Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 55 Qu Botao's Invitation

Song Qingshu has taken another step away from the life of the evil landlord Laocai.

In front of the counter, there was an extra kid in a strange suit running back and forth to welcome guests and serve dishes. In the kitchen, the chef also became Caiwei, and the female thief sister helped her, and there were two locals. Xiao Banlazi, who spoke the local language, helped, and the tense manpower was relieved all of a sudden.

The two took over almost all the work of making dim sum. Except for Song Qingshu's need to control the heat while baking, the rest was to settle accounts, and he was more than half free at once.

The pair of thieves were officially adopted by Song Qingshu, but they were not as lucky as Caiwei. Zhang Xianzhong, who learned that Song Qingshu was a thief, came to the door the next day and helped Song Qingshu add the pair of children to Song Qingshu's household registration. He can be regarded as his servant.

Although they have lost their freedom, they are lucky for the siblings. The world is not peaceful, and abandoned children like them without father and mother starve to death. Three or five abandoned babies were left there, and they disappeared early the next morning. They were all eaten by hungry people who couldn't survive!Although being a slave to Song Qingshu is hard, at least he can survive starvation and have no worries about food and clothing, which is already the dream of many people.

The servant girl is not even qualified to have a name. Song Qingshu is happy to write a dog egg on the household registration if he wants the master to name it. Erya, it is a pity that he was squeezed away by the angry Caiwei before the pen was written, depriving him of the right to name .

In the end, the female thief's elder sister was called Qiao'er. Who made her so skillful that she could steal money from Miss Caiwei?As for the younger brother of the eight or nine-year-old boy, he was also called Xiaobao.

On the other hand, there was still no news about the matter that made Song Qingshu feel uneasy. For several days, from the day he left, Hong Chengchou and Yang Sichang never came back. Song Qingshu asked Liu Zhaomo who often came, and only knew about three The governor's convoy stopped near Tongguan, and heard that a frontier soldier named Shen Yikui had rebelled again. This time, the rebellion was extremely loud, and the busy whole of Shaanxi was trembling.

Song Qingshu really doesn't know how the news of the Qing army's entry into the customs, which he revealed in advance, has developed. Whether he can be implicated is a good thing or a bad thing.

However, no matter how the situation develops, he has no power to resist for the time being, Song Qingshu simply put this matter behind him, and started to manage his current life wholeheartedly.In a few months, Qiu Wei will start. With the relationship between Liu Zhaomo and Zhang Xianzhong, Song Qingshu also added his name to the list of children. Now he is running business while flipping through textbooks. On the contrary, there is another posture of reviewing for the college entrance examination.

Even if he can't get into any Jinshi, as long as he can become a scholar, and then get a job in the yamen and become a small official, Song Qingshu can be regarded as a screw on the decaying ship of the Ming Empire. A part of my own destiny is not like it is today, when an official comes up and can round and flatten himself, he can be fishy as he wants.

In front of the counter, holding a copy of "Five Classics of Justice", Song Qingshu's forehead was bulging with veins, gnashing his teeth and staring at the subtle words and righteousness in the book, just like memorizing political methodology in high school. For the first time, he discovered that he actually hated liberal arts as much as he hated math problems.

No way, Marxist philosophy is at least straightforwardly expressed, but all kinds of meanings are like guessing riddles. The meaning of four words is enough to deduce the principle of one or two thousand words.

This also involves disguising himself as a loyal and righteous scholar, Song Qingshu who is embarrassed is just like Zhang Fei piercing a needle with big eyes and small eyes.

"study hard!"

Just when Song Qingshu was grinning his teeth, he suddenly got hit hard on the forehead. Miss Caiwei, who had been promoted to his first teacher, knocked him on the forehead with a colander. Seeing the serious look of Teacher Luoli, Song Qingshu hurriedly Nodding tragically.

"Yes, Teacher Luo taught very well, the students have been taught!"

Although she didn't know when she would change her surname, but she was able to tame her elder brother Song, the girl Caiwei still went to the front with the dishes to greet the guests in a complacent manner.

At this time, a burst of laughter suddenly came in from the gate.

'"Haha, Brother Song, business is booming!"

You don't need to look at the face and listen to the accent to know who it is, so there is a reason to let go of the "Five Classics of Justice" that troubled him. Song Qingshu walked around the counter with a pitiful face, and said pitifully in a joking tone: "Brother Qu Don't be so mean to my little brother, compared to your big business, my little brother is almost a beggar."

"Haha, if brother Song is a beggar, how much can Qu Mou offer as much as he has? Anyone who comes will not be rejected."

Qu Botao said this from the bottom of his heart. Song Qingshu is a kid who may be called a fool by everyone, but he is really capable. Not to mention that the business of this small shop is flourishing, just one of his ideas has recently made him a lot of money. Overflow, that is the fruit business.

Wax the fruit to prolong the shelf life of the fruit, and transport the fruit from the south to the north. Even though wax oil is quite expensive in this era, and people are starved to death due to famine, there are still plenty of rich uncles, which are common in the south. The price of the fruit here in the north has increased by more than ten times or twenty times. If you can taste the smile of a concubine in the world of mortals, those big landlords from aristocratic families will not hesitate to spend money.

Who knows that this kid still has some money-making tricks in his head, and it seems that he has a better grasp of certain situations than the Shaoxing master he hired. Several times, Qu Botao wanted to recruit Song Qingshu to his subordinates to do business together, but what? Every time Song Qingshu politely refused.

This time, he tried it half-jokingly again.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with following Qu Botao, but Song Qingshu has a lump in his heart. The fastest growing period of Shanxi merchants was in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. However, a large part of their wealth and accumulated funds was with Jurchen. Tartar got it from trading, if you help him, maybe you will have to take over such a business in the future.

While the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs several times, raped, looted, burned, killed and plundered in the Central Plains, and earned this bloody money again, Song Qingshu couldn't get over the hurdle in his heart, so Qu Botao tried again, and he could only go wrong. Open the topic.

"What new fruit did Big Brother Qu bring this time? I can already smell the fragrance from a long distance away, brother."

That honest old face obviously showed a little disappointment, but soon Qu Botao replied, and he never said solicitation again, jokingly said with a smile: "Brother Song is really a cat nose!"

As Song Qingshu’s reward for providing the secret recipe for insurance, Qu Botao always picks a batch to send to Song Qingshu every time a new fruit is shipped to Xi’an. Now the idiot’s spinach is so famous, part of the reason is that he has the southern fruits that are not available elsewhere. Served as juice.

You must know that these rare fruits are not available in the market, and most of them were absorbed by Qin Wangfu, Lintong Wangfu, and governor's yamen as soon as Qu Botao shipped them. Fire is to blame.

Song Qingshu was not disappointed this time either, Qu Botao waved his hands in a mysterious manner, the man brought up a large nanmu box, opened the lid for a week, Song Qingshu's eyes immediately became straight.

"Mango? Lychee?"

"Hey, Brother Song actually knows him!" Hearing Song Qingshu's exclamation, Qu Botao also exclaimed in surprise.

Can you not recognize me?Song Qingshu gritted his teeth, but mangoes are super perishable. In the north of the Ming Dynasty, even the emperor probably didn’t eat them. Song Qingshu knew him, and Qu Botao treated him. There is an extra level of solicitation.

"Brother Xie Liuyan brought these fruits from Guangdong and Guangxi, and I heard from him that in Xifan, there are still many Xifan people who can do business. I invite my brother to come and have a look."

Patting his thick chest, Qu Botao said mockingly: "You also know that I am a native, and I have never dealt with foreigners. I am worried. I wonder if I have time recently to accompany my brother for a walk." ?”

This time it was clear about the solicitation, seeing Qu Botao's hopeful gaze, Song Qingshu scratched the back of his head again with a headache.

"Well, my younger brother is willing to follow my elder brother to experience a long journey, but my parents are here, so I don't want to travel far!"

This is absolutely nonsense, Song Qingshu's father and mother are probably enjoying the post-modern life in another time and space. In this time and space, Song Qingshu is a motherless child. Seeing Qu Botao's face is ugly, Song Qingshu hastened to get close to Qu Botao Tao whispered next to him: "Don't look at my father-in-law promised his daughter to me, but he hasn't formally hired him yet, so he's going to marry him! Who knows if he thinks I'm poor, my brother?"

With a bitter look on his face, Song Qingshu waved his hands sadly and said: "Why don't you take care of this at home, if you come back from a long trip, the wife will not belong to my younger brother, so where will I put my face?"

Qu Botao couldn't laugh or cry when he heard Song Qingshu's reasons, but what he said was indeed reasonable. Although Confucian legal principles are emphasized these days, people's hearts are not old-fashioned, and there are indeed many people who hate the poor and love the rich, and everything is inferior , only good at reading, now Song Qingshu can be regarded as a businessman, what he said may be true!
This is beyond compulsion!Qu Botao also had no choice but to cup his hands: "Since this is the case, I won't say much, but when I come back this time, I will help you make the decision and propose marriage to the punishment leader. After getting married, I can no longer refuse my brother." Brother me!"

we'll talk about it then.While muttering in his heart, Song Qingshu showed a grateful look, bowed his head and said: "Brother Qu is very virtuous, and my younger brother is very grateful."

He said some slobbering words again, and Qu Botao's troubles were dismissed. Song Qingshu walked to the back kitchen with a box of mangoes and lychees that weighed no more than fifty catties. Holding the colander in his arms, acting like you knew what to do, Song Qingshu had a headache again.

I still have to endorse!
But at this moment, a scream rang out from the dining table in front.

"Where's my purse?"

(End of this chapter)