Heading southeast from Meishan Village, the road gradually narrows and becomes rugged. At the end of the village, around a house, there is a narrow ramp. On one side of the ramp there is a vegetable garden surrounded by thorns, and beyond that, there is a barren mountain. In the early years, the fifth Jean and Zhuang Qiniang lived at the foot of this mountain.

There are only a few thatched huts at the foot of the mountain, and the courtyard walls are not half high, but they are made of broken shale at the bottom of the mountain.

Ruyi followed the person who led the way, walking on the muddy path in front of the courtyard with one foot deep and one foot shallow. If you look up, you can see the scene in the courtyard through the dilapidated courtyard wall.

It was also when I came here that Ruyi understood what it meant to be a disciple of the four walls.

After walking about thirty or fifty steps, the guide stopped, pointed to a dilapidated thatched hut on the side, and said, "Five generations of light lived there before. ”

Ruyi took the reward money and gave it to her, saying, "Thank you." The man took the money and refused to leave, and looked at Ruyi for a while before leaving hesitantly.

The courtyard next to the hut was lined with clothes, apparently inhabited.

Ruyi raised her hand and knocked on the door, and it was a trembling old woman who answered the door. He was dressed in coarse cloth and short brown, his face was wrinkled like old bark, and his eyes were cloudy.

When she saw Ruyi, she was obviously stunned for a moment, probably because her eyes were not very good, so she leaned forward to take a closer look.

She leaned in, and Ruyi couldn't help but retreat, and the old woman hesitated, "Girl, who are you looking for?" ”

Ruyi said, "Is it Grandma Zheng?" You've seen Lin Niangzi, I'm her owner. ”

The old woman was stunned again, probably wondering who Lin Niangzi was. Then she remembered, nodded hurriedly, and said, "Yes, yes-she came to me to inquire about Qi Niang." Yes, yes...... That's right. She took Ruyi's hand very eagerly, and said happily, "You are Qi Niang's daughter, come in and sit!" ”

Ruyi didn't react for a while, "Huh? ”

The old woman muttered happily, "As soon as I open the door, I will recognize it, and it is like your mother carved out of the same mold." I said why suddenly someone came to inquire about Qi Niang. ”

The courtyard was only three or five steps wide, and in a blink of an eye, she pulled Ruyi into the house and began to gather tea.

Ruyi hurriedly said, "You admit that you are wrong, I am not her daughter......"

The woman came to her senses and said, "Isn't it? ”

Ruyi said, "No." ”

She leaned forward and looked at it for a while, but she still refused to believe it, and wondered, "...... Really, not? ”

Ruyi said embarrassedly, "It's really not." But he still smiled and laughed, "Is it really that similar?" ”

The woman's eyes were dizzy, and it was not surprising that she had made a mistake. Can...... When Goyoko first caught a glimpse of her, he seemed to be mistaken. Of course, at that time, the five generations were only drunk, and they just swept it at a glance, and they couldn't do it accurately. But two coincidences in a row are inevitably concerning.

The woman seemed a little disappointed, "It's like that." He said half-incredulously, "But Qi Niang is not as generous as you, and at first glance, she is from a big family." ”

Ruyi said, "After so many years, you still remember her." ”

"Remember...... Why don't you remember? The woman sighed, "Such a good girl." Turning to Ruyi again, "Are you hers?" ”

Ruyi thought for a moment and said, "I'm also her owner." ”

"Oh......" the woman was surprised again, and said, "Lady Lin is in a hurry, and I don't dare to ask...... Qi Niang, how is she doing now? ”

Ruyi thought about it, and roughly told the Zheng family that the five generations of light went to the embroidery village to make trouble, causing Zhuang Qiniang to commit hysteria. He added, "She was resold to my family." It is said that a child was left in the house of the man in front of him. I want to ransom the child back and reunite them with mother and son, and maybe she will get better. But looking at her situation now, she can't ask. So I wanted to come to you and ask, do you remember where she was sold in the first place? ”

The woman sighed and wept when she heard this, and said, "It's really a wrongful thing in his previous life, and he still won't let go of Qi Niang." ”

But Ruyi mentioned Zhuang Qiniang's child, and asked her where she was sold, but she paused, and then wiped her tears and sighed, "I'm afraid it's not so easy to redeem it......"

"So you really know?" This was an unexpected joy, and Ruyi hurriedly asked, "Which one?" ”

The woman said, "It's an official...... Sold to Yuefu. ”

Ruyi was stunned for a moment - this dynasty Yuefu belongs to the Shaofu, roughly speaking, it is part of the harem, and I heard that it also buys girls from the people to teach singing and dancing. But at that time, Zhuang Qiniang should not be young, and she is a pregnant woman, what are you buying it for?

What's more, Yuefu has been abolished many years ago. Ruyi remembers very clearly that when the doctors of Guozixue said that Confucius "hated Zheng Sheng's rebellion and Yale", they also specially pointed out that the Son of Heaven abolished the harem Yuefu, which was very moral.

I'm afraid that someone is using the banner of Yuefu to buy it by fraud.

He asked, "Are you sure it's Yuefu?" If the official family buys people......"

"You can't be wrong." The woman wiped her tears, probably to the point of sadness, and said, "I won't tell you." At that time, my paralyzed old man was still alive, but my son was short-lived, leaving behind a seven-year-old grandson. originally expected the daughter-in-law to be able to keep it, so she brought up her grandson. Who knows, he can't keep it, and he is determined to run away with the wild man. I had no choice but to send her to get married, so that I could ask for a few taels of dowry money. At that time, I had to serve the paralyzed old man at the top, and I had to take care of the nurse at the bottom. If it weren't for Qi Niang's help, I would ......" She choked for a while before wiping her tears and said, "I pulled down my face and said that if you have to sell Qi Niang, you might as well sell it to me." In order to make money, he also sold the old jujube tree in the yard. The jujube wood, which is more than 70 years old, is almost ripe when it is cut. I still thought that they would wait for Qi Niang to give birth to the child, and who knew that they would sell it with a big belly - the child was almost eight months old at that time, and it was about to give birth. Those two girls are really reincarnated. ”

She sighed for a while, "I went to his house and made trouble for a while. The man was going to marry the county lord, and he knew that he wanted face, so he pushed out the man's teeth and asked him to talk to me. The tooth told me that he was just a hand-to-hand puller, and the one who bought the person was the Yuefu procurement, so I would go to the official family to make trouble if I had the ability. I thought that they were a partner to deceive me, so I inquired about the entrustment, and gave a lot of money, only to know that it was indeed Yuefu who bought it. ”

Ruyi will be suspicious, "Yuefu is a place to teach singing and dancing, how can you buy pregnant women?" ”

And listening to Zheng's statement, Zhuang Qiniang has been pregnant for eight months, and she is not pregnant.

"I don't know......," the woman paused dryly for a while, then raised her hand to wipe her tears, "I only know that they bought several people at that time, all of whom were pregnant." ”

Ruyi was stunned again - this is intriguing.

"Do you know who that tooth is?"

She just asked, not wanting this woman to really remember, "He lives in the north of the village, and he only fled and came back a while ago, so he took up this old business that damages yin morality." You can ask and someone will know. ”

Ruyi finished asking and came out of the courtyard.

There is a date tree in the corner. She swept her eyes, and sure enough, she saw an old root in the northwest of the jujube tree—she thought that this jujube tree was the new seedling that grew from the old root.

In September, the dates have already been cleaned. Ruyi looked under the tree for a while, and remembered that Zheng said that when she sold jujube trees, the jujubes were almost ripe, and it should have been between July and August. In this way, Zhuang Qiniang's child was born between September and October, but it was ...... with her

Ruyi paused and didn't think any further.

There were two boxes under the jujube tree, and red paper was pressed on them. Ruyi has lived outside the palace for a long time, and vaguely knows some folk customs, so he asked, "Is your family going to have a happy event?" ”

The woman hurriedly said, "Yes—the grandson is about to marry a daughter-in-law." I went out of the city yesterday to get hired, and I was far away, and I haven't come back today. Otherwise, you will see it. ”

When Zhuang Qiniang was sold, her grandson was seven or eight years old, and he should be twenty-six or seven this year. However, poor people say that it is difficult for daughters-in-law to have children, and it is really uncommon for them to marry after they are thirty or forty.

Ruyi took two gold bills and gave them to her, saying, "This is the happy money given for Qi Niang." ”

The woman refused, but finally accepted it.

Ruyi said goodbye and went out, she called Ruyi again, and wanted to talk back, "Qi Niang don't follow any great people......

Ruyi was amused by her and smiled, "Isn't it." ”

Coming out of Zheng Po's house, Ruyi sent someone to the north of the village to find out the news of Yazi.

Sure enough, as Zheng said, he inquired as soon as he inquired.

Ruyi vaguely felt that a qiē was too smooth. She has not had good luck since she was a child, and it is rare for her to do things so naturally. She habitually slowed down things that were too smooth, so that she wondered if there was any hidden danger that she didn't notice.

Therefore, this time she did not come forward directly, but asked the guy in the rudder to replace her and make an appointment with Nayazi to talk in the restaurant. She booked a private room next door and listened to what they had to say.

She went early, poured a glass of thin wine, and drank by the window. Under the window is the entrance of the street, and the little lady who sells wine and flowers on the street has a good voice, and she sells it tactfully like singing. In this shouting, the clouds are flowing and people are coming and going. She was distracted for a while, and she actually thought of Xu Yi again, when he led her to escape from the country school, crossed an avenue of ginkgo trees, and took her into this prosperous red dust. It's been exactly ten years.

But after a moment of distraction, she saw the work and a thin man with a thief's eyebrows walking past the corner of the street, and were coming to the restaurant.

This thin man is obviously the tooth.

But this is not the first time Ruyi has seen him.

-- On the day when Wu Daiguang went to the embroidery building to make trouble, Ruyi got out of the carriage and wanted to enter the embroidery village, and turned her head to see that someone was staring at her under the pretext of being that person was him.

Ruyi took a sip of wine and thought to himself, sure enough, there is no such thing as a smooth thing in the world.

It's not that she wants to see this tooth, but this tooth induces her to come to see herself.

But it's just a tooth, where did you get so much courage and ability? What is his purpose?