Dingbei Hou's doctor brother

What a coincidence, it was the white ice jade that Lu Ziqing had been looking for with great difficulty.

I was surprised and happy, and couldn't help but wonder why this thing appeared in the market?

Could it be that he was sold out by the masked man?

Also, why did such a valuable item end up in that person's hands?

For a moment, too many questions piled up and could not be sorted out.

He was distracted and only heard the voice of the shopkeeper talking next to him.

"What do you think, sir? Do you like this one?"

Lu Ziqing said, "This piece of jade is the best quality among the white jades. May I ask where the shopkeeper got it from?"

"Young Master, you have a good eye." The shopkeeper said, "I'm the only one in this area that has this kind of stuff, and there's only one of it. Would you consider buying it?"

Lu Ziqing said without hesitation: "I'll buy it. Can you tell me where this jade pendant came from?"

The shopkeeper hesitated for a moment and said, "Okay, but you know this kind of thing is not available on the market at all. We are only selling it privately. You have to pay first before I can tell you."

"how much is it?"

"One thousand taels!"

This jade pendant, if valued according to its actual value, is worth at least ten thousand taels.

The shopkeeper's offer of one thousand taels was indeed not expensive, but for Lu Ziqing at that moment, it was extremely expensive.

I am far away in the capital now. If I were in Zhongzhou, Suzhou or other places, I could still ask Su Chengyi for money.

He said with a bit of embarrassment: "Boss, can you make it cheaper?"

"Sir, genuine items have been hard to find since ancient times. The rarer the item, the higher the price. Besides..." said the shopkeeper as he closed the box.

"I'm the only one selling this here. If it were in the East Market, I could easily sell it to you for seven or eight thousand taels."

Lu Ziqing did not make any money when he came to the capital, but lost money instead. Even now, as a clerk, he only gets 150g silver per month, which is only 18g per year.

To put it bluntly, this price is not good. Even if you sell it ten times, it is not worth this much money.

In the end, he had no choice but to give up, but he still didn't give up. Before leaving, he deliberately asked the shopkeeper to keep it for him.

Where can I get the silver?

Lu Ziqing walked on the street, looking at the people passing by with worry.

Secretly taking private jobs?

If you earn one hundred coins a day and three taels of silver a month, it will take you thirty years without eating or drinking to earn one thousand taels.

borrow?

He has no relatives or friends in this huge capital city. Besides, which idiot would lend him so much money?

The more Lu Ziqing thought about it, the more complicated it became. His mind was full of how to make money. The noisy noise in his ears gradually became gentle and enchanting, and a faint scent of powder wafted in the air.

He turned his head and saw a handsome man with a tender and fair face, who looked at him with a charming look in his eyes.

"Sir, do you want to come and play?"

Lu Ziqing didn't react for a moment, and then he saw several young men in the attic, lying on the edge of the window, smiling and shouting at him.

"Young Master, you should look for me. Although he looks good, his skills are not as good as mine."

"It's not enough to just be good at technology." The official pointed at the person beside him and said with a smile: "Yue Chun is even more gentle than you."

"Han Zhenzhen, you always protect Yue Chun. Are you having an affair with him?"

"I want to have an affair with you, do you want to come?"

This remark caused the officials upstairs and downstairs to burst into laughter. The official downstairs put his hands on his hips and angrily scolded the people upstairs.

"Can you guys keep your voices down and stop disturbing my business?"

There was another burst of loud laughter from upstairs.

Only the handsome man named Yue Chun stood there, waving a folding fan with his hands behind his back, looking at Lu Ziqing with a gentle gaze that seemed to have a hook in it.

He suddenly got goosebumps all over his body, and immediately realized where this place was, blurting out a word.

"Sell?"

The official next to him turned his head and said with a loving smile, "Sir, please don't say such harsh words. Let's go inside and have a drink."

This gentle and tender conversation made Lu Ziqing's neck and ears turn red. He turned his face away, pushed away the official's hand, and walked away without looking back.

The official scoffed, "How could there be such a pure-hearted man in this world?"

Lu Ziqing hurriedly walked a few feet away, still feeling annoyed by the petty officials behind him.

Growing up, he had only heard about sex. How could this man and this man...

Not to mention seeing it with my own eyes, even thinking about it felt extremely awkward, and the words "truly ridiculous" immediately flashed through my mind.

He quickly brought his thoughts back to Yin Zi and walked through the alley with a frown.

"Brother Wang, you look amazing today."

"Hehe...you have good taste, I spent fifty taels on this outfit."

"What? So expensive? Brother Wang, where did you make your fortune? At least take me with you."

"A few days ago, I won four hundred taels at the gambling house. If you want to get rich, it depends on whether you have this kind of luck."

"Gambling house? The inspection is strict now. Aren't all the gambling houses closed down? Which one did you go into?"

"I know a place, do you dare to go there?

"What are you afraid of? Let's go!"

When these words about wealth passed by Lu Ziqing, his heart skipped a beat.

Although gambling isn't the right path, it's the fastest way to make money...

He immediately turned around and stood in front of the two men, "Two big brothers, can I go with you? I..."

"Brother, you're addicted to gambling, right? No problem, come with me."

Lu Ziqing smiled awkwardly and followed the two men for a long time to the busy area of ​​Huayufang, where they walked into a cloth shop.

The strong man said to the shopkeeper, "Shopkeeper, I want nine feet of black, white and red silk."

The shopkeeper stopped counting on his abacus and glanced left and right at the other customers.

"Silk of this color is hard to find. It's all in the warehouse and not on the shelves. If you want it, please come with me to take a look."

Lu Ziqing followed the person in front of him through the secret door and passed through several dim corridors. He vaguely heard the sound of opera singing outside the wall.

Then we walked to the bottom of a staircase and found an extremely large casino. Groups of gamblers were standing in front of the gambling tables, shouting loudly and excitedly.

"Open it high, open it high..."

"Little, little..."

"Leopard, Leopard, God bless you..."

"Buy it and leave it, open..."

"........."

Lu Ziqing had never been to a casino before. He walked through the crowd and looked around casually. He had no idea what the different types of long black cards with dots on the gambling tables were.

Finally, he squeezed in front of a dice table. This one was more familiar than the previous ones. Su Chengfeng had taught him to listen to the points before.

The last game ended with a lot of noise.

The dealer holds the dice cup in his hand, and with extremely fast speed, he puts three white dice into it and shakes it rapidly.

The dice kept spinning, and Lu Ziqing turned his head slightly to the side, listening to the sound with his sensitive ears.

After a while, there was a "pop" sound, the dice cup fell on the table, and the dealer shouted.

"Buy big, you'll get a big payout. Bet now and start placing your bets!"

The people around were noisily placing their bets. Lu Ziqing took out the only two taels of silver he had left, took a look at it, and bet on the small one.

"Open, one, three, four, eight o'clock, small, win big and lose small!"

"........."

There was an uproar at the scene.

After several consecutive wins and losses, Lu Ziqing received a total of 530 taels in compensation. Just as he was about to leave, he heard a fierce quarrel coming from the next table.

The gambling house thugs escorted a man into a room. Lu Ziqing took the money and left the table, quietly following them and leaned against the window to listen.

"My father is a doctor in the Ministry of Works. How dare you arrest me?" said the young man in green.

The casino thug twirled a dagger in his hand, staring at him and snorting.

"A mere doctor from the Ministry of Works dares to shout like that? I'm not afraid to tell you, this is General Guo's territory. If you don't pay the thirty thousand taels I owe you today, you can't leave!"

The young man in green glared and said, "You are cheating. I will report you to the authorities."

"Haha... dare to threaten?"

The gambling house thugs suddenly pressed the green-clothed young man's hand on the table and stabbed a knife into the back of his hand. He screamed immediately.

Lu Ziqing frowned, but before he could react, he heard another shout from behind him.

"Who are you? What do you do?"