Around the first watch of the weather, the city of Guangzhou was already completely silent. Since the "Kun Army" entered the city, the originally relaxed night ban has been tightened again. The Australian government offices have posted notices all over the city, which clearly stipulate that all people will be removed from the city after the watch. Anyone holding a road guide is not allowed to walk on the street at night.
As soon as the sun went down, the detective team, led by several "police officers", patrolled everywhere and urged the "street watchers" to close the street gates. Residents and shops on both sides of the main streets also received orders from Paijia. After nightfall, Hang a lantern outside the door. The lights were dim and swaying under the eaves. Under the dim light, you can see large printed notices of peace and security posted on the walls at each street intersection.
Gallows that the citizens of Guangzhou had never seen before were erected at the main road intersections in the city. Several corpses were hung on them, slowly shaking in the weak light of lanterns. There was a paper sign hanging around his neck, with charges such as "robber" and "theft" written in ink. The prisoners who were caught were hung up overnight.
For the citizens of Guangzhou, these days are uneasy. However, since entering the city, Fubo's army has been very disciplined and Qiu has made no mistakes, which left a deep impression on them. On the second day after the city was destroyed, the market had generally recovered.
However, in accordance with the traditional concept of going out less and showing less during the time of war, every household turned off the lights and went to bed. In this silent night, the lights were still on in the deep courtyard of a house in the west of the city.
The windows and doors were hung tightly with bamboo curtains, leaving only a dim light, but the hall was brightly lit. A middle-aged man was leaning on the rosewood couch in the room. He was very rich-looking, and because he was living in the inner house, he was dressed very casually, wearing a Western cloth robe, a mesh gauze on his head, and a pair of Chenqiao straw sandals with purple damask trim. He leaned on the large Nanjing satin pillow, holding Xiang Fei's cigarette rod with a bamboo-Han jade tip in his hand, and smoked silently, the blue and white smoke floating in the air. Just like his thoughts, he was wandering and didn't know where to go.
One of the two maids stood behind him, and the other knelt in front of him, gently beating his legs and squeezing his shoulders. However, this didn't seem to make him feel comfortable. On the small Japanese lacquered table in front of him were various kinds of exquisite "guoguo". But it didn't seem to move at all. The Hangzhou Mingqian tea that only cost several taels of silver to buy was completely cold in the tea cup.
A man dressed as a master sat diagonally opposite, looking at him with some fear. This is the first time I have encountered that my Dong Weng is "helpless".
On the table between them, there was a notice, the ink color of the paper was still new. It can be seen that it didn't take long to put it on. The secular Song script on it indicates where it comes from: an Australian recently arrived in the city.
"Master, it's late at night, tomorrow..." The master probably felt that too much time had passed, and couldn't help but break the silence in the room.
The middle-aged man called "Master" is Mo Rongxin, the director of Wenlan Academy.
The notice was sent by Shi Tidi, the accountant of his college. Although Shi Tidi was the accountant of Wenlan College, he was actually Mo Rongxin's personal friend. Mo Rongxin does not go to the school on weekdays, and all the school's property revenue and expenditure are handled by this master historian. Naturally, besides Mr. Mo, he is the most concerned about the income and expenditure of Wenlan Academy's property - not only does he receive a salary of one hundred and twenty taels of silver per year. Various expenses and rebates can amount to five or six hundred taels a year. This is a huge fortune!
Today, more than a dozen shop owners on Chengxuan Street who had rented the Wenlan Academy facade came to him with this notice: The Australians have posted notices everywhere, giving them twelve hours to demolish the shacks on Chengxuan Street.
Although it is said to be a shack, what these few people built is no longer a "shack". It's almost like a "house". Not to mention that it cost a lot of money to build, but after it was demolished, the store space was much smaller, making it inconvenient to do business. Many money-making items and goods had to be found elsewhere. The shopkeepers had no idea and came to the landlord one after another to ask for a solution.
Naturally, Shi Tidi had nothing to think about, and it would be difficult to make things difficult in the past. You can take your boss's film and go to the county or government office to have a "talk" with the clerk or the master, and spend a little money to solve the problem. Now that he has changed his official position, he has lost all the tricks he was familiar with. I don’t even know where the Yamen door opens. In a panic, he had no choice but to come to Mo Rongxin to find a solution.
"What can we do? There's nothing we can do!" Mo Rongxin puffed out a puff of smoke and put the smoke aside. When he turned sideways to stand up, the girl beside him quickly held his arm and used all her strength to help him stand up.
Mo Rongxin took a big sip of herbal tea and sighed: "Now the Australians have just entered the city, and Mr. Liu is a new official. What are you trying to stop them from doing? That's courting death! Go tell them that you want to hang yourself. They'll go alone tomorrow. I won't come to support them!"
Shi Tidi laughed twice and said: "The master is right. However, there are many shops in the academy on Chengxuan Street. If the shacks are demolished, the loss will be considerable. If there is a way to turn things around, let's deal with it. They are willing to spend some money.”
"They are willing, but I am not willing yet." Mo Rongxin said, "Now the bandits are worried that no one will jump out to step in and kill people to establish their authority. Whoever wants to have such a face can do it!"
Shi Tidi was not willing to let go of the opportunity to get benefits, and continued to persuade: "Master, should I discuss this matter with Master Gao of Guandi Temple?"
This is Morong's most powerful "killer weapon" for novices. When he encountered major crises several times, he always relied on the troops of Guandi Temple to intervene. Although this has earned the reputation of being a "beggar's relative", the benefits are not small.
"It's easy for you to think!" Mo Rongxin said, "The thieves are not fools. As soon as the Guandi Temple people come out, they will immediately think that we are causing trouble. They can't deal with the Guandi Temple people. Isn't it easy to deal with us?"
"So..." Shi Tidi was a little disappointed - seeing that he couldn't get this "thank you money".
"Go tell the shopkeepers: Stop looking for new ways and just demolish it by yourself. At least you can recover some of your capital. Tomorrow when those gang of shady government officials do it, there won't be even a brick left. It's getting late. Now, you can rest here one night and go early tomorrow morning. Go ahead."
Seeing that his boss had issued an order to expel guests, Shi Tidi had no choice but to stand up and excuse himself. Mo Rongxin suddenly thought of something and asked, "How are you doing in the academy lately?"
"These Tiankun thieves have entered the city, and the mountain chief and students have not come to the academy. The students living in the academy are still quiet."
"Go and watch the cook, you know what you are eating and getting. The food in the academy is almost like pig food. From tomorrow on, the food will be meaty every day - not just get some bones." If the chicken rack is boiled, it will be regarded as meat, but the chicken, duck and fish must be whole! You have to take care of enough rice! Do you understand me?!"
"Yes, yes." Shi Tidi was startled. He was also involved in the deprivation of food.
"Don't let a small thing make a big mistake. How can those sour people be easy to deal with? If you mess around like this, they will already be full of complaints." Mo Rongxin calmly shook his fan and decided to "click" him today. Ichiban said, "Now that an Australian is the emperor, I have to prevent them from taking the opportunity to cause trouble. When the time comes, I won't know anything..."
Shi Tidi quickly said: "Students know. We will make arrangements when we get back tomorrow."
In another courtyard in the same mansion, Mo Rongxin's fifth daughter-in-law, Gao Huichun, was sitting alone in her room embroidering. She is a young woman in her twenties and has been married to the Mo family for five years. Before dinner today, I heard the girl come over and say that the fifth master had something to do tonight, so he was staying out in the study and was not allowed to wait for him to go to bed. Although she had no expression at the time, she felt very unhappy in her heart. She knew that her husband was resting in a girl's room again.
Each of the rich and powerful officials had several wives. Even the beggar leader among the beggars commanded by her father also had several wives. Not only did her father have more than a dozen women around him, he often went out on the flower boat to have fun and stayed up all night.
When she got engaged to the Mo family, although she was happy that she could marry into a "scholarly family", she felt a little unhappy when she heard that her future husband already had a maid.
At the beginning of their marriage, they were quite loving. However, as time passed, especially after she never gave birth to an heir, her husband's love gradually weakened, and the days he spent resting in her room became fewer and fewer. If it weren't for her father-in-law's concern for her father's face, the couple would have had a falling out, which would have been detrimental to their relationship, and forced her son to spend the night in her room every few days. Maybe two or three days a month would be good.
If she didn't come back tonight, she immediately understood in her heart: He had some excuse to spend time with the maid he had recently hooked up with.
In this so-called "student family", the father-in-law Mo Rongxin himself is a greedy and lustful person. He always keeps four or five maids who are thirteen years old for his pleasure; several sons are not inferior to their father, and all of them are There were a group of wives and concubines, visiting the palace and boating... Although her husband was the fifth son of a concubine and had no status in the family, he still had several maids in the room.
As the wife of the wife, she was unwilling to reveal her "little secret" about this matter in front of the maid, but she couldn't get rid of the pain in her heart. She thought: "It's so hard to be a woman." , something like this has already happened before a person gets old and loses her luster!" Even talking to the maids and listening to the blind girl singing did not alleviate the pain in her heart.
It was already waking up outside. She put down her embroidery work and listened to the sad banging sound outside. Thinking of her own experience and all the experiences she had experienced in this big family in the past five years, it was so full of flavors that her eyes felt sour and she almost dropped her eyes. Tears come.
But she didn't dare to sigh, and even swallowed her sobs, lest she be heard by those close to her and the maids, which would cause more trouble. (To be continued.)
