Troubled times: Start practicing spiritual practice by taking care of your sister-in-law.

Chapter 586: : Cheongsam, selling clothes

"Master, I am also a member of the Xiao family. Even though I am a concubine's child, you can't ignore me. Before my father died, he asked the old master to take care of me, and the old master agreed." Xiao Ge said in a trembling voice.

"You still have the nerve to mention the old patriarch?" Hearing this, Xiao Quan shouted coldly again, and then said: "Did the old patriarch ask you to be a spy for Prince Huai?"

Xiao Ge's face changed and he quickly denied: "I didn't do that."

"No? The Fish Scale Guards have been keeping an eye on you since July. They know exactly who you met and where you went. Do you still want to quibble?" Xiao Quan said angrily.

When Chen Mo left Jiangnan, he told him about Xiao Ge's affairs, and Xiao Quan knew about it at that time.

Xiao Quan really wanted to remind the other party, but he was afraid that Xiao Ge would implicate the entire Xiao family. After all, since Chen Mo dared to tell him about this, he was not worried that he would leak it, so he kept it in his heart.

Seeing that his whole secret had been revealed, Xiao Ge suddenly felt disheartened.

Seeing him like this, Xiao Quan sighed and said, "The reason I came here today is to tell you that if you know anything, tell General Nangong everything. Your family will be taken care of by the clan."

After saying that, Xiao Quan left.

After Xiao Quan left, screams were heard in the dungeon.

Xiao Ge wanted to remain stubborn and not say anything, but a nobleman like him could not withstand the torture used in interrogation.

Before, Nangong Xian had not allowed anyone to do anything serious because Xiao Quan was a member of the Xiao family, and before Xiao Quan opened his mouth. But Xiao Quan's words just now clearly showed that he had completely given up on Xiao Ge, so he didn't care at all.

After the punishment was given, Xiao Quan answered every question.

Upon learning that Prince Huai and Prince Chong had allied with Lu Sheng and would soon attack Huaizhou, Nangong Xian's face changed and he quickly sent someone to inform Prince Huai's garrison and Duke Anguo in Linzhou of the news.

Linzhou.

Xiangyang.

The provincial examination, especially that held in autumn, was also called the "Autumn Examination". It lasted a long time because each examination lasted for three days and nights, with a change of venue in the middle. After three examinations, the entire examination cycle was nine days and seven nights.

During this period, candidates are not allowed to leave the examination room. They must answer questions, eat, drink and sleep in the "room".

In previous imperial examinations, candidates had to bring their own food and drink to their "housing" or buy them with their own money.

However, in order to make the candidates feel that the "Chen Mo regime" values ​​them, Chen Mo paid for free food and drink for the candidates.

This is no small sum of money.

Without any requirements, the total number of candidates who applied for the exam in the four states reached more than 300,000.

More than 300,000 people need to eat, drink, defecate and urinate for nine days. The cost is huge.

Of course, this expense was not in vain, as the candidates all remembered Chen Mo's kindness.

However, those who were caught cheating in the exams do not count.

In the study of the Duke of Anguo's Mansion.

"Duke Anguo, above is the list of candidates who were caught cheating today. Please take a look." Wei Linchun bowed and handed Chen Mo a booklet.

Chen Mo opened it and found that there were more than a dozen names on it. He couldn't help but raise his hand and rub his brows.

The provincial examination has been going on for three days, and every day there are candidates being caught cheating.

On the first day, they caught more than a hundred of them.

In order to set an example, Chen Mo ordered that the cheating candidates be caned and then put in shackles outside the examination room for public display.

This move did have a deterrent effect. There were much fewer people on the second day than on the first, but there were still more than forty people.

"These people are really not afraid. Am I too kind?" Chen Mo said.

Wei Linchun said: "Because the temptation of being an official is too great, they are willing to take risks to cheat."

After all, if you pass the provincial examination, you can become an official. For such a glorious opportunity, candidates will naturally try their best.

"Forget it, just punish him as he should be punished." Chen Mo thought about it and gave up the idea of ​​increasing the punishment.

Throughout history, there have been cheaters in every imperial examination. The previous dynasty even enacted laws that punish cheaters in the imperial examinations by either caning or confiscation of property at the lightest, or exile or even beheading at the worst. However, cheating could not be eliminated, and the only option was to strengthen supervision.

"Well, I will ask General Sun to transfer a team of people from the personal guard camp to serve you, to strengthen the patrols in the examination room, and to ensure fairness for the candidates as much as possible." Chen Mo said in a deep voice.

"promise."

"Go down."

"I am resigning."

After Wei Linchun left, Chen Mo continued to think about ways to make money. In order to fill the financial gap in Linzhou, Chen Mo transferred almost all the money in the account of Fuze Restaurant.

Although the business of Fuze Restaurant is booming, it will take a long time to earn one million taels.

In particular, the "Retired Soldiers' Benefits Plan" drafted and submitted by Geng Songfu this morning also requires money.

There is still a lot of money in the mansion, but that is their dowry. Chen Mo doesn't want to use this money unless it is absolutely necessary.

His initial plan was to make glass.

When he first started his career, he thought about making glass.

In his previous life, his family ran a sand field, so he knew the idea of ​​making glass.

The reason why he didn't build it before was because he didn't have the conditions, and he was weak at that time and couldn't keep the wealth.

Now, it's time to take action.

"dong dong dong"

At this time, there was a knock on the study door.

With a creak, the door opened and Xia Zhiqing walked in.

She has been staying at home and rarely goes out. Her clothes have never changed. The slim white dress outlines her gourd-like figure. After giving birth to a child, her figure seems to have undergone secondary development.

She was wearing green embroidered shoes, which were hidden under the hem of her skirt and were difficult to notice. In fact, in Chen Mo's opinion, Xia Zhiqing was quite suitable for wearing cheongsam. He had thought about this a long time ago, but he was always busy with other things and always forgot about it.

"Zhiqing, why are you here?" Chen Mo looked up and said.

"I just had someone fetch a piece of ice from the ice cellar and made some honey shaved ice. It's icy and cool, and very good for cooling off. My husband, please try it." Xia Zhiqing walked over and placed the food box in her hand on the desk in front of Chen Mo. She opened the food box, and a hint of cold air immediately came out of it.

The so-called honey shaved ice is actually an ice product made by pouring honey on crushed ice and adding bean paste or something like that.

And this thing was not invented by Chen Mo, it is something that has existed in this world for a long time.

And there are not only smoothies, but also popsicles, but the taste is average.

"Zhiqing, please feed me. I also have something to tell you." Chen Mo took Xia Zhiqing's hand and pulled her into his arms. They sat on a chair.

As an old couple, and having given birth to twins, a boy and a girl, Xia Zhiqing no longer had the shyness she once had, but was just a little shy.

She sat on Chen Mo's lap, holding a bowl of honey shaved ice, and fed it to Chen Mo spoonful by spoonful, her movements gentle.

"So cold and sweet, you should try it too." Chen Mo moved closer and passed the sweetness in his mouth to Zhiqing. "Husband, please stop making trouble later, or the ice will melt."

After a while, Xia Zhiqing gently pushed Chen Mo away, her face flushed, her eyes misty, and she said immediately: "Husband, don't you have something to tell me?"

"I can't help it, I can't help it, it's all because Xia Zhiqing is too alluring." Chen Mo hugged Xia Zhiqing's delicate body, thinking that his desire was a little too strong.

As long as his woman is around, he can't just sit and chat with her, he always wants to take advantage of her.

Zhining was right. If he continued like this, sooner or later he would fall into the hands of a woman.

He decided to abstain from sex starting tomorrow.

Of course, he has said this more than once, but he has never taken any actual action. Instead, he uses the excuse of "it's not too late to quit tomorrow" to numb himself, and then tomorrow and tomorrow, and there are so many tomorrows.

When the desire arises, you must abstain from sex, damn it.

Xia Zhiqing's eyes were filled with shame, it turned out to be her fault. She didn't say anything and continued to feed Chen Mo the smoothie, but she felt increasingly weak from the pain under her body.

Chen Mo freed up one hand and drew on the paper, drawing a cheongsam. He said with a smoothie in his mouth, "Zhiqing, I think this kind of clothes suits you very well. What do you think?"

Xia Zhiqing took a look and said with a strange look on her face: "Is this a new skirt? Why doesn't it have a hem?"

"This is not a skirt," Chen Mo explained.

"Clothes. Then they need to be matched with a pair of pants." Xia Zhiqing murmured.

“No need to match it with pants, it’s all in one.”

"Ah, wouldn't that expose my legs? No, no, that's too revealing."

"I'm not going to wear it for others to see. I'll just wear it at home, just for me to see. And then I can just wear a pair of stockings." Chen Mo unbuttoned the collar of his white dress.

As for high heels, he had figured it out before and had made a few pairs, but they were not convenient for walking in and they were not used to wearing them, so no one wore them.

Chen Mo doesn't have time to deal with cheongsam, but he can draw a blueprint and let Xia Zhiqing make it herself.

"Husband, could it be that you stole this dress from a brothel?"

In Xia Zhiqing's opinion, in the Song Dynasty, only women in brothels would wear such revealing clothes.

Chen Mo shook his head and said immediately, "I dreamed about Zhiqing last night. You were wearing this dress at that time. You looked so beautiful."

Xia Zhiqing glared at Chen Mo, then said shyly: "Since my husband wants to see me in it, then I will give it a try."

After saying that, he fed the last spoonful of smoothie in the bowl to Chen Mo.

"Zhiqing, your husband loves you so much." Chen Mo buried his head in the mountains.

"Hiss, husband, ice"

It was then that Xia Zhiqing realized that her skirt had been pulled down to her waist, and even her bellyband had been untied. She felt cold at the moment, and quickly hugged Chen Mo's head.

After a while, Chen Mo left Hongmei and whispered, "Zhiqing, the honey shaved ice you made is really delicious."

Hearing this pun, Xia Zhiqing's snow-white cheeks turned red, and she said angrily: "Husband, you are bad"

Chen Mo held Zhiqing in his arms and took advantage of this opportunity to draw a hip skirt, a backless skirt, and a bikini swimsuit. He said, "Zhiqing, you'd better find a few female workers in the city who can make clothes, and don't let men do it."

"I know." Without Chen Mo telling her, Xia Zhiqing knew that this matter had to be kept secret. It would be embarrassing if it got out.

In order to prevent Chen Mo from talking about other intimate things, Xia Zhiqing quickly changed the subject and asked, "Husband, what were you busy with just now?"

"Wei Linchun came here just now and told me about the cheating in the imperial examination. Also, the Linzhou treasury is out of money, and I have used up all the money on the books of the Linzhou Fuze Restaurant. I have to think of some other way to make money."

As he spoke, Chen Mo suddenly had an idea in his mind. He stood up suddenly and almost knocked Xia Zhiqing down. Fortunately, the latter hugged Chen Mo.

"Husband, what's wrong with you?" Xia Zhiqing asked in surprise.

"Am I stupid? I can sell clothes." After Chen Mo put Xia Zhiqing down, he clapped his left palm and right fist and said.

You know, even in this world, the main consumers in those tailor shops and cloth stores are still women.

And he can sell the clothes of the women in his previous life in his mind to the women in this world.

As the saying goes, women dress up to please themselves, so he doesn't believe that there is no woman in this world who doesn't like cheongsam.

If you feel it's revealing, you can just keep the slit of your cheongsam short.

If it is a pencil skirt, lengthen the hem.

The bikini-style swimsuit can be sold to brothels.

Besides, he had a lot of non-revealing clothes in his mind.

Besides, when he sells clothes, he can not only sell women's clothes, but also men's clothes.

When Chen Mo thought of this, it was as if his Ren and Du meridians were opened up. This could make more money than selling glass.

"Selling clothes?" Xia Zhiqing couldn't quite keep up with Chen Mo's train of thought. After a moment, she asked tentatively, "Husband, you don't want to sell the clothes you drew, do you?"

"That's right." Chen Mo nodded.

“Will anyone buy this?”

"Whether anyone will buy it depends on whether there is publicity. I need a group of models."

"Model?" Xia Zhiqing said she didn't understand.

"It's the people who wear my new clothes and go out to promote them." Chen Mo gave a brief explanation and started thinking about a plan.

There is no way he would let his woman be a model.

If he remembered correctly, in order to attract business for Fuze Restaurant, Ning Wan had a group of girls under her command who could be asked for help.

Just walk along the streets of Xiangyang City wearing a cheongsam, you will definitely become a beautiful scenery. If someone comes up to you and asks you, just tell them where you bought it.

Chen Mo picked up Xia Zhiqing, lifted her up high, and said with a smile: "Zhiqing, please help me call Wan'er over. I need you two to do me a favor."

"Husband, please put it down. I'm afraid of heights." Xia Zhiqing said.

After Chen Mo put Xia Zhiqing down, Xia Zhiqing immediately went to call for help.

Soon, Xia Zhiqing brought Ning Wan to the study.

Chen Mo didn't beat around the bush and said directly, "I want to open a clothing store in the city. Zhiqing, please help me invite all the skilled tailors in the city, both men and women."

Those who make cheongsams for their own women use female workers, and those who sell them do not care about gender.

After explaining Xia Zhiqing, Chen Mo quickly said to Ning Wan: "Wan'er, I remember you have a group of girls under you."

Ning Wan nodded.

"I need them to do me a favor. After the store is open, I will need them..." Chen Mo explained in detail.

(End of this chapter)