Wu Shigong quickly welcomed Sun Chengxiu, who seemed to have lost his soul, into the hall and sat down. As soon as he sat down, Sun Chengxiu began to sob. Seeing this, Wu Shigong quickly asked Xiuzhu to go out to make tea and drove Xiuzhu out. After all, for Sun Chengxiu, Xiuzhu
Zhu is an outsider. Letting outsiders see Sun Chengxiu's current gaffe will hurt Sun Chengxiu's face. Wu Shigong knelt down in front of Sun Chengxiu, held Sun Chengxiu's hand tightly with his own hands, expressing his comfort and waited.
Sun Chengxiu calmed down.
After a while, Sun Chengxiu stopped crying and said to Wu Shigong: "Brother Wu Xian, seeing that you are fine now, I feel relieved and have no worries in the capital." After pondering for a while, he felt a little worried.
Embarrassed, I continued: "Brother, I am penniless now and my future is bleak. Today I have the audacity to go to my virtuous brother to borrow some travel expenses to return home."
Wu Shigong hurriedly waved his hand to interrupt Sun Chengxiu's words and said, "We'll talk about it later. I'll get you some money first."
Wu Shigong walked into his bedroom, and Xiuzhu sat obediently on his little bed. Of course she understood that Wu Shigong asked her to make tea, not really to make tea, but to avoid it.
Wu Shigong asked Xiuzhu, "Master, how much money do I have now?" Wu Shigong didn't have much money every month, so he kept it here at Xiuzhu.
"Master, you only have a little more than one tael of silver now." Xiuzhu replied. Wu Shigong nodded. In the past, Wu Shigong basically bought books every month, and there was really not much left.
Wu Shigong then asked Xiuzhu: "Then how much private money have you hidden?"
"What are you doing?" Xiuzhu asked warily.
"Master, I need it urgently, please take it out quickly."
Xiuzhu reluctantly took out a small cloth bag from under her pillow. After opening it, she asked Wu Shigong: "Master, how much do you want?"
Xiuzhu was very reluctant to part with what he had saved through frugality.
"How many do you have there?" Wu Shigong's tone was a little impatient.
"Just over eighteen taels." Seeing Wu Shigong's face turned serious, Xiuzhu was a little reluctant to part with it, but he didn't dare to falsely report the number.
"Give me fifteen taels, young master, don't worry! Master, I will pay you back as soon as I have the money." Then, regardless of whether Xiuzhu agreed or not, he took out three small silver ingots of fifty taels from the small cloth bag in Xiuzhu's hand.
Went out.
Wu Shigong put a silver ingot in his arms, pushed the other two silver ingots into Sun Chengxiu's hand, and said: "Brother Yao also knows that my status in the mansion is not high and I don't have much silver. You can take these ten taels first."
Take it. Don’t mention whether you want to borrow it or not. It’s almost lunch time now. Let’s go! We brothers will find a pub to have a few glasses of wine and have a good chat.” Then, regardless of Sun Chengxiu’s attitude, he couldn’t help but say
He pulled him up and the two of them walked out the door.
The small courtyard where Wu Shigong lived was far away from the gate of Wu Mansion, so the two of them took a shortcut, passed through the slaves' residence, and walked out through the side door where the slaves walked. As they walked, the two of them talked: "Now, Yao Zhi
Where does brother live?"
"Borrowed an inn to stay temporarily."
…
At the gate of the Wu Mansion, two people were talking. One of them, a big man, took out two taels of silver from his arms and gave it to the other man, who was dressed as a servant of the Wu Mansion. He kept asking questions.
This big man's name was Xue Qiang, and he was one of the guards of Xue Lian, Marquis of Yangwu. After Xue Lian heard the news that Wu Shigong was knocked unconscious, he was very angry. However, the family background of the noble son who injured Wu Shigong and
The power is almost the same as his own, and it was Wu Shigong who made the move first, so he suffered a loss in theory, so he had no way to retaliate. He could only send one of his bodyguards to protect Wu Shigong. In addition, Xue Lian gave Xue Qiang a secret mission
, asking him to learn as much detail as possible about Wu Shigong's character and habits from Wu's residence.
After Xue Qiang was sent out, he was unwilling to do so. At that time, after Xue Lian's arrangements were explained, none of Xue Lian's guards were willing to work as nannies for Wu Shigong. Xue Qiang was unlucky and fell into the lottery.
This errand. And today, the news that Xue Qiang got from the servants of the Wu Mansion did not have a good word about Wu Shigong. He said that Wu Shigong was a nerd and didn't understand the world? Why did everyone in the Wu Mansion look down on him?
There was something scandalous about Wu Shigong. The big-mouthed slave was talking with great interest, foaming at the mouth.
After hearing this, Xue Qiang became even more reluctant. Suddenly he remembered that before he set off, one of the guards had given him a bad idea: as long as Wu Shigong was dissatisfied with Xue Qiang and drove him away, then
Shouldn't he stop doing this job? Just as he was thinking about what to do, suddenly, the servant of the Wu Mansion pointed at the backs of the two people who had walked to the corner of the street and shouted: "That is the Fourteenth Young Master, hurry up
Follow me." Xue Qiang immediately put aside the nagging slave, spread his legs, and chased after him.
Wu Shigong and Sun Chengxiu didn't realize that someone was chasing them behind them. They turned the corner and found a tavern. The waiter in the tavern took them to an empty table and sat down. Wu Shigong proudly stepped out of his arms.
He took out a silver ingot, slapped it heavily on the table, and told the waiter: "First serve two bottles of wine, and the dishes will be prepared according to the silver on the table."
The waiter's eyes lit up, and a big customer came. After answering happily, he went down to serve the dishes. Just when Wu Shigong was about to say something to Sun Chengxiu, suddenly a big sweaty man rushed in from the door of the tavern. He was out of breath.
Out of breath, he stared straight at Wu Shigong's table. Wu Shigong was startled, and after being stunned for a moment, he suddenly reacted and quickly stuffed the silver ingots on the table back into his arms.
The big man gasped and stammered a few words out of his mouth: "Aunt... uncle!"
"Uncle?" Some monks in Wu Shigong were confused because this title was still very unfamiliar to him. He glanced at Sun Chengxiu doubtfully and asked, "Did I call you? Are you married?"
Sun Chengxiu's face was also full of doubts. He was still a "child chicken" in his thirties. He asked Wu Shigong with some uncertainty: "Is that what I called you?"
"Oh!" Wu Shigong reacted immediately. It should be someone sent by his future father-in-law.
"Are you from the Xue Mansion? What do you want from me?" Wu Shigong asked the big man.
"The younger one's name is Xue Qiang. He was sent by the Marquis to protect my uncle." Sure enough, Wu Shigong nodded, and then heard, "My uncle should be more stable at home these two days and stop running around. Let's
These are difficult things to do as a servant."
"Huh?" After listening to Xue Qiang's next words, Wu Shigong felt unhappy for a while. When will slaves be able to teach their masters a lesson? But think about it, maybe it was not Xue Qiang's own initiative, but his future father-in-law's explanation.
, he suppressed the anger in his heart, waved to Xue Qiang and said: "I understand, then you can wait at the door of the tavern."
Seeing Xue Qiang leaving the door of the tavern, Wu Shigong turned to Sun Chengxiu and said mockingly: "When you are under the eaves, you have to bow your head!"
Sun Chengxiu smiled and expressed great sympathy and understanding.
"Regardless of those spoilers, brother Yao, let me ask you straight out, do you still want to continue the scientific examination?"
Sun Chengxiu let out a long sigh and said, "Of course I want to, but my current situation..." Then he spread his hands and made a helpless gesture.
"Since you want to, that's fine. From now until the provincial examination in the spring of next year, it will only take more than half a year. Once you grit your teeth, you can get through it. My brother, I only have this much money now, but it will only take more than ten days to become a
Marriage is better than now. Let’s put it this way, as long as I have a little brother to eat, I will never let you, Brother Yao, go hungry. You can take the scientific examination with peace of mind. Here, little brother, I will say crow
Well, even if it doesn't work this time, I think: It will be no problem for the Marquis Yangwu family to support you with one more Qingke. When the time comes, I will continue to work hard to take part in the next provincial examination. Otherwise, it will be a pity for brother Yao's talent.
"
After hearing Wu Shigong's words, Sun Chengxiu was very excited and wanted to stand up and give Wu Shigong a big gift. Wu Shigong quickly stood up and pushed Sun Chengxiu back to the chair and said: "We two brothers must not be separated for a long time. We were in the Imperial College at that time, and your brother Yao
He also helped me a lot and regarded me as a good friend. Now, little brother, I will do what I can, so don’t be too polite."
Sun Chengxiu trembled with lips, understanding that what Wu Shigong did was not just doing what he could, and felt very warm in his heart. He cupped his hands to Wu Shigong and said: "I can't thank you enough for my kindness, and I won't say much more as a brother.
"
The waiter quickly brought two bottles of wine, and the dishes were served very quickly. In just a moment, the dishes were piled all over the table. There were too many dishes. Wu Shigong quickly stopped the waiter and asked: "How many more dishes do we have on this table?"
How many dishes were not served?”
"There are about thirty more." Wu Shigong was speechless. He also had a modern thinking and miscalculated the price comparison of silver in the Ming Dynasty. He always thought that one tael of silver was equivalent to fifty yuan to one in modern times.
One hundred yuan, a drink in a tavern, five hundred yuan, even if it is more, it is not that much. Unexpectedly, the silver of the Ming Dynasty was indeed relatively valuable.
"Forget about the dishes that have already been cooked, and return the other dishes." Wu Shigong told the waiter.
"This?" The waiter looked embarrassed after listening to Wu Shigong's instructions.
Wu Shigong has a lot of experience in dealing with this situation in modern times.
"Let's do this. I'll give you a penny as a tip for the extra money, put the rest in the account, and ask the gentleman opposite to get the food in the future. How about that?"
"Sure." The waiter replied with a smile on his face and simply. If you can get such a big tip, what's the point of being dissatisfied?
Sun Chengxiu had already received too many favors from Wu Shigong today, and it didn't matter if he had one more favor, so he accepted it calmly. When the waiter left, Sun Chengxiu asked Wu Shigong curiously: "Brother Xian was a little taciturn before, but today I really give in to you."
Brother, are you a little surprised?"
Finally, someone noticed that his personality was a little different from before. It was Xiuzhu instead, because the two of them talked together every day, and Xiuzhu didn't have any special feelings. Wu Shigong also disagreed with Sun Chengxiu's questions, and said with a smile: "This time, my little brother's
I was kicked in the head and woke up from the kick. I felt that I was clinging to the hard life in the past. What’s the point? It’s better to get married peacefully and live the rich life.”
"In addition, little brother, I have an experience this time. As for that person, there are three types. The first type is raised with a golden key in his mouth, and he will be rich and prosperous for a lifetime. Our two brothers do not have such a good life; the second type is
We were born in a poor family and lived in poverty all our lives. The lives of our two brothers were not so bad. The third type is a balance between good and bad, which is the mean we have learned. This is the life of our two brothers. We were good in the first half of our lives.
Then the second half of your life will be bad. If you were bad in the first half of your life, then the second half of your life will be good. For example, I had a very bad life in Wu Mansion, but after I got married, I went to Xue Mansion to enjoy a wealthy life. And Brother Yao, you
What? Although I seem to have bad luck now, I will definitely be on a golden road in the future."
Sun Chengxiu nodded after hearing this, feeling very warm in his heart at his friend's comfort. So the two started drinking happily, and Sun Chengxiu, who had put his worries aside, indulged a little and got drunk.