Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 496: Standing in awe
"Judging people by appearance, I lost Ziyu. I called you a slave of a wealthy family and a dog who took advantage of others' power. I was rude."
Although he had first apologized in small ways in front of Zhang Shou, then expressed his true feelings, and finally bowed his head to admit his mistake, Li Saner was already frightened when he learned from Mr. Hua Si that he had let the dogs bite two juren. Now that Fang Qing had chased him out, he was ready to kowtow and admit his mistake again if it didn't work. But he didn't expect that the other person would... apologize to him in return!
The unhappiness that was suppressed in his heart disappeared, and was replaced by fear and trepidation. After all, although he was rich and famous now, Li Saner still felt inferior to the scholars with official titles.
Knowing that he was also wrong, and a big one, he hurriedly bowed deeply in return and said, "Mr. Fang, you are too serious. I was too proud of myself and forgot to restrain Dahei. And Mr. Fang was right to call him a dog who took advantage of others. Dahei took advantage of my favoritism and always thought of himself as the bully of Ye Zi Hutong these years? In short, please don't say the word "apology" again. I am the one who should apologize!"
Fang Qing had originally prepared himself to be ridiculed or even abused, but when he heard this sincere apology, he straightened up unconsciously, and his face suddenly became a little dazed. He stared at Li Saner with mixed feelings, and finally bowed again before turning around and leaving.
Don't judge people by their appearance, and don't think that those who look fierce and evil are necessarily vulgar. Don't be impressed by those who are elegant and refined... He has obviously been taught many lessons, but why did he always persist in his mistakes until he came to the capital this time?
Was it, as Song Hunzi had said to him, that his former teachers had taken advantage of his impulsiveness and allowed him to be a vanguard? Or was Song Hunzi simply making up stories and slandering those teachers he once respected so much?
Li Saner saw Fang Qing just turn around and leave. He had no time to bow to the person just now, so he felt guilty. He looked around and subconsciously stopped Xiao Huasheng, took out a handful of copper coins from his purse and handed them to him. However, this trick that was always successful against the local tyrants in the outer city and the South City Military Department was completely blocked in front of Xiao Huasheng.
Seeing that Xiao Huasheng resolutely stretched out his hands and pushed back his money, Li Saner could only smile and say, "Brother, this is just a small token of my gratitude for your reminder...Okay, okay, I'll take it back, is that okay? But I still have one thing to ask you, this Mr. Fang ...was he sincere or fake just now? Does he really not care about my sin?"
"They've already apologized, what else do you want?" Peanut glanced at Li San'er with some disdain, then shrugged and said, "Mr. Fang has a bad temper and often speaks with thorns, but he has a good heart, but his eyesight is not very good... This is not what I said, it was said by my young master, so this matter must have passed, and he has learned a lesson."
"If you still feel bad about it..." The clever young man rolled his eyes and suddenly had a bold idea. "I heard today that the young master and Mr. Liu, the chief priest of Xinglong Tea House, proposed to set up a public school in the outer city, and they would enroll students based on age. Since you are a well-known wealthy family, why don't you donate some money?"
"I heard that the emperor will write a plaque for the school. Many people donated money to support education today, and a monument will be erected to commemorate it. With your wealth, Mr. Li San, I don't think you need to donate too much, fifty or one hundred strings of cash will be enough."
When Li Saner heard the words "donate to support education", his mind suddenly recalled the past where some guys from the Nancheng Bingmasi forced people to donate money under the pretext of being happy to donate. Although he felt painful in his heart, he was also prepared to bleed heavily.
But he never expected that Xiao Huasheng would tell him that he only needed to pay fifty or one hundred strings of cash, and he could also leave his name on the stone tablet erected in the public school with the plaque inscribed by the emperor himself!
He had already saved up several thousand guan, so of course he would not take the sum of fifty-one hundred seriously. He immediately nodded and said, "This is a first-class charity, of course I am happy to make up the number. But, is it too little to donate just this little?"
"Second Master Zhu tried his best but could only give out 300 strings of cash from his own pocket. Marquis Huaiqing and other top nobles donated 1,000 strings of cash. Fourth Master Hua and other wealthy businessmen only gave 800 strings of cash. Why are you trying to be so pretentious, Third Master Li? What matters is the heart, not the money." Little Peanut advised Li Saner with confidence. Seeing people nodding repeatedly, he became even more proud.
"But the account keeping of donations is now in the hands of Mr. Lu San, so you can just go and find him directly. Don't listen to others or you might get blackmailed. Okay, okay, I still have to go back and give the young master a reply. I won't see you off. Bye!"
Seeing Xiao Huasheng smiling and bowing to him, and then turning to leave, Li Saner was stunned for a moment, then immediately came to his senses, hurriedly stepped forward to stop him, and then asked attentively: "Brother, please give me some advice. I haven't asked your name yet. I prefer making friends, otherwise I wouldn't have the chance to make friends with Master Wan. Let's make friends too?"
Little Peanut glanced at Li San'er in surprise, but he didn't care whether the person wanted to make friends with him because of Zhang Shou, or because he really wanted to make friends with him for the sake of his advice. He laughed and said, "Young Master and others call me Little Peanut."
If it were a few months ago, Li Saner, who had never heard of the word peanut, would have thought the name was really strange, but now things like peanuts and potatoes are well-known in South City.
So he knew that the peanuts that had appeared in the first imperial chef selection competition were an ingredient from overseas, said to be fragrant and crispy. Now they were completely out of stock in South City and could only be eaten in the Xinglong Teahouse. Other guild halls or restaurants in the old building did not have them at all.
Therefore, he immediately showed respect to the little peanut with such a name: "So it's Brother Hua. I'll remember your kindness today. When you're not on duty tomorrow, I'll find an old restaurant on Qianmen Street and treat you to a drink!"
Seeing Li Saner bowing and thanking him solemnly , then turning around and walking away, Xiao Huasheng couldn't help but reach out to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
Who is Brother Hua? His real name is Shuisheng. After his parents died and he lived with Lao Xianyu, his uncle took the initiative to change his name to Xiaohuasheng, so Zhang Shou has been using the name ever since. But his last name is not Hua!
Forget it , no one knows now anyway, his real name is Luo Shuisheng. If people call him Brother Hua, then just call him Brother Hua...
Since Fourth Master Hua had come here specifically for Fang Qing and Mr. Song's affairs, Zhang Shou certainly would not treat the richest man in Suzhou lightly, and immediately invited him to have dinner at Zhang Garden. Fourth Master Hua was also very willing, and when Xiao Huasheng came back, Zhang Shou asked someone to take him around Zhang Garden first, and he claimed that he was going to see his adoptive mother, Mrs. Wu, first. He immediately got up and sent the person out, feeling extremely happy.
Walking in Zhang Garden, which has a distinct Suzhou-style garden style, he would not compare it with his own back garden like Young Master Jiang did - although the Hua family's garden in Suzhou and Zhang Garden were designed by the same famous garden master of the time, the master never mentioned the garden again after the Ye Wang Rebellion, so he would not mention it even more.
After looking around for a while, Mr. Hua Si discovered that the huge Zhang Garden was obviously understaffed. Although many courtyards were open, the doors of the houses inside were all locked.
As for this, Peanut did not shy away from saying, "Young Master often said that if we want to fill up all the rooms in Zhang Garden, we need at least twice as many people as we do now. But if that's the case, the monthly expenses will probably be several times higher. So before we make that much money, the rooms should be left empty, and there should be fewer people. There's no need to put on such a show."
Fourth Master Hua had long known that Zhang Shou was born in a small village outside the capital. It was said that he was betrothed to Zhu Ying, the daughter of Duke Zhao, since childhood. But all kinds of rumors were flying around, even the story of how Zhu Ying and Zhang Shou fell in love at first sight was vividly portrayed. There was even a sweet legend like "Dielianhua" in the market. But he was born into a wealthy family and knew that so-called legends were never reliable.
In operas and legends, there are all kinds of stories about handsome scholars and rich daughters making secret appointments in the back garden to get engaged. These are mostly just wishful thinking of down-and-out literati. Even if there is a rare case where a toad really gets to eat the swan flesh, the beauty of being together under the moonlight and flowers usually does not last long.
Just like Zhuo Wenjun became a wine seller, Sima Xiangru finally changed his mind. The poor boy knew that he was not worthy of the young lady, and because of his inferiority complex, he would often pursue fame and fortune more vigorously, or act arrogantly. He had witnessed several marriages in Suzhou that seemed happy at the beginning but ended in divorce.
He thought that Zhang Shou and Zhu Ying were probably the same, but after seeing Zhang Shou in person, he knew he was wrong.
And now, walking in Zhang Garden, which was said to be sold at a low price by the emperor but was obviously a generous gift from the emperor, he heard the trusted servant beside Zhang Shou repeating his master's words as if chatting. He could even more sense the open-mindedness of Zhang Shou when he said this.
It was normal for a person who had experienced many hardships to be so open-minded and not care about his background, but he couldn't help but feel surprised when he saw a young man like Zhang Shou. Therefore, he couldn't help but test Xiao Huasheng.
"Does Dr. Zhang intend to keep these houses empty? You know, a house will only be lively if people live in it. If no one lives in it for a long time, the furnishings in the house or the house itself will easily break down. The cost of repairing it may not be less than buying more things and hiring more people."
"If Dr. Zhang is worried that outsiders are unreliable, why not send someone to find a reliable source to buy a group of children? These children who have been raised at home since childhood are the most reliable and are often loyal. Most of the servants of wealthy families come from this source."
"Besides, even if we consider that some of these children may have been kidnapped by flower-hunting gangs, we can think about it from another angle. It is much better for these children to be in Zhang Garden than to be sold to some shameful place, right?"
Xiao Huasheng originally only regarded Fourth Master Hua as a wealthy businessman who wanted to ask Zhang Shou for a favor, but after hearing what Fourth Master Hua said, he couldn't help but feel that this young head of Suzhou's richest family had some vision.
Although the successor of Mr. Jiang, the richest man in West City, Cangzhou, is now praised by the people of Cangzhou as a capable boy, in his eyes, he is just a former loser who needs Zhang Shou's guidance to wake up. The eldest prince is still the son of the emperor, but he was cruel and greedy in the past, and he was played around by him in the back.
So just like Fang Qing believed that noble sons come from poor families and spoiled children come from rich families, Xiao Huasheng also looked down on those rich children who had smooth sailing - of course, those who turned prodigal like Zhang Chen and Zhu Er were not included. And in his opinion, they all became good because they were taught by Zhang Shou.
Therefore, he felt that Fourth Master Hua was indeed quite insightful, so he nodded to him and then said solemnly: "Fourth Master Hua's words make sense. I will talk to Sixth Brother later."
Seeing that Peanut had obviously listened, Fourth Master Hua was delighted at first, but then he couldn't help but ask in astonishment: "Why didn't you tell Dr. Zhang?"
"Sixth brother is the housekeeper!" Peanut said this seriously. Seeing Fourth Master Hua's expression of almost dropping his eyes to the ground, he smiled naively and said, "How can I complain to the young master about everything? It's best to let Sixth brother do it. Although Sixth brother seems to only follow the young master out, he actually takes care of everything from the young master's diet to the defense of the house."
"Even the household accounts are managed by Sixth Brother." When Little Peanut said this, he added in his mind - even if Sixth Brother is not good at this, he can't help but hire too many outsiders. From Lu Sanlang to other students of Jiuzhang Hall, there are a lot of experts who are good at accounting. Besides, it is now Xu Pozi who is also the accountant of the family, and Wu Anren can also read and read accounts.
Fourth Master Hua could only smile bitterly: "I was very curious about who Zhang Yuan's housekeeper was, but it turns out that I didn't know him well."
When Xiao Huasheng brought Fourth Master Hua to the small hall, Ah Liu, who was just coming out, found that Fourth Master Hua looked at him a little differently than before. As usual, he just gestured to Fourth Master Hua to come in, and Xiao Huasheng stepped forward and whispered to him what Fourth Master Hua had just said. He turned around and glanced at the curtain that had fallen at the entrance of the hall, and then smiled.
“It’s just a waste of time.”
Seeing that Peanut was looking at him in surprise, Ah Liu shrugged and said, "With the young master's personality, he would definitely not want to buy children for training, because that would be tantamount to encouraging human trafficking. Besides, the village where we used to live had a large population."
The reason why they were not all summoned to the capital was that many people were used to the rural life of men farming and women weaving, and might not like to live a life with strict rules in the rich families of the capital, and Zhang Shou did not force them. However, many five or six-year-old children actually wanted to come to Zhang Garden in the capital, but Zhang Shou considered that there were not enough people in the mansion to look after so many children, so he directly hired a teacher to send them to Rongshui Village.
In the flower hall, Mr. Hua Si, who originally planned to use a roundabout strategy to improve Zhang Shou's favorability, saw an unexpected strong man as soon as he entered the door. At first glance, he felt that he didn't recognize the other person, but when he found that the man's eyes revealed a bit of unconcealable strangeness when looking at him, he felt something was wrong. The next moment, Zhang Shou revealed the answer to him.
"This is Cao Wu, the chief escort of Cangzhou Shunhe Escort Agency. Master Hua, you should know him."
