RPAGF Chapter 251: Being Blocked from Meeting Someone
Chapter 251: Being Blocked from Meeting Someone
After the New Year, Zhao Fangyu picked up his business again and tried to build his network in Beijing.
The Yang family's perfume shop had to lower its prices and follow the eldest princess's Qianjinlou. However, after seeing the luxury and splendor of Qianjinlou, they could not help but feel that the Yang family was greedy.
The same perfumed dew costs eighty taels of silver per bottle in the Yang family, but only fifty taels in Qianjinlou!
If you are lucky enough and come across the Nanzhao caravan at the city gate, you can even get a small bottle for twenty taels.
After mixing two bottles, the amount is almost the same as that of Qianjinlou and Yangjiaxianglupu.
Who wouldn't secretly curse the Yang family for being so cruel? Not only did they sell them at double the price, but they also had to watch them fight over these exotic perfumes. It was really abominable!
Finally, the Yang family's perfume shop could no longer operate, so they sold all the perfume in stock at a discount to merchants who came to the capital to purchase goods. This solved their urgent problem.
However, due to the huge inventory, such a loss-making move also caused great damage to the vitality of the third prince Yang Xiaofei.
Zhou Qinghe smiled and took over Chunshao's job to grind ink for Zhao Fangyu, who was writing a letter to the eldest lady.
"The Yang family has lost all their money, and the Third Prince has also been emptied of his money. If he wants to be arrogant again, he will have to eat filial piety."
Zhao Fangyu knew without a doubt that for a man like the Third Prince, the most miserable time from childhood to adulthood was when he was stationed in Longxi, hiding in the tent to visit prostitutes.
How could the emperor value such a mediocre person so much, unless his two elder brothers were useless and his younger brother was disabled?
The third prince had lost all his savings. Previously, Zhou Qinghe had guessed from the assassination arrow that the third prince had secretly found an iron mine that was not registered by the government.
Mining must be done in private, as must the stationing of troops.
If the Third Prince had not stationed troops privately, there would not have been so many privately forged arrows.
Zhao Fangyu cut off his source of silver, and he could not pay the soldiers he had stockpiled.
If he wanted to send it out, he would most likely have to rely on gifts from his subordinates.
The emperor would not really care if a prince received some filial piety, but the amount of money required for military pay and mining would not be small. Such a large amount of money was taken away by the third prince and its whereabouts were unknown. The Jinyiwei around the emperor would not sit idly by.
Zhao Fangyu thought of Pei Yan. In the past, the Zhao family secretly supported Pei Yan outside the palace. Over the years, the Pei family and the Zhao family had no intersection. Even Zhao Fangyu had not seen Pei Yan for a long time.
"Wait for the Third Prince to receive the tribute and go and give some eye drops to our good brother."
Zhou Qinghe's round head moved up and down, his eyes fixed on Zhao Fangyu's jade-like fingertips.
Cui Zimin's uncle is quite capable. Zhao Fangyu looks much better now than before. This winter is so cold, but his illness has not relapsed. Even headaches and fevers are rare. It can be seen that he is a rare good doctor.
"After the Lantern Festival tomorrow, Uncle Cui will go to Huaizhou in March. Before he leaves, take a look to see if there are any changes to the pulse diagnosis and prescription."
"You've been taking this medicine for a while now, and it seems to be working well. This year is better than in previous years."
I had thought that with the aftereffects of the assassination this year, Zhao Fangyu would most likely be more fragile in winter. His body was made of paper, but I didn't expect that his strength would be gradually filled by Cui's uncle.
Zhao Fangyu followed up with a response: "This year is indeed better than previous years. Even my hands and feet are not as cold as before."
This was a problem she had since she was a child. Ever since she fell into the water, Zhao Fangyu's hands and feet would be cold in winter. It wasn't because the maids who served her were not attentive, but because she herself was not in good health. She had been recuperating in Qingping Courtyard, and finally recovered to a certain extent. When she came to the palace, she stopped taking medicine. In winter, she stayed in the small duty room every day, blowing the cold wind, following the emperor back and forth, in the wind and rain. The emperor was naturally fine, but the palace maids were not. They didn't eat well or sleep well, and gradually their foundation was dried up.
Everything has to be reorganized from scratch.
The uncle of the Cui family that Zhou Qinghe found had excellent medical skills. Zhao Fangyu spent the whole winter taking the uncle's medicine and had a much safer life.
When the eldest lady heard about it, she couldn't help but praise the Cui family's uncle for his superb medical skills.
"Do you know Taohua Town in the suburbs of Beijing?"
Zhao Fangyu suddenly mentioned Taohua Town. Zhou Qinghe didn't understand why, but answered honestly, "I went there once on business."
Zhao Fangyu put down his pen upon hearing this. Comparing his slender wrist with the white porcelain flower-branch pen holder, he couldn't tell which one was more delicate.
"Then do you know that there is a local squire named Song?"
Zhou Qinghe couldn't remember this clearly, as it happened a long time ago, and it wasn't a big deal for him to go there at that time.
"At that time, there was a fugitive who fled to the vicinity of Taohua Town, so the Ministry of Justice sent people there. I was conscripted at the time, so I went there with them. I don't know much about the Song family."
Zhao Fangyu always did the same, so he stopped talking and called Chunshao who was standing next to him, and asked her to ask the shopkeeper of the Fourteenth State if he knew the Song family in Taohua Town.
Zhou Qinghe asked, "Is there something wrong with the Song family?"
Zhao Fangyu picked up his pen again and wrote a letter to comfort the first lady, while explaining to Zhou Qinghe: "My fifth sister married into the Song family. Aunt Song and the first lady cried and complained that she had been married for many days and had not received even a letter. Later, when we asked, we found out that even the dowry that the fifth sister brought was sent to the farm."
Zhou Qinghe frowned: "Since the Song family is a country gentry, how can they not have room for a few dowries?"
Zhao Fangyun was born out of wedlock, and the Pei family did not have as many people as Zhao Fangyu and Zhao Fangjin. Including his own personal maid, married wet nurse, and the companions given by the mansion, there were no more than twenty people. How could a country gentleman's family not even have room for twenty people?
There is obviously something fishy about this.
"That's why I asked you if you knew about the Song family."
"The Song family is the richest family among the fifth sister's aunt's maternal clan. My mother felt sorry for her and loved her daughter. The Song family also sincerely wanted to marry her, so she promised the fifth sister to the Song family. Who knew that this would happen now?"
"After the New Year, I have to go back and take a look."
The Zhao family is no longer the same as it used to be. Zhao Minshan has lost his official position, and it will be difficult for him to afford the medicine of the eldest lady in the future. Even his life span is in the hands of the eldest lady. He is just a half-dead old man.
The reason why he was not asked to die immediately was that he was afraid of delaying his elder brother's official career. Now Fang Yun seemed to be in trouble, and the eldest lady made a big fuss a few days ago, so it would be inconvenient for him to go out.
Qilang could do something, but his relationship with Fangyun was distant, so the matter was not legitimate and had to fall on the shoulders of Zhao Fangjin and Zhao Fangyu.
"Where's her sister?"
"She has a biological sister, but because of her aunt's partiality, she became estranged from them since she was young. Now she has already married far away, and she never came back even for her wedding."
Zhou Qinghe clicked his tongue.
"Her own sister doesn't care about the matter, so this trouble falls on you. Where is your sister-in-law?"
In fact, it would be best if Mei Xunyin came forward in this matter. This was also what the eldest lady meant. She asked Mei Xunyin and Zhao Fangyu to go to the Song family to see what was going on with Zhao Fangyun.
"Before the Lunar New Year, the Zhao family sent New Year gifts to the Song family. Mother Cui, who was by my mother's side, went there in person, but she didn't even see the fifth sister. She only said that the fifth sister was not in good health and couldn't see anyone."
"In order to prevent my sister-in-law from being blocked back, I will go there myself."