At the intersection of Sai Wan Street, this excellent location has a very majestic building. The house is very large, built on three floors, the first floor in front of three large shops, a butcher shop on the left, a pawn shop on the right, an inn hall in the middle, a restaurant box on the second floor, and a guest room on the third floor. Behind is the kitchen and a large workshop.

The restaurant, inn, cooked butcher shop and pawn shop in front of and inside the entire building are the property of the Zhang family. On the surface, it is the industry of the butcher Zhang, but secretly his son-in-law Zhao Xiancheng also accounts for 20% of the shares, and the county government's history, master book, Xu officials, secretary office, and head catcher also account for 10%.

Zhang Butcher rarely kills pigs himself now, although he still has a monopoly on the slaughtering trade in Sai Wan, and this trade still brings him a steady stream of income, but he is now more focused on this building at the crossroads.

Compared with the income of killing pigs and selling meat, this is really a lot of money.

Beaming, the butcher stepped into the building's backyard, where there was a busy workshop. It is also a secret workshop specializing in the manufacture of counterfeit silver. Zhang Butcher's workshop had several very good counterfeit silver masters, and he melted some of the silver in good condition, mixed it with a lot of copper, lead, and other things to make counterfeit silver with a very low silver content, and finally sent it to the pawn counter to be used.

Because of the skill of the master silversmith, he did an excellent job in this business, and through this forgery technique, the speed at which the Zhang butcher collected money greatly increased. Now there are three counterfeiting masters, and more than a dozen apprentices, and the fake silver in the black workshop is constantly being produced.

The counterfeit silver in the black workshop is made of ingenuity and precision, which is no different from real silver, and it is difficult to distinguish the authenticity. Making counterfeit silver, and then using the counterfeit through the pawn shop is very loose, and Zhang Butcher now counts the money every day with hand cramps.

On the other hand, Zhang Tu also secretly lent up loans through pawn shops and did these illegal things, but because he had a county son-in-law and colluded with a group of officials in the county government, there was no chaos.

"Master, I will report to you the accounts of the shops everywhere yesterday." As is customary, every day the butcher has to go around the shop and property, and then the account office will report to him again yesterday's accounts.

"Hmm." Zhang Tu sat in the rattan chair, and a guy had already made a cup of strong tea.

The tent reported one item after another, and Zhang Butcher himself was illiterate and couldn't make accounts, but he was still very shrewd, and he could hear some mistakes in the tent room at once, and then interrupted the tent and pointed out coldly.

The account room wiped the sweat and hurriedly corrected it.

Zhang Butcher heard it very clearly, the industry everywhere is very good, but the most profitable is the production of counterfeit silver, which is really a huge profit. If you mix the silver with counterfeiting, it will change hands and make several percent of the profit, sometimes even multiples. Faster than his loan, although the loan is high, but there must be capital, there is a turnover period, how can you make counterfeit silver fast, now his counterfeit silver is not only used by his pawnshop, and even has been exported to Wuchang and even Nanzhili.

On the contrary, a few serious transactions, although they have always had good returns, are not worth mentioning compared with counterfeit silver and lending.

Zhang Laosan walked in from outside, leaned against Zhang Tuhuwei's side and said, "Dad, I just saw Liu Erlenzi coming back, riding a tall horse and wearing a green robe." ”

"What green robe?" Zhang Tu's eyes didn't open, since the last time he suffered that big loss in the Liu family, Zhang Tu's first reaction when he heard Liu Er's stunned heart was not anger and resentment, but with some fear.

His arms can't reach his thighs, and he Zhang Butcher has also pulled down a lot of family business over the years, and has built a solid strength in this part of Sai Wan. But the Liu family has fallen in love with the top wealthy families such as the Mei family and the Li family, but he doesn't dare to touch the hard, that is to touch the stone with the egg.

He gave the Liu family 1,600 taels of silver before and after, and there was a lot of blood, but for Zhang Tu, this bit of silver couldn't hurt his muscles and bones. After decades of mixing, Zhang Tu knows very well which people can be provoked and who can't be provoked, bullying the soft and fearing the hard, which is not a derogatory term for Zhang Tu, but a very correct rule of life.

Zhang Laosan pursed his lips, "With a seahorse tonic on his chest, he is in a green robe from the nine-rank military attaché!" ”

The son didn't care about this, he just regarded it as a talking point. But in Zhang Tu's heart, it was Ge Deng. Liu Jun became an official? From the Nine Rank Military Attaché?

Zhang Tu couldn't sit still, he stood up all of a sudden, and his expression became serious.

Zhang San felt that his father was overreacting, "It's just a military attache from the ninth grade, I heard that it seems that he was given a tiger head pass inspection." ”

"You know a fart, and if you inspect it, you're also an official, a high-grade official." Zhang Tu was dissatisfied with his son's slow response, and scolded with hatred.

He suffered a big loss in the hands of Liu Jun before, and he also offended Liu Jun, but he felt that he also spent more than 1,000 taels of silver to the Liu family, and this matter should be over. After all, the Liu family is just borrowing the power of the Li family and the Mei family, and there is nothing big about it.

But now it's different, Liu Jun has actually become an official. With the appreciation of the Li family, Liu Jun was promoted from the ninth rank so quickly, who knows what he will be promoted in the future?

"Let's go, go home."

After taking two steps outside, Zhang Butcher stopped again and called the man, "Take a hundred taels of silver, no, five hundred taels." Then wrap up the dead jade Ruyi received in the pawnshop a few days ago and bring it, well, and then ask the restaurant to prepare ten jars of good wine, and then get two roast suckling pigs from the deli shop, and then put a few boxes of good cooked food. ”

Zhang San looked at his father in surprise, "Dad, you don't want to take these to the Liu family, right?" As for it, it's just a small inspection, what are you afraid of him doing? ”

Zhang Tu is no longer too lazy to pay attention to his son, and since Liu Jun has become an official, it is different from the original. There was a conflict between the two families before, and the Zhang family must try to repair the relationship with the Liu family, and in the future, if his Zhang family wants to maintain this situation in this Xiwan again, he must have a good relationship with the Liu family, after all, the relationship between the Liu family and the Mei family and the Li family is so close.

In case this Liu Er was stunned and trembled as soon as he became an official, and he wanted to embarrass his Zhang family, it would be very troublesome.

It's just a few hundred taels of silver, if he can have a good relationship with the Liu family, or even if he can use the Liu family to get in touch with the Mei family and the Li family, then he Zhang Tuke will no longer have to be tightly confined to Xiwan, and then he can do business more widely and bigger.

If you can really do this, even if you spend 1,000 taels or 2,000 taels, it's worth it.

The guy quickly prepared all kinds of gifts as required, and Zhang Tu deliberately asked the guy to pretend the gifts into eight picks. also asked people to tie red silk flowers on it, and then called eight guys to carry the burden, all the way to Liu's house in a high-profile manner.

Liu Jun was really surprised when he saw Zhang Tu with a smile on his face, as well as the full eight gifts behind him.

After taking the gift list, Liu Jun glanced twice, there were really a lot of things, fifty taels of red gold, five hundred taels of gold and silver, a pair of jade Ruyi, two pairs of jade bracelets, and four gold hairpins. In addition, there are eight high-quality silk horses, as well as high-quality Shaoxing daughter red ten altars, two roast suckling pigs, and two tables of first-class seats.

"Uncle Zhang is such a big gift, how dare the Liu family accept it." Liu Jun smiled slightly.

"Uncle also just heard that the virtuous nephew has been promoted, and now he is patrolling Hutou Pass in Taiping Township. To be honest, our two neighbors have been neighbors for many years, and my uncle is also very happy for you. Just a little gift, there is no other meaning, just to congratulate Gao Sheng, talk about his heart, the virtuous nephew must accept it, otherwise he will look down on me Zhang Tu. ”

Daddy Liu didn't have much enthusiasm for Zhang Tu, who seemed to have completely changed into a person, and he didn't want to accept his gifts. But Liu Jun just smiled, and then said, "Then it's better to be respectful than to obey your fate, thank you Uncle Zhang for your love." He can guess a little about the mentality of Zhang Tu, this kind of person has always bullied the weak and afraid of the strong, bullied when he saw the weak, and attached to the strong when he saw the strong, this gift cost a lot, Zhang Tu really put some money, since it was sent to the door, it was not accepted in vain.

"Brother, you gave birth to a good son." Zhang Tu walked into the hall of Liu's house on the one hand, and said to Father Liu on the other. Dad just nodded casually to Zhang Tu, who was two-faced and three-stabbed.

Zhang Tu came to give gifts, and even brought the banquet, Liu Jun directly asked people to set up the table, and then left Zhang Tu for a meal, and by the way, he called several gentlemen in the neighborhood and the private school, and invited the chief of the chief of the first to come over. After receiving the invitation, they all came to the door with gifts to congratulate.

At the banquet, Liu Jun deliberately wore the green robe, kept persuading the wine, and gave everyone face, and everyone drank very happily.

Lu Fu.

The two carriages stopped in front of the mansion, and a person jumped out of the carriage in front of them, but the housekeeper in front of the Lu family recognized the person at a glance as Miss's personal maid Yaoyao, and hurriedly said, "Miss Yaoyao, you're back, isn't Miss coming back too?" ”

"Laifu, go and tell the lord and the lady, and say that the young lady is back."

Laifu, the servant guarding the door, hurriedly ran back to the house but reported, "Master, Miss is back, Miss is back." ”

Lu Weizhang, who was sitting in the house to reconcile accounts, heard this, stood up and hurriedly walked out of the house. But after walking a few steps, he stopped again, turned back to the study and sat down at the table, picked up the ledger again, and began to read.

Mother Lu trotted into the study with the maid ring and shouted loudly, "Oh, master, why are you still sitting here, didn't you hear the report from Laifu, saying that Qiqi is back, hurry, welcome her." ”

Lu Weizhang sat there motionless, "She still remembers this home, didn't she climb over the wall and leave here before, in front of so many people, she also climbed over the wall and ran away with the man, did she think about my feelings as a father?" How is it back now? ”

"What are you talking about, no matter what, Kiki is also our daughter, we are such a daughter, don't you want her?" Mother Lu said a little unhappily, "I didn't know who was looking forward to my daughter's return every day, but now that I'm back, you're still holding it up, dead old man, if you don't go to me." ”

Lu's mother left Lu Weizhang and ran with the servants to welcome her daughter home.

Lu Weizhang sat in the study, picked up the account book and looked at it for a long time, but he didn't turn a page, let alone find that his account book was actually reversed!