"Of course you have to pay. Then teachers also have to eat and support their families. What's the point if you don't pay tuition?"
Hou Yao saw that the look in Xiong Yushi's eyes had dimmed obviously, and comforted him:
"Don't worry, you can definitely pay the tuition fee. Learn how to burn glass with me, and you will have a good life."
Wang gently poked the flesh on Xiong Yushi's waist:
"Old Xiong, you have to work hard for the sake of your children."
Xiong Yushi nodded:
"I know, I will do a good job..."
At this time, he suddenly felt that it would be good to stay on the island, at least the children could still read.
…
At the beginning of the year, Zhou’s grocery store in Hai County suddenly announced that it would be rebuilt.
Originally it was just a very plain news,
But in more than two months, a three-story wooden building with a height of more than ten meters was built here.
This building was very strange after it was built. No, it should be said to be very ugly, because all the windows had no lattice and were just large holes.
Just as people were talking about it, the whole building was suddenly blocked by four huge pieces of linen.
Now people are more curious and have deeper doubts about this building.
It's just that this building has been closed for more than a month, and no one knows what happened inside.
In early March, Zhou Shengguang, the shopkeeper of the Zhou family, sent out invitations to invite celebrities from the county to attend the opening ceremony of the building.
The invitation letter was even co-signed by County Magistrate Ren Hongcai.
I don’t know how a small grocery store owner can be so famous that even the county magistrate can hire him.
On the tenth day of March, the Zhou family's building was officially opened for business.
The time for uncovering is set at 2:00 p.m., which is around 9:30 p.m.
The people of Hai County who like to watch the excitement were waiting in front of the building before the time came.
At this time, the sun has risen high, and the golden sunshine is shining on the earth. The Zhou family's new building has been surrounded by people.
At the front of the building are several main officials of the county government, followed by the country gentry and wealthy businessmen, and then a group of scholars.
Seeing that the auspicious time was approaching, Zhang Carpenter, the most famous carpenter in the county, took his apprentice to the front of the building.
Zhou Sheng and Zhou Ming's father and son took Bian Lai and held him in their hands, standing in front of the building facing the street.
Master Li, a famous squire in Hai County and a teacher of the county school, shouted:
"The auspicious time has come to unveil the curtain——."
The crackling sound of firecrackers sounded suddenly.
Eight helpers stood around the building road, each with a hemp rope in his hand.
Eight hemp ropes were tied to the linen on the roof of the building and tied with a slip knot.
As long as eight people pull the rope at the same time, the knot will be untied and the building will appear perfectly in an instant.
The sound of firecrackers stopped suddenly, and eight people pulled the hemp rope at the same time.
There was a loud noise of ‘wow--’,
Four huge pieces of linen fell from the roof to the ground. Under the sunlight, the entire building glowed with dazzling golden light.
The golden light is so bright, like a huge light source, that it makes people unable to open their eyes.
The people had never seen such a scene before, and they all exclaimed.
"Wow——, this... is this... an immortal tower?"
"Immortal Tower... This must be the Immortal Tower..."
In fact, not only the ignorant people, but also the scholars, gentry and officials, who was not deeply shocked by the scene before them?
Not to mention outsiders, even the Zhou family and his son have never seen such a scene?
Ren Hongcai pulled Hou Yao's sleeve in panic:
"Jie...Jieqiu, you...why does your building emit golden light?"
When Hou Yao saw Ren Hongcai's panicked expression, he seemed to realize that he had overplayed his game. If he were to be passed down as a witchcraft by the people, his store would be destroyed.
"Sir, don't panic. These are just some anti-theft measures that were taken to prevent someone from sneaking into the building and snooping. We will remove them now."
With that said and a wave of his hand, the guys who had been trained in advance rushed into the building and put the mirrors in all the windows back to their merchandise positions.
At this point, the golden light disappeared, and people could clearly see the true face of the building.
All the originally empty windows of the entire building were inlaid with a completely transparent glass, so everything in the building could be seen clearly at a glance.
Everyone took a deep breath. What kind of building was this? It was clearly a golden mountain.
Master Li stared blankly at the building, forgetting to proceed with the next process for a moment.
Hou Yao pushed him and reminded:
"Teacher, the auspicious time is about to pass, and it's time to perform the hanging ceremony."
Master Li came back to his senses, glanced at Hou Yao apologetically, and said loudly:
"Jie Bian——, go upstairs——."
The crackling firecrackers soared into the sky again,
Ren Hongcai bowed his hands to the people around him, walked to the middle of the tablets held by Zhou Ming, Zhou Sheng and his son, took off the red cloth covering them, and said loudly:
"Please - Pai Bian - go upstairs -."
The guy upstairs who prepared in advance put down two ropes. Zhou Ming and Zhou Sheng tied the ropes to Bian, and let the guy upstairs pull Bian up.
The plaque with the words "Ming Zun Liulifang" was hung on the railing on the third floor.
Master Li shouted loudly:
"The ceremony is completed, the building is opened to welcome guests——."
The crowd immediately became commotion. Fortunately, there were many police officers at the Yamen, and they were able to suppress the rioting crowd.
Ren Hongcai led a group of squires into the building. There was a dazzling array of products in the building, including cups, lanterns, vases and various trinkets.
The most dazzling among them are various mirrors. These mirrors can directly reflect people's figures, which are much clearer and more beautiful than bronze mirrors.
All products at Liulicang are made of transparent glass. There is a label underneath each product with the price clearly written on it.
The cheapest ones cost more than ten taels of silver, and the most expensive ones cost hundreds or thousands of taels.
Whether they are officials or squires, scholars or common people,
Everyone was deeply shocked by these exquisite glass products.
Xiong Yushi disguised himself as a bearded man and hid in the crowd. Seeing his hard work for more than two months shocked the whole city with his own eyes, he felt extremely happy.
An unprecedented feeling of satisfaction reaches the tips of my hair:
Sorry, you fools, from now on, I will use this pile of sand to burn your last copper coin.
He glanced at the young scholar who was held in the middle of the crowd like a star, and said,
The hatred I felt when I was kidnapped is long gone, replaced by deep gratitude.
If it weren't for his guidance, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to make such exquisite glass in this life.
Moreover, he also changed the fate of his family. Life is no longer as difficult as before, and the children have begun to read and write.
This is simply a good life that I could never imagine before. We must protect this hard-won life.
Ren Hongcai walked around the store and chose two exquisite accessories. Hou Yao took the initiative and gave him a dressing mirror. Finally, he was satisfied.
I have to say that the last poetry meeting helped Hou Yao a lot. Otherwise, he not only met Ren Hongcai, but also became famous with his poems, earning him the reputation of a "little poet in Hai County".
Chen Zi'ang of the Tang Dynasty is known as the bone of poetry. His poems are passionate in meaning, high in style, and have the style of the Han and Wei dynasties.
He once wrote a famous saying through the ages: "I have never seen the ancients in the past, and I will never see the coming ones in the future. I think of the long journey of heaven and earth, and shed tears in sadness all day long."
This praise is certainly overdue for Hou Yao now, but who said that there is no one in Hai County?
Finally, a poet who can write famous poems has been born. Can he not be criticized?
In addition, the miscellaneous poem given to the prefect He Jianbai has also been circulated.
He is already the well-deserved number one talent in Hai County.
Ren Hongcai and others left the venue after shopping. Hou Yao also left with them, then had a meal with them and then left the venue.
After that, he didn't go back to the store, but went straight back to the beach and got on the boat.
Nowadays, there is a turmoil in the South China Sea, and the Tianwu Gang is searching everywhere for the whereabouts of the Haima Gang, making a lot of noise.
Any gang that came to their door and did not cooperate with the search was bloodbathed.
In the past half month, three small gangs have been bloodbathed, although they are all notorious pirates.
But it cannot but be said that it is also a strong intimidation to other gangs.
Under such circumstances, how could Hou Yao stay outside with peace of mind, so he had to return to the island to guard it.
On the little black tail boat.
Hou Yao was lying on the deck in low spirits, with his head resting on Yu Xiuer's legs.
"Ms. sir, why do you seem to be a little uninterested?"
"What kind of interest can there be? It's so boring."
"But today's lively scene is so shocking to everyone. Even those who participated in the arrangement were shocked to death."
"The scene is barely passable, but it's just not interesting enough. It's a pity..."
Hou Yao thought of the beautiful female models in his previous life. If in today's scene, all the waiters in the store were replaced by beautiful girls in cheongsam,
Then this show would be perfect, but unfortunately it was not implemented in the end.
First, it is indeed difficult to find beauties in Nanhai who match his aesthetics.
The second is this damn aesthetic. I'm afraid it would be embarrassing if it was released and laughed at by the crowd.
…
As night fell, Zhou Ming and Zhou Sheng finally checked the first day's income account. The income for this day alone was as high as 20,000 silver.
"Dad, did you really make so much money today?"
"Yeah, it's really unbelievable. My father has been in business all his life and he still doesn't earn as much as he does today.
But most of the squires in the county bought it for your cousin's sake, so I guess they won't make so much money in the future."
"What are you talking about? Dad, half of this is pure profit. My cousin said that 10% of the net profit is to share the profit with us.
In other words, we can get more than a thousand taels, which is comparable to our income in the past few years.
My cousin told me before that the one-tenth commission was a bit high, and I was not very happy about it.
Who knew this income would be... Who would have thought that we could earn so much money? Are we taking too much?"
Zhou Ming thought for a while:
"You're right to think so. We didn't know we could make money like this before. Now that we know, we have to be self-aware.
Your cousin is running this business every step of the way, and we haven't been of any help at all.
It’s really inappropriate for us to hold so much money.”
"Then next time I will talk to my cousin and reduce some profit sharing."
"No, for such a big thing, there should be a large group of people on Yao'er's side. We don't know how much control he can have.
But the benefits have been given out, and if they were returned, the distribution issue alone would be a headache, if nothing else.
We can't cause Yao'er such trouble."
“I don’t feel at ease and I’m afraid of getting into trouble, so what should I do?”
"In this way, at the end of the month you can send some of our profit sharing to your aunt."