Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 164 The Watcher

At the same time that Fan Ning and Su Liang were buying books in the bookstore, about dozens of steps diagonally across from the Bowenzhai Bookstore, a man with a wretched appearance was squatting under a big tree, wearing a brown jacket, Wearing a half-worn toe, a pair of black trousers, and a cloth belt around his waist, he looks like idlers that can be seen everywhere in the capital.

But his eyes were fixed on the gate of Bowenzhai. He had just rode a donkey from Zhang Qiaoer Inn, and had been following Fan Ning and Su Liang from afar.

At this time, Fan Ning and Su Liang came out of the bookstore and walked directly to the side door of Daxiangguo Temple opposite. The man patted his buttocks and quickly followed.

Today, there happened to be a transaction of Wan surnames, Fan Ning of course had to rush over to have a look, the books they bought were bundled up at the bookstore, and if they paid an extra [-] Wen, the bookstore would deliver them directly to their door, saving them a lot of trouble. troubles.

The two entered the Daxiangguo Temple from the side entrance of the temple in the northeast corner. This is a shortcut pointed out by the shopkeeper of the bookstore. Crossing the temple, they can reach the Wanxing Trading Market, which is more than half the time of going around the temple. distance.

"Fanning, you can go over here!"

The two walked through a long corridor, and finally found a small door at the end of the corridor, Su Liang shouted happily.

The two quickly walked through the small door. At this time, dozens of steps behind them, the wretched man was hiding behind a wall, looking at the movement of the two of them.

He saw the two people entered the small door, and was about to quicken his pace to follow, when he suddenly heard a strange noise behind him, before he could react, he felt a pain in his neck, his eyes went dark, and he didn't know anything.

Although it was not the first time for Su Liang to come to the capital, it was the first time for him to participate in the trade of surnames. The corridors on both sides of the temple were full of small stalls. A wide variety of gadgets.

"Look, Fanning!"

Su Liang touched Fan Ning lightly, looked at the two stalls in front of him, and said in a low voice, "There are still ancient relics from the tomb!"

Fan Ning also saw that there were many bronze utensils on the two mats under the corridor, and some of the utensils were still stained with mud, which were obviously objects from grave robbers.

The law of the Song Dynasty prohibited the excavation of other people's ancestral tombs, but it was more vague about ancient tombs, but morally condemned this behavior.

Of course, the seller would never admit that it was a tomb robbery, but only said that he dug it from the rice field when digging the soil, which made people have nothing to say.

Fan Ning was not interested in bronze wares, so he squatted down in front of a small stall selling porcelain, "Shopkeeper, do you have any better porcelain!"

"My porcelains are all high-quality products of folk kilns, not inferior to official kilns at all. Look at this porcelain body, this luster, and this open piece. It's the best Ru porcelain."

Fan Ning saw a bulging black cloth bag behind him, and guessed that he still had some good things to take out.

He shook his head and said, "I can't buy the things from the folk kiln in any porcelain shop outside. Since I came here to shop for goods, of course I want to buy some rare things."

The shopkeeper took a look at Fan Ning and saw that he was well-groomed and well-dressed, so he smiled and said, "There are good things, but the key is whether you can afford the price."

Fan Ning also laughed and said, "As long as your price is fair, how do you know I can't pay it?"

"All right!"

The shopkeeper took out a wooden box from the cloth bag behind him. Inside was a green-glazed eight-petal pumpkin pot and a pair of tea cups.

The shopkeeper turned the teapot and teacup around to prove that they were intact, and said triumphantly: "Authentic Ru porcelain official kiln, one hundred coins, not a cent!"

Fan Ning had seen the Ru porcelain official kiln in Zhu's house, and he knew at a glance that the shopkeeper was holding the real product. He knew that this kind of official kiln porcelain was rare even in the Song Dynasty.

Without hesitation, he took out five ingots of silver from his leather pouch and handed them to the shopkeeper, "The 100 taels of silver are all Jianzhou official silver."

The shopkeeper was surprised and gave the money directly. He quickly took the heavy money, looked at it carefully, was overjoyed, and handed the box to Fan Ning.

"The little official is a person who knows the goods, what a pleasure!"

Fan Ning looked at the porcelain in the box, put it into a leather bag, and said with a smile: "If the shopkeeper has other official kilns, you can find me at the Zhangqiaoer Inn near Guanyinyuan Bridge. My name is Fan, and I am in Pingjiang Mansion. Here comes the taxi."

After finishing speaking, Fan Ning immediately got up and left. The eyes of several scholars next to him were full of envy. They also took a fancy to this set of official kiln tea sets and wanted to bargain, but they didn't expect Fan Ning to be so decisive that they bought it without any bargaining. , let them lose this opportunity.

Several scholars quickly asked: "Shopkeeper, do you still have the official kiln porcelain from just now?"

The shopkeeper sighed, "This kind of porcelain is hard to come by, how can there be so many? I only have one set, and I kept it for ten years. The first time I put it out for sale, it was bought by that little official just now."

The few scholars were disappointed and regretted secretly, why didn't they be more decisive?

Fan Ning found Su Liang and saw that he was also holding a bag in his hand, so he asked with a smile, "What did you buy?"

"A beautiful rock!"

Su Liang took out a fist-sized stone from the bag, and Fan Ning was stunned for a moment. The stone in Su Liang's hand was a field yellow stone, about the size of a goose egg, and oval in shape.

"Where did you buy it?" Fanning asked hastily.

Su Liang turned his head and pointed, "On that stall, there are all kinds of stones. This stone is cheaper, and you can get it for two taels of silver."

Fan Ning stepped forward, and it turned out to be a stall selling all kinds of stones, surrounded by many people on both sides.

"Do you still have the stone you sold him just now?" Fan Ning pointed to Su Liang who was behind him.

The shopkeeper glanced at the Tianhuang stone in Su Liang's hand, and said with a slight smile, "That kind of stone is called phoenix eggs. I originally had five of them, and I sold them all today. Although this kind of stone is not expensive, it is not easy to get. Next month Let's see if we can still get it?"

Fan Ning just wanted to know if he had a stable source of supply, and he didn't want the Tianhuangshi mine to be preempted.

The other party obviously got it by chance, so Fan Ning let go of his heart a little bit.

He looked at the stall again. Basically, all kinds of jade were mainly used, such as Hetian jade, Zhongyuan jade, as well as crystal, amber, Shoushan stone, chicken blood stone, Taihu stone and so on.

Fan Ning picked up a few small Taihu Lake stones and looked at them. At least half of them were artificially made. Although the other two pieces were genuine, they were at most medium-grade and relatively low-grade.

He picked and bought three pieces of high-quality Hetian beautiful jade and two pieces of chicken blood stones, and bargained again. The deal was 15 taels of silver, and he only had a few tens of pennies left in his pocket.

"Fanning, let's find a place to have lunch!"

Fan Ning looked at the sky, and it was indeed almost noon, so he smiled and said, "I have nothing in my pocket, why don't you invite me?"

Su Liang was taken aback, "No way! You spent more than 100 taels of silver?"

Fan Ning whispered a few words to him, and Su Liang's eyes were filled with envy, "It's actually an official kiln, show me quickly!"

"It's not pretty here, let's talk about it when we go back."

"Then go back first, and I'll treat you to dinner later."

The two left Daxiangguo Temple in a hurry, hired a bullock cart and returned to the inn.

At noon, Xu Qing also returned to the Zhu Mansion to report his latest discovery to Zhu Pei.

"Master, I have confirmed that the target of the watcher is indeed Fan Ning. I interrogated a watcher today. He is just a scoundrel in the capital. Someone offered him five hundred coins a day to watch Fan Ning. Fan Ning was in the inn. They don’t care about the situation, the main thing is to know who Fan Ning is in contact with.”

Jupe asked a little strangely: "Did anyone say who paid for them?"

"It's a middle-aged man who looks like a housekeeper. They don't know who he is?"

"Won't Fanning be unsafe?"

Xu Qing shook his head, "Probably not, their task is to monitor who Fan Ning contacts with, and they can't even let Fan Ning find out that he is being watched."

After all, Zhu Pei was young, she never imagined that this matter had something to do with Fan Zhongyan, and Fan Ning was just one of the powerful groups' efforts to prevent Fan Zhongyan from returning to court.

But Jupe was extraordinarily clever, and she knew she might not know why, but Fanning herself might know why.

After thinking about it, Zhu Pei said to Xu Qing, "Find a chance tonight and tell Fan Ning that he is being watched!"

(End of this chapter)