Only when the case is over and Huang He doesn't confess where he buried the treasure, will he find an excuse to let Zhao Wu go dig. If he can dig it up, that would be the best, but if he can't, there's nothing he can do...
Xu Lan fell asleep because she thought it was almost dawn.
The next day, Xu Lanyin slept in and got up with her two children. She spent the whole day playing with the two children in the mansion.
The next day, I took them to a teahouse to drink tea and conduct market research.
The teahouse they went to was called Yaquge, the best teahouse in Ningzhou Prefecture.
The first floor is the lobby, with no private rooms. It's reserved solely for tea and snacks, making it the cheapest spot in the entire teahouse. The second floor houses the chess and tea rooms, divided into more than a dozen small private rooms. The third floor, just upstairs, features a large hall for chess games. Six other large rooms also serve as chess and tea rooms, much larger than the small private rooms on the second floor, and naturally commanding a much higher price.
The design of this teahouse is similar to that of many high-end teahouses, except that some focus on listening to music and books, while this one focuses on playing chess.
People of this era loved tea, chess, and even more so, chess competitions. Civil officials, military officials, celebrities, and common people all enjoyed playing chess. Civil officials and celebrities mostly favored Go, while military officials and common people mostly preferred Xiangqi, and many enjoyed both. Even rural peasants and children, when free, enjoyed drawing a grid on the ground and playing Shiziqi.
The bird chess game Xu Lanyin invented, because of its beauty, simplicity, and widespread participation, became a favorite among many children and young girls, and an indispensable entertainment item at many young ladies' gatherings. Even ordinary people would keep a set at home to play when guests came.
Butler Hao asked for a chess and tea room on the third floor.
He only brought Liu Mama, Qingyin, Zhangqi, and Xu Lanyin, Minjia, and Xu Lanting to the third floor, while the rest of the people stayed in the lobby on the first floor.
The tea waiter came first to serve tea, and then the chess waiter came to ask what kind of chess I liked.
Seeing that the master only had Xu Lanyin and the two children, and that they seemed to be able to only play flying bird chess, the chess waiter smiled and said, "We have flying bird chess here."
Xu Lanting asked loudly, "Do you have checkers? Jiajia and I like to play checkers."
The chess waiter shook his head and smiled, "Do you still have that kind of chess? Sorry, we don't have it here."
Xu Lanyin smiled and said, "Then let's take the flying bird chess."
The chess waiter took out a box of flying bird chess. The wooden chessboard was carved with beautiful flowers, and the chess pieces were carved with different birds. The workmanship was fine and the colors were bright. It felt smooth and delicate to the touch and had a fragrance.
Even the simple bird chess could be made so luxuriously, which was beyond Xu Lanyin's expectation.
Xu Lanyin led her two children in a chess game. They played until noon, but Minjia still didn't want to leave, so she ordered a few more bowls of silver thread noodles, glutinous rice dumplings, and some snacks. There were only desserts and noodles, no food or drinks.
After dinner, both children were sleepy, so everyone got up and went home.
When we got to the door, a man bowed and asked, "Excuse me, what is checkers?"
He was playing chess next door and passed by the door of this room on his way to the toilet when he heard the children talking in the room.
The man was in his early thirties, of medium build, thin, gentle and elegant appearance, with a short mustache on his lips. He wore a blue satin gown and looked quite intellectual.
Xu Lanting immediately said, "Checkers is just checkers. It's more fun than bird chess and much more complicated."
Min Jia nodded very seriously.
Xu Lanyin further explained, "Checkers is a game played by children."
Butler Hao was walking behind. He came out and bowed and said with a smile, "It's Master Zhou. Are you here to play chess again today?"
Zhou Shu also bowed and said with a smile, "Today I am here with the distinguished guests from the capital to drink tea and play chess." He wanted to ask more about checkers, but seeing that they had gone downstairs, he had to give up for the time being.
After Xu Lanyin and the others went downstairs, Butler Hao whispered, "Master Zhou Shu is the vice-president of Ningzhou Academy and a chess fanatic. In Ningzhou Prefecture, no one can beat him at Go or chess."
Xu Lanyin knew that Ningzhou Academy was a government-run academy, with the academician serving concurrently as its president, who had no official responsibilities. The actual person in charge was the vice-president, also an official of the sixth rank. Hu Wan had previously studied at Ningzhou Academy, and it was a place Xu Lanzhou and Xu Lanting had longed to visit.
Zhou Shu was quite impressive. He had the ability to simultaneously take first place in two completely different types of chess.
Back at Minfu, the carriage stopped in the front yard. As soon as Xu Lanyin got off the carriage, Ding Gu led a young man over and knelt down to kowtow to her. The young man was very handsome, very similar to Lu Shi, but even more beautiful than Lu Shi.
Ding Gu said, "Miss, we have found our son. We will never forget your kindness."
He choked up as he spoke. He had thought he would never see his son again, but now they were finally reunited. What frightened him even more was that his son had been sold to such a place by that evil woman.
The young man also knelt down and kowtowed, "Your servant Ding Xiaoran, thank you, young lady."
Xu Lanyin asked them to stand up and said with a smile, "It's good that you found it."
The steward who had accompanied Ding Gu in his search said with a smile, "It went very smoothly. We first found the original owner's family and forced them to tell us which brokerage they had been sold to. Then we interrogated the broker and finally found the child there. We redeemed him for twenty taels of silver."
"Interrogation," "that place," twenty taels of silver... Xu Lanyin could tell that the child had been sold to the wrong place. Without the help of the Min government, the child would have suffered for the rest of his life.
Previously, Xu Lanyin gave Ding Gu twenty taels of silver, thinking that a twelve-year-old boy could only get eight to ten taels of silver by selling his body. After deducting the money spent on inquiries and meals, at least eight taels could be left, so she gave it to the manager and the coachman who helped find people.
This time, twenty taels of silver were used to buy the person, leaving not a penny left. The money for food and drink must have been taken by Ding Yin.
She took out another ten taels of silver from her purse and gave it to the steward, saying with a smile, "Thank you. Take this little money and buy some wine with the coachman."
The steward was embarrassed to accept it, so Butler Hao smiled and said, "Just accept it if Miss Xu gives it to you. In the future, when Miss Xu needs you, you will be more agile."
The steward accepted it with a smile. Ding Gu also gave them one or two taels of silver as a gift in private.
Over the next three days, Xu Lanyin took her two children to three teahouses in a row to drink tea, play chess, listen to books, and listen to music. Of course, they couldn't listen to books and music in the hall, but listened to them in the private room behind a screen.
After gaining a general understanding of teahouses of this era, Xu Lanyin also had some ideas for her own teahouse.
Xu Lanting and Min Jia were having a lot of fun, especially Min Jia, whose lips were always curled up.
Seeing Min Jia like this, Xu Lanyin felt that Min Hu must be a very boring person. Apart from work and reading, he had no other hobbies, and he would not accompany his wife and daughter shopping.
It was the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, and Xu Lanyin didn't go out to the streets. Instead, she took her two children to the lakeside. There were two osmanthus trees there, and they gathered some osmanthus flowers and took them back to make osmanthus glutinous rice dates and pear and osmanthus double flower dishes.
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