I'm just a dude

Chapter 1

In February, the drizzle in Yangzhou City is like smoke, and the bridge is painted with green willows.The newly planted crabapple flowers in the Qi Mansion in the east of the city rushed to bloom first, and the carmine color spread for dozens of miles, and the whole city seemed to have fallen into a heap of beautiful flowers.

Qi Yuan slept until the sun was high, and didn't get up when she woke up, she just stretched long.

The maids were already waiting outside, and when they heard the sound, they all bowed their heads and filed in.Two little maids in buns helped him up, and first gently kneaded Qi Yuan's shoulders, neck and back, and when Qi Yuan sat still, Yinshuang at the side fed him two mouthfuls of pears with a spoon. Soup.

Qi Yuan kept drooping her eyelids and closed her mouth after taking two sips.Knowing that he was full, Yinshuang signaled the little maid to take away the soup bowl, and only then did she ask someone to help him dress and wash his face.

There were about a dozen maids, big and small, in the room, all silent, busy but not chaotic.Qi Yuan didn't have much patience, she got impatient as soon as she put on her middle clothes, she opened her eyes and started to chase people away: "Okay, okay, what time is it and you're still wearing jackets!"

The little girl who was taking out the long coat was taken aback for a moment, and looked at Yinshuang in a bewildered state.

Yinshuang had no choice but to persuade him: "It's only February now, the young master doesn't feel it when he's in the house, but when he goes out, he knows that the cold spring will be severe."

Qi Yuan still frowned, and said unwillingly: "I don't care, the jacket is too thick, Zhou Rong and the others stopped wearing it a long time ago."

He took a selfie in front of the mirror, and said smugly: "I think their clothes are pretty, loose robes, and they look like fairies."

Zhou Rong is the second son of Zhou Chengshan, the magistrate of Yangzhou Prefecture. He hangs out with a few local dandies all day long, swimming in lakes, drinking wine, teasing dogs and rabbits.Qi Yuan is also often mixed in, the youngest and the most popular.

As soon as the Qi family has money, Qi Yuan doesn't need to be coaxed, and just throws out a lot of money in his hand, which is the most refreshing.Secondly, Qi Yuan is pretty, although she is 16 years old, but her small face is still like a doll carved with jade, her eyes are clear, like lacquer, not to mention the masters and servants in the mansion, young and old, even the neighbors in the neighborhood, Whenever I see it, I always like to give him something to coax him to play.

Recently, these rich kids have played some tricks again, comparing and changing new clothes all day long, one day the sleeves are longer, the next day the material is thicker, the heels of the boots are high and low, the sleeves are wide and narrow, The style is indeterminate, and it looks very indecent when you put it together.

Yinshuang knew that Qi Yuan was soft but not hard, so she thought for a while and said with a smile: "Young master can wear something like that, my uncle just sent me a lake silk shirt a few days ago, and said that I would let the young master wear it when he goes to school. Seriously reading..."

Qi Yuan got dizzy as soon as he heard it, and he couldn't memorize the "Three Character Classic" after reading it for many years.That shirt was worn by a scholar, he didn't want to be caught and scolded by his father, so he hurriedly said: "Forget it, forget it, I won't invite that bad luck."

The little maid let out a sigh of relief, and hurriedly put on the long white woven gold satin round-neck jacket for Qi Yuan.When he was fully dressed, someone on the side held all kinds of accessories, and pinned him the collar of his coat with a swastika button in the shape of a wishful cloud head, and picked a bamboo jade hairpin inlaid with opal to tie his hair.

Dress up here, it's almost noon.

Qi Yuan took the servant to the backyard to greet the old lady first, pretended to be a good grandson for a while, said a lot of good things, and coaxed the bag of little goldfish into her hands.The servants who accompanied her immediately laughed so hard that they couldn't see their teeth, Qi Yuan casually threw it to them to share, and instead of going back to the front yard, she sneaked to the back door and slipped out to play.

Zhou Rong was drinking with a few people on Tingcui Tower, when he looked down and saw a familiar figure coming down from the bridge, he immediately shouted and called Qi Yuan to go up.

Qi Yuan looked up and saw that there were quite a few cronies there, she also laughed happily, turned into the restaurant, and slammed into Zhou Rong.

Zhou Rong was pushed out of his seat by him, he kept laughing and cursing, pointed at his nose and said, "You rely on me to pamper you, how can a guest occupy the host seat?"

Qi Yuan laughed and said, "I still come here as a guest! Then tell me, how can the host sit and the guest stand?"

The few servants he had with him had already gotten into a fight with those from other families.

Zhou Rong looked around, annoyed and funny, pointed at him and shook his head, asked Xiao Er to add a chair and sit next to him.

Eight or nine dishes had already been served on the table, and the waiter was still bringing in trays of dishes. It was obvious that the banquet had just begun, and it cost a lot.

Qi Yuan just wanted to join in the fun, but now she sat down and found that there were several strangers. The one on the far left was wearing a half-worn jade-colored blouse, wearing a square scarf, with serious eyes, and looked to be twenty years old. .The other two young men were more flamboyant, dressed in brocade clothes, with gold hairpins on their hair, they looked like they belonged to this gang of dandies.

Seeing his dark eyes rolling back and forth, Zhou Rong looked at the stranger curiously, coughed and introduced: "These are all distinguished guests from Beijing, the one on the far right is Mr. Han, and this is Mr. Li. , that is Mr. Zheng... If you can't remember, just call brother."

Talking about relatives, but not even the names and origins of those people.

Qi Yuan was suddenly unhappy.

The prefect Zhou Chengshan didn't like Zhou Rong's ignorant appearance, and always only let the eldest son see guests.What Zhou Rong brought out were nothing more than relatives or servants of lower officials.It's just that the scholars, farmers, businessmen, and merchants have always been at the bottom of the list. Zhou Rong played with them, but he didn't like them in his heart.

The Qi Mansion spent a lot of money to set up a museum at home, and invited Confucian scholars to teach their children, so that some of their children and grandchildren could win the imperial examination and shine on the family.It's a pity that my ancestors have been quite talented in business and making incense for several generations, but they lack some wisdom in reading.Qi Yuan is even more incompetent, now at the age of 16, she hasn't even finished reading the "Four Books", so angry that Master Qi is yelling to ground him every day.

Thinking of this, Qi Yuan's expression turned a little ugly.He also knew that it was best for the officials to avoid offending them, so he rolled his eyes and nicknamed the three of them in his heart, namely Sour Scholar, Big Donkey Face, and Character Eyebrows. greeted.

Halfway through the drink, the group couldn't help chatting about the new troupe.It is said that this troupe came from the capital, and the song "The Story of the Wrong Soul" was sung wonderfully. The story is nothing unusual, but it is about a scholar who went to Beijing with his wife for an exam, and met an old Taoist on the way.Seeing his wife's beauty, the old Taoist felt malicious in his heart, and cast a magic spell to change his soul with the scholar. Fortunately, the wife was smart and saw through the false husband-in-law, and severely punished the old Taoist.

There is nothing new in the story, but the dialogue is interesting, and the voice actors of the troupe are all handsome teenagers in their teens, and the bewitching girls in the city can't compare.

Among the group of dandies present, only Qi Yuan had seen it twice, and now she was pulled to talk about the beauty of that trick.The group was laughing and drinking, when suddenly the donkey face surnamed Han shouted: "I have heard that ambergris is hard to find in Yangzhou Qi Mansion. Qi Yuan, since you are the second son of Qi Mansion, why don't you help me?" Let's get some fragrant cakes out, and your benefits will be indispensable, how about it?"

Qi Yuan didn't know why she suddenly turned around her head, looking at him inexplicably.

Donkey face said: "To be honest, we came here this time, we must bring some ambergris back."

Incense was prevalent in this dynasty, and everyone from emperors and officials to traffickers and pawns took pleasure in making incense.Qi Yuan's ancestors started out selling spices. Later, her great-grandfather got a chance and picked up some secret recipes for making incense, so the whole family settled in Yangzhou, bought land and opened incense shops.When Qi Yuan's father was in charge of the family, he had accumulated thousands of acres of fertile land and ten thousand acres of family property.

And the ambergris that this person asked is one of the signatures of the Qi family. This fragrance is not genuine ambergris, but a fragrant cake made by the Qi family, called "Dragon Saliva".

Qi Yuan guessed that this person might have some background, but he was not very happy to ask him to give incense for no reason, or in such a tone.

"It's easy to say." Qi Yuan said with a smile, "Isn't it just fragrant cakes? Just give it to you."

The big donkey clapped his hands and laughed, very satisfied.

"But how much to give depends on your ability." Qi Yuan said, "Let's have fun and compete. If you win, I will give you a box."

"Okay!" Big Donkey Face asked, "Then what if I lose!"

"Then I'll give you a piece." Qi Yuan said, "If you want more, you can buy it yourself."

All the dudes applauded one after another, and the big donkey face also felt that Qi Yuan was quite sensible, so he clapped his hands together: "Just play throwing pots!"

This throwing pot is originally an ancient ritual, and the guest of honor needs to invite three times and give way three times, and there are musicians playing beside him.However, a bunch of dandies always only care about drinking and having fun, so they don't care about these things.So a group of people shouted loudly, called Xiao Er, and moved the table.

The shopkeeper brought a bundle of arrows and placed the throwing pot on the south side, at the corner of the wall where the two arrows were placed.Zhou Rong took the count and acted as a referee from the sidelines.Everyone stood separately on the left and right, staring at the two people in the middle.

Qi Yuan frowned and shouted: "It's too far! Move closer to get in."

But the big donkey face said: "It's better to be further away, so that the winner can be determined." After counting ten arrows, he shook his sleeves impatiently and stepped forward, staring at each other carefully, throwing them one by one.

Of the ten arrows, six were thrown into the mouth of the pot, and two were thrown into the ears of the pot, and two fell to the ground.Everyone applauded loudly and complimented constantly.

Big Donkey Face was also very proud of himself. He counted the chips from the referee Zhou Rong, waved his hands proudly, and looked at Qi Yuan's face, and asked intentionally, "Little brother, you won't go back on your word, will you?"

Qi Yuan looked at the pitching pot expressionlessly and said nothing.

The big donkey stared again, and shouted loudly: "We have agreed first, whoever repents is a dog! He will get under the table!"

A box of ambergris is at least a hundred taels of silver, he made a good investment this time, but he regrets that he didn't make a contract with Qi Yuan just now.At this moment, I am in a hurry to call others to testify, it cannot be denied

Only then did Qi Yuan say: "Whoever says you're going to deny it is a big bastard."

While speaking, he also took ten arrows, took out three casually, weighed them in his hand, and after repeating several times, suddenly threw them forward.

Donkey's face was taken aback by him, and he turned his head to look, only to see the three arrows tightly packed together and flying away through the air. At the same time, he stood firmly in the pot.

On the contrary, the dandies around made no noise, they just watched happily from the side.

The donkey's face was startled fiercely, he rubbed his eyes, then looked at Qi Yuan, and saw that the little dandy did the same thing, pinching out three sticks at a time, and throwing them forward easily, it hit a hundred shots.But in the blink of an eye, the ten arrows were firmly squeezed into the pitching pot.

The big donkey's face returned to his senses for a while, and everyone around him showed no surprise. Only Zhou Rong was embarrassed, and then realized that he had been tricked.

Since Qi Yuan dared to propose a competition, she must be confident.And those dudes were even more over the top, they knew how powerful Qi Yuan was, but they booed and applauded just now, deliberately cooperating with him to deceive themselves, and swore that repentance is a dog's oath!

Seeing that his complexion was not good, Qi Yuan smiled and stood up and made a bow: "Mr. Han has accepted."

The donkey's face was sullen and he didn't say a word.

Qi Yuan didn't think anything of it, and said to Zhou Rong, "Brother Qing Zhan, is the piece of ambergris I gave you yesterday still there?"

Zhou Rong hesitated for a moment, and reluctantly said, "Here."

Qi Yuan nodded: "Then I will trouble Brother Qing Zhan to pass it on to Mr. Han. My master, I am too drunk, so I went home and went to bed." Although the things given away were not taken back, Zhou Rong is not authentic today, Qi Yuan Don't care about those.

The dandies cheered one after another and opened the way for Qi Yuan to go first.Qi Yuan swaggered downstairs, a few servants hurriedly followed, and when she got out of the restaurant, she said angrily: "That Tuesday, you looked down on our family, and you still want to coax our young master to give them incense? Just dream, bah!"

The other also asked: "Master, Qingshu said that before we went, he would brag to those people on Tuesday about how you are doing. Why did you agree to that big donkey face? It would be cheaper for him if you gave him a piece!"

"Fart! Do you know who that is?" Qi Yuan said, "What if I get into trouble with Dad?"

He can't read well, but he understands the world and the world quite well.

The little servant suddenly realized, and nodded again and again: "The young master is right! I heard that those few are all from the capital, I am afraid they really have some background."

"From Beijing?" Qi Yuan was stunned for a moment, "What are you doing in Yangzhou?"

"Come over to play?" the boy said, "But I heard from Qingshu that those people said that something happened in Beijing recently. There is an uncle Zhongyuan or something who defected to the rebels in Yachuan and was about to be beheaded."

"Who cares about him, kill him if he kills him, it has nothing to do with us anyway." Qi Yuan turned her head, "Go fishing!"

While talking here, suddenly there was a commotion by the river in the distance, many people ran to that side, as if something happened.They are all teenagers at heart, no matter what happened, they rushed forward to watch the fun.

In order to see clearly, Qi Yuan avoided the crowd and climbed onto the pillar by the bridge to look over there.Just as he was looking, he suddenly felt his right foot tighten, and an extra rope appeared out of thin air on his little soft-soled leather boot.

Qi Yuan was terrified, hugged the pillar tightly and shouted for help, but there was a lot of voices on the shore, and before anyone could hear the cries from this side, he was dragged into the river by a strong force.The river under the bridge gurgled a series of bubbles, but after a moment, it returned to calm.