Aspirations

Chapter 43
"Okay." Xia Xiang readily agreed, he didn't have any wrong thoughts about Lian Xiaoniang, but since Cao Shujun was willing to take a gamble, he was also willing to play with him, "Come on, you improve like this Yu Lianhuan, after changing it, her name will be... Ruoer."

"Ruo Er? What kind of weird name is this?" Cao Shujun was puzzled, but he didn't ask much, and raised his glass, "Come, cheers, I wish the two of us a successful plan and success."

"What big plan do you two have?" After a arduous debate between Zhang Hou and Shen Bao, even though no one could convince the other, he still admitted that Shen Bao had conceded defeat and no longer pretended to be the champion in the future. After saying a few words to Xia Xiang, he raised his glass, "Come on, everyone, I wish my No. [-] Scholar High School, Brother Shen, a first-class scholar, Brother Xia, a second-class scholar, and I wish Brother Xia and Brother Cao's business plans to be successful soon."

Although Zhang Hou didn't know what Xia Xiang and Cao Shujun were talking about, he vaguely guessed that it had something to do with business. He thought that Xia Xiang believed that the number one scholar was hopeless and that Jinshi might not be selected, so he deliberately abandoned his official career and turned to business. road.

Shen Bao was stunned for a moment. He had a fight with Zhang Hou just now. Zhang Hou's stubbornness and conceit made him quite unhappy. He didn't want Zhang Hou to think that Xia Xiangzhi was in business. : "I wish my Zhuangyuan High School, I wish Brother Xia a first-class scholar, Brother Zhang a second-class scholar, and I wish Brother Cao's business plan a success."

When Zhang Hou heard this, his complexion changed drastically, and he almost had an outburst on the spot. He endured it for a while, and forcibly suppressed it.

Xia Xiang had just talked to Cao Shujun, but he was also secretly observing Zhang Hou and Shen Bao. He had long since discovered that the two had almost turned against each other over the dispute over who would be the number one scholar in high school. The two of them were really bored because they were arguing endlessly about something that might not happen. He laughed and raised his glass high: "I have a clever calculation. Three of us took the exam. If I say one result, it must be correct."

Xia Xiang stretched out a finger.

Zhang Hou quickly reacted and asked, "Only one of them?"

Shen Bao also asked: "Two hits, one miss?"

Xia Xiang shook his head and smiled: "It's all together."

Shi'er sticks out his tongue, giggles, and sticks out a finger in a similar manner: "Why didn't you miss together?"

Cao Shujuan was puzzled, he didn't know why Xia Xiang made such a statement, but he knew that it was reasonable to say anything with one finger, if he hit all, he hit all together.If you miss all of them, you miss all of them.If there is one person, it is only one.If there are two people in the middle, one is not right.No matter what the result is, it can be justified.

"It's still Xia Lang-Jun a notch higher."

When several people were toasting to each other, suddenly a sound of ding dong like a clear spring and clear like a stream sounded in the stairwell, accompanied by the sound of squeaking wooden stairs, three people appeared in front of everyone.

At this time, Xia Xiang was the only guest dining on the third floor, and there were no guests at the other tables.

The three of them are all women, the leader is a light green shirt, with picturesque eyebrows and eyes, and there is a hint of arrogance in his grim expression.There are two people behind her, one on the left, dressed in black, as cold as the moon, as cold as frost, with a hint of indifference in their indifferent expressions.The person on the right has eyebrows like a crescent moon, eyes like autumn water, and a slightly pointed chin. He is as elegant and elegant as the Jiangnan landscape, both enchanting and hazy.

Among the three, Xia Xiang recognized the woman in black as Mantuo.

"Where is Mr. Xia Lang superior?" Zhang Hou felt slightly displeased. The argument just now failed to make Shen Bao surrender to him. Now someone praised Xia Xiang, and he was quite dissatisfied. Is it child's play to be higher? Little lady, who are you?"

The little lady avoided answering Zhang Hou's question, but replied lightly: "I said one class higher, that is, one class higher. You don't even know where Xia Langjun is superior, it's really pitiful and pathetic."

Shen Bao's eyes lit up, although he had never met the young lady in front of him, he recognized her voice, he was surprised and delighted at the same time, he took a step forward, and bowed his hands: "So it's Miss Lian, Shen Bao is being polite."

Lian Ruohan?Xia Xiang and Cao Shujun looked at each other, and the two were overjoyed immediately.

But...Xia Xiang couldn't help but look at Mantuo after he was pleasantly surprised. How could Mantuo be with Lian Ruohan?
Mantuo didn't respond to Xia Xiang's questioning gaze, as if Xia Xiang didn't exist. She stood beside Lian Ruohan, watching her eyes, nose, mouth, and heart. Although she was there, her heart didn't know where her mind had gone.

Even the little lady?Lian Ruohan, the ever-prosperous helm and the legendary genius businesswoman?Zhang Hou was also surprised. He had always despised businessmen based on his inherent opinion, but Haojingchang was too famous and powerful. Lian Ruohan, the head of Haojingchang, was also a weak woman. Invisibly, there are too many auras and mysteries superimposed on him, and people can't help but feel awe.He also put away his contempt, clasped his fists and saluted: "Even the little lady invited, Zhang Hou is polite."

Xia Xiang also saluted and said: "Xia Xiang is polite."

Compared with Xia Xiang's white-clothed public servant, even Ruohan, who is a woman, alarmed Xia Xiang and the others to salute, it is extraordinary!
Cao Shujun straightened his eyes, quietly pulled Xia Xiang's sleeves, and said in a low voice, "Xia Langjun, even the little lady, even the little lady, I finally met the little lady! She really lives up to her reputation, her temperament Ruolan is as beautiful as a fairy, I think I fell in love with her at first sight."

Xia Xiang responded to Cao Shujun's restrained eyes, took a step forward, saluted Mantuo, and said, "Miss Mantuo, why don't you come?"

Man Tuo lowered his eyes and replied indifferently: "It's okay. Mr. Xia Lang, please keep the letter." While speaking, a letter was handed to Xia Xiang.

Xia Xiang put the letter away, but didn't read it carefully. The last time Mantuo delivered the letter and then snatched it away, he thought it was not an important matter, so he didn't think much about it.Cao Shujun flashed out from behind him, first saluted Lian Ruohan, and warmly invited Lian Ruohan to take a seat.

"Miss Lian, can you have the honor of having dinner with me?" Cao Shujun was very happy, and he was about to gear up and try.

"It's better to drink tea." Lian Ruohan nodded and smiled, and ordered, "Ling'er, serve tea."

"Yes." The woman on Lian Ruohan's right responded and turned to go downstairs.After a while, several juniors came up, bringing a stove, an iron kettle, and famous tea utensils such as the best Ru kiln and Jianzhan.A few people started working together, some people cleaned up the leftovers on the table, some people set up the stove and lit the charcoal fire, some people washed the tea set, and some people rearranged the seats, and in a moment, everything was ready.

Lian Ruohan sat first, Xia Xiang sat on her left, Zhang Hou sat on the right, Cao Shujun wanted to sit closer, but was pulled to the bottom by Shi Er, so he had no choice but to sit at Shi Er. and Mandor.He still wanted to say a few words to Mantuo, but Mantuo ignored it. He made fun of himself and was teased a few times by Shier, so he shut up and said nothing.

Lian Ruohan and Mantuo came to live in Taiping today, just passing by, and overheard Xia Xiang and several people eating upstairs. On a whim, he came up to meet Xia Xiang.It happened to hear that Xia Xiang and the three were talking about the mystery of a finger, and upon hearing this, she became even more firm about her views on Xia Xiang and the three!
Among the three, Xia Xiang must be the most outstanding one!
In the past few days, Lian Ruohan was very busy. First, he met with Xiao Jia several times, and finally finalized the packaging bamboo tubes for all the tea brands owned by Haojingchang, as well as the shape, size and pattern of the fruit plate lacquerware used by Haojingchang in all the inns.The more she gets in touch with, the more she likes Xiao Jia's business wisdom. It can be said that Xiao Jia is a born businessman. Pick up treasure.

Lian Ruohan immediately decided to take Xiao Jia under the banner of Haojingchang. She happened to be short of a housekeeper who could help her straighten out everything.She implicitly mentioned this to Xiao Jia, but Xiao Jia didn't refuse, but she didn't agree immediately, she just said that she wanted to run Xiao's lacquerware as the No.

Anjia lacquerware has officially changed its name to Xiaojia lacquerware. With Xiao Jia's help, An Ziru is willing to hand over half of the shares to Xiao Jia in exchange for Xiao Jia's efforts to make Anjia lacquerware the number one brand of Shangjing lacquerware.Xiao Jia didn't refuse, and readily agreed, and changed the Anjia lacquerware to Xiaojia lacquerware.

Although An Ziru gave up half of the shares, the sales volume of lacquerware is not the same as before. It has increased by at least ten times. It is estimated that the dividends of half of her shares are three to five times more than the previous profits. There are many more, and enjoy it naturally.What's more, the current profit is still under the premise that there is no comprehensive supply for the good times.Once it starts to supply goods for the good times, Anjia, no, the sales of Xiao's lacquerware will leap to the top of all lacquer shops in Shanghai!

Now that An Ziru has already taken back Quanzhou's heart, she just wants to stay in Shangjing and take care of the affairs of the Xiao family's lacquerware. Now Xiao Jia is with Miss Lian almost every day, and she stays in the shop to take care of various affairs. Three guys were hired.

Lian Ruohan understood Xiao Jia's thoughts, if the Xiao family's lacquerware became the number one lacquerware shop in Shanghai, Xiao Jia's fortunes would rise, and she would always have a good time when she came. Naturally, she couldn't just be a housekeeper, and there would definitely be a requirement for shares.In fact, in Lian Ruohan's eyes, even if Xiao's lacquerware is the number one lacquerware store in Shanghai, it cannot be found in her eyes.It's just that it is understandable for Xiao Jia to want to use this to improve his status.With Xiao Jia's talents, it is human nature not to be reconciled to being under others for a long time.

However, Lian Ruohan was sure that Xiao Jia's initiative to send him to the door must be to take advantage of the good times, so she was not worried that Xiao Jia would not join the good times, it was just a matter of timing.Today, she and Xiao Jia discussed the final shape and pattern of the bamboo tube, and then they will start changing the tea leaves one after another. She is in a good mood.After changing the new packaging, not only the price of tea can be increased a lot, but also the sales volume will go up to a higher level.

More importantly, the new bamboo tube is ingeniously designed, with attention to details, and highlights the four characters of "Good Times Changzai". After the launch, the reputation of "Good Times Changzai" will be even louder.

After Xiao Jia settled all the matters with her, she returned to Xiao's lacquerware. She took time out of her busy schedule and thought of drinking tea at Taipingju and Mantuo.Although Taiping Tea is a restaurant, it also has tea sets.I didn't want to meet Xia Xiang unexpectedly.

After getting along with Mantuo for a few days, even Ruohan got used to Mantuo being as cold as a snow mountain.It's also because she has seen many people of all kinds, and she can guess that Mantuo's coldness is mostly due to family misfortune.She is more curious about Manta than caring, and knows that Manta doesn't need too much care from others, she can walk alone and live well in her heart.

In the past few days, Lian Ruohan and Mantuo hadn't spoken a few words at all, and it was only when she had questions that Mantuo would reluctantly answer.Mantuo lived in a secluded place arranged by her, far away from the hustle and bustle and crowds. Mantuo practiced martial arts every day or sat in meditation, neither asking a word, nor saying a word of thanks to her.Even Ruohan didn't take it seriously, she didn't want to get anything in return for helping Mantuo.

Lian Ruohan lightly rolled Su's hand, and Ling'er poured water into the soup bottle with a round belly and a tall, slender neck, put the soup bottle in the stove, and started to boil the water.

Zhang Hou grew up in the South since he was a child, and is quite proficient in the tea ceremony. He immediately asked, "Could it be that even the little lady wants to order tea?"

"Exactly." Lian Ruohan nodded slightly.

"Why use a soup bottle instead of an iron pot?" Zhang Hou was puzzled, his eyebrows slightly raised, "The iron pot has a round belly, and the spout is not slender, so it is convenient to observe when the soup is cooked."

"What is waiting for soup?" Cao Shujun asked Xia Xiang in a low voice. Although he also liked drinking tea, he didn't know how to order or fight tea, so he was very curious.

"Waiting for soup is boiling water." Xia Xiang stared at Lian Ruohan's Qing Shu Su's hand and gently stretched his jade sleeves. He praised Lian Ruohan not only for his outstanding business skills, but also for his elegant manner of ordering tea. The woman said, "The most important thing in ordering tea is the temperature of boiling water, which is to wait for the soup. Waiting for the soup is the first element. If it is not cooked, the foam will float, and if it is too cooked, the tea will sink. The beauty of the color, smell, and taste of it. Presumably even the little lady uses a soup bottle instead of an iron pot, because she is quite confident in the argument of water boiling."

The soup bottle has a round belly and a slender neck. You can only judge whether the soup has reached the optimum boiling point by the sound of boiling water.

Zhang Houqi said, "Does Xia Langjun know how to order tea? Or do you pretend to understand? Zhongshan Village in Lingshou County is located in a remote and remote area, so there shouldn't be any tea."

Compared with the Tang Dynasty, the tea culture of Daxia has made some progress. From princes, ministers, literati and monks, down to merchants, gentlemen, and common people, tea drinking is the fashion, and the method of drinking tea is mainly based on ordering tea.Compared with the sencha of Datang, Daxia's tea is more exquisite, more elegant, and more complicated.Zhongshan Village is almost isolated from the world, but there is also a little tea thing.

Xia Xiang couldn't hear the irony in Zhang Hou's words, and he knew in his heart that Zhang Hou was deeply concerned about Lian Ruohan's words of "Mr. Xia Lang is still superior", and he didn't take it seriously, and smiled lightly: "If you say it's remote, Jianning is much more remote than Lingshou. Jianning still has some tea, so Lingshou naturally has it."

Zhang Hou sneered: "How can Lingshou and Jianning be compared? Lingshou is a land of poor mountains and bad waters, while Jianning is a land of prosperity in the south of the Yangtze River, and the talents in the south of the Yangtze River are many times better than those in the north."

Shen Baoyu chuckled disdainfully: "Brother Zhang is a hero based on the northern and southern regions? Don't you forget what Mr. Ouyang Ming said 'Min people are cunning and dangerous, Chu people are easy', brother Zhang is a Fujian person, right?"

When Shen Bao and Xia Xiang met for the first time, they suffered from Xia Xiang's loss when discussing heroes from north to south, so Zhang Hou made the same mistake as him, so he couldn't help but ridicule him.

"There is no need to argue about the distinction between the north and the south, the land is divided into the north and the south, and the heart is not divided into the north and the south." Xia Xiang smiled calmly, "If you are familiar with history, you will know that the time when the north and the south of China merged was the time of prosperity. The north and the south were strong. The time of division is the time of weakness. If the capital is in the north, it will be a prosperous age. If the capital is in the south, it will be a time of chaos. In Daxia, there are mountains in the north and water in the south. ...Haha, off topic, finished, drink tea, drink tea."

Lian Ruohan's eyes were wide open, his eyebrows were slightly raised, and he quickly swept past Xia Xiang, Zhang Hou, and Shen Bao, and his voice was calm and distant: "Mr. The wind is light... Mr. Xia Lang is still superior!"

"Drink tea, drink tea." Zhang Hou originally wanted to argue a few more words, but Lian Ruohan's words were light and powerless, but they pierced into his chest like a sharp arrow, making him extremely oppressed, but he couldn't vent it. Ruohan's illustrious life experience and mysterious and unpredictable background, only her indifference and arrogance made him feel a little in awe of him, who had always been fearless. When boiling water, you can't see the water boiling, you can only use sound recognition to distinguish the first boiling, second boiling and third boiling... Listen, it's boiling once."

From the soup bottle, there was a sound like the chirping of insects, and it was like countless cries neighing together.After a while, the sound suddenly changed, as if countless vehicles with heavy loads rumbled past, it was the sound of Er Boiling.Xia Xiang nodded and smiled, and said, "The first boil is like the sound of insects, the second boil is like a car dealership, and the third boil is like the water of a mountain stream and the wind of a pine forest."

At this point, Ling'er had wrapped the tea ball in silk paper, baked it on the fire, and then smashed it with a fine mallet.The crushed tea is put into a tea mill and crushed into very fine tea powder.She is skilled, and the tea is ready in an instant.She poured the tea powder into the sieve again, and shook it gently, the coarse tea dust was left, and the fine tea powder fell into the tea tray like snow.

Afterwards, Ling'er handed the tea tray to Lian Ruohan.

Lian Ruohan first scalded the Jianzhan with hot water, poured out the hot water, and used a fine wooden spoon to pick out a spoonful of tea powder and put it into the Jianzhan. The sound of the wind was at the best time for the three boiling water. She lifted the soup bottle, flipped her wrist gently, and a stream of boiling water poured into the building.

Once the powdered tea is brewed in boiling water, it will be full of greenery during rolling.Lian Ruohan stirred and beat the tea soup with a tea whisk in her hand. In a blink of an eye, the tea soup turned into a thick green paste. Then, she poured boiling water again and rotated the tea whisk with her wrist.Under the blowing back and forth, the green tea soup in Jianzhan gradually turned white, and milky white foam began to appear.After a while, the foam becomes denser and smaller, and gradually floats up, covering the surface of the tea like fine snow, which lasts for a long time.

Lian Ruohan picked up another bamboo stick and drew on the foam. After a while, he was done. He pushed Jianzhan in front of everyone and smiled sweetly: "I'm laughing."

Above the pure white soup flower, there are four big characters floating on it - good times are always there.

(End of this chapter)