The negotiations failed, and Yu Zizhen left the spice merchant's house.
She got on the carriage and was about to ask someone to take her to the second merchant's house that kept Western musicians, but then she thought of the unusual enthusiasm of the spice merchant and immediately changed her mind.
She ordered the driver to drive the carriage out of the civilian area. She took Yaoguang and two guards including Feng Yuan, and hired another ordinary carriage to pick up passengers on the street to find those musicians and singers who could play the erhu but were not supported by wealthy families.
Most of these musicians and singers who worked hard to make a living outside could only "play the guitar" and their skills were not very high. These people were excluded by Yu Zizhen from the very beginning.
She asked the system to sort these musicians and singers according to their skill levels, so that she could find people in order of their skill levels.
However, twice in a row, she ran into a setback with her target person.
The two musicians at the top of the list are not from the Western Regions. They just wanted to find famous Western Regions musicians because they were interested in the erhu, and spent a lot of money to study with them in depth for a long time.
These two were not only proficient in erhu, but also good at other musical instruments. They were well-known in the civilian areas of the capital. Although they were not wealthy businessmen or high-ranking officials, those gentry and merchants who were also quite wealthy were very keen to hire them to teach their children music theory.
They were not short of money, nor did they like the intrigues and strict hierarchy of officials. They did not want to be passively involved in any danger and become innocent victims. So after learning about Yu Zizhen's purpose, they politely rejected her invitation with words that were tactful, polite, and respectful but firm.
If this happened to the kind of people who became arrogant after finally climbing up a little bit, and felt that they were far superior to ordinary people, and whose minds were full of thoughts like "I am the sky, and what I say is the law of heaven, and you mortals can only agree happily, otherwise you will be committing a heinous crime", no matter how carefully they chose their words, they would definitely be retaliated by the angry and humiliated other party in the end.
It was because Yu Zizhen was young and looked relatively harmless that they dared to follow their conscience and reject him.
Fortunately, although Xinzi is an adult, Yu Zizhen will not make things difficult for her because of such things.
After leaving these two households, she went to the residence of the singer who ranked third on the list.
The singer came from the Western Regions and was a typical Hu person whose appearance was significantly different from the local people of Da Qi.
She was first brought to the capital by a Hu merchant who traveled between Da Qi and the Western Regions all year round and did a lot of business. In order to open up various connections, he sent many singers and dancers to officials of all ranks in Da Qi in batches.
The singer that Yu Zizhen is looking for now, although her appearance is not as outstanding as other singers, she is proficient in most of the musical instruments in the Western Regions and has a very good voice. Her singing is as clear and sweet as the song of a lark.
The year she was first given to an official, she became one of his concubines directly from a singer because of the above two advantages and her exotic appearance.
However, as a Hu girl who could not speak the same language and had different customs from the people of Da Qi, how could she compete with the other beauties in the official's harem?
The other party just joined forces to set a small trap, and she foolishly fell into it and was tricked.
So just as quickly as she gained favor, she fell out of favor.
The official reclassified her as a singer, not only driving her from her own backyard to the gathering place of actors in the front yard, but also using her and other actors to entertain colleagues.
The singer soon became pregnant, but no one could tell whether the baby in her belly was the official's child.
So after the child was born, he became a reserve actor in the master's family just like other actors' children.
Until several years later, the official was suddenly dismissed for unknown reasons, and his family's former wealth and glory collapsed overnight. All the actors, including the singer, and some of his servants were directly dismissed by the official's wife. Only then did the singer and her three children move from the class of slaves to the class of commoners.
At that time, the singer had already learned the language of Da Qi and had some understanding of the class system and customs of Da Qi. She did not go back to her old profession, but took advantage of the rare opportunity of her master's mercy to allow them to become good citizens. She used the bonuses and monthly wages she had saved over the years, as well as the severance pay given to her by the mistress of the house, and first bought a small house for herself and her three children to settle down, and then set up a small stall to sell Hu Bing on the street to supplement the family income.
As a woman, setting up a stall on the street is not only hard work for her, but she also encounters many times more troubles than men.
Even though she had tried her best to make herself look bloated and ugly, there was still an endless stream of people coming to her stall to collect protection money, take advantage of her with their words, or eat without paying.
In addition, the four of them all had distinctly exotic looks, so the surrounding vendors and neighbors almost all excluded them. There were even some unscrupulous people who would specifically pick on the four of them and bully them every day.
Just look, when Yu Zizhen came over, Hu Ji was protecting her ten-year-old son, preventing the thugs who came to cause trouble from beating her son.
These thugs collected protection fees on this street. Seeing that Hu Ji was a Hu person and a woman, they not only doubled the protection fees they collected, but also ran to Hu Ji's stall every day to get free cakes.
Hu Ji's eldest son was young and energetic. He had always been asked by his mother to be patient, but his expression and eyes inevitably showed some resentment.
Today, his angry face was seen by the leading thug, who was also in a bad mood, so without saying a word, he wanted to beat up the brat who dared to glare at them.
When Hu Ji heard the other party calling her son a "bastard", she immediately rushed over and hugged her son tightly.
When her son was hugged by her, the originally angry little lion instantly turned into a wronged little wolfdog. Before he could break free from her grip without hurting his mother, the thug had already hit Hu Ji's back with a stick.
Hu Ji screamed and fell down softly. Her son was immediately panicked when he saw it.
He hurriedly tried to help his mother, but the thug spat at him angrily, raised his hand and swung the stick again, hitting Hu Ji's eldest son, whom he originally wanted to hit.
Hu Ji caught a glimpse of the shadow on the ground holding a stick high up, and realized that the other party was going to swing the stick at her and her son again. She immediately endured the pain in her back and pressed her son's head hard against her chest.
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