The daily life of the prime minister of the Qing Dynasty, thick black

Chapter 209

This letter from the capital seemed to bring Zhang Tingyu back to his senses in no time.

He picked up Zhang Tingyu and went into the courtyard. The third and fourth children were all studying in the house. During the period of observing filial piety for their parents, they could not take the imperial examination and had to wait for the filial piety.

Zhang Tinglu and Zhang Tingyu had already passed the county exam, and they started preparing for the county exam in the second half of last year. When they were about to go to Jiangning, Wu was already seriously ill and passed away in July, so the two brothers didn't even take the county exam.In fact, if you think about it carefully, the official careers of the Zhang family brothers are quite bumpy.

Gu Huaixiu was watching him in the room, and now Zhang Wangxian went to his side, only Zhang Tingyu and Gu Huaixiu were in the room.

She pursed her lips slightly, and smiled slightly: "Is it better?"

Zhang Tingyu walked in and said, "It's okay."

He looked at her with deep black eyes, then took her hand, and the two of them sat together in front of the bamboo window, in the spring of Longmian Mountain, and the surrounding scenery was very good.

"It's almost time for tea picking. My father and mother like to go out to pick tea at this time."

After hearing this, Gu Huaixiu also looked at the green mountains and fields, and said, "Then we will go too."

In recent months, some people have come to visit Zhang Tingyu on the mountain, and occasionally present their articles to Zhang Tingyu. When he is happy, Zhang Tingyu approves two articles, and when he is unhappy, he puts those articles on the desk.As time goes to 48 years, it seems to be faster.

Cloudy and rainy days are not suitable for picking tea. The best time is when the dew is gone in the morning and the sun is coming out.

Zhang Tingyu and Gu Huaishu asked someone to prepare it that night. When the family was sitting together for dinner, Zhang Tingyu said that they were going to pick tea, but Zhang Ruoai also said that he would go with him. Zhang Tingyu couldn't resist, so he had to agree.

On the next day, Gu Huaixiu changed into a plain white skirt of muslin, she looked like a village girl, but she was naturally beautiful, even wearing such simple clothes could not hide her brilliance.Zhang Tingyu also changed into a gray and white robe, grabbed two small panniers from the side of the courtyard, handed one to Gu Huaishu, and carried the other by himself, before heading outside.

Zhang Ruoai didn't go to study today, just went out to pick tea with her parents, changed her clothes and ran out, but shouted: "Why don't I have a small basket?"

"Get it from the corner by yourself, there is always there, find a small one... don't be brave."

Zhang Tingyu said in a flat tone, while holding Gu Huaishu's hand, he walked towards the distance.

The tea garden is surrounded by mountains and forests, and their family also has a tea garden. Especially after Zhang Ying returned home for many years, they have been planting tea. Sometimes their own servants came to pick tea, and Zhang Ying went out with Wu to pick tea.Last year it was Zhang Ying who came out to pick tea, but now it is Zhang Tingyu and Gu Huaishu.

When the husband and wife came out, the clouds and mists in the mountains had just dissipated. Along the mountain road, we could already see many tea-picking girls going up the mountain with small baskets on their backs. They were lively and witty when talking and laughing with each other.

Zhang Tingyu saw it, smiled slightly, but said: "They are all young girls, we are an old man and an old woman, and we are here to fight with young people."

"I don't touch Yangchun water with my ten fingers, and I don't know what the tea will look like."

Gu Huaishu was holding the rope of the back basket with one hand, while being supported by Zhang Tingyu across a small bridge in the mountain depression.

On the sunny side of the hillside in front, there were already many people waiting for the dew to clear up and finish their work. Now they saw Zhang Tingyu and Gu Huaishu who couldn't recognize them suddenly.

After all, Zhang Tingyu has not appeared for a long time.

He himself didn't care about other people's eyes, and pointed out to Gu Huaixiu, which piece of tea garden next to him belonged to them.

At this time, there were also some small merchants sent by tea merchants to collect tea, wandering around the mountains with the old tea farmers.

Gu Huaishu just took a look, then lowered his head to look at those fresh shoots, "I never even know how to taste tea, I always quench my thirst with tea, and the cow chews peonies, but this is the first time I come up to pick tea, how can I pick this thing. "

"Our family doesn't want to make a living from tea. You can pick whatever you like, as long as you can drink it."

As Zhang Tingyu said, one bud had already been pinched, and the leaves were extremely tender, with only two leaves on it, and the few buds that were picked were all two or three leaves.

Gu Huaixiu understood it, the tea picking here is similar to the melon slices in Lu'an, one more bud and two or three leaves are picked, and she also picked a bud, and it looks really green and lovely in the palm of her hand.

Looking back at her, Zhang Tingyu's eyes were a bit warm, and then looking at Zhang Ruoai, who picked a tea bud mischievously and sucked it after entering school. down.

The brat thought no one had seen it.

Zhang Tingyu only picks tea slowly like this, obviously thinking about things while picking tea, Gu Huaishu is a bit amused, picks the tender tip and fine pistil to pinch, and then asks casually: "Dai Ming Shi Jinke Did you take the exam too?"

Zhang Tingyu had already spread a layer of buds in his back basket. Fang plucked a bud and held it in his hand. He changed his line and walked towards the top, and replied: "When you take the test, you will lose your name, and you will wear a famous talent. Huiyuan is not a problem." Next. As for the champion... it depends on luck."

But Dai Mingshi's handwriting is very good, if he wins the prize, he might be the champion.

In 45, Zhang Tingyu could beat Shi Yunjin on the head of Shi Yunjin after one test. If he took all three tests this year, which examiner would dare to refute?
What's more, Dai Mingshi has made it clear that he is Zhang Tingyu's disciple. Although he is Ding You, he still has Yu Wei.

The most taboo thing in the officialdom is stepping on the low and holding the high, but what ordinary people do most is to step on the low and hold the high.

But I don't know what happened to Dai Mingshi's luck.

Because this place is far away from the capital, the news is not very smooth, and it often takes a month or two to get clear.

However, it was also because of the delay in the news that it was rare for them to be free. Being in a remote place, they were even more out of reach for the affairs of the capital.Sometimes things in the court change rapidly, and when the news arrives, it may already be another situation. If you can't worry about it, simply don't worry about it.

Gu Huaishu smiled and said: "If he wins the number one prize later on, he will be the number one prize between Mr. and his student."

Zhang Ruoai gave his mother a push: "Mom, you are lazy, you and dad don't have as much tea in the basket as I do."

He stuck out his tongue and made a grimace, and suddenly saw the old man bent over to watch the tea, staring at Yiya tea without blinking his eyes.Zhang Ruoai was also curious, because the tea was grown on the hillside, he stood behind the old man from the high stairway, and stuck out his head to look.

The old man has won tea for many years, and was thinking about the price of tea this year, when he suddenly felt a head protruding from his neck, and he was startled: "Ouch!"

"Old man, are you all right?"

When Zhang Ruoai sees it, is it okay?Hastily went up to help, but scared his parents beside him.

Gu Huaishu hastily taught him a lesson: "Why are you scaring people?!"

Zhang Ruoai was rather embarrassed: "Baby...Baby just want to see what the old man is looking at..."

The old man managed to stand firmly on the mountain road. Seeing the boy's head and brain, he immediately calmed down and just spread his palms: "This is a bud with four leaves, and the four leaves grow opposite each other. This year, this small piece of tea produced by my family All of them are tea leaves like this, and I don’t know what strange things happened to them.”

Zhang Tingyu was also interested, went up to take a look, and said, "Maybe it's a good omen."

"Hahaha... If it's a good omen, that's a good thing. This year, the tea collectors have started to come down. I'm afraid they won't be able to sell."

It is good to have one bud, two leaves and three leaves. Although when picking tea, the buds must be broken into one leaf and one leaf, but the tea farmers on the mountain know that such a thing happened. It is the nature of tea merchants that once they come up the mountain to look at this bud and four leaves, they will definitely find excuses to lower the price.However, the old man's house has a lot of tea, and the whole family lives on it. At this time, they are worried about this tea with four buds and four leaves.

Zhang Tingyu knew the key to it, but smiled slightly: "You just shoveled this tea tree, didn't you? You just picked tea this year, and I think your tea is in a half-shady place. I'm afraid that you will start picking rice this year." Tea?"

The old man slapped himself on the forehead, "Oh, look at my brain, I'm so old and useless, I forgot such a simple method. I shoveled this tea later, and I have something to reason about when I lower the price!"

As he spoke, the old man immediately laughed out loud, and even said that Zhang Tingyu had a good brain.

Gu Huaishu smiled, what kind of brain is this?
The old man is also an old tea farmer, and he will know sooner or later.

However, he seemed to have just come back to his senses at this moment. When he looked at the piece of tea behind Zhang Tingyu and the others, and then at Zhang Tingyu's clothes, he was immediately startled: "You, you, you are...you are Zhang, Mr. Zhang... Caomin Give……"

"Old man, you don't need to be too polite. Tingyu just obeyed his father's last wish and went up to the mountain to pick tea. He is not an official. Just now, the boy in the family was rude and almost scared you."

Zhang Tingyu hurriedly helped him up, at this time Zhang Ruoai also came up to apologize, the old man didn't have any intention of blaming him, so he hurriedly said no need.

The movement here has attracted people to watch. It is obvious that Zhang Ying was born in Longmian Mountain and likes to pick tea, but he did not expect Zhang Tingyu to come out with his wife at this time. It is a father and son with a good family style. Even a boy in his teens was working with a small back basket on his back. Who wouldn't say that Zhang's family style is good all of a sudden?
There were also people coming from the foot of the mountain, a large group of large and small tea merchants surrounded two people, one was wearing an azure blue silk robe embroidered with green bamboo leaf pattern, the other was a moon white plain robe, facing forward at the moment Walk.

Shen Qu was at the front, and a few tea farmers beside him were introducing the situation of the tea garden, saying that this year's feng shui is not bad, and the tea leaves are very beautiful.

The first two steps away followed Shen Qi, he didn't speak, he just listened to someone telling Shen Qu that now his brother was in good health, and now he took Shen Qu to walk around while he was in good health. I went to various cloth, rice and tea houses. When I sent Zhang Wangxian to Tongcheng last time, my elder brother started to get sick again. Now he is getting better, so I went to Tongcheng to see the tea here.

However, Tongcheng tea has not been much, and the business of Shenqiu Tea Shop is only a drop in the bucket.

Even he himself couldn't tell what he brought people to see.

However, Shen Qu listened intently to the tea farmers, asking a few questions from time to time, and smiling occasionally, which made people feel close.

Tea farmer Wang Bai has been in charge of negotiating with the tea shop, but he didn't expect a big boss to come suddenly today, and he suddenly became a little nervous.

Shen Qu joked, "Speak slowly, old man, let's not talk about money now."

Don't talk about money?
Hi!Why didn't you say it earlier?
Uncle Wang heaved a sigh of relief, looking at Shen Qu's smiling eyes, he immediately understood that the young man was joking with him.

Shen Qi slapped Shen Qu: "Old man is old, I can't bear you to play like this... Do you think the tea farmers on the mountain are the same as those tea merchants with fat stomachs and brains in the garden?"

These people live by planting tea, picking tea and roasting tea, and they can't bear any troubles.

It is said that there is no business without fraud, and no business without fraud, but sometimes you still have to rely on your conscience to do business, not his ailing conscience, but the conscience of heaven and earth.

He himself has no conscience, but others have to live.

However, Shen Qi didn't say a word to Shen Qu, slowly Shen Qu watched the lives of these people, and knew exactly how to do business.Can't businessmen just stand at the top?Layer by layer, Shen Qi himself climbed up from the bottom layer by layer. When he was helping others as an accountant in the early years, he had more contact with tea farmers and silk farmers. What price can make both parties happy, and make yourself profitable... These are all skills, but they can't be said in a short while, and you have to take it slowly.

Shen Qu naturally knew Shen Chao's painstaking efforts. He had already climbed halfway up the mountainside by watching all the way. He held some tea leaves in his pale palms and rubbed them lightly. Let’s also look at how you stir-fry tea, but it smells like this, but it doesn’t have much fragrance, after all, it’s still a handicraft.”

"Isn't it handicraft work? The older generation is very good at frying tea. You can go to our house to see it later."

The frying technique of Xiaolanhua tea is not like the famous teas such as West Lake Longjing and Anxi Tieguanyin. The frying technique of Tongcheng tea is not uncommon. It just depends on who is more skilled.

Shen teased and nodded, pinching a tea bud on his fingertips and looking around, the neat rows of tea trees only reached the chest and waist of people, whether they were old or young, there were people busy picking tea.

But soon, Shen Qu's eyes stopped, and so did Zhang Tingyu and Gu Huaishu.

An imperial court official and a royal wife, wearing plain clothes and carrying a basket to pick tea on the mountain, are no different from ordinary people, and there is a stinky boy who has been secretly eating tea leaves by his side.

Shen Qi's expression changed when he saw it, he couldn't help but silently took two steps forward, stood beside Shen Ju, taller than Shen Ju, raised his sleeves and bowed to Zhang Tingyu: "Master Zhang, long time no see .”

Zhang Tingyu stood still, but only pulled the corners of his lips, not sure if he was smiling.

The tea merchants in the back all stopped, they had heard that Shen Chao had a wide circle of friends and knew everyone, but he didn't expect that he even knew the son of Mr Zhang Ying.

Zhang Tingyu is also very powerful now, Shen Chao's business is gradually spreading out, but he doesn't know what he means.

Earlier, Shen Qu had paid homage to Zhang Tingyu as his teacher, but now he bowed respectfully: "Student pays homage to Mr. Zhang, and greets Mr. Zhang."

"Get up."

Zhang Tingyu threw a handful of buds in his hand into his back basket, looked back at Gu Huaixiu, and saw her frowning.

When Zhang Wangxian came back, he was naturally escorted by someone, otherwise, how could a woman and Taoist family run all the way from Jiangning without hindrance?
It's just that I didn't expect that I just met today.

Gu Huaixiu didn't want to talk to her at first, but Shen folded his body and saluted Gu Huaixiu again: "Student greets the teacher's wife."

As soon as he saw Shen Ju's thin body, his heart ached. How could Gu Huaishu be willing to salute him?Quickly said: "Get up quickly, I don't know where I learned the red tape at a young age."

Shen Chao snorted immediately: Anyway, he didn't teach it.

He kicked his son lightly, and said with a smile: "Your teacher thinks you are annoying, why don't you hurry up and have a cup of tea, and ask your husband for advice later."

Saying that, Shen Qi took another fixed look at Zhang Tingyu, spread out his fan with a "snap", shook it lightly twice, and said, "Second Master Zhang, Second Madam, see you later."

Go back to hell.

Gu Huaishu sneered in his heart, is it possible that he still wants to bring Shen Yang to visit his ancestor's grave?
Considering what happened between Shen Qi and Zhang Wangxian, it's funny that Shen Qi is still Gu Huaishu and Zhang Tingyu's brother-in-law.

She was too lazy to look at it for a while, and simply buried her head in picking tea. Zhang Ruoai looked at Brother Quer with bright eyes. The two boys in the family were too young. There are plenty of fish.The little fat man in the past, Zhang Ruoai this year, all kinds of thoughts suddenly turned in his mind.

He quietly grabbed his mother's sleeves, came out, waved his hands to his elder brother, and pointed to his face.

Shen Che only felt familiar, but Zhang Ruoai's face had changed too much, and he didn't recognize him for a while, but when he thought about it carefully, he had gone a little far.

"Who's that?" he asked.

Shen Chao followed behind him, only said: "The one who cheated a lot in Kui Xia Garden back then? The little fat man who fished away, is a ghost."

Shen Qu thought about it, but he remembered it, but soon a tea merchant talked to him, so he went over to talk about tea.

On the other hand, Shen Chou stopped walking and stood on the ridge, looking at Gu Huaishu who was picking tea with Zhang Tingyu from a distance. Fatty keeps making troubles, that's a happy family.

He picked up the fan, watched the bones of the fan close one by one, and was silent for a while, then Shen He felt that no one was there, so he stopped and looked down: "Father?"

Shen Chao came back to his senses, with a smile all over his face: "I just didn't expect the scenery in Tongcheng to be so good. I never went this way to collect tea in previous years, but now I'm surprised."

"If father likes it, my aunt is here too. If you don't stay for a while, I can ask my husband for advice."

Shen teased, already arrived at the mountain soon? , flicking the tea leaves in his hands, and said: "The quality of this year's tea, the price will not be lower than last year, but each tea has its own price, and it can fluctuate according to the tea price in Zhenjiang. The next business It’s all in your hands, we made money by blindly lowering the price, but we won’t make money next year.”

Many tea merchants nodded in agreement, and some began to sweat.

Shen Qu saw all the reactions of these people in his eyes, and the corners of his lips curled up with a bit of insinuation. He fiddled with the jade abacus in his hand, and said: "The sun is getting brighter today, and you will see Let’s go here. This year, tea will still go by water, Caobang has already arranged for it, and the tea shop will collect two points of profit to go to the north, you should make your own decisions.”

After finishing speaking, Shen Qi clapped his hands and saw Shen Qi smiling at him.

When the tea merchants had dispersed, Shen Yang looked back, Zhang Tingyu and Gu Huaishu had already led Zhang Ruoai away.

The old man who had just guided Shen Qu was left in place, and Shen Chao said: "Do you know where the Zhang family's ancestral house in Longmian Mountain is? My son has worshiped Mr. Zhang as his husband, and I want to visit now, you go ahead Lead the way."

Naturally, the old man saw the scene where Shen Cai gave Zhang Tingyu the ceremony as a teacher, so he didn't doubt it, so he led the way, talking about the Zhang family's affairs all the way, saying that the Zhang family is now living in the ancestral house, and they still have to take care of the first day of junior high school. Fifteen worship things.

Here we have to cross the bridge and go up the mountain, Shen Qi saw that Shen Qu was struggling a bit, so he said, "Father will carry you up."

Shen Qu shook his head, only held his hand, gave it a hand, and said with a breath, "It's okay."

"Stinky boy..."

Shen Qi laughed and didn't stop him, he stopped from time to time to help him, he went up after a long journey, then went around along the mountain road next to him, and saw the Zhang family's house in front of the forest.

The gate of the courtyard was open to the south, Zhang Tingyu sat on a stool in the small courtyard and broke the buds of the tea he picked just now, while Gu Huaishou went in to make tea and brought it out, but when they saw Shen Chao, they lowered their heads and said something to Zhang Tingyu .

Zhang Wangxian also saw Shen Qi, but turned around and went into the house without coming out.

Zhang Tingyu raised his eyebrows: "Come here uninvited, Iron Abacus has a lot of face."

Shen Chao came in from the courtyard gate, and followed Shen Qu a little behind. Shen Qu thanked the old man, but the old man only said he was busy at home, so he left first.

"What face does Iron Abacus have? A face was thrown to the ground by Mr. Zhang a few years ago."

How hard was Song Luo hitting Zhang Tingyu at that time?
It is estimated that Zhang Tingyu and his wife were deceived too much by him at that time, so there was such a thing.

At that time, Shen Chao's life was not easy on the surface.

The guests came, and it was hard to welcome them. Zhang Tingyu waved his hand to invite his father and son to sit down, and then asked Shen Qu how his study was going.

Before Shen Qu answered, Shen Qi sneered first: "Zhang Tingyu, he is ill and doesn't have much time to read."

Shen Qu here was calm, bowed his head and said: "I only memorized the Four Books and Five Classics in the early years, read "History", studied couplets and wrote poems, but I didn't read much this year."

"..."

Zhang Tingyu was silent for a while, but smiled: "It's justifiable."

Gu Huaixiu had already served tea here, and it was hard to turn around and take the tea away in front of the guests, so he just put it over, poured a cup for Zhang Tingyu, and poured another cup for Shen Qi.

When it was Shen Qi's turn, she saw that it was time to pour tea into the teacup, she glanced out of the corner of her eye, and saw Shen Qi staring at her intently, getting angry, the tea had already poured half a cup, she stopped to put the teapot, Then he took the teacup and poured out the tea in the cup, then put the teacup back, and said with a calm smile: "Boss Shen has hands, pour it yourself."

After finishing speaking, she turned around and brought the basket from the yard directly into the house, Qing Dai saw it and came out to help tidy it up.

Gu Huaixiu only asked Bai Lu to wait on her, but when she entered the room, she saw that Zhang Wangxian couldn't go out, so she frowned slightly: "Sister..."

Zhang Wangxian's eyes flickered slightly, he took a look outside, but said: "It seems that I should commit suicide... instead of going out to meet people..."

(End of this chapter)