Steward Zhang said a few more words, leaving Zhang Liang to wait here, hurried home, and wrote down the appearance of the woman who always had to take care of him.

Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan are playing checkers with Zhang Wang's family, three people, each with a color, on the wood carved out of the chessboard to kill the sky dark, Zhang Wang's since he saw the checkers, it didn't take a few days to work no worse than Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan, and now this game has a slight upper hand.

Zhang Xiaobao sat there, one hand on his lap, ready to go to checkers at any time, holding his chin with the other, his brows furrowed, calculating carefully, Wang Juan also muttered a few steps in his mouth, and Zhang Wang was slow, looking at the cute appearance of his son and daughter-in-law from time to time.

When Steward Zhang came, Zhang Wang's five steps were still complete, and if Zhang Xiaobao didn't move the sixth move in advance, he could also use her chess to finish the five moves, so Wang Juan would lose.

Wang Juan looked at Zhang Xiaobao's nervous appearance, laughed, reached out to get the chess piece, Zhang Xiaobao hurriedly said: "You should know how to sacrifice yourself and cover your teammates." ”

"Yes, but you're not my friend, now it's a separation of powers, I'm in the middle, you can walk eight steps slowly, ah." Wang Juan still picked up the chess piece.

"Madame, are you here? And the little boy and the little lady? In addition to the adult I saw last time, I also met a person who looked like he was in his fifties, with a small scar under the corner of his left eye, and when he spoke, his right eye would blink twice every time, his hair was coiled up, and he was inserted with a wooden hairpin, and his right hand always touched the index finger of his left hand unconsciously, and his nose was ....... ”

"Needless to say, I know, so early? I thought I would come only after the master passed the exam, Steward Zhang, you go and let people serve well, don't let the master know, it will disturb the master's reading, remember? ”

Zhang Wang didn't wait for Steward Zhang to finish speaking, he already knew who it was, closed his eyes and gasped twice, and then returned to his calm just now, asking Steward Zhang not to tell Father Zhang.

Steward Zhang immediately responded: "I know Mrs., don't let the master know, but paper can't always contain the fire, madam, there is one more thing, the adult said that he wants to celebrate the New Year here, let our guys and others from Shuiyunjian Restaurant continue to do things there, and they can't go home at thirty, and the little one doesn't dare to agree." ”

"Oh, this matter, the people who do things in the water and clouds are not only my Zhang Wang family, but also the people of the Ge family, how many people have come?" Zhang Wang thought about it, and felt that it was difficult to do, she already knew who the adult was, but she didn't want to go over immediately, it was best to delay it until the imperial examination was over.

"Mother, there are still a few days left before the New Year, don't worry, think slowly, even if there are no people from the Ge family, the people of the Zhang and Wang families will be enough, but they won't let them go home for the New Year, this is a bit bad, you have to think about it."

Zhang Xiaobao spoke at this time, he didn't ask his mother who was coming and what it had to do with the family, he just saw that his mother had some inner contradictions in this matter, so he didn't want to bring it up.

Wang Juan also nodded on the side, and at the same time reached out to stop Zhang Xiaobao's hand that wanted to mess up the chessboard.

"Madam, it's better to do what the little boy said, wait a few more days, oh, there are fifty-five of them in total, I don't know if anyone else will come."

Steward Zhang was originally looking for the little boy to talk to, but now he saves the time of running an extra trip.

Zhang Wang nodded, "Then do it, Steward Zhang has to work hard." ”

Steward Zhang said modestly, turned around to arrange, Zhang Wang looked at the chessboard and was stunned for a few seconds, and when he was about to play, Zhang Xiaobao suddenly said: "Mother, Juan Juan and I are tired, so I won't play, and my mother will go and take a rest." ”

Zhang Wang glanced at his son, touched his son's head, and said: "Okay, Xiaobao and Juan Juan go to rest, and my mother will take a nap for a while, my mother has a good son and a good daughter-in-law, don't worry so much, don't ****." ”

"Well, don't worry about it, our family has money, land, and officials, wait for my father to be admitted, see who dares to look down on our family, mother, I will go back with Juanjuan."

Zhang Xiaobao seemed to say something casually, pulled Wang Juan out of the door, and went to his yard.

"Xiaobao is so smart." Looking at his son and future daughter-in-law, Zhang Wangshi breathed a sigh of relief, and the feeling of worry, with the last words of his son, was gone.

******

"Xiaobao, the person who came is a relative of your family, right? Your mother doesn't want to see them, did she ever bully your family? Wang Juan asked when he followed Zhang Xiaobao on the road.

"Who knows, it doesn't matter who it is, the important thing is that this is the place of the two Zhuangzi of King Zhang, no matter who he comes, he has to do things according to our rules."

Zhang Xiaobao said disdainfully, it doesn't matter who he is, Zhangjia Zhuangzi is Zhangjia Zhuangzi, even if the emperor comes, he can't rob it.

Wang Juan was not in a hurry when she saw that Zhang Xiaobao was involved in her own affairs, and she was not in a hurry, so she gave a small pebble on the road to the side, and asked, "Then have you thought about who will stay in the water and clouds to serve people?" Didn't two six-grade officials come over last time to ask for your father's things, it should be the old man's effort. ”

"I haven't thought about it, I'm not in a hurry, there are so many days, sometimes an inspiration comes, then I have an idea, don't always let me think about it alone, you can also help me think about it." Zhang Xiaobao was also thinking about how to deal with this matter when he was talking.

That old man has a bit of ability, he is so old, he came here for the New Year, and it really can't be done if he doesn't serve well, who will he arrange if he waits? Who doesn't live in the New Year?

"Yes, Xiaobao, in this way, let's let the people in the water and clouds take turns, such as the thirty nights, just like we did last year, go to my house to eat first, and then come back, guys can too, when you are thirty, you will come back after the New Year's greetings, and you will not come back after the New Year's greetings."

Wang Juan gave an idea, she thought it was good to do this, that is, here, in the past, who cared about the New Year, there were always people in the unit who were willing to stay.

Zhang Xiaobao thought about it and was about to nod, but stopped again, "No, there should be a better way, go, go back and think slowly, I like to think about things while eating, and I thought of it while eating." ”

******

When Zhang Xiaobao was thinking about how to have a good New Year, Jia County Ling was thinking about how to make Zhangjia Zhuangzi have a bad New Year.

This morning, I asked him to buy some of the officials he bought, together with the other officials, and loaded the things he bought from Zhangjiazhuangzi and came to Tuqiao Village.

In the afternoon, when there was still some way from Tuqiao Village, a burst of firecrackers sounded, Jia County ordered the car curtain to be raised, looked over there, and saw that it was a small Zhuangzi in front of it, there were adults with small babies to play with whips, and the firecrackers were called a long tweed, hanging from the trees, and it was just pulled to the ground after a few turns.

There was a crackling sound, the ears were buzzing, and the car had walked out dozens of feet away, and the movement had not stopped.

"Tong Yagong, tell the official, how many firecrackers did you go off just now?" Jia Xian Ling waited for the sound of firecrackers to end, pressed his ear with his hand, retched, and shouted outside.

He didn't call Song Yang, he felt that he should hide it, and use the bribed person in a key place, if he usually behaves too closely, it is easy to make people suspicious.

Tong Yashou came to the side of the car and said respectfully to the car: "My lord, the small one thinks that it is 20,000 rings, cheap, the more you buy, the cheaper it is, there are 300,000 rings on the Yamen side this year, and there are some things that can explode in the sky, and the adults are willing to put it, and they can light the fire themselves." ”

"Ah, it's cheap, it's money like this, how can you get a few buckets of rice with a whip?" Jia Xian made his ears more comfortable this time, estimating how many things could be exchanged for firecrackers.

"What the adults said is that they can indeed exchange a lot of rice, but that Zhuangzi has a little spare money and is willing to buy it and put it, so you can't let them put it, right? If you don't let this go, you will also burn firecrackers at that time, 1,000 rings are 22 yuan, 10,000 rings are only 190 yuan, and the 20,000 rings are estimated to be about 3560 yuan. ”

Tong Yashou continued, and estimated the price of firecrackers.

After listening to Jia County's order, his heart became even more uncomfortable, and he silently calculated, ordinary people, at least one hundred rings should be bought during the New Year, right? That's the three cents, how many households are there in the county? There are more than 9,000 households registered in this yamen, how much money can they make from Zhangjia Zhuangzi, and they can earn half a penny for one hundred, which is four yuan of money.

What about those who buy more? There are also those restaurants, now they are used to setting off firecrackers, and when they open after the New Year, they have to put a lot, according to this estimate, only this firecracker can earn thousands of yuan, or in the case of estimating that the firecrackers of the Zhang family make less, people outside also come to buy.

Zhangjia Zhuangzi's firecrackers are constantly being transported out, how are firecrackers made? Disassemble it, there should be sulfur and charcoal, and another should be saltpeter, but the problem is that I found someone to do it, and it didn't sound at all, this recipe seems to be the most important, there must be something else in it.

No, we can't let Zhangjia Zhuangzi continue to make money, we have to hurry up and find a way, and wait for people from other places to know about this thing next year and come over to buy it together, wouldn't they make more money.

"Tong Yashi, let people speed up, so slow, how can they have time to deliver things to people when they get to the place?" In a hurry, Jia County ordered to urge.

The speed of the team immediately increased, and Tong Yashi also followed next to Jia Xian Ling in the car and persuaded, "Don't worry, don't you say that you will stay here for one night today?" I can send it again tomorrow during the day. ”