Chastity Layman

Today is an auspicious day.

Before the rooster crowed, Liu Youren woke up. He waited for the dawn in the dark room with his eyes wide open.

Today is a very happy day for him.

Liu Youren who was tossing and turning on the couch couldn't fall asleep no matter what, there was a dim light outside the window, he couldn't lie down anymore and sat up.

Today is his big day, twenty-three-year-old Liu Youren is getting married. Liu Youren, whose father died and mother remarried at a very young age, and grew up eating hundreds of thousands of meals, was sold as a slave by his uncle at the age of seven in a famine year. At that time, he only sold a bucket of millet.

Since then, he has become a slave. Over the past ten years, he has changed several masters. He has herded cattle, fed pigs, planted crops, and even cut firewood and burned charcoal in Zhongnan Mountain. He is very old in his twenties. His back is slightly hunchbacked, his face is dark, two teeth are missing, his beard is stubbled and his hair is messy, and his clothes are dirty and torn and full of patches.

He had never thought that he could marry a wife before.

But now, he is getting married.

Pushing open the door, he felt that his whole body was full of strength, his heart was beating hard, and his palms were sweating.

Liu Youren looked back at the thatched hut behind him, it was a very dilapidated thatched hut, he cleaned it up all day yesterday, and it already looked a little bit better.

He turned around to pick up a bucket, walked to the well, picked up three loads of water in one go, and filled the big tank to the brim.

Facing the surface of the water in the tank, looking at himself reflected in the water, Liu Youren suddenly felt that he looked a little ugly, took off his clothes, picked up the gourd ladle to scoop up the water he just picked up, and poured it on his head and body, his whole body was wet, After rubbing my hair a few times, I stopped again, ran to the firepit in the house, grabbed a few handfuls of stove ashes and threw them all on my head.

He rubbed his hair vigorously, he had never been so careful with his hair for more than 20 years.

After rubbing for a long time, fetch water to rinse, rub again, and rinse again.

Finally, he felt that his hair wasn't so greasy. He hummed an out-of-tune tune, and rubbed his body up and down until his skin turned red from rubbing the mud all over the floor.

It feels like the whole person seems to have lost two or three catties.

Liu Youren ran to the willow tree in front of the house and broke off a willow branch, chewed it up, scooped up a ladle of water, and brushed the two missing teeth several times.

In the end, he looked at the water tank with only a little water left, and smirked at himself in it for a long time.

It was daylight at last.

A fish-belly paleness appeared in the east.

Liu Youren went back to the house and took out a new set of clothes. This was a new set of clothes that had no patches, were very clean, and exuded a faint fragrance, and they fit well.

The whole person seems to have become a bit more handsome.

A gust of summer wind blew gently across his face, Liu Youren smiled.

He stepped out of the house and walked towards Chang'an City.

Without a carriage, no mules, and no relatives and friends to meet his relatives, Liu Youren had no relatives for a long time.

When leaving the village, they met acquaintances who had already gotten up early, and they almost didn't recognize this kid.

"Get married!" Liu Youren wished to announce loudly to the whole world.

"Then hurry up."

The other party said with an envious tone.

A slave can also get married, and will go to the Duke Wei's mansion in Chang'an City to get married, no one will believe it. But this is the truth, Liu Youren is not the first lucky one, but he won't be the last either.

Liu Youren was a slave who had been resold among several masters. He was sold to Duke Wei's mansion together with a Zhuangzi by his master before, so he became Duke Wei's slave.

Liu Youren was quite happy about the master's reputation, and felt that in this way, life might be more stable, and there was no need to resell it again and again. Liu Youren didn't like the life of exchanging.

Duke Wei was indeed very kind to them.

For all the slaves on the Zhuangzi, the treatment has been improved a lot, clothes, shoes and hats are made twice a year, the food has also been improved, and the sleeping rooms are equipped with kangs in winter. The new head of the farm readjusted the division of labor among the slaves, and even started contracting and dividing tasks.

Although Liu Youren was a little thinner, he was young and powerful. The new masters treated them so well, so he simply worked hard in return.

He was able to complete the tasks assigned to him every day, quickly and well, and he had to do a lot of other things, all of which were seen by Zhuangtou and recorded in his notebook.

While the other slaves were still mocking him, he persisted silently and always got rewarded.

At the end of the year, he was appreciated, and Zhuangtou will report to him, and then someone from above came down to find him, and then, during the Dragon Boat Festival, he not only received the Dragon Boat Festival gift of two eggs and two rice dumplings, but also received a Zhang released the documents.

The Duke of Wei's mansion actually released him as a benefactor, and he is no longer a slave.

Holding the document stamped by the government, he had a look of disbelief. Zhuangtou then took him to the government to register and naturalize. Because he had no property or job, Zhuangzi hired him as a long-term worker again. Better treatment, with rations and monthly money.

He was even given a thatched hut, which was not big, but after tidying up, he could build a stove for a bed and set up a dining table. There is still an open space outside, and with some effort, I can build another latrine, build a woodshed or something.

After more than 20 years of suffering, he finally showed a smiling face to him.

After he became a naturalized citizen of Datang and became a customer, Zhuangtou came to ask him with a smile if he wanted a wife.

"Do you want a wife? As long as you want one, I'll arrange one for you right away."

"Do not make jokes."

Although he has become a registered citizen, he is just a client with no property or job, and now he is just a long-term hired laborer on a farm outside Chang'an City, Duke of Wei's Mansion.

With the current income, when will it be possible to marry a wife.

Zhuangtou was not joking.

"do you want?"

"If uncle can bring it to me, of course I will." He just replied with a smile.

No one expected that a few days later, Uncle Zhuangtou came to him again and told him that the matter was settled.

"The woman is thirty years old and works in Duke Wei's mansion. She used to have a husband and was a slave of a humble nationality. Now she is the same as you. Because she does a good job, she is specially rewarded to be exempted and naturalized. Now the mansion still Ask her to introduce a man to start a family..."

Liu Youren had some understanding of these things because of his repayment, and he knew that the Duke of Wei's mansion had always been benevolent, and although his family had a great business, he always treated the slaves well. Under the new law of the court's main client, it took the initiative to register and naturalize a large number of tenants in the trilogy under the Duke of Wei's mansion and turn them into clients, and formally gave them employment contracts.

Not only that, the Duke of Wei also required Zhuangzi and workshops under the name of the Qin family to select some outstanding servants and slaves to be rewarded every year, and the best slaves among them could be reported to the Duke of Wei.

Every year, a certain amount of qualifications for exempting and returning to good health will be given, and the best ones will be selected.

Liu Youren was fortunate enough to be exempted, and there are many others like him.

A slave like him, who is young and strong and knows some small crafts, can be sold for at least tens of thousands of dollars in the cattle and horse market.

But the Duke of Wei's mansion let him go, and then hired him again, giving him monthly rations and money. Liu Youren was surprised that he would lose a lot of money every time he entered and went out, but Duke Wei really did this. .

And a batch is exempted every year.

The woman Zhuangtou told him was just a lowly laundry maid in Duke Wei's mansion. She was just thirty this year, and she was also a slave before.

The woman was honest and hardworking, but her man's life was not good and he died of illness.

Some of the children died, and there were two left, a seven-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl. She was released from the same batch as Liu Youren, and the Duke's Mansion even sent her two children who were born The children who were slaves were released together and returned to freedom.

After Liu Youren knew it was not a joke, he only asked one question, can he be born again?

"A woman who is just thirty years old, why can't she have children? If she has given birth to several times, it must be easy to have children." Zhuangtou told him.

So Liu Youren agreed without any hesitation, and asked how many gifts he would prepare. In the end, Zhuangtou told him that because both of them had served the Duke of Wei, and they were still employed by the Duke of Wei, according to the usual practice, the Duke of Wei would be kind enough to host the wedding for them.

"That Mrs. Zhang also said that there is no need for any bride price, etc., knowing that you have a house, just clean it up."

The Duke of Wei's mansion will also give each of the newlyweds a set of new clothes, a set of bedding, a pot, twelve bowls and chopsticks, six buckets of grain, and one thousand Wen.

This is something that Liu Youren can't believe again.

But later Zhuangtou took him into Chang'an City, met the chief stewards of the Duke of Wei's mansion, and was led to pay homage to the Duke of Wei. Niangzi Yuniangzi waited, and was rewarded with a lunch.

These days, Liu Youren felt as if he was dreaming, his whole body was full of energy, and he often couldn't sleep all night.

The date of marriage was chosen by the Duke of Wei for him. Originally, he thought that he would pick him up on that day, but the Duke of Wei said that getting married is a big event and he had to choose an auspicious day.

I haven't seen Mrs. Zhang, but he also knows the etiquette of not seeing each other before marriage, so he endured it all the time.

On the way to Chang'an, Liu Youren walked like flying, if he was not afraid of getting his new clothes dirty, he would have started running.

He carried a bag on his shoulder, which contained a string of copper coins and a bag of dried fruit and snacks. Usually he was reluctant to eat this. In order to meet the bride at Duke Wei's mansion, he gritted his teeth and brought all his wealth with him, and even bought it in advance. These eat.

He was looking forward to seeing that woman sooner, so that he could welcome him home. It doesn't matter if she is thirty years old, a woman who has given birth to a child and died a man, he is willing.

With a woman, there is a home. Although they will bring two children, they will also give birth to their own children. According to his conditions, even if they become customers without property, when can they buy land and build three houses? I don't even know my own house, so how can I afford to marry a wife.

These days, a man cannot afford a wife if he cannot afford a gift, and a woman cannot afford a husband if she cannot afford a dowry.

But even if the girl's family is poor, few would be willing to marry a long-term worker who has nothing.

A long-time worker would be a good match for a washerwoman, he thought to himself.

Thinking in his heart, he soon arrived outside Chang'an City. On the already busy Guanxiang Street, he stopped and walked into a gold and silver shop. After choosing left and right for a long time, he finally picked out a gold and silver shop. A silver ring, a silver-plated bracelet, and finally a gold-plated hairpin.

This almost used up most of his belongings, but he still paid for it. The things were only plated with gold and silver on the surface, and they were not worth much, but to him, they were the most expensive things he had ever bought in his life.

She should look good in it, what woman doesn't want some nice jewelry. If she marries me, I can't show any courtesy, but I can't show it.