get married first, fall in love later

Qian Xiaobao laughed lightly and said, "Why not?"

"Ah? You really opened this inn?"

"The purpose of going out this time is to inspect industries in various places. What's the surprise?"

"Then you give back the bank notes?"

"This lady doesn't know something," Qian Xiaobao said with a light smile, "First, it's only natural to pay for staying in a hotel, and this way the accounts will be clearer; Tian, ​​what's the matter?"

Ouyang Xi nodded when he heard the words: This is quite reasonable, but there is an old saying that sellers of jewelry are reluctant to wear gold and silver, which means that those who sell things are always reluctant to spend their own good things on themselves , but hope that it can be sold for a better price.There are only three rooms in this presidential suite, and everyone is scrambling for it. The rent can't be lowered anyway. Isn't it a waste to live by yourself?It's better to free it up and give it to others, and you can earn a lot of money.Thinking of this, Ouyang Xi suddenly couldn't sit still, pulled Qian Xiaobao beside him and walked towards the door.

Qian Xiaobao had already been dragged to the gate after a moment of hesitation. She stopped in confusion and pulled Ouyang Xi's wrist and asked, "You don't sleep at night, what are you doing here?"

Ouyang Xi answered neatly: "Change room!"

Qian Xiaobao was a little puzzled: "Why? Is it not good here?"

"It's because it's so good that we shouldn't live there."

"But..." What is the reason for this, shouldn't good things be reserved for oneself to enjoy?

"What else, let's go." At this moment, Ouyang Xi did not know where a brute force came from, and he dragged Qian Xiaobao's sleeve and walked more than ten meters away.The two of them talked and walked like this, and while chatting, they unexpectedly walked out of the small courtyard surrounded by wooden fences, and stood beside the gravel road leading to the underground passage.While they were in a stalemate, there was a sudden noise in the small courtyard next to them, as if someone was arguing.

Ouyang Xi suddenly forgot what he was doing, and looked curiously at the yard not far away, and sure enough, he saw two people facing away from them in the middle of the yard illuminated by lanterns all around as if it were daytime talking about something.Judging from the appearance and dress, it should be a man and a woman. The man is the waiter in the inn at first glance, and the woman is undoubtedly the tenant of this "Presidential Suite".As a service industry, how can this staff quarrel with customers in the street?Ouyang Xi suddenly felt a sense of being a housewife: No, this kind of service attitude is not smashing his own brand!

I was thinking miscellaneously in my heart, but I walked into the small courtyard unconsciously under my feet. As soon as I approached, I heard the voice of the waiter in the shop very aggrieved: "Girl, if you really don't have enough money, why not change to an ordinary room..."

But before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by a crisp female voice: "Is that kind of guest room occupied by people?"

The waiter said again: "But...but...you have already owed two days' food and rent..."

When Ouyang Xi heard this, he became a little annoyed: it turned out that he was eating the overlord's meal!Speaking of which, I have always hated such pretentious people the most. Since you have no money, you can spend it leisurely. You have to eat well and live well, but in the end, you have to renege on your bills without money. What kind of spectrum is this? Son?

At that moment, I didn't know where the courage came from, so I took two steps and stood in front of the two of them, and said loudly: "It's really strange, you can be so confident in owing someone money, it's the first time I've seen you!"

The girl who reprimanded her had alarmed others when she saw her, and when she remembered that she was indeed wronged, her face blushed immediately, and she defended a little guilty: "I... I didn't do it on purpose!"

"That's intentional?!"

Ouyang Xi replied very fluently, and then turned her head to look at the girl: the woman in front of her was wearing a red blouse, a navy blue skirt under the fringe, and a milky white waist that was half a palm wide. Covered at the waist, it perfectly outlines a graceful figure with narrow hips and thin waist.Judging from the fabric and workmanship of the clothes, she should be a wealthy lady from a well-to-do family, but she has a neutral dress that is both male and female. Even her hairstyle is not the style women like to comb nowadays, but like Qian Xiaobao , standing high on the top of the head, with a somewhat high-profile brass crown studded with gemstones, and the matching hair is as silky as a waterfall and as black as carbon.

Seeing Ouyang Xi staring at her non-stop, the girl raised the slightly heroic eyebrows on Guaziqiao's face, and continued a little dissatisfied: "I have lived here for some time, but I have never owed money." Yes, if it wasn't for the money bag being stolen by that angry thief on the street the day before yesterday, I wouldn't have..." Speaking of this, I probably thought of the shame of being stolen in the street, and gritted my teeth and stomped my feet a little angrily: "Wait I found the thief, and I will make him look good!"

Oh, it turned out that the wallet was stolen, so I had no money to pay the bill.Ouyang Xi thought about this and looked him up again, muttering in his heart: Yes, how could such a beautiful girl renege on her debts?Sure enough, there are difficulties!

Seeing that Ouyang Xi was no longer aggressive and embarrassing her, the girl felt relieved, and immediately turned her head to look at the waiter in the shop, and said in a soft voice, "Just let me go for two more days, and then I will pay double the money... ..."

Xiaoer is also very speechless: Xiucai can't explain why he meets soldiers.The person who opened the shop just happened to meet someone who has no money. If you don’t have money, you have no money. If you have such a hot temper, you can’t drive people away. If you don’t have money, you will inevitably be scolded by the shopkeeper later.

Seeing that the shop waiter didn't respond to her words at all, the girl just stared at her with an uncompromising look, then gritted her teeth and stomped her feet again: "That's all! Miss Ben is not an unreasonable person." While speaking , took out a jade pendant from his bosom and put it in front of his eyes, and said: "This is a family heirloom of my family. If it is exchanged for silver and lived here for a year or so, it will be no problem. I will mortgage it to you today to temporarily buy the house." Money. But you have to make an agreement first, you have to help me keep this jade pendant carefully, and I will definitely redeem it in the future."

Besides, the waiter in the shop is just a servant after all, he has never seen anything in the world, and he doesn't know if the jade is really as valuable as the girl in front of him said. , but it was difficult to decide whether to accept the girl's proposal for a while.

As a senior man, Ouyang Xi has never been immune to beautiful girls.Seeing the girl staring at her family's ancestral jade pendant with distress and reluctance now, I really can't bear it. I struggled a lot in my heart, and finally gritted my teeth and decided to help her.

So, no matter how you say this, not only in modern times, but even back in ancient times, it was still an age of looking at faces!

Immediately stepped forward and asked, "Uh, well, how much does she owe?"

When the waiter in the shop heard it, his heart suddenly became excited: There is a door!Looking at Ouyang Xi's attire again, it's a standard wealthy family. Don't the children of this kind of rich family like to do things to help each other in the face of injustice? !He didn't dare to hesitate at the moment, and hurriedly said: "The rent is ten taels, and the meal is two taels."

Ouyang Xi quietly calculated in his heart: Twelve taels in modern times is about 1 yuan. Damn, Qian Xiaobao's house is really a presidential suite, and it costs more than 5000 yuan a night.Besides, the food cost, how much does a girl have to eat to earn 2000 yuan? !

In this way, she felt a little pained, but when she looked up at the girl's expectant face, she couldn't say no to it, so she just lowered her head and fumbled for a small amount from her small purse helplessly. Reluctantly handing the bank note to the waiter in the shop, he said, "Here, I will pay for her."

When the girl saw the bank note, her eyes lit up, she snatched back the jade pendant from the second-hand shop, and turned her head to hand it to Ouyang Xi: "Then let me mortgage it to you first, and I will double redeem it when I have money. How about it?"

Ouyang Xi took it over and took a closer look. The jade pendant was emerald green and soft in color, and it felt slightly cool in the palm of the hand, making it extremely comfortable.And at the center of the jade, there is a hollowed-out coiled dragon being carved. The workmanship is exquisite and the carving is exquisite, and even the thin dragon whiskers can be seen very clearly.This jade accessory seems to be a good thing, but she has never researched it before, and she can't figure out how much it is worth. Just as she lowered her head to estimate, Qian Xiaobao walked up to her side quietly, Bei picked up the red string of Shuanyu lightly with his fingertips, shook it in front of his eyes and said: "Well, the top-quality Lantian jade, the lady's deal is worth it." After finishing speaking, he put away the jade pendant and glanced at Ouyang Xi: "What are you doing in a daze? Give me money."

Ouyang Xi glared at her: "Why do you charge me for something?"

Qian Xiaobao said: "Didn't you hear this girl say that the ransom will be doubled in the future? I just keep it for you temporarily, and I will return it in the end. You can accept the double ransom when the time comes."

Ouyang Xi thought about it, that was the case, then turned to look at Qian Xiaobao and asked, "How much?"

"Give as much as you have."

What?I have a lot of money, did you give it all?Is she worth so much?Ouyang Xi looked at Qian Xiaobao suspiciously, but the other party gave her a reassuring smile and said firmly, "Trust me, you won't lose money."

Ouyang Xi bowed his head and counted the banknotes in the money bag, there were almost 150 taels left.She looked up at Qian Xiaobao again, gritted her teeth, turned her back to everyone, and took out two large-denomination banknotes worth 500 taels from the hidden inner pocket of her jacket. They were still stored separately, and they turned around and handed them to the girl together with the money in the purse: "A total of 150 taels, all for you!"

Qian Xiaobao looked at Ouyang Xi's pained expression with a funny face, turned to the waiter in the shop and said: "Brother, from now on, all the expenses of this girl will be charged to my account!"

The waiter in the store got the right words, and immediately smiled, holding the bank note that Ouyang Xi had given him before, bowed to the three of them, and exited the yard respectfully.

Seeing that the matter had been resolved, Qian Xiaobao immediately turned around and pulled Ouyang Xi up to return to his room.Seeing that they were about to leave, the girl hurried forward with her arms open to stop them: "Wait!"

Ouyang Xi looked at her with some doubts: "You, don't you think you have less money?"

"No, no," the girl waved her hands, and then, as if thinking of something, she clasped her fists and said, "My name is Jiang Qingxiao, do you dare to ask the two Gao's names?"

When Qian Xiaobao heard her words, a look of surprise flashed across his face, but he quickly regained his composure.He lightly raised his hand and made a bow and said: "It's not a big name, I'm giving Qian Xiaobao."

Not to be outdone, Ouyang Xi also readily reported his family name: "My name is Ouyang Xi."

"Mr. Qian, Miss Ouyang, I dare to ask where you live. When I find the money bag in the future, I will definitely redeem the jade pendant as soon as possible."

Ouyang Xi looked at Qian Xiaobao with some embarrassment: They are not locals, so they can't tell them the address of Yongshan County. After they inspect the property and return home, they will ask them to go all the way to redeem the jade pendant, right?

Qian Xiaobao didn't seem to be troubled by this at all, looked at Jiang Qingxiao and said very calmly: "We live in the yard next to the girl, and when the girl finds the purse, she can come and redeem the jade pendant at any time."

"Oh, that's really great. Since we live so close, it will be much more convenient for me to redeem the jade pendant then."

Qian Xiaobao nodded with a chuckle when he heard the words, pulled Ouyang Xi aside and said: "It's getting late, so I won't disturb the girl's rest." After speaking, he took Ouyang Xi's hand out of the yard, and returned to his own Room.

Jiang Qingxiao, who stayed where he was, watched the two disappear, and sighed slightly in his heart: Hey, it seems that there are really many good people in this Jianghu.Then I changed my mind: No, living next door means that they are not locals. In this case, they can check out at any time?If that's the case, where can I go to redeem the jade pendant?Immediately he raised his foot and wanted to go forward to ask again, but just took two steps but took back his steps, thought for a while and shook his head to give up: it is indeed getting late, it is really inappropriate to go to disturb others at this moment, since that Mr. Qian said so, so he must stay here for a few more days, and he will get the money bag back as soon as possible to redeem the jade pendant before they leave, won't it be enough?

Thinking of this, I felt relieved immediately, turned around and hummed a little song, and went to the room to rest.

Pulled by Qian Xiaobao, Ouyang Xi was still thinking about what happened just now.At one moment, I felt that it was strange for such a beautiful young girl like Jiang Qingxiao to live alone in an inn. At another moment, I was afraid that the jade pendant I received would not be worth the money I gave. The deal ended up losing money.It wasn't until Qian Xiaobao patted Qian Xiaobao on the shoulder when she returned to the room and sat down on the chair that she regained her senses. She looked around the room she was in, and suddenly remembered the purpose of taking Qian Xiaobao out just now.At the moment, he said with some displeasure: "Why are you back here again?"

"It's time to rest, if we don't come back here, should we sleep outside?"

"I didn't mean that." Ouyang Xi was very dissatisfied with her behavior, "Didn't you say you want to change the room?"

Qian Xiaobao smiled lightly when he heard the words: "Is there anything dissatisfied about this place, my lady?"

"No."

"Then why insist on changing?"

"Leave the good ones to others, so we can make money, right? Let's just live in an ordinary room, wouldn't it be fine?"

Qian Xiaobao looked at her dumbfounded: "Young lady, you don't have to be so obsessed with money, do you?"

When Ouyang Xi heard this, he didn't want to: "Why am I so rich? Listen to me and let me do the math for you. The room we live in costs five taels of silver a night, but ordinary rooms only cost four to five hundred cash, or even Others only cost [-] Wen. If we rent this room to others, then we earn [-] taels and spend [-] Wen. In this way, we can earn [-] taels plus [-] Wen. But if we live in a good room, Ordinary renting out, we earn one hundred taels and spend five taels. In this case, we still lose four taels plus nine hundred taels. This addition and subtraction is a difference of ninety-two and eight hundred taels, which is basically equivalent to ten taels of silver. OK?"

Qian Xiaobao listened to her counting the accounts one by one, feeling very helpless in his heart: "Miss, don't you need to calculate so carefully?"

"How can you live a good life without counting?"

I've never counted. Isn't I still living a good life now?Qian Xiaobao complained slightly, then turned to look at her and said, "Let's not talk about whether the lady's accounts are calculated correctly, but the money earned is to be spent instead of being held in the palm of the hand every day, isn't it?"

"Can……"

"Besides," Qian Xiaobao interrupted her, and continued: "Since the shopkeeper arranged for us to live in, this room is empty today. Since it is empty, it is better for us to live in than to let it go to waste Bar?"

That's true, Ouyang Xi nodded in agreement, and then thought that if Jiang Qingxiao's jade pendant was really priceless, he would have made a good fortune today, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to live in a good room and reward him , I felt relieved.

Qian Xiaobao saw a smile in the corner of her eyes unconsciously, and knew that he had succeeded in persuading her, so he took a step forward and said, "Okay, you are tired after a long day of traveling, go take a bath and relax, so you can rest early."

"Did they bring the bath water?"

Qian Xiaobao nodded: "Just now when you were 'heroes saving the beauty', I saw them carrying them in."

"Ah, shouldn't it be cold?" Ouyang Xi glared at her: "Didn't you say it earlier?" Before Qian Xiaobao could answer, he had already rushed to the bathroom beside him.

Qian Xiaobao looked at her running away and shook his head helplessly, turned around and sat on the stool, took a sip from the teacup at hand, and then softly called to the door: "Si, come in .”

The door opened at the sound, Qian Si turned around and closed the door, then walked to Qian Xiaobao's side and saluted, "Master."

"Well," Qian Xiaobao nodded lightly: "How's the investigation going?"

"Indeed, as the young master expected, the manor was recently built, and many courtyards inside have not been repaired. The location of the whole manor is probably in the center of Fushou Village, accounting for more than half of the entire village. The layout and decoration are very luxurious, and it is estimated that a lot of money has been invested. There are only some repair workers and some servants who look like maids cleaning in the courtyard, and there is no figure in charge."

"Whose mansion is it?"

"The subordinates found our spies in Jiangzhou and learned that the house belongs to Lord Wang, the magistrate of Jiangzhou."

"Master Zhifu?" Qian Xiaobao asked with some surprise: "Isn't his residence supposed to be in Jiangzhou City? When did it move to Nafushou Village?"

"It hasn't been moved, Lord Wang's mansion in Jiangzhou City still exists."

"That's privately built other courtyards? There are clear regulations in Shengmu's law that officials from all over the country are not allowed to build private houses except for official houses specially approved by the imperial court, let alone such a large scale. He is not afraid that someone will sue When he arrives in the capital, the Ministry of Criminal Justice will dismiss him and investigate him according to the law?"

"According to the spy's news, the magistrate seems to have a great backer in the court."

"Who is it?"

Qian Si shook his head: "The subordinates are incompetent, so they didn't find out."

Qian Xiaobao said: "I don't blame you. The spies we planted in Jiangzhou City have been here for such a long time. It is not easy to get this information after you only checked for a day. Moreover, it is not you who collect information. Director." After speaking, he looked at him as if thinking of something and asked, "By the way, is there any news from Qian Er?"

Hearing this, Qian Si lowered his head and took out a delicate bamboo tube as thick as a thumb from his sleeve, held it in both hands and handed it forward: "I just went to the shopkeeper before I came, and the news just arrived yesterday."

Qian Xiaobao nodded lightly, took the bamboo tube and opened it, took out the note inside and read it, then lighted it up in the oil lamp beside him, and said: "The weather in the capital is still calm, it seems that Huai Jun took my words Listen to it."

"Do you need to give Qian a second reply?"

"Just say we're fine."

Qian Si hesitated for a while, then stepped forward and asked, "Can you tell Qian Er to investigate the backer of the prefect in the court?"

Qian Xiaobao lowered his head to think carefully, then looked up at him again and replied: "We won't stay in Jiangzhou for too long, and it may take a few days for the flying pigeons to pass the letters back and forth, so I guess it's too late. I met someone by accident, maybe she can help us find out all the news we want, so let's not spend so much money on money."

"Yes."

Qian Xiaobao asked again: "Have you found anything else?"

"The subordinate found out that it was very strange."

"Oh? Let's hear it."

"According to the news given by the spies, it seems that the taxes in Jiangzhou City have not increased in the past two years. The common people often scramble to praise the prefect's management, and he is a rare good official."

Qian Xiaobao smiled with great interest when he heard the words: "This is quite interesting." After he finished speaking, he lowered his head and thought about it carefully, and asked: "Ah Si, if I remember correctly, this magistrate should be the new governor two years ago. Did you transfer here shortly after you ascended the throne?"

"The young master is right."

"In this way, Lord Wang must have something to do with a certain force in the new dynasty." Qian Xiaobao took a sip from his teacup, looked through Qian Si's eyes and looked into the distance for a moment, before thinking again. Looking at the person in front of him, he ordered: "Tomorrow, you can go to a few more nearby villages to check and see if, besides Fushou Village, any other villages have increased their taxes in the past two years?"

"Yes." Qian Si responded respectfully.

"Also, help me find another person. This person's name is Jiang Qingxiao. If I remember correctly, she should be the eldest lady in Jiang Shamen. You go and find out why she lives alone in Jiangzhou Inn."

Qian Si nodded again, bowed his head and waited for a while, seeing that Qian Xiaobao had not given any other orders, he raised his head and asked, "Does the young master have any other orders?"

Qian Xiaobao heard the sound of rushing water in the next room had stopped, thinking that Ouyang Xi was changing clothes after washing, so he looked at Qian Si and said, "Okay, that's all. It's getting late, you go back early after a day's work." Let's rest in the room."

Qian Si nodded in agreement again, turned around and walked out of the room quickly.