Poor Family

  Chapter 5 Enemy's Road is Narrow

  Li Yanqing didn't know whether he should disturb this person. At this moment, there was a sound of hurried footsteps, and Li Daqi turned out from the moon gate in the corridor next to him, and said to himself, "Strange, where did he go?"

   "Qing'er, your fourth uncle is not here, let's pay respects first, and offer incense later!"

  Li Daqi's voice alarmed the middle-aged man in the main hall. He quickly stuffed the gourd into his arms, hurriedly put the wine pot back to its original place, the door creaked, and Li Yanqing walked in.

  Li Yanqing acted as if he hadn't seen anything, turned his head and said to his father, "Daddy, there are people in the main hall!"

   "Hehe, I was shocked. It turned out to be Qing'er. It's been a long time." The middle-aged man secretly heaved a sigh of relief, it turned out to be this silly boy.

  Li Daqi also came in, he was surprised and happy and said: "I can't find anyone everywhere, so the fourth brother is in the main hall."

  This man is called Li Daguang, he is Li Daqi's cousin, and he is also a scholar.

  Li Yanqing saw his appearance clearly now. He was actually very young, at most thirty years old, but his hair and beard were already half white. He looked like a middle-aged man in his early fifties.

  However, although his beard and hair are half white, the beard on his chin is a foot long, and he looks a bit fairy-like.

He is tall and tall, wearing a snow-white gown, the workmanship is very exquisite, and there is a gentle and elegant demeanor in every gesture, like a Taoist priest who is practicing alchemy in the ancestral hall, and is in stark contrast to Li Daqi, who is wearing a patched and torn shirt and is thin .

  Seeing that Li Yanqing did not kowtow to him, Li Daguang felt a little uncomfortable, and asked Li Daqi again, "Why is Daqi here today?"

   "Qing'er has fully recovered, and I'm here today to thank my ancestors for their protection."

   "Should!"

  Li Daguang glanced at Li Yanqing, then pulled Li Daqi aside with a half-smile and asked, "Maybe I shouldn't ask, Qing'er looks very smart! Why do everyone call him stupid?"

  Li Daqi smiled wryly, "I was a little silly before, but thanks to the blessing of my ancestors, Qinger suddenly became enlightened."

"Oh I got it."

  Father and uncle hid aside and murmured, but Li Yanqing looked around this rather magnificent main hall curiously.

The main hall is not very tall from the outside, with a maximum of three floors, but it looks very tall from the inside, with an all-wood structure, a few long curtains hanging from a huge beam, and dozens of tables stacked by the north window , it seems that there are often banquets in the ancestral hall.

In the middle is the Spirit Pagoda, which is actually a huge two-story wooden niche, occupying more than half of the main hall. It is densely filled with the Spirit Tablets of Li's four-family ancestors, which go up layer by layer like a pagoda. More than a hundred tablets.

Li Yanqing found the top part a bit strange. Generally speaking, there is only one spiritual tablet on the top, which is the first ancestor enshrined in the family ancestral hall. The Li family is no exception. There is indeed a tablet on the top, which is placed in the middle of all the tablets. demonstrate its ancestral status.

But on this ancestor there is a larger spirit card, which seems to be made of very expensive rosewood, placed on the side, what makes Li Yanqing feel strange is that there is no word on this spirit card, It seems to be a spare spare tablet, but a kind of intuition tells Li Yanqing that it is the real ancestor of the Li family.

   "What is Qing'er looking at?" Li Daqi stepped forward and asked.

   "I'm looking at the top, Dad, were our ancestors officials?"

  Li Daqi remembered that today was the first time his son came to the ancestral hall after he became enlightened. He used to sneak under the table to find food. It was rare for his son to take the initiative to ask about the ancestors.

  A strong sense of responsibility made Li Daqi feel the need to tell his son about the glorious history of his ancestors.

He pointed to the spirit card in the middle of the top and said: "See if you see it, that is our earliest ancestor. When the Taizu of this dynasty was the right leader, General Wei, Congpu was his name, but the earliest name was Congqian. He has Seven sons, the third son of the concubine moved to Tangyin County, Xiangzhou during the reign of Emperor Taizong, and he had four more sons, which formed our today's Sifang."

Only then did Li Yanqing know that his ancestor was actually a great general of the Song Dynasty, but he seemed to know Li Congqian. Li Yanqing pondered for a while, and finally remembered that this Li Congqian was a poet and calligrapher in the early Song Dynasty, or a post-Tang The younger brother of the Lord Li Yu.

   "Then, who is the wordless spiritual tablet at the top?" Li Yanqing asked, pointing to the secret spiritual tablet at the top.

  Li Daqi saw the wordless spirit tablet on the top, he was taken aback immediately, and asked anxiously, "Fourth, why did you take out the spirit tablet of the Great Patriarch?"

"You forgot, the day after tomorrow Lushan House will worship the ancestors, so the patriarch took it out. It was originally taken out tomorrow, but tomorrow is not good, so it was put up at noon today. The patriarch also specially told me to let me Sleep in the main hall for two nights, take good care of it."

   "Playing the piano randomly!"

  Li Daqi was very dissatisfied and said: "According to the clan rules, it can only be taken out during the ten-year great sacrifice. Now it is just a small sacrifice in Lushanfang. How can the patriarch..."

  Li Daguang curled his lips, and said disapprovingly: "I don't know about it, anyway, it is in the hands of the patriarch, and who cares if the patriarch wants to worship the ancestors!"

  Li Yanqing asked curiously: "Daddy, whose spirit card is that?"

  Li Daqi was a little embarrassed, and said half aloud: "This... I will tell you when you grow up, and Dad can't tell you now."

   "There is nothing to say!"

  Li Daguang was a little dissatisfied with Li Daqi's attitude of criticizing the patriarch just now. He squatted down and pointed to the tablet without a letter and said to Li Yanqing: "Qing'er, that is the real glory of our family. He is a supreme person, do you understand?"

   Li Yanqing was taken aback, isn't the supreme being the emperor? His thoughts turned sharply, could it be Li Yu who was in the wind in Xiaolou last night? Impossible, Li Yu has no descendants in history, and how can Li Yu's spirit card be placed on Li Congqian's, usually his father.

Li Yanqing has already guessed who this person is. It should be Li Yu and Li Congqian's father Li Jing. Li Yanqing happened to read the words written by him in a pile of books borrowed by his father two days ago. Li Yanqing couldn't help blurting out: " It turns out that he is Li Jing who writes Xiaolou and blows Yu Shenghan!"

   Li Daguang stood up in shock and looked at Li Daqi. Li Daqi also waved his hands in fright, "I never told him, how could I talk nonsense about such things."

  Li Daguang squatted down again and asked cautiously: "Qing'er, who told you this?"

   "Didn't you tell me just now? He is Li Congqian's father, who was once the supreme person, who is not Li Jing?"

  Li Daguang and Li Daqi looked at each other, they were completely stunned, after a while, Li Daqi suddenly realized, and quickly reprimanded: "Qing'er, you are not allowed to say the name of the ancestor casually, this is disrespect to the ancestor, understand?"

   "Qing'er, how do you know his name?" Li Daguang asked puzzled.

  Li Yanqing smiled and said: "I just read a poem Huanxisha written by him a few days ago. The fragrance of the hanzi sells the green leaves, and the west wind worries about the green waves, so I know him."

  Li Daguang sighed for a long time, turned back to Li Daqi and said, "It's a pity not to send him to school for such a talented and beautiful jade."

   Li Daqi's face suddenly became extremely pale.

  . ． ． ． ． ． ．

   "Qing'er, don't go far, I will leave after a few words with your fourth uncle." Li Daqi shouted to his son in the yard.

   "Understood!" Li Yanqing responded lazily and nonchalantly from the yard.

   "Letting him worship his ancestors is like killing him. Some people are not qualified to worship, and they don't know how to be blessed when they are blessed!"

  Li Daqi grumbled dissatisfiedly to his son's back, just now Li Yanqing was forced by his father to kneel reluctantly, but he never kowtowed.

  Li Daguang didn't care too much about Li Yanqing's etiquette, he was still reminiscing about Li Yanqing's previous genius performance.

"Daqi, you still have to find a way to let your child enter the school! We can teach him to read a few poems, which is good, but without the contacts of the county school, how can we let him take the county exam in the future? Without the county exam, how can he be recommended by the county magistrate?" To participate in the solution test?"

   "Of course I know, but... hey! It was so easy to save a little money and I lost it. What should I do if I don't have any money? Why don't you lend me ten pennies first!"

Li Daguang smiled wryly and said: "I really want to help you, but you know that I like to drink, and now I still owe three drinks in the tavern, and I have no money, my brother should go to the patriarch to try it out, It stands to reason that the patriarch should help the children of the clan to study."

  Li Daqi shook his head, "Ask him to borrow money, it is better to ask a bank to borrow money, except that no mortgage is required, and his interest rate is higher than that of a bank."

   "Why don't you go to the bookstore in the county again, my dear brother? Didn't shopkeeper Luo ask you to work there?"

   "But Butler Liu won't ask for leave!"

  Li Daguang suddenly said angrily: "A **** butler is nothing, you just go to the county, I will tell the patriarch tomorrow, I think that Liu Heizhu dare to say anything?"

  Li Daqi finally made up his mind. In order for his son to study in school, he must go to the county bookstore to copy books.

Besides, there was one more terrible thing that he didn't dare to tell his son. He wrote 50 IOUs for medical expenses to Butler Liu, ten of them were taken away, and he still owed 40. The other party ordered him to pay it off within a month. In twenty more days, he had to find a way to borrow the forty pennies.

   Butler Liu made it very clear that if he dared to renege on his debt, he would attack his son.

  . ． ． ． ． ． ．

  Li Yanqing rushed out of the gate of the ancestral hall early. The two-two-weight small fish he caught just now was placed beside the stream. He made a small wall with mud and kept the two fish inside.

After waiting for his father to come out for a long time, he turned over stones in the creek again. Luckily, he caught three loaches in a row, and there was no place to put them. He simply smashed the heads of the loaches with a stone. Tonight, he could stew a pot of fresh loach. Fish soup is gone.

  Thinking of the soy pot loach that he had eaten before, the glutton began to writhe in his stomach.

At this moment, he suddenly saw three children coming out of the woods. They were the three villainous children who beat his father with mud and stones that day. The leader was the son of Steward Liu. Judging by their sneaky appearance, there must be no Good thing, Li Yanqing quickly dodged and hid behind a big cypress tree.

   "Li Er, I told you that the offerings will only start tomorrow. If you don't believe me, my father is the housekeeper. Doesn't it mean he doesn't know how to arrange it?"

   "I'm just in case, didn't you hear the idea of ​​those **** in Lushanfang who are also making white jade cakes? We have to get ahead of them."

   "Fu Geer, are white jade cakes really that delicious?"

"Of course it's delicious. It's glutinous and thin. It melts in your mouth. It's so sweet that you can't buy it in the county. According to my father, it's a special offering sent by the second master of the capital. For the best people to eat, one will cost a lot of money, and we will not steal too much, and each person will eat one."

  The three of them looked at the entrance of the ancestral hall for a while, and Liu Fuer kicked Li Er next to him, "I explained that the offerings started to be placed only then, but if you don't believe me, it's a waste of time!"

   "Isn't this Fugeer? What are you doing here?"

  Li Daqi just came out of the ancestral hall, and met three villainous boys who made his head huge.

Liu Fu'er smiled contemptuously, and suddenly raised her voice and said to the Li family brothers: "I'll tell you a funny story. A few days ago, a dog chased me, but it didn't even bite a single hair of mine. I told my father. Being bitten by a vicious dog, guess what?"

  Li Daqi's face suddenly flushed red, and he said angrily: "It turns out that my Dahei didn't bite you!"

Liu Fu'er ignored Li Daqi, and continued to say triumphantly: "My father took the servants and beat up the dog owner. I heard that he even beat out feces and urine, and sprayed my father with blood. The funniest thing is that he is still kneeling on the ground." Crawling like a dog, crawling under the crotches of the four servants, my father is kind-hearted, and he only made him pay fifty pennies for medical expenses!"

   "Your father is really kind-hearted. If you ask me, he must pay you a hundred pennies."

   "I think I should pay a thousand guan!"

The three villains laughed, turned around and walked away. Li Daqi blushed and turned pale with anger, but he didn't dare to provoke the three villains. At this moment, he suddenly saw his son standing by the stream, and he was startled. , Hastily stepped forward to stop his son, he was afraid that his son would rush forward with a fever.

  But Li Yanqing was surprisingly calm, not angry at all, and watched the three wicked boys go away coldly.

  (end of this chapter)