Jiazhu of the Red Chamber

It is said that Wen Xin and Jia Zhu rested separately. Early the next morning, Jia Zhu took a few servants to the mansion courtyard as before, and went out of the gate of Rongguo Mansion and turned to the street. Passers-by were in a hurry, and the young men were all called to a stop, and the leader held a portrait for comparison.

Jia Zhu and the others were also stopped, and Zhang Fu hurried forward to report his family name. The leader glanced up and down at Jia Zhu, and then said arrogantly: "It turns out that he is the eldest son Jia of the Rongguo Mansion, so he can speak his name." No, you don’t need to check it, it’s annoying!”

Zhang Fu hurriedly nodded and bowed to thank the leader, and hurriedly took Jia Zhu and others to the mansion, and said to Jia Zhu when he reached the gate of the mansion: "I don't know who committed a major event, but even dispatched the emperor's guards." , ordered the servants who followed Jia Zhu to say: "Do your duty these few days, don't go out and cause trouble, if bad luck happens, no one will be able to protect you."

Jia Zhu just heard Shui Rong talk about the factional disputes in the imperial court yesterday. Since Jia's family is involved in the succession of the throne, it is inevitable that people will stare at him. Zhu Ting's provocation against him is a precedent. They will only gain the limelight in words, but these young men are different. If they are targeted, they may suffer physical pain, and maybe their lives. Thinking of this, Jia Zhu said: "Brother Zhang is right, You just wait at the gate of the mansion, stay with the servants of Prince Beijing's family, and we will go back to the mansion after school."

Seeing Jia Zhu's seriousness, several people naturally agreed.

Jia Zhu entered the school, and seeing Wu Zhaoqi in the back row looking up at him, he had something on his mind, so he forced a smile as a greeting, then walked to the front row and sat down, until Li Shouzhong began to give lectures, Shui Rong didn't show up, Jia Zhu thought In a hurry, I reluctantly listened for a while, and was really worried, so I wrote a note and passed it to Hou Shun'an in the back row, asking him if he knew the whereabouts of Shui Rong.

Not long after, Jia Zhu received a note from Hou Shun'an, with two large characters written on it: I don't know.

Jia Zhu had no choice but to go through this class, and took Li Fu and others to the Beijing Palace after bleeding. The gatekeepers of the Palace told the prince that he was called into the palace by the emperor last night, and he has not returned yet.The doorman asked Jia Zhu to enter the mansion to wait, but Jia Zhu refused, took his leave and left. When he got to the street, he saw that there were more imperial soldiers than in the morning.

He was lost in thought on the horse, but he didn't notice that the horse stopped suddenly. He took a closer look, and it turned out that Wu Zhaoqi's master and servant were coming towards him. Wu Zhaoqi's servant relationship is not bad, so he stopped to say hello to each other.Jia Zhu wanted to return home after a few perfunctory words, but Wu Zhaoqi had already got off the horse, handed the horse over to the servant, and was looking up at Jia Zhu on the horse.

Jia Zhu had no choice but to get off the horse and heard Wu Zhaoqi say, "Your gift is too expensive, but I really like it. There is some money here. You can see if it is enough." After speaking, he took out a stack of silver notes and handed it to Jia Zhu.

Jia Zhu stared at him dumbfounded, Wu Zhaoqi saw that he didn't reach out to take it, so he had to take his hand, put the bank note in his hand and said, "Thank you."

Jia Zhu hurriedly pushed his hand away and said, "What do you mean by this? What is an ivory carving worth? You and I were classmates, and it's common to give each other things." "

Unexpectedly, Wu Zhaoqi was stronger and pushed forward suddenly. Jia Zhu took two steps back and almost fell down. Wu Zhaoqi took his arm and said, "I never exchange things with others. I will buy you this thing." .”

After speaking, he forcibly held Jia Zhu's hand, and before Jia Zhu could push it back, he got on his horse and left.

Jia Zhu froze on the spot, he couldn't laugh or cry, he never thought that someone would be so fussy, Cai Song took the bank note out of his hand, gasped, and shouted: "He is really generous!"

Wu Zhaoqi actually left behind a 1000 tael bank note!

Zhang Fu and others also came over, and several people stared at the bank note for a long time to discuss, but they couldn't agree on anything. Why, Jia Zhu took the bank note from Cai Song's hand and said, "Do you know where his house is?" place?"

Cai Song hurriedly said: "Naturally, his young servant Miao Yun is the most noisy person, and he explained clearly the eighteen generations of his ancestors on the first day."

Jia Zhu asked Zhang Fu to take the others back first, and took Cai Song alone to Wu Zhaoqi's house.

When he arrived at the place, Jia Zhu found that Wu Zhaoqi's mansion was actually not far from Rongguo Mansion. In an alley two streets away, the dark gate was closed tightly. After Cai Song knocked on the door for a long time, Miao Yun came to open the door. Seeing that it was Jia Zhu and Cai Song, they were overjoyed and let them into the living room.

This is a courtyard with two entrances. The gate is facing the living room. One side room is a stable and the other is a utility room. The identity of the son does not match.

Jia Zhu was puzzled, but she saw Wu Zhaoqi standing at the door of the hall, staring at him inexplicably.

Miao Yun took the tea and left with Caisong. Only Jia Zhu and Wu Zhaoqi were left in the living room. Jia Zhu took a sip of tea and praised: "It's really good tea, but it's Pu'er from Zhenyuan County?"

Wu Zhaoqi nodded and said, "Exactly."

Jia Zhu said with a smile: "I have nothing else to do here today. I heard that the Pu'er tea in your house is the most authentic. It just so happened that my grandmother is getting old and wants to drink some Pu'er tea, so I came here to ask for some. I hope Brother Wu will let me have some."

Wu Zhaoqi stared at Jia Zhu for a while, Jia Zhu didn't care, and looked back at him with a smile. After a while, Wu Zhaoqi looked away and said: "Pu'er is not a precious tea, and the Pu'er in my house is also the same as that in the tea shop. There is no difference between them, but I am used to drinking this tea since I was a child, so I will regard it as a treasure. If you want it, you can buy it all over the street, so why ask for it from me. If you come here to fight for storage, I can Let me tell you bluntly, we do not help each other in Lingnan, whether it is the first prince or the second prince succeeding to the throne, it has nothing to do with us."

Jia Zhu was stunned and said, "Why do you think so?"

Wu Zhaoqi said frankly: "No matter who I tell, this is my position. You can tell King Beijing when you go back. Although I did not get along with the eldest prince, it was just a private matter when I was young, and I will not help the second prince because of it."

Jia Zhu didn't want to be misinterpreted by his good intentions, and explained: "Since you look at me like this, how can I not be interested. To tell you the truth, this tooth carving was given to me by my uncle to play with. I thought it was from Lingnan." , I just gave it to you. It was not a valuable thing, just a few dozen taels of silver. You said so, I should have taken it back, so as not to continue to misunderstand and hurt the peace, but seeing that you really like it, I don’t care about doing it. After finishing this business, just give me 50 taels of silver, why give me 1000 taels." After speaking, he slapped the 1000 taels of silver on the table, and never looked at Wu Zhaoqi again.

Wu Zhaoqi took out the ivory carving from his waist and put it gently on the table, said: "If it is an ordinary ivory carving, it is only worth a few dozen taels of silver. Only this ivory carving was carved by Bao Tiancheng in the past when he was favored by an old lady when he traveled to the south of the Five Ridges. The ivory carving was given to the old lady, and the Lingnan people all said it was just a legend, because no one had seen it before. When you handed it to me that day, I recognized it as one of them."

Jia Zhu didn't know there was such a connection, so he said puzzled, "Although Bao Tiancheng is famous, there are many things that have been handed down from generation to generation, and they are not worth so much money."

Wu Zhaoqi touched the patterns on the ivory carvings and said: "Naturally, but most of his carvings are on rhinoceros horns, and there are not many carvings on ivory. Rare things are more expensive, so naturally the price is also high."

Jia Zhu said clearly, "So that's how it is."

Wu Zhaoqi said: "Yes, so I don't know if the 1000 taels of silver is enough. If you think it's too little, you can take it back."

Jia Zhu said with a smile: "You and I are haggling here like a businessman in the market. So I accepted this bank note, but I also told Brother Wu, I have another tooth carving, I Although he is not a businessman, but my uncle is a businessman, I often hear him say that a complete set of things is worthless if you take them out alone, you need to complete them. If Brother Wu wants to collect these two ivory carvings, I am afraid it will cost a hundred times more That's all right." After speaking, he picked up the bank note from the table, cupped his hands and said, "Farewell!"