Zhang Yue and Guo Lin are about to enter the county school.
The day before, Guo Lin arrived with large and small bags. Zhang Yue thought that Guo Xuexuan and his wife would come to give him a gift or something, but they didn't at all.
Just let Guo Lin come with so much luggage.
Zhang Shi felt a little distressed when he saw it and said: "Why do you bring so many things? I don't have enough clothes and bedding, so I came here to get them. Third brother still has some clothes. I told you to treat this as your own home. Look, it's already been winter." Yes, bring me some winter clothes."
Zhang Yue smiled and said: "Senior brother, why are you so polite to me?"
Guo Lin smiled and said: "Thank you, Mr. Da Lang, junior brother. I have actually been staying here for many days, so I am really bothering you."
Zhang Shi smiled and said: "You have too many rules, kid. You should learn from Saburo in this regard."
Guo Lin nodded and said, "Junior brother has a generous nature, but I have seen little in the world."
Zhang Shi shook his head again.
Mrs. Yu boiled hot soup for Guo Lin, and Guo Lin took a bath. .
"There are so many pickle jars, he won't use these as food!" Zhang Shi couldn't help but said.
Zhang Yue nodded and said: "There are only a hundred old students in the county school who will give rice and grain, and none of them will be given. You must also bring your own pen, ink, paper and inkstone."
"Then what do you do with food?" Zhang Shi asked.
"Isn't there a dining hall here? I heard that the meals in the dining hall are divided into first, second, third and third classes. The first class has some vegetables and meat, but it costs 20 yuan for a meal. The second class also gives vegetables, but not Meat and vegetables cost ten cents a meal. As for the third class, they only have steamed eggplant and millet rice. No vegetables are given, so the meal costs three cents."
Zhang Shi was silent for a moment after hearing this and said, "It's not okay for your senior brother to eat pickles and eggplants all day long."
Zhang Yue said: "It's useless. Senior brother said that he admired Fan Xianggong the most. Fan Xianggong was also poor at that time. He cooked porridge every day and had one meal in the morning and one in the evening. His classmates gave him some good meals, but he refused. . Xianggong Fan said that if you are used to eating these, you will not be able to stomach white porridge."
Zhang Shi hesitated for a while and said: "I also prepared some money for you to eat first-class food, but now your senior brother is like this, how can you make it happen?"
Zhang Yue said hurriedly: "Brother, you can't be like this! These days... how much money does the family have left?"
Zhang Shi said: "I collected a lot of congratulatory money in the past few days. Since everyone knew that your second brother had returned the imperial edict and not awarded Jinshi, no one has given any more money..."
Zhang Yue heard this and thought to himself, this is too snobbish for the mother-in-law.
Everyone said that the second brother was not as good as his nephew in the imperial examination, so he refused to accept the order this time. Didn't this make the official family lose face?
In this way, a lifetime career will be ruined, and there will be no chance again.
In other words, the second brother gave up the exam this time, and would have to start from scratch the next time he takes the exam, so there is little hope.
But Zhang Yue was relieved that they finally no longer had to pay attention to whether the second brother wrote a letter. Let it be!
Zhang Shi sighed: "Fortunately, we have been friends for many years and did not ask us to return anything. But now even if three hundred guan is not enough in a restaurant, there is still a lot of money to spend, and we have to live a tight life."
Zhang Yue couldn't help but said: "Brother, these days I know that my second brother is a Jinshi. It's okay for you to spend money lavishly, but you don't need to repay this gift or that gift. Now the family has not saved any money. Look at you?"
"Don't you know that there is a saying, 'There will always be days when there is no sun, but there will be days when there is no day and there will be no days when there is no day'?"
Seeing that Zhang Yue, as a younger brother, dared to criticize himself as an older brother, Zhang Shi also lost his temper and said: "Third brother, are you saying that I am not a good leader as an older brother?"
"Isn't that clear?"
"Third brother, okay!"
After Zhang Yue said this, Zhang Shi walked downstairs angrily.
"Brother, remember to keep the door open."
Zhang Shi was halfway down the stairs. After hearing this, he went upstairs angrily and closed the door.
Not long after Zhang Yue lay on the bed, he heard Zhang Shi say outside the door: "Third brother, don't worry, our family will be better off once the food shop starts to make money. Now I'll give you a little grudge, and we'll provide you with first-class meals." Don’t eat it for now, let’s change it to second class!”
Zhang Yue said angrily: "Brother, I'm going to bed. I won't talk to you anymore."
"Okay. Third brother, go to bed early."
There was another sound of footsteps on the stairs.
After a while, Zhang Shi came upstairs again and said, "Third brother, I will send you to the county school tomorrow."
"No need, senior brother and I can leave by ourselves."
After a while, Zhang Shi asked again: "Third brother, are you hungry? I'll give you and senior brother a bowl of noodles."
"Brother, I'm sleeping."
Zhang Shi sighed downstairs for a while with his hands on his hips, and then counted on his fingers: "A second-class meal costs ten cents, two meals a day is twenty cents, and excluding New Year's Day in January, it costs five hundred and eighty cents." ."
"If we change it to a first-class meal, it will cost a total of 160 yuan, which is really unaffordable."
The next day.
Zhang Yue and Guo Lin got up to freshen up.
Zhang Shi pulled Zhang Yue aside and stuffed a bunch of money into his package and said: "I will give you a sling of money every month. If you feel hungry in the morning and evening, just buy some snacks. If you are short of anything on weekdays, you don't have to wait until the New Year. Come to my house and ask me to buy it.”
Zhang Yue's expression became more relaxed.
The word dim sum comes from the Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, the stomach was called Xin Gu Zui'er, and dim sum meant to comfort Xin Gu Zui'er. Generally, people in the Song Dynasty had two meals, morning and evening, so dim sum often refers to eating something to comfort them when they are hungry at noon.
A prosperous urban family like Zhang Yue's had actually been eating three meals a day for a long time. After the second brother escaped from marriage, the family's financial situation declined, so they only had two meals a day.
As for most people, especially those from wealthy landowner families, they still have two meals to live out of thrift. Even the emperor of the Song Dynasty, the official family, and the royal kitchen did not have the term "lunch", only snacks.
how to say? In terms of studying alone, one month's money is still enough, which is much better than when I was in Wuxi.
Zhang Yue asked: "Sister-in-law Xi'er is enough?"
Zhang Shi smiled and said, "That's natural. It's just a little tight right now. When our restaurant opens, we will have more money. You can eat whatever you want."
Zhang Yue nodded with satisfaction.
When they went to the county school that day, Zhang Yue and Guo Lin didn't let Zhang Shi see him off, so they went together.
Zhang Shi worriedly sent the two of them to the bridge and warned them all the way: "Third brother, take good care of your senior brother from now on and help him carry more things."
That's right, Guo Lin had to carry a lot of bags and bags along the way.
When the two arrived at the county school, they were directed to the restaurant to pay for their meals.
County schools are equivalent to public schools and do not require tuition fees. Therefore, food money is the largest expense for attending county schools.
It's said to be five hundred and eighty yuan, but it's actually a full hundred. In fact, just give me four hundred and forty-seven yuan. But Zhang Shi's offer to Zhang Yue was actually a thousand dollars, and there was still a lot left over.
"Second class meal, Zhang Yue," the other party looked up at Zhang Yue and said with a smile, "Are you the number one economics student in this county's academic entrance examination?"
Zhang Yue said with a smile: "Exactly, it made the minister laugh."
"All access! Amazing!"
Zhang Yue was very happy, thinking that the other party knew him because of his second brother, but he didn't expect that it was because he came first among the economics students in the county school entrance exam.
When they arrived at Guo Lin, the other party said: "Third class meal, Guo Lin!"
The other party pronounced the words "third-class meal" a little too seriously, then raised his head and looked Guo Lin up and down.
For a moment, Guo Linton felt ashamed.
Zhang Yue said calmly: "Ministry, this is my senior brother Guo. He taught me most of what I am today."
When the minister heard this, he suddenly said: "It's incredible, it's even more incredible!"
Ps: Much of the knowledge about food in the Song Dynasty in this book is taken from "Food in the Song Dynasty" by Mr. Li Kaizhou.
