Chapter 61: Banquet at Qiao’s Family (Part 1)

The results of the palace examination came out the next day—Qiao Zeyu won the top prize, a poor boy named Li Qichen won the second place, Zhao Huaiqi, the young son of the Zhao family, was awarded because he was beautiful and young, and his writing was also good.Click to explore flowers.

As soon as this result came out, the entire Qiao family was in a state of excitement—they were generations of merchants, scholars, farmers, businessmen, and merchants. Merchants are the lowest.Feeling elated, similar to "when a man attains the Dao, even his pets ascend to heaven".

So Qiao's family held a banquet on June 18, inviting relatives and friends to celebrate.Now that his family has a number one scholar, plus Pei Rongbai, the "son-in-law" who is powerful in the government and the public, so many people come to congratulate him uninvited, and the congratulatory gifts are sent to the mansion like water, so the government and the public are all concernedIt is said that Qiao Zeyu is a hot figure, relying on the strength of his brother-in-law and his own emperor, why not worry about getting promoted and making a fortune?

Qiao Songyu was also dressed up to attend this day. He was already good-looking, and today he chose an elegant precious silver cardigan with a willow-bud yellow cloud-pattern straight skirt inside. The buttons of the cardigan are inlaid with sapphires, and the cloud-pattern is moreIt was embroidered with silver thread, and the end of the whole dress was incomparably gorgeous, making Qiao Songyu's red lips and white teeth, black hair and snow skin, even more ethereal like a fairy.The guests who saw him for the first time were all amazed, and felt that the title of "capital male god" was really good.

Pei Rongbai, who was sitting on Qiao Songyu's right hand side, was wearing ordinary clothes today instead of official uniforms. He was wearing a sky-blue brocade brocade jacket with a black jade belt tied around his waist. He had black and thick hair., a pair of peach blossom eyes that were always slightly closed at this moment were full of smiles, and he sat beside Qiao Songyu, as if he was in a good mood.

After seeing Qiao Songyu and seeing him again, the guests couldn't help feeling that the two were really made in heaven, Zhilan Yushu, and no one else could be worthy of these two.

Before the banquet, Pei Rongbai and Qiao Songyu were called into the study by Qiao Rongyu.

"Brother, what's the matter with us?"

Qiao Rongyu took out an account book from the desk drawer, put it in front of the two of them, and then said with a rare expression on his face: "This is the original account book that Xie's family was desperately looking for last time. I studied it for a few days and found their account bookSomething is wrong."

"What's wrong?" Pei Rongbai asked suspiciously.

"This is their account book for the entire year of last year, and the money they earned can be said to be 'huge profits'." Qiao Rongyu opened the account book and pointed it out to the two of them, "Look here, it's from April last year."At that time, anyone who had done the fabric business knew that every year there were a few seasons that were off-seasons, and April was the so-called off-season. Even for our Qiao family, business in April would be much slower than other months, but you see, the Xie family still maintained a very high profit in April, and this profit is almost ten times or even twenty times the profit, how is this possible? Moreover, they often only bought a few dozen bolts of cloth that month, but soldBut hundreds of bolts of cloth can be sold, where did the extra dozens of cloth come from? It just popped up out of thin air.”

He said, and took out another account book to Pei Rongbai: "This is the account book of our Qiao family this month, you can compare it and see if there is any difference."

"What does he know, let me see." Qiao Songyu said disgustedly, and then picked up the account book to read, but he was dazzled by the dense words on the account book after flipping through a few pages-what was written in it?Why do I know all the words, but I don't even know what it means?

Looking at his expression, Qiao Rongyu knew that he couldn't understand at all, and immediately bent his fingers and tapped him on the head: "I told you not to learn to read accounts carefully!"

"You hit me again!" Qiao Songyu wailed, covered her head with one hand, and stared at her elder brother angrily, "It's because your writing is too complicated and inexplicable, how can you blame me!"

Pei Rongbai laughed lightly.

"Don't laugh!" Qiao Songyu turned to stare at him.

Immediately, Pei Rongbai put his fists to his mouth, gave a fake cough, then solemnly picked up the account book, picked a few pages at random and read it carefully, and found something strange in it—the entry and exit of the account books of the Qiao family were relatively normal, butThe entry and exit of the Xie family's account books are very abnormal, and the prices are inflated.After he pointed out these problems to Qiao Rongyu, Qiao Rongyu nodded and said:

"Yeah, so they must be making fake books."

"But why do they make fake accounts?" Qiao Songyu asked suspiciously, "They have to count the money they receive every month, for example, one thousand taels a month, so they only earned five hundred taels.Where can I get the five hundred taels?"

"Song Er's question is on point." Pei Rongbai and Qiao Rongyu looked at each other, and then said, "So Rong Yu, do you suspect that they have income from unknown sources?"

"Hmm." Qiao Rongyu nodded, "And the money must be shady, otherwise they don't need to make so many false accounts."

Hearing this, Pei Rongbai frowned slightly, and his face gradually became a little dignified.

"What's the matter?" Qiao Songyu looked at Pei Rongbai, then at his elder brother, "Then how did they get all this money? Could it be that they are doing other shady businesses besides selling cloth?"

Qiao Rongyu looked at Qiao Songyu, saw Pei Rongbai's thoughtful and dignified expression, and asked tentatively, "Is it... related to King Jing?"

Qiao Songyu became even more confused after hearing this: "Where did King Jing get so much money? Besides, what does he want money for?"

Pei Rongbai sighed, as if agreeing, but also as if asking himself: "Yeah, what does he need so much money for?"

Qiao Songyu was about to ask again, but someone knocked on the door outside:

"My lord, the banquet is about to start, my lord invites you to go over to the table with the third lord and Lord Prime Minister."

"I'm going." Qiao Rongyu replied, and then said to Qiao Songyu and Pei Rongbai, "Forget it, let's talk about it when the time comes, and go to the table first."

"En." Pei Rongbai nodded, reaching out to hold Qiao Songyu's hand, but he dodged it:

"What are you doing! Don't be ashamed! Don't touch me!"

Pei Rongbai smiled fondly, stretched out his hand persistently, grabbed Qiao Songyu's hand, and whispered to him: "Today's Song'er is very beautiful..."

Qiao Songyu blushed with a "chuckle" and let out a "hum", but she never pulled her hand away.

Pei Rongbai smiled more and more gently.

Qiao Rongyu who followed behind: ...

It was unbearably nasty.

Several people entered the hall and took seats.Today's protagonists are Qiao Zeyu and Qiao Hongxi, and there is nothing wrong with Qiao Rongyu and Qiao Songyu. Pei Rongbai is even more relaxed. Even though many colleagues from the court and China have come today, but he is not the protagonist today, he can still have a little leisure time and have a good time with his little babyHave a feast together.

The Qiao family has always treated people with courtesy, and managed the family with loyalty, so the banquet was very harmonious.

It's just that the bustle didn't last long, when the housekeeper came in and said to Qiao Hongxi in a low voice:

"Master, King Jing and Princess Lu Yang have arrived!"