A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 763
Ning Chun smiled and left, leaving only the beauty, Pipa and tea in the room.

Huaiyu was not surprised by such a scene.

"What's your name?"

"My name is A Liu,"

This girl's voice was soft, but unexpectedly pleasant. When Wu Huaiyu looked at her, he inexplicably thought of a word, Yangzhou Slim Horse.

Well, there should be no Yangzhou thin horses in this era, but this woman really looks like this.

"A Liu, please play a pipa for your husband."

Huaiyu nodded, closed his eyes and leaned back.

The beautiful lady began to play the pipa.

The pipa was the most famous musical instrument in the Tang Dynasty. Although it was introduced from the Western Regions during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the sound of the pipa was almost everywhere from the palace to the people, from cities to frontiers, and even from the secular world to temples.

The pipa is so popular that it naturally produces many famous pipa pop songs.

Huaiyu closed his eyes and only listened to a few times before he could already tell that the piece she was playing was Luyao, also called Liuyao. This is also a famous popular piece and a classic pipa piece in the Jiaofang.

This song is an accompaniment for women's soft dance. The dance is light and gentle, so the rhythm is slow and the melody is graceful and gentle. It is very beautiful when adapted into a pipa song.

Especially after a busy day, it feels wonderful to close your eyes and listen to this song.

Huaiyu's family had a famous pipa girl as his concubine, who was a top pipa player. He often listened to Pei's playing "Green waist" at home.

Huaiyu felt that A Liutan's green waist was not much worse than Pei's.

Listening to this song with your eyes closed, it feels like you are spacewalking through the sky.

When the music stopped, Huaiyu still felt the lingering sound.

"You were actually finger-playing the pipa just now?"

"Well, I learned the pipa from Aniang, and she taught me how to play fingerstyle."

Generally, pipa is played with plucked strings, and fingerstyle playing is rare. It is a new and non-mainstream playing method, and will be regarded as unpopular by the orthodox.
But A Liu used his hands to pluck, and the strength and speed of his plucking changed more freely.

"Can I see your pipa?"

Huaiyu looked at A Liudao who was holding the pipa upright.

Generally, the pipa is played horizontally.

A Liu handed the pipa to Huaiyu. It was obvious that it was a very good pipa, and it was very different from the common pipa in the north.

The simplicity and fortitude of the north was infected by the elegance and beauty of the south, and the strings of the instrument were replaced by silk and bamboo strings.

This string is made of silk. This kind of silk string has low tension and low volume. It is difficult to adapt to the plucking of the plectrum.
Moreover, playing with a huge plectrum cannot adapt to the requirements of fast, continuous, and changeable playing movements. Therefore, in order to make the silk-stringed pipa more flexible and comfortable, the fingerpicking technique was adopted.

In order to adapt to finger playing, the horizontal holding of the pipa was changed to a vertical holding.

The horizontal and diagonal hugs are more suitable for playing the piano immediately and playing with a plectrum.

"Where did you get this piano and this fingerpicking technique?"

"My grandma taught it to me."

Huaiyu knows pipa, and it is easy to open up the topic when chatting with her. Although Aliu looks a little cold, she is also very happy to talk about the lute. It can be seen that she is not only superb in piano skills, but also really loves the pipa.

After chatting for a long time, Huaiyu figured out that she was Ning Chun's family concubine, not Ning Chun's concubine, but a musician raised by the family. Wu Huaiyu's family also raised a whole class of such musicians. There are both singers, dancers, and musicians.

Basically, the rich and powerful families in Chang'an have their own support. These singers not only provide family entertainment, but also entertain guests.
This entertainment is not only a song and dance performance, but also tasks such as sleeping with guests.

Of course, if the master likes it, he may be lucky.
These people's status is inherently humble, and they only have the status of slaves in the mansion.

A Liu is indeed twenty-eight years old this year. She has been a maid of the Ning family since she was a child, and her teacher is also a musician of the Ning family. But it is said that she used to be from Luoyang, and even came from a famous family, but later she followed her family to Lingnan. In the end, he became a slave and has been working as a musician in the Ning family ever since.

A Liu learned pipa from her since she was a child, and her teacher personally made her pipa.

After chatting for a long time, Huaiyu saw that it was getting late and wanted to go back.

"My lord, please stay."

A Liu bit her lip lightly and said something. The girl's eyes were a little shy.
She plucked up the courage to tell Huaiyu that Ning Chun had given her to Wu Huaiyu, and then took out a slave contract.

Huaiyu originally thought that Ning Chun was just entertaining him with musical instruments, but he didn't expect that Ning Chun actually gave him away directly.

Moreover, A Liu just said that she had been studying piano with her teacher in the Ning family for 16 years, and she had never entertained guests. Even Ning Chun had not asked her to serve her.
Huaiyu looked at her again.

"Does your husband dislike A Liu?" A Liu's apricot eyes widened, and there was mist in them. It seemed that Wu Huaiyu didn't respond immediately, which made her feel ashamed and even inferior.

Huaiyu shook his head.

She seemed to have some joy in her eyes, then she took two steps forward and handed over the slave contract that bound her fate.

Wu Huaiyu has now adapted to the life of Tang people,

For example, he gradually came to understand and accept the behavior of raising servants at home and even giving concubines to others. Essentially, the servants and concubines were still bitches like slaves, and their status was no better than that of those in brothels. No matter how strong a woman is, she is still the same pathetic person.

When people in the Tang Dynasty socialized, they also liked to go to brothels to find prostitutes as companions. For those with higher status, there were also domestic troupes of performers. Scholars also liked to bring geishas with them when they traveled. They often bought them for redemption or gave them to each other. thing.

With Wu Huaiyu's current status, it is normal for Ning Chun to use family tricks to entertain and even give gifts.

He didn't reject it in his heart, it was all about socializing and entertaining.

Huaiyu sat down.
I made another pot of tea and said, "Sit down and chat later."

Huaiyu hoped to hear her talk about her family background. In fact, Aliu didn't know anything. She was very good-looking, but she was bought by the Ning family at the market, so she should actually be a child of the barbarian tribe, or It is also possible that her parents were actually Han Chinese, but were later abducted by barbarians and sent to barbaric lands.
Anyway, human trafficking in the barbarian tribe has always been very serious, and people are trafficked back and forth.

She was bought by the Ning family from the market at a very young age. Because she had musical talent since she was a child, she was always given to the pipa performer in the family troupe. As her talent was discovered, she became more and more valued. Over the past ten years, she has I have been learning singing and dancing instruments and have never done anything else.Because of her talent, it can be said that she is lucky among misfortunes.

But now, in the best years, Ning Chun used her whom he had cultivated for many years to entertain the most distinguished guest Wu Huaiyu, and directly gave her to her as a gift.

"Do you have no other relatives?"

"As long as I can remember, I have had no relatives. I have always followed my master since I was a child."

Her master was the woman who was exiled from the Central Plains to Lingnan and eventually became a prostitute.

"What's your teacher's name?"

A Liuqing frowned, "In the Ning family, everyone calls me Teacher Zuo Zuo."

"Left hand?"

"Well, our music class all respects the teacher as the musician, but outsiders often call the teacher Dugu Zuozhou, the Buddhist temple musician."

Dugu is her teacher's surname, but the left hand is obviously a name. Musician of the Buddhist Temple should be an honorific title given by the music world.

And no one knows her real name. Even Anu only heard that the teacher seemed to come from a famous family in the Central Plains, a powerful family.

Anu is willing to follow Wu Huaiyu. She has been psychologically prepared for her future. Being given to Wu Huaiyu is actually an unexpected good result for her. After all, Wu Huaiyu is young, in a high position and looks good. , what’s even more rare is to know pipa,
A friend is hard to find.

"If you want, I can speak to Ning Gong and ask your teacher, Dugu Zuozuo, to come with you."

Aliu was surprised, "Is it really possible?"

"Um,"

Huaiyu said that he could do it naturally. He went to Ning Chun and gave Ning Chun a jar of good Lingxi spring wine and a box of top-quality Snow Valley dragon buds.

Although Ning Chun also likes his musician Dugu Zuozuo, after all, he is just a pipa musician. He is even willing to give it to the most beautiful lady A Liu, so why should an old musician woman who has gone through many vicissitudes of life not want to part with him.

It just so happened that this musician had always been with the music troupe. He had planned to use the music troupe to entertain Huaiyu. He had even prepared A Liu as a gift to Huaiyu.

He directly called Dugu Zuozuo, and then gave her slave contract to Huaiyu. From now on, she would become a musician of the Wu family.

Dugu Zuosheng must be fifty years old. He has gray hair and is very old. Although his clothes are simple, he feels very elegant, and he looks like a person with a lot of stories.

She was extremely calm about being given Wu Huaiyu.

Say goodbye to Ning Chun and return to his residence.

Wu Huaiyu took out the two slave contracts.
"Tomorrow I will have someone register you at the Yamen and let you go free. You will be good men from now on."

Dugu's left hand was finally moved, and she stared at Wu Huaiyu.

Anu, on the other hand, was a little flustered, even uneasy.

"Does your husband dislike Anu?"

As he spoke, his eyes were moist and he even wanted to cry.

For her, there were two stages in her 16 years of life. One was before the age of six, when she lived a life inferior to that of a pig or a dog. She was trafficked in the pig market, which was truly like hell.Another stage is after he was six years old, he was bought by the Ning family and became Zuo Zuo's disciple.

Zuo Zuo was very kind to her. Not only did he teach her pipa playing skills, but he also gave her a warmth that she had never had before.

It can be said that after ten years in the Ning family, she actually lived a good life. At least she didn't have to worry about food, clothing and clothing, as long as she concentrated on learning the piano.

Now that she suddenly heard that freedom was a good idea, she became frightened because she didn't know what she would do after she was freed.

The unknown future is full of confusion.

She cried, thinking she had been abandoned.

On the other hand, Dugu Left Hand was surprised and remained silent.

"You can choose your future life." Huaiyu said.

But Anu said, "My husband, don't abandon A Liu. A Liu just wants to follow my husband."

Huaiyu didn't seem surprised by this result.

Just like when he first arrived in the Tang Dynasty, in Changao Township, Sanyuan, Zhang Cheng's family would rather be slaves to Huaiyu than to be attached to him.

Freedom comes at a price.

For A Liu, although she was a canary in a cage before, when the cage was opened, she was frightened by the outside world.

"I said you can choose,

If you want to stay after being released as a good man, you can still do it. You can still be musicians of the Wu family. I can sign an employment contract for you and pay you. If you have other options to leave one day, that is also okay. . "

"If A Liu doesn't leave, A Liu will follow our husband."

Dugu Zuo didn't say anything, just watched quietly.

"Can you listen to the Buddhist temple musician Dugu's left hand piano skills?" Huaiyu asked with a smile.

she nodded,
So, Dugu held the pipa upright in his left hand and played a song with his fingers. This time the song was very complicated and he showed even more superb skills.

A Liu is dancing to the pipa music,

Dugu played the pipa in his left hand better than A Liu, and even surpassed Pei. A Liu played the lute well, and she danced extremely well.

This master and apprentice's piano dance is really a pleasure to watch.

He is worthy of being called a Buddhist temple musician.

Dugu, could he be from Queen Dugu’s family?
(End of this chapter)