Chapter 28: CH 28

According to Servant Li, this young lady is fierce normally. She had a dispute with the craftsman who cut corners when repairing the shop. She stood alone and was having a verbal fight with three big men without blinking. She was so stunned that the other party reduced their wages and apologized.

How is it possible that the matter of a few clothes can make her tearful eyes whirl? Maybe the last time she cried for a letter of divorce with tears, she found that it was useful under the attack of tears, so she repeated the old trick?

So Cui Xingzhou deliberately dragged a long tone and said, “Forget it, it’s too troublesome…”

Miantang stopped mentioning it. Her eyes were quickly filled with tears, but she tried hard to suppress them. She continue to massage his leg for a moment, but when she lowered her head, the tears were tactically wandering around her eyes but just couldn’t fall off. It gives off a pitiful look which makes it annoying.

Cui Xingzhou endured for a while, and suddenly felt that he was so childish to make her cry on such small things, so he opened his mouth and changed his system or practice, and said, “If you don’t mind the trouble of washing, I’ll let Mo Ru bring two boxes of clothes back, which is also convenient to change here…”

His words immediately made the weeping young lady burst into a smile through tears, and eagerly attentive squeezed his shoulder for him. Then she asked, “I can prepare some specialties for your neighbors, but what can I prepare for your mentor? Should I accompany you to go to the Chess House to give gifts in person, which is the act of consideration?”

Cui Xingzhou is getting more and more familiar with lying these days, but it is not absurd enough to build a Chess House to make up his lie.

So Miantang deliberately wanted to follow him, and he replied without blinking his eyes, “My teacher’s wife gets jealous easily. She usually doesn’t allow my teacher to talk to other women. If you go, it won’t be so nice… The chessboard you bought is good, so let’s make that a gift for my teacher.”

The chessboard mentioned by Cui Xingzhou is the chessboard of lanolin jade that Miantang bought with three silver money.

Hearing what he said, Miantang was stunned and hesitated, “But… I bought it for you…”

But Cui Xingzhou knew that how can this gift a thing she bought? It was clearly given to her by the rebel Lu Wen. If she knew this, she should make a clean break with the anti-bandit. If she keep this chessboard, wouldn’t it become evidence that proves that she hasn’t completely cut off ties with Lu Wen? If that’s the case, how can he be lenient to her in the future then?

Because Miantang didn’t seem willing, he said gently, “In this case, there’s no need to prepare a gift for my teacher. Other objects are too vulgar…”

Upon hearing this, Miantang felt that her husband’s words were reasonable. The other gifts she prepared are not very impressive. Since it’s her husband’s respected teacher, he must have a high vision. This chessboard is just right for the gift.

And this chessboard is made of fake jade, which is not suitable for her husband. Now that she has made money, she wants to buy a better one for her husband.

But she liked the chessboard and wanted to see how her husband twirled the white jade chess pieces. So she put on her shoes to the ground, took the chessboard to the small table, and said to Cui Jiu, “Since you want to give it to your mentor, you might as well use it once to see if your mentor can use it easily?”

Cui Xingzhou smiled, “You know how to play chess?”

Miantang remembered the last time she watched the game at the chess table at the gate of the Academy. She blinked and said, “I didn’t know much at my house before I got married, but later I seemed to know some, I can’t remember clearly…”

Since she can play, Cui Xing is bored and happy to kill time with the woman in the next game.

To be honest, the white jade chessboard is exquisite, which makes the wrist and forearm of Miantang that arrange the chessmen white and shining. Her fingertips seem to glow slightly too.

Prince Huaiyang was not blind. Naturally, he couldn’t turn a blind eye to the beautiful scenery of jade masonry in front of him, so he just putters along with the chess pieces one by one.

As a result, without a cup of tea, Miantang hesitated and said, “Husband, do you think I won the match?”

Prince Huaiyang stared, speechless, and nodded after a while. Liu Miantang won the chess game within a few steps.

Seeing her husband nodding, Miantang chuckled and said shyly, “Why did you go easy on me? Well, you should give your best in the next round, it will also make me improve my skills and become better!”

But her husband seemed to have no intention of talking and laughing. The corners of his mouth pursed slightly, and he only silently picked up the pieces, ready to start another game.

This time, it was Cui Xingzhou who started the game by placing a chess piece. He arranges and sets traps, just like arranging troops.

Miantang place her chess pieces by intuition, but with every next step, she felt that there was a lot of danger around her and had to think carefully. When she looked at his expressionless husband who was staring at the chessboard, her heart of admiration was even stronger.

Her husband is really a Master of chess!

This game lasted a little longer. Miantang missed a move and reluctantly lost to her husband. But she still felt happy. Her husband is a Master of refined chess. Isn’t it normal that she can’t win?

But her husband seemed unhappy even when he won the chess. Did he lose his interest because she played badly?

Now, after getting along with Cui Jiu for a long time, Miantang can naturally recognize when he’s smiling from the bottom of his heart and when he is giving civility and an unfamiliar smile.

So she put away the pieces and packed the chessboard, and asked, “Are you not happy?”

Cui Jiu hooked up the corner of his mouth, “No, just thinking that you play the chess so skillfully contrived, I wonder who you learned it from?”

Liu Miantang’s chess skills are in the same vein as the anti-bandit who calls himself Ziyu. So it’s not difficult to imagine that when the woman was on the mountain, she also accompanied the anti-bandit to play chess and massage his legs, killing the time…

This was quite different from the weak girl he had thought of being treated recklessly by mountain bandits.

That day, her husband Cui Jiu seemed to be in a bad mood. When he went out, Miantang could only eagerly attentive tell her husband to remember to come home for dinner when the Chess House lesson was not tight.

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When Cui Xingzhou left North Street and returned to the Military Camp, his mood calmed down a little.

These days, he dispatched troops to the State of Qing in the name of assisting, but in fact, he placed troops on garrison duty in the State of Qing, and he learned many previously unknown secrets.

For example, there are many despotic gentries secretly supporting the anti-bandit in Yangshan.

The Emperor ascend the throne in his youth, and the great politics in the court is controlled by the former highest-ranking Imperial Concubine Xi, the Empress Dowager of the Madonna of Wan’an today.

When Queen Zhou was abolished, Crown Prince Liu Dan died, and the former powerful Zhou family collapsed overnight. The Yang family, the father of the highest-ranking Imperial Concubine Xi, took the place, and the power inclines to the court and commonality.

The Yang family pursues the way of greed and restraint and changes the national policy of the former Emperor to recuperate and build up strength. Over the years, there have been heavy taxes and levies. Recently, there has been a land re-distribute method, which points to the local despotic gentry which is obvious that they are letting them get some benefits out of it.

The land reform law elsewhere has long been implemented. However, due to the famine in the State of Zhen, the unexpected bandits, and the growing force of the rebels, several court officials who came to implement the land re-distribute were killed on the pipeline.

So the change here was put on hold and no one mentioned it again.

Now that he thinks about it, the reason why those anti-bandits who make trouble in the local areas remain prosperous is related to those despotic gentries who don’t want to reform the tax system!

It’s just that Lu Wen is now utterly routed and needs to stick with Commander Shi for the offer of amnesty and enlistment to rebels. He wonders what name those despotic gentries are going to set up to resist the tax reform of the Yang family in Court?

The Yang family couldn’t collect the tax money from the State of Zhen, but they had found another way long ago.

A distant relative of the Yang family opened a very large bank which is called the Tongli Bank.

Tongli Bank is spread all over the counties of the Yan Counties, and the Yang family is the biggest boss of this Bank.

Generally, the taxes collected by the County Yamen in various places, in addition to being deposited in the Yamen Treasury, are also partly deposited in the Tongli Bank for the Yang family’s face. That Bank is an expert in making money. If it is deposited into his family, there is indeed a lot of profit. The money that makes his businesses prosper.

At first, to ease the relationship between the State of Zhen and the Yang family in the Court. Cui Xingzhou, like local officials, deposits a large amount of money in the Tongli Bank every year.

This year should have been the same. When he joined the army to submit the tax for the State of Zhen fief this year, Cui Xingzhou originally delivered most of the tax money to the Tongli Bank for interest according to the practice of previous years.

But after he thought for a while, he paused again.

Even an ignorant young woman like Lady Liu knows the principle that eggs can’t be put in a basket. Now the relationship between the State of Zhen and the small Court is subtle. Once it turns over, the money is likely to be withheld.

Thinking of this, he pondered for a while, learned Liu Miantang’s method, left the local expenditure for this year, and most of the rest were escorted to the Treasury in the State of Zhen Prefecture which was left empty for a long time. As for the tax money from previous years, it should also be withdrawn monthly.

As for the excuses, they are all ready-made, he is about to marry his cousin Lian Binglan, and there are many places for The Prince to spend money for his wedding! It is only reasonable to transfer a large amount of money under the pretext of extravagance.

For a time, both the “husband and wife” in North Street felt anxiety in their hearts for money.

But what Miantang has to worry about is quite simple. After Mr. Chen’s colored porcelain plates were sold, there were abundant running accounts in the store, and the whole store also exuded a calm and elegant atmosphere.

Miantang hired a craftsman to repair the curtain with money, and there was a separate elegant room in the shop. With such a display of rich peonies and celadon vases, distinguished guests can calmly drink tea, eat fruits and enjoy the top-grade porcelain of their Jade Porcelain Workshop on the silk brocade-wrapped group chair.

Miantang has bought many porcelains that have their representativeness in Lingquan Town these days, and the grade of the store has suddenly increased.

It was also when the shop upgraded a level up that she learned that there was a Porcelain Chamber of Commerce in the town. Only those famous porcelain shops can join the club in the town.

Most of the shops opened by outsiders that are similar to the Jade Porcelain Workshop closed after only a few months, and naturally, they could not reach the threshold of the Porcelain Chamber of Commerce.

Now, seeing the jade porcelain being paved up, the gilded invitation to join the association was naturally sent to Miantang’s shop and placed at the counter.

Gui Sheng, the assistant in the shop, has worked in other porcelain workshops before, which is also half an old profession. Naturally, he understands the gold content of this invitation. Now he congratulates his Lady Boss and can be regarded as a firm foothold in Lingquan Town.

Miantang was also happy, and naturally took this matter of joining the Porcelain Chamber of Commerce very seriously. On the day of the Porcelain Chamber of Commerce’s incense burning ceremony on the first day of the month, Miantang got up early and asked Servant Li to boil water, bathe and change clothes. She changed into a newly made silk skirt, and thinly applied the box of fragrant powder given to her by her husband. After she tidied up from head to toes, she then solemnly went out.

The Porcelain Chamber of Commerce in Lingquan Town is provided by the He family, the number one famous long-established shop in Lingquan.

As the long-established store or brand of the royal court, the He family has wealth that speaks louder than others and is fully reinforced, and other porcelain shops in Lingquan town cannot match it.

As a new firm, the first thing Miantang did when she joined the Porcelain Chamber of Commerce was naturally to meet the Second Master of the He family.

The Second Master is forty-seven years old this year, in his prime. It was said that he was the one who received the Imperial Concubine Xi when she entered the porcelain workshop.

The Second Master heard that the Jade Porcelain Shop came to pay a visit to the President of the Porcelain Chamber of Commerce, so he looked up, but he didn’t expect that the head of the Jade Porcelain Shop was a young woman who is less than 20 years old.

She’s indeed a beauty but letting a young lady attend… They’re not taking the Porcelain Chamber of Commerce seriously!

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