Lady Xin hugged Xin Mao and cried loudly, while Xin Lang hugged the two of them with red eyes. This kind of escape from death and the moment of emotional release when seeing family members are indescribable.
By the time Lemongrass ran over, he couldn't get in.
She stood outside with red eyes, trying to get close to him, but there was no place for her.
Fortunately, Xin Wang was still thinking of her, waving to her with tears in his eyes, and Xiang Maozi quickly came over. Xin Wang's big hand pressed hard on the top of her head and rubbed it vigorously.
Xiangmaozi felt a warm current pressing down from the Tianling Gai.
The fear, fatigue, and anxiety of so many days were all gone!
At this time, in addition to their family, other residents of Huangshi Town and Yexi Village also recognized each other.
After just over ten days, he experienced several life and death changes.
Many people's relatives have been separated by life and death forever.
Everyone asked each other about the current situation of their relatives. It would be nice to know that they are still safe, but when they hear that some of their close relatives are separated from each other, they can no longer help but burst into tears.
For a time, the entire Huangshi Town was filled with cries.
But things have happened after all, and everyone vented their emotions for a while. Gradually stopped crying. Familiar people naturally attracted relatives to join them.
Those who had no relatives also began to look for a place to stay in Huangshi Town.
Mrs. Xin also recovered from the joy of regaining her lost possessions, and began to think about how to settle down. Only then did she have the mood to look Xin Mao up and down.
She found that although Xin Mao's clothes didn't fit, they were brand new and of a decent style that she had never seen before. It was a light white gown with a dark burqa on the outside. The hair is also neatly gathered and combed. He has grown taller and looks and feels better.
This is no longer the son with a runny nose who pees and muds on the ground all day long. Instead, he is a young master from a wealthy family in the town!
Madam Xin seemed to be overjoyed, wishing she could have the immortal's video recording skills to record Xin Mao's appearance at this moment forever.
Xin Wang was also happy, but he had always been a stubborn and low-key person, so he just kept a straight face and was happy in his heart. He also looked at Xiangmaozi and saw that Xiangmaozi was also wearing the same clothes, looking equally decent and generous.
It seems that these two children are living well in Huangshi Town and have not been abused or tortured.
Lady Xin asked, "Da Mao, where do you and your sister live?"
Xin Mao said truthfully, "My sister and I live in Sixian Building."
Madam Xin asked again, "Where is Sixian Building? Whose family does it belong to? What does it do?"
Xin Mao replied, "Sixian Restaurant is the largest and most impressive restaurant in Huangshi Town. Even immortals would come in and sit there when they pass by! It's so impressive. Sixian Restaurant belongs to shopkeeper Chen."
Madam Xin was shocked, "How can you go to such a luxurious place?!"
Xin Mao looked at Mrs. Xin strangely, "Why can't we go? We are not guests there. We are working there."
After hearing this, Mrs. Xin felt relieved at first, and then felt sad. Suddenly her nose felt sour, and tears flowed out a lot, "I have pity on my son, he has to work at such a young age. It's really heartbreaking, oh oh oh oh." …"
As she said that, she started hugging Xin Mao and started crying again.
Xin Mao has passed the initial period of grief, and now he is very uncomfortable being hugged tightly by his mother. In addition, Mrs. Xin has been hiding in the mountains and forests for the past half month, and her clothes can still cover her body without turning into strips of cloth. That is already It's the result of her being careful. But there is really no way to avoid the dirty and smelly results.
Xin Mao pushed Mrs. Xin hard, but couldn't struggle, so he shouted loudly, "Oh, please stop crying. It's not me doing the work, it's my sister! You hug her and cry. It's her who begs the shopkeeper to accept her." We use our work to pay off the bills. She gets up every day when the rooster crows, and she's still awake at midnight. Go and hug her!"
After hearing what Xin Mao said, Lady Xin also reacted. Although Xin Mao has grown taller recently, he is still only three feet tall. How could anyone be so blind as to accept him as a worker?
Even if you let him work. He can't reach the table when carrying dishes, and he can't reach the basin when washing dishes. The height of this kind of radish can only add to the confusion.
Lady Xin then let go of Xin Mao and said to Xiangmaozi, "You have worked hard too."
This seemingly light greeting was something I had never heard of before.
Mrs. Xin's original surname was Yang, and she was from Xiruo Village. She married Xin Wang because Xin Wang was willing to give her a gift of one tael of silver. Her parents married her in order to raise money to find a wife for her brother.
After she got married, she discovered that Xin Wang was several years older than her, and he had already married a wife before her. Because of her weak body, she died two years after giving birth. Leaving behind a picture of a dark girl.
All her desire to hate marrying a young girl came to nothing. Not only did she marry a silent and serious man like a black tower, but she also became a mother as soon as she entered the house. With this kind of psychological gap, she didn't dare to get angry at Xin Wang, but she couldn't help but grow angry at Xiangmaozi.
Later, she gave birth to her own child, and it was a boy!
This feeling is completely different. This is her own cub, no matter how you look at it, how good it is. And because of her life in her mother's family since she was a child, she increasingly feels that only boys have their golden destiny. Women are born cheap, they are meant to serve others and cannot be counted on. After giving birth to a boy, Xin Yang was able to raise her head and speak in front of Xin Lang.
When she tried to teach Xiang Mao Zi a lesson, Xin Lang just frowned but did not stop her.
Mrs. Xin Yang was not a vicious stepmother. She did not deliberately grind or abuse Lemongrass. But her treatment of Xiangmaozi is not good. At most, she is no better than the chickens and ducks at home. She knows that they are hers, and she occasionally spreads rice when she is free. If she is in a bad mood, she will kick them. foot.
So in Xin Yang's eyes, this dark girl could be put aside and raised as long as she was not an eyesore. Anyway, when she grows up, she will marry someone else and keep the gift in exchange for Xin Mao to marry him.
Lemongrass seeds are just a betrothal gift that has not yet grown up.
Xin Yang is very sure of this.
But now, their village is in trouble. It depends on lemongrass seeds, which makes Xin Yang feel very strange.
On the one hand, I feel happy that Xiangmaozi has found a place to stay, so I don't have to worry about it; on the other hand, I feel that I have to thank Xiangmaozi for her kindness now, which is simply unreasonable and depressing.
However, Xiangmaozi was frightened by her stepmother's "Thank you for your hard work". She had never spoken to her in this tone before. For a moment, Xiangmaozi felt that all the bones in her body were lighter by three points, and she didn't know how to answer.
Shopkeeper Chen, on the other hand, waited for a long time and saw that the whole family had calmed down before asking, "Xiangmaozi, are these your parents?"
Xiangmaozi finally thought of what to do if her parents came. Theoretically, she should stay with her parents, but seeing how miserable her parents were, she probably didn't even let her go, so she would have to trouble the shopkeeper to take her in.
So Xiangmaozi asked the shopkeeper, "Shopkeeper Chen, these are my parents. But they just ran out of the village, and their stomachs are empty. I think, I want to beg the shopkeeper, can you also first Take in my parents. I, I..."
She wanted to say, I will work twice as hard.
But then I thought about it, I already went to school, so I couldn't say that I would work even harder. Just "I" couldn't take it anymore for a long time.
Shopkeeper Chen, who runs an inn, is the most discerning, and when Xiangmaozi opened his mouth, he understood Xiangmaozi's request. If he didn't want to take in Xinwang and his wife, he wouldn't have stayed until now.
Shopkeeper Chen said with a smile, "Don't talk so much now, let's go back to Sixian Building first."
Xin Wang stood aside silently. When he heard this, he bowed deeply to Shopkeeper Chen. Shopkeeper Chen kept saying, "I can't do it, I can't do it!"
Now there are no customers in Si Xian Restaurant, so when shopkeeper Chen and his team returned to the restaurant, everyone gathered around to watch, which made Mrs. Xin very embarrassed and hid behind Xin Lang.
Xin Lang, on the other hand, kept standing expressionless. When someone greeted him, he responded in a muffled voice.
After Xiangmaozi said hello to everyone, he quickly led his parents back to his small room. When she got up early, shopkeeper Chen asked her to change her room, but before it was too late, something happened at the mayor's house. Today her bits and pieces are still in the original room.
So she took her parents over directly.
First, I arranged my parents to sit down, poured a pot of hot tea and placed it on the Kang table.
Then I ran to the kitchen and begged the master chef to make two large bowls of plain noodles. Somen noodles are made from ready-made dough.
In the restaurant's kitchen, there must be a large pot on the stove during the day, and the dough is kneaded early in the morning. Covered with a half-wet and half-dry drawer cloth. After listening to Xiangmaozi's request, the master shouted "Okay!"
As soon as he reached out, he took out a fist-sized piece of dough from under the drawer cloth. After a few hard hits on the noodle table, the master shook his arms, and the dough turned into a noodle strip one inch wide and three feet long. Fold it in half, shake it, and fold it in half again, and the noodle strip turned into noodles as thick as chopsticks. Sprinkle flour on it and fold it in half twice, until it becomes a ball of noodles as thick as a hair.
The master chef throws the noodles into the pot like flowers, and skillfully stirs them with chopsticks under the water to prevent them from sticking to each other. In just a few breaths of time, the noodles are ready.
Use a spatula to scoop the noodles into a large soup bowl and pour over the gravy, minced chives, minced coriander, and sesame oil! There was also a large bowl of white noodle soup, sprinkled with salt, ordered sesame oil, and given green onion leaves.
Red sauce, green vegetable leaves, white noodles, black bowl.
Xiangmaozi brought the noodles to her parents. Xin Wang and Mrs. Xin didn't have any left. They ate them all and drank all the noodle soup!
In fact, neither of us was full. We thought that such delicious noodles could be eaten by ten more bowls!
But Xiangmaozi remembered that the shopkeeper said that people who are very hungry should never give too much for the first meal. It is better to eat half full and starve than to accumulate food and hurt the stomach.
So Xiangmaozi pretended not to understand her parents' glances. As soon as Xin Lang and the others finished eating, they took away the bowls and chopsticks to clean.
Then she started to carry water in. There was already a bathtub in the room. She carried two full buckets of hot water, and also brought a large wooden basin, cloth towels, soap locust and other items for her parents to bathe.
While Xin Lang and Lady Xin were taking a bath, she went to Chun Yu and begged for some old clothes left behind by previous guests for her parents to replace.
Then, Xiangmaozi ran to Shopkeeper Chen alone.
Shopkeeper Chen is working on the abacus at the counter.
Seeing Xiangmaozi coming over, he smiled and asked her, "Have your parents settled in yet?"
Xiangmaozi nodded, "Master cooked the noodles, and now they are taking a bath. I just went to Brother Chunyu and asked for two pairs of old clothes."
Shopkeeper Chen nodded, "You have always done things neatly and steadily. Your parents really don't have to worry about anything because of you."
Xiangmaozi struggled for a moment and took out a small cloth bag from his arms. Passed it to shopkeeper Chen.
Inside was the hundred cents given to her by Mr. Zhuang when she first lived in Huangshi Town. Except for the ten coppers she gave to Chunyu at the beginning, Xiangmaozi didn't want to spend any of them, so she kept them all wrapped in a cloth bag.
Shopkeeper Chen took one look at it and smiled, "You want to give me money?!"
Lemongrass nodded.
Shopkeeper Chen put down his pen and said with a smile, "Then you and your family will not have enough money to live and eat in my Four Fresh House for a few days."
Shopkeeper Chen told the truth.
In Sixianlou, the worst Datong shop does not include rice, and one person only pays ten daizi a day.
Xiangmaozi shook his head, "This is not the money for accommodation. This is a small token of thanks for Xin Mao and I living here these days, and the shopkeeper taking me in and taking care of me."
The shopkeeper saw that she spoke clearly despite her young age, and couldn't help but sigh that children from poor families always mature prematurely.
So the shopkeeper said, "I'm afraid this is all your family's money. If you give it to me, what will your family do?"
Lemongrass came to the shopkeeper just to say this.
"I don't know what they are planning yet, but shopkeeper, can you help me find a job for my father and mother first. My father is good at farming, collecting firewood, and building roofs. My mother does sewing and washing dishes. , the kitchen helpers are all here too."
It turns out that Xiangmaozi wanted to ask the shopkeeper for help to find some work for Xin Lang and the others.
The shopkeeper smiled and said, "Wouldn't it be better for your family to live in Sixian Building?"
Xiangmaozi shook his head, "My parents have already been found. There is no reason for our family to be taken care of by the shopkeeper. Your Sixianlou is good, but I have known since I was a child that there are only emergency rescuers in this world, but there are no The principle of helping the poor. My parents have their own hands and feet, so we shouldn't expect others to survive."
The shopkeeper had always admired Xiangmaozi's calmness and thoughtfulness, so he pondered, "How about we arrange for your parents to be part-time workers at Sixianlou first?"
Unexpectedly, Xiangmaozi refused. "I know that you, the shopkeeper, have good intentions and want to help my family. But I have also calculated that since we were sealed off by the soldiers, Sixianlou has no business. And now there are funerals in every family in the town. I am afraid that in the short term There are no happy events to be celebrated; businessmen from other places have also heard that there is an epidemic here, and they probably won't come here in the short term. So, shopkeeper, where do you have so much work for the guys to do?"
Shopkeeper Chen was shocked by Xiangmaozi's words.
He never expected that Xiangmaozi, at such a young age, could think so profoundly and comprehensively. I am afraid Chun Yu, who has been with him for many years, has never thought about this issue.
Shopkeeper Chen comforted Xiangmaozi, "You think so much at a young age, be careful not to grow taller in the future!"
Xiangmaozi added, "There are few customers now. The master chef and Brother Chunyu have been with you for many years. You can just support everyone. We are a family, but there is no reason for the shopkeeper to provide money to support us. So I I came to beg the shopkeeper to give my parents a job."
Shopkeeper Chen listened, and there was actually some thought behind Xiangmaozi's words. So he asked curiously, "What are your plans?"
Xiangmaozi nodded vigorously, "Shopkeeper, do we in Huangshi Town still need a watchman?"]
Hearing this, shopkeeper Chen couldn't help but slap his thigh!
"It's high, it's really high!"