Happy Little Scholar

As if he had seen a mountain of gold and silver flashing before his eyes, the Qi merchant's eyes flashed, looking at the clerk, and asked: "Brother Nie, do you think I can also rent a shop here..."

"First come, first served, you can reserve it after paying a deposit." The clerk looked at him and said, "It's okay today, but there may be no seats in a few days."

The Qi merchant immediately said: "Thank you, Brother Nie, where to pay the deposit, I'll go now!"

The clerk in the household room waved his hand and said: "Don't thank me, it's all good policies..."

The Qi merchant shook his head repeatedly: "If it weren't for you, Brother Nie, I would be on my way to Kyoto at this moment, how could I encounter such a good thing, after paying the deposit, there will be a generous reward!"

This month's performance is still A few more, the clerk in the household office thought for a moment and said, "If you really want to thank me, introduce a few more of your business friends to me..."

...

After paying the deposit and coming out of the registration place of the government office, the Qi merchant bowed to the clerk again respectfully and said seriously, "I don't need to thank you for your great favor. If Brother Nie needs me in the future, just ask, I will definitely not refuse!"

"You're welcome..." The clerk waved his hand and said, "Don't you want to buy cloth? I'll take you to the cloth shop. It is said that the cloth shop in Kyoto and our Shuzhou are the same. You can take a look first..."

The Qi merchant bowed and said, "Okay, okay, I have to trouble Brother Nie again..."

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly heard a quarreling sound.

"That's obviously my customer, you kid, how dare you compete with me!"

"What do you mean your customer? Who told you to walk so slowly?"

"Your performance this month is enough, can't you give me one?"

"Who would have a problem with money?"

...

The Qi businessman watched the two yamen runners pulling each other into the yamen, looked at the clerk beside him, and asked: "Brother Nie, this is..."

The clerk waved his hand and said: "Don't worry about them, let's go our way..."

Although it is the slack season, the people of Yong County have a very fulfilling life these days.

Every day before dawn, the strong men in the same village go to the state capital in groups of five or ten to build houses. They have a meal at noon, which is noodles, and they are full. They come back at dark, and the wages are 20 wen a day, paid daily.

Farming crops can't earn them more than 20 cents a day. They don't have other skills, but they have strength. They can earn 20 cents a day, and they can be ruthless every few days to buy a pot of wine and cut two taels of meat to eat meat...

Wu Laosan is one of these people.

The reason why he is called Wu Laosan is that he is the third child in the family. He has two older brothers. One died shortly after birth, and the other was killed by bandits more than ten years ago. He is the only one left in the Wu family.

Thinking of this, he felt a little sorry.

The second brother was not lucky enough to die early, otherwise, he could have seen the scene of a world without thieves.

It's still good for His Royal Highness Jing Wang. He did such a great thing for the people of Shuzhou, but he was not very accurate in judging people. He found a governor with a mental disorder. He built a shop at the city gate and built it in a circle...

But think about it carefully, if this governor had a normal mind, how could he earn 20 cents a day, and how could he have spare money to buy Xu Fuji's candied fruits for his wife...

So, he found a governor with a mental disorder------it's still good for His Royal Highness Jing Wang!

Speaking of his wife, she has been with him for so long, but she has never enjoyed any happiness. When the family couldn't make ends meet, she still wove cloth to make money to supplement the family income. It was really hard for her...

He took out the candied fruit he bought for ten cents today from his arms, pushed open the door, and shouted: "Yiniang, I'm back!"

A woman came out of the room and said, "You're back, come in quickly, I'll cook right away."

Wu Laosan walked in, frowned and asked, "What did you do today, why are you cooking now?"

The woman whispered, "Today, the city The cloth shop in the village is hiring, so I asked Aunt San to accompany me to take a look..."

"The cloth shop is hiring, what are you going to do?" Wu Laosan frowned and said, "You are a woman, why don't you stay at home and don't run around all day!"

He threw a paper bag on the table and said, "We men can make money. Can you women make 20 cents a day? This is the candied fruit I bought for you from Xu Fuji today. Try it. If you like it, I will buy you more in a few days..."

"I know..." The woman opened the paper bag and whispered.

Wu Laosan took a cold steamed bun and ate it, and asked casually: "By the way, how much does the cloth shop you mentioned pay you a day?"

"Three hundred coins."

Wu Laosan took a bite of the steamed bun, his expression was stunned, looking at him, and asked vaguely: "How much, three coins?"

The woman took a bite of candied fruit and whispered: "Others are thirty coins, I showed them the cloth I wove before, they said I wove well, the flowers I wove were beautiful, and asked me to teach those people to weave cloth, and gave me three hundred coins a day."

Wu Laosan was stunned for a long time, grabbed the kettle and drank it, and finally swallowed the steamed bun that choked him. He put down the kettle, slammed the table, and said loudly: "You are a woman, don't you feel bored staying at home all day? If you have a chance, you should go out more often..., where is the cloth shop you mentioned, take me to see it tomorrow..."

"They only recruit women..."

"..."

"Don't I know they only recruit women?" Wu Laosan looked at her and said solemnly: "I'm here to check for you to see if they are cheating. You women are the easiest to be deceived... "

"No, that's the workshop of Prince Jing's Mansion, it won't lie..."

Wu Laosan looked at her, then at the paper bag in her hand, put the cold steamed buns aside, pursed his lips, and said, "Here, let me try a piece of the candied fruit..."

…

A place of chaos.

Fang Yu put down a piece of paper and said, "Building a shop, what is this Li Yi doing?"

He looked back at the man in purple and asked, "Is the news true?"

The man in purple nodded and said: "I have asked the local people. They are going to build a shopping mall there. It is said that it will open a few years ago..."

Several envoys from the Holy Religion responsible for Shuzhou have all lost contact, which also means that they cannot contact the believers in Shuzhou. If they want to obtain information, they can only get information through local people.

Fang Yu frowned and murmured: "Why is it the West City Gate..."

"You are stupid. There are four city gates in the east, west, south and north. Only the west gate is the most useless. It is not open all year round. If you don't choose the west gate, why should you choose the other three?" The King of Shu walked over, looked at him and said: " You may not know that the most powerful thing about Li Yi is not running the country, but doing business. He should be trying to make a lot of money during the Chinese New Year. Businessmen from all over the country are also trying to stay in Shuzhou. ……"

Fang Yu shook his head, "I'm just worried..."

"There is nothing to worry about." The King of Shu shook his head and said: "There are three thousand permanent troops stationed in Shuzhou, and the number that Yong County can mobilize is only two thousand at most. They are just a group of stragglers, and there is nothing to fear. As long as your people can open the gate, no one can stop us."

"I know that." Fang Yu shook his head and said, "It's just... it's better to be careful."

The King of Shu shook his head, with a look of excitement on his face, and said: "I think it's best to wait until after the Lantern Festival before taking action. When he makes enough money, then he can slaughter a fat sheep... "