Peasant Girl Bookseller

Chapter 112 Liu Huilan's Concern
The reason why Liu Huilan came out to interrupt Li's wife was because the topic of Li's wife involved the royal family, and the consequences of this topic were obviously beyond the comprehension of a ten-year-old child, and secondly, Mai Xiang was an unmarried girl after all. It is obviously inappropriate for Li's wife to tell her that "a couple in one day and a hundred days of grace" is obviously inappropriate.

Originally, Liu Huilan had always been worried that Mai Xiang's background was low, coupled with the lack of suitable people to train her since she was a child, her self-cultivation and demeanor would not improve, which would definitely have a great impact on Mai Xiang's future marriage.

In her heart, she always felt that for such a smart child as Mai Xiang, it would be too wronged to marry a farmer, but she wanted to marry a richer landlord's family, but she was worried that people would look down on Mai Xiang's background.That's why she devoted herself to teaching Mai Xiang how to read, how to embroider, and how to be a human being, so that one day, the other party would focus on Mai Xiang's excellence and ignore Mai Xiang's background.

Especially today at Tong's house, at first she could see Tong Liwen's thoughts on Mai Xiang, and she was a little worried, fearing that Mai Xiang would do something wrong and go the wrong way, so when Mrs. Tong came out to invite her, Liu Huilan also thought about it. See what Mrs. Tong means to Mai Xiang?
It wasn't until she saw Mrs. Tong's unabashed appreciation and liking for Mai Xiang that she breathed a sigh of relief. If the mother and son fell in love with Mai Xiang at the same time, it would really be Mai Xiang's blessing.So, she plans to train Mai Xiang well in the future, learn some rules of the big family, and don't want to be a lady of the big family, but why can't she still be a village girl like before, right?

How did Mai Xiang know that Liu Huilan thought so far for herself, she thought Liu Huilan was angry because she shouldn't inquire about the queen, that's why she pulled Liu Huilan's skirt and acted like a baby.

"Okay, if you have something to say to her, don't scare the child." Cao Xueqin walked out.

Seeing Liu Huilan's rare sternness, Cao Xueqin thought that Liu Huilan was worried about the past. In his opinion, the Cao family had fallen into disarray. Who can afford the Cao family?So Liu Huilan had to be as nervous as she was.

"Sir, I almost forgot, I have business to come to you." After Mai Xiang finished speaking, she raised the handle of the toothbrush in her hand, and quickly said her business.

"Dyeing? Why did you come to me?" Cao Xueqin felt strange.

It was only then that Mai Xiang remembered that Cao Xueqin and Liu Huilan had never told her what the ancestors of the Cao family did. Fortunately, Mai Xiang responded quickly, begging: "Sir, you are my husband, even grandpa told you, You are so knowledgeable, please help me."

"Mai Xiang, Mister really doesn't understand this. Your grandpa does. You should really ask your grandpa about this." Cao Xueqin pointed at Li Ding.

Li Ding was feeling a little uncomfortable about what happened just now, and when he heard this, he hurriedly said: "Girl, I can really teach you this. If you want to dye red, you can use safflower and madder. For purple, you have to use comfrey and perilla. , The blue must be indigo, you soak these grasses in water at a ratio of [-]:[-], then boil for one to two hours and then filter, add a small amount of water to boil the residue, then filter, and then..."

"Cousin, if you tell her these things, she doesn't understand. Where does she know these things?" Cao Xueqin looked at Mai Xiang's confused face, and smiled before Li Ding finished speaking.

"Do you know Mr.? Mr. is going to gather medicine someday, why don't you pick some for me." Mai Xiang said hurriedly, she really didn't know any of them.

Cao Xueqin looked at the handle of the toothbrush in her hand, and said, "Okay, I will pick some for you when I see it, but it's not worth dyeing it for you, why don't you save more, and it's not worth it. It's worth your grandpa's fight back."

After hearing this, Li Ding said, "Don't fool the child, I'll help you plant the Chinese cabbage and radishes, and your aunt and I should leave, how can we still have time to do this for Mai Xiang?"

"Ah, grandpa, are you leaving?" Mai Xiang asked.

"Hurry up, Grandpa still has some things to do, and he will leave when he is done." Li Ding said, seeing Mai Xiang looking at him, thinking about it, couldn't bear to let Mai Xiang down, and said: "Son, wait for someday Grandpa Go pick the grass and dry it in the sun, when I come back from Jiangnan, Grandpa will help you dye the color you want."

If it wasn't for being inseparable from home, if it wasn't for being young, Mai Xiang really wanted to go to Nanjing with Li Ding, it was her hometown, and she didn't know how her parents were doing now?

Li's wife saw that Mai Xiang bowed her head and was sad. She thought that Mai Xiang was not willing to let them go. These days together, Mai Xiang often gave them food. The two old people were also very moved, so Li's wife took Mai Xiang's hand , Persuaded: "Son, we only went there for a few months. Afterwards, when we come back, we are still together. Mammy can also embroider and do a good job of embroidery. When Mammy comes back, Mammy will also teach you."

"Understood, you must come back soon, Mammy." Mai Xiang raised her head.
"Okay, okay, come on, Mammy made you a pair of shoes these days, do you see how they fit? Originally, I wanted to give them to you before I left, but now that I'm talking about them, I'll try them on for you first. Try it." Wife Li dragged Mai Xiang into the house.

Li's wife and Li Ding are now living in Cao Xueqin's study. Li's wife took out a pair of blue embroidered shoes from the kang. Mai Xiang's eyes were not attracted by the embroidered shoes, but by the books on the kang table.

Cao Xueqin's manuscript was spread out on the kang table, and there was a manuscript next to the manuscript, which was not in the same style as Cao Xueqin's manuscript. Mai Xiang picked it up and looked at it. When I opened the title page, it actually read "Zhiyanzhai Re-evaluated Stone Story"!
"Come on, Mai Xiang, try to see if the shoes made by Mammy fit your feet?" Mrs. Li interrupted Mai Xiang.

Mai Xiang had no choice but to put down the manuscript and pick up the shoes to try on, just as Liu Huilan also came in.

"Thank you Ma'am, it fits really well. How do you know the size of my feet?"

"This is not easy. You take off your shoes on the kang, and I'll know if I measure them."

Mai Xiang didn't expect the other party to be so intentional, and she was really moved by surprise. She was kind to Li Ding and his wife at the beginning, but she also had selfish intentions, and wanted to get some past stories of the Cao family and the Li family out of the two people's mouths. I didn't expect the other party to really treat her as a granddaughter.

"Nurse, you must come back sooner. By then, we will all live in a new house together, and our days will get better and better."

Mai Xiang knew from Liu Huilan that Li Ding and his wife planned to live with Cao Xueqin for the elderly, because their son was gone, and there was no house in the capital, only one daughter, and what happened now is unknown.

"You child, we won't leave at this time. If you do this, it seems that we are leaving soon." Wife Li patted Mai Xiang on the shoulder.

Mai Xiang looked at Liu Huilan, Liu Huilan's eyes were also red, and her mood was more complicated and bitter. On the one hand, although Cao Xueqin had promised her not to leave, but out of compensation, she wanted to give them some money. , life at home is getting tight again, and the house may not be able to be built; on the other hand, Liu Huilan is also worried that if something happens to the two old people on the road, she will blame herself for the rest of her life; Well, when the cousin of the Li family comes, she must also stay. The hostess of this family will not be her in the future.

Of course Mai Xiang didn't know this, she was still immersed in her thoughts.

When the three of them were mourning, there was the sound of horseshoes in the yard, and after a while, several people's voices were heard.

Mai Xiang and the others went out to have a look, and it turned out that it was Ming Lin and Dun Min Duncheng who had come.

"Sir, we are here to give money to Mr. I didn't expect Mr. to sell two paintings. How about it? I said earlier that Mr.'s talent will be appreciated by others, right?"

"This is really a timely help. We are planning to collect more travel expenses for my uncle and aunt." Liu Huilan seemed to feel that a stone had fallen to the ground when she heard this.

"Aunt and uncle are going to the south?" Dun Min asked.

When Mai Xiang heard this, she must have known about Li's cousin.

"We came at the right time. We just brought two jars of good wine today. We wanted to come here to listen to what my uncle and aunt had to say about ancient times. Now we have the right to come here to say goodbye to my uncle and aunt. We won't go home until we're drunk." Minglin said , unloaded two jars of wine from the horseback.

As soon as Mai Xiang heard about Gu, she was also interested in staying, just in time to hear Dun Cheng teasing her with a smile: "How can we do it with good wine but no appetizers? Mai Xiang, there are no pumpkin flowers today, but there are pumpkins, can you make us something?" What appetizers?"
"Success, I can make pumpkin pie, would you like to try it?" Mai Xiang didn't hold back.

Liu Huilan glared at Mai Xiang after hearing this, she had just educated the child for a long time, so it was useless to talk about being sympathetic.

"Pumpkin pie? I've never heard that pumpkin can be made into pie. I really want to try it."

Mai Xiang didn't expect that this place didn't eat pumpkin pie. She remembered that when she brought it to Liu Huilan last time, Liu Huilan didn't say anything, but asked about the recipe of the pumpkin pie.

Just thinking about how to explain the origin of the pumpkin pie, Mrs. Li spoke up.

"What's so special about this pumpkin cake? When I was in the south, people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang loved sweets. They like to use radish, lotus root, etc., wrapped in flour or glutinous rice flour and fried. Add some sugar or bean paste powder. It's soft and sweet. .”

"No, what Aunt Biao said reminds me of lotus root cakes, sweets made of sweet-scented osmanthus, my favorite sweet-scented osmanthus glutinous rice balls." Cao Xueqin was also immersed in the memories.

"Okay, there's no lotus root cake, let's replace it with pumpkin cake, let's talk about homesickness." Minglin said hurriedly.

"That's right, come and taste the pumpkin pie I made today."

After Liu Huilan finished speaking, she took Mai Xiang to pick out the oldest pumpkin, and then found a way to send Mai Xiang home. Although Minglin and the others were regular customers, Liu Huilan still treated them as outsiders and didn't want to Mai Xiang has been in contact with them a lot.

The next day, Li Ding and his wife began to pack their things. Before leaving, they went to the mountain to stay with Cao Fu for two days, and then Cao Xueqin personally escorted them to Tongzhou to take a boat to the south.

(End of this chapter)