Fair Lady

This small town called "Gorax" is really small, about half the size of Yulin Town, and it is a quarter of an hour's drive from the official road, which is why its economy has not developed like Yulin Town.

Shuyao secretly laughed in her heart, it's really a corner.

The bodyguards of the Xinyi Bodyguard Agency took the group to the so-called best and largest restaurant in Gejiao Town. Shuwen rolled his eyes: "Is this similar to the Xiangxiang Restaurant in front of Xitang Street?" The biggest and best restaurant?

Zhang Caishu raised his finger and tapped Shuwen's head: "You brat, don't ask too much. It's good to have such a place to eat when we're on the road. We will only eat dry food in the next few days."

"Hey, don't you think it's strange?" Shuwen is not picky about food, but he thinks it's exaggerated, and it's beyond his expectation.

The bodyguard who led the way explained with a smile: "There are more food stalls in this town, which are cheap and affordable. People in the town and people from the nearby villages go to the market to patronize more. The town is too small. Rich people They all want to live in other places. There are quite a few people in our Yulin Town. How many people are willing to go to the restaurant? The owner of this restaurant is a dutiful son. He used to learn cooking in the capital. His parents are not in good health and don’t want to leave In his hometown, he came back to open this restaurant. Fortunately, the store is his own, and most of the staff are from his own family. In addition, his craftsmanship is good and his business is honest, which attracts some people who often run on this official road and pay attention to it. People who eat. There are a few rooms upstairs where you can stay, they are clean and the price is not expensive."

There were only a few customers sitting sparsely on two tables in the whole store, but when Shujie and his group came in, they filled up the tables and chairs immediately.The buddy was so happy that he couldn't see his teeth with a smile, so he hurriedly poured tea and introduced his specialty dishes.

Serving food is not slow, and the color, aroma, and taste are not inferior to those restaurants in Yulin Town, and the portions are more, even Mrs. Xu nodded and said: "It's worth taking a detour, the food is very comfortable."

Just when the store owner and chef came out and wanted to ask the customers if the taste was good, he smiled happily when he heard Mrs. Xu’s words: "Thank you, Mrs. Madam, thank you for your patronage! The small shop relies on everyone’s word of mouth. Satisfied. Let's have fun... Excuse me, everyone take your time, I'll go upstairs for a while."

Shuyao has sharp eyes and sits just right. Before the shopkeeper looked up, he had already noticed a blue figure looking down from the stairs on the second floor.

Because the bodyguard said just now that there are no residents upstairs, Shuyao was not surprised.It should be that the female guest who lives in the store sees so many people downstairs and doesn't want to come down, right?So signal the store to go upstairs.

After a while, there was a loud quarrel upstairs, and the shrill female voice shook everyone's ears.

Mrs. Xu frowned first and put down her chopsticks. Fortunately, she was almost full, otherwise it would be really difficult to have an appetite "under the accompaniment" of this noisy sound.

Xiao Zhangchen hid in Shujie's arms: "I'm afraid. Fight." He even raised his hands to cover his ears.

The bodyguard who led the way had an ugly expression on his face: "Man, what's going on? Isn't your boss hiding in a golden room in his own restaurant? It's so noisy that no one can eat."

The guy with an embarrassed face was looking up nervously.Hearing this, he suddenly came back to his senses: "No, no, the woman who quarreled is our boss's wife."

Madam Wu, who just stood behind Xia Ruoyun to serve her after dinner, snorted: "My wife? It's strange, the quarrel came to the store? I'm not afraid of delaying my business."

Before he finished speaking, something was thrown upstairs with a "snap", and it landed not far from Shuyao. It was a small package of Zhan Qing colored broken flowers that had already been scattered.A few round things inside began to roll away.

Shuyao's gaze was fixed on a golden silk ruby ​​walking stick in the middle of the small package. Isn't that a birthday gift from Cui Zhu's mother?You can't go wrong.My mother specially asked someone to customize it. According to my mother's diary, she drew it based on the steps of the empress in the "Golden Branch Desire" she saw before traveling, because she felt that the green bamboo looked very similar to that empress. , it must look good on you.Shuyao looked next to Bu Yao, and there was another familiar thing, a pair of silver and gold thread double-button bracelets, which was a New Year's gift from Aunt Lan.When she found out that the bracelet was lost, Cuizhu always said that she would look for it again and again, she must have forgotten it somewhere, and she had hidden it long ago.

The "Teng Teng Teng" shopkeeper ran down to pick up the package and the silver nudes, pearls, and other jewelry scattered nearby.

"Wait a minute," Shuyao stood up suddenly, "May I ask the shopkeeper, where did you get these things? The golden step and the pair of double-button bracelets belong to our family. I can tell the marks on them."

The shopkeeper was stunned, and so were the people around him. Shuwen turned his head and took a closer look at the sound. Wasn't the pure gold bat-shaped long-life lock that he just picked up on the shopkeeper's right hand that he wore when he was a child?Pointing directly at the Changshou lock, he murmured: "That's mine. There is a character '文' on the back, and a big character 'Fu' in the middle of the front. Next to it are five small characters 'Fu'. My mother said it was 'Liu Fu'. This My sister also has a longevity lock, and the two are a pair."

Xia Ruoyun carefully looked at the shape of the longevity lock and nodded: "Yes, yes, at that time I asked my sister-in-law that bats were so ugly, why did she make a bat-shaped 'Longevity Lock' to hang on the baby, my sister-in-law said' Bat' and 'Fu' have the same pronunciation, auspicious, no one knows how to handle this thing except my sister-in-law."

Upstairs, the woman who had only heard voices but could not see anyone rushed down suddenly, grabbed the golden lock on the shopkeeper's hand, looked through it carefully, and then shouted: "There are characters for 'Wen' and six characters for 'Fu', I said That spring grass is not a good thing, right? Did I say that these precious jewelry came from a wrong place? Sure enough, it was stolen, and the right owner came to the door, don’t you believe it?”

Spring grass?Shuyao's three brothers and sisters, as well as Liu's mother, were slightly taken aback.

The shopkeeper said blankly: "This... this... no... no... Chuncao is a kind girl... she won't steal things."

The woman in Tsing Yi (the shopkeeper's wife) grabbed the floral package and threw it on the shopkeeper again: "No way? Where did she get all these expensive jewelry from a rough servant girl? And gold nudes. Didn't you say that her neighbor It is said that her mother didn’t get a good coffin when she died, she was buried directly in a straw mat, and even the two shabby houses were taken away? Then what did she bury these things for? Death, you, you are so obedient Go to help her dig this thing, and go to the capital to redeem her. Do you want our whole family to be killed by that little vixen? Now that the owner has come to your door, be careful to drag you to the official! Hurry up and get rid of the matter. Make it clear, return the things to others, we have nothing to do with that spring grass."

Shuyao said calmly: "You can take a look at that step again. There is a dent in the lower part. I accidentally smashed it on a rock when I was playing. There are also a pair of bracelets, one of which is engraved with There are four characters of "Yaochi fairy", and the other is "fifth birthday".

The shopkeeper followed his advice in a daze and took a closer look at Bu Yao and the bracelet, sure enough.

The shopkeeper with a pale face seemed to be really frightened: "I... I really didn't know that she stole it. She said it was saved by her sister."

"Her sister's name is Cui Zhu. It turned out to be our wife's maid. She stole things, betrayed her master, and was later sold to the house. Why are these things here with you?" Liu's mother's voice had a hint of majesty.

The wife of the shop didn't bother to scold her husband-in-law. These people are dressed in extraordinary clothes, and they bring so many maids, wives, and guards with them. They must not be ordinary people. She was so frightened that she knelt down with a "plop" and said, "What kind of spring grass are we talking to that?" It has nothing to do with it at all. It is definitely not an accomplice. My husband-in-law once went to Daming Fucheng to work as the second chef for half a year, and rented two houses from a family with his cousin, who happened to be neighbors to that Chuncao family. Once my husband-in-law accepted It was windy and cold, and Chuncao's mother picked herbs to cook for him according to a family-handed recipe, and took care of him for a few days. My husband-in-law has always kept that in mind. A few days ago, a carriage stopped at our shop to take a prostitute to a building in the capital. At the gate, those escorts came to eat with us.

It turned out that something went wrong and they stayed in our store for one night.That Chuncao recognized my husband-in-law, and my husband-in-law also recognized her. I thought of her mother's kindness and wanted to redeem her with some money, but the escort said that these girls were all taken by Liyun Pavilion in the capital. After paying the silver, you can't sell it again. You have to go to Liyun Pavilion to redeem it.

Who would have thought that when they left early the next morning, Chuncao suddenly slipped a note into my husband's hand while no one was paying attention, it was written on toilet paper with carbon, asking my husband to go to Daming Fucheng to bury her. Dig out the things, and then go to the capital to redeem her, saying that all the money left over from the redemption will be given to my husband, and she will serve as a slave to our family for the rest of her life, bah, what are you doing as a slave?Doesn't she just want to please my husband-in-law?That woman has a pair of fox eyes, which is not a good thing to look at. "

The shopkeeper's wife was calm, and she was able to explain the whole story clearly, but the shopkeeper seemed to have not recovered, or maybe he felt cheated, and there was even a trace of pain in his eyes.

Shuyao said: "Well, we're going to the capital, and I'm going to ask Chuncao some things, we'll take these things away. If you're worried, I can pay you the equivalent value in silver bills, as if I bought them."

"No, no, no," said the shopkeeper's wife, waving her hands wildly, "you have made these things so clear, they must be yours. How can you buy them with silver when they are returned to their original owners? Can you believe that we are not accomplices, we did not steal these things That's good." The shopkeeper who came back to his senses also nodded straightly: "Exactly, exactly, we can't accept cash, you can take all these things back."

Shujie thought for a while, and said, "Well, I'll write you a..."

"Brother Jie," Zhang Caishu interrupted Shujie, turned to the store, and said, "I'll write you a receipt, our Zhang family's Yunyuan is in Lucheng, and it's less than a day's drive away. If you have any questions, you can come to me in the future, and don't worry that we have deceived you." Zhang Caishu knew what Shujie wanted to say, but Shujie is now an official, and he will inevitably take an official career in the future, and all unnecessary risks of "reputation" You can't take risks, how can you just leave things like IOUs and receipts in other people's hands?He's just a businessman, so it doesn't matter. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)

ps: It's late, this is the correct update on December 12th!Thanks to mavis9 book friend for the pink ticket!Thank you Master Junao for your peace talisman!Thank you.