001, Going to the city to sell goods
001, Going to the city to sell goods
Autumn of the eighth year of Yuanqing
After the White Dew Festival, the temperature in the morning and evening drops significantly.
Early in the morning, before dawn, a father and son left home and set out for the city.
This father and son are Lu Youtian and his five-year-old son Lu Mingfei.
As soon as the autumn harvest was over, Lu Youtian rushed to the city to sell his goods. Used to farm work, he carried a shoulder pole with ease. Two large baskets hung on each end, filled with the small items he was going to sell in the city.
He glanced down at his son who was walking beside him with his short legs and trying hard to keep up with him. He deliberately slowed down his pace and said to his son, "Dad told you to sleep a little longer at home with your mom, but you just wouldn't listen to Dad. You always want to go out with Dad." Lu Youtian was a little worried that he was in such a hurry that he forgot about his son.
He and his wife have been married for many years, and they only have this one son. If the child is kidnapped by a beggar, they will be childless.
It just so happened that this child had always loved going out with him. Every time he learned that he was going to the city to sell things, he would do everything he could to go with him. However, the few times he had taken his son with him to sell things, Lu Youtian had also found that bringing his son with him would improve his business. So, he couldn't resist his son's pleas, and he also wanted to earn more money to buy medicine for his wife, so he took his son with him.
"Hehe." Lu Mingfei tilted his little head and smiled foolishly at his father.
"What? You look silly." Lu Youtian couldn't help but laugh when he saw his son's silly smile. Although he said his son looked silly, he actually thought that his son was the smartest child in the family, even as smart as his eldest nephew who was studying with his teacher.
Their family lived near the capital, and they were all tenant farmers for a landlord. For three generations, they had all earned their livings working the land. When it came to the generation of his nephews, their father felt that the family couldn't do without a scholar, so he discussed it with his sons and decided to send his eldest grandson to school. Their family was a farming family, not wealthy to begin with. In years of hardship, they couldn't even afford food. Sending one child to school was a huge expense for the entire family. He knew, under these circumstances, that it was impossible for his family to send a second child to school.
But every time Lu Youtian looked at his smart son, he felt a little sad when he thought about not being able to send such a smart son to school.
Who doesn't know that only by studying can one succeed? But that also requires money. Every time he saw his eldest nephew coming home from school dressed like a scholar, he felt envious. He thought countless times in his mind that if his son dressed like that, he would definitely be more handsome.
This wasn't Lu Youtian boasting; his wife was beautiful, and his son, who resembled his mother, was also very handsome. Furthermore, the child had been intelligent since childhood. At the age of three, he had been accompanying him to the city to sell goods, and he already knew how to help drum up business. It was a pity that he, as a father, was incompetent and couldn't send his child to school.
It was precisely because of this sense of guilt that every time his child begged him to take him to the city, he would agree once out of three times.
Lu Mingfei knew exactly what his father meant by the guilty look he often gave him. Inside his tiny body was the soul of an adult, not a four or five-year-old child who didn't understand anything.
He had traveled from the modern era to this world. In his previous life, he was a recent college graduate and intern journalist. While covering a rural area, they encountered a rainstorm. They saw loose soil and rocks falling from the mountain, tumbling downhill. They suspected danger. A village below lay inhabited by villagers. If they didn't notify them, they would undoubtedly face a near-miss if a geological disaster struck. Of the people in their car, most were married or had parents; he was the only orphan. In the silence of the others, he chose to step forward and resolutely return to inform the villagers to evacuate. While following the villagers, he was swept away by the oncoming floodwaters while trying to save a child.
When he woke up again, he came to this strange world, reborn into a baby that was only minutes old. From then on, he became the child of his current parents. His father in his previous life had five brothers and sisters, and several uncles were all married. The family was large, and with so many people, the family situation became a bit complicated.
Furthermore, after arriving in this world, he learned through hearsay that his current country was called the Great Yan State, and that its emperor's surname was Zhao. However, the founding emperor was not the same person as the Emperor Gaozu he knew; even this Great Yan State did not correspond to any of the dynasties he had learned about in his previous world. Therefore, he was certain that he had arrived in a dimension completely different from his original historical time and space.
On their way out, the father and son met many farmers who were coming to the city to sell things like them, and they all walked together towards the capital.
These villages were not too far from the capital, but not close either. Even a fast walker would take an hour or two to get there. Riding an oxcart would be even faster.
Along the way, there were people driving ox carts to pick up passengers, and they only had to pay two cents per person, but not many people were willing to get on. In these days, for the poor, every penny was worth a penny, so how could they bear to spend money on such unnecessary things?
The public security in the vicinity of Gyeonggi Province is relatively good.
At least Lu Mingfei had never heard of any murder or robbery in his life. This was one of the advantages of being close to the imperial city. However, there were also many disadvantages, namely that these farmers did not own their own land.
The farmland in this area was largely owned by the royal family and officials, so the common people living near the capital had no land and could only rent land from the landlords. In good years, after paying taxes and rent, the common people would still have some food left over. However, in bad years, not only could they not pay rent, but even taxes and grain could not be paid. In those years, the common people would have to sell their children to fill the hole.
After four or five years in this world, Lu Mingfei was well aware of the cruelty this world could inflict on farmers. His only real regret was that his ancestors hadn't sold themselves into slavery during the famine, otherwise, their descendants would have been slaves to the landlords.
You have to know that in this era when masters can kill their slaves without being held legally responsible, it can be said that the life of a servant is not even as valuable as that of a cow.
Another point is that once you become a slave, you cannot take part in the imperial examinations.
Although Lu Mingfei knew that with the Lu family's current financial situation, it was impossible to send a second child to school, he still had his own plans. If he had the chance in the future, he would still go to school and take the imperial examinations. He knew that in this era, if one wanted to change one's fate, the only way out was to study.
The biggest problem right now, however, was his age. He had a lot of money-making ideas in mind, but he couldn't bring them out now, or he wouldn't be able to explain them clearly. If someone discovered something was wrong with him, he might even lose his life. So, instead of taking the risk now, it was better to wait.
During the whole journey, Lu Youtian was paying attention to the child who was following him. Worried that the child would be tired after walking such a long distance, he stopped and said to his son, "Mingfei, come on up. Dad will carry you for a while."
"No need, Dad. I can walk by myself." Lu Mingfei waved his little hand and didn't let his father carry him.
It's a coincidence that his current name was chosen by his father when he went to the city to sell things and asked a scholar who wrote letters on the street to help him. It happened to be exactly the same as his name in his previous life, which was also Lu Mingfei.
He also discovered that his current face was about 70% similar to his face in his previous life.
Perhaps the King of Hell, seeing that he lost his life saving others in his previous life, gave him another chance to live again as compensation? Otherwise, Lu Mingfei really couldn't explain these incredible things that happened to him.
Seeing that his son was unwilling to get on his back, Lu Youtian felt both relieved that the child was sensible and a little distressed that the child had to follow him for such a long distance.
"Let's rest here for a while before continuing on our journey." He was worried that the child, so young, would be exhausted from walking so far with him. Seeing that there were many people on the road and the sky was getting a little brighter, Lu Youtian simply put the load and the big basket on the side of the road and sat down with the child to rest. He took out a bamboo tube filled with water from the basket and gave it to the child, "Have a drink."
Lu Mingfei took a sip from the bamboo tube and then handed it to his father, "Dad, you drink too."
"Hehe." Lu Youtian laughed, took the bamboo tube handed to him by his son, drank a sip of water, and took out a dry steamed bun from the basket and gave it to the child. "Eat it, your mother gave it to you."
"I can't finish so much, Dad, you should eat some too." Lu Mingfei broke the dry steamed bun into two halves, gave the larger half to his father, and kept the smaller half for himself. Seeing his father staring at him, he grinned at his father.
Lu Youtian reached out and touched his son's forehead, smiled, and said, "Eat slowly, we'll leave after you finish eating."
"Yeah!" Lu Mingfei nodded. It was just that this dry steamed bun was too choking.
Just as he reached out to get some water, a large hand holding a bamboo tube was already feeding water to his mouth. He took a sip of water from his father's hand, swallowed the dry food in his mouth, and stared at his thin, dark father with a pair of bright eyes and said, "Thank you, Dad."
"You're welcome." Lu Youtian didn't know who taught this child to say thank you all the time. Comparing him to his mischievous nephews at home, he felt that some things, like his son's intelligence and understanding, might be innate.
After the father and son had their fill, they rested for a while and then continued on their journey.
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