Duan Fei and the others came out of the cell and were speechless for a while. It was not until He Hai was sent out of the Yamen that He Hai said: "Brother Fei, my father's funeral will be held in three days, and then I will separate the family. Then..."
Duan Fei patted him on the shoulder and said: "Don't worry, I will definitely go. My brother, I will not let you be bullied by others. Even if it is Huangtian, I will make them suffer and walk away!"
He Hai nodded and left. Duan Fei and Shi Bin returned to the official's house, where Yan Captou was waiting for them.
Captain Yan threw two cloth bags to Duan Fei and Shi Bin respectively. This was the interest they got from this case. Duan Fei threw the heavy cloth bag on his bunk and said: "Boss"
, I want to go to Yangzhou with Shi Bin tomorrow to relax and come back before the evening of the day after tomorrow at most, what do you think?"
Yan Captou said: "Go, wear casual clothes and a belt tag, don't get drunk, don't cause trouble, don't be bullied, don't let your money go to waste when you go out... Well, there is nothing else to pay attention to, according to Min
Your Majesty, this case is quite special. After reporting it to Yangzhou, you may be sentenced to death..."
If the case is clear and there is no doubt about it, the felon can be sentenced to death. This case is quite cruel and may involve some troublesome things. It is normal for Mr. Min to want to cut the knot quickly and end the matter.
"It's none of our business. They brought it upon themselves." Duan Fei said calmly: "If we haven't come back by then... Boss, give them a final bowl of wine on our behalf."
Early in the morning, Duan Fei and Shi Bin boarded the boat at Ximen Pier and headed south along the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal. The journey was calm and beautiful everywhere. Duan Fei couldn't help but put aside his unhappiness and poetically sang: "My old friend bid farewell to the west to Huang."
Crane Tower, fireworks under Yangzhou in March. The shadow of the solitary sail in the distance is gone in the blue sky, and only the Yangtze River can be seen flowing in the sky."
"What a poem. Brother Fei deserves to be able to write poems after reading a book!" Shi Bin applauded and cheered.
Duan Fei laughed angrily at him, he is such an ignorant boy... Just when he was about to tell him that this was a famous poem by Li Bai, the poet saint of the Tang Dynasty, a chuckle came from a speedboat nearby, and a girl's delicate voice said:
"Miss, do you think it's funny or not? There are two people who are really weird. One of them has a horse's mouth on top of a bull's head, and the other is even weirder. His mouth actually grows on the butt of the previous one."
Duan Fei and Shi Bin both looked over following the sound, and saw a awning boat, common in the Jiangnan waterways, passing the slow boat they were riding. A girl about sixteen or seventeen years old was sitting on the edge of the boat.
She was talking and laughing into the cabin with a stern face. She was petite and exquisite, with pretty and bright eyebrows. Especially her small mouth, with the corners of her mouth curved upward, she looked extremely playful and cute. She had a pair of sideburns on her head, and her body was
Wearing a lavender double-breasted, round-necked sleeveless waistcoat, and a pink shoulder-length floral short jacket with full sleeves underneath, she turned out to be a pretty maid.
The maids are already like this, isn't that young lady a beautiful lady? Duan Fei opened his eyes wide and looked into the cabin, only to see a pair of eyes as bright as stars looking at him with a smile in the dim cabin.
The smile seemed to bring a hint of apology.
The black-topped boat quickly moved away. Duan Fei and Shi Bin came to their senses after a long time, and Shi Bin shouted loudly: "Brother Fei, that girl is really cool!"
Duan Fei's mind kept thinking about the girl with the veil, especially the pair of starry eyes, which seemed to have taken away his heart in an instant.
"You ignorant boy, you just scolded both of us, and you are still proud of it." Duan Fei snorted.
"Ah? What did she say?" Shi Bin's silly look caused the boatman and other guests to burst into laughter, and Duan Fei felt ashamed for a while.
At the beginning of noon, the two got off the boat at the pier in Yangzhou. In this era, Yangzhou was ranked among the top ten metropolises in the world, and the bustling atmosphere hit them. The two young men from Baoying County were like Grandma Liu.
When they entered the Grand View Garden, they saw everything new. Duan Fei was fine, but the roads were full of men and women in bright clothes and angry horses, which dazzled Shi Bin.
After entering Yangzhou City, Shi Bin was completely dumbfounded. There were spacious and prosperous avenues to the left and right, and he didn't know where to go.
"On a moonlit night at the Twenty-Four Bridge, where can beauties learn how to play the flute... Let's go buy some things first, and then play along the river." Duan Fei said, stopped a passerby and said, "Brother, where is Yangzhou?"
Is there something for sale that is as transparent as crystal and can be seen through and magnified?"
"You mean, they are available in jewelry stores. You can go to Baodaxiang Yangzhou Head Office to have a look, but they are not cheap. They cost about twenty taels of silver each." The person who was stopped looked at the clothes of the two people and said
I knew they were from a small place, so I reminded them kindly.
Duan Fei remembered the name, and then asked about the road. After thanking the man, he walked along the road. Shi Bin said: "Brother Fei, why are you asking about that? It's so expensive."
Duan Fei explained: "I don't necessarily want to buy it. Let's take a look. What I want to buy is not reading glasses, but a guy who eats."
Shi Bin was still confused. Duan Fei asked Bao Daxiang all the way, and finally found it by the Dadongmen Bridge on the bank of the Xiao Qinhuai River. This is a bustling commercial street on the edge of the land of fireworks, and Bao Daxiang occupies a large area.
The facade was luxuriously decorated with elegance, which showed that the owner had extraordinary taste. Duan Fei and Shi Bin crossed the high threshold and walked in.
There were several customers in the store picking up jewelry. The men and women were all well-dressed and looked impressive. Duan Fei and his wife immediately attracted a lot of curious eyes when they walked in.
Bao Daxiang's clerk came up to meet them. Looking at the simple clothes of the two men, his face was a little surprised, but he still maintained a respectful demeanor and a professional smile: "You two gentlemen, what jewelry do you need to buy?"
Duan Fei didn't feel any embarrassment at all. Shi Bin also forced himself to hold his head high, but unconsciously dropped half of Duan Fei's body. After looking around, Duan Fei asked casually: "I heard that you sell Kuijiu here.
, I wonder if you have custom-made business?”
The waiter smiled and said, "It's common to make things custom-made for distinguished guests. I wonder what kind of custom-made one you want to make?"
Duan Fei made a circle with his hand and said: "Round, thick in the middle and thin on both sides, wrapped with a wooden handle..."
The clerk suddenly said: "Oh, it turns out that the young master wants to make a large convex mirror that can be held by hand. This thing is easy to make, but such a big thing needs to be ground carefully with good large crystals. In addition,
The handwork costs one hundred taels of silver. If you want it made to order, the craftsmen in our shop can start making it for you immediately after paying the money."
At this time, the glass was unknown. The best choice for making lenses was high-quality crystal, so the price was quite expensive. Making a magnifying glass actually cost one hundred taels of silver. Duan Fei thought about it and said: "It's not too expensive."
It’s expensive. Let’s take a look. In addition, I also need to customize something, which is more complicated..."
Duan Fei made a gesture, and the clerk was also confused. The old shopkeeper who had been paying attention for a long time came over and said with a smile: "If you want to order complicated things, you should go directly and explain to the craftsmen. Please come with me, sir."
Passing through a row of private rooms and then through a patio, Duan Fei was taken to Baodaxiang's backyard and entered a large room where craftsmen worked.
"Master Liu is the most skilled craftsman here in our area. Just tell him the items to be made in detail." The old shopkeeper introduced Duan Fei to a craftsman.
Duan Fei first explained the specifications of the magnifying glass he wanted. Master Liu nodded slightly to show that he had remembered it. Duan Fei then explained another thing to him in detail. Master Liu could not help but frown gradually. What about the stage and objective lens?
, tube scope, eyepiece, condenser, and must be able to be adjusted up, down, left, and right. This thing is really complicated.
Duan Fei talked for a long time, and finally supplemented it with drawings, and finally made Master Liu understand. Several other masters gathered around and looked at this novel thing curiously.
"Master, you said this object can magnify rice grains a hundred times or a thousand times?" Master Liu asked suspiciously.
Duan Fei licked his dry lips and said, "Yes, a convex mirror can magnify ten times. If this microscope is made more precisely, it can magnify a thousand times."
Master Liu nodded silently and said: "According to what the father-in-law said, this microscope is not difficult to make, but the requirements for the several convex mirrors are quite high and the cost will inevitably be higher. It will cost at least three hundred taels of silver to make this thing."
"Three hundred taels!" Duan Fei was a little embarrassed. He had also made a lot of money during this period, but yesterday he spent fifty taels of silver to temporarily arrange for those little brothers to stay in the charity hall for a period of time.
I got some, which was offset. At this moment, I only had about two hundred and fifty taels of silver left. I wanted to buy two things and let the shopkeeper give me a discount. I didn't expect that the difference was so much, or... I could order a smaller one.
microscope?
"Let me take a look." A calm and steady voice suddenly sounded, and all the craftsmen stepped aside. A man in his thirties walked in, picked up the sketch drawn by Duan Fei, and looked at it carefully.
"Master Zhou Zhe is one of the seven famous masters in the jewelry industry in Jiangnan..." the old shopkeeper introduced to Duan Fei in a low voice.dd