After returning to the capital, they can live together openly.
Lu Bicheng was still worried about Li Yu's health: "Brother Yu, are you feeling well?"
Li Yu said with a smile: "I've been fine for a long time. Didn't I say it in the letter? Especially in my heart, it was extremely cold. The two quilts seemed a little difficult to face the provocation of this cold winter. Only the care of the girl I like can save me." Feel warm."
Lu Bicheng laughed and scolded: "Don't come here. Are you feeling better?"
Li Yu picked her up and said, "You'll know whether it's okay or not in a moment!"
"you……"
After the clouds and rain in Wushan, nephrite was warm and fragrant in his arms. Li Yu chatted with her about his future plans: "You should always have a honeymoon after marriage, and this time we will have a big one."
Lu Bicheng raised her lazy hand and smoothed her messy hair: "How old can it be? I've already gone to Europe and the United States."
Li Yu said: "This trip may be a bit difficult, going to a place filled with yellow sand."
Lu Bicheng hugged Li Yu's waist tightly: "I will go wherever you go! Speaking of the yellow sand in the sky, I remembered that big story you told about the journey to the west."
Li Yu said: "It's farther than that place."
"Is it still further?" Lu Bicheng asked, "Are you out of Yumen Pass?"
Li Yu nodded: "Dunhuang."
"Dunhuang?"
For many people at this time, this is a very distant and unfamiliar name, and it has almost disappeared into the depths of memory.
Li Yu said: "Do you still remember the calligraphy and paintings we brought back from the United States and Europe?"
Lu Bicheng said: "Remember, it was taken away by foreigners."
Li Yu said: "Now the foreigners want to steal more of our precious things. Do you think I should take care of this matter?"
Lu Bicheng immediately said: "We should take care of it! We must not let our good things be lost again."
Lu Bicheng was a person who had a strong sense of family and country. She not only advocated women's rights throughout her life, but also wanted to make the country rich and the people strong. Later, after the 21st Movement, she even hated the Japanese.
Each of the four talented women of the Republic of China had their own merits, but Lu Bicheng was definitely the most ambitious one.
Li Yu said: "It would be nice to have you with me, otherwise this long journey would be a bit difficult."
Lu Bicheng asked: "How do you know that foreigners have ideas about Dunhuang?"
Li Yu said: "I am just guessing, because four years ago, they had secretly transported Loulan's treasures away."
Lu Bicheng said: "I know about this."
Sven Hedin accidentally discovered the ruins of Loulan in 1900, which caused a sensation around the world. Many foreign expeditions came here to snatch the treasures.
This matter was irreversible for Li Yu, and given the current situation, Li Yu thought about it and could only ignore Loulan, or let it attract some attention, so that Westerners would not be aware of the existence of Mogao Grottoes at all.
After all, Loulan had already turned into a dead city due to lack of water in the Kongque River around 300 AD, and its cultural relics are far less abundant than those in Dunhuang.
Moreover, Loulan is extremely difficult to explore because it is located on the edge of Lop Nur. As we all know, Lop Nur is one of the four uninhabited areas. Without very professional skills, you will not be able to get out.
Moreover, Loulan was actually quite famous at this time. Everyone knew Wang Changling's poem "The yellow sand will wear golden armor in a hundred battles, and Loulan will never be returned until it is broken." On the contrary, Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes seemed to be a little transparent.
Very good, Li Yu's goal is to let it continue to be transparent for a hundred years.
Li Yu said angrily: "I really can't bear to see foreigners plundering things in our territory, even in the name of exploration, and they will be regarded as heroes when they return to the country. It is simply shocking."
Lu Bicheng also said excitedly: "Brother Yu, I support you, let's go west out of Yumen Pass!"
Li Yu said: "You must be mentally prepared. There are no trains or ships on this trip. You can only ride horses or camels, which is very hard."
Lu Bicheng smiled and said: "Then why don't you ask me, sister, to teach you how to ride a horse?"
Li Yu smiled evilly: "I'm very good at riding a horse!"
Lu Bicheng was shocked: "Wait, what are you going to do? Why do you want to do this again? Brother Yu, please pay attention to your health, ah~~~"
——
Early the next morning, Fengling came and knocked on their door: "Sir, Madam, um... it's time to get up. There is something sent from abroad. It's quite a big item. The post office asked you to claim it."
Li Yu opened the door and asked, "What big thing?"
Fengling glanced inside and saw Lu Bicheng, who was full of peach blossoms, combing her hair in front of the dressing table.
Fengling smiled secretly, and then said: "It seems to be sent from a place called Austria."
Li Yu immediately thought of the piano and violin. "I'll get dressed and go."
Lu Bicheng said: "Wait a minute, I'll come too."
Fengling smiled and said: "Sir and Madam, we are inseparable now."
Lu Bicheng also smiled and said, "I just sent a letter home by the way."
The piano is still very expensive. Li Yu and the two came to the post office, and their staff were dispatching people to carry it.
Li Yu asked Zhao Qian to find several cart drivers, and each of them gave a silver dollar: "Don't let any damage occur."
Zhao Qian rubbed his hands and said, "Don't worry, sir, we all know how to work."
Zhao Qian was right, Li Yu didn't need to direct them at all, they could do a good job.
So after Li Yu signed his name and completed the handover procedures at the post office, he took Lu Bicheng and prepared to go home.
When the two of them passed by a pawn shop, they suddenly heard the very miserable cry of a woman inside.
Another man said: "Okay, okay, don't cry. Follow me for three years and I won't let you suffer anything."
The woman cried: "You can't do this!"
The man said: "What's going to happen? Who told him that he can't pay back the money?"
Lu Bicheng took Li Yu's arm: "Let's take a look."
Li Yu looked up and saw the words "Ding Sheng Dang" on the plaque.
The two came closer and saw a young woman crying on the ground inside, and a dejected man sitting opposite.
The person who just spoke was another man standing next to him who was dressed more decently.
The decent man said: "Sign and come with me."
Lu Bicheng asked Li Yu in a low voice: "Will you sell your daughter?"
Li Yu shook his head: "No, the man sitting next to him doesn't look that old."
Seeing the woman crying miserably, Lu Bicheng felt a little soft-hearted, and suddenly thought: "Could it be..."
Li Yu asked: "What is it?"
Lu Bicheng said: "Pawn wife."
"Pawn wife?" Li Yu heard this for the first time, "What is this?"
Lu Bicheng said: "It's just pawning your wife to others."
Li Yu felt incredible: "There is still such an operation? Impossible! How can you endure the two great shames of a man, the hatred of killing his father and the hatred of taking away his wife?"
Lu Bicheng was also newly married, so she couldn't stand this kind of thing even more: "Let's see if we can help."
Li Yu walked into the pawn shop with her.
The pawn shop owner saw the two of them and asked, "You two gentlemen, do you want to pawn something?"
Li Yu said: "I was just passing by."
The pawnshop owner suddenly recognized him: "Are you Emperor Master Li Yu? You are all in the newspapers now."
"It's easy to talk about," Li Yu said, and then asked, "What's going on."
The pawn shop owner said: "Oh, you said they were just pawn wives."
Li Yu was surprised and said: "It really does exist."
The pawn shop owner took out a wife's deed and said, "I still say marriage."
Li Yu took a look and saw that the beginning of the paper on the far right side was in red, with the three characters "wife contract" written in red, and then the text read:
"Deed
Wang Chengjian owed Li Yufa one hundred and five hundred taels of silver for a long time and was unable to pay it back. He would like to marry his wife Chen to Li Yufa. At the end of the three-year period, Wang Chengjian would redeem his wife with two hundred and fifty taels of silver. If he does not redeem after the expiration date, he will discuss it separately.
Model Wife: Wang Chengjian
Bearer: Li Yufa
Narrator: Wang Zhiqing"
After reading it, Li Yu couldn't help but blurt out: "What a sin!"
Feminist pioneers like Lu Bicheng couldn't stand it anymore: "Wang Chengjian, right? You don't have any future, so you pawned off your wife? Is it just goods?"
Sitting on the stool with his head downcast, Wang Chengjian said helplessly: "I really have no choice, I was forced too hard."
Li Yu asked: "Is this legal?"
Pawn shop owner Wang Zhiqing said: "This... is not legal. With the wife's pawn contract, I should... can't say anything."
After Li Yufa knew that Li Yu was the emperor's master, he also came over to greet him with a smile: "It's not surprising that he is the emperor's master. If you give me a child, you can send him back."
Li Yu felt sick all over after hearing this, but he was even more disgusted by Wang Chengjian, who pawned his wife, and the ugly feudal dregs. However, this kind of thing is really not that rare at this time.
Lu Bicheng was so angry that she almost beat this useless man.
Li Yu stopped her and squatted down next to Chen. She does have some beauty, her fingers are fair, and she probably has some education and education, at least she hasn't done much farm work.
Li Yu asked: "Do you still want to live with him?"
Chen covered her eyes: "I don't want to live anymore."
"Then do you want to redeem yourself?" Li Yu asked.
"Myself? Redeem myself?" Mrs. Chen asked doubtfully.
Li Yu said: "My factory also recruits female workers. On average, they can earn 30 taels of silver a year, and if they do well, they can even earn a hundred taels a year."
Lu Bicheng said: "You have redeemed yourself in a few years. What do you want from a man like this?"
Mrs. Chen was surprised: "Is this really possible?"
Li Yu stood up: "The choice is yours. It's up to you whether you want to break through the shackles or not."
"Me? I can also decide my own life?" Chen understood, but still couldn't believe it.
She glanced at her useless husband Wang Chengjian and Li Yufa with a wretched look, biting her lips but not daring to speak.
Li Yufa was anxious: "Master Imperial, you can't do bad things to others!"
"A good thing?" Li Yu suddenly remembered, yes, he is still an official, so he added, "I am now a member of the fifth rank of the Ministry of Rites, and I wear the seal of the second rank on my waist. What does the Ministry of Rites do? It is to take care of these customs and etiquette. , Moral regulations, look at what you have done, which thing is right?"
Li Yu put out the seal with a snap.
I have to say that even though I don’t want to be an official, this thing is really, really easy to use and has immediate results.
The pawn shop owner Wang Zhiqing naturally knows the goods. When he saw it, he quickly said: "Oh, you are really an official!"
