Jiao Qi is a blue-faced thin man, with a bit of culture, two mustaches on his lips, and the left corner of his coarse blue cloth robe is often tucked on the Yuanqing belt.

He took three helpers and drove the mule cart on the dirt road for a few days before arriving at the Caohe Wharf in Zhangjiawan, Tongzhou, near the capital.

At this time, although it has begun spring, the thick ice on the water surface of the Cao River has not disappeared, and the river surface is frozen clear like glass, but it is extremely lively, and there are all wooden ice rafts coming and going. Iron bars are nailed under the ice raft, or people are carried, or goods are carried away, and they are very fast and fast. Jiao Qi found four big ice rafts and carried all the children, but they passed through Tongzhou and Zhili in a few days. When the ice gradually subsided, Jiao Qi found a Jiangsu Cao boat stranded for some reason in Linqing, Shandong, and sailed down the river to the south of the Yangtze River.

Because they were on the river, Jiao Qi couldn't help them from walking around. Qi Suniang stood on the deck all day long and looked out in a daze, and saw that when the spring water was shallow, the river was blocked, and from time to time there were people standing bare-legged in the ice water to dredge up in the silt. It is downwind, the big ship of more than 500 stones still needs to be dragged along the coast by the slender man, and the sound of "evil promise" in the mouth of the slender man on the shore is like a ploughing ox panting, resounding over the Cao River for thousands of miles.

Cui Hao saw that Qi Su Niang was stunned day by day, only saying that she missed her father, and saw a dead person in the poplar forest, and was frightened, so he teased her from time to time, and took care of her a lot on weekdays. After a few days, Qi Su Niang finally lost some time in a daze.

Although Qi Su Niang has learned some words when speaking, she still knows that there are still many flaws. She is just an orphan girl who was sold by her father, and she is less valuable than the life of a human tooth, where can she dare to take an extra step and say more? She doesn't stay with the girls on weekdays, she only follows Xiao Cui closely, but because she entangles Xiao Cui, the girls secretly don't see her.

Xiao Cui will not be wary of her, and takes her to gossip and eat and play every day. After a few days like this, Qi Su Niang also knew that he knew a few words, his father and brother were both executioners of the Cangzhou Dart Bureau, and he also ran a few times on the river with his father and brother, and he was more sensible than all the children. Most of those children are riverside people, and they know a thing or two about the hot port town along the Cao River, and they always point along the way. Thanks to them, Qi Su Niang also slowly learned about Kangxi's thirty-seven years of world conditions, and the words and actions on her face also took off the traces of her previous life.

"Little Brother Cui, do you know where this ship is going?" Qi Su Niang grabbed the nest head that had just been assigned to her hand and asked Xiao Cui quietly.

Xiao Cui smiled and coaxed away the girls Lianxiang and Shuanghong who came to look for him to play, and was about to answer, but a boatman at the bow of the boat quarreled with Jiao Qi's gangsters, only to hear the waterman scold loudly: "The dog kills talents!" Lao Tzu's coal was clearly placed here, just you killed it, not you or who? Last time, it was just a broken tarpaulin, I don't have a theory, and your killing is becoming more and more rampant! The gang seemed to argue for a few sentences, and the sailor shouted louder and louder: "Dog kills!" Do you need to see what kind of place this is, and dare to be stubborn? Be careful that Lao Tzu gives you a white knife in, and a red knife out! Jiao Qi hurriedly stuffed the food basket in his hand to another helper and rushed over to persuade him.

Qi Su Niang couldn't help but be surprised when she heard this sailor's rudeness. Xiao Cui seemed to be commonplace, pulled Qi Su Niang away, and said in a low voice: "Huai'an, Jiangsu is the confluence of the three rivers Huang, Huai, and Cao, and a big town on the river. I've heard people say that the river and the Caoyun governor's palace are all over there, and most of them are going there. Moreover, not only do they want to go to the south, but they will always go to Yangzhou and Hangzhou to buy a few Yangma Su operas for the nobles in the capital. ”

Qi Su Niang was taken aback, "Yang Ma Su play? Xiao Cui touched her head and didn't make a sound. Qi Su Niang looked at his face, and vaguely knew what "Yang Ma Su Opera" meant, and the poems she didn't know much about were in addition to "Bright Moonlight in Front of the Bed", "Goose Goose Goose" and the like, but also "Ten years of Yangzhou dream, won the name of Qinglou Bo Xing." He was a little worried, and then thought about Li Quan'er's words to praise Jiaoqi, and comforted himself.

"Su Niang, why don't you eat it?" Xiao Cui saw that Qi Su Niang bit two bites of the nest head and stopped, and couldn't help asking, Qi Su Niang woke up suddenly, and said vaguely: "I'll eat ...... for a while" After saying that, he said that he was thirsty and walked away, but he felt that Xiao Cui's eyes fell on her back and didn't let go for a long time.

Qi Su Niang went ashore with everyone, and sure enough, she saw that the flow of people at the gate of Huai'an Mansion in Jiangsu Province was like a tide, and the goods in the north and south of the city were like mountains, which was extremely prosperous. Jiao Qilao found a good place to settle down early, and while selecting outstanding children from the crowd, he taught a lesson: "Listen, Jiao Ye and I can be regarded as raising you, and I will show you a clear way, being a slave in a mansion is not like being in a country house, you have no foundation, everyone can be bullied, remember that your mouth is dumb, your ears are deaf, and your eyes are blind, otherwise you will have a cheap life, and no one will be rare!" ”

The children looked at each other, because Jiao Qi was not mean to others on weekdays, so he had the courage to ask: "Master Jiao, the old man bought us to work, if the eyes, mouth, and ears are idle, where can I still work?" ”

Jiao Qi was busy taking off the coarse blue shuttle robe, changing into a new dark red cocoon silk robe, covering it with a sheepskin jacket, and taking care of it decently. He was impatient, but when he saw that these children were all yellow-skinned and confused, he didn't know that the water in the Shenmen Mansion was deep and shallow, and people's hearts were unpredictable, so he couldn't help but sigh.

He said slowly: "You don't understand, I just say one thing, and you will understand." With that, he sat down on the crooked footstool.

"The year before last, when the Yongding River flooded, my hometown entrusted someone to give me a child, just to find food to survive. I saw that the child was diligent and good-looking, so I specially found a scholar and sold it. I thought that the master's family was mostly knowledgeable and courteous, and he was known as a good name, so he could suffer less. Unexpectedly, he was too attentive, but he just hugged the seven or eight-year-old lady and fed him the next meal, which provoked the old man to be angry, accusing him of bad intentions and ruining the reputation of the young lady, and immediately beat him to death with a board and threw him into a mass grave outside the city. ”

Jiao Qi said, and pointed to the girls and said: "You have to be more careful, in the inner courtyard of the deep house, if you make a mistake, your reputation will stink." Life is a small matter, but humiliating parents and ancestors is a big matter. Although the child is pitiful, the young lady is even more wronged, the daughter of the in-law's relatives, she is young and doesn't know anything, but because of this incident, she was scolded and locked in the room, frightened, and she didn't dare to eat anymore, and she was scared to death. ”

The children were all frightened, and even Qi Su Niang was dumbfounded. She has been thinking about it repeatedly in the past few days, and when she sees her humble status and the danger of the world, she wants to bow her head. It was also a plan to die rather than live, and to survive the current period for slavery and servant. Now that she can hear this, her heart is cold, and she knows that this world is really very different from her previous life.

She has only heard of the old rules of men and women, when did she really know? The more she got along with the people here, the more she realized that the customs were very different, and all the children on the boat were more sensible and sensible than her, and knew how to advance and retreat. She has no parents to teach and protect her, and it is okay among the people, if she boldly enters the house of a rich official to be a slave, she is afraid that she will make mistakes at every turn, and a small life will be lost at some point. What's more, she still has a seizure that she doesn't know when, if she sells it and has a seizure, where can she stand up in the mansion?

Thinking of this, she touched the hard object in her arms, and secretly rejoiced, although she planned to be a slave at first, she was hungry and saved a lot of her daily nest and hid it by her side.

Xiao Cui looks upright, knows things, and is still outstanding among the eight people selected by Jiao Qi early, Qi Su Niang expected that he would be able to be taken care of. She is inevitably anxious and hesitant after thinking about it on weekdays, and her words and deeds will inevitably be looked down upon, thanks to Xiao Cui Fang's support, the friendship in her heart has been born.

Ignoring Jiao Qi's impatience, she hurried to fetch water for Xiao Cui and help him wash his face and hands, Xiao Cui was also very different, silent, and let Qi Su Niang clean up for him, and in the end, he lowered his voice very low and said hurriedly: "...... You...... If...... Come to find me......" Qi Su Niang was absent-minded, just nodded indiscriminately, watched him turn back step by step, and left with worried eyes, knowing that he was parting at this time, and he could not see him again in this life, and his heart was at a loss.

Jiao Qi wore new clothes, took the children away, turned around with joy before dark, in addition to the waist bag money bag rose a few points, he also held two good Suzhou heavy brocade and a burden in his hand, and said with a smile before entering the door: "In the end, it is the Governor's Mansion of the River, and the shot is even more generous than the nobles in the capital, in recent years, the emperor has been busy fighting Galdan, and the expenses have been reduced everywhere, only the silver for this river is not a lot." ”

As he spoke, Jiao Qi looked at Qi Su Niang, who was still standing silently in a daze in a corner as when he went out, and beckoned, "Su Niang, come here." ”

Qi Su Niang woke up for a moment and walked in front of Jiao Qi suspiciously. Jiao Qi opened the baggage, took out the torn cotton clothes and pants inside, and said with a smile: "Xiao Cui asked me to bring back this old clothes for you to wear, your female doll was born five big and three thick, but it is also a loss to Xiao Cui." ”

Qi Su Niang stretched out her hand to take over the old clothes, Jiao Qi knew that she was strange, but still smiled: "Buying slaves in this house is a matter of taking care of things, Xiao Cui is lucky, just when he met the governor's son, he took a fancy to him, saying that he was clean and neat, and his appearance was decent, so he immediately gave him new clothes and became a small servant in front of him, and the others were all doing rough work." ”

Qi Su Niang hugged the cotton clothes, silent, and speculated in her heart about Xiao Cui's intentions. Everyone rested for a night, and the next day they left Huai'an City. It is still a boat ride along the Cao River.

All the way through the Qinghe, Baoying, to the Gaoyou territory, there are only three or four girls left on the boat, Qi Su Niang from Jiao Qi and the conversation between the helper, vaguely learned that the ship is heading to Yangzhou, Jiao Qi sent a few of them in the Yangzhou salt merchant house, for the nobles in Beijing to buy four Yangzhou thin horses, and then to Suzhou to buy a few Suzhou female dramas and then return to the north.

Qi Su Niang still stands outside the cabin every day and overlooks, and can see that in addition to the bustling wharf, villages can be seen everywhere along the coast. Although he was happy, he couldn't help but shake his head secretly. It is clearly the siltation of the riverbed, and the river water is higher than the riverbank, so that you can see it from afar, and the water damage is not small. It's just that what she has learned is only related to bridge and dam supervision, and has nothing to do with river improvement, and now she has no mind to care about it, so she will also throw it away.

Qi Suniang saw that the water was shallow and the village was not far away, so she secretly gritted her teeth, and finally took advantage of the fact that everyone was asleep in the middle of the night, avoided the guards who helped the idle, and wrapped Xiao Cui's cotton clothes, saved nest heads, and stolen coals with the old oilcloth picked up from the bottom of the boat, put them on her head, and went into the water from the back of the boat.

Qi Su Niang was originally good at water, and thought that the girl who possessed her was a family by the Yongding River, and she didn't know the reason of water, so she relied on her very strong body despite the hidden disease, resisted the ice of the river in early spring, and swam ashore after a while.

She hurriedly took off her wet clothes, changed into Xiao Cui's old cotton clothes and pants, didn't dare to make a fire, rubbed her cold hands and feet desperately, and in the dark night, tightly wrapped her torn cotton clothes, and ran away in the direction of the village. The cold wind blew coldly on her body, her feet were muddy, Qi Su Niang staggered, her face frozen by the river was hot and painful, and her hands and feet were like pins and needles. ran all night, but by the light of the stars and moon, when the sky turned white in a blink of an eye, Qi Su Niang was so tired that she couldn't move anymore. Seeing that the village was not far away, she felt a little slack in her heart and sat on the ground.

It was far from the riverbank, and the mud was still at its feet, and the plain land stretched out, and there was not a single living creature in sight, and there was no trace of people. The villages not far away are cold and lonely, like dead cities, and the prosperity of the big riverside towns such as Tianjin, Linqing, and Huai'an.

Qi Su Niang was shocked, immediately got up, rolled and crawled into the village, and as soon as Fang entered the village, she secretly complained. The village is full of broken walls and ruins, half-buried and half-exposed in the yellow mud ground, and the remains of chickens, dogs and other domestic animals, which are clearly a village abandoned after the disaster.

Seeing this situation, Qi Susu knew that the way of life had been broken, and wanted to cry without tears, so he stayed for a long time, and suddenly remembered Xiao Cui's words when he left, turned his head to look in the direction of the canal, and was about to raise his feet, but he took it back.

She muttered to herself, "Why drag him down? There is no turning back when the bow is opened, whether it is dead or alive is this one. So saying, she found a room with a wall and a roof, hung up her wet clothes with branches, sat down against the wall, took out half of the nest from the tarpaulin, and chewed and swallowed it while resting.

Although she was strong, she did not dare to be negligent, and she made a small fire by breaking coals and breaking some branches, but she squinted slightly for a while, and without waiting for sleep, she got up and put away her wet clothes, and still went south.

She didn't dare to drink muddy water, she didn't dare to eat the nameless fruit of Shangqing on the side of the road, she only relied on the five and a half nests in her arms and the dew on the leaves in the morning, endured the frostbite pain of her hands and feet, and walked for seventeen days in a row. She walked through four deserted villages with disappointment after disappointment, and finally the day after she ran out of food, she climbed a small green hill and saw a bend in a stream and two wisps of smoke five miles away......

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Note 1: Regarding the story of the ancient women's famous festival, it is mentioned in the "Ming Zhi Edition" of the Ming Dynasty that Hai Rui once was furious because his five-year-old daughter ate the bread fed by the manservant, thinking that her daughter had ruined the famous festival, and her daughter later starved to death. Personally, I think the details in the middle are not clear, and it is difficult to say whether things are true or false. However, considering that the Ming and Qing dynasties were the darkest period of feudalization, it may not be impossible. It's just selfish that when Hai Rui was angry at that time, he didn't necessarily want his daughter to die.