A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 129 The Rice is a Fait D'être
"I'm going to sue you for being unfilial!"

After waking up, Guo opened her eyes and spoke viciously to Du Ruhui.

Du Ruhui chuckled, "Grandma, calm down first. You'll be eighty soon. Don't let your anger ruin your health."

He paused, looking at the old woman who had been a shadow in his childhood. "Grandmother wants to sue her grandson for being unfilial. Which charge should I sue for?"

The seventh of the Ten Heinous Crimes is unfilial piety. This includes telling stories about or cursing grandparents or parents, or providing for grandparents or parents who are in a different household or have different property. Also, marrying or getting married while in mourning for one's parents, or having fun or letting go of clothes is considered auspicious. Also, hiding and not mourning during the mourning of grandparents or parents, or falsely claiming the death of grandparents or parents is considered unfilial piety.

Grandmother, you want to accuse me of being unfilial. Which offense have I committed?"

"Did I denounce my grandmother, or curse her?"

"I haven't separated my household registration or property from my grandmother. You manage all the family property, and I don't own any property. My personal wealth is the dowry left by my mother, my wife's dowry, and the share that my grandfather gave to my father-in-law. In addition, I also hand over the rice and rent from the official land to the family as a common property."

"I even turned over my salary and rent from the land I worked for back home, and my grandmother distributed it all. So I can't say I'm lacking in support, can I?"

Guo was speechless after being refuted by Du Ruhui.

Although the law classifies unfilial behavior as a serious crime, such as telling tales or cursing grandparents or parents, and even punishing them by hanging,
Those with different nationalities and different property will be sentenced to three years in prison.

If there is a shortage of support, one will be sentenced to two years in prison.

But Du Ruhui had none of these.

"You cursed me!" said Guo.

Du Ruhui chuckled, "Grandmother, if you want to accuse me of being unfilial, you'll need evidence. Do you have witnesses? Don't just ask a servant to give false testimony. She won't be able to withstand the consequences in court. Have you considered the consequences then, Grandmother?"

Du Ruhui poured Guo a cup of brewed ginseng tea.

"Grandmother, given the current situation, Wang Shichong of Luoyang will soon be defeated. If you really want Du Yan's best interests at heart, then you should immediately leave him a way out.

Don't look down on Li Yi's Taoist origin, but now, in just over a hundred days, Li Yi has been granted two titles and is now the founding viscount of Qianshui County. Not only is his reputation known to the emperor, but His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin also highly appreciates him.

This boy is only sixteen years old and very talented. Given time, he will become a great man.

Aren't such young talents without any foundation the most favored by the aristocratic families? Although they don't have a good background, it is very good to have them as sons-in-law.

I know that Wei Erlang, Wei Siren, he's a complete playboy, and it wouldn't be a good thing for Shi Niang if she married him."

Guo remained silent.

"There must be some misunderstanding regarding your brothers. Silang is their uncle, how could he possibly harm them? I will write to Luoyang and ask Silang to give me a detailed account of what happened."

Du Ruhui ignored Guo's soft words.
"Shi Niang's matter should be settled as soon as possible. The longer it is delayed, the worse it will be. In a few months, her belly will become bigger, and then it will be our Du family who will be embarrassed."

"Shi Niang has known propriety, righteousness, and honor since she was young, and she would never do such a shameless thing."

Du Ruhui smiled, "I forgot to tell grandma that Li Yi sent Shi Niang back yesterday and stayed overnight at my house, living with Shi Niang."

"Snapped,"

Guo slapped Du Ruhui in the face.
Du Ruhui still smiled and said calmly:
"The rice has already been cooked, and the water that has been poured out cannot be taken back. Pack up your things and come to live with me in Chang'an. This time, the Qiang soldiers rebelled. More than a dozen villages in Shenheyuan and Yusuchuan were destroyed, hundreds of people died, and it almost affected Fanchuan and Duqu.

I don't know if there are still defeated soldiers outside. If they wander into Duqu and sneak into the house in the dark of night to rob, or even kill and burn, it will be too late to regret it then."

Guo was shaking with anger.

This grandson is really vicious.
"You ruined Shi Niang!"

"Grandmother, you are wrong. I am helping Shi Niang. Otherwise, she would have eloped with Li Yi. I am trying to make amends. Now that things have come to this, let Li Yi find a matchmaker to propose marriage. The three letters and six ceremonies, all the necessary etiquette, have been completed.
Then the Du family can still maintain its reputation."

Guo didn't believe that Du Ruhui could be so kind.

This old woman, who was almost eighty years old, had long seen through Du Ruhui's conspiracy, which was to destroy Silang and Shiniang, and ruin her and the Du family's reputation.
But my son is far away in Luoyang.
The Luoyang court was on the verge of collapse. If the Tang Dynasty unified the world in the future, Silang would have to be left with a way out if he wanted to come back.

"In fact, if anyone is to blame for this matter, it's you, Grandmother, for not keeping your word. Li Yi was originally doing his duty and had no other intentions. It was you who insisted on doing something bad in secret.
As a result, Shi Niang felt guilty and became more affectionate towards Li Yi, while young Li Yi could not resist Shi Niang's affection, and now the two of them are together.

……

Chang'an,

Li Yi did spend the night at Du Ruhui's house last night.
But not with Du Shiniang, Du Ruhui would not allow it, and Du Shiniang would not agree either.

Last night he slept with Du Ruhui, they lay on the same bed, their feet touching.

We also talked for a long time by candlelight at night.
They talked about a lot of things, and learned about some of the grievances between Du Ruhui and Guo Du Yan, the mother and son. Du Ruhui also told him about these family scandals.
Du Ruhui generously admitted that his willingness to help him and Shi Niang was somewhat related to the feud between their two families, but he was also optimistic about them as a couple and had always admired Li Yi.

Du Ruhui is a smart man. Some things need to be made clear first. Otherwise, when Li Yi and the others find out about it later, they will definitely feel uncomfortable.
Du Ruhui also put forward his own ideas on how to get Guo to agree to this marriage.
Anyway, on one hand, Du Yan's future was the condition, and on the other hand, he lied to Guo that Li Yi and Shi Niang were already in a fait accompli.
If Guo didn't agree, Shi Niang would elope directly.

Even a few months later, Shi Niang's belly grew bigger, and she would have a child out of wedlock, which would make the Du family even more embarrassed.

This matter has to go around Du Yan,

Du Yan absolutely disagreed with his second daughter marrying Li Yi, as he had made clear in his previous letter. However, although Guo was always shrewd and calculating, she could sometimes consider the overall situation. If not for Shi Niang, then for Du Yan, Guo would certainly give in.

As long as Mrs. Guo agrees, we will immediately ask a matchmaker to arrange the engagement and the matter will be settled.

However, in this case, even if Li Yi was engaged to Shi Niang, his relationship with Guo and Du Yan would not be good in the future.

Li Yi didn't care.

If it weren't for Shi Niang's true love, he really wouldn't bother to try to marry someone above his station.

This morning Du Ruhui went to Fanchuan to negotiate with Guo to pick up the person.

Li Yize took Shi Niang back to Pingkangfang House.

This was also Shi Niang's first time to come to Li Yijing's house. Although it was smaller than Du Ruhui's house, and certainly not as big as Fengxiang Houfu's house in Chang'an,

But this small house of eight acres is very exquisite and elegant, especially with a garden, which is a pleasant surprise.

"You will be the hostess here from now on." Li Yi said.

This made Shi Niang very satisfied.

Holding Li Yi's hand, he walked around the place from top to bottom.

Ji was pleased to see that Li Yi and Shi Niang were now in a relationship. She had often persuaded A Lang to accept Shi Niang, believing that they were a good match. Yu Shu was a little afraid of Shi Niang. She had worked as a maid in General Guo's mansion before, and had seen how powerful the eldest lady could be.

In the past few months, she followed Li Yi and there was no mistress in the mansion. She shared the same room with Ji's two maids. Occasionally, when she acted like a spoiled child, Alang indulged her, which made her forget that she was just a maid.

After the heroine enters the house, everything must be done according to the rules.

Even without the doctor's permission, she had no chance to accompany Alang again, which made her sad just thinking about it.

Yu Shu found an opportunity,
"Ah Lang, Su Jun and I have already removed the soap we made earlier from the mold. It has solidified and clumped together. It smells quite good. Ah Lang, do you want to take a look?"

"Go and take a look,"

Li Yi called Shi Niang over and said, "I'm going to show you something good."

Yu Shu secretly curled her lips. She was looking for an opportunity to be alone with A Lang.

West Wing of the Inner Courtyard,

The soap has been demolded from the bamboo tube mold and placed in round cake shapes on bamboo drying trays and placed under the porch to dry and soap.

"what is this?"

"Soap, here are ginger soap, brown sugar ginger soap, and mugwort soap, each with three different proportions."

Du Shiniang picked up a piece of ginger brown sugar out of curiosity. It was slightly dark red and smelled like ginger brown sugar.
"This is just like a bath bean. It can be used to cleanse your face and hands, as well as take a bath. It smells nice and has a good cleaning effect."

These soaps need to undergo saponification for about a month.
Although it may look a little rough when it is just removed from the mold, you can trim the edges and corners later, print patterns or words on the soap, and design a good package. If you add some good marketing advertising,

That would also give you a good chance to become famous in the bath bean market in Chang'an.
Not all bath beans are called soap.

This is the only one.

How can those small, loose bath beans be compared with Li Yi's? They are completely two different products.

After hearing Li Yi's story about the soaps, Du Shiniang admired him very much.

"When this batch of soap is ready, I'll give you the first one."

Li Yi was basically sure that the soap was successfully trial-produced. What he needed to do now was to study and adjust the formula and develop some new soaps.
Rosin, rose, pomegranate, jasmine, gardenia, honeysuckle, mint,
There are sea salt cleansing, honey care, bamboo charcoal cleansing, tea tree detoxifying, and even various medicated soaps.
It's a blue ocean.
Li Yi also took Shi Niang to visit the persimmon wine he was brewing.
"Can persimmons be used to make wine?"

"Yes, and the taste is very special. The tofu workshop is not so profitable now. I plan to open a persimmon wine workshop and a soap workshop next.

Rent a few shops in the East and West Markets, and then move to Chang'an."

The persimmons were fermenting, and just as he expected, everything was going smoothly.

His next plan was to send people to purchase a large amount of persimmons, start large-scale fermentation, and then make a large amount of wine.

Anyway, persimmons are cheap and making wine is not difficult.

"In addition to the eight-acre house in Pingkangfang in Chang'an, I also have a three-acre house in Liquanfang and Huaiyuanfang, and I bought fifty acres of land in Quchifang and Jinchangfang in the south of the city.

I have one thousand mu of land granted by His Majesty in Qizhou, Shenheyuan General Camp, and each of them has five hundred mu of meritorious land in Qianshuiyuan, Shangzhou, and Puzhou. I also have one hundred mu each in Sanyuan County and Duqu Guabao, and fifty mu in Luojiabao.
Wuji Academy also has 300 acres of school land.
There were also more than twenty slaves, a dozen or so livestock, more than a hundred taels of gold, a thousand pieces of silk, several hundred dan of grain, and a tofu skin workshop.

Du Shiniang laughed and said, "Why are you telling me this?"

"Let me be honest with you,"

(End of this chapter)