On the third watch, Li Yuan was asleep on the side, and the little servant walked in lightly, and said in Xia Qi's ear: "The host monk invites the master to come over and talk." ☆ → top ☆ → dot ☆ → small ☆ → say, www."

"Hmm." Xia Jue hurriedly got up lightly, entered Hongji Temple from the back door, came to the presiding room, and saw that two waxes were lit on the kang, and the flame in the copper furnace was burning vigorously, and the smoke was smoking.

On the small square table on the kang were a few plates of leftover food and a wine jug, but the great monk was missing. Xia Jue walked in and sat down to wait for him, and after waiting for a while, the presiding monk in his fifties came in and was about to sit down, and said, "I just want to relieve my hands, Xia Shizhu is not strange." ”

After hurriedly going out, he went back to the house and washed his hands, and the monk said: "Xia Shi's matter, my brother came over just now, and I told him everything." My brother said that Lord Xia has a relationship with the British government, and there is nothing to say about this matter, and there are two vacancies in the Ministry of Officials at present. One Hubei was in front, he managed to cheat, put the lack of Guizhou in front, my brother said that he had no friendship with Xi Shiyi, and he couldn't give him such a big love affair. Hehe, Guizhou can't be worth a year in Hubei, this is known to everyone, can Master Xia be satisfied with this matter? ”

Xia Jue didn't expect to bump into a good brother, although he was very sorry, but people didn't kill the heavens and the earth for themselves, nodded and said: "I'm grateful, I don't know if Brother Ling can hold it steadily?" ”

"It's steady, and it's not a wooden clock." The monk smiled and said, "If it comes true, Lord Xia's promise?" ”

"Don't worry." Xia Jue patted his chest with a bang, "I'm a very happy person, but I don't know how much Xie Yi Brother Ling wants?" There's a number, so I'll prepare. ”

The monk smiled: "If this matter is someone else, three or five thousand taels is not much." I said that Xia Shizhu is my best friend, and this love is counted on your brother and me, so he only needs 3,000 hanging money. Speaking of the shortage of Hubei, a term of less than 18,000 silver ready-made rules, no need to accept bribes and be greedy, so what is 3,000 hanging money? It was only one thousand two hundred taels of silver. Lord Xia Shi, please open a silver ticket, and the number is this number. If it succeeds, the old man doesn't want anything, you just invite me to eat a few more drinks. ”

Xia Jue, who was full of joy, calculated in his heart, and was embarrassed to say embarrassedly: "Can this be reduced?" ”

The great monk suddenly said unhappily: "It has been reduced and reduced, except for my brother, no one in the ministry can call the shots." Anyway, you have to do your best, or I'm afraid things will change, and it's best to get this money tomorrow. Otherwise, it will be difficult to make extraneous branches. ”

"Good!" Xia Jue had no choice but to agree, and there was no such shop in this village.

Back in the study, he thought about it for half a night, and when it was dawn, he told his family to set up a car to enter the city. I washed my face, ate a few pieces of snacks left over from last night, got dressed, woke up Li Yuan, and said, "Get up." I'm going into the city, and there's no one at home to take care of you. ”

Li Yuan answered in a daze, turned over with a quilt on his head, and fell asleep again. made Xia Qi so irritable. Seeing that he refused to get up for a while, he had to tell the scholar to guard at home, and he and the coachman rushed to the city to discuss borrowing money from Xi Shiyi.

It was noon. Li Yuan woke up, raised his hand to wipe his eyes, and saw the little maid sweeping the floor in the house. Asked, "Where is your master?" ”

The boy said, "I'm going to the city." ”

"Oh." Li Yuan got off the kang and slowly put on his clothes, walked to the yard to breathe in the fresh air, and stretched his arms, legs and feet.

The scholar brought up the last few pieces of snacks, made hot tea, Li Yuan ate it, picked up the cigarette bag and pot and smoked two mouthfuls of hookah, and spit out thick phlegm on the ground. The scholar was disgusted and quickly cleaned up.

Li Yuan asked casually, "Do you know when you'll come back?" ”

"I don't know." The boy shook his head.

Li Yuan said distressedly: "I didn't say a few important words last night, and I fell asleep, and now I'm gone and come back, what if he is not at home?" Why don't I just wait, it's okay today anyway. ”

Naturally, the scholar had no opinion, turned around and went out. At noon, Li Yuan called him in and asked, "Has your family had dinner?" ”

The scholar said, "We have eaten, if you want to eat, Li Gongzi, I will go to the kitchen and say." ”

"Go ahead, what to eat." Li Yuan said with a smile.

Not long after, the scholar came in with a wooden plate with four dishes on it, and asked, "Do you drink?" ”

"Two taels of soju are enough." Li Yuan looked down and saw that it was not bad, one dish was half a smoked chicken, one dish was scrambled eggs, one dish was boiled peanuts, and one dish seemed to be gluten.

The scholar brought the wine, poured him a full glass, put down the flask and turned to go out.

So Li Yuan was comfortable eating and drinking alone, looking at the furnishings in the study when he had nothing to do, he didn't pay attention to something last night, and now he took a closer look, there was a small three rooms outside, and Xia Jue's bedroom was located on the west side of the courtyard, separated by a heavy door.

There are wings on the left and right of the study, probably one of which is occupied by the small family, and the other is empty. The furnishings in the study are really good, Li Yuan drank all the wine, slightly drunk, asked the scholar to send rice in, took advantage of this time to get up and watch, the wall hung a small four Gongbi Dynasty New Year's pictures, it seems to be Hong Wunian's old paintings.

The desk was placed near the window, and there were four or five spittoons on the ground, which were bright and dazzling, and seemed to be copper. There is a self-striking bell on the kang, three Nanmu square chairs in the east, two Nanmu coffee tables, a pot of narcissus on the left on the coffee table, a bottle of osmanthus on the right, and a couplet on the wall.

"Yo." Li Yuan was very surprised, these furnishings were obviously not bargains, and then he was relieved, they must have been brought out from the British government, the Xu family is rich and rivals the country, can it be simple to use as a master?

Do you still say that you don't have any money? It was Li Yuan who aroused his curiosity, and immediately walked out to the west, and saw that there was no one guarding the door, and the inner house was quiet, as if there was no one.

Probably the sister-in-law went into the temple to burn incense, Li Yuan knew that the Xia family had a simple population, and if Xia Qi and his family went out at the same time, only the little maid and his mother would be left in the house, that is, the cook in the kitchen was responsible for taking care of the house.

Li Yuan, who was drunk, simply pushed open the door and walked in, saying in his heart What kind of friendship do I have with Lao Xia? I go in and see and I come out.

So he went straight to the main room, how could he lock the door these days? Pushed the door open and entered the house.

The main room is an ensuite, and there is a bedroom in the outer hall, with a curtain in the middle and a piece of glass embedded in it. The windows on both sides are also embedded with two glasses, the kang and the chairs are draped with royal blue satin cushions, and some three-stringed and four-stringed flutes are hung on the walls, which are very elegantly arranged.

Li Yuan raised his feet and broke in, there was a screen window on the opposite side of the aisle, and the bedroom door was hung with a blue-green blue crepe cotton curtain, which was opened and walked in, and the space in the bedroom was very spacious.

There is a large Arhat wooden bed in the front, surrounded by an ice-patterned floor cover, and hung with a white silk curtain. There are four or five colorful brocade quilts stacked on one end of the bed, two clothes bags are placed at the other end, a rosewood kang table in the middle, a big red brocade pillow is spread, and a beautiful picture of sleep is hung horizontally in the bed.

There are four large leather boxes on the west side of the room, two small Baoyuan wooden boxes on the top and two wooden cabinets on the bottom. A large brazier in the middle, covered with a copper wire cover.

There is a bookcase against the window, two sets of books, and there are pen, ink, paper and inkstones on the table. The center of the window is inlaid with large glass, and on the east side is a small bookshelf with some scattered objects; At the bottom are two square stools, covered with a blue satin cover.

Yuan Mao looked at these things, his eyes were greedy, and he thought, "How can there be no money in this situation?" There were a lot of clothes in these four large leather boxes, and the two wooden boxes and these two large chests must have been used to store silver and copper coins. Damn, he's still pretending to be poor and coaxing me? We must not let him go today. ”

While thinking about it, he walked out, but fortunately no one noticed it, and ran into the study with a smoke. It didn't take long for the little guy to come in with a tin can of rice, and after a while, the kitchen brought a small hot pot of mutton and sauerkraut.

In the mood of eating a big family, Li Yuan made five bowls of rice and ate more than half of a pot of mutton, then he rinsed his mouth with a full burp and tea, and continued to smoke the bag of cigarettes. When he was bored, the scholar asked for a piece of betel nut and chewed it for a long time, but he didn't leave anyway.

Xia Jue, who entered the city, arrived at Xi's house and pretended not to know to inform the happy event, and Xi Shiyi, who had waited until he was lacking, was very happy to hear it, and he didn't know that his good and bad things were replaced by his friends.

Xi Shiyi was not short of money and asked, "How much do you need?" ”

Xia Jue said: "I want a lot of money. When people say that they don't do anything, they can have 30,000 filial piety according to the rules, and it is not too much to give him 10%, so it must cost 3,000 taels of silver. I said it so badly, and the friend who begged also made a big effort, but I only gave a 20% discount, and I couldn't reduce it anymore. ”

Xi Shiyi groaned: "Such a good shortage, two thousand four hundred taels is really not much, when will you want it?" ”

"Said I wanted a silver ticket today." Xia Jue looked at him expectantly, "Just cash in tomorrow." ”

"Whose name is that?" Xi Shiyi asked.

"The name is here, but according to the rules, I can't show it to you, don't be surprised." Xia Jue had a ghost in his heart, and got up and made a gesture, "After the matter is completed, I swear that as soon as I take office, I will repay you with interest within two months." ”

Xi Shiyi said casually: "My brother still says this? Let's go, let's go to the silver number now. ”

After finishing this, Xi Shiyi wanted to pull Xia Jue to find Zhang Zhongyu to have a drink, Xia Jue had something in his heart, so he naturally refused to delay, and took a car back to the city after saying goodbye.

When I returned home, I first went to find the great monk and took out three silver tickets in person, two of five hundred taels and one of two hundred taels. Xia Qi said: "If you don't honor it tomorrow, the ticket will be invalid." ”

The great monk smiled and said, "There is no reason to take it." ”

"Okay." Xia Jue smiled: "I'll go back and change my clothes first, and we'll have a drink later." ”

As soon as he left, the great monk picked up the two hundred taels of silver tickets and said to himself: "This is what I deserve, give him one thousand taels is enough." ”

When Xia Qi returned to the apartment, he saw that the lamp was lit in the study, and the room was full of smoke, Li Yuan was still sitting there, and he couldn't help but feel angry, and frowned: "Why haven't you left yet?" How can I sit all day when I'm not at home? (To be continued......) R527