On the tenth day of the ninth lunar month, before dawn, a table was set up in the cabin of the merchant ship of the Chu family, and sacrificial offerings were placed on the middle cabin. Offerings must include tea, wine, pastries, fruits, seafish, pork, eggs, etc. After the offering, when the tide rose, Chu Zhong personally lit incense and candles, poured wine and tea, and then Chu Zhong set off three cannons, which resounded in the dawn sky. Chu Zhong knelt down and prayed, silently reciting the words of prayer in his mouth. After a stick of incense, he burned the paper money at the table and gave it to the dragon king. After burning, put three more cannons and send the dragon king back to the Dragon Palace.

Chu Yiyao watched Uncle Zhong finally pull out a little bit of each of the various offerings and scatter them in the sea, and listened to the guys on the boat on the side say that this was to sacrifice the sea monster Yaksha and let them not obstruct the merchant ships.

After the sacrifice, the sky was bright, and the guys on the dock began to carry all the things they were going to bring onto the ship, and there were other trading houses that set off at the same time as them, and it was dark that Chu Yiyao couldn't see the flags of other merchant ships around him clearly.

"Miss, you can go into the cabin to rest, and when the things are finished, the ship should depart." Chu Zhong carefully inspected the two boats, made sure that there was no problem, and asked the people on the dock to untie the cables.

"It's okay, I'm not sleepy." Chu Yiyao walked to the deck, the boat was already a few meters away from the dock, and saw Chu Yingzhu lying in the arms of the second brother asleep, Chu Yiyao waved at them, the sea breeze seemed to bring her to the situation when the eldest brother went to sea for the first time, and she was also standing on the dock like that, waving her hands vigorously, shouting to come back safely.

"Miss, it's cool in the morning." Bao Sheng took a coat out and put it on her, and soon the people on the shore couldn't see clearly, Chu Yiyao turned around, and there were several ships driving far away behind him, for several days in a row, it was a good day to sail, and on the major docks in Jinling, there would be many merchant ships going to sea every day, blowing and blowing and playing lively.

Returning to the cabin to warm up, Chu Yiyao changed into convenient men's clothes, and when she came out, there were only a few islands left around, and the direction of Jinling was foggy, "I can't see anything." ”

"When the sun comes out, the fog will lift." Chu Zhong walked over, looked at her outfit, and smiled helplessly.

"Uncle Zhong, tell me about this ship, my father and eldest brother have praised you as the best helmsman." Chu Yiyao turned around and stuck out her tongue mischievously, and followed Chu Zhong to the captain's room, where other crew members were open, Chu Zhong took her to a parchment map, pointed to a certain point, and said, "This is Datong, Jinling is here, you see, Qiu Yue is going in this direction..."...

The days at sea pass very slowly, more than 20 days have passed, Chu Yiyao's curiosity and excitement at the beginning have gradually been consumed, every day when she wakes up, she sees the blue sea and blue sky, and at night she sees the endless sea and the starry sky at night, and she feels bored after the cycle.

"Miss." The peacock brought a plate of fresh fish balls, which had just been netted from the sea, and the peacock took the lead and asked the cook to make the balls for Chu Yiyao as a snack, "I dragged it up early this morning, it's such a big fish, I asked the cook to chop some ginger foam in it, it's not fishy, you can taste it." ”

Chu Yiyao couldn't eat half of the plate, walked to the bow of the boat and looked over, in front of the Chu family's merchant ship, there were other families moving at a constant speed, looking at the flags side by side, it seemed that they were all family.

After another three or four days, uninhabited islands appeared around the merchant ship, and in a few days, you could reach Datong.

Chu Yiyao discussed with Chu Zhong in the cabin about the things to buy from the Chu family in Datong, "Uncle Zhong, I'm afraid that if I buy porcelain again, those merchants will lower the price, so I have to find some new things to go back." ”

"I've thought about this too, but after so many years, there can't be anything else new in Datong, it's all familiar to everyone." Datong and Jinling HNA have been in the industry for so many years, and what is special has already been discovered, Chu Yiyao looked at the scrolls that were loved by Jinling merchants in previous years, "When the time comes, get off the boat to find it, if it doesn't work, you can't all go into the porcelain." ”

Now she has to find something that is profitable to turn the form of the business house around, Uncle Qin still has a large amount of silver in debt, no matter how good the relationship is, she is afraid that something else will happen if she owes it for a long time.

Chu Zhong looked at the eldest lady and lowered her head to think, and felt a lot of emotion in his heart, if the eldest lady was a man, the master would be truly relieved...

Three days later, the merchant ship arrived in Datong, Chu Zhong took the crew to move the goods on the ship, the first day was still spent on the ship, and early the next morning, Chu Zhong drove the carriage to take Chu Yiyao to the kiln.

This is a time-honored brand that has cooperated with the Chu family for more than ten years, and as soon as she arrived at the gate, Chu Yiyao heard someone greeting Uncle Zhong before she got off the carriage, and Baosheng helped her get down from the carriage and followed Chu Zhong into the kiln.

There was a smell of dirt and ash heaps here, Chu Yiyao looked around, one by one the kilns were next to them, and the people who greeted them took them to a workshop, and there were countless shelves in the bright room, and the shelves were full of all kinds of porcelain.

Continuing to walk forward, Chu Yiyao saw a forty-year-old master in the window position in front of him, a vase was being glazed on the table, and there were a lot of small porcelain utensils for playing on the shelves next to him. ”

The man took them to another shelf, and Chu Yiyao saw many styles of dietary porcelain, but none of them were as satisfied as she thought.

In the past few days, she has been thinking about how to make a breakthrough in the same porcelain, and just saw the glazed green plate on the table next to the master, and suddenly thought of the meal porcelain that she had seen in Luoyang in her previous life.

After getting married in her previous life, she followed Yan Chengzhi to Luoyang once, where she saw the customs and customs that were completely different from Jinling, Luoyang's cultural heritage is much thicker than Jinling, a text and a business, although Jinling is constantly approaching Luoyang, but many things can not be promoted overnight, especially in terms of diet, pay attention to a plate and chopsticks, Jinling people are also exquisite, but far less than they come.

"Master, when I was very young, I heard my father mention that you are the best kiln in Datong here, and you have the best porcelain in Datong here." Chu Yiyao looked at all the porcelain on display and looked back and smiled.

"Miss Chu has won the award, I have been firing the kiln for decades, although it is not the best, but this porcelain is also famous." When the master heard Chu Yiyao's praise, he also agreed politely, chatted with Chu Zhong a few more words, and took them to visit before going to the room where he was discussing on weekdays.

"Master Guan, I have a good deal here, I don't know if you are willing to accept it." After sitting down, Chu Yiyao discussed with Master Guan about another custom meal porcelain, "This style and pattern are provided by us, and the finished product made cannot be selected by other guests, that is to say, these things are the only ones in our Chu family." ”

In a few years, these things will also be popular in Jinling, Chu Yiyao just wants to bring this in advance and seize the opportunity, my father and eldest brother enter the porcelain in this Qinghe kiln every year because the porcelain here is one of the best in the world, as long as they are willing to go down, they are not afraid of other people's imitations, after all, the reputation of Qinghe kiln is there.

"Did Miss Chu bring it?" Master Guan was interested in what she said, Chu Yiyao asked someone to take a pen and paper, and directly drew the style and pattern of the three dining utensils, Master Guan looked at it and said with a smile, "It's better like this, I will order someone to make this in the past few days, if Miss Chu is satisfied, then this business will be discussed." ”

"Okay, Uncle Zhong, you talk to the master, I'll go back to the inn first." Chu Yiyao left Chu Zhong to talk to Master Guan about other things, and went back to the inn first.

The peacock arrived an hour early to clean up the house, Datong and Jinling are the same by the sea, but the weather is much hotter and humid than Jinling, and many of the houses here are built relatively high to prevent moisture.

Chu Yiyao rested for a while, changed into men's clothes, and took Baosheng and Runzi to the market near the dock, Datong has countless boats coming and going in spring and autumn every year, and the market is also very lively, there are many people in the shape of J □ J, no one will come to pay special attention to her dress and dress, Chu Yiyao looked at it in front of various stalls, it was all small things, very common.

"Miss, this is far from the market." Chu Yiyao bypassed the market and wanted to go forward, but Bao Sheng reminded behind him that he would go out of the city gate if he went over.

"Uncle Zhong said that this city gate can go to the countryside, if it's still early today, why don't we go and take a look." Chu Yiyao asked the leap man to drive the carriage, and he took Baosheng to the outside of the city gate, the road outside the city gate was also very lively on both sides, many markets in the city had to charge not cheap stall fees, and those who couldn't afford to pay this fee were placed directly outside the city gate, there were many people coming and going, and the business was also good.

"Uncle, what are you, it smells so good." Chu Yiyao walked to an inconspicuous stall, with a blue cloth underneath, and a pile of different colors and sizes like walnut hulls were placed on it, and there were a few pieces of wood on the side.

"It's a spice scraped from the tree." The uncle picked up one and put it in Chu Yiyao's hand, and smiled hehe, Chu Yiyao lowered his head and smelled it, but it had the same smell as spices, but it was a little lighter. You can also crush some powder down, mixed with something else, not very pure.

"Uncle, then this is also a spice?" Chu Yiyao picked up a piece of wood and found a small piece of something attached to the wooden block where the side of the wood was cut off, which also looked like wood.

The uncle nodded, Chu Yiyao saw that there were not many things left in this stall, and said, "Uncle, how much does it cost, I want it all." ”

"No, no, there are already guests asking for this." The uncle waved his hand and took the wood from Chu Yiyao's hand and put it back again, Chu Yiyao saw that he attached great importance to it, and he was also curious, but it was just a few inconspicuous things, and there were many spices here in Datong, how could anyone buy extra.

"Uncle, did this guest say when he asked you to come and get it?"

"It's supposed to be the day before yesterday." The uncle took out a piece of dry food from the bag behind him and ate it, Chu Yiyao's eyes rolled, he took out the silver from his arms and put it on the blue cloth, and said with a smile, "Uncle, the day before yesterday should have come yet, it must not have come these things, you must not have been home for a few days, it is better to be like this, I will sell these things to me for twice the price, if they come to look for you, it is also because they do not keep the contract, and it has nothing to do with you." ”

The uncle's beard looked at the silver on the blue cloth, and the dry food in his mouth was still stuffed there and he didn't swallow it, "This, so much silver." ”

"Uncle, it's not easy for you to come here, if they don't come, then wouldn't you have wasted so many days in vain, and you didn't make any money, uncle, are you from this nearby village?" Seeing him hesitate, Chu Yiyao continued.

"Cheng, I'll sell you all of this." The uncle stood up and looked around, gritted his teeth and agreed.

Chu Yiyao smiled and was about to take the bag from his hand, but a hurried shout came from behind him, "Slow! ”