In the first month of the 29th year of Qin Shihuang (the second lunar month), spring flowers bloomed by the Yunmeng River, and new shoots sprouted from the sugar cane fields that were cut last year. Outside a house surrounded by sugar cane fields in the suburbs of Anlu County, early in the morning
There was a long queue.
The Anlu County Magistrate, County Magistrate, and County Lieutenant stood at the front, flanked by domestic slaves holding gifts. Behind them, in turn, were the chief officials, the jailer, the warehouse clerk and other officials, from villages and towns far and wide.
The three elders, the stingy man, and even the local and county magnates from neighboring counties were all waiting outside the door, looking forward to it.
In Anlu County, there is only one person whose home has such a card, and that is Beidi County Lieutenant Heifu.
It has been hundreds of years since Chu Ling Yin Ziwen. There has not been any big shot in the small place of Anlu. However, in recent years, a black man has suddenly emerged. From the head of Guizhou Province, he has become a feudal official, a high-ranking official worth two thousand shi!
I heard that he is trusted by His Majesty the Emperor and can often see Tianyan.
The Heifu family is not only extremely expensive, but also rich. Many years ago, the wild sugar cane that Heifu moved home from the Yunmengze bank was improved with the sweet cane varieties left by the Chu royal family in Jiangling and Shouchun.
It has taken root in the entire Anlu County, half of Nan County, and even counties along the river.
Many tidal flats that cannot be cultivated for food have been replaced by sugar cane forests. They absorb nutrients from the silt and are harvested in large areas by servants and farm laborers in winter. They are made into sweet brown sugar in workshops. In Jiangling and Shouchun
, Huaiyang is very popular, and if shipped to Xianyang, it can be sold for a high price.
This property worth millions is in the hands of Heifu's mother, an old woman who is respectfully called "Sugar Woman" by merchants. Some people even rank her below Wushi Luo and Ba Widow Qing, thinking that
Sooner or later she will become the third richest person in the world.
In terms of power and money, the Heifu family is complete.
Today, it is said to be the birthday of "Sugar Woman", and officials at all levels came to celebrate her birthday. Even those who felt that it was not necessary went to see their colleagues. If they did not go, it would be like being with the Beidi County Lieutenant.
It seems that there is a grudge at home, so I can only go there bravely.
"County Lord, if you don't make enough money today, how about sitting down in the hall?"
The chief official of Anlu County is Heifu's old subordinate. He volunteered to be the official responsible for today's banquet, although the host did not ask him to do so.
The county magistrate was noncommittal. At this time, the door that had been closed for a long time and was guarded by more than a dozen diners finally opened. Heifu's brother, Tian Shifu from Anlu County, who was dressed in white and black in white, came out with sincerity and fear, and faced the county magistrate.
The county captain and the county magistrate bowed down and said:
"I don't know who spread the rumor that today is my mother's birthday. However, my mother comes from a humble background. She doesn't know the year, month and day of her birth, and she has never celebrated her birthday. She actually bothered three officials to come. It's my family's fault. My mother has limited legs and feet.
We cannot welcome you outside. I would like to express my gratitude to the chief officials and colleagues. My family will keep your kindness in mind. However, I do not dare to accept these gifts and congratulatory money..."
Everyone looked at each other in confusion. They didn't know who was the first to spread the news. Some colleagues asked Zhong, who was also a county official.
Although the county magistrate and others felt a little unhappy, it was too late for them to curry favor with the Heifu family, so how could they dare to offend him? They scolded the person who made the "rumor" together, and after some hearty negotiation, they had no choice but to return with gifts...
…
After sending everyone away, Zhong breathed a sigh of relief, asked the guests to close the door tightly, and went home to return his life to his mother.
Today was really his mother's birthday. The main hall was decorated with lights and colorful, and there were busy slaves everywhere. When Zhong passed by, they all saluted him respectfully.
The family didn't have so many rules originally. They were all established in the six months when Zhongdi's wife came here. At first, I was not used to the life of this master, but gradually I got used to it.
"Where is the old lady?"
When we got to the backyard, there was no one in the vegetable garden where my mother loved to spend most of her time. So I asked my concubine who was pouring manure in the field and was told that it might be at the chicken coop.
Zhi could only go to the chicken coop where hundreds of chickens and ducks were raised. Sure enough, he saw his mother. She was still wearing a simple Gebu clothes. She was holding a dustpan in her hand, collecting rotten vegetable leaves and grains from the vegetable garden.
Sprinkling the chaff to the chickens, showing a kind smile while spreading it...
"Mother."
Zhong hurriedly went over to grab the dustpan: "You can just let the servants do these things!"
"I'm a servant, you're a servant, now you think you're a master?"
But his mother raised her hand to prevent him from touching it, and asked again: "Is the magistrate outside the door gone?"
"It took a lot of effort to persuade him to back out."
He smiled wryly: "Actually, they came to wish my mother a happy birthday, which is a good intention."
"Good intentions? I can't bear it."
However, the old lady became more and more stubborn as she got older. She curled her lips and said: "Old lady, a few years ago, I had to bow down to any country man I met casually. Now I want officials like the county magistrate to kowtow to me and celebrate my birthday, not to kill me."
Old woman! When the time comes, should I worship them, or should they worship me?"
He smiled disapprovingly and said: "Compared with Zhongdi's county magistrate, the county magistrate is considered a minor official. Besides, elders are respected, so of course they worship their mother."
Although he is an honest man, the tide has lifted all boats, and their family's status is now very different from what it was in the past.
"Yes, the reason why those people come to curry favor with me is because their official rank is younger than my Zhongzi. When my family lived in a poor village a few years ago, why didn't I see them come to pay their respects to me on my birthday?"
Although Heifu's mother's eyes were not functioning properly, her heart was still bright.
She pointed to the chickens pecking on the ground and said: "Chickens need to be eaten many times a day. The reason why I don't let my concubines feed the chickens is because they find it troublesome and too lazy to run around, so I put in a lot of rice, rice and leaves. Chickens are stupid."
, no matter whether you are hungry or not, as long as there is something in front of you, you will eat hard, and you will starve yourself to death!"
"People are like chickens. If you just accept the gifts that others bring to your door, I'm afraid they will be choked to death. By then, your eyes will turn white and it will be too late to regret."
She saved up a handful of rice and said earnestly: "Whether you are a human or a chicken, your stomach is limited, no matter how much money you have, I can only eat three meals a day, old woman. Now your brother-in-law is in the north."
As an official, your cousin takes care of the sugarcane field workshop. My family has enough food and clothing, and can also support the servants and concubines. I don't care about those gifts, live a good life behind closed doors, and don't cause trouble for your brother-in-law..."
Man perishes for money, and birds perish for food. Although my mother's philosophy of life is crude in words, its rationale is not crude, and I deeply respect it.
"What year will you sincerely wish to celebrate my birthday?"
The mother stopped spreading rice, looked at the four fluffy chicks nestled under the wings of the old hen, and said with some sadness: "Then the four brothers and sisters came back together and had a meal next to me. The old woman
That’s enough…”
Right now, only Zhong and his second daughter Huan are at home.
As she said this, my mother started to cry.
Zhong hurriedly said: "I was surprised to be asked to take a break. I should have taken a boat from Yuzhang County to Xiakou yesterday, and I will be able to get home in the evening."
In the past, her mother loved her youngest son the most, but now, she is more concerned about her second son, whom she has not seen for more than two years.
Zhong said again: "There is going to be another war in the north. As a county captain, Brother Zhong has to guard the border for His Majesty the Emperor. I'm afraid he won't be able to come back, but he just sent back a letter..."
Zhong took out the letter from his arms that had just been given by the knight outside the door, who was a knight in the north. He had not had time to read it, and smiled. This was the surprise he had given his mother: "This is the letter Zhongdi gave to his mother."
A birthday gift that my mother will love!"
"Show me quickly!"
Mother quickly wiped her hands on her clothes as usual and took the letter.
In the past, family letters were just a piece of hard wood, with both front and back full, and not many words could fit in it.
Today's letters are just pieces of thin hemp paper. There are many more words and things that can be said on them. This is the reason why my mother likes paper the most. Not only because it is produced by Heifu.
thing.
As a mother, if she is afraid that her son will never be heard from again, how can she think that he talks too much?
After touching the handwriting written by her second son with her wrinkled hands, as if she could touch him, the mother handed the letter to Zhong again and said with a straight face: "The old woman is illiterate! Read it to me.
I listen!"
"only."
Zhong supported his mother, went to the back hall, and asked his wife to call his sister Huan, son Yang, and daughter Yue. Whenever Heihu wrote a letter, the whole family would listen together.
After Zhong opened the letter, he couldn't help but look happy and stopped reading. He said concisely and concisely: "Brother Zhong said that my brother-in-law gave birth safely in Yiqu City. Last month, which was the tenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar, she gave birth to a fat black child.
Son! Weighs seven pounds and four ounces!"
"Mother and son are safe?" the mother asked excitedly.
"Mother and child are safe!"
The mother secretly calculated the date of Ye Zijin's delivery and had already guessed that it must be for this reason. Just now, she held Zhong's wife's hand tightly, and was so nervous that she did not dare to let go for a moment.
After hearing that mother and child were safe, her tense body relaxed, she patted her chest with her hands, and smiled again.
When she regained her breath, she took her grandchildren and took them to the yard, knelt down in the direction of Yun Mengze, kowtowed and said, "Young Master, please give me your blessing. It is not in vain that I pray to them for my daughter-in-law to give birth..."
Shao Siming is the god of life worshiped by the Chu people and is also in charge of the descendants of the human world.
My mother decided that in a few days, she would invite the county witch Zhu to go to Yunmeng Lake to kill pigs and sheep as sacrifices to fulfill her wishes.
But then she became worried again: "Seven pounds and four ounces, isn't it a little light?"
Zhong's wife nodded: "When Yang was born, he weighed it from inside to outside and weighed seven catties and nine taels."
"No!"
The mother murmured: "The old woman wants to build a temple for Shao Siming by the lake, build a statue, and offer incense and worship every year, so that Shao Siming can always protect Zhongsun..."
This has also been my mother's wish for many years. She has always felt that it is a miracle that she can raise three boys and one girl and survive all the epidemics and wars without losing any of them. She must be blessed by the gods.
"One more thing."
But before he finished speaking, after the family members calmed down, he held the letter and said with trembling hands: "Brother Zhong also said that when His Majesty the Emperor heard that he would have an heir, he gave it to him, which can be regarded as giving our family a surname.
!”
"Brother, what did you say? The emperor ordered his clan!?"
When the whole family was shocked, a startled sound came from the door. He had just returned home in high spirits and stepped into the threshold, when he was shocked by these words. His legs went weak and he fell to his knees with a plop!
No one could believe this was true, and my mother even felt her ears buzzing. God, this birthday gift is too scary.
"Surprise, these words are too hard to pronounce. Just read them out."
He couldn't hold himself still anymore, and hurriedly handed the letter to Jing, who finally stood up. He sat behind the case and drank water, gasping for air.
For their little family, the emperor and the sky are almost synonymous. In my mother's words, he is like the most respected aunt of the Jingchu people, Donghuang Taiyi. One day, he suddenly speaks to me. Isn't it scary...
After swallowing several times in shock, he finally stammered and recounted what Qin Shihuang said to Hei Fu two months ago.
"When the emperor builds virtue, he is given a surname because of his birth, and the family is named after the land. The princes use the surname as a posthumous name because they are a clan. If an official has merit in the world, he will have an official clan, and the same goes for the city."
"Although the ancestors of today's Heifu do not have a family name, and they do not have a land title, they still have an official position and are Northern Wei. They can imitate the Liang people in the past. The official name was surname, and the surname was 'wei'!"
"Lieutenant!"
After reading it in surprise, he burst out laughing. He had been in the officialdom for a while and was often troubled by his lack of clan. Now, with his brother's help, he had solved this big problem!
He pointed to the tip of his nose and said: "From now on, I will be called Wei Jing!"
"My uncle's name is Wei Zhong!"
Jing then patted his nephew on the shoulder and said, "Remember, your name will be Wei Yang from now on!"
"As for Brother Zhong, his name should be... Wei Heifu!"
…
"Wei Heifu..."
At the same time in Yiqucheng, Beidi County, Heifu was pushing the cradle bed made by craftsmen while complaining to Ye Zijin, who was still a little weak after giving birth:
"I am very grateful to His Majesty for giving me a surname. But Wei Heifu always sounds a bit strange! With Wei as his surname, Wei Liaozi sounds much more pleasant..."
Having said that, Heifu recalled Qin Shihuang's narrow smile, which almost scared him to death. He thought that the emperor was going to randomly give him some weird names like "public toilets, dogs, and silence".
Fortunately, Qin Shihuang did not force him to rebel. He found the ceremony officer, looked up the ancient process of bestowing surnames, and gave him a stable "wei"...
Well, Sima and Sikong, these clans also evolved from ancient official positions.
Hearing what Hei Fu said, Ye Zijin was so full of smiles that his lower abdomen, which had finally recovered, hurt from laughter. He also woke up his sleeping son and made him cry.
In the end, she could only helplessly say to her husband: "My beloved, it's not that I am rude, it's just that the name of my beloved is easy to pronounce on its own, but no matter which surname it is paired with, it is a bit difficult to pronounce..."
Hei Fu heard what his wife didn't say, but he said seriously: "I can be named Yi, but I don't want to change my name."
It is easy for people from ancient times to the present to change their names. Zhao Yang could be renamed Zhao Zhifu, Liu Ji could be renamed Liu Bang, Zhu Chongba could be renamed Zhu Yuanzhang, Mao... well, forget it.
But the name Heifu means something extraordinary to him.
After he comforted his son and fell back to sleep, he said softly: "I took off my brown clothes, threw away my straw shoes, smoothed away the calluses, healed the scars, and left my hometown."
"Sometimes when I look at the man in the bronze mirror, I see him in fine clothes and fine food, holding great power, banqueting guests and building tall buildings, I even feel strange."
"If I even change my name, I'm afraid I will really forget...who I am!"
He is a time-traveler and Heihu. Heifu’s ancestors are eight generations of wild people and three generations of Guizhou heads. He is the second son who was raised by a peasant woman and a weaver girl with all kinds of hardships. The two souls merged into one body. He stood up from the land of suffering and threw it away.
Farm tools in hand, in this cruel era where people are killing people and life is like a piece of grass, trying to climb up.
Initially, it was to survive and live a good life for his family, and later to bring the township party subordinates home so that they could avoid historical disasters. Until he entered Xianyang, stood at the center of the world, and looked up at the crown of power, he began to want to
In this era, what should this country, which is suffering from reincarnation and suffering in the future, do?
These cannot be forgotten.
History is changing, but his original intention cannot be changed.
"I know it, and I will never mention it again."
Ye Zijin listened solemnly. Although he didn't quite understand why Hei Fu was so stubborn, he felt that his husband must have his reasons.
After a moment of silence, Hei Fu smiled again.
"However, you cannot admonish those who have gone by, but you can still pursue those who have come."
Hei Fu touched his wife's hair and looked at the sleeping baby in the cradle. His eyes were full of love and he smiled and said, "I have no choice but to give my son a catchy name."