Ordinary clear day

Chapter 88
There is a long row of large boats lined up at the wharf along the river bank, and there are countless porters stepping on wooden boards to carry goods up and down, and it is a scene of enthusiasm.

Seeing the excitement here, Zhenzhen said to her brother, "There are so many boats, it's very different from the Tianzi Wharf where we went ashore that day."

Chongli said: "Of course, Tianzi Wharf only welcomes officials. How can there be so many officials who come to Guangzhou?"

Zhenzhen curled her lips, pulled Shuning and said, "My good sister, why don't we go on a boat and have a look? What's the point of just watching from a distance?"

Shuning caught a glimpse of the embarrassed look on the officer's elder brother who was following him, so she smiled and said, "Our family usually recognizes a comprador who has a business nearby. Let's ask him." Zhenzhen was overjoyed.

Duan Ning asked: "But that businessman surnamed Huo?" Shu Ning nodded: "On weekdays, half of our correspondence with Beijing is entrusted to him to take to Hangzhou for forwarding. His wife often comes to pay her respects, so Pretty familiar." Duanning nodded.

Huo comprador is a middle-aged man, a little fat, with two crooked smiling eyes on a round face, and he speaks kindly, which is very pleasing.

When he saw Shuning, he greeted Shuning first: "Why is Miss Shuning here free? I haven't seen you in a few months, and I've grown a lot taller. How are you and your wife? Young master is still in good health, isn't he? I got a thing the other day. I'm still thinking about playing it for the young master tomorrow." Turning to look at the other people, his gaze stayed on Duanning: "Is this your brother? I look like an imprint of an adult, look This style is really a show of talent."

Duan Ning nodded in greeting, Shu Ning saluted, and said: "Mr. Huo, how are you? It's been a long time since I saw you. Yesterday, my mother-in-law asked Mrs. Huo why she didn't come to sit down."

"Isn't it hot? Chinei went to the countryside to escape the summer heat. When she comes back, I'll let her go to the house to pay her respects." He looked at Chongli and Zhenzhen behind him, "Which adults are these two?" The young lady of the family? You really look good."

Shu Ning made an introduction, and Huo Comprador was immediately in awe. Hearing that they wanted to go on a large western ship for a visit, he readily agreed.After a while, there was a reply, and a large ship from Spain was willing to receive it.

On the boat, the scenery is different from the one seen from the boat.It's a pity that they can only visit on the deck, and Huo Mirador advised them not to go down to the bottom, because there are many crew members living there.

"They are all rough people." He said, "It would be bad if we bumped into the two young ladies." The two young masters knew what they were hearing.

Shuning and his party walked around the deck, and Zhenzhen touched the rudder of the ship in the captain's cabin, and suddenly saw two small figures dodging at the entrance of the ship's cabin. Seven or eight-year-old boys, with black hair and green eyes, look exactly the same, but they are twins.

Shu Ning also saw those two children and thought they were very cute.They shrunk their heads and looked at the group of people on board, chatted a few words from time to time, and smiled like angels.Zhenzhen walked out of the captain's cabin and waved to them. They hesitated for a while, then walked over.

Huo Comprador looked at it and said with a smile: "It should be the two sons of the captain. They have traveled with their father for many years and have seen more things than us."

Looking closer, she felt that the two children's big green eyes were like gemstones. Zhenzhen liked it very much, so she asked the little girl Jiu'er who came with her to give them some candy cakes.It took Jiu'er a long time to pass the things into their hands, and then immediately retracted his hands and hid behind him, and the two children ran away with a smile.

Zhenzhen felt that Jiu'er had made her lose face, so she scolded, "What are you doing? You're petty!" Jiu'er murmured, "Girl, they have green eyes, I'm scared when I see them." Zhenzhen was angry again It was funny again: "What are you afraid of? Look at how cute they are, I think they are prettier than you!"

She turned her head and said to Shuning: "I think their eyes are really pretty, my sister said, isn't it?" Shuning nodded, but Chongli looked helpless: "It's good to be good, why are you staring at them? I think they were scared away by you." After saying that, he hurriedly avoided his sister's clutches.

Huo Comprador still had the same smiling face, welcomed them off the boat again, and then invited them to visit his business.

After passing through a row of small buildings with a western style, there is a place called "Thirteen Streets" behind it, where many businesses load and unload goods.Walking along the way, you can see that some commercial houses are engaged in tea business, while others are engaged in raw silk and Songjiang cotton cloth. There are several large wooden boxes in front of some houses, and the lids have not been nailed. Several filigree painted porcelain.

It didn't take long to arrive at Huo's house.In fact, this Huo comprador is not the boss of any of the thirteen lines, but he has some relationship with two of them, so he relies on them to do business. Go to Suzhou and Hangzhou to sell.

His business is not big, as soon as he entered it was a small hall for business talks, and several people who looked like accountants greeted him one after another.

Shuning and his party left most of the followers outside, only Huzi and Jiu'er, followed Huo Mirador and turned a few turns, passed several layers of guards, and finally arrived at a room. There were not only tables and chairs, but also some shelves. porcelain and jade carvings.

Seeing that Shuning and Zhenzhen were looking at the extremely fine landscape jade carving, he said, "This was ordered by Mr. Wang from Jiangnan, and it is carved from a whole piece of high-quality Burmese jade. Tell me, there are craftsmen I know well, and the craftsmanship is first-class."

Chongli came over to take a look at the jade carving, and was a little moved: "This jade carving is not ordinary, it is more than enough for a tribute, so who is Mr. Wang?"

Huo comprador replied: "He is the chairman of the Jiangnan Salt Merchants Association. I heard that he is also a man with a hand and eye, but the specifics are beyond me, a small merchant."

Chongli remained silent, and began to look at the surrounding decorations.After Duanning sat down, he saw a tightly covered Fangsheng box with nanmu inlaid mother-of-pearl on the table, and he was a little curious.Seeing this, Huo comprador smiled, and opened the box to show him, but it was a whole box of gemstones of various colors, shining with colorful light.

"It was delivered early this morning by a foreign businessman I know well. It hasn't been put into storage yet, and a few friends will pick it up later," he said.

Shuning and Zhenzhen also came over. There are very few women who are not attracted by jewelry.Zhenzhen pointed to a piece of emerald and asked Shuning, "Look, sister, do these look like the eyes of those two children just now?" Shuning nodded, it was indeed very similar.

The Huo comprador saw that Zhenzhen seemed to like it very much, so he said, "Miss, if you like it, take it, one and a half yuan is nothing."

Zhenzhen froze for a moment, and straightened her face: "I don't want it." Chongli frowned and said: "My sister just said casually, you want to give her such a valuable thing, do you want to take the opportunity to bribe us? ?”

Huo Mirador shook his hands quickly and said: "Don't dare, I misunderstood, I said this because I saw that the lady liked it. This thing is expensive outside, but it really doesn't cost much when I get it. If the young lady thinks it's not right , I won’t mention it.”

Brothers and sisters Chongli and Zhenzhen looked slightly better, but they quickly bid farewell.On the way home, Chongli asked Shuning, "Just now that surnamed Huo, your family knew him, so I can't say anything, but the first time he saw us, he blatantly bribed us like this, he really doesn't look like a good person. , your family should avoid dealing with him."

Shu Ning smiled and said: "I know this. In fact, he was probably trying to curry favor with you just now. If he said it was a bribe, the offer would be too low. What is that emerald? At least he will get a box."

Zhenzhen was surprised and said: "The gemstone is the size of a pigeon egg, so it's nothing?"

Shu Ning nodded: "It's very valuable outside, but he doesn't care about it. I once heard from him that there is a shareholder in the British East India Company who lives in India all the year round and comes to Guangzhou once or twice a year. That man loves tea the most. Once Huo Mirador gave him a box of Longjing tea, and when he returned the gift, he filled the box full of precious stones, the smallest one was as big as my fingernail. Since that time Afterwards, Huo Comprador often sent tea to that person, and he also got a lot of good gems, which are quite famous in the Shisanhang area. The emerald just now, in his opinion, is just a little money for tea, and it is really nothing .”

Then Zhenzhen suddenly realized: "No wonder he doesn't seem to take the box of gems very seriously, just put it on the table like that, without locking it."

Shuning said: "Do you think it's easy for him to get in there? Didn't you see the guards along the way? That's not something ordinary people can handle." She paused, pursed her lips and smiled at Zhenzhen: "Here, ten It is common for merchants of the three lines to give gifts to officials. The general is new here, they don’t know his temper, and they will wait and see for a while. They will soon find out what you said and did there. Someone will definitely visit your house , you should say hello to your family, so you can get ready."

Zhenzhen nodded, while Chongli was thoughtful.

Back home, Shuning pulled Duanning and asked, "Brother, why are you so quiet when we go out recently? It doesn't look like before."

Duan Ning was stunned, then smiled and said: "I'm used to it, I often go out with Mafa these few years, and I don't dare to speak." He was silent for a while, and then asked in a low voice: "That Huo Comprador, what's the relationship with our family? , it’s not just as simple as delivering a letter for us, right?”

Shu Ning also replied in a low voice: "Brother knows it's nothing, don't tell others. In fact, people often send gifts to our house, and there are many foreign goods or valuable things in them. If we can't use them, we will ask him to take them to Suzhou and Hangzhou. Go sell it. He is very kind, just smoother, but it’s not bad, brother, don’t worry.”

Duan Ning thought for a while, then nodded and said: "I remember when we were in Fengtian, our family also received filial piety, but not so much. After a few years in Beijing, I also opened my eyes. Our family like this is really nothing. I don’t think much of it myself.”

Shuning smiled.In fact, she also had some pimples in her heart at first, but these bad habits in the officialdom are deeply ingrained. If their family behaved a little higher, they would probably have enmity with other officials.As long as she doesn't do bad things, she is happy to let her parents live in peace.

Suyun walked to the front yard, saw the two brothers and sisters, and said: "What are you whispering? My wife is asking about you, go in quickly."

When the two brothers and sisters entered the upper room, they heard Mrs. Tong say, "You guys are back? It's just a matter of time, come and help me, which one of these pieces of silk is better?" Seeing that they were all bright red silk, Shuning asked, "Isn't it?" What are you doing with this red one for Chinese New Year? Is someone hosting a wedding?"

Tong Shi nodded her forehead and said, "Little heartless, have you forgotten? It's Mr. Su who wants to get married."

It turned out that Su Wanda's wedding date was originally planned to be advanced, but who knew that the world would cause chaos first, and then Zhang Bao took over as the magistrate. He was busy with official duties and could not spare time for the wedding.After finally settling down, Zhang Bao was given a headache by the newcomer Wu Tongzhi, and the marriage was delayed until now.

Wu Yincheng, a new acquaintance, is a little different from the Guangzhou government officials he used to know. He is a typical scholar. Business is a mess.He insisted on his duty as an accomplice, and he wanted to extend his hands to investigate the criminal case, and hand over the agricultural affairs to Su Tong. I filed several lawsuits in front of Zhang Bao.

It's a pity that Zhang Bao has nothing to do with Wu Tongzhi.He was originally from Zhaoqing Mansion, where the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi resided. He was appointed to sit in this seat, so he was naturally a proud person in front of Governor-General Shi Lin of Guangdong and Guangxi.

The Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi and the Governor of Guangdong were pressing on Zhang Bao's head. Even though he had some friendship with Wu Dan, he didn't dare to do anything wrong, so he had to endure it.In order to reduce the trouble, he talked about it, took the agricultural and water conservancy back to himself, and persuaded Wu Tongzhi to hand over the investigation of the criminal name to Su Tong, and he just went to the hall to ask questions and write official documents.Wu Tongzhi saw that he deserved a lot of benefits, so he turned a blind eye and turned a blind eye, and became the hands-off shopkeeper.

Poor Zhang Bao has been an official in Guangzhou for several years. He has a lot of connections and qualifications. Stabilized the prefect's seat.Even so, there is nothing to be done.

In order to thank Mr. Su for his help all the time, Zhang Baozao made an appointment with Su Tongpan to hold a happy event.That day, I booked a floor in the best restaurant and set up thirty tables of banquets.Sure enough, the evening was full of guests and lively, even the general sent a pair of jade cups as a congratulatory gift, and both the Su and Chen families felt that Beier had a lot of face.

Zhang Bao was urging others to drink, when Zhao Asheng suddenly came, whispered a few words, and saw Zhang Bao's face turned livid.

(End of this chapter)