After sweeping the house, the weather in the house is new, and everywhere is clean and dust-free, fresh and pleasing to the eye. The palace lamps are hung high everywhere, the horn lamps are hung on the halls, the wall lamps are hung on the walls, the palace lamps are hung indoors, and the silk lanterns are hung on the garden pavilions and verandahs. The indoor palace lanterns and various silk lanterns in the Xuan Pavilion are frequently decorated, although it is not yet Chinese New Year's Eve, but it is already full of energy.

When it got dark, the lanterns were lit everywhere in the house, and Zhao Ta was also wearing a python robe, a soft flipper hat on his head, and a formal suit.

The chief priest naturally has to be the head of the family, although Zhao Ta is small, but he is also the head of the family, and he should take on this 'big responsibility'. Zhao Ta was a little nervous when he entered the house, he didn't understand the rules here! Zhao Ta had also seen the sacrificial stove in the countryside for the New Year in his previous life, usually his grandmother took down the portrait of the stove king and the stove king's grandmother who had been hanging in the stove for a year, and the two immortals had been smoky for so long that they couldn't see clearly. Let's look at the excitement, and then eat a big meal and forget it, there is no taboo and exquisiteness at all, just a pleasure.

This room is a place to worship the cooking offerings of the ancestors and ancestors, called the Divine Kitchen, of course, it is also a kitchen, and it is the highest level kitchen in the house. Zhao Ta looked up and saw the 'Stove King' hanging alone on the stove, and there was no Stove King Grandma on the side. An offering table has been set up in front of the stove, and offerings are placed in turn, including longan, lychees, red dates, chestnuts, a few kinds of snacks, as well as forage, water, incense candles, and paper horses.

As soon as the door closed, only Zheng Fu, the chief steward of the sacrificial priest, and Zheng Shou, the third steward, were left beside him, "Lord Wang, please offer incense!" Zheng Fu handed over the three sticks of incense and said.

Zhao Ta took the incense, lit it on the candle, bowed three times, and muttered the two words he learned when he came, "Thank you to the king of the stove for bless the safety of Xiao Wang's house, and after returning to heaven, he will tell the heavens, and say many good things..." When he was done, he put the incense on the incense burner.

"Lord, you wipe this on the stove door!" Zheng Shou said in his ear, his voice was like a mosquito and a fly, as if he was afraid that the prince of the stove would hear it.

"Hmm!" Zhao Ta grabbed a handful of things handed over by Zheng Shou, and suddenly smelled a smell of wine, he sniffed vigorously under his nose, and twisted it loosely with his hand, he found that this was not a 'sugar melon', "Zheng Shou, what is this!" He asked curiously.

"Lord, this is the wine lees, the king of the stove is facing the sky the next day, reporting a year's work, so please eat in advance, it will say good things to the sky, the wine lees will be smeared on the door of the stove, and the title will be 'drunk Si Ming', the king of the stove will only say something good!" Zheng Shou whispered.

"Oh! Isn't this fooling the Japs? Zhao Ta understood, this kung fu is still popular to give the stove prince candy, eating wine lees, but the intention is the same, they are all bribery. But you want him to drink too much, so why don't you get him some wine to drink, and get some lees for him? I don't know what the king of the stove will think, maybe he is also a contented and happy fairy!

"Lord Wang, what did you say?" Zheng Shou didn't understand, and asked with a basin.

"I didn't say anything, I just felt that the Lord of the Stove was squatting here alone, strange and lonely, one day we will find him a daughter-in-law!" Zhao Ta said, grabbed a handful of wine lees and wiped it twice on the stove door.

"Uh-huh?!" Zheng Shou hurriedly covered his mouth, so that he could not shout on this solemn occasion, the prince is too capable of tidying up, and he wants to marry a daughter-in-law for the gods, he peeked at Zheng Fu, and he was also holding back his hard work, and his face was purple.

"Rite... After the ceremony, please ascend to heaven! Zheng Fuqiang endured a shout, the people in the courtyard heard the shout, lit the firecrackers that had been prepared for a long time, and for a while, the 'crackling' cannon sounded, and the two stewards took off the portrait of the king of the stove, and Zhao Ta lit the portrait and the paper horse, ending the ceremony in the misty green smoke.

Zhao Ta walked out of the house, the whole house firecrackers rang out, the sky shook the earth, at this time the residents around the house were also sacrificing the stove, the sound of firecrackers came and went, continuous, after a while, the stove king who drank too much rode a horse to the sky, I don't know if there is a 'drunk driving' in the heavenly realm, if you are imprisoned in the prison because of this, sentenced to half a year's imprisonment, you have to delay the time of the lower realm. ,

The firecrackers burned out, the lights were all extinguished, the sacrificial stove ceremony was declared over, the miscellaneous servants packed up the offerings, and each person in the house, regardless of men, women, and children, shared a little bit of food, taking an auspicious fortune and asking for a good fortune. After dinner, the people who had been busy all day rested early, and the house resounded with the sound of bangs and the shouts of the guards who patrolled the night.

Zhao Ta returned to his yard, changed into his uniform, took a hot bath, and entered the bedroom, only to find a fire flickering under the bed, "It's on fire..." He jumped, grabbed the teapot on the table and was about to smash it under the bed, the room was all wooden, and now that the weather was dry, it was no joke to have a fire.

"Second master, don't smash it, it's the lamp we lit under the bed!" Hearing the shout, Osmanthus who was on night duty in the outhouse hurriedly ran in, and when he saw the prince holding a teapot to smash, he hurriedly said.

"Why are you lighting a lamp under the bed?" Zhao Tan asked with a frown.

"The custom of the capital, lighting the lamp under the bed tonight is 'illuminating waste', removing filth and exorcising ghosts!" Osmanthus took the teapot in Zhao Ta's hand and put it on the table and said.

"Oh, I see..." Zhao Ta nodded and said, twisting his face and suddenly seeing the osmanthus who made the bed for him, his nose suddenly heated and his throat was dry, and the osmanthus came in in a hurry, only wearing a small coat, and it was inevitable that the spring light would be exposed, which made Zhao Ta, an old bachelor in his previous life, a little sad...

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The New Year is approaching day by day, in front of the palace in the past, there were only some sporadic small traders selling there, but now it has formed a fixed market, every time the people of the surrounding villages will come here to do business, the government sent people to catch up several times, and the effect is not great. Later, after a discussion of several stewards, a vacant land was set aside outside the gate of the mansion and let them operate their own businesses there, and it didn't take long to gather some popularity, and people from the four towns and eight villages would rush to trade and buy some home-grown agricultural products to supplement their families.

Today is the twentieth day of the lunar month, tomorrow is Chinese New Year's Eve, and it is also the last bazaar of this year, the government has already had a holiday last year, and the people who are close to the family have been put back for the New Year, and those who have paid off the debt Zhao Ta also gave each two pounds of pork and five pounds of white noodles to let them go home for the New Year. Those who do not have a ministry can go out and buy things today.

"Second master, don't go out, there are many people outside the door, it is inevitable that some small things will be mixed in, if you have any mistakes..." Zhao Ta listened to the shouting outside the mansion gate, and his heart was itching, he hadn't spent the money himself since he crossed, and he also wanted to go out and take a look, so he walked to the gate and let the chief steward stop him.

"I'll just go out and see, what are you afraid of at your own doorstep?" Zhao Ta twisted his neck and looked at the bustling crowd outside the mansion and said.

"Second master, you can't help but guard against it, besides, the nurses are all gone, and it's not okay if no one accompanies you!" The chief steward was still trying to persuade you, and said that you were almost killed in your own garden, and I couldn't let you go even if I died.

"Just let the second master take a look with us, we can't do anything with the protection of all of us!" Zhao Ren saw the anxious appearance of the prince and pleaded for him, the vegetables in the greenhouse have been sold out, and the rest are left for themselves to eat for the New Year.

"Nonsense, can you children protect the second master? How many people are out there, it would be nice if you weren't scattered! Zheng Fu said with a glare.

"Second master, then you don't want to go out, what do you like, we'll buy it back for you!" Zhao Xin looked at the fierce appearance of the chief steward, stuck out his tongue, and said to Zhao Ta, looking like a big sister coaxing a little brother.

"Yes, second master, what do you want, we will buy it back for you!" The little guys all said that the prince treated them well, like brothers, and said sympathetically when they saw his pitiful appearance.

"Forget it, you guys have fun, don't get scattered, let's go back together!" Zhao Ta looked at Zheng Fu's 'resolute' appearance, knowing that it was no fun for Lu to play, he reluctantly looked outside the house, told the little guy a few words, and led the two little yellow doors back with a slumped head.

Entering the courtyard, several small yellow gates were picking up the leaves that had fallen last night under the command of Feng Xi. Seeing them, Zhao Tan sighed, these little yellow doors are not a few years older than themselves, but they look gloomy, looking submissive, eating and waiting for death, without any youthful vitality at all. They all entered the palace at a young age, became royal people from head to toe, suffered irreversible damage to their bodies, did the hardest and most tiring work, but endured unbearable pain for ordinary people, without the king's order, they could only live in this courtyard for the rest of their lives, and could not step out of the door until the day when they could not do it.

"Tomorrow is the New Year, let everyone rest, let's play a game together today!" Zhao Ta shouted, asked the little yellow men to gather over, looked at it and said, "Fengxi, there are a few people, you go and find all the people in the Winter Garden!" ”

"Yes!" Feng Xi saw that the prince was interested today, and quickly agreed to call someone in the winter garden, he was quite clever, knowing that the prince was young, and the ones who called were all teenagers Xiao Huangmen, and the older one did not move.

"Okay, everyone listens to the prince's orders, let you do whatever you want!" Feng Xi handed over the little yellow doors to stand together and commanded.

"Don't be restrained, let's just play games together, relax a little, and laugh!" Zhao Ta commanded everyone to sit in a circle on the spot, and he stood in the middle and said with a smile.

"Laugh, laugh, the prince makes everyone laugh!" Looking at the dazed appearance of the little yellow doors, Feng Xi urged, Zhao Ta watched the little yellow doors squeezing their eyebrows one by one, grinning and trying to pretend to laugh, but where they were laughing, it seemed like they were crying, they had become numb in this repetitive life, and people couldn't laugh anymore.