The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 17

Xu Xiaopang readily took out an ingot of silver from the purse at his waist and handed it to Jia Huan, saying, "This ingot is exactly ten taels, and I got it from selling paintings just now, and now I just pay it to Brother Jia, haha!"

Jia Huan bowed his hands to express his thanks, and put the ten taels of silver in his bag for peace, while Xu Xiaopang admired the "picture of calling a donkey" fondly, and they both felt that it was worth it.

The more Xu Xiaopang looked at it, the more he liked it, and asked, "Do you still have calligraphy and paintings of this style in Brother Jia's hands?"

Jia Huan quickly took out three paintings from the cloth bag, all of which he drew recently, one of which was a painting of flowers and birds, and the other two were paintings of figures, all of which were lifelike and vivid.

Xu Xiaopang looked at this one and then that one, he liked it very much, and said: "Brother Jia, these three paintings are all very good. How about selling them all for ten taels of silver?"

Qian Huai's mouth was wide open, and his whole body was petrified. He had seen Jia Huan's paintings with his own eyes, and it didn't take half a day for a painting to sell for ten taels of silver.
This money is so easy to earn, Jia Huan felt a little embarrassed, cupped his hands and said, "Since Brother Xu likes it, then take it, just give 20 taels, buy two get one free, meet by chance, let's make friends."

The already dark-faced old man looked relaxed, glanced at Jia Huan lightly, and thought: "At least this kid still has a bit of conscience, no matter what, these sketches are better than novelty, and the skills are not bad. Ten taels of silver a piece is not too bad. It's rare for the young master to like it. I hope it will benefit his painting skills."

Xu Xiaopang said happily: "Brother Jia is generous and righteous, but I'm disrespectful, so it's 20 taels, Steward Zhou, give me the money!"

The old man took out two ingots of silver and handed them to Jia Huan, and carefully rolled up a few paintings and put them away, but Xu Xiaopang seemed to be still interested, and asked: "I am also a person who loves painting, can Brother Jia recommend that painting brother for me, and I would like to ask you a question or two in person."

Jia Huan tactfully refused: "Brother Xu, don't blame me, it's not that I don't want to introduce you, it's because my clan brother is introverted and doesn't want to associate with others."

Xu Xiaopang couldn't help but regretfully said: "That's a pity!"

Seeing the innocent and regretful face of little fat man Xu Wei, Jia Huan actually felt guilty for deceiving the child, coughed lightly and said, "Since brother Xu is sincere, let me ask that clan brother later."

Xu Wei happily said: "That's great, I don't know where is Jia Xiongzun's mansion? I will come to visit another day."

Jia Huan hurriedly said: "Don't dare, the humble house is simple, how dare you let Brother Xu condescend to come to the house? It's almost the Chinese New Year, I turn around and ask that clan brother, if he is willing to meet Brother Xu, how about we meet outside Baomoxuan on the [-]th of next month?"

Just like a sentence in "Zeng Guang Xian Wen" says: You can only talk about three points when you meet people, but you can't give up all your heart.Jia Huan and Xu Wei just met by chance, and everyone didn't know the background, so he, who has always been cautious, naturally didn't want to reveal his true identity.

Fatty Xu Wei saw that Jia Huan refused to tell him where he lived, and he felt a little unhappy, but when he woke up and Jia Huan mentioned "the family is in trouble, the money is too small", he immediately felt relieved, thinking that Jia Huan's place must be too dilapidated, so he was embarrassed to let himself come, so he bowed his hands and said: "It's a deal, the sixteenth of next month, I'm still here waiting for Brother Jia."

Although this Xu Xiaopang's painting skills are very average, but his words and deeds are polite and approachable, which is worthy of friendship. Jia Huan's heart warmed up, and he nodded and said, "One word from a gentleman, one whip. If Brother Xu doesn't mind, how about we find a place to sit down and have a drink now?"

Xu Wei's eyes lit up, and he was about to agree, but the old man behind him coughed lightly and said, "Qiye, it's getting late, we should go home, so that my wife won't worry."

Xu Wei said with regret when he heard the words: "Brother Jia should not have resigned because of his kindness, but I have been out for a long time, and I am afraid that Jiaci will be worried, so it is time to go back to the residence now. Next time, next time I will be the host."

Jia Huan smiled and said, "Then next time."

Xu Xiaopang waved goodbye, and walked away step by step, as if he and Jia Huan had become close friends in just a short time.

Jia Huan watched Xu Xiaopang's back go away, and fell into deep thought. Xu's surname is the surname of today's country, and Xu Wei's family background is obviously good. Could it be the royal family?But Jia Huan immediately denied it, because the royal family must be surrounded by the front and back, and this Xu Wei is not only good-tempered and polite, but also innocent and cute, not at all like a member of the royal family who grew up in an environment of intrigue.

At this time, Qian Huai licked his lips, and said excitedly: "It turns out that the paintings of the third master are so valuable. In the blink of an eye, he made 30 taels of silver, which is faster than gambling... cough, cough, and robbery. I really made a fortune now. When I turn around, the third master paints more paintings, and don't worry about the money?"

"You think too much, today is just luck!" Jia Huan said indifferently.

Qian Huai was right when he thought about it. In this world, big fat sheep like the little fat man are rare but hard to find. Meeting one once in a while is already considered a stroke of luck. How could it be possible to meet one every day.

Indeed, Jia Huan originally expected that a sketch could sell for one hundred taels of silver, which was not bad, but when he met Xu Wei, a fat man, he actually sold a sketch for ten taels of silver, and the price directly doubled by a hundred times.Ten taels of silver is not a small amount. You must know that the lowest servants in Jia’s mansion only have five hundred cash per month. For example, Qian Huai, the second-class maid is one thousand cash, and a concubine like Aunt Zhao is only two thousand cash, which is two taels of silver.

Of course, this kind of good thing is only a flash in the pan, and it would be good to meet it once. Under normal circumstances, it can only be sold for a few hundred pennies at most, and the drawing method of sketching is not difficult. As long as you have a certain level of painting skills, you can quickly imitate it.

Jia Huan's goal was to save at least 1 taels of silver before the Jia family collapsed, so it was definitely not enough to sell calligraphy and paintings alone, and had to find another way of making money.

Jia Huan pondered for a while, and now he has about 40 taels of start-up funds in his hand, which is neither too much nor too little. According to purchasing power, it is worth more than 4 yuan in RMB. It is more than enough to rent a small shop, but what is the best way to make a living?
"Third Master, Third Master!" Qian Huai stretched out his hand and shook it in front of Jia Huan's eyes, and the latter came back to his senses and frowned, "What's the matter?"

Qian Huai rubbed his hands and said with a laugh: "Third Master, we won't go back to the house for dinner at noon, why don't we have a meal at Zuixianglou? The crispy roast goose there is really amazing." After speaking, he licked his lips, almost drooling.

"What's the rush? It's still early until lunch time. We'll talk about it later after shopping." Jia Huan said.

As soon as Qian Huai heard Jia Huan's tone, he knew there was something going on, and he felt as if he had been pumped out of chicken blood, and he puffed up his chest and said, "Good!"

As the saying goes: If you want the horse to run fast, you must feed the horse well.Although Qian Huai was delicious and lazy, he was motivated by his interests and was very quick to do things. Jia Huan only had Qian Huai as a servant, which was not as good as Jia Baoyu had four or five servants, so he could only make do with it for the time being.

Let’s say that Jia Huan went around the market, bought a lot of things, and handed them all to Qian Huai to carry them. This kind of goods is always picky and shy of heavy things. When he carried too many things, he became lazy.

"Hurry up, Zuixiang Tower is in front of you!" Jia Huan turned around and urged.

When Qian Huai heard this, he seemed to have a burst of strength out of thin air, and quickly overtook Jia Huan. However, at this moment, a gray-black dirt dog suddenly jumped out from the dark alley, bared its teeth, and was about to pounce, very viciously.

Qian Huai was so frightened that he screamed strangely, dropped what he was carrying, and jumped up to a low wall, his movements were more agile than a monkey.

What the hell!

Jia Huan’s head was full of black lines, and cold sweat was about to break out. Although the earth dog in front of him was not a large dog, he was only seven years old and thin, only about 1.2 meters in size.

For his grandma, rabies is an incurable disease, and there is no rabies vaccine in this day and age, one bite would really make Barbie Q! !

"Third Master, run!" Qian Huai shouted to remind him while riding on the wall.

"I'm running away from your sister!" Jia Huan almost wanted to get angry, how can two legs run faster than four legs, and animals are predatory, the more you run, the more you are afraid of it, the more it will chase you, so the more you run, the faster you will die.

"Wow, woo!" Jia Huan raised his hands, stamped his feet and yelled loudly, trying to scare the dog away, but the dog refused to do so, and slowly approached him with a low whine.

Jia Huan got hairy, and quickly looked around, not to mention the dog-beating stick, there was not even a stone, just when he was feeling desperate, the earth dog jumped up, opened its mouth and bit it.

"It's over!" Jia Huan's mind went blank, he just subconsciously moved aside, and the earth dog bit his sleeve.

Fortunately, it was only the sleeves, and the quality of the fabric was good. The dirt dog bit the sleeve and shook his head vigorously. Jia Huan took the opportunity to kick the dog in the stomach.

The earth dog let go of the pain, but it aroused its ferocity even more. It turned around and was about to bite up again. At the very moment, there was a sudden roar like a thunderbolt, and then a pole fell from the sky, hitting the earth dog's back with the sound of breaking wind.

Hearing the pitiful scream of "嗤", the dog's spine was broken, he fell to the ground and twitched non-stop, feces and urine flew up, he coughed up a few mouthfuls of dirty blood, and then stopped moving.

"Little brother, are you okay?" A rough voice whispered in my ear.

Jia Huan recovered from his shock for a while, only to find a big black man standing there holding a pole like an iron tower. It was the Iron Bull who pulled ice cubes that he had met before.

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(End of this chapter)