Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 126: The Beauty of a Poor Family

Jia Cong took the bottle from Qingwen and took a look. It was a small square bottle with a round mouth and a wooden stopper inserted in the bottle mouth. The whole bottle was crystal clear, with a faint new green color. It was indeed unusually exquisite and lovely.

Colored glass has already appeared in this era. The colored glass pen holder that the queen awarded last time was one of them. But this bottle is not made of colored glass. Today's colored glass cannot be used to make a hollow bottle.

Jia Cong saw that the bottle was carved out of a whole piece of crystal, but the purity of the crystal was average, not as clear and transparent as the crystal products of later generations.

Some mica stone flowers can be seen on the wall of the bottle, which is only eight points transparent. The crystal must contain some minerals, which is why it presents a pleasant new green color.

Even so, this small crystal bottle is considered a pretty nice little gadget. For some reason, the owner just casually threw it into the basket at the door, seemingly uninterested.

Qingwen rummaged through the basket again and found three more similar crystal bottles, one in turquoise, one in light blue, and the last one also in bright green.

At this time, a man in his thirties walked out of the store and greeted him cordially, "Sir, do you see anything you like?"

"Shopkeeper, what is this bottle made of?"

When the shopkeeper saw the bottle in Jia Cong's hand, he was delighted and said, "Young Master, you really know what's good. This small bottle is carved from the unique water jade of Iwate Mountain in Japan. It is a rare and precious item."

Jia Cong thought that it was indeed made of crystal. In ancient times, crystal was called water jade.

"How much do you want for this, sir?"

When the shopkeeper heard Jia Cong asking about the price, he became interested. When he went to count the goods that day, he saw that the bottles were quite exquisite, so he bought a few to display the goods.

But I didn’t expect that it wouldn’t sell after being in the store for five or six days. Many people looked at it, but no one paid for it.

Actually, it’s not surprising. Although the bottle looks exquisite, it is very small and there is no idea what it can hold.

Besides, it costs eight cents of silver each. Who in an ordinary family would buy such an expensive and useless thing?

He put the products on the shelf for several days without selling any, so he threw them into the basket at the door to save them from taking up space on the shelf.

But he didn't expect that this young man would take a fancy to it. The shop owner was naturally happy to be able to get rid of such unsaleable items.

He saw that Jia Cong had an outstanding appearance, gorgeous clothes, and was accompanied by two handsome servants. It was obvious that he was a scion of a wealthy family.

Only a wealthy family with plenty of money would buy such a beautiful but useless bottle to play with.

"Sir, this water jade bottle costs eight coins of silver. You can't find a more reasonable price than this on the market."

In fact, Jia Cong had seen many exquisite crystal glassware in later generations. More than 100 grams of chemical essence could be packed in a beautiful bottle and sold for thousands of dollars.

If these small Japanese crystal bottles were filled with perfume from Xiuniang Perfume Shop, even if the price increased four or five times, they would still be snapped up by the noble ladies in the capital.

The wealth and luxury of Jinling is even greater than that of Shenjing. What would happen if this kind of crystal bottled perfume was also sold in Jinling?

Jia Cong seemed to see a golden avenue waving at him.

As he won the first place in the college examination, he was considered to have made a breakthrough. No wonder Qu Hongxiu also made fun of him: a scholar who only thought about making money.

"I want all these bottles. I wonder if the store still has them. I want to buy more."

The shop owner was delighted to see that he had bought all the bottles. If he had kept them in the shop any longer, they would have been a nuisance to him.

When he heard him say that he wanted to buy more of these bottles, he was surprised and kindly reminded him, "Sir, although these bottles are ingenious, they are useless if you buy too many."

Jia Cong smiled and said, "I bought it for my own use."

The shopkeeper thought for a moment and said, "We still have some of this stuff, but it's not in the shop. You can come back tomorrow." Jia Cong smiled and said, "This is foreign goods from Japan. I think you are buying it from the previous seller. Take me to the previous seller. If the business is successful, I will let you take half of it as commission."

The shop owner's face froze. He hadn't expected that this young man from a noble family was also an expert in business and could expose his mistake with just one sentence.

However, taking half of the commission was quite fair. He saw that Jia Cong had an extraordinary appearance and spoke in a gentle but sharp manner, so he must not be an ordinary person.

If things work out, it would be a good thing to be able to make friends with such a noble person.

"Since you are such a quick-witted person, I, Qian Bin, will make friends with you. I can take you to the next store right now and we can discuss the price in person."

Jia Cong smiled and said, "That's great. Thank you, Boss Qian, for your help."

There was a complicated flow of people at Dazaimen. Jia Cong wanted to follow Qian Bin to find his superior, but it was inconvenient for him to bring Wu'er and Qingwen with him, so he asked Guo Zhigui to send them back home first.

After watching Guo Zhigui drive away, he followed Qian Bin through the streets and alleys. It took about half an incense stick of time before he arrived at a small courtyard.

The yard did not have a brick wall, but was surrounded by a half-person-high bamboo fence. The fence was covered with vines, and some unknown small white flowers bloomed among the green leaves.

Entering the yard, although it is a bit simple, it is tidy everywhere. There are some flowers and plants neatly planted in the corners of the yard, which looks quite lively and wild.

Qian Bin shouted towards the yard: "Dong Laoer, are you home?"

A man in his forties slowly came out of the room. He had a thin figure, tattered clothes, a gray-brown face, small eyes, a pursed mouth, a hooked nose, and a somewhat decadent and gloomy expression.

When Jia Cong first saw this simple and elegant courtyard, he thought that the person living here should be an interesting person. He didn't expect that such a wretched uncle would appear.

"Dong Lao Er, this Mr. Jia is the young master of a noble family in Jinling. He has taken a fancy to your Japanese jade bottles and is here to discuss the business with you."

When Dong Laoer heard that the person was coming to discuss business, a look of joy appeared on his face, and his previous decadence disappeared.

Some time ago, he met an acquaintance from many years ago. That person had been to Japan many years ago and made a fortune by selling Japanese foreign goods.

The two men met again after a long separation and sat down to drink. Dong Laoer could not resist the other party's temptation, so he spent all his savings and bought a batch of Japanese jade and foreign goods from the other party.

I had planned to make a fortune, but I didn't expect that the things I ate, although they looked unique and exquisite, could not be eaten at all, and all ended up in my hands.

All the savings accumulated over the years were gone, and even eating became a problem.

A few days ago, he sold a few to Qian Bin at a discount and asked him to put them in the store to see the market. However, several days passed and he didn't sell a single one. He gave up hope and has been at a loss these days.

Coincidentally, Qian Bin actually brought people to discuss the business. He came back to life and asked Jia Cong and Qian Bin to come into the house and sit down. He found that the teapot was empty.

He muttered impatiently, "Where has that damn girl Suyun gone again?"

Next to the well behind the yard, a girl of about twelve or thirteen was struggling to draw water from the well.

The girl was as pretty as a fairy, with a pomegranate-red headband, curved eyebrows, clear and moist eyes, skin as white as sheep fat, a straight nose, and tender pink lips, revealing a lovely, naive and pure innocence.

"Suyun, how can you, such a delicate woman, do the rough work of fetching water? Come, let me help you."

A handsome young man of about seventeen or eighteen with red lips and white teeth came to the well at some point. He stared at the girl intently and spoke softly, as if he was afraid of scaring the beauty.

"Why are you here again!" The girl named Suyun was startled and the bucket fell into the well, making a gurgling sound.

(End of this chapter)