Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

At first Lu Ci just wanted to divert Zhu Shuo's attention and stop continuing that unpleasant topic, but after seeing Zhu Shuo quickly entered the mood, he unknowingly became serious.

After passing Zhu Shuo's ten questions in a row and getting all of them answered correctly, Zhu Shuo naturally took the "Analects of Confucius" in Lu Ci's hand, opened a few pages symbolically, and began to test Lu Ci.

While the two asked and answered, Li Xin, who had been traveling all afternoon, finally returned to the mansion.

He didn't even rush to use the food, he rushed to Lu Ci's room in a hurry, and knocked on the door hastily.

Lu Ci and Zhu Shuo looked at each other, and they both saw a bit of helplessness in being disturbed.

Lu Ci sighed softly: "Please come in."

Li Xin got the permission, and immediately pushed the door open, his face still flushed red.

Seeing his happy face, Lu Ci raised his eyebrows: "Li Lang's progress today seems to be good."

Li Xin laughed: "Thanks to Lu Lang's ingenious plan, except for two families who are still hesitant, the other five families have readily agreed!"

There were 25 households in the manor, and he ran away with seven households in one go, and more than half of them were achieved. This undoubtedly reassured Li Xin, who was still a little worried.

"That's very good." Lu Ci smiled: "I went to the government office just now, and I passed by an important place. I checked for you and bought the specific time, which is on the first day of October. Yaren has already booked it for you. , although the price of the matching card is higher, but it is more secure. It is good that you are progressing smoothly now, but don't be negligent. The gold and silver can be prepared earlier, so prepare earlier. This is to avoid If those companies join forces to obstruct it, it may be too late."

Hearing that Lu Ci had arranged things that he hadn't thought of, Li Xin was immediately moved.Lu Ci suggested that he hire a licensed dentist with a slightly higher price, and of course he had no objection.

But after hearing this, I couldn't help but worry again: "Those families are rich in financial resources, they are usually perverse and domineering, and they know a lot of people in the government office. This defeat, it is hard to guarantee that they will not hold grudges in the future..."

Lu Ci interrupted him with a calm expression: "It's hard to get the best of both worlds. It just depends on how determined Li Lang is."

His tone was gentle, and he didn't show any displeasure on his face, but Li Xin's heart trembled inexplicably, and he stopped talking.

After only sitting for a while, he stopped bothering Lu Ci and Zhu Shuo on the grounds that he was sweating and was in a hurry to go back to the room to wash up.

After he went out, Zhu Shuo frowned and shook his head.

Lu Ci put "The Analects of Confucius" back on the bookshelf, and said helplessly: "Looking forward and looking backward, it is difficult to achieve great things."

Zhu Shuo also snorted, and said coldly: "Brother Lu has been busy for him, and he has to advise him when he comes back. In the end, he couldn't say a few words of gratitude. From what he said just now, it seems to be blaming Brother Lu. The idea he came up with was not good enough to make him offend those wealthy households."

Lu Ci had a clear understanding of Li Xin's character early on. He had never really made friends with him, and of course he was not disappointed.

Hearing the injustice in Zhu's tone, Lu Ci couldn't help laughing and said: "Although the folk customs here are not as tough and litigious as some prefectures and counties, they can also be called politically sound and harmonious. Seeing that Qin Gongzu just judged the case, he is open-minded and yet not lost Being flexible is by no means short-sighted and mediocre."

"It's inevitable for those people to make some stumbling blocks secretly to vent their anger, but as long as he calms down a little and stabilizes his position from the beginning, he won't hurt his bones, at most he will move a little."

As for Li Xinshou's ability to defend the wealth that comes from nothing, it depends on his own ability.

Lu Ci didn't have the compassion of sending the Buddha to the west, but only wanted to make revenge on the Sun family who forced Lu's mother to leave and took away most of the dowry.

Seeing that Zhu said that his face was still sullen, with obvious displeasure in his seriousness, but there was still a little baby fat left on his cheeks, so the deterrence was not enough, but the cuteness was more than enough.

Lu Ci pretended not to notice this, secretly held back his laughter, and suddenly said, "To deal with Li Lang, there are only a few days left. I will stay for him for a few more days when the cannibal's mouth is soft and the man is short. After filling the gap, how about I take you to another place? In the future, the mountains will be high and the rivers will be long, and there may be a day when we meet, so don't you care about anything with him."

Zhu said he couldn't help being surprised: "Didn't Brother Lu say that he would live here for a month before going back to Mizhou?"

Lu Ci said with a smile: "That's just a casual remark, how can Brother Zhu take it seriously? It seems that Brother Zhu has forgotten the purpose of my trip. It's not just to gain knowledge, but to travel around! Li Xin's business has already begun , Mine can be unsealed."

Zhu said: "..."

His brother Lu has behaved leisurely along the way, no matter whether it is doing business, making new friends, or helping others, he can do it with ease.

The only time when his face changed suddenly, the reason made him extremely dumbfounded—it was just two cups of honey soufflés that were overcooked.

So much so that I was also infected by this relaxed and calm posture. I seriously watched the mountains and rivers along the way, the cicadas singing and the birds singing, and the shadows in the sky. I completely forgot the real purpose of this trip. net.

Lu Ci pretended to sigh helplessly, and sighed while grinding: "I have been in Suzhou for half a day, but I didn't see anyone from my grandfather's family to pick me up, but I saw that my cousin's brother was bullying men and pretending to be soldiers. A scene where people are punished for failure. Even such an in-law with bad conduct is willing to spend a lot of money to open up the upper and lower joints in exchange for a lighter sentence. With such wealth and wealth, there must be no shortage of slaves in the family. How could even my mother The ten mu of land that I own can be sold, and my mother has to travel thousands of miles to take care of my grandfather's sickness?"

Zhu said that he pursed his lips, genuinely feeling sorry for Lu Ci's injustice.

The most hateful thing is that now that life is getting better, those so-called blood relatives who have never helped each other in times of poverty and hardship continue to live a life of luxury in Suzhou, but they are still unwilling to let Brother Lu go...

Zhu said that he was silent for a long time, and only quietly put one hand on the back of Lu Ci's other hand that was casually placed on the table, expressing his support, and said softly: "Brother Lu has the ambition of a blue sky, a smooth appearance, and an upright attitude, don't worry about it." Just a stone on the side of the road."

Lu Ci smiled: "Thank you, Brother Zhu, for your comfort. Brother Yu is already fine. It's just that since I am here to take care of my mother's illness, I will stay at Sun's house, and it is not good to stay in the mansion for too long. I really don't want to We are separated from Brother Zhu, so please ask Brother Zhu to stay with me at Sun's house for a few days."

In fact, just as Lu Ci expected, even if he didn't bring it up, the soft-hearted and kind-hearted Zhu Shuo would be moved by what he said just now, and worried that he would be in the house of his unfriendly grandparents. Suffering, but the cheek to take the initiative to speak up.

Lu Ci took the initiative to open his mouth to invite, and Zhu Shuo agreed with all his heart: "Just don't cause trouble to Brother Lu. If there is something that can be helpful, Brother Lu, please don't hesitate to ask."

"Brother Zhu, what are you talking about?" Lu Ci did not refuse, and responded with a smile: "Thank you, Brother Zhu, then when I really need it, I will not be polite."

Zhu said that he couldn't help but smiled from the bottom of his heart, and took over the grinding work in a very tacit understanding.

While chatting and laughing with him, Lu Ci picked up a pen and dipped it in the ink, wrote a few words on the white paper laid out without thinking, then left it to dry, and urged Zhu Yue to take a bath.

Lu resigned to go downstairs, not only to order hot water, but also to instruct the kitchen to cook a few of his favorite snacks for supper, Zhu said that he was not idle.

He looked at the wooden table, thinking, anyway, the ink has already been sharpened, and there is no need for extra trouble, and he has a bit of a itch, so he simply recalled the Langhao pen that Lu Ci just used. Just now, what he saw and heard on the street and in the county government office was written down like a cloud.

As he was writing, a smile could not help but float on the corner of his lips. Finally, after catching the subtle footsteps of Brother Lu coming upstairs again, he added the title "First Arrival in Suzhou with Brother Lu" without waiting for pen and ink. If the traces are dry, I hide the paper behind the pile of books, and then try to spread it out.

Although he didn't know the reason, when Brother Lu saw the title of the travel note he wrote last time, he did show some subtle embarrassment.

But if he deliberately hides the most important characters in the travel notes, it will completely change the flavor.

Zhu said that after much deliberation, it would be more appropriate to bear the pain not to ask Brother Lu to correct his article, or even hide it.

Lu Ci didn't know that Zhu Shuo wrote another travel note in the short time he went downstairs to give some advice to the cook.

He led a guy who was carefully carrying two small bowls of Portuguese milk cake, and came upstairs with a smile, and naturally enjoyed this rather delicious supper with Zhu Shuo.

After they finished rinsing their mouths, the hot soup for their bath was brought in by two other fellows at this moment.

The two of them each occupied a wooden barrel, soaked comfortably in the hot soup, and while enjoying the faint aroma of incense, they chatted one after another.

Zhu said that he couldn't help but asked curiously: "The text message that brother Lu just wrote, is it going to be sent to Sun's family?"

Lu Ci was surprised and said, "It's been so long since I've been downstairs, and the paper is on top of it. Since you're curious, why don't you take a look yourself and ask me this question?"

Zhu said embarrassedly: "How can you underestimate privacy without consulting Brother Lu?"

It made Lu Ci very speechless.

...This Zhu said, it is too honest!

Lu Ci cast a helpless glance at Zhu Shuo, who was looking forward to it, and replied, "You didn't expect anything bad. But if there is a next time, you must remember it. You really don't need to ask me for my opinion on these trivial matters. Since I laid it out on the table, it's up to you to see, if you are so reserved, I don't know what to say."

Zhu said that he nodded humbly to mark it down.

Lu Ci smiled: "You can read the details later. The letter is not long, because in the final analysis, I just want to inform the Sun family of two things."

The first thing, of course, is that he has come to Suzhou from afar, so he should arrange for someone of his generation to pick him up.

As a grandson who came to visit the sick alone, he would live in the grandson's house for the rest of his life.

The second thing is a hint.

——He wanted to make the Sun family think that he was not ordinary rich.

The author has something to say: Notes:

1. People sue officials

I mentioned in the commentary before that people are prone to litigation, and the people of a certain county united to drive out a county magistrate who did nothing and was unpopular.

Let me share two more interesting stories. The protagonist in it coincidentally is the same, a literati (later became an official) in the Southern Song Dynasty, named Fang Hui.

This person was very lecherous. Once he lived in a hostel in Hangzhou and "promoted adultery with a maidservant", but the vibration of the bed was a little louder. As a result, he "shaked the wall soil" and shook the neighbor's wall soil.The neighbor was not polite either, and immediately took Mr. Fang to court, "litigating against the government".

Later, he went to Yanzhou to be the magistrate of the state, but he was greedy and despicable. He liked to write prefaces to other people's poetry anthologies, and then received some embellishments. "People in the market who ask for the preface to the poem will be rewarded with five coins. This greed also."

He doesn't have the slightest air of knowing the state, as long as you give me five Wenqian, you can ask him to write a preface.What's more interesting is that the "small man in the market" was dissatisfied with Master Fang's order, and dared to throw it back, asking Master Fang to refund the money, and beat him if he didn't refund the money ("Song: The Dawn of Modern Times")

2. What I forgot to note in the previous chapter is that, unlike many TV dramas, in the Song Dynasty, when the people met the officials and the ministers met the emperor, unless there were special occasions, they did not need to kneel down, but only bowed down, and there was no need to kneel down to answer. .Because high chairs were already very popular in the Song Dynasty, rolling down from the chair and kneeling down has a relatively large meaning of humiliation... The etiquette in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties is constantly regressing, and it develops to the point where you have to kneel when you see it, and you have to kneel when you hear it ,well.

In the Song Dynasty, the people did not need to call themselves ant-min when they saw officials. ("Song: The Dawn of Modern Times")