Everyone's eyes followed the direction of the distant voice, and saw a group of people walking by the pool, surrounded by a bloated man, wearing a mink brocade robe, with a rare ring around his waist in Ningzhou, playing with the emerald ring in his left hand while walking, perhaps because the body was extraordinarily weighty, and the fat on his waist could be seen shaking through the clothes.

This humble man has a smile on his face, and his eyes are narrowed into a slit, giving people a sense of spring breeze and being very approachable.

But some people don't think so, and this kind of artificiality is only for the unreasonable to see.

Li Xiuyan was like this, when he glanced at this person for a moment, he only frowned in the blink of an eye, and instantly took a few steps forward in the direction of the comer with a smile on his face, and said with a slight gesture of his hands: "Who should I have such a hearty voice, it turns out that the distinguished guest is here, Brother Chen, I haven't seen you for a long time." ”

Li Xiuyan's voice was loud, and he felt like a spring breeze when he listened to it, and after speaking, he crossed his hands behind his back, waiting for the crowd in the distance to arrive, as if waiting for a good friend.

When the crowd got closer and closer, then I saw clearly the comer, there were guests present who knew this person, and couldn't help but be full of suspicions: "The eldest son of Chen Youde in Ningzhou, Chen Xiangyuan, known as the smiling man, and the Li family in Ningzhou did not deal with each other, the two had constant friction in the salt and iron business, and it was also for the water transport wharf to fight, causing a lot of lives. ”

"It turns out that he is Chen Xiangyuan, there are people in Ningzhou who claim to be children crying in the middle of the night, and when they hear Chen Xiangyuan's name, they immediately remain silent, saying that there is a knife hidden in their laughter......"

The crowd was chirping crookedly, and after a while, they all knew who was coming.

There are always some people in this world who want to avoid but end up encountering them, which seems to be their fate.

This is the case with Chen Xiangyuan and Li Xiuyan.

As a well-known gentleman in Ningzhou, Chen Xiangyuan has no appetite for ordinary horse and bird walking, but he is quite interested in the art of power and strategy.

As the second son of Changfang, Chen Xiangyuan was deeply loved by his father Chen Youde, and he didn't know when he started to give advice to the family business. It is said that he first got a share of the salt and iron business from the hands of the Li family in Ningzhou; then, by virtue of vertical and horizontal means, he colluded with the government, seized large and small wharves, and monopolized seven points of water transportation channels, which made the Li family in Ningzhou gradually weaken; if it were not for the deep roots of the old lady Li in Ningzhou, I am afraid that he would have been chased by someone long ago; later, Chen Xiangyuan helped the family get acquainted with celebrities and officials, and gained a firm foothold in the political and business circles of Ningzhou, where dogs and teeth are intertwined, and equally divided the business of exacting taxes and miscellaneous taxes。

However, all of this is inseparable from the painstaking training of his teacher.

And Li Xiuyan, as Liang Jun, a young man of the Li family in Ningzhou, is burdened with great expectations, and the relationship between the family naturally affects the two, and all walks of life in Ningzhou are the places where the two fight, but somehow, Chen Xiangyuan always wins, and it is precisely for this reason that the local people in Ningzhou, people are also happy to compare Li Xiuyan and Chen Xiangyuan, so the relationship between the two is not hidden.

The lotus flowers in autumn are already broken branches and leaves, and they are not as verdant and moving as they used to be.

Chen Xiangyuan took out a handcoat from his sleeve and wiped the sweat from his palm, continued to play with the emerald in his hand, and said with a smile: "Brother Li, this fake water is really a pure place, but this lotus, don't look at the summer blooming sky, green and tender, but when the time comes, it is distressing." ”

It was probably that many guests in the crowd recognized Chen Xiangyuan and understood the grievances with Li Xiuyan, and many people in the audience heard the meaning of the young military teacher's words, and they were happy to watch the show next to them and remained silent.

"This dead fat man, it's really hateful!" And the girls who admired Li Xiuyan just now clenched their little fists at this moment, pinched a cold sweat for him, and kept cursing this dead fat man in their hearts.

A lover eventually becomes a family, is the expectation of most people, today's Miss Zhang married, this is a well-known happy event in Qingzhou City, the guests are all congratulatory, but now it seems that some people do not want to.

Perhaps it is because the family discipline has always been rigorous, Li Xiuyan This comes from the immersion of the scholarly family, and the words and deeds of the high-ranking families, what he has learned is not the benefit of the tongue, and the speed of the moment.

Hearing the words in the words, Li Xiuyan did not show annoyance, and straightened his waist slightly, no matter when, he is the face of the Li family in Ningzhou, and the reputation of the family has been run for generations, which is more important than some things.

If you stand for a moment, you can't take a step back.

"Brother Chen, you Ningzhou Haojun, you are really leisurely and elegant, but today you are so interested in flowers and plants, it is really interesting, if you like it, I will give you a pool of lotus color in the next year. Li Xiuyan said solemnly.

When the guests present heard this, they praised Li Xiuyan's bearing, which really deserved to be the son of the Li family in Ningzhou, and the girl next to her was also overjoyed when she heard this.

Chen Xiangyuan didn't seem to hear Li Xiuyan's words, first pinched off a ruined lotus flower, turned to look at the attic, as if he wanted to see the face of the woman in the pavilion through the wall.

Even if Li Xiuyan is good-tempered, the servants around him can't stand Chen Xiangyuan's rude behavior, although the Li family in Ningzhou is now suppressed in momentum, it doesn't mean that they have to bow their heads.

A man of about twenty years old, wearing green clothes and cloth shoes, with a short knife produced in Ningzhou hanging from his waist, look at this appearance, he must be Li Xiuyan's companion, he grew up with Li Xiuyan since he was a child, and today is a happy event for his son, but he can't tolerate the humiliation of others.

This companion read and scolded Chen Xiangyuan loudly: "Hmph, the so-called young military advisor, the reputation is outside, but in my opinion, it is in vain. Chen Xiangyuan, this place is not the boundary of Ningzhou, and you can't be presumptuous! Today is the big day of my son-in-law's big day, if you Chen Xiangyuan know how to raise it, you will say a few words of congratulations like the guests present, and my young master will definitely reward you with a bowl of rice to eat. Otherwise, if you don't eat and drink for toasting, if you are carried back to Ningzhou by your subordinates, you won't lose your value. “

"Yes, some people may be afraid of you Chen Xiangyuan, but the Li family in Ningzhou will not look at your face. At this time, another doorman took over the words, and even pulled out the short knife on his waist for half a minute, and in the sunlight, it flashed with a cold light, and the threat in it was very obvious.

On the side of the wall, dozens of guards who were raised outside by Zhang Dayuan saw someone pull out their knives and hurriedly rushed to the middle of the field.

When the guests present heard Li Xiuyan's entourage so-for-tat, they knew that today's events must be extraordinary, and their interest was even stronger, and the old man and the young children didn't know when they crowded into the crowd, and they began to stand on tiptoe anxiously, for fear of missing something.

The autumn breeze blows gently across the surface of the pool, and the sunlight leaves shadows through the gaps in the leaves.

Faced with this scene, Chen Xiangyuan seemed to have become commonplace, and with a slight spread of his hands, someone took off the mink he was wearing. Without the package of heavy clothes, Chen Xiangyuan's posture was even more bloated: "Brother Li, I heard that you are happy today, but I have been preparing since a few days ago, from Ningzhou regardless of the fatigue of the boat, driving hundreds of miles to congratulate you, so kind, but you don't appreciate it." Your retinue is too rude, and it really insults the cards of your scholarly family. ”

Glancing at the daylight, Li Xiuyan estimated that the time was not early, for fear of missing the auspicious time, he waved his hand to the doorman behind him and asked them to retreat, and the guards outside Zhang Dayuan also followed his uncle's instructions and retreated to the perimeter of the wall, and the entourage was also sheathed, staring at Chen Xiangyuan with murderous aura.

Although the two families in Ningzhou were at odds, Li Xiuyan did not have the courage to kill Chen Xiangyuan in broad daylight, otherwise the Li family in Ningzhou would suffer a lot of catastrophe because of this. And Chen Xiangyuan came to Zhang's Mansion in a grand manner, so he naturally had a back hand.

Thinking of this, Li Xiuyan stepped forward and said to Chen Xiangyuan: "If Brother Chen is really here to congratulate, then I will entertain you with coarse tea and light rice and a glass of thin wine." If there is anything else to talk about, then change the time and talk about it after today. "Then you have to turn around and leave.

Chen Xiangyuan was full of smiles, grinning, revealing yellow teeth soaked in the delicacies of the mountains and seas, and the horizontal flesh on his face squeezed his eyes into a slit again: "Brother Chen stays, the younger brother came here today, it is really to congratulate, naturally he will not come empty-handed." Someone, bring me the congratulatory gift that I have carefully prepared, young master. ”

"Yes", I saw a dwarf walking out of the crowd behind Chen Xiangyuan, with sharp-eared monkey gills, ugly flesh, and many scars on his face.

Everyone's eyes were not on the box, but on the dwarf, as if they were staring at something rare.

Ningzhou and Qingzhou and other places, it is good to raise slaves and maids, and even more poor and bitter people, who have been slaves in high-ranking families for several generations, but the breath exuded by this dwarf man is very uncomfortable.

It seems that because of his appearance, the temperature dropped sharply, and the more physically invincible people shivered.

"It's strange why it's so cold all of a sudden, when the sun is shining today. Some of the guests present were suspicious.

Li Xiuyan's doorman probably recognized the identity of the dwarf man, stepped forward and whispered, Li Xiuyan said with a gloomy face: "Brother Chen's generosity, I don't know what kind of gift it is, it is worthy of the Yin slave to escort him personally!"

"Yin slave?" the people present began to be full of suspicion, and the young child was also full of puzzlement.

Lao Dao touched his white beard and whispered to the young child: "It is said that the Chen family in Ningzhou raised some slaves from nowhere since the day of their origin, and they are short in stature and unpredictable. No one knows what method the Chen family used, these slaves never betrayed, and because these numbers are scarce, it is difficult for ordinary people to see them, because they are called Yin slaves. ”

"Then what's so special about these slaves? A wealthy businessman present heard the conversation between the two and asked Lao Dao about it.

It is said that he helped the Chen family secretly do a lot of unsavory things, and because he would not betray his master, he won the trust of his master, and many important things were handed over to them. An insider next to him said. "But today, on Li Xiuyan's big day, it is really unreasonable to let the Yin slave come to send congratulatory gifts, which is too much to look up to Li Xiuyan. ”

The people present were chattering, and most of them were discussing the origin of the Yin Slave.

Chen Xiangyuan was speechless about the scene on the sidelines, and opened the golden sandalwood box in front of Li Xiuyan, and the people who saw it in the front row couldn't help but exclaim.