in spring

Chapter 321 Development is the last word

The members of the Hu family were expelled in this way, and everyone was very happy, but Li Xu was still a little worried: "If the government finds out that they are not against the party and releases them back, what should we do if they come to make trouble again?"

Chunying smiled and said: "Although they are not against the party on the surface, they have been in prison in a serious manner. Master Xu, can you really stand up straight in front of the government? They don't spend money, how can they Is it coming out so quickly? When the government judges a case, it also pays attention to first-come, first-served? When the case is over, they will say that they are not against the party. Let us just say that they have admitted their mistake for a while. .”

Li Xu hesitated: "Hu Dalian's wife and daughter are gone, and he doesn't even have money to hire a car..."

Chunying sneered: "If he really wants to make a living here, what can he do? I didn't stop him from making a living here, nor did I force him to move out of here, it's just that I didn't give him the opportunity to seize Brother Xiaofei's property. Mr. Xu, don't be soft-hearted. You don't know who he is. If you really welcome his family in, there will be no peace in this village. I won't let Brother Fei go through a lot of hardships Wan Ku returned, only to find that his home had been taken over by the enemy!"

Li Xu opened his mouth and closed it again.Although Chunying's words were not straightforward, the warning was audible.In the final analysis, they are the unmarried couple, and it's for Hu Fei's plan, so what's the point of blocking them by themselves?Thinking about it carefully, it's rare for a mother and brother to be so vicious. I'm not Hu Fei, how can I know what he's thinking?Why bother here?Then don't say anything more.

Seeing this, Chun Ying calmed down, and said with a smile, "The trouble here is over, and I need to ask Master Xu and Mistress to introduce this steward Zhang for me."

Lao Zhang listened for a while, trying to guess Chunying's identity, when he heard this, he glanced at Li Xu.Li Xu said: "Go home first and then talk." Chunying and the others agreed.

Seeing that Mrs. Xu was still in the small farmyard, Chunying called her, and saw that she was talking to the mother-in-law of the pair of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law: "...don't be a layman, but if you have any difficulties, just speak up. Our husband and wife are different. I can’t help, but I still have a few taels of silver.”

The woman smiled humbly and said, "I would like to thank Second Grandma Li for her kindness. Fortunately, the old man can still move his hands and feet. He turned out the loom he used when he was young, and brought his daughter-in-law to weave some cloth every day, which is enough for the whole family." Chew it. If you really encounter something that needs to spend money, you are really powerless, so you have to ask Second Mistress for grace."

Chunying glanced under the eaves, and sure enough, she saw two looms on the open space in front of her house, with half-woven cloth on them.

After giving instructions to the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, Mrs. Xu walked out of the courtyard, looked up and saw Chunying in a daze, and asked with a smile, "What's the matter?" Chunying shook her head with a smile, turned and walked towards Li's house.

Everyone went back to the living room and sat down. Li Xu took a sip of tea, then pointed to Lao Zhang and said to Chunying: "This is Brother Hu's usual butler. The surname is Zhang, and the girl can be called Lao Zhang. He used to be from a nearby town. The person in the shop now has settled down in Liushuzhuang, and he is in charge of the whole village, while the shop in Nanjing is taken care of by someone else, whose surname is Chang." When he wanted to explain Chunying's identity to Old Zhang, he found it difficult: How should I introduce her when I have to intervene in the housekeeping before I have been married? !
Chunying smiled and nodded to Lao Zhang: "Grandpa Zhang, it's the first time we meet today. My surname is Lu. I wonder if you have heard Brother Xiao Fei mention it? My family used to know Brother Xiao Fei very well." Zhang Huanran: "So it's the second girl from the Lu family? The little old man heard from the owner that the girl and the girl's uncle were originally the owner's benefactor."

Chun Ying felt relieved a little, Hu Fei really mentioned himself to his subordinates, and said: "Brother Xiao Fei will take two or three years to go abroad, because he is afraid that there will be no one at home to take care of him, so he entrusts the property in the south to Master Xu , the one in the north was entrusted to our family, and we were asked to take care of it. It’s just that I used to be in the middle of Beijing, far away, but now I finally come here. I always come to have a look and ask. Although Master Xu is the most considerate However, since Brother Xiaofei has entrusted me with this, if he doesn’t ask any questions, he is afraid that when he comes back, he will blame me for not caring about his family fortune when he comes back. Come and take a look."

Li Xu's expression relaxed a little.Chun Ying's statement not only avoided the controversy over her identity, but also showed that it was not because of her own inability to take care of her, but she was still reasonable.

Hearing this, Lao Zhang looked at Li Xu's face again, and said with a smile: "Since that's the case, just ask the girl, the little old man will tell you everything."

Chunying smiled, but only asked about the size of Zhuangzi, the height of the terrain, what crops were planted, and how many tenant farmers there were.These are very simple things, and there is nothing to hide, so Lao Zhang answered them one by one.

Chunying heard that the village grows all grain, mainly rice, and some fruits and vegetables, and a few acres of fruit trees were planted on the farthest hillside, so she felt that Hu Fei had planned it well at the beginning, so she asked curiously : "I often hear that Jiangnan crops twice a year or three times every two years, but is it true? Is it the same for the crops in Brother Xiaofei's farm?"

Lao Zhang said with a smile: "It's hard to say. Most of what we plant here is japonica rice. After harvesting in summer, we will add a crop of yellow rice. When it is ripe and harvested in August, we will also plant some wheat, beans or other grains. It’s hard to say how many times a year they have cooked melons and vegetables. However, the output on the farm is very good. When the farm owner was at home, he specially invited the most skilled old man in the nearby villages to come and see him, and then he gave orders.”

Chunying nodded, and asked again: "I heard from Mrs. Xu that most of the people here grow cotton, and there is no such thing here?"

Lao Zhang shook his head: "When Zhuangzi was in the hands of the previous owner, he had also planted it. There were tens of acres of it. After a few years of abandonment, it all died. Changed to other things. Li Erye's house has cotton."

Li Xu also nodded and said: "I asked him to plant some more, but he said that the food was important, so he planted all the food, but there was not a single cotton plant, and the people nearby laughed at him. You know, in the Changshu area, people Most of them are cotton growers, if that’s the case, it’s not enough for local weaving, so we have to ship cotton from Taicang. The cotton grown here is not worrying about selling it, but he insisted on it and refused!”

Lao Zhang smiled and said, "Second Master Li, the owner of the village has a good idea, because there are few people who grow grain locally, and when it comes to the harvest season, the grain in our village can never be worried about selling, and the price is also high."

Chunying couldn't help laughing secretly after hearing this.Hu Fei may not be very shrewd when it comes to farming, but when it comes to doing business, he is definitely talented.

After chatting like this for half an hour, Chunying had a general understanding of the situation in Hu Fei's village. She just gave up when Mrs. Xu came to urge them to eat, and only waited for tomorrow to go to see it.

She lives at Li's house at night.Houses in the south of the Yangtze River all have small and exquisite attics. She opened the carved window and looked out under the moonlight. She could vaguely see a large area of ​​newly planted rice in the area around Liushuzhuang. black.About 100 meters away from the attic in the northeast, you can also see a small attic standing behind a white-walled Wuwa house.She thought carefully about the location of the place she had been to today, and then guessed that it was probably Hu Fei's house?

When she woke up the next morning and looked out the window, the house became clearer.It occupies a large area, and it is half new and not old. It may have been repaired by Hu Fei after he bought it.I can vaguely see that there are three entrances and three exits, and there are courtyards on the east side, but how many are there, but I can't see clearly.

Mrs. He called her outside the door, so she had no choice but to look away and welcome Mrs. He in who was holding a water basin.

On this day, she accompanied Mrs. Xu, took a large group of servants to stroll around the neighborhood, and then went to the nearest town by boat, secretly paying attention to the houses along the coast and the scene in the town, and came back After thinking about it carefully, he smiled slightly.

Hu Fei has a good vision. Although the place here is small and the population is not large, it has great potential for development and will expand into a prosperous town in the future. If you buy a little property now, there will be a lot of room for appreciation in the future.

Chunying's heart suddenly moved, and an idea came up.

She was a little excited, and almost didn't fall asleep at night, just thinking about it over and over again, thinking about it back and forth, inside and out, and made up her mind. On the third day, when she went out again, she started Pay attention to some local information, even gossip in nearby towns.

After staying in Liantang for three or four days, after returning to Suzhou, Chunying immediately found her father, pulled him into the house, and closed the door.

Lu Yougui was at a loss: "What's wrong with you? Is the journey going well? Is there something wrong with Brother Xiaofei's Zhuangzi?"

"No, his Zhuangzi is quite good." Chunying sat opposite to her father, and said seriously, "Father, let me ask you, how much money did you bring with you when you came out this time?"

Lu Yougui was a little puzzled: "There are three or four hundred taels, and almost all the living money of the family has been withdrawn. Since I work with the Hou's mansion, I don't worry about being robbed. I am looking at materials and embroidery these days. , This time, I should make a lot of money by shipping a batch of goods back.”

Chunying hurriedly said: "Father, don't rush to buy, I have something to discuss with you. Tell me... Is it okay for our family to buy property here? If you think Suzhou is expensive, go to Changshu, otherwise the nearby Jiaxing , Huzhou, etc. are also acceptable.”

Lu Yougui was stunned, thinking he understood what his daughter meant: "That's right, it's decent to buy some land first, and marry it as a dowry when you pass through the house."

"That's not what I meant!" Chunying blushed, and took a deep breath, "Father is a middleman to make money, you can only see what other people bring, and then make a deal out of it, in fact, you don't make much every time, except A commission of one or two dollars is the reward given by the buyer when he is happy. For a big business like Dongfu, it is good to have one or two times a year. Usually it is just a few dollars to save, but my father has to go back and forth non-stop. Isn't it too tiring to run?"

Lu Yougui sighed: "There's nothing you can do about it. Just wait until our family's situation gets better and we have more money, and we open our own shop, it will be fine."

Chunying said: "Since Dad wants to open a shop, why does it have to be a silk shop? I have been shopping around in the past few years, and found that there is a dental shop in the south of the Yangtze River, which specializes in the silk cloth business. They are sold at high prices to merchants from all over the world. Dad is an old hand, and he has enough vision to do this business. Besides, this is the south of the Yangtze River, and there are several towns nearby. What is the most? What materials are there? There are also merchants from all over the world. Dad opened a shop here. It will be like a fish in water!"

Lu Yougui was silent, and asked after a while: "Did you see those dental shops...the business is really good?"

"When I passed by by boat, I saw that the merchants who got the goods were all lined up outside the door. I don't want you to open a store casually. Of course, you have to inquire carefully beforehand. If you don't want to open it locally, then go back to Beijing to open it. It's the same, but traveling between two places is harder than before." Seeing that her father seemed to be wavering, Chunying quickly added a few words, "I have another idea: for officials and eunuchs like Dongfu, I like to use Jiangnan silk for weddings throughout the year, or for making new clothes during the changing seasons. The price is more than three times higher than what you can find in Jiangnan! We know each other well in Beijing. If we can win this deal, even Only doing ten or twenty pieces a year is much better than father going around asking people what they want to buy. We don’t need to make rounds, but only do two or three good ones, so father can relax and we can make a name for ourselves !"

There was hesitation on Lu Yougui's face: "Our family...is rooted in the capital after all, besides your sister, brother-in-law's family, and your second uncle's family." Chunying said cautiously: "I'm not asking Dad to leave the capital. It’s just that it’s easier to do business in Jiangnan. When it comes to separating relatives from two places...it’s indeed a difficult matter, and it’s up to you to make up your mind. Anyway, I’m not in a hurry.”

Lu Yougui nodded, fell silent for a while, and then sighed again.

Chunying lowered her voice and said, "Actually... it's not a bad thing to leave the capital. There are too many people there who know our details. It's enough to meet one in three or two days. In Jiangnan, everyone doesn't know us. , father, you should also be less angry."

Lu Yougui remained silent.Chunying felt that she should accept it as soon as it is good, so she smiled and said: "No matter what father thinks in the end, now we can first inquire about the price of the paved house here, if there is a cheap one, we can buy it and rent it out. Or if there is a good one It’s also good to buy the fields and plant some cotton. Hire an honest person to help look after them, and let Mohan collect the rent. When he came back, he told me that his parents heard that they were sold to Jiangnan, and they planned not to return to Beijing. I went here, stayed and found my parents to think about the future."

Lu Yougui nodded: "I see. I've also inquired about some news these days. Let's talk about it tomorrow when I go shopping and look around."

Chunying agreed, talked for a while, and then exited the room.

Her suggestion was not made on a whim, but after a long time of consideration. Although parting from her relatives is quite sad, if she wants to get rid of the entanglements of the past and live in peace, she may still have to leave the capital and find another place to live. .Moreover, the silk tooth shop or the cloth cloth shop are both sunrise industries. Whether it is father or Hu Fei, they have all done similar jobs and are very familiar with them.If you don't have a lot of money, you can collect a batch of good materials that are in short supply first, and then sell them, and you can make a profit immediately. If you can transport them back to Beijing to sell, you can at least double the price just by selling them to various silk and satin factories. .It's much better than fighting in small troubles before.Since you have the funds and vision, why not make it bigger?
Grandpa Deng said it well, development is the last word.

(End of this chapter)