Idle courtiers

Chapter 182
The horse-drawn carriage rumbled along the long street.

Sitting in the carriage, Zhou Nan still couldn't help laughing in a low voice.

Beside him, Zhu Congchen couldn't help waving his fists: "Zhou Nan, if you humiliate me again, you will be welcome."

Zhou Nan: "Master Zhu, Master Zhu, don't move, be careful to scratch the seal."

Only then did Zhu Congchi realize that he had moved too much just now, breaking out in a cold sweat, and hurriedly restored the petrified state of the previous clay sculpture and wood carving.

Zhou Nan laughed and said, "Are we playing a game of one, two, three wooden figures?"

Zhu Cong was frustrated: "Come on, brother Zhou, you can laugh if you want!"

"Okay, I won't laugh...Puchi!"

Previously, unable to withstand classmate Zhu's entreaties, our Master Zhou agreed to send him home and help cover him.

In fact, he'd done a lot of that sort of thing before in the modern world.Especially a close colleague in the past, because he was fond of mahjong, he didn't play until the early hours of the day and refused to withdraw.But his wife hates gambling, and likes her husband to be by her side all day.

As long as the husband comes home late, he will interrogate him for a long time, and if he disagrees with him, he will perform full martial arts.

If you really can't stand your gambling addiction, that colleague will lie about working overtime and call Zhou Nan if you don't believe it.

Out of sympathy for his colleagues, Zhou Nan naturally helped.Until one time, a colleague's wife went directly to the unit to deliver supper...

In a tragedy, a colleague was caught at the poker table.

A bowl of hot fat rice rolls directly on the head, millet pepper, abnormally spicy.

What a wonderful story, the past is embarrassing.

Seeing classmate Zhu, Zhou Nan thought of his colleagues and the modern life that he could never go back to, and his heart softened.He even hired a carriage out of his own pocket to take him home.

When he set off, he had already asked clearly that Zhu Cong's Baptist Mansion was located in the northeast corner of the inner city, next to the Imperial College, quite far away.

Suppressing laughter, the carriage fell silent.After a while, Zhou Nan was really bored, and couldn't help but said, "Brother Zhu, do you mind if I call you that?"

"We can be considered to have gone through hardships together, so we don't need to be born. If you don't call me Brother Zhu, why not call me Master Zhu? I can't be an official."

What is suffering together? If it is not me, it is you who suffer, so what does it have to do with me?Zhou Nan asked; "Is there a sentence that I don't know whether to say or not?"

"Needless to say, Brother Zhou must have asked me why the dignified General Fengguo still suffers from my wife's anger?" Zhu Congjin sighed, "Isn't it because of a poor character? The family's expenses are very high, and it is difficult to maintain with just that little salary. It all depends on my wife to borrow from her natal family. Up to now, my family has owed a lot of debts to her natal family. Although her father and brother didn't say anything, I was embarrassed in my heart. The so-called short-lived people are lenient! Besides, my wife and I Dear, but in my heart I respect her and love her."

It turned out that according to the system of the Ming Dynasty, neither the emperor's grand marriage nor the clan's marriage could choose the children of important officials in the court.The purpose is to prevent the influence of foreign relatives and the clan from threatening the imperial power.

Therefore, the emperor's concubine must come from the family of officials below the seventh rank (including the seventh rank), and the children of other royal families also follow this rule.

Zhu Cong was born in the generation of kings. When he became an adult, he married a girl from a clean family in Datong according to the royal marriage system.

Because of his low income, he could only rely on his wife's natal family to support him. Classmate Zhu was living on soft food, so his status in the family was naturally not much higher.

Zhou Nan expressed deep sympathy for him, and asked curiously: "Brother Zhu, as far as I know, don't the children of the clan have land property besides salary? Have you eaten it?"

That's right, the princes and clans of the Ming Dynasty annexed the land of Daliang, and each of them was as rich as an enemy.Take the fief of King Fu in the year of Chongzhen as an example, there are [-] hectares of Zhuangtian outside Luoyang City.

Because the Zhu family was so prolific, by the end of the Ming Dynasty there were astonishingly one million clan members.These people are enshrined by the state, and occupy a large amount of land in the local area, becoming a big public nuisance.

Zhu Cong smiled wryly: "What do you know, I don't have a king, how much land can I have? That's right, my ancestors got a lot of land from generation to generation, but I don't have much left when I divide it from generation to generation. Let me tell you, I have a manor of [-] mu in Datong, and a house and [-] mu of land in the capital. This income can’t support my family at all. Moreover, today’s emperor is clearing the imperial property of the capital. I’m afraid that the [-] mu of land I can't keep it anymore."

Zhou Nan couldn't help but rolled his eyes, this guy has a salary of [-] shi per year, and there are [-] acres of land under his name that can be rented, and he still calls himself poor, is there any reason?

Really, Ming Dynasty middle-class anxiety syndrome.

It must be that the daily expenses are too large, and they refuse to compress them.

People, it is easy to go from simple to extravagant, but difficult to go from extravagant to simple!

While talking, after another half day, the carriage finally stopped in front of a big house.

Zhou Nan and Zhu Cong got out of the car, looked up, and couldn't help applauding: "It's so big!"

This is the real deep house compound. It looks like a park at least five or six thousand square meters in size.Compared with it, Zhou Nan's house suddenly looked extremely shabby.According to the current world price estimate, it is worth tens of thousands of taels of silver.

"That's right, it was left by the ancestors. It used to be the palace of the prince, and it was passed down to me. My family and I go to Beijing Miansheng every year for the New Year, and we will live here for a month." Zhu Cong Baptist University was very proud.

Zhou Nan: "For such a large yard, at least twenty or thirty servants need to be raised, plus the daily start, it must be several thousand taels a year. Tsk tsk, brother Zhu is really having a hard time."

For example, if you earn [-] yuan a month, you can live in a villa worth hundreds of millions in Shanghai. Can you afford the property fee?
Zhu Congjin was immediately discouraged, and said angrily: "Zhou Zimu, why do you keep saying things that make people unhappy?"

Zhou Nan: "Pricked my heart, old iron?" For some reason, beating Brother Zhu is so enjoyable.

The two walked to the door, and a doorman greeted him: "Master is back."

Zhu Congchen: "Where's Madam, are you asleep?"

Porter: "If you go back to the Grand Master, the ladies and the young masters have not rested yet, and are waiting for the Grand Master in the hall."

Zhu Cong was taken aback: "It's so late and I haven't slept yet, this, this..."

Zhou Nan gave him a sympathetic look, and it was already ten o'clock in the evening Beijing time.The ancients went to bed early, going to bed at nine o'clock at the latest.It seems that our classmate Zhu is in trouble today.

Soon, the concierge led the two into the main hall of the Zhu family.

The hall was lit, and it was as bright as day.

But I saw a woman holding a book and teaching seven children to read. For a while, the voices of "Zi said" and "Zi once said" were endless.

Needless to say, those seven children are the sons of classmate Zhu. The oldest one is twelve or thirteen years old, and the youngest is a toddler.

As for Zhu Tsung-chim's wife, she is in her early thirties, with a small nose and small eyes, and an ordinary appearance, but her face is a bit big, and she looks like a prosperous husband.She just kept her eyes on the book and refused to even look up at her husband.

Zhu Congchi said cautiously: "Ma'am, the night is getting dark, why don't you rest. The children are eating long meals, and their bones are very important. How can they stay up late here?"

Zhu Shuren snorted coldly; "Do you also know that there are wives and children at home?"

The power is fierce, and the thunder is heard in the silent place.As soon as Zhu Cong's legs went limp, he was about to kneel down on the ground.Suddenly realizing that there was an outsider, this kneeling humiliated him, and he quickly straightened his knees: "Ma'am, this is pedestrian Si Zhou Xingren, isn't our family in Kaishufang? So Er came back late."

Zhou Nan was dumbfounded: This old man... has his ears bent.

(End of this chapter)