Carpenter's Lady

Chapter 111

It’s August [-] again, Xiao Fufu is just two years old, Maolin is already eleven, and she is beginning to have the elegance of a girl’s family. In August last year, Xiaoshui came here to study at Huishan Academy. They all gathered at Ding's house in Liuye Lane.

Aunt Liu scooped up the boiling hot water in the pot with a long-handled wooden spoon, and asked Mao Lin, who was choosing vegetables, "Why are you here alone today? Why didn't you come with your sister?"

After Zhang Mu and Wu Ling came back from the capital last year, they were surprised to find that Mrs. Li had met the shopkeeper Sheng in the first bookstore on West Street.

Maolin has always gotten along very well with Xiangyi, so he has no objection, wishing to marry Xiangyi as a sister.

It’s just that the younger sister that Aunt Liu is talking about now is not Xiangyi, but Xianglin, who was born by Mrs. Li in June this year. The three-month-old baby likes to be close to Maolin all day long, so Aunt Liu asked this question.

Maolin thought of his soft little sister, and said with a sweet smile: "Mother said it's a bit windy today, so I'm afraid it might blow my sister, so I'll put it at home for Dad to watch!"

Wang Momo ordered the peach crystal osmanthus cake on the table, saw that there were almost enough, and said with a sigh of relief: "This round is considered to be over, and this peach crystal osmanthus cake is thanks to you for daring to make it! Spread the word, those A teahouse has no choice but to step over the threshold of a school again!"

"What's the matter, eat it at home, just don't talk about it outside, this time I won't make too much for A Zhu to give away!" Aunt Liu shook her head in fright when she thought of the oolong in the Mid-Autumn Festival last year.

Seeing the resolute look on Aunt Liu's face, Wang Momo laughed with a "chi" and said, "I see, it's not up to you if you don't want to. Mr. Azhu Xiaolang came to you to act coquettishly, why don't you act coquettishly?" Can you do it?"

As soon as the new year comes, the people below will send gifts to the county government and Ding's family. Azhu is very annoyed, but Azhu understands that when the water is clear, there will be no fish, so he only accepts some food and leaves the rest. Then I caught up with some cakes made by Aunt Liu and took them out for someone to take back.

Azhu thought that he had accepted the gift and returned the gift, and that he was safe and sound, but he did not expect that he was safe and sound. Aunt Liu was almost exhausted, and most of the decent people in the county were all right. Come to ask Aunt Liu for a recipe for making cakes.

At first, Aunt Liu was still smiling, she was very beautiful in her heart, her handicraft, there are people who appreciate her face everywhere, but wait, more and more people came to the door every day, Aunt Liu was terrified in an instant!He ran to ask Ah Zhu: "How many kinds of pastries did you send?"

"Ah?" Ah Zhu looked blank, "How many kinds? I have some leftovers every day, so I wrapped them in oiled paper and sent them out. Aunt Liu, look, I even bought a lot of oiled paper!" Thinking about it, Ah Zhu pointed to Aunt Liu at the stack of greased paper behind her!
"Every day? Ouch, boy, I really screwed you this time!" Aunt Liu felt a pain in her heart when she thought of the three or four prescriptions she had already given. After going out, she still thought about passing it on to the female students in the academy, so this is great.

Looking up at Ah Zhu's innocent face, Aunt Liu felt her heart hurt even more.

After Maolin chose the dishes, he straightened up to relieve his stiff legs and feet, looked at Aunt Liu's embarrassed face again, and suggested an idea: "Aunt Liu, just send a pastry to Brother Azhu every day recently!"

"If they all receive the same pastry, will people say that the county magistrate is not sincere?" Aunt Liu said a little embarrassedly. Although she was afraid of trouble, she couldn't bear to let Azhu be embarrassed by others.

Maolin felt another layer of disdain for A Zhu in an instant, "Hmph, I just know how to coax auntie and auntie!" Clearing her throat, the little girl held a vegetable basket and said solemnly: "Auntie, it's not just you It can be seen from the style of pastries, it would be great if Brother A Zhu wrote a good sentence and gave it to the mountain!"

Nanny Wang felt that what Maolin said was quite similar, so she nodded in agreement and said, "Maolin has a good idea this time, old man, just listen to Maolin!"

"Listen to Sister Maolin!" A soft voice came through outside, Maolin stretched out his head to look, and said with a smile: "Little birthday boy, why did you come here!"

Fufu is now dressed in rose red, pinching his waist and spreading flowers, and a pair of carp water embroidered shoes of the same color are on his feet. When he came running, Aunt Liu felt that the peach blossoms in the courtyard seemed to be blooming again.

Maolin put down the vegetable basket, hugged Xiao Fufu, buried his head and sniffed her neck vigorously: "Oh, Fufu smells so good today, didn't you steal the little salted fish with the beauty?"

Fufu pouted, looked at Maolin, and said crisply: "Sister is bad, Fufu and beauty are not there, and I didn't steal small fish!"

Aunt Liu teased her: "You came here, does your mother know?"

When Fufu heard his mother, he suddenly pursed his lips and smiled, "Mother doesn't know, but Daddy does!"

Aunt Liu continued to tease, "Daddy knows it's useless, but mother doesn't know, you won't be punished when you go back later?"

Wu Ling has always been used to Fufu, and Fufu has never been afraid, but Zhang Mu has to grab his daughter's little ears every three days to make her face the wall and think about her mistakes. Therefore, Fufu is still a little afraid of his mother. The two small eyebrows are almost pulled together.

"Meow, meow!"

The fat beauty flung her silky and shiny hair, leaning heavily on Aunt Liu's lap.

"Haha, here comes another foodie!" Aunt Liu smiled while touching the beauty.

At this time, I heard Fufu, muttering: "Fufu has a beauty, don't be afraid of mother, the beauty will polish Fufu."

The people in the room were stunned for a moment. Maolin was younger, so he didn't know what Fufu was talking about. He rubbed Fufu's mouth and asked, "What is plating?" is it good?"

Aunt Liu and Nanny Wang glanced at each other, and Nanny Wang immediately said, "Maolin, listen to Fufu's nonsense, it's still a bit cool outside today, and I'll take Fufu outside to buy some before her grandmother comes. Go candied haws!"

"Okay, okay, Fufu wants to eat candied haws!" Thinking of the sweet and shiny candied haws, Fufu laughed until he lost his eyesight.

Nanny Wang took Fufu from Maolin, went out of the kitchen, and the two of them went to the market, muttering to each other.

On August [-]th, the East Street was much more lively than usual. Candied haws, tofu brains, bowl cakes, and sugar figurines were all sold on both sides of the East Street. Fufu looked very happy.

"Mommy, Fufu wants meat buns! Meat buns for nothing!"

Wang Momo followed Fufu's finger and looked over, it turned out to be Qu's steamed stuffed bun shop. She remembered that it was Qu Cao's house. After a while, she saw Qu Cao came out with a basket of buns. It had been two years since Qu Cao also smoked She is taller, and looks like a half-grown girl. Perhaps because of her regular work, she is actually a little stronger than Xiangyi, Maolin, and Wanlan.

Since her mother was sent back to her natal home, Qu Cao lived with her father. Fortunately, her father did not take him away. She and her younger brother had a better life. The younger brother also went to Huishan Academy to study, so she helped her father sell buns every day. , because of mother's affairs, father is unwilling to show up again, so in the past two or three years, many things have been done by Qu Cao.

Qucao was also a little surprised when she saw Mother Wang suddenly. She often saw Aunt Liu, because Aunt Liu passed by here every day to go to the vegetable market, and Aunt Liu also taught her how to make pea yellow. Instead of selling buns, you can also sell pea yellow, and the money is much higher than before.

"Mommy, Cao'er wraps two steamed buns for you to taste." After saying that, Qu Cao freed up her hand to wrap four steamed buns in oiled paper and handed them to Mammy Wang.

"Mommy, buns, fat white buns!" Fufu murmured softly next to Nanny Wang's ear.

"Mommy, is this Aunt Mu's child?" When Cao'er left, Aunt Mu hadn't given birth yet, but looking at Fufu's eyebrows and eyes, she was somewhat similar to Aunt Mu.

"Well, it's from Amu's family. Their nickname is Fufu, and they're hungry for buns!" Nanny Wang also heard about Qucao from Aunt Liu, seeing that she was as affectionate to her as before, she didn't push her away Refused, took the buns from Qucao, and said with a slight smile: "When Fufu is two or three years older, I will let her bring you pastries. Your Aunt Liu's craftsmanship is getting better and better!"

When Qu Cao heard Wang Mama say this, the corners of her mouth couldn't help but grinned wider, "Mama, Aunt Mu sometimes brings me some pastries, and I will be more happy when Fufu can go out alone. Good luck!"

Wang Momo was not surprised to hear that Zhang Mu also came to see her, but she never thought in her heart that Mu girl could really ignore past suspicions like this.

They all live in the same place, and they can run into each other when they go out. The wooden girl will make more good karma, which is also to bless Fufu. In the future, at least Fufu will not be bullied on the East Street.

When Nanny Wang was chatting with Qucao, Fufu couldn't help touching the oiled paper bag. It was so warm that Fufu withdrew his hand suddenly and leaned on Nanny Wang's shoulder obediently, not daring to touch it. After a while, seeing that Nanny Wang was still chatting, she couldn't help but stretched out her tender fingers again.

Seeing Fufu's change early in the morning, Wang Momo bid farewell to Qucao, then held Fufu's little hand and said, "Fufu, come, wave to Sister Qu!"

Fufu, who had just been caught stealing food, heard that he was waving, and immediately raised his little face, which was about to be buried in Wang Momo's arms in shame, and waved his small arms and said to Qu Cao, "Sister, wave, wave!"

"Xiao Fufu, wave, eat the steamed stuffed bun and then come find my sister!"

Seeing that Fufu was gone, Qu Cao went back to the house, ready to move out two more baskets of steamed stuffed buns. As soon as he entered the house, his father who had been silent all the year round sighed and said, "Your mother and I have lost face. Still thinking of you, you should thank them for your association, in the future, Dad will be unreliable, and you still have someone who can help!"

Qu Cao looked at her father with greasy hair, held back the pain in her heart, forced a smile and said, "Daughter knows, she has her father to rely on, and the masters in the academy, so I won't have to worry about finding someone to help me in the future!"

Shopkeeper Qu didn't talk to his daughter after hearing what his daughter said. A few years ago, it would have been nice if he had persuaded his wife, but now, hey, you can't blame others!

When Wang Momo and Fufu went back, Mrs. Zhang, Zhang Lao, Zhang Shu, and Taozi had already arrived. Wang Momo went to say hello, and found that there were a few people she hadn't seen before. Judging by their clothes, they should be Zhang Mu's hometown. relative.

When I came out to ask Aunt Liu, Aunt Liu said: "Those few are from Amu's village. The younger daughter-in-law is called Shiliu, and the one in the blue cloth skirt is called Sister Fang by Amu. I think Amu has a good relationship with them. .”

"Amu has been here for more than three years, and you haven't seen her go back?" Wang Momo asked casually.

"If you live well there, why bother to come to the county town? I guess it's not going well there!" As soon as Aunt Liu said this, Wang Momo thought that Amu was getting married for the second time, and her ex-husband's affairs Well, County Magistrate Zhou once said that this was the case even in the county town, and it would be even worse if it was in his hometown town.

"Woman, no matter what age you live in, life is hard!"

Aunt Liu hated Nanny Wang's frowning look the most, wiped the water drops from her hands on the apron, stretched out her hand and pinched Nanny Wang's waist, and hummed, "What's wrong with you, you're having a hard time. ?”

Wang Momo couldn't help jumping in pain, "You old man, why do you like to fight now!"

"Amu, Amu, what's wrong with you?"

Suddenly there was a commotion in the front room, Wang Momo didn't remember to argue with Aunt Liu, and immediately went forward.

As soon as Wu Ling saw Wang Momo, he hurriedly said: "Mom, Amu suddenly passed out, and she was still talking just now! Please help me!"

"Don't worry, let me take a look!" Wang Momo said, she put Zhang Mu's hand flat, felt her pulse, was silent for a while, then smiled suddenly: "A Ling, you are going to be a father again! "

Wu Ling looked at Nanny Wang, but he hadn't realized it yet. His daughter-in-law's fainting had something to do with him becoming a father again.

Mrs. Zhang on the side took the lead in laughing and said: "Oh, Fufu is really a little lucky star, he brought his brother here so soon!"

"Grandmother, not younger brother, Fufu brought buns, chubby buns!" Fufu corrected with a slurred speech while biting the buns.

She still didn't understand why Dad was in such a hurry when Mother was sleeping. He took a bite of the plump white bun, stretched out his chubby arm like a lotus root, handed it to Dad and said, "Don't worry, Dad, just take a bite of the bun. Mother will wake up in a while!"

Wu Mian, who was not yet born, just gave her unruly elder sister a nickname, Baozi!

White and fat buns!

(End of this chapter)