A powerful minister of the Song Dynasty

Chapter 14: Thick Skin
When these words were spoken, even Constable Gao was stunned.

Has the business situation of Shi Erlang's shop deteriorated to this point?

You should know that their cold soup is famous in Lema Town for its delicious taste and good price.

Usually have to queue up.

Song Xuan looked down on his second brother because he was a compulsive gambler.

Can a gambler tell the truth?
Fortunately, I don’t tell much truth.

You won’t suffer a loss when facing a gambler.

Song Kang asked first:

"Third brother, your shop is bustling with people, why can't you make any money?"

"Of course, Mr. Lei will be given a larger share of the store's profits, and the store employees' wages are also higher than those of ordinary stores.

In addition, I spend a lot of money on food and drink and treating others to meals, so it costs a lot.

There is not much money left in the account, and I still have to pay rent.

You don't manage the household, so you don't know how expensive it is to feed, feed, and oil. You have to take care of all the heroes. Go and ask around, you'll find that the cleaning fees for the Beggars' Sect have increased by 30%."

Faced with Song Xuan's sharp words, Song Kang frowned. He was indeed frightened by his words.

Because the third brother really doesn't make any money, but he dares to spend a lot of money and is very generous.

"I told you to hand over the account to me a long time ago. You were young and couldn't handle so much money. In the end, you squandered it all in a short time. What a jerk."

Listening to his second brother's words, Song Xuan raised his eyebrows:
"Don't worry about it, second brother. If I can't sell it for a good price, I'll just sell it to Mr. Lei. It'll be a good opportunity for me to be free and go home to eat my father's food, just like you, second brother."

"No, no, no."

Song Kang quickly refused.

The money he could squeeze from his father was not enough to spend, and with his third brother returning, the money he would have would be even less.

After hearing this, Constable Gao also looked down on the young master of the Song family.

Are they really siblings from the same mother?

Why is the gap between the two brothers so big!
"Third brother, you really didn't lie to me?"

"Then you wait and see whether it's true or not. After a while, this shop won't be called Song anymore."

After Song Xuan finished speaking, he no longer paid attention to the second brother, but invited Constable Gao and others to come over and have a sip of cold drink.

When they arrived at the counter, Song Xuan asked the waiter to add some sugar to the three officers.

"Shi Er Lang, there's absolutely no need to spend so much money."

Constable Gao felt a little embarrassed, after all, the family was about to go bankrupt.

"Don't worry about having too much debt." Song Xuan asked them to sit down:

"Thank you for your kindness, Brother Gao. There's no need to save this for me. As the saying goes, money can be spent and then returned."

"Good good."

Constable Gao praised repeatedly:
"Shi Er Lang is indeed courageous. Are you not planning to stay in Lema Town anymore?"

"Well, now that I'm old enough to leave private school, I want to go out and explore the world. It would be embarrassing to be kicked out, so I might as well take the initiative. I can also ask Mr. Lei for some advice. I'm not in a hurry to decide what to do."

"Good man." Constable Gao thought for a moment:
"Why not go to Ningling County? The business there is more developed, and business is good. With Twelve Lang's intelligence, it's not a bad idea to start a new business."

"Hahaha, thanks for the good wishes, Constable Gao."

Song Xuan and Constable Gao chatted about this and that. Song Kang listened for a long time and then quietly took a cup of cold drink and left.

It seems that the third brother is really bankrupt.

When Song Xuan saw his second brother leave, he said that he would keep Constable Gao for dinner.

Constable Gao quickly said that he had somewhere to go and felt embarrassed to take advantage of Song Xuan anymore.

Song Xuan walked him out of the store and went upstairs to rest.

Zhang Fangping arrived soon after. He had gone to work as a copywriter for others in the morning to earn some money.

Unfortunately, private tutoring is not very popular nowadays, especially for those who have not passed the imperial examinations, as others will not ask them to teach their children.

But those who passed the imperial examination would not lack the money for tutoring.

Copying books was the way most scholars supplemented their family income, and they could even set up stalls on the street to write letters.

"Twelfth Brother." Zhang Fangping leaned back on the recliner, fanning himself.

"Are you still going to the private school these days?" "No." Song Xuan also waved his fan:

"Let's go there in half a month to avoid getting acclimatized."

"Understood." Zhang Fangping responded:
"Then I'll copy the books faster and take on two more orders."

"Well, you'll always have to have something to worry about. Work hard."

Song Xuan did not refuse Zhang Fangping's offer to work as a scribe.

As intellectuals, they always have their own secular views that they stick to.

Zhang Fangping liked this about Song Xuan: he could make friends regardless of whether someone was rich or poor.

Because he had actually seen the beggars in the mountain temple making beggar's chicken.

After dinner, the two read books in the attic.

Song Xuan watched for a while and then took a nap.

Zhang Fangping silently endorsed it.

Even though being admitted to Yingtianfu Academy is a foregone conclusion, this is definitely not my ultimate goal.

Only if your name is on the list of successful candidates can you succeed.

In the Song Dynasty, as long as one passed the imperial examination, it was considered a great success. Even if he was a minor official, he was still an official.

Within a year, the salary from the court was enough to change his family's poor situation.

Taking the civil service exam was considered politically correct in the Song Dynasty.

Zhang Fangping sometimes admired Song Xuan's free and easy spirit, but he could never learn it.

Instead, Song Xuan advised him that everyone has his own way of living and there is no need to imitate others and make himself exhausted physically and mentally.

Zhang Fangping was willing to study with Song Xuan in the Song family private school, not only because he needed to read more books, but also because Song Xuan was not a good teacher at all, he only did screening.

After waking up, Song Xuan took up the whistle stick in the room with his bare chest and went to the yard to play for more than half an hour. After taking a shower, he came up to practice calligraphy with Zhang Fangping.

Zhang Fangping was able to do the work of a clerk, mainly because he had good handwriting.

"Twelfth brother, who did you learn this calligraphy from?"

"Inscription on the Shicong River Cliff, by Xue Yao."

Song Xuan explained that once he followed Mr. Lei to visit Kaifeng Prefecture, saw the cliff carvings, thought the calligraphy was good, and kept imitating it.

This is the largest cliff carving in Henan Province.

Zhang Fangping is not very familiar with this niche font, he inherited the Tang Kai font.

As for the calligrapher named Xue, he had never heard of him.

Xue Yao learned calligraphy from Chu Suiliang and was hailed as the founder of the "Slender Gold" style of calligraphy.

Xue Yao's calligraphy was later learned by Song Huizong, who eventually created the unique "Slender Gold" style.

No one calls Song Xuan's handwriting "Slender Gold Style".

After all, he is not famous yet.

Zhang Fangping didn't say much. After all, they were just words, and there would always be examiners who would like to read them.

Hot summer.

There are quite a few customers in the cold soup shop.

Yan Shu and the other two were strolling in Lema Town when they saw the plaque of Lema Liangjiang.

"I'm thirsty, so I'll give it a try."

"Well, I've never tasted it."

Fan Zhongyan responded directly and walked into the shop first.

"The water flows gently and the environment is quiet."

Yan Shu saw that there was water flowing slowly in the store, and he felt a little bit of a sense of ingenuity. At least when people saw it, they felt that the room was cooler.

The three of them looked at the inscription hanging on the wall, which turned out to be nonsense written by Song Xuan himself.

This kid is shameless.

It’s really thick!

(End of this chapter)