Concubine Survival Guide

From that day on, Sheng Yan no longer missed the sweet and soft pastry.Even if someone specially made pastries for him many years later, he would not take a bite.

In his opinion, the lesson must be remembered for a lifetime, otherwise it is easy to fall in the same place, it is not carelessness, but stupidity!

After giving the ashes and cakes, the fourth and fifth brothers seemed to like giving him things, and they gave him a piece of candy or a wooden doll every now and then.

Sheng Yan accepted it with a smile, but the expression on his face was very stiff and gloomy, which made his two elder brothers very happy, so they continued to give it away happily, and always chose to give it away when the second elder brother Long Bisheng was around. , Make a respectful look of brothers and friends.

Although he was very disdainful in his heart, they could no longer deceive him with their hypocritical tricks, but Sheng Yan still accepted everything he ordered.Because he owns very few things, since the two elder brothers are willing to give them away, there is no reason for him not to accept them.Therefore, he and the little beggar also had their first batch of property: a box of incense ashes dug out of cakes, a stack of wood that they chipped into pieces, a few nails melted out of sugar, And a dirty book covered in rat droppings.

Sometimes Sheng Yan really admires the imagination of these two elder brothers. If they used the kung fu of teasing themselves on their studies, they might not always be slapped by Master Zeng.Look at the sixth brother, he is smarter than them, although he is not as intelligent as the second brother, but he can pretend, as long as his master asks questions for an exam, he will pretend to have a stomachache, or an old disease, so as to successfully fool him.

On this day, Mrs. Zeng asked me to recite the opening paragraph of "Chang'an Youth Journey", which was very popular in Yongjia recently. Sheng Yan tried hard to recite it. One accidentally tore it, and he only read those sentences twice.

But Sheng Yan wanted to try it, so he recalled it slowly while recalling it: "The golden and purple young man, he walked around the street with his horse light. He was a left lieutenant and belonged to Youchunfang. He wore a Yangzhou cap and smoked exotic incense heavily. Walking on the green grass with the whip, come and go... come and go..."

When he recited "Lai Qu Xing Yuan Fang", Sheng Yan couldn't think of it anymore. He repeated it several times. When the master was about to have a fit, when he picked up the ruler, he saw the second elder brother in front of him draw a picture on the paper. An apricot blossom and a courtyard gate.

Being mentioned in this way, he immediately remembered, and said calmly: "Come and go to Xingyuanfang!"

The master nodded slightly satisfied, and finally put down the ruler that made Sheng Yan feel lingering.

After the boring cultural class, Zhang Fuzi and Luo Fuzi explained the basic knowledge of spices to them.Except for the second elder brother, Long Bisheng, who has a grade and does not need to listen, the other young masters must take this class.And Sheng Yan had already missed many classes because of his leg injury, so he listened with extra concentration, afraid that he might miss something.

As for the homework he missed, the second elder brother said that he would make up for him and asked him to find him in the water pavilion after class.

The one who is teaching this class today is Mr. Luo. Because his wife is the cousin of the third aunt, the two families are very close. Mr. Luo always takes special care of the fourth and fifth young masters.Sheng Yan muttered unhappily in his heart, look, the fourth brother didn't answer the question again, but Master Luo didn't mean to punish him at all, it's really biased!

But this is the reality, he has no way to change it, he can only redouble his efforts to remember the knowledge that Luo Fuzi told in his mind.And reminded himself over and over again, as long as he has the opportunity, he must pass the exam earlier than the fourth and fifth brothers!

But the ideal is very skinny, and he still can't feel the outline.After walking away for a while, Luo Fuzi caught his eye and called him up, asking: "Young Master Ten, do you know how the ashes used for burning incense are made?"

According to Shengyan's common sense, he would definitely answer without thinking, incense ash, isn't it just the ashes from burnt incense?

But after he saw the box of hibiscus and osmanthus cakes given to him by his fourth and fifth brothers, he didn't think so.That night, he could see that the incense ash was very different from the incense ash burned from Xinzixiang. Not only was it very white in color, but it was also very delicate, and it felt a little slippery when pinched.

With this question in mind, Sheng Yan found the answer in "Puze Fragrance Book" the next day.The book talks about the way of incense, saying that in the formal way of burning incense, the incense ash used in the incense burner is carefully prepared, and one of them is snow white.When burning incense, it is not allowed to light the incense cake directly into the incense burner, but to burn it thoroughly, and then bury it under the incense ash mixed with charcoal. This is the so-called "burning incense and burying fire".Only in this way can the incense cakes be burned slowly until the fragrance is completely released and finally burned out.

Of course, if you use delicate Hexiang pills, the method of burning incense is more troublesome than this, and Sheng Yan hasn't fully figured it out yet.

He thought for a while, and replied to Luo Fuzi: "In the incense burner, a kind of snow-white incense ash is usually used. It is crushed with unmelted solid lime, fried in an iron pan, ground after cooling, and then burned with cattails. The ashes are combined together and slowly simmered over a high fire to make it. After it is made, it will be white in the incense burner, and it looks very white and lovely."

Luo Fuzi looked at Sheng Yan a little more in surprise, and asked again: "The recipe you mentioned for making incense ash should be the sixth recipe of the incense ash recipe recorded in "Puze Fragrance Book"...Why, you Have you read this book?" Logically, in Long's house, only those who are allowed to formally start learning incense and enter Xiaoxiangtai can read this book.

The second young master, Long Bisheng, got this book when he was seven years old. It was specially given to him by his grandfather as a birthday present.During the few years when he was picked up, his grandfather taught him the recipe for making incense. Otherwise, he would not have passed the fourth rank directly when he was ten years old when he took the first rank exam.

Asked by him, Sheng Yan realized that he had lost his composure.Rolling his eyes, he quickly replied: "The words back to the master were mentioned by the second elder brother when we chatted with me last time, and I don't remember the recipe completely... I made an ax in front of the master and the three elder brothers." !"

Fourth Young Master and Fifth Young Master snorted coldly at him.

The Sixth Young Master didn't make a sound, just looked at his slightly flushed side face thoughtfully.

Because he lied, Sheng Yan didn't dare to answer Luo Fuzi's question anymore.Mr. Luo didn't punish him either, because he thought it was normal, and the tenth young master shouldn't know more about incense making than the fourth and fifth young masters.

After only being in the limelight for a short while, Sheng Yan didn't dare to try again, not because it didn't feel good, but because it felt so good, he was afraid that he would become addicted to it, once he lost his composure, the second elder brother The fact that he gave himself the "Puze Fragrance Book" will be known, and the little secret he kept so hard will be gone.

Moreover, this is not the first time I have lied.

As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, so if you lie a lot, you won't blush and your heart won't beat, right?

If he told the truth, the second elder brother might be angry with him, and he would never give himself such sweetness again.After thinking about it carefully, Sheng Yan felt that this should not be done in the future. As for why he should not do this, he couldn't quite figure it out.But he just knew that the fourth and fifth elder brothers looked at him very unkindly just now, in order to avoid trouble, he couldn't keep thinking about being in the limelight.

The second elder brother looked at Sheng Yan thoughtfully.

He used to think that Sheng Yan was stunned, that's why he was bullied by his fourth and fifth brothers, but after hearing him tell the lie he told today, Long Bisheng looked at him with admiration in his heart, isn't Sheng Yan so honest? Well, to be honest, the kid won't be famous in the Long family, and luckily he wasn't... otherwise... He smiled and pulled a lock of cigarette-filled hair, and said with a smile: "Well, it's nothing to lie occasionally, you're right Actually, let me tell you, I lied too..."

"Really? The second brother also lied?" Sheng Yan asked in surprise.

Long Bisheng recalled it for a while and told him: "Of course, I dropped a box containing incense pills at my grandfather's house during the Chinese New Year the year before last. Inside were all the fragrant incense pills that my grandfather liked. When I dropped them at that time, the incense pills I poured it all into the fish tank, and it was all gone...Because I was afraid that my grandpa would be angry, I lied and said that I didn't know where the box was...As a result, a group of maids and servants were beaten with a big board, and there was a bone in their bodies. At worst, he passed out on the spot.”

Hearing him say this with peace of mind, Sheng Yan felt that he was still different from him. If he lied and implicated so many people, he would not dare after all.

After spending half an hour making up lessons, Sheng Yan shirked that he would go back to do the homework assigned by his master and ran back to the house. He felt that he had to think carefully about whether he should go to curry favor with his second brother.

If I offended my fourth and fifth brothers, I would be taught a lesson by them at worst, but what if I accidentally offended my second brother in the future?Sheng Yan was a little afraid to think about it.

During this period of time, the little beggar who was used to rubbing the bed with him gave him an idea, saying: "You can wait until your birthday is over to think about it, don't care if he really treats you well, get the benefits first If you don’t get nothing, don’t get it. Don’t imitate me, only to realize that there was an ingot of silver in the big brother’s study when you became a beggar, you are so stupid!”

Sheng Yan was amused by his mediocre talk.

But what he said was really reasonable. When it was his birthday, Sheng Yan calmly took the small box that his second brother handed him.When I opened it, it was eight brown Hexiang pills the size of soybeans.

Before he had time to ask him what this kind of Hexiang Wan was called, Sheng Yan sincerely thanked him and left, because Xiao Xi came and asked him to go to Second Aunt's place to eat longevity noodles.Even Second Aunt remembered his birthday, which was beyond his expectation.

Xiao Xi held his hand and asked, "The tenth young master also got a gift, and it was the gift from the second young master! This is really great."

Following her into the room, Second Aunt was also very happy when she saw the box containing Hexiang Wan in his hand, so she quickly took him and sat beside her, and asked Xiao Xi to go to the kitchen to bring longevity noodles.

It was the first time for Sheng Yan to eat Changshou noodles with shredded beef and egg dumplings, so he devoured it hungrily, and almost lost the etiquette when eating.

The strange thing is that the second aunt, who has always paid the most attention to etiquette, not only did not correct him, nor did she criticize him, but wiped his mouth softly.It's just that she asked him from time to time about whether the second elder brother always came to play with him, which caused Sheng Yan to almost choke several times.

After he finished eating the noodles, Second Auntie had finished asking.

Sheng Yan wiped her mouth, and heard her say to herself with a smile: "Tomorrow, I will go and tell the old man to officially write you under the name of the second room. Yan'er...do you understand?" ?”

Before the noodles were digested, Sheng Yan was stunned when he heard the second aunt smashing such a big firework bomb.

Xiao Xi pushed his arm and whispered in his ear: "Quick, don't you change your mind?"

Only then did Sheng Yan come to his senses, and immediately knelt on the ground, kowtowed three times to Second Aunt, raised her head and shouted sweetly: "Aunt!"

But at the same time, he vaguely saw the unrestrained smile frozen at the corner of her mouth as Fourth Aunt was holding his hand when she was about to die.