1. The Pig-Killing Beauty
It was snowing in Lemongrass. In the yard, a big pot was boiling hot water. The snowflakes were melted by the heat before they even fell into the pot.
The snow on the ground had been trampled into a muddy mess. Next to the stove, a door panel was propped up with benches, and half a piece of pork was spread out on top.
Fan Changyu chopped off a pig's hind leg with his knife. The chopping board shook, and bones and minced meat flew everywhere.
The back of the bone-cutting knife in her hand was broad and thick, and completely black, except for the tip which was as bright as snow. It looked frighteningly sharp just by looking at it.
There were also a cutting knife and a boning knife on the chopping board, with the same black iron blade and shiny white edge, just like the same set of the boning knife in her hand.
Today, the Chen family in the town slaughtered a pig for the New Year and invited neighbors and relatives to a banquet. It was quite lively.
The guests who were warming themselves by the fire in the house glanced at Fan Changyu who was busy in the yard and started to discuss in low voices: "The Fan family just finished a funeral, why did the Chen family invite a little girl like Changyu to kill pigs?"
"The Chen family and the Fan family have a good relationship, so there is no need to be so cautious..." The person who spoke may have thought of the misery of the Fan family. His voice unconsciously lowered and he glanced outside.
The snow was fine and frosty. The young woman who was cutting pork in the yard was wearing a plain, half-worn skirt. She was tall, with her black hair tied up, revealing half of her fair and beautiful profile. She looked thin, but she was very efficient at her job.
When Fan Er's wife followed Fan Er to Lin'an Town, she attracted the covetousness of many people. Some jealous women even cursed her privately, saying that she must have come from a kiln. This shows how outstanding her appearance was. Her two daughters took after her in appearance and were both very distinctive.
The younger one is only five years old and can't see anything yet, but if the eldest daughter had not been engaged to the boy from the Song family since she was a child, the families who came to propose marriage in recent years would probably have broken down the doorstep of the Fan family.
The man sighed, "The second Fan couple died in the hands of bandits, leaving only two girls in the family. The elder Fan was heartless and only wanted to seize his brothers' property. Changyu and her sister had a hard life! We thought that Song Yan passed the imperial examination and Changyu would live a better life after marrying him, but who knew that the marriage would fall through. Changyu was tough, too. She followed her father's path and made a living by killing pigs. She managed to support the Fan family again. The Chen family hired her to kill pigs, which was considered to be a way to take care of the business."
After hearing these hidden facts, people couldn't help but sigh. However, there was another voice that was suppressed very softly, saying, "I heard that it was the eldest daughter of the Fan family who brought bad luck to her parents. Her younger sister was born sickly and weak, which was also caused by her? The Song family went to match her horoscopes and calculated that she was destined to be unlucky, so they hurriedly came to cancel the engagement..."
The person who just spoke said, "Do you know where the Song family's fortune was calculated?"
The sighs of the crowd became even louder. The Song family canceled the engagement at this juncture, and anyone with a discerning eye could see what the intention was.
There is an old saying that if you get promoted and get rich, your wife will die. Song Yan was right. He was going to be an official in the future, so why would he marry a butcher's daughter?
The chopping board was placed in the courtyard not far from the main house. Fan Changyu was forced to listen to the discussions about him, but no emotion could be seen on his face.
Her parents had passed away over a month earlier, and she had long since let it go.
The story between her and Song Yan is nothing more than that of Qin Xianglian and Chen Shimei.
Back then, the Song family couldn't even afford a coffin. So Song's mother and Song Yan knelt down on the street and kowtowed to passers-by, begging them to help buy a thin coffin to bury her husband. No one came to help her even after she kowtowed, so her parents couldn't bear to see it, so they helped buy a coffin for burial.
Song's mother was so grateful that she took the initiative to propose an engagement between her and Song Yan, saying that she would marry her when Song Yan passed the imperial examination and they would live a happy life together.
Later, the two families became neighbors, and her father and mother often helped the orphan and widowed mother. Song's mother wanted her son to take the imperial examination, but she could not afford to pay for the repairs. Before Song Yan was admitted to the county school, her father helped to pay for many repairs.
Song Yan was quite ambitious. He passed the imperial examination and became a scholar a few years ago. He also won the imperial examination this autumn. Many local gentry vied with him to curry favor with him. The county magistrate also had a favorable eye on him. It was said that he was quite willing to recruit him as his son-in-law.
Song's mother's attitude became subtle, as if she felt that her daughter, a butcher, was not worthy of her son, a butcher.
Her mother felt that Song's mother was not as easy to get along with as before, and was afraid that she would misunderstand that they were seeking a favor in return, so she proposed to cancel the marriage. However, Song's mother refused to agree, saying that her Song family was not the kind of ungrateful people.
When her parents died unexpectedly, rumors spread from somewhere that she was unlucky and had the bad luck to kill them.
Song's mother came to cancel the engagement, and she used the same excuse. Yan had consulted a fortune teller, who said that she and Song Yan were not compatible. If they were to get married, not only would it bring bad luck to Song Yan, but she would also lose her parents and would continue to bring bad luck to Song's mother.
Song Yan then broke off the engagement with her as a matter of course, and was not accused of being ungrateful at all. Only she, Fan Changyu, became the unlucky star that everyone avoided.
Fan Changyu stopped thinking and let out a breath of foul air.
There are so many bad things, just don’t think about them.
After cutting up the pork, she took the money for slaughtering the pig and said goodbye to her host without even entering the main house. People pay attention to auspiciousness during the New Year. Her family had just handled a funeral, and the Chen family didn't mind asking her to slaughter the pig. However, she knew what she was doing.
The owner did not force her to stay, and before leaving he gave her a bucket of pig offal.
This is an uncommon custom in the countryside. When you hire someone to slaughter a pig, in addition to paying the butcher the wages, you also have to give the butcher a piece of pork, but most of the time, pig offal is used instead.
Before Fan Changyu carried the pig into the water and went home, he went to the pharmacy to get two prescriptions.
One for her sister, and one for the man she rescued.
Yesterday she took a job to slaughter pigs in the countryside. On the way back, she found a bloody man in the snow, who looked like he had been killed by a bandit.
Because his own parents also died at the hands of bandits, Fan Changyu was moved with compassion and carried the people back.
Unexpectedly, none of the hospitals in the town dared to treat such a dying person. She couldn't just throw him out on the street, so she had to take him home and ask the uncle next door who had been a veterinarian for more than ten years before changing his career to become a carpenter to try to treat him.
Fan Changyu didn't know what condition the patient was in, but he was not dead yet.
This prescription was also prescribed by my neighbor’s uncle.
Fan Changyu took the medicine and went home.
The Fan family's house is located in the alley in the west of the city. The houses are next to each other and it is very crowded.
The alley was dark and damp, with moss growing near the walls. The houses on both sides were old, with grey and mottled walls, old and dilapidated wooden doors and windows, and a smell of decay.
Perhaps it was because enemies often meet on a narrow road. As soon as Fan Changyu walked into the alley, he ran into the mother and son of the Song family.
Both of them were wearing newly cut winter clothes made of very good material. Mother Song even wore gold earrings on her ears. Her expression was no longer as sad and submissive as before, and she looked quite spirited.
After Song Yan passed the imperial examination, local gentry and wealthy businessmen gave him money and houses as gifts. The Song family is now very prosperous.
It is said that clothes make the man, and saddles make the horse. Song Yan was wearing a long gown of raven blue embroidered with bamboo leaf patterns. He exuded a scholarly air and was elegant and compelling. He was no longer shabby as before, and had a bit of the air of a noble young man.
Fan Changyu had just come back from Chen's house after slaughtering a pig. He was carrying a leather bag containing a pig-killing knife on his back. His patched old shirt was stained with blood foam from the slaughter. He was holding a medicine bag in one hand and a wooden barrel containing pig offal in the other. He looked quite ferocious.
Song's mother avoided the question calmly and even fanned her nose with her hand. She was wearing a gold ring on her hand as well.
It's really rich.
The alley was narrow, and the mother and son did not speak. Fan Changyu did not give them any extra glances. She pretended not to see the mother and son, and walked straight into the water path carrying the pig: "Watch the road——"
At the moment of passing by, the bucket containing pig offal happened to brush against Song Yan's new clothes, and the blood on the wall of the bucket instantly left a large wet mark on it.
Mother Song looked at Fan Changyu's back as he walked away, her face turned green, and she said distressedly, "That blind girl, this is Hang silk material!"
Song Yan's eyes showed no emotion, he just said, "Mother, forget it."
Song's mother looked unhappy: "Well, in a few days, we will move out of this poor place!"
-
Just as Fan Changyu arrived at her home, a five-year-old snowball ran out from a neighbor's house, "Sister, you're back!"
Xuetuanzi was as cute as a carved piece of jade. She opened her arms to hug Fan Changyu, and when she smiled, a tooth was missing from the side of her mouth.
Fan Changyu grabbed his sister by the back of her collar and said, "Don't touch me. My clothes are dirty."
Little Changning stopped walking obediently, and seeing that his elder sister had a lot of things in her hands, he took the medicine bag on his own initiative.
She had the same almond-shaped eyes as Fan Changyu, but because she was still young, the corners of her eyes looked rounder and her cheeks were chubby, like a fat porcelain doll.
The neighbor lady came out upon hearing the noise, saw Fan Changyu, and said with a smile, "Changyu is back."
The neighbors were an elderly couple. The man's surname was Zhao, and he was a carpenter. He had to go out during the day to make household tools for people, or go to the market to set up a stall to sell rattan and bamboo baskets, and would come back at night.
The relationship between the two families was very good. Whenever Fan Changyu went out, he felt uneasy leaving his younger sister at home alone, so he would leave her with the aunt next door.
She said "Hey", picked up the pig liver skewered with palm leaves from the pig's water bucket and handed it to him: "Uncle, I like this, you can fry it and make it as a snack for uncle to eat with wine."
The old lady was not shy with Fan Changyu. She took the child with a smile and said, "The young man you carried back last night has woken up."
Fan Changyu was stunned when he heard this and said, "Then I'll go over and take a look later."
Her parents had passed away, and she and her younger sister were the only ones left at home. She thought it was inappropriate to let a foreign man live in the house, so she took the man to the uncle next door for treatment last night, and then borrowed a room from the neighbor and temporarily placed the man there.
Little Changning looked up and said, "That big brother is so handsome!"
pretty?
Fan Changyu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He touched the hair on his sister's head and said, "How can you describe a man as beautiful?"
However, when she picked up the man, his face was covered with dried black bloodstains, and he looked almost unrecognizable. It was already evening when she carried him back yesterday, and she was in a hurry to see a doctor, so she didn't even bother to wipe his face or anything like that.
She really didn't know what that person looked like.
Fan Changyu went back to the house and changed out of the clothes he wore for killing pigs before going next door.
Dusk always comes early in winter. Before the hour of You, the sky has already darkened.
When Fan Changyu entered the room, the light in the room was dim and he could only see a bulge on the bed.
The smell of herbs, blood, and sweat mixed together in the room to form an indescribable odor.
The weather was extremely cold, and Uncle Zhao and Aunt Zhao were probably afraid that the man wouldn't make it, so they sealed the doors and windows tightly and lit a charcoal brazier in the house; the heat made the smell even stronger.
But Fan Changyu had been to the pigpen before when he caught pigs, so he didn't react much to the smell. After entering the house, he just frowned and went to light the oil lamp in front of the table.
A bean of warm orange light illuminated this small world. When Fan Changyu turned around and looked at the bed again, he saw the man's appearance clearly and was slightly stunned.
She finally understood why Changning said he was handsome.
The author has something to say:
Here is a preview of "The Nourishing Days After Becoming a Tang Dynasty Princess". If you like it, you can click on the column and add it to your collection~
Copywriter:
Social animal Li Mingyao died suddenly from overwork, and when he woke up again he became a newborn baby.
The old lady shouted with joy: "It's born, it's a little princess!"
Hearing that she was born into a lucky family, Li Mingyao, who had worked so hard that she died of sudden overtime, couldn't help but grin. God was kind to her, and she could finally rest in peace for the rest of her life!
The midwife and the maids in the delivery room were shocked: "The little princess can smile as soon as she is born?"
The crowd moved, and she was handed over to a middle-aged man wearing a dragon robe and a beautiful beard. The emperor seemed very satisfied with her: "You are worthy of being my daughter!"
When Li Mingyao learned that this was the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, he lay even flatter.
No matter who her biological mother is, as long as her father is Li Shimin, she can be a happy little salted fish in the prosperous Tang Dynasty!
It was not until her elder sisters died one after another and she was given the title of princess that Li Mingyao could no longer laugh.
She was actually the seventeenth daughter of Emperor Taizong of Tang, the most glamorous and famous Princess Gaoyang in the Tang Dynasty...
She would marry a scoundrel prince consort, commit adultery with monks after marriage, and eventually be implicated in a conspiracy and executed. After her death, she would not even be eligible to be buried in the imperial mausoleum!
Li Mingyao shuddered violently, and walked to the dragon case on his short legs. He glanced at the emperor and empress who were holding the case together, and decisively opened his arms and ran towards the eldest grandson empress, saying miserably: "Mother, I want a hug!"
From today on, I will be the queen mother's sweetheart, treat the nine princes under her lap with brotherly love and respect, and in the future, I will also provide warmth to the talented Wu who has just entered the palace...
By holding on to these strongest legs of the Tang Dynasty, she can continue to march forward in the Tang Dynasty for another eighty years!
Later,
Li Shimin: Among all the young men in the civil and military families in the court, not a single one is worthy of my beloved daughter!
Li Zhi: If the son-in-law dares to bully Gao Yang, I will not show him mercy!
Wu Zetian (laughing): I heard that you fell in love with a monk, how difficult is that?
Li Mingyao:Σ(丽嘉°Д°;
No! She doesn't like monks! She just wants to lie down and spend her days hugging her thighs!!!
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