When I entered the hall, I found a young man lying on a large couch with his legs crossed, like an alien version of Ge You.
The small coffee table next to the couch was filled with exquisite fruits, snacks and refreshments.
There were four beautiful young maids standing beside him serving him. With his posture and demeanor, he looked like a carefree prince.
Tang Wen was stunned. This guy didn't look old. He looked only about 27 or 28 years old.
However, Xiao Gai was also stunned and looked at Tang Wen.
"Hello, Lord Earl." Tang Wen greeted.
"Haha, you are younger than me, and you are actually a first-class earl. How interesting." Xiao Gai smiled and pointed to the other side of the couch, "Come on, come on, let's eat together."
Tang Wen smiled and nodded, then sat down on the couch, while Luo Yiwu and Gu Hanyan stood beside him and served him politely.
"I say, Earl Tang, why do you like this? It's completely different from mine." Xiao Gai glanced at Gu Hanyan and said with a smile.
"What do you like?" Tang Wen looked at him with a dazed look on his face.
"Look at my girls. Although they are not as beautiful as the moon and flowers, they are also very decent and pretty." Xiao Gai said smugly.
"Oh, I'm talking about my girl Gu Hanyan. She is just an old mother." Tang Wen deliberately glanced at Gu Hanyan and smiled, which made Gu Hanyan's face twisted with anger.
"You grew up drinking her milk, her wet nurse, right?" Xiao Gai was stunned and blurted out.
Tang Wen almost spit out the tea he had drunk, and Luo Yiwu beside him felt uncomfortable.
"I'm not his wet nurse, I'm his personal maid." Gu Hanyan said angrily.
"Look, I told you, Earl Tang has different preferences from mine." Xiao Gai said with a smile.
"Are you saying that I like old and ugly ones?" Tang Wen asked with a smile.
"Can your girl be called pretty? To be honest, some people are still charming even though they are old. But, as for your girl, forget it. Let's not talk about it and have some tea." Xiao Gai shook his hand.
"Hehe, sorry for making me laugh." Tang Wen said, making Gu Hanyan very angry.
"My Lord, what do you want to talk to me about?" Xiao Gai asked.
"I can tell at first glance that you, Sir, are a person who likes to have fun." Tang Wen did not answer directly, but smiled.
"Life is short, just live it freely and happily." Xiao Gai said as he took the golden pipe handed to him by the maid, took a puff and returned it to her. Seeing Tang Wen looking at him, he couldn't help but smile and said, "Does Lord Tang smoke too?"
"Draw!" Tang Wen nodded.
"Prepare a fishing rod for the lord," said Xiao Gai.
"No." Tang Wen shook his head.
"What? You look down on my Xiao family's tobacco leaves? Those are all top-quality tobacco leaves that can't be bought in stores." Xiao Gai's face tightened and he looked a little unhappy.
"I have my own, not that I look down on you." Tang Wen said, taking out a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes, pulling out a cigarette, and lighting it with a gold-plated lighter.
Xiao Gai was stunned for a moment, and looked at Tang Wen fiercely, saying, "What are you smoking? Why haven't I seen it before ?"
"It's high-quality tobacco from the West, much better than the local tobacco produced in our Chu country." Tang Wen blew a smoke ring, and immediately, the smell of essence spread. Xiao Gai couldn't help but sniff and swallow.
“How about you have one too?” Knowing that this guy had taken the bait, Tang Wen flicked the cigarette butt.
"Here you can try it." Xiao Gai said. Tang Wen took out one and handed it to him. He put it in his mouth like Tang Wen did, and then looked at Tang Wen's lighter.
"It will light up just by lighting it like this." Click, Tang Wen demonstrated it.
"I'll do it, I'll do it." Xiao Gai became happy, took the lighter and started to play with it, "Haha, it works, it works, it can be lit like this, you got this from the West?"
"Yeah." Tang Wen nodded.
"Yours is more convenient, the smoke is much more fragrant and it doesn't choke you." Xiao Gai said.
"The key is that it is convenient to carry with you. You can take it out of your pocket and light it up whenever you want to smoke. It's so comfortable to puff out smoke." Tang Wen said as he blew out several smoke rings in a row, which made Xiao Gai look fascinated.
He also tried it, but making smoke rings requires constant practice, and he couldn't make them all at once.
"Since we are meeting for the first time, I would like to give this lighter and cigarettes to you, sir." Tang Wen took out another pack of cigarettes and a lighter and put them on the table and pushed them over.
"Someone, come here, pack up the exquisite snacks I brought back from Haisheng City and give them to Lord Tang later." Of course Xiao Gai would not take your things for nothing, and immediately shouted to the servants.
"I've tasted your snacks, they're delicious. But..." Tang Wen looked at the snacks on the table and deliberately showed a hint of disdain.
"These snacks were transported back from Haisheng Restaurant eight hundred miles away. Aren't they to your taste?" Xiao Gai asked with a smug look on his face.
"Hanyan, bring our snacks up for the Lord to taste." Tang Wen said.
"Master, that matter..." Seeing Tang Wen chatting with Xiao Gai all the time, Luo Yiwu couldn't stand it anymore. He thought that the master had forgotten the important matter, so he quickly reminded him.
"It's okay, it's okay, have some snacks first." Tang Wen waved his hand.
Soon, Gu Hanyan came up with a tray carrying some snacks.
There are canned food, snacks, dried fish, mutton, beef jerky, braised chicken feet, sauced pig's trotters, etc.
"Don't these need to be fried or cooked?" Xiao Gai asked.
"No, just open it and eat it." Tang Wen said, and Gu Hanyan opened the can and tore open the packaging bag...
Xiao Gai picked up a piece with ivory chopsticks and ate it. Suddenly, his eyes lit up.
Next, he tried something else, and then he simply picked up the braised pig's trotter and started to eat it without any grace.
"Snacks without wine won't do." Tang Wen said.
"Come on, come on, bring up the ten-year-old girl's red wine." Xiao Gai shouted again.
"Let's drink mine." Tang Wen said. Luo Yiwu came on stage, opened the wine, and then opened a bottle of champagne...
"Okay, okay, this is good..."
The two did nothing but drink. After they came back, Luo Yiwu couldn't help but said, "Master, why don't you talk about business? We're still waiting for the work to start.
Although the low tide lasted for several months before, no one can guarantee that it will last for several months this time.
If it's earlier, won't our bridge piers be ruined if they're not finished yet?"
"Lord Xiao Gai is different. He is rich. If we buy it with silver, he doesn't lack that little silver. If we use millions of taels of silver to buy a deserted island, what's the point?" Tang Wen said.
“I have inquired about this person, and he is quite difficult to deal with.
This person loves to eat, drink and play, and is said to have some literary talent. He has earned the title of "One of the Four Beauties of Jiangzhou" in the provincial capital.
He is not short of money, and the Turtle Island is the ancestral property of the Xiao family, so they would not sell it even if they let it go to waste." Luo Yiwu nodded.
"Since we can't take it, let's just forget it. There's no use for that broken island anyway. If we want to develop it, it might cost millions of taels of silver. What a pity." Li Quan said.
"Li Quan, there are some things you don't understand, but you will understand them in the future!
If we can capture the Shengui Island, then the three islands of Sumei, Shengui and White Tiger will watch over each other.
Even if we encounter a large number of pirate attacks, we still have room to retreat.
If we only have Koh Samui, once the Samui Bridge is destroyed, we will become an isolated island.
Moreover, with more islands, there will be more troops stationed there in the future, and our strength will be greater.
Therefore, we must take it down." Tang Wen said, of course, it is useless to talk to them about some long-term plans.
Because their focus is still on food and clothing. If you talk to them about spiritual enjoyment and people's happiness, they will just think you are talking nonsense.
It’s too troublesome to explain, so I’d better not say it.
"That's true, but they're not short of money, so why wouldn't they sell it?" Li Quan nodded.