He suddenly raised his hand and placed it on the back of Shen Qing's neck.
Shen Qing's body reflexively leaned back.
Because she instantly recalled the pain of him choking her in the middle of the night, her body reacted in advance.
Coming to her senses, she leaned closer and said awkwardly, "Sorry, it was a conditioned reflex."
He didn't say anything, but placed his palm on the back of her neck, his thumb tracing the marks on her neck.
Will it hurt?
She shook her head: "No more."
He nodded: "Go ahead, be careful on the road."
The carriage slowly began to move. Shen Qing leaned against the window and waved to him until his figure grew smaller and smaller until it became a dot. Only then did she draw the curtain and sit back inside the carriage.
Looking back on this trip to Shanghai, although my hand was injured, it was all very rewarding.
Thanks to Cheng Zhiwen's guidance, the down jacket business is almost ready to be launched, and the capital investment is much less than planned.
His relationship with Cheng Zhiwen has also improved.
This trip to Shanghai felt completely different from my last one.
Not only did he fail to make any progress in business last time, but he also saw that Cheng Zhiwen had a female companion, which was a double blow.
Thinking of that Miss Zhu, Shen Qing felt a pang of pain in her heart.
He sat down by the door, lifted the curtain, and asked Old Xu, "What happened after Boss Cheng took Miss Zhu back to Yongzhou to celebrate his father's birthday?"
Old Xu shook his head and sighed, "I heard that Miss Zhu suffered from acclimatization issues upon arriving in Yongzhou and stayed at an inn for a few days, missing Master's birthday banquet. However, the Liu family still knows that Boss Cheng brought a female companion back..."
He seemed to be like a storyteller who pauses when he gets to the crucial part of a story.
Shen Qing pressed further, "And then? What was the Liu family's reaction?"
"Then Master Liu personally visited Master Cheng and demanded that Master Cheng could not take a concubine until a year after his marriage. At least Miss Zhu could not enter the house until Miss Liu's eldest daughter entered the house."
That's it?
Shen Qing gave a speechless twitch of his lips.
This feudal society is still a feudal society after all!
Since the Liu family has the backing of Prince Beile, they should be more assertive. Yet they only proposed that their daughter enter first, and the other women enter later.
In the end, all they're fighting for is the position of the eldest and second eldest.
It's no wonder that these men, those with even a little power, all have a multitude of wives and concubines.
Because this environment not only allows it, but also condones it.
In such an environment, powerful men who can maintain a lifelong commitment to one partner are especially rare and untainted.
Shen Qing thought that Cheng Zhiwen would definitely have a lot of wives and concubines in the future. He had already started looking for female companions even before he was married.
After noon, the carriage arrived in Jiangzhou.
Upon seeing that Shen Qing's hands were wrapped in gauze, the gatekeeper quickly ran out and took the box from Old Xu.
"Young Madam, what happened to your hand? Is it serious?"
Shen Qing waved his hand and laughed, "It's nothing. I got burned while making new fabric. It'll be fine after applying medicine for a few days."
"Then you must get plenty of rest and avoid getting your hands wet."
Shen Qing smiled and touched his purse, intending to take out a few copper coins to reward the servant for helping him carry the box, but the gauze on his hand was too thick, and he couldn't feel anything no matter how he touched it.
"You've got a sweet tongue, kid! I haven't spoiled you for nothing. I'll have Sister Chunju bring you some treats later."
"Okay, okay! Thank you, young mistress!"
Shen Qing smiled as she entered the gate and walked towards her courtyard.
As they walked around, they looked at every plant and tree in the house, finding it more and more pleasing to the eye. The servants and maids were also young people, and they got along very well, joking around with each other.
Ultimately, Shen Qing felt an ever-growing sense of belonging to the Gao family mansion.
Therefore, she was determined to protect the house and prevent it from falling into the hands of Master Zhao and his ilk!
When Shen Qing returned to the courtyard, Chunju saw that her hand was injured and insisted that she go to Shanghai with her the next day.
Shen Qing had no choice but to agree to let her and Su Lan come along.
In fact, Shen Qing had long wanted to take Su Lan out to broaden her horizons, and now was a good opportunity.
After lunch, Shen Qing went to the factory to prepare the amber raw material to be taken to Shanghai for silk drawing the next day.
Because amber will gradually solidify again after being dissolved into a slurry, it cannot be prepared too many days in advance; it can only be dissolved into a slurry within the time limit of one day before the drawing process.
Shen Qing only allowed the workers to dissolve one bucket of raw materials before they left work, and she took only one bucket of raw materials to Shanghai to make silk.
The plan is to make only ten samples of different sizes for the first batch, and one barrel of raw materials will be enough.
After handing over the raw materials, she went to the secret room and retrieved a bag of processed down, which she also wanted to take to Shanghai.
The ten spinning machines that had been sent for repair were still not fixed, so Cheng Zhiwen arranged for her to get an electric spinning machine instead.
So this time in Shanghai, the silk fibers are pulled out, cooled, and then directly put into an electrospinning machine to be spun into fabric, and the anti-down leakage test is conducted on the spot.
The next morning, Shen Qing, along with Chunju and Sulan, boarded a carriage and headed to Shanghai.
Neither Chunju nor Sulan had ever left Jiangzhou. Along the way, they each occupied a car window, curiously looking outside.
"Young mistress! Young mistress!" Chunju turned around excitedly and shouted, "It's Yongzhou! It's Yongzhou!"
Shen Qing opened his eyes and saw a bustling little town with lush green willows flying past.
She smiled and said, "You have such good eyesight that you can recognize Yongzhou from so far away."
With tears welling up in her eyes, Chunju said, "I grew up in Yongzhou, of course I recognize you!"
Upon hearing this, Su Lan drew the curtain and turned to sit obediently beside Shen Qing.
Looking up at Shen Qing, she asked cautiously, "Sister Chunju is from Yongzhou, so are you also from Yongzhou, Master?"
Shen Qing smiled and patted her small shoulder, saying nothing.
The original owner of this body was from Yongzhou, but she wasn't; she was from Hangzhou.
Born and raised in Hangzhou, she attended university in Northeast China.
Chunju scolded playfully, "You child, I'm from Yongzhou, and of course your master is from Yongzhou too! I've been following your master since I was five years old!"
"Then why did Master marry into Jiangzhou? Yongzhou is much prettier than Jiangzhou!"
Chunju immediately exclaimed excitedly, "It's all because of your master's wife! He didn't marry your master, so your master ended up marrying into this godforsaken Jiangzhou!"
The teacher's wife was Cheng Zhiwen.
Shen Qing kicked Chunju's foot: "Why are you saying these things to the child?"
Chunju said angrily, "That's true! I get angry just thinking about it..."
"Alright!" Shen Qing said with a stern look.
Chunju fell silent, embarrassed.
After that, the atmosphere inside the car became much quieter. Su Lan didn't dare to ask any more questions, and Chun Ju didn't dare to say anything more.
And so we made our way to Shanghai.
The carriage stopped at the entrance of the Astor House Hotel. Shen Qing asked Lao Xu to take the raw materials to the wire drawing machine room, while he took Chunju and Sulan to the front desk to check in.
This is Chunju and Sulan's first time in Shanghai.
The two were stunned by the dazzling crystal chandeliers in the hotel lobby and the foreigners dressed in fine clothes.
Shen Qing was checking in at the front desk, but with her hand wrapped in gauze, it was inconvenient for her to handle the banknotes, and it took her quite a while to finish.
She turned around to look for Chunju, hoping Chunju could help her retrieve the silver notes from her purse.
Suddenly, in the center of the hotel lobby, an Asian man in a suit grabbed Su Lan by the collar, lifting her small, thin body upwards while cursing:
"Baka!"
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