Zhao Xiu asked Bilian in a low voice: "What did the fourth master say?" Bilian shook her head: "I just said that 100,000 is urgent, I hope the girl will go quickly." "Zhao Xiu is embarrassed, she has a guest here, wouldn't it be bad to leave the guest to see her cousin?

Although Tao Zhuohua is young and easy to be shy, in fact, she is a little girl who is very good at reading people's eyes, and when she saw Zhao Xiu's embarrassed face, she said: "If Miss Zhao has anything important, just do it, I can sit and drink tea alone." ”

Zhao Xiu was very grateful: "Thank you, it's just too rude." After thinking about it, he pointed to the study on the west side: "I have a lot of books over there, and I also have chess and piano scores, you can see if you are interested, just take a look." He asked Bilian to wait, and he went to the main house to say hello to the Zhang family and the Bian family before going to see Zhao Qixuan.

Although Zhang didn't know why Zhao Qixuan came, he saw that he acted steadily on weekdays, and rarely when he was so flustered, he also got up sternly and asked people to inform Lu's mother and go to the front to see what was going on. Bian didn't want to interject, but said with some worry: "Since your granddaughter is not available, why don't you let my girl come back and talk to us." ”

Zhang thought about it, and asked the girl to see what Tao Zhuohua was doing, and the girl went for a while and came back, and reported with a smile: "Miss Tao is looking at half of our girl's clothes, saying that the embroidered patterns on the top are unique and novel, and she borrowed paper and pen to trace the patterns." ”

Bian Shi put his heart at ease, and was a little embarrassed: "This girl is too polite, so I have to tell the master." ”

Zhang smiled: "It's just a trick, what's this?" The embroidery on my girl's head is just mediocre. But the patterns of the painting are good, she paints according to the serious calligraphy and painting, and is less ingenious than others. A few more copies of Sven. My wife shouldn't have worn embroidered clothes, but she just learned tailoring, and she has to make one for me anyway, and how to look good and how to do it, I can't resist her, so I have to let her go, it's a big deal to wear it at home. Although there is a meaning of belittling the granddaughter. In fact, who can't hear the full pride contained in it? Bian had to smile and agree, and he was also a little curious. I don't know what kind of tricks my daughter will draw to go back.

said that Zhao Xiu went out of the second door and went straight to the flower hall, where Zhao Qixuan was waiting, and he didn't even have the leisure time to sit down and drink a cup of tea. I spin in place. was sweating, and when he saw Zhao Xiu coming, he called "Brother Qixuan", his eyes lit up, and he rushed over: "Good girl, you are here." ”

Zhao Xiu only felt inexplicable: "What happened?" ”

Zhao Qixuan took a deep breath before telling her everything from beginning to end.

It turned out that he went to Nanhui yesterday and saw that more than a dozen large ships from abroad had recently docked in the port. I wanted to see what good things were available, and I bought and sold them. Although his family's financial situation has been much looser in the past two years, and his son's school performance is also good, it is always good to earn more. Today, he didn't buy any good goods, but he made a match, helped people sell a batch of raw silk to foreign merchants, and in order to celebrate, he ate wine with a few friends who helped. At this time, a messenger who had been on the dock all the year round brought a few yellow-haired and white-skinned red-haired devils, pointed at one of his friends and said a few words that he didn't know what he didn't know, and those red-haired devils grabbed the friend and shouted, no one could understand it, but they seemed to be very angry. Their group of friends naturally wanted to help pull, and because of Zhao Qixuan, he had been mixing in Nanhui all the year round, and had learned a few words from foreigners, and understood that one of them was "kill my cousin", and he was immediately frightened, and he hurriedly grabbed the interpreter and asked, only to know what was going on.

This group of red-haired devils came from England in the West, although they were also merchants, but they were not entirely here to do business, they wanted to find their cousin who had been missing for a long time, saying that they had come by ship from England two or three years ago, but they did not go back, and the caravan with him said that he died of illness in the East, but he did not bring back the body, nor did he see the relics, and the family could not believe it, and started a lawsuit with the caravan, but it was not over. My cousin's wife was determined to go to the East to find out, so she sold her possessions, bought a large ship, and formed a caravan. Relatives also sent their sons and nephews to follow, and they must find the missing cousin, who must be seen alive and corpses when he is dead. They docked at Nanhui half a month ago, got off the boat and inquired around, found their cousin's grave, and also heard that their cousin's servant had stolen and sold his master's property without permission after his death, but unfortunately this servant ran away with other caravans, and they didn't know where to go for a while, so they could only try to find out how his cousin died.

This was almost three years ago, and the two sides don't understand the same language, who can remember it so clearly? Some people say that the winter was so cold that their cousin couldn't bear the cold weather, so he fell ill and died; Some say that their cousin had a conflict with the caravan and was killed by one of them; Others say that their cousin was betrayed by a servant, stole important possessions, and died in a fit of rage; It was even said that their cousin had been deceived of the goods he had brought, and he fell ill in a fit of rage, and the landlord threw him out of the house when he saw that he had no money, leaving him homeless in the cold winter and freezing to death on the streets......

There are different ways to die, but in general, they can be summarized as follows: their cousin had a conflict with the caravan people, was beaten, and after arriving in Nanhui, he could not stand the cold weather, and fell ill, someone cheated him out of the goods he brought, causing him to lose all his money, the servants stole his luggage, he became so angry that his illness worsened, and the landlord saw that he had no money, and threw him out of the house, and then he died.

Among the people who drank with Zhao Qixuan and them, one of them was the landlord's son, and when he was not at home, those angry red-haired devils came to him. After the matter was explained clearly, the interpreter also said that he would take them to the government and investigate them for murder.

The landlord's son was so frightened that he woke up, and hurriedly said, "When are we going to get over him?" We drove his servants! He was dead by then! We also helped to take care of the aftermath, because we saw that his servant had brought a lot of women back to eat and drink, and we didn't care that the master had just died, so we just drove people away, and if we didn't believe it, we just asked people to go! ”

Interpreting was indispensable, and he didn't see what was going on. I only know that the neighbors said that the landlord's family rented the house to a red-haired merchant and kicked people out of the door. When the expelled man left, he staggered, saying that it was okay for him to be drunk, that he was sick and dying, and that he was too far away to smell any wine, but there was someone supporting the man, but he did not know whether it was a servant or a prostitute brought back by the servant. The interpreter went to the yamen to explain the matter. Zhao Qixuan: They had no choice but to respond. When he arrived at the Yamen, he spent some money and sent people to inquire about the neighbors. finally determined that his family buried a red-haired devil first, and then drove away another one, and only then did he clear the charges of his friend's family.

The red-haired merchant apologized to Zhao Qixuan's friend, thanked his family and complained about his cousin. But then came the trouble - they wanted to get their cousin's relics back. The man wanted to tell the servant to take all the things. But those merchants have testimony that he once personally sold their cousin's relics on the street, and they originally thought that he had killed him for money, but now it is proved that he once did something for others, but the suspicion of "making money" cannot be removed.

This red-haired merchant heard that he was a powerful merchant and brought many precious goods, and he intended to purchase large quantities of tea, raw silk, and porcelain. It's simply a rich man. In order to curry favor with them, many domestic merchants were willing to help. Zhao Qixuan's friend has no connections. The family is not very wealthy, and if he is really accused of being thrown into prison, he may be ruined. Zhao Qixuan and their friends were extremely anxious, begging for people everywhere, only to find out a news - the widow of the deceased didn't want to be embarrassed, but she wanted to get back her deceased husband's relics.

Zhao Qixuan didn't know anything else, but he knew that some of the things were transferred from that friend's hand to him, and then he sent them to Zhao Xiu. He was in a hurry to find Zhao Xiu, just to beg her to take out those things.

Zhao Xiu asked, "Have you ever asked, what is the name of the deceased?" And what is his wife's name? Are you sure it's really that person's stuff? ”

Zhao Qixuan thought for a while: "That person seems to be surnamed Wei, what is his name...... Weiers, his wife's surname is probably Ge, Ge ...... Ge thinks about it, the names of the two couples are a bit similar, it's really strange. ”

Weiers? It's Wells, right? Is the husband Benjamin? Wells, his wife's name is Gwyneth, so it seems to be true.

Zhao Xiu sighed, although she was a little reluctant, but her relatives were here, and she had no reason not to return the things, so she said to Zhao Qixuan: "You wait a minute, I'll go get the things." ”

Zhao Qixuan saw that she didn't say a word, so he agreed to help, and was immediately overjoyed, and bowed long: "Thank you sister, sister is benevolent and righteous, foolish brother must never forget!" ”

Zhao Xiu smiled, turned around and went out, Lu's mother heard it outside, stepped forward and whispered: "Girl, you have to think clearly, this matter has nothing to do with our family, if you really return the things, some people will inevitably gossip, saying that the girl took the thief." ”

Zhao Xiu disagreed: "The mouth grows on others, how can people say it, can I still stop it?" Our family has always been a well-known benevolent family, and if we inadvertently get some worthless books and sundries, where do we know that it is a thief? Now I also saw that the widow was pitiful, so I returned the things to her, and I didn't even want the silver, and I lost money. Even if someone gossips, he has to be believed. "Mother Lu won't say anything.

Zhao Xiu went back to the room where she lived, and saw Tao Zhuohua buried her head in front of the table and traced half of a square-necked half-sleeved autumn bijia she had made for her grandmother, navy blue silk, and embroidered simple landscape patterns with various blue, green and blue silk threads on the cuffs and front and back plackets, which were low-key and unconventional, and it was not easy to highlight the lack of her embroidery skills, and she thought about it for a long time before she came up with it. Seeing Tao Zhuohua descripting attentively, Zhao Xiu smiled, didn't bother, and went straight to the study.

Bilian came over and whispered back: "Miss Tao saw the clothes you put on the table, and when she was curious, she took them over and looked at them, and when she saw that the embroidery was fresh, she asked the slave if she could draw them." The slave maid thought that it was the girl who had drawn it from an ancient painting, and it was nothing if she was allowed to draw it, so she let her go. ”

Zhao Xiu nodded, didn't care, and only told her to take out the foreigner things she got that year. Bilian didn't understand what she was looking for, so she went to find them. In addition to wine jugs, sketchbooks and other things, several foreign books are often read by Zhao Xiu, and it is not difficult at all, but the rest of the things are troublesome.

Zhao Xiu took a big piece of baggage skin, wrapped the things, took out the flower hall, and showed it to Zhao Qixuan: "Mao has already made a cloak for my brother, and the candlestick was also given to Brother Zong's house that year, and these two things can't be returned to her." There are flasks, sketchbooks, books, maps, stationery, etc., as well as a diary and a few letters that you can return. Tell someone the inside story, say sorry for me, and ask her to mourn. If there is any rudeness, my brother should not be like them, and explain the reason to them, and it is just that. ”

The woolen and candlesticks are both goods, not intangible cultural heritage, Zhao Qixuan didn't care, he saw that Zhao Xiu brought such a complete thing, his heart suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, hurriedly agreed, wrapped the baggage, and left in a hurry.

When Zhao Xiu returned to the courtyard, Tao Zhuohua had already finished drawing the pattern and went to the main house to accompany his mother. Zhang is talking to Bian about the blue and white porcelain tea bowl on white ground: "In the past two years, the utensils burned in the porcelain kiln outside have been learned according to the preferences of foreigners. I wasn't used to it at home, so I had to buy a small kiln and burn some home-cooked things by myself. This is what comes out of our kiln, and I dare not compare with the products of those famous kilns, but it is better than Sven Chic, and it is comfortable to look at. ”

Bian nodded: "You are right, the tea sets I use at home are also sent to Songjiang and Suzhou to buy them, and I think the local ones are too fancy." But that can't be helped, since Nanhui Port has become prosperous, foreign merchants like to buy porcelain, and there are several more porcelain kilns in the local area, all of which are specialized in export business, and the government is not easy to say. ”

Seeing that Zhao Xiu was back, Tao Zhuohua hurriedly got up, and Zhao Xiu smiled and saluted her: "I'm slacking, please don't be embarrassed by my sister." Tao Zhuohua lowered his head and blushed and said: "Don't dare to be, I just described your tricks, and I didn't ask the master, it's my rudeness." Zhao Xiu smiled: "It's just a trivial matter, my sister doesn't have to be polite." ”

Zhang asked, "What happened?" Your cousin is so flustered. Zhao Xiu briefly explained the matter, and Zhang sighed when he heard it: "I see, the foreigner's wife is also pitiful, you return the relics to her, this is very good." ”

Bian said: "In recent years, there have been more and more foreign merchants in Nanhui, and I heard that there are still people who buy houses in Nanhui to live for a long time, and the government over there has specially set aside a piece of land for foreigners to make a cemetery. There are not a few who want to die in a foreign land like this woman's husband. ”

Zhang said: "Merchants pursue profits, but it is not only foreign businessmen who die in a foreign land?" There are also many people in my own country. ”

Zhao Xiu saw that their topic was too pessimistic, and hurriedly said: "Nanhui Port is becoming more and more prosperous now, and we Fengxian have also gained a lot of benefits, and even the things sold in the market outside are much richer." ”

Bian also reacted: "Exactly, I heard our lord say that the tax payment last year alone was more than ten times more than ten years ago, not to mention Nanhui." The imperial court has decreed that the prefect of Shanghai will intercept the customs tariff silver of the past two years, repair the seaside dam, and repair the water conservancy in various places along the way. It can be seen that the prosperity of foreign trade is also beneficial. ”

Zhang hurriedly asked: "Is the seaside dam really going to be repaired?" ”

"It's time to fix it." Bian said, "It was all many years ago, after the king of Guangping accepted the dam, it was safe for eight years, and I heard that many places should be repaired." His Royal Highness the Crown Prince personally sent a letter to ask the emperor to order repairs, and the emperor has already agreed, and now it depends on which lord the court will appoint to preside over this matter. ”

Zhang fell into deep thought. (To be continued......)

PS: (Took a little longer, sorry for the late update.) ）