Thousands of trees bloom at night when the east wind falls, and the stars are like rain, and the BMW carved cars are full of fragrance. The sound of the phoenix flute moves, the light of the jade pot turns, and the fish and dragon dance all night; The moth snow willow is golden, and the smile is full of dark fragrance. The crowd looked for him thousands of times, and suddenly looked back, but the man was there, and the lights were dim.

- "The Qingyu Case. Yuan Xi

Shangyuan Festival is today's Lantern Festival, but also the Lantern Festival of the national carnival, from the Sui and Tang dynasties it has been prosperous for a long time, to the Song Dynasty where the commodity economy is highly developed, the Shangyuan Festival has developed to the climax of history, Tokyo Bianliang, with a population of two million, the hustle and bustle of the Shangyuan Festival is even more prosperous to the point of incomparable.

If the New Year is a day of worship to ancestors and the relationship between clans, many shops are closed, and the streets are deserted, then when it comes to the Shangyuan Festival, it is diametrically opposed, and the legal holidays of the Shangyuan Festival are the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth days, and the city gates will not be closed on these three days, so that the people inside and outside the city will carnival all night.

After the tenth day of the first month, the main streets began to appear lanterns, a kind of excited atmosphere in the capital quickly fermented, the major merchants are holding back their efforts to stock up, are ready to show their skills in the Shangyuan Festival, make a lot of money.

The most attractive thing about the Shangyuan Festival is undoubtedly the lanterns, but the lanterns in the capital are not placed in disorder, but have a prescribed range, all of which are placed on the wide streets, including the four major centers of Yujie, Panlou Street, Changqing Street and Daxiangguo Temple, in addition to the outside of the Song Gate of the Eastern Song Dynasty, the Liangmen of the West of the State, the Fengqiu Gate of the North of the State and the south of the State are also the sea of lanterns.

Along the street is paved with a variety of color sheds, all kinds of commodities such as crown comb, pearl cui, rouge, clothing, flowers, collar wipe, boots and shoes, toys and so on, can be described as everything, all kinds of food stalls are set up in a long line, if you are tired of playing and tired, you can go to each greenhouse to listen to the song and dance, enjoy all kinds of juggling of masters with unique skills.

Shangyuan Festival is from the fourteenth day of the first month, early in the morning, the capital is dressed as a sea of lights, the mountain canopy lanterns are set up in front of the Xuande Building, each household has hung up lanterns, the rich people are made of five-color glass and even white jade to make lanterns and hang at the door of the house, the lamps are painted with landscape figures, flowers and feathers and other patterns.

From the afternoon, the street will be crowded, people can't wait to go to the street to have a sneak peek, countless stalls and vendors are grabbing territory, each color shed began to stock up, the festive atmosphere is surging in the streets and alleys, no matter how poor the family will go out to see the lights, enjoy the annual rare celebration.

Today is not the first day of the Shangyuan Festival, tomorrow is the fifteenth day of the first month is the most lively time, the Son of Heaven will take the imperial concubine to appear on the Xuande Tower to have fun with the people, and throw a lot of money.

Although it was not the day to see the lanterns, Hu Qing'er was also itchy, she finally persuaded Sisi, and the two of them took the magpie and the Yang mother and daughter to Panlou Street and Changqing Street to watch the lanterns, and Li Yanqing would accompany them to Yujie and Daxiangguo Temple to watch the lanterns the next day, that is, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

Of course, when they look at the lanterns, they will sit in the ox cart like most of the powerful ladies to enjoy the lanterns, and there are too many disciples in the Shangyuan Lantern Festival, and they will stretch out their salty pig hands at the first opportunity, which is also a stubborn disease that cannot be eliminated since ancient times.

Many folk tales appear in the lantern festival robbery of the people's women is not nothing, but extremely rare, even if there is a robbery of the people's women, it will never appear on the street, the reason is also very simple, if the people's anger is aroused, more than a dozen people under the siege of tens of thousands of people, it is easy to be trampled to death like ants, and the murderer can not be found, only to die in vain.

Li Yanqing was called by his father to help in the afternoon, this year Baoyanzhai spent thousands of dollars to rent more than a dozen colorful sheds around the capital, and also built a huge Chang'e moon lantern, a round of full moon on the three big characters written 'Baoyanzhai', particularly eye-catching.

Li Yanqing actually didn't have anything to do when he came to Baoyanzhai, his father Li Daqi just found an excuse to ask him to come over to discuss the marriage.

"I talked to the old general, this time the Cao family gave a dowry of 200,000 yuan, 5,000 acres of land, and a three-acre house, which is twice as much as the dowry given by the Gao family to Zhou Zhixian at the beginning, and it is said to be the highest among the Cao family's daughters, we can't be stingy!"

Although the family is rich, but it can't withstand the wanton squandering when getting married, Zhou Chun is because he married a profound daughter, and he is a jinshi to catch a son-in-law, so he got a dowry of 100,000 yuan and 3,000 acres of land.

The reason why Cao Yun got a dowry of 200,000 guan and 6,000 acres of land for marrying was mainly because Li Yanqing was born in Tanhua, and Li Daqi was the proprietor of Baoyan Zhai, and he would definitely not be stingy when he married his only son, so the Cao family came up with the conditions for marrying generously this time.

"Father will do this thing, don't ask me!"

Li Yanqing turned around and wanted to slip away, but was grabbed by Li Daqi, "It's you who made a mistake by marrying a wife, how can I worry about everything?" ”

"And how much dowry does my father plan to give?"

Li Daqi stretched out a finger, "I plan to give a dowry of 10,000 taels of gold." ”

Li Yanqing was secretly speechless, there were actually 10,000 taels of gold, how much money did Baoyanzhai make?

"Don't be petty, 10,000 taels of gold will have a market value of about 200,000 yuan, and the dowry for the Cao family is about the same, we are not as good as the Cao family in terms of status, but we can't be worse than them in terms of property."

"I'm not stingy, Daddy will look at this matter!"

"In addition, your house is a little small, I think it's better to rent another ten-acre mansion to look better."

Li Yanqing shook his head, "That's not necessary, the Cao family is a mansion of several hundred acres, even if we rent a mansion of fifty acres, what can we do, the house I live in now is still more than half empty!" ”

Li Daqi is right to think about it, there is no point in fighting for face with the Cao family in the house, he sighed, "If it is Qiantang County, I am not afraid of him at all." ”

"How many houses did Daddy buy in Qiantang County?"

"At least a thousand acres! It was all instigated by you, a bastard boy, who bought so many houses, but was captured by Fang La, and I don't know if the government recognizes it or not! ”

"How can we not admit it, there are records in the government, even if the records are burned, we have the deed in our hands, what are we worried about?"

Li Daqi nodded, "I'm going to go to Hangzhou after setting your wedding date, finish the affairs of the house, and start busy with your marriage when I come back." ”

The Cao family is going to marry the emperor at the end of this month, and the Cao family is extremely busy, so the wedding date for marrying a daughter will be until mid-February at the earliest.

At this time, the shopkeeper Wu called the proprietor outside, and Li Daqi got up and said: "I won't care about you for the past two days, there are too many things, I'm going to be busy, you can arrange it yourself!" ”

After speaking, Li Daqi walked out quickly, and the shopkeeper Wu greeted him and said, "The goods are ready, the proprietor will see how to distribute them." ”

"It's according to last year's plan, but there is less on Yujie and more on Panlou Street, and now it can be shipped."

Li Yanqing also walked out of the guest hall, only to see hundreds of large wooden boxes stacked in the yard, like a hill, the boxes were pasted with the logo of Baoyan Zhai, but the box was written with an ink pen 'Li Ji Rouge', he looked at it, almost all the boxes were Li Ji Rouge.

Li Ji Rouge is a low-grade product of Bao Yan Zhai, although the profit is far less than Bao Yan Zhai, but the sales volume is very large, at the beginning Bao Yan Zhai never admitted that Li Ji Rouge has a relationship with himself, and he was secretive about it, but then gradually exposed, it did not affect the reputation of Bao Yan Zhai, but the sales of Li Ji Rouge rose sharply, and finally Bao Yan Zhai could only admit that Li Ji Rouge was his own brother.

"Why is it all Li Ji Rouge?" Li Yanqing asked a steward next to him in confusion.

The steward said with a smile: "The young proprietor doesn't know, in the first two years, we were all sold together by Li Ji and Bao Yan Zhai, and later found that Bao Yan Zhai was not easy to sell in the Shangyuan Festival, but Li Ji Rouge sold hotly, and it has been like this for several years, so this year's Shangyuan Festival will no longer sell Bao Yan Zhai, and all Li Ji Rouge will be sold." ”

"Why is it not good to sell?"

"Because it is sold in the color shed, cheap things are sold well, if you really want to buy Baoyan Zhai rouge, you will definitely go to the store to buy it, everyone is afraid of buying fakes."

Li Yanqing nodded, it is true, a bottle of good Bao Yan Zhai perfume costs five yuan, a bottle of Li Ji perfume only costs one or two hundred yuan, luxury goods of course have to be sold in luxury stores, and most of the people who visit the lanterns are ordinary people, and there are not many who can afford to sell Bao Yan Zhai, so they can only make money by making small profits and quick turnover.

At this time, Yang Ping, the big shopkeeper of Li Ji Rouge, ran in and shouted: "The ship has arrived, everyone should load the goods!" ”

Everyone walked towards the dock behind them with a large box, and Li Yanqing also carried a large box and sent it over.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, many rivers have been thawed, especially the rivers in the capital have been able to sail, more than a dozen small boats are moored on the wharf, and one by one large boxes are piled up on the boats, and they begin to deliver to the 20 colorful sheds set up by Bao Yan Zhai in various parts of the capital.

Li Yanqing didn't have anything to do today, several of his subordinates went to guard Sisi and Qing'er to enjoy the lanterns, and he simply got on a boat and headed for the Daxiangguo Temple in the city.

........

Daxiangguo Temple is one of the commercial centers of the capital, tonight here is also the lantern center, the official and major merchants' lanterns take Daxiangguo Temple as the center, extend to the four streets, there are lamp towers, lamp trees, lamp sheds and all kinds of large lanterns, there are hundreds of large lanterns on the square in front of the Xiangguo Temple, in the middle is a lamp tower as high as three zhang, it is the lantern alum building that has spent thousands of dollars to build, covers an area of one acre, it is very spectacular.

In the west, a Aoshan giant lantern was built, which was funded by the imperial palace, which was the second major lamp in the capital, and the first lantern was also the Aoshan lantern, but it was placed under the Xuande building in the northernmost part of the royal street.

The square is surrounded by two rows of dense color sheds inside and outside, nearly 300 famous shops in the capital have their own color sheds, and Guang Bao Yan Zhai rents two of them, close together.

Li Yanqing stepped forward and saw that Tie Zhu was installing a large wooden sign with a few subordinates, and the wooden sign was composed of dozens of small colorful glass lamps spelled out into the three big characters of 'Baoyan Zhai', and there was a circle of colored lanterns around.

"Tiezhu, you fix the lanterns now, how do you light them at night?"

Gu Tiezhu is the head of the security guard of Baoyan Zhai, and there are more than 20 big men under him, who are responsible for doing all kinds of physical chores, and are also responsible for maintaining the security of the store, Tiezhu said with a smile: "The little proprietor doesn't know, the lamp is in the back, which is very convenient." ”

Li Yanqing walked over, only to find that there was a mini nest car behind him, which was a wooden shelf, on which two wheels were installed, and under the shelf was a large wooden box that could accommodate one person, and there were two long ropes on the wooden box, and the other end of the long rope passed through the wheel, and the person stood in the box.

Li Yanqing said with a smile: "I think it's more convenient to use a ladder, one person is enough, and this kind of wooden box needs someone to help pull ......."

Tie Zhu smiled, "Generally, the little ladies go up to light the lamp, they are afraid of the ladder, and they are not afraid of using this lift box." ”

At this time, Li Yanqing found that several sturdy men who installed the lamps were a little embarrassed, and the three beautiful ladies who sold goods were also silent, and everyone seemed very uncomfortable, Li Yanqing suddenly understood that he was a little affected by the atmosphere here, he smiled, "You are busy, I'll go to the temple!" ”

He turned around and walked towards the Great Xiangguo Temple, walked away and looked back, only to see a few strong men around the three little ladies offering their courtesy, the three little ladies covered their mouths to eat and laugh, Li Yanqing couldn't help but scold secretly, and walked quickly towards the temple.

........

It gets dark early, just past dusk, the night will come quietly, a lantern begins to ignite, the whole Daxiangguo Temple becomes a bright light around the temple, like a fire tree and silver flowers do not sleep in the sky, the people in the capital have dinner early, the door is locked and he will carry his wife out to see the lights, the crowd of people from all directions is pouring towards the Daxiangguo Temple, the voice of the people is boiling, this is just the Daxiangguo Temple, in the whole capital, at least a million people will rush to the streets to see the lights tonight.

Li Yanqing stood at the gate of Daxiangguo Temple, and Cao Jiaojiao secretly gave him a note the day before yesterday, and he had another expectation in his heart.

"Brother Li!"

Li Yanqing suddenly heard Cao Jiaojiao's voice, and when he turned around, he saw Cao Jiaojiao running with a smile on her face, and there was a quiet girl standing not far behind her, it was not Cao Yun, with a hint of surprise and shyness on her face, and her jewel-like eyes flashed with joy.

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