"How is Qingqiu Mountain now?" I asked the fox demon.

The fox demon was surprised: "Childe knows my Qingqiu fox demon? ”

"Looks like you know a lot." I said, and beckoned to the shopkeeper again, "I want this fox demon." ”

"Okay, wait a minute!" The shopkeeper immediately opened the cage, and I noticed that the fox demon still had a shackle around his neck.

The fox demon was submissive, and seemed to be afraid of me.

In fact, in the ghost market, the buying and selling of demons and monsters is very similar to the buying and selling of maids, and in this period, if something happens to natural or man-made disasters, there will be a phenomenon of selling children and daughters, and the phenomenon is very common.

Sometimes, if life is not going on, there will be a phenomenon of selling children and daughters, and even many poor people hope that their children can be sold to a good family.

In ancient times, there were two kinds of maids, one was hired maids, and the other was sold maids. Not all maids can be bought with money, and the maids who sell themselves are generally sold by poor families, and the hired maids are out to find work.

The difference is significant.

Hiring maids has freedom in life, they are only domestic servants, and the owner must pay wages. And because it is only an employment relationship, the owner must not hurt the hired maid, otherwise he will need to lose money, and he will be held accountable if he sues the government.

And the maids who sell themselves have no freedom in life, they are slaves all their lives, and the master's family does not need to pay them, as long as they eat and drink, maybe they will reward them when they are in a good mood.

However, since the maid is the private property of the master's family, the maid belongs entirely to the master's family. Anything happens to them, and the court will not give them protection.

Just like in the Dream of Red Mansions, Jia Baoyu and the maid around him attacked people for the first time, this is not just the plot in the book, it was normal for the male owner to possess the maid's body at that time, and it was recognized by the whole society.

Different prices in different periods, mainly according to the price of goods, under normal circumstances, a minor maid is about four taels of silver.

In my hometown, although I have not been in for a long time, I have heard a lot of such things, such as a poor woman who sewed and mended someone's clothes, but unexpectedly repaired them and needed to pay seven taels of silver, and the poor woman who had no money sold her eleven-year-old daughter, but only sold them for five taels at most.

It can be seen that in ancient times, the price of a small maid was only four taels to five taels of silver, and a big maid or a maid with a skill can generally be sold for about twenty taels of silver.

But in any case, this kind of trade damages the life of the person concerned, and it is also one of the bad customs of ancient times.

The poor sell girls, and the rich buy maids, which is a very common trading activity among the people, for example, in the Golden Bottle Plum, Pang Chunmei, one of the three heroines, is a graceful maid.

As an important window to understand the prices of goods in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the book involves the buying and selling of maids as many as 30 times, and the prices range from 3 taels to 16 taels, which is about 2,000 to 10,000 yuan of the current yuan.

Now in this year, one tael of silver can buy 350 catties of rice, 140 catties of flour, 50 catties of pork, 16 catties of cotton, according to the price of grain, it should be about 600 yuan is more reasonable.

However, a leather jacket of Ximen Qing's concubine Li Bei'er costs 60 taels of silver, which is equivalent to the price of 10 maids, and Li Bei'er's coffin is as high as 350 taels of silver, which is equivalent to the price of 60 maids.

Why do rich and noble people buy maids, the answer to this question is too simple, it is nothing more than working coolies, serving the master, and meeting a young master like Jia Baoyu who pities the fragrance and cherishes the jade, that is the greatest luck for the maids, rich in food and clothing, and much loved.

If the owner is a knowledgeable lady like Daiyu Baochai, it is not bad, as long as she serves her wholeheartedly, she can live a stable life, but in real history, there are too few kind masters like that, and the real life of the maids is very miserable and pitiful.

In ancient times, as an accessory of the master, the maid was no different from the cattle, horses and sheep, without freedom and personality, and could be bought and scolded at will.

Even the big girls with high status in the Dream of Red Mansions, such as Jin Chuan and Qingwen, as long as they make mistakes and anger their masters, they also say that they will be killed, without much effort, and they do not have to pay any legal responsibility.

Not only that, psychopathic, perverse behavior of the master is also a lot of people, the Ming Dynasty traitor Yan Song's son Yan Shifan has the quirk of spitting in the mouth of the young and beautiful maid, the maid since the moment she was sold to the master by her parents, she has lost her personality, they work hard, conscientious, and may not be able to exchange for the master's favor and their own safety, this is the general living state of the ancient maid.

Even if they are not beaten to death, exhausted, or tortured to death, most of the fate of the maid is very miserable, and the best situation is roughly the following: one is to become the master's house-filling girl, or concubine; The second is to marry with the master, the master and the servant serve a husband, this situation is also more common, many young ladies who have followed the young lady have won the love of the master, and the young lady will marry as a dowry maid to marry the husband's family, and after marriage, she will become a concubine.

Wang Guiquan, the second wife who gave birth to eight children to Liang Qichao, is the dowry maid of the original wife Li Huixian.

There is also the idea of getting married when you are old and spending the rest of your life in peace, because you have served your master wholeheartedly for many years, you will get the mercy of your master, and when you reach the marriageable age, you will find a suitable family to marry and have children.

But most of them are also married to servants and servants, and they are still relatively hard, but fortunately, they can live a normal life and enjoy the joy of family, and more and more tragic maids end up being kicked out of the house after making mistakes or being old and decrepit, living on the streets, and dying of sloppiness.

There are also maids who are given to friends or bribed officials by their owners as objects and gifts, and those who have repeatedly poured their hands will become cheaper and weaker, and even more will be sold into the courtyard to be humiliated.

And the same is true of these monsters in front of you, most of the demons and monsters in the ghost market here are women, and many of the monsters here are yin picking after being bought.

It's just like Mingyue needs to absorb a lot of men's spirits, it's just a tool, and once these monsters have no use value, they will be abandoned.

So when this fox demon heard that she was bought by me, she was also expressionless, as if she had long expected her end.

"Childe, if you buy me, can you buy this water ghost as well?" She said to me, "It's a bit excessive, but this is a very good sister of mine, Childe seems to know the fox demon of Qingqiu very well, so the slave has the courage to ask Childe to buy her together, so that we two sisters can also serve Childe and Miss with all our hearts." ”

The sister she said is this water ghost Zhang Yefang, this is a water ghost with a sad face, maybe because it is a water ghost, his face is always covered with a layer of dewdrops, and it looks like he is going to drip at any time, although his face is white and tender, but there is no trace of blood, it looks like he has been blistered for a long time, of course, it is not swollen, which is very rare.

I looked at Nie Xiaoqian, Xiaoqian said: "Childe, don't look at me, this still depends on Childe, you see that there are a lot of hard-working demons and monsters here, if you want to be kind, you don't have so much money to buy them all, but one or two are still fine." ”

The skills of this water ghost are okay, and I said in my heart that maybe I can help in the future, after all, if I am possessed, I can engage in some spy work at that time.

And seeing their sisterhood, maybe they all bought it, and they will be able to receive their loyalty.

I agreed, and I said, "Okay, buy them all." ”

Na Su Xiaoxiao was very happy when she heard this, and with a smile on her face, she was about to kowtow when she came to me.

I say in my heart that this is also the sadness of this era, not only human life is not valuable, but even these beautiful ghosts are not worth much.

I took out the ghost grass, and the shopkeeper laughed and said, "Guest officer, do you have any other requirements?" In fact, you have more than enough to rub these two girls and these magic weapons, and I have to find you a lot of money. ”

"Then come a few more sets of clothes, change them into these two girls, you can't go with me in tatters, besides, buy a carriage, I don't know if you have skeleton war horses here, I have to hurry." I said.

The shopkeeper was overjoyed: "If that's the case, then there's no need to look for money, guest officer, wait a minute, I'll come when I go." ”