"You disobedient girl, you actually have the nerve to come back!" Shen E found a cane from somewhere and chased Liu Xiang'er to beat her.
Sitting in the high hall was a middle-aged man with a mustache, and beside him stood a young man in his mid-twenties, namely Liu Yong, the head of the Liu family, and Liu Xiang'er's brother Liu Chen.
Both of them were indifferent. For a wealthy family, it is indeed not a trivial matter for a daughter who has not left the family to run away from home.
"Are your wings stiff? You still dare to hide, stop right here!"
"If I don't run away, I'll be beaten by you in vain!" Liu Xiang'er was pulling back and forth with Shen E in the main room. After all, she was young and had good physical skills, so the cane couldn't hit her at all.
Seeing that she couldn't catch up, Shen'e threw the cane away, collapsed on the ground, and cried loudly: "Why did I give birth to such an unfilial daughter like you? My life is so miserable..." Sitting in the hall were her uncle, and The cousin on the side seemed helpless and not surprised by the quarrel between mother and daughter.
Song Che stood aside numbly, not to mention how embarrassed he was. But out of respect for his elders, he still scolded: "Xian'er, you must not be rude to your mother..." Liu Xiang'er put her hands on her hips and said unforgivingly: "How could I be rude? I'm not doing anything wrong. She, she beat me, why can’t I run away? Brother-in-law, you also saw it. Today, Shi Erlang is a profit-minded man. If he wants me to marry him, it’s better to just die!"
"Nonsense!" Liu Yong couldn't help shouting: "In this girl's family, speaking your mind is the difference between life and death. Mr. Shi is a member of a well-known family in Chang'an. Marrying you into the Shi family is also for your own good!"
"That's weird! What's good for me? It's obviously for him!" Liu Xiang'er pointed at Liu Chen and said, "Isn't it just that you can pass the historian and establish a relationship with Jingzhao Mansion so that your son can become an official!"
"Sister, how can you say that? Aren't my parents doing this all for the sake of our family?" Liu Chen complained: "It has been a long time since our Liu family had an official? Now that the new dynasty has granted amnesty, businessmen can also become officials. , it is a good opportunity for our family to enter the official career, who is called...who is called our Liu family, I am the only male."
"Are you an official?" Liu Xiang'er seemed to have heard a joke,
"You don't take care of yourself. You can't even run a pawnshop business well. You still want to get involved in officialdom. It's a good thing that you don't bring trouble to our family someday! Besides, if you really want to be an official, Go take the imperial examination and use all these dirty tricks through the back door. You are not ashamed—"
"Pa!" Liu's father was furious, making the tea cup tremble three times. Liu Xiang'er was so frightened that she hurriedly hid behind Song Che.
"Our Liu family's business has always been tepid because we have no backing in the officialdom. No matter how incompetent your brother is, he is still a man! If he goes to become an official, you will get married, and this will be your fate!" Father Liu He shouted: "Come here, take the young lady back to her room. Lock all the doors and windows. She will not be allowed to leave even half a step without my order!"
"Brother-in-law, save me, brother-in-law, save me..." Liu Xiang'er pulled at the corner of Song Che's clothes, her starry eyes filled with tears.
Song Che shook his head and sighed, and said to Liu's father: "Uncle, listen to me - relying on connections to enter an official career will not last long. Even if Xiang'er is married to the Shi family, he is still a relative from the outside. Even if he can compete for an official position, He is a small official who is as big as sesame seeds and mung beans, and cannot bring much benefit to the Liu family. So, why sacrifice Xiang'er to get married? Although the orders of parents and the words of matchmakers are great, shouldn't the daughter's happiness be more precious? Today, my nephew also had a confrontation with Shi Erlang. He is indeed a profit-seeker. With Xiang'er's straightforward personality, it is difficult to marry him. The Liu family has a small business and the Shi family has a big business. If there is any dissatisfaction, you have to keep your head down. As a human being, you can certainly gain career benefits, but your dignity will naturally be lowered, right?" Father Liu sighed lightly, and sat back down after hearing that it made sense.
Liu Chen on the side said: "Brother-in-law, you are a well-fed man and don't know when a hungry man is hungry. We all know that you lived well in Jiangnan, but this is Chang'an, a different land. Here, if we don't have a government to rely on, It’s hard to protect the family fortune.”
"Chen'er, why are you talking to your cousin?" Liu's father scolded softly: "Our family's cloth industry would have collapsed long ago without the help of your brother-in-law."
"Yes, Dad, Mom, you see, now we can't receive the cloth from Bashu, and we can only rely on the goods coming from Suzhou. Without the family ties of brother-in-law, our family would have been in the northwest wind. This further proves the relationship. "It's so important," Liu Chen said, "Didn't Mom discuss it with the old lady of the Shi family? If we become in-laws, we will definitely be able to send me to the Jingzhao Mansion. Even if I am a sesame and mung bean official, I will be better than The identity of a businessman makes her strong, and besides, Xiang'er is already at the age of marriage and should have gotten married. Marrying Zhang San or Li Si is not as good as marrying Shi Er."
"Liu Chen, are you worthy of being an elder brother?" Liu Xiang'er said with tears in her eyes: "Did my parents give birth to me just to pave the way for you to become an official? What qualifications do you have to say that you are a brother-in-law? Today's richest man in the south of the Yangtze River has always relied on himself, but as for you, you can't sell cloth well, and you are afraid of hardship when you go into business with your father. Now your father and mother have opened a pawnshop for you, and you can't make ends meet, okay? Ah, now you want to be an official again, but you have no way out and you are starting to make plans for me. You are just a bad person, and you still blame the uneven road. If you had any intelligence like my brother-in-law, you wouldn't have let us end up like this!"
"You! You!" Liu Chen's cheeks turned red, probably because he was poked in the middle. Liu Xiang'er shed tears and glared at her parents stubbornly: "Since childhood, you have only favored and doted on this idiot, but never cared about my feelings. All of this is because I am a daughter who will get married sooner or later! Then I will tell you here today, I won’t marry, I won’t marry, I won’t marry, if you force me to marry that Shi Erlang, I will go on a hunger strike until I die!” After she roared and vented, she ran out of the main room covering her face. .
Another woman who dares to fight against the feudal world!
"Xiang'er!" Shen E saw that something was wrong and hurriedly chased after him. Father Liu sighed heavily. Families like theirs, living in a crack, often have the most difficult life because they long to be famous but don't want to be poor.
Song Che never expected that his sister-in-law would have such a book at home.
"It's a sutra that's hard to recite." Before he could even say a few words, he was already quarreling to death.
"Uncle, why do you need to sigh? You might as well broaden your horizons. The world is so big, and Jingzhao Mansion is not the only place where you can find the 'relationship' you want to rely on."
"Brother-in-law, you are making sarcastic remarks again. In the entire Northwest, if you don't have connections with Jingzhao Mansion, who can you have?" Liu Chen complained.
Ah, this guy is really a fool who overestimates his abilities but is short-sighted!
