Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 166

Fan Ning's newly rented residence is located in Old Caomen Street. It is an ordinary small courtyard, and the conditions are not bad. There are eight rooms in total.

Of course, this kind of yard is generally not rented short-term, but long-term rented. Fan Ning and others are lucky. The owner of this house happens to be out for half a year, so they only rent it out for half a year.

The yard was guaranteed by the Zhu family, so the landlord gave the key to Fan Ning directly without passing through the Yaren, and there was no need to know Fan Ning's identity. In this way, there was no record from the government, and there was no register like an inn. Fanning and the others disappeared into the vast crowd.

There are more than one million permanent residents in the capital, and more than one million floating population. Among the vast crowds, where can Zhang Yaozuo's people go to find Fan Ning?Besides, they didn't even know what Fanning looked like.

The house that Fan Ning rented was very similar to a courtyard house. There was a well in the courtyard and a peach tree was planted. Fan Ning lived in the main house, Su Liang lived in the left wing, and Li Dashou lived in the right wing. There was no toilet in the yard. For the toilet, pay [-] Wen per month, and someone will come to clean the toilet every morning.

But what satisfied them the most was that the tiles on Old Caomen Street were less than a hundred steps away from them.

Wazi is the commercial complex of Song Dynasty, where you can eat, drink, have fun, and have everything. There are hundreds of restaurants with various specialties.

There are also various home service shops such as beauty, training, pets, express delivery, dental shops, quality shops, laundry, house repairs, clothing estimates, etc. As for storytelling, teahouses, Guanpu, brothels and other entertainment shops are also everywhere.

After packing their luggage, everyone came to Wazi for lunch. Opposite the gate of Wazi was the Old Caomen Inn, which was also a well-known inn specially serving the imperial examination. In more professional terms, it was called the imperial examination designated inn.

What does that mean?

The main reason is that there are too many candidates for the provincial examination. Every year, 10,000+ people gather in the capital. In order to prevent trampling, the rankings are generally posted two days later than the normal release.

Once the list is published, the first method is to go to the inn to notify the good news officer. There are hundreds of inns in the capital, and it is impossible for the good news officer to visit every inn. belongs to one of them.

These twenty designated inns are designated inns. Each candidate needs to designate an inn as his contact inn when registering. In the early morning of the day when the rankings are released, candidates will be designated to wait at the inn.

However, registration generally starts in early November and ends at the end of December, which lasts for two months.

It’s only the end of September, and there’s still a month left to sign up. It’s still early. If there are no accidents, Fan Ning will use the old Caomen Inn as his contact inn. As long as he gives the inn a little money, the inn can also provide imperial examinations. information service.

At this time, it was just at noon, and Wazili was already very lively. There was a constant flow of people, and the food delivery guy trotted all the way and shouted, "Excuse me! Excuse me! Please step aside!"

"Brother, that seems to be a delivery shop!" Li Dashou pointed to a small shop at the door and shouted.

They need to post a few letters and then go to lunch.

Fan Ning also saw it. The signboard reads 'Wang Chui'er Express Store'. It is also a well-known express store in Beijing, and has opened many branches. This should be a facade.

The three of them walked into the shop, and a shopkeeper was busy behind the counter. He raised his head and asked with a smile, "Do you want to send a letter, you three yamen?"

"There are a few letters that need to be delivered by your store."

The shopkeeper handed over three bamboo tubes containing letters. The bamboo tubes were divided into left and right parts, with local ports on the left and foreign ports on the right.

The shopkeeper said to the three people: "The letters from the capital are sent to this port, and the letters from outside the capital, including the counties of Kaifeng Prefecture, are sent to other ports."

Everyone took out several letters and put them in the bamboo tubes. Apart from the letter to his parents, Fan Ning also wrote a letter to Cheng Ze in Yangzhou, telling him the address, and also wrote a letter to Ouyang Qian, Tell her the new address.

"This yamen accepts a hundred Wen."

The shopkeeper looked at Fan Ning's three letters, and said to him: "Fifty Wen in Pingjiang Mansion and [-] Wen in Yangzhou, because they are all in the countryside, so they are a little more expensive. In the capital, it only costs ten Wen, a total of one hundred Wen. The yamen hopes that the letter from the capital will be delivered today, so I will add another ten cents."

Fan Ning took out a dime and ten Wen coins, and handed them to the shopkeeper together, "A dime is a penny, plus ten Wen, please send the letter from the capital today."

"No problem, I'll arrange it right away!"

The shopkeeper took Su Liang and Li Dashou's money again, and the three of them left the Jijiao shop and followed the flow of people to find delicious snack bars on both sides of the street.

It’s time for lunch at this time, and the long food street is filled with various fragrances. There are few restaurants in Wazi, and they are basically all kinds of snack bars. The people love it, and the people who live nearby, many people with good conditions simply don't open fire, and take turns to eat various snacks every day, feasting on their mouths.

The three of them walked around, and they were overwhelmed by hundreds of shops on both sides, and they simply didn't know which one to choose.

At this time, Fan Ning's eyes fell on one of the shops. This shop is called Copper Scissors Rose Chicken. The name is a bit unique, but what attracts Fan Ning more is that there is a sign under it, which says, 'This shop serves shochu' .

This made Fan Ning a little interested. There is still soju. I don't know how is the soju market in Beijing?

"Just this one!"

Fan Ning pointed to this 'Copper Scissors Rose Chicken', and the three of them walked into the small shop, which is a mom-and-pop shop, a woman in her thirties stepped forward and smiled, "Are there only three yamen? "

Fan Ning nodded, "Only three!"

"The three yamen, please follow me!"

The shop is very small, and there are five small tables, and the chairs are all small stools. Three tables are already full, and two tables are empty. The woman said with a smile: "You can sit on both sides. You can do whatever you want!"

"Brother, sit here!"

Li Dashou is tall and tall, and he was a little aggrieved to sit on this kind of small stool. He found a slightly wider seat and sat down, and said with a smile, "This place is better, but that side is too crowded."

Fan Ning and Su Liang sat down, and the woman served them three bowls of hot soup, and said with a smile: "The special dish of the shop is rose chicken, and other dishes are also available, such as roasted mutton, venison, red carp, and roasted rabbit meat." , Roast Goose, Roast Duck, and four kinds of seasonal vegetables, and our shop also supplies buns, the famous General Hong buns, our shop does not increase the price.”

"How do you sell Rose Chicken?" Fanning asked.

"Usually they are sold whole or in half. Small officials can do whatever they want."

"A rose chicken, a plate of braised carp, a plate of roasted venison, four kinds of seasonal vegetables, and ten mutton buns."

"I know, what do the three little officials want to drink? This shop has sheep wine and drinks. The shop's honey-made sour plum soup is the most famous, and fresh milk is also available."

Fan Ning pointed to the signboard at the door, and asked with a smile, "It says that the store serves soju. What kind of soju is it?"

"The small shop supplies the shochu from Wang's Zhengdian, called Guanglingchun, thirty cents a dime."

Fan Ning nodded, "Then get a dime of wine and three bowls of sour plum soup."

"Wait a minute, you three, we'll be here soon!"

After the woman left, Li Dashou took out another "Book of Changes" and began to recite silently. He seized all the time to read and practice calligraphy, even during mealtimes.

Fan Ning and Su Liang were already familiar with the strangeness. At this time, Su Liang asked Fan Ning in a low voice, "Why does Wang's Zhengdian also make shochu?"

Because of living in a dormitory, both Su Liang and Duan Yu knew that Taihuchun had something to do with Fan Ning, and the Zhu family gave the Fan family a lot of money.

Fan Ning said indifferently: "I heard from Mr. Zhu that one of his winemakers was kidnapped on the way to the capital, and he disappeared for almost a month before returning home. Soon the secret of shochu spread, and almost all the main stores in the capital launched wines. ordered his own soju."

"Is the case solved?"

Fan Ning shook his head, "In the end, let it go, and the kidnapper can't be found."

At this time, the waitress brought Fanning and the others drinks, a large pot of honey-made sour plum soup, a small pot of hot wine and five cups.

Soon, the shop's signature dish, rose chicken, was also served. In fact, it was a roasted chicken with a layer of rose dew. Mouth-watering exotic fragrance.

There was also a pair of copper scissors on the plate. The woman skillfully cut open the roast chicken and poured a layer of chicken oil to make each piece of chicken golden and extra attractive.

"Three, please use it slowly!" She smiled and left.

Fan Ning's attention was on the wine, and he took a sip of the wine. The shochu was made in a very authentic way, sweet and not spicy in the mouth. Fan Ning swallowed the wine in one gulp, feeling a wire of fire running down his throat. He couldn't help but secretly sighed, it seems that the distilling technique of shochu has indeed spread.

(End of this chapter)