Weinan County is more than a hundred miles away from Chang'an City.
There is a farm outside Weinan County called "Ganjing Village".
The name "Ganjing" naturally means that there is a Ganjing in Zhuangzi, just like the wife cake in later generations. If you break the wife cake and look carefully, there must be a wife inside.
People who have not found a wife just lack a pair of eyes that are good at discovery.
There are more than a hundred households in Ganjingzhuang, which is considered a relatively large village.
The autumn wind is coming slowly, everything is quiet, but there is a busy scene in Zhuangzi.
The autumn harvest season is about to come, and farmers are checking the crops in the fields every day. All the hard work of the year depends on the harvest of the crops.
This year is the first year of Longshuo, and the emperor's reign title changes frequently. However, thanks to God's mercy, there will be no disasters or epidemics this year. The weather is good, and the crops in the fields will surely have a good harvest.
The autumn breeze is blowing, and the fields and houses on the ancient roads are filled with the fragrance of golden osmanthus.
Inside the fence of a slightly humble farmhouse in Ganjingzhuang, Cui Jie was wearing coarse clothes and doing embroidery.
It has been a month since she escaped from the Cui family, and Cui Jie's life is not going well.
The so-called wandering in the rivers and lakes is not as romantic as imagined. In fact, the rivers and lakes are dangerous and it is easy to get stabbed.
Cui Jie took only one personal maid with her when she left home.
The maid's name is "Congshuang", which is derived from a poem from the Southern and Northern Dynasties, "Yinian Congshuang Dew".
Cong Shuang is only fifteen years old and has followed Cui Jie since she was a child. The two girls are called master and servant. In fact, Cui Jie has always regarded her as her own sister and loves her very much. Therefore, when Cui Jie left home, she decided to follow Shuang. take away.
Cui Jie is a young lady from an aristocratic family and has almost no experience of living alone. Cong Shuang is a fifteen-year-old yellow-haired girl. In her previous life, she was just a little girl in junior high school.
The master and the servant just ran away from home without any care and plunged into the vast rivers and lakes.
Wandering for freedom may sound romantic, but they underestimate the difficulty of the world.
Cui Jie was well prepared when she left home. She took away the monthly money she had accumulated over the years, about dozens of taels of silver cakes, and some valuable jewelry and clothing from her daughter's family.
Dozens of taels of silver cakes were considered a huge sum of money based on today's prices in the Tang Dynasty. If they saved a little money, it would probably be enough for the master and servant to spend more than ten years.
The preparations are indeed sufficient, but unfortunately when you are away from home, a small oversight is enough to put someone in a desperate situation.
Cui Jie and Cong Shuang's original plan was to go to Luoyang, the eastern capital. After all, the outstanding place in the Central Plains was suitable for the master and servant to hide in the city.
The two girls were worried about being unsafe when they went on the road, so they spent some money to sneak into a caravan and followed the caravan from Qingzhou. However, halfway through, the Cui family searched the two girls' home and chased the cavalry. The two girls were shocked. Next, he hurriedly abandoned the caravan and got into the woods on the roadside.
The pursuers escaped, but the money the two women carried was left behind in the caravan, and they did not dare to go back to look for it.
The rich little rich woman was instantly reduced to a penniless young lady in distress. The master and servant were on the verge of crying. When they came out of the woods, the two women only had a hundred copper coins left on them.
Worried that the pursuers were setting up spies in Luoyang City, the two women did not dare to go to Luoyang, let alone Chang'an, so they changed their route and planned to leave Guanzhong.
After bumping and stumbling, when the two girls reached Ganjingzhuang in Weinan County, they finally could no longer take a step forward. They ran out of money and Congshuang fell ill.
I had no choice but to stay in Ganjing Village. Fortunately, the folk customs these days are simple and the moral quality of the people is generally relatively high. An old woman in Zhuangzi who had been widowed for many years saw that the two girls were helpless, so she felt kindhearted and temporarily took in the two girls.
Cui Jie and Cong Shuang stayed in Ganjing Village. Under Cui Jie's clumsy care, Cong Shuang's illness recovered. Suffering from no livelihood and grateful to the old woman for taking her in, Cui Jie relied on the needlework she had learned since childhood to make a living.
Cui Jie usually embroiders auspicious patterns such as magpies, Guanyin, and unicorns, and then makes them into sachets. The old woman and Cong Shuang then take them to Weinan County to sell them.
With a meager income of a few cents or more, a family of three can still make ends meet.
She lived in poverty, but Cui Jie felt peaceful and even fulfilled inside.
After escaping from a wealthy family and a marriage that was like a pit of fire, Cui Jie never thought of going home even when she was penniless and in dire straits.
This village is not considered wealthy, but it is peaceful and peaceful. No one forces her to do anything. The villagers are rough but friendly. The sky is blue and the air is free.
The old woman who took them in was as kind as her grandmother. She always had a doting smile. Although she was a bit nagging, every word she said was full of kindness.
Cui Jie suddenly wanted to stay in this village for the rest of her life, with a farmhouse and a few acres of thin fields. It would be a blessing for her to live an ordinary life like this.
The longer time goes by, the stronger this idea becomes.
The sound of hurried footsteps came from outside the fence. Cui Jie was still embroidering a pair of lifelike mandarin ducks with her head bowed, her red lips slightly curled.
You don't need to look up to know that Cong Shuang is here, the girl is only fifteen years old, has a fiery temper, and will never look like a girl.
"Girl, girl, something bad is going to happen!" Cong Shuangbian shouted while running.
Cui Jie sighed and had to stop what she was doing.
This girl is always making noises, but she doesn't know what happened today.
"Congshuang, have I ever told you that your daughter's family should be like a daughter's family, running around, jumping, shouting, and not afraid of others laughing at you for being vulgar?" Cui Jie frowned and scolded you.
Even the harsh reprimand coming out of Cui Jie's mouth had a soft and coquettish flavor, without any dignity.
There was no way, the family's upbringing was very strict, and she was not allowed to curse loudly like a shrew on any occasion.
Congshuang is a little girl, young and immature, with a round and cute face, and a double bun on her head, which makes her look even more delicate and innocent.
"Yeah!" Cong Shuang nodded perfunctorily, indicating that he knew he was wrong but had no intention of changing it.
Cui Jie sighed helplessly, forget it, she had already recognized the fact that she had no dignity.
"What happened today? Why are you yelling?" Cui Jie asked helplessly.
Cong Shuang was suddenly startled, as if he had just remembered, and said loudly and hurriedly: "Girl, it's not good! I just found out something important!"
"What's the big deal?"
Cong Shuang showed fear and deliberately lowered his voice and said: "I just found out that this Ganjing Village... is the village of the Li family in Chang'an."
Cui Jie was stunned: "Which Li family?"
Cong Shuang said anxiously: "Which Li family is there? Of course it is the Li family where the girl escaped from marriage! Most of the fields in this village belong to the Li family. In the 21st year of Zhenguan, the late Emperor Taizong rewarded Old Duke Li for his merits. Most of the households in Zhuangzi belong to the Li family..."
Congshuang's lips trembled, showing a miserable look, and said: "Girl, we just escaped from the wolf's den, and we fell into the tiger's mouth again! And we fell into the trap ourselves..."
