Nu Yalang of Tang Dynasty

Zhou Jun couldn't sit still, walking back and forth in the side hall with his hands behind his back, looking outside the door from time to time.

Luo Sanniang was sitting on the Hu chair, sipping tea carefully, chanting Buddha in a low voice, her face calm as usual.

And the sound of bamboo boards hitting skin and flesh kept coming from outside the door, which was frightening to hear.

Perhaps it was because of the big food maid who almost bit the young man, the mistress was extremely angry.

Today's beating, the executioner's strikes were particularly severe.

Zhou Jun, who wanted to plead several times, finally chose to remain silent when he saw the expression on Luo Sanniang's face.

After finally enduring the thirty spankings, Zhou Jun let out a sigh of relief.

Luo Sanniang slowly put down the cup in her hand and said softly: "From the beginning to the end, that servant didn't even cry out in pain. She is really like a barbarian."

Seeing the impatience on Zhou Jun's face, Luo Sanniang said: "According to the law of the Tang Dynasty, the slave hurts the master, regardless of the reason. After reporting to the government, he can be killed. Even if he is killed without retribution, it is just to redeem the copper."

"Jun'er, there are rules for sex and eyes, and there are differences between master and slave. Do you know why we didn't add a maid to your room when you grew up?"

"Because you have liked to be close to women since you were a child. Your father and I don't want to delay your future because of this."

Zhou Jun couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart. The soul in front of this body was so lustful that his parents didn't even dare to marry him as a maid.

Now Zhou Jun wants to plead with Hua Yue. It has nothing to do with lust, but because the big food maid has a strange origin and seems to be deliberately hiding something.

But at the moment, Zhou Jun couldn't explain it to Luo Sanniang, so he could only nod in agreement.

Hearing someone outside starting to recite Tang laws, Luo Sanniang stood up and said to Zhou Jun: "I will go to the study to wait for your father. The maid will be locked up in the woodshed tonight, and we will let her out tomorrow."

Zhou Jun said: "Everything depends on grandma's instructions."

Watching Luo Sanniang's retreating back, Zhou Jun called his servants, first ordered them to bring a few plates of cakes, then packed the cakes and put them in his arms, waited for half an hour, and finally walked quietly to the woodshed in the backyard. .

Entering the woodshed, Zhou Jun saw a pair of slightly shining amber eyes in the darkness, staring at his every move.

After lighting up the lamp on the table, Zhou Jun saw Hua Yue lying on the pile of firewood with a pale face, with no word of surrender in her fierce eyes.

After spreading the oil paper and putting the hidden cakes on the paper, Zhou Jun said to Hua Yue: "I don't know what you have experienced in the past, but this place is different from other places, and I am also different from the people you have met before. .”

Huayue's fierce eyes did not change at all, but she turned her attention to the food.

Zhou Jun carefully pushed the cake to Hua Yue's side and said: "Here, as long as you don't break the law and you don't disobey the master's family, no one will hurt you."

Hua Yue turned a deaf ear to Zhou Jun's words and just kept stuffing food into her mouth.

Zhou Jun: "Only by surviving can you have the opportunity to accomplish what you need to do; and only by living can you be qualified to talk about the future."

Hua Yue suddenly stopped moving and her body trembled slightly.

Zhou Jun lowered his voice and said, "I know you have secrets. If you want me to help you, you must first learn to confess."

Huayue slowly raised her head, with a hint of shock hidden in her amber eyes.

Seeing this, Zhou Jun didn't say anything more. He just took out a bottle of wound medicine from his arms, placed it in front of Hua Yue, and whispered: "Twice a day, apply to the injured area, do not get close to water. .”

After saying that, Zhou Jun stood up, opened the door, and left the room.

Walking on the corridor, he heard the neighing of horses in the entrance hall. As he walked forward, Zhou Jun asked the servants around him: "But father is back?"

A servant replied: "Exactly, I heard that Alang drank too much."

Zhou Jun walked quickly to the front yard and saw Zhou Dinghai, whose face was red and smelly of wine, being helped off the horse by a servant.

Luo Sanniang was angry and anxious at the side, and kept scolding her.

The servants carried Zhou Dinghai to the central hall with all their hands and feet. Some brought sobering soup, while others brought Guanfeng Powder.

Zhou Dinghai belched wine while shouting: "During holidays, weddings and funerals, when have I, Zhou, been short of filial piety?!"

"Back then, we called each other brothers and sisters, but now we are adding insult to injury and slandering Zhou's innocence!"

When Luo Sanniang heard this, she drove away the servants around her and said to Zhou Jun: "Help your Aye to the back room."

Zhou Jun supported Zhou Dinghai and stumbled towards the bedroom.

Along the way, I could only hear Zhou Dinghai shouting something like, "You committed a crime and it's all the blame on me," and "Why can't you see the love we had back then?" and so on.

Seeing Zhou Jun put Zhou Dinghai on the couch, Luo Sanniang wiped away her tears and said, "Jun'er, I told you something, don't blame your father after hearing this."

Zhou Jun lowered his head and said, "That's what Auntie said."

Luo Sanniang: "After committing Jiang Yu's case, your father knew that he would be resented by the city officials, and he was afraid that he would be on the city department's bad book (blacklist). Therefore, he wanted to use that as a guarantee.

The method of changing posts is to put you in the position of Nu Yalang to avoid being punished. But if you do this, you will suffer."

Zhou Jun shook his head and said: "Auntie, I'm afraid there is no use in exchanging pledges."

Luo Sanniang: "Why?"

Zhou Jun: "This Jiang Yu case not only offended the city officials, but also made Shangguan see the loopholes in the city department's work. I am afraid that the management of Nu Yalang will be more stringent for a long time to come. This is invisible."

Among them, it is tantamount to offending many colleagues."

"Although I can avoid being slapped with a bad book by the city department if I change the sticker holder, the city officials and colleagues all blame me, the Zhou family and his son. As the saying goes, everyone's mouth makes money. This reputation that has been accumulated with great difficulty in the market,

I’m afraid it’s irreversible.”

Luo Sanniang asked anxiously: "Then what should we do?"

Zhou Jun thought for a while and then said: "Nu Yalang mostly takes on slave orders through three methods. One is the recommendation of the city office, the other is the negotiation with the city hall, and the third is the recommendation of regular customers."

"Our Zhou family is at odds with the city officials and colleagues. It will be difficult for the City Department to recommend and negotiate with the City Hall. These two paths will be difficult to navigate."

"Right now, I only have recommendations from regular customers, so maybe there is still some possibility."

Luo Sanniang: "Regular customers? Your father has been a slave man for so many years and has made hundreds of slave orders, not just a thousand. There must be someone trustworthy who is willing to recommend relatives and friends to hand over the slave orders to your father for management.

"

Zhou Jun said: "When my father wakes up tomorrow, I will ask him for advice on this matter. Mom, it's getting late, so you should rest first."

After saying goodbye to his mother, Zhou Jun returned to his room and thought about it carefully.

He did not elaborate on some words to Luo Sanniang.

In fact, the path of referral from regular customers is not that easy to follow.

Even Zhou Dinghai's former slave-buying clients were willing to introduce the Zhou family father and son, as slaves, to their relatives and friends who wanted to buy slaves.

But sooner or later, those buyers will learn about Zhou Dinghai's lawsuit about "simply selling a beloved man" from his friends, the city department, and even other slaves.

These buyers will be worried that if the Zhou family commits crime again and hires a good man to serve as a slave, causing them to be summoned to the county government for questioning, who should bear this responsibility?

Therefore, in the final analysis, no buyer would be willing to choose a slave dealer with a record of "slight sales". The recommendation from a regular customer will probably end in nothing.

From this point of view, the three roads of city office, city hall and regular customers are actually difficult to navigate. How should this slave tooth man continue to make a living?

Zhou Jun, who was lying on the bed, had no idea at all.