The maid Zhu Tao insisted on calling Su Ping uncle, but Su Ping did not force her to change her name.
The sixth lady did not allow Su Ping to live in the second courtyard, nor in the east and west wing rooms, so only the front and back rooms were left, which was supposed to be where the servants lived.
Zhu Tao held a bunch of keys in her hand and asked Su Ping where she wanted to live. Su Ping said she wanted to look around.
"There are servants living in the front room, but our young lady never gets close to men, even when she meets the prince. So there are no servants in Qinxiang Xiaozhu, only maids. But it's not like the seventh lady, who just met the prince.
Once they are on one side, they are inseparable."
Feeling that she was talking too much, the little maid covered her mouth, glanced at Su Ping furtively, and winked.
Su Pingquan pretended not to hear, looked around and said, "Since the lady hates it, I won't let her see it. The south courtyard is the corridor, and she walks around a lot, so I'll live in the backyard."
Thinking of something, Su Ping asked: "If I live in the back cover, will it disturb the four of you?"
The "four" in his mouth refers to the four little maids.
Zhu Tao smiled and said: "The four of us have our own division of labor. There are two for the young lady, one for the front doorman, and one for the back room. The young lady said that Xiao Tao will serve my uncle from now on. If my uncle also lives in the back room, then
It's better to live next door to Xiao Tao, so Xiao Tao doesn't have to move."
The little maid smiled luckily, and Su Ping also smiled.
The back room is a row of houses, with a total of five rooms, all of which are small rooms. Zhu Tao lives in the second room on the east side, because the first room on the east side is next to the toilet. She would rather walk two more steps than live next to the toilet.
She opened the third room, which was the cabin next door to her west, and asked Su Ping with a smile: "What do you think, uncle? If you think it's okay, Xiaotao will clean this place."
Su Ping smiled warmly and said, "Then I'll trouble Xiao Tao."
Zhu Tao tilted her head and thought: "I heard that my uncle also comes from a wealthy family. Is my uncle always so polite with his servants at home?"
Su Ping smiled and said: "Our Su family has always been generous to our slaves. As long as you walk into the house, you are treated as a relative."
In fact, the Su family is not like this. If the Su family is generous, it may only be suitable for a few people, and Su Ping is one of them.
Slaves were all untouchables in the Liang Dynasty, and the "Daliang Law" was very cruel to the untouchables. It allowed nobles to buy and sell among themselves, and they could be handled almost like animals. If they didn't like it or wanted to have fun, the untouchables would be beaten to death.
Not uncommon.
In the Liang Dynasty, the royal family was the most powerful, and the only one among the three clans was the royal family. These people were nobles, and they respected the "Daliang Rites" more than the "Daliang Laws".
Ordinary yamen have no right to arrest and try those royal family members and noblemen who kill untouchables. Not even Fuguo County or Jingzhao Prefecture. They need to go to the Ministry of Internal Affairs or Dali Temple to sue them. But ordinary people can't afford to sue, and they can't.
.
It was getting dark, so Zhu Tao took the time to work. She opened her door first and let Su Ping rest, but Su Ping did not rest, but helped her clean up the house.
This room must have been empty for a long time and has been used as a warehouse. I don’t know why, but there are many old saddles, bridles and other things placed there, and I even saw cracked wheels.
In fact, Zhu Tao is already thirteen years old, but she is not tall and her round baby face looks even more childish.
Perhaps because of poor nutrition, she is so small and exquisite that she has not yet begun to grow. There is still a bit of an arc at the back, but the front is simply flat.
In the Sixth Miss's house, the most developed one is the Sixth Miss Tang Mei. At the age of eighteen, it is no exaggeration to describe her as "bumpy and convex".
Although Miss Six is good-looking, she doesn't like Su Ping at all, so Su Ping doesn't think about her.
Let’s just say that the four little maids are all very good-looking, especially the one in the red coat who is the most beautiful.
I still remember that when she trotted to the auditorium to whisper to Princess Fan, the Fourth Young Master Tang Kuan's eyes searched for the maid for a while.
The young master's eyes were playful, as if there was an invisible hand, scratching wantonly.
"Xiao Tao, are you rich?"
Just as he was thinking about it, the maid in a little red coat ran over with an anxious expression. At that time, Su Ping was stacking axles in the fourth room next door. Although it was next door, the backyard was quiet, and their conversation could be heard clearly.
Zhu Tao asked: "What do you want money for? Is your mother looking for you again?"
"No, no, the lady asked me to go out and buy persimmon cakes just now. I weighed one penny in front of the lady, but when I got to the vendor, it was only a little over eight cents."
"Is the vendor's scale tampered with?"
"No, no, I've tried the scales at the stall next to me, and they all say it's a little over eight points."
Since they could no longer hear their voices, Zhu Tao probably went to withdraw money. Su Ping put down the axle and walked back, only to see the maid in red coat squatting on the ground, wiping tears sadly.
Weighing in the Liang Dynasty was the same as that in the Tang Dynasty. One pound was sixteen taels, one tael was ten cents, and one cent was ten cents.
One tael of silver can be exchanged for about 1,000 wen, and one penny of silver is almost 100 wen. When it comes to a penny, it is only the size of a pea.
When the maid in red coat saw Su Ping approaching, she wiped her tears and stood up, saluting: "My slave Feng Die, I have met my uncle."
Su Ping didn't say anything. Zhu Tao took out a small wooden box, took out seven or eight copper coins from the box, counted them, and handed them to Feng Die.
Although the little maid was quick with her hands and feet and quickly closed the wooden box, Su Ping still saw two or three copper plates left inside...
"I'm afraid these are not enough, Xiao Tao, please lend me a few more pens."
"No, I don't have either."
Feng Die looked at Zhu Tao with sad eyes. It seemed that she also saw a few copper plates in Zhu Tao's wooden box.
Zhu Tao stamped her foot, pointed at the money and said, "I think these are enough. Even if it's two or three cents short, the lady won't criticize you."
"You don't know what kind of temper Miss has." Feng Die said with a bitter face: "Please, please lend me some more."
Zhu Tao bit her lip, grabbed the last three coins, and handed the empty wooden box to Feng Die to see.
Seeing that Zhu Tao really had no money, Feng Die thanked her and walked forward with a sad look. But before she left, she glanced at Su Ping with a pleading look.
The handsome maid's tearful eyes made Su Ping's nose sore: "Wait a minute. I still have ten coins here, take it. I gave it to you, you don't have to pay it back."
Feng Die was deeply blessed: "Thank you, uncle, for the reward."
Whether it is the former eldest son of the Su family or Mr. Su in the previous life, not to mention ten cents, even tens of millions, they are not worth mentioning.
Seeing the maid bowing so deeply, Su Ping looked ashamed and said, "It's just ten pieces of paper, it's not worth mentioning."
Zhu Tao knew that those ten coins were already the last ten coins that his uncle had, but he pretended not to care and gave the money away.
The reason Zhu Tao knew this was because Su Ping took off the groom's clothes that night and asked Xiao Tao to pawn them off the next day. In addition to two changes of clothes, the uncle's backpack only contained a road guide and a page of household registration.
Miss Six refused to accept his household registration, let alone take him to the Fang Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to go through the formalities so that he could have the distinguished Tang family registration. So when he walked around Luoyang, he still needed to bring a guide, otherwise he would
He was arrested as a refugee.
Hearing that the clothes were not going to be redeemed, Zhu Tao did not send the clothes to a pawn shop, but sold them to her parents' family at a low price. Because her parents' brother has also reached the age of marriage, but he still has no money to get married, but he will definitely use it in the future.
.
Of course, before doing this, the maid got the consent from her uncle. Zhu Tao found that this uncle was very easy to talk to, even though he was also very poor.
People in the Liang Dynasty seemed to care more about the word "kindness". After these two small incidents, Zhu Tao and Feng Die became closer to their uncle.
The other two maids, Tang Wan and Tang Ting, also heard about these things and smiled quite a bit when they saw my uncle.
Although their surname was Tang, they were already married to Tang Qiong, Duke of Anguo, and the family only took care of them and allowed them to stay in Qinghuafang.
But after all, their surname was Tang, and even when they were maids, they were treated slightly better than Zhu Tao and Fengdie. They all lived with the young lady in the attic, while Zhu Tao and Fengdie stayed in the back room and the concierge.
On the wedding night, my uncle sat quietly in the hut, occasionally looking ahead. Perhaps he saw the lights flickering in the attic and the silhouette of the sixth lady, Tang Meigao, with her hair in a high bun. But he only looked at it for a while and then closed the window.
, and didn’t say much to Zhu Tao.
…
In a blink of an eye, three days passed.
I haven't seen Tang Mei in the past three days. I wonder if she is avoiding Su Ping on purpose, and Su Ping will not deliberately create opportunities to meet her.
In the past three days, Su Ping asked Zhu Tao to be his guide and walked around Qinghua Square. Although he knew some people, he basically didn't see those high-ranking lords and young masters. Even if he saw them from a distance, they would treat them as if they were nothing.
see.
Not to mention those rich and powerful young masters, even some young masters with a little power would not be too polite to Su Ping. Only those who are not informed and do not know what is going on, and treat Su Ping as a member of the Duke's palace, are a little bit.
Smiling look.
But when they learned that Miss Six was unwilling to consummate their marriage with her husband, they became less enthusiastic.
The news of the unconsummated marriage was not spread by the maid, but by the sixth lady, Tang Mei, who personally threatened that she would remain pure and marry someone else in the future.
With what she said, one can imagine Su Ping's situation. As for the 800,000 taels of silver that the Su family was forcibly detained by the Tang family, no one seemed to remember it.
No one paid attention to Su Ping on the street, and he was even more ignored when he came to the Duke's mansion. The servants greeted him a little, but there was no movement when they saw his son-in-law. It seemed that everyone knew that he would not stay here.
How long, there is no need to have any intersection.
"Xiao Tao, why is Xifu so quiet today?"
Su Ping and Zhu Tao went to the side street to buy some preserved fruits and came back, only to find that the west courtyard was quiet.
"I heard that the Khitans sent warriors to compete in martial arts, and they are competing in front of the Sima Hall."
"Oh?" Su Ping smiled bitterly: "Xiao Tao, who loves the liveliness the most, why don't you go and see it?"
Zhu Tao smiled like she couldn't wipe it away, as if she had something to say, but she swallowed it back.
Su Ping could tell that Zhu Tao was thinking about her adopted son-in-law. She knew that her adopted son-in-law was not well-received in the Tang Mansion, and if he went to a crowd of people, he would not be able to lose face, so she just didn't go.
Seeing through the maid's thoughts, Su Ping asked Zhu Tao to put the preserved fruits in the concierge, and the two of them headed to the competition ground.
The little maid was happy and shook her head. She also said that there were many masters in the Duke's mansion, so she was not afraid of challenges from barbarians.