The transaction ended on the same day, and after the banquet, Chen Kai stayed in the post house as usual, and the next day he wandered around the city as usual, taking some locally produced goods along the way.

However, after a long siege, as Sanshui was captured by the Qing army, the input of raw materials decreased, and the goods became more and more expensive, not to mention, the business of the pawnshop was getting better and better, and more and more people were reduced to abject poverty.

At nightfall, Chen Kai turned around and went to the Xianlin Lane near the left of the Five Immortals Temple, turned into a place called Haixue Hall, knocked on the door, and reported his name, but was told that the owner was not at home.

Leaving a post, Chen Kai turned back to the post house. Between the streets and alleys, there are a few more beggars than the last time I came, and if you think about it carefully, this should be the situation after Du Yonghe took away a large number of beggars to pay for the goods, otherwise I am afraid that it will be a few more points.

It has been seven months since the siege of Guangzhou began in early March. Although transportation has not been completely cut off, it is inevitable that the city's business will be sluggish and prices will soar. This is nothing for a large family, but for a small family, the limited savings have long been spent, and if they can't even make a living, then they will be left to beg on the streets.

Walking on the road, Chen Kai thought carefully, but he didn't go far, but he saw a middle-aged man holding a piano walking out of a pawnshop. The man looked like a dissolute man, and he was not poorly dressed, but he didn't know why he had to run to a place like a pawnshop.

This person passed by Chen Kai, but in the next second, Chen Kai suddenly turned around and asked him, "But Kuang Sheren?" ”

The middle-aged man turned his head and looked at Chen Kai with doubts on his face. Seeing this, Chen Kai immediately stepped forward to introduce himself, but the middle-aged man still thought for a while before he vaguely remembered Chen Kai.

"Xiaguan is a scholar from the seventh grade, and he can't recognize a feudal official like Chen Zhifu."

A prefect from the fourth grade, or a prefect with only one county in his hand, this sentence "feudal official" really ridiculed Chen Kai enough.

After that, the middle-aged man turned around and left, as if he would dirty his saliva when he said a word to Chen Kai. This person is so rude, even Chen Kai's servants are all angry. However, Chen Kai didn't care, but chased after him, directly blocking the middle-aged man's way.

"I have heard for a long time that the Kuang She people have the legacy of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and when I see it today, it is really worthy of the name. It's just that it seems that Kuang Sheren has some misunderstanding about Zaixia. ”

"Misunderstanding?" The middle-aged man frowned, pointed to the beggar on the side of the road, and asked Chen Kai, "Didn't those poor people who were forcibly taken into the camp by Du Yonghe all resell them to you?" What a misunderstanding is this! ”

"I see."

Chen Kai shook his head and smiled bitterly, and then explained to the middle-aged man: "How do the people of Kuang She know that I, Chen Kai, are not saving them, how do the people who left Guangzhou with me live now, whether they have eaten enough, and whether they are better off than when they begged and slept on the streets?" ”

"Why, I was bought by you, a foreigner, and I didn't call you as a slave?!"

Having said this, Chen Kai knew that he had no way to prove it to the middle-aged man, but since he had led the conversation here, he was naturally ready to reply to his words.

"How about a foreigner, you Kuanshe people were in Guangxi back then, how did Miss Yunqi treat you, a foreigner? In other words, I, Chen Kai, am a foreigner living in eastern Guangdong and southern Fujian, why do you think so much about my personality? ”

As soon as Yun Yan's name came out, the middle-aged man's color changed. When he eased up, the righteous indignation passed, and he bowed to Chen Kai and apologized for his preconceived ideas. However, he still expressed solemn dissatisfaction with Chen Kai's behavior of using people to offset the payment, and was unwilling to say anything more to Chen Kai.

"How do you know I'm not saving the people of this city?"

"To take people as goods is to save people?"

The middle-aged man didn't believe it, Chen Kai simply didn't explain, and directly dragged him to Haixue Hall. And the middle-aged man's momentum had fallen, and seeing that Chen Kai was so persistent, he simply didn't resist, and simply returned to that place one after another.

"Old man......"

Where has the old servant guarding the door seen such a scene, but the middle-aged man didn't say anything, just entered the house with Chen Kai and Chen Kai's entourage, and the two went straight to the study, and then waved away.

The middle-aged man is called Kuang Lu, a famous genius in Guangzhou, with a wild and uninhibited temperament, quite the style of Wei Jin Jikang, in his early years, he was asked to answer the paper with the words true, line, grass, seal, and subordinate when taking the exam, and the result was considered "violation" and was deposed, but he was as if nothing happened, laughed and brushed his sleeves away. Later, he participated in the township test several times, but he was "named Sun Shan". "So he indulged in wine, or wandered around the city, proudly disdainful, thinking that he was quite hated by the people of etiquette."

On the night of the first day of the seventh year of Chongzhen, Kuang Lu and his friends rode a drunk horse, and traveled to the lantern night market. This caused a big disaster, and was forced by the county order to take refuge in another country. He successively wandered in Guangxi, Huguang, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Nanzhili, and even went to Beijing, which lasted five years, until Huang Xi was convicted of taking bribes, and was able to return to his hometown.

"You, have you seen the girl?"

Kuang Lu's voice trembled, and he was no longer as uninhibited as he was just now. The word concern appeared on the face of a forty-seven-year-old middle-aged man who had never disdained to hide it, and Chen Kai couldn't help but tremble in his heart when he saw it.

"I haven't been to Guangxi, and I haven't seen the Yunqi girl who doesn't let her eyebrows go, but I heard a romantic love story on the way south, and I don't know if it's true or not. But now it seems that it is true. ”

"You!" Hearing such explanations, Kuang Lu pointed at Chen Kai, but he couldn't exert his strength, and finally only sighed: "It's really worthy of Chen Kai Chen Jingcheng who deceived Chaozhou, you mouth, Che Renzhong died unjustly." ”

When Kuang Lu was in exile in Guangxi, he was the secretary in the scene of a Yao people's female toast, and it is said that he also had a relationship with the woman named Yun Yan.

Whether this is the case or not, Chen Kai does not know, but in his early years, he had heard a saying that how many words a literati wrote for a woman can prove how much he loves that woman. In the book "Chiya", which Kuang Lu called the Ming Dynasty version of the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" by later generations, there are as many as three accounts of Yun Qianniang. In Kuang Lu's writing, Yun Qian is a Yao woman who knows how to fight and can fight, is as beautiful as a goddess, and has treasures in her family. Although he did not say love, the depth of his affection can also be seen.

"I will regard it as Kuang Dacai's praise for my Chen Kai, of course, it would be better if I could replace the deception with wisdom."

To such a dissolute person, Chen Kai also let go, but unexpectedly, Kuang Lu was bright-eyed in such a manner. It's hard to say that when you interact with people, you can see someone put food on the plate, but it's not wrong to deal with it in different ways depending on the person.

One is the legacy of the Wei and Jin dynasties, and the other is simply a new youth who has passed through, and they all have a disdainful attitude towards the rules and regulations of feudal etiquette. Especially Chen Kai, who was originally a little nervous when he was by Zheng Chenggong's side, but now in front of Kuang Lu, he also let go of himself, and he almost scared Kuang Lu.

Between the words, the two of them were already as old as before, and soon, the topic returned to the original point, about Chen Kai's use of the people in the city to offset the payment.

"Don't hide it from Brother Zhanruo, the little brother is here to ask for your help."