Volume 6: Dream Record Chapter 425 This Hateful Bad Woman
The next morning, at daybreak, in Zhao Pan'er's boudoir, on the huge bed, Yuan Xudong was panting heavily, sweating profusely. His body fell heavily, hitting Zhao Pan'er's snow-white body, and he exhaled a foul breath. He hugged the mutton-fat jade in his arms tightly, caressing her smooth skin lovingly. He bit her earlobe lightly and moaned comfortably:
"Hao Pan'er , you are so beautiful!"
Last night, after returning from the teahouse, Yuan Xudong stayed in Zhao Paner's room. Probably because he and Zhao Paner took the Fire Qi Pill and Water Rhythm Pill together, he felt unprecedented satisfaction and pleasure from Zhao Paner, and Zhao Paner felt the same way. She gently hugged Yuan Xudong's strong and powerful back, bit his ear gently, and said with a sweet breath:
"My dear husband, since Pan'er is so beautiful, do you want to take a concubine in the future?"
"think!"
Seeing that Zhao Pan'er was still bothered by his desire to take a concubine, Yuan Xudong hugged her and rolled around on the bed twice, laughing:
"Although delicacies from land and sea are delicious, we should also eat simple food occasionally. Otherwise, how can people who are used to eating big fish and meat know the deliciousness of delicacies from land and sea?"
After hearing Yuan Xudong's nonsense analogy, Zhao Pan'er couldn't help but roll her eyes at him and said in a coquettish voice:
"Shame on you, then tell me, who is your bread and butter?"
"I won't tell you, just figure it out on your own!"
Yuan Xudong would not be so stupid as to tell Zhao Paner everything. If she knew about Zhang Haohao, what if she ran to Shuangxi Building and made a scene?
Seeing Yuan Xudong his mouth shut, Zhao Paner was so angry that her teeth itched. She secretly guessed that this woman should be the courtesan Zhang Haohao, but she didn't dare to confirm it 100%. She wanted Yuan Xudong to admit in person that it was the courtesan Zhang Haohao. Thinking about these things in her mind, Zhao Paner hugged Yuan Xudong's arm and shook it gently, begging him in a soft and sticky voice:
"Hate it, dear husband, can you just tell Pan'er?"
"this……"
Looking at Zhao Pan'er, who was pouting, speaking softly, and staring at him with her watery eyes, just like a little fairy who wanted to charm people to death, Yuan Xudong raised a wicked smile and said:
"Actually it was Sun Sanniang. I saw that she was all alone and pitiful, so I thought of taking her as my concubine. It would be convenient for me to take care of her in the future, right?"
"you……"
Looking at Yuan Xudong, who seemed to be unsure whether he was serious or joking, Zhao Paner could not help but said angrily:
"How could you be like this? Even rabbits don't eat grass near their burrows. How can you be so mean?"
"Who said rabbits don't eat grass near their nests?"
Looking at the rather annoyed Zhao Pan'er, Yuan Xudong said confidently:
"If it's all grass, why don't you eat the ones near the nest first? If you don't eat it yourself, will it leave it for other rabbits to eat?"
" you……"
Looking at the shameless Yuan Xudong, Zhao Paner was so angry that she pushed him away and said:
"Stay away from me, I'm going to the teahouse!"
"Okay, go ahead. I'll sleep a little longer. I was so tired last night. It's true that there are only cows that die of exhaustion, but no land that is plowed to death!"
"Bah, you filthy rascal!"
Hearing Yuan Xudong's nonsense, Zhao Pan'er's face turned slightly red and she couldn't help but spit lightly. She got up from the bed, put on her clothes, and dressed up a little in front of the bronze mirror on the dressing table. After everything was done, she said hello to Yuan Xudong, then left the bedroom and went to the garden, ready to call Sun Sanniang and others to go to the teahouse together. At this time, Sun Sanniang had already got up and made a table full of Jiangnan snacks, which she placed under the pavilion in the middle of the garden, waiting for Zhao Pan'er and others to get up and eat together.
Seeing Sun Sanniang busy preparing breakfast under the pavilion, Zhao Paner walked over with a smile and said:
"Sanniang, why did you get up so early? You were busy for so long last night, why didn't you sleep a little longer?"
"It's okay, I couldn't sleep, so I got up and made some snacks!"
As Sun Sanniang spoke, she asked Zhao Pan'er to sit down and said:
"Pan'er, please sit down. How about you try my cooking?"
"OK!"
Zhao Pan'er sat down on the chair, looked at the table full of Jiangnan-style snacks and said with a smile:
"You don't even need to taste it to know that Sanniang's cooking skills must be excellent!"
"Yeah?"
Hearing Zhao Pan'er praising her so much, Sun Sanniang couldn't help but feel very happy and smiled from ear to ear. She sat down with Zhao Pan'er and started to eat. After eating, they could go to the teahouse to open for business early. As for Song Yinzhang and the girl Yinping, Zhao Pan'er and Sun Sanniang tacitly understood that they had no expectations of them. Song Yinzhang was a spoiled child and had never touched water since childhood. She could only play the pipa, and the girl Yinping was supposed to serve her. Now they were both still sleeping in the room. Zhao Pan'er planned to bring a few maids or servants from home to help at the teahouse if the business of the teahouse continued to be as prosperous as yesterday.
When Zhao Pan'er and Sun Sanniang had almost finished their meal, Song Yinzhang and Yinping came out of the room belatedly. Song Yinzhang walked to the pavilion and said with a frail appearance:
"Sister, Sister Sanniang, I'm sorry, I'm not feeling well today, so I won't go to the teahouse for now. I'll let Yinping go with you!"
Zhao Pan'er and Sun Sanniang looked at each other helplessly, then looked at the frail Song Yinzhang and said gently:
"Then you should take a good rest and come over to have some breakfast first!"
"I'm not hungry yet. I'm going back to my room to rest first!"
After that, Song Yinzhang left Yinping girl behind and went back to her room to rest. Zhao Paner looked at Sun Sanniang and Yinping girl and said with a smile:
"Yinping, come and sit down. Let's eat quickly. We have to go to the teahouse after we finish eating!"
"Okay, thank you Sister Paner!"
The girl Yinping smiled and sat over, eating breakfast with Zhao Pan'er and the others. After breakfast, they simply cleaned up and walked to the teahouse on Ma Xing Street with their baskets full of food. After a while, Yuan Xudong came out of the room and saw a few plates of steaming snacks on the stone table under the pavilion. He walked over and started eating. At this time, Song Yinzhang came out of her room holding the Gu Yue Pipa. Yuan Xudong couldn't help but shout:
"Yin Zhang, come here!"
Hearing Yuan Xudong's voice, Song Yinzhang was startled. She was just about to go to Shuangxi Tower to talk to Zhang Haohao, but she didn't expect Yuan Xudong to be eating breakfast under the pavilion. She walked to Yuan Xudong with Gu Yue Pipa in her arms, bowed slightly, and said in a tender voice:
"Fan Lang!"
"come over!"
When Song Yinzhang came up to him, Yuan Xudong hugged her fragile body, let her sit in his arms and said with a smile:
"Have you had breakfast?"
"I'm not hungry yet, I don't want to eat yet!"
Song Yinzhang said weakly while sitting in Yuan Xudong's arms. Seeing her like this, Yuan Xudong gently stroked her face and said with a smile:
"What's wrong with you? Are you in a bad mood?"
"No, I'm not in a bad mood!"
"No?"
Seeing Song Yinzhang who was obviously in a bad mood, Yuan Xudong did not comment. He asked:
"Where are you going with your pipa so early in the morning?"
"I think……"
Song Yinzhang raised his head and glanced at Yuan Xudong, his eyes bright and he said softly:
"I want to go to Shuangxi Tower, find Zhang Haohao, and practice pipa with her. Is that okay?"
"Shuangxi Building?"
Seeing Song Yinzhang looking at him pitifully, Yuan Xudong hesitated. If she met Zhang Haohao, the affair between him and Zhang Haohao would probably be exposed. But if he did not agree to let Song Yinzhang go to Shuangxi Tower, Yuan Xudong felt reluctant. What should he do?
Looking at Song Yinzhang who was staring at him eagerly, Yuan Xudong raised a wicked smile. He leaned over and kissed her lips. He then ripped open the clothes on her shoulders and untied the knot of her bra tied around the back of her neck. He smiled wickedly and said:
"Why go to Shuangxi Building?"
As he spoke, he glanced at the blushing Song Yinzhang, lowered his head and kissed her beautiful upper body exposed to the air, greedily sniffing her fragrance, and jokingly said:
"Yin Zhang, how about we do something very happy?"
"don't want!"
It was early in the morning and the south wind was still blowing. Song Yinzhang felt a slight chill on his chest and blushed as he said:
"Fan Lang, please don't do this. What if someone sees us?"
"It's okay. No other men are allowed to enter this garden. They are just little maids. They won't be a problem!"
Yuan Xudong said jokingly while lowering his head. Song Yinzhang blushed immediately and moaned softly:
"Fan Lang, no, no, please don't do this, okay?"
…
While Yuan Xudong and Song Yinzhang were playing their favorite poker game at home, Zhao Pan'er, Sun Sanniang, and Yinping Yatou were waiting for customers in the teahouse. Compared with yesterday's bustling business, today's business was really deserted. From early morning till now, there was still no customer. Sun Sanniang made a lot of tea cakes, but she didn't sell even one. Zhao Pan'er looked at the weather outside. The sun was shining brightly, and there were people coming and going at the door of the teahouse, but there was not a single customer drinking tea. She and Sun Sanniang looked at each other and said puzzledly:
"The weather is so nice today, why is there no one drinking tea?"
"Is it because the tea cakes I made don't suit the customers' taste?"
Sun Sanniang said with a headache. Hearing this, Zhao Paner shook her head slightly and frowned:
"No, there were so many guests yesterday, and I saw they were enjoying their meal!"
Yesterday's business was so good that Sun Sanniang made a lot of tea cakes in advance today, but she hasn't sold a single one yet. She couldn't help but say with distress:
"So many tea cakes will be inedible by tonight. We have to throw them all away. This will cost us a lot of money!"
"We haven't raised the price, so why aren't there any customers coming?"
Yin Ping girl added a sentence beside her. Hearing this, Zhao Pan'er frowned slightly and murmured to herself:
"There must be some other reason!"
At this moment, two guests dressed as merchants hurried in. They found a seat and sat down, shouting:
"Boss, bring me two bowls of Zhenru tea!"
“Here it comes!”
Seeing that there was finally business coming, Zhao Pan'er couldn't help but cheer up. She hurried to prepare some tea and said with a smile:
"I'll grind the tea, please wait a moment!"
"Tea?"
When Zhao Pan'er said that she wanted to grind more tea, one of the men dressed as merchants said anxiously:
"I don't have the time to wait for you. Just have a cup of loose tea!"
"Loose tea?"
Zhao Pan'er was obviously stunned when she heard that the customer only wanted loose tea. Loose tea was the kind of tea sold at roadside tea stalls that was made by simply boiling water on low-quality tea leaves. She, the tea seller, had never sold any of them before. At this time, looking at the slightly stunned Zhao Pan'er, another customer dressed as a traveling merchant smiled and said,
"You don't even know how to make loose tea? Isn't it enough to put the tea leaves in a bowl and rinse them with hot water? Don't you have loose tea?"
“There’s loose tea!”
Seeing Zhao Pan'er was slightly stunned, Yinping girl volunteered that she had seen people selling loose tea when she was in Qiantang, and she often drank it herself. Compared with the good tea in the teahouse, the loose tea at the roadside tea stalls was much cheaper. Ordinary people liked to drink loose tea, rather than going to teahouses specifically to taste those good teas. Those were places for dignitaries, literati, or businessmen with some spare money. They could drink tea while talking about everything, or talk about romantic things, recite poems and compose essays. Generally speaking, only those who were rich and had free time would come to the teahouse to drink tea and kill time. Ordinary people were busy making a living. How could they have money or the leisure to leisurely drink tea in a teahouse?
At this time, Yinping girl walked behind the counter, opened the tea can, picked up some tea leaves and put them into the teacup, then poured boiling water into it. Two bowls of loose tea were ready. She held the two bowls of loose tea on the tea tray and gave them to the guests. The two guests blew on them casually, drank them in a few gulps, took out two copper coins, put them on the table, and stood up and left, saying:
"Thank you, the tea is pretty good!"
The girl Yinping took the two copper coins. At this moment, looking at the two merchants who were in a hurry, Zhao Pan'er was thoughtful. She made a bet with Yuan Xudong that she could run the teahouse well. But regardless of other costs, the rent of this teahouse alone would cost thirty strings of money per month, which is almost one string of money per day, or about one thousand copper coins. She would have to sell one thousand bowls of loose tea to make a profit, not counting the cost of tea and labor. Wouldn't she be losing money?
Thinking about this, Zhao Pan'er waved her sleeves, looked at Sun Sanniang and Yin Ping Yatou and said:
"I'm going to go out for a while and be back soon!"
"good!"
…
"Look, look! It's floral fabric, really fine floral fabric!"
"Come and have a look at this excellent medicinal wine. If it doesn't work, I won't charge you for it!"
"Make way, make way, be careful not to get hit by the carriage!"
…
Zhao Pan'er came out of the teahouse and walked on Ma Xing Street. There were many pedestrians coming and going around her, but most of them were peddlers pulling horse-drawn carriages or donkey carts. The shops on both sides of the street were all trauma shops, cloth shops, grain stores, blacksmith shops, herbal medicine shops, fur shops, etc. There was not even a restaurant or inn. There was only her teahouse, which stood out on this street. At this time, Zhao Pan'er had almost understood what was going on. She had proudly told Yuan Xudong before that it only took her three days to open such a good teahouse, but it turned out that they didn't even do the most basic market research. She felt embarrassed and angry when she thought of this. What should she do?
After a stroll on Ma Xing Street, Zhao Pan'er pinched her waist with one hand, scratched her hair with the other, and bit her fingertips from time to time. While thinking about the solution to the problem in her mind, she walked into the teahouse. Looking at the empty teahouse, she sat down on the chair, scratched the back of her itchy neck, and pursed her lips. She looked uncomfortable all over, and it was obvious that she was struggling with herself. She could not accept that she had made such a simple and fatal mistake. Wasn't she doomed to lose the bet with Yuan Xudong?
Speak of the devil, and here he comes. At this moment, Yuan Xudong unexpectedly walked in from the teahouse. Zhao Pan'er was just thinking about Yuan Xudong's smug look after he won the bet, and his voice rang out beside Zhao Pan'er:
"Pan'er, what are you worried about?"
After taking a look at the empty teahouse, Yuan Xudong looked at Zhao Paner who was in a daze and said with a smile:
"There are very few customers. The business has just opened and it's already so bad. It's not looking good. How about we call it quits on our bet?"
Seeing Yuan Xudong walk into the teahouse, Zhao Paner stood up from her chair. Although she knew that Yuan Xudong was deliberately provoking her, Zhao Paner still refused to admit defeat and said stubbornly:
"There's still a month left, why are you in such a hurry?"
"Just keep talking tough, but you'll end up crying later!"
Yuan Xudong said with a smile. Hearing this, Zhao Paner couldn't help but rolled her eyes at him and said:
"Oh, I want to ask you two questions. First, do people in Tokyo only like to drink loose tea instead of tea? Second, why are there no restaurants or food stores on this street? Third, was there an important festival yesterday?"
"Isn't it a little late to ask about these things now?"
"Hurry up and tell me!"
"Okay, then I'll mercifully tell you!"
Yuan Xudong looked at Zhao Paner and said with a smile:
"All the streets in Tokyo are divided by trade. Do you know why this street is called Horse Street? Because horse dealers and horse markets gather here. Tokyo people have known since childhood that you can buy herbal medicine in Yaoxiangju, buy clothes at Panloudongtou, and if you want to drink tea, you have to go to Chatang Lane!"
"No wonder. I thought this street was so busy and there were no rivals, so it would be the perfect place to open a teahouse. I didn't expect that Tokyo people are not used to drinking tea here!"
As she spoke, Zhao Pan'er looked at Yuan Xudong again and asked in confusion:
"So what happened yesterday?"
Hearing this, Yuan Xudong smiled and said:
"There is a Guanyin Temple nearby. Yesterday was Buddha's birthday, so there were many pilgrims. But on weekdays, all the people coming and going here are horse traders. Making tea requires grinding, brewing, mixing and rubbing, which is too laborious. They don't have that much time to wait for you to slowly make tea. Apart from scholars and writers, there are actually very few ordinary people who are willing to drink it. In comparison, loose tea is cheap and quick to make, and that is what they love most!"
"So you knew from the beginning that I would lose money, and you were just waiting to see me make a fool of myself, and you still made a bet with me, right?"
Seeing that Yuan Xudong clearly knew everything but didn't tell her, and watched her fall so hard, Zhao Pan'er couldn't help but say with red eyes:
"You really want to see me make a fool of myself, don't you? I always want to do something to prove myself. Now you win, but I feel really bad inside!"
As she spoke, Zhao Pan'er stroked her chest with her right hand. She raised her eyes and stared at Yuan Xudong, tears in her eyes as she said:
"It feels like being torn into pieces and then put together again. You have no idea how painful it is!"
Hearing Zhao Pan'er say this and seeing her crying, Yuan Xudong felt sorry for her and said guiltily:
"Pan'er, I'm sorry, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have..."
Before Yuan Xudong could finish his words, Zhao Pan'er burst out laughing. She panted and laughed happily. She wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and giggled while holding her belly:
"Fool, big fool, you're making me laugh to death, hahahaha!"
"Is it that funny?"
Seeing Zhao Pan'er laughing there, Yuan Xudong suddenly became angry and embarrassed. He couldn't stand seeing women cry. When Zhao Pan'er cried, he couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Zhao Pan'er seemed to know this and used her tears to deal with him. This hateful bad woman, how could she do this?
