"This Zhu Xiancai is a Han princess. You won't have any problem talking to her like that. Although she is exiled now, she might be able to return to the Central Plains in a few years, or even find a place for her directly in Yunnan. As the princess, if she holds a grudge against you, wouldn't it be bad for us to file a lawsuit? After all, people in the village don't know her detailed identity, but you do." Wu Zhuge said again.
"It should be nothing." Long Ping'er said, "I've already checked with other people. She doesn't have the squeamishness of a princess at all. She does everything herself, and she has no objection to people in the village calling her little sister, so I think it's nothing. thing."
"And the days we have to deal with her will not be short in the future. We just need to take care of her without leaving any trace."
"Forget it, I don't know as much about these things as you do. We will do whatever you say." Wu Zhuge said.
…
…
Zhu Xiancai took Long Pulan back to his house, took out all the medicinal materials to be used from the warehouse according to the portion, mixed them together, and said to Long Pulan: "This is the amount of two sets of medicine, go back first and let Sister Long taste it." , if the condition improves, continue to come to get medicine; if the condition does not improve, I will check the pulse again."
Luang Pulan nodded, took the medicine and left.
At this time, Luo Yi went out to see a doctor, and Zhu Xiancai tidied up the house. Seeing that it was noon, he started cooking again.
After a while, Luo Yi came back. When he entered, he smiled and said, "Xiancai, look what I brought."
Zhu Xiancai came out and took a look and said, "What kind of meat is this?"
"This is tiger meat!" Luo Yi said with a smile: "Today, Lao Liu's family hunted a tiger. On the way to carry the tiger home, he met me and gave me two kilograms of tiger meat. He also said that he would share it with me. I have some bones."
"This is a good thing!" Zhu Xiancai also smiled and said: "Tiger meat is just a reward. Tiger bones are a good thing, and you may not be able to buy them if you have money."
"Who says it's not?" Luo Yi said: "Even though the tigers here are generally smaller than those in the north, they are not easy to kill. Every time they go out to hunt tigers, several people will die. Besides, I think the tiger skin is still intact. In Zhongyuan, it would cost thousands of taels of silver! Even if it is much less here, it would still cost hundreds or even thousands of taels."
After dinner at noon, Luo Yi left home again and headed for Old Liu's house. When he came back in the evening, he held some shaved bones in his hand, took out his own collection of good wine, and soaked the bones in it.
Early the next morning, he took out a few jars of worse wine and went to Lao Liu's house. This family had a dying son saved by the two of them, so now they are very superstitious about Han medicine. I heard that the Han people If you have your own way of brewing tiger bone wine, just separate half of the bones and use the Han method to soak them in wine.
At noon, Luo Yi came back with five kilograms of tiger meat. But this time Zhu Xiancai said: "We are not in Shandong here. Although it is already November, the weather is still very warm. You brought so much tiger meat back to us." I can’t finish any of them.”
"If you can't finish it, make it into cured meat and eat it slowly." Luo Yi said, "This is tiger meat, even if it is cured meat, it's not bad."
"You are so awesome for using tiger meat to make marinated meat. Who in the Central Plains would not say that you are a prodigal? But now there is no other way. I will cut out a pound of meat and eat it in the next two days, and I will marinate the rest in the afternoon." Zhu Xiancai said.
After waking up from his nap at noon, Luo Yi got up and went to the backyard to clean up the vegetable garden, while Zhu Xiancai started marinating four kilograms of tiger meat.
But just as she started, she heard a woman say at the front door: "Sister Zhu, Sister Zhu."
Zhu Xiancai recognized Long Pulan's voice and walked to the door and said, "It's Sister Long. What's wrong?"
"Sister Zhu, you forgot. You treated my sister yesterday and prescribed two sets of medicines. These two sets of medicines have been consumed," said Luang Pulan.
"I'm sorry, Sister Long. There were too many things happened yesterday, and I couldn't think of them at the moment. Has Sister Long's illness gotten better?" Zhu Xiancai said.
"It's getting better already. My sister said you can be considered a miracle doctor." Luang Pu Lan replied.
"I'm not a miracle doctor. I'll prescribe four more medicines. You go back and let Sister Long continue to take them. If it continues to get better, I'll check your pulse and change the prescription the next day." Zhu Xiancai said.
With that said, she came to the warehouse, grabbed four pairs of medicines according to yesterday's prescription, and gave them to Luang Pulan.
Luang Pulan took the medicine with his left hand, took out a silver coin from the bag hanging on his clothes with his right hand and handed it to her and said: "Sister Zhu, this is yesterday's consultation fee."
"This is too much," Zhu Xiancai said when he saw that the silver coin was more than two taels. "This is too much. In the Central Plains, the consultation fee and medicine fee would only be three hundred cents."
"But this is a Miao village, and there is only one doctor who knows internal medicine, Sister Zhu. My sister said that Sister Zhu is the most important person in the village, second only to my father." Long Pulan said.
"It's not that important." Zhu Xiancai smiled, but still refused such a large amount of money.
But Luang Pulan was determined to give her the silver dime, and in the end she couldn't resist but had to accept it.
Afterwards, Zhu Xiancai returned to the backyard to continue marinating the tiger meat, but after a while someone shouted at the door again. This time it was a man's voice: "Princess Anqiu. Princess Anqiu..."
Zhu Xiancai heard that it was the voice of the guards guarding the door, and she didn't want to pay attention to it. But they kept yelling, so Zhu Xiancai walked to the door angrily and said, "What are you calling! Some of you are sick and I can't help you!"
The guard who called her just now has never seen her so angry in the two years since she came here. He immediately knelt down in fright and said: "Princess, His Highness King Min has sent someone here, so I will greet the princess."
"Why are you kneeling down! Get up! I'm not a princess either." Zhu Xiancai said.
When the guard stood up tremblingly, Zhu Xiancai continued: "Where are the people sent by Uncle Eighteen?"
He immediately stepped aside, and Zhu Xiancai saw six people wearing the uniforms of the prince's bodyguards coming over, bowing to her and saying, "I have met Princess Anqiu."
"I said I am no longer the princess." Zhu Xiancai said: "But Uncle Chu is still my eighteenth uncle. Tell me, why did your eighteenth uncle send you here?"
"Your Highness has sent ministers to deliver things to the princess." As he spoke, the leading guard stepped aside, pointed to the things behind him and said: "Princess, these are ten pieces of silk, five hundred pieces of porcelain for daily use, and five pieces of porcelain for daily use.
An iron pot, two pieces of soft armor, two thousand taels of silver, and," he pointed at the four little girls and continued: "four maidservants." Following his last words, the four little girls bowed and said.
: "This slave has met the princess."
Zhu Xiancai looked at all this and said with a smile: "Uncle Shiba has prepared everything thoroughly, and they are all useful things, nothing too extravagant."
"So, the princess has accepted it?" the leading guard said.
"When did I say I accepted it?" Zhu Xiancai said with a straight face: "Take it all back, I don't want it."
"Princess, Your Highness also knows that the princess doesn't like luxury, so I didn't send any luxurious things. They are all things that can be used daily. These things are nothing." said the leading guard.
"Isn't this nothing?" Zhu Xiancai pointed to the silk and said: "Did you know that even the richest house here only has one or two silk clothes, which are only worn when I go to Kunming to meet Mu Sheng?
It’s homespun clothes;”
She pointed to the porcelain and said: "And this porcelain, there is not a single porcelain found in the entire village, even if the nine long lawsuits are counted, there are not many;"
"The iron pot is quite normal; maybe two thousand taels of silver can be scraped together; there may be two pieces of soft armor here; but these four neat maids, even the prefect of Lin'an Prefecture does not have them." She finally said.
"How can the princess's body of a thousand pounds be compared with that of a few natives?" said the leading guard.
"I said, I am a commoner now and no longer have the title of princess. So I can't ask for these things. You can take them all back." Zhu Xiancai said.
At this time, Luo Yi had also heard the noise and came to the door, looking at Zhu Xiancai and the guards of King Min. The leading guard turned his head and saw him, and immediately said as if grasping a life-saving straw: "Luo Yibin, please advise the princess.
, accept these things.”
A trace of desire clearly flashed in Luo Yi's eyes, but he suppressed it immediately, shook his head to the leading guard and said: "My lord, I am not a guest of honor, and we cannot accept these things."
The leading guard wanted to say more, but Zhu Xiancai interrupted: "You don't have to say it, I will never accept it. If you try to persuade me again, I will ask your companion to go back and tell Uncle Eighteen that I want to keep you here as a guard."
, I believe Uncle Eighteen will not be stingy with a bodyguard."
The leading guard immediately did not dare to speak. After a while, he said: "In this case, I will leave." Then he directed the other people to lift up the box containing the things and leave.
But then Luo Yi walked up to Zhu Xiancai and said something to her. Zhu Xiancai probably thought about it and suddenly said: "Stop!"
The leading guard immediately ordered the people carrying the goods to stop, turned to Zhu Xiancai with hope, "Has the princess changed her mind and wants to accept these things?"
"Five iron pots, keep two pieces of soft armor, you still take the rest, I don't want it." Zhu Xiancai said. At the same time, Luo Yi turned around and walked into the house.
The leading guard immediately asked someone to put down the box carrying the iron pot, and took two pieces of soft armor from another box and placed them on this box.
At this time, Luo Yi came out with a jar. Zhu Xiancai took the jar and said to the leading guard: "But I don't want Uncle Eighteen's things in vain. You can take this jar of tiger bone wine back to Uncle Eighteen."
"Tiger bone wine?" The leading guard stepped forward to take over the wine jar, thinking: "It's not bad. The princess finally accepted something and gave back a jar of tiger bone wine. Your Highness should not be too upset."
He scolded a few of us too much.'
Then a bigger surprise came to him. "Also, the bones soaked in the wine were taken from a tiger that died recently. The tiger skin is still there and it is very complete. Will you buy this tiger skin?"
Go back and dedicate it to Uncle Eighteen, and Uncle Eighteen will definitely not blame you again." Zhu Xiancai said.
"There are also tiger skins!" the leading guard said in surprise. This was really an unexpected surprise.
"Yeah." Zhu Xiancai immediately asked Luo Yi to take them to Lao Liu's house to see the tiger skin.
When these guards saw the complete tiger skin, they immediately decided to buy it. They took out all the remaining goods, except the four maids, to exchange for the tiger skin. They were afraid that this was not enough.
.
But for Lao Liu's family, two thousand taels of silver was already a huge sum of money, not to mention countless precious silks and porcelain. So they were very happy to use tiger skins in exchange for these things, completing a deal that everyone was happy with.
of trading.
Looking at Zhu Xi's bodyguard who left happily with only a tiger skin, Zhu Xiancai said to Luo Yi: "Although I only accepted five pots and two pieces of soft armor this time, Uncle Eighteen will definitely send people again in the future.
Come and deliver something."
"At that time, just reject them all." Luo Yi said: "I also have to accept these five iron pots because our pots are about to break; the two pieces of soft armor are for safety."
Zhu Xiancai said nothing. She accepted these seven items for the same reason, otherwise she would never want anything from Uncle Eighteen and Mu Sheng.
"I gave a jar of tiger bone wine in return, and I didn't ask for Uncle Eighteen's things in vain." Zhu Xiancai comforted himself at the same time.
Looking at Zhu Xiancai who was meditating and not knowing what he was thinking, although Luo Yi thought this scene was beautiful, he could only say to her: "Xiancai, the tiger meat is going bad."
"Oops! I forgot that there is still tiger meat to be marinated." Zhu Xiancai hurriedly ran into the kitchen after reacting.
Luo Yi smiled and picked up the box containing the iron pot and soft armor and walked into the house.
…
…
In a high stockade in the middle of the village, in a room that is hard to get sunlight, a woman who also watched Zhu Xian's guards leaving the village carrying tiger skins said: "Dad, King Min sent someone to give Zhu Xiancai something."
, enough to prove that what I said is right: for the Han people, even the exiled royal family is not something ordinary people can bully." When she spoke, she turned her head to look at the middle-aged man beside her, and she could be recognized by the weak sunlight.
It's Long Ping'er.
"The rules of the Han people are indeed different from those of the Miao people. But what does this have to do with you wanting to read the Di newspaper?" Tu Shelong said.
"Dad, since the current emperor came to the throne in the Ming Dynasty, governance has changed a lot. We can't use the old ideas anymore. We need to keep abreast of the court's actions at all times." Long Ping'er said.
"If we are close to the Han people's territory, such as Annansi, then that's right; but we are in the deep mountains and old forests, and the Han people will never come to such deep mountains and old forests," Long Shangdeng said.
Long Ping'er was about to continue his persuasion when suddenly Long Shangdeng said: "But it's not expensive to buy a copy of the Di newspaper from the Yamen servants. You can buy it for a month with just a few taels of silver. There are still a few taels of silver in the village."
I can afford it. Although dad is dubious, I still want to buy it and have a look."
"Thank you, dad. These newspapers will definitely be useful in the future," Long Ping'er said.
