Zhen Qian walked out of the ancestral hall with a piece of bacon and swayed, Xiaomei and Meng Xiaoya greeted him, and saw the bacon in Zhen Qian's hand with envy, and the little stars flashed in his eyes with envy.

"Isn't it just a piece of cured mutton? Don't get excited! ”

Being able to get a piece of bacon in the ancestor worship ceremony is of course not because of how expensive the bacon is, Zhen Qian still understands this, it is more about the meaning of bacon. There are very few people who can get a sacrifice, and the highest level is an inconspicuous piece of bacon, but in Zhen Qian's eyes, it is not as affordable as the fresh fruit on the table.

"Hold...... In the evening, we went home to eat bacon and steamed soybeans! ”

But now Zhen Qian can't go home, after the sacrifice is over, the children of the Zhen family have to stay and have a meal together, many Zhen children can only see each other once a year like Zhen Qian, and this meal has become a reunion dinner.

In fact, Zhen Qian didn't want to eat this meal at all, of course, not because he was unsociable, nor because he was in a hurry, but because he ate this meal in the open air. What is it like to sit in the open air to eat in the cold winter, the food is already cold when it is served, and people with a bad stomach will immediately have a stomach upset after eating, isn't this a living sin?

But it is not surprising that there is such a situation, the number of men who participated in the ancestor worship alone is close to thousands, and if you count the slaves and women who accompanied them, the number exceeded more than 3,000 people, and they poured into Zhenjia Village at once and did not even find a place to sit.

Zhen Qian didn't want to sit outside the house and drink the northwest wind, so he tilted his head and thought, "Let's go...... Go to Uncle's house for New Year's greetings! ”

The uncle's name is Zhen Song, the elder brother of his father Zhen Sheng, and the patriarch of the entire Hengzhou Zhen family. In the ancestral hall just now, Zhen Song asked him to go to his house and wait, it seemed that he had something to say to himself.

The carriage slowly passed through the winding alleys, and you could see that the temporary tables were tensely placed in the houses along the road, and many of the people who participated in the sacrifice were already seated, waiting for the feast to begin.

After a short time, he arrived at the door of the uncle's house, and a middle-aged man in his forties stood at the door to beckon the clansmen into the house, and when he saw Zhen Qian walking down from the carriage, he said with a smile: "Zhen Qian...... Why did you come, come in with me, my father is waiting for you in the study? ”

"Big brother, I walked around the village just now, I saw things and missed my relatives, and I remembered many things when I was a child, so many years have passed in a flash!"

Zhen Qian spent most of his time in the countryside before he was fourteen years old, there was a private school for the Zhen family, and most of the children in the clan studied here.

The middle-aged man's name is Zhen Qian, the eldest son of the eldest uncle Zhen Song, who also has an official body, and has been the county master for several years, but unfortunately he is not tactful enough, and he got a middle and lower class when he took the exam.

People are more popular than people, Zhen Qian is the eldest son of the eldest son, he is only in his early forties this year, and his grandson will play soy sauce. And he is also the eldest son, and he doesn't even have a son, so there is really chaos among the juniors in this generation.

Xiaomei and Meng Xiaoya were led to the backyard by the maidservant, Zhen Qian followed Zhen Qian through the corridor to a secluded small building, "Come in, don't let the elders wait for a long time!" ”

Zhen Qian walked into the study, a smell of ink and camphor wood came to his face, facing six screens, four feet six inches high, one foot nine inches wide, crimson yarn edge, with wooden boards as spotted bamboo stickers, black lacquer nails, blue silk back, scarlet clamp valerian fan, rubbing cloth bags. The screen is the six-curved screen style of the beauty under the tree, the first three ladies stand under the tree, the last three ladies sit on the stone under the tree, the posture is different, the moth eyebrows are detailed, the body is plump, the cherry mouth is red, the face is applied to the false flowers, the lady's clothes have been covered with bird feathers of different colors, the color has faded over time, it is the popular style before and after the Kaiyuan Dynasty.

The first thing you see when you turn the screen is a row of black-lacquered bookshelves against the wall, filled with old handscrolls, some of which are hundreds of years old.

Behind the screen, against the window, there is a huge wooden couch, on which two people leaned back, leaning back slightly. With his legs stretched out, one hand resting on the coercion next to him, he was really leisurely tasting wine and playing chess.

"Father, second uncle! Zhen Qian is here! ”

Zhen Song is more than 60 years old this year, and his crane hair and childish face are well maintained, giving people a smile all the time, and many things in the clan are slowly handed over to Zhen Qian to deal with, ready to take care of his grandson in his old age...... Great-grandson.

"Come and sit!"

Zhen Song beckoned to Zhen Qian, pointed to the wooden box next to him and said, "No one in the house will get the gift you gave, so I called you to come and make a pot for the two of us...... That thing called black tea? ”

Zhen Qian took the tea leaves placed next to him, he was worried that Zhen Song would not drink it, and specially wrote how to drink black tea, and brought a complete set of tea sets for burning black tea, and even said that he would not use it, and it was not the high-tech of later generations, who would believe it!

Soon a pot of hot black tea was boiled, and the four people in the room poured a cup and said: "Uncle, this black tea has been fermented, which can help digestion and promote appetite. ”

"Good! I'll try it first! ”

Zhen Song put down the chess pieces in his hand, took a sip of the teacup, blinked his mouth, his eyes lit up, he took another sip, then took the third and fourth sips, poured the tea soup into his mouth in one go, and took a long breath: "Not bad!" The color is black and oily, the soup is red and bright, the aroma is rich and sugary, the taste is mellow and sweet, and it does have the effect of strengthening the spleen and stomach! ”

Zhen Sheng and Zhen Qian also drank the tea soup in their hands, and found that the taste was different from that of boiling tea, so they nodded but did not continue to evaluate.

Zhen Song stroked the beard under his chin and looked at Zhen Qian, and said to Zhen Sheng: "You raised a good son, and you were willing to let him break up, do you regret it now?" ”

"I really regret it!"

The two laughed, and Zhen Qian, who was laughing, looked dazed.

"I heard that you are going to hand over some of the concubines in the second room to Zhen Qian, tell me what you think?"

As soon as Zhen Qian heard this, he immediately realized that Zhen Song did not know about this matter in advance, as a patriarch, he had the right to know everything that happened in the clan, and he had the right to decide, if Zhen Song did not agree to this matter, Zhen Sheng would have to reconsider the interests of the family even if he insisted.

"After hundreds of years of reproduction and development, the Zhen family in Hengzhou has a great business in our hands, but it is inevitable that there will be a lot of stumps and leaves, and it is time to trim it. This time Zhen Qian's family split also has my meaning inside, this kid has good ability, and he is also stable in doing things, it is also good for the Zhen family to put him outside, it is inevitable that there will be many things that cannot be taken care of when the family gets together, let the young people go out on their own, even if something happens now, isn't there still us old people supporting behind? ”

(End of chapter)