in spring

Chapter 95 Meeting Mustache Again

The word "Hu" opened the memory gate in Chunying's mind, and she immediately remembered the scene when she ran into Mr. Hu on the Lantern Festival night.Later, she met Mr. Hu a few times, and made a bridge for him to start a restaurant business with Nandeng Hongyu and his wife, but after he went to work in the mansion, she never saw him again.

Although it only happened a year ago, when Chun Ying recalled it, she felt that it seemed to have happened in her previous life.She only vaguely remembered the other party's mustache, but his facial features were somewhat blurred.At that time, Aunt Feng next door had discussed the Hu family with Mama Lu, and she mentioned that their family was an imperial merchant, and the mustache was a concubine. They were very much loved by their father, but they didn't get along well with their aunt and brothers.What will happen to him now that his father is dead?

Nandeng Hongyu and his wife had already left the capital. Although they made some money when they opened a small restaurant, the part they gave to Xiao Huzi was no more than 80 taels at most. As far as the Royal Merchant's House is concerned, it is really nothing.If Xiao Huzi was squeezed out by his aunt and brother, he still doesn't know how to live.

Chunying watched the funeral partner Wu Hao striding past in front of him, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't see the figure of the mustache, so he couldn't help but sighed.Unexpectedly, shopkeeper Shi also sighed beside him: "The Hu family has just escaped from the catastrophe, and they are making a show like this. What is Young Master Hu thinking? No matter how filial his deceased father is, it doesn't take such a big show, right? From his house to Funing Street, there are still two or three miles away! Just go out of the city directly, why go around to show off? He is not afraid of the government coming to the door..."

Chunying hurriedly asked: "What's the big trouble for their family?"

Shopkeeper Shi looked around, leaned close to her and whispered: "Isn't it just an errand to buy things for the palace? His family originally had a very profitable business. Others were jealous and wanted to rob Mr. Hu when he fell ill." The family's errands, the young master Hu didn't know how much money he spent and how many people he entrusted to keep the name of the imperial merchant, otherwise, even if Mr. Hu died of illness, he would be so angry that he would come back to life! It's just his family's vitality It's a big injury, thanks to the fact that Young Master Hu is still messing around with the old man's funeral, and doesn't know how to save money!"

Chunying thought for a while, then lowered her voice and asked, "I heard that the Hu family has a second young master from a concubine, isn't it?"

"Yes, I have seen it. He often goes out with the old man, but unfortunately he is useless. He is just a half-grown child." Shopkeeper Shi seemed to see an acquaintance across the street, waved his hand, and said "I'll come as soon as I go," and ran over to talk to a businessman who also opened a shop on Funing Street.

Chunying watched the funeral crowd go away, and couldn't help worrying about the mustache, but then she thought, what kind of mind is she playing?She can't even take care of herself now!She hurriedly cleaned up her mood, went back to the backyard, picked up the vegetable basket and the purse for grocery shopping, and went to the street to buy vegetables.

There was nothing wrong with the day, but shopkeeper Shi went out to meet the appointment for a drink at night, but he didn't come back until one o'clock after eating. He was so drunk that he was unconscious. Scolding the younger brother, he asked Chunying to reward the boy with thirty big coins, and then ordered the two sons to help the younger brother back to the room.

Shopkeeper Shi smelled of alcohol all over his body, and he was still yelling indistinctly: "Good deal! Enough friends! Drink... Let's have another pot!" At the same time, he was struggling to get into the kitchen, and Cheng Suluo and Cheng Suyi were almost taken away by him. On the ground, Mrs. Cheng was so angry that she grabbed his collar, dragged him to the bed and pushed her son back to the room: "Let's wash it up and leave him alone, it stinks! Xiaochun, go cook it!" hangover soup!"

Chunying agreed, holding her nose and going to the kitchen.Mrs. Cheng didn't care, she simply cooked the hangover soup, poured it down to the shopkeeper Shi, wiped his face indiscriminately, took off his shoes and hats for him, untied his waist accessories, and pulled his feet. Going back to bed, pulled the quilt over and covered him so that he wouldn't catch a cold in the middle of the night, then turned on the lamp and went out.

Shopkeeper Shi and Yifu slept all night. They didn't catch a cold, but they got hangover. The next morning, they still slept like dead pigs, and couldn't wake up no matter how much they screamed.Seeing this, Mrs. Cheng had to let him rest for a day, and leave the business ahead to the staff to take care of it.

Yunxiangge had originally hired two staff, both of whom were old, whether it was greeting customers or buying and selling clothes, they could handle it without shopkeeper Shi, but after lunch, something troublesome happened.

A man who claimed to be the employee of the silk merchant who invited shopkeeper Shi to drink yesterday came to the door with several carts of clothing materials. Good material, cash transaction.When the two men heard that the amount was so high, they didn't dare to make up their own minds, so they had to report it to Aunt Cheng.

Mrs. Cheng frowned when she heard the quotation, and glared at the guy outside the door: "What are you in a hurry for such a big business?! At worst, tell him to go back and wait until my brother wakes up!"

The guy wiped his sweat and said: "Ma'am, there is no delay. The man said that the shopkeeper was in a hurry to get rid of the goods so that he could take the money back home, so they sold it so cheaply. If we are late, he will take it to another house." went."

"Would you like to sell it or not? It's not like he's the only one who sells materials." Mrs. Cheng rolled her eyes and embroidered carelessly.

"That's not what you said." The clerk wiped his sweat quietly again, "Their price is [-]% off, which is much cheaper than other stores. Besides, the weather is so hot now that the store is almost sold out of materials for making summer clothes , if we don’t buy any more, we won’t be able to do business. Recently, there are several big shops controlling the supply of goods, and the shopkeepers have prepared silver, and there is no place to buy it..."

"Come on!" Aunt Cheng impatiently wiped the sweat from her forehead with a handkerchief, and called Chunying, "Go, bring some pieces of material in for me to have a look, and tell me that I want to inspect the goods! "The guy was overjoyed.

Chunying agreed, and followed the guy out of the store, and saw the guy sitting on the chair opposite the counter, with his legs up, humming a little song, but his small eyes were rolling around.She felt displeased at first, but her face didn't show it at all, she walked up to her and blessed her, and said: "My lord, our aunt wants to inspect the goods, I wonder if you can show us some pieces of material? "

The man glanced at her: "It's all agreed, what are you procrastinating for? If you don't believe me, tell me as soon as possible, let's take it to another house! Add [-]% of the price, and you can sell it smoothly!"

The clerk at the counter looked up at Chunying, and Chunying smiled and said, "Look at what you said, friends are friends, and business is business. Just because you are acquaintances, you have to understand it. If anything happens in the future, you won't be in trouble." Can't explain it clearly, so that the friendship between friends is broken?"

The guy also smiled and persuaded: "It's just a formality. Look, our shopkeeper is inconvenient. Such a large amount of silver has to be paid by the aunt. She doesn't recognize the precious number, so be careful." some."

The man thought that the aunt was just an ignorant woman, so he agreed, and waved his servant to take Chunying to the car to get the materials.Chunying kept an eye out, randomly selected a few horses from each cart, two or three horses of different materials, and moved a dozen or so horses back to the backyard.

Mrs. Cheng had already set up a table for the Eight Immortals in the yard and was waiting. She asked Chunying to put the materials on the table, touched each one, pulled out a little, looked at the light for a while, and pointed to one of the cotton cloths. "Forget about the others, but this one is okay. The cloth from Yicheng is considered top-grade, but I seem to have heard that he gave him another name?" The guy who came over said: "He said it was from Sanlintang. The label cloth is priced at one cent and two cents per horse!" Mrs. Cheng sneered: "He thinks we are fools? Can't we tell whether it is good or not?! Sanlintang? He really has the label cloth of Sanlintang, so he doesn't need it. It's sold at a discount!"

Chunying leaned over and touched the few pieces of cloth, only to find that they were all fine and soft, obviously they were top-grade cotton cloth, and they looked the same, how could Aunt Cheng tell where it was produced?

Mrs. Cheng picked up another piece of red tulle and asked the clerk, "What did he say it was called?" The clerk looked at the brochure in his hand and replied, "It says it is Xiaying gauze, and rich families also carry this." It was called Ruanyanluo. It was originally prepared as a dowry for an official lady, but somehow the marriage was canceled. This one sells for five taels of silver a piece! I heard that ladies like to make clothes with this in summer, plus The lining is the softest and coolest."

Aunt Cheng sneered again and said: "I think he saw Yunxiang Pavilion's small appearance, and thought we had never seen the world. Ladies don't know how to make clothes with Xiaying yarn! Besides, this is not Xiaying yarn, it seems to be called Rouge Luo, it's just an ordinary yarn material, you go tell him, five qian silver a piece, we'll take it all!"

The guy was confused: "Didn't you say it's a fake? Why do you still want it?"

Chunying did understand: "You can sell cheap goods, and there are many girls from small families on Funing Street."

Aunt Cheng glanced at Chunying with satisfaction, and continued to pick and choose.Of the remaining few bolts of cloth, there is a kind of Jintan Gebu that is genuine, but the quality is not very good, and there are a few bolts of fine silk that are fine.She was worried, and asked Chunying to go out to get a few more horses, and found out a lot of problems, and finally bargained down the price to 87 taels, which was not even one-third of the original price.

The man quit and clamored to take the goods away and sell them again, but he didn't move for a long time. The man saw clearly, so he held the samples in front of him and said, "My lord, this is not how business is done. We are blind and can't see the goodness of these materials. If you really want to take them away, please do it yourself and see who else is willing to bid? Just be careful, don't let someone chase them out with a broom."

The man blushed, hesitated a few times, and finally nodded. He just raised the price to 90 taels, and then quickly took the money and left.

Aunt Cheng could hear clearly through the window, fanning her fan, and proudly said: "You want to lie to me?! Auntie has traveled more bridges than you! Only fools will be fooled!"

The two guys were a little embarrassed when they heard this, and hurriedly lowered their heads and put the materials into the warehouse.Chunying hesitated for a while, and then summoned up the courage to say to Aunt Cheng: "Mother, you are so amazing, those materials seem to be similar, how did you recognize them? At most, I can only tell which is cloth and which is cloth. It’s satin, which one is gauze.”

Aunt Cheng glanced at her contemptuously: "Of course, what have you seen? Do you think that you have seen the world after working in a rich family? Save yourself the trouble early! You still have a lot to learn!"

Chunying smiled apologetically and found a fan to fan her, and said flatteringly: "Of course, compared with my aunt, one is in the ground and the other is in the sky. My aunt is the best, I wonder if you can teach me ? Anyway, I am also helping the aunt now, if I am too stupid and miss the aunt's business, wouldn't it be very bad? Let people know, and I will laugh at the aunt." There was a nausea in her stomach, and she suppressed it. Squeeze your best laughs.

Aunt Cheng casually brushed off the non-existent dust on her sleeves, walked up the stairs slowly, and said indifferently: "You don't need to provoke me, you are not my girl, why do people laugh at me? As for whether to teach you, It depends on my mood."

Chunying gritted her teeth secretly, but still maintained a smile on her face, fanning the fan flatteringly all the way back to the room.

Although Mrs. Cheng seemed a little indifferent on the surface, she did teach Chunying a lot when she was in a good mood.At this time, Chunying realized that different materials, different origins, or different weaving methods have different characteristics, some are softer, some are harder, some are suitable for washing, some must be lightly rubbed by hand, and some can be washed. Some of them cannot be ironed but can only be air-dried, some are suitable for bottoms, some are more suitable for outerwear and skirts, some can only be used for shoes and socks, some cannot be used for clothes, some can be embroidered, and some need to be carefully seamed... …

In addition, people of what status can wear what material, and what color people of what class can wear, including clothes worn during various seasons and festivals.Although it is not stricter than before, it will be very troublesome if the government really wants to pursue it.

Chunying had only been in touch with these "common senses" about fabrics in the past, but now that she has studied them systematically and completely, her vision has changed suddenly. She also knows a little more about the embroidery work that Mrs. Patterns and clothing materials guess the status of customers.

Aunt Cheng looked at Chunying's changes, she didn't say anything, but she was still in a good mood. Seeing that the work in hand was almost done, she greeted Chunying: "I'm going home tomorrow, you and Come and give me a hand."

Chunying knew it meant to help with cleaning, and she was used to it anyway, so she agreed.After finishing the housework the next day, she followed Mrs. Cheng to the end of Funing Street. On the way, she saw Mrs. Jia and her eldest daughter selling tofu nao.Aunt Cheng frowned, and walked over without saying anything.

After walking to the courtyard of the Cheng family, Mrs. Cheng was casually looking for the keys. Leng might as well hear a roar from the opposite courtyard. She was startled and hurriedly called Chunying: "Go and see, what happened?!"

Chunying was also frightened. Seeing that the houses around her opened their doors to see what was going on, she bravely walked over. Suddenly the door opened, and a 50-[-]-year-old man ran out, almost knocked her down, and stumbled again. Staggered away.Chunying hurriedly walked into the door to have a look, only to see a man in the room throwing himself on the bed and crying, "Mother! Mother..." There was also a teenager crying to persuade the man.

The young man seemed somewhat familiar, Chun Ying opened her eyes wide, isn't that the servant of the Hu family, Mo Han? !Looking at the crying man again, he looks like a mustache!
Chunying couldn't help shouting: "But Mr. Hu?!"

Mustache didn't look back, and was still crying sadly, but Mo Han recognized her: "Why are you... here?"

Chunying walked to the door and saw the woman on the bed with her eyes closed, her face was pale, but her expression was very peaceful. She guessed what was going on, and couldn't help but feel a little sad.

It's just... How could Mustache live in such a place?

(End of this chapter)