"What's wrong with you? Don't get stuck here, everyone is going to the city!" As soon as the scholar stopped, the people behind quickly urged him. The scholar apologized repeatedly and followed the crowd and walked forward for a while until the intersection in front became wider.

The scholar's legs seemed to be fast, and it was not convenient to walk. After walking for a few steps just now, he found a place to sit down for the time being, put the bamboo fight in his hand aside, and pinched his sore legs hard.

"Customer, what are you going to do?" The place where he sat happened to be a tea shed, and the waiter came up and asked.

"Come on a bowl of wheat tea." The scholar said, taking out a copper from his arms and handing it over. Soon a bowl of wheat tea was brought. The scholar picked up the bowl and put it under his nose and sniffed it. The burnt smell was still the same as before. His expression showed melancholy and memories. After a while, he drank in small sips.

While drinking tea, he looked at the crowds of people at the intersection, and listened to the hawking, greetings, laughter, and children's fights... These were so close to him, but they seemed so far away. He thoughtfully didn't know what he was thinking. When a bowl of tea was slowly finished, the scholar picked up the bamboo war and continued to walk slowly into the city.

More than half an hour later, he came to an alley in the west of the city and slapped the door of one of the small houses.

"Here's here!" After a few slaps, an echo came from inside. The sound was a woman. With a creaking sound, the door opened. A Jiangnan woman with an ordinary face but very neatly cleaned up appeared in front of the scholar.

"Are you..." The woman was stunned when she saw the scholar.

"Sister-in-law, I am Yulu. How is the family good now?" The scholar raised his head and said.

"Yu Lu? Oh! Isn't this my Yu Lu?" The woman looked at the scholar and said in surprise: "Yu Lu, you are back. Where have you been going over the years? Your elder brother and I have been looking for you for many days but have not found out about you. Hurry up! Come in quickly!"

The woman hurriedly greeted the scholars in the door. The scholar carefully crossed the threshold and entered the door of the house. The house was not big, but a typical Jiangnan courtyard. The entrance was a patio, also called a small courtyard. There was no screen wall of a wealthy family. There was a row of bungalows around the patio. It was directly opposite the owner's room. In addition to the kitchen and wood-room, there were two miscellaneous rooms on both sides.

He took the scholar to the wing room, sat down and poured him a glass of water. At this time, a boy, who was four or five years old, ran out of the inner room, stood aside and looked up at the scholar, as if he was thinking about who he was.

"This is your nephew Xiaoshu, Xiaoshu, this is your uncle, call him uncle!" the woman said, holding the child's hand.

"The little tree is so big?" The scholar said in surprise. The child was a little afraid of seeing strangers at first, but with the encouragement of his mother, he still called him uncle, which made the scholar very happy. At this time, the woman couldn't wait to ask him where he had been in the past years?

"I was discouraged after failing the imperial examination. With my leg..." The scholar smiled bitterly and pointed at his inconvenient leg and said, "Later, a classmate invited me to Anqing and worked as an aide under a county magistrate. Later, the county magistrate returned home after his term of office. After I was introduced by a friend, I went to Henan again, and then to Jiangxi again. I have been away for many years, making my elder brother and sister-in-law worry about it..."

Listening to the story of scholars, looking at his premature face, when she first married into this family, her brother-in-law was still a young man with high spirits, but in a blink of an eye, he had become what he is now. If it weren't for the fact that there was little change in his eyes, he would have almost never recognized him. In the past, he is only in his early twenties this year, but he looks almost the same as a person in his thirties.

"Yu Lu has not been at home these years, and everything in the family is managed by her elder brother and sister-in-law, especially her mother..." Speaking of this, the scholar's eyes couldn't help but become wet. The family was poor since childhood. When he was young, his mother was taking care of her studying for the two brothers. However, although he was smart, he had not been able to pass the exam due to physical defects and luck. Later, he was even more angry and left home.

After leaving, everything in the family was over my elder brother and sister-in-law. I have been making money to support my family over the years and supporting my old mothers. As a man, I have not done my best. It was not until I met a fellow villager that I learned that his mother had just passed away. Before his death, I had been thinking about him, a wanderer who left home.

"It's all a family, why are you talking about this..." The woman waved her hand embarrassedly, then seemed to remember something and said quickly: "By the way, Yulu, you haven't eaten yet, are you? Wait, sister-in-law will cook for you immediately."

"No need for sister-in-law..."

"It's okay, eat something first, it'll be fine soon." The woman stood up and went out of the room to work. The scholar couldn't hold on for a while, so she could only go with her.

Soon, the woman cooked a bowl of glutinous rice balls and brought them. The scholar who smelled the familiar smell, who had not eaten anything, couldn't help but make a sound, and suddenly felt a little embarrassed. The woman didn't care, and smiled and put the glutinous rice balls in front of him, urging him to eat it quickly.

Ningbo’s dumplings are famous all over the world. Although the scholar’s ​​ancestral home is Shaoxing, his family has been moving to Ningbo for many years. Shaoxing and Ningbo’s eating habits are basically the same. I haven’t eaten this bowl of dumplings for a long time. I finished eating a few bites of the dumplings and touched my much more comfortable belly. The scholar couldn’t help but praise him.

"It's fine if you think it's delicious. Now that I'm at home, my sister-in-law will make it for you in the future." The woman happily packed up the dishes and said.

"By the way, sister-in-law, where is my elder brother? Why is he not at home?" asked the scholar.

"Your brother is busy now and you have to wait until the sun sets before you come back." The woman said while cleaning up.

"Is my elder brother still teaching in elementary school? Are you so busy with elementary school?" The scholar said strangely. Before he left home, he had earned some money in elementary school. Sometimes he even gave people some subsidies for copying.

"I'm not going to do it long ago." The woman had finished packing up at this time and said with a smile: "There are all the old calendars of the primary school students last year. Your elder brother is now very promising. Now he is the chief editor of the Great Governor's Office, and he can get a salary of five taels of silver per month."

"The Grand Governor's Office? The Chief Editor?" The scholar was shocked when he heard this. Isn't the Grand Governor mentioned by his sister-in-law Hong Qiang, a big rebel who occupies a small half of Zhejiang and Susong in Ningbo? Is his eldest brother actually working under Hong Qiang now? And he is also the chief editor of the Household Journal?

But this shock was only a moment in the mind of scholars, because he immediately thought that the place where he was was Hong Qiang's Ningbo nest? Moreover, what he saw and heard when he returned to Ningbo was completely different from what he knew in other places. Since Ningbo had been managed like this by thieves, there were naturally many people who did things for Hong Qiang. His eldest brother was also a scholar, and he was even good at writing and calculating. It was normal to find a job on the thieves' side.

The scholar came back this time, firstly because he learned the news of his mother's death, and secondly because he had made a living in Jiangxi by traveling to Mu. Now, because of the chaos in Jiangxi, his boss was in danger of being in danger, so he voluntarily resigned from Muzhi and returned home.

I thought that when I returned to Ningbo, I would see a depressed and even a miserable life, but who would have thought that what Ningbo saw was a prosperous and vibrant city. Even from the faces of the people of Ningbo, scholars felt that after leaving home for many years, the people of Ningbo seemed to have lived much better than before, just like the dumplings I ate just now. When I was a child, this was a good thing that could only be eaten during the Chinese New Year, but my sister-in-law made a bowl for him like she was eating.

Since my elder brother was not here, the scholar first stolen the spiritual seat of his parents at home, and planned to wait a few days before he could go to the cemetery to worship with his elder brother. Then, he picked up some words and chatted with his sister-in-law, not only about his experiences over the years, but also learned a lot about Ningbo from his sister-in-law.

Not long after the sun set, his elder brother finally came back. When he saw his younger brother who had not seen him for several years, the scholar's elder brother was extremely happy. The two brothers were filled with emotion when they met. Seeing this, the sister-in-law specially cooked a few good dishes and went out to make a pot of wine, so that the two brothers could have a good meal.

The two brothers talked a lot, and the brother asked about their younger brother’s experience over the years, and at the same time, they also said that the old mother held her hand last year and wanted him to find her younger brother as soon as possible. Speaking of this, the two brothers couldn’t help but shed tears. When they talked about their youth, they laughed happily at the same time.

"Yulu, you have twenty-three this year, right?"

The scholar nodded, and looked at his elder brother in confusion.

"A man is married when he is old, and Xiaoshu can start school soon, and your lifelong affairs must be handled. Your parents are no longer here. The so-called elder brother is a father, and he will find someone for you these days, tell you about family marriage, and get married as soon as possible." The elder brother said to the scholar with a smile.

"Marry?" The scholar was stunned and then smiled bitterly: "I am a disabled person without the power to fight the chicken, and I have no fame and fortune. I have been wasting my spare time and have accomplished nothing in the past few years. Can the family look down on me? Why are you talking about getting married?"

As he said that, the scholar shook his head, picked up the wine cup in front of him and drank the remaining wine inside.
Chapter completed!