Just as Ashikaga Kazuki was about to enter Kyoto the next morning to meet his cousin, who had been separated for many years, Shushige, who was far away in Shuangyu Harbor, was also entertaining guests, but he was not entertaining a man, but an exotic beauty.

"Welcome Miss Silla, just as you come as a guest, you don't need to bring any gifts!" Zhou Zhong saw Miss Siela carrying a gift box in the front living room and smiled, yesterday he invited the other party to come to the house as a guest, but Miss Siela was very happy and made an appointment to visit this afternoon, but I didn't expect that just after lunch, the other party came with a gift.

"Hehe, it's actually not a gift, it's just that yesterday Zhou Gongzi said that you like the bread baked by me and my mother, so I brought some, I hope Zhou Gongzi your wife and sister will like it!" Siara laughed in her exotic and strange Chinese.

She now knows some of the etiquette of the Central Plains, and knows that Zhou Chong said that he didn't let himself bring gifts just politely, and he still had to bring gifts when he came to visit, for example, when Zhou Chong went to his house yesterday, he brought two jars of rice wine from the Central Plains, which is not as spicy as white wine, but it is very suitable for their European tastes.

Zhou Zhong heard that Miss Sila sent bread, but also very happy, yesterday at noon he tasted the Mediterranean meal made by Sila mother and daughter, but their cooking methods are very monotonous, such as meat is either baked or boiled, and a lot of spices are added, it feels very strange to eat, but the bread is baked well, the taste is very similar to the French croissants of later generations, so he also praised two sentences, but I didn't expect Miss Sila to remember, today it was brought as a gift. This can give Jinxuan and Bang'er a taste.

Seeing Zhou Chong very happily accepting the gift, Miss Siela looked at the living room, but found that Zhou Chong was the only one, and asked very strangely: "Master Zhou, why are you alone, don't you want to help me introduce your wife and sister?" ”

Hearing the other party's question, I saw Zhou Chong smile and said: "Our family lives in the Chamber of Commerce, and the first half of where we are now is the office of the Chamber of Commerce, and it is inconvenient for the female relatives of the family to come here, so they can't come to greet us." You can only wait in the inner house. I hope Miss Siela doesn't blame her! ”

"For any inconvenience, I have seen many women from the Central Plains in the town, and they are not like those Muslim women, who can only let their husbands see their faces. Instead, he walked down the street very generously. Why is Zhou Gongzi, the woman in your family can only stay in the inner house? "Miss Sila, although she knows a little about the culture and customs of the Central Plains. But I still don't understand some other customs.

Zhou Chong was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then smiled after thinking for a moment: "Miss Siela doesn't know about the woman you saw in Nanyang Town. Most of them are from small families, and they usually need to buy vegetables and cook in person, so they will inevitably show up, but large families like us have many rules and restrictions for women, and there are also people to do chores at home, so they can only stay at home and generally do not come out. ”

"What is a small family, and what does a large family mean?" Miss Sila was a little confused by Zhou Zhong's explanation, because she didn't understand the meaning of the two key words.

Seeing that Miss Siela didn't understand, Zhou Zhong had to explain in detail helplessly, in fact, it is simply the difference between the rich and the poor, so Miss Siela immediately understood, after all, no matter where she is, there are differences in status and status, and she also learned from Zhou Chong's mouth that women from large families are not unable to see outsiders, but the education they received since childhood makes them generally not contact men other than their husbands, but the interaction between women is still very common.

Hearing this, Miss Siela also nodded in understanding, she knew that the women in the Central Plains did not contact women other than their husbands, in order to maintain the woman's loyalty to her husband. Nowadays, European men also do not allow their wives to associate with other men, and in order to prevent their wives from cheating, chastity belts are very popular in Europe, especially in her hometown of Italy, many unmarried or married women wear chastity belts, and she has also seen her friends wear them, fortunately her parents are more open-minded and did not force her to wear that kind of thing. In contrast, the women of the Ming Dynasty were only forbidden to have contact with other men, which seemed to her to be much better than the inhumane chastity belt.

When Zhou Zhong personally took Miss Siela to his family's inner house, Wang Jinxuan and Bang'er had already learned yesterday that a woman from Europe had visited, and they were also very curious about it, especially Zhou Chong told them some interesting stories about Europe, which made them full of expectations for Miss Sila's visit.

As soon as Zhou Zhong and Miss Siela entered the inner house, they saw that Jinxuan, Bang'er, and Bai Mengwan were already standing on the road waiting for them, and when they saw Sira, whose appearance was very different from that of the Central Plains woman, they also showed surprise, although they had also seen Father John and Priest Nader before, but it was the first time they had seen a woman from Europe.

Compared with Jinxuan's curiosity, Miss Siela also showed great interest in Jinxuan's clothes and accessories, two big blue eyes have been looking at Jinxuan and them, although she has also been in contact with many women from the Central Plains in the town, but those ordinary women don't have too many clothes, unlike Jinxuan, their clothes and jewelry are very delicate and elegant, for a while, Miss Siela is also dazzled, only to think that the clothes and jewelry on the three women in front of her are all beautiful.

Seeing that both of them were interested in each other, he smiled and introduced both parties, and then Jinxuan invited Miss Syra to talk in the courtyard where she lived, and Miss Sila also readily agreed, so the four women of the same age left with a smile, but left Zhou Zhong on the road.

Zhou Chong wanted to go with Jinxuan and them, but he heard them talk about some women's topics, for example, Siela was very interested in Jinxuan's jewelry, and Jinxuan and they were very curious about Sila's appearance, especially the other party's blue eyes and tall nose, which seemed very interesting to them.

Zhou Zhong was not interested in the topic between women, and he thought that if the other party talked about some private topics between women, it would be inconvenient for him to be present, and he still had something to do, so he didn't go with him, but turned back to the front yard to continue to busy his business.

Yesterday he had learned about the strength of the Portuguese from Father John and Chilawa, and he knew very well that with his current strength, he could not prevent the Portuguese from occupying Malacca, so he had only one way to go, and that was to take advantage of this opportunity to go to the capital to meet Emperor Zhengde and persuade the other party to send troops to help him.

Since he is going to see Emperor Zhengde, he naturally has to bring some gifts, and these gifts must not be too ordinary, after all, the other party is the son of heaven of the Ming Dynasty, and ordinary gifts can't get into his eyes at all, so after coming back yesterday, Zhou Zhong has been thinking about gifts.

Generally speaking, gifts can not be given directly money, otherwise it will be too cheesy, and the gift should also match the identity of the recipient, such as the other party's poor family, then you can't give too expensive gifts, one may not be willing to receive, and the other may be reluctant to receive, and secondly, even if someone receives, a return visit in the future will definitely have to give a gift of similar value, which will cause a burden to other people's homes.

Of course, Emperor Zhengde is the Son of Heaven, Zhou Chong does not have to worry about the above problems, the more expensive the gift, the better, but Emperor Zhengde is rich all over the world, what kind of rare gifts have not been seen, even if Zhou Chong can find some overseas rare specialties, but maybe the palace of the Ming Dynasty has long been there, and more and better than him, after all, when Zheng He went to the South Seas, the rare treasures are the whole ship pulled back, although after so many years of wear and tear, but there must be a lot left in the palace, and the overseas specialties sent by themselves are not uncommon at all.

It was precisely because of the above that Zhou Zhong was so troubled by the preparation of the gift, and it was not until today, when Miss Ciara came to visit, that he suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and finally thought of the gift he was going to prepare.

It turned out that when Zhou Zhong saw Miss Sila, he suddenly thought that the fleet that transported Miss Siela and these people also sent other things, that is, sweet potatoes and corn, the number of these two crops is not very large, he was going to breed for a year, and then slowly spread it, but now think about it, it is too slow to promote it by his personal strength, if these two things can be given to Emperor Zhengde as gifts, and then with the help of the power of the Ming government to promote, then it will definitely be promoted to all parts of the country in the shortest possible time.

Although in the eyes of others, corn and sweet potatoes are not expensive gifts, but for Emperor Zhengde, who is the son of the great tomorrow, these two crops are the most precious gifts in the world, after all, only the people of the world can eat their stomachs, his country can be more stable, and his emperor can be more comfortable.

Thinking of giving sweet potatoes and corn as gifts to Emperor Zhengde not only solved the problem of promotion, but also didn't have to worry about the gifts, which was a double win, which made Zhou Zhong admire his eagerness.

But soon Zhou Zhong thought again, although sweet potatoes and corn are very important to the Ming Dynasty, but the importance of these two things is only known to himself, before their production comes out, it is useless to rely on himself, so although these two things have to be sent, but they cannot be without other gifts, these gifts should be liked by Emperor Zhengde, then you have to catch his character and hobbies, which is a little difficult, but it is not impossible to solve it. (To be continued......)