Zhang and Zhao Wei came out to meet Zhao Yan, and Zhao Xiu originally wanted to go together, but Zhang didn't let him. The last time Zhao Ze and Zhao Yan brothers and sisters came over, Zhao Xiu had a fight with them, and what he said was a little unkind. This time Zhao Yan came to kowtow and thank you, but Zhang was afraid of Zhao Xiu's temper, so she didn't agree with someone and quarreled with someone, so she was not allowed to follow.

Zhao Xiu was a little depressed, if it wasn't for Zhao Xiang too much last time, how could she quarrel with others? Zhao Ze's brothers and sisters are both enemies and juniors, what are they doing so politely? She sat in the main room for a while, always a little uneasy, for fear that Zhang's heart would be soft-hearted again, and she was coaxed by Zhao Yan to say a few kind words and agreed to his request. But think about my brother being by the side, he is the head of the house, and his words also have weight. Increasingly, my grandmother left the decisions of the family to him, rather than helping their siblings with their decisions as an elder, as she had done in the past. Brother is not confused, maybe Zhao Yan is not so easy to deceive Zhang?

She couldn't sit still in the room, and she just felt that time was passing so slowly. There is a Western self-striking bell given by the palace in the East Warm Pavilion, and the hands don't know if they are broken, so they only walked three squares, fifteen minutes long, but she always felt that at least half an hour had passed. Finally, when the hands of the chiming bell reached the fourth square, Zhang and Zhao Wei finally returned.

Zhao Xiu hurriedly greeted him: "Is Zhao Yan gone?" What did he say today? Did you come to ask for silver? ”

Zhang glanced at her with disgust: "You are always afraid that people will come and ask us for silver." Our family is not short of that little money, if we can give one or two, what will we give him? Saving someone's life is better than creating a seventh-level floating slaughter, Sister Xiu, don't be so stingy. ”

Zhao Xiu argued: "Every year of disaster, I help the neighbors of the Zhou tribe, and thousands of taels of silver are spent on flowers, how can I be a stingy person?" I am impatient with their family, and I don't do anything all the time, and I count on charity from others, and I am not begging for food. The family says that there are old and weak women and children, but they all have hands and feet, and they have savings, and they just want to rely on others to support them, what is the matter? I just can't get used to it. ”

Zhao Wei said with a smile: "Today, Zhao Yan didn't directly say that he wanted silver, but he said that after he brought Aunt Xiaoqian back, the Niu family looked at their mother and son unpleasantly, and almost swept them out of the house." Aunt Xiao Qian suffered again on the road, and fell ill, and it costs money to see the doctor take medicine to replenish her body. He went out every day to find a job, earned some money and came back to support his biological mother and sister, and only Zhao Man served by Aunt Qian's side. Niu and Zhao Xiang couldn't wait for Aunt Xiaoqian to die outside, so they didn't allow the girls around them to come over to help. Originally, Brother Ze sent the old servants there, but Aunt Xiao Qian thought that those old servants were all Brother Ze'er's people, and refused to accept their service. Therefore, Zhao Yan runs around during the day every day, and when he goes back at night, he has to worry about his biological mother's diet and medicine, which is very hard. Grandmother took pity on him, so she gave him twenty taels of silver and asked him to take it back to treat Aunt Xiao Qian, so as not to delay Aunt Xiao Qian's illness and drag down his body in order to make money. ”

Zhao Xiu sighed loudly: "I knew it would be like this." Zhao Yan is young and scheming. If he doesn't directly ask for silver, it would be too low-voiced. He only complained to his grandmother, anyway, with his grandmother's compassion, she would definitely take pity on him, and then take the initiative to give him money to spend. If he is deeper, he may have to refuse, two or three times, and he looks like he is not eaten by the mouth, and finally our family will beg him to accept it. ”

Zhang glared at her and slapped her hand lightly: "Don't talk so meanly. How can you do this? ”

Zhao Xiu smiled and hid back: "So he won't be too pretentious, and the city government is shallow, if you give him money, he will accept it immediately." That's where his cleverness comes in. If he refuses once, you really won't give him the money, won't he suffer a big loss? Just in case, it's better not to take that risk. ”

Zhang wanted to laugh when he heard this, but felt embarrassed, glared at Zhao Xiu again, and then sat down and said to Zhao Wei: "What do you think of the thing that Brother Yan asked?" ”

Zhao Wei was silent. Zhao Xiu was curious: "What did he ask?" Sure enough, there's still a follow-up. ”

Zhao Wei smiled: "It's nothing, when I went to them last time, I mentioned to Zhao Ze that when someone from his hometown came and opened a shop in Beijing, he would let him go over to help with things." Although it is a little undignified, he can still support his family with a bowl of rice to eat and more wages. Zhao Ze didn't say anything at the time, but he heard that since he recovered from his injury, he has been looking for work outside, but he is afraid that once he finds it, no matter what kind of work it is, he will not come when we call him. Zhao Yanlai asked about this matter, saying that Zhao Ze didn't want to work under the old family, if the clan needed reliable manpower, could he let him try? He is also fourteen years old this year, he has been literate since he was a child, he followed his biological mother when he was a child, and because Aunt Xiao Qian has been in charge of the family for a few years, he also made calculations. He has lived in Beijing for a long time, and he is familiar with the customs of the roads, and the eunuchs in the inner city often come and go, which is stronger than Zhao Ze. Zhao Ze has been in his hometown in the south for all these years, and he is afraid that he doesn't even know the prices in Beijing. I saw that Zhao Yan wanted to replace Zhao Ze, but I only told him that the old family had just arrived in the capital, and they didn't have a clue what business to do, and it was certain to recruit buddies, and the number of people would not be only one or two, let him go back first, and when the decision was made, it would not be too late for him to ask again. ”

Zhao Xiu said with a sigh: "This person is young, but he is shrewd, but his appearance is too ugly." If he said that the old family could arrange errands for Zhao Ze, it would be okay if he could arrange one for him as well. He actually came up directly and said that Zhao Ze didn't want that errand, give him the errand. Even if Zhao Ze really doesn't want to do an errand, it will be him who will tell us, when will it be his turn to speak to one of his younger brothers? If the relationship between the two brothers has always been very good, it doesn't matter, there is a deep feud in the middle of the sea of blood, and it is more than ten years of fighting between the concubines and concubines, he is embarrassed to open this mouth? ”

Zhang sighed: "This is not to blame him. Brother Ze is okay with this younger brother, but he just listened to Brother Yan'er's tone, Aunt Xiao Qian was for Brother Hong's death, and she still hates Brother Ze deeply. I also knew what happened back then, but how old was Ze Ge'er at that time? I'm afraid he doesn't understand what he's done. ”

Zhao Xiu disagreed: "I didn't know it when I was a child, but don't you know it when I grow up?" If he blindly says that he didn't do it, and others prove that he did it, he says that others slander him and his mother. If you turn black and white upside down, you can say it with your mouth open. I don't like this guy anyway. The errand that our family kindly arranged for him, if he doesn't want to do it, don't do it, is it difficult for us to beg him to come to work and receive wages? ”

The Zhang family didn't bother to refute his granddaughter, and only asked his grandson Zhao Wei: "What does Brother Wei think?" In fact, Brother Ze refused to come, because he was worried that the Niu family would use him to climb up to our house and ask for the benefits of this and that, even if he was on an errand in the store, he would not be at peace. I just wanted him to live a lighter life, and if he refused to do things, it would be the same to play his brother. I don't like to play my brother, but there is nothing wrong with his mother and son, if he can earn some money to go back and support his biological mother and siblings, the burden on Ze Ge'er can be lighter. ”

Zhao Wei said: "If grandmother thinks like this, then the grandson will go and tell Brother Qixuan." In fact, whether it is Zhao Ze or Zhao Yan, it is okay for the brothers to come together on an errand. It's just a guy's errand, ushering in the delivery, escorting the goods, as long as they don't ask them to take care of the accounts. ”

Zhao Xiu said with a smile: "Our family doesn't care about the food of these two people, it's just that their grandmother saw that there was no oil and water to pump, and she wanted to find a stunned Yushi to visit our family, saying that we forced the son of a criminal official who had studied to go to the shop to be a partner, which was insulting and looked down on people." ”

Zhang let out an "ah" and then pondered. Zhao Xiu's eyes widened: "Grandmother shouldn't be serious, right?" I'm just kidding. ”

Zhang glanced at her and said to Zhao Wei: "Sister Xiu'er's words are not unreasonable. What kind of shop do you Qixuan, they open? Cloth shops, tea shops, and those selling Western goods, but I am afraid that the customers who come to patronize are not ordinary people. Let them recognize Ze Ge'er and them, their faces may not look good. ”

Zhao Wei said: "They are all the sons of criminal officials, who doesn't know what their situation is now?" It's already a blessing to have a buddy's errand to do, and grandmother is still worried about whether they look good on their faces? ”

Zhang lowered his head and said: "I just thought that they were also literate since they were young in the past, if Brother Ze didn't have a mother like that, if Brother Yan didn't have a father like that, I'm afraid it's time to test for fame." Asking them to be shop guys is indeed a little wronged. She thought for a moment, "Why don't you ...... Tell them to do some copying and reconciliation in the back, and don't tell them to greet customers in front? ”

Zhao Xiu said: "Let them take care of the accounts, it is better to open a small study shop or bookstore or something, and directly hand it over to their brother to take care of it." How much money they make and how much they lose is theirs, and doing the business of a scholar is more decent than other shops. ”

Zhang looked at her in surprise and thought for a while: "Can this work?" ”

"Why can't it?" Zhao Xiu really didn't bother to pay attention to that family anymore, "There is a book market over there in the City God Temple, let's spend a little money over there and set up a small shop, and then let Brother Qixuan bring some pen, ink, paper, and inkstones produced in the south of the Yangtze River every time they transport goods from the south to the north, and add some poetry collections and anthologies, which is enough for the shop to sell." Let's hand over the shop to Zhao Ze and the brothers to take care of, and at first only gave one hundred taels of capital, whether it was a profit or a loss, they no longer invested money in it, and they also settled accounts with Brother Qixuan when they asked for goods, and they couldn't owe it on credit. In addition, they were given five taels of wages per month, and the brothers added up to ten taels of silver, which was enough for his family to eat and clothe themselves. Our family's account office used to reconcile the accounts once a quarter, if there is no problem with the account, then everything is easy to say, if there is a problem, they will be asked to pay compensation. If they can run the shop well, they will return it to the public middle school at the end of the year, deduct the cost, and give them 30% of the profits they earn, which is considered a reward. If the loss is so bad that you can't support it anymore, then close the shop, the store will change hands, and the two of them will get out of here. Something useless, do I have to feed them for the rest of my life? I have a lot of money, I might as well go and give to the poor, so that I can still get a good reputation. ”

Zhang and Zhao Wei looked at each other.

Zhang thought about it carefully, and felt that this idea was not bad, the most important thing is to run a study shop, and it is more decent to say it, so you don't have to be angry with the shopkeeper, if Zhao Ze and Zhao Yan's brothers run it well, it can be regarded as an industry.

Zhao Wei felt that this approach was not so much to help the Zhao Ze brothers, but to let them do things for the Jiannan Hou Mansion, and after a year, there was no need to give them another silver, which saved a lot of things. If the Niu clan wants to make trouble again, there is no reason. Just check the accounts, and keep the contract of the store in your hands, and you can't let them swallow it.

The grandparents and grandchildren glanced at each other and nodded in unison: "That's it!" ”RS