Chapter 22 Chapter 21: A boy pretending to be a surname asks for his name and remembers his relatives

It is said that Niu Pulang was studying in Ganlu nunnery, and the old monk asked him his name. He stepped forward and made a bow, and said, "Master, my surname is Niu, and I live in this front street because my grandmother's parents in Pukou, So the nickname is Pu Lang. Unfortunately, both parents passed away, and there is only one family ancestor, who is over 70 years old. He runs a small scented wax shop and spends his days carelessly. Passing by the entrance of the school, I heard the sound of reading is nice, because I stole money from the store and bought this book to read, but I made a fuss about my teacher and father." The old monk said: "I didn't mean it just now, people spend a lot of money to ask Mr. My son, I still don’t want to read. Like your little Tanyue, stealing money to buy books is a very progressive thing. But it’s cold in the ground, and the glazed lamps are not very bright. There is a table and a lamp hanging in my hall. You Why don't you just read it there, and feel refreshed." Pu Lang thanked the old monk and followed him in. There was indeed a square table with an oil lamp hanging on it, and it was very quiet.Pu Lang is reading in this room, and the old monk is meditating in the other room, until the third watch every night.

One day, the old monk heard him reading, came over and asked: "Little Tanyue, I only thought that you wanted to pass the exam and want to make progress, so you bought this article to read, but now I hear you read poetry, but this one reads it. What's wrong with him?" Pu Lang said: "Our broker's house, what else do we think about to be promoted in the exam, just read two lines of poems to break the convention." The old monk saw that he spoke well, so he asked, "Look at this poem. Are you able to talk about it?" Pu Lang said: "There are many who can't talk about it. If you can talk about one or two sentences, you can't help but feel happy in your heart." The old monk said: "Since you are happy, how long will I read two books?" You will be more happy if you read the poems." Pu Lang said: "What poems does Master have? Why don't you read them with me?" The old monk smiled and said, "Wait a minute, wait until you think about it."

After a while, the old monk went to the countryside to read scriptures at other people's homes. He didn't come back for a few days, locked the door, and entrusted Pu Lang to the hall.Pu Lang suspected in his heart: "Master, father has any poems, but he refuses to read them to me, coaxing me into panic." After careful calculation, "Three begging is worse than one stealing." The door opened and walked in.Seeing an incense burner, a lamp, and a string of rosary beads on the table, and some broken classics on the table, I flipped through it, what poem is there?Pu Lang wondered: "Could it be that the teacher coaxed me?" Then he found a pillow box on the bed, which was locked with a copper lock. , written "Niu Bu Yi Poem Draft".Pu Lang said happily: "This is it!" He hurriedly took it out, locked the pillow box, walked out of the room, the door was still closed, and took the two books under the lamp to have a look, he couldn't help but smile and dance. stand up.What is the reason?The poems he usually read are Tang poems, which are profound in literature and science, and he doesn't understand them very well;I saw that the titles all read: "Master Zhou of Xingxiangguo", "Master Huai Xue Xue Zhou", "Mr. Lou traveled to Yingyu Lake together to share the rhyme, and also presented his elder brother to manage the government", "Farewell to Lu Taishi", " Sending to King Huai for observation", and the other eunuchs, Sima, Ming Fu, and Shaoyin, to name a few.Pu Lang thought to himself: "Xiangguo, Inspector, Taishi, Tongzheng, Taishou, Sima, and Mingfu are all the titles of today's incumbent gentlemen. It can be seen that as long as you can write two lines of poems, you don't need to enter the school or win the exam. What an honor it is to be able to communicate with these gentlemen!" Because he thought: "His surname is Niu, and I am also surnamed Niu. He only wrote Niubuyi in his poem, but he never had a name. Why not put my name together with his I engraved two books and printed them on it, and these two poems are not mine! From now on, I will be called Niubongyi!" I went home that night to plan, and I was happy all night.

The next day, he stole dozens of coins from the store again, walked to the door of Jixiang Temple, a book engraving Guo Tiebi shop, and Guo Tiebi hugged each other, sat down and said: "If you want Mr. Fei's heart, you can carve two squares. Books." Guo Tiebi handed over a piece of paper and said: "Please write your honor title." Pu Lang removed the word "Lang" from his nickname and wrote: "A book in Yin script engraved with 'Niu Pu's Seal'; Fang Yangwen, engraved with the word 'commoner'." Guo Tiebi took it in his hand, looked Pu Lang up and down, and said, "Mr. The stylus hurriedly climbed out of the counter and bowed again, please sit down, served tea, and said: "I have heard for a long time that there is a Niubuyi who lives in Ganluan, and he is not willing to meet people. The people who meet are all noble officials and elders. Disrespect! Disrespect! The honorary badge is engraved on it to show your ugliness, but you dare not take the money. There are also a few friends here who admire you, and will come to visit you at your residence some other day." Pu Lang was afraid that he would go to the nunnery and see the signs, so he could only answer casually. Said: "Mr. Jicheng sees love. But now, because of an appointment from a neighboring county to do poetry, how long will there be delays? It will only be done tomorrow morning. Don't drive in vain, sir. Just come back and get together. The book is also my little brother tomorrow morning." Come and get it." Guo Tiebi agreed, and Pu Lang paid for the book the next day, printed it on it, and kept it well.He still reads poems in the nunnery every night.

His grandfather Niu Laoer sat in the shop.In the afternoon of that day, when there was no business, an old man Bu who owned a rice shop in Jianbi came over and sat chatting.Niu Lao Dae's store sells ready-made Baiyi wine, boil a pot, set aside two pieces of fermented bean curd, some dried bamboo shoots, and kohlrabi, and place them on the counter for the two of them to eat.Mr. Bu said: "It's all right now, old man: business has been booming in recent years. You have made your grandson grow up, and you are really smart. If you have a successor, you will be a blessed man in the future." Old Niu said: "Brother, I can't tell you! I am old and unfortunate, and I have ruined my son and daughter-in-law. I have left this evil seed, and I have never married a grand-daughter-in-law. I am eighteen years old this year. I ask him to go out every day to pay credit. I don't come home in the middle of the night, and I don't believe what I say. It's not a day. I'm afraid this guy has opened up his knowledge. To the end?" As he spoke, he felt sad and panicked.

Mr. Bu said: "It's not very difficult to plan. If you worry that he has no house, why not marry him a grandson's wife, and the family will live together. This is something you have to do before and after." Niu said, "Brother My small business is not enough for daily use, so how can I get this money to make this pavilion?" Mr. Bu pondered, "If Ling has a marriage, I wonder if you would like it? If you are willing, one money It's not worth it." Niu Lao said: "But where is there such a marriage?" Bu Lao said: "I had a little girl who married in Yuncao Jia's family, unfortunately my little girl died of illness, and my son-in-law went out to do business again, leaving behind a niece , I was the one who adopted her to be raised at home, but my eldest grandson is one year old, and I am nineteen years old this year. If you don't mind, I will be your grandson-in-law. I don't want to compete for my dowry, just make a few linen clothes. Besides, there is a wall, and a door can be opened to help passers-by, which can save money for passers-by." After hearing this, Mr. Niu said happily, "Brother Jicheng loves each other, and we will meet tomorrow. The central media came to the house to beg." Bu Laodao, "This is not it anymore. It is not my granddaughter, what are you and I doing with these polite things, now I am the master and the matchmaker, and I only cost you two posts. I sent Geng Tie over from my place, please ask sir to choose a good day, and you will finish this matter." Hearing this, Niu Lao hurriedly poured a glass of wine and brought it over, and bowed in attendance.It's settled now, Bu Lao will go.

In the evening, when Niu Pu came back, his grandfather told Father Bu about his kind intentions.Niu Pu didn't dare to disobey, so he wrote two red full posts the next morning: one was to ask Mr. Bu to be his matchmaker, and the other was to ask Jia's little in-laws.Received it over there, and sent a Geng post.Mr. Niu asked Mr. Yin and Yang Xu to choose an auspicious date on October 27th to go to the house.Mr. Niu sold the few stones of grain he had hoarded, and made a green cotton padded jacket, red cotton skirt, blue cloth top cover, and purple cloth trousers. There were four warm clothes in total, and he changed four jewelry pieces, which he sent three days ago. past.

It's twenty-seven.One day, Mr. Niu got up early in the morning, moved his bedding to the counter and went to sleep.His family only has one and a half rooms: half of which is for the counter, one for the guest seats, and the second half of the guest seats is the new house.That day when Niu Lao got out of bed, he and Wu Pu folded up the newly made tents and quilts.Another small table was found and brought in, and it was changed to a place with a skylight under the back eaves, so that the mirror could be used to comb one's hair while it was bright.The room is ready, and the mansion with a reed mat in the back patio is used as the kitchen.It's been a busy morning.After paying the money, I went shopping with Niupu.Over there, Father Bu had already prepared some mirrors, lampstands, teapots, a set of basins and buckets, and two pillows. He asked his eldest son Bu Cheng to make a load and bring them in. He brought them in and put them down, and made a bow with Niu Lao. .Mr. Niu was really uneasy, so he asked him to sit down, and hurriedly walked into the cabinet, and poured out two pieces of orange cakes and some candied celadon from a jar.He poured out a cup of tea, handed it to Bu Cheng with both hands, and said, "It's hard work, which makes me restless." have tea.

I saw Niu Pu wearing a new corrugated hat, a new blue straight gown, new shoes and clean socks, coming in from the outside, followed by a person, holding a few large pieces of meat, two chickens, and a large fish , and some Fujian bamboo shoots, celery and the like, he walked in with oil and salt seasoning in his hand.Niu Lao said: "This is your uncle, come here to pay respects." Wu Pu dropped the things in his hand, bowed to Bu Cheng and knelt down, got up and counted the money to send to the person who took the things, and took the seasonings by himself, and sent them to the kitchen.Afterwards, Bu Xin, the second son of the Bu family, brought a box containing the bride's needlework shoe uppers; another large plate, ten cups of high-fruit tea, was brought over, thinking that he would use it for worship tomorrow morning.Niu Lao stayed for tea, Niu Pu also visited, and the two Bu family brothers sat down for a while and said goodbye.Niu Lao has been busy all day since he went to the kitchen to clean up the banquet.

In the evening, the store took a pair of long-branched red candles and lit them in the room, with a flower of weed on each branch. I pleaded with the neighbors' two grandmothers to bring the bride over, and worshiped the candles in the room. .Mr. Niu arranges a banquet of food and drink in the bride and groom's room, and sits with the bride and groom and their grandma.I set up a table in the guest seat, lit candles, arranged the cups and chopsticks, and invited the three father and son of the Bu family to come.Mr. Niu first poured a glass of wine, laid a libation of heaven and earth, then poured a full glass and held it in his hand. He asked Mr. Bu to turn around and said, "This family. Brother Meng and his family love each other. I feel like a brother." Endless! It's a poor family, and they can't prepare a good table, so they only have this glass of water and wine, and they have to bend the two uncles to sit. Everything is always forgiven." Saying this, he bowed deeply, Mr. Bu returned the gift.Mr. Wu asked for the seats of Mai Bucheng and Bu Xin again, and they resigned again and again, bowing to each other and sitting down.

Niu Lao said: "It's really not a wine and a meal. Don't make jokes on the face of your relatives. Just one more thing, I have nothing else in my house. The tea and charcoal still have some whiskers. Now simmer a pot of good tea and leave the in-laws to sit and talk. At five o'clock, let the couple come out to kowtow, and do my best." Bu Lao said: "My in-laws, my niece is young, I don't know how to behave, and his father is not here, and I don't have any dowry things. I’m ashamed to say otherwise. If I say sit until dawn, I’d like to talk to you old man, why should I go!” At that moment, Bu Cheng and Bu Xin went home after drinking, and Bu Lao sat until five o’clock sky.When the couple dressed up, first ask Niu Lao to be on top and kowtow.Niu Lao said: "Grandson, it is not easy for me to see and support you until now. Thanks to your grandpa, who has made a marriage for you, you already have a house. From today on, I will take care of the things in the store, namely Delivered to you, all purchases, sales, credit, and storage are your own decisions. I am also old and can't afford to be tired, so I have to sit in the store to help you take care of it. You just need to find an old man. Granddaughter-in-law is good Yes, I only hope that you and your husband will grow old together for a hundred years and have many children and grandchildren!" Kowtowing their heads and asking Father Bu to turn up and accept the ceremony, the two of them kowtowed down.Bu Laodao: "My granddaughter is not good enough, young master, please point her out. Respect the master, don't disobey the master's words, there are not many people in the family, be diligent and careful in everything, and don't make the old man anxious." After two salutes, Said, helped up.Niu Lao stayed at his in-laws' house for breakfast again, but Bu Lao refused and said goodbye.Since then, the three members of the Niu family have lived together. Since Wu Pu got married, he hasn't been to the nunnery for a long time.At sunrise to ask for credit, I walked to the nunnery on the way. When I arrived at the entrance of the floating bridge, I saw five or six horses tied outside the gate of the nunnery. They all had luggage immediately, and the horse signs followed.Going closer, I saw three or four people sitting on the benches to the west of the Weituo Hall, wearing big felt hats and silk clothes, holding a whip in their left hand, bearded in their right hand, and pointy-toed soap boots on their feet. Sit there tall.Niu Pu didn't dare to go in, the old monk glanced at him from inside, and hurriedly waved his hands: "Little Tanyue, why don't you come these days? I'm just waiting for you to speak, come in quickly!" Seeing him calling, Niu Pu panicked Dan went in and saw that the monk had already packed his luggage and was about to get up, so he was surprised and said, "Master, where are you going after you packed your luggage?" The old monk said, "How many people are sitting outside?" , It was sent by Lord Qi, the admiral of the Nine Gates in Beijing. Lord Qi was in Beijing at the time, and he used to worship under my name. Now that he has been promoted to a high-ranking official, he specially sent someone to invite me to be the abbot of Baoguo Temple in Beijing. I don't want to go, because a friend died at my place the day before yesterday, but a friend of his went to Beijing for a test. I took advantage of this opportunity to go to Beijing to find this friend, and sent his funeral home. This is my wish. I said the day before yesterday that I wanted to show you two books of poems. They belonged to him. They were in my pillow case. It’s easy to take, and there are some odds and ends for use, all of which will be taken to Xiao Tanyue, you will take care of it for me, and wait for me to come back.” Wu Pu was about to ask questions, when those people came in and said, "It's very early today, and we still have to drive for dozens of miles. Please get on the horse, sir, and Hugh missed our aisle." The old monks surrounded them and mounted their horses.Those people all went to the livestock.After Niupu sent it out, he only said to the old monk, "Take care of your future!" The group of horses seemed to be flying away with their spurs.Niupu couldn't see the old monk, just came back, checked things by himself, unlocked the lock of the old monk's door, took it off, locked the door of the nunnery when he went out, and went home to rest.The next day, I went to the nunnery again and thought to myself: "The old monk has gone, and no one has confirmed it. Why don't you just recognize it as a cow cloth?" Because he took a blank piece of paper, he wrote five big characters: "Niu Buyi lives Inside." Since then, I have come and gone every day. Another month later, his grandfather Niu Laoer was sitting idle in the store, checking the accounts, and saw that the debtor owed only a limited amount, and he couldn't sell dozens of pennies a day, and it was all on firewood and rice. The expenses have gone, and the total cost is seven out of ten.Gradually the store couldn't hold on any longer, and he was so angry that he couldn't speak.In the evening, when Niu Pu came home, he asked him, but he couldn't come up with a clear account, and he just said "it's true", talking nonsense.Old man's qi becomes a disease. A person in his seventies has lost his vitality and has no medicine to nourish him. He has only been ill for ten days, and his lifespan has been exhausted, and he has passed away.Niupu and his wife burst into tears.Hearing this, Mr. Bu hurried over, saw the dead body parked on the door, and cried, "Brother!" and cried like rain of tears.Cry, see Niupu crying beside you, speechless, speechless.Said: "It's not the time for you to cry at this time." Tell your niece to take care of your father, "You go out with me to take care of the coffin quilt." Niu Pu wiped his tears and thanked Mr. Bu.At present, I bought a coffin on credit from the shop that I was acquainted with Mr. Bu, and took a lot of cloth. I asked the tailor to rush to make clothes and was buried that night.The next morning, eight footmen were hired to carry it to the ancestral grave for burial.Mr. Bu also invited Mr. Yin-Yang Xu for him, and went down with Yin-Yang on a donkey to get acupuncture points.Watching his in-laws go into the ground, he cried again, and came back with Yin and Yang.He left Niupu on the grave for three days. As soon as Mr. Bu got home, people from all walks of life came to ask for money, and Mr. Bu agreed.When Niu Pu returned home, he returned all the money in the store, and only got five taels of silver for the coffin shop, and there was no other money for the cloth shop, tailor, and feet.I had no choice but to pawn the room and a half house I lived in with the gate sign on the pontoon bridge, and got fifteen taels of pawn.In addition to paying off the bills, there was still more than four taels of silver left. Mr. Bu told him to keep some money and build a grave for his father in the Qingming Festival of the new year.Niupu and his wife had nowhere to live, so Mr. Bu sold a house in his house, told him and his wife to move in, and handed over the house to Zha Pai.When he moved in that day, Mr. Bu cooked a few bowls of vegetables to warm his house. Mr. Bu also sat in his room for a while, just thinking about his dead in-laws, so he was about to cry. Unexpectedly, it was New Year's Eve. Bu's family celebrated the New Year, and there were banquets and charcoal fires in the son-in-law's room.Mr. Bu first sent a few catties of charcoal, and asked Niupu to light a fire in the room, and then gave him a table of wine, and asked him to set up a memorial tablet in the room to honor his father on New Year's Eve.On the first day of the new year, I asked him to burn paper money on the grave, and said: "Go to the grave and tell my father: I am old and the weather is cold, so I can't come to pay New Year's greetings for my in-laws in person." Cried.Niupu agreed to go.Mr. Bu didn't come out to celebrate the festival until the third day of junior high school. He had a few glasses of wine and snacks at someone's house, and passed by the entrance of the pontoon bridge. When he saw that the gate sign had changed the Spring Festival couplets, which were pasted with colorful colors, he couldn't help feeling sad and shed a lot of tears. .I want to go home, but suddenly I meet my niece and son-in-law and drag me home.My niece dressed up and came out to pay New Year's greetings.After paying my respects, I stayed in the room to eat wine, and brought New Year's dumplings made of glutinous rice. I ate two, but I stopped eating. My niece persuaded me and ate two more.Back all the way facing the wind, I feel a little bad.At night, I had a headache and fever, and fell asleep.I invited a doctor to see it, and some said it was caused by qi and phlegm, some said it should be diffused, some said it should be warmed, and some said that the elderly should use tonic, all of them were different.Bu Cheng and Bu Xin panicked and watched all day long.Niupu came into the room early in the morning and evening to say hello. It was getting late that day, Father Bu was sleeping on the bed, saw two people creeping in through the window, went to the bed, took a piece of paper in his hand, and handed it to him to read.Ask others, and they all say that they have never seen anyone.Mr. Bu took the paper in his hand, and saw a lace approval document, on which were written the names of many people, all of which were marked with a red brush. There were thirty-four or five people in one order.The first cow minister, he knew it was the name of his in-laws.The last one was his own name, Bu Chongli.When I was about to ask that person again, I blinked my eyes, and the person and the ticket disappeared, just because of this, there is something to teach: