The twenty-first year of the Jokhang Apocalypse, the eighth day of the first month of November.

There is nothing unusual on this day, it is still the light and cold city, a few idle figures at the city gate, several leaders of the city defense battalion are no longer willing to go out, and the defense is handed over to his subordinates, without Shangguan staring, the strength of the city defense is much less. Maybe everyone thinks that Qingzhou is such a big city, and nothing big can happen.

The weather did get a lot colder.

Above the city gate, in the defense tower, Gao Fu, the chief flag officer on duty today, shrunk in his small room, and sat a few people around the charcoal basin, the "lotus bamboo charcoal" that suddenly appeared on the market not long ago was burned, this charcoal does not have too heavy smoke, and there is a faint bamboo fragrance after burning for a long time, and it has been loved by the dignitaries and nobles as soon as it is listed. The city defense battalion also bought a batch, and the response was good, and it has already been ordered.

Today is also a boring day.

Gao Fu is over forty years old, and he is already an old man in the city defense battalion, and he has only boiled out a general flag over the years, and the official road is probably over. Guarding this visible livelihood, there is no hope. In the past few days, several colleagues were reluctant to go out, so he took several shifts, just now "himself" and "himself" handed over the shift, went down to the city gate to look at it for a while, gave a few instructions, and also went back upstairs, lit a charcoal fire, and began to "barbecue".

Barbecue is not a new thing, but after opening a "self-service barbecue" in the city, it really rose in the whole Qingzhou, and in winter, these hot "deeds" have become the mainstream.

Gao Fu has taken care of it a few times, and it is indeed very good. When I come and go, when I have a holiday, I always have to call a few friends to go over and open a meat restaurant and listen to the storytelling there. is talking about his old lady's soft and glutinous "Stone Notes". Of course he didn't dare to be interested in these, but the daughter of the family liked this, he was a rare slave to see his daughter, knowing that "The Story of the Stone" was not good for teaching, and he didn't resist his daughter's request in the end, so he bought several "versions" before and after, and the latest version was directly renamed "Dream of Red Mansions", which was more than one and a half stars more expensive than the first version. Gao Fu privately scolded the guy who published the book, he was too a chicken thief, and he was a profiteer.

And recently I heard about this "Zhang Sheng and Cui Yingying", I can hear about it everywhere, it's really not that they are idle and idle, it is true that they are noisy to the female relatives of the family and can't remember.

The same routine, the profiteer finally launched a so-called hardcover version, saying that it was in response to the call of the imperial court, so he changed the name, "The Legend of the West Chamber", the man felt sorry for his money bag, scolded him behind his back, and scolded him a lot of spittle, and finally made another profit for the profiteer.

Gao Fu also spent nearly fifty taels of silver before and after, but he felt sorry for him.

Therefore, knowing that the owner of the "self-service barbecue" was the mastermind behind these two books, he vowed never to visit it again.

At the very least, it is estimated that the cost will be reduced by fifty taels of silver.

Gao Fu even comforted himself, he saved fifty taels alone, which is really not much, but like him, he gave the good man who was harmed by the profiteer, there are not one thousand but eight hundred in Qingzhou City, everyone thinks the same as him, that guy is not going to lose 40,000 taels of silver.

He's going to feel sorry for that bastard profiteer too.

Indeed, including Gao Fu, Qingzhou has ushered in a "rebirth", and reading newspapers has even become a daily essential subject for everyone, and those who are illiterate will also listen to small pieces of news or lace anecdotes in front of a certain "newspaper point". After Chen Ji discovered this again, he did a period of investigation and arranged a dedicated "newspaper reading" business for the newspapers and periodicals in each place, and the customer flow was large, and the reputation was far away.

As for some people outside the city who come to Qingzhou, they will go to a certain newspaper and periodical point to have a look, and I don't know who gave it a literary name, called "punching in". Before outsiders leave, occasionally some people choose to buy a current newspaper and take it home, after all, in other places, this new thing has not yet been done. Even if you are not rich, the registration center has even opened a special business for the sale of previous newspapers, which is only for "local special items" as a souvenir, and it has nothing to do with timeliness.

Chen Ji's way of accumulating money by sticking a needle through the cracks is also "criticized" within Chen Ji, and he simply does not give others any possibility of interfering.

You must know that Chen Ji even made the newspaper business in several Taoist halls and temples in the city, so he sent the great powers of these places to help open the light.

The business of the newspaper really started to do it, and began to divide into many sections, and now most of the "poor literati" in Qingzhou are working in Zhizhi Bookstore, and their lives have improved many times compared to before. Therefore, for Qingzhou, there is no such thing as "poor Xiucai", and now when it comes to Xiucai, it is simply a fragrant glutton, and the life is even more comfortable than some "waiting to be released".

While doing these things, Chen Ji inevitably touched the interests of some people, but now there are several layers of "tiger skin", but there are no greater conflicts brewing.

After a long time, except for some people who had a "direct" conflict of interest with him, most people already thought that Chen Ji was a good person.

The first thing Chen Ji did after "making his fortune" was to donate 10,000 taels of silver to Qingzhou Fuxue. This is just a matter of a long time ago, and some of the students are uncomfortable. The old dean Zhou Yuan generously accepted the money, did not forget to say a few good words, turned his head, and directly called Chen Ji to his small courtyard, blowing his beard and glaring at him.

The various examinations lasted all afternoon.

When Chen Ji left the school, his palms were still a little swollen. Fu Hengke, the instructor who was sent out, smiled all the way.

Chen Ji also quipped: "I knew it would be like this, so I brought this ten thousand taels."

Fu Hengke laughed: "Mr. heard that the other palm is about to eat bamboo boards."

Chen Ji frowned, and sighed helplessly: "I still expect to spend money to buy the identity certificate that needs to be issued by the school, it seems that it will not work."

Fu Hengke said: "If you are willing to give more, maybe you will agree."

Chen Ji looked at his palm, shook his head and said, "Forget it." ”

He didn't answer a few questions asked by the old man before, and then the old man made a temporary topic and asked him to make a current essay, and he wrote it in a mess, and then he was really beaten.

The old man said some words of encouragement to him afterwards, and the comment he gave him could only be "If you weren't good-hearted, the old man would have punished you for thinking about it."

After that, I talked about the feces at the beginning, and I didn't hide the guilt of the old man, and clearly told Chen Ji about the results of "no traceability" later.

Chen Ji reassured the old man a few words, saying that he would come over to listen to the teacher's lesson in the future.

The old man didn't believe him, but nodded. Finally, he said a sentence about the newspaper: "A gentleman is upright and upright".

Chen Ji remembered it in his heart, and then he said goodbye and left.

Fu Hengke accompanied him throughout the whole process, and he felt that he couldn't see the kid in front of him clearly.

Chen Ji got down to business and said: "I want to set up a scholarship in Fuxue, and the Fuxue will give me a list according to the annual assessment, and give them some living money every month, so that they can concentrate on studying."

Fu Hengke was stunned, and came back to his senses for a while.

Chen Ji said again: "But there must be an old gentleman to check it, and one day the old gentleman is no longer in the house to learn to be in charge, I will remove this."

"Actually, I want to invite the old gentleman out of the mountain, I plan to be a college, and the dean has not yet been chosen."

Fu Hengke was so shocked that he didn't know what to say.

There are not many traces of Chen anymore, and there is probably a long distance from the old man's study to the gate of the school, and it is always impossible to be cold. When the teacher next to him said something "article rhetoric", it was simply looking down on people, so he said something that he was good at in his field.

Fu Hengke had other ideas.

Chen Ji didn't care. In today's world, although the threshold for reading is not high, the so-called resources are in the hands of a group of big families, and ordinary people may not be able to get ahead in the past ten years. Therefore, the academy he wants to do probably still has some shadows of "technical training".

Thinking of these, Chen Ji really felt that the road was long and there was a long way to go.

After saying goodbye to Fu Hengke at the gate, Chen Ji put away his thoughts, Shen Qiu had already greeted him from the front, and noticed the swelling of his son's palms, and he didn't want to mention anything. After all, it is difficult for a long-term and small guy like him to say anything, and he can't say why. It's better to shut up at the beginning, so as not to disturb the young master's mood.

As soon as his thoughts turned, Shen Qiu said an interesting thing that he heard, and Chen Ji listened and walked a few steps, except for the street, the crowds gradually increased. At a certain moment, after Shen Qiu finished speaking, Chen Ji commented slightly, and shouted that Shen Qiu walked towards the "self-service barbecue" from his house.

Shen Qiu noticed that the young master was in a bad mood and didn't say anything more.

Chen Ji was thinking about things in his heart, and he didn't pay much attention to Shen Qiu's appearance, and the two of them didn't say anything all the way, and they arrived at their destination for half an hour. It's still early, and no one is coming over for the time being, and the shopkeeper has already packed up Xiao Er, ready to greet the guests with the best attitude.

Next to the small shop is a liquor store, which has nothing to do with Chen Ji on the surface, but behind the scenes, everyone knows that it is still the owner of Chen Ji. Compared with the smoky and lively next to it, the liquor store is much cleaner.

Although it is not difficult to open a wine shop at this time, for Chen Ji, his interest is not to buy wine, but to make wine. However, Jokhang has absolute control over winemaking, and the winemaker must buy "wine puffs" from the local government, which is probably a "winemaking license". The initial experiment was only a simple high-strength wine, and it is unknown what will be done in the future.

Now sitting in front of the barbecue shop, looking at the wine shop next to it, smelling the faint aroma of wine in the air, Chen Ji is very satisfied.

Occasionally joke with the shopkeeper of the wine shop, pretending to be a stranger, it's really clumsy, you praise each other, everyone who knows knows that in the end they all praise Chen Ji.

Chen Ji laughed at one moment. and shouted to Shen Qiu to take the silver and buy a pot of wine, Shen Qiu was very helpless, why should he be so troublesome to drink his own wine in his own shop, and in this way, only half of the money to buy wine will be left in his hands.

Chen Ji has always been reluctant to explain too much to the people around him.

Taking a sip of wine, after the first guest came, Chen Ji got up and left, which was already a daily routine.

Chen Ji glanced at the petty official of the city defense battalion named Gao Fu, thought about it and ordered the store, and said: "The first ten guests in the store today can get a hardcover version of "The Legend of the West Chamber" for free."

After a pause, he said: "Dream of Red Mansions is also completed."

Gao Fu walked to the door, looked over after hearing this, and was secretly happy without revealing it.

In this way, it is not a loss to come here with a clear conscience.

Chen Ji had already taken Shen Qiu and carried the wine jar to the street.

Chen Ji's fingers hooked the straw rope that bound the wine jar, and hummed in his mouth that Shen Qiu didn't understand, but he inexplicably felt a nice sound. Shen Qiu cautiously followed behind, his hands ready to pick up the wine jar that might be thrown out at any time, while thinking about the young master's broken thoughts.

Before I knew it, it was dusk again.

At the end of the long street, the master and servant were gradually pulled into a long shadow in the afterglow, with occasional whispered reminders, followed by some mischievous answers.

Just a teenager, the most unthinkable, and the most troublesome.

In any case, in the first year of coming to this world, the bumps are about to come to an end. Not to mention the pain experienced, for now, it is thriving.

Even if you can't avoid those idle pains, there are many things that can be taken out to bask in your mood.

Having someone you like makes up for it all.

Chen Ji stopped, tilted his head slightly, looked at the sunset that was about to go down, raised the wine jar, and smiled: "Respect myself."

took a sip, pulled his sleeve and wiped the corners of his mouth, and then raised it again, "Second cup, Chen Ji, hello." ”

Shen Qiu followed beside him, not knowing how to answer, but listening to the young master's words, he had a feeling of "suddenly enlightened" in his heart, as if the young master had finally let go of Yizhuang's concerns, and he was also happy.

Shen Qiu shook his head, not thinking about such complicated things, as long as the young master was happy, he would be happy.

The teenager's thoughts couldn't be purest.

Chen Ji shouted, Shen Qiu raised his head, the wine jar flew towards him, hurriedly stretched his hand in front of him, and soaked a large puddle out.

Chen Ji sighed twice, but he was not angry, and laughed: "Young master, I invite you to drink today."

Shen Qiu was stunned, and Chen Ji had already walked away.

Shen Qiu glanced at it, only to feel that the young master couldn't be more chic.

When the two of them fell a long distance, Shen Qiu swayed the wine jar and chased after them.

Shen Qiu didn't drink alcohol after all, in fact, he wanted to drink it very much, and secretly tasted it several times in private, but it was still difficult for him to get used to his own wine. Chen Ji once broke it, but quipped, "Are you drinking juice?" It was this sentence that led to the later wine shop business.

Shen Qiu is one of the heroes, and Chen Ji wants to toast him with a drink.

Now that the family has a big business, how can you owe it to the heroes?

Isn't this a way to poke people in the back?

Chen Ji grabbed Shen Qiu, he seemed to be drunk, but he didn't know if he was drunk? Drunk and sunset?

Still drunk with this wonderful era.