Seeing Meng Zhao's gaze fixed on the gambling den, Shen Yun couldn't help but feel suspicious. She gently tugged at Meng Zhao's sleeve, "Sister Meng Zhao, you don't mean to gamble, do you? That won't do! Grandma told me that you must never gamble."
Meng Zhao patted her hand, "Don't worry, I'm confident."
Upon hearing this, Shen Yun realized that this was exactly what gamblers loved to say, and she almost jumped up in panic. "Please don't, Sister Meng Zhao! Have you forgotten that Aunt Lin's son in our village had his leg broken because of gambling? And Boss Shen's son in our town also lost his shop because of gambling!"
Shen Yun kept chattering away, but Meng Zhao gently covered her mouth with his hand and said firmly, "Alright, Xiao Yun, don't you trust me? When have I ever done anything I wasn't sure about?"
Seeing Meng Zhao's resolute decision, Shen Yun could no longer persuade him. So Meng Zhao took out a total of four hundred taels of silver and had Huang Cui and Yin Chun choose four different gambling houses, one hundred taels from each, and bet on Shen Qing and Zhong Huiyuan.
When they came out, Huang Cui said excitedly, "Manager, you don't know, when I said I wanted to bet on Shen Erlang to win the top prize, the people at the gambling den didn't even know who Shen Erlang was! They still gave me a separate bet. The odds for the people ahead of me were 1 to 2 or 1 to 3, but for us, the odds were a full 1 to 9! If Shen Erlang wins the top prize, how much will we make?"
Three thousand six hundred taels, she thought to herself. What a pity, she didn't bring much silver with her this time.
Fortunately, I didn't bring too much. After all, those who can run gambling dens in the capital have deeply entrenched power behind them. If you want to make money from them, you might as well make it but not live to spend it.
Each family would receive 100 taels, and at most they would take less than 1,000 taels. Even if they were discovered, it would be a drop in the ocean compared to what they had earned from setting up the scheme, so they probably wouldn't care too much.
After putting away the bets, Meng Zhao took out the letter that Gu had given him and asked for directions along the way. Finally, he found the place they were renting.
The location was somewhat remote, and the courtyard was not large, but even so, the rent was still more than ten taels of silver a month. The capital city was indeed a place where every inch of land was precious.
Meng Zhao did not go in directly, but hid in the shadows and asked the coachman to knock on the door. When the coachman returned, he said, "Manager, a woman of about forty years old opened the door just now. I said I wanted to see Young Master Shen, but she said that Young Master Shen had gone out today and she didn't know where he went. She only knew that he would probably be back in the evening."
Meng Zhao nodded, leaving him to watch the carriage, while she led her men to the courtyard.
At this moment, Madam Gu was sitting in the courtyard sewing shoe soles. It wasn't that she had no shoes to wear, but that she really had nothing else to do. The courtyard was only so big, and every morning she would clean up and tidy up the stables, and that was basically all she could do.
When she first arrived in the capital, she was quite enthusiastic, thinking that she could open a braised pork offal shop there. However, she backed down as soon as she asked about the prices. Any location she liked, even if she didn't buy it, would cost at least thirty or forty taels of silver a month to rent.
She felt that if Zhaozhao were here, she would definitely rent it, but she didn't have that much courage and was worried about what would happen if she didn't do a good job.
Later, she thought that she had been learning the skills from Zhao Zhao for two or three years, so she could go out and find a job as a cook to do first.
As soon as they heard her accent, they waved their hands and said, "We don't need anyone here." They didn't even give her a chance to say she wanted to try her skills.
Now that Qinghe has gone out to take exams and the two children have started school, she stays at home all day and has no one to talk to.
She was starting to regret coming to the capital. She thought it would have been better to stay in Qingshi County, where she was busy all day and had no free time, but at least she had Zhaozhao to talk to and chat with.
As she was thinking, she heard another knock on the door. Madam Gu put down her needlework and called out to the door, "Coming right now."
She thought it was someone looking for Qinghe again, and was about to say that Qinghe wasn't here when she saw Meng Zhao standing outside the door. She immediately opened her mouth wide and exclaimed, "Zhao, Zhao Zhao?"
Meng Zhao smiled and nodded, a hint of mischief in her eyes, "Yes, godmother, have you missed me?"
Madam Gu was stunned for a moment, then her eyes reddened. "Of course I want to! How could I not want to! You child, why did you come so suddenly without even sending a message beforehand!"
"I just wanted to give you a surprise! Besides, if I had told you in advance, you would have had to run around preparing, which would have been too much trouble. I was just passing by on my way and thought I'd come and see how you were doing. That's why I didn't even bring you any gifts." As she spoke, Madam Gu led them inside.
"What gift did you bring, child? You don't know, your visit is the best gift you could receive." She then wiped away her tears.
Meng Zhao noticed that Gu Shi was in a bad mood, so she asked her what was wrong. Gu Shi saw that she had come all this way and did not want to talk about sad things, so she did not say much, only saying that she was not used to it yet.
Knowing that Madam Gu was unwilling to say more, Meng Zhao did not press the matter further, but instead asked, "Godmother, where are Qingze and Qingyu? Aren't they home?"
"Oh right, I forgot about them. They're at the school right now, it's nearby. I'll go call them." With that, he hurriedly went out.
Meng Zhao didn't stop him. Although studying was important, if he came all the way here and they didn't see him, they might get upset later.
After seeing Madam Gu off, Meng Zhao told Shen Yun and the others to sit in the room while he went out for a while.
She stepped out of the house and glanced around the yard. The yard wasn't big, and there weren't many rooms. She walked towards the room on the left based on her intuition, and gently pushed the door. The door wasn't locked.
The room was very tidy, and the bookshelves were full of books. Meng Zhao knew she had guessed correctly. She didn't dare to delay and quickly started rummaging through the room.
There weren't many things in the room, but she searched through all the drawers and cabinets and still couldn't find the hairpin. She couldn't help but feel a little annoyed. Could it be that Shen Qinghe had it with him? Wouldn't that mean she had made a wasted trip?
Feeling frustrated, my gaze fell upon the neatly made bed, and the poem suddenly came to mind. On a whim, I walked towards the bed, reached under the pillow, and sure enough, I felt something hard.
When I took it out, it was indeed her hairpin, and after several months, it looked even more lustrous.
Meng Zhao was so angry that she had a headache. She picked up the hairpin and wanted to throw it on the ground and smash it, but she waved her hand and hesitated to put it down.
"This cost a lot of money..." In the end, I couldn't bring myself to buy it and put it in my pocket.
Before leaving, still angry, he picked up the teapot on the table and poured all the water inside onto the bed. "Can't sleep? Then I might as well not sleep at all."
Since the imperial examination was already over, she wasn't worried that it would affect him.
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