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The great affairs of the country lie in sacrifice and garrison. The same goes for aristocratic families.

I don't know since when, the city's troika has routinely participated in the Cheng family's ancestor worship ceremony. When the Cheng family was at its peak, people from the state capital would even come to participate.

Of course, the current Cheng family no longer has the splendor of a wealthy family, but its power in Shaonan City is still the same. The prefect Cheng Yun'an (the father of Cheng Jinzhou), the chief historian Cheng Yunquan, and the church leader Tuo Huafu are all from the Cheng family. With them The days of ancestor worship have almost become public holidays for various government churches.

Like most people in this city, Cheng Jinzhou climbed out of his warm bed when it was still dark.

The four maids who got up earlier helped him dress up as quickly as possible. In addition to the normal dressing and boots, they also had to put every hair in the right place. If Cheng Jinzhou didn't like it, his face would be They will also be put on a layer of cream made of white powder and animal oil.

Red lanterns were hung outside the door of each room, and the soybean-sized wicks emitted dim light, covering up the peeling walls.

When the family is prosperous, it is almost a routine for the head of the family with inflated self-confidence to carry out large-scale construction projects. They always think that this prosperity can continue - or in other words, they hope that this prosperity can continue, but in fact, one day, he Their descendants will not even be able to pay for maintenance.

The Cheng family's situation is pretty good, with some subsidies from family members who have jobs, and they can probably make ends meet. However, the house, which stretches over a thousand acres of land, is still impossible to maintain regularly. Even if it is to worship ancestors, it can't spend much money to decorate it. Especially the back house where guests won’t notice.

Fortunately, this will not affect the daily life of the entire family.

Cheng's mother got up earlier than Cheng Jinzhou. It took 30 minutes to put on the 16-part costume. In order to ensure that the seven-piece headdress would not make annoying and impolite jingling sounds, the maids needed to be hidden. More supports were inserted into her hair, and even the girl who was waiting for her to participate in the ceremony was wrapped in new clothes. Together with the umbrella and replacement items, she was equipped like a World War II American soldier.

Cheng Jinzhou secretly laughed twice, followed his mother obediently, and raised his eyes to peek at Cheng's father, who was supposed to be the sick man.

Judging from the appearance, Magistrate Cheng Yun'an is a very dignified man. He has just passed 30 years old, and he looks very young and strong. The beard on his cheeks makes him look more mature. Fortunately, otherwise Cheng Jinzhou's thoughts would be difficult to change.

Since traveling back in time for more than a month, Cheng Jinzhou has not had many opportunities to meet his so-called father. Magistrate Cheng Yun'an is obviously a person who puts career more than anything else. This may be the norm in the aristocratic world, but in Cheng Jinzhou's view, it is a rather boring life. As a top government official who is both a senior city official and mayor, Cheng Yun'an is too low-key and does not have much gray income in his pocket. This may indicate that he still has a strong enterprising spirit, but he only has one concubine. , which is somewhat difficult to deal with among the nobles.

Moreover, Mr. Cheng Yun'an's only concubine is Mother Cheng's dowry girl. At this point, in addition to Mother Cheng's clever methods, the most important thing is probably Mr. Cheng Yun'an's strong self-control.

Of course, what makes Cheng Jinzhou most dissatisfied is that Cheng Yun'an does not care enough about his son. As one of the city's civil servant leaders, Cheng Yun'an's cultural level is unquestionable, but he cannot even guarantee the continuity of the most basic inspection courses, let alone Speaking of serious teaching, Cheng Cheng's academic performance lags behind others, and he is more or less responsible. To this day, Dr. Cheng Da has to learn from scratch. More importantly, as the son of a prefect, he didn't have many opportunities to show off his power, which was unbearable for the traveling public.

Cheng Yun'an looked more and more calm today. When he saw Cheng Jinzhou, he nodded slightly and said: "Be concise when answering, don't look around, you know?"

In a completely lecturing tone, Cheng Jinzhou gave a dissatisfied "Yes" and had no interest in competing with him in the ring.

Seeing that Cheng's father had nothing else to say, Cheng's mother smiled and took Cheng Jinzhou's hand and said, "It's getting late, let's go."

With that said, Cheng Yun'an took the lead, and the three of them got on a four-wheeled carriage, and his concubine followed in the two-wheeled carriage behind.

According to the rules of the Great Xia Dynasty, a carriage drawn by two horses, or a sedan for two or more people, requires a title or title, with very few exceptions.

What Cheng Yun'an owns is not a light carriage. To be precise, it is a ceremonial carriage. The whole body is made of hardwood. Coupled with the carriage of more than 10 square meters and the sturdy and spacious interior space, it makes it heavy and heavy. slow speed. Although people at this time did not understand the importance of shock absorbers, the flat roads paved by the Cheng family were able to ensure that the wooden tires with excellent craftsmanship would not bump.

In fact, at very slow speeds and with well-made wooden wheels, horse-drawn carriages were far more comfortable than 21st-century cars.

Perhaps, it is precisely because of the pursuit of excellence in craftsmanship that the rate of upgrading of ancient Chinese science and technology will become slower and slower. Craftsmen representing the top level of society make up for technical deficiencies with their craftsmanship.

The two strong white horses started walking happily. The coachman only shouted and said nothing. Cheng's mother adjusted her clothes a little and began to explain to Cheng Jinzhou what he should pay attention to, from the steps he walked to the position of kowtow. Explain one by one. These were all taught in etiquette classes, and Cheng Jinzhou listened attentively to a few sentences. Cheng's memory was not that perfect.

The road was not far, and the carriage was more about pomp and circumstance. When people outside were noisy, Cheng's father said softly: "You are 12 years old, and you have to make your own decisions on many things."

After finishing the sentence without beginning or ending, I heard the panting voice of the butler coming from outside the carriage: "Master, Madam, third brother, we are here."

Cheng's mother was also stunned for a moment, and followed Cheng Yun'an inexplicably.

Cheng Jinzhou stepped out of the carriage in confusion, and the light in front of him immediately made him cover his eyes.

It was still dark, but the lit candles illuminated the entire main house like a football field in the dark night.

"At least a few hundred taels of silver for candles." Cheng Jinzhou thought to himself.

During the Western Jin Dynasty when the Shiwangs were fighting for wealth, one of Shi Chong's most proud things was to "use wax in exchange for salary." However, the current situation of the Cheng family was even worse.

"Please go this way." The servant standing in front of the tent began to greet the guests from the door.

Along the stone-paved road, there were four-wheeled carriages drawn by two horses and a rare eight-carriage sedan. Farther away, there were two-person sedans and two-wheeled carriages parked. There were very few guests coming alone on horseback, which made the stables located in the school grounds look empty.

The Cheng family's ancestral hall was moved to the city very early. On the one hand, it proves that the Cheng family has a long history. On the other hand, it also represents the shift of the Cheng family's focus.

In the early days, the ancestors in the ancestral hall wanted to work hard in the capital city. As a tradition of relocation, the ancestral hall naturally had to stay in the village outside the city.

Unfortunately, today, the Cheng family has long given up the idea of ​​becoming a wealthy family in the capital. Coupled with some security emergencies, the ancestral hall has finally been moved into the city, but not in the capital, but in Shaoxing, thousands of miles away. In the south city.

Cheng Jinzhou imitated his father's pace and walked. Now all the people present were members of the Cheng family. They talked quite casually, and Cheng's mother was also smiling.

Dr. Cheng, on the other hand, focuses on observing the boy who is similar to his own age. No matter what, he will stay in the Cheng family, and whether he will stay happily depends to a large extent on the competition among his peers.

At this point, Bingyangzi Cheng had nothing left behind except his identity as a legitimate grandson.