The Hairpin of the Red Chamber

When it was time to pick water chestnuts in the south of the Yangtze River again, in Linjiazhuang outside Gusu City, Wu Zhuangtou got up early, urging his family to prepare donkey carts and long mules, and waited outside the village gate with large and small baskets. .

At the beginning of the morning, seven or eight women stood out from the second gate, hugged a young woman, and the two women protected her into the mule cart with green cover. With a sound of urgency, the long mule moved forward unhurriedly, and Wu Zhuangtou led a few male servants on horseback to escort him out first.

After the wagons of the woman and the wives had left, the young girls from the manor came out laughing and joking, and got into the tarpaulin mule cart prepared for them in the garden. There were at least 30 to [-] girls in this group. , are all used to work in Zhuangzi, all of them are clever in their hands and feet, talking and laughing during their movements, you squeeze the ground next to me, and in an instant, the six caravans are packed to the brim.

The rest of the Zhuang Ding were escorting outside, riding horses, donkeys, mules, or walking. There were already many people, and they chatted and laughed with these young girls. side.

There used to be many manors of rich and noble families by the Taihu Lake, all of which brought water from the lake into the garden, and built many small Taihu-like places. There is a small house in it, but it is not as twists and turns as other houses. The folded mountain and stone covered bridge has only one big lake, a pavilion on it, and an attic on the side.

The group of people entered the manor here, and got out of the car inside, and several women helped the woman to settle in the gazebo. The man seemed to have not woken up yet, and was being hugged and walked halfway in a daze. , Suddenly realized again, stopped and turned back to ask the mother-in-law: "Miss seems to say that she will come back to live for a while this year?"

The old woman smiled and said, "I said I would be back a long time ago. Later, Miss Bao was afraid of the hot weather on the road, and the girl couldn't stand the heat, so she only moved in August. According to the usual practice of our girls on the road, it will take at least the end of the month to finish." Come on, grandma, don't worry."

When the woman heard this, she nodded slightly, and rushed into the pavilion, where some tea and snacks were already prepared, so she poured herself a cup of tea and read a book.

The little girls outside had already entered the water laughing and joking, one by one paddling wooden basins to sing and pick water chestnuts. I don’t know who started it. After a while, some people jokingly and arguing, some chasing, dodging, and some paddling Pots were drilled into the withered lotus bushes, some jumped into the water with a plop because of their good water quality, and then emerged from the rhomboid leaves, and some crawled around other people's pots and tumbled. There was already a lot of commotion, but the woman in the pavilion seemed to be deaf, reading a book.A woman next to her couldn't stand it anymore, and poked her arm, she just woke up from a dream, raised her head and asked, "What's the matter?"

The woman said: "These little hoofs are getting more and more lawless, grandma should take care of it."

The woman said with a smile: "I also restrain them on weekdays. It's rare that I have a free day, so I tell them to relax and relax." Seeing the woman's face stretched and her face full of disapproval, she had to stand up and said in a soft voice: "Don't even go into the water, hurt yourself carefully."

However, she said it twice, but she didn't see any deterrent effect. After the young maids paused for a while, those who should be fighting were still fighting, and those who should be in the water were still in the water. This woman Seeing that he couldn't suppress it, he kept looking at the woman.

The woman sighed and said, "I'll call Wu Zhuangtou."

The woman said in surprise: "When he came in, he designated some people to be punished. Don't disturb him."

The mother-in-law saw that she was really soft-hearted, and she had no choice but to go to the water's edge, raised her voice and said to the lake: "Hurry up and work, you won't finish picking by noon, be careful with your skins!"

The lake was silent for a while, when suddenly someone outside called the woman out, and the girls became more and more noisy than before, some even started fighting with water chestnuts, and some peeled off the water chestnuts by themselves first. A few raw water chestnuts to eat.

The woman in the pavilion didn't care about it at all, she only cared about reading the book by herself, the book in her hand was already very old, but she still treated it like a treasure, picking it up page by page carefully, carefully studying the annotations on it , the appearance of the application, he is more focused than the young master who goes to school in that school.

There was a commotion here for a while, and suddenly I heard a man's voice shouting: "What do they all look like! Those few in the water, come up to me!"

The woman in the pavilion was startled, she closed her book, stood up and saw that it was Wu Zhuangtou coming, she rushed out to greet her, and said with a smile: "Why is Steward Wu here?"

When Wu Zhuangtou saw this woman, he also politely called "Aunt Grandma", and said: "Grandma used to indulge them too much, now one or two are as bold as the sky."

The aunt laughed and said: "They are all from the little girl's family. They worked hard in the past. It's hard to have such a day. Don't worry about them too much."

The two of them were talking here, and the little girls in the water came up timidly, standing wet one by one.Fortunately, they were also afraid of meeting Zhuang Ding, and their clothes were fairly neat, but they were all barefoot, showing a lot of big feet.

When the head of Wuzhuang saw it, he became more and more annoyed. He gave a few words to each of them, and then asked the leaders to kneel outside the door as punishment.The aunt felt distressed when she saw it, and just about to dissuade her, Wu Zhuangtou had expected her to do this, and hurriedly said: "Master Ming just sent a message that Miss Bao and Miss Bao have already left the city, and they will leave in less than half an hour." In the garden, grandma, get ready to welcome them."

When the aunt heard this sentence, she forgot what happened just now, hurriedly collected the books, and called someone to change her clothes.

A few women embraced her and went to the embroidered building to change a few pieces. Outside the door, there was a lot of voices preaching: "Young lady and Miss Bao are here."

The aunt had no choice but to hastily put on a grass-green dress with some hairpin decorations, and stepped out of the embroidered building. She saw Baochai and Daiyu walking over talking and laughing. When they saw her, one of them called out, "Sister Xiangling. The aunt Xiangling turned around to salute Baochai, but Baochai held her up and said, "I haven't seen you for a few months, why are you so divided again?"

Xiangling bowed her head silently, Daiyu there had already pulled her to laugh and said, "Good disciple, long time no see, why are you so focused on seeing her that you don't think of me as your teacher?"

Baochai stroked her cheek with her finger, and said with a sneer, "But I lent this book to someone, and I still don't know how old it is, so I feel free to call myself a master! I'm not ashamed."

As soon as Daiyu took hold of her finger, she scratched down and said, "Did I enlighten her when she learned poetry? Did I rewrite it for her twice or three times when she wrote it? Why can't I be the one?" Master's name?" Because she felt a slight pain in the front, knowing that Baochai hadn't trimmed her nails, she became more and more displeased, so she stretched out her hand to pinch her fingertips, and Baochai saw her thoughts at a glance, and stroked her hand with her backhand. , smiled and said: "I'll cut it later." Daiyu gave her a white look, shook off her hand, held Xiangling with both hands, looked up and down, until Xiangling's face turned red, and then smiled. : "Long time no see, Sister Ling is getting more and more beautiful, this green skirt suits you very well, and it matches the surrounding scenery."

Xiangling lowered her head, smiled and said, "Didn't you say it's the end of the month, why are you here so soon?"

Baochai looked at Daiyu and smiled, and Daiyu said: "I miss these scenery when I see them on the road, so I urge them to hurry up and arrive early—Xue Baochai, why are you acting so weird?"

Baochai said, "I'm obviously admiring the flowers, how can I be acting strange?"

Seeing her narrow face, Daiyu wished to pinch her again, but Baochai dodged her lightly, but said: "I set off early in the morning. You are not tired now, but I am tired. Let's go." I'll take a seat." Then he walked into the pavilion.

At this time, Xiangling remembered to let the two of them go to the pavilion, and was busy setting up refreshments.

Baochai glanced at the dim sum box, then opened the teacup to look at it, and said to Xiangling, "Sister Ling, does she drink this on weekdays? Are the slaves bullying you because you have a good temper and don't serve you anything good?" He said to Daiyu: "I think the snacks are also full, so it's better to ask them to serve a plate of water chestnuts - you read all the way and rush to eat fresh water chestnuts, but if you persuade you to slow down, you can't wait to get them." You hurt me so much, why are you pretending to be gentle again now?"