The Young Master of the Coal Miner

Who would have expected that a frail and sickly Kun Ze would be an eyeliner?

As early as when Xue Lin was still a bandit, Ming Lan became his eyeliner in Jinning City, collecting information from all sides for him.

Wang Lao Er was speechless immediately, rubbing the back of his head, hesitatingly defended: "You can't blame me, brother, it is also rumored that elder brother has a friend in Annan Pavilion."

He took it for granted.

It's not that Xue Lin didn't hear this kind of gossip. In the past, he was deaf to these gossips from the outside world, and even felt that with this layer of cover, intelligence exchanges would be safer.But now I don't know why it feels a little harsh.

Although Xue Yanluo was sullen, he still went to the appointment.

In the evening, the slightly drunk sunset glow dyed half of the river red, and the lights at both ends of the river bank were scattered.

Xue Lin boarded the flower boat, lifted the curtains and entered the cabin.

Minglan had already asked the little girl to prepare the dishes, and she was pushed out of the cabin. When she saw someone coming, she called out: "Brother Xue."

Xue Lin nodded, sat down at the table, and asked, "How are you doing recently?"

Ming Lan said: "Thanks to Brother Xue's concern, he has been fine recently."

The two looked at each other speechlessly, but it was Xue Lin who spoke first: "Why did you think of asking me to come here?"

"Minglan hasn't seen Big Brother Xue for more than half a month."

Those words sounded like coquettish complaints to the ears of others, but it had a different meaning to Xue Lin's ears.

Minglan has new and important information in the past half a month.

Minglan took Xue Lin's arm with one hand, and, using the cover of the table, handed the stack of booklets in her cuff to Xue Lin's hand.

Xue Lin took it silently and stuffed it into his pocket.

From the outside, it looked like two people were holding hands.

"These days are busy..."

"I'm busy having dinner with the young master of the He family."

There was a smile on Ming Lan's slightly pale face, and her tone seemed to be jealous, but her eyes were full of ridicule: "Who doesn't know that Boss Xue visited He's house so often that he couldn't make an appointment with Young Master He for a meal?" ah?"

Xue Lin has always been thick-skinned, but when Minglan stepped on her painful foot, she still frowned: "In this case, it will be inconvenient for me to come to Annan Pavilion in the future."

Ming Lan's bright eyes were slightly curved, she never expected that the dignified Xue Yanluo would now learn to "clean himself".

The evening wind blew up the gauze curtain beside the cabin, Ming Lan sat in front of the window and played the piano, Xue Lin sat at the table drinking tea, he never touched the wine in Annan Pavilion, and before the music was over, he called the boatman to the shore, Ready to go home.

The strings in Ming Lan's hand paused, and she continued to play the piano with a calm expression.

The flower boat approached the shore, and as soon as Xue Lin got out of the cabin, the servants guarding the shore brought his horse over. Boss Xue got on the horse and left without looking back.

Minglan leaned on the wooden railing of the flower boat to watch people leave, and the little girl beside him was holding the piano for him, looking at Minglan worriedly, for fear that he would be sad.

The cool evening wind made Ming Lan's face turn pale, and even her brows were slightly frowned, which was a bit sad.

The two watched Xue Lin leave, and they had no reason to stay on the flower boat, and returned to Annan Pavilion early.

-

Butler He Er has been very busy these past few days. Master He took the butler to the Shanghai stock market the day before yesterday. It is said that a batch of silk in the Shanghai stock market has gone wrong and needs to be dealt with quickly.

The big and small affairs inside and outside the mansion can only be taken care of by He Er, the housekeeper. There is still Mrs. He in charge of the backyard in the He mansion. Bite the bullet and take care of it first.

Unfortunately, in time for the change of seasons, the cloth of Hejiabuzhuang needed to be liquidated, so housekeeper He Er had no choice but to rush to the shop non-stop with the ledger.

Hejiabuzhuang not only sells foreign cloth, but also homemade cloth.In the early days, before the opening of ports in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, all the cloth shops were homemade cloth. However, when the cheap but strong foreign cloth from foreigners began to circulate, the original homemade cloth market was constantly squeezed.

Mr. He founded an industry with Mr. Zhang in Nantong and introduced machinery. The He family's fabrics are also popular among the people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang because of the word "domestic products".

It’s just that the farmers and workshops that originally produced homespun cloth have lost their livelihoods, and the young and strong can still find a way to survive. Some old people only know how to spin and weave cloth all their lives, and rely on selling homemade cloth to support their families.Once the homespun business was cut off, the life of the poor became even more difficult.

Master He saw that some old people really had no way out, so he asked his cloth shop to continue to buy homemade cloth and sell it at a lower price than foreign cloth.

Even so, there are still piles of homespun cloth in the warehouse.

Shopkeeper Yang of Buzhuang looked at the loss-making transactions in the ledger, only felt heartache, and suggested to Mr. He with a bitter face: "The money lost in Tubu almost catches up with the profit of Buzhuang in half a year."

But Master He didn't nod.

When the second housekeeper arrived at the cloth shop, shopkeeper Yang had asked Xiao Er to take out the overstocked homespun cloth in the warehouse to dry in the sun.

Although some homespun cloths have not been received for a long time, they are prone to moisture and moths when they are backlogged in the warehouse, and they need to be turned over and dried in the sun.

"Second housekeeper, look, all the homemade cloth in the warehouse is here." Shopkeeper Yang was counting the piles of cloth in the yard, when he looked up, he saw the second housekeeper He who came in a hurry.

It was also the first time for the eldest girl to handle the cloth of the cloth shop in the sedan chair. Looking at the piles of homemade cloth in front of her, she touched the melon skin hat with one hand and asked, "Brother Yang, how did you handle these cloths in the past?"

"In previous years, the leftover homemade cloth was re-selected according to the color and material, and then bought at a low price to farmers, mostly for autumn and winter clothing."

Shopkeeper Yang smiled wryly: "However, you also know, Second Steward, that the dealers in the entire Jinning City can't eat this batch of goods, so they can only stock up year after year."

Housekeeper He Er looked at the earthen cloth in front of him, and touched it with his hands. The undyed cotton cloth was slightly yellowed, and the yarn and coarse cloth were thick, so the clothes made of them were indeed not as comfortable as foreign cloth.

"Let's follow the method of previous years first."

Except for homemade cloth, other fabrics in the cloth shop are selling well, especially silk.

Not only wealthy families in the city will buy light silk clothes in midsummer, but even foreigners from outside also admire this cool fabric and will order a batch from Mr. He.

Shopkeeper Yang led Housekeeper He Er to stroll around the warehouse of the cloth shop. He held a long bunch of copper keys in his hand, and opened the warehouse doors one by one.

Shopkeeper Yang handed a thick booklet to Steward He Er: "Second Steward, this is the account book for recording cloth inventory."

Housekeeper He Er opened the booklet, looked at the data inside, listened to shopkeeper Yang's introduction of the fabrics to be moved out, and was distracted by the counting when the assistant carried them.For a while, I was dizzy.

At dusk, all the cloth was finally counted.The guy who carried it was sweating profusely, and the second butler and shopkeeper Yang were also hungry.

Shopkeeper Yang proposed to be the host himself, and invited housekeeper He Er to have a meal in the restaurant.

On weekdays, he always dealt with Butler He Da, and if he met Butler He Er, the celebrity in front of his wife, he naturally couldn't let it go easily this time.

He also wanted to ask Housekeeper He Er to say a few good words for him in front of Mrs. He, who in Jinning City doesn't know that Mr. He is famous for his strict wife management?

Housekeeper He Er didn't know his intentions, looked at the two account books in hand, thinking that he would have to go back to reconcile the accounts later, so he politely refused: "The affairs of the house are now handled by the madam alone, and I have to rush back to take care of the accounts. Madame will share one or two."

Shopkeeper Yang saw him waving his hand, so he had no choice but to give up.

The two parted ways, and shopkeeper Yang had no intention of going to the restaurant, only thinking about going home for dinner.

Back in his house, shopkeeper Yang saw that his mother-in-law hadn't prepared dinner yet, and she was nowhere to be seen when she went to the kitchen.

Shopkeeper Yang was wondering, so he found someone in the back room.

"Why haven't you prepared dinner yet?"

Second Sister Wang was nestling on the bed and counting the silver, when she heard this question, she jumped up in fright, the silver in her hands scattered on the bed, some fell to the ground.

Shopkeeper Yang stepped forward to pick up the silver on the ground, looked at the silver in hand, and asked, "Where did this money come from?"

On weekdays, he gave his wife household money. If there was not enough money, his wife would ask him for it.Naturally, he could recognize the silver taels in his hands.

Second Sister Wang hurriedly picked up the money on the bed quilt: "Yes... it's private money..."

Shopkeeper Yang only glanced at the silver on the bed, and recognized that it was a brand new silver ingot taken out of the bank. How could it be the old wife's private money saved little by little.

"Not honestly?!"

Seeing that she couldn't hide it from her husband, Second Sister Wang had no choice but to tell the truth: "This is the money I got as a matchmaker..."

Shopkeeper Yang still frowned and stared at her with disbelief clearly in his eyes.

"This matter, I have to start from the day when I went to find Liu's matchmaker, and wanted to find our Yinger's husband's family..."

The second sister Wang told her husband about the marriage worth three large yellow croakers.

Three large yellow croakers, 20 taels of silver, the young master of the He family...

Shopkeeper Yang's mind went blank when he heard this, and he was in a daze, no wonder Xue Yanluo came to the He family.

Seeing this, Second Sister Wang took the opportunity to snatch back the silver in his hand, and held it in her own hand.

When shopkeeper Yang came back to his senses, he was already leaning limply in front of the bed, the clothes behind his back were drenched in cold sweat: "Do you know that if the He family finds out about this, I will lose my position as shopkeeper!"

Shopkeeper Yang worked as a clerk in Hejiabuzhuang when he was young, and climbed all the way to the position of shopkeeper. If Master He fired him because of his stupid wife, where would he find work at his age?

Second Sister Wang didn't care, and just fiddled with the money in her hand: "Only our family knows about this, and our family keeps their mouths shut. Who would have known that I was the one who introduced Young Master He to the Xue family?"

Shopkeeper Yang thought for a moment, and didn't say anything more, but repeatedly told his wife not to bring this matter up with the third person.

At this moment, Second Sister Wang put all her thoughts on the 20 taels of silver in hand, and she nodded perfunctorily when she heard her husband talking about it, but it is not known whether she will keep these words in her heart.

Shopkeeper Yang on the other end is angry about his own wife, but housekeeper He Er on the other end has already returned to He Mansion with the account books.

Mrs. He was preparing dinner in the dining room, when she saw the housekeeper He Er came back, she asked, "Is the matter of the cloth village going well?"

"Mrs., everything is going well in the cloth shop, but just like in previous years, there is a backlog of unsold homemade cloth in the warehouse." Housekeeper He Er hurriedly answered with his hands clasped.

Mrs. He has heard about Tubu losing money year after year from the master.

But after all, it was a business matter, and Mrs. He herself couldn't make up her mind, so she just said that she would wait until the master came back to make a decision.

The author says:

I'm afraid that some readers will misunderstand, so let me explain here, the attack and the suffering are both first love and double cleanliness!