Seiwa

Ming Dynasty, Hongwu 31st year, Beiping Mansion

In March of Yangchun, which should be the time when the water is warm and the flowers are blooming, there are several heavy snowfalls in Beiping Mansion. The cold wind blows the snowflakes all over the sky, like a knife scraping bones, and it hurts people's cheeks every time.

Meng Qinghe was dressed in sackcloth, squatting by the door with his hands in his sleeves, staring at the pattern on the door pin, dazed.

There are half-foot-long icicles hanging under the eaves of the corridor. The north wind is swirling, and the windows are making bursts of noise, as if hitting someone's heart.

The old cat lying in the corner stood up with a meow, stretched its waist, licked its paws, and jumped onto the simple table with paper, pen, ink and inkstone a few times, leaving a few plum blossom marks on the yellowed paper. He shook his beard triumphantly.

In the past, Meng Qinghe would definitely have rushed forward, but now, he is not in the mood.

"Ming Dynasty, Hong Wunian, Beiping Mansion...God, are you kidding me..."

If a person is unlucky, drinking water can get stuck between the teeth.

Ordinarily, you can travel through it on the road, and you can wear it for 600 years!

Why did you wear it?Is it the way he walks?

"It would be great if it was a dream." Meng Qinghe scratched his head vigorously, depressed and helpless.

Knowing this earlier, he would rather hold a pole to dance the hula dance at the annual meeting, sacrifice his lust to entertain the public, and never run away in advance.

It's a pity that wishes are beautiful, but reality is often extremely cruel, just like the north wind blowing on him through the crack of the door at this moment.

call……

The loose long hair flew away, and the burlap bag on his body seemed to be gone.

Teeth chattering from the cold, rubbing his arms, Meng Qinghe gritted his teeth, he has come, it is impossible to go back, it is useless to regret until his intestines are blue, what he should think about is how to survive.

His requirements are not high, three meals a day, a private house, no worries about food and clothing, is enough.

No ambition?A good man doesn't want to think about making meritorious deeds and beauties around his knees?

Bright eyes, this is the year of Hong Wu, Beiping Mansion is the territory of King Yan, playing domineering in front of Ming Taizu and future Ming Chengzu, is it too long?

As for the beauties around the knees... Sorry, he likes men.

Heroes start a business, robbing beautiful women is a good story, robbing strong men... let's forget it.

Meng Qinghe plucked his fingers a few times, and lifted the non-existent glasses frame on the bridge of his nose. Due to his professional habits, he likes to plan ahead for everything he does.

At present, government civil servants are high-risk occupations.The higher the official position, the more likely the head and neck are to move.Emperor Hongwu wiped out the prime minister, and almost wiped out six tribes.Emperor Yong Le set a record of exterminating ten clans.Emperor Jianwen was more kind. He only planned to attack his uncle, but his force value was not high enough, so he was taken over by his uncle. Few of the officials who were loyal to him had a good end.

It can be seen that there is no way to become an official through the imperial examination.

Doing business is not a good way out. For details, you can refer to Shen Wansan, a wealthy businessman who was willing to help others, but was sent to Yunnan by Emperor Hongwu to experience life in the army.

It is undoubtedly relatively safe to be a qualified poor and lower-middle peasant. The premise is that you don't encounter disaster years, and you don't encounter local tyrants and evil gentry with too strong background.

In addition, there is another way, joining the army.

However, considering the actual situation, this matter needs to be considered in the long run.

There was another sound behind him, Meng Qinghe looked back at the old cat on the table, grinned at the corner of his mouth, and bared his white teeth.

Her hair was disheveled, her eyes seemed to have green light, and her thin face was extremely ferocious.

Meow!

The old cat frowned, and jumped from the table to the beam in an instant.

Meng Qinghe shook his head coquettishly, winning

The pleasure of victory lasted less than two seconds before being replaced by sadness. Looking at the old cat chasing mice on the beams, he felt endlessly sad. Being a cat is happier than him.

At least cats can eat meat, but he can't.

"Twelve Lang." Just as he was sad, a hoarse voice came from outside the door.

Meng Qinghe didn't make a sound, but after a while, there was another soft call, mixed with a few coughs.No matter how hard-hearted Meng Qinghe was, he couldn't keep pretending he didn't hear.

I stood up, shaking my hands and feet, I couldn't do it without shaking, I was frozen stiff.

Pull the door latch, and there are three haggard-looking women in sackcloth standing outside the door.The one supported in the middle is Meng Qinghe's mother, and the other two are his sister-in-laws.

"Mother, sister-in-law."

Meng Qinghe bowed and saluted according to the memory in his mind, and let the three of them into the house.When he crossed over, this young man named Meng Qinghe was seriously ill and died.Strangely, the memory of his predecessor remained in Meng Qinghe's mind.

"Twelve Lang, your uncle is sincere in not letting us orphans and widows live!"

Meng Wang coughed twice when she said a word, Meng Xu and Meng Zhang stood on both sides of her, one helped to comfort her back, the other was busy consoling her, her face was pale with anger, mixed with anger. have no choice.

The father is gone, the head of the family is gone, and my uncle is only 14 years old, so what can I do?

After hearing Meng Wang's cry, Meng Qinghe also frowned.

"Sounds good, help? It's just this family property!" Meng Wang took Meng Qinghe's hand, her voice hoarse, "In order to take care of your father and your two elder brothers' affairs, there is nothing left in our family. , now even this has to be thought about..."

As she said that, Meng Wang shed tears, "When your father and your two elder brothers were alive, whenever there was anything in the family, our family never said anything wrong. As soon as this man left, he turned his back on him and forced us to death! Who owns the land we sold now? Who took away the cattle from our family? Why did the teacher in the school drive you back? They are all surnamed Meng, how can you do such a thing? Don't be afraid of lightning strikes!"

The more Meng Wang talked, the more excited she became, her pale face flushed, and her cough became more severe.

Before he finished speaking, a cough suddenly sounded outside the door. Meng Qinghe raised his eyes to see that it was his uncle Meng Guangxiao, with a short and stocky body, a gray cotton jacket with a collar, and a simple and honest face, but with a shrewd look in his eyes.

"Lord Boss."

Before Meng Guangxiao could speak, Meng Qinghe first saluted Meng Guangxiao and invited him into the room.Seeing the ceremony, Meng Wang sat aside and did not make a sound. Meng Qinghe's two sister-in-laws stood behind Meng Wang with their heads slightly lowered, but did not make a sound.

Meng Guangxiao signaled to Meng Qinghe that there is no need to be too polite, and his tone was kind, like a kind-hearted elder.

"Your father and two older brothers are gone, your mother and your sister-in-law are women, you are still young, and your cousin will never refuse to help you."

Meng Qinghe immediately bowed to the ground, "Thank you uncle."

The etiquette of the ancients is still a little awkward for him to do, but fortunately, most of the communication is in vernacular, and it is not just for those who open their mouths or keep their mouths shut, otherwise everyone will have a headache.

"However," Meng Guangxiao changed his voice, "You have also seen the year of this year, nephew. After a few heavy snowfalls, the spring plowing may be delayed."

Meng Qinghe didn't answer, and Meng Guangxiao didn't care, he continued on his own, the words were not unpleasant, but the meaning was very clear, the times are bad, everyone's life is hard, your family is difficult, and others are not. Wealthy, should we pay back the money and food we borrowed a few days ago?

"Let's not talk about it for now, your second cousin has just added Dingkou to his family, he can't speak up, so I can only be the villain." Meng Guangxiao paused, "Your cousin can't help it either."

"What the lobby uncle said is true." Meng Qinghe agreed happily, as if he really didn't understand what Meng Guangxiao was thinking.After a while, a little bit of embarrassment appeared on his face, and he seemed to remember that the family was unable to solve the problem, "Now my nephew's family is really in trouble, can I ask my uncle for a few more days?"

"Oh?"

"Three or five days later, my nephew must find a way to collect some money and food, and I will never make things difficult for the hall uncle."

Meng Guangxiao looked at Meng Qinghe suspiciously. He knew the details of the family. Meng Qinghe was a fool in studying since he was a child. Meng Guangzhi and his two sons died, and there was no one in charge of the family.After three funerals, the family property was almost wiped out, leaving an orphan and widow guarding a big house and a few acres of land.If he hadn't been thinking about the three acres of farmland and this house, Meng Guangxiao wouldn't have visited the house every day, adding to his bad luck for nothing.

27 days had passed since the funeral of Meng's father and son, Meng Guangxiao was supposed to serve his cousin a little meritorious service, and at worst he should also serve hemp.No matter how nicely he said it, he came to the door in a gray cotton jacket, but he didn't pay attention to the widows and young children of this school.

As the saying goes, it is better to bully the white-bearded man than bully the young and poor.

You can despise the enemy, but never underestimate the opponent.

Meng Guangxiao committed both of these things. To put it bluntly, he deserved to stumble at Meng Qinghe's hands.

"Boss, my little nephew still has a few acres of Susukida and a mud house at home. When a middleman is found to sell it, I should be able to repay some of it."

His teeth were sore when he chose his words carefully, and he almost bit his tongue.If you want to dig a hole for people to jump in, you have to "behave" more convincingly, and he is good at such things.

Meng Guangxiao forcefully suppressed the corners of his raised lips, but he couldn't hide the contempt in his eyes.Da Lang's previous worries were superfluous, saying that Twelve Lang was wise and stupid, so don't force him, it will hurt the peace of the two families and it will be difficult to meet each other in the future.Now it seems that this is a fool.

But fools are good, fools are good!

After sending Meng Guangxiao away, Meng Wang, who had been silent all this time, pulled Meng Qinghe's clothes, his voice trembling, "Son, what's wrong with you? Why..."

What Meng Wang really wanted to say was, son, are you confused?Knowing that others are greedy for our things, you still step on the pit by yourself?What's more, the precious money that Meng Guangxiao and Meng Guangshun lent them had already been taken back in multiples when helping the family sell the land, and was even more deducted when buying the funeral, and now they are still using it to persecute them!

Meng Xu's and Meng Zhang's expressions were also full of puzzlement and complaints. The house and land were sold. What did their family eat and where did they live?

"Mother, don't worry." Meng Qinghe was relaxed, helped Meng Wang to stand up, and said firmly, "Don't worry, my son will care about himself."

If you want his land, he will give it to you!

Want his house?He also gives!

Laugh at him stupid?Just treat him as an idiot.

Fool is good, if a fool does things out of line, no one can find out the reason, right?

Meng Qinghe bent the corner of his mouth, Meng Wang didn't realize it, Meng Zhang and Meng Xu looked at each other, they both had the same doubt in their expressions, Uncle was laughing just now?Still laughing quite infiltratingly...