The little steward was young, and after all, he was just a steward, so he didn't dare to refute Ning Xia Qing, but his face was obviously very displeased, and he felt that Ah Zheng and Ning Xia Qing had caused him trouble. And Ning Zhiqi was also stunned for a moment, obviously not believing Ning Ningqing's words, but he couldn't stand Ning Ningqing's serious face, Ning Zhiqi couldn't wipe his face and refused, so he had to send someone to the Wen family to invite someone.

The Wen family is a big local dye dealer, and Ning Er's workshop has been cooperating with the Wen family, and he has a lot of friendship with the Wen family because of the dyes imported from the Wen family.

It's just that this time I want the dye of the Phoenix grass dye, which is not comparable to ordinary dyes, and the Wen family does not have this dye at all, so Ning Zhiqi had to buy it from other ways.

The little steward had already gone to the Wen family to ask for someone, and Ning Zhiqi and Ning Ningqing were waiting in the workshop.

Ning Xia Qing paced back and forth very uneasily, Ning Zhiqi looked at Ning Xia Qing, and stopped talking a few times, and finally couldn't help but say: "Cousin, let me tell you, these dyes were imported by your third cousin, and it was I who interceded with Xiao Gongzi and asked Xiao Gongzi to find someone to help me say a few good words, and I got these from your third cousin." ”

Ning Zhiqi was very embarrassed: "You invite someone from the Wen family to inspect the goods, if this spreads, Xiao Gongzi is afraid that he will be unhappy......"

Ning Xia Qing couldn't help asking, "Is it from my third uncle?" ”

Ning Zhiqi nodded, Ning Xia Qing's face couldn't help but get worse, and Ning Zhiqi didn't dare to say anything when he saw this.

After a while, the soft sedan chair of the workshop brought an old man with white hair from the Wen family.

The old man's hair, eyebrows, and beard were all white, because he had been in the dye room all the year round, he didn't see much of the sun, and his skin was also very white, but the color of his fingertips was extremely dark, and he was dyed with a deep color that could not be washed off, which was obviously the result of years of contact with dyes.

The old man carefully compared the old and new dyes, and everyone looked at the old man with bated breath.

The old man examined it, raised his bent waist slightly, and said slowly, "In general, there should be no problem. ”

When the little steward heard this, he breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately said, "That is, how can there be any problem? Even if there is really anything different, it is normal, after all, there must be something different between the newly mixed dye and the dye that has been left for a while, and there is nothing worth taking seriously. ”

Ning Xia Qing glanced at Ah Zheng, but Ah Zheng shook his head resolutely, and Ning Xia Qing immediately said to the old man, "Can you please check it carefully?" ”

The old man didn't say anything, but nodded good-naturedly. But the little steward was in a hurry, and looked at Ning Xia Qing and said, "Alas, why do you have to ...... Miss Xia Qing?"

Ning Zhiqi waved his hand to stop the little steward, but he also said to Ning Xia Qing with some embarrassment: "Cousin, why are you so strange today?" Is something wrong? Recently, the price reduction has caused a lot of trouble in the city, are you not resting much because of this? ”

Ning Xia Qing didn't answer, just stared at the old man carefully, Ning Zhiqi didn't want to say anything, so he had to wave his hand to send away all the craftsmen who were watching the excitement around him, and accompanied Ning Ningqing with a good temper.

Suddenly, the old man frowned, and everyone except Ah Zheng also frowned involuntarily, and the old man said with a solemn expression: "It seems to be ...... Something is wrong. ”

"Huh?" Ning Zhiqi couldn't help but be very surprised when he heard this, and he was extremely confused.

The old man said in a deep voice, "There is indeed a smell of something wrong here, it is so faint that almost no one can smell it, and I only vaguely notice it because I have smelled it before." ”

"What the hell does it smell like?" Ning Zhiqi couldn't help but smell it again, and even took a small piece of dye that had just entered and put it on the tip of his nose to smell it, but said, "I still haven't smelled anything." ”

The old man asked leisurely, "Don't you smell a smell like stale water?" ”

Ning Zhiqi was stunned for a moment, sniffed it again, frowned and said hesitantly: "It seems to be ...... Sort of. Puzzled, he asked, "Isn't that normal?" It is estimated that the dye vat was not stored when making the dye, or the dye shop was too dark, so that the dye accumulated moisture, which is nothing. ”

The old man said, "Young Master Ning, have you ever heard of a toner called thick color?" ”

Ning Zhiqi thought for a while and said: "I seem to have heard that many workshops used this a few decades ago, and added it to the red dye as a fixing color, but later someone invented the process of paste, and the paste color has a better fixing effect than the color thickness, so few people use the color thickness anymore." ”

The old man said: "The color is thick and not easy to precipitate, and it needs to be deposited for a long time during the preparation process, so it is often accompanied by the smell of stale water." Does Young Master Ning know what are the characteristics of thick color? ”

Ning Zhiqi shook his head and said a little shyly: "I only heard my father say that although the color is thick and can fix the color, it is also very easy to dye when encountering specific dyeing raw materials. I don't know about the rest......"

The old man nodded and said, "No one has used it for decades, so it's good that Young Master Ning can still know about this thing." The color is very easy to lose color when encountering some dyeing raw materials, and among these dyeing raw materials, the more common one is Zhemu. ”

The old man shook his head while pondering, obviously extremely puzzled: "The color thickness will not have any effect on the dyes dyed by the Phoenix Grass and Trees itself, nor will it affect the color of this batch of materials. However, Phoenix grass dyeing does not need color thickness to fix the color, but this vat of dye has added color thickness that is not necessary to be added, which is really strange......"

When Ning Xia Qing heard this, he couldn't help but feel like a drum.

This batch of materials is a list under the imperial court, and Zhemu is the color of the Son of Heaven, and it will also be mixed with other dyes and used in the colors of other nobles. And once the color is thick, once it encounters the wood, it is very easy to lose color. In other words, there will be no problems with this batch of materials, but once they enter the palace, they will interact with Zhemu and cause serious consequences.

At that time, the second master and she will definitely not have good fruits to eat!

What kind of game is this? It was so profound that she was scared into a cold sweat, and she couldn't see through what the real purpose of the other side was?!

Ning Zhiqi understood the key to this matter as soon as he heard it, and he was very frightened, so he hurriedly went to find Second Master Ning to preside over the overall situation. Master Ning Er only loves to study the process in this life, and he is most annoyed by this kind of twisting and turning harmful things, and when he hears it, he becomes angry, and he has to find a supplier of new dyes to reason without thinking about it!

Ning Xia Qing hurriedly stopped Second Master Ning, and together with Ning Zhiqi, he pulled Second Master Ning into the warehouse next to him, and asked Ah Zheng to watch and not let others in.

Ning Xia Qing hurriedly persuaded Second Master Ning: "Second Uncle dissipates his anger, we have to think about this matter in the long run." ”

Second Master Ning was so hateful that he pulled his neck and shouted: "I'm too lazy to discuss with them in the long run, I'm going to go to them and tell them that if they want to harm people, they will harm me openly, and don't play these disgusting tricks with me!" ”

Ning Xia Qing said lightly: "This batch of new dyes was brought by Xiao Gongzi to intercede, and the second cousin thinks that this matter has anything to do with Xiao Gongzi?" ”

With just such a sentence, Second Master Ning was quiet.

Speaking of which, she felt early on that this order came too easily.

After all, Xiao Jingyuan had already agreed with the third master about cooperation, although he did not sign a contract, but it could be regarded as a verbal agreement, but Xiao Jingyuan turned his head and gave her the next 200,000 taels, which was a bit unauthentic.

Master Ban's craftsmanship was learned from Ning Wangping, and Master Ban's craftsmanship did not surpass Ning Wangping's, so with the secret recipe left by Ning Wangping, the material from her side was indeed better than the material on the third master's side. But let's be honest, the difference is relatively subtle.

In addition, the third master did use the list of the court to set up a situation to harm Ningxia Qing, which made Xiao Jingyuan very unhappy, thinking that the third master did not respect the list of the court enough. But as long as Xiao Jingyuan warns this kind of thing once, the third master will definitely not dare to commit it again in the future, and Xiao Jingyuan will not have to change someone to cooperate.

The above reasons are not enough to make Xiao Jingyuan give up the third master who was generous when he was in charge, and instead choose her with relatively meager financial resources.

At that time, she felt that Xiao Jingyuan might be a fisherman who wanted to provoke a fight between her and the third master, so as to make a profit.

But today's events made her suddenly feel that Xiao Jingyuan's calculations were far beyond her imagination! Perhaps, Xiao Jingyuan's thoughts are far deeper than her understanding!

Second Master Ning heard what Ning Ningqing said, and he also understood, and asked in a deep voice: "So, Xiao Jingyuan is trying to harm us?" ”

"Or ......" Ningxia Qing said slowly, "...... Not only is it harming us, but it is very likely that even Uncle Santang's side is also in Xiao Jingyuan's calculations. ”

Ning Xia Qing asked Ning Zhiqi: "My cousin said that this batch of dyes originally belonged to the third cousin, and it was Xiao Gongzi who begged for intercession, and the cousin only got these from the third cousin, right?" ”

Ning Zhiqi nodded yes. Second Master Ning was silent for a moment, sighed, and asked Ning Xia Qing: "It seems that the surname Xiao doesn't intend to let go of any of the Ning family." What do we do now? ”

Ning Xia Qing thought for a moment and said: "We can't compete with the power of the Xiao clan at all, so now is not the time to tear our faces, and the order has already been signed, not to mention that we can't afford to pay for breach of contract, even if it is compensated, after all, no one dares to breach the contract of the imperial court." I can only find another way, but I want to ask my second cousin first-"

She looked at Second Master Ning and asked seriously, "-Does the Second Cousin plan to tell the Third Cousin about this?" ”