Chapter 45: Buying Jewelry
After returning to the capital, returning the horses to the horse firm, and recovering the deposit, Xu Qi'an walked out of the store's door and said:
"Resignation you go back first, I still have things to do."
Xu Qi'an nodded without asking any more questions and left alone along the long street in the direction of his home.
Xu Qi'an bought a cinnamon cake on the street and ate it while walking, and in a short while, arrived at a jewelry store:
Treasure Ware Xuan!
The owner of Treasure Ware Xuan was a Xiu Cai, in fact, it was very common for scholars to do business, especially those of the powerful and noble families, relying solely on collecting field rents would not be able to support the surly living expenses of a large family.
The capital's big stores, green houses and other lucrative industries all have nobles behind them.
"Dafeng commerce is obviously unprecedentedly developed, but on the contrary, heavy taxes are pressed on the peasants .... I have reason to suspect that this is the gatekeepers and nobles messing things up."
"How much silver can you grow by farming, if you want to be rich, you definitely have to pull wool from the merchants."
"If you want to make the people live better and make the Dafeng treasury richer, you must reform, but the imperial court is above the gun, where is the turn for me to speak as a small Xuyun official. Well, set a small goal, first cultivate Erlang to become the chief minister of Da Feng..."
Thinking of how his arrogant little brother would look like in the future, the corners of Xu Qi'an's mouth couldn't help but curl up.
Xu Qi'an stepped into the store, her eyes swept over the counter, and one piece of jewelry on red silk caught her eye.
Hairpin, tin, matrimony, hairpin, step rocker, huasheng .... dazzling.
Among them, the gold ones were the most expensive, the jade ones had to depend on the type, the expensive ones were better than gold, and the cheap ones were similar to silver.
Xu Qi'an touched the three money silver in his pocket and muttered in his heart, this amount of money can't buy any precious jewelry at all.
He was lamenting the lack of money, his feet stepped on a hard lump, naturally picked it up and put it in his pocket without changing his face.
Maybe it was too natural, no one paid attention to him because of this.
"A penny of silver is useless, a penny of gold is more like it."
He had the feeling of shopping at a luxury store in his previous life, he couldn't afford it anyway, the only difference was that the shopkeepers nowadays were very reserved, not as annoying as the waitresses in his previous life, who couldn't wait to stick to you and make you spend money immediately.
"Shopkeeper, do you have discounts here?" Xu Qi'an knocked on the counter.
The shopkeeper, an old man with a goatee and dressed as a scholar, wasn't surprised at the words.
The shopkeeper pointed to the sign hanging on the wall and said with a smile, "If Objective can solve the anagram, the store's contraptions can be discounted by half for you."
This rule was a specialty of Treasure Weapon Xuan.
Half discount for charades .... Interesting ..... Xu Qi'an walked over to the wooden sign and scanned the crossword puzzle on it: cloud breaks the moon to bring flowers to the shadow!
With his abundant store of knowledge and logical reasoning skills, he quickly solved the anagram.
"Some jewelry weighs several dollars alone, plus labor costs ...."
Xu Qi'an estimated and realized that even with a 50% discount, he still couldn't afford too good of jewelry.
But he soon had a solution.
The women who could come to Treasure Weapon Xuan to buy jewelry were all from solid families and had studied for a few years, or at least were not illiterate women.
Such women have a problem: half a bucket of water tinkling.
Think they are cultured people, like to be attached to elegance, therefore, for the Treasure Cuisine Xuan trick especially addicted.
The same price of jewelry, they like to come to the Treasure Chest to buy, not for anything else, is to solve a crossword puzzle.
If they solve the puzzle, the shopkeeper will carve the correct puzzle on the bottom of the wooden stick, and then give it to the customer together with the jewelry.
If they don't solve the puzzle, once they solve one or two puzzles for them, they can brag about it with their girlfriends.
This is Xu Qi'an listened to the side of the two girls talking about the store, analyzed the store routine.
Worthy of being a store run by a Xiu Cai, he knew how to attract high-end customer groups.
"Sister Yu, I can't solve any of the word puzzles here, it's so hard."
"Sister is right, the shopkeeper is a scholarly lord with a merit, the questions are naturally difficult, even idle readers may not be able to solve them."
"Sister Yu, my groom said the same thing, if I can solve the crossword puzzle and take away the wooden sign, I will surely impress my groom."
"Idiot."
"Aiya, you hate .... it."
The two young ladies of the good family, towards the wooden sign, frowned for a long time, muttering broken thoughts.
They were dressed quite delicately, thinking that their families were extremely well off and had some education, otherwise they wouldn't have attempted to solve the crossword puzzle.
"Two ladies."
Suddenly, a man's voice sounded from the side.
The two beautiful-looking young ladies turned their heads warily, and after seeing Xu Qi'an, who had a handsome face and an angsty figure, their vigilance was slightly lowered, but they did not speak.
The Da Feng Dynasty's culture was relatively free, but it was still rude to talk to strange men on the street.
Xu Qi An didn't care, opened the door and said his intention: ''I can solve the crossword puzzle for you two ladies, but the silver saved you two ladies have to share half of it with me, save five coins of silver, you have to share two and a half coins with me. Save four coins of silver, you score me two coins."
Hearing Xu Qi'an's offer, the shopkeeper raised his head in surprise, scrutinized him carefully for a moment, snorted, and stopped talking.
Although this man was wearing a scholar's robe, as long as he looked closely at his physique and skin color, he knew that he was a swollen-faced fat man's goods.
Which scholar have you seen with a physique as strong as an ox and skin the color of wheat?
That scholar's shirt doesn't fit at all.
Regarding Xu Qi'an's proposal, the younger women's eyes shone brightly and they were quite impressed.
The older one, more dignified and reserved, and also more cautious and distant, faintly said, "Your honor, if you really solve the crossword puzzle, the slave will not renege on the bill."
The sense of distance is extremely strong.
"The two ladies choose one." Xu Qi'an smiled.
The slightly older woman hesitated a bit, the slightly younger one, eager to try, saw that her sister beside her did not object, then pointed to one of the wooden signatures, "Cloud breaks the moon to flower shadow."
The voice was soft and moist.
Xu Qi'an immediately said, "The "able" of "able"."
The two young ladies subconsciously turned their heads to look at the shopkeeper, whose jaw-dropped expression said it all.
Right away, the younger lady bought a gold hairpin, tugging it joyfully in her hand. The eyes that looked at Xu Qi'an turned bright.
After she collected the wooden sign, her eyes rolled and her tone familiarized a few points, saying, "Can the gentleman continue to solve the crossword puzzle for the slave."
"Lian'er..." The woman known as Sister Yu tugged on her sleeve.
"Sister Yu, the two of us came together, I have it and you don't, how bad would that be." After saying that, the virtuous woman called Lian'er looked at Xu Qi'an expectantly.
Begging for it .... Xu Qi'an revealed a warm man's smile, "No problem, mama choose another one."
"East Sparrow Southeast Flight." She pointed to a wooden sign.
"Sun!" Xu Qi'an said.
"....." The shopkeeper was dumbfounded.
"Thank you, sir. ...."
The two young ladies picked their favorite jewelry and left the store satisfied.
Xu Qi'an had an amazing ear and heard the woman called Lian'er say, "This gentleman is really talented and tall and handsome, much stouter than my Langjun."
"Don't talk nonsense." The older woman reprimanded.
She seemed to be afraid of being heard by Xu Qi'an, coming up to pester her and pulling Lian'er away quickly.
