Mrs. Rebirth

After leaving the Zhenbao Pavilion, Zuo Shaoqing stood on the street full of people coming and going, looking at the thriving scene in front of him, he missed Lu Zheng more and more when he was not around.

"Second Uncle, my nephew still wants to visit Mama Liu."

Zuo Yunyang pulled him into the carriage, "Let's go, it's time to visit your Zhuangzi, it's spring, and Zhuangzi should also prepare for spring plowing."

Zuo Shaoqing had read a lot of books on farming, but when it came to what and how to plant in the field, he had no experience at all, so he thought in his heart that in the future, there must be someone who knows the basics and understands housework in this village. Steward.

After leaving the city gate, Zuo Shaoqing opened the car window to look at the scenery on both sides of the road. Most of the people living in the capital are high-ranking officials and nobles, and the number of peasants is probably the least among the scholars and businessmen.

In the suburbs of Beijing, most of them are tenant farmers who farm and farm. They grow food and vegetables for the people in the city, and their life is better than that of the poor in small places.

After the carriage had traveled for half an hour, Zuo Yunyang pointed to a mountain and said, "At the foot of that mountain, Zhuangzi occupies an area of ​​[-] mu. If you count the surrounding mountains and fields, it has nearly [-] mu. The grain is enough to feed the two families of the Zuo family for two years."

Zuo Shaoqing did some calculations silently. The annual salary of a seventh-rank magistrate is 80 taels of silver plus [-] shimi. The annual output of his Zhuangzi should be about the same as the magistrate's salary. Of course, this does not include the county magistrates. additional income.

Walking to the gate of Zhuangzi, Zuo Shaoqing jumped out of the carriage and looked around. All he saw were big trees that had just sprouted and tender grass that had just sprouted, and even the air was filled with the fragrance of earth.

The gate of Zhuangzi was closed tightly, and the door beam was very high. Although it was a bit old, it could still be seen that the previous owner of Zhuangzi was a rich man.

Zuo Yunyang asked the boy to knock on the door, and he told Zuo Shaoqing about the situation of the former owner of the Zhuangzi.

A teenager opened the door a crack, poked his head out and asked, "Who are you looking for?"

The boy who knocked on the door knocked on his head casually, and scolded with a smile: "Your master is here, why don't you hurry up and ask everyone to come out to greet him!"

"Ah..." The young man obviously came later, his eyes turned around the group of people, and finally he flattered Zuo Yunyang with a big gift, "Master is here, I'm here to call someone."

"Haha... You kid has misunderstood the person, and the real master is here." Zuo Yunyang pushed Zuo Shaoqing out, and stepped across the threshold first.

The young man didn't expect his master to be so young, and he was about the same age as him. For a while, he was a little envious and cautious, and he didn't know how to greet him.

"Okay, let's go in and talk about it, is Liu Bar here?"

Liu Ma is now the chief steward of the Zhuangzi. Although she is a woman and can't manage the affairs of the fields, she has the final say on who the Zhuangzi will employ and how much money will be paid each month.

As soon as the young man heard Zuo Shaoqing mention Liu Ma's familiarity, he knew without a doubt that he must be the head of the family.

After just a few steps through the threshold, Zuo Shaoqing saw Mama Liu running towards him, and asked with a smile, "How is Mama Liu?"

Liu Ma hurriedly ran up to him, grabbed his arm and looked back, front, back, left, and right, and nagged: "The third master is here, and he has lost some weight. Did he have a bad time at home? Could it be that they Bullying people again?..."

Zuo Shaoqing was grinning all the time, and didn't think she was annoying. He only explained after she finished asking, "Did you forget? There was a job test a few days ago. There is no one who can't lose a few catties after the exam."

He was quite good, he could eat and sleep in the Gongyuan, he knew that many students couldn't eat or sleep in it, and they lost their shape after the nine-day exam.

Only then did Mama Liu remember this incident, and hurriedly asked, "How did you do in the exam?"

Zuo Shaoqing disliked Zuo Yunwen asking this question, but she didn't dislike Liu Ma's sincere concern, so she whispered in her ear, "I'm absolutely sure."

Zuo Shaoqing was very confident in his answer, so naturally he wasn't worried about bad grades, but he didn't know that a storm would rise in the capital in a few days, and this storm almost dragged him into the water.

Hearing what he said, Liu Ma's face was radiant, and she was happier than Aunt Ruan gave birth to a son back then. She folded her hands together and bowed to the sky, "God bless, our third master has finally become famous. Proud too."

Zuo Shaoqing thought of the mother who died young, her eyes darkened, and her fists were unconsciously clenched.

"Shao Qing, come here quickly..." Zuo Yunyang stood on the side of the yard and waved to him, and when someone approached him, he pointed to a rockery and said, "When I first came to see this Zhuangzi, my second uncle fell in love with it." , don’t you think the fake mountain looks ugly, but there is actually a universe inside.”

Zuo Shaoqing walked around the rockery, and saw only a few rubs of moss besides the rocks, which was nothing special.

He smiled and said, "Second Uncle, don't be a fool, just talk about it."

Zuo Yunyang raised his chin, and with his hands behind his back, he took a steady figure of eight steps, "Follow me!"

Zuo Shaoqing followed him and drilled with him in the gap between the rockery. Zuo Shaoqing thought it was just a gap made of stones, but he didn't expect to see Zuo Yunyang fiddle with the stone wall. A door actually opened.

Zuo Shaoqing touched the joint of the door in surprise, and he couldn't find the door here unless he looked carefully.

He remembered some scripts he had read, swallowed his saliva and asked, "Second Uncle, there...is there some important person locked up here?"

Zuo Yunyang tugged at the corner of his mouth and said, "You really know how to think!"

Zuo Shaoqing laughed awkwardly, walked in behind him, and went down a flight of stairs. It was getting darker and darker, and the light from outside could no longer come in.

Zuo Yunyang took out the fire pocket from his arms and lit the torches on both sides of the passage, which allowed Zuo Shaoqing to see the stone walls on both sides clearly.

"Huh?" Zuo Shaoqing touched the lines on the stone wall with his fingertips, and said in a low voice, "Calligraphy and paintings should have been carved here."

Holding the torch in his hand, Zuo Yunyang took a closer look, there were indeed some unintelligible crooked lines, but he didn't think too much about it, this Zhuangzi has only been built for more than ten years, how big a secret can it have?

"Let's go. Last time my second uncle came here, he just took a random look and didn't study it carefully. In the future, this place can be turned into a cellar or an ice cellar, or a stone hole can be dug to store some valuables."

As soon as the words were finished, the two had already reached the largest open space, Mama Liu stopped after the two entered the rockery, and looked outside to check the door.

It wasn't until Zuo Yunyang lit the surrounding torches that Zuo Shaoqing saw the whole cellar clearly. It was not big, only two small rooms and the open space under his feet, which should be the place where the previous owner put grain.

The underground is cool and cool, and Zuo Shaoqing felt chills all over after standing there for a while. After a rough inspection, he saw nothing but a few bags of grain in one of the small rooms.

"At the beginning, I planned to buy this village because I saw it here. Although the cellar is not detailed enough, it is better in secrecy. Maybe it will be useful in the future."

Zuo Shaoqing nodded, he was also very satisfied with this, and planned to turn one of them into an ice cellar, and it would be nice to be able to eat iced sour plum soup in summer.

When he was about to turn around and leave, Zuo Shaoqing felt something flash in the corner. He took the torch from Zuo Yunwen and walked towards the corner. A little light.

Zuo Yunyang came over and squatted down, dug out the thing, wiped it casually with his sleeve, and let out a "huh".

Zuo Shaoqing looked at the package emitting fluorescence and asked, "What is this? A gemstone?"

Zuo Yunyang brought the thing closer to the fire and took a closer look, "It's not like, although the gem is beautiful, it doesn't emit this kind of light. It looks more like a night pearl."

"Ye Mingzhu?" Zuo Shaoqing opened his mouth wide, speechless in surprise.

Ye Mingzhu is too far away for him, I am afraid that few of them can be found in the palace, how could it appear in this grain cellar?

Zuo Yunyang himself thought it was unlikely, touched his nose, and handed the beads to Zuo Shaoqing, "Put it away first, and find someone in Jiacheng to see if it is true."

Zuo Shaoqing put the things away, shook his head and said, "It's better not to take them out, if it is, it's not good to cause trouble."

Well, although Zuo Shaoqing thought that this bead probably wouldn't be something expensive, he still had a chance in his heart. If it was really a night pearl, then it would be too worthwhile for his Zhuangzi to buy it.

The uncle and nephew went out of the cellar, closed the stone door, and walked around Zhuangzi with Liu Ma.

Zuo Shaoqing also met the various stewards in Zhuangzi, most of the stewards here were transferred from home by Zuo Yunyang, saying that they were here to train a few successors first, and let them go back when someone took over.

Zuo Shaoqing accepted this favor, and planned to give a share to his second uncle when Zhuangzi produced something in a few days.

The stewards reported one by one the things at hand, nothing more than which land to plant, how many tenant farmers to recruit, and how many seeds to buy.

Zuo Shaoqing kept these things in mind while listening, according to what the old lady wanted, he would have to take care of the family affairs in the future, so he couldn't even know how much a bag of seeds cost.