Volume 1: Mission in Danger Chapter 4: Sealing the Curtain
Last night, Zhou Yijin watched Cai Qinghua enter the cabin, then turned around, used his hair to cover his throat, and vomited all the food and wine in his stomach into the sea water. His mind was clear now, and he went into the main cabin to see Wu Chengjian. Wu Chengjian did not ask any questions, and Tan Sanniang first served him a bowl of warm hangover soup - Zhou Yijin was the only one under Wu Chengjian who could ask Tan Sanniang to serve him soup, and none of the other hangers-on had this blessing.
Zhou Yijin was not polite. He took a sip and put it down, saying, "My master didn't come here for the Third Young Master or Yihe Bank this time. He came for me."
Wu Chengjian smiled and said, "I guessed it. In the Qing Dynasty, power is the most important thing, and money is the second. Yihehang is a wealthy merchant in the eyes of peasants, but what is it in the eyes of the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi? Even among the Thirteen Hongs, the Pan family is the best, followed by the Cai, Xie and Lu families. The other merchants, including our Yihehang, are only third or fourth-rate families. How could they be worth the governor to send his confidants to lurk in? I guess he has taken a fancy to you and wants to pull you into his trap, right?"
Zhou Yijin nodded.
Wu Chengjian said: "Congratulations to Yijin. If you can get close to the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, you will be able to rise to prominence in no time."
After hearing this, Zhou Yijin frowned and said, "Why are you telling me this? If I still had any attachment to the officialdom, I would not have followed you to leave Beijing and go south."
Wu Chengjian said, "You really don't want to go? Although the advisor has no rank, the advisor of the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi has unlimited power in Guangdong."
Zhou Yijin snorted, and Wu Chengjian knew he had said something wrong, and quickly said, "I was just kidding you! Don't be angry, don't be angry. In fact, I think that the shogunate is your job. But if you're unhappy, then let's not do it."
Zhou Yijin's expression looked better at this point.
Wu Chengjian added: "Anyway, as long as my monthly allowance is still there, we will enjoy it for a day. The waters of the capital are too deep, let's stay away from it. My elder brother earns money, and we spend it. We eat and drink well every day, travel around and win face. Even gods wouldn't trade this for a better life."
Zhou Yijin said, "I just didn't expect that it was Zhu Nanya who went south this time. It's rare for a Han minister to be the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. And I didn't get the news in advance. The spies in the capital are obviously not strong enough."
Wu Chengjian smiled and said, "It's not that the spy is not strong enough, it's that you deliberately didn't contact your master, right?"
Zhou Yijin was silent for a moment before he sighed, "Sorry."
He was disheartened at the time, and although he used many of his past connections to help Wu Chengjian, he did deliberately avoid Cai Qinghua when he took action.
"What are you apologizing for?" Wu Chengjian didn't sleep much the previous night. He yawned and said lazily, "Back then, I saw that my elder brother was exhausted and worried that the family would be ruined and have no money to spend, so I helped to make connections. Now the business is getting bigger and bigger, and even the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi is concerned about who will be the governor. My life as a playboy is getting more and more boring."
Tan Sanniang wrung out a wet cloth and wiped his face to wake him up, smiling and saying, "The young master loves you so much. You can spend mountains of gold and silver at will. You help with something after having fun. Do you still have the nerve to complain about the trouble?"
"I know my elder brother loves me, and I am willing to do anything for him, but it is too much trouble and I am impatient." Wu Chengjian said lazily: "If this continues, I will just take charge of the family."
Tan Sanniang smiled and said, "If you are willing to work hard and share the burden with your elder brother, the young master will be very pleased."
"Stop it!" Wu Chengjian said, "I don't want to spend my days and nights working on account books and abacus. I'd better let my eldest brother worry about the things of being the head of the family. I drink as much as I can, and at most I can help with the household affairs when I'm not drunk."
At this time, Bihe, the personal maid of Dan Sanniang, came in and reported: "The ladies from Shenxianzhou and Huaxing are here to congratulate Sanniang on her wedding day."
Wu Chengjian said with a smile: "You came so quickly, it seems someone is anxious, and can't wait for you to come down and give up the position of the leader of the flower shop. But they are also afraid that you will not keep your promise, so they are in a hurry to make it a done deal."
Tan Sanniang tilted her head and said, "Who told you to act so ? According to what we agreed upon, I should just vacate my seat. You are about to be sealed off, why do you still want to show off?"
"Just because you want to be crowned as a minister, I want you to be crowned as a minister with honor!" Wu Chengjian said with a smile, "Besides, who asked Cai Laoer to provoke me? He must be older than me, but all the playboys in Guangzhou know that I, Wu Chengjian, am not that great. It is true that his Cai family is richer than my Wu family, but can Mr. Cai take out the net profit of the entire business for him to waste for several years like my eldest brother did? I can spend the money of the Wu family casually, because my eldest brother loves me. But the money of the Cai family, hehe, you will see, just for these tens of thousands of taels of silver this time, Cai Laoer will have to be beaten up later!"
Zhou Yijin looked at Wu Chengjian's smug look, and couldn't help but smile with his usually frosty face.
However, Tan Sanniang shook her head helplessly, lowered the bead curtain, and sat down in the outer room.
Soon, more than a dozen women came in one after another, eight of them were among the Twelve Golden Hairpins of Guangdong, and the remaining six were mothers in their thirties. Shen Xiaoying, Ginkgo, and Qiu Ling were among them. They were all leaders of the flower business in Baietan, either from Shenxianzhou or from the Sanfang.
As soon as everyone was seated, Shen Xiaoying came over, hugged Tan Sanniang, and cried, "Third sister, you are in the prime of your youth, why did you close the curtain?"
Tan Sanniang pushed her and said, "Come on, stop pretending in front of me. Look at how loudly you cry, but not a single tear falls from your eyes. You are pretending like this. I don't know how the Second Young Master of the Cai Family fell in love with you."
Shen Xiaoying stopped crying and smiled, and the mothers of the girls in the room also laughed. It was a happy event for the flower shop that Tanka Sanniang had closed the curtain. Besides, they would still be in Guangzhou in the future, and it was not a farewell of life and death. Even though everyone felt a little touched, they would not be really sad.
Ginkgo smiled and said, "She may say she is reluctant to leave, but in her heart she is hoping that you will retire sooner. As long as you are here, the champion of the Yuehai Flower Shop will be in your hands. If you retire now, she will be the champion next year."
Shen Xiaoying pretended to be silly when facing Tan Sanniang, but when she saw Ginkgo, her whole face suddenly changed shape, and she pointed at him and cursed: "Big pancake face, what do you mean!"
Ginkgo chuckled and said, "I didn't mean anything, that's what I meant."
Shen Xiaoying said angrily, "You are a slutty bitch who eats the noodles in a bowl and then turns the bowl upside down. You were sold to Baihua Store by your family because you couldn't get married. You just took the money from the Shanxi people to embarrass us Cantonese people. Now you are trying to sow discord between me and my sister. What are you up to?"
Ginkgo didn't seem annoyed at all when she scolded him like that. She chuckled and said, "The face of us Cantonese people? Didn't you always brag that you were a lady from a Jiangnan water town who accidentally fell into prostitution? When did you become a Cantonese?"
Shen Xiaoying scolded, "You bastard, you're here to sow discord again! I'm a Jiangnan girl, raised in Guangzhou Xiguan. I'm a southerner after all, and I'm better than you, a Mizhi woman who only eats noodles and not rice!"
Seeing the two people quarreling more and more, Tan Sanniang's face darkened slightly, but she still smiled, but the smile was a little cold: "Why, did you come here to congratulate me today, or to quarrel with me?"
She had accumulated prestige in the Immortal Continent for a long time. Shen Xiaoying and Yinxing quickly shut up. Qiu Ling smiled and said, "Sister, don't pay attention to them. Everyone knows that they quarrel as soon as they meet. There is no peace for a moment. Let's just drink tea and talk about happy things."
All the sisters and mother said, "Yes, yes." Shen Xiaoying and Ginkgo didn't dare to make a noise anymore.
Behind the curtain, Wu Chengjian leaned close to Zhou Yijin's ear and chuckled, "Although Sanniang has closed the curtain, her majesty is still there."
Zhou Yijin also lowered his voice and said calmly: " It As long as you are in power, no one will dare to refuse Sanniang's respect."
Bihe and her maid brought the tea. After a round of drinking, everyone quieted down. Then Tan Sanniang said, "In the middle of the night, everyone left their benefactor to congratulate me. Sanniang is grateful. Three days later, I will naturally hold a farewell banquet on this Huacha. I hope you sisters will come and enjoy it."
Shen Xiaoying said: " Don't worry . I will be the first one to come to support you when the time comes. Whoever from the Fairyland dares not to come that day will be hurt by me, Shen Xiaoying. " As she said that, she glanced at Ginkgo, who responded with a silent chuckle.
"That's not necessary." Tan Sanniang smiled and said, "The guests invited in three days are those in the limelight. The ones who can come tonight are all my sisters. Seeing that so many people are here, I have two things to say to you all."
The golden hairpins hurriedly said, "Sister, please speak." Several mothers also said, "Miss, please speak."
Tan Sanniang said, "In our line of work, those who have made it to our position have seen mountains of gold and silver. The gold and silver that have slipped through our hands, if not hundreds of thousands, at least tens of thousands, but we have made a lot, and we have also spent a lot. Even though the big patrons spend tens of thousands of silver every year, everyone present knows how much of it we can keep."
Several golden hairpins looked at each other, and one or two of the youngest ones were sighing. When they had just entered the industry, they saw the patrons on the Fairyland spending money like water, and they were extremely envious. But when they were also put on the table, they realized that it was not easy to get the money.
"Some silver just passes under our noses and then goes back to the hands of the dignitaries in the blink of an eye." Tan Sanniang continued, "In the final analysis, we are just their playthings. On the stage of Shenxian Island, we do lowly business that is not worthy of being in a high-class hall. On Shenxian Island, we have to sell our skills on stage and our bodies off stage. Even if we get an order, we have to do things against our conscience for the masters. If we dare to say no, there will be another floating corpse on Baietan tomorrow."
One or two of the courtesans had stiff faces. They knew what Tan Sanniang was talking about, but they dared not say anything when it came to themselves.
"Today, I, Tan Sanniang, was able to retire without any trouble. The reason for this is the favor of Mazu, the protection of Yihe Sanshao, and the support of all the sisters. I, Tan Sanniang, always remember Mazu. As for Sanshao, he was the noble man who pulled me out of the pit of fire and brought me ashore. I can only repay him with my wholehearted kindness for the rest of my life. As for all the sisters, Tan Sanniang has no way to repay you. I only ask you to accept my greetings tonight."
As she spoke, she knelt down. Everyone hurriedly tried to make way for her, but Tan Sanniang insisted that everyone accept her bow. This bow was to acknowledge all the grudges and favors that had been passed down throughout their lives. She would repay the favors and let go of the grudges. Although the grudges could not be completely eliminated by this bow, it was a nail in the coffin in terms of "etiquette". From now on, she would withdraw from Baihuaxing, and if anyone present today still brought up the past, they would not accept her bow. This meant "washing up her life".
This bow was a true farewell to the flower world. Two or three women with shallow eyelids saw her like this and were wiping their tears. Shen Xiaoying was also rubbing her eyes and forcing herself to cry. Several mothers had better acting skills, their eyelids drooped a few times and tears fell on their own.
