Chapter 108: The First Line of Eating Watermelons
A back alley near Yishiju.
Wang Qinian was patiently instructing the many women who were surrounding him to get the goods.
"Newcomers can only take one book for free. Wait until it's sold out before paying for it. Old people can only take three books at a time. Don't rush to grab them. Come one by one."
He fanned him twice with a palm-leaf fan and continued to give instructions.
"Hey, remember, if an official comes to check, you must turn around and run away. Remember, run!"
One of the women said hurriedly.
"Remember, remember, boss, this isn't the first time I've bought the goods, and I'm getting calluses on my ears from what you've said."
Wang Qinian glanced at her and exclaimed.
"I remember you. How many books did you take this time?"
The woman said hurriedly.
"Three books! Boss, this is the money from the previous sales."
After saying that, he took out two silver ingots and handed them over.
Wang Qinian took the silver, weighed it, and put it into the purse in the big bag.
"Yeah! Not bad! You're selling pretty fast! Take the three copies for yourself."
The woman smiled and said as she took the book.
"It's all thanks to my boss who taught me how to sell it."
After taking the three books, the woman left in a hurry. There was no time to chat. The important thing was to make money by selling books!
Wang Qinian didn't care because all the women were like this. He looked at the other women.
"Hey, you're new here, so just take one. Sell it first and then come back for more. If you take too many and you can't sell them, it's useless. Isn't that the truth? Hey! That's right. Go ahead, go ahead, and remember to run away when you see an official."
After a while, there was only one woman left by Wang Qinian's side.
The woman was new and felt that one book was not enough. She wanted to earn more money and looked at her employer hesitantly.
"Then can you give me one?"
Wang Qinian looked at her while holding the palm-leaf fan.
"Then take one, and remember to run away when you see an official. Go ahead, but don't run to me."
The woman took another book and left in a hurry.
Wang Qinian picked up the purse in the package, looked inside, a happy look appeared on his face, he reached out and patted the purse shut, leaned back with satisfaction, let out a comfortable sound, and covered his face with a palm-leaf fan to block out the sunlight.
Just as I closed my eyes and was about to take a nap, I heard a man's voice above my head, and his words were quite polite.
"Are these your books?"
Wang Qinian didn't think much about it. It sounded like someone was here to pick up some goods, so he raised his hand to take away the palm-leaf fan, opened his eyes and looked up while replying.
"How much do you want?"
The upside-down face of a young man appeared in front of me. Hey, this man looks familiar. Hiss~
Wang Qinian remembered who this was. He stood up and cried out inwardly that he had been meeting an enemy on a narrow road. He forced an awkward smile on his face and quickly bowed to the man in front of him.
"Master Fan."
Not to mention that he had cheated Fan Xian out of two taels of silver by selling the picture yesterday, the more terrible thing was this book. Wang Qinian knew that the author of this book was Fan Xian himself, but he never expected that Fan Xian would come to him so soon.
Wang Qinian's eyes flickered between Fan Xian and the large package filled with evidence and stolen money, thinking about how to get away.
Fan Xian looked at Wang Qinian's face backwards but didn't recognize him for a moment. When Wang Qinian stood up and greeted him, Fan Xian remembered who this guy was and exclaimed in surprise.
"Wang Qinian?"
Okay, okay, I've been searching for it for a long time, but now it's mine without any effort. I haven't even bothered you yet when I was selling the pictures, and now you're selling Dream of the Red Chamber. I'm the only one who wants to profit from it, right?
Fan Xian took two steps forward with the Red Tower in his hand.
"Books and maps, are you trying to monopolize the cultural industry?"
Wang Qinian asked as he slowly retreated, hoping to delay as long as possible.
“What is cultural industry?”
Fan Xian had no time to cooperate with him. He pressed on step by step, stretched out his hand and threw the Red Building to the side, with a sneer in his tone.
"How about we talk about the map?"
Ah, the map. Compared with stealing and selling other people's books, the map is nothing. Wang Qinian moved back a little to distance himself from Fan Xian and stretched out his hand to signal Fan Xian not to move forward.
"Well, how about this? I'll pay you ten times the money for the map. What do you think?"
Fan Xian stopped walking, with a questioning look in his eyes.
"So happy?"
Wang Qinian smiled and blew himself up.
"Wang has always been a man who dares to take responsibility for his actions and is upright and aboveboard."
Although Wang Qinian was smiling with wrinkles on his face, he was secretly complaining in his heart. He had to run away quickly. After the map was done, it was time to leave. This...
He noticed a person appearing at the corner of the alley out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't look closely at who it was. In an instant, an idea flashed in his mind, and he restrained his smile and said to Fan Xian in front of him with a little surprise.
"Please look behind you, sir."
Fan Xian didn't think much about it because Wang Qinian had a good attitude regarding the map. He turned around and looked behind him.
When Mei Cheng'an walked to the back alley, he met many women walking out. He couldn't help but quicken his pace, thinking to himself that he had to hurry up, otherwise he wouldn't be able to see anything.
The women's eyes all lit up when they saw him, because Mei Cheng'an looked like a rich man from the way he was dressed.
Mei Cheng'an kept walking. When a woman came up to him to sell the Red Mansion, he simply walked around her and said, "I'll talk to your boss." It didn't take him much time.
At least when he turned into the alley where the two of them were, Wang Qinian was still there, and the two of them looked at each other.
Mei Chengan curled the corners of his mouth and caught up.
Before he could say hello to Wang Qinian, Fan Xian suddenly turned around. At the same time, Wang Qinian picked up the big package, tapped his toes, and jumped onto the roof in the blink of an eye.
Mei Chengan: “…”
Fan Xian turned around and saw that it was him, smiled and said.
"You came here too."
Mei Cheng'an smiled at Fan Xian, not bothering to respond to him. He raised his head and shouted at Wang Qinian's back, who was about to disappear behind the eaves. "Old Wang, don't... Damn it!"
Unfortunately, Wang Qinian moved too quickly, and before Mei Chengan could finish his words, he disappeared from the eaves.
Fan Xian was stunned for a moment, and the first thing he did when he reacted was to turn around and look at the place where Wang Qinian had been standing. It was now empty, with only a palm-leaf fan flying to the ground from the upper left. He raised his head and looked upwards, but there was no trace of Wang Qinian.
"Hey! You run really fast!"
……
On the other side, Wang Qinianpu turned around and looked up as soon as he landed, scratching his head with a puzzled look.
Eh? That voice sounds familiar. It sounds like Master Mei. How come he is here?
After thinking for a while without figuring it out, Wang Qinian simply gave up thinking about it. Even if that man was really Mr. Mei, it would not be too late to explain to him later. Otherwise, he would be stopped by Fan Xian. With his ruthless character, it would be the least of his worries to lose the money he had worked so hard for. He was afraid that the matter would not be settled easily. The most important thing now was to run away.
After thinking about it, Wang Qinian looked around, chose a direction and left quickly.
……
Fan Xian complained and glanced at the table and chair on the right. The large package that was originally placed on the table was gone. Only the copy of Dream of the Red Chamber that he had just thrown here was left on the recliner. Fan Xian reached out and picked it up. After all, he had spent eight taels of silver to buy it.
Mei Cheng'an felt a little regretful that he failed to call out to Wang Qinian, but he was not disappointed. He walked slowly to Fan Xian's side.
Fan Xian handed him the Red Mansion.
"Now, look."
Mei Cheng'an took it and flipped through it. When he saw the erotic passages that Wang Qinian specially selected from the book and put on the title page, he burst out laughing. Old Wang, Old Wang, you are really amazing. This is unparalleled.
Fan Xian saw that he laughed suddenly and asked curiously.
"What laughing."
Mei Cheng'an shook his head slightly, closed the Red Mansion in his hand, and handed it back to Fan Xian.
"I don't know how this old Wang works, but he has figured out all the ways to make money in illegal ways. Well, since everyone has run away, let's go back to Yishiju first, everyone is waiting for us."
Fan Xian nodded.
"Then let's go."
……
Fan Mansion.
Outside the gate.
Lin Wan'er's personal maid had just gotten the news from the doorman and was standing outside the car window answering the call.
"Miss, I have asked, Fan Xian is not in the mansion at the moment, he has gone out, and the concierge doesn't know when he will be back."
The car curtain was pulled open with a swish, revealing the faces of Ye Ling'er and Lin Wan'er.
Lin Wan'er asked.
"Where did he go?"
The maid replied.
"It seems like he went to the restaurant."
Ye Ling'er snorted when she heard that.
"He's very happy and carefree."
After saying that, he glanced at the gate of Fan Mansion and said to Lin Wan'er.
"You can even discuss the matter of cancelling the engagement in front of Mrs. Liu in the mansion."
Lin Wan'er shook her head slightly when she heard this, her tone firm.
"Don't do to others what you don't want done to you. Even if I want to break up the engagement, I should look him in the eye and say it directly."
Ye Ling'er opened her mouth, sighed, and held Lin Wan'er's hand.
"I will definitely help you cancel this marriage."
Lin Wan'er smiled.
……
Mei Cheng'an and Fan Xian walked side by side along the way they came.
Fan Xian asked.
"Do you know that Wang Qinian?"
Mei Chengan nodded and said softly.
"Old friend."
Fan Xian raised his eyebrows.
"friend?"
Mei Chengan smiled.
"friend!"
After a pause, he opened his lips and continued.
"I don't have many friends in Kyoto, and he is one of them. He is a nice guy and very interesting. It's a coincidence that we meet today, but I will introduce him to you another day."
Upon hearing this, Fan Xian looked down at the copy of Dream of the Red Chamber in his hand, raised it up and shook it in front of Mei Cheng'an, and said teasingly with a smile on his face.
"He's a nice guy?"
Mei Chengan smiled.
"Haha, he's just a little greedy, he loves money like his life, he'll do anything to make money, he can do anything outrageous, I complained about him a lot in the past few years, but now I'm too lazy to say more, you'll see it when you get to know him better in the future."
Fan Xian laughed.
"I've seen it all. The man who tried to sell me the map at the city gate was him! The crappy map he drew was so abstract, and it was just a bunch of geometric figures, but he dared to sell it to me for two taels of silver. Your friend is really brave and not afraid of being beaten. You should know that I was guarded by a bunch of red-armored knights in front and behind me at that time."
Mei Cheng'an burst into laughter when he heard this.
"Hahahaha, wealth and honor come from risk. Lao Wang is always very courageous in this regard. You just need to get used to it in the future."
……
I wrote a chapter urgently, but I am not satisfied with the content. I may revise it later. Give me two more days. My family will be discharged from the hospital in two days.
(End of this chapter)
