Looking at this refreshing courtyard, Zhao Paner refused again.
"Master Zhou, we have received your kindness, but we really can't have this yard."
Zhou Chen said: "Originally, this yard was empty. If no one lived in it, I would have to send people to clean it frequently and I wouldn't be able to earn rental fees. If I rent it to you, it will save me a lot of trouble."
Zhao Pan'er and the other girls looked at each other in confusion. How could the majestic Marquis Mansion be short of such a little money? They just wanted to find an excuse for them to live there.
"Master Hou."
Seeing that Zhao Pan'er was about to speak again, Zhou Chen suddenly showed dissatisfaction: "This matter has been settled. If you refuse again, you will not regard me as a friend, then I will be very sad."
"But……"
Sun Sanniang quickly stopped Zhao Pan'er who wanted to say more, and persuaded: "Pan'er, Lord Zhou means well. Don't do this. We pay rent every month. If you think it's not enough, wait until we are stable in Tokyo."
The rent is to be paid.”
Song Yinzhang also advised: "Yes, Sister Pan'er, I think living here is better than staying in an inn."
Seeing that both sisters agreed, Zhao Pan'er felt even more helpless when she looked at Zhou Chen with a smile on her face. However, she thought about it and realized that she already owed Zhou Chen a lot anyway. Even if she had one more debt, it seemed that the debt was too much to bear.
body.
"Okay, we can stay here, but you must collect the rent, otherwise we will move out immediately."
Zhou Chen said: "Of course, the rent will be collected. At the end of every month, I will ask Zhou Huai to come over to collect the rent. You must be ready by then."
"That's natural."
Following Zhao Pan'er's response, Sun Sanniang and Song Yinzhang's master and servant all cheered excitedly, and then ran to find their own rooms.
Zhou Chen added: "Take a look at this yard again. If there is anything missing, tell Zhou Huai and he will help you fill it. If there are any problems here in the future, tell Zhou Huai that we are the masters. You are the owner."
As a tenant, it’s natural for us to prepare things.”
He directly blocked what Zhao Paner wanted to say.
After chatting for a while, Zhou Chen changed the topic and asked: "I have a question I want to ask you. What do you want when you lead people to make a scene in front of Ouyang Xu's house?"
Zhao Pan'er did not avoid the question, but said truthfully: "I want the annulment document, the knotting document that he wants to help Yin Zhang withdraw from his citizenship, and the night banquet picture."
"I understand the annulment letter, but didn't I tell Madam Song about her deregistration? I can help her with it after my period of filial piety is over."
"Of course I know this is not a problem for Mr. Hou, but we can't rely on you for everything. If there is a way, we still want to do it ourselves first."
Zhou Chen praised: "It's your temperament to be ambitious, but for the Night Banquet Picture, you probably heard it mentioned by Gu Qianfan when you were in the Yang Mansion, but you probably don't understand the things behind the Night Banquet Picture, right?"
"
Zhao Pan'er said: "You are right. I heard Commander Gu talk about the Night Banquet Picture in the Yang Mansion. The fact that the Imperial City Secretary was so concerned about it means that the Night Banquet Picture must be involved in something big. I want to tell you about the Night Banquet Picture."
I want to come back and give it to you."
Zhou Chen immediately laughed. He really didn't expect that Zhao Pan'er had such a plan, and he felt quite relieved.
It seems that his investment these days has not been in vain. At least Zhao Pan'er has become accustomed to him and has begun to consider him.
"I appreciate your kindness, but this night banquet picture is not as simple as you think. This picture involves the identity and chastity of the current queen. No matter who gets this picture, it will be a big trouble.
I am not one of those people with ulterior motives, so this picture is not only useless to me, but actually troublesome."
"ah?"
Zhao Pan'er was confused. She thought the night banquet picture was very important, so she thought about bringing it back to Zhou Chen.
But I never expected that this night banquet picture would actually involve the queen, and it was such an important event. No wonder Zhou Chen didn't want this picture. If everything was true, this night banquet picture would really be a big trouble.
Suddenly, her eyes lit up: "Then if someone knew that this picture was in Ouyang Xu's hands, wouldn't it cause him a lot of trouble?"
Zhou Chen said: "I advise you to give up this idea. Don't forget that you gave this picture to Ouyang Xu. If Ouyang Xu gets into trouble because of this picture, do you think you can get away with it? In fact, it's best.
The result is that this picture does not exist, and unless you want to completely offend the queen and move to the queen, this picture will only be trouble."
"Yes, this picture came from my hands."
Zhao Pan'er also reacted and patted his chest in panic, feeling afraid of his naive thoughts.
"Then should I continue to ask Ouyang Xu for this night banquet picture?"
"Of course I will continue to ask for it. If you don't want it now, wouldn't it be easy for him to see the clues? If such a person with evil intentions knows the truth about the night banquet picture, he may have some inappropriate thoughts."
"Oh, okay, I understand."
Zhao Pan'er nodded. The increasingly troublesome things were giving her a headache, so she simply stopped thinking about them.
Zhou Chen took out a token and handed it to Zhao Pan'er.
"Take it."
"What's this?"
Zhao Pan'er took the token and saw that it was engraved with the character Zhou on one side and Zhongyong on the other.
"Token?"
"Well, this token can represent my Zhongyonghou Mansion. Tokyo is different from your Hangzhou. Trouble can be found everywhere. You will not bully others, but it does not mean that others will not bully you. If you encounter trouble or danger in the future,
This token should be very useful. If this token is useless, then you can go directly to me. I, Zhou Chen, still have a face in Tokyo."
"This is too expensive..."
"Um?"
"Okay, I'll accept it."
Zhao Pan'er wisely put away the token and carefully put it into her sachet.
"Master Hou, you looked really domineering just now."
Zhou Chen smiled and said: "This is called domineering? That's because you have never seen my appearance on the battlefield. If you had seen my appearance on the battlefield, you would know what it is called domineering."
"Ah? Have you ever been on the battlefield?"
Zhao Pan'er looked surprised. She knew that Zhou Chen was very skilled in martial arts, but she really didn't know that Zhou Chen had ever been on the battlefield.
"Ha, I, the Marquis of Zhongyong, was born as a military general. As a Marquis of Zhongyong, it is not surprising that I have been on the battlefield."
Zhao Pan'er didn't know what to say. Although she knew Zhou Chen was Zhongyong Hou, she knew very little about the affairs of Zhongyong Hou Mansion.
Song Yinzhang suddenly ran over holding the pipa in his arms.
"Master Hou, Sister Sanniang took Zhou Huai to buy groceries. She said she wanted you to stay for dinner."
"Okay, it just so happens that I don't have anything to do today, so I'll just stay and try out Madam Sun's craftsmanship."
Song Yinzhang was particularly happy and said enthusiastically: "Master Hou, if you are free now, I will play music for you."
"Uh, that's fine, then let's go to the garden courtyard over there."
Zhou Chen pointed to the garden pavilion not far away, and then several people walked over.
After Zhou Chen sat down, Song Yinzhang sat down not far away and placed the pipa in front of him with a solemn expression.
"What I am going to play is a song called 'Ming Fei'. I would like to invite the Marquis to appreciate it."
As she spoke, she took a breath to calm herself down, then held Lone Moon Pipa with both hands.
"Ding……"
The crisp and melodious sound of the pipa rang out. Zhou Chen was originally a master of music, and had further studied ancient music in the world of Langya Bang. In terms of his mastery and understanding of music, he was definitely better than Song Yinzhang.
After the song ended, Zhou Chen couldn't help but applaud.
"Well, this song of the Ming Dynasty by Madam Song is really wonderful. It lasted for three days and is endlessly memorable."
He praised it sincerely. Although this Ming Fei song still had some flaws to his ears, it was definitely outstanding. You must know that Song Yinzhang was only seventeen years old. He could achieve this level at this age.
Talent and hard work are indispensable.
Then he made a few comments.
Song Yinzhang's eyes were full of surprises. She originally thought that Zhou Chen was not good at music, but what Zhou Chen said hit the point every time. If he didn't have excellent music skills, he would never be able to make such an evaluation.
Even Zhao Pan'er looked at Zhou Chen in surprise. He also didn't expect that Zhou Chen was good at music.
The more contact she had with Zhou Chen, the less clear she could see. Look at the abilities Zhou Chen had shown during the days she and Zhou Chen had known each other.
He has great martial arts skills, understands tea art, medical skills, and music. What else can he not do?
Zhou Chen knew the music, which made Song Yinzhang even more interested. Then he started to play new music for Zhou Chen, and then waited expectantly for Zhou Chen's comments.
Time passed very quickly, and it was not until Sun Sanniang came to call for dinner that the pipa performance ended. Song Yinzhang still showed an unfinished expression.
After dinner, Zhao Pan'er and his daughters went to the inn, checked out of the room, brought all their things here, and stayed in the courtyard.
In the next few days, Zhao Pan'er took people to make a fuss in front of Ouyang Xu's house.
Until that day, Zhao Paner, together with a group of fat men named He Si under Chi Yanei, continued to shout slogans about debt repayment at the door of Ouyang Xu's house. Suddenly Ouyang Xu's old servant De Shu came away with a group of government servants.
Came over.
When these government officials came up, they took out sticks and rushed towards He Si and others. When He Si and others saw that they were from the government, they did not dare to resist. They all ran away after being beaten, leaving only the four daughters of Zhao Pan'er, who were beaten by many government officials.
They grabbed him and surrounded him.
"What are you doing? Let us go?"
Zhao Pan'er and the girls struggled hard, but how could they resist so many government officials? They were all quickly controlled. Even the extremely powerful Sun Sanniang was also controlled.
Zhao Pan'er was nervous, but she still pretended to be calm. Being surrounded by people, she still didn't show any fear. Instead, she asked questions to the man in official uniform next to Uncle De.
"Where are you from? We are just collecting debts normally. I don't know which royal law we have violated?"
The other party shouted very arrogantly: "I am the official of the east wing of the city. In this area, all thefts, robbers, and escapes of household registration are all decided by me. You said that Mr. Ouyang owes you money, do you have an IOU?
"
Zhao Pan'er said: "Yes, but I didn't bring it with me. I have witnesses."
Sun Sanniang and Song Yinzhang immediately agreed: "We are witnesses."
But the chamber official snorted with disdain: "You have no proof, just two words? Then I said you owe me a hundred guan?"
Then he pointed to Uncle De beside him and said, "He is the witness."
Seeing this scene, Zhao Pan'er still didn't understand what was going on, and looked at Uncle De with a mocking look on his face.
"So you went to bring in reinforcements?"
But the chamber officials didn't give them a chance to refute at all, and asked, "Where are you guys from?"
"Qiantang."
"immigrant?"
The clerk's expression became even more disdainful. It is common for Tokyo locals to look down on outsiders.
"How many days have you been in Beijing? Do you have a certificate issued by Qiantang County? If you don't have a certificate, you are a refugee."
At this point, his voice suddenly rose and he shouted loudly: "Do you know that entering Tokyo privately is a serious crime?"
At this time, Uncle De added fuel to the fire and pointed at Zhao Pan'er and the girls, saying: "They are all bitches who work in brothels and come to Tokyo specifically to blackmail people."
Sun Sanniang was so angry that she rushed forward and was about to take action, but was slapped directly by the clerk and restrained by other government officials.
Seeing Sun Sanniang being beaten, Zhao Pan'er eagerly stepped forward to help, but was pushed to the ground by the officer. The three women fell to the ground, supporting each other.
But the chamber official was not ready to let them go, and shouted again: "You are dishonest, aren't you? Take off their clothes for me."
The surrounding government officials obeyed the order and immediately went over to take action. At the critical moment, Zhao Pan'er suddenly remembered the token that Zhou Chen had given her not long ago.
"Stop, any of you who dare to touch us will die."
Zhao Pan'er let out a sharp scream, which really made the government officials pause.
When the compartment official saw Zhao Pan'er and dared to threaten him, he became even more angry. He stepped forward and prepared to take action himself.
"You still dare to threaten, let me see..."
The next moment, his voice stopped abruptly, because Zhao Pan'er, who was on the ground, suddenly raised her right hand. In her hand, there was a golden token, which almost blinded him.
The carriage official suddenly stopped and his heart tightened: "What is this?"
Zhao Pan'er said angrily: "See for yourself."
With that said, he threw the token to the compartment official, who was so frightened that he hurriedly caught it.
Although he hasn't seen the token clearly yet, he is also a somewhat knowledgeable person. In Tokyo, anyone who can use gold to make tokens is not a simple person.
After catching the token, he found that the token was very heavy and was definitely real gold. Then he saw that the token was carved very carefully, with a big "zhou" character engraved in the middle. Then he
I quickly turned over the token and saw two more words.
‘Loyal and brave’!
The chamber official trembled all over, "Zhongyong, Zhou", these three words together, no matter how stupid he is, he can still tell where the token is.
Zhongyong Houfu, Zhou family!
Except for the Zhongyong Hou Mansion, who would make such a token representing identity? In other words, 99% of this token is the token of the Zhongyong Hou Mansion.
The chamber official's body trembled again, and his hands holding the token began to tremble. The token seemed to weigh a thousand pounds.