Jiang Yunzhu was a little annoyed. What? Was he trying to force the sale? She put the hairpin on the table, lowered her head and said nothing.
The hairpin finally returned to Shen Fengming's hands.
It was a little late today and this kind of thing happened again. Jiang Yunzhu decided to stay at home for another night and go to the county town tomorrow morning.
The night was dark and the silence was suddenly broken by the melodious sound of a piano, like the wind among pines or the sound of water flowing down a cliff, each one touching the heart.
Everyone in the Jiang family heard it. They all stopped what they were doing and listened quietly to the sound of the piano.
Jiang Yunzhu naturally heard the music. She herself could not play the piano or paint, but she knew how to appreciate it. The music was really wonderful, but the song was called "Guanju", "Guanjuan, on the island of the river..."
Jiang Yunzhu was troubled, but was soon attracted by the sound of the piano and immersed in it.
Suddenly the music stopped and the Jiang family fell into silence.
"This must be the sound of Mr. Shen playing the piano." Chen didn't know why, but after hearing the sound of the piano, her heart softened.
"Yeah." Jiang Cheng hugged her and they snuggled together.
"It sounds so nice." Chen said softly.
The next morning, Jiang Yunzhu took Jiang Cheng's carriage back to Qishanju.
Shen Fengming followed on horseback. Jiang Yunzhu looked at him twice and saw nothing unusual, so she let him go.
"Boss." After not seeing each other for two days, Xue Jing and others missed Jiang Yunzhu very much. When they saw her coming back, they all came out to greet her warmly.
Jiang Yunzhu looked at them, then looked at her own store, and was in a good mood.
Chabulang opened for business, and Jiang Yunzhu stood behind the counter checking the accounts for the past two days.
Just then, Qin Zhen came in hurriedly from outside.
"Miss Jiang, I have something to tell you." he said.
He had been through a lot, and was always steady, but today he was so flustered... Jiang Yunzhu felt something was wrong and asked, "What's going on?"
Qin Zhen looked around.
Jiang Yunzhu motioned for him to follow her to the backyard.
There is a guest room in the backyard, but ordinary people are not allowed to enter.
Qin Zhen walked into the room and said without even sitting down, "The day before yesterday, all the grain I transported to Wuling County and Huayang County was seized!"
"What do you mean?" Jiang Yunzhu didn't want to sit down anymore.
It turned out that the day before yesterday, another batch of grain was transported from Luzhou to Wuling County and Huayang County. However, as soon as it arrived at the gate of Luzhou City, a group of soldiers came over and said that they suspected that this batch of grain contained private salt and wanted to take the grain away for inspection.
The person who escorted the grain was the steward Qin. He said explicitly and implicitly that the grain was from the Changyuan Grain Company and that the Qin family had connections with various government officials in Luzhou, and even mentioned He Zhizhou. However, the leader refused to listen and directly ordered the grain to be transported back to the Salt Transport Bureau.
This batch of grain weighed more than ten thousand kilograms, and the matter was of great importance, so Butler Qin found Qin Zhen overnight.
Qin Zhen felt extremely wronged, as there was no smuggled salt in his grain. The Salt Transport Bureau was a department that had nothing to do with him. Qin Zhen immediately went to find He Zhizhou and told him about it, hoping that he could help him get the grain back.
Who would have thought that He Zhizhou looked embarrassed and said that salt and iron were major matters of the court, and Lord Ma of the Salt Transport Bureau was impartial and fair, so he could only do his best but could not guarantee the results.
Qin Zhen waited anxiously, and finally He Zhizhou came back, only to see He Zhizhou shaking his head.
"Let's wait until Lord Ma inspects it. Didn't you say there is no private salt in your grain? Then there should be no problem." said He Zhizhou.
Qin Zhen had no choice but to go back.
The grain supply to Wuling County and Huayang County could not be cut off, otherwise all the previous efforts would be wasted. Fortunately, they still had a lot of grain in their warehouse. After discussing with the Tao family, he decided to try to transport 2,500 kilograms of grain each.
This time, no one came to check the grain, and the grain arrived safely in Wuling County and Huayang County, but Qin Zhen was still worried. He happened to pass by Qishanju, so he came in to discuss it with Jiang Yunzhu to see what she thought about it.
Jiang Yunzhu frowned when she heard this. This matter was definitely not simple. The Salt Transport Department was a somewhat special department under the Ministry of Revenue, and He Zhizhou did not have the right to directly govern it. But the officialdom has always been a network of favors, and she did not believe that He Zhizhou had no relationship with the Salt Transport Department.
Did Qin Zhen not agree to the marriage proposal from He Zhizhou, and was He Zhizhou deliberately making things difficult for her
It shouldn't be the case. Even if the Qin family is rich, they are just merchants after all. If it weren't for the recent serious disaster in Changfeng Prefecture and the shortage of food, and the Qin family's improved status, He Zhizhou might not have to choose the Qin family for marriage.
What's more, Qin Zhen is also experienced and will definitely handle this matter satisfactorily.
Who is he then? And what is his purpose
There was still too little information and Jiang Yunzhu couldn't make sense of it.
At this time, a man walked out of Chabuliang and walked slowly westward. If anyone noticed him, they would find that he had just entered Chabuliang at the same time as Qin Zhen.
After passing two streets, the man suddenly quickened his pace and headed towards the largest inn in the west of the city.
After entering the inn, he went upstairs and knocked on the door softly.
"Come in." A clear male voice.
The man walked in, closed the door, and knelt down, saying, "I am here to see you, Master."
"Get up." Lin Ting'an asked casually, "How is it?"
The man stood up and told what he had seen and heard.
Lin Ting'an listened, taking a sip of tea from time to time, with no expression unusual on his face.
After the man finished speaking, he waved his hand and let him leave.
"Boss, is the tea still cold?" He raised his eyebrows.
"It's a newly opened teahouse in Wuling County. The owner is a girl. She's a great cook, even better than Chef Gao in our mansion. She won this teahouse." A guard-like man behind him reported.
"You beat Gao Shun? That means your skills are really good." Lin Ting'an said. His voice was calm, and no emotion could be heard.
The guards behind him shuddered. That Gao Shun was too bold. He actually went out to compete in cooking without telling anyone in the mansion. Moreover, he lost...
Suddenly, Lin Ting'an stood up and walked downstairs.
After walking two streets, a carriage suddenly came towards this side. Lin Ting'an stopped and the guards behind him held the knives at their waists and became alert.
At this time, the carriage turned a corner and slowly slowed down, so it seemed to be just a false alarm.
But when it turned, it swept across a woman, and the woman pounced directly on Lin Tingan.
For a moment, his heart was filled with warmth and fragrance, but Lin Ting'an frowned.
The woman seemed to be frightened and her whole body was weak and limp.
"Lin Qing." Lin Ting'an said.
The guard behind him, Lin Qing, used the hilt of the knife to hold the woman, allowing her to leave Lin Ting'an's body without falling to the ground.
The woman was wearing a bright red dress and her waist was slender. She raised her eyes and saw Lin Tingan, and said in surprise, "Young Master, why are you here?" Then she was about to salute Lin Tingan.
Lin Ting'an's face darkened slightly. He looked the woman up and down again and felt that she looked a little familiar.
"I am Jiang Yunxiu, a maid in the kitchen of the mansion. I happened to pass by here on my way to visit my relatives. Thank you for saving me just now, young master." Jiang Yunxiu said. As she spoke, she bowed, and her twisting waist was like a willow in March.
To be honest, Jiang Yunxiu was very beautiful, but it was also obvious that she wanted to get into bed.
Lin Ting'an is the eldest son of the Anping Marquis Mansion. He is proficient in both civil and military affairs. He is half the person in power in the Anping Marquis Mansion. There are too many women like her in the mansion.
Lin Ting'an ignored her and continued walking forward.
"Young Master." Jiang Yunxiu called softly, with a hint of grievance and anxiety. If it were a soft-hearted man, he might have stopped in his tracks after hearing her call.
"Go back and tell the butler, he knows what to do." Lin Ting'an just said.
"Yes." Lin Qing agreed.
Jiang Yunzhu also heard this, and her face turned pale. Wasn't she pretty enough? How could the man be so stubborn! No, she couldn't be driven out of the house. She almost tore the handkerchief in her hand.
Soon, Lin Ting'an arrived at the tea shop.
He stopped and looked at the three big characters on the plaque for half a quarter of an hour.
Lin Qing also saw the three words. He didn't know much about calligraphy, but he felt that the three words were well written. Just looking at them, he felt like there were mountains and seas. He really didn't know who wrote them.
Before the tea had cooled down, Jiang Yunzhu had already sent Qin Zhen away. At this moment, she was standing behind the counter in a daze, still thinking about what Qin Zhen had just said.
"What happened?" Shen Fengming came in from behind and stood behind the counter with Jiang Yunzhu as usual.
Jiang Yunzhu came back to her senses and shook her head.
Shen Fengming didn't ask any more questions and just stood there.
Jiang Yunzhu looked at him, then picked up the account book again and checked the accounts of the previous two days. Then she missed Xie Chen a little, because he had done this before.
"Do you want me to help you look?" Shen Fengming asked.
Jiang Yunzhu paused. No, he shouldn't be so nice to her. She was afraid that she would really be tempted. And wasn't it rumored that Commander Shen didn't like women
Suddenly, Jiang Yunzhu thought back to that night when he stood in the cold wind. He said he had never thought about getting married before, and that his father and mother had always quarreled, and he was tired of that kind of quarrel...
At this moment, she suddenly felt a warm feeling on her fingertips. Jiang Yunzhu looked down and saw that Shen Fengming was about to take the account book from her hand, and his fingers touched her fingertips.
Jiang Yunzhu quickly withdrew her hand and decided that some things should be made clear.
"Mr. Shen, I have no intention of marrying into a rich and powerful family. I just want to be a leisurely person." Jiang Yunzhu said. She felt that she had made it clear enough.
"Yes." Shen Fengming agreed and started to look through the account book.
Jiang Yunzhu was dumbfounded. Did he understand what she was saying
"I, I just want to marry someone who shares the same ideals as me." Jiang Yunzhu decided to make it clearer that they were not suitable. She wanted to spend her days in leisure, he was the commander of the Qilin Guard, she could not play the piano, chess, calligraphy or painting, but the Shen family was a family of poets and scholars in the Xia Dynasty.
Shen Fengming looked up.
Just then, Lin Ting'an and Lin Qing walked in from outside.
He saw Jiang Yunzhu at first sight and was slightly stunned.
Jiang Yunzhu also saw him and was stunned. She really didn't expect to see him here.
The two looked at each other.
Shen Fengming happened to see this scene, his eyes were deep.