Chapter 61 The old store on Xiushui Street
Diplomatic exchanges between the two countries, the mission’s itinerary arrangement in Beiqi’s upper capital was determined a long time ago, reasonably speaking, a person of Fan Xian’s status walking around in the upper capital, there must be a corresponding accompanying staff around him, but Fan Xian himself was very scrupulous about this kind of arrangement, although there was a resident official who started the negotiation a long time ago, he still came to the Ministry of Ceremonial Affairs after permission from Beiqi’s royal side.
The secret agreement to exchange Yan Bingyun for both Sean and Si Li Li had originally been a big loss for Qing, so Fan Xian was anxious to find the other side’s hidden executor. But he didn’t expect that the nominal Ministry of Ceremony Shuiyilang, the real Beiqi Jinyiwei Deputy Recruiter, was hiding from himself!
It seems that the other party is trying to delay for a few more days, Fan Xian was furious, waved his sleeve and left the door of the Ministry of Ceremonies, ignoring those Qi officials. At the entrance of the Ministry of Rites, Lin Jing had also rushed over from the Honglu Temple and quietly shook her head at Fan Xian.
The four of them reboarded the carriage before Lin Jing spoke, “Young Secretary Wei Hua, he also disappeared after leaving the palace, I don’t know where he went.”
Fan Xian sighed, “I guess it’s the same elsewhere, the Qi people want to drag it out for a few more days.”
“What’s the benefit of dragging it out for a few more days?” Wang Qinian frowned, “They’re always going to hand the people over anyway, I still don’t believe they can keep dragging it out.”
Fan Xian shook his head, “We need to fish out Yan Bingyun as soon as possible.”
“Fish out how?”
“Go to Wei Hua’s house.”
“Marquis Changning’s house?” Lin Jing said with difficulty, “That’s the Empress Dowager’s own brother, for us foreign ambassadors to run over there rashly is something that violates a major taboo, it’s not in line with the system, and I’m afraid that it will only cause a lot of trouble.”
Fan Xian smiled and said, “It’s best to let those royal historians under the Emperor of Northern Qi to attend the court tomorrow to report Marquis Changning as a foreigner, which would be even better.”
After the plan is finalized, the carriage left the court of the Ministry of Rites, the side of the imperial guards are naturally followed, there are also some seemingly passers-by in the distance of the spies followed along the way. Wang Qinian was sitting in the carriage, but he could smell the smell of those people from a long distance, and said softly to Fan Xian, “Lord Tiji, it should be the people from the Jinyiwei who are following us.”
“Anyway, with the imperial guards accompanying us, are they still afraid we’ll get lost?” Fan Xian said softly, “Pay no attention to them. The most crucial thing is, don’t rush to contact the courtyard’s manpower in Beiqi in these few days, it wouldn’t be good to bring unnecessary risks to those scouts.”
The Northern Qi spies who were keeping an eye on the envoy’s party in accordance with the court’s orders were also a bit curious as to why these envoys from the south would be interested in going shopping after leaving the Ministry of Rites and doing so on Xiu Shui Street, which was the most luxurious and extravagant street in Shangjing. All that was sold on this street were luxury objects like glassware and the like, which were simply not something that ordinary people could afford to consume.
A secret agent frowned and said, “Why are these southern barbarians shopping on Xiushui Street?”
The subordinate beside him replied, “It’s a rare trip abroad, so of course I have to buy some good things to go back. These southern barbarians are so rich now, how can they explain to their family members if they don’t buy some glasses back?”
“Stupid!” The secret agent in front of the head scolded, “All the glass in this world is produced by Nanqing, why would they need to come to our Shangjing to buy it?”
There are not many people in Xiushui Street, but the Qi people walking in it are all big-bellied people, women with heads full of beads and hairpins, and at a glance, they know that they don’t have a lot of silver in their pockets, but their silver certificates must be a lot thicker than the books at home. Those stores along the street, each separated by a little distance, not far, not close, just right.
Those signboards are even more conspicuous, resting vertically outside the storefront, painted with black paint, depicting gold characters, only some of the gold characters have gradually faded. Those rich proprietors do not seem to want to change, take a closer look at the inscription, only to know that the original signboard is very some years, the inscription is often a century, or even hundreds of years ago, a generation of celebrities, the reason why they let the gold faded, I think it is that these businessmen would like to intentionally create a kind of simple and honest wind, show off a hundred years of old stores.
The only thing is to show the water street in the middle of the most seven stores are different, the signboard is horizontal, although not brand new, but with the surrounding than one, it is going to appear to be a lot of years shallow, these stores are selling glass products, there are selling soap and other things, there are selling perfume, there are selling cotton, there are selling liquor, the most rare is one, actually specializing in selling toys.
Several carriages stopped at the entrance of the street, escorted by soldiers of the imperial army, this kind of style even the first-class princes and lords are compared to go down. But all the merchants on Xiushui Street still maintained their self-respect, no one came out to welcome the customers, they just waited for the four people who came down from the carriage to walk by one by one.
These four people walked all the way to the Perfume Street, and finally stopped in front of the shop selling cotton cloth, in which the young man who was born with an incomparably clean appearance rubbed his head, seeming to be somewhat puzzled as to why cotton cloth could be considered a luxury item.
After entering the store, the boss explained to the several stranger guests: “When it comes to planting cotton and weaving cotton cloth, legend has it that hundreds of years ago there was a genius surnamed Wang who had done it, but then the method was gradually lost, and no one used it anymore. Until twenty years ago, we were the old boss of the talent, which has regained this method. Please see, this cotton cloth is warmer than silk, and the price is cheap, how is it also the best quality, even compared to the Southern Qing Kyoto, it’s not much worse.”
The young man seemed extremely interested and said, “Give me a foot to try.”
The shopkeeper’s face darkened, hearing the other party’s Southern Qing accent, he cursed and said, “So it’s an old hometown, I say this official, how can any of us from Southern Qing come to Northern Qi to buy cotton cloth, not to mention that everyone else is buying it in bundles and bundles, but you’re doing well, let’s have a foot to try it out?”
The young man hemmed and hawed, arched his fist and apologized, exited the store door, looked up at the words on the horizontal signboard and frowned, “This writing is really hard to read.”
The store owner was furious, scolded: “This is our store old proprietor’s handwriting, you don’t know the goods guy, quickly retreat!”
The young man hemmed and hawed and led his three subordinates to a nearby store. This young man was naturally Fan Xian, and the ugly words he spoke of were naturally the ink left by his mother many years ago, which was not too far off from the handwriting on the letter in the box – it was exactly the same ugly ah!
Wandering for a while, Fan Xian will know, these several stores are the South Qing imperial merchants in the North Qi industry, of course, more years ago, this should be the Ye family’s property, just look at the things sold, know that the old mother back then must be from the world of the nobleman’s hands do not know how much silver.
Walking on Xiushui Street, walking in the signboards inscribed by his mother, Fan Xian some slightly drifted off, actually seems to be unwilling to walk again.
“My lord, we’re not going to the Marquis of Changning’s residence, what are we doing here?” Lin Jing asked worriedly from the side.
Fan Xian was slightly stunned and snapped out of it, saying with a smile, “Of course we’re here to buy gifts, where’s the reasoning behind coming to the door empty-handed.”
As he said this, he had already lifted up the corner of his shirt and stepped into the glass store with the widest doorway. Only to see the store display all kinds of glass products, look gorgeous exceptionally, there are flat big wine goblet, double ear bottle, through the jade pot, mainly wine utensils, there are all kinds of small utensils, including glass made of insects box, all kinds of chess set, and even a crystal clear small oil lamp.
The whole store was crystal clear, eye-catching, Fan Xian’s heart grew faintly proud, although he always seemed to be muddling through in this world, and hadn’t done anything earth-shattering, but looking at these things left behind by his mother, he couldn’t help but think, “Someone’s done with it all, so what are you still doing to get it?
The shopkeeper had heard these people talking beside him earlier, and knew that they were fellow countrymen from the south, and said with a smile, “Gentlemen, it’s not that I don’t want to do business with you, it’s just that if you buy glass in Shangjing, it’s really a bit of a loss.”
Fan Xian asked with a smile, “I know, in Shangjing is definitely much more expensive than in our Qing country, but I see that the Northern Qi Palace uses a lot of glass, don’t they mind the price.”
The shopkeeper smiled with a big smile on his face and said, “Who is the world’s dumbest customer? Of course, it’s the emperor. I heard that the Beiqi Palace deal was the biggest deal our old boss had ever made, and the amount scared the rest of the rich merchants under the sky silly.”
Fan Xian smiled that pleased, said: “You say this is bold, being in Northern Qi, are not afraid of those officials to catch you?”
“No, as long as our Daqing Dynasty is still the strongest country under the sky, we merchants won’t be bullied wherever we go.” Having said that, the shopkeeper lowered his voice numbly and continued, “The words of the world’s dumbest customer …… are not something I can say, and listening to the master, it was also the old proprietor who said it back then.”
Fan Xian smiled, suddenly opened his mouth and asked, “Is your master a big leaf or a few leaves?”
The shopkeeper was stunned and looked up at Fan Xian, as if it was hard to believe that this beautiful young man actually knew so much, and for a moment, he forgot to answer.
Lin Jing smiled from the side and said, “This is Lord Fan Xian, the main envoy of this mission, and even though you’re far away in the north, I think you know where Lord Fan comes from.”
Lord Fan? That was the grand master of all the imperial merchants in the latter years! The owner of the glass store was so shocked that he hurriedly lifted up his front and knelt down to Fan Xian.