During the Ming Dynasty, there was a rich merchant named Xue Zhi in Huaining County, Anqing Province, and the family had been opening silk cloth villages for several generations, so they accumulated ten thousand family wealth and became one of the largest households in Huaining County.
Since the death of his wife, Xue Zhi has been busy with business and has not continued, so he is still alone at the age of forty.
When Xue Zhi reached middle age, he began to be a little anxious, even though he was rich and earned money that he could not spend for several lifetimes. But after a hundred years, he is still dust and earth, who will inherit his family business?
Thinking of this, Xue Zhi began to put down his business and entrusted the cloth village and the shop to His most trusted Ma Liu to take care of.
Ma Liu fled to Huaining County when he was six years old and was rescued by Xue Zhi when he was about to starve to death. His real name was Ma Monkey Er, and Xue Zhi felt that this name was not good, so he named him Ma Liu.
Since Xue Zhi recognized Ma Liu as his son, his business was also booming, and he later married Wang Lan, the daughter of a rich man who was right in the door, but unfortunately his wife died of illness the year after she married.
Ma Liu followed Xue Zhi over the years, not only learned to read and read, but also had a great talent for doing business.
Therefore, Xue Zhi entrusted the family business to him, and he was very grateful in his heart, which showed that in the heart of the righteous father, he was a trusted relative of the other party.
Ma Liu did not live up to Xue Zhi's trust, he carefully took care of the family's business, every account was clearly remembered for his father to see, and there was not a single mistake in all these years.
With Xue Zhi, who has free kung fu, the matchmaker finds a family affair for himself. The other party's name is Liu Yan, is a country woman, although the family is poor, but the person is beautiful, at a glance was Xue Zhixiang.
At that time, the marriage was the fate of the parents, as long as enough dowry was given, the woman's father agreed, and she could easily marry the daughter-in-law home.
Xue Zhi did not lack money the most, so he prepared a generous dowry and married Liu Yan into the family with beautiful scenery.
Liu Yan is a virtuous woman, who used to suffer hardships before, and was always busy after marrying into the Xue family, which made Xue Zhi very helpless, so he had to let him go to Buzhuang to help take care of business.
What surprised Xue Zhi was that his wife had a talent for business, especially a good account, as long as she handled the project, she would never forget it.
Until the next year, Lang Zhong diagnosed that Liu Yan was pregnant, and Xue Zhi never let her worry about it anymore. Liu Yan was not happy in her heart, but after all, this family was Xue Zhi's master.
After the last few discussions, Xue Zhi promised that after the birth of the child, he would take half of the business of Buzhuang to his wife to be responsible, and Liu Yan was good at giving up, so she looked forward to the birth of the child every day.
Pregnant in October, the child was finally born, and Liu Yan added a big fat boy to the Xue family. Xue Zhi was overjoyed and named his son Xue Tianci, which means that he was given by heaven.
After the child was born, Liu Yan found her husband Xue Zhi and said, "The old man promised to entrust half of the business of Buzhuang to me, and he will not forget it, right?"
Xue Zhi smiled and said, "Madam, how can I forget?" The business in this family will not all be handed over to you and your son in the future, but you have just given birth to a child now, and your body is very weak, and I am worried that you will not be able to eat. ”
"Lord, I come from a poor family, I am used to playing small, you let me work, my body is getting better quickly, if I don't do anything at home, I will be idle and sick." Liu Yan said.
Xue Zhi smiled bitterly helplessly and immediately agreed to his wife's suggestion. He called Yizi Ma Liu to his side and instructed, "Madame is born busy, she wants to learn to take care of the business of The Cloth Village, you share some for her to take care of, and if you don't do well, you can help her more."
"The righteous father is assured that I will assist the righteous mother in taking care of the cloth village." Ma Liu made a very crisp statement.
Xue Zhi knew that the other party had misunderstood his own meaning, so he said, "Child, the righteous father knows that you have paid for Buzhuang over the years, no matter when, I will not treat you badly."
Ma Liu hurriedly said, "Father Yi is serious, Ma Liu's life was all picked up by you, and you know what to do."
Xue Zhilao came to have a son, and he was bent on cultivating his son at home, enjoying the joy of heaven, and rarely asked about the business of Buzhuang.
Since Liu Yan took over the business of cloth village, she has made great adjustments to the operation of cloth village, in order to reduce costs, she deducts wages, the cloth is shoddy, and the business of Xue Jia Cloth Village is not as good as a day.
On this day, Ma Liu found Xue Zhi and said, "Father Yi, the business of Buzhuang can no longer continue like this, and sooner or later it will be finished."
Although Xue Zhi had not inquired about Buzhuang's business over the years, he also knew some insider information. He knew that his wife and Ma Liu had a big disagreement over the operation of The Cloth Village, and Ma Liu did not approve of the multiple business strategies proposed by Liu Yan.
However, Xue Zhi did not have time to ask about these, he only looked at the results, and the accounts that his wife gave him also looked at, not only no problem, but also the profit doubled several times than before.
"Righteous Father, you said before that doing business is based on honesty, but now..." Ma Liu wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Liu Yan, who walked in.
"Ma Liu, I know what kind of heart you have, you are afraid that Heaven will grow up to inherit the old master's family property, so..." Liu Yan said sneeringly.
"Enough!" Xue Zhi sighed loudly, then looked at Ma Liu and said, "Sixth Son, when I rescued you, taught you to read and write, and entrusted the business of Buzhuang to you to take care of, how do you think your righteous father treated you?"
"The righteous Father treats me with grace like a mountain!" Ma Liu said without hesitation.
"Well, after all these years of saddleing up for Xue Jiabuzhuang, you have worked tirelessly, as if you had repaid my kindness." Today I will give you a sum of money, you hand over all the cloth business you are responsible for, and from now on you and the Xue family do not owe each other! Xue Zhi sighed and said.
Xue Zhi knew in his heart that this kind of thing should be constantly affected by its chaos, and when Xue Tianci grew up, there would be more contradictions, but it was better to break it clearly now.
"Righteous Father, I didn't think about dividing up the Xue family's family property, you can't do this!" Ma Liu threw himself on his knees and cried.
"Well, I've decided on this, and Hugh will talk about it." Xue Zhi said fiercely.
"Take the money and go, the Xue family will have nothing to do with you in the future." Liu Yan said coldly.
Ma Liu walked up to Xue Zhi and knelt down three times and prostrated his head three times before leaving xue's house, saying, "Father Yi, I don't want your money, and you will definitely regret it."
After Ma Liu left, Xue JiaBuzhuang's business was entrusted to Liu Yan, and Xue Zhi no longer interfered in anything in Buzhuang.
Xue Zhi, who has always had a son, is very fond of his son, and has been pampered since he was a child, and the other party will be satisfied with anything he wants.
In the third year of Ma Liu's departure, something happened to Xue Jiazhuang, because of the quality of the cloth, all the merchants asked for returns, at the same time, Xue Jia Buzhuang also had to bear huge compensation.
Liu Yan is a treasurer who is halfway out of the house, where she has seen such a big change in the business field, so she swept away the money on the account and ran away.
Xue Zhi had been taking care of business for a long time, and once again taking over such a mess, he was so busy that even his own son could not take care of it.
Later, Xue Zhi relied on his experience in the old way and the connections of the business, and finally sold a lot of shops to survive this difficult time without any danger.
However, it was also because of his own negligence that his son Xue Tianci fell ill.
In order to take care of his son, Xue Zhi sold the cloth village, but his son's illness dragged on for too long, and many Langzhong were helpless.
Xue Zhi was old, and now his wife had run away without a trace, and there was only this one son around him, and he wanted to do everything he could to cure his son's illness.
Although the Xue family has money, but it has experienced several changes, and now it has long lost its former glory, and many people have secretly left the Xue family.
In order to treat his son's illness, Xue Zhi visited famous doctors everywhere and spent a lot of money to buy precious medicinal materials, only to find out that they were all fake.
Fortunately, in the end, Xue Tianci's illness slowly improved, but at this time, the Xue family was not as good as before, and the family's savings were used up.
In order to make a living, the father and son had to sell their ancestral house to pay off their debts, and the remaining money built a cottage in the countryside, but they could not afford to buy even two acres of thin land.
In order to support his son, Xue Zhi had to go to the street to beg, and every time he got food, he would leave the best for his son and then eat some of the rest himself.
Although such a day is difficult, Xue Zhi also understands after experiencing many things that life has ups and downs, and only flesh and blood relatives are inseparable.
In the blink of an eye, more than ten years had passed, and Xue Tianci had also grown into an adult. Under the cultivation of Xue Zhi in these years, Xue Tianci passed the Xiucai examination and was about to enter the city to take the township examination.
If Xue Tianci can win the township test this time, it will be glorious xue family lintel, after all, the Xue family has been in business for generations, and has not yet produced a single official.
On this day, Xue Zhi begged home from outside, and when he was on the road, he saw Liu Fu from the village running over and shouting: "Old Man Xue, congratulations, your son has passed the exam."
Xue Zhi quickly returned home to wait, and after a while a few people from the township came in and began to smash things, and Xue Zhile laughed and said, "Smash well, smash well, my old Xue family can make a comeback."
These people who were smashing things were from the township who came to report the letter, and after they finished smashing, they congratulated: "Old Master Xue, congratulations on your son's high school lifting."
Xue Zhi touched his pocket, handed over a few pieces of silver he had collected today, and bowed his hand, saying, "Don't be too careful, don't be too little, please invite your brothers to drink."
The messenger said a few words of compliment, although this happy money was not much, but they also knew the situation of the Xue family, and it was not easy for Xue Zhi to raise a child alone in these years.
Some people asked, since Xue Tianci has passed the examination, what does it mean that these messengers enter the door and smash things? Could it be that someone was jealous of revenge, so they instructed people to come and smash it?
Naturally not, at that time there was a strange phenomenon, if someone in the township was admitted to the examination, the messenger would go into the house, look at things and smash, any windows, tables and chairs and the like will be smashed.
This is an act of flattery by people, which is called a makeover.
There is a saying that goes, "The old don't go and the new doesn't come."
Only after the old things are smashed will the rich people have the opportunity to seduce you and quickly get you a new set.
Sure enough, it didn't take long for someone to send all kinds of furniture, and someone to send some silver for Xue Zhi to accept.
Xue Zhi was so happy that he couldn't keep his mouth shut this day, and even some people wanted to come over to the Xue family as servants, but Xue Zhi refused. After all, one more servant would have one more mouth to eat, and with the Xue family's current conditions, where could they afford to raise any servants?
Xue Tianci was invited to drink by some of his classmates during the day, and only when he returned home drunk at night, he saw a shabby father, remembering what his friends said today, and his heart felt uncomfortable.
Those friends said that the Xue family used to be one of the largest families in Huaining County, and as a result, they were all defeated by Xue Zhi, otherwise with Xue Tianqi's talent and the Xue family's financial resources, they would definitely be in the official arena in the future, and maybe they could still be the prime minister of the dynasty!
The speaker had no intention, the listener was intentional, and after Xue Tianci learned about the Xue family's past, his heart was very unwilling, and he felt that his future had been ruined by the father of the loser.
Now that he is a man in high school, others are laughing at the fact that he has a beggar father, how will he enter the DPRK and become an official in the future, won't he let those colleagues see the joke?
Thinking of this, Xue Tianci drank the wine one by one, and his heart was always blocked, and he hated his father even more.
After the banquet, Xue Tianci met a woman under the restaurant, who claimed to be his mother Liu Yan, who was now Zhang Xianling's second wife.
Liu Yan told her son that she had asked Zhang Xianling to give Xue Tianzhi a position in the county, but there was a condition, that is, to break off relations with Xue Zhi and recognize Zhang Xianling as a righteous father.
Xue Tianci was a little hesitant to hear this condition, but his heart was very eager to be an official, and if he approved Zhang Xianling as his father, then he would have a patron in the future. What's more, Liu Yan is his biological mother, and now that the other party is married to Zhang Xianling, it is reasonable to call a righteous father.
At this moment, Xue Zhi still didn't know that his son had thought so much in his heart, so he pointed to the furniture sent by others and said with a relieved face: "My son has a chance, you see, these are all sent by them."
Xue Tianci was feeling angry, and when he saw his father's smiling face as a businessman, he roared, "Who is your son, you get me out, I don't have a father like you."
When Xue Zhi heard what his son said, he was suddenly confused, and he looked at the other party in a daze and asked, "Child, you have won the lift, why don't you even recognize me?" I'm your daddy, and I've worked hard to pull you up. ”
Xue Tianci asked angrily, "My father is the Xue family in the former county, not a beggar, and I don't have a father like you who is disgraceful."
Xue Zhi was going to be strong all his life, he had seen all kinds of big winds and waves, those most difficult days had survived, no matter how hard life was, his brow did not wrinkle.
But at this moment, tears swirled in his eyes, and he was so sad. Unexpectedly, he had devoted all his efforts to cultivating an excellent son, but now he refused to recognize him as a father, and he wanted to drive him out of the house.
"You don't go, I go, and from now on, we don't have any relationship anymore!" Xue Tianci was going to go out after he said it.
Xue Zhiyi grabbed the other party and said, "You are now a lifter, everything in this family is given to you by them, or I will go, I am a beggar, I can live anywhere."
Xue Zhi finished speaking and picked up his begging bowl and walked outside the door, now he has passed the age of flower armor, his hair is gray, his face is wrinkled, and he seems to be able to blow down with a gust of wind when he walks.
When he went out, Xue Tianci threw out all his clothes, and then the door was closed.
Xue Zhi stood in the cold night wind, looking at his house, in a daze for a long time, remembering the scene when he was holding his son when he was a child.
In this way, he slept all night in the grass hut of the yard, and when it was almost dawn, he staggered away with his slumped body. He glanced back at the family house, knowing in his heart that maybe he would never come back.
After Xue Zhi left home, he came to his old friend and borrowed five or two pieces of silver. These people are all old friends of Xue Zhi before, and in the past, Xue Zhi did not open his mouth to them when he was in distress, and now he will naturally not be stingy when he opens his mouth.
He didn't borrow silver for any comeback, after all, he was old and tossed all his life and didn't want to live a life of great wealth.
Since his own son would not let him enter the house, he also had a killer, that is, Ma Liu, the righteous son who was driven away by him that year.
Although there was no contact over the years, he still paid attention to Ma Liu's news, and after Ma Liu left the Xue family that year, he also secretly entrusted some business to take more care of.
In fact, the reason why he drove away Ma Liu in the first place was also because of some unavoidable hardships.
Xue Jia Bu Zhuang was built by the Xue family for generations, and he could not have broken xue jia bu zhuang in his own hands.
However, he was old and had more than enough energy, so he had to hand over the cloth village to his wife and Ma Liu to take care of. His wife's deeds are all in his eyes, but for the sake of family harmony, he always turns a blind eye.
However, doing business is not honest, sooner or later it will be finished, so he thought of a golden cicada shelling strategy. He deliberately performed a drama with Ma Liu that the father and son were broken off, but in fact, he had already made the secret of the Zhan Dao Chen Cang, and transferred all the Xue family business to Ma Liu, who really took care of business.
Xue Zhi was old, but his heart was shrewd, in fact, he had already noticed that his wife had an affair with someone outside, but the man was Zhang Xianling, and he did not dare to offend.
Later, he always suspected that his son Xue Tianci was not his own child, but there was no evidence of this incident, but he knew that Liu Yan and Zhang Xianling had come to his family property.
He once privately found Ma Liu and said to him, "Child, I have always regarded you as my own, and you have the talent to do business, and if you hand over Xue JiaBu Zhuang to you, I will have no regrets even if I die."
When Ma Liu learned of his true thoughts, he was touched and did not know what to say, so he knelt down and swore: "Righteous Father, Liu'er has not been surnamed Xue in this life, but in Liu'er's heart, you are my biological father, and I will definitely carry forward Xue Jiabuzhuang."
Xue Zhi looked at Yizi Ma Liu with a relieved face, and at this moment, he felt that it didn't matter whether Xue Tianci was his own child or not.
As long as Xue Tianci is filial and kind in the future, the character of Ma Liu will naturally not treat Xue Tianci badly. If Xue Tianci was ungrateful, he could also return to the righteous son to raise his life.
After Ma Liu left the Xue family, with the secret help of Xue Zhi, he soon opened a cloth village in Qianshan County next door.
At this time, Xue Zhi contacted those old friends and asked them to cooperate with Ma Liu's Cloth Village, so Xue Jia Bu Zhuang was returned in large quantities at this time, which caught Liu Yan off guard.
What Xue Zhi did not expect was that as soon as the Xue family encountered difficulties, Liu Yan left the mess and ran away, but Xue Tianci left him.
Later, Xue Zhi closed the cloth village and sold his ancestral home, and Zhang Xianling took advantage of Xue Tianci's illness to swindle all his money by selling fake medicinal materials.
Xue Zhi had done business all his life, if he hadn't done it deliberately, how could he not even see such a slight trick?
He will calculate it, that is, when he is exhausted, the other party will not jump out again, and he has nothing, the biggest hole card is his son Xue Tianci.
Although Xue Zhi and Zhang Xianling have fought wits and courage over the years, their feelings for Xue Tianci are true, whether the other party is his own child or not, he treats him as a biological child and fulfills the responsibility of a father.
But the final result still disappointed him, it turned out that in the face of those fame and fortune, his father's love had become worthless, and the other party said that he abandoned it.
Ma Liu was settling accounts in the cloth village, and when he heard that his righteous father had come, he immediately knelt down at the door and greeted him: "Righteous father, the sixth son is welcome."
Xue Zhi looked at Ma Liu and asked, "Sixth Son, now that I have nothing to run to you, are you welcome?"
Ma Liu said, "Righteous Father, everything I have been given by you, how can I say that I have defected, you are going home?"
"Hahaha..." Xue Zhi laughed and said, "Yes, I finally went home."
Xue Zhi walked around Ma Liu's cloth village, looked at the ledger on the table, and asked, "I just saw you with a sad and bitter face, did you encounter difficulties?"
Speaking of serious matters, Ma Liu said with a serious expression: "Hefeng Silk Cloth Zhuang uses inferior materials and wants to crush us with price, and now we can't hold on any longer."
Xue Zhi knew that the other party said that he was feng silk cloth zhuang, and the ostensible treasurer was surnamed He, but in fact, the real owner was Zhang Xianling of Qianshan.
Na Liu Yan had woven cloth in Hefeng Silk Cloth Village, and probably at that time she had already gotten along with Zhang Xianling.
Zhang Xianling saw that Liu Yan was still beautiful and had a dexterous mind, so he arranged her to Xue Zhi's side, first, to steal Xue's cloth dyeing technology, and second, to crush Xue's cloth village.
As long as Xue's Cloth Village fell, the entire Anqing Province would be left with only the Hefeng Silk Cloth Village.
Zhang Xianling was scheming deeply, and indeed played a good calculation, but he underestimated too much the deep foundation behind the cloth village that the Xue family had operated for generations.
After seeing Xue Zhi listen to Ma Liu's report, he said without changing his face: "Hefeng Silk Cloth Zhuang is shoddy, and if you don't pay attention to honesty in business, it will inevitably not last long." Since they want to fight a price war, we will accompany him and inform all the shops that the Xue family fabrics will not be sold. ”
"Not for sale?" Ma Liu was stunned after listening to it, if they did not sell, many of their shops would be closed, and even many merchants would come to return the goods, so where did they have so many liquidity compensation?
Xue Zhi smiled and said, "You don't have to worry about money, I'll write a letter, and you'll go find the Wan treasurer of Chase Money."
Chase Qianzhuang is the largest money bank in Anqing Province, and if the other party is willing to borrow funds, it will naturally survive the difficulties. When Ma Liu took Xue Zhi's letter to find the Wan treasurer of Chase Qianzhuang, the other party said in a surprising tone: "I didn't expect that in the past few years, the owner finally remembered me."
When Ma Liu heard this, his eyes widened in disbelief and said, "This, this Chase Money House, yes, yes...".
Wan smiled and said, "That's right, the owner behind Chase Money House is the Xue family." Young Master Ma, you are too small to look at your righteous father, and the feng silk cloth village, you have not been put in the eyes of your righteous father at all. ”
Until this moment, he knew how deep his righteous father Xue Zhi's city government was, and while admiring it in his heart, he also felt extremely fortunate. He felt that no matter what others thought or did, as long as he did it with a clear conscience.
With the support of Chase Qianzhuang behind it, Hefeng Silk Cloth Zhuang had not yet waited for xue's cloth village to collapse, and it had already been spurned by the people.
The fabrics of Hefeng Silk Cloth Village were shoddy, and there would be a day when they would be discovered, so many of their shops were smashed, and overnight, Hefeng Silk Cloth Village closed all the shops.
Zhang Xianling also received the news that the imperial court sent Lord Chincha over, and soon his crimes of embezzling disaster money and favoritism and fraud would be discovered.
At this time, he thought of the last move, so he found Liu Yan and said, "Let your son go to Boss Xue to intercede, now only he can save our whole family."
After hearing this, Liu Yan cried, "Lord, I have already told Tianci the truth, and he and Xue Zhi have severed their relationship."
It turned out that Xue Tianci was not Xue Zhi's son, but the illegitimate son of Zhang Xianling and Liu Yan, and they left this last move in order to leave a way for themselves to live.
It's just that Liu Yan thought that the Xue family had fallen, and when she learned that her son had been raised in the examination, she knew that she finally had a dependency, and she would no longer have to look at the face of the Grand Madame in the Zhang family in the future.
So she concealed Zhang Xianling and told Xue Tianci the truth. After Xue Tianci learned the truth, although it was a little difficult to accept for a while, thinking of his future, he still chose to sever relations with the Xue family.
After Chincha came, Zhang Xianling's crimes were made public, and the Zhang family was implicated.
The only thing that made Zhang Xianling feel fortunate was that although Xue Tianci was his son, because he was a foreign surname, he saved a life, which was also counted as a root for the Zhang family.
A few years later, Xue Zhi called Ma Liu to him before he died, and he took out a box and handed it to the other party and said, "Child, in fact, you are my own son, I have never told you about this..."
Ma Liu was not surprised to hear the truth at this moment, in fact, he could feel his father's love for him over the years. It was only to exercise his strong will that his father had to let him go through these tribulations.
He took the box from his father's hand, and he knew very well in his heart that it contained the painstaking efforts of the Xue family for generations, in addition to many family properties, there was also a heavy responsibility, and this responsibility was to put the people of the world first, so that every poor people could eat and wear warm.
On this day, it was a cold winter, but the streets were very lively, and many people in the city were cheering, because they learned that Xue's Cloth Village had reopened again.
On the day of the opening of Xue's Cloth Village, all the poor people can drink a bowl of hot porridge for free and receive a cotton coat.
At this time, a thin figure among those beggars attracted Xue Liu's attention, and after he recognized the other party, he shouted: "Heavenly Gift, is it you?"
When the beggar heard this, he was so frightened that the porridge in his hand was overturned, and then he fled in panic.
Xue Tianci hid under a corner and cried bitterly, "Father, I'm sorry..."