unclear

Chapter 444 Changes with each passing day 4

At that time, I thought that I might have frozen to death in some corner. If there is no food in the stomach, you may not wake up after falling asleep. I can’t say that this kind of thing happens every day, but I can see a few every winter anyway. Sigh... Come on, get some hot food! "

It is indeed from the beginning. The old man at the tea stall opened his mouth ten years ago, and the people and things he mentioned have nothing to do with the Sun and Moon Bank. But all the tea guests present listened with gusto. Catching up on the more tragic plot, some were silent, while others looked up to the sky and sighed, and the atmosphere was a little dull.

"Who would have thought that in the middle of this month, it was raining lightly at noon, and there was not a single customer. I was sitting in the tea shed and taking a nap, when suddenly everything went dark. I thought it was a customer, so I quickly got up to serve me.

And guess what? Standing in front of him was a high-ranking official with red lips and white teeth, wearing gold and silver. The belt buckle is so big and gleaming gold, shining brighter than my copper pot that I polish several times every day!

I was confused at that time. Even though our stall is small, many big names have come here over the past few decades, but I couldn’t figure out where this one came from. It looks like someone's young master is dressed up, but there is no follower around him. To say that he is a Jiangnan merchant who likes to show off, he is a bit tall.

The little old man boldly asked, Master, do you want to rest and have a sip of hot tea? This young man almost sent the little old man away with one movement to see my miserable old woman! "

Qipan Street is only more than a hundred steps away from Zhengyangmen. Beyond Zhengyangmen there is an outer market, among which there are many commentators. That's really a lot of talk. Others set up stalls to make money, and they have to do something. They don't bring any props with them, and they just rely on talking nonsense.

Some people specifically talk about operas, but ordinary people can't watch a few operas all year round, but what should they do if they feel itchy and want to hear them? It doesn't matter, standing on the street and listening to them has a different flavor.

The main reason is that it's cheap. If you have money, you can throw in a copper coin. If you don't have money, you can give it next time, or you can throw in a pancake. If you catch a thick-skinned person, it doesn’t matter if you listen to most of them and turn around and leave.

The eloquence of the old man at the tea stall is as good as that of the commentator. His tongue is sharp and he does not swallow words, his voice is soft and not harsh, the content is relaxed and moderate, and the rhythm is very precise. At every critical moment, he would always interrupt by pouring tea, bringing dried fruits, and greeting guests, deliberately stretching the hearts of the audience.

"Could it be that the God of Wealth came down to earth and gave you a cornucopia of treasures for this old boy!" A regular tea-goer was unhappy and began to make fun of her, which immediately aroused a burst of laughter and made people passing by stop and watch involuntarily.

"Hey, Mr. Chang, you're pretty much right. Let's talk about this person. Regardless of whether he's rich or poor, he should do more good deeds whenever he has the opportunity. It's not that he doesn't repay the time before the time comes, but he will be able to do it one day if he doesn't.

Speaking of little old man, I still borrowed the blessing from the old lady. She passed away long before this day and left her blessing to me. Without saying a word, the young man bent his legs and knelt down straight. "

Seeing someone stopping and listening outside the tea stall, the tea stall owner calmly lowered his voice and turned his body inward, leaving a back. If you want to hear it, you can't hear it clearly; if you don't listen, you must be itching in your heart, because two people really stepped in.

"That's nonsense! Don't listen to his nonsense. This old guy is notoriously slick. He has been setting up a tea stall here since his grandfather's generation. Has anyone ever taken advantage of him? If you have a kind heart, My surname is Chang, who works as a waiter every day for free!"

There is a kind of person who likes to make trouble. The man surnamed Chang should be from around Qipan Street, or he is doing business here. He seems to know the tea stall owner's life experience very well. Not only does he have serious doubts about this story, but his character is also affected. "Tch, believe it or not, if we are not sure, how can we dare to deceive a few officials with our nonsense? Come here, little old man, let me open your eyes, do you know what this is? Go back and look through your boxes of tattered books. Have you seen anything written in it?"

Faced with Chi Guoguo's provocation and everyone's suspicious looks, the tea stall owner got a little angry. In order to prove his innocence, he strode to the cart, reached out and took out something from the wooden box containing tea, and held it high in his hand. , with a proud face.

At this time, a ray of sunlight happened to penetrate the clouds and shine down, casting an elongated back shadow on the bluestone ground. Her right hand is raised high, and her left forearm is folded around her waist with a towel. If she had a crown on her head, she would look like that girl who wants to study despite the power outage.

"... cocoa powder... Guangdong Snow Sugar Factory... what is cocoa powder?"

The tea stall owner was holding not a torch, but a porcelain jar. The texture and glaze look relatively ordinary, but the shape is quite strange, thick on the top and bottom and as long as a ruler, and the lid is sealed with red wax around it. The man called Mr. Chang came closer and looked, smelled and touched it. Apart from recognizing the words on it, he actually didn't know what it meant.

"Oh, cocoa powder! This is a rare thing. I didn't expect it to appear in the capital. Tsk tsk tsk... Shopkeeper, this tea stall of yours is unusual. I don't know how to sell this thing. Can I have a drink?"

Without waiting for the tea stall owner to explain, several customers who had just come in strode over, looked at it carefully, and then began to think twice. Not only did he know the porcelain jars, but he also wanted to know the selling price. From the accent, he most likely came from Jiangnan.

"Uh... 2 coins a cup... a big cup, a fine glass cup, like this!"

I planned to use it to scare the man named Chang, but I didn't expect to meet someone knowledgeable, which made the tea stall owner a little confused. After pondering for a moment, he gritted his teeth and stamped his feet, and quoted a price that made him feel shameless.

In order to prove that he was not a sinister profiteer, he quickly took out two crystal clear glass cups from the wooden box. They were much taller than tea bowls and had concave and convex patterns all over. They were indeed higher-end than the most common glass cups on the market.

But no matter how high-end it is, it's just an ordinary cup, even if it's made by Liuguangzhai, it's not that expensive unless it's a complete set of wine sets and tea sets, but how can that kind of thing appear on a street stall.

The price of rice in the capital is now a little more expensive, ranging between 14 qian and 1 tael per stone. But compared with a cup of cocoa powder, it seems very cheap. Drinking 8 cups of this stuff can buy one stone of rice. If a family of three does not do any heavy physical work, it can last for more than a month!

At this time, everyone present may have already defined this tea stall owner as a black-hearted profiteer or a profiteer with a slightly abnormal mind, who will use any means to deceive foreign merchants.

Both tea and wine are of the highest quality, and they are indeed very expensive, but most of the ones that can be circulated in the market cannot reach such high prices. What's more, this is neither a restaurant nor a tea house, it's just a simple street tea stall. I'm going crazy thinking about money!

(End of this chapter)