In the twelfth lunar month of winter, people warm themselves with firewood, pet cats and enjoy flowers. Yidu leads a leisurely life day after day.
There is one more thing to do every day——
Caring for horses.
Expenditures are also higher.
Keeping horses in the city is troublesome.
Originally, the Beiyuan horse has a strong digestive capacity and is very tolerant of rough feeding. It does not need to be fed with concentrates unless it is used for heavy work. However, since there is no grass in the city, you have to spend money to buy fodder and clean it frequently. Fortunately, it had been quiet since Song You talked to it. Otherwise, it would have disturbed the neighbors, not to mention causing trouble, and it would have been very regretful.
The twelfth lunar month is almost over.
Soon it will be Song You's first Spring Festival alone since he came to this world.
A few days ago, the Taoist priests of Fuqing Palace asked a pilgrim living in Yidu to send a letter, saying that they wanted to invite Song You to Qingcheng Mountain to celebrate the New Year. It's just that he couldn't reply to the Taoist priests at Fuqing Palace. I don't know how long they waited in front of the mountain gate that day.
Luo Baotou also came to invite him, but Song You also declined.
Including Yu Zhizhou sent letters.
Song You didn't agree at all.
The wintersweet blooms for a long time, and on New Year's Eve, the flowers are still there, proud of the frost and snow, and independent in the cold.
Song You was thinking about the days in the yard. Sanhua Empress turned into a human form, but she still couldn't change the cat's habit of walking on the rain eaves of the courtyard wall.
The time for celebrating the New Year this year is quite appropriate, as the Beginning of Spring is just a few days after the New Year.
I remember that I was in Yidu after the Beginning of Autumn. After the Beginning of Spring, autumn and winter were almost over.
A voice came from the courtyard wall above my head.
"Are we leaving?"
Song You looked up and saw the little girl standing barefoot on the roof of the courtyard wall. The roof was originally narrow and slippery, but she stood very firmly and stared at him condescendingly.
This cat really has a pair of eyes.
"I have told you that Sanhua Empress should not climb on the roof and walk around when she is in human form. People will think she is a monster."
"Miss Sanhua is a monster."
"It's going to impact the neighbors."
"There's no one in the house over here."
"That's not polite."
"Alright alright."
Even though he said this, he had no intention of coming down and just continued to stare at him:
"Are we leaving?"
"Leave after the beginning of spring."
"How long is the beginning of spring?"
"a few more days."
"Why the beginning of spring?"
"The beginning of spring is the beginning of the year. It is full of vitality and everything revives. It is a good time to start a journey."
"Can't understand."
"Come down quickly."
"Bring me the ladder."
"You can obviously jump down."
"You will be thought of as a monster."
"..."
Song You went to bring her a ladder and brought her shoes.
Sanhua Empress put on her shoes and felt very awkward. Looking around the room, she couldn't help but feel a little reluctant.
Half a year is a long time for a cat.
This place is already full of her scent.
"Then what are we doing these days?"
"We need to ask the owner to inspect the house."
“What is a home inspection?”
"This is someone else's house, rented to us, so when we return it to others, we have to ask them to come and see if there is any damage to the house."
"How about the house inspection?"
"Going to say goodbye to Mr. Storyteller."
"anything else?"
"New Year's Eve."
"Miss Sanhua knows how to celebrate the New Year."
"Empress Sanhua has great wisdom."
"Yes."
"This time I set off, I am getting further and further away from home."
"I don't know what home is."
Song You turned to look at her and was silent for a moment. Seeing that her eyes were pure and clear, he was silent for another moment, not knowing what to say.
The fourth day of the Lunar New Year is the beginning of spring.
The fifth day of the year has just been rented out for six months.
Song You thought for a while, and there was no reason to invite someone to inspect the house on the first day of the Lunar New Year. According to Yizhou custom, on the second day of the Lunar New Year, he would have to visit the graves and pay New Year greetings to the deceased elderly people. After that, he would have to go back to his parents' home and visit relatives and friends. He was afraid that it would not be until There may not be any free time on the fifth or sixth day of the lunar month. Calculated this way, the convenience after the new year is really not as convenient as before.
Just go and ask the owner of the house to come over today.
About an hour later, the owner of the house arrived.
The owner of the house is a man in his thirties, dressed as a scholar, with a surname of Tang and Chinese prefix Xincheng.
I had heard that the person who rented here was an expert. He was also the only tenant who had lived in the courtyard permanently in recent years. He even came to ask Song You for a talisman, so he respected him greatly at this time.
I braved a little inspection and found that the courtyard was not damaged.
"Sir, everything is fine."
"Then I'll leave on the fifth day of the new year."
"Tang has one more thing to ask sir..."
"Please say."
"In this courtyard before..." Tang Zhong looked left and right. Although he didn't feel any discomfort, he was still a little timid and spoke in a coquettish way. "There were things in this courtyard... that were not very clean before. I heard that Sir, you have a profound moral character, I wonder if you...have you gotten rid of it?"
Song You glanced at him and only said:
"That's just a lingering obsession. If you don't feel guilty, don't be afraid."
Song You could tell at a glance that the woman's ghost had never harmed anyone before and lacked the ability to harm others. He was just a passerby, living here temporarily and was too lazy to bother, so he stopped caring about her story.
It was after living here for a long time, probably at the end of last month or at the beginning of this month, that Capt. Luo told him about it by chance.
This woman was originally a brothel singer, and later married the eldest son of the Tang Dynasty. Her husband-in-law was the brother of the Tang official in front of her. The two were very affectionate, and it became a good story for a while. However, when the war started in the north, the eldest son of the Tang Dynasty joined the army with a well-known general. He wanted to build a career and protect the country, but the contact was lost within a few years. The woman stayed alone in the empty boudoir, missing her husband, and gradually became depressed, and soon passed away. .
This story once touched many people in Yidu.
This courtyard belongs to Tang's eldest son and her.
Now there is no news about the male owner, and the female owner is dead. As their only remaining relative, Tang Zhong should take the yard into his hands. However, the woman's obsession was too deep and her ghost lingered for a long time. No one dared to live in this yard, nor could it be rented or sold. Tang Zhong was also helpless.
When Song You first heard about it, he was touched in his heart.
Not only was he touched by this rare love that truly existed in the feudal era, and the obsession that transcended life and death, but he also pondered that this story was different from what he originally thought.
This woman's remnant soul is hidden very deep, and it is difficult to find it. It will indeed stump many folk gentlemen who want to eat this kind of food, but Yizhou is so big that it doesn't mean that there are no capable people, and she just stayed here for a few days. Year. Song You originally thought that there must be a hidden story, just like the story in the novel, either the woman's identity was unusual during her lifetime, or she was involved in something else, but he never thought that the woman's remaining soul would be obsessed with it. The reason why this has not been solved for several years is simply the widespread sympathy and affection for her from the surrounding society.
I'm used to thinking about complicated places, and for a moment I couldn't even believe that it was just people's simple and pure goodwill.
Then Song You suddenly understood, then Song You praised it as wonderful, and then he clearly realized again that this is a real world. Even though this era is backward and ignorant, it still has warmth and color.
Although there are differences between ancient and modern times, people's hearts are connected.
In terms of understanding of the female ghost during her lifetime, Song You is not as good as her neighbors. In terms of being affected by the existence of the female ghost, Song You is not as knowledgeable as her neighbors. Since the neighbors are tolerant and tolerant, Luo Captou lives in this courtyard. Opposite the door, given his character and responsibilities, he chose to turn a blind eye. How could Song You have any reason to remove him.
Tang Zhong was immediately disappointed, but he still didn't give up.
"Sir, is there any way to remove it?"
Song You didn't answer, just looked at him and shook his head.
"well……"
Tang Zhong sighed longly and waved his hands: "That's all. I have tried every means in the past few years, and I accept it. Let her stay here. Sir, I will say goodbye now."
"Wishing you a happy new year."
"I also wish you a happy new year, sir."
The wooden door creaked open and closed again.
Song You sat in the courtyard for a while, until it was getting late and he was about to start cooking, and then he returned to the house.
Stepping on the bench, he untied a piece of bacon and a section of sausage from the beam, and took out a piece of air-dried fish. He boiled hot water and washed it carefully. This bacon has been smoked, and you have to use a knife to scrape off the black ash on the surface. The sound of Zeng Zeng Zeng sounds like it's the New Year.
"Taoist priest, why don't you eat grass today?"
"New Year's Eve."
"right."
Sanhua Empress turned into a cat again at some point. When Song You was washing vegetables and fetching water, she ran after him, but she didn't know how hard he was running. After Song You lit the oil lamp and his shadow swayed while he was busy, she chased Song You's shadow on the ground again, pounced on it, and was very involved in the game.
"Miss Sanhua, please help me light the fire."
"Well?"
"Go find some clothes, turn into human form, and help me light the fire."
"Why?"
"We should cook the New Year's Eve dinner together."
"right."
The kitten ran out immediately.
There was smoke from the cooking pots, thousands of lights were on, lanterns were lit in every house in the city, and the sound of blowing and blowing could be heard outside.
The fragrance gradually came out of the yard.
After cooking the sausage, Song You patiently cut it into thin slices. From the corner of his eye, he saw the girl who was lighting the fire in front of the stove, stretching her neck and staring eagerly. She made some movements with her hands, and was touched in her heart. So she smiled and cut until only the sausage was left. When he removed a small section from the back of his buttocks, he stopped cutting and pinched it and handed it to her.
Empress Sanhua came closer to sniff, then raised her head to stare at him.
"For me?"
"yes."
"dinner hasn't started yet."
"Children can eat first."
"oh."
Song You couldn't help but look back at memories.
"Do you know, Miss Sanhua? When I was a child, every Chinese New Year, when the adults were busy chopping vegetables, I would always stand around them. While the adults were cutting, they would always leave a piece and hand it to us. I I always think it tastes better than what’s on the table at noon the next day.”
"Hmm..."
Song You didn't seem to be expecting her answer, he was just stuck in his memories. Thinking about it now, that time was really happy and happy.
Pass it to Empress Sanhua today.
Not long after——
On the table were a bowl of sausages, a bowl of bacon stir-fried with garlic sprouts, a bowl of bacon, and half a pot of soup stewed with the pig's feet I bought this morning. It was not a rich meal, but it was actually too much to finish. Two people, one large and one small, sat across from each other with lamps. The flame of the oil lamp could only illuminate a very narrow area, reflecting lines in the rough pottery bowl.
No one spoke, they just ate in silence.
Song You didn't feel lonely at all. After so many years in the Taoist temple, it was just him, his master and the old mynah, and he had long been used to it.
Not long after, fireworks started setting off outside.
Unexpectedly, I have another year in this world.
