Tricked by a ferocious beast into time-traveling, the story begins with fleeing famine.

They followed Chen Jinshi to visit his father and brother. When visiting someone's home, they must pay homage to their elders. This is the most basic etiquette.

The Chen family is a large family living together. In addition to his parents, Chen Jinshi also has three brothers and sisters. Of course, he also has sisters, but they are all married and will definitely not live in his natal family.

The distribution of the Chen family's mansion is as follows: the front yard is a place for business discussions and entertaining guests, with a main hall, flower hall, study room and a nicely landscaped yard.

The middle courtyard is where Chen Jinshi's parents and eldest brother live. It is divided into two courtyards, the east courtyard and the west courtyard. The Chen family's parents live in the east courtyard, and the Chen family's eldest brother and his family live in the west courtyard.

The third entrance at the back is where Chen Jinshi, his wife, children, and his third brother's family live. There are also two courtyards on the east and west, so the whole family can live in it.

The fourth entrance is the guest courtyard, where the married daughters of the Chen family come back to live with their husbands and children. It is divided into four or five small courtyards, each with three or four bedrooms, and it is not suitable for receiving other guests. Discourteous.

After meeting the old man of the Chen family and Chen Jinshui, the eldest brother of the Chen family who is now the head of the family, Qingyan and the others were taken by Chen Jinshi to settle down in the guest courtyard.

They were arranged in two adjacent courtyards. This courtyard also had a side door. If they wanted to go out for a walk, they could tell the servants and they would leave a door open for them. They could go out through this side instead of going around to the front. Trouble.

In fact, Qingyan didn't really want to stay at his house. For them, it was really not as convenient as staying in an inn. It wasn't that it was inconvenient to get in and out of the space, but it was inconvenient to go out for a walk.

But isn't this a warm invitation? Since it's difficult to refuse the warm invitation, it's better to rest in the county town for two days and then say goodbye.

Now that Chen Jinshi told them about this side door, Qingyan's worries were completely gone and she felt that it would be good to live here.

If they live here, they can also wait for Chou Chou. Then they can go to the Feilai Peak in the east together.

There was everything in the guest room, so there was no need to go to the carriage to get it. The servants soon brought hot water. They each washed up in the room, and then a servant came over and asked them to go to the front yard. Chen The eldest brother gave them a welcoming banquet and welcomed them to the house.

After Qingyan and Huang Huang heard this, they rummaged through the space and storage bags to see if there were any suitable gifts. They had not given them to each other when they met before, so it could be said that they had just arrived and were too busy to take care of them.

Nowadays, people are giving banquets so solemnly, so it doesn’t look good with empty hands. Fortunately, they have a lot of good things, so they don’t have to give away any gold, silver, and jade items. None of the things they collect can see the light of day. , some have special meanings.

So it’s better to give something special, something that can express your feelings.

Finally, Qingyan and Huang Jin discussed it and brought out five kilograms of diluted monkey wine. When they were buying orange wine in Gaoqiao Town, they overheard Chen Jinshi say that his father liked to drink.

This monkey wine is diluted with water in the space. Although it is not a spiritual spring, it still has some spiritual energy in it. Drinking it is good for the body.

Afterwards, Huang Jin held the wine jar, and Qingyan held the ingot, and followed the servants of the Chen family out of the small courtyard where they lived temporarily. At the entrance of the courtyard, they met Fan Baolin and his entourage who had also followed the servants out.

Seeing the box in Fan Baolin's hand, the other party also looked at the jar in Huang Jin's hand. The two looked at each other and smiled knowingly. As expected, everyone wanted to go together.

Following the servants of the Chen family to the front yard, Qingyan was taken directly to the main hall. Qingyan raised her eyebrows. She didn't expect the other party to be so solemn. She thought they would be banqueting in the flower hall or the side hall at most.

As soon as I entered, I saw two large tables placed in the middle of the main hall. They looked like they were specially made. Each table could seat twenty or thirty people.

Now almost everyone in the Chen family has arrived, sitting on both sides. When the guests came in, everyone except the old man stood up to greet them.

After Chen Jinshi introduced them to each other, the men and women sat on both sides. Mr. Chen sat at the head seat of the table on the left, and Mrs. Chen sat at the head seat of the table on the right.

Qingyan was let next to the old lady. On her other side was Chen Jinshi's wife, on the other side of the old lady was Chen Jinshui's wife, followed by the wife of the third child, Chen Jinfei, and the daughters of each house.

Their table was full of women, and even the gold ingots were brought to the men's table. There was no such thing as a male-female defense, so there was no screen in the middle. They just sat next to each other, and occasionally they could talk to each other.

The reason for the separation is not for anything else. The man likes to drink and talk loudly, and the woman has her own topics to talk about.

The food came quickly and must have been prepared a long time ago. The old lady praised Qingyan's appearance and temperament, and asked her not to be restrained and eat openly. There were servants serving the dishes, so just point at whichever food you wanted to eat.

There's no way the table is too big, and it's not like the revolving tables in later generations. If you try to do it yourself, you have to stand up or even walk over. It's so rude.

Qingyan smiled and nodded, and then started to enjoy the meal generously. During this period, Chen Jinshi's wife, Wang, brought her a lot of dishes to see what she liked.

Although they ate and slept in silence, the men were having a lively chat over cups and cups. After they were half full, they couldn't help but start chatting.

At first, Qingyan listened to them talking about some interesting places in Tonggu County, and then she couldn't help but talk about her experiences on the journey, especially some places with legends, which were even more fascinating.

She has learned from her parents how to communicate with people and speak in front of many people, and she is very good at stirring up the atmosphere and mobilizing other people's emotions.

So soon, all the women at the table stopped talking and listened attentively. From time to time, they would follow her rhythm and become nervous, fearful, or laugh happily.

Even the man at the next table didn't know when he stopped changing glasses and talking, and listened quietly to her story.

Qingyan talked about some of their personal experiences, but changed the names of those involved, and blurred their locations and backgrounds, trying not to reveal their privacy.

Some people use a friend or a family member instead.

When she talked about the Xiang family, not only did she change her last name, she only talked about the furniture that had been tampered with, and did not mention the sunken dowry or the ghost locked in the black box. This was not easy to say, and It's so detailed. If the Chen family goes there in the future, they can match it as soon as they meet.

At this time, I heard the old lady say: "You are still young. Let me tell you, this carpenter cannot be offended casually. I remember when I was a girl in my parents' house, my neighbors were carpenters. I heard that they all had Lu Ban books in their hands. , the book not only contains carpentry techniques, but also many mechanical skills.

I remember when I was twelve years old, the five men in that family went to build a house for a family in a neighboring town. The head of that family was very stingy. Not only did he withhold wages, he also tampered with other people's meals.

It was originally promised that there would be three meals a day, with both meat and vegetables, but as a result, they reduced the portions, the cereals used in the food were still old, and only a little meat was included, which was not enough for one person.

When the work was almost finished and the beams were loaded, they didn't even prepare any copper coins. This made the craftsmen angry. They told them that this was not good, but the craftsmen refused to listen. They even insulted the craftsmen for trying to get a few coins.

Although the craftsmen were angry at the time, they said nothing more. Instead, they installed the beams, took their payment and left.

But before the family could move into the new house, the house caught fire and was burned to ashes. Then someone had to call someone to rebuild it.

Later I heard my dad say that it was because they offended the carpenter next door to us and were retaliated against.

Out of curiosity, I asked my father how the carpenter took revenge. My father said that as long as they moved their hands and feet while doing the work and came back to burn incense, they could kill people without being seen!

This is still not a deadly feud, just an offense, and it only allows the other party to lose money and avoid disaster, otherwise there will be something worse. "

It was obviously the first time for the Chen family next to them to hear the old lady talk about this matter. Of course, a good old lady would not say these things to everyone, but this matter was quite mysterious, and everyone listened with interest and surprise. Great, asked a lot of questions by the way.

Although the old lady still remembers this matter, she definitely doesn’t know what the carpenter did back then. This is the core secret of the family, not to mention her neighbor, even the daughter of that family’s family. It’s not necessarily possible to know this.

After all, carpentry is still done by men, and women cannot do such rough work, so carpentry can be regarded as a type of work that is passed down from male to female. There is no way, the innate advantage is there, and it has nothing to do with anything else.

Qingyan was thoughtful, wondering if the old lady of the Xiang family might have offended the carpenter who made her bed for something, or maybe she was bribed by someone else to pay for her dowry, and she took advantage of it. Not necessarily the hands and feet.

Anyway, these things can no longer be tested. Qingyan is very interested in the Luban book and thinks that she must find a chance to take a look to see if there is any Taoism in it.

She felt that if the house could be made to spontaneously ignite without fire by just using some hands and feet, and the time for it to burn could be controlled from a distance, it must have something to do with Taoism or evil.

Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense, and it would be impossible for the mechanism to be so sophisticated.

Everyone was still interested in listening to these weird and bizarre topics, but it was indeed getting late.

When Qingyan and the others first arrived here, it was not dark yet, but it was already after six o'clock and almost seven o'clock. After washing and eating, it was now almost eight o'clock and almost nine o'clock.

She felt that Qingyan and the others must be very tired from traveling all the way, and it would be a bit irrational to keep pestering them to continue talking, so they stopped the topic and asked them to go back to the yard to rest early.

It is worth mentioning that Xia Xinman and Xiao Qingfeng have not come over at this time, and they don't know what happened there or whether there was something wrong with the goods they sent over.

Ordinarily, since they are staying at the Chen family tonight, they should come over after delivering the goods. It would be a bit bad to knock on the door too late.

There was also the monkey wine given to Mr. Chen by gold. I heard that it was the legendary monkey wine. Mr. Chen couldn't help himself, so he poured a small cup and took a sip, and then quickly had his wine taken back. yard.

His son and grandson didn't even have a chance to taste it, but they were already greedy after smelling the rich aroma of the wine. However, the old man was so stingy that he hid it without letting them touch it. Even the guests I can’t even care anymore.

Qingyan also saw what Fan Baolin gave her. It was a ginseng root. It was not very old, but it was thirty or forty years old. This was already considered good. After all, it was just a gift for the first time. It really needs to be given to her for a hundred years. Ginseng or something like that is too expensive.

And there is a high probability that they will do business with each other in the future, so it’s okay to have that idea.

Then both sides briefly talked about the situation at home, especially Fan Baolin, who also showed off his own strength, which will help future cooperation.

As for the specific method of cooperation, we will definitely have to wait until we see the things before we discuss it. We will wait until tomorrow at the store to talk about it. Seeing the physical objects will be more convincing and it will be easier to set the price.

Also, when everyone heard that Qingyan and the others were from the capital, their expressions became more careful. Judging from Qingyan's temperament, they also knew that her family background was not too ordinary.

And being able to travel and bring his younger brother with him means that he is either not favored at home or is extremely favored. But seeing that they don't look sluggish along the way, you know that they themselves are capable, so the conclusion is that they should not be underestimated. .

After they finished their meal and chatted for a while, they came out of the main hall and saw the concierge coming over with Xia Xinman and Xiao Qingfeng.

Chen Jinshi had already informed the concierge when he came in, and asked him to remember the faces of Xia Xinman and Xiao Qingfeng, so he didn't need to notify them when they came over, and the concierge brought them over directly.

It's just that the timing is a bit unlucky. They came back just after they finished eating, and I don't know if they have eaten yet.

Chen Jinshi first gave a brief introduction to his family and Xia Xinman, and then asked them: "Why did you come back at this time, but what happened? If you have anything, just say it, as long as I will definitely help in any way I can.

Also, have you ever had dinner after coming back so late? If not, I'll ask the kitchen to make some more, and you can make do with some. We've just finished eating, and we can still sit with you, so don't make yourself miserable by being so polite. "

Xia Xinman and his two friends first met with their elders and peers, and then explained to Chen Jinshi with a bit of embarrassment on their faces: "No, no, we have already used it and just finished eating. The reason why we came back late is , it was the shopkeeper over there who insisted on inviting us to the restaurant for dinner, which delayed some time.

Originally, we should have come over first to say something, but the shopkeeper was too enthusiastic and pulled us away and refused to let us go. It was really rude. If we hadn't said that we would come to bother us before, we would have been too embarrassed to come. "

(End of this chapter)