Smuggling Daming

"Ninety times, 300 taels?" Xie Lingyun heard Zhou Zhong's offer, and she thought about it for a moment with bright eyes, and she must have immediately counter-offered, "No, it's too expensive, up to 250 taels!"

"300 taels, not a single point less!" Zhou Zhong insisted on ignoring Xie Lingyun's counteroffer.

"You..." Xie Lingyun's tone was stagnant, and there was a wave of fluctuation in her calm eyes, but she finally said calmly, "280 taels, this is already my bottom line, even if it is in the capital, no one will pay you." Such a high price for a book!"

"300 taels, this is also my bottom line. If Ms. Xie disagrees, at worst, I will let the manuscript rot in my hands!" Zhou Zhong's attitude was extremely firm. Last time he was at Fengyou Tea House, he ate under Xie Lingyun's hands. It's a pity, although he won't bear any grudges against the other party because of this matter, but it is also appropriate to ask for some spiritual compensation in a timely manner.

Seeing Zhou Zhong's resoluteness, Xie Lingyun's calm face once again flashed a wave of fluctuation. The Xie family originally started with smuggling, but Xie Lingyun thought that smuggling was not the right way after all. I don't know when the court will strengthen the sea ban, so since she took over the family After that, she began to develop some new businesses. For example, the printing workshop was a business she was optimistic about. What's more, Zhou Zhong's Journey to the West gave her a chance to open up the printing business, so she didn't want to do it anyway. give up!

Xie Lingyun thought for a long time, finally pursed her lips, raised her head to look at Zhou Zhong, and said calmly, "Okay, 300 taels is 300 taels, but I have two conditions!"

"Oh, what's the condition?" Zhou Zhong was overjoyed. He finally got 300 taels, which also meant that he had taken the first step to success.

"It's very simple. First, I hope that Mr. Zhou will hand over the first fifty chapters of Journey to the West to me this month, and the remaining fifty chapters can be handed over to me at the end of February next year. Second, if Mr. Zhou has more chapters in the future. What new work, under the same conditions, you must give us the priority to print and publish the new work!" Xie Lingyun is a genius in business, when she saw that she could not take advantage of the price, she immediately changed direction and added two more to the price. Additional conditions to strive for greater benefits for yourself.

"Deal!" Zhou Zhong agreed without hesitation.He has already written the first [-] chapters, and the remaining [-] chapters can definitely be written by the end of the month.As for the second point, anyway, he also planned to stop writing Journey to the West, so Xie Lingyun's calculation was doomed to fail.

After the matter was agreed upon, Xie Lingyun immediately drafted a contract, and then she and Zhou Zhong respectively made a pledge on it. According to the above regulations, Xie Lingyun had to give Zhou Zhong 50 taels, which was the deposit for the manuscript.

Xie Lingyun gave an order, and the bald man behind her took out a deposit of 50 taels of silver from his bag, and Zhou Zhong took it and weighed it in his hand. Although the silver was very heavy, it made him feel at ease. In which era, enough money can always bring people a sense of security.

"Thank you for your generosity, Ms. Lingyun. It's getting late. Is there anything else Ms. Lingyun has to do?" Zhou Zhong handed the money to Butler Xu behind him, and immediately prepared to drive away. It was almost dark, He didn't want to keep this Miss Xie for dinner, besides, it was inconvenient for a single man and a widow.

But what Zhou Zhong didn't expect was that Xie Lingyun didn't get up to leave immediately after hearing this, but took a small gift box from the little maid behind her, stepped forward and said: "Mr. A sister in the poetry club, I promised to give her a box of rouge made in the capital a few months ago, but then Uncle Zhou passed away unfortunately, and sister Biao'er stayed at home, and she couldn't attend the poetry club gatherings these few times, so there has been no way Give it to her, this time I just came to the Zhou Mansion, but it’s getting late, so I won’t go in to see Sister Bracelet, and I ask Mr. Zhou to pass it on for me!”

Zhou Zhong didn't expect Xie Lingyun to know Biao'er, but thinking about it, it's not surprising that Biao'er used to communicate with some wealthy daughters from Songjiang Mansion, and even formed a poetry club. Zhou Zhong couldn't remember the name, but it was a group Miss Qianjin tinkered with things in her free time, and Xie Lingyun, as the most popular rich lady in Songjiang Mansion, had no reason not to participate in it.

A box of rouge was nothing more than a box of rouge, and it must not be worth much, so Zhou Zhong didn't refuse. After thanking him, he reached out to take it, and personally sent Xie Lingyun out of the gate.It's just that the wind started to blow at this time, and there were also patches of dark clouds floating in the sky. It seemed that the sky would change at any time.

Watching Xie Lingyun's carriage leave slowly, Zhou Zhong turned around and was about to go in to warm up, but he didn't expect that when the corner door opened, Steward Xu and Wu Shan came out each pushing a small cart. It seemed like they were pulling something?

"Butler Xu, what are you and Old Wu going to do?" Zhou Zhong asked a little strangely, it was almost time for dinner, according to Butler Xu's character, shouldn't you go out at this critical moment?

"Master, Wu Shan is a person who understands the weather. He said that the wind is blowing today, and there will be heavy snow in the next few days, so he is going to buy some briquettes for fuel. I thought that our family did not have much fuel, so I'm going to go with him to get some back." Xu Steward said without blushing, the fuel in the mansion was running out, the reason why he chose to go with Wu Shan at this time was mainly because Wu Shan was strong and strong, I can help him move things.

"I didn't expect you, Old Wu, to know astronomy." Zhou Zhong glanced at Wu Shan in surprise, "Well, it happens that I'm fine, let's go together!"

The briquettes in the Ming Dynasty are also called briquettes, but they are not the honeycomb briquettes of later generations, but a solid ball made of crushed coal and loess with water, about the size of a table tennis ball. It is very laborious to make and burns. It's not as thorough as briquette. Zhou Zhong also thought about making money with briquette before, but briquette is a business with small profits and high sales, and it needs a lot of start-up capital, which is what Zhou Zhong lacks.

"Mr. Zhou, don't go there. The coal shop is dirty and messy. It's really not suitable for a scholar like you!" At this time, Wu Shan also said with a smile. He has a straightforward personality, but it doesn't mean he's stupid. For a while, Steward Xu often asked him to help with some physical work, but he didn't mind, on the contrary, he felt very happy, because it meant that Steward Xu didn't treat him as an outsider.

"Isn't it just to move some briquettes? Is it suitable or not? Even a sage doesn't want to eat and drink?" Zhou Zhong said, walking over to take the car from Butler Xu. After all, Butler Xu is not very old. He is young, and his body is too fat. These days, he has lost a few laps obviously due to the work at home, and Zhou Zhong is also worried that he will be exhausted.

Seeing Zhou Zhong taking his car, Steward Xu wanted to take it back, but Zhou Zhong refused. In the end, he could only follow behind silently, but when Zhou Zhong was not paying attention, he secretly wiped his eyes.

Coal shops have almost disappeared in later generations, and the living fuel has become clean energy such as gas or electricity. However, in the Ming Dynasty, coal shops were very prosperous. .

The structures of coal shops are almost the same. There is a large room in front, with a counter on one side, baskets and scales beside the counter, and several shopkeepers and shopkeepers busy, and lumps of coal and briquettes on the other side of the room. Among them, lump coal is easier to burn, and it burns through, but the price is more expensive. Loess is added to the briquettes, and the price is relatively low.

The clerks in the coal shop and the clerks in the restaurant are two extremes. No matter what the clerks in the restaurant look like, they must at least look clean, but the clerks in the coal shop are just the opposite. All of them have black heads and faces stained with soot. , the ragged jacket he was wearing was also black and shiny, and he couldn't see his original appearance at all. Zhou Zhong reckoned that if African blacks were stuffed among these guys, it would be really hard to tell who was the real black?

It seems that this is not the first time for Wu Shan and Steward Xu to come. After entering the door, they first greeted a few clerks, then walked to the counter, and finalized the price with the only shopkeeper who was relatively clean. Put the briquettes they wanted into baskets, weigh them, and pour them into the car.

Wu Shan pushed the car in front, Zhou Zhong pushed the car behind, and Xu Butler helped Zhou Zhong to support the car.At this time, it was already dark and the wind was getting stronger. There were hardly any pedestrians on the road, but when they just turned the corner and were about to get home, they suddenly found three people, two big, one small, and three people walking from the other end of the street.

Zhou Zhong didn't care at first, but as the three people on the opposite side got closer and closer to them, Zhou Zhong was surprised to find that on a cold and windy evening, the three people oncoming were a man, a woman and a child. It should be a family, but whether it is a woman or a child, they are only wearing a few tattered single clothes, shivering while walking in the cold wind.

The whole family was terribly dirty, with black stains all over their faces and hands, and they looked no cleaner than the clerks in the coal shop. Among them, the men carried a bundle of straw mats and two bundles on their backs, while the women carried A tattered quilt with no clear color.Judging from the braids and stature of the child, she should be a five or six-year-old girl. Her face is cleaner than her parents, but it is black and blue from the cold. The big eyes match the thin cheeks and figure. It looked extremely pitiful.

Seeing the three of Zhou Zhong approaching, the family of three showed a look of begging and fear intertwined in their eyes. It seemed that they hoped to get help from Zhou Zhong and the others, but they did not dare to take the initiative to come forward. They could only use this Looking at each other with complicated eyes.

Looking at the family shivering in the cold wind, Wu Shan suddenly sighed, put down the car, reached out and took out a few pennies from his pocket, walked over and put them in the little girl's hand.Butler Xu wanted to stop him, but looking at the poor child, he just shook his head and said to himself, "Oh, there are so many poor people, how many can we little people save?"

In exchange for Wu Shan's charity, the men and women thanked him repeatedly, and the little girl also said in a hoarse and trembling voice, "Thank you, sir!"

It seems that Steward Xu and Wu Shan both know the origins of the three members of this family, but Zhou Zhong couldn't help asking curiously: "Butler Xu, who are they? They don't look like beggars?"

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