Chapter 1 Wearing (1)

In the winter of the 28th year of Shengwu in the Great Jin Kingdom.

Heavy snow, accompanied by the howling north wind, fell for several days, covering the remote Mujia Village in white.

It was the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, and the bitter cold was unbearable. The villagers of Mujia Village hid at home as usual. The whole family sat on the kang, talking about family matters and chatting happily.

The village is located in Bianzhou Prefecture in the northeast of the Great Jin Kingdom. It is a village under Yushu County. The village is not big, with about a hundred households. Most of the villagers are surnamed Mu. They are all from the same family. Only three or five are from other families and moved from other places.

At the west end of the village, not far from the Mu Family Ancestral Hall, there is a short and dilapidated thatched house built with adobe and thatch. It is similar to the houses of most poor households in the village, but it looks shorter.

The owner of this house is named Mu Zhongqing. He is the most learned man in the village. He is a famous scholar and a student on government stipend. Unfortunately, although this scholar is good at reading, he did something stupid: more than ten years ago, he traveled to Beijing and brought back a woman of unknown origin. His parents disliked him and drove him out of the house.

The woman Mu Xiucai brought back was named Du Mei Niang. As her name suggests, she was extremely beautiful!

According to Mu Xiucai, he accidentally saved a scholar named Du in Beijing. Du Xiucai was grateful and married his daughter to him. He saw that the daughter was gentle and virtuous, so he married her back.

Logically, this marriage did not cost the two elders of the Mu family a penny, and the two elders should be secretly happy, but in fact, in order to ruin this marriage, Mu's father and mother almost reported their son to the government.

Father Mu Liankui thought that since his son had passed the imperial examination and was a student of the imperial academy, he could receive rice every month. With such respect and dignity, he should marry the daughter of the head of the village or the daughter of Mr. Huang from the next village. Although Du was beautiful, she had no dowry at all and was weak, so how could she marry his son who was a scholar?

Mu Bai also thought that Du was not worthy of marrying her son, especially when she saw Du's delicate appearance, she was furious. A farmer's family could not do farm work, so even if she was beautiful, she was still a waste!

The old couple made up their minds to divorce their son, and it would be best if they could sell Du. Du's rare beauty would definitely sell for a good price.

However, although Mu Zhongqing was filial, he was determined to obey his parents' orders. After several fruitless fights, the old couple lost their hearts and finally drove Mu Zhongqing out of the house for being unfilial, without giving him a penny of property.

After Mu Zhongqing was separated, he asked several acquaintances in the village to build three small houses next to the ancestral hall in the west of the village, and settled down with his wife Du, who lived there for more than ten years.

Du was not only beautiful, but also very quiet. She was always gentle and gentle on weekdays. The villagers had never heard her speak loudly, but at this time, Du beat her chest and stamped her feet, crying loudly.

"Wei'er! I'm sorry for you! Please open your eyes and look at me..."

"Wuwuwu...Eldest sister, elder sister, there is food at home, please come back..."

On the kang, under a torn quilt with cotton wool exposed, a pale-faced girl was lying straight, her eyes were closed, her lips were gray, her cheeks were sunken and her body was stiff, all indicating that the girl was dead.

Mrs. Du stroked her daughter's cold body, feeling heartbroken as if she was being cut by a knife.

Life was difficult at home. In order to earn more money to support the family, her husband resigned from the town's teaching hall in June and went to the south with a mountain goods dealer in the village to sell local mountain goods. He had originally said that he would be back in half a year, but eight or nine months had passed in the blink of an eye, and there was still no sign of him.