Su Er was stunned for a moment, then answered truthfully, "I studied for a few years when I was young, but stopped after my parents passed away."
After his parents passed away, he had to work to support his two younger siblings, so he had neither the time nor the money to go to a private school.
Su Li nodded to show that he understood: "Get in the car..."
Xiao Sanzi and a few others helped lift Su Er into the car, and then looked at her.
Su Li arranged: "Xiao Sanzi, Ah Fu, you two will share a car with Su Er, and Cui Hong and Xiao Wu will share one with me."
"Yes, ma'am."
Upon hearing this, the few people did not rush to get in the car, but waited for her to get in first. When Xiao Wu came over to help Su Li get in the car, she was stunned for a moment. She came from the modern world where everyone is equal, and she was a little uncomfortable with such a master-servant relationship for a while.
She got on the carriage without showing any expression, and then several people got on one after another.
The carriage took more than an hour to reach the house she had just rented.
Ma Afu and Xiao Sanzi lifted Su Er out of the car, and then Ma Afu carried him on his back. Su Li opened the door and led a few people in.
"You will stay here for a while. Once your family is settled, you can move."
"Yes, ma'am." Several people responded.
The pawnshop has received some initial training. The owner gives the orders and makes the arrangements, so they generally cannot ask too many questions and just have to do as they are told.
Su Li continued, "There are six bedrooms here. You can choose one to live in. However, we've just rented this house, so apart from the bed, table and chairs, we haven't had time to buy anything else yet. Ah Fu and Cui Hong, come with me to the street to buy some daily necessities. Xiao Sanzi and Xiao Wu, clean up here. Ah Fu, carry Su Er inside first."
"Yes, ma'am."
After settling Su Er down, the few of them each chose a room and put their luggage away. Xiao Sanzi and Xiao Wu immediately began to clean the yard, while Su Li took Afu and Cuihong out.
Outside the door, two carriages were still waiting. Su Li thought that she should also prepare to buy two carriages. While she had not yet moved into the Zhuangyuan Mansion, she had to let Ma Afu and Xiao Sanzi learn to ride horses and drive carriages. In the future, whether she went out or the two of them ran errands for her, it would be convenient to have her own carriage.
It's still spring and the weather is still very cold, so we can't go without a blanket at night.
Su Li took the two of them to buy five quilts first. When Ma Afu and Cuihong put the quilts into the carriage, they could hardly believe that these were bought for them. The quilts were thick, soft and light, and it was obvious that they were made of very good materials. They had never covered themselves with such good quilts since they were children, and they were secretly happy in their hearts that they were lucky to meet a kind owner.
Afterwards, Su Li went to the grocery store and bought tea sets, bowls and chopsticks and other daily necessities. Then he went to the market and bought various meats and vegetables for Cuihong to go back and cook for everyone.
"From now on, buying groceries and cooking in the kitchen will be your responsibility."
On the way back in the carriage, Su Li gave Cuihong fifty taels of silver.
Cuihong took the heavy purse filled with silver, feeling a little bit unbelieving: "Madam, all this silver is under my control?"
She had never managed so much money in her life. When she was a child and not married in her parents' home, her parents favored her brother, and all the money was given to her brother and sister-in-law. Later, when she got married, even though she worked as a chef in a restaurant every day, the restaurant owner was her mother-in-law's nephew, and the monthly salary was given directly to her mother-in-law. She had never taken a single tael of silver, let alone being a housekeeper, who took fifty taels.
I felt a little excited in my heart. She can manage money and also manage a kitchen. That's great!
"Well," Su Li asked, "Can you keep accounts?"
"Yes, ma'am. Although I can't read, I can keep accounts."
These people all came from poor families, and except for Su Er, none of them could read. Perhaps she could ask Su Er to teach them? Not to mention how well they learned, but at least they should know at least one word. Especially Xiao Sanzi and Ah Fu, it would be better for them to know as many words as possible, otherwise they would not be able to understand even a note.
"That's good, that's it for now..."
When returning to the rented house, she did not go with them, but got off at the Jufu Inn by herself, and then let Ah Fu and Cui Hong take two carriages back. She had already paid for a day's silver for the carriage, so she didn't need to pay extra.
It was already evening when she returned to the inn. She ordered food at the inn counter before returning to her own guesthouse.
After dinner, it was still early. She remembered that Pei Ji had given her the key to his guest room. Since it was okay, she simply moved his luggage over for him.
The palace examination will be held seven days after the provincial examination, so he must be very busy.
Thinking of this, she took the key and went to his guest room. Pei Ji didn't have much luggage, mostly some clothes and books, and they were all neatly arranged. She only needed to pack it up a little bit. After moving it back and forth twice, she moved all the luggage together. Then she went back to check again. After making sure that nothing was left behind, she went to the counter to check out.
It was getting late, so she took a bath and went to sleep.
The next morning, she got up early, washed up and left the inn.
Just as I walked a short distance, I saw a group of people standing in front of a notice board on the street, talking about something in a lively manner.
"We've finally caught this evil creature!" one person said.
"That's right. For the past six months, I haven't dared to let my daughter go out alone." Another person said.
"Yes, I finally found it."
"I didn't expect that he would hide in Hecheng..."
"No matter where he hides, as long as we catch him..."
"Yes, yes, thank God..."
The notice board was so crowded that Su Li couldn't see the content of the notice at all from the outside of the crowd. It took her a while to understand that it was the Dali Temple that announced the news that the flower thief had been caught. They only said that he was caught in Hecheng, without mentioning the Qingyou Temple outside the capital. This was probably because they took into consideration the reputation of most ladies and girls.
Su Li knew this. In the original novel, the flower thief was caught a month later, but the fact that he was hiding in Qingyou Temple was not announced. After all, apart from anything else, most of the officials in the Dali Temple had their wives and daughters who had been to Qingyou Temple. They would not fail to think about the reputation of their wives and daughters, nor would they ignore it.
After Su Li figured out the matter of the bulletin board, he hired a carriage to go to Jinxiu Street in the north of the city.
The east of the city is where officials from aristocratic families and wealthy people gather. Changming Street in the east of the city is also mostly lined with high-end restaurants and shops, such as Mingyue Restaurant, and most of the customers are rich people.
Although the west of the city is a slum, the things sold in the west city market are varied. People who come to the market are rich or poor, in short, all kinds of people. It is no worse than the Changming Commercial Street in the east of the city.
Jinxiu Street in the north of the city should have been as bustling and prosperous as Changming Commercial Street, but it was extremely deserted.
The people living here are similar to those in the east of the city, and most of them are officials and rich people. But the strange thing is that Jinxiu Street in the north of the city is not prosperous and has been half-dead for many years. People living in the north of the city either go to Changming Street in the east of the city or go to the market in the west of the city.
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