Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 391 Rich businessman, skinny horse

Zhu Changluo was amazed at the ease and composure of the female shopkeeper.

For a moment, I could see from her expression and behavior the demeanor of a workplace woman that is familiar to later generations.

"Master Chang?"

Only after Fan Yongdou spoke did Zhu Changluo come to his senses and continue walking forward.

Hearing that Master Fan actually called him Master Chang, the female shopkeeper immediately said enthusiastically, "Master Chang, this is your first time visiting our store. Do you have any good wine to drink? Although our store is small, we have all kinds of wines from North and South America."

"Master Fan is the boss. The shopkeeper, please tell me about Guanyun Tower. What's the meaning of the name?"

"So that Master Chang can know, there is nothing particular about it. It's just that my building is right by the Caohe River, and it has three floors. The view of the canal is superb, so I gave it this name."

"Really?" Zhu Changluo looked at the situation inside the building. "It's quite a big deal. Just based on these four huge wooden pillars, your Guanyun Building is not simple."

"Master Chang, what are you talking about? This is not a real giant tree that is more than ten feet tall. It is just pieced together and carefully painted."

At a glance, this Guanyun Building, which looked very grand from the outside, mainly has four large pillars as the main support inside, which support this large building.

It looks like a three-story building from the outside, but there are actually five floors inside, except that the top three floors are for entertaining guests.

After entering the lobby, you will see potted plants and rockery covering the interior of the store. The first floor seems to be the kitchen, warehouse and dormitory. Then you go up a flight of stone steps to the second floor of the store.

This floor is not yet open to customers. In addition to the neatly arranged counters, menus, and wine jars, there are some scattered tables, and in the middle is a towering stage, which is about the same height as the real third floor of the store.

As Zhu Changluo walked up the three stairs leading to the private rooms, he looked at the words "Step by Step" on the doorpost at the entrance of the stairs and a smile appeared on the corners of his mouth.

"It seems that there is also a homophone for 官运恒通." He looked at the stairs on the other side, "What are those words over there? Master Fan?"

"… a huge source of wealth."

"Interesting." Zhu Changluo looked at the female shopkeeper, "Thoughtful."

"For good luck." The female shopkeeper smiled, feeling strange.

Anyone who can afford to come to such a restaurant must be either rich or noble, and of course they have to please them.

Zhu Changluo went all the way up to the top floor. The whole floor was in the shape of a U.S. character, with a skylight in the middle, through which one could also see the stage below.

The private rooms on the third and fourth floors all have windows facing the stage, and there is a small eaves above the windows, so you can't see the people in the other private rooms from above. The design is very thoughtful.

Looking out, one can enjoy the scenery of the canal and Yangzhou city, and looking inside, one may even catch a glimpse of actors on the stage looking eagerly at their performances, so it is called Yangfeng Xiaoyue Pavilion.

How can you experience the most authentic Yangzhou romance without coming here?
The female shopkeeper accompanied them up and asked, "Mr. Fan, is it the same as before? I wonder what kind of music Mr. Chang likes to listen to, so that I can make arrangements."

"...No need, just bring the best tea first, and then some cakes..."

"It's the same as it was in the past." Zhu Changluo said with a smile, "You have to wait for your friends anyway."

"This..." Fan Yongdou was overwhelmed and said awkwardly, "Master Chang, please wait a moment. I will make arrangements with Shopkeeper Lin first."

After saying that, he bowed first, then winked at the female shopkeeper named Lin and told her to go downstairs first.

Liu Ruoyu accompanied Zhu Changluo to the corridor outside to overlook the canal, while two guards guarded the only staircase leading to the top floor.

At the corner of the fourth and fifth floors, Fan Yongdou and Shopkeeper Lin were whispering.

"... a prostitute, whom no one has ever seen or touched, and you want the best and the smartest one?" Shopkeeper Lin was stunned. He looked up and said, "Master Fan, aren't you making things difficult for me? If you arrange it earlier, I can send someone to look for her..."

Fan Yongdou gritted his teeth and said, "No need to go to all this trouble. Since you don't have any clues at the moment, let's send someone to Caiyi Street. I heard there's a good girl who's 26 years old there. She's becoming more and more famous, but she hasn't graduated yet. It seems her last name is Wang, and her nickname is Xiuwei. Go and invite her for me!"

"...Mr. Fan, since she hasn't even graduated yet, how could her mother be willing to let her meet guests like this? As her fame grows, it's natural that we have to make some careful plans..." Shopkeeper Lin still looked embarrassed.

Fan Yongdou was very anxious and didn't know what to say.

"Who exactly is Mr. Chang?" Shopkeeper Lin asked curiously.

"Manager Lin, you are always smart, why do you have to ask so many questions?" Fan Yongdou hardened his heart and said in a deep voice, "Just talk about money! Ten thousand taels, fifty thousand taels, one hundred thousand taels are all fine, no matter what price she asks, my Fan family will accept it!"

Shopkeeper Lin was shocked: "Master Fan, are you serious? Are you kidding me?"

"As long as you can do it, I will give you another 1,000 taels. Go quickly!"

Fan Yongdou also felt very painful. In fact, since they knew in advance that the emperor would come privately and arranged these things, the Fan family was not without preparation.

But the emperor and Fan Yongdou wanted to meet the salt merchant's sons first, which was clearly a joke. How could the maids prepared by the Fan family be suitable for such an occasion?
Fan Yongdou was not just someone who heard about it at the last minute. He had already hurriedly searched for him last night. In short, we had to make a plan in advance.

If the emperor wants to be quiet and just talk about things, then it will naturally be saved.

Now that they have to do this, they have to invite her. On the one hand, it shows that the Fan family can do good things, and on the other hand, they can't leave the emperor with the impression that they have already prepared someone to "seduce the emperor to have sex with a prostitute."

When Fan Yongdou returned to Zhu Changluo, he had a sad face.

"Why do you have to do this? What are you afraid of?"

"... Master Chang, please forgive me. I am afraid of being watched by many people. They are famous actors, prostitutes and wine girls. If they behave unruly and spread the news, it will bring disgrace to Master Chang's name. I will be sentenced to death."

Zhu Changluo laughed loudly: "Just when we needed some wine and women to liven up the atmosphere, I first negotiated a big deal with them, so of course their father had no choice but to accept it."

Fan Yongdou was helpless: "Master Chang, why do you have to do this? It's just a matter of your words."

"That's different. I'm trying to reassure them that at least the next generation has been taken care of. Of course, their generation can work for me with peace of mind." Zhu Changluo nodded affirmatively, "They feel relieved knowing that their son and I have become drinking buddies."

"..." Fan Yongdou was speechless.

It really is killing me.

It seems that the emperor is deliberately fanning the flames today. If those guys are excited by what the emperor says, and with the help of wine and sex, they may really sell their property and pat their chests without any regrets to agree to invest together to do big business.

For Fan Yongdou, it was of course just a matter of the emperor's words.

But Zhu Changluo knew that if he could push the salt policy in a direction that was more beneficial to the country's finances with just one sentence, he would be underestimating the big salt merchants.

It is not easy to steal someone's pocket, and killing alone will cause great turmoil, so it is best to guide them.

It is easier to start with the younger generation who are not so cunning.

After a while, a few young women came up first. Yangfeng Xiaoyuexuan had its own small stage.

They are good at playing musical instruments and singing, and now they are just acting as an atmosphere group. Fan Yongdou only wants the most ordinary pomp and circumstance, and now he is answering the emperor's curiosity about the shopkeeper Lin.

"...She is the concubine of the young owner of Guanyun Tower. She was also raised by..."

What we are talking about is actually the Yangzhou skinny horse which has become famous all over the world.

If you want to marry a young girl, you should go to Yangzhou. This trend was already prevalent in the early years of the Wanli reign.

As Fan Yongdou was explaining to him with a trembling heart, he heard music and singing from the other side of the street. Zhu Changluo walked to the corridor and looked down, and saw drums and music carrying a girl in a sedan chair heading towards the bank gate, with great fanfare, as if she was being married to a legitimate wife.

"…Is this what you mean?"

"...How would I know, kid?" Fan Yongdou's scalp was tingling. "But Manager Lin's grandeur back then was not as impressive as this woman's. She must be a high-class girl, or her family is wealthy." Zhu Changluo looked down quietly.

According to Fan Yongdou, the industry now divides the Yangzhou skinny horses into three categories: upper, middle and lower.

The so-called superior one must be "intelligent, handsome, and elegant", and must have learned all kinds of skills such as "playing the piano and the flute, reciting poems and writing, drawing, playing go, backgammon, and playing dominoes", and his manners and speech must be extraordinary and unworldly.

These beautiful creatures, after careful carving, are all "cultivated like painted figures" and have unique charm.

The average ones are like the shopkeeper Lin. "They are of average talent, but they cannot do fine work. They are asked to learn to read a little, learn two sets of pipa strings, do arithmetic, keep accounts, manage household affairs, and do business. Many customers pay money to marry the shopkeeper." It can be seen that the average thin horse is trained in a more practical direction, which is naturally due to the commercial atmosphere in Yangzhou.

As for the lowest class, "they are not taught to read or play the string instrument. They are only taught to do some women's work, such as picking wool and sprinkling thread, cutting and scissoring, so that they can earn money. Some of them can cook, fry, steam cakes, make oven food, and arrange fruits. They all have their own skills and can get married." It can be seen that the lower class is more practical.

The so-called Yangzhou skinny horses are not all raised as playthings.

Unlike what Zhu Changluo thought were "extremely beautiful and talented", those who were taken as concubines were actually those who had received a special and strict "education" since childhood, had good family education, understood etiquette, and strictly observed the code of conduct for women in the boudoir.

The so-called "serving the eldest son, giving way to peers, advancing and retreating in an appropriate manner, not losing the normal measure, not causing foolish people to quarrel, wasting men's energy, so the servants are similar to those found in Guangling."

They don't get jealous at home, have conflicts with other wives and concubines, and cause unrest in the backyard. They rarely cause trouble for men. This is the "core competitiveness" of Yangzhou skinny horses.

They have been taught all kinds of etiquette to keep women respectful since childhood, and are almost completely domesticated. They are very willing to serve the formal mistress and men humbly, so that most mistresses can tolerate Yangzhou Skinny Horse even if they are extremely harsh to their husband's other concubines.

Therefore, based on Yangzhou's transportation location advantages and the concentration of commercial wealth here, raising skinny horses first became an industrial chain in Yangzhou.

However, in reality, there are even worse types of people, who do not have such "good luck" as to marry out and help men manage the household business or be taken as concubines. Their way out is in the alleys or restaurants like the one Zhu Changluo saw at the beginning.

This is of course a bloody and tearful history of some women of this era. Zhu Changluo was silent for a moment as he looked at the "wedding welcoming" scene below.

Their origins may be very complicated. Some were sold by their parents when they were young, some became orphans due to various disasters, some fell into poverty after their ancestors committed crimes, and some were even abducted.

And there are indeed some lucky ones among them, who are able to serve only one master from then on, or even gain a certain degree of respect and importance with the skills they have learned like Manager Lin.

The system of wives and concubines, the state-run brothels and the system of musical instruments that still exist in the Ming Dynasty... Zhu Changluo cannot change these now.

This is a very stubborn social problem, it is not something that can be solved overnight. Even after hundreds of years, these things will still exist.

The core issue is, of course, the lives of the lower-class people. If life were easy, why would most parents sell their children to allow this industry chain to have a foundation?

Of course, it is also because the gap between the rich and the poor is too large, and the status gap between different groups of people is huge, that there is a huge market.

"Master Chang?"

Seeing that he was distracted, Fan Yongdou asked again nervously.

"It's okay." Zhu Changluo walked back inside. "Your eldest master Fan invited them, so they were a little slow to arrive."

"…Sorry to have made you laugh, Master Chang. Usually I don't see him before noon, and he usually gets up after 3 pm."

"It's really like living a life of drunkenness and dreaming of death." Zhu Changluo shook his head, "What about you?"

"...I dare not slack off, my father is very strict. Thanks to Master Chang's grace, my father is an official, so I must be more careful in what I say and do on a daily basis."

"Then you are also very skilled in flirting." Zhu Changluo sat down. "They said that you are ready to spend 100,000 taels to find a 26-year-old girl for me?"

Fan Yongdou said with a sad face: "Master Chang has given instructions, so I have to do as he says."

Are the guards’ ears so good?

"…You're only twelve years old, or your age in Chinese?" Zhu Changluo shook his head. "Well, I've seen your daily pomp and circumstance."

Fan Yongdou sat obediently aside with his head lowered.

Is it a good thing for the emperor to see his daily pomp and circumstance? Of course not.

It seems that the Fan family will also "enthusiastically support" the emperor's plan this time. I'm afraid they won't have much spare money in the next few years.

Zhu Changluo relaxedly asked him about the customs and habits of Jiangnan. At this time, the shopkeeper Lin, who wanted a bribe of one thousand taels of silver, relayed Fan Yongdou's words, and together with his servant, knocked out Wang Xiuwei's "mother" with silver. A sedan chair rushed from there to Guanyun Tower, and another group of people followed Fan Yongdou's servant to Fan's house to get the money.

Of course the girl in the sedan was nervous; she was not ready yet.

My mother originally said that she would not meet anyone until she was fifteen.

She hasn't learned anything yet.

But now that she was able to leave there, she couldn't help but secretly lift the curtain of the sedan chair and peek at the street scene of Yangzhou.

Since she was seven years old and went to live with her mother after her father died, she has never left that yard.

In fact, she really longs for the scenery outside.

The sedan was shaking, and her mood was shaking with it, feeling excited and nervous.

A girl with an experience like her is precocious in nature and knows that she has only one good fortune to look forward to in the future: meeting a good man.

And today, the Fan family paid a full twelve thousand taels of silver to redeem her.

Originally, a price like this deserved to be welcomed back with a grand ceremony.

But she was merely bought as a maid.

Who would spend so much money to buy a maid?
Wang Wei didn’t know what fate was waiting for her ahead. Xiuwei was her courtesy name, and she also had a small courtesy name, Wang Guan.

Her mother said that she had the aspirations of becoming an otaku and she was reluctant to spend twelve thousand taels, but she really couldn't afford to offend the Fan family.

The departure was hasty, as the Fan family was in a hurry to get the person back.

She didn't even have time to pack her luggage and was carried to Guanyun Tower alone.

"Manager Lin..." She couldn't help but whisper to Manager Lin who was walking outside the sedan chair, "Should I go straight to serve the master with wine? My master... is Mr. Fan?"

"That's not right. His last name should be Chang. Mr. Fan should call him Master Chang." Shopkeeper Lin sighed, "Sister, you are so lucky!"

She just felt that since Master Fan had to call him Master Chang, it must be something special.

He doesn't even want the more mature and lovely ones, and must find the best one that no one has ever seen. This must be something that Master Chang is very particular about and that is very important to him.

Even with such a large sum of money, she was only allowed to be a maid first.

I really don’t know where this comes from!
But she saw this little girl, and she was indeed a rare beauty. Although she hadn't grown up yet, she could already get a glimpse of her future beauty.

She is an experienced person, and Xu's mother's reluctance is real.

This should be a cash cow.

The Guanyun Building finally started to get lively at this moment.

"Brother Fan, what's the important matter today? Your father invited my old man to a banquet tonight, and you set up a game here?" The young man who came upstairs first shouted and turned to the waiter, "Where is Miss Mei? Go and call her and tell her that I'm here!"

Fan Yongdou’s sustainability head is as big as a bucket, Yongdou.

Should he be more restrained or should he be allowed to perform more enthusiastically?
Your Majesty, are you here to collect the dirty laundry of the major salt merchants?
(End of this chapter)