Ordinary clear day

Chapter 142 Butterfly
Mrs. Zhou had just recovered from a long illness, and she was dressed quite thickly. She wore a black-collared brown satin padded jacket with gold patterns, a velvet horse-face skirt, a thick cloak around her body, and an autumn-colored lake silk beside her. Compared with her daughter in spring clothes and skirts, it seems that she lives in a different season.

Mrs. Tong had already brought her children to greet her in the front yard. When she saw her mother and daughter, she stepped forward and said with a smile: "It can be regarded as coming. I expected you to arrive today. I sent several groups of people early in the morning." Go to inquire, focus on the time of You, if you don't come again, I will be in a hurry."

The mother and daughter of the Zhou family smiled and said hello. Seeing Mrs. Zhou's tired face, Mrs. Tong hurriedly said: "Our two families are friends of the whole family, so there is no need to set up these big rules. Anyway, Mr. Zhou didn't come. I went to Beijing again a few days ago, so I might as well go directly to the inner courtyard to talk. You must be tired after a day of driving."

After hearing this, Mrs. Zhou didn't refuse, and followed Mrs. Tong to the main room of the second courtyard.Mrs. Tong ordered someone to burn the kang in the left room one day in advance, and now that the temperature was just right, she asked Mrs. Zhou to sit on the kang, leaning against a stack of cushions, covered it with a thin blanket, and ordered tea and snacks.She smiled and said to Mrs. Zhou: "How is it? Isn't it much warmer and more comfortable this way? Don't be restrained, just treat yourself as if you are at home."

Mrs. Zhou thanked her, and asked her daughter to pay a formal visit to Mrs. Tong. Mrs. Tong praised Zhou Yinlan a few words and asked her children to visit Mrs. Zhou as well.

When Mrs. Zhou saw Duanning, she praised, "You are becoming more and more like an adult, and you will have great promise in the future." When seeing Shuning, she said, "You have grown taller than when I saw you last time." Boy, she liked it very much. She held their hands and talked for a long time. Among them, the meeting gift for Xianning was a few more silver coins than that of Duanning, Shuning and Xiaobao.

When Tong Shi and Xiao Liu Shi heard this, they both gave in on the lips, but in fact they were very happy in their hearts.After saluting, Mrs. Liu took the two children down, and the others sat down and talked seriously.The first thing to mention is of course Mrs. Zhou's physical condition. Only then did I learn that she is much better now than before, and eats more food. When she is in good spirits, she can walk around the yard by herself once or twice.Tong's mother and son were also very happy for her.

While talking, they talked about Zhou Yinlan's fiancé-in-law.Duan Ning said: "I met Brother Fan in Beijing. He is a good-looking man. The most rare thing is that he is good at both learning and conduct. He treats people well, and he has a great demeanor. The Fan family is also a generation of scholars. I heard that he There is also a nephew in the family who also took the exam in this subject. He won the top three and was born as a fellow Jinshi. Someone with good deeds made a couplet for his family, called "a family with three Jinshi, father and son, two Hanlin". Zhou's sister entered such a People, of course there is no need to worry."

Mrs. Tong also said a few good words, and Mrs. Zhou was naturally happy when she heard that. Zhou Yinlan blushed and bowed her head in silence.Fortunately, she has always been a generous girl. If it were those thin-skinned ancient women, she would have been too ashamed to avoid her.

Shu Ning couldn't bear to see her embarrassed, so she changed the subject and said: "It's getting late, I'll go to the kitchen to see what dishes are there, how about Aunt Zhou and Sister Zhou trying my cooking tonight?" Mrs. Tong also said to Mrs. Zhou Said: "I was happy for a while, but I forgot about it. Just tell me what you like to eat, and ask Shu girl to do it, she likes to tinker with it now." Mrs. Zhou said: "Then you have to taste it, why don't we let us eat it?" Yinlan is also going to help, she has been learning this for a year, and the dishes she cooks are barely edible, but they are not as good as Miss Shu's skillful hands."

"I dare not take that seriously, this girl is just learning to play." Tong Shi said a few words before letting Shuning and the others go down.

Shuning took Zhou Yinlan to her own yard first, went to the hairpin ring, and then led her to the big kitchen in the backyard.

There are four rooms in a row, and the other three are smaller, which are food room, kitchen utensil room and firewood room.The largest room is the kitchen, with a door on the left and right ends for easy access.Such an arrangement was suggested by Shu Ning.

As soon as Zhou Yinlan entered the kitchen, she saw a row of four large stoves on the east side. There were many seasoning pots along the wall. Painted wooden boards were nailed on the wall, and there were many spoons, bamboo clips and fences hanging from it. The cook is making dinner.There is a big table in the north and south respectively. The north side puts various prepared meat and vegetable materials, and the south side has a smaller chopping board, which contains three cutting boards and knives. A pool is built in the empty space beside it.On the west side, another piece of land was vacated, with two stoves, one large and one small, and two small tile stoves on one side of the table, as well as all the kitchen utensils and seasonings.The whole kitchen is very clean, and there is no water on the floor. People put everything they want to throw away in two special buckets, and the waste water is also poured into the drain outside.

Shu Ning pointed to the desk on the west side and said: "That's where I usually learn how to cook. I used to have a small stove in my yard, but it's a small place. Seriously cooking, the things there are not complete, so I have to ask my sister to come to the big kitchen. The place is dirty, please don’t take offense.”

Zhou Yinlan said nonchalantly: "It's already very clean. To tell you the truth, I also learned to cook in a big kitchen at home, but I always feel that there are oil stains everywhere, but your place is very good." Shuning smiled, and then Get out two aprons and let her change them.

Zhou Yinlan saw that the apron was like a half blouse, with the sleeves attached, and was only tied with two straps behind the back, and the cuffs were also fastened with thin straps. After putting it on, the sleeves of the dress were not exposed at all, and the front was also covered. It is so dense that you are not afraid of oil splashes, and you can do things neatly, so she asked with a smile, "How did you come up with this?" Shuning said, "I came up with it after seeing the apron made by my uncle's sister. "

It turned out that Wanning was learning how to cook at home, and thought those traditional aprons were ugly, so she made a few Western-style ones, sleeve sleeves and a chef's hat.When Shu Ning saw it, although she was a little disapproving of those white silk aprons embroidered with ruffles, the sleeves brought back memories before time travel, and she made this kind of apron with sleeves.Wanning didn't get suspicious, and thought that this cousin really made a new apron based on her "invention", so she also learned how to make it, and still added embroidery and ruffles on it.

Helping each other put on the aprons, Shuning asked Zhou Yinlan to choose the ingredients first.Zhou Yinlan thought about it for a while, and picked out tofu, cabbage, celery, radish, peanuts, dried shrimps, and a small piece of lean meat. Shuning looked a little bland, so she asked her to pick more. Zhou Yinlan said: "My mother's illness is caused by diet. You have to be more careful, sister can do whatever she likes, don't worry about me."

After hearing this, Shu Ning didn't say much, thinking that Mrs. Zhou had a heart attack. The old doctor Chen vaguely mentioned what this kind of patients should avoid eating, and what they should eat more. Some, I picked the materials to use according to my memory.

What she wants to do is to mix five shredded rice, fish-flavored eggplant stew, stewed chicken with jujube kernels and soybean pork rib soup, and cook a pot of porridge with peanuts and red dates.After putting the porridge and soup on the stove, she began to prepare the "five shreds", which are green pepper shreds, tofu skin shreds, vermicelli, dried kelp shreds, and carrot shreds. In fact, it would be better to have fresh kelp, but unfortunately there is only Some dried kelp that was hard to come by, so I had to make do with it.

On the other hand, Zhou Yinlan cooked peanuts mixed with celery, dried shrimps with roasted radishes, vegetarian roasted mushrooms, and stewed tofu with minced meat and cabbage. She also made some garlic for mixing vegetables.When she was about to take the vegetables to the cutting board for cutting, a daughter-in-law reminded her that the three cutting boards had different purposes, one for chopping bones, one for cutting raw food, and one for cutting cooked food. Please remember to recognize it clearly.Zhou Yinlan was a little surprised, but thought that there was some truth in this, so she went to do as the Romans do.

She accidentally saw Shu Ning cooking porridge, so she woke up, hurriedly picked up some ingredients, and made corn and mung bean porridge.She only cared about the dishes, but forgot the staple food, she was a little embarrassed.

When the stewed tofu was boiling, she freed her hands to observe Shuning's movements, looked at her, and said, "Sister Shu also knows about diet therapy. I think the dishes you chose are all suitable for my mother, and It is very beneficial, Sister Shu is really caring."

Shu Ning said with a smile: "I once heard something from an old doctor, but I don't really remember it anymore. If there is anything wrong, my sister can tell me."

Zhou Yinlan said: "Everything is good. I remember Taoist Wuchen said dozens of therapeutic dishes, and my sister made all of them."

Shu Ning secretly breathed a sigh of relief, it seems that she remembered correctly, and asked again: "Is this Taoist priest Wuchen the one who treated Aunt Zhou? When I visited your home earlier, I never had a chance to meet you. It would be great if I had a chance to meet him, he must be a very skilled doctor."

Zhou Yinlan sighed: "His medical skills are indeed excellent, but it's a pity that he sees through the world of mortals and doesn't care much about the worldly affairs. He only spends the winter in Baoding. Originally, he planned to leave in the early spring. Because of his mother's illness, he postponed his trip. , but already said goodbye a few days ago."

Shu Ning asked what was going on, and Zhou Yinlan replied: "He was born in a family that has practiced medicine for generations, and I heard that he is also one of the best famous doctors in his hometown. Someone recommended him to be admitted to Beijing Imperial Hospital, and he took his wife to take the exam. A villain, he suffered the pain of losing his wife. Since then, he has disregarded the world of mortals, abandoned fame and fortune, became a monk and became a Taoist priest, and never returned to his hometown. He just traveled around and healed patients when he met them. Sometimes I feel that our family is really lucky. It’s not that my father helps others occasionally, how can I invite him to come home? If he doesn’t come, what should my mother do?”

Shu Ning also sighed, and comforted her: "If you survive a catastrophe, you will have future blessings. Auntie is blessed with life, and she will be safe and sound in the future. Sister, don't think too much."

Zhou Yinlan smiled, saw that the tofu was boiling, and hurried over to remove the lid of the pot.

Everyone enjoyed the meal very much.Concerned that the Zhou family is a family of poets and etiquette, and they attach great importance to etiquette, they did not let Xiao Liu and his sons sit at the table, but only his daughter.The two pairs of mother and daughter are already familiar with each other, so they naturally have fewer taboos.The two girls cooked seven dishes and one soup together, plus two kinds of porridge. One person's dish was refreshing and delicious, while the other's dish was light and thick. In comparison, they were evenly divided.

After the meal, Mrs. Tong greatly praised Zhou Yinlan's craftsmanship, saying that she is not only familiar with poetry and books, but also good at cooking, she is really a rare good girl.Mrs. Zhou said that her daughter's ability was not as good as Shuning's, and she kept being modest.

Shuning watched the two mothers come and go modestly, and couldn't help but feel a little funny. When she lowered her head to cover herself, she caught a glimpse of Zhou Yinlan also holding back her laughter.The two looked at each other, and couldn't help laughing together. The strange feeling between them because they hadn't seen each other for many years seemed to dissipate a lot.

Considering that Mrs. Zhou had a hard time on the road and would have to go on the road again tomorrow, Mrs. Tong asked her to go back to her room to rest early.The Zhou family's mother and daughter stayed in the Zhilan Courtyard. After Zhou Yinlan waited on her mother to sleep, she wanted to refresh herself in the courtyard, but she saw Shu Ning waving to her outside the courtyard.

Shuning followed Zhou Yinlan into the room, took out a pair of purses, and said to her: "You will be very happy in a few days, I have filial piety on my body, so I can't congratulate you, let me give you a gift now."

Zhou Yinlan blushed slightly, thanked her and took the purse.Seeing that the two purses were palm-sized, they were made of ochre-red brocade, with a big colorful butterfly embroidered on each of them with silk thread of a dozen or twenty colors. There are many small flowers embroidered around it for decoration, but when turned over, there is a big peony on each side, surrounded by a few small butterflies.The two purses, whether single or in combination, are either double flowers, double butterflies, or the pattern of butterfly and flower, which is very thoughtful.

She was about to praise, but she felt that there seemed to be something in her purse, and when she took it out, it turned out to be a pair of white jade bat flower hairpins.The flawless white jade is carved into bats and flowers. The carving is not very exquisite, but it has a simple and elegant charm.

When Zhou Yinlan saw the quality of the jade, she knew it was not of ordinary quality, so she hurriedly said: "This hairpin is too expensive, I dare not accept it, only the purse is enough, sister, take the hairpin back."

But Shu Ning shook her head and said: "We have known each other since we were young, and it has been eight or nine years. What's the point of giving you a pair of hairpins? I don't have many things, and the only thing worthy of you is this, and it's another pair of hairpins." Yes, although this jade is good, it's not so expensive that you can't afford to wear it, so you don't have to be polite."

After hearing this, Zhou Yinlan hesitated for a while, but she still accepted it, but she got up to look for her jewelry box again, and said, "Since I have accepted your great gift, I must return it."

Shu Ning couldn't help being amused, and hurriedly stopped her: "I'm giving you a wedding gift, what gift do you want?" Zhou Yinlan thought about it, and blushed in embarrassment.Shu Ning said quickly: "Forget it, I'm not being polite to you. When it's my birthday, you can just give me a generous gift." Zhou Yinlan quickly responded with a smile.

The two talked a few more words before Shuning left.When returning to the courtyard, she passed the main courtyard and went in to greet her mother.As soon as he entered the door, he was startled. Tong Shi sat blankly at the table with tears still on his face.

Shu Ning hurriedly asked her what was the matter, but Tong didn't speak at first, but when her daughter asked more intensely, she opened her mouth to answer: "I talked about her illness with your Aunt Zhou earlier, and all the symptoms were familiar to me. Thinking about it, the former empress also suffered from this disease, but she was not as lucky as your Aunt Zhou, who met a good doctor and had an ancestral prescription."

It turned out to be like this, Shu Ning could only gently comfort her mother, saying: "It's just a coincidence, even if the empress knew that Taoist priest Wuchen back then, I'm afraid she might not invite him to treat her." Tong shook her head, He told his daughter in detail what he heard from Mrs. Zhou.

It turned out that Taoist Wuchen went to Beijing Kaotai Hospital, two years before Empress Tong passed away.He took his wife on the road and met several officials and family members. Because one of the wives and his wife hit it off right away, they invited him to go with them.Unexpectedly, because of the gorgeous clothes of the other party, several road bandits were attracted.His wife was cut and wounded in the chaos, and was frightened again. Since then, she couldn't recover from the illness and passed away.That Wuchen's heart was as dead as ashes, so he became a monk and became a Taoist priest.

Tong's eyes were red, and he said: "Who do you know that family belongs to? They are the wives of Mr. Chen Liangben! Although he has the kindness to know your father, I can't help but think that if there was no Daoist Chen didn't meet someone from his family, maybe he has become an imperial physician, so the empress wouldn't..."

She started to choke up when she said that, Shu Ning hurriedly handed her a handkerchief, and said softly: "Er Niang is because she is estranged from her, and she feels guilty, so she got into a corner. Who can say such a thing Accurate? If Taoist Priest Wuchen and his wife hadn’t met the Chen family back then and entered Beijing without incident, who would know if he would have been admitted to the Imperial Hospital? Although my daughter is not sensible, she also knows that it is not possible to enter there just by virtue of her medical skills. place; even if he really becomes an imperial physician, it is still unknown whether he can treat the empress with his qualifications; what's more, even if he can treat the empress, who knows that he can delay the empress for a few years? You know , everyone knows in their hearts that Mrs. Zhou's illness cannot be cured, but it can only prolong her life for a few years."

Tong also felt that her daughter's words made sense, so she slowly shed tears and said, "I just couldn't help it for a while, it's over after all."

After a few words of persuasion, Shu Ning remembered another thing: "Er Niang just said that Madam Tong's illness is similar to Madam Zhou's. I wonder if anyone else in Tong's family has this disease?" Heart disease seems to be caused by family inheritance.

Mrs. Tong thought for a while and said, "One of my aunts seems to have a similar disease, and one of your grand-uncle's grandsons is also not in good health. What's the matter?" Shuning said, "Why don't you ask Mrs. Zhou for a massage?" How about a copy of that prescription? Send it back to your grandfather’s house, maybe it will come in handy. Of course, our family should also keep a copy.”

Tong thought about it, so he agreed.Shu Ning stayed with her mother for a while, and did not return to her courtyard until she fell asleep.

In fact, she knew what she said just now. According to the impression in history, when Queen Tong passed away, the fourth elder brother had grown up quite a lot, instead of losing his adoptive mother when he was very young like now. Maybe it was because of Chen Liangben's The Butterfly Effect.Although the world looks similar to its original history, in many respects, small changes have actually taken place.

Under such changes, can she keep her family safe and happy, and keep her family members happy?
(History has changed... that... hypothetical... just hypothetical. Sometimes I feel really tired. If I apply for a day off every week, will you pia me? It's really just a hypothetical... A certain L climbed away with the lid on the pot~~~~)

(End of this chapter)