Uncle Lai in the Red Chamber

Chapter 11 Goods are sold with destined people

March twenty.

Before I knew it, Lai Shangrong had been teaching for ten days.

After spending ten days together, he, a second-generation man, became familiar with these half-grown children.

The first person to strike up a conversation with him was Jia Jun, who seemed very envious of breaking the ring ruler on the first day of school. Lai Shangrong taught him two tricks like Wu Qin Xi and Baduan Jin that he had learned on the video website in his previous life.

After that, he would come half an hour earlier than other children every day, draw signs in the courtyard, and ask Lai Shangrong to correct him.

Jia Huan is really sensitive to numbers, and he has the deepest obsession with paper airplanes. He has completed his homework the best in these ten days, but his words are often sour, probably because he was influenced by Aunt Zhao.

Jia Lan and Jia Cong, the youngest, are both silent and well-behaved.

Jia Qiang is the oldest and doesn't pay much attention to children's toys. She comes to school in a perfunctory way. Lai Shangrong no longer pays attention to him.

Jia Baoyu was absent-minded because Daiyu returned to Yangzhou. He even failed to complete any homework on the first day and lost the opportunity to compete for rewards early.

The rest are not worthy of mention.

After class as usual, Lai Shangrong assigned his homework and handed the paper airplane to Jia Huan.

I saw Jia Huan stepping forward with disbelief, yelling to the outside world: "Zhao Guoji! Take the things for me!"

They left the school like stars over the moon.

Baoyu stared blankly at the strutting Jia Huan. Even though he had no ambition to win, he was somewhat disappointed.

"The last ten days are justifiable, but as an older brother, you can't always be compared to your younger brother. This tenth day can't be wasted anymore!"

It is better to challenge the general than to provoke him. Lai Shangrong came over at the right time and gave him a warning.

It was the nature of my mind last year, and it came and went as quickly as it came. In addition, even though Daiyu left, Baochai and others stayed with her to relieve her boredom, so she has now recovered.

Moreover, the eldest brother is like his father, and he often educates Jia Huan. Now that this younger brother has taken the lead, he feels somewhat dissatisfied and resentful.

"Well! This is the first time I just let them. I promised Sister Lin that I would win a few and play with her. If she comes back after a while and doesn't see me, she will laugh at me for bragging!"

Lai Shangrong saw that he was on the right track and gave him a few words of encouragement.

"Go back earlier! The old lady is probably still waiting for you to eat!"

After taking Baoyu away, Lai Shangrong waved to Pan Youan who was sweeping.

"Are you Pan You'an?"

"Uncle Lai, do you have any orders?" Pan Youan came over and said solemnly.

"I heard that you can write and do calculations. You are quite talented. But is it true?"

After hearing this, Pan You'an had long forgotten the humiliation of picking up a plane, only thinking that he had the discerning eye to see that he was extraordinary.

He said respectfully: "It can't be compared to the old man, but he knows a few words, can write and count!" He unconsciously straightened his stooped back a little while speaking.

"That's right! It's hard for you not to feel sorry for yourself because of your background, but you are a talented person. Don't do these menial tasks in the future, and help organize the desk!"

"Hey! Thank you for the compliment, sir. I will definitely do a good job, little one!"

Lai Shangrong said, summoning Qin Xian and explained.

It's not that he really appreciates Pan You'an, it's just that Baoyu has been distracted recently, causing Pan You'an to act out all his pretense for the blind man to see.

Seeing that his performance was not as hard as before and showed signs of being afraid of difficulties, Lai Shangrong was also anxious, so he gave him a mouthful of poisonous chicken soup at the right time, hoping that he would continue to work hard.After leaving the school, Lai Shangrong went home to have lunch, called his carriage and went straight to the West Market.

Taizu of Daxia proclaimed himself emperor, renamed the former Ming capital Chang'an, and rebuilt it according to the layout of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty.

It is said that Taizu wanted to dominate the world like the Tang Dynasty, and he also wanted to imitate the previous Ming Dynasty in not making peace with each other, not paying tribute, and the emperor guarding the country, so he kneaded the capital into two dynasties to express his ambition.

Since the layout is the same as that of Chang'an, it is natural that there are two cities in the east and west. However, unlike the Tang Dynasty, there are no restrictions on the goods sold in the two cities.

The papermaking workshops outside the city are almost ready, but manpower is a big problem. The Lai family is not the Jia family, and the number of servants is limited. Even with the help of caustic soda, pulping is still a laborious task.

Lai Shangrong has modern thinking. When encountering this situation, the first thing he thinks of is to use tools combined with animal power to solve this problem.

The method is very simple. It is nothing more than a slight combination of levers and gears to make a simple machine and use mules and horses as power.

However, we did not have the smelting conditions at home, and in addition to the strict control of iron tools in ancient times, we could only look for similar substitutes in the east and west markets, and then find a blacksmith to make them.

Lai Shangrong was a little discouraged after visiting more than a dozen shops selling ironware, but couldn't find any suitable items.

On the way back, when I passed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs official store, I had an idea and walked in.

I originally thought that since Xiyi had made a clock, even if it didn't have gears, it wouldn't be a problem to buy a table clock, disassemble it, and find a craftsman to copy it.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the door, an iron lump attracted his attention.

Lai Shangrong walked around the iron knot twice and hurriedly summoned the waiter to ask the price.

Unexpectedly, the waiter didn't know much either. He only knew that it had been shipped here a while ago, and a middle-aged man of about 40 years old was hired at a reasonable discount.

"You want to buy this?"

Lai Shangrong nodded and said, "I don't know what the price is!"

"You want to buy it, but do you know what it is?"

Lai Shangrong was puzzled by the question, thinking to himself, the seller doesn't care whether it will be sold or not, and it is quite strange to ask the buyer if he knows what he is buying.It can be imagined that this is a government-run shop of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Great Xia Dynasty had strict controls on ironware, probably because they were afraid of being bought by unruly people to refine weapons privately.

He asked tentatively: "But a steam engine?"

The middle-aged man's eyes lit up, and he immediately smiled and said: "It seems that he knows the goods! It took a while for this item to arrive. You are the first one to call out the name. Are you sure you want to buy it?"

Lai Shangrong was confused when asked, and secretly warned that there might be some quality problem!

He wondered: "Isn't this thing just a fake?"

"How is that possible!" The middle-aged man said urgently, "I'm just afraid that you won't be able to use it when you buy it back, and you will have to return it when the time comes, and it will be quite troublesome to transport."

"When did the government-run shop be so reasonable!" Lai Shangrong secretly slandered.

He smiled and said, "Don't worry about this. As long as the item can be used, I won't return it if I buy it back!"

"Okay! Okay! How about 800 taels for selling the goods to the right person?" Maybe he was afraid that Lai Shangrong thought the price was high, so he added: "It's troublesome to transport this thing, so I've already included the shipping fee for you!"

Lai Shangrong was even more suspicious. Although such a large steam engine was simpler, based on the price of iron alone, it cost only seven or eight hundred taels of silver, not to mention that it was a finished product.

Moreover, this is a shop run by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, so what kind of goods are sold there?

Could it be that the goods were seized by the shipping department and therefore sold at a low price?
The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was possible, at least he hadn't heard of a steam engine in the Great Xia Dynasty when he traveled, and this was a government-run shop, most likely it was seized goods.

Half an hour later, Lai Shangrong signed the paperwork and paid, leaving a servant who was leading the way and leaving the store.

(End of this chapter)