Peasant Girl Bookseller

Chapter 234 Be the Bad Guy

The next day, Mai Xiang and Huaici came back from Liulichang, just got off the carriage and entered the courtyard in front of Huaiyuan, when they saw Bafu opened the curtain in the upper room to look around.

"Uncle Ba, do you need me?" Huai Ci asked.

"No, I'm looking for Mai Xiang." Ba Fu looked at Mai Xiang, wanting to say something, then glanced at Huai Ci again, and patted his head.

Mai Xiang quickly remembered that she was so busy doing needlework and shopping these days that she actually forgot about the big blessings.

"Uncle Ba, sit on the kang." Mai Xiang also wanted to hear Huai Ci's thoughts.

"Both of you sit down, I'll go and put things away." Huai Ci said, looking at the stack of cardboard boxes brought in by the boy.

"What are you buying a lot of? Isn't it Huaici who is preparing the bride price for marriage right now?" Bafu looked at the things on the ground and smiled.

"Mai Xiang likes these things in bottles and cans, so I bought some when I saw the right one." Huaici said while carrying the box into the inner study.

"He's really used to you. I was worried that he wouldn't like you. Mai Xiang, what do you think of the Wan family?"

"Why would Uncle Ba ask such a question? What's wrong with going to dinner yesterday?" Mai Xiang became instinctively sensitive when she heard the word "also".

Originally, she wanted to ask this question when she was talking with Huai Ci last night, but she got off topic somehow.Early this morning, Huai Ci dragged him out to go shopping again, because he said that at the end of the year, many people lacked money and would sell their antiques, and he had been a waiter in an antique shop for half a year, so he understood better .So the two went out early in the morning to pick up leaks, and didn't think of Wan Jialai at all, so naturally they also forgot about the marriage of the Eight Blessings.

"I don't think the Wan family is a good family. Don't talk about anything else. Look at how long they haven't come to our door during the years when we were poor. They also came to retire. Later, when they saw that you were promising, they rushed to get married again. Kiss. ​​You said, it was a meeting between the two families yesterday, so it’s fine if Huai Ci’s sister-in-law didn’t show up, but she even brought your cousin out, saying that they are all relatives, so there’s no need to pay attention to it, it’s not bullying us Don't the country people understand? Whose little wife can come to the banquet?"

"What? Went with Ziju?" Mai Xiang was taken aback when she heard that.

"It's for your sake, they are all relatives, so don't talk about these empty etiquettes. Also, although the family they told me is a housekeeper and not a slave, they are not much different from slaves. I If you don’t follow me, my mother still scolded me, Mai Xiang, I really don’t want to get married so early, go and persuade my mother.”

Bafu also goes to the doctor in a hurry. He only thinks that Mai Xiang is the most authoritative speaker in this family. Mai Xiang is in charge of the family's major affairs, but he forgot that Mai Xiang is also a child and a junior. Did she interfere?
"Uncle Ba, it's not that I don't help you, it's that I really can't help you. A few days ago, my mother had already complained to me, saying that I treated you badly, and that I haven't earned a house for two or three years. He also said that I treated my aunt badly, and didn't buy her some good jewelry and clothes. No, I pushed her back, and she went to my father again. My father had no money, so he went to find my fifth aunt again. Aunt Wu asked for 20 taels of silver, plus I went back to the countryside a few months ago, and Uncle Wu paid for the household here, and Uncle Wu probably spent another 50 taels of silver on my aunt in the past six months."

Mai Xiang deliberately said all these things, just to let Bafu judge for herself, who is in Liu's heart now, and why did she do this.

"What? How could my mother be like this?" Sure enough, Bafu was very surprised.

The last time Wu Fu went out of the house, Ba Fu was very dissatisfied and sympathetic. Unexpectedly, the old lady had only been here for a few months, and then pulled 50 taels of silver from Wu Fu. No wonder he felt that the clothes and jewelry on Jiufeng It was much better than being in the countryside. I thought it was Mai Xiang's subsidy, but I didn't expect it to be robbed from Wufuna again.

"I think Mammy will agree to your marriage. Mostly because she thinks that the conditions of the woman's family can't be wrong. After being the housekeeper of Wan's family for these years, she must have a lot of money. You should carefully weigh this matter. I don't think it's suitable, is it? Are you going to call Huai Ci the eighth aunt of the housekeeper's daughter? Or are you going to follow the housekeeper's daughter and call us the second master and second grandma? You must know the rules of a big family."

"Yes, yes, I forgot if you don't tell me, is it possible that when I meet people from the Wan family in the future, I have to bow my head and call me a master? No, I can't take this loss. I'm still waiting for the second young master of the Wan family to call me eighth." What about Uncle?" Bafu immediately shook his head like a rattle when he heard that he was going to call Second Master Huai Ci.

"That's right, Uncle Ba, you're only 16 years old this year. You'll find a suitable one every year next year, right? Also, you'll build the house first in the spring of next year, and let the matchmaker know who you are." Didn't you break the threshold of your family? Why should you wrong yourself to marry a housekeeper's daughter?"

"Okay, I didn't want to at first. I saw that girl that day. She was also average-looking, with a layer of dry powder on her face, and there was nothing special about her. I didn't fall in love with her at first, but she agreed to marry her for 100 yuan. Two silver, probably because of this, my mother was tempted. Forget it, I know what to do, so I won't be like Fifth Brother and let them manipulate me."

"Uncle Ba, that's not them, it's grandpa and nanny, it's your parents." After Mai Xiang finished speaking, she covered her mouth and giggled. I didn't expect that Ba Fu still had a rebellious temperament, so it was easy to handle.

"Father and mother can't do it either, I have to decide my own affairs. Fifth brother will divorce fifth sister-in-law because he didn't listen to his parents. Isn't the two of them living well now? And my mother is so spoiled by my little sister. It's not a good thing, so it can be seen that parents are not all right. I'm leaving, I'll go to the shop to help Brother Wu." After Bafu finished speaking, he was about to get up, and he was in a hurry to persuade Wufu. 100 taels of silver, this is his hard-earned money for several years, Bafu is a little confused, he is also a child, why is the heart of a mother so biased?

After Bafu left, Mai Xiang was still giggling on the kang, Huaici came in and sat beside Mai Xiang.

"Happy?"

"Happy. It turns out that it feels really good to be a bad guy."

"Little thing, aren't you afraid that your nanny will come to settle accounts with you if she finds out?" Huai Ci looked at Mai Xiang's smug smile, and couldn't help stretching out her hand to pinch her.

"You overheard us?"

"It's still eavesdropping, it's so close, I'll listen openly." Huai Ci took Mai Xiang's hand.

"Let's go, I'm in a really good mood today. Go and see our baby." Mai Xiang smiled and got off the kang, and she really found a few good things today.

Today, Huai Ci took Mai Xiang to the antique shop where he used to be a junior. All three pieces of Yuan blue and white in the book were found.

"Okay, I'll accompany you." Huai Ci smiled, still holding Mai Xiang's hand, and entered the study.

Although he couldn't understand the excited expression on Mai Xiang's face when he heard the words "Yuan Qinghua", not only his eyes lit up, but even his body trembled a little, but Huai Ci spent 800 taels of silver without blinking. The three Yuan blue and white flowers came back in their arms, just because of Mai Xiang's eyebrows and eyes.

In fact, Mai Xiang doesn't know anything about porcelain at all. She just knows that the blue and white of the Yuan Dynasty in later generations is very rare, and the price is naturally ridiculously high, and most of the collections are overseas. Don't want to miss it.

"Sister, come on, let me teach you to identify, this kind of thin and tall one, with a small lower body, a thick upper body, and a lid on the bottle mouth is called a plum bottle, and according to its pattern, look at this, it is a white dragon rolling in the sea , in the sea water pattern drawn with thin lines, thick solid lines are used to outline the waves to form the wave pattern. This is the most distinctive feature of the sea water pattern in the Yuan Dynasty. The foot of this plum vase is octagonal, so this plum vase is called sea water. A plum vase with a white dragon pattern, this one is called a peony jar with a cloud and a dragon pattern, and this is also a plum vase with a cloud and dragon pattern, you can put it in your room if you like."

Only then did Mai Xiang remember that she had to find a way to keep things after she bought them. After thinking for a while, she said, "Brother, I won't take things with me. There are many children in my house. Brother, I forgot one thing when I built the house." Things, we should build an underground secret room."

"Underground room?"

"In this way, our valuable things can be put in the secret room. In the future, even if there is a war and the house is destroyed, the secret room is still there, and we can still build the house on the original site. In this way, our treasures will be kept safe." can stay."

Mai Xiang thought of the Opium War decades later, and the series of wars and disasters since then. She had to think of a proper way to keep these things.

"War?" Huai Ci looked at Mai Xiang, how could there be war in this peaceful and prosperous world?

"History is always moving forward, and there has never been a lack of war in the process of progress. Moreover, the replacement of each dynasty is inseparable from war. Do you think that the Qing Dynasty really lasted for thousands of years?"

Because there were no outsiders in the room, Mai Xiang simply discussed with Huai Ci the general historical process 100 years later, which can be regarded as a rainy day.

Mai Xiang knows that she does not have the ability to change history. What she can do is to pass on "The Story of the Stone", change Cao Xueqin's fate, and change the fate of her family. For Mai Xiang, this is enough, but too big Things, she can't do it.

"How do you know that the Qing Dynasty will only live in peace for decades?" Huai Ci asked.

"Rules, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Yuan doesn't count, each dynasty has a history of 300 years, you are a scholar, you don't know these things, right?"

When Huai Ci listened and was pondering, Mai Huang came and said that someone had come to give New Year's gifts.

After hearing this, Mai Xiang hurriedly followed Mai Huang through the back door of Huaici's house, and saw a carriage parked in front of her house, Mai Xiang looked at the boy driving the carriage, but she didn't see it.

Entering the yard, I saw a woman who looked like a housekeeper talking to Mrs. Zhao, and there were two teenagers wearing melon caps and silk coats standing beside her.

(End of this chapter)