After returning from Fleet Street, Wickham opened a room for William Edward at the inn, and William Edward officially became Wickham's valet. In fact, Wickham did not have the idea of hiring servants, of course, this is not to say that since the twentieth century, his mind has been "all equal", and he is not used to being served, but he just doesn't want to spend that money in vain. I have hands and feet, so I really don't need that.

In fact, the modern society, which claims to be free and equal, is still hierarchical, except that the "hierarchy" is no longer forcibly divided, but has been transformed into a "transparent" hierarchy that everyone must follow. For example, the former personal servant has been transformed into a "life secretary", "assistant" and other professions, but in fact, it is just a change of title.

In his previous life, Wickham was particularly envious of the chairman of the company he worked for, and he had two secretaries alone, who were on call in 24-hour shifts. Compared with ancient times, those life secretaries are the servants of ancient families, and the chairman is the ancient old man. It's just that in the final analysis, Wickham in his previous life was just a dick living at the bottom of society, and he did everything for himself, and his brain had no concept of being served.

But in the end, Wickham was persuaded by William Edward, because through William Edward's explanation, Wickham quickly realized that like carriages and mansions, the number and quality of servants are also the faces of nobles and wealthy, and the mansions and famous cars of later generations are a role.

Considering that he was going to negotiate business with the Chelsea family behind Bert tomorrow, and bringing a personal valet could also fill the scene, Wikeham also changed his attention and said: "William, you will be my personal valet in the future, and the annual salary will be set at fifty pounds for the time being, if I buy an estate in the future, you will be the steward of the Wakeham family." ”

William was a little overjoyed, although he now earned more than a hundred pounds a year, and the fifty pounds salary was not necessary, but he knew very well who gave it all this. William Edward even had a gut feeling that following the young gentleman in front of him, he William Edward would get more.

"Young master, I feel very honored to be a member of the Wickham family." William Edward was very witty, and his title for Wickham immediately changed from Mr. to "Young Master", indirectly acknowledging that the Wickham family was the object of his service.

After waiting upstairs, Wickham found that Ye Shihan's room was still closed, so he stepped forward and knocked on the door three times. The door didn't open, but I could still hear someone say in suffocated English, "Is it for dinner?" ”

Wickham heard that the voice inside the door was Xiaolian, so he hurriedly said in Chinese: "Xiaolian, I'm Wickham, is your young lady inside?" ”

After being silent for more than ten seconds, Xiaolian reluctantly said: "Young Master Lin, my young lady has already rested, let's talk about it tomorrow." ”

Wickham was stunned for a moment, but he didn't expect Ye Shihan to be angry, so he commanded William Edward behind him a little helplessly: "You go down and let the restaurant bring the dinner, it should be a little richer." ”

The next morning, Ye Shihan still didn't go downstairs, Wickham shook his head, he couldn't do anything in this situation for a year. After waiting for a while, Wickham had to take William Edward out again.

The Chelsea family's shipping company is famous in London, located on a street near the Thames River Docks. When Wickham and William Edward arrived down the street, they quickly approached the Chelsea Shipping Company, which was so conspicuous that the red brick and stone four-storey building stood out from the crowd in the low-slung docklands.

As soon as Wickham entered the hall, a salesman with eyes greeted him and asked politely, "Sir, do you need any help?" You can rest assured that we at Chelsea Line have the best shipping service in England and are guaranteed to keep you satisfied. ”

Wickham waved his hand and said, "I'm not here to handle the freight business, I'm looking for your young master Bert Chelsea, you go and tell him, just say George Wickham is here." ”

Hearing that the person who came was his own young master, the salesman became more respectful: "Mr. Wickham, our young master happens to be in the company, please come with me." "Two days before, Bert had instructed the clerk downstairs to bring him to his office on the second floor if a gentleman named Wickham came to him.

The person who makes the heirs of the Chelsea family so important must have an unusual status, which is why the salesman is so respectful to Wickham. Wickham didn't hesitate, and took William Edward straight upstairs.

"Master, Mr. Wickham has arrived." The salesman who led the way knocked on the door and said to the door.

After a while, Bert's somewhat panicked voice sounded on the façade: "Let Mr. Wickham in." ”

Wickham pushed open the door and strode in, finding that the silk scarf on Bert's chest was a little messy, and the sleeveless vest had an unbuttoned button. Next to the chair stood a blonde beauty in a pink tutu and full of flushes, looking a little embarrassed and bowing her head, not daring to look at Wickham who was stunned on the side.

In the face of such a crimson scene, everyone knows what this man and woman were doing just now!

Bert tried to make a serious look, and said to the salesman, "Send Miss Lucy downstairs, and call a carriage for her by the way." ”

The salesman looked as usual, without any expression on his face, obviously not surprised: "Okay, young master." ”

The chick named Lucy obediently picked up the handbag on the chair, brushed her somewhat messy hair, and then threw a wink at Bert before leaving the office.

When William Edward closed the office door from the outside, Wickham said angrily: "You kid really dare to do it, come out of the office in the middle of the day, are you in such a hurry?" Perhaps psychologically, Wickham felt that there seemed to be some kind of bodily fluid in the air, full of obscenity.

In this era, it is easy to say that cheating with women is also difficult. It's easy to lift up a fluffy skirt and seem to be able to do the job, but it's not easy because the dense rope at the back of a woman's corset is enough to make most men retreat.

Wickham dared to pack the ticket, just now Bert and the blonde beauty definitely chose the former method, because the rope belt behind the blonde beauty's corset dress was quite neat.

Bert was not embarrassed at all, but exclaimed: "George, I am a normal man, two years of life at sea almost suffocated me, and I will not be allowed to have some fun when I return to London?" ”

As he spoke, Bert stopped, glanced at Wickham with a lewd gaze, and then smiled lewdly: "George, I heard that there is a strange creature called eunuchs in the palace of the Qing Kingdom, and their chickens and chickens have been cut off by the emperor. The reason why you haven't been close to women in the past two years can't be because of this, right? ”

Wickham kicked Bert in the ass and yelled, "Get out! ”

During the voyage, he met either African black girls or indigenous women from India and the Malay Archipelago, and unlike Bert's hunger, Wickham was not interested in dark-skinned natives.

While in Guangzhou, Wickham also sneaked into a good-looking green building, ready to inspect the "service industry" of this era. Who would have thought that those girls would avoid it when they saw that Wickham was a fool. Wickham, who was disgraced, had no choice but to leave the Qinglou in disgrace, and this inspection trip was over.

So since the crossing, Wickham is still a "virgin", but he didn't expect to be noticed by Bert, a lewd guy.

Bert dodged Wickham's blow and smiled: "George, that girl was good just now, she was an opera singer." If it's convenient for me tonight, I can send her to you. ”

Most of London's opera singers were the playthings of the aristocracy and the rich, who gave their youth to live a drunken life in London, drunk one day and drunk the other. Before Bert joined the army, he played with a lot of opera singers. It can't be said that these opera actresses are pitiful, anyway, they take what they need, the men don't pay the money, and the women pay for their youth and beauty.

Wickham was a little laughing at this kid's proposal, and pushed this kid: "You are familiar with this aspect, forget it, don't tell you this, I came today but I have something serious to tell you, does your father want our batch of Qing domestic products?" ”

Speaking of business, Bert put away his grinning face, nodded and said, "Of course!" You don't know what the expression on my old man's face was when he heard the news. Yesterday I took his old man to the warehouse at the Navy Pier to see the goods, and the old man said that the silk was much better than the goods brought back by the East India Company, and it was definitely not common! ”

Compared with the silk in Wickham's hands, the silk purchased by the East India Company from Guangzhou was much worse. Because the mission's fleet was allowed to carry out duty-free trade in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and because the Qianlong Emperor had stated that he would take care of it, the fleet purchased a lot of good things.

In this duty-free trade, the representatives of the East India Company set their sights on firing fine Chinese porcelain, while Bert and Zhang Mingxia set their sights on silk. Thanks to the cooperation of the magistrates, Bert purchased a lot of high-grade silk in Zhejiang that could not be bought in foreign trade before, which was naturally much better than the low-grade silk specially used for foreign trade in Guangdong.

"And at what price is your father going to buy these goods?" Wickham is most concerned about how many pounds he ends up putting in his pocket.

Bert smiled: "The old man is going to pay forty-five pounds, and we sent it, George!" "At this price, there are seventy-five thousand pounds in it for him, which is also a windfall.

Wickham looked at Bert's smug smile, almost didn't squirt the coffee out of his mouth, and he was happy to make his own family's money! However, there is still a gap between the Chelsea family's bid and the price he expected, if it is the inferior Chinese silk shipped back by the East India Company, this price is not bad, but for the fine silk, it is not enough.

"Well, I need to meet with Mr. Chelsea for a closer look." Wickham made his own request, and it seemed a little inappropriate for this kid to raise the price with his father, and he had to step up.

Bert nodded and said, "This is natural, the old man has been at home for the past few days, and I will take you back in the afternoon." ”

PS: If you don't know what the status of the British valet is, just go and see Downton Abbey.