A Timely Wife

Li Bairen and Li Guoliang chatted about the past without saying a word, while Li Huangshi and Li Chenshi were talking about Li Youlan. Li Huangshi bled heavily when giving birth to Li Youlan and hurt her body. Although the mother and daughter were safe in the end, but Can no longer have children, this life is to have a daughter Li Youlan.

At that time, Li Bairen's mother was still alive, and Li Bairen mentioned the matter of taking a concubine with Li Bairen. Li Bairen declined. He was unwilling to take a concubine. Maybe taking a concubine at this time hurt his wife's heart.

Seeing that Li Bairen's refusal attitude was very firm, Li Bairen's mother didn't say anything more. She just hugged Li Guoliang to her side to raise Li Youlan after Li Guoliang was born. Li Bairen even enlightened Li Guoliang personally. It can be said that the old lady The idea back then was to let Li Guoliang be adopted by Li Bairen.

It's just that Li Bairen's mother passed away very suddenly, and she went there silently in the middle of the night. Li Guoliang's adoption was naturally delayed. At that time, the old lady had just married into Li's family and was powerless to stop her, so she had the audacity to contact her old friends in the palace, promised many benefits, and only wanted to save Li Youlan's life.

The concubine branch of the Li family has been in business for a long time. In order to be able to take the route in the palace and become an imperial merchant, it happened that the three-yearly beautiful girl entered the palace. Sent to the palace to surrender to Li Shangshu.

Every three years in the Great Chu Dynasty, a group of beautiful women will be selected to enter the palace. All officials above the ninth rank, who have a woman aged 13 to 17 in their family, must choose one of them and send them to the palace to participate in the draft.

The Minister of the Household Department also happened to be named Li. After the Li family settled down in the capital, they went to Li Shangshu’s house to seek out relatives. They originally thought that it would take a little effort, but unexpectedly, Li Shangshu’s relatives really let them climb up. Li Shangshu is so friendly and easy to deal with, but Li Shangshu needs someone to provide him with silver, and the Li family branch happens to be in business and can be used by him.

As for the talent show, Li Shangshu is unwilling to let his daughter enter the palace to be a show girl. Others don't know, but he knows that in the harem, let alone a concubine, even the queen can't say anything. Due to the fact that the ancestral system must rest outside the queen's place, the rest of the day does not take a step towards the queen's place.

Sending her daughter in, to put it bluntly, is no different from being a widow. Li Shangshu thinks he is not a loving father, but he will not watch his daughter fall into the quagmire. Instead of sending her daughter to the palace, it is better to find a door for her. Marriage, how much can help yourself.

After learning about the accident, the Li Family Shuzhi proposed to Li Shangshu that one of the Li family's girls of the right age could be selected to replace Li Shangshu's daughter and sent to the palace as a beauty girl, and Li Shangshu naturally readily agreed.

It's just that among the several families of the Li family in the capital, there are not many daughters of the right age, and there are no suitable ones, either they are not outstanding in appearance, or their temperament is not good enough. superior.

In the end, people from the Shu branch of the Li family pointed out that they still have three families in Songjiang Mansion, among them, Li Youlan, the daughter of the eldest family of the direct line, is known for her talent, dignified appearance, and is good at playing piano, chess, calligraphy and painting.

Mrs. Li was very happy when she heard the words, and seeing that the day to send the beautiful girl into the palace was approaching, she asked the Li family's branch to bring Li Youlan to the capital so that she could see it for herself.

Li Jiashu pulled the tiger's skin to pull the banner, and sent people directly to Songjiang Mansion to bring Li Youlan to the capital under the name of Li Shangshu. See Li Youlan.

Li Bairen never thought that the Li family branch would play tricks on this matter. He thought that since Li Shangshu wanted to see Li Youlan, he should let Li Youlan go there. His daughter has always been the one he is most proud of, and he doesn't mind letting her come. Seeing the world in the capital, but Li Bairen did not expect that Li Youlan would never return, and he would not be able to see his parents again until his death.

When Li Youlan entered Beijing, Mrs. Li immediately fell in love with her. Her figure, appearance, speech and manners were outstanding in everything. She was worthy of being the eldest daughter of the Songjiang Li family's direct line, and she was like a lady of a great family.

Since then, the matter of Li Youlan being sent to the palace as a show girl has been decided in this way, and the Shu branch of the Li family also successfully obtained the qualification of the imperial merchant through this incident, hung a nameplate in the household department, and began to provide satin for the palace. After Li Youlan entered the palace, the Li family's concubine became one of the top ten imperial merchants in less than ten years.

Unlike the concubine branches with mixed geomantic omens, the direct line of the Li family is getting worse and worse. The concubine branch of the Li family gave Li Bairen 3000 taels every year for these years because Li Bairen was placed in the same position, and Li Youlan gave birth to a daughter and was promoted to Concubine Lan. Silver is used as filial money, which somewhat means buying peace with silver taels.

Li Bairen gritted his teeth with hatred from the concubine family back then, so he would not covet these silver taels, but no matter how much he didn't want these silver taels in his heart, Li Bairen had no choice but to accept them. No matter what integrity, you have to stand aside in front of basic necessities of life.

Even if the Songjiang Li family is to maintain their honor, they must grit their teeth and hold on. Even if the Songjiang Li family is no longer a famous family, but a poor family, they must maintain their dignity in front of outsiders.

There is no poor family in the upper class, and no noble family in the lower class. For more than 100 years, the Li family in Songjiang, where no one has been an official in the court, has lost the glory of the previous dynasty. With filial money of several thousand taels of silver every year, the Li family's descendants are afraid that they can't even keep this ancestral house, and they have long since turned into sellers and worked in the countryside.