When Shopkeeper Liu heard this, her eyes suddenly darkened. She couldn't help but said, "Your Highness, what do you mean?"
"It's not interesting. You are helping people redeem themselves, what? You don't allow redemption here?" Li Ke looked at her with a smile and asked.
Redemption? Hearing this word, most of the women's eyes dimmed a little. Even if they were redeemed, those of them with relatively ordinary looks and older age would definitely not be able to catch the eye of His Highness the King of Shu, and they would have no chance with them.
The eyes of Yang Anning and others on the stage lit up, looking at Li Ke expectantly.
"Of course you can. Who does Your Highness want to redeem himself for?" Shopkeeper Liu said bravely.
"All of them." Li Ke pointed at all the girls around him and said calmly.
"Ah?!" Shopkeeper Liu was dumbfounded, and the girls around him were also dumbfounded.
A girl below couldn't help but said loudly: "Your Highness, you redeemed us all, have you used them all?"
"Pfft...cough...cough..." Li Ke almost choked on his own saliva. Which eldest sister said this. Li Ke followed the voice and looked over. A woman in her thirties looked over boldly.
Okay, it's okay. A woman in her thirties in this era is equivalent to a fifty-year-old aunt in later generations. That is called fierce.
"What are you talking about? I ransomed you back to give you a better life." Li Ke's face turned dark. Is His Highness such a wretched person?
"Yes, Your Highness, we can do it and use it." When the woman saw that Li Ke didn't blame him, she immediately became bold.
"Okay, okay, you really don't understand His Highness's good intentions at all. After His Highness redeems your life, I will find an opportunity to promote you from a lowly status to a good citizen. And I will provide you with a job. You You are free to find someone you like to marry him." Li Ke said lightly.
Li Ke's words stunned all the girls, including the woman in her thirties, who was already considered an older woman in Huiyue Tower. After all, many women in their thirties outside were now grandmothers.
Good people? Isn't this what they dream of? After Li Ke came, he learned that the household registration in the Tang Dynasty was not divided into five levels: noble, good, business, slave, and lowly, as some marketing accounts in later generations said. In fact, this was a misunderstanding.
There were only two types of household registration in the Tang Dynasty, good citizen and unworthy registration. In fact, the officials of the Tang Dynasty did not call them good people and untouchables, but "registered households" and "unregistered households".
The meaning of a registered household is that one is qualified to be an independent household and become a household. These are all good citizens. The non-registered household relies on the existence of the registered household and the main family, that is, it is untouchable. Including workers who work for the government, music households, miscellaneous households, private tribes of wealthy families, handymen, and slaves, such as women in brothels, to be precise, there are two categories: music households and slaves.
For example, nobility and gentry, or to be precise, the four major categories of scholars, farmers, industry and commerce are actually marked in the household registration system, and are also the classification of your occupation, such as craftsman. The craftsmen and workers here are different.
A worker household means that you have sold yourself and work for the master's family. This is a worker household, while a craftsman is a registered household, which means that you have the skills of a craftsman.
Datang's non-registered household restrictions are very strict, there is no freedom, and you are not eligible to buy a house or anything else, because strictly speaking, non-registered households belong to other people's property. For example, shopkeeper Liu holds the prostitution contracts of these brothel girls, which is why they redeem themselves.
After Li Ke spent money to buy them, the deeds of sale of these women were only in Li Ke's hands. It was not that their household registrations changed, but that they belonged to Li Ke and their identities would not change. Changing identities is very, very difficult. .
But Li Ke has the qualifications and abilities!
This is also the reason why all these brothel girls were stunned.
"Shopkeeper Liu, I think we need to talk." Li Ke dropped a bomb and ignored the girls who were stunned, but waved to Shopkeeper Liu.
"Yes..." Shopkeeper Liu was silent for a moment, then nodded honestly.
Li Ke and shopkeeper Liu found a room alone, leaving a group of girls in the hall.
"Sister An Ning, you have a good relationship with His Highness, what do you mean by His Highness?" A woman with a not so outstanding appearance asked somewhat uneasily.
"Sister Liu Feng, actually my sister doesn't know much about it, I just found out about it." Yang Anning shook her head slightly and said.
"Does His Highness the King of Shu really want to redeem our lives for all of us? Can His Highness the King of Shu afford it?" Another brothel woman said. Although they all have low status, their worth is not cheap, mainly because they are sought after. many.
"I have saved a lot of money myself!" A brothel woman suddenly said.
"Yes! I have money myself! I have enough money to redeem myself. In the past, I just kept it because I didn't know where to go after ransoming myself." Another girl suddenly woke up.
"Yes, yes!" Everyone suddenly became excited.
…
Entering the room, Li Ke looked at Shopkeeper Liu in front of him, paused for a moment and then said calmly: "Shopkeeper Liu, in fact, the owner behind Huiyue Tower has collapsed a long time ago, right?"
As soon as Li Ke's words came out, Shopkeeper Liu's body trembled. She wanted to say something, but soon a wry smile appeared on her face. She seemed to relax all of a sudden. She nodded and said: "Your Highness Ming Ming, indeed , the owner of Huiyue Tower collapsed a long time ago. Over the years, I have tried hard to maintain this secret. When I encountered some troubles, I always relied on the favors I left behind to solve them."
"Finally, I was discovered." Shopkeeper Liu sighed after finishing speaking, looking like he was at the mercy of others.
In fact, she had been mentally prepared for a long time. She was just a weak woman. She was able to survive to this day because she had established good relations with some officials who usually came to Huiyue Tower when the owner of Huiyue Tower was still there.
These officials didn't mind helping out with the little troubles they encountered in daily life. Fortunately, the situation in the Tang Dynasty had been stable in recent years, and the new dynasty had just been established, so there weren't many dandies.
But even so, shopkeeper Liu is still having a hard time maintaining it, and only she understands the sadness of it.
It is not easy for a small person to work hard to maintain himself among so many big people.
"So, do you have any objections to me buying Huiyue Tower?" Li Ke smiled and didn't say much, but asked directly.
"No, in the past two years, if Your Highness, Prince of Shu, had not helped Huiyue Tower several times, this place would have changed hands long ago." Shopkeeper Liu shook his head simply. She knew very well that she could persist and deal with the situation without being discovered. , but once discovered, she couldn't last even a day.
"Well, don't worry, the big shopkeeper of Huiyue Building is still yours, and I don't want any of the money Huiyue Building has made over the years, I will leave it all to you. I only need their deeds of sale, and in the future, according to the I told you to come to work." Li Ke said with a smile.
"It's Your Highness." When Shopkeeper Liu heard this, he decisively put it aside. What are you waiting for for such a good thing? Having been the chief shopkeeper in Huiyue Tower for so many years, she has seen too many people and things. She has long understood everything. Only when a person is alive can everything be possible, and everything else is empty.
