Chen Qing said as she stepped into the gate of this courtyard.
In addition to a pair of waitresses on both sides of the door, there were four other girls standing on the left and right in front of the screen wall inside the door. When one of them heard Chen Qing's words, she raised her head with a slight expression on her face, and then quickly lowered her eyes.
However, Chen Qing noticed the little movement of the waitress and pointed at her: "Take us in for a walk."
Seeing Chen Qing pointing over, the waitress politely bowed slightly and made a gesture of invitation. She motioned to the side door and said in fluent English: "Okay, Miss Chen, Ms. Brandt, this way please."
Emmanuel followed Chen Qing and entered the side door on the left under the guidance of the waitress, and then entered the second door. Then he noticed something and asked: "It's strange, why is the door just now not in the courtyard?" Where’s the center?”
Chen Qing walked in the front, looking around at the completely renovated houses and courtyards. After hearing this, she said to the maid who was following her: "You know what, explain it to her?"
The waitress slowed down slightly and followed the two of them. When Chen Qing asked, she saw that Emmanuel had just changed his words to Chinese with a more formal accent. She also replied in Mandarin: "Ms. Brandt, this is according to Chinese According to the layout of the Feng Shui theory, among the Five Elements and Bagua, the Xun Gua is in the southeast, and the five elements belong to wind, which is conducive to travel, so the main entrance of the courtyard is built in the southeast, which means safe entry and exit."
Emmanuel listened very seriously. After the waitress finished speaking, she nodded and said, "It's really interesting. I'm more interested in this matter. Can you recommend me a book that introduces the Chinese Five Elements and Bagua?"
The waitress said: "The Book of Changes, it's the source of all Chinese Five Elements and Bagua theory. However, Waitress Brandt, this book is very obscure, even ordinary Chinese people can't understand it."
"Do you understand?"
The waitress hesitated a little and said, "If it's just a simple explanation, I can help."
"Then, you can teach me these days."
The waitress glanced at Chen Qing in the front, and seeing that she had no objection, she nodded slightly: "This is my honor."
The three of them entered the second courtyard, and Emmanuel looked around again. Compared with the narrow alleys outside, this place really is where Chen Qing said the city's heritage lies, whether it's the ancient trees in the courtyard or the The surrounding green bricks and blue tiles have an antique beauty. Unfortunately, it is still early spring. If it is midsummer, the rich green shade of the trees and the blue bricks and green tiles will definitely complement each other even more.
Chen Qing in front suddenly said again: "Isn't it beautiful?"
Emmanuel nodded: "Yes."
Chen Qing said: "Unfortunately, except for these ancient trees in the yard, everything else was basically rebuilt in the past year."
Emmanuel was a little surprised and looked around again: "It doesn't look like it."
Chen Qing turned her head and glanced at her: "Starting from the gate you just entered, everything has been rebuilt. However, the bricks and tiles on the original building were removed piece by piece, and the materials that could not fill the gaps were rebuilt."
Emmanuel was a little stunned and subconsciously glanced at the waitress beside him.
The waitress noticed Emmanuel's gaze and shook her head slightly: "I just moved here a week ago, but as Miss Chen said, it was all rebuilt. This place, um... has suffered serious damage, even Repair is impossible, only rebuilding.”
Chen Qing, who was walking in front, said: "Actually, I wanted the boss to choose a courtyard house next to Houhai or the Forbidden City. I didn't expect him to choose Nanluoguxiang here. Ha, it's understandable. The boss likes big places, and this is a standard courtyard house with five entrances. Well, moreover, they probably knew that the quality of this house was really poor, so they built a garden next to it, with a total area of more than 5,000 square meters. Now in this city, there are not many private houses with such a large area. Parts of yards of the same size have become memorials.”
After entering the nearest courtyard, Chen Qing did not stop, but walked to a side door on the right. After stepping through the side door, an open garden modeled on the Suzhou garden style appeared in front of her.
Unfortunately, the season is still wrong.
However, it has obviously been carefully reorganized here. Even though it lacks the greenery that a garden should have, the scattered pavilions, pools and pavilions are still full of ancient charm.
Chen Qing walked along the stone corridor to the front yard of the garden again. She walked to a small pavilion by the pool and sat down on a stone chair in the pavilion. Finally, she just remembered and looked at the waitress who was following her. He is about 1.7 meters tall, slim and well-proportioned, with a delicate oval face and a pair of almond eyes. He is instantly charming and natural: "What's your name?"
When the waitress saw Emmanuel casually sitting down next to Chen Qing, she didn't dare to have the same thought. She still stood by respectfully and heard the words: "Jiangshan Wu."
Chen Qing curled her lips: "Silver snake dancing in the mountains, wax figure in the original horse?"
The waitress named Jiang Shan Wu nodded.
"Heh, let me guess, you don't have an older brother or younger brother named Jiang Yuanchi, right?"
Jiang Shanwu matched Chen Qing's teasing, slightly raised the corners of her mouth and said, "It's my sister."
"How old?"
"Two years younger than me, she is at Peking University."
Speaking of the name of a certain university, Jiang Shanwu's tone added some pride.
Chen Qing, who was sitting at the stone table, raised her hand to support her chin, her expression a little lazy, and she didn't seem to feel a certain emotion in Jiang Shanwu's tone, and said lightly: "Is it beautiful?"
Jiang Shanwu paused and nodded: "Beautiful."
"Bring her here for a look in the next few days. Since you can enter this courtyard, she should be fine. If you can, just stay."
Jiang Shanwu raised his head and glanced at Chen Qing, but in less than a second, he narrowed his eyes again and said softly: "My sister is only a freshman."
"This is the best. There's nothing wrong with my brain. I haven't put much thought into it yet, so I can just train it from scratch."
Jiang Shanwu bit her lip, raised her head again, and looked at Chen Qing: "Miss Chen, my sister will not come, and my parents will not agree to her dropping out of school now."
Chen Qing looked at her and suddenly turned around: "Do you know French?"
Jiang Shanwu blinked several times quickly, wanting to deny it, but feeling Chen Qing's equally charming but obviously sharp eyes, she finally just nodded lightly.
"So, you understood what I said to Aiman at the gate."
Jiang Shanwu and Chen Qing looked at each other. After a moment, she bit her lip and said, "Miss Chen, I, I think what you just said is very disrespectful. It is objectifying women."
"Oh, objectifying women, haha, which university did you graduate from?"
Jiang Shanwu hesitated slightly and said, "Xi'an International Studies University."
"No wonder I have learned so many new Western words, objectifying women, haha, by the way, I am from Shanghai Foreign Studies University, so we are, well, what the hell, we are quite destined anyway." Saying this, Chen Qing suddenly looked towards Jiang Shanwu hooked her hand: "Come here."
Jiang Shanwu hesitated for a moment and stepped forward. Seeing that Chen Qing still raised her hand, she could only move forward a little more until the delicate fingertip in front of her touched her chin.
Chen Qing unknowingly imitated a certain man's movements and raised the delicate chin of the girl in front of her, and said: "Jiang Shan Wu, this name is a bit big, and she also likes to be smart. If she can't hold on, be careful of the beauty's fate."
Jiang Shanwu didn't know how to refute for a moment, and she didn't dare to hide away. Tears soon filled her eyes.
Emmanuel watched Chen Qing being so 'bullying'. She was a straightforward person, and she wanted to help persuade her at first. However, at this moment, for some reason, looking at the situation in front of her, she suddenly felt a little afraid to persuade her. .
mainly.
There is an instinctive feeling in my heart that I don't want to get burned.
Chen Qing watched the girl in front of her shed tears. She opened her hand slightly and caught a drop accurately. She held it up to her eyes and tilted her head to look at it. Suddenly she seemed to realize that she didn't know how to deal with it. She casually put it in front of Emmanuel: "You Try it, I heard that the tears of beautiful girls are sweet."
Emmanuel seemed to be under a spell and subconsciously stretched out his tongue to lick it.
Salty.
Clearly, deceived.
Chen Qing withdrew her right hand that had its tears licked off, raised her chin again, and watched the girl in front of her cry silently from crying to slowly sobbing with admiration. This went on for a while, until one of the two men who followed Chen Qing and Lin Su The weird atmosphere was finally broken when the female guard Catherine Elgar came over.
Catherine Elgar just glanced at Jiang Shanwu who finally came to his senses and began to wipe her tears in a panic because of the appearance of an outsider, and said to Chen Qing: "Ms. Ran Yue is here."
Chen Qing nodded, stood up, and finally looked at Jiang Shanwu, who barely stopped sobbing: "Just now you and Aiman explained the reason for opening the door to the southeast. You have a good foundation in Chinese studies, or you may have been prepared in advance. So, the fifth chapter of the Tao Te Ching Zhang, do you know?"
Jiang Shanwu avoided Chen Qing's gaze and did not answer.
Chen Qing said: "There is no one in this world who is not a mutt. So, don't forget what I just said, and don't think that I will quit in the worst case. You are so smart, maybe you don't know who you are serving yet, but , How can it be so easy to get out of such a courtyard once you have entered?"
After Chen Qing finished speaking, she turned and walked towards the nearest side door.
Catherine Elgar hurriedly followed, and of course she found Chen Qing in an angry state. My boss, how should I put it, was as docile as a kitten in front of a certain man, and he was really hard to get along with on weekdays. . After looking inquiringly at Emmanuel who was following her, Catherine gave up the idea of inquiring when she saw that she just shrugged.
The 'Ran Yue' Catherine is talking about is one of the people in the team formed by Chen Qing in China. She is 35 years old this year. She was also a member of the public servants in Shanghai earlier. After Chen Qing successfully established a foothold with Simon, she lobbied Ran Yue came over to help herself. In recent years, there has been a boom in the sea industry in China. Ran Yue, who is already 35 years old and is only an associate professor, also knows that she will not have much future if she continues. In addition, the salary offered by Chen Qing is very generous, so she decisively quit her job. position.
However, Ran Yue's husband, who also worked in the government department and was only half a rank above her, did not resign, leaving a way out. This was also Chen Qing's suggestion.
The main reason is that both Ran Yue and her husband Cheng Shangxin are from a well-known family. However, due to various reasons in those years, the couple's immediate support was gone, and it was impossible to climb up. However, both the Ran family and the Cheng family still retain considerable connections.
It's just a matter of connections.
how to say.
As the old saying goes, if you are poor in the busy city, no one will care about you, but if you are rich in the mountains, you will have distant relatives.
When everyone has equal status and can exchange resources with each other, that is the best state of human connections. Otherwise, relying only on friendship is the most unreliable thing and will be gone after a few times.
Ran Yue and his wife were in this state at first.
Then, Ran Yue chose to resign to help Chen Qing, and in disguise, got on the thick thigh of the Westeros system, because the Westeros system has made various moves on the southeast coast, including Shanghai. Projects like this always require official liaisons, so the already hopeless game of the Ran Cheng family was revived again.
In the past year, Cheng Shangxin not only successfully moved up a level, but also moved from the original Qingshui Yamen Department to a core National Development and Reform Commission department of a municipality.
Of course, the Westeros system also gives instructions.
Through the introduction of Ran Yue and his wife, Chen Qing has developed a very wide network of contacts in Shanghai, because he is just using the influence of various projects in the Westeros system to push people along, and there is no substantial contribution. Speaking of which, the gains are even greater. Bigger.
Chen Qing came to the living room in the front courtyard of the courtyard. A round-faced woman wearing a white suit with long shawl hair, which is quite fashionable in China at least, quickly stood up from her chair, and several other attendants also stood up.
She completely lost the sharpness she had just in front of Jiang Shanwu. Chen Qing spread her arms and hugged Ran Yue affectionately, and said with a smile: "Sister Ran, thank you for your hard work. I haven't returned to Shanghai for so many days. Brother Cheng must be sure Scolding me."
Ran Yue also hugged Chen Qing and said with a smile: "That damn guy won't miss me. He may have hooked up with so many girls."
"Oh, Brother Cheng is not that kind of person."
The two chatted and laughed, and Ran Yue introduced a few people who were accompanying them. Except for one of the girls, who was Ran Yue's assistant, the other three men of different ages were all big names in the jade circle in the capital.
Ran Yue and others came here mainly because Simon had told them to prepare jade nameplates for all the girls in the Guofeng Art Troupe.
Chen Qing's execution ability is very strong, and she has already completed this matter during this time.
Everyone was chatting, and Lin Su, who had just been dismissed by Chen Qing as the shopkeeper and could only be responsible for cleaning up and settling down, also rushed over. After another greeting, everyone quickly got down to business.
Ran Yue personally opened a large password box that she carried with her. Inside were long and exquisite jewelry packaging boxes. Everyone put on their gloves solemnly, and then a middle-aged man picked out a box and opened it with his own hands. Displayed in front of Chen Qing.
Before anyone else could react, Lin Su had already noticed something strange.
Inside the box is an obviously finely carved jade necklace. The chain is made of platinum and the pendant is made of selected Hetian jade seeds. This one happens to be the most precious 'red skinned and white fleshed' type.
However, the inscription on the jade pendant obviously did not meet the requirements.
Simon originally gave 100 names based on vocabulary in the Book of Songs. Chen Qing found several top jade carving masters in the circle. Starting from the selection of jade materials, he designed a special carving plan for each name. .
The precious "red-skinned, white-fleshed" Hetian jade seed material in front of her was carved with the seal character "Nine Tails". Lin Su picked it up and looked at it carefully. A lifelike nine-tailed fox was also carved on the other side of the jade.
The name Simon gave did have something to do with foxes. It was named "Youhu" after a poem in the Book of Songs.
And this, Kyuubi
What the hell
Nine-tailed fox
The name Simon gave did not contain these two words.
However, before Lin Su could raise her doubts, Chen Qing had already snatched the pendant away: "That's right, this one is mine."
Lin Su immediately became angry: "Don't forget, he doesn't like this the most."
"I have told the boss, and knowing that you are in charge of accounts, I will pay for this myself." He said, looking at an old man who came with Ran Yue: "Master Ning, I can directly pay for it." Put it on?"
The jade carving master surnamed Ning didn't know why Chen Lin and the two girls had a small conflict just now. However, Chen Qing was usually the one who came forward. This time, 101 jade pendants, even if they were shared with a few people, was still a big deal. Thinking that this woman could introduce more to them in the future, her attitude was naturally respectful and she said with a smile: "Of course, this is not an amulet or anything like that. It needs to be consecrated. Just wear it. But, Miss Chen, don't wear it." It can be easily removed, but jade must be nurtured. If a person nourishes jade for three years, jade will nourish a person for a lifetime.”
After hearing what Master Ning said, Chen Qing was not in a hurry to put it on, and said with a smile: "In this case, I'd better choose a better day." After saying that, she put the jade pendant back into the box and looked at it carefully in her hand. He also praised: "You did a great job, Master Ning. I will definitely come back to you if I have such an order in the future." Finally, he looked at Lin Su: "Since you attach so much importance to it, you can do the last job. Be careful. After a long day of running, I need to take a nap, I’m so tired.”
After speaking and everyone nodded, Chen Qing took the box and left the reception room.
Everyone sent Chen Qing away together. They watched the girl step into the gate of the inner courtyard and were about to return when they heard a faint humming.
*…
*There is a fox Suisui in Qiliang. The heart is worried, and the son has no clothes.
*Youhu Suisui…
Chen Qing was obviously still humming, but the singing quickly disappeared as the girl moved away.
Lin Su heard that this was a tune from "The Book of Songs: You Fox" composed by a certain man himself. Unknown to others, Master Ning, who had just been asked about it by Chen Qing, looked appreciative: "Unexpectedly, Miss Chen hummed the Book of Songs casually. They all sound so good, so full of national charm."
Others echoed.
Lin Su just wanted to roll her eyes and refrained from revealing that Chen Qing just sang someone else's song. She returned to the living room to personally inspect the hundred jade pendants sent by Ran Yue and others.
On the other side, Chen Qing came to the inner courtyard. The west wing had been packed up and she would stay here for the next few days.
Entering his room, he signaled the maid to put the bath water for him, took a hot bath, came out wearing a short bathrobe, took out the jade pendant again, stood in front of a full-length mirror in the bedroom and looked at the jade pendant. , and The Man in the Mirror .
There was a murmur in the room: "'Charming the king will bring disaster to the country and the people', oh, what a sin. It's a joke that a man has lost his country and still relies on a woman. Even if... a man can't suppress his own Women deserve to lose their country."
After thinking about it for a while, Chen Qing put on the jade pendant with the two ancient seal characters "Nine Tails" engraved on it, looked in the mirror, and then simply took off her bathrobe.
Um.
The location is just right.
It will definitely produce a good jade.
After admiring it for herself, Chen Qing turned around and threw herself on the big bed. Before wrapping herself in a quilt, she seemed to mutter to herself: "It's none of my business."