Like most of the important cities of the Sui Dynasty, trade was carried out in the 'city', so Jiangdu had the southern and northern markets, with the northern city mainly foreign goods, that is, foreign goods, such as lacquerware, tortoiseshell, pearls from Fuso, medicinal herbs and paper from Silla, spices from the Nanyang countries, and jewelry from the Hu people.

Nanshi not only has silk and satin, jewelry, gold and silver utensils, but also a large number of items related to people's livelihood, such as rice, cloth, salt, tea, oil, porcelain, furniture, pottery, livestock and other items, so Nanshi is the big city of Jiangdu, shopkeepers, men, porters, whips, boatmen and other hundreds of thousands of people rely on business to eat.

However, as Fang Xuanling said, although there are many businessmen in Jiangdu, the real business profits are in the hands of the Guanlong nobles and the Jiangnan clans, and the big shops that really make money have their backgrounds.

On this morning, a carriage slowly drove into the gate of Jiangdu South City, followed by eight guards on horseback with knives on both sides of the carriage, and in the carriage sat Lu Qing, the wife of Zhang Xuan, who accompanied her to go shopping, and Lu Qing's two personal maids, Ah Yuan and Li Xiang.

This is the first time Lu Qing went out shopping after coming to Jiangdu, it was normal for large women in the Sui and Tang dynasties to go out for a walk, and women from poor families had to go out to make a busy living, but women from large families had to consider safety when they went out, and they had to bring escorts.

Although Lu Qing had Zhang Chuchen's protection, Zhang Xuan's personal soldiers still refused to let them go out alone, and eight personal soldiers pretended to be ordinary guards and followed their wives to Nanshi with knives.

After the carriage entered the southern market, it immediately slowed down, and a noisy and lively atmosphere suddenly came to the face, the shops on both sides of the street were next to each other, the wide street was full of pedestrians, and a caravan full of goods walked cautiously in the crowd, and from time to time someone shouted: "Borrow the road ahead!" ”

Immediately, several ox carts full of goods swayed and walked slowly, and the owner of the goods followed behind and trotted the goods.

The market is full of people of all ethnic groups from overseas. The short Japanese people, the Silla people with high hats and flat faces, the sturdy Kunlun Nu with dark skin, and the strangely dressed Nanyang Islanders, as well as the Sogdians and Persians with high noses and deep eyes, and so on.

"This is the best street in Nanshi."

Zhang Chuchen smiled and introduced to Lu Qing: "The front half is a colorful silk brocade line, and the back is a porcelain line. We're going to the jewelry store two blocks to the south. ”

Lu Qing rarely has the opportunity to go out shopping, mainly because the Lu family has very strict regulations, men are strictly forbidden to go to the Qinglou Teaching Workshop, and women are not allowed to go out at will.

Although she is no longer bound by the rules of the Lu family after getting married, Zhang Xuan is busy with business and has no time to accompany her during the day, and she doesn't want to go shopping alone. It is rare for Zhang Chuchen to come and see a lot of knowledge, so Lu Qing finally has a friend to accompany him.

She looked curiously at the street scene on both sides of the carriage, looking interested, "What kind of shop is that?" Lu Qing asked, pointing to a small wooden house at the mouth of an alley.

Zhang Chuchen stepped forward to take a look, and said with a smile: "That's a small sugar shop, all kinds of sugar cakes and sugar pills, mainly sold to children." ”

Lu Qing looked back at Ah Yuan, who looked yearning. Hurriedly smiled: "The carriage stops!" ”

The carriage slowly stopped, and Lu Qing smiled and took a bag of copper coins and handed it to Ah Yuan. "Go ahead! Go and come back quickly! ”

"Hey!" Ah Yuan excitedly pulled Lixiang to jump out of the carriage and ran towards the candy shop.

Looking at their backs, Zhang Chuchen remembered a past incident, pursed his lips and smiled: "Did the general tell Sister Qing that he accompanied the little princess to go shopping?" ”

"Is it Princess Guangling? He seems to have mentioned it, I didn't ask in detail, you can tell me? ”

"I happened to run into it that day!"

Zhang Chuchen told Zhang Xuan about the time when Zhang Xuan accompanied the little princess to go shopping. In the end, I couldn't help but laugh and said: "Finally, I went to a sugar shop, but the general had no money on him, and he was embarrassed, and he wanted to take out his guard's waist card, which frightened the shopkeeper." I happened to meet him that day, and I relieved him. ”

Lu Qing suddenly remembered and said with a smile: "The last time I entered the palace, it seems that the little princess told me that an eldest sister with a sword gave her a golden flower, that is, you!" ”

"It's rare that she remembers, and I'm about to forget about it."

Lu Qing smiled and shook his head, "Just such a time to go shopping, the little princess has always kept it in mind, and reminisced about it repeatedly, it seems that I am still much luckier than her, at least I want to go shopping now, and no one will stop me." ”

At this time, Ah Yuan and Lixiang each took a few strings of maltose gourds and ran back, Ah Yuan handed them two bunches, and said with a smile: "The sugar cake is a little cold, go back and steam it and eat it, these strings of gourds are just for the tooth sacrifice." ”

Lu Qing hesitated to take the sugar gourd and asked curiously, "What is this?" ”

Zhang Chuchen saw that Lu Qing didn't seem to know about the sugar gourd, so he explained to her with a smile: "The inside is fresh hawthorn fruit, and the outside is wrapped in a layer of melted maltose, which is your Zhuojun snack, Sister Qing doesn't know?" ”

Lu Qing shook his head, "I grew up in Zhuo County, and it's the first time I've seen it, but I know this maltose, it's called starch candy." ”

"Caramel is an official language, and the people call it maltose, and Sister Qing tastes it, it's sour and sweet."

Lu Qing learned from Zhang Chuchen and ate one carefully, sure enough, it was sour and sweet, and the taste was exceptionally delicious, she praised it, although it affected her makeup a little, but she still couldn't help but continue to attack the next one, and a laugh sounded in the carriage.

In a moment, the carriage slowly stopped in front of a large jewelry store.

Lu Qing came out of the carriage and looked up at this magnificent shop, with a high wall gate, in front of which was a two-zhang high vermilion gatehouse, the shop hall inside was bottomless, the whole shop covers an area of about five acres, and in Jiangdunan City, where every inch of land is valuable, there will be no more than five shops covering an area of five acres, which shows the strength of this store.

The plaque on the gate reads 'Yuhe Gold Store', and Zhang Chuchen frowned, "Why did the store change its name?" ”

At this time, the shopkeeper saw that the customer's momentum was extraordinary, and hurriedly greeted him, "The villain is the shopkeeper of the store, surnamed Wang, welcome Mrs. to the shop!" ”

Zhang Chuchen found that the shopkeeper had also changed, so he asked: "I came here last year, the name of the store is Baibaozhai, and the shopkeeper is not you, what's going on?" ”

The shopkeeper saw that she was dressed up unmarried, and said with a smile: "The girl doesn't know, the small shop changed the owner at the beginning of the year, and it turned out that Baibao Zhai moved to Beishi, but the girl can rest assured, the jewelry in the small shop will only be better, and the short one will be fined ten, and the child will not be bullied!" ”

Lu Qing said with a smile: "Wu Niang, don't care about the name of the store, since you're here, let's go in and have a look!" ”

At this time, a guard stepped forward and whispered a few words to the shopkeeper, and the shopkeeper was suddenly stunned, it turned out that this was the wife of the general, he slapped himself hard, "The villain has no eyes, I don't know that the lady is coming, it's really lazy, please come in!" ”

Although Lu Qing has a lot of wedding jewelry, and the queen also gave her a small box of jewelry, but those jewelry are too expensive to wear usually, and the jewelry before her marriage is also used by a little girl, and it is not suitable for married women to wear, so Lu Qing wants to buy a few good quality home-style jewelry.

They followed the shopkeeper into the guest hall, and the eight guards left six outside, and the other two followed them in, and they stood in the corner of the room, like two statues.

"Madame, please be seated!"

Shopkeeper Wang courteously invited Lu Qing and Zhang Chuchen to sit down, let the maid serve tea, and he bowed down and asked with a smile: "I don't know what kind of jewelry Madame wants to buy?" The small shop has everything, but the variety is too complicated, and it needs to be clearly indicated by the lady. ”

The shopkeeper Wang is very shrewd, he does not take the initiative to take out expensive jewelry, for fear that in case the general's wife is unsatisfactory, it is best to understand her hobbies first.

Lu Qing smiled slightly, "I want to buy a few pieces of home-style jewelry, just be casual and wear them at home, but I hope the quality is better." ”

"The villain understands, madam!"

The shopkeeper walked quickly into the back room, and after a while, he and two guys took out a few large wooden boxes, carefully placed them on the table, and said with a smile: "The jewelry in the small shop is the only product, there will be no duplication, Madame can take whichever one she likes, please Madame feel free." ”

The two men slowly opened the wooden box, which was filled with all kinds of gem-encrusted gold jewelry, and there were hundreds of pieces of gold jewelry.

The shopkeeper introduced on the side: "This is the small store's medium-grade jewelry, neither expensive ostentatious, nor shabby, very suitable for daily wear at home, a total of three boxes of two hundred and seventy-seven pieces, madam, please choose slowly." ”

Lu Qing felt a little strange, it stands to reason that there should be the most medium-grade jewelry, but they only have more than 200 pieces, which is a bit inconsistent with the huge store.

But Lu Qing didn't say anything, just looked at it slowly, and soon picked a pair of gold bracelets inlaid with emeralds, and immediately a guy wrapped them for her.

At this time, there was a sound of footsteps outside, and a young man smiled and said, "Shopkeeper Wang, are there any distinguished guests?" ”

Shopkeeper Wang hurriedly said: "The proprietor, it's General Zhang's wife!" ”

The young man had already entered the door with one foot, and when he heard that it was Jang Hyun's wife, he paused and obviously hesitated.

At this time, Zhang Chuchen happened to raise her head and take a look at the young proprietor, she was suddenly taken aback, and suddenly held down the hilt of the sword and stood up, her eyes sharp, "It turned out to be you!" (To be continued.) )