Soon, Hua Qiao received a pack of bean flour buns from Lao Huangtou.

The old yellow-headed buckwheat recognized that he set up a stall on Fulu Street, and both buckwheat and Hua Rong loved to eat his bean flour buns, which were mixed with black sesame seeds and peanuts, which were particularly fragrant.

The old yellow head stuffed the bean flour bun into the buckwheat's hand, and mysteriously turned around and left. Hua Buckwheat opened the paper bag inexplicably, and saw the bean flour bun and the note stuffed inside. After reading it, Hua Qiao smiled: Oh, Third Brother Xu was locked up.

That's okay, it's flexible and inconspicuous to go alone. So she packed her things and prepared to go out.

It's still early, so let's go to the gold shop first.

After thinking about it, she went back to her jewelry box, took out the only gilded hairpin with rubies, and with great effort, took a dagger to pry the ruby off. At a second look, the hairpin was a little scratched, and it was smeared with some saliva, and the scratches on the dagger were not so obvious.

Hua Qiao arrived at the gold shop first, and as soon as he entered the door, Du Jianping, the son of the goldsmith, greeted him: "Hua Qiao? What are you doing here? Want to hit jewelry? ”

Du Jianping is two years older than Hua Qiao, is the only son of Du goldsmith, and has learned his ancestral craft, especially hammering and engraving. It is not an exaggeration to praise him as a skilled craftsman.

Hua Qiao took out the flower hairpin from his sleeve, and said with a sad face: "Brother Jianping, look at my flower hairpin, accidentally hit the ground, and the gems fell off, can this still be repaired well?" ”

Du Jianping took it and looked at it, and said with a smile: "Small problem, I'll help you put it back again." ”

"But my hairpin is gilded, not pure gold, will it have any impact if it is re-inlayed? This is it...... Not so bright? Hua Qiao asked, pointing to the place where the gems were set.

"The setting has an effect on the periphery of the gemstone. But it doesn't matter, I'll do a little processing for you, and you won't be able to see it. Du Jianping still has this confidence, especially in front of a girl he has a good impression of.

"I haven't seen how gilt is made, is it sprinkled with gold dust?" Flower buckwheat blinks big eyes eager to learn.

Du Jianping smiled and explained: "It's not that easy. Gold and mercury are to be synthesized into gold gongqi and applied to the surface of copper or silverware. You see, this hairpin of yours is silver gilt, and the bottom is silver. Then it is slightly heated to evaporate the mercury, and the gold adheres to the surface of the object and does not fall off. ”

"Mercury evaporation? Isn't it gone? How much mercury are you going to waste! Hua Qiao said.

"It's to use a lot of mercury, especially to gilt the Buddha statues, which are bucket by bucket. So, even if it's gilded, the price is not cheap! ”

Seeing that Du Jianping mentioned the Buddha statue so cooperatively, Hua Qiao lost no time in asking: "Brother Jianping, this year's City God Temple will be rebuilt, and you will also make the golden body of the City God, right?" ”

"Yes! In addition to our family, no one else can take it, the city god is brass gilt, when the brass is new, and the color of gold is similar, it is easy to gilt unevenly and can not be seen, and when the copper is old, it is mottled and particularly ugly. Du Jianping is still very proud of his craftsmanship.

"Lord Chenghuang is so tall, how much gold dust and mercury do you have to use? I guess...... At least ten pounds! ”

Du Jianping did not dislike Hua Qiao's diligence and inquisitiveness, just to show off his professional level. He carefully flipped out a book of goods in and out, turned to the back page and looked at it, pointed it to Hua Qiao, and said with a smile: "Guess wrong, right?" You see, the amount of gold dust and mercury is here, and it is by no means ten catties as you say. ”

"Brother Jianping, you said that there is so much gold dust and mercury, I don't know if it will be stolen?" Hua Qiao looked at Du Jianping's fingers, and secretly counted in his heart.

Hey? How does this look like there is a scribble?

Du Jianping replied with a smile: "Then how can it be stolen and don't know?" Such expensive raw materials, we are based on experience one side of the calculation, up and down will not exceed a catty, our Dushi gold shop signboard is not in vain. ”

"Brother Jianping, did you do this account? I miscalculated the number and was scolded by your father, right? Hua Qiao pretended to find it suddenly, and inadvertently pointed to an obvious alteration and smiled:

"In the past, I was most afraid that my father would test me in arithmetic, but later, my father taught me a speed algorithm, with twenty-six formulas, starting from a high position, and then cooperating with finger calculations, without an abacus, you can calculate the answer at a glance. If you want to learn, I can teach you. ”

"Okay!"

Du Jianping wants to learn, of course, because of the people who teach. But men always want to save face, and a few numbers are wrong, and they are not looked down upon by Hua Qiao? He hurriedly looked at the place where Hua Qiao pointed, it was really! When have the numbers been altered? And it's not the previous underlining modification, but the whole word is covered with yellow paint, which is similar to the color of the ledger page, and the new word is written on the yellow paint, and if you don't look carefully, you can't see it.

Yellow Pigment: Please call me Lady Correction Liquid.

Du Jianping said strangely: "I made the account, if you don't say it, I don't know that it has been modified." It should be that there is a mistake in the number of entries and exits, but my father corrected it. Hey? When did my dad start using this modification method? I can't see the figures before the change, and it won't be easy to check in the future. ”

Since the numbers have been changed, and Du Jianping doesn't know about it, he can't ask anything more, and Hua Qiao is ready to withdraw.

Du Jianping was about to talk about when to teach him the speed algorithm, Hua Qiao straightened up and said: "Then my hairpin will please Brother Jianping, how much does it cost?" ”

"No, no, I will help you do it privately when I am resting, my father will not know, how can I still collect your money......" Du Jianping said with a red face. Xindao: If you are willing, I would like to make a new branch for you.

Without collecting money, Hua Qiao was even happier, waved his hand at Du Jianping, turned around and went out. When I walked to the door, I didn't pay attention to my feet, and I kicked something with a "bang".

Hua Qiao looked down, huh? It is an azure thin-necked porcelain bottle.

Du Jianping, who heard the voice and came out, bent down to stand up the porcelain vase that had fallen to the ground and put it in the corner of the wall. Concern asked, "You didn't kick your toe, did you?" Do you want to go to the store and take off your shoes...... Check it out? ”

Hua Qiao shook her head, looked at the porcelain vase and asked, "My feet don't hurt." Is this bottle your home? Why did you put it at the door? Let's see if it's broken, I really didn't see it just now. ”

Du Jianping was also very strange, he looked around, and this was the only one. He said: "It's my family's, it's an empty bottle of mercury, it's weird, those bottles are piled up in the backyard, ready to be sent to Yangzhou for recycling, how can there be only one of them here...... It's okay, it's okay to kick badly, as long as your feet don't hurt. ”

Hearing that it was a bottle of mercury, Hua Buckwheat couldn't help but look at it twice.

Saying goodbye to Du Jianping again, Hua Qiao walked quickly towards Dingdang Street in the south of Baoying County.

Faster than her, there was a long bamboo-blue figure outside the door, which had disappeared without a trace before she could go out.