Chapter 25: Dredging the Canal and Welcome the Concubine (2)
"Just right here."
Zhuo Lengping and her mother had already entered Yangzhou Prefecture and walked to a broken house outside Yizheng County.
As she passed the courtyard outside the house, she saw that the earthen walls and fences had collapsed and were covered with cobwebs, almost blocking the road. Zhuo Lengping lifted up her skirt, walked over cautiously, then turned around and pulled her mother in.
She walked to the house, lightly blew the dust on the doorknob, and pushed open the creaking door. The light inside was extremely dark, but she could see a Buddha statue directly in front of her. Unfortunately, this
There was a layer of copper-yellow rust all over the statue, making it dull and dull.
"Mother." Zhuo Lengping said, "This is a temple."
"Is there a place to cook?" Old lady Zhang asked.
"I'll go in and have a look." Zhuo Lengping held on to the door frame, lowered his head and walked in. Seeing a duster on the altar table, he picked it up respectfully, swept the patina on the Buddha statue, then knelt on the ground and faced the Buddha statue.
Bowed three times.
After kneeling down and worshiping, Zhuo Lengping saw that there were penthouses on both sides, so he walked to the east room and rolled open the curtains. A burst of dust rose up, choking her and making her cough weakly several times.
She walked into the house and saw that there was a stove against the wall, and there was a pot on the stove. Zhuo Lengping's eyes suddenly lit up, and he hurried over and lifted the lid of the pot. There were only a few black and yellow grains inside.
The rice grains were so hard and crispy that there was a lot of dust accumulated on the bottom of the pot.
"Mother!" Zhuo Lengping shouted outside the house, "There really is a stove here!"
The mother and daughter scooped water from the river, washed the pot, burned firewood, pulled out some wild vegetables, and cooked them.
Zhuo Lengping took the bowl, walked to the west room, placed the vegetable soup on the kang, and the mother and daughter started eating immediately.
"Leng Ping, you have endured such a hard life for so long, mother..." Mrs. Zhang was chewing wild vegetables, with tears in her eyes, and she patted her head sadly.
"Mom, my daughter is used to it, and she can be content with herself. It's better than living under someone else's roof in Nanjing, isn't it?" Zhuo Lengping smiled softly.
"You girl, you are usually taciturn, but you are so good at comforting people when you speak..." Old lady Zhang sighed and wiped away a line of tears.
Zhuo Lengping ate for a while, and when there was half a bowl left, he pushed it to her mother and said, "My daughter has finished eating, so just leave these to your mother."
Old lady Zhang looked at her scorched face: "How can you eat these? We traveled for three days and didn't even have a few good meals... It doesn't matter if your mother is hungry, don't let you..."
"That's wrong. My daughter is young and can be treated as much as she can. Your body is precious, so just eat more as soon as possible!"
Old lady Zhang was about to stop her, but she saw Zhuo Lengping immediately jumped off the kang and walked out of the house.
Leng Ping had nothing to do, so he walked around the courtyard and went around to the back of the house. He saw that there was a wide open space behind it, which was surrounded by a fence. There was a lock on the door, and he couldn't find it.
key.
Curious, she stood on tiptoes and took a look inside. She saw several bundles of firewood piled there and a bamboo basket beside them, but the contents inside could not be clearly seen.
Leng Ping thought to himself: If we can get this firewood, it will be enough for ten days.
She walked closer and saw that the fence was not very high, so there should be no obstacle to climbing over it, and she was secretly happy. However, when she just put her hand on the fence, she realized that the top of the fence was very sharp, making it difficult for anyone to step over it.
, I am afraid that the hand used for support will be extremely painful. For a woman like her, this is indeed unbearable.
She was stunned for a long time, and finally gritted her teeth, jumped up, and climbed over the fence.
There was a sharp pain in the palm of her hand, and she couldn't help but scream, fell to the ground, and rolled.
I kept silent for a while before I felt the pain subside. I looked at my palm and saw that luckily there was no damage, just a cut, so no blood would flow out.
She dusted off her clothes, reached into the bamboo basket next to her, and took out a woodcutter about a foot long. It was shiny, but the blade was a little curled. She got up and took out another one from the basket.
An ax and several bundles of thick hemp rope are all tools for cutting firewood.
She suddenly beamed, picked up the bamboo basket, opened the door to the backyard, and took out all the items.
"What are you doing?" Old lady Zhang asked when she saw Zhuo Lengping entering the room.
"Mom, look!" Zhuo Lengping held a bamboo basket and asked her mother to take a look, "All the tools for cutting firewood are ready. I have chopped firewood all day long and then carried it to the city to sell. Can't I settle down?"
On the other hand, Old Lady Zhang had a worried look on her face and advised: "You have a daughter, so it's a bit tiring to do such rough work..."
"It doesn't matter!" Leng Ping flipped his hair and said, "Although my daughter has learned weaving since she was a child, it is definitely not as convenient as doing this job now. Now that we have knives and axes to chop wood, why not take advantage of it?"
Mrs. Zhang always followed her daughter's wishes, so she just smiled and said: "Okay, okay, just follow Leng Ping's idea!"
Zhuo Lengping asked people and found out that there was a mountain in the north of Yizheng City, so he went up to the mountain to cut firewood in the early morning, came back to cook at noon, and went to the city to sell firewood at dusk. Over the past few days, he never saw the word "no" uttered from her mouth.
, still maintaining a strong momentum.
Every time she went up the mountain, she felt that the skirt of her skirt was often caught in the tree branches, and she was deeply distressed. After thinking for a long time, although she cherished this apricot-yellow skirt, she still had to take good care of her mother!
Unable to take care of so many things, I had to smooth the skirt with my left hand, slash the hem of the skirt with the hatchet with my right hand, tear it back and forth several times, tear off a few rags, and throw them into the stream.
She quickly picked up firewood, and because she looked up and saw that it was still early, she planned to go to the city to sell some firewood first. After getting the idea, she went straight down the mountain and went straight to the city gate.
She entered Yizheng City and walked to the street. Since she didn't know the way, she asked passers-by: "Can you tell where to go to the market?"
"Go forward along the avenue, turn left and go through an alley."
"Thanks."
She walked on the main road for a while, and she saw an alley on the left. She was about to go in, but someone suddenly tapped her on the shoulder.
"Turn around."
She heard the man laughing dirtyly behind her and thought he was some kind of gangster, so she broke out in a cold sweat. She didn't dare to disobey, so she turned around slowly and saw that the man had a flat nose, small eyes, and an uneven face.
He gently held a folding fan and smiled crookedly at her.
"You... who are you?" Zhuo Lengping asked timidly.
"This is the famous Duke Lu Zhengfu of the Lu family in Yizheng. His name is Lu Jishou and his courtesy name is Lu Sheng. You girl is so ignorant. Please bow down quickly!" A slave appeared out of nowhere and stood beside this man.
shouted arrogantly.
"Yes..." Zhuo Lengping was about to kneel down, but Lu Jishou grabbed his arm. Her expression suddenly changed, and she quickly retracted her hand.
"Girl, you don't need to be polite, I don't have any airs!" Lu Jishou waved his folding fan and cupped his hands: "Dare you ask me your name?"
Zhuo Lengping's fearful eyes darted up and down, and for a moment he didn't know how to deal with this person.