The day after Jiang Pengmu disappeared from the city defense regiment, someone remembered to look for him, except for learning that he had indulged in wine at the widow's house the night before, nothing was found, and it was not until the third day that Jiang appeared outside the city, but he didn't look very good, and his body had been soaked into a pile of swollen purple dead flesh, but there were a lot of things on his body.

The corpse appeared outside the city, Ma Gang and the police of the Nanzheng Bureau were happy, the section of the river where the corpse floated belonged to the jurisdiction of the newly established Outer East Bureau, no matter how unhappy it was, the Outer East Bureau outside the city wall could only fight with the Dongzheng Bureau inside the city wall.

In the past few days, Xiao Yiming has been fooling around at the police headquarters on Huaxing Street almost every day, and several top bosses have not arranged a place for him to go, and he is not in a hurry, but leisurely.

Early in the morning of the 24th day of the twelfth month of the Western calendar, the door of the British comptoir house, which had been closed for a week, was opened, and the Roberines were stunned as soon as they went out, staring at the twelve pots of verdant and turquoise cedars in front of them, about three meters high, and the couple could not help but feel excited—each cedar was tied with a beautiful ribbon of gold, red and blue, and on each ribbon hung twelve beautiful little bells with silver glitter.

Mrs. Luo Baiting had guessed that it was a gift carefully prepared by Xiao Yiming, but she couldn't help but ask the guy who gave it? The man's answer made her laugh and cry: it was delivered by a group of rickshaw drivers, and when asked who sent it, they replied that it was Santa Claus.

Similarly, the residence of the German consul on Jinma Street, north of the Imperial City, had such an unexpected surprise. Mr. Consul, whose surname is strict and thrifty, specially summoned everyone to give a lecture, saying that it is appropriate to celebrate the festival in a foreign country, but there is no need to buy back twelve carefully selected and almost identical high-priced cedars, let alone order more than a hundred small sterling silver bells hanging on them, which is too extravagant and wasteful.

The staff of the official residence looked at each other in confusion, and finally if it weren't for the careful first secretary Coral found a handwritten postcard in Chinese and English from one of the fine porcelain basins, I am afraid that the consul would have nowhere to return if he wanted to.

Major Sharper, who met Xiao Yiming through the introduction of the Englishman Johnson and had a good relationship with each other, was very moved, and immediately stepped forward to explain his friendly relationship with Xiao Yiming to Mr. Consul.

The German consul, whose Chinese name was Fu Diegeng, was very happy to hear it, and immediately ordered Sharpler:

"I've been to many places in Sichuan, and I've only seen this precious cedar in Ya'an County, which connects the Tibetan populates in the southwest, and I can see that your friends have done a lot of work for this gift. I would like to ask you to invite Mr. Siu to our Christmas luncheon tomorrow, and bring my greetings and thanks to him! ”

Sharpler, a tall man of about thirty-four or five years old, happily agreed. At noon, he came to the British foreign company to find Johnson, and saw the three members of the Roberting family decorating the Christmas tree with great interest, each tree with ribbons and small silver bells were the same as the gifts he received, Sharpler couldn't help but be secretly surprised by Xiao Yiming's generosity.

The Luo Baiting family warmly invited Sharpler to lunch together, and in addition to talking about the arrangements for the festival banquets of the consulates of various countries, the rest of the content was almost all related to Xiao Yiming.

Zhuang Sen knew that Xiao Yiming often stayed at the police headquarters at noon, which was very close to the trading house, so he went directly to find someone with Sharpler.

The officials and policemen in the General Bureau felt very puzzled when they saw the intimacy between the two well-dressed foreigners and Xiao Yiming, some were jealous, some were envious, and more middle and lower-level officials and police officers admired Xiao Yiming very much:

"Look, how much face does our brother Xiao have in front of the invincible foreigners? Not only is his demeanor calm, chic and free, but he can also talk and laugh in smooth foreign dialect, not to mention our yamen, even if the governor's mansion of the domain, and even the first- and second-class officials in the capital, how many of them don't shiver when they see foreigners? If you don't accept it, you can't do it! ”

It was very smooth to invite Xiao Yiming, who had a half-day vacation, to invite two friends to have afternoon tea, and the location was the newly renovated "Huaxi Teahouse" next to his car dealership.

This teahouse belongs to the shopkeeper Deng, a few months of wages plus dividends, so that the shopkeeper Deng is a lot more courageous, brows do not frown and sell the original "Liufangzhai" teahouse, more than twice the money under this larger, excellent terrain two-story building, under the staff of Xiao Yiming, invited the best master in the city to redecorate, now it has become a first-class teahouse in Chengdu, the reputation is getting bigger and bigger, and there are more and more guests.

On the second floor of the teahouse, there is a hidden private room with an area of about 30 square meters, which is not open to the public, which is a special gift from the shopkeeper Deng to Xiao Yiming.

For this room, Xiao Yiming spent three thousand oceans without telling her sister, the door, the window and all the utensils inside, all of which are carefully carved with nanmu and pear wood, the whole space is simple and bright, simple and elegant, and what is even more rare is that this private room close to the car dealership building, there is a bathroom inlaid with exquisite white porcelain, and the cast iron pipe that is cleverly covered leads to the septic tank behind the building, this advanced and unique sanitary facility is still the first in Chengdu, if it is not for Xiao Yiming's secrecy properly, I am afraid it would have caused a sensation in the whole city.

"It's so beautiful, it's incredible, China's ancient construction technology is so exquisite." Sharper. Worrall's resolute face was full of appreciation.

Johnson echoed: "I was also stunned when I first came in, dear Sharpler, since Xiao invited you to be a guest today, you can come here at any time in the future, this beautiful space is not open to the public." However, the best is yet to come, and you will be able to taste the best Emei Mountain tea in Sichuan, as well as the most famous and exquisite tea in Chengdu. ”

Sharpler smiled and thanked him, and after sitting down, he asked curiously, "Xiao, why did you build such a luxurious little room?" ”

Xiao Yiming didn't hide it: "I prefer to be quiet, especially when talking to good friends, and this place is very safe, as long as you close the window, you are shooting inside, and it is difficult to hear outside." ”

Johnson and Sharpler looked at each other and smiled, and Johnson asked, "So, you invited us here today, was it premeditated?" ”

Xiao Yiming didn't answer, and when Dr. Tea put down the exquisite tea set and small charcoal stove, he ordered him to retreat and close the door, and then showed his tea art to the two friends, washing the cup, cleaning the dust, scalding the cup, washing the tea and other procedures, which made people feel novel and elegant, and finally poured out three small cups of elegant and turquoise hot tea with a fragrant aroma with a purple clay pot, and motioned the two to taste it at will.

The two foreigners picked up the teacup, drank it in one gulp, praised it with a slight aftertaste, and finally angrily said that the teahouse in Chengdu was too inauthentic, and all they drank for so long was garbage.

Xiao Yiming hurriedly explained, saying that this method of brewing tea and the concentration of tea brewed were specially prepared for the two of them after many tests and summaries, which is a completely different tea art, dating back to the Tang Dynasty in ancient China, and using the best tea leaves in Sichuan at present, which are different from other tea houses in the city, and traditional tea houses should take care of the taste of Chinese, not foreigners who like to drink coffee, which is naturally different.

After the two foreigners got to know each other, they were relieved and praised China's long-standing tea culture, and Sharpler said with some emotion that when his wife and daughter arrived next spring, he would definitely bring them to taste this good tea.

After three rounds of tea, Xiao Yiming led to a conversation: "Originally, I didn't plan to talk about business today, but since Zhuang Sen just talked about it, let's just talk about it, I hope it won't cause you unhappiness." ”

Speaking of this, the little teapot reached out and took out the beautiful Colt M1903 pistol from his waist: "This is a gift from Johnson to me, and at the same time, it also inspired me to see the huge business opportunities contained in it." ”

"Xiao, do you want to do the arms business?" Sharper couldn't help but interrupt Xiao Yiming's words.

Xiao Yiming asked rhetorically: "Why not?" In my current situation, it is completely possible to purchase weapons by legal meansBy the way, I just received an order from the Governor's Office to officially take up the post of Inspector General of the Governor's Office to join the army, with the rank of deputy military academy, that is, lieutenant of the army, and the specific work I am responsible for is: assisting General Zhong Ying in preparing for the expansion of the new army, formulating military training and logistics support plans, and translating various [***] materials. By the way, the Sichuan Army Accelerated School, which is currently under preparation, will also be in charge of General Zhong Ying, who is familiar to you, and he temporarily appointed me as the interpreter of the preparatory department, and is also in charge of the logistics and quartermaster of the military academy. ”

Johnson and Sharpler were dumbfounded when they heard this, and for a while it was hard to imagine that a person who graduated from the police academy would go to the army, and the rank was set at such a high level.

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