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Chapter 36: Betrayed Again
The next day, before dawn, Madam Zhu hurried to the end of the village, wanting to get her gold hairpin and five taels of silver back.
From a distance, she saw smoke coming from the bamboo-enclosed yard before dawn.
This family is not dead?
And she seems to smell the scent of meat?
How is this possible? The old man must be secretly subsidizing their family again!
Okay!
Madam Zhu ran to the bamboo house angrily. She was going to tear that Wang bitch's face!
The big bad wolf was sneaking over a large piece of beef it got from the kitchen today down the mountain.
It saw Madam Zhu murderously running toward Wen Nuan's house from a distance.
The big bad wolf sped up immediately, and after a few leaps, it came to Madam Zhu's back.
Madam Zhu's had just lifted her hand to slap the door.
There is a wolf howl behind you!
She turned around and saw a huge black figure rushing forward. She was so scared that she forgot to scream, and ran away!
The big bad wolf kept chasing Madam Zhu until she fell in the river, then turned back to the house.
In this late autumn morning, the weather is cold!
Madam Zhu was left flailing in the river. The water was so bitter that could hardly move her limbs and it took her awhile to climb up out of the river. When she got home, she was so still so cold that she turned purple and sneezed again and again.
She was sick for a few days and couldn't even get out of bed!
――
Wen Nuan doesn't know about this matter.
Today, the Wen Family split up to sell snails. Wen Chun and Wen Xin went to a few villages to the east, Wen Hou and Madam Wang went to a few villages to the west, and Madam Wu took Wen Ran and Wen Luo to gather snails in the river.
Wen Nuan and Wen Jiarui went to town to sell snails.
In town, many people had already bought and tasted the fried snails yesterday, and they all thought they were delicious, so less than an hour after the stall was put out, five big barrels of snails were sold out!
The old man who bought snails first yesterday came late, and found there was only two bowls of snails left. Looking annoyed, he said: "Already gone so soon? Pack up the rest for me."
He planned to buy some fried snails and invite a few old friends to the restaurant to try it, and see what everyone thinks.
Wen Nuan smiled and said, "Does Grandpa still want want to buy two more bowls tomorrow? I will set it aside for you."
The old man listened and said with a smile: "The girl is considerate, but two bowls are not enough! I want at least ten bowls."
"Okay!" Wen Nuan quickly packed the last two bowls and handed it to him.
The old man took it, paid the money, and left in a hurry.
After the snails were sold out, Wen Jiarui let Wen Nuan sit in the cart and pushed her home.
When they passed the bookstore, Wen Nuan said she wanted to buy another book. The books she studied last night were not comprehensive enough.
The two of them entered the bookstore and Wen Nuan selected two books, one about ancient music theory and the other about famous music scores. After asking the price, they actually asked for a couple taels of silver. The shopkeeper said that these two books were popular best sellers, and that they had only arrived today. If she comes back tomorrow, they will be gone.
Wen Nuan bought them, saying that her brothers and sisters can use it later.
Wen Jiarui thought that Wen Nuan wanted to learn the qin, and planned to buy her one when the house was built and there was extra money.
On the way home, Wen Nuan sat in the cart and read the two books.
She reads quickly, and never forgets what she has read.
The contents of these books are indeed better than those bought at the old bookstore.
After reading these books, she roughly understood what kind of music everyone likes in this dynasty, as well as the level of musical instrumentation and development that this dynasty possessed.
It wasn't yet noon when they returned home, and the others weren't back yet.
Wen Jiarui put away the cart, and went to gather more snails to sell tomorrow. This morning, only Madam Wu went with Wen Ran and Wen Luo to gather snails. It is estimated that they will not have enough to sell tomorrow.
It was too early for Wen Nuan to go up the mountain. She nourished the ginseng and other medicinal materials with purple qi, then purified the jade stone. She was going to raise the jade for two more days. During the county festival, she would go to the county seat to sell it for a good price, and take Wen Xin home by the way.
Wen Nuan is done studying the music of this time. In the bottom of a box, she found leftover brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone used by Wen Chun and Wen Hou when they went to school, and began to compose.
After awhile, the big bad wolf came with a donkey on his back. Xiao Hei, who had finally escaped Feng Nianchen's clutches, came with two pheasants.
Seeing Wen Nuan so busy, the two little things stayed obediently by her side.
The tone and mode of this dynasty are different from modern music. However, it is similar to the ancient five-tone musical system that Wen Nuan was familiar with. The five-tones refer to Gong, Shang, Jue, Zhi, and Yu respectively, which are roughly the same as 1 (do), 2 (re), 3 (mi), 5 (sol), and 6 (la) on modern musical notation. Bian Zhi and Bian Gong are roughly equivalent to 4 (fa) and 7 (ti).
Generally, the ancients used Gong as the first tone of a scale, but the other five tones can also be used.
The ancient five-tone system is used together with the twelve pitch pipes. The twelve pitch pipes mentioned here are actually the six yang pipes, and the six yin pipes, that is, twelve different pitches.
She wrote with bold strokes on the paper, drafting and composing on several different pieces of paper in this way, until she was satisfied: “If only there was a qin to try it out.”
The big bad wolf has been squatting by Wen Nuan's side, watching her be busy.
Hearing her words, his wolf head tilted thoughtfully, then he glanced at a few crumpled pieces of paper on the ground. He picked up a ball and ran out.
Seeing this, Xiao Hei also picked up a ball of paper on the ground and flew away.
Wen Nuan didn’t notice, she let the ink on the paper dry, then folded it up. After selling snails tomorrow, she planned to stop by Jiao Band to sell her composition.
On the red paper outside the door of Jiao Band, it was written that they were preparing for the Empress Dowager’s Thousand Autumn Banquet.
The original owner liked to read miscellaneous books. From the memory of the original owner, she knew that this historically non-existent Nalan Kingdom advocates rituals and music, and that the accompaniments of rituals and music have developed very prosperously here.
Because the current Emperor and Empress Dowager like to listen to music very much, there are many large and small folk music workshops for the purpose of discovering good musicians and good music.
Wen Nuan picked up a few pieces of paper lying on the ground, and used them to light a fire for cooking. Soon smoke drifted up from the courtyard.
On the mountain...
The capital people have quickly delivered the set of precious tableware, and Steward Yuan is showing the prepared gift list to Nalan Jinnian.
Nalan Jinnian glanced at the items on the gift list. There were medicinal materials, various delicacies, tea, tableware, tea sets, fabric, clothes, and shoes. He thought of the other day day when he was served porridge instead of rice. “Send more rice noodles and other ingredients for my meals."
Steward Yuan was stunned when he heard this: "For meals? Master, this is absolutely impossible! It is not safe to eat outside."
He did not say that he suspected those small farmers dared to poison his master. Even if someone gave them a hundred points of courage, they did not dare!
But what if someone knows about it, and takes the opportunity to poison people quietly?
Speaking of which, he was frightened by Master Feng yesterday, and he forgot to warn her off Miss Wen!
"No need to say more, this is my decision. In the future, you only need to prepare meals for Feng Nianchen alone." Nalan Jinnian glanced at him, and his eyes were meaningful. If it weren't that this person made things that were really hard to eat, would he need to do this?
Steward Yan: "..."
Master, this is despising his cooking!
Steward Yuan feels that he has received ten thousand critical hits to his heart!
He is a housekeeper, not an imperial cook!!!
It is not easy to be able to make four dishes and one soup a day!
That is what he took a lot of thought to do.
Nalan Jinnian ignored Steward Yuan, and said lightly: "Everything is ready, I'll send it out at that time."
At this moment, the big bad wolf ran in and set the ball in his mouth on the ground, then glanced at Nalan Jinnian and wagged his tail!
Xiao Hei also flew in and put a ball of paper on the table.
Nalan Jinnian picked up the paper on the table and glanced at it with a raised eyebrow: Draft of a musical score?
Nalan Jinnian glanced at Steward Yuan.
Steward Yuan immediately picked up the other paper ball on the ground and presented it to him.
Nalan Jinnian took it, uncrumpled the paper and looked it over. It was another draft of sheet music. Was this relatively complete musical score written by Wen Nuan?
Did that girl compose this score herself?
He is proficient in composition, and after just one look, he can see that the song is magnificent.
She actually did it?
This kind of mind, this kind of syntax is definitely not something that a small peasant girl can have!
That girl is really...
She is surprising!
Wen Nuan's nose was suddenly itchy and she sneezed: Who is thinking of me?
She couldn't think of anything else, she was probably betrayed by those two little things again!
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Those two animals are so cute!
ReplyDeleteThey are scene stealers!
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