When Chu Yi took down the hexagonal palace lantern, Chu Ping also took down the wooden sculpture not far away. Chu Li and Chu Xiuxiu were also working hard towards the lanterns in the back row. At this time, the rings in their hands had already been The toss was clean, but there was no prize in the trap. Shen Luzhu wanted to buy some more traps for the two of them, but the two of them shook their heads and said no, so they gave up.
The stall owner's face, which had been smiling just now, suddenly became stiff. The other party only spent a total of sixty coins and took away three of his items. The small wooden ornament was not worth much, but the two exquisite lanterns , but it cost him a lot of money, and he really lost it now.
But in full view of the public, if he dared to cheat, he was afraid that he would not be able to continue this business today. Although he was extremely reluctant, he finally brought the hexagonal palace lantern and the wooden sculpture to the ground amid the cheers of the people around him. The two men on the opposite side did not continue to use the traps, but replaced the remaining traps in their hands, otherwise he might still have to pay compensation today.
After coming out of the ring-making stall, Chu Ping immediately led Chu Li and Chu Xiuxiu to the candy seller's stall diagonally opposite, and went to a few small candy buyers. After a while, each of the five children had a candy man. Eating.
Today is the annual Lantern Festival. There are many stalls on the main street selling lanterns and guessing lantern riddles. Next to the candy seller’s stall is another lantern seller. Chu Yi asked Chu Li and Chu Xiuxiu what they wanted. For the lanterns, Chu Xiuxiu chose a lotus-style one, while Chu Li chose a square gauze lantern.
After choosing the lanterns, Chu Yi was about to pay when he was suddenly stopped by Chu Li: "Brother, wait a moment."
After finishing speaking, Chu Li turned to the owner of the lantern stall and said, "Boss, I see you have a lantern riddle here. If you guess it correctly, can you get this lantern for free?"
Unexpectedly, the boss shook his head and said, "Brother, I'm really sorry. I'm running a small business here. There are indeed prizes for guessing lantern riddles, but this lantern doesn't work."
Seeing Chu Li stunned for a moment, the owner of the stall carefully pointed to the lantern in Chu Li's hand and asked, "Do you still want this lantern?"
"Of course I want it." Chu Yi said and handed over the money.
At this time, Shen Luzhu patted Chu Li on the shoulder and said, "I don't know what the prize of this lantern riddle is. Does Ah Li want one to show to my sister-in-law?"
Chu Li nodded when he heard this and said, "Okay, then I'll make a guess. I just don't know if this lamp is difficult or not."
"It doesn't matter, what matters is our participation."
The owner of the stall smiled: "It is said that you can guess these lantern riddles for five cents each time. Since you bought two of my lanterns, you can guess two for free."
Chu Li thanked the boss with a gift, and then took a closer look at the lantern riddles hanging on the stall. Maybe they cost five cents a time, just for fun, and to add some popularity to his stall selling lanterns, or maybe It's because the boss's knowledge is limited. It's not difficult to figure out these lantern riddles. Those who are a little literate can figure them out with a little thinking.
Chu Li looked at it for a while and then said, "I'm fine. Can you tell me the answer?"
"Of course, you just need to tell me which one you want to guess first."
"The first one on the left hand, thirty-six hours, type one word, the answer is three-day crystal."
As soon as Chu Lifang told the order of the lantern riddles, the boss took down the first riddle. After Chu Li finished telling the answer, he said with a smile: "Yes, I'm really smart. The answer to the riddle is the word "crystal". What else can you do?" Guess one."
"The third one, half of the Spring and Autumn Period, type one character, and the answer is the character Qin."
"That's right, that's right. I guessed both lantern riddles correctly. The prize is two Kongming Lanterns. I'll give them to you right now."
As the boss said this, he squatted behind the stall, then took out two simple versions of Kongming lanterns and handed them to Chu Li. Chu Li took them, looked at them, took out five cents from his pocket, and said to the boss : "I'll make another guess."
The boss looked at the money in Chu Li's hand, thought for a moment, waved his hand and said, "I won't charge you for this. Just guess another one."
Chu Li still insisted on handing the money to the boss: "I want to guess the sixth one, which is surrounded by mountains and rivers. Type a word. The answer is Shantou, right?"
The boss didn't say anything this time, he just brought it up again with a smile.
After receiving a Kongming Lantern and handing it over, Chu Li handed it to his sister-in-law together with the other two: "Sister-in-law, when the fireworks are set off later, this Kongming Lantern will be just for Zhengzheng and Huanhuanxi to pray for each other." .”
"Okay, we, Ali, should think more carefully."
Fireworks will be set off in the town tonight at Hai hour. This news was told to them by the waiter at the inn when they went out this evening. The Chu family left the lantern selling stall and wandered around the main street for a while. When they saw the crowd, they started to Walking in one direction, I guessed that it was almost time to set off fireworks, so I followed the moving crowd and walked forward, and soon arrived at a spacious area.
Everyone in the Chu family arrived not too late, but there were already many people waiting to see the fireworks standing in front of them. Fortunately, the fireworks only needed to be looked up to the sky, and there was no need to squeeze forward.
Taking advantage of the time before setting off the fireworks, Chu Li borrowed pen and ink from a nearby wine shop and wrote some words on the three Kongming lanterns wishing the three little children good health and happiness, and then lit them. Flying into the air on the wind.
The fireworks on the night of the Lantern Festival lasted for a quarter of an hour. Not only were the three little babies Zhengzheng and Huanhuanxixi not saved, but even Chu Li and several others were saved. It was also the first time they had seen fireworks that had been set off for such a long time. They all had their necks raised and their eyes closed. He blinked and stared at the whole process. During this period, Zhengzheng was still waving his little hands excitedly, and he was extremely happy.
On the night of the Lantern Festival, everyone in the Chu family still lived in the town. They got up and had breakfast on the 16th day of the first lunar month, then packed up and took the rented carriage again to their home in Kaoshan Village. Brothers Chu Yi and Chu Ping, After lunch, we drove the carriage back to town and returned the carriage.
After a few days' rest, the young couple became busy again, not with work in the workshop or shop, but with the Jiang family.
Jiang Quan's wedding is scheduled for the twenty-eighth day of the first lunar month. There are six wedding ceremonies in Daqian. The Jiang family has already performed five ceremonies before. Now, although only the last ceremony is left, there is still a lot to prepare.
The room that Jiang Quan will live in after the wedding and the courtyard of Jiang's family need to be repaired briefly. Some furniture needs to be added to the house. In addition, the food and drinks needed for the wedding banquet need to be purchased in advance.
Jiang Quan was very busy in the days before his marriage, so the work of driving the bullock cart to buy things naturally fell on Chu Yi and the second uncle of the Cui family.
Shen Luzhu accompanied Aunt Cui and Jiang Juan to prepare the dress, quilt, etc. for Jiang Quan's wedding day.
In the busy life, the days passed quickly, and in a blink of an eye, it was the twenty-eighth day of the first lunar month. Chu Yi and his wife got up early and rushed to Jiang's house.
Chu Ping and Zhao Cheng had a lot of contact with Jiang Quan because of Chu Yi and the workshop in the backyard of the Chu family's old house. Naturally, they were going to attend the wedding banquet and congratulate them in person, but they didn't have to be like Chu Yi and his wife. , went so early.
Therefore, Shen Luzhu handed Zhengzheng and Chu Li over to Chu Ping and Yuan Shuang, and followed them to Jiang's house later.
When the young couple entered the Jiang family's courtyard, everyone in the Jiang family was also busy. Seeing the two entering the courtyard, Aunt Cui quickly put down her work and led them into the main room: "Ayi, you and Lu Zhu Why are you here so early, why haven’t you seen Zhengzheng and Ah Li?”
"I thought the family would be very busy today, so we came over earlier to help with the work. Zhengzheng and Ah Li will come over later with Chu Ping and the others."
Aunt Cui pulled the two of them to sit down with a smile: "Okay, okay, good children, thank you aunt! You came so early, you haven't had breakfast yet. Wait for aunt to go to the kitchen to bring it to you."
Hearing this, Shen Luzhu stood up quickly and said, "Auntie, don't be busy, I'll just follow you to the kitchen to get it."
"No, no, no need to work hard. Lu Zhu, sit down and go. You two have just entered the hospital, so rest for a while. After dinner, you still have to be busy, so sit down."
After breakfast, relatives and friends who came to the Jiang family for the wedding banquet came to the door one after another, and the small courtyard of the Jiang family suddenly became lively.
As soon as the chen hour arrived, Jiang Quan, who had changed into his wedding clothes, left his house accompanied by his brothers and went to the neighboring village to marry his new bride.
Jiang Quan's wedding banquet was lively and festive. As a close cousin, Chu Yi also drank a lot that day. Fortunately, Zhao Cheng
While Chu Ping was still sober, the group was drunk and did not leave Jiang's house until evening.
After the New Year, they attended Jiang Quan's wedding banquet again. This time the Chu family returned to Kaoshan Village and stayed there for more than a month. They took a day off on the second day. At the end of the first month, the Chu family returned to the county seat of Changqing. Chu Ji's funeral on the street.
Although the Chu family returned to the county town, they were in no hurry to open a shop. First of all, the Spring Festival had just passed, and the paper money business was still deserted. A few years ago, all the paper money in the shop was sold. At this time, the workshop in the backyard of the old house was also Work has just resumed, and there is no ready-made paper money at the moment.
Although the shops did not need to be opened, the private schools in the county had resumed classes. The young couple did not want to delay Chu Li's studies for too long, so the whole family returned to the east courtyard together.
Although the shop was not open for the time being, the young couple had no time to spare. The east courtyard and the shop had been empty for more than a month, so it was time to clean up and put them in order. As soon as they had sorted out the outline, the neighbors who got the news started to They came to the door one after another, and there was another round of pleasantries and reminiscing about old times. .
After several days, the house and shop were finally arranged, and Jiang Quan also sent the first batch of paper money after the new year. The young couple was a little surprised when they saw that it was him who came to deliver it: "Didn't I agree that I'll give it to you?" I’ll be off for a while, so just ask Lin Ji’s motorcade to deliver it.”
Jiang Quan scratched his head and said with a smile: "This batch of paper doesn't cost much. I drove the car to deliver it myself. Why spend money to hire Lin Ji's motorcade? Besides... besides, we should work hard now."
Chu Yi knew that he was getting married and wanted to live a good life for his family. It was a good thing for a man to take responsibility. He didn't say anything more. He just asked him to bring a paper bundle to Lin Ting, Lin Ji's boss, when he went back.
With the paper money, the young couple stopped being lazy and reopened the shop in front of the east courtyard the next day.
I thought that not many people would come to the door these days, but in the middle of the morning, I saw two young men in tattered clothes cautiously walking into the shop.
It was the day these two teenagers were going back to Kaoshan Village years ago. Chu Yi helped buy buns and gave some money to the begging brothers.
Seeing Chu Yi's face clearly behind the counter, the older boy's face lit up with joy: "Boss, you are finally back."
At this time, the young couple also remembered who the two brothers were in front of them, and thought they had encountered difficulties, so they went to the door, stood up and asked, "But what difficulties have they encountered?"
Unexpectedly, the older boy shook his head and replied: "We brothers are here to tell you that during the Chinese New Year period, there are always people sneaking around your house. I don't know if they are doing something bad." idea."
