Before going to the banquet today, Xuan Yuemeng had actually given Timothy Li a lesson in the afternoon, how to pretend. It's just how to force it, but temperament is really not something that can be pretended casually, and identity is not something that can be pretended.

Timothy Lee went up and handed out a business card to greet Hurd and De Celin in English and German.

Hurd is a serious British, De Zhulin is a German, the two of them are the chief tax department to work together, Hurd asked De Zhulin to come to Tianjin as the chief tax department, not to say that De Zhulin as a cronie, but because in this era can understand the Chinese market and language and customs of the people are very few, Hurd is also a last resort, otherwise Hurd must have placed important positions in the British, all of his own cronies, Hurd is to see that the Qing court itself also has a good impression of De Zhulin, seeing that De Zhulin came up is unstoppable, So simply push the boat down the river, give De Xuanlin enough face, and personally send De Xuanlin to that position.

Hurd took the business card that Timothy Lee handed over, looked at it, put it aside, and asked in English, "Klinsmann Foreigners?" American foreign firms? Haven't heard of it? What nationality are you? You started this foreign business? ”

Seeing that Hurd behaved arrogantly, Timothy Lee would not be as low-minded as Xuan Hongbo, raised his head and replied in Chinese, which he had become fluent in: "I am a dual British and German national, and our Klinsmann foreign firm is very strong, and I am a shareholder of this foreign bank." ”

For Chinese, it is a great thing to be able to speak foreign language, and for foreigners, on the ground in China, who speaks Chinese well, naturally it is also a thing to boast about, just with Timothy Lee's current Chinese level, it is completely worth showing off, which of course is inseparable from Xuan Yuemeng's credit.

Xuan Yuemeng couldn't help but give Timothy Li a compliment, in fact, Timothy Li spoke to Hurd like this, there is no benefit, after all, Hurd is an upper-class society, whether it is talking to the Qing Dynasty or the British Consulate, and holding the customs, it is no good to offend him, but Timothy Li's attitude is the best pretend. It's a forced way. This is what Xuan Yuemeng hopes Timothy Li will do, rather make people afraid than dislike.

Timothy Lee actually thought about how to dress up herself. Force, what should a true nobleman do, Timothy Lee is just unsociable, and not really stupid, seeing Hurd's arrogance just now, Timothy Lee decided to pretend. It's time to pretend to the end!

De Zhu Lin has a good impression of Timothy Lee, because Timothy Li said that he is German, De Zhu Lin immediately communicated with Timothy Li in German, and asked Timothy Li where his home was in Germany. Casually chatting about some of Germany's customs.

Timothy Lee was also able to deal with it.

De Xuanlin knew that Timothy Li was in business, and the business people who came here must have come for Sheng Xuanhuai, so she smiled slightly: "Is Mr. Timothy Li willing to sit here?" Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Xuan, would it be convenient for me to invite Mr. Timothy Lee to sit here? ”

Xuan Zonglu didn't understand the affairs of foreigners, and seeing that Timothy Li was also a foreigner, of course he had nothing to say, "Of course you can, this foreigner, please." ”

In fact, the hierarchical distinction among foreigners is not inferior to that of Qing people, nobles and paupers, people with status and status, and ordinary people are also many levels, and there are several foreigners who came with Hurd and De Xuanlin, and they are not unqualified to sit at this table.

Hurd was secretly unhappy that De Xuanlin arranged it like this, but looking at De Xuanlin's attitude, it didn't seem like he was deliberately angry with him, but it seemed that he wanted to talk more about his hometown with Timothy Lee, and Hurd didn't want to say anything, after all, it was very ungentlemanly to drive people away directly.

Timothy Lee was reckless, "This Mr. Xuan Hongtao is my friend, can he sit here?" ”

In fact, Sheng Xuanhuai had already seen Xuan Hongtao, and Shen Baojing had also seen Xuan Hongtao, but this was the Xuan family, they were all very strange why Xuan Hongtao did not sit at the main table, and both of them were several levels higher than Xuan Hongtao, Xuan Hongtao not only had a low position in Li Hongzhang's system, but also temporarily only a marginalized figure, and did not enter Li Zhongtang's power circle, so of course the two of them would not take the initiative to go to Xuan Hongtao to greet them, if Xuan Hongtao had taken the initiative to come over to greet them earlier, they would naturally have talked to Xuan Hongtao.

Sheng Xuanhuai heard Timothy Li say this, and said with a smile, "Hong Tao, this is your mansion, aren't you the son of the Xuan family?" Come on, come on, sit down, and I'll have two more drinks with Lord Shen from your manufacturing bureau. ”

Shen Baojing heard Sheng Xuanhuai say this, so he beckoned, and said two similar words, "Hong Tao, come here, are you still so angry in your own family?" ”

Even if Xuan Hongtao no longer understands flattery, he was named by Shangguan, where is it still the same as wood? Flattered and laughing, he took a chair and sat down under Shen Baojing.

In front of so many people, Xuan Zonglu and Xuan Hongbo naturally don't say anything, they can't say Xuan Hongtao, don't sit here, right? The two of them said some polite words, and ordered to send someone to invite Zeng Jize over, first open the table but not the play, and wait for Zeng Jize to come over and then start the play, which can be regarded as giving the Zeng family face and pomp.

During the banquet, Xuan Hongbo wanted to go out to toast, and the guests at each table would also come to the main table to toast to the adults, which was cheap Xuan Hongtao, and I met a lot of people today, everyone thought that Xuan Hongtao was the uncle of the Xuan family, and he was the manager of the Manufacturing Bureau, so he could sit with Lord Sheng Xuanhuai and Lord Shen Baojing, which was naturally not trivial, and no one dared to snub him.

Timothy Lee was very polite to people, and whoever came over, he would send a circle of business cards.

Looking at the performance of Timothy Li and Xuan Hongtao, Xuan Yuemeng breathed a sigh of relief, most of the task has been completed, this wine should not be drunk in vain, and it will be more convenient for Timothy Li to go to Sheng Xuanhuai and Shen Baojing to do business with them in the future, right?

On the one hand, Hurd accompanied De Xuanlin to Tianjin to take up his post, but it also had its own other purposes, the largest British foreign firm in Tianjin was Xintaixing Foreign Company, and Hurd brought McMarfor, the manager of Xintaixing Foreign Company, in order to pull the business of Beiyang Yamen!

And the son of the Minister of Military Aircraft Jing Lian Zhilin came over, of course, it is similar to Hurd's purpose, Zhilin is to help the Ministry of Household Industry to fight for the business of the Beiyang Yamen, Zhilin's father is the Minister of Military Aircraft Jing Lian, as long as the business is in the hands of the imperial court, it is equivalent to his hands, he will rely on interpersonal relationships to do these things to pull business dividends, Zheng Beile and General Shouchuan are just Zhilin's drinking friends, serving as a façade, what kind of identity Zhilin is, how can he come specifically to save face for people like Xuan Hongbo.

Timothy Li saw the movement on both sides clearly after a while, and found an opportunity to go over to Xuan Yuemeng, who was playing with Zeng Siping, and explained the situation roughly and quickly.

Xuan Yuemeng nodded, indicating that she understood, and asked Timothy Lee to act on his own, and praised Timothy Lee for his good performance today.

Timothy Li still has the intention of treating Xuan Yuemeng as a child, but after signing a formal contract with Xuan Yuemeng, he has dutifully obeyed Xuan Yuemeng, Xuan Yuemeng did not look away, Timothy Li, the manager, is good in a large range. After all, foreigners are difficult to tame, and wouldn't it be even worse to find someone who is more capable than Timothy Lee, but has a bad heart. Timothy Li has no big problems, that is, he often has vanity, and he belongs to the type of person who wants to die to save face and suffer crimes, but he is still very upright, and he will not go to the pit to abduct and deceive these, which is very appreciated by Xuan Yuemeng.

After listening to what Timothy Lee told herself, Xuan Yuemeng quickly went to find out more about what she could do today. What are the forced things?

Of course, vigorously doesn't know what it means to pretend. Forced, after being realized by Xuan Yue Meng for a while, he smiled: "Then there is only one thing left to wait for the reward." ”

Xuan Yuemeng was taken aback, "Reward? What do you mean? ”

When Xuan Yuemeng used to write books, she was often rewarded, so she naturally knew what the reward was for, but she didn't know what to reward for a meal or a play? Now it's not about drinking flower wine, the ancient rewards that Xuan Yuemeng knows are all rewarded to beauties when they drink flower wine.

"The troupe sings, in addition to the money for singing, the host also has to give the money for the reward, this is the time to show the status and magnanimity, usually the guests with status say the number, generally do not have to pay for themselves, because there will be people rushing to help these guests pay money. This money is the extra money that the troupe gets. Vigorously explained to Xuan Yuemeng.

Xuan Yuemeng nodded, "How much is it generally?" Who gives it all? ”

Zeng Siping originally thought that Xuan Yuemeng was a child younger than himself, listening to Xuan Yuemeng and Xuan Dali keep talking, talking all the time, but he didn't know what the two of them were talking about, and felt that Xuan Yuemeng knew a lot more than himself, his self-esteem was hit to a certain extent, and he was very depressed, "Yuemeng, let's go, let's go play for a while, didn't you tell me to pick up firecrackers?" ”

Xuan Yuemeng looked at Zeng Siping, who was more than five years old, and said with a smile, "It's okay right away, I'll not only take you to pick up firecrackers, but also take you backstage to watch people sing!" ”

Zeng Siping clapped his little hands, "Okay, it's the first time I've come out to play, and you will have to play with me every day in the future." ”

Xuan Yuemeng perfunctory little Lori two sentences, no longer paid attention to Zeng Siping, looked back at Dali, and waited for Dali to answer her questions.

Scratched his head vigorously, "Young Master Meng, I'm not very clear, the matter of rewarding should be directly responsible for the head of the troupe, and outsiders don't know, but our Xuan family often sets up banquets, and every time we will invite the troupe, the reward is divided into repertoire, and the guests feel that if they sing well, they will reward a little more, and if they sing badly, they will reward a little less, or not reward, generally each church meeting is six plays, about two taels of silver, three taels of silver, four taels of silver, five taels of silver, ten taels of silver, fifteen taels of silver, It's rare to have twenty taels of silver, and twenty taels of silver can be used to set up two tables of first-class banquets, probably every time a troupe sings a church meeting, the reward money is less than sixty taels, I roughly know so much. ”

Xuan Yuemeng nodded, "Very good, you go backstage with me to find their class master, you tell their class master that we are going to contract the project of this troupe reward!" ”

Xuan sweats profusely, and tipping is also a project? He's been with Master Meng and Timothy Lee these days, and I've heard two people say that a word for doing long is the project, this project, that project, and now Dali certainly understands what the project means, for Dali, the explanation of the project is buying and selling, Dali just can't figure it out, and even a reward can become a project?

Xuan Yuemeng didn't explain anything anymore, "Go ahead, you just tell the master directly, say that I am the young master of this family, the old man's favorite young master, the old man told you to go and tell them, contract the matter of this reward, and say that no matter how much the reward is, it has nothing to do with the troupe, and when the church is over, we will directly pay them eighty taels of silver, and you say that if he can't believe it, I can draw a note with him now!" ”

Xuan nodded vigorously, "Understood, young master, don't worry!" But...... Young master, what if the reward is less than eighty taels of silver? The reward price of eighty taels of silver is very high, alas, if it is less than eighty taels of silver, wouldn't we have to post the capital ourselves? Not cost-effective, right? This must be a loss-making project?"

Xuan Yuemeng smiled, "You don't care about it." ”

This troupe is called Wu Jiaban, the class owner is called Wu Laosan, the class owner himself is a martial artist, and he has two hands under his hands, pulling up such a troupe, because the class owner is sleek and shrewd in business, so it has not taken many years to run a small team of several people into one of the best opera teams in Tianjin, this Wu family class has been to Xuan Mansion many times, and Xuan Dali is also familiar.

Wu Laosan and Wu Class Master were startled when they heard Dali say that he wanted to contract the reward, "Dali, this is your young master, I know, your young master wants to contract the reward?" Will you give us eighty taels of silver? I don't have any problems, but why are you doing this? Didn't you have this rule before? You're not afraid of losing money, aren't you? ”

Xuan Yuemeng smiled, "Don't worry about the rest, this time is more special, don't tell anyone about our contracting and rewarding, understand?" Just keep this in mind, otherwise you won't have to expect to do our Xuanfu business in the future. ”

Wu Laosan saw that Xuan Yuemeng, a few months old, could actually say so much, no wonder there was a legend in Tianjin that the Xuan family had a prodigy, and it was indeed worthy of his reputation! No wonder the old man of the Xuan family loves this grandson the most! According to the conditions proposed by Xuan Yuemeng, this is a matter of only making cheap and not suffering, what's the problem, "You don't need to make any notes, they are all old customers, we are Jianghu people, a mouthful of foam and a nail in it, I agreed." ”

In addition to Xuan Yuemeng, Xuan Dali, and several people in the backstage of the Wu family's class, Xuan Yuemeng saw that Wu Laosan agreed happily, and secretly said to Wu Laosan that he would not miss the appointment, so he also said boldly: "Okay!" Then it's a deal! When the synagogue is over, I will ask Dali to bring you the money, and you must remember only one thing, except for my old man who asks you, no one asks about you, including my uncle, you can't tell me about the money I have contracted with you. ”

Wu Laosan smiled and said: "Don't worry, master, at such an old age, he is also meticulous and sophisticated in doing things, like an adult, interesting." ”

Seeing that the matter was done, Xuan Yuemeng took Xuan Dali and Zeng Siping to leave the backstage of the Wu family's class, while whispering to Xuan Dali what to do next.

Zeng Siping has always listened curiously with her little ears pricked up, but she only felt that Xuan Yuemeng was much more interesting than anyone she knew, and she didn't even argue about how to play anymore, honestly like a little follower of Xuan Yuemeng.

Xuan Yuemeng took Zeng Siping to play not far from the main table, Xuan Dali followed the waiter to obey orders, and Xuan Yuemeng kept paying attention to the dynamics of the main table.