Post Date December, 03 2023
During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a wealthy man in Beijing with the surname Li. According to legend, he was a descendant of the King of the Tang Dynasty, with rich and wealthy families and numerous rural shops; Unfortunately, there are few descendants. After the old master passed away, only the old lady in the family lived with a legitimate son.
This young master Li has been weak since childhood, and his wife's love is like a pearl and treasure. He pampered a good fellow scholar into arrogance and extravagance, and as for chasing and laughing, sleeping in flowers and willows, he has become a daily routine since the age of fifteen or sixteen. At the age of eighteen, my widowed mother made the decision and married him the daughter of Wu Minchun, the Tianjin salt minister. She hoped to have a daughter-in-law to discipline her, but somehow she told him to take it easy and slow down the family.
"Flowers have never been red for a hundred days. After Mr. Li got married, although his wife had a delicate face and a weak waist, she was only fresh for three or five days, so she went back to the fireworks alley.".
One day, Master Li returned drunk again, and when he saw his wife weeping under the lamp, he couldn't help but be greatly annoyed. "What are you howling for? I must not be dead yet!" While drunk, he picked up a tea cup and smashed it, causing the tea to drip through Miss Wu's skirt. Miss Wu was pampered by a deep boudoir since she was young. When did she suffer such grievances? She stomped her feet and ran to her mother-in-law's house, crying her throat dry. The old lady inevitably scolded her son again and punished him for kneeling down and copying "Mencius" all night.
After several twists and turns, the more Mr. Li looked at his wife, the more unhappy he became. However, Xiao Xier of Sun Laogui's family in the fireworks lane was very popular with him. Xiao Xier was 15 years old, working as a rough servant girl for a family when she was young. Later, it was said that she had committed a terrible mistake. She was beaten out of Tianjin by her master's family with a club, dragging a bloody broken leg, and walked ten days and ten nights to Beijing. She knocked on the door of Sun Laogui's house, voluntarily falling into the dust. Although she is weak in body, she has beautiful features and is very intelligent. She can play zither, lute, and lute as soon as she learns.
After copying "Mencius" this day, Master Li came to Sun Laogui's house with his mouth open. Xiao Xier put on his clothes and hat, greeted him with warmth and comfort, and loved Master Li so much that he couldn't marry him home immediately. However, family regulations prohibit concubines. Master Li had to hold Xiao Xier in his arms and burst into tears, saying, "Sweetheart, it's necessary to wait until my wife dies before there's a glimmer of hope to marry you through the door, or just wait for the next life!"
Xiao Xi'er wiped his tears with a silk and smiled in her arms, "Why is it difficult to be a husband and wife? It's just that you don't have a piece of official documents. Now that you're in charge of the family, spend hundreds of liang of useless silver to redeem me and buy another house. You come here three or five days a month, or ten or twenty days a month. Who dares to care if you don't succeed?"
"The words made Prince Li jump to his feet and immediately followed suit. He bought a deep house in an alley more than ten miles away from home and settled Xiao Xi'er down, as if his wife and mother were hiding an iron bucket from him.". One day, Xiao Xi'er sat in a sedan chair and went to Mr. Li's own silk and satin shop to pick up materials. The clerk was also her early benefactor, and she didn't know that she had followed her master's family, so she started moving. Xiao Xier couldn't earn enough. She tore her clothes, shoes, and socks, and rolled her hair down on the ground. She cried so much that half the street came to see the excitement. After seeing this, Young Master Li, as if his heart and flesh had been gouged out, shouted and killed the waiter, but Xiao Xier refused to let go and insisted that the shop be owned by him. Fang Xue is ashamed of today.
The young master Li thought that there were no more than twenty or thirty shops in his family. A shop deed could make his concubine happy. It was as cheap as it could be. At that time, he wrote a letter with a stroke of pen and returned the Silk and Satin Villa to Xiao Xier. Since then, there have been no fewer than three or five such incidents.
In addition, at home, Miss Wu saw that she could not control her husband. Instead, she gradually accepted her fate and stopped crying. She only needed to read and write to kill time. Young Master Li was delighted to see his wife ground to ashes and withered, so he took the key and opened the library of his deceased father for his wife to copy and admire. Speaking of Old Master Li's library, it is the world famous first building in Beijing and Tianjin. It contains countless authentic works of celebrities since the Tang Dynasty, many of which were smuggled out of the palace by ancestors during the Tang Dynasty's demise. Miss Wu got this job, and as expected, she no longer inquired about worldly affairs. Her family was peaceful and peaceful.
Young Master Li has thus fulfilled his wish. Apart from occasionally returning home to greet his mother, he spends most of the month at Xiao Xier's place. "That little Xier is extremely intelligent. The shops allocated to her are all managed thousands of times better than in the old days. It's really like every day brings in money.". Young Master Li loved her even more and simply handed over the remaining twenty store deeds to her, making him happy to be the shopkeeper.
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye it is fifteen years.
Fifteen years later, Xiao Xier has become a wealthy woman, with account books replacing music scores, and the difficulties of business have worn away her girlish cleverness; Young Master Li often sees her sneaking into the garden at midnight, putting on the narrow servant girl's pants and gown that she used to wear when she first entered Beijing, and silently praying to the moon to burn incense. She thinks that although she has a rich life, she doesn't want to forget the poverty and illness that plagued her in those years, and she can't help but have a little respect and love for her in her heart. During the boudoir night talk, I also asked her what big mistake she made when she was a servant girl, and was punished so cruelly by the master's family? Xiao Xier just wept and asked urgently, Fang said
"It's just some kid's prank."
"If it's nonsense, why don't we just change it?"
"I don't want to change," said Xiao Xi'er.
One day, after three months of illness, Old Lady Li died. "The funeral was held for 749 days, and on the day the mourning hall was withdrawn, Miss Wu, dressed in loyalty and filial piety, knelt in front of the coffin and refused to rise. Tears rolled in her eyes, and she kowtowed until her forehead was dripping with blood.". Although Young Master Li has not lived in harmony with her for a few days, he cannot help but feel bitter at the sight of it. Moreover, he is middle-aged and has left most of his childhood romantic ignorance behind. "At this moment, I feel both great filial piety and regret that she has been widowed for 15 years. Now that her youth has passed away, her appearance is haggard, and half of her green hair is white. I cannot help but feel a sour feeling in my heart. I stepped forward and said, 'Madam, it's not my mother's wish to hurt myself through sorrow. You and I have a long time to come. I used to be young and romantic, and I won't treat you coldly in the future.'"
Miss Wu still knelt on her knees and said coldly, "But I wouldn't be cold to anyone. I promised to live and die together for a lifetime, even across mountains and seas of fire, and I wouldn't dare to forget even after waiting for thirty or fifty years."
Young Master Li, what are you waiting to say? The steward has arrived to report and check on the property. Mr. Li followed the butler to open the library and asked the senior master to examine it. He sat downstairs and drank tea himself. In only half an hour, the senior master trotted out of the building, his face as pale as death, saying that thousands of antique calligraphy, painting, and porcelain on this floor were all fakes; And the ash trace is still new. Someone has stolen all of them not long ago.
Young Master Li was shocked and asked the servant girl to go to the Lingtang and call the madam to discuss how to catch the thief. However, the servant girl hurriedly reported that she had searched all over the house and could not find the madam.
From then on, Miss Wu and Xiao Xier lived a happy life.
This outcome can be understood by a careful person. If you dare to cheat, I can bend over and not want it!
