Li Tian was obedient, and when he saw that Xu Ping actually knew the woman in this store, he hurriedly found an excuse to change a table with Wang Ke and the others, and signaled to all the households under him, pretending not to see Xu Ping's table.

At this time, Tan Erniang happened to bring a small servant from Ren Dian back with a few bottles of wine, Duan Yunjie said to Tan Erniang: "This is the Xu Guanren I told you about earlier, the huge capital, I don't want to meet it today." ”

Tan Erniang looked at Xu Ping, smiled and saluted, and took the little maid to greet the others.

Duan Yunjie sat down opposite Xu Ping, looked at Xu Ping, and said a thousand words for a while, but he didn't know where to start.

"How are you doing these days?"

Xu Ping looked at Duan Yunjie and asked softly.

Duan Yunjie tilted her head, looked at the table in front of her, and was silent for a while before saying, "What is good and what is bad?" I have suffered this great calamity, and I can still eat and live here in the capital, and I have not suffered half of it, which is too good to be better. However, compared with when I first came out of Yongzhou, I looked north at the Central Plains, and I thought about it at that time, and I ......"

Xu Ping looked at Duan Yunjie and had an indescribable taste in his heart.

In just one year, Duan Yunjie has changed a lot. Her appearance has not changed, what has changed is the feeling of the whole person. Although Duan Yunjie was so calm and calm in the past, there was a kind of freedom that emanated from her heart, but now that freedom and freedom have been replaced by an indescribable heaviness.

Perhaps, people are not born to look like this, but are slowly sculpted into this way by life. The changes of this year, the carving knife of the years left unprecedented traces on Duan Yunjie's body.

Looking around, Xu Ping asked, "How did you open a shop here?" ”

"My father and mother died, and I didn't know where to go for a while, but I met Tan Erniang by chance. Her father also went to Lingnan as an official and worked as a small supervisor in a county. After two terms are completed, he will go to the third class of the capital to guard the vacancy. You also know that there is no money and no power in the third class courtyard, and there is no way to go, and after stumbling for more than half a year, I occasionally contracted the wind and cold. Seeing that she couldn't keep her life, her mother remarried with her family property and sold her to others, but she didn't want to be a fireworks family, and she has been in the dust ever since. ”

"When the two of us saw each other, we couldn't help but sigh when we talked about our experiences. At that time, the people who bought her were also gone, and she also wanted to be good, so she opened this small shop with me to make a living. ”

Xu Ping said: "Thank you for your hard work, it's not easy to open a store in the capital. ”

Duan Yunjie smiled bitterly: "Of course it's not easy, under the imperial city, big officials and small officials, maybe they will come to the door for anything." There is even a group of cows, ghosts, snakes, and gods, and the ruffians are scoundrels, which is impossible to guard. It's really heartbreaking to eat for this day. ”

Xu Ping hurriedly asked, "You two weak women, how do you deal with these people?" ”

"When Erniang was in Lingnan before, she was better with a petty official from her father's colleague's family, but it was a coincidence that the petty official was now on duty in the Imperial City Division, and there were dozens of people under him. With his momentum, our shop was opened. ”

Xu Ping wanted to ask why Tan Erniang had an acquaintance and showed up here, but after thinking about it, he still didn't speak. What else could be the reason? I haven't seen each other for a decade or two, and the petty officials of the year have already grown up, and they are more likely to have married a wife and have children, so how to deal with Tan Erniang if they recognize each other? The Song people are not very taboo about taking prostitutes as concubines, especially the military generals in the army, there are no taboos, but the Imperial City Division guards the Imperial City, and the guards of the Son of Heaven must be more restrained, so it has become the current situation.

The sun went down, the sky darkened, and Tan Erniang was busy lighting the lamp with the little guy in Rendian. These big restaurants don't all rely on their own management, and the small foot shops around them also help them do business, and it is common for people here to come over to help them for a while.

Xu Ping looked at Duan Yunjie in the shadows, and had a lot to say in his heart, but he felt that he couldn't say it.

After being silent for a while, he said, "I've been back to the capital for a few days, have you heard?" ”

"Of course I did. You are brave in Yongzhou, and you are a high-ranking official in the court, and your affairs have spread all over the city, why haven't I heard about it? ”

"Then why don't you go to me? Although my family is not very rich, I still have a house and a house, and there are thousands of acres of fertile land outside the city. And now you can speak in the court, your father has worked hard in Yongzhou for many years, and the court always has a reward. ”

Duan Yunjie shook her head with a smile: "Yes, you have everything at home now, as well as your wife and daughter." ”

Speaking of his wife and daughter, Xu Ping was speechless for a while.

Back then in Yongzhou, he and Duan Yunjie always had some inexplicable feelings, but because he was far away from home, he was afraid that his wife and daughter at home would not be able to explain, so Xu Ping never stabbed this layer of window paper. Today, after these days with Lin Suniang, Xu Ping's heart has been let go. This kind of thing is also difficult to explain, at that time, thousands of miles away, thinking day and night, always thinking about how happy it would be if the family reunited, but it turned out to be really back, and there was always a faint sense of loss.

From Lin Suniang sending Xiuxiu away, Xu Ping suddenly felt that it was not a big deal for him to really marry one or two concubines. Sometimes the emperor can't see it, and he will take the initiative to buy concubines for the minister, and everyone is used to it. Even at that time, he wanted to get Xiuxiu back, but there was always more family affection than love with Xiuxiu, Xiuxiu didn't mention it, and Xu Ping wouldn't mention it.

Now that she met Duan Yunjie and she fell into this field again, Xu Ping couldn't help but think about it. Lin Suniang's temperament definitely doesn't want to have one more person in the family, but Xu Ping won't do anything if she really asks for it, it's just a lot of discipline. Within the wife, family harmony is a requirement for the wife, including handling the relationship between the wife and concubine. In this era, the real inner house restlessness will be punished, there was once a general judgment that the wife of the family is jealous, and the wife and concubine are not in harmony, and it makes a big fuss, which is nothing more than a general judgment to demote an official, and the wife to divorce. Although the original concubine cannot be a wife after leaving, officials can marry another, which is always the attitude of the imperial court.

Lin Suniang is a typical good wife and mother, and it is impossible to do things that outsiders accuse. She is unwilling, and she will only think of a way before the matter is done, Xu Pingzhen marries into the door, and she will naturally have another set of family laws.

Sitting in the dark shadow with Duan Yunjie like this, Xu Ping just thought about it in his heart, and finally didn't say anything.

Duan Yunjie is Duan Yunjie, who has been an official with her father since she was a child, she is well-informed, literate and hyphenated, and has outstanding ability, not an ordinary woman. A stable and comfortable life may not be much attractive to her, she can take care of herself, and whether it is her appearance or her knowledge, she is the best choice, why should she be a concubine?

Since the chaos of the five generations, the Central Plains, especially in the north, has undergone drastic social changes, and many traditional concepts have been broken. In the eyes of the Song people, the status of concubines is no longer as lowly as that of the previous dynasty, and the legal status has also been fundamentally improved. But a concubine is a concubine after all, and the order of the family is more important to the Song people than the Tang Dynasty, on the one hand, there are few social restrictions on concubines, and on the other hand, the status of the family is more rigorous.

Forget it, Duan Yunjie is still in mourning after all, and this kind of thing still doesn't come out. A woman is not allowed to marry for three years in mourning for her parents, and the law still prohibits her. Of course, since the Song Dynasty, this prohibition has become more and more relaxed, the so-called "hunger and thunder are helpless, although the etiquette is enough", the real implementation is much more relaxed, and the late Northern Song Dynasty simply changed the woman to a hundred days. (To be continued.) )