HLnovel Chapter 223 No one knows a daughter better than her father
Chapter 223 No one knows a daughter better than her father
Under the ancient feudal rule, every dynasty adopted an agriculture-based policy to establish the country.
The rulers believed that merchants who made profits from their business were interfering with the country's economy and destroying the country's normal fiscal revenue.
In the Daqing Dynasty, there were clear distinctions between the scholar-farmer, artisan and merchant classes. As merchants were at the bottom of the “four classes”, they were looked down upon even if they were extremely wealthy.
There are also many people who are scholars or farmers. Even if they have shops at home and their business is more prosperous than that of merchants, they are unwilling to admit that they are inferior merchants.
In Shen Zhiqiu's memory, when he was in the academy, there were many sour scholars who criticized businessmen.
But he didn't care. Not to mention that he was a time traveler and didn't have the concept of class. What's more, he was an authentic businessman in his previous life.
Shen Zhiqiu and his family of three were leading the way, followed by Old Lady Hua driving an ox cart, and then a long line of carts.
Shen Youyou admires her grandmother. Among the old ladies in Shenjia Village, her grandmother was the first one who learned to drive an ox cart.
The second one is Mrs. Fang, who used to run a small business.
It’s true that the county town of Huguan County is quite lively. Even now that the city gates are closed, there are still many people walking on the streets.
Shen Zhiqiu asked everyone to push their bikes on the right side. Even though there were no traffic rules at the moment, it had become a habit to him.
Logically speaking, this place is surrounded by mountains and rivers and has inconvenient transportation, so it should be relatively poor. However, because Huguan County's ceramic industry is very prosperous, it has attracted many businessmen.
Shen Youyou finally saw a decent ancient county town, and her heart was filled with curiosity.
In the county town where they came from, many wealthy families had received news of the war, so when Shen Youyou and his companions left the county town, there were few pedestrians on the streets.
All the way from home to the city gate, there was a bleak feeling like the autumn wind sweeping the fallen leaves.
Unlike this county town, although most of the houses are built with rammed earth and there are not many blue bricks, there are many shops, especially various ceramic shops, which are countless.
"Dad, do you think the porcelain here is cheap?"
Before Shen Zhiqiu could speak, Li Jingshu complained:
"What does it matter if it's cheap or not? Do you want to make ceramics and sell them in Kyoto? Let's not talk about whether we will break them if we bump into them along the way.
We are a group of refugees, and we have so many porcelains with us. Don’t let people think we robbed some rich family and arrested us.”
Shen Youyou was about to say, "Mom, have you forgotten when we went to Jingdezhen to play?"
Then she heard her father Shen Zhiqiu say: "Don't think about it, look at the time, there are no defective products for you to pick up for free, even now there are probably people who can't afford to buy a bowl, how can there be a good and usable one waiting for you to pick up for free?"
He is indeed his biological father. He knows everything Shen Youyou is thinking.
But Shen Youyou was not convinced: "What if? This local ceramic industry should be a local feature, which means there must be a lot of people making ceramics. What if the locals are no longer interested in picking them up?"
Shen Zhiqiu smiled when he heard this: "Okay, when you get to the post station, go ask if there is such a situation."
After saying that, he immediately stretched out his long legs and walked towards the two-story inn with a sign hanging in the distance.
There are four big characters "Yingying Inn" written on the sign.
He took the lead and pushed the door open before everyone else.
But before he could take two steps, he was stopped by a waiter: "What are you doing? What are you doing? Go to the back to beg for food. Why are you running to the front yard? Don't you know there are guests? What's wrong with you?"
Shen Zhiqiu was embarrassed. It was true that the clothes worn by his group of people were unsightly. Even though they had received the old clothes given by the old lady Zhang, most of them had not worn them now. They had originally planned to wear them when they were about to arrive in Kyoto.
First, in ancient times, even the official roads were made of yellow mud. No matter how well you dressed, you would still be covered in dirt if you kept traveling. Second, how could you enter the soup kitchen dressed like that?
At most, when the weather is cool in the morning or evening, you can wear it when traveling to keep out the cold wind.
"Waiter, we are here to stay overnight. We have no choice but to dress like this. We are fleeing from famine, please forgive us."
The waiter was surprised that these people came to stay in the hotel dressed like this, but he knew they were not beggars and immediately apologized: "It's my fault for being blind. Please don't blame me, sir. Please come in."
Then he hurriedly called the shopkeeper and said that someone was staying overnight.
The shopkeeper also saw what happened just now, after all, the counter was not far from the lobby of the inn.
The shopkeeper immediately walked out of the counter and said, "My dear waiter, I am very ignorant and offended you. I hope you will forgive me."
Shen Zhiqiu immediately put on an understanding expression. It was no surprise that we were misunderstood for dressing like that.
But shopkeeper, you said you want to be tolerant, why don't you be more practical? We were introduced by Gatekeeper Sun, and he said your prices are affordable. We have a large group of people, so I wonder how much does a dormitory bed cost?
Why didn't he ask about the woodshed and the barn? It was because he took into consideration the reminder from the gatekeeper.
Their meaning is so clear. The price is cheap, but there are a lot of people and all kinds of people. You'd better keep an eye on your children and don't let them get kidnapped.
The shopkeeper was very polite and said, "The big bunk bed here is 200 wen per room. Since there are so many of you, I can give you a discount."
Shen Zhiqiu felt that this inn was good from the moment he entered. Apart from the feudal class perspective, even though the waiter drove him out as soon as he entered,
But it says that people go to the back door to beg for food, which means that this shop often collects the leftover food of the shop customers and gives it to beggars.
Although this is a simple thing that can be done with just the movement of your fingers, there are very few inns that can actually do this.
Even many inns, restaurants and hotels do not allow beggars to approach, for fear of affecting the guests' appetite.
Moreover, the shopkeeper had a kind face and spoke politely, so he took advantage of the situation and attacked:
“I wonder if we can open eight large bunk beds, and the rest of us can sleep on the floor. We have almost used up all our money and food after fleeing the famine.
But we don’t need your bedding, we brought our own.”
The shopkeeper is a really good person. He glanced at the large group of people standing outside and nodded:
"We are all poor people. We can sleep on the floor. Eight rooms cost one tael and six cents. You can just give one tael and five cents. But we have to pay for food separately."
Shen Zhiqiu quickly thanked the shopkeeper for being so kind.
He also negotiated with the shopkeeper about the price of dry food and money for tomorrow's journey. Although the soup kitchen gave a lot, there were many of them. It would be enough to eat tonight, but they couldn't go hungry early in the morning and at noon tomorrow.
Finally, they ordered 1,200 steamed buns at the price of two cents each. However, the shopkeeper only provided the flour, firewood, and stoves, and they had to steam the buns themselves.
Shen Zhiqiu was already extremely grateful. You have to know that in this place a steamed bun made of fine flour usually costs three cents, and now because of the influx of refugees, the price has risen to four cents each.
It’s not that Shen Zhiqiu doesn’t know how to live and insists on eating fine noodles. It’s just that the shopkeeper said that there are no coarse grains in their store.
There was nothing they could do about it. Most of the customers at their inn were merchants, and they came to Huguan County to purchase goods.
They are all businessmen with a lot of people, so the dormitory beds are cheaper than other places. But even those who live in the dormitory beds do manual labor, so they have to eat well.