Sitting at his desk, Wang Xian was still in a daze. Life is really unpredictable. In the morning, he was still complacent about finally becoming an official. Two hours later, he began to worry about the miserable days in the future...
After Li Sihu came out of his room, a white servant led him to the next room. The room was full and filled with account books. In the gaps between the account books, there were several tables, and behind each table sat a man sitting at his desk.
Busy desk clerk in white shirt.
The white clerk told the people inside and went out. Several clerks raised their heads, looking at Wang Xian with indifference, sympathy, or gloating. The fat man with a round face stood up and helped him clean up.
He opened a table and came out, grinning at him and saying, "You take a rest, I'll be busy for a while."
Wang Xian smiled gratefully at him, then sat down at the table, listening to the crackling sound of abacus in his ears, but he didn't know what to do. He wanted to help others, but couldn't help, so he had to refill everyone's tea bowls with water.
, and then sat there in a daze.
Fortunately, I didn't stay in a daze for long. When I heard a bang outside, all the scribes breathed a sigh of relief, packed up their desks, and hurried out.
When Wang Xianzheng was at a loss, the little fat man walked up to him again and said, "It's dinner time, I'll take you to eat."
"Thank you, brother," Wang Xian smiled gratefully, "Why don't you avoid me?"
"My name is Wu Wei, and I'm nicknamed 'It doesn't matter'." The little fat man smiled and said, "You're just kidding, my dad has seen you sick before."
"Are you Doctor Wu's son?" Wang Xian said suddenly, "How can I be kind to you?"
"Hey, let's go quickly. If you're late, there won't be anything to eat." The little fat man led Wang Xian and hurried to the cafeteria.
Yes, it was called "canteen", but later generations just followed this name. This was still a rule set by Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. Li Shimin ordered all yamen from the central to local governments to set up canteens so that officials could sit together to eat.
This communication of information and harmonious feelings is also a means of prolonging political affairs.
Later dynasties inherited the canteen, but its function of discussing political affairs and office work has disappeared, and what is left is eating, so it is called the canteen. For small officials and officials with low incomes, this is also a very considerate benefit.
Therefore, the common people envied him and called him "eating from the official family".
By the Ming Dynasty, canteens were also divided into hierarchical levels, especially in local prefectures and counties. For example, Fuyang County had three canteens. The one on the left of the county government office was the official canteen, the one on the right was the staff canteen, and there was also a Xuli canteen in the front yard.
, one of the three canteens is larger than the other, and of course the grade is inversely proportional.
Wang Xian and Wu Wei entered the official canteen, which was always considered a success. The canteen was actually divided into two stalls. The first one was for the official officials, and the outside one was for the unofficial officials like them.
A place to eat. This shows how ubiquitous the concept of hierarchy was in the Ming Dynasty.
As soon as Wang Xian entered the room, he saw people in white clothes and black hats, sitting around square tables, laughing and chatting, while taking down their chopsticks like wind. Wu Wei took him to his table and took a look.
Wang Xian didn't have a job, so he smiled and said: "You are late today. The kitchen has already counted the number of people. Eat my bowl."
Wang Xian quickly declined, but Wu Wei pushed him on the bench and said, "Just eat, I'll get another bowl."
Wang Xian said nothing more, nodded and sat down. When Wu Wei came back with a bowl of rice, he had not yet moved his chopsticks.
Wu Wei quickly picked up a piece of fat meat with chopsticks and said with his lips: "If you have fast hands, you may have slow hands!"
"Yes." Wang Xian nodded. In fact, he was already greedy when he looked at the food on the table. Although it was only four dishes and one soup, including meat and fish, for a person who eats brown rice and vegetable soup all day long, it was already enough.
It's the ultimate temptation.
"I didn't expect the food for the officials to be so good..." Wang Xian said secretly, but he heard constant scolding in his ears. Many people were complaining that since Sima Dan took charge of the food, the food was getting worse and worse... Sima Dan
He is Sima Qiu's younger brother.
Despite the scoldings, everyone ate very quickly. Wang Xiantong didn't even use a few chopsticks. There were no dishes in front of him, and he finally ate a bowl of rice...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the afternoon, Wang Xian offered to help Wu Wei with some work, but Wu Wei dared to ask him to help, "Forget it, if I make a mistake, I will have to calculate from scratch. You should familiarize yourself with the situation first."
Wang Xian had no choice but to find the household's house regulations, spread out the paper, and started practicing calligraphy.
I don’t know how long it took, but a green-shirted official in his forties came in. The bookkeepers looked up and started to say, "Here comes the Lingshi." Lingshi was the title of the officials subordinate to the county magistrate in the Han Dynasty, and now it is
It is an honorific title for officials.
That made Shi smile before he opened his mouth, waved his hands and said: "We are all busy, I'm here to see the new guy." As he said this, Wang Xian was at the table and saw that he was copying the charter just now, and said with a smile: "He has really changed his gender.
Ah." He patted him on the shoulder and said, "Come out."
"Ling Shi..." Wang Xian followed him and left the public house. When he came out, he saw him looking at him with a smile.
"What is Lingshi? Just call him uncle." Lingshi is the household official, named Zhang Hua. He was originally a subordinate of Wang Xian's father, and later he was transferred to the household. Wang Xingye came back a while ago, and he went to Wang's house.
After visiting him, I naturally wanted to be more cordial to him, "I went out in the morning, or I would have seen you coming."
"Let's call him Ling Shi." Wang Xian smiled bitterly and said, "It would be bad if Sihu heard about it."
"Hey, he has a good ear..." Zhang Dianli curled his lips and said, "He showed you the color?"
"That's Lord Sihu's love and care."
"You are so protective of me, but your heart is smaller than a needle's nose!" Zhang Dianli scolded: "Isn't it because I didn't marry your mother in the first place? I can't take advantage of your father, so what's the point of bullying a junior?"
Wang Xian was dumbfounded when he heard this. He wanted to go back and ask his father if he and Li Sihu had the guts to kill his father or take away his wife? After arguing for a long time, he really got it wrong.
However, looking at Zhang Dianli's behavior, he also had strong opinions on Li Sihu.
But Wang Xian knew very well the principle of "misfortune comes from the mouth", so he just listened all the way.
I followed Zhang Dianli to the back of the house, passed through the ajar door, and saw three rows of west-facing houses. Each row had eighteen rooms, which were densely packed and very cramped.
Zhang Dianli took him to a room in the second row, opened the door and said: "This is the official residence. According to the regulations, the officials should live here on weekdays and only go home on holidays. Although the control has been loosened in recent years, your new
Now that I’m here, there are people watching from above, so I’d better stay here for a while!”
"Yes." Wang Xian nodded and followed him in. Inside was a room one foot wide and two feet long. There was thick dust on the floor. There was a bed, a table and chairs, and a washbasin stand...
"You clean up." Zhang Dianli said: "Then bring a bedding from home. The yamen is in charge of dressing and eating, but it doesn't care about the cost of the bedding... at least it doesn't care about you."
"Yeah." What else could Wang Xian say besides nodding.
"Okay, you can clean up here." Zhang Dianli said: "When you are done, go home. There is no need to go to the household again."
"Okay." Wang Xian nodded and sent Zhang Dianli out. He looked around the room and took off his brand new clothes and hat. With his bare feet and shorts on, he went out to find a well to get a bucket of water and washed the floor and furniture.
.
After the room was completely clean and the sun was setting to the west, Wang Xian wiped his sweat, put on his clothes and left the Yamen.
When he came to the street, he breathed a long sigh of relief. The strict hierarchy in the yamen was really depressing, especially when there was a boss who hated everyone...
Looking sympathetically at the two grain merchants who were still there, Wang Xian walked quickly towards his home. The closer he got to his home, the more people greeted him: "Erlang, why are you leaving so early today?" "Erlang, weighing the weight."
Go back and eat the oranges, it will be cheaper for you..."
Of course, the most common question is, 'Erlang, which room have you been assigned to?'
After hearing the answer from 'Hufang', everyone's eyes changed when they looked at him...
Wang Xian felt anxious for a while, who had I offended?
"Oh, Erlang, hurry up and take a basket of oranges back for your sister to eat. What, no money? Isn't this a slap in the uncle's face? After all these years, my neighbor has given you two oranges for money..." Uncle Liu, who was buying oranges, suddenly became enthusiastic.
Double it and give him a basket of oranges.
"Erlang, this is a white silver carp that was just caught. I'm about to send it to you to recuperate. Take it quickly..." Brother Qi, the fish seller, also picked up two fish and came over.
"Lao Qi is stupid. How can he eat fish to replenish his body?" Zhu Dachang, the meat seller, picked up his knife and chopped off four pig trotters, wrapped them in lotus leaves and handed them to Wang Xian: "Here.
, soybean stewed pig's trotters will keep you running all over the place!"
For a moment, everyone on the street turned into loving fathers and brothers. Not only did they give him things, they also praised him without saying anything:
"I said a long time ago that Erlang has great potential. What do you think? It has come true!"
"Erlang, tonight at Liu's Tavern, I'll treat you to a mutton hotpot with autumn fat!"
"This young man, Erlang, looks like he is a good official at first glance. He will definitely be great in the future..."
"..."
Showing courtesy for nothing is bound to be nothing good. Wang Xian didn't ask for anything and almost ran away. Unexpectedly, the neighbors actually chased him home. He ignored it and hid in his room to practice calligraphy while leaving it to his mother to deal with the outside.
People were coming and going outside, and the flattery was so continuous that Wang Xian was dumbfounded. This was too exaggerated...
It wasn't until quite a while after dinner that no guests came to the door. Wang Xian came out of the west wing and saw his mother humming a tune happily and packing up the things just sent by the neighbors in the east wing. Taking a quick look, there were a dazzling array of food and supplies.
, I won’t have to spend any more money for a while.
"Well done, son." Seeing Wang Xian come in, I narrowed my eyes and said, "Thanks to you, I finally have the opportunity to receive gifts again."
"Mom, why would the neighbor give us something for nothing..." Wang Xian was not polite at all, but seeing that my mother refused to accept anyone who came, he had to kindly remind her: "They must have something to ask for."
"I know, isn't it because the government wants to re-register the yellow register?" I said with a smile: "The neighbors in the street just won't send anything, so you still have to find a way to let them go?"
"Alas..." Wang Xianxin said, you really think highly of me, but you don't know that I am a clay Bodhisattva crossing the river - I can't protect myself! But he didn't want to upset my mother by saying it, so he asked: "Where is my father?"
"Your father is the most treacherous. Yesterday he told people to go wherever he wanted, and today he went to Hangzhou for activities." I curled my lips and said: "It's okay to do activities, but if he is assigned to Yunnan, I won't go with him."
Looking at Wang Xian, Zhuang Ruo didn't mind and said, "By the way, Miss Lin has been here today."
"Oh?" Wang Xian pretended to be casual, but raised his ears.
"Her family will move to Suzhou tomorrow..."
"Oh..." Wang Xian said in surprise: "Why are you going to Suzhou?"
"Where is Miss Lin's grandma's house..."
"Oh..." Wang Xian's eyes dimmed.
The old lady glanced at him and said quietly: "Miss Lin is also engaged..."
"Oh?" Wang Xian was startled, jumped up, and ran out quickly.
"What are you doing?" I asked with my head tilted.
"Get out..." Before Wang Xian could finish his words, he had already disappeared at the door.