Go back to the Song Dynasty as a broker

There was no curfew system in the Song Dynasty, and the night market was bustling and brightly lit.Even in the cold winter weather of March [-]th, the bustling city at night is full of people coming and going, noisy and lively.

This was Xiao Tong's first serious visit to the night market after time travelling, and he led Si Qinghu to walk among the crowds of pedestrians.

As the Spring Festival is approaching, there are more vendors on Dongjiaolou Street than usual. There are stalls on both sides. Some sell firecrackers and Spring Festival couplets, and some sell lanterns and colored strips. Most of them are New Year’s goods.

Si Qinghu didn't wear a veil this time, and many people recognized her, but since the news of her engagement was announced and her future husband-in-law Xiao Tong was by her side, the fans just greeted her friendly and didn't dare to bother her too much.

Xiao Tong pulled her straight to a jewelry store.

"Are you really buying it?" Si Qinghu asked doubtfully.

Just now Xiao Tong threw away the pearl hairpin she snatched back from Liu Qingmu, and said that he would buy a new one for her, but she thought it was just a joke.

"How dare you joke in front of the lady?" Xiao Tong smiled triumphantly, like an innocent boy.

While talking, the two walked to the jewelry cabinet, which was filled with all kinds of colorful hairpins, hairpins, Buyao, Huasheng, etc., which dazzled them.Xiao Tong picked up a gold hairpin with a head carved and inlaid with rubies, compared it with Si Qinghu's neatly combed hair, and said, "I think this one is quite suitable for you."

At this time, the middle-aged female shopkeeper came over with a smile and said: "Lord Xiao really has a good eye. This is the latest hairpin in our store. It matches everyone, let alone a beautiful woman like Madam?"

Xiao Tong frowned, "The newest all-match style? Wouldn't everyone on the street be wearing it?"

She put the hairpin back in place with a look of disgust, as if it was hot.What she wants to give Si Qinghu is definitely not a blockbuster model on the bad street, but a unique limited edition!

The shopkeeper knew her love for his wife like the palm of his hand, so he clapped his hands and asked the clerk to bring a hairpin.

A hairpin placed on a tray covered with red cloth instantly caught the eyes of Xiao Tong and Si Qinghu.The two small handles of the hairpin are made of gold and hollowed out. On the head is a green luan carved from turquoise. The green luan spreads its wings, as if it is about to fly straight into the sky.The wings are inlaid with gold powder, and the tail of Qingluan is inlaid with pearls. It holds four strings of tiny gold beads in its mouth, and a pearl hangs at the end of each string of gold beads.Its exquisite carving and precious materials are indeed rare in the market.

The shopkeeper said: "This is a unique Qingluan hairpin specially made by our shop!"

Hearing "Unique", Xiao Tong showed joy on his face, and asked Si Qinghu: "Do you like it?"

Si Qinghu smiled and nodded.Xiao Tong picked it up and wanted to try it on her head, but she held Xiao Tong's wrist, worried: "It must be very precious."

Si Qinghu is not a person who regards money as his life, and he is not short of silver at ordinary times, but he has always been thinking about saving and redeeming his life expenses, and never spends money lavishly, and try not to buy unnecessary things.This hairpin is extremely precious, when she is not determined to buy it, she will not try it on casually.

Xiao Tong said: "As long as you like it, I will buy it for you no matter how expensive it is."

The shopkeeper smiled warmly and said: "This hairpin, the original price is 200 taels, since the wife likes it, I can give it to you!"

"What?" Xiao Tong and Si Qinghu said in unison in surprise.

If you don't get paid for nothing, the shopkeeper must have something to do with his enthusiasm.Xiao Tong immediately became vigilant, the shopkeeper hesitated again and again, and then smiled and said: "It's not that my lord and my wife will get married sooner or later, I want to cooperate with you. On the day of marriage, all the jewelry on your lord and his wife will be taken by my shop. No charge!"

Xiao Tong suddenly realized.It turned out that the shopkeeper planned to let them wear the jewelry from her shop on the day they got married, so that she could advertise in the market under the name "Si Qinghu's Marriage Choice" in the market.With their reputation in the market, the advertising benefits brought by them are naturally higher than the value of a few expensive accessories.

Two days earlier, boss Zhang from the tailor shop also came to ask for cooperation, and made wedding clothes for them for free.

It seems that the business acumen of people in the Song Dynasty is no less than that of modern people, and they have already set their eyes on their wedding!

Xiao Tong thought for a while, and then looked at the quality of jewelry in this store, he could indeed consider cooperation.But there is still a long way to go before they get married, and there are many variables. In the end, she still spent 200 taels to buy this Qingluan hairpin. As for the cooperation, I will wait for them to think about it and talk about it at home in the future.

Walking out of the shop door, Xiao Tong opened the jewelry box, smiled at Si Qinghu, "Come on, I'll put it on for you."

Si Qinghu was still in pain because of the 200 taels of flesh, but seeing that the Qingluan hairpin is so exquisite, it is worth the money, and he feels better. Looking around, there are a few guards and Linger behind him, and there are still people on the road of pedestrians.

"Go back and wear it again!" She shyly said.

"Buying good things is to show off."

Without further ado, Xiao Tong took out the hairpin from the box, lifted it up and was about to insert it into Si Qinghu's bun, when suddenly a man who came down from a carriage ten steps behind Si Qinghu caught his attention.

The man was wearing a black gauze veiled hat and purple wide-sleeved clothes. He had just stepped out of the carriage, and the black gauze in front of him was half lifted by the wind. It could be seen that his face was covered with powder and thick black willow-leaf eyebrows, like two sharp swords. The blade was covered on those feminine red phoenix eyes.

With just a momentary gaze, Xiao Tong felt that this person looked familiar.Holding the Qingluan hairpin that Si Qinghu hadn't put on yet, she subconsciously walked towards the carriage.

Si Qinghu and the guards followed in doubt.

The carriage stopped outside a restaurant, the man got off the car and walked into the restaurant surrounded by several attendants, Xiao Tong stopped and looked into the restaurant, watching the man in purple clothes lead the attendants up the stairs.

Si Qinghu came to her side and said, "Shiro, who did you see?"

The news of the man's figure was at the corner of the stairs, Xiao Tong looked away, blinked vigorously, unbelievable, as if he had seen a ghost, and murmured: "Impossible, it can't be him."

"Shiro, what's wrong with you?"

Si Qinghu's voice rang in his ears again, Xiao Tong came back to his senses and said, "I seem to have seen Wu Shisan."

"Wu Shisan?" Si Qinghu couldn't help being shocked.

Wu Shisan Si Qinghu, whom Xiao Tong spoke of, also knew him. He used to be a well-known male geisha, and he was a leading dancer in Daqu dance. .It was a former geisha of Xiao's tooth shop. What shocked her was, wasn't this the geisha who died suddenly on the stage last year?

Because of him, Xiao Tong and her father went to jail, her father died in prison, and the Xiao family almost went bankrupt!

"Did I see a ghost?" Xiao Tong murmured, looking back at the carriage that the man was riding in, "But you can also see the carriage?"

"How can a dead person come back to life? Are you wrong?" Si Qinghu came to a conclusion calmly.

Xiao Tong sighed, "Maybe!"

She only saw the man for a moment, and hadn't seen him carefully.Although there are no two identical people in the world, people are similar after all.

Wu Shisan had a certain reputation before joining the dental firm. After leaving his original employer, Xiao Tong's father impressed him with generous terms and signed a contract with Xiao's dental firm. Unfortunately, he passed away three years later.At that time, Xiao Tong only knew about eating, drinking and having fun all day long, and he only looked at Siqing Lake in Goulan. He never cared about the dental practice. The number of times he went to the dental practice was very few, and he had never met that Wu Shisan. Not surprising either.

Si Qinghu took her hand, and persuaded in a warm voice: "You are just too anxious about your father's affairs. Let's go back, don't think too much!"

Xiao Tong nodded, and left with Si Qinghu.

In the following days, Xiao Tong didn't take this matter to heart, and went to work in the University as usual.Recently, Ouchi has been busy preparing for the New Year's Eve banquet and various banquets of the royal clan, and has no free time to think about other things. Recently, he was so busy that he only returned home when it was almost Haishi.

That night when Xiao Tong stepped into the house, a few lanterns were held in the corridor of the front yard, which was unusually bright.

Little Lizhi hurriedly walked towards her.

"Little Lizhi, why don't you rest?" Xiao Tong said first.

Little Lizhi said: "The head of the house, uncle and fifth master are waiting for you in the inner hall!"

Xiao Tong was taken aback, and then he quickened his pace to go to the inner hall, presumably something important happened at home.

When we arrived in the inner hall, we saw Xiao Li sitting in the main seat, Xiao Zi and Xiao Yi sitting on the side. After seeing her, they all looked a little excited.Call her to sit down quickly.

"But what happened at home?" Xiao Tong asked urgently.

"Some clues have been found about father's affairs." Xiao Li said with a serious expression.

"What eyebrows?"

Xiao Tong and her father Xiao Yuanwang were imprisoned on the third day after the sudden death of geisha Wu Shisan. Ten days later, Xiao Yuanwang died in prison. According to the jailer and cell boss, he died of illness and was sent back from prison. The corpse didn't look abnormal, and Wu's autopsy showed that he died of illness, so the Xiao family naturally believed it.

In the end, the government came out with a verdict, naming Xiao Yuanwang as a profiteer who exploited geisha and disregarded human life.Everyone in the Xiao family knew that Xiao Yuanwang was a kind and benevolent person, so how could he be allowed to bear the infamy and be wronged to death?

Xiao Li worked as a minor official in Kaifeng Mansion, so Jiang asked him to devote himself to investigating the case, and tried to prove Xiao Yuanwang's innocence.In the past few months, Xiao Li ran into walls everywhere but couldn't find any clues.It wasn't until half a year ago that the new party began to cleanse the old party and expelled the original old party members from the Kaifeng mansion. In addition, they got to know Mr. Liang, and many officials in the Kaifeng mansion were willing to help Xiao because his father was the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment. chestnut.

After a year of hard investigation, I got the surprising truth.

"Father...he was drugged and poisoned to death!"

After finishing speaking, water welled up in Xiao Li's eyes.

Xiao Zi and Xiao Yi who were present all had frosty faces.

Everyone thought that Xiao Yuanwang died of illness in prison, but now the truth has come out, and they heard with their own ears that he was held down by the jailer, force-fed poisoned, struggled desperately with his hands and feet, and the living person finally stopped shaking.The scene of grief and indignation rushed over, and it was even more uncomfortable to think that the Xiao family had been kept in the dark!

Xiao Tong came from the soul, and Xiao Yuanwang had no father-daughter relationship at all, but after spending a year with the Xiao family, the Xiao family was kind and warm, treated her so well, she already regarded herself as a member of the Xiao family .Hearing the real cause of his father's death tonight, he suddenly felt uncomfortable.

"Grandma, does she know?" Xiao Tong asked again.

Xiao Yi said: "Understood, the eldest brother said after dinner that the old man cried for a long time, my mother and eldest sister sent her back to the room to coax her."

The most uncomfortable thing about this incident was that Jiang Shi, who was the mother of the deceased, was relieved to have the eldest sister and aunt comforting Xiao Tong.

Xiao Zi was puzzled, "But why did they poison uncle to death?"

After Wu Shisan died suddenly on stage, his family members immediately made a fuss in Kaifeng Mansion, framing Xiao Yuanwang for neglecting human life and not treating the life of a geisha as human life, which led to Wu Shisan's sudden death due to exhaustion. The Xiao family paid 1000 taels to the Wu family for Xiao Yuanwang's crime.If Xiao Yuanwang did not die in prison, he would be sentenced to exile in the lightest case, and beheaded in the worst case.

But why did they go so far as to poison the prison?If you want to put Xiao Yuan on the verge of death, if you continue to make a big deal out of this matter, won't you be punished if you directly sentence him to beheaded?

With such a simple truth, it is no wonder that Xiao Zi, who has always been simple-minded, also asked this question.

"How did eldest brother know that father was poisoned?" Xiao Tong asked.

Xiao Li said: "The head of the cell at that time had already pleaded guilty, but he didn't know why those people wanted to poison Dad to death?"

Xiao Tong frowned and thought for a while, then speculated: "Could it be... Dad knows some ulterior secret?"

Xiao Li and Xiao Yi thought about it and nodded in agreement.

"I thought so too." Xiao Li said.

Xiao Yi said: "But the uncle is in the prison, what can he know?"

The brothers and sisters pondered for nearly an hour, but they couldn't figure out what Xiao Yuanwang knew before he was alive.Xiao Tong returned to the bed still tossing and turning, Xiao Yi's last words kept echoing in his mind.

He said to himself: "Father is in the prison, what exactly do you know?"

"Or they knew something before going to prison."

She closed her eyes tightly and tried her best to think that her mind was still blank.I couldn't help cursing Yuanchen in my heart, if she wasn't such a dandy, she might be able to learn a thing or two from Xiao Yuanwang if she paid more attention to dental work.

Suddenly, a picture appeared in her mind. The black veil of the hood fluttered with the wind, revealing half of a monster-like face covered in powder and fat. The man in purple clothes came down from the carriage.

Xiao Tong suddenly opened his eyes, his face was shocked, and he had a bold guess: could the seductive man she saw that night really be Wu Shisan? To kill with poison?

But she still couldn't believe it. Wu Shisan died suddenly on the Goulan stage. Hundreds of spectators witnessed it with their own eyes. How could he fake his death?

Furthermore, even if the audience was not deceived, the head-captors and foremen of the Kaifeng Mansion also examined the corpse, and finally the family members claimed it. The whole process took more than ten days. .

What is the purpose of his suspended animation?

The author has something to say: I'm back, let me roar, is there still a little angel chasing me?