The seventh day of the Lunar New Year.

In the mansion at the foot of the water mountain, the New Year's flavor is so strong that it can't be dissolved: the gatehouse of the mansion is pasted with fiery red couplets on both sides, and two huge peach charms are also hung high on the door, which are carved with two majestic door gods "Shen Tu" and "Yu Lei"; The thick snow in front of the door was full of speckled red confetti, which were the remnants of the firecrackers; On the school field in Menli, the bamboo platform built for the performance of the troupe has not been dismantled, and it is also full of firecracker crumbs; The snow on the school field is full of potholes, and if a careful person observes carefully, he can see that those low-lying places are the places where the soldiers of the Liao Army set their tables when they gather for dinner on Chinese New Year's Eve; The mansion is full of red paper lanterns, and the festive atmosphere is spontaneously born.

Not far from Chu Fan's original residence, a small side courtyard was dressed up in a particularly festive manner: a new wooden plaque was hung on the lintel of the repainted courtyard gate, and two strong willow block letters were written on it, "Listen to the wind"; The two gates are not hung with door gods, but with two big red double happiness characters; The palace lamp in front of the door is not paper-paste, but a skeleton made of fine willow bent wood, and then stretched with red silk, and each side of the palace lamp is painted with a lifelike picture of a hundred children.

Entering the door, a huge flower hall divides the courtyard into two parts; The smell of varnish and the new bricks in the air indicate that the hall has just been built.

On the thick red carpet, Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Cai followed behind Chu Fan with their hands behind their backs, watching him point out the flower hall that had been decorated with flowers.

“…… Isn't the tassel of this palace lamp too long, and people have to bow their heads when they pass from below...... Change one. ”

"Huh? How is the wedding dress bright yellow? …… Arranged by the military advisor? No, no, no! Gotta change, change to bright red! ”

“…… How can there still be a brazier? …… Stepping over from above? Oh well. ”

……

Listening to Chu Fan asking about various arrangements one by one, Zheng Zhilong felt quite emotional in his heart.

Early this morning, he came to visit the commander of the Fuliao Army, who was about to get married, but because the latter was too busy, he asked him to follow the new house as his mother's family after a few words of greeting.

This shocked and moved Zheng Zhilong.

With the groom's official busy wedding, it has to be a good family that has been friends for several generations, and he, a person he has met for the first time, can get such treatment, how can he not be moved?

Chu Fan's simple single action not only showed the weight of the Zheng family in his mind, but also quickly shortened the distance between him and Zheng Zhilong, which made Zheng Zhilong even more impressed with this young commander who was not yet crowned with emotion - this hand, even Zheng Guerrilla, who is very good at winning people's hearts, may not be able to play so well!

Moved to moved, Zheng Zhilong was still disgusted by Chu Fan's new house.

He himself came from a poor family, and after gaining power, he paid more and more attention to the so-called famous style, whether it was a residence or a dress, everywhere he had to show the atmosphere of wealth and wealth; I think that in order to receive the order, he set up another mansion in Tong'an, from the house to the yard, all of which were built according to the standards of famous families in the south of the Yangtze River, and even the mountains and rocks in the courtyard were specially transported from the West Lake, and the home furnishings were not to mention the best choice.

Zheng Zhilong is ambitious as a young man, and it is understandable that young people like Chinese clothes and beautiful houses; Moreover, because the residence and clothing of this era are important symbols of status, the so-called "eight living seats" is the standard configuration of high-ranking officials, and Zheng Zhilong is of course more concerned about this.

But on this new house, Zheng Zhilong couldn't see many traces that could show Chu Fan's identity as the commander of the Liao army - in his opinion, this house was at best the standard for a rich country man in Daming to marry a daughter-in-law!

However, the few objects arranged by the short Song military master were clearly to create an atmosphere of the emperor's wedding, but they were all withdrawn by Chu Fan like that bright yellow wedding dress, which made Zheng Zhilong secretly relieved - after all, he was also an official of the imperial court, if Chu Fan openly trespassed, he really didn't know how to deal with himself.

But in this way, Chu Fan's wedding is more like a rich man in the countryside, which makes Zheng Zhilong, who was originally envious and jealous, somewhat balanced in his heart - after all, he is a little talent in Dengzhou, what tricks can he toss?

After inspecting the flower hall, Zheng Zhilong followed Chu Fan into the cave room in the backyard, and was dazzled as soon as he entered the door - in the huge inner and outer rooms, the windows were full of bright and large pieces of glass; All kinds of exquisite glass products abound in the house, and glass teapots and a whole set of cups worth 10,000 gold are casually placed on the small table in the outhouse; Next to the bed carved by red sandalwood in the inner room, there is a mirror more than one person high, and its light and smoothness can even be seen clearly on the fine fluff on Zheng Zhilong's face!

"What a crystal cave!"

After a rough glance, Zheng Zhilong's snort became heavy with excitement, and he couldn't help blurting out admiration - he hadn't seen the world before, and he also knew that transparent glass was Ushijima's unique secret technique, but it was better to see it than to see it, and when he saw so many beautiful glass products at first glance, he couldn't help but lose his temper.

"Don't be a fool of Brother Feihuang," Chu Fan casually picked up a decorative glass ball the size of a pigeon's egg on the dresser and played with it, and said with a faint smile, "It's just an ordinary decoration." ”

"Brother Yixian, I have heard for a long time that Niudao is rich in glass, transparent and flawless, chasing crystal...... When I saw it today, it really lived up to its name! Zheng Zhilong stroked the mirror and praised it.

"Don't hide it from Brother Feihuang, this thing is really ordinary," Chu Fan put down the glass ball and turned to Zheng Zhilong Zhengsedao, "But I can annoy that Taixi businessmen, from the production and sales of the ring and reluctance to sell, is so inflated that its value is inflated, so I understand that silver is an outflow...... If you are not talented, you want to repay him in his way, and I hope that Brother Fei Huang will help me. ”

Zheng Zhilong was stunned and immediately understood what he meant; Chu Fan wanted to sell the glass back to the Taixi countries, but he had no business knowledge, so he wanted to borrow the business network of the Zheng family - Zheng Zhilong himself was a translator, and he had long been in contact with the Portuguese in Macao and the Spaniards in Luzon, and he knew a lot of familiar and reliable business partners; The glass products themselves are a hot commodity, and it is not a problem to sell them back to Europe at all.

"In addition to glass, there are still snowflake candy and cigarettes on my Niudao, both of which are sought after by the sailors of Nanyang Taixi," Chu Fan continued, "I wonder if Brother Feihuang intends to?" ”

Zheng Zhilong's most important goal when he came this time was to negotiate business cooperation with Chu Fan - he had long coveted fairy grass cigarettes, snowflake candy, and transparent glass, and he was still the slightest hesitant at this moment, so he immediately nodded his head and said, "Brother Fool is blue-eyed, how dare Zhilong admit it...... Zhilong is not talented, Manila and Macau really have a lot of business partners, so they should not miss the affairs of the virtuous brothers. ”

As soon as he said this, the commercial cooperation between the East India Company and the Zheng family was decided-they were both leaders of their respective groups, and they only needed to set the tone, and the specific cooperation was of course discussed in detail by the people below.

But Chu Fan's next sentence made Zheng Zhilong's jaw almost drop! (To be continued.) )