The Tianjin Acropolis in January of the seventh year of Chongzhen. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Just after the New Year, the weather was still very cold, and the howling cold wind blew on the street, sweeping people's faces painfully. The pedestrians on Dongcheng Hengjie are wearing cotton clothes, and most of them are covered with patches, which are black and do not slip away, maintaining a uniform tone with the black and gray buildings in this acropolis. The road was dirty, full of mud and horse droppings. The sewers on both sides of the road have long been blocked with garbage, and the dirty water has frozen next to the garbage, freezing the entire sewer. There were also piles of garbage and feces on street corners and alleys, but fortunately it was cold at this time, otherwise the smell would have been enough to make Li Zhi vomit as he walked on the street.

This is the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Li Zhi is a time-traveler, who just traveled from the 21st century to the Tianjin Acropolis at the end of the Ming Dynasty six days ago. Although Li Zhi has become accustomed to his identity, he has not yet fully adapted to everything in this era.

Before the crossing, Li Zhi was an industrial designer.

The wonderful thing is that Li Zhi is called Li Zhi in the 21st century, and in the late Ming Dynasty, the eighteen-year-old young man whose soul occupied him happened to be called Li Zhi. occupied the body of the teenager Li Zhi, and the traverser Li Zhi also obtained all the memories of the teenager.

But the situation that Li Zhi faced after crossing was not good.

Dressed in filial piety, Li Zhi walked into the Jingbian Fang in Dongcheng, where Li Zhi's house was located, and felt that there was less garbage on the road, and there was no human and animal feces piled up on the street corner. But before Li Zhi could breathe, he heard the voices of the neighbors talking.

The houses along the road all have shop fronts, and the women and men sitting in the front of the street all started talking about Li Zhi when they saw him.

"As soon as Li Cheng shakes his hands away, I'm afraid the Li family will be over, now that this stupid Li Zhi is in charge, how can the Li family get by?"

"Don't talk about it, I heard that Li Cheng spent sixty taels on medical treatment before he died, all of which were borrowed from the Xiao family. In another three months, the Li family will not pay the money, and they will have to use the Li family's yard to pay off the debt. ”

"Sixty taels? That's a lot of money! ”

"And the interest! Five points of interest! ”

"The Li family's pepper trade is not thriving, and now this nerd Li Zhi is in charge, where can he still make money? Tsk, isn't the Li family finished, is it going to live on the streets? ”

"Don't talk about it, after so many years in the neighborhood, I didn't expect the Li family to end up like this."

Hearing the discussion of the neighbors, Li Zhi frowned, stopped unhappily, and glanced at the long-tongued neighbors. However, this Li Zhi's reputation has always been stupid, and no one takes his unhappiness in his eyes, and continues to talk about it. Seeing that his protest was ineffective, Li Zhi lowered his head and walked quickly to his home.

Li Zhi's house is next to a courtyard on Heng Street, and the façade of the street is a spacious shop, which is the Li family's pepper shop. Li Zhi's younger brother, Li Xing, a sixteen-year-old boy with delicate eyebrows, sat in the store wearing a torn cotton jacket full of patches, bored guarding two bags of pepper from Nanyang.

The goods are there, but there are no customers.

Seeing Li Zhi go home, Li Xing only glanced at it, and didn't say hello, obviously he didn't respect this stupid brother.

Inside the store is a two-entry courtyard, the entrance is covered with a black-tiled gatehouse, and the courtyard is paved with blue bricks, and the layout is quite exquisite, proving that the family was once wealthy. However, at this time, the courtyard has long been dilapidated, and the bricks and tiles are somewhat broken, and there is no former glory. The Li family also didn't care about the previous decency, so they carved out an area under the corner of the yard, surrounded by a bamboo fence, and raised chickens in it. There is a well in the second courtyard, and there are two vegetable patches on both sides. At this time, it was cold, but no vegetable seedlings were planted.

A middle-aged woman dressed in filial piety clothes, who was in her early forties, was already gray-haired and wrinkled, and was busy in front of the loom in the hall. The hair on his head was gray, but it was properly tied, and the cotton clothes on his body, though worn and patched, were clean.

This is Li Zhi's mother, Zheng.

This weaving is a tiring job, every day from early morning to night, but also to earn a bowl of rice to eat, but the family is in the middle, Zheng only works so hard every day, can he sleep with peace of mind.

Seeing Li Zhi come back, Zheng threw down the loom in his hand and greeted him, looking at Li Zhi with some anxiety.

"Zhi'er, is your second grandfather willing to raise money to save us?"

Li Zhi went out this time to raise money from the patriarch of the family, Li Zhi's second grandfather.

Three months ago, Li Zhi's father, Li Cheng, fell seriously ill and vomited blood every day. At that time, the family was in a panic and went to Langzhong to see a doctor, saying that it was liver and stomach fever and blood stasis blockage. On weekdays, the Li family of four guards a pepper shop, and the business is bleak, where do they have how much savings? But it costs money to buy medicine, and in order to save his life, Li Zhi borrowed money from the wealthy Xiao family in the workshop with his own house as collateral.

First five taels, then ten taels, fifteen taels, and finally Shengsheng borrowed sixty taels of silver for half a year, with five cents of interest a month. There is a house as a mortgage, and a high interest rate of five cents is set, but the Xiao family has borrowed it again and again. But who knew that if the silver was thrown down, the medicine would be useless. The condition is raging, and a month ago, Li Zhi and his father went away.

Now, Li Zhi's family is unable to repay the money, and they are about to use the house to pay off their debts. The house is gone, and Li Zhi's family of three will live on the streets. Li Zhi went to the second grandfather of the patriarch this time, hoping that the second grandfather could call on the clan and ask various relatives to lend Li Zhi dozens of taels of silver for Li Zhi's family, and pay off the arrears of the Xiao family first.

But this is just the utopian dream of Li Zhi's family. The two men of Li Zhi's family are about to become married, and they are about to get married and marry a wife, and there are places to spend money everywhere. A family of three guards a pepper shop with a dismal business, with less input and more output, and the relatives all know that lending money to Li Zhi is obviously going to be wasted, or not coming back.

Long before Li Zhi crossed, the patriarch of the Li family had rejected Li Zhi several times, and the traverser Li Zhi knew about this situation, and he didn't want to ask for anyone again, but the Zheng family repeatedly asked for it, so Li Zhi went to it. But as a result, it still doesn't work.

Li Zhi replied lightly: "The second grandfather is unwilling to raise money for us. ”

When Zheng heard this answer, his face froze, and tears appeared in his eyes. Holding on to the door frame of the hall, Zheng said helplessly: "In this chaotic year, is our family going to live on the streets?" ”

Li Zhi said: "The second grandfather said that there is no money, but he can help us as a guarantor, and let me and Li Xing go to a big family to be servants." ”

After saying this, Li Zhi smiled, as if he was laughing at the second grandfather's words.

Going to a large family to be a servant is the most humble job in this era. Ordinary servants not only have a low social status, but they are beaten and scolded by their masters, and no one cares if they are killed. And the remuneration for being a servant is very low, and I am afraid that I will not be able to afford to marry a daughter-in-law for the rest of my life.

As a traverser, even if he doesn't have the spirit of Wang Ba and recruits countless younger brothers, how can he be reduced to being a servant?