When Su Chen left the canal embankment, his heart was still churning, and he didn't expect that the old man who painted turned out to be Han Xizai, a veteran minister of the Southern Tang Dynasty, who was temporarily away from the temple and rested in the old mansion in Runzhou.

This Han Xizai is a native of Qingzhou in the north, and he went to Yang Wu because his father was killed by Li Siyuan. When Li Yu was in the Southern Tang Dynasty, he served as the secretary Lang and assisted the prince in the East Palace. Later, Li Jing ascended the throne, and he moved to the position of a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a historian of the museum, and a doctor of Taichang, who worshiped the scholars.

In fact, Han Xizai's talent is very great, when he defected to Yang Wu Guangling, he also had higher ambitions than the sky, but after arriving in Wu, because of his luxurious life and like Fengyue, he was disliked by Xu Zhihe, who was in power at the time, and this Xu Zhihe was later Li Yu, the ancestor of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Li Yu lives a simple life, is cautious, and does not like publicity, but Han Xizai is the opposite, arrogant and informal, so it is naturally difficult to gain Li Yu's appreciation.

Han Xizai stayed in the East Palace for seven years, chatting with the crown prince Li Jing every day, writing essays and poems, and getting along for a long time made Li Jing have a deeper understanding of Han Xizai's talents. After Li Jing ascended the throne, he began to reuse Han Xizai, but it was a pity that the internal party struggles in the Southern Tang Dynasty continued, and because of the disagreement in the strategy of resisting Hou Zhou, Li Jing did not listen to Han Xizai's advice, which caused a catastrophe in Jiangbei. Later, Li Jing was forced to move the capital to Hongzhou, depressed and unhappy, and died of illness.

Two years ago, after Li Yu ascended the throne, he appointed Han Xizai as the servant of the ministry, and the official residence was from Sanpin; But last year, because of the matter of recoinage, Han Xizai and the prime minister continued to argue in front of the emperor, he was full of rhetoric, strongly opposed, shook the court, offended many colleagues, was impeached by the ministers, Li Yu because of the pressure of the court, temporarily dismissed him from the office, and demoted to Runzhou.

Han Xizai has just stayed in Runzhou City for half a year, where the products are abundant, the market is prosperous, and he usually goes out to visit the mountains and rivers, fish and paint, enjoy singing and dancing at home, talk about poetry, and live at ease.

It's just that the ambition in his heart can't be displayed, and the heroic feelings of opening up the territory and expanding the territory occasionally swelled up in his chest, and he had nowhere to vent, so he could only pin his trust on the characters in the painting, but he thought of the old man as himself, with the world in mind, worried about the country and the people, and showed the weakness of "detached from reality and not understanding the truth of the people".

In the final analysis, it is not a pragmatist, or in the methodology of governing the world with sage books, and has not really studied the working class, a rich country and a safe country.

After chatting with Han Xizai for a while, Su Chen said goodbye and parted, and on the way home, he was thinking about whether he should deepen his relationship with Han Xizai. According to historical records, although this Han Xizai had ups and downs in his career, he was repeatedly activated until the fall of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and it is likely that in another half a year, he will be able to resume his official position and return to Jinling to serve as a high-ranking official.

"No, I don't intend to pursue a career in the Southern Tang Dynasty, so it's better to keep some distance and don't be recommended by him!" Su Chen had his own thoughts in his heart.

He knew the trend of history, ten years later, the Southern Tang Dynasty was about to perish, Su Chen didn't want to take too deep roots in the Southern Tang Dynasty, and finally followed the Southern Tang Dynasty to ruin the country and the family.

Su Chen returned home, took the finished sugar gourd rod and continued to go out to sell, when he walked on the busy street, he was a little surprised, because on the street, there were vendors selling sugar gourds one after another.

"Rock sugar gourd, sweet and crispy Wang Ji sugar gourd!"

"Sweet and delicious Zhang Ji sugar gourd!"

"The original secret recipe, Cui Ji sugar gourd, it's not delicious and doesn't cost money!"

Su Chen stood on a main street at the entrance of the market, looking at the endless flow of people, the red sugar gourds had appeared one after another, Zhang Ji sugar gourd, Wang Ji sugar gourd, Cui Ji sugar gourd all appeared.

Although he guessed that imitations would appear, he still underestimated the flexible thinking of the people of Runzhou in the Southern Tang Dynasty to do business, and it was only three days before imitations appeared.

"Cooking cakes, sugar gourds—"

There is a middle-aged man with a short head, carrying a sugar gourd and a pole passing by, and on the other shoulder, he is also carrying a flat box that sells cooking cakes.

Yes, the cookcake sellers also sold sugar gourds by the way.

Su Chen was dumbfounded and asked Qingtian speechlessly.

If the old man who picks up dung on the street knows that selling sugar gourds can make money, then this project will not be very profitable.

Su Chen inquired, the sugar gourds sold by these people were all three cents a piece, and as the holder of the authentic secret recipe, he set the price at four cents for one string, and ten cents for three strings!

"Su Ji Sugar Gourd—" As soon as Su Chen shouted, there were some other people selling sugar gourds, turning their heads sideways, casting contemptuous glances, as if with hatred.

Su Chen felt inexplicable, and still shouted Su Ji sugar gourd.

"This little brother, if you shout and betray Su Ji like this, you will not be righteous." A middle-aged rough man passed by him, also carrying a sugar gourd and inserting a rod, and reminded Su Chen.

"Why?" Su Chen didn't understand.

"Who doesn't know that the first person to sell sugar gourds in Runzhou City is Su Ji Sugar Gourd, let's follow the trend to make and sell it, but we can't pretend to be others!"

Made, it turns out that these accomplices who sell sugar gourds all think that Su Chen is deliberately pretending to be an authentic sugar gourd seller at this time, and he is competing unfairly!

Su Chen said angrily: "Look at my face, and the 'Su Ji' logo on this pole, I am the first authentic Su Ji to sell sugar gourds!" ”

"It's really you......" The rough man also darkened his face, lowered his head, and fled quickly.

Although there is competition, Su Chen's sugar gourd is still more delicious than other sugar gourds, and it is an authentic brand, so even if it is four pennies, it is easier to sell, even so, a hundred strings of sugar gourds are sold out until dusk, and it takes two hours more than yesterday.

Su Chen sighed lightly, and also understood that the process of making sugar gourds was relatively simple, even if other people did not have the authentic and delicious food he made for the time being, but it would not take long, and repeated research was likely to be more delicious than what he made, because don't underestimate the creativity of the working people at the bottom, these foods were originally invented and created by them.

Su Chen is not a gourmet, he just took the lead, his skills and production level can only be regarded as average, a little bit more talented than mediocrity, but compared with the hard-working grassroots people, this simple craft is easy to be surpassed.

In addition, there are so many users who eat sugar gourds in Runzhou, and the new things have passed, and the children of the people at the bottom of the Li people are very happy to be able to eat a string of ordinary sugar gourds for three cents every three or five days, and there is no need to eat his authentic Su Ji.

On the way back home, Su Chen was already mentally prepared, this sugar gourd project, he wanted to withdraw as soon as possible, or promote the soap and soap project as soon as possible, that is the hole card to save 500 yuan in 20 days.

When passing by Fan's house, Su Chen walked into the lobby on a whim, and saw Zhang Dachuan commenting on the stage on the stage, he deliberately chose a table near the door, away from the stage, so as not to be discovered by the storyteller and the old man, and have a bloody trouble of recognizing each other on the spot.

There are many listeners in the restaurant, almost full, and the guests choose to be close to the stage, so that they can hear more clearly, but the wine table near the door is empty.

Zhang Dachuan was talking about the second time at this time, his voice was hoarse, with a little richness, talking about the death of Queen Dugu, and Emperor Wen of Sui began to favor Mrs. Xuanhua and Mrs. Ronghua. This night, Yang Jian dreamed of a monstrous flood that almost drowned him, and after waking up, he asked the person who interpreted the dream. It was said that there was a crisis in the imperial court, and there were people who thought that there was a word in their name that would bring disaster to the country and overthrow the imperial court in the future, so Yang Jian killed Li Hong first and belittled Li Yuan, but Yang Guang and Yu Wenhua still refused to let go of Li Yuan's family, and decided to ambush and kill people on the way!

The two of them made a plan to harm Li Yuan. I don't know what life looks like, and listen to the next decomposition - pop! ”

After Zhang Dachuan knocked on the wood, the audience was silent at first, and then burst into applause, and they all felt that the story was very exciting, more tortuous and thrilling than the previous short stories of old-fashioned talented and beautiful women, and very coherent!

"Reward!" Many guests grabbed a handful of copper coins and threw them on the stage, and some people gave some reward money to the copper basins that passed by to receive rewards, ranging from more than ten to dozens of dollars per table.

Seeing this, Su Chen smiled slightly, thinking that in the future, he could use stories such as "Three Kingdoms", "Journey to the West", "Condor Shooting" and "Covering the Sky" to make money by converting them into scripts.