in the Northern Song Dynasty, there was an old man named Cheng Dagui in Fenzhou Prefecture.
Cheng Dagui is in his forties, honest and not good at speaking. When he was young, he followed his second uncle to go to other places to go to business and earned a lot of money.
Later, when he was about to get married, he accidentally fell seriously ill. It took several years to cure the disease and even suffered a hidden illness. He had very little money left. Because of this, he is still alone.
Because he has a good personality and is very enthusiastic. Although he is old, there are still people who are willing to match him, and there are women who are willing to marry him.
However, after Cheng Dagui found out, he refused all the matters about the matchmaking, so that no one talked about it in front of him again.
In fact, Cheng Dagui didn’t want to get married, but he already had someone else in his heart.
There is a man named Cheng Xingyou in the same village. He had a wife a few years ago and was very beautiful. Everyone in the village praised their family for marrying a good wife.
Cheng Dagui also took a look. He also felt that some of Cheng Xing's wives looked really good, but he looked at Cheng Xingyou next to him and couldn't help but shook his head and sighed as a pity, because Cheng Xingyou was indeed not worthy of the girl.
Cheng Xingyou's father was a businessman. When he was young, Cheng Dagui also did business with him. Later, the two separated, and Cheng's father's business was getting better and better, and he saved a lot of family business for his son.
However, about seven years ago, Cheng's father passed away when he was ill. The Cheng family handed over all the business to outsiders and returned to Cheng's village to live.
. Cheng Xingyou studied for a few years before and met many playboys in the city. He learned a lot of bad habits from them, so that the Cheng family's family business was ruined very quickly.
The Cheng family is not as rich as it used to be, but in this remote Chengjia Village, the conditions are pretty good.
Cheng Xingyou has no ability and no serious business. It can be said that he just relies on his previous family property to make a living. This time he got married, I heard that he also spent a lot of money.
Cheng Xingyou's wife is named Cao Qiaoer. I heard that the Cao family was also a wealthy family in the past, and Cao Qiaoer was the beloved daughter of the Cao family. However, after the Cao family was defeated, Cao Qiaoer and Cao's mother passed away one after another. Cao Qiaoer could only live in her aunt's house temporarily. When she was married, a matchmaker went to propose marriage, and her aunt married her here.
Cao Qiao'er thought it was her husband who was carefully selected by her aunt, but a few days before her marriage, she accidentally overhearded her conversation with her cousin, and realized that it was the Cheng family who gave her twenty taels of silver before she married her.
After Cao Qiaoer came to the Cheng family, the Cheng family was also very good at treating him, but after a few years, Cao Qiaoer's belly has not moved. In addition, Cheng Xingyou often plays with her outside, so she gradually doesn't dare to be interested in her, which leads to her status in the Cheng family getting lower and lower.
Later, the Cheng family asked Cheng Dagui to help their family manage their business, and the Cheng family's movements gradually became more frequent. After learning about Cao Qiaoer's situation, he secretly asked her to ask her to give it a try, and maybe she would get pregnant soon.
, and Cao Qiaoer sighed and replied, "Uncle Cheng, it's not that I don't want to try, but Xingyou's mind is not on me. How can I get pregnant if this continues?"
This made Cheng Dagui feel embarrassed. He didn't care much about the couple's affairs, and he could only persuade the boy of the Cheng family as an elder. As for whether he would listen, he couldn't control it.
Although Cheng Dagui didn't help her, Cao Qiaoer still thanked Cheng Dagui. After that, the relationship between the two became much closer, and Cheng Dagui also said some good things for her in the Cheng family many times.
Originally, Cheng Dagui felt that when Cheng Xingyou's boy grew older, he would be able to read his wife's goodbye and have a child. But unexpectedly, something happened to Cheng Xingyou at this time.
In the evening of that day, Cheng Dagui had already returned home when he suddenly heard someone knocking outside the door. When he went out, he found that it was Atian, a servant of the Cheng family.
He was panicked and said that something happened to the Cheng family and wanted to invite him to come over. After hearing this, Cheng Dagui followed him to the Cheng family without saying a word.
As soon as Cheng Dagui entered the door, he saw that the Cheng family was in a panic and ran around in a hurry, and the doctor was in and out of the yard. He stopped a servant and asked him what had happened?
The man replied, "Young Master Cheng offended someone and was beaten half to death by someone. Now he is asking the doctor to come over to treat him!"
Cheng Dagui got a rough idea of the situation. He walked to Cheng Xingyou's room and saw him lying on the bed covered in wounds, while Cao Qiaoer and Cheng's mother were both staying aside to take care of him.
Chen's mother had tears in her eyes, and she scolded her son for causing trouble when she went out. She didn't listen to what she said, and asked him again who was the one who hit him? If they dare to do this, they will definitely not bypass the man easily.
Cheng Xingyou gritted his teeth and said hoarsely: "That person is Mr. Zhao's son. He bullies me because he has too many people. Mom, you must let me out of anger!" When Cheng's mother heard this, her heart was already cold. Who doesn't know that Mr. Zhao's family is not so easy to mess with. If she offended them, she can only take care of her.
While she was calling the doctor to come over to see her son, she sent someone to find out what the reason was. Cheng Dagui was also busy with it and did not leave the Cheng family until midnight.
The next day, as soon as Cheng Dagui arrived at the Cheng family, another group of people also came here. When Cheng Dagui met them, he asked who they were?
The man standing in front replied, "Are you from the Cheng family? We are from Mr. Zhao in the city. Today, we come to check Mr. Cheng's injuries."
It turned out that Mr. Zhao heard that his son had caused trouble outside and was afraid of encountering trouble. Today, he specially asked someone to come to compensate him. However, neither the Zhao family nor the son came.
Cheng Dagui welcomed them in. They expressed their intentions after seeing Cheng's mother.
One of them took out a box and opened it in front of everyone. It contained more than ten taels of silver. In addition, they also brought some medicinal materials, saying that they were to replenish Mr. Cheng's body, just pretended that this was an apology to Mr. Cheng, and hoped that the Cheng family would not care about this matter anymore.
Cheng's mother had heard someone say yesterday that her son was wrong first and wanted to steal a girl from Mr. Zhao's hands. Then the two of them started to fight, and that girl was just a fair woman.
Cheng's mother thought it was difficult to tell, and Zhao Yuanwai and others could not afford to offend him. Therefore, she saw that although her son was seriously injured, she would have been able to recover for a while, so she gave him a gift from the Zhao family and agreed not to mention this matter in the future.
Cheng Xingyou's injury has been recuperating for more than half a month before he has improved a little. During this period, Cao Qiaoer has been taking care of him, and the relationship between the two is closer than before.
However, this kind of life did not take long, and an accident changed Cao Qiaoer's fate again.
On this day, Cheng didn't know where to get a ginseng, saying that eating it would be of great benefit to the body, so he asked someone to cook it and give it to his son for taking it.
Cao Qiaoer felt that this ginseng soup seemed to be a little wrong. She didn't drink it like this normally, but after all, it was sent by Cheng's family, so Cao Qiaoer didn't have any more doubts.
She brought it to her husband, watched him drink the ginseng soup, and then began to work hard on her own business.
, Cheng Dagui happened to have something to look for Mr. Cheng today. He walked to the room and saw Cheng Xingyou lying on the ground. When he went over and saw that Cheng Xingyou was unconscious.
Cheng Dagui quickly called for someone, and Cheng and Cao Qiaoer also rushed over. Not many times the doctor also came. However, after the doctor arrived, he saw that Mr. Cheng's face turned black, and then he looked at his weak pulse, which was obviously a sign of poisoning.
He asked everyone if he had ever given Mr. Cheng what things he shouldn't take. Cao Qiaoer quickly said that his mother-in-law brought a bowl of ginseng soup and
Cheng also quickly asked someone to bring the remaining half of the ginseng. As a result, the doctor could see at a glance that is not ginseng at all, but a poison that looks very similar to ginseng is called Shanglu .
He asked Cheng who gave her this thing, but Cheng's mind was blank after hearing it and could not say anything.
Because Cheng Xingyou had not recovered from his injury and was poisoned, he passed away that night. Cheng Dagui sighed and thought that the Cheng family had been too unlucky recently.
The person given to Cheng's ginseng was not found by Cheng's family, and he had never seen that person. He was the Cheng family who secretly met, and Cheng lost his beloved son and could not find anyone to blame him, so he put the blame on Cao Qiaoer.
Cao Qiaoer cried all day long, and she blamed herself for her husband's death and didn't eat anything for several days. Old Man Cheng advised her to eat something, but she also said that she was not hungry. Old Man Cheng has been helping the Cheng family with the funeral during this period.
When the matter was handled, the Cheng family was now the only one left in the huge Cheng family.
In fact, Cheng also has a son. Her other son was given to someone else when she was very young. Because the Cheng family lived a very difficult life at that time, this was the worst solution for the sake of making a living. And I heard that now, her son is now doing business in Cangzhou city.
Now, she wants to rely on her youngest son and prepare to sell her old house here and move to Cangzhou to live. However, she doesn't want to bring this daughter-in-law with her.
Cheng was about to find an excuse to drive her out of the house, but someone came to visit her and said she was willing to spend twenty taels of silver to ask Cao Qiaoer to be a maid in their mansion.
Cheng thought, no one would find a woman who had married as a maid, but she thought she would not lose. was originally a that he had bought back for twenty taels of silver, so she agreed immediately.
When Cheng Dagui rushed to the Cheng family, he saw Cao Qiaoer crying red. After hearing about this from her, he immediately went to Cheng's argument and refused to let her sell Cao Qiaoer to someone else's house as a maid.
Cheng immediately cursed, "She is my daughter-in-law, not your daughter-in-law. Why do you care about so many idiots?"
Cheng Dagui advised him kindly: "Madam Cheng, your Xingyou has just left for a while. Logically speaking, this Miss Cao has to stay with him for three years. How can you let her go to another mansion to be a maid!"
"And you don't know their purpose, it's just to find an excuse to bring her to the mansion. I'm not thinking about it, and let her be a concubine."
Cheng was a little impatient and quickly interrupted him: "I can't care about so much, I'm going to Cangzhou tomorrow. I'm going to go to Cangzhou."
Cheng was a little impatient and quickly interrupted him: "I can't care about so much. I'm going to Cangzhou tomorrow. The city went to my youngest son, and I sold this old house. She stayed here and had no place to go! "
Cheng Dagui was even more angry after hearing this and firmly disagreed with Cheng selling her to another mansion. Finally, the two of them started arguing. Cheng scolded angrily: "Old Man Cheng, aren't you just thinking about my daughter-in-law? If you can take out twenty taels of silver, I will sell her to you. If you can't take out the silver, shut up and get out!"
Cheng Dagui was also stunned by her and shouted at her: "Miss Cao has been serving your house for several years. Isn't even twenty taels of silver worth?"
The two of them were quarreling, and more and more people came to watch. Everyone pointed at Cheng.
However, Cheng didn't care what outsiders said at all. Anyway, she was leaving here tomorrow, so only Cao Qiaoer kept hiding in the room and covering her face and crying.
Cheng Dagui was so angry that he agreed to Cheng that he would buy Cao Qiaoer with twenty taels of silver. Then he went home to get the silver and handed it to Cheng in front of everyone.
Cheng took the money and nodded with satisfaction. She said that her daughter-in-law would follow him in the future and let him take good care of her.
Cheng Da came to Cao Qiaoer's house with a noble face.
Cao Qiaoer could hear everything outside in the house. She knew that Old Man Cheng did this to help him save the situation, and also caused him to lose twenty taels of silver. This might be all his savings.
Cheng Dagui said he wanted to take her away from here, but Cao Qiaoer did not object. She packed up her clothes and jewelry and left the Cheng family with him.
And the next day, those people from yesterday came to pick people up, and Cheng returned the twenty taels of silver to them, saying that the person had been bought by others.
The man was full of anger and said that Cheng actually dared to lie to them. He also said that if she didn't hand over the person today, she wouldn't want to leave.
Cheng also said angrily: "If you say it, no one is here anymore. If you don't believe it, you can ask others!"
Cheng had a dispute with the man, and As a result, the man made a mistake in his mouth and said that he had missed his identity. They turned out to be the person sent by the Zhao family . It was the young master of the Zhao family who first injured Cheng Xingyou, which caused the things that happened later!
After learning about the identities of those people, Cheng was even more angry and scolded them one by one. Seeing this, the people had to leave in a hurry.
Not long after, the carriage hired by Cheng had arrived. She brought all her luggage and took the carriage to Cangzhou.
When Cao Qiaoer learned that her mother-in-law had left, she even sold the old house by her, she felt even more sad. Cheng Dagui had to express comfort.
Later, Cao Qiaoer lived in Cheng Dagui's home, and Cheng Dagui couldn't stay at home all the time, so he started going out to start a business again.
Days have passed day by day. Although Cao Qiaoer is not comfortable here at the Cheng family, she is relatively stable. Old Man Cheng treats her sincerely and respects her, and she also enjoys this kind of life.
However, this kind of life didn't take long, and Old Man Cheng encountered another trouble.
Cheng Dagui's recent business is getting better and better. He earned more money in a month than in the previous six months, so he was naturally very happy.
When he got home, he told Cao Qiaoer about this and said that he would pay Cao Qiaoer every month from now on.
Cao Qiaoer was unwilling to accept it and said that he spent twenty taels of silver to rescue her from Cheng's hands. How could he ask for his wages again? As long as he could allow himself to continue living here, he would be very content.
Seeing that she insisted on not accepting, Cheng Dagui had to give up, but he still gave her some more silver to buy groceries.
And on that day, when Cheng Dagui finished his work, he bought Cao Qiaoer a hairpin when he was passing by the jewelry shop and prepared to give it to her. As a result, I met a group of beggars again halfway through.
He saw beggars squatting on the roadside, and one of the beggars was lying on the ground. He stepped forward and asked the reason. It turned out that the beggar was infected with the cold, but he couldn't afford to ask the doctor to see him.
Seeing that the beggar was very ill, he would not last for three days without taking the medicine, so he had to take out the remaining silver on him and ask him to go to the pharmacy to get medicine. He also said that if there was no place to decoct the medicine, he could go where he could go.
The beggars Lian En metabolized the money, accepted the money, and asked about his family's location. Cheng Dagui said that he was in Chengjia Village not far from here. You will know when you ask that.
After finishing these things, it was already dark when Cheng Dagui returned home.
After he got home, he thought that Cao Qiaoer should have prepared food and waited for him at this time. However, he looked at the kitchen and found that Cao Qiaoer did not cook today. Then he felt something seemed wrong in the yard today.
He called Cao Qiaoer's name a few times, and heard Cao Qiaoer responding in the room, and then he walked in without thinking much.
Because the house was very dark, Cheng Dagui could only see Cao Qiaoer's figure. He couldn't see her clearly, so he asked her why she didn't light the lights so late.
Cao Qiaoer responded, "The lamp oil is gone, I haven't come yet, why are you coming back so late today?"
Cheng Dagui didn't doubt anything when he heard her say this, saying that he was delayed for a while on the road. Then he took two steps forward and wanted to give her the hairpin in his hand.
And Cao Qiaoer suddenly said: "Dagui, have you not paid this month's salary yet?"
Cheng Dagui was stunned and thought that he said he wanted to give Cao Qiaoer a salary yesterday, but Cao Qiaoer refused himself. Why did he ask him for it again today? Moreover, she usually calls herself Uncle Cheng, but never calls her own name.
Cheng Dagui noticed something was wrong. He nodded calmly, saying that he had forgotten and would give her the monthly salary immediately.
He turned around and wanted to leave, but suddenly he saw a leg exposed under the table. Then he quickly wanted to run away, but the door behind him was closed by someone.
At this time, the room was pitch black, and the voice of a strange man was still ringing in his ears: "Cheng Dagui, die obediently!"
Cheng Dagui heard someone leaning over from behind and hurriedly flashed to the side. He also heard Cao Qiaoer making a hesitant voice. It was obvious that Cao Qiaoer's mouth was covered.
He knew that those people came for him and would not hurt Cao Qiaoer, so he just wanted to run for his own life. The sound of the knife air breaking through the air in the house was already heard in my ears.
The man failed to hit the knife and asked his companions to light the lights quickly. After all, this is Cheng Dagui's own home, and he is already familiar with the arrangements in the house.
While the man was lighting the light, he quickly picked up a stick and pierced the window, jumped out of the window. Seeing this, the thief inside the house quickly opened the door to chase.
Cheng Dagui didn't expect that there was actually a person in the yard. When the man saw Cheng Dagui running out of the house, he was stunned. After coming to his senses, he began to approach him with a knife.
Cheng Dagui thought that he had finished the game. He didn't remember when he offended these people, nor did he know why they came to him. Now that he was not prepared, how could he escape from them?
He waved the stick in his hand to resist it while running out of the yard. The man saw the opportunity and slashed his leg with a knife. Fortunately, the wound was not deep, but it was just a layer of skin.
Cheng Dagui was already desperate. Even if he wanted to call someone to help him, no one would come out at this time.
However, at this moment, he suddenly heard footsteps outside, and someone knocked on the door and asked, "Are Brother Cheng here?"
Cheng Dagui heard the voices of those beggars, and quickly shouted, "I'm here, there are thieves in the house, come in and help me!"
The gate was pushed open, and seven or eight beggars walked into the yard, and indeed saw three men in black covered in heads in the yard.
When the beggars saw Cheng Dagui was injured, they picked up shovels, wooden sticks and other farm tools and greeted the people.
And those people didn't expect anyone to come, and even if they wanted to run away, it was too late.
They were soon subdued by beggars, helped Cheng Dagui up from the ground, and the next day, they escorted the thieves to the yamen.
Later, after being interrogated by the county magistrate, these people were actually servants in Zhao Yuanwai's mansion. They came to deal with Cheng Dagui after listening to Mr. Zhao's words.
It turns out that the things in the Cheng family were not coincidences, but carefully planned by Mr. Zhao. The reason why he did this was because he fell in love with Cao Qiaoer. It was half a year ago when Cheng Xingyou and Cao Qiaoer went to the temple fair and encountered what happened to him.
After this, Mr. Zhao was arrested and imprisoned. In order to protect Cao Qiaoer, Cheng Dagui sold his old house and moved to a town where no one knew the two.
Cao Qiaoer also felt Cheng Dagui's sincerity for her. She later married Cheng Dagui. A few years later, the two gave birth to a pair of children and lived a peaceful life thereafter.
Statement: This story is a fictional folk story, mostly from strange stories, legends, novels, operas, legends, etc. The author’s original intention is to inherit the ancient Chinese folk culture. Do not believe in authenticity, nor do you have feudal superstitions!
All pictures in the article are from the Internet. If you have any copyright issues, please contact the author to delete it!
