Chapter 188

Zhao'er was in a turbulent mood, and it took him a while to regain his composure.

After she calmed down, she asked Shen Ping: "Shopkeeper Shen, these clothes only cost two taels in total. Will the pawnshop lose money? Are you doing it just to take care of me..."

Zhao'er didn't finish the rest of the sentence, Shen Ping also understood.

He laughed for a while, but he appreciated Zhao'er's frankness of not wanting to take advantage of others: "These were sold to a clothing store or an embroidery workshop, and the price was the same. Regardless of the large quantity, there are not many good ones that can be sold at a reasonable price." The ones have already been picked away."

Zhao'er thinks about it too, the eyes of the county people are naturally different from those of the country people, let alone this kind of big pawn shop, what is bad in their eyes is actually good for the country people to see.

She breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "I want the bag of clothes from Shopkeeper Shen, and I'll give you the money right now."

"Are you rich now?"

Of course she is rich, Zhao'er now has more than two taels of silver in total, and just now Sulan gave her another five taels, which is naturally enough.

At the same time, Shen Ping laughed a bit, "Well, I forgot that you have visited her before, so I came here, and she won't take advantage of me." The voice was very small, almost like a murmur, Zhao'er only cares about it. I had to look at the clothes, but I didn't hear clearly.

"I'll find a guy to call a car for you, and you, a little girl, can't transport these things."

"Thank you, Shopkeeper Shen."

After seeing Zhao'er off, Shen Ping turned around and went into the pawn shop.

Although he is called the third shopkeeper, he is not the third shopkeeper of this store, but the third shopkeeper of the entire 'Herongsheng', and he will only stay in Xia County permanently under his deliberate request.

Shen Ping is the son of the Shen family, his father is the chief manager of the Shen residence, and he has been a servant with the third young master Shen Fu since he was a child. It was not until he became an adult that he was released to become a shopkeeper.

"If she comes again next time, just do as I told you before."

"Yes, shopkeeper."

*

Just after noon, the clerk Ah Cai came to deliver meals to Xue Tingxiang.

Boss Chen said it was simple food, but in fact the food was not bad, with one meat and one vegetable, and one soup. Xue Tingxiang knew very well that Boss Chen was taking care of him deliberately. How could anyone hire someone to copy books, take care of tea and food, and the wages they paid were not low.

It was because he knew it in his heart that he didn't say no. In this case, the refusal retained his character, but it seemed too petty and hypocritical.

It can only be repaid in the future, Xue Tingxiang thought lightly in his heart.

After eating, when the man came to clean up the dishes, he said that he could rest for an hour. There is a chaise longue available in this room, and of course you can go to the front to read a book to pass the time.

In fact, the latter sentence is the key point, Xue Tingxiang was not pretentious, after cleaning his hands, he went forward.

This store may not seem big, but it has a lot of books of all kinds, ranging from rural tales to books about the imperial examination, and there are many books about the imperial examination.

Since the former dynasty, the imperial examination has used eight-legged essays as the standard style, with strict regulations, and even restrictions on the length of sentences, the number of words, the level of rhymes, and even the scope of questions.

Stereotype essays take questions from the Four Books and Five Classics, and are composed of eight parts: breaking the title, inheriting the title, starting the lecture, starting, starting the essay, middle section, back section, and binding the section. It seems rigid and rigid, but in fact it is not easy to do a good stereotyped essay. If you really think that only reading the Four Books and Five Classics is enough, you are wrong. Not to mention astronomy and geography, at least you have to be involved in all aspects, so that you can write a good article full of flowers and content.

In that dream, Xue Tingxiang won the Jinshi with the 21st place in the second class, and was admitted to the Hanlin Academy after passing through the hall. He should have been on a steady rise since then, but because he offended someone, a majestic Hanlin was sent down. The kind of place where the birds don't shit is an official.

Xue Tingxiang pursed his lips slightly, feeling that he was thinking too much, after all, he is not even a child now, let's think about the present.

So, without thinking too much, he took out a book from the bookcase and read it quietly.

During this period, customers from the bookstore came to sell some pens, ink, paper and inkstones, or came to buy books, always interrupting Xue Tingxiang's reading.

Seeing this, Boss Chen said: "Brother Xue, you can take the book to the back and read."

Xue Tingxiang looked at him in surprise: "This..."

"It's okay, it's not bad for your book."

Xue Tingxiang was silent, bowed deeply in salute, and then went back.

When Xue Tingxiang woke up, he heard Boss Chen talking outside and Zhao'er's voice at the same time.

"Where did you get this big bag?" Boss Chen looked at Zhao'er in surprise, and asked for the bag at her feet that was much bigger than her.

Zhao'er was sweating profusely and said: "Uncle Chen, I got it from the county, and so did the man from the car dealership. They only helped me to the intersection and left me behind. I wanted to be dragged to the car dealership. But thinking that my brother is still here..."

Boss Chen laughed, and called his assistant: "Ah Cai, come and help little brother Zhao'er carry the things in." Then he said to Zhao'er: "Come in and have a drink and rest before leaving."

"Uncle Chen, what a shame."

"When you were bargaining with me, you were never polite, but now you are more polite." Boss Chen pretended to stare.

Generally speaking, Boss Chen is an elegant and humorous person.

Xue Tingxiang also came out to help, and asked, "What's in it? Why is it so heavy? Where did you get it?"

Not to mention it was really heavy, Ah Cai tried a few times but couldn't lift it, only three people could lift it.

"I got it from a pawn shop. If I can sell this package, my sister will have enough money to send you to the Qinghe Academy."

Zhao'er hadn't realized that he had slipped up, but Xue Tingxiang had. He glanced at Boss Chen, and Zhao'er understood what he said at this moment, and looked at Boss Chen with some guilt: "Uncle Chen, I will explain to you later."

She was a little anxious, and without asking the two of them to help, she lifted the big bag and carried it on her shoulders. The big bag pushed her to one side, but she still stopped, and she quickly carried the things inside.

Ah Cai praised: "It doesn't look like she is strong, she is so strong."

Here, Xue Tingxiang looked at the back and pursed the corners of his mouth, while Boss Chen's eyes darkened.

Xue Tingxiang looked up at Boss Chen, and walked towards him.

...

Zhao'er found a place to put down the big bag, then went to wash his hands and face to clean up his body, and then A Cai led him to see Boss Chen.

Seeing Boss Chen, Zhao'er felt a little guilty. But she didn't intend to continue to lie to Boss Chen, because Boss Chen is a good person. Not to mention the benefits he gave her before, just because he asked the little man to copy books for such a high price, let him read books here, and take care of the lunch at noon, Zhao'er can no longer continue to deceive.

In fact, Zhao'er is not a liar, it's just that she concealed her gender, and then the so-called workmanship is just collecting some vegetables and selling them to make some purses or something.

"Uncle Chen..."

Boss Chen sighed and waved his hands: "Okay, you don't need to say anymore, you are a girl, and you are really embarrassing."

Zhao'er looked surprised, her round eyes widened.

Boss Chen laughed a little and said, "Your little husband has already told me everything."

"He, what did he say..." Zhao'er stammered, still in disbelief. Because she knows that the little man always pays attention to face and has a lot of thoughts, and she doesn't like to mention her as his child bride-in-law in front of outsiders, and the Xue family's bad things.

"I've said everything that needs to be said." After a pause, Boss Chen asked, "Look at how surprised you are, isn't it still a secret?"

Zhao'er laughed awkwardly, and faltered: "That's not true, it's just that he's young, and people in our village hate him. People always think that I'm older than him, and my daughter-in-law teases men and laughs at him."

The same sentence sounds different to different people.

Boss Chen couldn't help but want to laugh, but Xue Tingxiang outside had mixed feelings in his heart.

That's why she always called herself sister, so in the dream he was old, but she didn't want to marry him. Or he ignored her wishes and insisted on marrying him with his parents' orders.

She actually understood her awkward state of mind. He told himself not to be surprised by what other people said, but he cared about it in his heart, so even if the two got married, they couldn't do it together.

She actually knew everything, yet she relied on him for everything! Follow him!

While the mood was churning, the topic was changed inside.

"I just heard from you that you plan to save money to send him to Qinghe Academy?"

Zhao'er nodded, seeing the strange expression on Boss Chen's face, she couldn't help but ask, "Is that school bad?"

"Take the road of opportunism, and it won't last long."

Zhao'er didn't quite understand what he heard, but he also knew that it was not a good word.

"If you want to help him find a good book academy, I have something to recommend. It's just..." Boss Chen sighed suddenly: "Well, let me tell you that you don't understand either. Let's talk about it later."

Zhao'er nodded in a daze.

It was not too early to meet later, and the two planned to return to Yuqing Village.

Because the big bag of clothes was too much, and it would be eye-catching to bring back, Boss Chen asked Zhao'er to put the things in his shop temporarily. Anyway, there are still a few vacant rooms behind the shop, so just find a place to put them.

The two went back to the village by car, because after time, only the ox cart could be used, so the two sat on the ox cart and walked back bumping back and forth.

Halfway along the road, a mule cart came head-on.

The driver was a man, dark and tall. When he got closer, he could see his appearance clearly. He had thick eyebrows and tiger eyes, a high nose bridge, and he was very heroic. His sleeves were half rolled up above his elbows, and his arms seemed to be full of muscles. He looked like a powerful man.

Xue Tingxiang saw the person coming at a glance, and his pupils shrank immediately.

He glanced at Zhao'er next to him, saw her with her head half down, and he was relieved.

But the visitor still saw them, his eyes lit up, and he raised his voice and shouted: "Zhaoer."

Zhao'er looked over and immediately smiled: "Brother Jiang Wu, where are you going?"

Jiang Wu tightened the reins and stopped the mule cart.

"I'm going to town, are you going back? Get out of the car, and I'll see you off."

Zhao'er hesitated and said, "Don't you still want to go to town? Anyway, we've already got in the car, so you should do your own work."

"I don't have anything to do. I just went to Lao Li's place to have a look. Originally, my father said that I would go tomorrow and buy some things on the way back. It doesn't matter whether I go or not. Come on, this car is slow and bumpy. My car is still faster." Jiang Wu said to Zhao'er with a smile, completely unaware that the face of the owner of the bullock cart turned black.

Seeing this, Zhao'er didn't let the owner of the ox cart stop, and jumped off from above. After taking two steps over there, I realized that I had forgotten the person.

While letting the owner of the bullock cart stop, she said to Xue Tingxiang: "Come on down, let's go back in Brother Jiang Wu's car." With her beaming face, she was in a good mood.

Xue Tingxiang's face was a bit ugly, he glanced at Zhao'er, and then slowly got out of the car.

The two got into the mule cart, and Jiang Wu drove the cart to Yuqing Village.

"If I knew you were coming to the county today, I would have asked you to help me get my things back. Brother Jiang Wu, let me tell you, I found a business to do, and this business can make a lot of money. I definitely can't do it alone. Why don't we partner up and pay half a penny?"

It wasn't Jiang Wu's first time doing business with Zhao'er. To be honest, before Zhao'er came to collect vegetables and sell them in the town, Jiang Wu helped her a lot.

How much food can Zhao'er collect in other villages by herself, and besides, she doesn't have a car, so it's not convenient to go back and forth. But the Jiang family has a car, and the ancestors of the Jiang family were hunters. With this unique skill, the life of the Jiang family is very comfortable.

The men of Jiang's family don't usually farm land, and the family's more than 20 acres of land are rented out, and they only earn money by collecting rent and hunting with the men in the family. But hunting is not every day, so Jiang Wu is very free when he is not in the mountains, so he helps recruits to collect vegetables and so on, saying that the two share half and half, but Jiang Wu does not want the money every time .

"But let me tell you first, if you don't want to split the money, I won't do this business with you."

Because he knew that this matter seemed insignificant, but it was actually too difficult for farmers. How many families had the idea of ​​changing their own destiny by reading books.

It can be said that those who are born in a poor family in the countryside and can achieve great fame have all experienced great hardships. The starting point is much lower than others. It takes countless efforts to catch up with others, and at the same time they have to face all kinds of cruel competition.

This kind of competition is not only between classmates, but also between the same clan, and even one's own brothers.

If you succeed, the sea and the sky will be bright, and you will not be an ordinary person since then. If you fail, you will put down the book and pick up the hoe, and face the loess and the sky for the rest of your life.

It is because they understand this kind of cruelty that the two of them can't help but wonder whether this son deliberately said that his knowledge is weak, or he just wants to pull his brother to reduce the difficulty of the question. But this is a double-edged sword. After all, it is a disadvantage to oneself to lose one's studies to others.

These thoughts only happened in an instant, and because of the sudden attention of He Xiucai and Qiao Xiucai, Xue Qingshan's eyebrows jumped wildly, for fear that Xue Tingxiang would say something amazing again. At this moment, he couldn't care less about why Xue Tingshan knew the explanation of the scriptures, and he completely forgot that his previous idea was that Xue Tingshan didn't understand the scriptures, and it would be easy for his son to beat him.

This is also true for Patriarch Xue. If something happens in the clan that cannot be seen by others, it is limited to the clan. If it happens in public, it will be a bit ugly.

The eyes of the two seemed to have needles, and they were anxiously focused on Xue Tingxiang's face. Unexpectedly, he smiled shyly and said: "The boy was weak and sick when he was young, so he inevitably fell behind."