Landlord of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 403 Qujiang Tea Party
Beside Qujiang Pool, there is a Hibiscus Garden, which is one of the best places for dignitaries, nobles and scholars to visit and chant.Today, the winter jasmine is in full bloom, but the best spots in the Furong Garden have been sealed off by the imperial army.There is no other reason. The Furong Garden is originally the private property of the royal family. It is only open at ordinary times to show the enjoyment with the people, but when the real enjoyment is enjoyed, the people are kept out.

A sea of ​​winter jasmine flowers, with a few late plum trees sandwiched between them, the scene before noon, with the spring breeze blowing on the face, is still a bit precipitous.The eunuchs and maids laid out tables here early on, and put dried fruits and special light sweet wine on the table.What is different from usual is that on each table, there is a party of things wrapped in floral paper, I don't know what it is.After a while, a carriage and a sedan chair landed not far away.

Five girls alighted from the carriage, all of them were as beautiful as flowers, as if they wanted to compete with the sea of ​​flowers in spring, they saw eagerness in their eyes, with excited faces, they went to help the one on the sedan chair to the seat.This is naturally Concubine Wan Gui.

Concubine Wan Gui looked around and frowned. In the past, she was the last one to appear on stage and asked everyone to wait for her, but now, she arrived first, and she was a little uncomfortable.Concubine Wan Gui specially wore a plain dress today, took a bath with lotus soap early in the morning, smiled and said to Xun Xueer: "Xueer, success or failure depends on today's action."

Xun Xueer replied with a smile: "With the empress here, today's affairs will be successful."

Concubine Wan Gui covered her mouth with a smile, and said to Huang Shimei: "Speaking of which, my effort is too small, and I have to worry about Kui Shimei."

Huang Shimei hurriedly asked where, and then said to Concubine Wan Gui: "Later when they ask about the origin of the soap, the imperial concubine will tell a little lie with us."

Concubine Wan Gui fully agreed, and led all the girls to chat with each other.

Concubine Wan Gui held 500% of the shares in this soap factory, and each of the four daughters got 50% of the shares. Xu Qi even smashed the money pot, and still didn't have [-] taels.A piece of this kind of soap does not even need a penny, but Wan Guifei and Wu Nu, the major shareholders, discussed it and decided to sell a piece of soap that weighs two taels for [-] taels.

50 taels, not silver, but gold.One tael of gold is equivalent to eight to eleven taels of silver, but gold is easier to store, which is considered for Wan Guifei.Concubine Wan Gui was a little scared when she came to run this soap factory. Taking a lot of money in and out was outrageous and annoying, but gold is small and valuable, so it can be hidden.

50 taels of gold is about 500 taels of silver, which is the annual output of a hundred middle-class households, but for these dukes and wives in Chang'an City, is it still a small amount of money for picking their teeth?Furthermore, it is justified to be so expensive. First, the tea party cannot be held regularly, and the soap bar is used for a long time, so it has to be sold at a high price.Second, this soap has a "great history".

This soap is called Immortal Soap. When Xu Qing came back from Cangzhou, he met a fairy island by sea. The immortals on the fairy island saw that Xu Qing was destined, so they gave a small fairy bath bean tree with a pleasant fragrance. There are many bubbles in the bath.There are only twelve of them per season, and each of the twelve has a kind of floral fragrance. One bath bean can make only twenty pieces of this kind of fairy soap.For such a precious thing, Xun Xueer and the others felt that it was too expensive for them.

In fact, the soap factory was still not built in the end, because the output was not large, and the girls thought it would be fine to make it at home, so they could feel more at ease and keep it secret.

After waiting for a while, more noble ladies came together one after another. Seeing that Concubine Wan Gui had arrived first, they all apologized first and then entered the table.The people who came one after another looked at the five girls sitting next to Concubine Wan Gui. The five girls shared the same seat, and they didn't seem to be fighting at all.

The ladies looked at it, and they had two questions in their minds. For a moment, what kind of abilities did the ladies of the Xu family have, and why did they sit at the top of the guests, closest to Concubine Wan Gui.The second question is, what is Xu Qing's ability? Why are the four ladies sitting together so awkwardly?And the smaller ones don't see the slightest ambition to replace them.These ladies boasted that they had seen many people and things, but they couldn't understand the depth of Xu's wife's heart.

On the contrary, there were a few people who thought they could get along well, and when they walked up to Xun Xueer and the others, they praised them and looked after the children, but there was a little jealousy and dissatisfaction in their eyes.But Concubine Wan Gui is here, no one will get angry on the spot.I only dare to talk about some precious and rare items commonly used by noble ladies in Chang'an, in order to embarrass Xun Xueer and others.

A lady walked up to Xun Xueer, took out something from her bosom and said, "Mrs. Xu, I'll show you a rare treasure, here."

The girls looked at each other, and when they looked over, the lady took out a piece, oh, isn't this the magnifying glass made by Xu Qing?The lady smiled and said: "This thing is a treasure given to our family by the Holy One. You see, as long as you put it in front of this small object, it can become bigger immediately. I am old and dim-sighted. It is best to use it."

Xun Xueer murmured a few words in her heart, but said on the face: "My sister's family is really blessed..."

Hearing the words, the noble lady covered her mouth and exclaimed: "Oh, don't you have this at my sister's house? Hehehe, I still treat it as the mirror of heaven and earth. Anyone, the emperor rewarded it, so hehehe."

The lady wriggled her waist and walked away, like a victorious rooster. Seeing this, the other ladies all looked at the girls and laughed.The girls were speechless, at this moment, Xu Qi let out a cry, and the girls and the other ladies all looked over.Seeing a magnifying glass the size of a bowl was broken on the ground, Xu Qi said to the girls aggrievedly: "Sisters, I smashed this medicine jade!"

Xu Qi's voice was very loud, and it was not for the girls at all.

Those noble ladies who made fun of the women suddenly opened their mouths wide open. I thought your family didn’t have one, so I took out my fingernail-sized thing to show off. You just dropped one that was as big as you said at this time. Do you want to save face for us?Well, you dare to smash such a valuable thing, slap your face to make yourself fat, I think you are worth it?After hearing Xu Qi's words, the other noble ladies also looked over one after another, obviously gloating, and wanted to show that they were friendly with the Xu family, and said one after another: "It's a pity, it's a pity, alas, why did you bring this little girl here? Did you cause trouble?" ?”

At this time, the women also understood Xu Qi's meaning, especially Huang Shimei, who also shouted loudly: "Oh, my sister is fine, there are still many in Yaoyu's family, don't worry..."

Hmph, I'm still pretending, my lungs are blown out, and I'm still pretending to be fine, the Xu family's women are really scheming, this little girl will suffer when she goes back.The ladies thought so, but Huang Shimei took out a medicine jade framed with gold jade from her bosom and said: "Sister, this is for you, remember it, don't break it again."

(End of this chapter)