Different from the atmosphere of Chaoyang Palace, thousands of miles away in Xi'an City, the houses on Shuyuan Street are full of laughter.

Aji is back.

"Yulin is very prosperous, not inferior to Xi'an, and because it is nine-sided, there are not only sweat people on the street, but also Tartars, and people from the Western Regions with high noses and blue eyes."

Fang Fei listened curiously and asked, "High nose and blue eyes?" Is it green eyes? Isn't that the same with cats? ”

As she spoke, she also lifted the orange in her arms and shook it, the orange has yellow eyes, not green eyes.

"That's right, these people are all here to do business in Daqi, and they are from the Silk Road, so there are many shops selling goods from the Western Regions on Yulin Street."

As he spoke, he opened the cage he had brought back and took out two small small silver round boxes, one with mica and pearls on it, and the other slightly smaller with a small flower.

The one inlaid with pearl mica is for Shen Tong, and the one inlaid with small flowers is for Fang Fei.

In addition, there are gifts for Huang and Xinyu, and Huang is a brocade turban, which is fashionable in Yulin and is said to have been learned from women in the Western Regions.

What was given to Xinyu was a delicate Western rake mirror.

Fang Fei didn't expect Azhi to bring her a gift, and she was so excited that she couldn't do it, but she didn't know what it was when she held the small round box.

Shen Tong was also fiddling with the round box in her hand, and suddenly, she didn't know where she pressed it, and the round box snapped open, and it turned out to be a small Western mirror.

Fang Fei has learned from each other, and has also found an opportunity, and at the same time it is a mirror.

Azhi said: "Miss Xinyu doesn't go out of the door, it's just right to use a rake mirror, you two, of course you use this, it's just right to put it in your purse." ”

Voiceover, you two run out all day, and it's useless to send you a rake mirror.

Everyone laughed, Shen Tong asked Fang Fei to send the headscarf and rake mirror to his yard, and Fang Fei came back after a while, bringing back a pair of shoes and two pairs of socks, which Huang made for Azhi.

Xu An asked the maid's mother-in-law to book a table in the restaurant, Huang and Xinyu were inconvenient to come, so they sent a few more dishes to them, while Shen Tong and Fang Fei stayed here, and several people had not been together for a long time, so they had a lot to say.

Shen Tong didn't hide the matter of sending Azhi to Yulin, so when everyone ate about the same, Azhi told about the experience of going to Yulin this time.

"General Fan Shao asked me to take her name card to the Yamen, and when I saw that it was General Fan's name card, I was very cooperative, and specially assigned a scribe to help me find the household registration list of previous years. We searched through all the books, and we only found five families surnamed Lan, and these five families are still in Yulin, and they have not been wiped out as Master Lan said. ”

Knowing that the five families were all in Yulin, Azhi went from house to house to investigate. He went to the guard house and borrowed someone from Fan Guiying, and without saying a word, Fan Guiying lent him a personal entourage of the Fan family.

This entourage came with him as early as when General Fan was stationed in Yulin, and he was not only familiar with Yulin, but also familiar with the places near Yulin.

With his help, Azhi quickly found out the details of the five families. All five families have lived in Yulin for at least three generations, and none of them have moved from the capital.

In other words, these five families have nothing to do with Master Lan.

Azhi didn't give up, and went to the rouge shop in Yulin to inquire.

He opened a rouge shop in Xi'an, so he quickly got into conversation with the guys in those shops.

There are many small shops in Shaanxi that sell rouge gouache, all of which are purchased from Yulin, so although Azhi is from Xi'an, the guys in those shops are not suspicious, and they think that he is also here to inquire about the market.

Among them, there was a guy in his thirties, who had been in this business for more than ten years, and Azhi had a good chat with him, and learned that he liked to drink a few drinks, so Azhi waited until the shop closed, and then asked him to drink in the tavern next to the shop.

After a few glasses of wine, both of them opened up the conversation.

Azhi said: "Don't hide it from my brother, I came to Yulin this time to explore the way, my father saved some money, and he wanted to take it out for me as capital." My last owner once said that as early as more than ten years ago, he came to Yulin to buy, and there was a family that made excellent incense powder, and the master of that family brought an old servant, who seemed to be surnamed Lan, brother, do you recognize it? ”

The guy took a sip of wine, thought about it when he heard it, and said, "There are not many people with the surname Lan, if there is such a person, I must remember, but I can't remember." But there is one person who is good at making incense powder, but it is not surnamed Lan, but surnamed Qi, which is our Daqi. ”

"The surname Qi? Did he do it himself now, or was he in some shop? Aji asked.

The guy shook his head and said, "You're asking the right person, I'm afraid no one knows this person except me." More than ten years ago, he came to our shop, just like the one you said, with an old servant, at that time the shop was still in charge of the old owner, the master Qi took out a box of incense powder, which he made, the old owner is knowledgeable, without saying a word, they left their master and servant in the shop, and promised a monthly salary of five taels of silver. But no one thought that he had only been working in our shop for more than ten days, and then suddenly disappeared, and the old owner was not less angry about this. ”

Later, the old owner died of illness, and was replaced by the son of the old owner, and the people in the shop also changed batch after batch, and now the old man left, only this guy, as he said, still remembers this Master Qi, and he is the only one.

Azhi was overjoyed, so he took out the painting and showed it to the guy, the guy squinted his eyes and looked at it carefully, and said: "It's a bit similar, but Master Qi is more delicate and gentle, I was young at that time, and I haven't seen the world, I remember that after Master Qi left, the old boss once said that a little brother like this who has never suffered at first glance is so high-minded, thinking that anyone can give him five taels of silver?" He's gone from here, and I'm afraid he won't be able to find his next home. The old club can read people, he must have seen something. ”

Haven't suffered before?

Azhi frowned, although making rouge gouache is not as hard as doing carpenter's work, but as a craftsman, if you want to learn a real skill, there is no one who does not endure hardships. The business of rouge gouache starts with scooping and grinding, from a primary school apprentice to a master, five or six years with talent, and more than ten years without talent, if you say that you have not suffered hardships, it is impossible.

"How did your old club find out? Do you remember? Aji asked.

The guy was already a little drunk, and the words in his mouth were even more joyful.

He smiled: "At that time, I remembered when I heard the old boss say that Master Qi didn't even have a callus on his hand, by the way, there was a mark on his thumb, which was left by wearing a wrench, like those of us who work all day, who will wear a wrench on his hand?" ”