Zhao Xiu's trip was quite successful, she got the books she wanted, made friends with Zhao Qixuan's family, and got Zhao Qixuan's promise that if she found books and rare objects from the West, she would send them to her, and if the value of the things was too high, she would also give her a letter.

Zhao Qixuan's family got the dignity they wanted, and from then on, they could use the prestige of the small second room to straighten their chests in front of the clansmen, especially in front of the brothers in the outer sixth room, and they could also increase their confidence when they spoke.

Sister Zhao Qing saw the music box she had always wanted to see, and she played with her little sister Sister Yuan for a long time, and she was also very happy.

Shen's matchmaking helped introduce Zhao Xiu to her concubine and best friend Ma, Ma was very happy, Zhao Xiu was also satisfied, she had a long face in the family's daughters, and there would be many people who would please her in order to tie up the second room, both face and lining, it was really happy.

It's a pity that she is also a little worried about this joy, she just got a new news from the Ma family: the two brothers in charge of the outer six rooms are interested in expanding their business under their names, and they need to increase the number of people, and they plan to choose from the young children in the clan first, each house has its own family, but all men over the age of fourteen, who are literate, and who are best able to do arithmetic, can participate in the election. If you can be selected, you can first follow their brothers as an apprentice for a year, be familiar with business matters, and release them after a year, and the excellent ones will be able to take charge of themselves immediately, be a semicolon shopkeeper, and you can also be a buddy if you are not good, and because their surname is Zhao, even if they are buddies, the treatment cannot be compared with ordinary guys, the lowest monthly money is two taels, the highest is ten taels, and the year-end dividends can also be distributed. If you are capable, you can work in the shop pù of the outer six rooms for ten years, and you can open your own shop with the money you have saved and the contacts you have accumulated. The outer six rooms will not be blocked.

This condition is quite favorable, and the Zhao family has multiplied for decades. The population is increasing, although there are many fields under the name of each house. Each has a livelihood and a rich life, but those who have separated from the family have a lot of life in a tight life. For example, Zhao Qixuan's family, although they also have savings of hundreds or thousands of taels of silver, the whole family only has an income of 20 acres of thin fields, and his brothers persuaded him to let his son run for election, saying that he would directly give Zhao Huai a place. But Zhao Qixuan, husband and wife, father and son were not happy in their hearts. They are still looking forward to their son being able to study for the imperial examination.

But they are not happy, some people are willing, even those families who have children, they can get the Zhang family's funding every month, and there is not much money to spare, hoping to have a stable and rich errand. The imperial examination is a long road, and the entire Zhao clan even has few talents, let alone lifting people, who knows if their children can walk that road? Some of them couldn't resist the temptation of the outer six rooms. It's no surprise that he gave up school to start business. But in this way, the plan of Zhang, the eighth old lady and Zhao Jing and his wife can be regarded as a failure.

Shen secretly blamed the outer six rooms in his heart, in order to expand his business. actually hit the idea on the head of the family's reading seeds, ignoring the future of the family. However, the outer six houses are rich and rich, and the sect houses are weak. She doesn't want to turn her face with people without permission, so she needs to go home immediately and discuss countermeasures with her husband. Send another letter to the third room. The Zhang family is not here, and they can only rely on the eighth old lady to restrain the clansmen.

A handful of Shen Xiu was sent back to the two-room old house. Shen left in a hurry with Sister Qing. Sister Qing is still a little reluctant in her heart, she saw such a magical music box from Sister Yuan just now, and she still wants to discuss with Zhao Xiu why the box sings.

As soon as Zhao Xiu sent people away on the front foot, Lu's mother came to ask her with a few housework on the back foot. In fact, these housework are trivial things, and there are always old routines, and Lu's mother only needs to do it as usual, and she has to show it to Zhao Xiu, because she wants to train her in housekeeping skills. If Zhao Xiu doesn't know how to deal with it, Lu's mother will provide her with a feasible plan to choose from. For example, half a month ago, the Qingming Festival was sacrificed, and the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival in May, Zhao Xiu relied on Lu's mother's advice.

It has been a month since her grandmother left home, and Zhao Xiu has gradually come back to her senses, Zhang's actually didn't expect her seven-year-old granddaughter to really be able to take care of the house, the family mainly relies on Lu's mother and her wife, and when she encounters trouble, she has to rely on Shen's foreign aid, called Zhao Xiu's housekeeper, in fact, she wants her to familiarize herself with related affairs.

After coming back to his senses, Zhao Xiu felt that the pressure in his heart was much less, and he no longer had to force himself to be perfect in everything. She should make herself more like a little girl, relying more on adults, instead of trying to do as much as possible to be no worse than adults when she encounters any problems, which would seem strange. She is now starting to focus more on things that interest her.

After Lu's mother left, Zhao Xiu sent Bilian out of the room, and immediately took out the leather bag, and took out the books in it to read one by one.

Keep the Bible for the time being, so that you can read it as a storybook and use it later to pass the time. Zhao Qiu knew that there had been local Christians in the Jiangnan area since the end of the Ming Dynasty, and this thing was actually not unusual, and it was not impossible to find the Chinese version to look at.

As for the two books, "The Wealth of England from Foreign Trade" and "On Taxation", she hastily flipped a few pages and knew that they were theoretical works, and it was not too late to study them slowly when she had time. If it can be translated and found a way to reach the ears of the upper class, it will actually have a lot of reference value, but it will be at least ten years later.

The Latin dictionary was annotated in English, and in this day and age, Latin is still the dominant language in Europe, and English is a little niche, so I hope it will be useful in the future. Zhao Xiu also put it away.

Two non-English books, full of text, no pictures, but a lot of English annotations, densely written in small print. Zhao Xiu checked the Latin dictionary and found that it was really right. These two books are actually law books, one for business law and one for tax law. The owner of the book probably brought the Latin dictionary with him to read these two books.

Two sonnets, poems and no matter what, there are a lot of illustrations in it, there are flowers and birds, and some people have houses and gardens, which is the most interesting book in Ma's mouth, which can be used for tricks. Zhao Xiu saw that the handwriting in them was handwritten, and guessed that this was probably a private manuscript, and the author's name was unknown, one was called G. Wells, and the other was called B. Wells, with the same surname. It's just not known if the relationship is siblings or parents and children. However, after carefully reading part of the poem, Zhao Xiu boldly guessed that this was actually a couple. A very loving couple, G is a wife. Named Gwyneth, Gwyneth, B is the husband, named Benjamin, Benjamin, these two poems are actually a little game between them to express their love for each other, but I don't know why they ended up in the East thousands of miles away.

When he finally saw the two diaries, Zhao Xiu finally understood the reason. The husband of the couple, Benjamin, is a young man from a merchant family who studied economics at university. Soon after graduating, I was very interested in things from the East, so I followed the caravan I knew to come to the East to open my eyes, and by the way, I also brought a sum of goods, planning to sell them in the East, and then use the money to bring some treasures back from here to make huge profits. His wife was waiting for him at home. In order to alleviate his longing, he took with him a collection of poems written by the two when they were in love, which was transcribed by his wife, when did he miss his wife. Just take it out and take a look.

His diary recorded all the things he saw and heard along the way, where he went, what ports, and what the local customs and customs were. What kind of specialty, what he bought, what he sold. All are very well written. At the same time, he also mentioned that he had a feud with the sailors on the ship, and that it was only a small quarrel at first. The other party acted rudely, but he considered himself a decent person. The caravan members had no intention of mediating, and gradually developed to the point of irreconcilability.

After leaving Champong, a sailor stole his sketchbook, which contained a portrait of his wife he drew when he missed her, as well as a sketch of his wife's lazy appearance after the couple was warm. It was a very private thing, but when the sailor had stolen it, he circulated the sketchbook among his companions, and said many obscenities. This Benjamin could not bear it and fought with the other party, and suffered a lot of injuries, which were not properly treated, and the caravan and sailors were cold to him, and his injuries gradually deteriorated.

Around November last year (the Western year used in the diary, the specific lunar date is unknown, this is Zhao Xiu's estimated time), Benjamin arrived with the fleet at Nanhui New Port in Shanghai - this is the seaport built in Shanghai during the period of Emperor Taizu, and there are often Western fleets docking - he asked the manservant to go ashore and invite a doctor to treat him, and the doctor prescribed medicine, but when he saw the black water made of those herbs, he thought it was witchcraft and could not be trusted, so he asked the manservant to throw away the decoction and the powder applied to the wound. Then his injuries began to get worse day by day, and the handwriting in his diary became more and more messy. On the third day of the lunar month, his last diary entry wrote that he was chilling, the winter in the East was too cold, and he regretted coming to the East, missing his hometown in the warm county of Cornwall, and missing his beloved wife.

Just one sentence, and there was no more follow-up.

Zhao Xiu felt a little uncomfortable, she suspected that this Benjamin might have died of illness, so his belongings would flow out and fall into the hands of Zhao Qixuan's friends.

Two days later, Zhao Qixuan sent a large package over, confirming Zhao Xiu's conjecture. The large package contained a dozen letters, two maps, a set of old European stationery, a few charcoal pens, a small silver flask, two tin candlesticks, and a large wool sheet, all of which belonged to Benjamin, the owner of the book. He died in a foreign land, there was originally a manservant by his side, but unfortunately it was not very reliable, he actually sold his master's things, and even left no letters, and ran away with a caravan from Italy with his own money, and his master's funeral was still done with the help of the people of the caravan, but because the relationship with him was not very good, the caravan people did not plan to help him bring the ashes back to his hometown, so he was hastily buried near the Nanhuiyi Museum, and returned in March this year.

The few letters in Zhao Xiu's hands are all written by others to Benjamin, mainly for academic discussions and business exchanges. One of the letters reads: Benjamin brought two goods from England, woolen and pewter, woolen tweed is not properly preserved, many of them are damp, it is difficult to sell at a high price, and pewter is not popular in the East, and it may not be able to earn high profits, but for the sake of the two families and the same in the East, he is willing to pay that price, which is already very kind, if Benjamin refuses to accept it, he has no choice. This was probably written by an acquaintance of Benjamin, but Benjamin was very angry when he read it, and the letter was torn a little bit, and there were traces of it being caught in a ball and reopened.

Zhao Xiu looked at the woolen tweed and the pair of tin candlesticks, and knew that they must be part of the goods brought by Benjamin, the woolen tweed was of high quality, soft and warm to the touch, and there was no sign of moisture, and I don't know if the person who wrote the letter deliberately lowered the price.

Those two maps are very rare, one is a hand-drawn navigation map, and the other is an ancient map that flowed from home and abroad in the Ming Dynasty, which can be regarded as very precious information.

Zhao Xiu put down the things in his hand and looked at Zhao Qixuan with a smile: "Thank you, cousin, these things are also very interesting." You must have spent a lot of money, right? ”

Zhao Qixuan hurriedly said: "It's not much, it's just that the wine jug, candlestick and the woolen material cost more, and the others are almost given for free." I didn't see any use for these things, but I thought my sister liked it, so I asked my friend for it. ”

Zhao Xiu said solemnly: "My cousin's family is not rich, how much money has been spent, you must sue me." I'm a little kid who sits at home for a long time and almost never goes out, so where can I get these things without my cousin's help? You have helped me a lot, and I am already very grateful, but if I let my cousin and sister-in-law suffer because of my little interest, how can I feel happy in my heart? ”

Zhao Qixuan couldn't help but sigh in his heart, the old lady in the second room really deserves to be the duchess of the county, and although the granddaughter who taught her is young, she is also so kind and polite. He wasn't rich in the first place, but he was just trying to get a small second room and fill his head hard, but fortunately he knew how to be flexible, and immediately said the price: "Actually, it's not much, it's just more than 30 taels of silver." ”

Zhao Xiu asked people to seal forty taels of silver, and personally delivered it to Zhao Qixuan, and said with a smile: "Thank you cousin this time, I didn't expect you to have such a wide range of connections, and even the things on the foreigner's side have a way to get it, maybe my sister will beg you in the future." ”

Zhao Qixuan hurriedly accepted the money, rejoiced in his heart, patted his chest and beat the package ticket: "It's easy to say, my cousin can't do anything else, but my friends know a lot, if my sister has anything else to want in the future, just mention it to me." He lowered his voice and said, "Sister, don't worry, if my uncle and grandmother don't like it, my cousin will definitely keep his mouth shut and never leak the news." ”

Zhao Xiu smiled and asked him: "I heard that day that the cousins of the sixth room intend to let the eldest nephew go to the shop as an apprentice, but the cousin is not happy, isn't it?" Is the cousin planning to let the eldest nephew go to school? ”

Zhao Qixuan sighed when he heard this: "I'm naturally unhappy, Brother Huai'er is only at this age, and he really can't go back when he goes to the shop, he is bent on studying for the imperial examination, but I'm useless as a father, and I can't find a good gentleman for him." I wanted to send him to Brother Wei's private school to study, but his knowledge was not good enough, and Mr. Ren looked down on him, so he had to go to the masters in the west of the city. That old master is just an old talent from the previous dynasty, and when he is old, what good can he teach? After a few years of exams, he couldn't even pass the county exam, and his mother almost planned to let him drop out of school and go home, but fortunately, his uncle and grandmother were kind and let him study hard, so he didn't have to worry about it, but now his brothers are coming to this ...... again."

Zhao Xiu thought for a while and said, "Cousin, let the eldest nephew come over tomorrow." (To be continued......)