The maid who was called Qingmei looked at the other party's pair of dark eyes looking at her, and her cheeks immediately took on a little crimson; After she answered like a mosquito, she hurriedly opened an oil-paper umbrella like a frightened little beast and walked to the kitchen of the south courtyard......

It didn't take long for the man to hold a piece of mung bean cake in his left hand and continue to hold the book in his right hand, and continued to listen to the rainy night and read; And the maid Qingmei, who was fragrant with red sleeves and cooking tea and reading, may not be able to hold back the sleepiness, and some overstepped the man's legs and sank into sweet sleep......

Shen You, the third son of the Shen family, who picked up Urge with a sword, and then shot to capture Lin Siwu, looked down at Qingmei's beautiful and peaceful sleeping face, and couldn't help but be a little stupid; He put down the half-open scroll, gently stroked the fine lines at the corners of her eyes with his right hand, and sighed heavily......

The red face is scattered and the years are about to be twilight, and the cold light is like a sink

Shen You looked at the lines on her face before he suddenly thought that this little Qingmei, who had served her food and clothing since she was a child, was now in her forties......

I wonder if the next 40 years will be able to be as peaceful as tonight for you and me?

Lang rode a bamboo horse and went around the bed to make green plums.

Shen You and Qingmei are playmates who grew up together, and they are a pair of best friends who respect and know each other. However, they were born in an ancient clan with a long heritage and strict family rules, and this kind of emotional entanglement between two people cannot be so pure......

At least in Master Shen's opinion, this Shen You is a prodigal rebel who is useless and insulting to his ancestors; As for Qingmei, they spent twenty taels of silver to buy a companion maid from the street.

The position of this companion maid sounds more advanced than that of a rough envoy! But in fact, this identity of Qingmei can also be replaced by slaves or livestock.

Whether it is in the Youbei Third Road in the wilderness, or in the decaying and declining Northern Yan Dynasty, the servants, maids, old mothers and other service personnel who help work in the courtyard of the deep house like Qingmei have a strict service period; Even if it is a female official recruited in the palace, as long as she reaches a certain age and has not been assigned to marriage, she will be issued a large sum of silver taels by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, released from the palace, and live an ordinary life.

Therefore, from the legal level of the two imperial courts north of the Huajiang River, the word "slave" does not exist; Even if it is a cheap status or official sale that is clearly stipulated by the two imperial courts, at most it is a short-term worker who becomes a long-term worker, and a maid who becomes an old mother.

However, the same thing, in the Nankang Dynasty, which is known for its open-mindedness, justice and strict laws, still has the saying of "selling oneself"; And what's even more ridiculous is that there are also clear laws and regulations of the imperial court, which can escort it! Of course, the corresponding employment documents and labor contracts and other face-saving projects are still readily available; However, there is no limit on the length of the contract; As a result, the loopholes that can be exploited are getting bigger and bigger.

Whether it is the coolie craftsmen who open mountains and split rocks, build dams and build cities, or the female workers and servants who keep planting tea and spinning cloth day and night, most of them have signed lifelong contracts with their employers under the condition of half-coaxing and half-deception. Because even in the land south of the Yangtze River, where erudition and Confucianism are everywhere, there are still a large number of ordinary people at the bottom who are illiterate and "blind". For these people, even if the contract is written in black and white with nonsense such as "the salary is a copper plate, and it must not be violated for life", it is difficult for them to see the problem......

As for suing the official for breaking the contract, for them, it is even more fantastical. Because among the middle class of the Nankang Dynasty, in addition to professional accidents such as business shopkeepers and medical doctors, the most profitable industries are the so-called "wild literati" who make up their arguments! As long as it is a serious business that can set up a shop, who doesn't know a few teams of lawyers with super combat effectiveness, who are on standby outside the yamen all day long?

Over time, those poor families who are desperate have slowly accepted this step-by-step working environment. And it was under such circumstances that Qingmei was sold by his gambler father to the Gusu Shen family and exchanged for two ingots of silver.

But the funny thing is that these two ingots of silver, before even half an hour has passed, they were transferred back to the silver treasury of the Gusu Shen family again......

The Gusu Shen family is prominent, and in the prosperous times, they will enter the dynasty as the prime minister, and in the troubled times, they will retire and concentrate on business, so they have always been heirlooms with poetry and books, and the door style is extremely positive. Follow the genealogy of the Shen family to check up, which dynasty and generation of officialdom are indispensable to the figure of his Gusu Shen family; Now the Council of Elders, who is actually in control of the Nankang Dynasty, is the current head of the Shen family; And the Dharma Council, which is responsible for formulating and revising the laws of the imperial court, also has many seats for the Shen family and the children of his subordinates. Like such a famous family with deep roots, every move, word and deed may affect the entire Gusu City and even the entire Nankang Dynasty!

The more celebrities there are in a family, the deeper the heritage; The more wealth you have, the more upright your waist will be; However, the more prominent the achievements of the ancestors, the more they handed down the so-called family rules, family laws, ethical generations, status levels, etc., and the more they cannot be criticized and modified by future generations......

Shen You is the third son of the Shen family, and the youngest younger brother among the descendants of their generation. His eldest brother Shen lives in Shen Caotang, and he is an honest man who is rigid and pedantic, and his personality is also a little dull. may be because he is the eldest son, he has shouldered the heavy responsibility of the lintel of Zhongxing since he was a child, and he was cultivated and educated by his father to become what he is today, which is also a reasonable thing.

And his second brother Shen Ang Shen Yanqing is a free-spirited, unconventional flower Tai Sui, a top business genius, and a handsome gentleman with a romantic color. His second brother, when he was a child, had the reputation of "poetry and painting crowned Gusu City, and abacus dialed the south bank of the river", and was the best candidate to inherit the family business.

Shen You, the third son who grew up in such an environment, naturally has no family tasks for him to shoulder. And his mother, Mrs. Shen, also told him since he was a child to raise his body stronger, and he could also pick some books that he was interested in reading, and marry a few more daughters-in-law when he grew up, so as to spread out branches and leaves for the Shen family and add people to import......

Therefore, when Shen You Shen Xingguan completed the cultural course formulated for him by his father, he fell into confusion about the meaning of life and the future direction. In fact, this confusion is also a natural thing for him; Just like Shen Gui, who had nothing to do and was idle on the Third Road in Youbei, this kind of tranquil life of extreme wealth and nobility really makes people feel extremely empty......

But it's really refreshing!

Therefore, when Shen You passed the big exam in the clan and won the championship in one fell swoop, he put forward a seemingly natural request to his parents:

To get married.

Originally, the old couple had a hundred supports, but as soon as he said the second half of the sentence, the Shen family's mansion immediately blew upside down!

At that time, what Xiao Shen You said in the second half of the sentence was that he was going to marry his companion maid, Qingmei.

That night, his eldest brother Shen Ang was still in Jiankang City, planning with his colleagues about Nankang's self-reliant family and country; and his second brother Shen Ang, who went for a walk in the market after dinner, still did not return; Therefore, in the entire Shen Mansion, there are only the second elder of the Shen family who is angry, and the little Shen You who wants to get married.

Because Qingmei's background is too humble and lowly, the three finally broke out into a violent quarrel; In the end, it was Mrs. Shen who was scheming and used the strategy of delaying the army to bring little Shen You back to the study to calm down; And he and Old Man Shen, with four powerful guardians, hung the shameless maid Qingmei who seduced the young master upside down on a jujube tree in the courtyard.

It stands to reason that the servants and mothers in the lower courtyard are all hard-working people, and there should be no reason to hate and dislike the little Qingmei who has always been cute and sensible; However, it was these people who were sympathetic to her, but for some reason, who used all kinds of unbelievable and destructive methods, and used foul language to insult the companion maid who had committed a serious crime in the clan to the best of their ability......

Among these famous families, the subordinates who have committed a serious crime in the family rules are equivalent to a mad dog that bites its master, and can be punished by their own family; So even if these old mothers who are fake and mighty are careless about people's lives, they can't make a little waves......

An old mother walked to the kitchen in a hurry, and when she wanted to take a red-hot iron strip and add some "tricks" to the little hooves hanging upside down from the tree, she was suddenly stopped by a handsome young man with evil spirits on the corners of her eyebrows and eyes......

This person is the second son of the Shen family, Shen Ang, who has just finished "eating" from Fireworks Alley.

After Shen Ang asked the reason for the incident from the old mother's mouth, he immediately instructed his personal maid Danzhu to save Xiao Qingmei, who had already had the idea of suicide. Danzhu personally washed off the filth on her body, bandaged the dense wounds of different depths, and then put on her own clothes and carried her to Shen You's room lightly......

Half an hour later, Shen Ang, with red and swollen cheeks, walked out of the main room, just stopping the angry younger brother Shen You; And Xiao Shen You looked at the blood-stained slap marks on his second brother's face, and he froze in place for a while......

Shen Ang dragged the donkey to a corner of the outer courtyard, and out of nowhere he took out a tube made of leaves, lit it with a fire fold, took a deep breath, and spit out a choking cloud of smoke:

"Whew...... Third child, don't you know our father's temper...... I've already helped you talk about it just now, don't make more trouble in the future, and don't mention the idea of marrying Qingmei again. Otherwise, although my father and mother won't do anything to you, even if Qingmei has a hundred lives... Well... But you're really good, a big fart kid misses a girl! Okay, better than our big brother!

Shen You looked at the second brother squinting his eyes and shaking his head, and he also took the leaf tube curiously, took a big breath, and then choked on the large cloud of smoke and coughed up tears......

"Hey, you're quite knowledgeable! The high-quality tobacco leaves of the big food merchants, are they strong enough? Third brother, second brother will secretly tell you a secret...... The last time I went to the north to sell goods, I met a girl from the north...... Tsk, that's a fierce horse, it's much more interesting than the girl in Jiangnan, the second brother must marry her! ”

Xiao Shen You looked at the starlight flashing in the eyes of the second brother, and his tone also brought some yearning for free love:

“…… What's the name of my second sister-in-law? ”

"Uh...... Well, I don't know! But her surname, I've asked Danzhu to inquire clearly! It seems like...... It seems to be a surname...... Oh yes! ”

Shen Ang suddenly patted his head, and then pretended to be mysteriously attached to Shen You's ear, and said softly:

"Her surname is Guo!"