The Royal Merchant of the Red Chamber

In a short while, an elegant middle-aged man with a fair face, light fur belt, and beautiful clothes and a beautiful crown came to meet him with his hands behind his back. As soon as he entered the courtyard, he raised his voice and shouted: "Pan'er..."

"Father!" Xue Pan responded, flying towards the elegant man and hugging him.As soon as he walked up to the man and stood still, he was raised by the man with both hands.

The person who came was Xue Pan's biological father, Xue Zhizhang.

"I haven't seen daddy for two months, do you think about it!" Xue Zhizhang held Xue Pan in his arms, shook his hands, and said with satisfaction: "That's right, it's sinking again."

It turned out to be exactly the same as what I said when I made fun of Baochai just now.Xue Pan couldn't help but have black lines all over his head.

Madam Xue also caught up later, and seeing the appearance of the father and son, she shook her head and smiled secretly.He said in his mouth: "Master, put Pan'er down quickly. People say that you should hold your grandson but not your son. Why did you forget?"

"This is my son, not someone else's beautiful lady. Naturally, I can hug him whenever I want. What can others do to me?" Xue Zhizhang also teased a few words in a good mood, and glanced at the blue-shirted boy standing at the entrance of the main hall. , could not help but hesitate: "This is..."

"Oh, look at my memory." Mrs. Xue patted her forehead, and quickly introduced: "This is Pan'er's close friend, Mr. Long Si. He is from the capital and only came to Jinling to do business. Because there is no place to stay, Pan'er is here. We have welcomed him into the mansion. I just placed him in the Haitang Pavilion."

"Treat him well!" Xue Zhizhang nodded and went forward.Fourth Master Long cupped his hands and said with a smile, "I've met Master Xue."

"You are Pan'er's good friend, so naturally you are also my nephew. If you don't mind, just call me uncle." Xue Zhizhang didn't think of anything else, just entertaining his beloved son's friends.For a moment, his eager attitude stunned Fourth Master Long.

They returned to the main hall and sat down one after another.Due to etiquette, Xue Zhizhang exchanged a few words with Fourth Master Long, during which time he unavoidably inquired about Fourth Master Long's family background.Although Long Si was careful with his words, how could he deal with Xue Zhizhang, an old fox, and Xue Zhizhang got out of the conversation after two or three times, showing clues, and he didn't even know it.

Shocked, Xue Zhizhang no longer brought up the topic of asking Long Si to call him uncle.Instead, he arranged board and lodging more enthusiastically, and then sent him back to Haitang Pavilion for resettlement. He also took Madam Xue and Xue Pan back to the backyard.

"Pan'er, tell me, how did you know this Fourth Master Long?" Xue Zhizhang asked with a smile on his face as soon as he arrived in the backyard, looking at Xue Pan solemnly.

Xue Pan's own old fox-like father saw the clues in his heart, and took advantage of the opportunity to inform Xue Zhizhang in detail about the meeting between himself and Long Siye, and did not mention any other guesses.After hearing this, Xue Zhizhang couldn't help feeling a headache.I lamented that my precious son's ability to attract people was as powerful as his ability to cause trouble.

Mrs. Xue saw it in her eyes, and asked worriedly from the side: "Why, but what's wrong with Mr. Long Si?"

"No?" Xue Zhizhang raised his eyebrows and asked, "How could it be wrong? But if there is a little bit of wrongness, it is our fault. Instruct the servants to take care of it carefully, and don't neglect the distinguished guests. Otherwise, we will have good fruit to eat."

"What does the master mean?" Mrs. Xue turned pale with shock, "Could it be that the fourth son of the Dragon—"

"From now on, don't talk about the Fourth Dragon Lord." Xue Zhizhang shook his head and interrupted Mrs. Xue, "You just worship him as a Bodhisattva. Don't inquire about him in the slightest. It's good to serve others and leave Jinling is the great blessing of our family."

Hearing what Xue Zhizhang said, Mrs. Xue had a certain idea in her heart.She is also from a big family, so her vision and heart are naturally wider than others.Immediately smiled softly: "Master, don't worry, I will personally send someone to take care of it, absolutely nothing will go wrong."

"That's good!" Xue Zhizhang nodded in satisfaction, he still trusted his wife's wrist.Now that the arrangement has been made, there is no need to mention it anymore, instead, he said to Xue Pan: "This time I went to Yangzhou and brought you back a lot of food and drink, especially the glass products and extra books that you specially asked people to buy. Have someone send it to your room."

Xue Pan thanked happily: "Thank you, Daddy."

The reason why he collected these things was firstly to make time travel sharp glass, and secondly, he knew that he had traveled to the red building, but he didn't know what year and month it was, and he didn't know if it was the continent he was familiar with, so he just You can look in the books outside the domain to see if there are any clues.

Seeing this, Xue Zhizhang shook his head and smiled wryly. "I only want to inquire about these anecdotes all day long, and I don't read serious articles. Let me ask you, two months have passed, have you memorized the Three Character Classic?"

"I... this..." Xue Pan immediately faltered.

The bright red curtain at the door shook for a while, and Baochai, who was as round as a snowball, also stepped over the threshold and came in, bowing to greet him in a childish voice: "Baochai has seen Daddy."

"It's Baochai!" Xue Zhizhang's face became more and more warm. "I haven't seen Daddy for so long, do you miss Daddy?"

"Of course I want to." Xue Baochai nodded in response.

Xue Zhizhang asked a few more questions about how he was reading the book and how many words he knew.Baochai answered one by one, seeing Xue Zhizhang holding Xue Pan nicely, and after a while, pouted and said: "Dad doesn't like me anymore, why don't you only hug brother and not me?"

"Why don't you like Baochai? Daddy likes Baochai the most." Hearing this, Xue Zhizhang stretched out another hand to hold Xue Baochai in his arms.Sit with your left and right knees on each side.Xue Zhizhang looked around at the two children carved in powder and jade, and couldn't help feeling proud.

"Both sons and daughters, good fortune!"

"I'm proud of this skill again. I don't know who disliked Pan'er for not liking reading just now." Mrs. Xue laughed softly.

"Our Pan'er is a lucky person. Even if we don't study, we will be prosperous and rich in the future. You haven't seen the things that Pan'er has been tinkering with for so many years. Which one is not so rare for outsiders? Our Xue family only relies on Pan'er. These fantastic ideas have been tossed out in the past two years..." At this point, Xue Zhizhang suddenly fell silent, and said instead: "In short, Pan'er is the lucky star of our family. Back then, if Pan'er hadn't been in my family If there is such a commotion before the funeral, I am afraid I will die in Huangquan, how can I have the glory and wealth of today."

As he spoke, he lowered his head and kissed Xue Pan fiercely, screaming wildly in his mouth, "My dear son, let Daddy kiss me again. I miss Daddy to death."

Mrs. Xue became suspicious when she heard Xue Zhizhang's few words. "It's just a trip to Yangzhou to inspect the business, why is it getting better again?"

"You don't know, who did I meet in Yangzhou?" Master Xue said sarcastically.

"Who did you meet?" Mrs. Xue sat on the kang on the other side, cut off the wick, and asked casually.

"Speaking of which, they are also relatives of my own family." Xue Zhizhang shook his head and said, "It turned out to be Lin Ruhai, the son-in-law of the Jia family in the Rongguo Mansion, who was appointed by the current emperor as the inspector of salt and censor, and he has only been in office for half a year."

"It turned out to be him?" Mrs. Xue was also surprised.Can't help sighing: "This is really fate."

He asked again, "So, the scenery you mentioned has something to do with this uncle of the Lin family?"

"Isn't it!" Xue Zhizhang nodded and sighed: "He is a new official who has just arrived, so naturally he wants to make a scene. But after all, he is a scholarly family, so he is unavoidably stupid about this economic matter. I just wanted to let it go without any results after tinkering for a while. I happened to meet me, what kind of family is our family? If it’s about merchants, our family’s modesty is the second, and no one dares to recognize the first The reason. The two phases and one are in harmony, hey—”

As Xue Zhizhang said, the hands that caged Xue Pan's brothers and sisters struggled together and clapped.

"Look at how proud you are." Mrs. Xue shook her head amusedly, but she also knew that this time was a big business, so she persuaded softly: "Money can't be earned, and you suffered from such a serious illness a few years ago, and you need more money." Take good care of it and don’t get tired.”

"Don't worry! It's just a coincidence in the middle of matchmaking. I got a salt ticket and sold it around, and I can earn several times the difference if I change hands. The business is easy!" Xue Zhizhang shook his head and said nonchalantly.

While talking, he heard the sound of chiseling and knocking down the wall outside, and he couldn't help but frowned and shouted: "What's going on? A guy who has no rules and no winks, dares to break the ground when the weather is dark, so he doesn't want to disturb people's peace."

"It's the tiles that Zhou De sent from the kiln. Your son ordered that you must decorate the toilet and bathing place today." Mrs. Xue also shook her head and sighed.This son was so spoiled by their master that no one dared to refute it.

Xue Zhizhang immediately asked happily: "It's the kind of porcelain that Pan'er said can be used to lay floors and walls, did they really make it?"

"I just finished it yesterday," Mrs. Xue said.

"This is a good thing, no, I have to go out and have a look." Xue Zhizhang said, put down the two children, and went out behind the curtain.

"Hey, master!" Mrs. Xue looked at Xue Zhizhang's back with a smile, shook her head and smiled bitterly: "Also said that other people are careful, but I don't think it's wind or rain."

Xue Pan immediately bowed his hands and said: "Mom, it's getting late. You can rest, but you can't stay up all night and rough your skin. It will ruin the appearance of such a fairy for nothing. If you are tired, it will be even more unfilial to me."

Mrs. Xue gave Xue Pan a blank look, and reached out to tap Xue Pan's forehead, "I talked so sweetly with your old lady. It's not that you were in a hurry to go back to the house to see your bastards, but you just made trouble with me. Why don't you go away?"

"Thank you, my lord." Xue Pan sang, made a long bow, and walked away with a smile.