He intended to befriend Wang Youling, and often came to Wang Youling to talk and drink tea, but Wang Youling was ashamed of himself and refused to approach him lightly. There were a lot of tea guests in the afternoon of this day, Xiaohu and Wang Youling "shared the table", he went to play two games of chess, and walked back with a smile and said: "Wang Youling, go, go, I invite you to 'set a bowl'." "Putting a bowl is a folk talk in Hangzhou, which means going to a small hotel to have a drink.

"Thank you. You don't have to break the bank. Wang Youling shirked.

"Someone has a treat. You see! He opened the handkerchief bag, there were two taels of silver in the bread, and said with a smug smile: "The first set of 'double car mistakes', the second set of 'afterthought', and the third game, the pawn 'forced the palace', killing the road and sparsely populated." Otherwise, I'm going to win. ”

In order to be gracious, Wang Youling followed. All the way to the "Chenghuang Mountain" - "the first peak of Wushan Mountain" Wushan, I picked an open place where you can overlook the lights of thousands of homes, and chatted while drinking.

When the wine was half-drunk, and the gossip was almost over, Xiao Hu suddenly raised his voice and said, "Wang Youling, I have a saying, I have long wanted to ask you." I see that you are not a person without ability, and I also know a little bit of 'Mai Physiognomy', seeing that you are a noble face, why do you 'incubate' the tea shop all day long? ”

Wang Youling shook his head, took a piece of the famous oil cake on Chenghuang Mountain, and bit it slowly, looking into the distance with his eyes, the kind of dazed loneliness that he couldn't say.

"What do you want me to say?" Wang Youling turned his face and stared at Xiaohu, as if he wanted to quarrel with him, "It takes capital to do business, and it takes capital to be an official, what do you say if you don't have capital?" ”

"Being an official?" Xiao Hu was surprised, "How to do it?" You're just like me. I haven't even 'learned', I'm a white ding. Where did the officials come from? ”

"Can't you 'donate classes'?"

Xiao Hu was silent, and looked down on Wang Youling in his heart. There are no more than two kinds of donating officials, one is to make a fortune in business, rich but not expensive, fly in the ointment, donate a fame to increase the value, like the salt merchants in Yangzhou, all of them spend thousands of taels of silver to donate the Taoist platform, then you can call the magistrate brothers. Equal. Otherwise, he will not be considered a "gentleman", and he will have to go to court in court, and he will have to reply on his knees. There is another kind, who is the son of an official's family. The book is also a good read. It's just bad luck. In the third year, the second place fell to Sun Shan, and he is old. The family is also embarrassed, and I have to think of a way to make a living, and I take the road of "being an official", and there is no way to change my career, so I have to sell my land and ask my relatives and friends to donate a sum of money to an official. Like Wang Youling, who is still young, he should work hard and go up from the right path, but he is so poor that he has no food and clothing, but he is delusional to donate to the class?

Wang Youling saw the meaning in his heart, and with a few glasses of wine in his stomach, he was not as calm as usual, "Xiaohu! He said, "I'll tell you a word, believe it or not, my father donated a 'salt ambassador' for me." ”

Xiao Hu was the most alert, and when he saw his expression, he knew that it was not a lie, and then smiled: "Yo! Disrespectful, disrespectful, it turned out to be Master Wang, who has been calling you by name and surname, those who don't know are not guilty, and they have to forgive the little ones. ”

"Don't be sarcastic!" Wang Youling waved his hand and said with a wry smile, "To tell you the truth, unless it's you, I won't say it in front of others, and if I say it, it will make people laugh." ”

"I'm not laughing at you." Xiao Hu stopped laughing, and asked with a solemn expression, "However, there is one layer I don't understand, since you are a salt ambassador, we have dozens of salt farms along the coast of Zhejiang, why don't we fill the gap for you?" ”

"You know only one thing, but you don't know the other"

If you want to fill the vacancy, you must report to the Ministry of Officials, which is called "surrender," and then draw lots to distribute them to a certain province. Wang Youling has not yet "surrendered", where can he talk about filling the vacancy?

After talking about the procedures for donating officials to fill the vacancies, Wang Youling said: "What I said about the 'capital' is the entanglement of going to Beijing to make offerings. If the situation is more comfortable, I would like to 'donate'. ”

"What kind of 'team' do you donate?"

"Donate to a county. The salt ambassador is eight products, and the county is seven products, and it doesn't cost much to change the donation. The way out is very different. ”

"How?"

"The salt ambassador is only in charge of the salt farm, and the interest is not bad, but it is not interesting. Although the county is small, the parents of a county can kill people and live people, and they can do a good job. ”

These two sentences made Xiao Hu awe-inspired, and swept away the little feeling that he looked down on him just now. "Besides, the county magistrate is the official of Zhengyin, not as good as the salt ambassador, and he is always a miscellaneous person, and he is a miscellaneous donor, and he is a 'kowtow worm' everywhere, which is not suitable for my temperament."

"Yes, yes!" Xiaohu kept nodding, "So, how much 'capital' do you need for this time?" ”

"Five hundred taels of silver."

"Oh!" Xiao Hu didn't talk about it again, and Wang Youling didn't mention it anymore, five hundred taels of silver is not a small amount, Xiao Hu may not have it, and if there is, he may not be willing to borrow it.

The two of them have their own concerns, eating and drinking tasteless, and it is getting dark, Wang Youling pushed the cup to say goodbye, Xiaohu did not leave him, only said: "Tomorrow afternoon, I am still waiting for you here, you come!" ”

"Is there something wrong?" Wang Youling was slightly surprised, "Why don't you just say it at this moment?" ”

"I have a little thing to ask you, and I don't want to stop at the moment. We'll talk about it tomorrow afternoon. You must come, I will sit here and wait, see you or leave. ”

Seeing him tell him like this, Wang Youling agreed. In the afternoon of the next day, he arrived as promised, but there was no trace of Xiaohu. It costs a few pennies to make a bowl of tea, which is a waste for Wang Youling, so he walked along the mountain road. There are several temples on Chenghuang Mountain, and there are many places in front of the temple that play tricks, boxing and selling plasters, and setting up chess stalls, and there are many places where you can spend time without spending money. He stood here for a while, took a look at the other side, and when he arrived at the Red Sun Mountain, Fang Shi walked back to his original place, but he still didn't see Xiaohu.

It's a dead date of "no see or leave". Wang Youling suddenly felt a dilemma, not waiting for his own appointment, he had to wait, it was already dusk, and dinner had not yet been settled. After staying for a long time, the more I thought about it, the more anxious I became, paused, and walked down the mountain, saying to myself in my heart: When I see Xiaohu tomorrow, I have to say a few words to him! It's not that he doesn't know his situation, he has to calculate it first when he eats a bowl of tea outside, so why bother playing tricks on people?

After walking a few steps, I heard someone behind me shouting: "Wang Youling, Wang Youling!" ”

When I turned around, it was Xiao Hu, holding a handkerchief bag in his hand, panting and sweaty. Seeing his face, Wang Youling's anger was half gone, and he asked, "Why did you come at this time?" (To be continued......)

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