Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

When Lu Ci's good name as a virtuous grandson spread throughout Suzhou City, Liu Qi, who was drunk and dreaming in the Pingting Building, inevitably heard of it.

At that time, he was still lying comfortably on the couch with his eyes closed, his head resting on the beauty's lap, enjoying the gentle breeze brought by Jia Niang when she gently fanned the round fan.

Just as she was drowsy, she heard Jia Niang casually talking about this anecdote she had just heard from the street.

"Ok?"

The drowsiness on Liu Qi's body disappeared by half.

He opened his eyes and asked with interest: "The surname is Xiaolang Jun, but his name is Lu Ci?"

Jia Niang was taken aback for a moment, and after thinking about it for a while, she nodded: "It seems to be true. Liu Lang has already heard of it?"

Liu Qi was not in a hurry to answer her, but asked eagerly: "Tell me about the specific process you heard."

Although Jia Niang didn't quite understand, she did as she was told.

After listening to Liu Qi, she really couldn't hold back her laughter, and leaned on her knees again, her whole body trembling with laughter, not just beating the fragrant and soft bed.

It is understandable for outsiders not to know the truth. The stories of filial sons and virtuous grandchildren can always be talked about and beautified appropriately.

But for Liu Qi who knew the inside story, the truth was about to come out.

The old man of the Sun family who has ulterior motives has been dealt with severely this time.

Jia Niang helplessly watched Liu Qi trembling with laughter, and it took a while to recover, but she didn't stay in her room anymore: "Ask someone to bring water, I need to change clothes and go out."

Jia Niang curled her lips sourly, and said coquettishly, "Is Liu Lang going to Xin Niang's place? She's probably too busy accompanying dignitaries, so she has no time to—"

Liu Qi was in a good mood, so she didn't expose her lie, she just said: "I'm going to go to the troubled place to see how long it will be before the Li Family Manor is bought."

Since the Sun family is not Lu Ci's opponent, Lu Ci probably won't stay in Suzhou City for a long time after creating a barrier for the other party, but will leave as soon as the manor is auctioned.

Although he could wait leisurely for Lu Ci to send someone to notify him, he always had a vague premonition that the serious and funny little brother Zhu might not make his plan to go with him go so smoothly. .

Liu Qi touched her chin with a smile.

——It's better to be a little defensive.

Zhu, who was guessed by Liu Qi with a little care, said that he still didn't know anything about it.

He was happily holding a small wooden basin containing clean and changed clothes, and followed his favorite Brother Lu on the way to the big bathhouse.

Lu Ci, who made his grandfather 'heal' so quickly, was of course very tired.

He has always paid attention to exercising his physical fitness so that he will not be really tired, but he has not taken a comfortable bath for several days.

After all, in order to keep his grandfather under his nose all the time, he just had someone bring clean hot water to wipe his body, or just rinse quickly through a screen and let it go.

After falling asleep for a day and a night, Lu Ci was going to take Zhu Shuo together and go out to take a bath in the Perfume Hall.

Although staying in the Sun's house, you can also ask the servants to bring hot water directly, but whether it is Zhu Shuo or Lu Ci, staying in such a place full of "relatives" full of ulterior motives is far less comfortable than going to the bathhouse.

When going out, Lu Ci was stopped unexpectedly.

Of course it can't be the grandfather of the Sun family.

The other party is served like a useless person all day long, and can only lie motionless and pretend to be sick. This cunning boy uses some weird spoons to pour countless medicinal soups. Whether he spits or gets angry, he will just be poured down. More.

He knew that he was fine, but he couldn't yell loudly if he wanted to save face, so he had to hold back for a few days.

As a result, Lu Ci showed no sign of impatience at all, and he always seemed to be submissive, but the more he drank, the more something went wrong.

Xu Shi was worried that the poison of the medicine was too heavy, perhaps the medicine had really had a bad effect, and within a few days, he could not lift his energy all over his body, and he was about to fall ill when he was not sick.

In order to stop this kind of torture, he tried every means. He didn't know how many angry and bad words he uttered to Lu Ci. On the one hand, he wanted to vent his anger, and on the other hand, he wanted to make people quit.

He didn't want to let himself suffer so much, but also had to achieve the reputation of filial piety that hated his grandson!

Since Lu Ci didn't make him feel better, he decided not to make Lu Ci feel better, but he was struggling.

He couldn't believe how long Lu Ci could endure at such a young age.

Grandfather Sun made such a calculation, but he couldn't take it anymore after insisting on it for a few days.

It so happened that one day, when he happened to be unable to fall asleep due to the effects of the medicine, he heard the wicked grandson whispering to an unsuspecting maidservant.

The maidservant was not very old, and seeing that Alang, who was being served, had a very bad temper, spoke ill at Lu Lang, and somewhat admired the handsome Lu Langjun, she couldn't help feeling distressed, and softly suggested to Lu Ci not to be rude. Forget it.

Anyway, if he did this step, outsiders would definitely not blame him for not fulfilling his filial piety as a grandson.

Lu Ci sighed softly, and said with gratitude: "You don't have to worry about me. Weng Weng has taken the wrong medicine for too long now, so that he became confused. If he is sane, how can he I don’t understand that this is out of good intentions? He doesn’t stop cursing every day, even if he is not awake for a day, and he has never recovered from his illness for a day, I will do my part and have to wait for one more day. Don’t worry, I won’t do it because of Weng Weng A few insincere and vicious words, and it will be abandoned halfway."

The maidservant was very moved, and even publicized it to the outside world.

But Grandfather Sun, who eavesdropped, shuddered.

According to Lu Ci's implication, if he doesn't stop cursing and losing his temper for a day, it proves that his mind is not clear for a day, and he has to take medicine endlessly...

After thinking about it, he gritted his teeth, pretended to be healthy, and faced Lu Ci in front of outsiders, in order to keep his old life under the endless stream of medicinal soup.

In this way, except for those who know about it, it is a happy "healing from a serious illness" except that those who know it are unhappy.

But even though he had expected it, when he really heard that he had made Lu Ci's filial piety famous, Grandfather Sun suddenly turned blue with anger, and really fell ill.

But this time, even if he didn't want to admit it anymore, he was still faintly afraid, looking at the gentle and beautiful Lu Ci, but inside he was extremely strong, and Lu Ci was very slippery in his actions.

Even if he was really sick, he forced himself to act as if nothing had happened, and just kept it silently, so as not to invite this evil ghost-like filial son and virtuous grandson to serve him again.

Grandfather suffered a lot of anger, and he was not a human being either inside or outside.

In these days of Lu Ci's illness, the rush to buy has also been carried out in an orderly manner. For some reason, although this time it is a previously announced sealed bid, the bidding period is much shorter than before, and the bidding will be closed after three days. announce the result.

His plan to get something out of Lu Ci was naturally disrupted by this.

In desperation, he had no choice but to temporarily give up trying to squeeze money out of Lu Ci whose relationship hadn't been repaired, let alone appease his furious father. Instead, he went out every day to inquire about news, preparing to bid at the last minute. up.

Those who would come to look for Lu Ci with nothing to do, of course only Sun Jingwen was left.

When Sun Jingwen ran into the two of them, seeing that they were both holding small wooden basins, she couldn't help being taken aback: "Lu Lang, Zhu Lang, where are you going?"

Lu Ci said with a smile: "Perfume Hall, I won't invite my cousin together."

Sun Jingwen frowned, and gave the servants around her an unfriendly look: "If there is someone who is not good at neglecting my cousin, causing my cousin to be wronged, please don't hesitate to tell me your name, I will deal with it strictly."

Lu Ci shook his head: "Thank you cousin for your concern, there is no such thing."

Sun Jingwen was puzzled and said: "Then why don't you just ask the servants to bring the water, but you have to go with those servants..." He silently swallowed the last two words, and continued: "Multiple people join together?"

Lu Ci said indifferently: "Thank you, cousin, it's just that it's easy to go from frugal to extravagant, but difficult to go from extravagant to frugal. If I'm used to being a servant and enjoying luxury, how will I deal with myself when I return to Mizhou?"

The corner of Sun Jingwen's mouth twitched.

I don't know what's wrong with my cousin, obviously those expensive rouge and gouache can sweep down a lot without blinking, and he is more particular about food than them, but he insists that he actually lived in Mizhou. It is quite tight and thrifty.

Seeing that Lu Ci was about to leave, Sun Jingwen was still thinking about her father's order to establish a good relationship with this little cousin, so she hurriedly said: "If there is someone in the street who likes it, any shop of the Sun family can be bought. Take it yourself, just leave your name, and the account will be recorded in the official account."

Lu Ci smiled, thanked him for his kindness, and left.

With short hands, Lu Ci would not accept this kind of bright sugar-coated bullets, no matter how generous Sun Jingwen said.

Lu Ci took Zhu Shuo, first went to the perfume hall to make an appointment with a skilled scrubber, took a bath comfortably, and came out refreshed, but instead of rushing back to Sun's house, they rented two horses. The donkey for transportation went to the government office.

Although he lived in Sun's house for a few days, he still remembered clearly about the matter of buying.

This is also due to Zhu Shuo.

These days in the Sun family, although Lu Ci was busy with 'serving the sick' and his every move was under the watchful eyes of everyone, Zhu Shuo was still free.

Anyway, the entire Sun family's attention was focused on Lu Ci, and no one paid attention to his whereabouts. Zhu said that he did his part as a middleman for running errands, taking advantage of Lu Ci's spare time to decoct the medicine, and carefully reported the progress.

The only thing that Lu Ci missed was probably that the Beijing official who presided over the purchase this time had to rush back early because he was given another position in Beijing, so the sealing date had to be greatly advanced.

Fortunately, because Li Xin listened to Lu Ci's suggestion, he never procrastinated, so although he was a little hasty at the moment, he managed to catch up.

Of course, Lu Ci knew that his grandfather, who valued this matter very much, would also appear, so he didn't plan to appear openly.

Instead, when he was about to reach the county government office, he stopped, invited a passerby at random, and called Li Xin, who arrived there a few hours earlier and waited anxiously for the verdict with his grandfather, to call him directly. come here.

As soon as Li Xin got the news, he couldn't wait to find a reason for his abdominal pain, left those people immediately, and came straight to Lu Ci.

Because he was too nervous and his complexion was not much better, the excuse he made did not make people suspicious, especially when his grandfather saw this, he also subtly looked down on him a little more.

The author has something to say: Notes:

1. Generally, the deadline for buying is 1-3 months.

2. During the bidding process, the government "blocked the wooden cabinets, distributed them to the counties under the management, and received the official letter of acceptance".That is to say, the locked wooden boxes are sent to the counties and towns under the jurisdiction. Anyone who is qualified and intends to bid, fills in the price they are willing to pay, seals it and puts it into the cabinet.

In the bid evaluation process, the unpacking of the wooden cabinet must be open, with the presence of several state government officials, and the public is allowed to watch.

After the successful bidder is determined, there is still a procedure to go: publicity, "informing the public knowledge committee in the list".In order to represent the openness and fairness of the whole bidding process.Finally, the government issues a "public certificate" to the winning bidder, which is essentially a contract. ("Song: The Dawn of Modern Times")

3. I forgot to explain why Mother Lu left when her parents forced her to marry someone else.

Because according to Song law, if a woman loses her husband, her grandparents and parents have the right to force her to remarry if she decides to remain a widow.If the widow is not allowed to remarry, it will instead be used as an excuse for others to attack.

During Song Renzong's time, Wu Yu, a high-ranking official, had a younger brother who married a daughter-in-law.After the sister-in-law gave birth to six children, the younger brother died, and the sister-in-law decided not to remarry.When the official Tang Xun played the emperor's attack on Wu Yu, one of the charges was that he did not allow his younger brother and daughter-in-law to remarry. ("Pretending to Live in the Song Dynasty")