"Do you have to get married at sixteen?" Her little face wrinkled together.
"In Ye State, if a woman does not marry at the age of 16, or if a man does not marry, he will have to pay heavy taxes to the country, which are getting higher and higher year by year. If he cannot pay, he will be taken to jail."
"There is a family in our village whose eldest daughter has dark spots all over her face. She has not been married for several years. Their family also went from being a wealthy family in the village, paying taxes to selling their house, grain and land. Now they are so poor that they can only eat The chaff is gone, can your family... afford it?"
Zheng Quchi: "..."
Can't afford it.
Even big businesses have gone bankrupt, let alone a small business like him.
Is it illegal to be single in Ye State?
"It's time for a male to get married, and for a female to get married. Who doesn't want his wife and children to be on the hot bed? Brother Sang, you are still young. When you get older, you will miss your mother-in-law, hahahaha..."
Oh, she doesn't miss her mother-in-law. Even if she gets older, she will only be greedy for men.
However, I didn’t expect that Ye State still had such a fatal rule. Then wouldn’t it be possible for her to be a man or a woman, and she would not be able to escape the fate of being forced into marriage in the end?
Another serious situation is approaching.
Being a human being...is difficult.
It is even harder to be a person who is neither male nor female nor married.
——
She was so melancholy that after drinking too much for a while, she had a hangover and a headache the next day, but she never expected that something that would give her an even worse headache was about to happen.
At noon, a scholar in Tsing Yi knocked on the door. Brother Sang was cooking in the kitchen, Yaomei Sang was watering the flower beds, and Zheng Quchi rubbed his temples and opened the door.
"Who are you looking for?"
When the scholar in Tsing Yi saw Zheng Quchi for the first time, he was stunned for a moment.
I have never seen such an unusually dark person, especially because he is surprisingly short, like...a briquette.
cough.
"Oh, I'm Xiang Zuo. This time I'm here to register a female of the right age. Zheng Quchi, I'm sixteen years old this year. I guess I'm from your family."
As he said that, he looked for someone behind her, but when he saw Sang Zhai, his eyes widened.
This house... is so unique.
What kind of green tile is that on top?
Why can the wall be built so smoothly and painted so white?
The erected corridor platform, the row of houses connected to the main house, the structure is scattered and winding, a combination of simplicity and complexity, the golden afterglow shines on it, and the feeling of tranquility and remoteness makes him feel as if he has come to another place. A country.
After Zheng Quchi heard what he said, she was stunned. She suddenly turned back and looked at Brother Sang who was walking towards him.
He was not surprised.
"This is our family, please register. She is going out to visit relatives and will be back in two days."
who?
Who went to visit relatives?
"elder brother!"
"That's it." Xiang Zuo replied absently, as if his eyes were glued to Sang's house and couldn't pull it out: "Three days later, the bride-to-be team will come to pick you up. If you are absent or missed due to illness, you can go to the county government office on your own. It’s enough tax money for an unmarried person.”
Brother Sang nodded: "We understand."
The registrations that should be registered have been completed, and the explanations that should be explained have been completed, but Xiang Zuo still seemed a little reluctant to leave. In the end, Zheng Quchi, who had lost his patience, pushed the door forcefully out of the door with a polite face, and then "snap" Close the hospital immediately.
She turned her head and asked Brother Sang with angry eyes: "Why does our family have the household registration of Zheng Quchi?"
Brother Sang told her calmly.
In the early years, her parents spent a lot of money to register her as a male and female in Fu County. The male is Sang Xuanqing, registered as a craftsman, and the female is Zheng Quchi, the adopted daughter of the Sang family, who visits relatives all year round.
Zheng Quchi: "?!"
Can this still be done?
And what the hell is that person who visits relatives all year round?
Brother Sang said that it was just rhetoric to the outside world. Their family was not relatives of the emperor, so who would care about picking on trivial matters.
"It was just a helpless move for you to disguise yourself as a man. You have always been a woman. If you want to regain your female body, do you really want to be a man for the rest of your life, living a life of fear that you will be arrested at any time for labor?"
That's not the problem.
She didn't know where to start, so she just asked: "Brother, what will Sang Xuanqing do if I get married?"
"Naturally let this identity disappear."
disappear?
She lowered her eyes.
She can guarantee that if Sang Xuanqing suddenly disappears at this time, things will be very serious. At least the Sang family members will be arrested and tortured, and they will be interrogated about Sang Xuanqing's whereabouts, or at least they will be secretly cleaned up. , without leaving any consequences.
Especially for the Mo family, Zheng Quchi's identity had long been exposed, but she guessed that the other party didn't know the secret that "Zheng Quchi" was a woman.
But she couldn't talk to Brother Sang about these complicated and troublesome things. He didn't realize the seriousness of the situation.
She could only use other words to dispel his idea of forcing marriage: "But without a man making money outside, what will our family do?"
Brother Sang refused to give in: "I will find a way."
Seeing his determined look, Zheng Quchi also said in a deep voice: "Brother, I can't marry."
Brother Sang seemed to have expected such a reaction from her. He did not argue with her and just asked her: "Okay, if you don't marry, can you afford to pay the taxes for two people?"
A tax that Sang Xuanqing does not marry, a tax that Zheng Quchi does not marry.
He had long seen that she had a money-obsessed temperament, and Brother Sang hit the point with just one word, beating her to the point of defeat.
Good guy!
Zheng Quchi's expression suddenly broke.
Can she afford it?
She finally saved some salary money, and she spent almost all of it on building a new house. What should she pay for it, her life?
"If you insist on not reverting to being a daughter and marrying a man, you can. If I don't force you, if you can't pay the tax, the worst case scenario is that our whole family will go to the county jail to eat."
He looked at her, waiting for her final decision.
No matter what she chooses, Brother Sang will support her, but he really doesn't understand that she is so resistant to the idea of starting a family.
Zheng Quchi scratched his hair irritably and took a long breath: "Okay, I will resume my daughter's and son's body and join the procession! But I have a condition."
"What conditions?"
"Sang Xuanqing cannot disappear." She said seriously.
Brother Sang was surprised: "Are you, now that you are Zheng Quchi, still going to be Sang Xuanqing?"
"right."
——
Three days have passed since the conversation with Brother Sang that day. The bride-to-be team came as scheduled, escorted by four rural soldiers. The leader of the team was Liu Wenqing, the rural assistant who had come to register marriageable girls.
"Are you all ready?" he asked politely.
Brother Sang pulled Yaomei Sang and smiled: "Master, wait a moment, it will be fine soon."
The door of the inner house opened, and a dark-skinned girl came out. Her curly wool was divided into two braids on the left and right, and she wore a plain skirt. She had a petite figure. Because her skin was too dark, her facial features were not visible, but she raised her head. The pair of light brown dog eyes that he looked at from the beginning were big and round, a bit...cute?
Liu Wenqing asked uncertainly: "Zheng Quchi?"
"Yeah." A reluctant voice.
Like brother, like sister, Sang Xuanqing is short and dark, but Sang, the elder, is tall, handsome, and has yellow skin, and he doesn't look like a family anymore.
"Then let's go."
There are a total of more than a dozen marriageable girls in this wedding party in Hegou Village.
There are some that are good-looking, some that are ordinary, and there are some that are not good-looking but are more durable than ordinary ones.
But this is considered normal. The most conspicuous person in the team is an older man with a short black skin and dark spots on his face.
They can be regarded as a pair of sleeping dragons and phoenixes in this matchmaking.
