In the Song Dynasty, when the two children exchanged birth dates and horoscopes when they were young, the engagement was called a "Dingtie". When the two children grew up, they had to give a betrothal gift and buy "three golds" before it was considered a formal engagement. At this time, the engagement was formal. After getting married, there is legal protection. If one party regrets it, they will face a lawsuit and a slap in the face. In more serious cases, they may also be punished by migration.
It doesn't mean that you can go back on your word after making a promise to have a baby. The literary style was at its peak during the Song Dynasty, and literati kept their promises, valued integrity, and reputation was more important than anything else. This led to the entire social atmosphere being like this.
If a person does not have integrity, then in this era no one will take him in even if he turns into a bandit.
Therefore, for the Cao family, which is inherited from an aristocratic family, there are two ways, one is to marry a daughter, and the other is to become a monk.
"Even if I became a nun, I would never marry that dandy!" Mrs. Cao yelled loudly, her voice mournful.
"Look at her, ma'am, look at her..."
Cao Ji pointed at his daughter, his mouth trembling with anger.
"Okay~"
Mrs. Wu took her daughter's hand, put it in her arms and patted it gently, "Your father is doing it for your own good, so don't be angry~"
"You keep saying it's for my own good. Are you asking me to marry an ignorant playboy for my own good? Are you just pushing me into a pit of fire for my own good?"
Mrs. Cao burst into tears, and even her mother, Mrs. Wu, was scolded by her.
Wu was not angry, but comforted her more calmly, "Oh, Congee, the Wang family is young after all. Who is a man who is not playful when he is young? Your father was not the same when he was his age. He has no skills and does nothing all day long, causing trouble everywhere."
Upon hearing this, Cao Ji waved his hands repeatedly, "Hey no, don't compare me with that kid from the Wang family, I can't compare to him."
"Mom, look, dad himself said he can't compare to that playboy, yet you still say nothing like that." Miss Cao pointed at her dad and cried again.
Wu slapped Cao Ji on the thigh, rolled her eyes at him and said, "Hey you damn ghost, which side are you on?"
"I'm serious, dandies are all dandies, but when I was seventeen, I didn't know which stinking ditch I was playing with mud in. The Wang family had already started writing books about being saints. You said this? No way to compare, there’s no way to compare.”
"What?"
This 'what' sound was the voices of two people, but they sounded at the same time.
"What do you mean by 'writing a book and establishing yourself as a saint'? Please explain it clearly."
The person who asked the question was Mrs. Wu, but Mrs. Cao had stopped crying and looked at her father blankly.
"You have all heard of the 'new learning' that came out of Taixue recently, right? It was created by that boy. Now the entire Taixue has almost become his own 'dojo', what are you talking about?" "Dictionary", I heard that it is already being compiled, and even the famous Confucian scholar in the court praised it as a "holy work" after reading a short section."
Cao Ji pursed his lips, and finally spread his hands and said, "What is this if it's not 'writing a book and saying something'? How do you think I can compare?"
Mrs. Wu was stunned for a while when she heard this, but Mrs. Cao was completely stunned, and even her eyes didn't move for a while.
New learning...Writing books...Strange man...Wang Zhi...
Miss Cao felt that the whole world was about to collapse. One was the person she hated the most, and the other was the most beautiful person in her fantasy. When the figures of these two people overlapped, she could no longer think at all, and her mind was filled with so many thoughts. It was full of various figures of these two different species.
"Daughter, it depends on a person. Don't just look at his bad side, but also look at his good side. It's true that you say he is a playboy. My father also admits it, but being a playboy does not necessarily mean that he will have no future."
"I think Liu Bang, the great ancestor of the Han Dynasty, was a rogue in his early years. Didn't he also establish the Han Dynasty and make our Han people prosperous to this day? By the way, our own Emperor Wu of Wei, Cao Cao, was also a playboy in his early years. All the brides have been snatched away, no matter how dandy the young man from the Wang family is, can he still have these two dandies?"
"Furthermore, I think this young man from the Wang family is a righteous man and has a wide range of friends. From the royal family to the peddlers, he treats them all equally and calls them brothers. He has the style of an ancient general. He may not be able to do something earth-shattering in the future. .”
Seeing that his daughter was silent, Cao Ji thought she was silently protesting, so he kept talking earnestly, but this was indeed what he was thinking.
How could he not pay attention to his precious daughter's future husband? But the more he pays attention to it, the more he likes this boy. First of all, he gave birth to a handsome and tall man, which made his father-in-law very happy, and then he was generous and did things well. Never procrastinate, look forward and backward, and do it to the end if you decide on something. You never know what it means to admit defeat.
He, Cao Ji, was also born into a family of generals and had countless friends. People like Xiaolang from the Wang family were born to be in a position of power and to do great things.
What's wrong with a man who doesn't stick to trivial matters and has some bad hobbies? As for those who don't have bad hobbies, most of them are not useless.
Just when he thought of the word "waste", Cao Ji sighed again, stood up and walked to the green official uniform that he had just thrown away. He picked it up and walked to his daughter and asked her, "My daughter, do you know what rank this green official uniform is for?" .”
Madam Cao then raised her head, but her eyes were still empty, and she replied blankly: "Seventh grade."
"It's from the seventh grade."
Cao Ji corrected her, and then said with some sadness and anger: "Your father and I have never been successful in civil or military affairs in my life. I only got such a low-level official because of the kindness of my ancestors."
"I think my Cao family is a family of generals as famous as the Zhe family and the Zhong family. My great-great-grandfather once followed Emperor Taizu to conquer all directions, annihilating the Later Shu and the Southern Tang Dynasty, and then conquered the Northern Han Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom, and fought for the Zhao Dynasty. Song Jiangshan made great military exploits and helped Taizu, Taizong, and Zhenzong successively. He rose to the rank of grand master and prime minister. After his death, he was even posthumously named a county king and served in the temple of Taizu. What a glorious sight..."
"But now, hey! Who can still remember the past glory of my Cao family? Who can still remember that his Zhe family and Zhong family were generals under my Cao family."
"It's okay if you don't do this for this little official!"
As he said this, he became heartbroken and threw the green official uniform he had just picked up to the ground.
"Dad, don't do this."
"Old man..."
Seeing the two most important women in his life coming up to comfort him, Cao Ji felt even more sad. He pitied a man who was still in his prime, with tears in his eyes.
"It's no use to me, dad. He will soon be unable to hold on to such a huge family fortune."
Cao Ji looked around as he spoke and murmured: "Whether this house is named Cao or something else in the future depends entirely on God's will."
"Daughter!"
Cao Ji looked at his beloved daughter with tears in his eyes and couldn't help but express his deep feelings, "Dad, this is the way it is in this life. I don't have any big wishes. My only wish is that you can marry a good family and live happily in the future." Happiness, why would dad push you into the fire pit?"
"The Wang family is indeed powerful, but we don't care about their little money. If the Wang family's young man is really unable to hold up the wall, my father will fight for his reputation and don't want it. He doesn't want the official position or the house, and he won't look at you. Behind bars.”
"Dad, I understand, please stop talking..."
Mrs. Cao also had tears in her eyes. She didn't know whether she was moved or 'touched', and she didn't know what expression to put on at this time. So she simply closed her eyes, lowered her head, and said resignedly, "This kiss, I marry…"
"real?"
Cao Ji immediately held back his tears when he heard this, and the speed seemed as if it had never happened before.
"Uh-huh…"
Mrs. Cao nodded and hummed twice, then lowered her head, not looking at her father's face. Neither of them knew what the other was thinking.
"well…"
Cao Ji turned to look at his wife, with unstoppable joy in his words, "Hurry, madam, prepare the dowry."
Seeing that her husband couldn't wait to give away his biological daughter, and was afraid that the daughter would regret it the next moment, Mrs. Wu pinched him at the waist and said angrily: "Why are you so anxious? This engagement is not a marriage. What dowry are you preparing?"
"Oh yes…"
Cao Ji patted his forehead, and then said: "Then we have to prepare a return gift. Count the time, we don't have much time."
During the Song Dynasty, when a daughter's family got engaged, the man would come to the house with a betrothal gift, and the woman would also need to prepare some return gifts. They were not as expensive as a dowry, but they were small items with beautiful meanings, like apprenticeship gifts.
"Okay, my old man, I will prepare it tomorrow. Let's eat now."
"Yeah, let's eat, let's go, eat."
Cao Ji held his wife with one hand and his daughter with the other. Not to mention how happy he was, no one could have imagined that it was this man who was crying so hard just now.
Sure enough, men are fickle.
…
The next morning, Mrs. Cao dressed up early, but she didn't look like a woman in her clothes.
"Little lady, what are you doing?"
The maid Xiaoru opened the door and came in. She was a little curious when she saw her little lady dressed like a man.
When Miss Cao saw the maid coming in, she looked left and right in the mirror, then stood up and turned around and said, "Quick, Xiaoru, what do you think of my outfit?"
Xiao Ru looked up and down, looking at the little lady who was more handsome than a man, and also recited a poem playfully, "The stranger is like jade, and the young master is unparalleled in the world. The little lady's outfit makes even Xiao Ru excited. "
"haha, really?"
Upon hearing this, Mrs. Cao's eyebrows widened and she smiled like a crescent moon. She spun around twice happily, like a child who had not grown up.
Xiao Ru stepped forward to straighten her clothes and hair, and asked: "Little lady, what do you want?"
"Isn't there a saying in that guy's new school? When you encounter something you don't understand, you should use your eyes to see, your ears to listen, and your head to think. I'm going to see if this guy is a human or a ghost!"
Miss Cao clenched her fists fiercely, as if she was not going to observe someone, but to blow someone's head off.
