The reborn worthy minister is difficult to do

In the dim room, a figure rose slightly on the dark bed.

Gongsun Yu swallowed his saliva, boldly went over and stretched out his closed index and middle fingers, probed the man's breath and exhaled lightly: "There is still breath."

The person on the bed didn't know whether he was in a coma or had slept too deeply. Several big men were walking, pushing the door and talking, but they were not awakened.The thatched cottage is very small, except for the entrance room, the rest is a kitchen.

I opened all the rice jars and looked at them, and found that the rest were empty, only one rice jar still had bottomed out millet.

Several people looked around and neither woke up this person nor stayed longer, so they continued to walk to the next hut.

Yan Si walked last, stayed for a while, took out some scattered silver from his sleeve pocket, and stuffed it carefully under the man's pillow.

Seeing the scene in front of him just now, Yan Si couldn't help feeling a little bit embarrassed.At that time, his family's situation was similar to these. His grandmother was sick in bed, and her life was hanging by a thread.If it weren't for Xu Ci's order to send the century-old Shen Dan, grandma would have been unable to survive.

In those years, Xu Ci forced their brothers to beat Miss Xu San as meat bags, thinking it was an insult to them.But after a long time, they not only became stronger physically, but also learned some martial arts.

Later, Wang Yuanwai changed Xu's mansion into "Jishi Ci School", and Xu Ci ordered several people to go to the school to study.

He and Aniu have a Wen Tanhua and a Wu Tanhua, and now one is on the left and the other is on the right, both of whom are officials of the fifth-rank court.

While the other brothers did not live up to expectations, they have been learning business skills from Wang Yuanwai's side, and they can be regarded as making a difference in the mall.

It can be said without shame that without Xu Ci, they would not be where they are today.

It is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish. Except for helping the five of them at the beginning, Xu Ci never sent any clothes or food after that.

Calling and shouting at him and the others without pretentiousness, it seemed domineering and rampant.

But those who drink water know whether they are warm or not.

He is like a mentor to them.

Xu Ci wouldn't praise them too much, although he didn't pretend to be rhetoric, but he always helped them behind the scenes.

Although they are subordinates, they will not restrict them.

People have their own aspirations, Xu Ci not only never hindered each other, but also helped each other a lot.

Yan Si rejoiced more than once that he gritted his teeth and wanted to sign the death contract.

If he had chosen the contract of living, with Xu Ci's character, he would probably only keep them working for ten or eight years, and ignore them.

How can there be such an enviable bright future as they are now.

Xu Ci was young, and at first glance he looked surly and arrogant, but his actions were all within reason.

His demeanor and even his mind are definitely not what a teenager should have.

Yan Si walked last, looking at Xu Ci with complicated eyes, almost making him a god.

If it is said that the few of them bowed their heads at first because of gratitude, but now they are sincerely convinced by it.

Besides, Xu Ci, who Yan Si praised countless times in his heart and regarded him as a god, is now absent-minded and depressed.

Thinking that he is almost 45 years old now, looking at the prince makes him nervous.

After seductively seducing the prince that day, he became an eggplant beaten by Shuang, and he couldn't lift his head anymore.

Maybe it was just in response to the phrase "the closer you are to the hometown, the more timid you are". Now the more Xu Ci wanted to get closer to His Highness the Crown Prince, the more he thought about it.

But it has been suppressed here for a long time, and Xu Ci himself is aggrieved.When he felt aggrieved, he lost his temper.

Pushing away Gongsun Yu, who was leading the way in front of him, no matter what, Da Lala pushed open a door.

Suddenly there was a foul smell in the room, Xu Ci hurriedly covered his nose, his eyes suddenly opened wide.

There was a corpse lying on the ground in front of him. It looked like he had been dead for a few days, and the parts of his body that had been eaten by rats had begun to rot.

This terrifying scene suddenly crashed into his eyes, Xu Ci trembled and tried to stabilize his figure.

A wide palm was attached to Xu Ci's eyes from behind, and within a breath, Xu Ci felt trapped in the familiar warm embrace.

Li Haochen patted Xu Ci's back and comforted him distressedly: "We'll go out now."

After saying that, he didn't care about checking the house again, then he took Xu Ci by his side and led him to the street.

Li Haochen circled Xu Ci, stroked his shiny black hair, and asked, "Are you okay?"

After all, Xu Ci has lived a long time and has a strong mental capacity.Now that he was able to let nature take its course and nestle in the arms of His Royal Highness, he told a little lie, "I was taken aback for a while, and now my heart is still beating."

Li Haochen didn't suspect him, and hugged Xu Ci even tighter: "Be good, don't be afraid. After a person dies, all that's left is some carrion. Although the face is hideous, there's nothing scary about it."

Xu Ci gave a low "um" and hugged Li Haochen back contentedly.

Two people, you hold me and I hold you, both of them have a lot of obsession with each other in their hearts but neither dare to say it.

Yan Si and Gongsun Yu, who had finished investigating, came out and saw that they were hugging each other tightly, and the atmosphere around them was strange.

The two of you looked at me and I looked at you, neither of them dared to disturb them, they spontaneously went to the next room.

When Yan Si and Gongsun Yucha came out of the three rooms, they were still hugging each other tightly like Siamese twins.

Gongsun Yu couldn't stand it anymore and coughed twice, Xu Ci reluctantly pulled out, pouted and said: "I'm done, master."

Then Gongsun Yu stepped forward and clasped his fists, and said: "Master, the third family has a couple and children."

Li Haochen nodded, "Okay, go and ask."

The third thatched cottage looks better than the previous ones. Although the door has been repaired several times, it is still tight.

A man and a woman were sitting on both sides of a dilapidated wooden table in the room. The man was holding a pot of peonies in his hands, and the woman was holding a five or six-year-old skinny girl in her arms.

The color of the peony in that flowerpot is not the usual bright pink and white, but purple-black all over, it is actually a rare peony treasure - Guanshi Black Jade.

A little baby on the cradle in the distance is crying.

A man and a woman stand against each other in court, and the atmosphere is tense.

Seeing that the person who had just left turned back, the man rushed over with the flowers in his arms, and said to Yan Si, "Master, you can accept this girl. This girl looks thin now, but if you look carefully, He's handsome, he's a good seedling." He actually took Yan Si as a toothpaste who came to pick up a baby girl.

The woman became anxious when she heard this, and hugged the girl even tighter, pointing at the man and yelling: "If you dare to sell your daughter, I will drop your flower!"

The man got anxious when he heard that, so he jumped up quickly, and took two steps back holding the flower: "You know what a fart, you woman, this flower will become the king of peonies in two days, and its value will double by then." .”

"Add shit, you ruined your family just to raise these flowers, and you were driven to this broken land. If it wasn't for the old lady doing needlework every day to subsidize the family, you would have gone to drink the northwest wind! You still If you want to sell your daughter, I will fight with you!"

After saying that, he let go of the girl and rushed forward to fight with the man.

Li Haochen heard the headache, and said coldly: "Shut up."

A man and a woman suddenly fell silent, not daring to make a sound.The woman hurried back and hugged the girl again, while the man hid further away with the flower in his arms, for fear that a woman would pounce on him if he didn't check.

Li Haochen was so full of aura that the two of them were too frightened to speak again.

Seeing this, Xu Ci smiled, and said to the woman: "Our brothers came from other places and happened to pass by. Tell me what's going on with you, and I might have a solution."

When the woman heard that these people were not Yagong, she breathed a sigh of relief and spoke with choked sobs.

After hearing this, everyone understood that the family background of the couple was not satisfactory. The man was a teacher and the woman was a weaving woman.

The men farm and the women weave, the annual wages are not only subsidized for the family, but also have some surplus.

But since a few years ago, the man suddenly became obsessed with cultivating peonies, so he spent all his family's gold and silver jewelry and money to buy high-quality peony seeds.

After repeated cultivation failures, he even mortgaged the deed last year and bought ten Guanshi Moyu flower seeds for 50 taels of silver.

After getting the flower seeds, the man stopped teaching and took care of these flowers at home every day.

There is no teaching salary in the family, so they only rely on women's maids to support them.

But relying solely on a woman's female celebrity, they still deserve the lamb's interest. If they haven't paid back for a year, Qian Yinpu will drive them out of the house with the land deed.

But the interest is like a donkey's roll. The people from the Qianyin shop just came to pay the debt two days ago. If they don't pay back the lamb interest from last year tomorrow, they will sell their mother and daughter to a brothel.

The man thought about selling his daughter, and returned the lamb first.When he wins the Peony Festival, a lot of gold and silver will follow.But the woman refused no matter what. Although the daughter is a girl, she is her heart after all.

If she was bought by Yagong to be used as a skinny horse for people to ride on or sold to a brothel, how would my daughter hate her in the future.

After hearing this, Xu Ci asked, "How many taels of lamb's interest do you have for a year?"

The woman cried: "I borrowed 50 taels, and they said that the house was only worth 30 taels. In addition to repaying the money, the lamb's interest will be added. Every year, only the lamb will pay two taels of silver. With so much silver, let's go Where do you get it?"

The man was a little impatient: "I said that after two days, my Moyu will be selected as the king of peonies in the Peony Festival, so we won't have to worry about food and drink. Are we afraid that we won't be able to pay back his lamb's breath?"

When the woman heard it, she burst into tears, her voice shrill: "But then our daughter is gone! You talk about benevolence and morality every day, but in the end you are just a hypocrite, a beast!"

When the man was scolded by the woman, his face turned red immediately, he nestled aside in shame, and stopped talking.

Li Haochen looked at the woman, "What kind of street is this? How could it be so desolate."

When the woman was stared at by Li Haochen, she suddenly felt chills, and quickly replied: "This is the dead street left by the plague back then. Because the prefect of Yangzhou heard that the capital sent the governor to come here to inspect, he ordered the whole city not to come here. There must be beggars. Ten days ago, he sent yamen servants to drive all the beggars in the city and the homeless people like us who sleep on the streets here."

"The houses here are all unowned, so we randomly picked one to live in."

Li Haochen asked again: "If beggars are not allowed to beg, how will they live?"

The woman was silent for a long time, and sighed: "Some are starving to death, some are about to starve to death. The government will come here to collect the corpses every few days, and now those beggars are almost dead."

The little girl in the woman's arms was thin and bony, but her eyes were extremely bright, and her black grape-like eyeballs were staring at Xu Ci without blinking.

Seeing this, Xu Ci knelt down and waved to the little girl, "Come here, brother."

The girl was well-behaved and sensible, she glanced at the woman, and when she saw that she agreed, she ran over erratically, her eyes still fixed on Xu Ci.

Feeling a little uncomfortable being looked at by the girl, Xu Ci patted her head and asked with a smile, "Why are you looking at brother like that?"

The little girl tilted her head, stretched out her hand to poke Xu Ci's cheek, and replied in a childlike voice: "My brother is so beautiful, and his skin is smooth."

Amused by the little girl's answer, Xu Ci reached out and hugged her.The little girl was full of bones, and her body was very light. Xu Ci immediately picked her up, "Oh, the little girl is really light."

After weighing the little girl's weight before putting her down, Xu Ci glanced at Li Haochen.

Li Haochen understood, and nodded, "Just move, I'll watch."

With the permission of His Royal Highness, Xu Ci smiled and asked the little girl: "Little girl, do you know how much your mother's female celebrity can earn in a year? And how much does your family spend in a year? If the answer is right, brother Give you something nice."

The girl fixedly looked into Xu Ci's eyes, but suddenly said: "Brother, my mother is a female celebrity, and the monthly salary is one hundred Wen. A year is 1000 and two hundred Wen. One thousand Wen is one Two taels of silver, our whole family does not eat or drink, only relying on mother's work to save a little more than one tael of silver a year."

Xu Ci smiled and pinched her nose, "Not bad."

"Salt is one or two hundred cash, five taels to five hundred cash. Our family needs five taels of salt a year to eat some. The salt alone is five hundred cash a year. The remaining seven hundred cash is firewood, rice, oil and rice. Another three hundred wen went."

"In this way, there are only four hundred coins left, but it's okay, we can wrap more clothes in winter, and save coal money. Occasionally, there are clothes at home, and it's another hundred coins."

"The remaining [-] wen, if no one in the family is sick and takes medicine, it will be a year leftover. But the [-] wen saved is not enough for dad to buy fertilizer once, so the family has to set aside some money from other places to subsidize dad, so and peeled the salt out of it."

The little girl was clever, and she answered clearly, but she was a quick-witted child.

Xu Ci glanced at the man: "You girl is very clever, and you may become a great talent in the future. Wouldn't it be a pity to sell it now?"

The man shook his head, "It's impossible to support only one child in the family. How can we raise two? Besides, it's a girl after all."

Xu Ci sneered, "It's strange that you can afford this flower, but you can't raise a single child."

The man choked, his face flushed, and he stopped talking.

Not sure about the market price of salt, Xu Ci asked Yan Si who knew the most about it among them: "Yan Si, what is the price of salt in the capital?"

Yan Si pondered and said: "Because salt is an indispensable thing, the imperial court's salt department has issued an order not to drive up the price of salt, and the price of salt in the capital is only one or twenty yuan."

Gongsun Yuzi also didn't understand the price of salt, and now he heard what Yan Si said, he spat: "One or twenty Wen has risen to one or two hundred Wen here, it's enough for Luo Yuanwai."

The woman listened to their conversation and couldn't help interjecting: "The price of salt has never risen so ridiculously before. Since Lin Gou drove all the other salt merchants away seven years ago, leaving Luo Gou alone, the price of salt has increased. It started growing day by day."

Gongsun Yu was amused when he heard it, clapped his hands and said: "Lin Gou, Luo Gou, haha, it's quite appropriate."

Xu Ci snorted coldly, "To say they are dogs is to insult dogs."

After saying that Xu Ci secretly stuffed a golden bean into the little girl's hand, the girl was actually smart and put away the golden bean quietly without alarming anyone.

Xu Ci paced in front of the man again, and said in a soft voice, "It's not impossible for me to buy this girl."

The man said happily when he heard that, "Then what are you waiting for?"

"It's just that I'm also very interested in the flower in your hand now." Xu Ci pointed to the flower, "I just came from the square. Although the color of your flower is strange, the flower cluster is still a bit small. More novelty than riches, if you want to enter the top three, it will be difficult."

After all, the flower is still a little small, and it hasn't fully bloomed yet.

Xu Ci really liked this black jade, because the first time he saw this flower, Xu Ci suddenly thought of Li Haochen behind him.

Li Haochen likes to wear black robes the most, and he is majestic in black.Although the crown world black jade with purple and black petals is not growing well, it is precious in color, so he intends to buy this flower.

"So I'll give you three choices," Xu Ci stretched out three fingers, and said in a straight voice, "This is the first, I bought you girl, but you girl has the same body, looks It's not good enough, it can only be regarded as a defective product, and I only pay one or two taels of silver."

"Secondly, I bought your Crown World Black Jade, and I will give you 500 taels of silver, and you sell this flower to me. With the 500 taels of silver, you can not only redeem the house, but also pay the lamb interest. There is still a lot left, and it can be a small business."

"Thirdly, I can lend you two taels of silver first, and use it to repay the sheep for the time being. You can also participate in the Peony King competition, but if you are defeated, the flower will be mine. I will give you money, but at that time, I only paid 20 taels of silver."

The man was entangled in his heart, and after thinking for a long time, he finally gritted his teeth, "I choose the third."

Don't even think about the first one, he is also a little bit reluctant to give up his daughter, and besides, it is only sold for one tael of silver, and the lamb interest is still not repayable.

The second one, although he was a little moved, but thinking that since this person is willing to pay such a high price for his flowers, he must have discerning eyes and see how extraordinary this flower is.If he bought this flower and took it to a competition to win the oiran, wouldn't he be at a big loss!

Or there is a third one, he first lent himself two taels to solve this urgent need, and waited for the top spot, so he might not be able to pay back a mere two taels of silver?

After hearing this, Xu Ci smiled coldly, "You should think about it. Thirdly, if you don't win the first prize, your flower will be mine. Since I dare to do this, I have the capital to do it. Don't play any tricks afterwards."

The man nodded fiercely: "It's hard to follow a gentleman's words!"

After hearing this, Xu Ci smiled slightly, took out two taels of silver from his sleeve and handed it to the man, "Remember what you said today, we will see you in two days."

Before leaving, Xu Ci looked at the girl. The girl smiled wickedly. Seeing this, Xu Ci winked at the girl, making the girl lie in her mother's arms and secretly laugh.

Several people looked at this street again, and found nothing, so they returned the same way.