Zhou Shaojin couldn't help but look at the person who was shouting.
The man who was shouting was in his early twenties, wearing an indigo-colored short-sleeved shirt, and was tall. Although his face could not be seen clearly because of the distance, his gestures were very agile.
Hearing Qin Ziping's answer, he immediately ran over, stood on the shore, saluted respectfully towards the bow, and said loudly: "I am a clerk at Jiaxing Fangji Silk Shop. Our boss is in Changzhou to buy goods. I heard that the fourth master and the old lady of the Cheng family passed by Changzhou, so I was ordered to wait here. I will report to him as soon as the fourth master and the old lady arrive..."
As he was talking, a fat man in a blue silk gown came over, wiping the sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief, and said, "What's your name, young man? I'm Du Ming, the head shopkeeper of Fang's Silk Shop. Our boss will be here soon. Please let him know."
As he said this, he bowed deeply to Qin Zian.
Qin Zian smiled and said, "So they are the shopkeeper and the clerk of Master Fang's family in Jiaxing. Please wait a moment, I will go and report to our fourth master and old lady."
Zhou Shaojin understood after hearing this.
If she remembered correctly, Jiaxing Fangji Silk and Cloth Shop should be the property of Jiaxing's richest man Fang Xintong.
She thought of the elegant eldest daughter of the Fang family.
Another year has passed, and the eldest daughter of the Fang family has grown one year older. I wonder if she is married
She thought about it, closed the boat window, and told Chunwan and others: "The fourth master has guests, and they may come on board to greet the old lady later, so don't wander around."
Chunwan and others responded in unison.
After a while, she heard the sound of footsteps coming from the deck.
Zhou Shaojin even stayed indoors and never went out.
It was not until Nanny Lu came to invite her to have dinner that she followed her to Madam Guo's cabin.
Cheng Chi is also there.
Mrs. Guo looked a little unhappy, but Cheng Chi was as usual. When he saw Zhou Shaojin coming in, he even smiled and nodded at Zhou Shaojin. But such an ordinary and simple action somehow touched Mrs. Guo. She suddenly burst into tears and choked up, "Silang, you should go to work as an official! Don't worry about the mess in this family, just live your own life. Fang Xintong, this bastard, is just a little scholar, but he dares to put on airs in front of you, and doesn't even look at who he is and whether he can handle it..."
"Mom, mom," Cheng Chi stepped forward and took Madam Guo's shoulder, whispering to comfort his mother, "It's not as serious as you said. He just said a few words that made you uncomfortable. Unless you are locked up at home for the rest of your life, it's inevitable that you will hear some unjust words and suffer some injustice in your life. Don't worry about me. I know my own business." As he spoke, he glanced at Zhou Shaojin and said, "Look, there is a youngster here, you will scare her like this."
After listening to this, Mrs. Guo finally stopped crying.
Zhou Shaojin thought that he couldn't avoid it anyway, so he simply took out a handkerchief and handed it to Mrs. Guo.
Mrs. Guo took the handkerchief and wiped the tears from her eyes. She said to Zhou Shaojin, "Good boy, I'm not in a good mood today, so I won't have dinner with you. Ask the kitchen to make you something you want to eat. Come over tomorrow morning and recite sutras for me."
Zhou Shaojin answered "yes" obediently and went back to the house with Chunwan.
The Spring Festival Gala was arranging dinner for Zhou Shaojin, but Zhou Shaojin was thinking about Fang Xintong.
Last time, when the second branch's ancestor celebrated his 80th birthday, the Fang family also sent people to pay their respects to the second branch's ancestor. Even if the two families were not close, they should have had a good relationship. Why did it make Mrs. Guo so angry this time
She had a quick dinner and went to look for Jiying.
Ji Ying stood in the middle of the cabin with her legs slightly apart, twisting her body back and forth.
"Can you help me ask Qin Ziping?" Zhou Shaojin said directly, "see if he knows what Fang Xintong said to Old Madam Guo and Fourth Master Cheng? Why is Old Madam Guo so angry?"
"Okay!" Jiying responded casually.
Zhou Shaojin couldn't help but push her and said, "Be serious. This matter is very important."
"I know, I know." Ji Ying said hurriedly, "Just wait for my good news tomorrow."
Zhou Shaojin wanted to ask Cheng Chi, but then she thought of Cheng Chi's expression just now, and it was obvious that he didn't want to talk about it anymore, so she had to return to the cabin with a heavy heart.
Before dawn the next day, Ji Jian came to find her and said, "The Fang Xintong you mentioned, the Fourth Master never met him. He was the one who kept talking to the old lady, saying that the two families were old friends, and that the Fourth Master wanted to sell the looms in Hangzhou and he was interested in buying them, but his business was too big in those days and he couldn't make ends meet, so he didn't dare to talk to the Fourth Master about buying looms. He just took the job of Jiaxing Prefecture a few days ago to weave tribute for the inner palace, and who knew that there were not enough looms. I wanted to take this opportunity to ask the Fourth Master if he had any extra looms, so that the Fourth Master could find a way to give him some."
This sounds normal!
Why is Mrs. Guo sad
Zhou Shaojin was very confused.
Ji Ying whispered to her, "Our Fourth Master did something amazing—he thought the looms were too troublesome, so he sold all the weaving mills under the name of the Cheng family. Before that, the Fourth Master asked Huaishan to greet the Fang family first. The businessman made a profit, and the Fang family actually bargained with the Cheng Master! In a fit of anger, the Fourth Master sold all the looms to a man named Zheng Si. Zheng Si was originally a grassroots person, so it was naturally not his turn to weave tribute for the court. But he had looms and weavers! It would be fine if Fang Xintong did not take the work of the government office. If he took the work of the government office, he would not be able to take it all with the scale of the Fang family's weaving mill. But if he gave it to others, Zheng Si is now the largest weaving mill in Jiangnan and has the best weavers in Jiangnan. If he wants to bypass Zheng Si, then he will have to wait until the time comes and he can't deliver the goods and pay the money! But if he gives the work to Zheng Si, it is equivalent to taking a job for Zheng Si. Not only does Zheng Si not have to be grateful to him, but he can also bargain with Fang Xintong at will... He came here to surrender. But who knew that when Mrs. Guo heard this, she thought that he had slapped the Fourth Master, and now that he knew something bad had happened, he was still trying to pay New Year's greetings to the chickens, and he had no good intentions... "
It’s so complicated!
Zhou Shaojin reminded Jiying for a long time, saying things like "Don't run around outside, be careful not to be discovered by the people from the Cao Gang", and then the two of them dispersed.
As a result, early the next morning, first Zheng Si rushed over from Hangzhou Prefecture, and then the eldest daughter of the Fang family came on board to pay her respects to Madam Guo.
Zhou Shaojin was shocked and said to Chunwan privately: "Who said that being a businessman is easy? I think it's not easy for them to make money!"
Chun Wan laughed and said, "Fortunately, Zheng Si came by himself. If he had brought his wife to kowtow to our old lady, the two families would have collided."
"So what?" Zhou Shaojin sighed, "Look at the eldest daughter of the Fang family, such a refined person, for her brother, she can stand on the deck and blow the cold wind for half an hour, meet Zheng Si's wife, and greet Zheng Si's wife, what's so difficult about that!"
When the eldest daughter of the Fang family came to visit, Mrs. Guo used the excuse that she was about to leave, so she would not entertain her. Who knew that she would stay at the dock and said that she would not go back to the temple until the Cheng family's boat was far away.
As a result, Mrs. Guo made her stand there in the cold wind.
Zheng Si came to see Cheng Chi, but Cheng Chi refused to meet him. He even used the same excuse as Madam Guo and left Zheng Si hanging on the dock.
Looking at the gradually rising sun, Zhou Shaojin opened the window and looked outside.
The eldest daughter of the Fang family was still standing on the dock, but Zheng Si was nowhere to be seen.
"It's true that businessmen are seeking profit." Zhou Shaojin muttered a few words and went to have breakfast with Mrs. Guo.
Old Madam Guo had regained her composure. She asked Zhou Shaojin with a smile whether she had slept well yesterday. The kitchen had made some pickled vegetable buns and asked her to try them to see if they were delicious. She refused to mention what happened yesterday evening.
Zhou Shaojin seemed to have forgotten it and continued talking to Mrs. Guo with a smile.
The boat started slowly.
Zhou Shaojin found an opportunity to look out the window and saw Miss Fang standing at the dock, looking at the boat going farther and farther away, somewhat bewildered.
She sighed in her heart and looked down on Fang Xintong a little.
You should solve your own problems yourself. Why do you push the eldest daughter of the Fang family out like this
This thought is just hidden in my heart.
At night, they stayed at a small pier called Yiqiao, more than a hundred miles away from Changzhou, and Zheng Si asked to see Cheng Chi.
Zhou Shaojin was stunned.
She didn't expect Zheng Si to follow her all the way.
But Cheng Chi still didn't see him.
Zheng Si left disappointed.
They passed Wuxi and arrived in Suzhou safely.
Zhou Shaojin followed Cheng Chi to look at chess records every day and got along very well with Cheng Chi.
She became more and more courageous. She told Cheng Chi: "I promised to bring gifts back to my grandmother, aunt and sister. When we get to Hangzhou, can we go shopping? I heard that there are many things in Hangzhou. There is nothing you can't buy, only things you don't know..."
After Cheng Chi finished explaining a few moves of chess, he left with Zhou Shaojin to figure it out on his own, while he took a book and read it nearby.
He looked up as he listened and said, "It won't be too late to buy more when we go back, so that there won't be anything everywhere that's covered with your stuff."
Zhou Shaojin's ears felt hot as he thought about the long list he had drawn up before going out.
Cheng Chi ordered Huaishan: "Go and tell the boatman that we will not dock in Jiaxing Prefecture, but directly land in Hangzhou Prefecture."
Zhou Shaojin calculated the days and asked, "How many days should we stay in Hangzhou Prefecture?"
"Let's go directly to Jintuo Mountain." Cheng Chi said with a smile, "Let's go see the tidal bore of Qiantang River on our way back!"
This is also possible!
Zhou Shaojin smiled embarrassedly.
But Cheng Chi underestimated the resilience of Fang and Zheng.
They soon caught up with them and reached Hangzhou Prefecture.
Zhou Shaojin asked, "Are you really not going to see them? Wouldn't that be bad?"
Sometimes Cheng Chi felt that he had no interest in looking at the chessboards that Zhou Shaojin had set up. He took out a chessboard from somewhere, and when he got tired of reading, he would occasionally set up a chess endgame to try to continue playing. He was setting up the chessboards at this moment. After hearing what Zhou Shaojin said, he didn't even raise his head and said, "Can I ask Zheng Si to return the loom and weavers to me? If not, then why meet them? It can't solve the problem! I don't have time to listen to them quarreling!"
Zhou Shaojin listened, thoughtful.
※
Sisters, please give extra chapters to Tianwaixianxian.
I corrected the typo, then forgot about it. Today's update will be recommended until around 5pm...
※(To be continued)