However, he said that Lai Jinzheng discussed with Song Chuan and Wang Jing to buy the pawnshop, and was willing to add another 50,000 taels of silver per person. Song Chuan and Wang Jing also agreed, but it was not easy for Jinxiulan to explain. While he was troubled, Wang Jing suddenly said that there was a way to solve it, and Song Chuan and Lai Jin hurriedly asked him what he had planned.

Wang Jing opened his mouth and said to Lai Jin: "I heard that Jinxiulan has some festivals with your master, but it is because of a little girl? ”

Lai Jin nodded and replied, "There is such a thing. She did a murder at my house and stabbed one of our fellows. Our lord sent her to Shuntian Mansion. Our lord said that depending on her relationship, killing someone always has to pay for her life. ”

Wang Jing laughed and said: "Mr. Lai is so shrewd, there are times when he can't think of it? ”

Lai Jin was puzzled and asked, "How do you say this?" Lai Jin didn't expect anything, please make it clear. ”

Wang Jing said: "As the saying goes, it is better to settle a grievance than to settle it, what is a guy worth?" It is not cost-effective to exonerate Jinxiulan for this. What Wang Jing means is that it is better for Mr. Lai to go back and tell your master and let the girl go. As for us, we just used this favor to repay Jinxiulan, but the pawnshop sold it to your Chen family. In this way, you got the pawnshop, we received the money, and we repaid the favor of Jinxiulan, wouldn't it kill three birds with one stone? ”

Song Chuan clapped his hands and shouted: "Wonderful, Uncle Wang really has a good idea, I think it's just a good idea." ”

Lai Jin shook his head and said: "I'm afraid that our master will not agree to this matter, Lai Jin doesn't dare to make decisions on his own, so he has to go back and tell his master." ”

Wang Jing laughed dryly twice and said, "Who here doesn't know Mr. Lai's ability, don't say anything else." Only in front of Master Chen, Mr. Lai definitely wants the wind and the rain, and this little thing can't be done. It's not Mr. Lai. ”

The point will not be as good as the agitated general, Wang Jing is so excited, Lai Jin is young and temperamental, his right hand slapped on his thigh, and said happily: "Cheng, Lai Jin has taken on this matter." Let's make up our minds, Lai Jin went back to the house and asked the master to let the girl go. How about you sign the deed? ”

Song Chuan had already picked up his wine glass and said to Wang Jing and Lai Jin: "This matter is very good! Come. We've had this drink! ”

After the matter was discussed, the guests and hosts enjoyed themselves. Lai Jin called two more girls to sing, and the three of them got drunk and drunk until the sun set and the moon rose.

Fortunately, Lai Jin really has some strength. The second day, mid-day. Hongcui was unexpectedly released by Shuntianfu. At the same time, the Chen family has already acquired all 50 pawnshops of the Song family and the Wang family. On the surface, Chen Xuan is still in charge of the pawnshop, but underground, it is Lai Jin who governs the gambling house. In order to compete with Hou Hutong, Lai Jin did the same, and there were small servants serving tea in the gambling house, as well as a place to sleep, but it was different from Hou Hutong. Lai Jin also prepared some little girls who sang songs to listen to the music. Tired and relieved, it can be said that the spring breeze is proud, and it is very comfortable.

Early in the morning, two gamblers were received in the gambling house. These two gamblers are not like others. The other gamblers were mostly men, but one of them was a woman. Next to her was a man in his twenties, very burly. The woman spoke Jiangnan dialect, took the man's arm and muttered: "Thief man, you are less stingy, it is not easy for Nong to follow you to Jingshi once, what is the point of gambling cards?" ”

The man snorted, but did not answer. The woman said, "It's a big deal, I will win you back, please eat roast goose." ”

It turned out that this woman was Hongcui, and the man was Zhang Jixian, the left deputy envoy of Dali Temple. They disguised themselves as a pair of outsiders who came to Beijing to do business, came to the gambling house to play, and left after winning some money.

When the man saw that the two men didn't know each other, he stopped them and didn't let them in. Hongcui opened her mouth and scolded: "What kind of bird are you when you rub chicken feathers on your bat?" Nong wants to go in and gamble for money, what are you doing to stop you? ”

When the man saw this posture, he was a little weak, so he had to say: "We are a pawnshop here, we don't gamble, you are in the wrong place." ”

Hongcui scolded again: "Nong, you see that you are playing a lantern in a thatched house - looking for death." As he spoke, he straightened his chest upward, crossed his waist and said to Zhang Jixian: "Man, take out the money and show it to them." Grandma's knife goods, thieves look at people, see that grandma is a foreigner, do you bully Nong? ”

This guy has never seen such an arrogant woman, seeing that she is quite handsome, she is really unforgiving when she speaks, and scolds him every time. For a while, the guy was also a little annoyed, brandished a broom in his hand and hit Hongcui's feet, and said: "This is not a place for gambling money, what is the trouble?" ”

Hongcui screamed and jumped away from his broom, angry and about to hit him. Zhang Jixian hurriedly stopped her, and said warmly: "My woman is new to Jingshi and doesn't understand the rules, little brother, don't worry about her." As he spoke, he took out a dime of silver from his bosom and secretly stuffed it into the man's hand.

The guy touched the silver, his face softened slightly, took a step closer, leaned into Zhang Jixian's ear and said: "It's not that the little one doesn't let the master in, our master said that people who don't know can't go in, I'm afraid that the people of the official family will know, and it won't look good to make trouble." ”

Zhang Jixian laughed twice and said, "Little brother, do you think I'm from the official family?" As you can tell, we are merchants from the south, who have come to Beijing to sell tea. It's just that I'm a woman who is a gambler by nature, and I heard that there is a casino here, so I have to come to join in the fun. I'm not afraid of my brother's jokes, I'm naturally a little afraid of guilt, and I can't resist her, so let her play twice, and we'll leave. A woman is not a member of an official family. So saying, he took out a dime of silver from his bosom and stuffed it into the man's hand.

Seeing that the silver of the white flowers had arrived, the man had no choice but to say, "There is only one hour for the master to go in." An hour later, my lord was going to come to check on him, and he saw him, and the little one was going to be scolded. ”

Zhang Jixian said yes.

Zhang Jixian and Hongcui went down the stairs, and below was a dark room. They pushed open the door of the dark room and entered, and the inside suddenly opened up. The hall is the size of three or five inner rooms, and there are more than a dozen huge candles burning in the hall, illuminating the whole hall. In the middle of the hall was the counter, where two or three guys were busy. There was a table in front of the counter, on which there were three or five girls, dressed in bewitching and glamorous, playing the piano and stroking the zither and singing little songs. In the hall, a bunch of people are around, or rolling dice to guess the size, or betting on pai gow, or touching dominoes, and even some rich gamblers gamble on prostitutes in special private rooms. Seven or eight young women, standing in a row, two or three or four gamblers betting, and the one who won chose a woman to go over.

Hongcui grew up in Yichun Courtyard, this kind of thing has been used to seeing since I was a child, and I don't think it is anything, but Zhang Jixian has read a lot of sage books, but such a place is unheard of.

Hongcui was eager to try, and pulled Zhang Jixian to play dice. Zhang Jixian said in a low voice: "We are not here to gamble. ”

Hongcui said: "How can you get evidence without gambling?" Is it okay to stand dry? ”

Zhang Jixian heard that she was reasonable, so he didn't interfere. Hongcui took out two ingots of silver, and Xingtoutou ran to the counter to change the chips and came out. Zhang Jixian took out a chip from her hand and saw a Chen character written in the upper left corner of it. It turns out that each house has its own chips, and they also make their own markings on them. Zhang Jixian said in his heart, first hide this chip in his arms, and when he comes back to play the emperor, he can take it out as evidence.

Seeing that Hongcui had changed some chips, a servant courteously brought over a special plate and asked Hongcui to put the chips on the plate. Hongcui took the plate and went straight to the table where the size of the dice was guessed. She practiced this kung fu skillfully when she was in the Shuncheon Women's Prison, and she knew the mechanism as soon as she heard it.

Zhang Jixian didn't know the mystery, so he had to follow her.

I saw a couple of people surrounding a dealer. The dealer holds a dice cup in his hand, and his wrist skillfully rolls up and down, left and right, and many gamblers listen to it. Wait for the dealer to put down the dice cup and ask, "Guess the big and guess the small?" ”

I only heard some people guess big, and some people say guess small. If you guess the big one, you will bet your chips on your own big characters, and if you bet on the small ones, you will bet your chips on the small characters. Hongcui takes a closer look, and the word size is also somewhat interesting. Although she is illiterate, she has been following Gege for the past two years, and she has learned some simple words. Besides, these two words are commonly used in casinos, and Hongcui is extremely smart, so she will naturally learn it. This big character is not a good big character, but it is the appearance of a big eagle, and the small character is the appearance of a little sparrow, but you can see it at a glance.

Hongcui listened to the sound of the dice rolling, but she was afraid that it was three o'clock. Three o'clock is naturally small, and she saw that most of the people were betting on the sparrow, and she looked like she was winning the ticket. The dealer looked at the gambler's bet and asked, "Have you made a bet?" ”

The gamblers were impatient and said, "Why didn't you bet well?" Flash the dice! ”

The dealer was about to show the dice, when Hongcui squeezed in and said, "I'm betting big!" As he spoke, he bet all the chips on the board on the eagle.

When the gamblers saw a beautiful girl suddenly appear, they were a little dizzy for a while, and when they saw her bet all the chips on the plate, they couldn't help but say kindly: "Girl, it's obviously small, how can you bet big?" ”

Hongcui laughed and said, "I bet on mine, what does it have to do with you?" Either you all come and bet on it. ”

When the gamblers saw that she didn't know how to lift, they didn't stop her, and said in their hearts, wait a while, and the little girl will know how bad she is losing.

The dealer looked at Hongcui with an inexplicable look and asked again, "Are you all bet?" Little girl, what about you? Have you thought about it? They're all veterans, and you can't be wrong about it, and it's too late for you to change it now. ”

Hongcui pouted and said, "You let me change it, I won't change it, you just have to open it." Girl, what I have is money, and what I gamble on is luck, can you manage it? ”

The dealer looked around at the gamblers one last time and asked, "Do you want to bet big with her?" ”

The gamblers were impatient and shouted: "Hurry up, open quickly!" ”

The dealer gently opened the dice cup, and the gamblers watched, and the cup was an eighteen points. Suddenly, some people slapped their legs and shouted, some people cried and called their mothers, and some people scolded and scolded, only Hongcui grinned on her face, and unceremoniously took the chips in front of everyone in front of her.

Suddenly, someone pointed at Hongcui and scolded: "Your grandmother, how many of your grandfathers are female birds?" Are you watering the dice? (To be continued......)