calm, self-confident, the city was stern, and he was as quiet as a virgin, and Wu Sheng would inherit all these.

Such a kind of tyranny in broad daylight actually added to Wu Sheng's external strength of a man. This Wu Sheng is no longer the little guy who puts salty duck eggs under the porridge and shows how big women's feet are.But Xiaocha was only thinner and weaker, the cowardice in her bones made her soul smaller and smaller.When Wu Sheng pinched her wrist, she didn't dare to call out, she was so angry that tears flowed out, and she cursed softly: "Broken foot, let go, I'm going to tell Tianzui to go!" The broken foot stem pulled down calmly, and Xiaocha was dumped and squatted among the tea bushes, and the tea canopy as tall as half a person covered their bodies.Xiaocha struggled vigorously, and Wu Sheng pressed her hand into the mud, and her four hands and twenty fingernails were in a black mess.

"Let go of me, what are you going to do?" Xiaocha cried.Amidst the woman's cries, the man laughed and said, "I have to put you to sleep, so that I can relieve my hatred!" "I told Tianzui to go, he will make you not a boss!" The shameless man laughed loudly: "Who doesn't let someone be the boss, ah? Ha! Ha! How many shares of Wangyou Tea House do you think there are in the tea shop? It's almost enough for your man to smoke opium. With you, you dressed colorfully and went to the flower grave, I'm afraid it's not to cover your green skin that is stained with smoke. Haha!"

Xiaocha cried even harder, the former waiter had already controlled Tianzui and her, she struggled, but couldn't help yawning.This drifting woman just wanted to burn cigarettes for her husband, but slipped into the abyss of fate unknowingly. The woman's tears made the man hate even more. He pressed the woman's hand into the mud and cursed: "Bitch, rotten bitch, remember how your man slept with you, and I will do it ten times and a hundred times more!" Sleeping with you, I let you die in my belly to know how powerful I am Wu Sheng. I have been waiting for this day for more than ten years. It is my things that don’t return to my hands, and I will never stop dying. Rotten bitch, I Let you understand what kind of filthy man you are with, I want you to understand

With two crisp clicks, Wu Sheng's face became hot and hot again, the woman's hand froze in mid-air, and the yellow mud stuck to the man's cheek.The man was also stunned, but the woman slapped him twice.He immediately looked at her with admiration, and the obscenities he had just said were completely wiped out. The extremely weak woman, presumably also frightened by her own actions, knelt down on the ground, with her mouth half-opened, crying back in fright.Between the man and the woman, a gossamer flickers on and off, and a bee buzzes among the tea canopies. Shan'ao was dumbfounded by the two "snapping" sounds, and it showed an extraordinary tranquility.A child's sharp cry pierced the suddenly frozen air. The child only had time to call out the word "Mom", and the next word "Mom" was stopped before being asked.Xiaocha was like a tightly bent green bamboo, Weng Di played it straight, screamed "Qiaoer", and rushed forward.

At the same time, the hooligan man who was beaten up also jumped up, and in three steps, he left the woman behind.When the woman arrived at the scene of the accident, the man was already half-submerged in the cesspit, and he was holding Jia Qiao, who was covered in feces, to be thrown up.When the woman saw it, she was about to go hysterical, but was stopped by the man: "Hurry up and catch me!", and she shut up in fright.Jiaqiao was picked up and placed on the grass. The woman was about to cry again, but the man yelled, "Don't give me a hand!" The stinking man was pulled up.He picked up Jia Qiao, who was full of feces, and the two ran straight to the mountain stream. While running, they grabbed the bamboo leaves beside the mountain road with their hands, and bit down the tea leaves that were full of mouths, chewing vigorously. .When he got to the stream, Wu Sheng carried Jia Qiao upside down, with his butt upside down and his head down, just dipping into the water, Jia Qiao was so frightened that she couldn't cry, her face was flushed red.Xiaocha shouted: "Don't do this, the child will freeze to death!" Wu Sheng said: "Go away! I'm going to take off my clothes!" He took off only a pair of shorts, and jumped into the creek pit, puffing like a sneezing cow.Jia Qiao was attracted by him, and was no longer afraid. He looked up at the bright sun, sneezed loudly one after another, wrinkled his nose and complained: "Smelly...it stinks..." When the women and children were carried away by the sedan chair, Wu Sheng, with a bare back and a mouthful of tea leaves in his mouth, watched their backs.All he took off was a pair of shorts, and the rest of his clothes were washed in the mountain stream and were hanging on the tea canopy.The sun was so bright that it made his back itchy. Just now, he used the stream water to wash his good muscles red and covered with goose bumps. Now it is warm.He had been sneezing one after another, and when he was done, he spread his feet and hands on the grass, his eyes were shining brightly, and his heart was relaxed, as if he had swallowed the woman alive instead of jumping into the cesspit to save the child. It's over, the hot and dry body is gone, and the old grudges for many years are gone. He spread his feet and hands on Simo, and shouted "Five Watches" loudly: A little bit more Bai Yangyang, a lover, hey, hey, a lover, a lover, thinking of a big girl, beckoning, thinking every night, sucking can't make a pair. According to yay, you have to feed, sucking can't make a pair. Roaring and roaring, the voice became softer, surrounded, but there was still a dream.He is married, and the bride is naturally Xiaocha. He used to have this dream too, and every time Xiaocha would smile and follow him to pay homage contentedly.This time it was not, Xiaocha was like a fish out of water with her mouth half-closed, looking like she was about to say something, two lines of clear tears slowly crawled down her cheeks. After Wu Sheng woke up, he was stunned for a while. The sky was gray, and he sneezed a lot. The smell of grass rose from his body. The underwear hanging on the tea canopy was dry, and the vest was still damp. Wu Sheng put it on. up.After tidying up, go to Cha Qing's grave and kneel farewell: godfather, godfather!He screamed, and he no longer doubted in his heart whether Wu Chaqing had ever denied him as a godson.Anyway, I have to be your son, the only son.I want to be the best letter in Hangzhou, and I have to bring my wife and children to Hangzhou. When he thought that he had to pick up his wife, he knelt on his godfather's grave and cried aggrievedly.The setting sun shone between the tea garden and the cemetery, and all those unspeakable deep desires and unfulfilled possessive hearts were shrouded in tenderness and sadness. The year when Hang Tianzui was addicted to opium was also the year when Wu Sheng worked hard, and it was also the year when Zhao Jike followed Huang Xing to plot against Yuan Zili in Nanjing.At this time, it has been more than two years since Hangzhou was restored.The current situation stagnated, and then broke out again. In the days when Song Jiaoren was assassinated by Yuan Shikai, Hang Tianzui's two sons were already twelve years old, and his twins had already passed their fifth birthday. For more than two years, he has not received any news from Zhao Zhike.He was confused, and he didn't know what was going on, so he got mixed up with Wu Shengsi.Wu Sheng would brag about how brave his young master was in the righteous deeds of 1911. Tianzui listened to it, sometimes proud, sometimes nasty, and sometimes boring.Wu Sheng didn't care, he ran to Wushan Yuandong gate every three days, talking nonsense and spitting all over the suddenly empty Hang family courtyard, which made Hang Tianzui look down on him and couldn't leave him. Xiaocha was wary of him, but never reminded her in front of her husband.Her imagination is far lower than Wu Sheng's actions.She also couldn't understand why this man, while yelling that he would not put her to sleep, would not give up, why he hurried back to his hometown, and immediately picked up his yellow-faced wife and a bunch of children.Xiaocha breathed a sigh of relief, now Wu Sheng is a decent man with a family and business, and she and her husband are used to Wu Sheng sending them silver dollars regularly. Only Jiaqiao's love for Wu Sheng is full of childish innocence.Now, he often goes to Houchaomen in Wu Sheng's chartered car, and sometimes lives there.Wu Sheng and him sat side by side in the car, shaking and shaking, Wu Sheng said: "Jia Qiao, do you think I'm a godfather?" Jia Qiao didn't even blink, and immediately called: "Godfather!" When Xiaocha heard the news, her expression became blank, and she let out a long sigh.Hang Tianzui hummed through his nostrils: "This Wu Sheng, his wife can't get him, so it's better to get a son." The harsh words made Xiaocha startled, his eyes lit up, and his mouth trembled. "I...not..." Xiaocha stammered as she spoke. Seeing Xiao Chamu's messy appearance, Hang Tianzui became annoyed, and said: "If you don't have it, you don't have it, I don't want to see you like a daughter-in-law. After more than ten years, if Wu Sheng wants me, I will give it to him. ..." When Xiaocha heard it, she was stunned for a while, her whole body was shaking like a sieve, her mouth was stuffed with her fist, she was about to cry, but hiccups came out smoothly from her mouth.Hang Tianzui saw it, no, Xiaocha took it seriously, so he patted her on the back and said, "Okay, okay, can you take it seriously if you tell me a joke?" Xiaocha swiped his hand, and tears flowed down his face. He lay on the bed and cried, "It's a joke... ok, ok... that's how it was told..." "I know that it's none of your business that Qiaoer recognizes her godfather. It's his fate. Who told him to fall into the cesspit?" Hang Tianzui said, and went to the smoke den.When he returned to Wangyoulou Mansion, Shen Lv'ai scolded angrily: "Smoking opium all day long, why don't you care about the affairs of the tea house?" "That's why you don't know the benefits of opium. The clouds are in the fog, and the big things are as small as mustard seeds. Life is like a dream, and the spring and autumn are in the smoke." Shen Luai gritted her teeth in hatred.The mother-in-law is sick, but she still refuses to let go of the power. A large bunch of keys are still under the pillow, and she has to listen to the government behind the curtain every day, but she is in charge.She is really powerless to support such a big tea house by herself. The husband also felt that he had made a mistake. After thinking about it, he said, "Why don't I come back to live. I just don't know what to do when I come back." "If you don't quit opium, you can't get in." "Then I can't help it." Hang Tianzui spread out his hands and said, "Or simply hire Wu Sheng to take the former shopkeeper Chaqing Bo." "Why didn't you say that you gave the tea house to this Zhongshan wolf? He didn't instigate it. Do you have money to smoke opium?" Hang Tianzui was speechless again.It turned out that the money for his opium was not paid from the tea house. Shen Lv'ai was very careful, and no one would dare to give the money unless she promised, so he had to sell calligraphy and paintings secretly.What's more, Hang Tianzui himself didn't know about the money from the shares in Wangyou Tea Shop and Zhichazhuang. His family's shares were melting into ice and snow. "Why don't you ask Xiaocha to come back, so I can help you. The whole family lives in two places, so it doesn't cost money?" The two children were coming back from school at this time, and when they heard what their father said, Jiahe didn't even look at his father, and immediately said to Luai: "Mom, I can't let my aunt come back like this, and my aunt has started smoking too." ." "What did you say?" Shen Lu'ai buzzed her head, stood up and sat down again, her ears screamed. "I went to Wushan Yuandong that day and saw it with my own eyes. My father smoked and asked my aunt to boil it, and my aunt followed suit." Shen Lv'ai started to attack, she wanted to open her mouth, but she didn't know what to say, she had completely lost confidence in her husband, she stood up, her eyes searched in a daze, and when she found Jiahe, she stamped her foot vigorously , Said: "Jiahe, Jiahe, you mother, what do you want me to do?" As he spoke, he sat down on the Taishi chair and began to cry. Now, Hang Tianzui's third son, Jiaqiao, has started to receive another kind of education.He was riding on his godfather's lap, and he was listening to the quarrel between Wu Sheng and the mountain guest from Longjing Mountain. Strictly speaking, he was listening to the mountain guest singing a one-legged show. Wu Sheng is now one of the few rising stars in the tea shops in the Houchaomen area, and the boss is also a planter. The so-called market refers to tea critics, that is, experts who judge the quality of tea.Tea shops, originally mainly traded on behalf of customers, often when new teas came out, Shan Ke brought small samples to spread samples, that is, to let the shop look at what grade it was and what price it could sell for.The number is determined by the letter, and the buyer and the seller agree, and the transaction is listed.There are also those who buy at an opening price first, and then buy after listing. Of course, after the transaction is completed, the goods have to be transported to the tea shop to check the samples, and only when they meet the requirements can they be weighed and sold.Tea shops can take 95 bucks for commission, 98 bucks for cash and 99 bucks for samples.When Shan Kejing got it, every hundred yuan was only ninety-two yuan.The tea shop also charges water commissions from water customers, five yuan per hundred yuan, but in fact only two to three yuan is charged, and the rest are all kickbacks. The tea shop also has an additional income, which is to take a handful of tea leaves for each bag as a sample tea for large samples.This tea is specially used to distribute to people in the tea shop.Up to the manager, letter, accountant, down to the staff, storekeeper, apprentice, everyone has a share. In this way, the accumulation of a small amount makes a lot of money, and the income is actually quite thick.For example, Gongshun Tea Shop near Wangyou Tea Shop sells more than 100 dans of light tea every year. Wu Sheng took over the tea shop, and he was both the boss and the market manager. He knew that the food for tea evaluation was absolutely delicious, and for the tea shop, it almost played a role in determining the fate of the tea shop. It turns out that the evaluation and grading of tea has completely relied on the senses since thousands of years until the first half of this century. The first is to use eyes to observe the shape and color of dry tea, as well as the light and dark turbidity of the soup color and the tenderness of the bottom of the leaves after the soup is boiled. This is "seeing tea". The second is to use the sense of smell and taste to feel the aroma of tea, which is "smelling tea and tasting tea". Have to rely on touch and hearing.When you turn the tea leaves with your hands, you can feel its tenderness, weight, and water content.A good letter can be distinguished by twisting it with hands or biting it with teeth. An excellent tea critic, who can not say that he is a sensitive aesthetic?Tea reviewers avoid smoking, drinking, eating spicy and fishy food, not to mention perfume and cosmetics.They can distinguish the concentration of monosodium glutamate in one-thousandth, and they can smell the concentration of aroma in a few parts per million. God gave them a sensitive heart, which is equivalent to giving them a glorious way of life. Wu Sheng cherishes this road.He had long been taught by Cha Qing not to smoke or drink alcohol. He tempted Hang Tianzui to smoke opium, but he himself was determined not to smoke.He also knows that to be a good letter, one must not only judge good tea, but also be able to see all directions and listen to all directions, be able to foresee market trends, and know as much as possible about all kinds of tea. At that time, the sample teas on the market in Hangzhou—that is, the physical basis for tea evaluation, were roughly divided into roasted green samples, generous samples, yellow soup samples (i.e. Jiande, Fenshui two copies), green soup samples (i.e. Dongyang, Yiwu, etc.) , Wuyi, etc. Lu Qingqing), Wu Sheng has already mastered them by heart. His tea room is located upstairs in a large room facing south, with soft light and a spotless floor, and you have to change your shoes when you enter the room.In order to avoid direct sunlight, the windows are also equipped with black shades. There are also two tea evaluation tables in the room, the one painted black is near the window, where dry tea is judged; These were originally inherited from Chaqing, and there were no new ideas. The bold innovations made by Wu Sheng after taking over are two things that immediately caught people's attention: one is to reduce one bag of sample tea to three bags and one to smoke; The water commission was reduced from 23% to 1.5%. Mountain guests and water guests rushed to praise each other, and Wu Sheng seemed to be losing money, but actually made money.People in the same industry were angry, saying that they had broken the rules of doing business, and the Chaqi Guild Hall would hold a meeting to denounce it.Wu Shengli ignored him: "A meeting? Mom and Dad are a bitch! Go to a meeting! You will finish the meeting, and my tea will be sold out long ago!" The Chaqi Guild Hall had no choice but to find Wangyou Tea House as it had nothing to do with the rogue boss.Shen Lvai was in the postal package business, so she couldn't take care of it, so she went to find Tianzui, who waved his hand and said, "Let him go, Wu Sheng is a good guy, his chest is slapped so loudly that his face swells, and the picture is nice, Shan Customers and customers have worked so hard, so it's good that this meal makes them eat more refreshed." Hang Tianzui didn't expect that as soon as he entered the tea shop, there would be mountain guests spitting on him. Shan Ke scolded Wu Sheng: "You think you are a good thing, you have fooled everyone, you can fool me? You and Bo Chaqing have lost their heads and feet! Bo Chaqing will rate the first-class Longjing as the second-class? " Wu Sheng sculls Jia Qiao with one hand, and a tea stalk in the other, and asks, "Where did this tea stalk come from?" "You obviously put the tea stems in, so you're going to do me harm." "Tell the child that children don't lie. The child has been watching." Jiaqiao blinked and said, "I saw godfather take it out from there." As soon as everyone heard it, they all laughed and scolded that mountain guest, their own products were not good, and they slandered others, that mountain guest was so polite that he couldn't speak. The Shanke's tea was originally rated as a grade one, but the unlucky thing was that Wu Sheng picked out a tea stalk from the sample tea.A tea stalk, level one becomes level two, can Shan Ke not be furious? Tianzui saw such a dispute, so he came out to smooth things over, saying: "Don't quarrel, if you rate it first, the tea shop will suffer; if you rate it second, the Shanke will suffer, why don't you rate it one and a half." Wu Sheng sneered, put down the child in his hands, and said, "For the sake of the boss, let's do it this way, and I'll be the one to suffer." The tea guest had been promoted by half a level, and he still had some anger in his heart, so he didn't dare to say it again.I wanted to quit, but I was afraid that the first and a half grades would not be sold, so I sighed, so I had no choice but to give up. Unexpectedly, when Shan Ke walked out, Jia Qiao jumped up on her back, hugged Wu Sheng's head and asked, "Godfather, am I right?" Wu Sheng said, "Godfather wants to reward you today, so just order whatever you want to eat." Instead, my father was confused.Question: "What are you doing in collusion?" Tongkou Wuji said: "Godfather has a tea stem between his fingers. No one knows, only I know." Hang Tianzui heard this, poured a basin of cold water on the top of his head, and slapped Jia Qiao: "You useless thing, I told you to do evil things since you were young!" This slap was so hard that Jia Qiao cried miserably, stomped her feet and called her godfather, and got into Wu Sheng's arms.Wu Sheng also got angry, and shouted: "Is this the place for you to show your prestige? Get out!" Hang Tianzui couldn't believe his ears, since he was a child, he had never heard the word "get out" to him, let alone such a vile ruffian. "You find out, who is the boss here, and who tells who to get out!" He also shouted. Wu Sheng laughed out loud, and threw an account book towards Hang Tianzui: "Pop out the black beads yourself and see, how many coppers and steels do you have, and come here to drink three times and four times? Wangyou Tea Shop The brand was taken off a month ago. I, Wu Sheng, own the largest share. Now the money you get from smoking big cigarettes is all in my account upside down. It doesn’t matter to me, I will immediately Just tell you to fuck off!" Hang Tianzui was almost numb, and only those four words were in his mind: the villain is successful!The villain succeeds!The villain succeeds!It turns out that when a villain succeeds, his face is like this. But he didn't know what to do after the villain got his wish.He looked around in a daze, everything was strange, he stared at his younger son, even the younger son was a stranger. "Jia Qiao, go back!" he said. "Don't go back!" The son stopped turning his head. He walked out alone in a daze, clucking down the stairs, and out of the road, he didn't know where he was going, his mind was so confused that he felt comfortable.I don't know how long it took, I pulled the car and chased after him out of breath. When I saw the owner, I put down the car, took out silver dollars in my pocket, took out a few, handed them to the young master, and said, "Wu Sheng said, I won't give you any more money." No more, no more shares." After speaking, he squatted down in front of the handlebars, opened the rhubarb die, and burst into tears.On the first day of the first month, sparrows fly over to watch the dragon lantern. On the second day of the second month, cook cakes and fried beans; Shan Si takes a lunch bath and eats a stove. Chao Ben kills sugar cats begging big three four five six seven August month month month month three four five six seven eight holy land bodhisattva hair disheveled throwing away the old water chestnut is better than drinking mosquitoes feet and so on stand straight nine B nine October ten In a blink of an eye, the winter solstice is approaching.There is a saying in Hangzhou that "the winter solstice is as big as the year". As early as half a month ago, Lu Ai asked someone to buy Chinese cabbage, wash it and dry it in the sun. They put it in a large vat. Jiahe and Jiaping washed their feet carefully with fragrant soap, and then soaked them in hot water until they were red. Then they stood in the large vat, spread a layer of vegetables and sprinkled a layer of salt. Stepping on it for a while, I prepared to open the tank on the day of the winter solstice, and fried pork slices to worship the ancestors. Lin Ouchu was lying on the bed, unable to do anything.Shen Lv'ai was busy making a pair of shoes and socks for her on the day of the winter solstice. This is also the custom of Hangzhou people, which means "to wear long shoes" in ancient times. On the evening of the winter solstice, Lin Ouchu saw his daughter-in-law brought shoes and socks, leaned on the side of the bed, choked for a while, and said, "After thinking about it, I'm sorry..." Shen Lv'ai knew that her mother-in-law saw that she had given her shoes and socks, and thought that the little tea was not delivered, and she blamed herself that she shouldn't have encouraged Tian Zui to accept the little tea, so she said: "Xiaocha is sick, it's not because she is unfilial... ..." "You don't need to cover it for them, what disease did my dead ghost suffer from before, what disease did they have to the living ghost..." Shen Lvai knew everything about her mother-in-law, so she had to keep silent.The mother-in-law choked for a while, and asked, "Have all the vegetables for ancestor worship been prepared?" Shen Lvai said she was ready. "Report to me and listen." "There are pig large intestines, which means smooth sailing; fish balls and meat balls, which means reunion; roasted pork meat, which means thoughtful heads; spring pancakes wrapped in shredded pork, which means gold shreds wrapped in silver; soybean sprouts, which means wishful dishes. ; There are groundnuts, which are long-lived fruits; there are yellow water chestnut meat, lotus root, benyang, and red dates cooked together, which is rich, mom, what do you think is missing?" Lin Ouchu thought that there was nothing missing, got up slowly, changed into new shoes and socks, and asked his wife to comb her hair. Then, she felt for the key from under the pillow and wanted to leave the room.The daughter-in-law said that it was getting dark, so go directly to the hall, the mother-in-law sighed and said, "I took the candlestick, you are alone, come with me." The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law walked out of the room, and Lin Ouchu's feet trembled violently.They were silent, and the candlelight flickered strangely and flickered in the thick twilight.Walking under the big magnolia tree, the mother-in-law raised her head slowly, and the daughter-in-law also raised the candlestick up to illuminate the high gable. With a "plop", a piece of wall ash fell, and there was no one, but the wind was tight. They just stood there for a while, and then, Lin Ouchu began to walk in and out of the yard, and once in, he opened a lock and left the key in the daughter-in-law's hand. She shook her head when the daughter-in-law wanted to return it to her. , and said, "It's yours." Shen Luai's heart was both excited and depressed. She had extremely contradictory feelings towards this huge courtyard.However, no matter what she thought, the bunch of loose key rings in her hand were now jingling and full.She followed her mother-in-law to an unknown number of rooms. She really didn't expect that there would be so many rooms in the five yards.She can guess which rooms are full of memories for her mother-in-law. In these rooms, her mother-in-law always looks around for a long time with reluctance, and sometimes closes her eyes, as if she wants to shut everything she sees in her heart and take it to another world. go.The candlelight illuminates the figure of the mother-in-law, reflected on the wall, it is huge and vague, as if she is already in that world, and what she sees at this moment is a phantom. After Wu entered the courtyard, Shen Lu'ai thought that her mother-in-law was going back to the hall to worship the ancestors, but she opened the side door again, and they were going to the tea house. The backyard is very empty, with wooden boards on both sides. In the spring, it was full of girls who came to pick tea leaves, sometimes there were nearly a hundred of them.Later, less and less, less and less, the beams were covered with cobwebs.The mother-in-law went straight through the backyard, and gently pushed away the room where the tea sieves were piled up. She stood in the room for a long time, and Shen Lvai didn't understand why the mother-in-law picked up the bamboo sieve and moved closer to her eyes.What does she want to see?what did she see Finally, the mother-in-law walked out of the backcourt, but went to the front shop.Lu Ai said hesitantly: "Mom, isn't there a rule that women are not allowed to go to the store?" The mother-in-law ignored the daughter-in-law and opened the door.Two women entered the front shop for the first time in their lives. Holding the candlesticks, they first took a look inside the counter and walked around.The tea tin boxes that they had touched in the backcourt during the day were neatly placed here, and they were curious.Then, they went outside the counter and walked around the huge tea evaluation table lightly.The marble surface was cool and hard, reflecting the candlesticks, and even the faces of their two women... The tea house is so big!It's amazing!This hall is so spacious!It turns out that the front shop is like this... Now, the two of them finally came to the hall.The portraits of the ancestors were hung in the hall, and there were various memorial tablets. There were rich sacrifices in front of the memorial tablets. Lin Ou looked at it for the first time, frowned and said, "Why is there a pair of bowls and chopsticks missing?" Wan Luo said, "No wow! It's all there." Lu Ai played tricks, Wan Luo understood, and hurriedly bought another pair. Lin Ouchu personally ordered Longjing tea, which was fragrant and fragrant, one by one, and respected beside the memorial tablet.In front of the pair of bowls and chopsticks without a tablet, she offered a cup of Huangshan Maofeng.Everyone understood who she was offering sacrifices to and what she meant by offering sacrifices like this.Everyone looked for Tianzui in the crowd, but there was no sign of him. Jiahe was standing next to grandma, and he knelt down with grandma.When he stood up, grandma was still kneeling.He stood for a while, then suddenly knelt down, stood up again, and grandma was still kneeling.Everyone waited for a while, embarrassed, knelt down again, and when they stood up again, grandma was still kneeling.An unprecedented fear that surged up from the depths of the darkness suddenly overwhelmed Jiahe, and he squatted down and called, "Grandma, grandma!" Grandma shook her whole body hard, but her head was still on the ground, and she didn't make a sound. When Jiahe looked up, he saw a cup of tea and a gray braid on the altar. Jiahe screamed in fright: "Grandma! Grandma!" He pushed grandma vigorously, and grandma fell down, grunting, like a puppet, her head and knees were touching, her hands were propped open, and she had a pious expression on her face. Then, the whole Wangyoulou Mansion heard a boy's shrill scream: "Grandma! Grandma! Grandma!" Neither the boy's father nor the boy's mother heard the soul-crying sound that symbolized the end of an era in Wangyou Tea House.When his mother, in a stiff and pious posture, used her dying prayers to ask the undead to protect the famous tea family in Hangzhou, Hang Tianzui exchanged the last silver coin he had withdrawn from Wangyou Tea Shop for hibiscus Once again, Yan was unable to extricate himself from being intoxicated in the psychedelic realm of nothingness that he had never had before.