A few days later, Zhangji opened for business.
A colorful building was erected in front of the shop, with servants standing on the left and right, and the shop assistants were busy.
Zhang Shi, wearing new clothes, stood in front of the door and clasped his fists to the visitors from all directions: "Please come in!"
"What kind of wind brought you here, Xu Dutou?"
"Although there is no wine, the food is enough."
"Official Zhou is gone, come back again!"
"Third brother, go get a firecracker and set it off!"
Zhang Yue picked up the incense and lit a bunch of firecrackers as he was told.
But hearing the banging sound, the children on the left and right covered their ears and laughed to avoid it.
"Third brother, these firecrackers are really good! They're loud enough!" Zhang Shi sighed, "When the shop was burned down, I thought my life was over. I didn't expect that I could still stand here again."
Zhang Yue glanced back at the full restaurant and said, "Brother, there are not enough seats!"
"What are you afraid of? Are we afraid of too many people when we open a store?" Zhang Shi's face was full of joy, "Call a few of your close classmates to come and show your support."
"That's not necessary."
"Shop! Shop!"
Zhang Yue said: "Brother, a table of guests is calling you."
Zhang Shi and Zhang Yue walked into the restaurant with uneasy expressions on their faces. They saw several pot-bellied men sitting at the table, each of them holding a pair of chopsticks holding greasy meat and said, "How come your pork is so delicious? How can you give us some?" You must eat mutton! Don’t lie to us!”
Zhang Shi laughed loudly and said: "Where can I get mutton? It's just pork. You can do it if you like it."
"Okay, a few brothers and I will come here often from now on."
"Thank you very much. I'll offer you a cup of tea instead of wine, and give you a dish of roasted eggplant." Zhang Shi immediately touched the tea cup to the other party.
“The store owner is really nice.”
The person at the table next to me said: "Staff, your cooking is really good! The chef invited by Bianjing must be here!"
Zhang Shi laughed and said: "No way, they are all from our own family."
"Look at how fragrant this oil is, I don't have to say that I will come to take care of your business from time to time."
"Thank you very much!"
Zhang Shi finished his work here, but saw that there was already a queue at the door of the store, and someone shouted.
"How can you be so docile! You are in such a hurry!"
"If we are not allowed in to eat, we will starve to death."
"Aren't you driving the guests away?"
The waiter greeted outside: "Sorry, sorry everyone, our store is full, please come back another day!"
"No!"
"No!"
The people who were cursing just now refused immediately.
Zhang Shi was busy for most of the day and finally sat in the back kitchen unable to move. However, he saw that people were still coming in and out of the back kitchen of the food shop, and there was a booming smell everywhere.
"Brother, it's time for our store to close, but there are still customers waiting outside?" Zhang Yueyan said.
Zhang Shi said: "Then open the door again. No matter how late it is, we have to wait until the guests are full and drunk. Tell the guys that today's wages will be tripled."
Zhang Yue shook his head and said: "Brother, if you continue like this, I'm afraid the shop will not have much profit..."
"I'm happy..." Zhang Shi interrupted Zhang Yue's words and wiped his tears with his hands, "Brother, I'm so happy today. Do you know how I've lived this year?"
The two brothers were sitting side by side in the back kitchen, and next to their ears could be heard the sound of cooking spatulas in the room.
"Do you know how angry I was, brother, when I came to visit you a few days ago? I blame myself for being useless. I can't even keep my two younger brothers. I just watched you go with others."
"Brother, stop talking, I haven't left yet." Zhang Yue said.
"No, I also want to say that I used to focus on my second brother's education, so that I can support our family and we can leap over the dragon's gate. Now I realize that I was wrong. I was very wrong. It is better to rely on myself than relying on others. . If you don’t live up to your expectations, even if the officials support you, you can’t stand up. Now that I finally have this shop, I have given my brother the confidence to stand up. I want to run this shop well so that you can study and go to Beijing to take the imperial examination in the future. , won the top prize."
Zhang Yue was not very moved after hearing this, but said: "Brother, I am an economics student. I can't pass the Jinshi exam, let alone the number one scholar."
"I said I'll hit it!"
Zhang Yue thought to himself, brother, you must be drunk! But you didn’t drink!
"Third brother, I know you take everything to heart, just like your second brother. You don't have to force yourself to do what you want because of someone else's words? What should we do? What should we do? People look down on us, so let's not hate them. When he becomes successful and prosperous in the future, people will know that he is wrong. That is when he can truly strive for success, for himself and for his family, do you know that?"
"Got it." Zhang Yue looked at the red flames under the pot and nodded silently.
"Brother, don't worry, I will defend this family for you!"
…
Summer passes and autumn comes, and winter comes again in a blink of an eye.
It has snowed in Pucheng for several days, and the houses and treetops were all covered with a layer of snow powder.
As one of the four powerful families in Pucheng, the Wu Mansion's residence is not as grand as their mansion in Bianjing, but it is more spacious and covers an extremely large area.
More than fifty acres of land, diverted water to form a lake, a scene of its own. The original cost of building this pond was more than a thousand dollars.
There was a thin layer of ice on the pond today.
The servants of the Wu Mansion were very busy. Some swept the snow on the stone paths in the courtyard, and some used ladders to brush away the snow on the green tiles. Some of them were swept away and some were left behind, which added to the artistic conception.
Two girls were walking under the eaves. One was wearing a lake-green shirt and the other was wearing a moon-white dress. Although it was snowing, they only had a jacket on them. From a distance, they looked like they had stepped off a painting of a lady. The people are average.
"It seems like there is a guest in the house today?" the girl in a lake green shirt asked.
The girl in a moon-white dress said: "Brother, today I'm inviting classmates from the county school to a banquet in the mansion."
The girl in the lake green shirt pursed her lips and smiled and said: "Young Master is so nice and okay. Why don't you attend the summer classes in the capital to prepare for the exam next year?"
The girl in the moonlight dress said: "My uncle and father are here in Beijing. He feels uncomfortable all over. Besides, my brother has no ambition here. Let's go to the study to read."
After walking for a while, I suddenly felt that the other party didn't seem to be following me.
The girl couldn't help but stop and turned around and asked, "What's wrong?"
After a moment of silence, she seemed to hear the young man's cheerful chatter and laughter, coming from far away from the lake.
"It's nothing." The girl in a lake green shirt covered her chest with her cheeks reddened, and there was an indescribable smile on her face.
"You, you!" the other party scolded with an annoyed smile, "How about being seen by a servant?"
"What you, you? So what?" the woman in a green shirt asked slyly.
The other party said seriously: "Before the wedding, the daughter of the county's custodian met a childhood sweetheart, but her fiancé was bumped into by a husband from your Zhang family, so that she ran away from the marriage and was humiliated!"
"Is there such a thing as running away from marriage? What will happen to the family if this person runs away from marriage? It's really pitiful. This uncle is really too. How can there be such a narrow-minded person?"
"Seventeenth Mother, don't go! I'm just joking, don't take it seriously!" the man in the green shirt persuaded.
The moon-white woman turned her head, and a smile suddenly appeared on her stern face: "Who said I took it seriously? Let's go read a book."
The two walked side by side.
"Seventeenth Mother?"
"Um?"
"You had such a beautiful smile just now. The ice and snow have just melted, and the country has been captivated. But it's such a pity... It's a pity that no other handsome man saw it except me. Do you think it's a pity or not?"
"See if I don't twist your mouth."
The two women chased each other, blue and green dresses flying across the corridor.
After getting out of the eaves, they each held up their umbrellas and walked straight towards the study.
When they arrived in front of the study, they patted their umbrellas on the stone steps, and then each helped the other to brush off the snow powder before entering the study.
"I've met the Seventeenth Mother!"
"Sister Zhang and I will go up there. Could someone please come in?" Seventeenth Mother ordered.
"Yes, Seventeenth Mother."
Looking north from the library, you can catch a glimpse of the lake. You can also see dozens of scholars on the waterside pavilion beside the lake raising their glasses, singing, talking about poetry and having fun.
The woman in a moon-white dress was looking for a book among the bookshelves. She looked up, but the gauze window screen was gently fluttering, and the woman in a lake-green dress was leaning on the railing to look out.
She couldn't help but curl her lips and said: "What should you do if you are seen like this?"
"So what if you see her, it will make you miss her for a while, isn't it good?" The other party said with a chuckle.
"But with your family background, how can your father betroth you to these county scholars?"
"So what if I can't get married? Dad didn't forbid me, so I can't watch it, right? Besides, isn't the eldest man a student at the county school?"
"I can't explain your clever mouth. I'm going to read a book."
The woman in a lake green shirt came back and said with a smile: "Don't say anything about me. Is it because you don't like me?"
"When did I say this?"
"Hey, you don't say it with your mouth, but you say it in your heart."
"Think about it, your eldest brother is marrying Fan Zhen's daughter, and your second brother is marrying Wang Anshi's daughter... There are only two of us here, so what if we don't avoid names... Having said that, although your Wu family is not good at marrying A little, but it’s a good marriage.”
"The eldest sister married Ouyang Fa, the son of Ouyang Xiu, the second sister married Lu Xijian, the grandson of Lu Yijian, and the third sister married Xia Boqing, the grandson of Xia Song. The fourth sister married the best, Wen Jifu, the sixth son of the prime minister Wen Yanbo. , now it’s your turn, if you want to marry better than your fourth sister, you have to be the prime minister in the future.”
After saying this, the woman in a lake green shirt burst out laughing.
But seeing that the other party didn't speak, the book at hand was turning page by page with the wind.
"I am a concubine, how can I compare to my elder sisters? Even my name is not allowed to be included in the family tree." Seventeenth Mother said lightly, her expression was cold when she said this.
While he was talking, he suddenly heard a sound coming from downstairs.
"This young man, you can't come in, even if you have the older man's note, you can't come in."
"This old man, I have been promised by you, I have some spare money here. How about treating you to a bowl of tea?"
Hearing this, the two women couldn't help but smile at each other.
"It's not about tea, it's not about tea...but...I can't tell the truth anyway."
"My father-in-law, I am Zhang Yue, a good friend of Da Langjun. Please don't make it difficult for Da Langjun to look like this."
The two of them leaned against the window and listened, their voices gradually getting quieter.
"Let's listen."
The woman in the lake green shirt pulled Shi Qi Niang to the east corner and looked down, only to see a young man of thirteen or fourteen years old, wearing a blue robe that was not old yet, stuffing money into the library guard.
The guard kept resisting and said: "I can't do it, I can't do it."
But I saw that although the boy was young, he could be said to be tall and tall, but his clothes were a bit ordinary. In the snowy weather, the other party didn't even have an umbrella to cover him, and there was some snow powder on his eyebrows at this moment.
