The Moon Over Tang Dynasty

 Chapter 4: Human relationships are hard to maintain and every opportunity is exploited

As soon as you leave the south gate of West Market, you cross the horizontal street and you will see Huaiyuanfang, where Anjia lives, only one street away from Chonghuafang. As Second Uncle An left, he asked Liuli about his situation in the past three years. Liuli responded thoughtfully, neither complaining too much nor deliberately concealing the difficulty of the situation. Second Uncle An asked, "What are your plans for the future?"

Liuli had really been looking forward to this question for a long time, and immediately sighed: "Liuli doesn't know, and now he can only hide for a day." After a pause, he said softly: "If Liuli could be born as a man, he would still be able to Working as a painter in my uncle's shop is a happy life."

Second Uncle An paused and looked back at Liuli: "Why do you want to be a painter?"

Liuli smiled sadly: "Maybe I have loved it since I was a child. When I picked up the pen today, I just felt like I was alive again. If I can do this every day, this life will not be in vain."

Second Uncle An nodded, but did not answer immediately. Liuli's heart could not help but slowly rise, but she heard him suddenly snort, "You can live at my uncle's house with peace of mind. My uncle will never let you go to that kind of place." , I would like to see what your grandpa has to say about his family!"

Liuli's heart suddenly felt happy, and her heart finally calmed down. She paused for a moment and said, "I understand my uncle's intention, but Liuli is afraid that she will really offend my concubine. Even if she can escape tomorrow, if she instigates her... I randomly found a family to marry my son off to, but what should I do?"

Seeing Uncle An's frown, Liuli sighed inwardly: If she had inquired correctly, the Tang Dynasty was indeed an open society. Unmarried men and women could marry each other, but most families still paid attention to the orders of their parents and the words of matchmakers, and The relationship between a married daughter and her natal family is much closer than that of later generations. It is not uncommon for a daughter to serve in Guining or even live with her children for a long time. Her mother, An Siniang, chose her son-in-law on her own without the support of her natal family. As soon as she was pregnant with Liuli, she watched Kudi Yanzhong accept the Cao family. After her death, her daughter could not even keep the dowry! After much thought, she approached her uncle's family, whom she had long since lost contact with, instead of the sister-in-law whom her father was most afraid of - the Kudy family would probably be unreliable in the future. She might as well build a good relationship with her uncle, maybe in the future There is still someone to rely on.

  In the past three years, the hardships she has suffered and the nails she has encountered have already told her that interests are much more reliable than feelings! And what she did today was just to let her uncle see her value and willingness to be used, and at the same time, she also offered a condition of exchange - to help her solve the family's troubles.

Seeing that her second uncle was silent, Liuli said softly, "Uncle, I don't know something. Nowadays, my concubine's mother is in charge of everything in my family. Not only are the several slaves and maids my confidants, but everyone outside only thinks that my concubine is the mistress of my family. It was the concubine's idea to send her son to a Jiaofang. Liuli has not left home for three years, and today she still begged to be able to go out. She is lucky to have found her uncle. She just wants to avoid the choice of a Jianfang tomorrow. Dare to think.”

Uncle An was stunned for a moment, then a smile slowly appeared on his face, "Really? Very good! Don't worry, my uncle has his own ideas and will not let your grandpa and concubine interfere with your marriage."

It seemed that his uncle understood the point of his words. Liuli couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief and smiled from the bottom of her heart. While they were talking, the two of them had already passed the intersection in the center of Huaiyuanfang, turned right, and Uncle An turned around and said, "We're here."

But I saw that the main door of Anjia opened facing South Street. It was a two-frame gatehouse. Although it had no extra decoration, it was tall and neat. After instructing the boy who answered the door to report to the mistress, Second Uncle An walked in with Liuli. Inside is a courtyard with two entrances, with wing rooms on both sides. It passes through the central hall and there is a small rockery at the back. Going around the rockery is the main room. It has the same structure of three rooms and four shelves as the Cudi house, but it is much brighter.

As soon as Liuli walked down the steps to the upper room, the door curtain opened, and three or four women walked out from inside. The first one was a middle-aged woman with a plump figure and gorgeous eyebrows. She had thick blond hair. She said to Second Uncle An first, " You didn't tell me if your niece was coming!" Then he quickly walked over and took Liuli's hand. He looked up and down and sighed, "I haven't seen my aunt for many years. Why is she so old? She is really a good person! "

Liuli knew this was her second aunt, so she called someone with a smile, "I must have been reckless and disturbed my uncle and aunt."

The second aunt smiled and patted her hand, "Why are my family so polite?" Then she took her and introduced the next few people. The one with black hair, dark eyes and fair skin was the wife of the second uncle's eldest son, Sanlang. , the tall one with brown-green eyes next to her is Mi, the wife of the second son Liulang, and the youngest is the second uncle's daughter Qiniang, who is thirteen years old. She is about 70% similar to her mother, but she is not as tall as her. half. Liuli came forward to see them one by one, and her second aunt said again, "In a quarter of an hour, your three cousins ​​will be back, but there is another cousin who went to Xizhou with his uncle. I'm afraid it won't be until summer." to come back.”

Kang glanced at Liuli up and down, then smiled and came up to hold her hand: "The family is so happy to see my sister, why don't you let me take my sister to freshen up first?"

Only then did the second aunt notice the dust on Liuli's body and couldn't help laughing: "Go to Haosheng, help my aunt clean up, and change into bright clothes."

Kang agreed and led Liuli into the first wing on the east side. The furnishings in this room are very neat, including desks, beds and beds. Two maids served Liuli and washed her, and Kang found a red gold double-stranded hairpin with emerald green spots, a silk short coat with lotus-colored water hyacinth flowers, and a goose-yellow skirt with beaded patterns on the bottom. . After Liuli was put on one by one, Kang shook his head and sighed, "I don't know what kind of man can marry my sister in the future." After saying that, he handed a small bronze mirror to Liuli's hand.

 In the mirror was a familiar yet unfamiliar face, with skin as snowy and picturesque eyebrows. Liuli looked away calmly. She naturally knows that if there is any benefit from this time travel, it is probably that she was assigned this good appearance that fully reflects the hybrid advantage. It has the sharp outlines of the Li Te people and the delicate skin of the Sinicized Xianbei people, which is enough to make people in the previous life She was very proud of her appearance, but then she had to gradually realize the fact: growing up like this, if you have nothing to rely on, is not really a blessing. If she had looked more ordinary, Coral probably wouldn't target her like this, and Mr. Cao wouldn't be bent on sending her to a classroom... Seeing Mr. Kang still looking at her expectantly, she could only put down the mirror and smile. He said: "Thank you sister-in-law for taking the trouble!" But he made up his mind: I will never go out dressed like this in the future!

Kang also laughed, but there was some pity in his eyes. He reached out and took Liuli's arm: "Come on, let's go out together and surprise everyone!"

The two of them left the east chamber and before entering the upper room, they heard a rough voice coming from inside: "Bah, what kind of method is this! According to someone's idea, let's go directly to the door and kill the woman!" Liuli stood at the foot of the door. Without a second thought, Kang had already pulled her through the curtain and said with a smile, "Who is Liu Lang going to kill again? Don't scare the aunt!"

A man of medium height with a full beard turned around, rubbed his head and smiled. When he saw Liuli, his eyes lit up, "Auntie?"

 Liu Li was blessed, "Liu Li has met his sixth cousin."

Rokuro looked at Liuli several times and sighed loudly, "Uncle is really blinded by lard!"

However, Liuli could only pretend not to hear these words. When she turned her eyes, she saw a tall and thin young man standing next to Liulang, whose eyebrows were somewhat similar to those of his uncle. He was probably his uncle's youngest son, Shishilang. When he saw Liuli, he smiled. He smiled, showing his white teeth. The eldest brother, Saburo, was standing next to his uncle. At first glance, only the two upward curling mustaches could be noticed on his face, which was quite funny. He was also looking at her with a smile.

Liuli hurriedly went up to greet them one by one, but she heard Sanlang smile meaningfully and said, "Don't worry, cousin, I just sent someone to inform my uncle that you are at our house."

  p.s. Well, in order to help everyone better adapt to the Tang Dynasty time travel, I release a free version of the "Tang Dynasty Survival Manual" from time to time. You can see it in the related works, thank you.

 (End of this chapter)