Chapter 236 A big gamble
There were already about ten women sitting in the private room on the third floor. They all looked young, and their looks were charming, cold, or delicate, with different styles.
"We're late." Mrs. Lou opened the door and went in, with Shang Wan following her.
The conversation in the box suddenly stopped, and the women all looked over.
"Fortunately, I have brought the person you want." Madam Lou took Shang Wan to an empty seat and sat down.
Shang Wan felt like flowers were blooming in front of his eyes, the fragrant wind was blowing in his face, and the empty seat next to him was already occupied.
Immediately afterwards, all the proprietresses gathered around and greeted Shang Wan.
Shang Wan suddenly felt like he was falling into the flowers, and his ears were filled with soft whispers.
The clothes of the shop ladies were all scented with incense. It was okay for one of them alone, but if these ten or so people gathered around, Shang Wan's nose would suffer.
"Sneeze!" She couldn't help but cover her nose and sneeze.
Mrs. Lou hurriedly said: "Stop standing around, sit down and talk. I'll scare people away in a while. Let's see if you cry or not."
Seeing that Shang Wan was indeed feeling uncomfortable, the ladies returned to their seats and sat down.
Shang Wan raised her hand and rubbed her nose, but she still felt stuffy. Just as she was about to get up and open the window, Mrs. Lou had already stood up before her and reached out to push the window on the side open a crack.
The cold wind blew in along the crack, and although it was cold, it also blew away some of the fragrance floating in the air.
Shang Wan was finally able to breathe and gave Mrs. Lou a grateful look.
Mrs. Lou smiled and came back to sit down.
She raised a topic, "Qionghua Restaurant has closed down. Do you know about this?"
"when?"
"No customers came to the door, it should have collapsed long ago."
"I don't know who has the ability to take over such a big restaurant."
"Why did you collapse suddenly?"
"It's not sudden, I have a message here, I hope you are interested." The flower lady at the candy shop winked at everyone playfully, with an expression like "I have a secret but I won't tell it unless you beg me."
Everyone looked at each other, and the two closest to her stretched out their hands to tickle her.
The flower girl laughed so hard that her branches trembled, and she twisted her body to hide, begging for mercy while hiding, "Good sister, spare me, can't I say it?"
"Xiao Nizi, I can't cure you yet." The woman next to her, who was around thirty years old, raised her hand to hold the golden hairpin on her bun, and glanced at the flower lady with her charming phoenix eyes.
If it were a man, his angry and coquettish look would have made his bones weak.
Even if Hua Niang is female, her little heart will beat two times uncontrollably.
She blushed, straightened her slightly messy clothes, and spoke slowly: "Last night, something big happened at Linglong Gambling House."
She paused for a moment, originally wanting to seduce the curiosity of the girls, but with the two hands beside her staring at him eagerly, she had no choice but to stop playing around and continue talking.
"Young Master Qiao gambled heavily with Third Young Master Qiao in the gambling house, but lost a hundred thousand taels of silver in just two hours, and almost gave away his underwear. It was only the two masters of the Qiao Mansion who came to take Young Master Qiao back. You guys? I didn’t see Mr. Qiao’s expression, tsk tsk, I feel like eating Mr. Qiao alive.”
Young Master Qiao is Qiao Yugui, Master Qiao is his father, and Third Young Master Qiao is Qiao Yu'an.
There were three rooms in the Qiao Mansion. Mrs. Qiao passed away early, and Mrs. Qiao only lasted three more years before passing away.
After Mrs. Qiao passed away, the third family separated and lived alone. Now the whole family has settled in Fucheng and comes back to visit during the holidays.
The first house and the second house were not separated. It was not that the second house did not want to separate, but that Mr. Qiao, the eldest brother, prevented Mr. Qiao and his family from moving out. The reason? Of course Mr. Qiao has married a good wife.
The second wife of Qiao, Yanlan, had a father who was the censor of Qiandu in the Imperial Procuratorate and a senior official of the fourth rank.
Mr. Qiao and Yushi Yan were classmates and good friends. However, they failed in many attempts, but Yushi Yan succeeded in one fell swoop. From then on, his career skyrocketed and his career was quite smooth.
After gaining power, Yushi Yan did not forget his good friend Mrs. Qiao, and the two often exchanged letters.
There was trouble in the court, Yushi Yan was accidentally involved, and the road ahead was dangerous.
Yan Lan is the only daughter in the family. In order to protect her daughter from being implicated, Yan Yushi married her daughter away to Dongning County and asked an old friend to take care of her.
At that time, Mr. Qiao was already married. Mr. Qiao and Yan Lan were similar in age, so they became husband and wife.
As a result, the Qiao family became in-laws with the Yan family.
After the incident, Imperial Historian Yan was reinstated. Because his daughter had become the wife of the Qiao family, he was more concerned about the Qiao family and wanted to support her.
However, Mrs. Qiao's three sons failed to live up to expectations. Only the third son passed the examination as a scholar, and the other two did not even pass the examination as a boy student.
My son cannot study well and can only watch his grandson.
Qiao Yu'an is the best reader of their generation, and he is Yan Lan's biological son. Yan Yushi values his grandson very much and often writes letters of concern.
When Qiao Yu'an passes the provincial examination and enters the capital, with Yushi Yan here, the road ahead will not be difficult.
But Mr. Qiao was unwilling to give in. He felt that everything Mr. Qiao had should be his.
If he hadn't been married back then, Yan Lan's husband would have been him, and it would have been his own son who gained Yan Yushi's attention and support.
If the second couple separated and lived alone, how could they still benefit from the Yan family?
Therefore, he kept using filial piety to prevent the second room from being separated.
Mr. Qiao was soft-hearted, so Mr. Qiao played the family card a few times and he agreed not to separate the family.
Yanlan had quarreled with him several times because of this. If she had not taken care of her two children, she would have packed her bags and returned to her parents' home.
Qiao Yugui had injured his leg before, and Qiao Yu'an asked Shang Wan for medicine on his behalf. Later, he also acted as a middleman several times to help Qiao Yugui negotiate cooperation. Shang Wan thought the two had a good relationship.
But the truth was not what Shang Wan thought at all. Qiao Yu'an was not very annoyed with Qiao Yugui, his eldest cousin. He was punished many times because of his eldest cousin and his relatives in the eldest house.
He had been holding back because of Qiao Weiwei.
Although Qiao Yu'an is a bit awkward sometimes, she still cares about Qiao Weiwei, her younger sister.
Qiao Yugui was not nice to Qiao Yu'an, but he was very nice to Qiao Weiwei, his cousin. The two of them got along more like brothers and sisters.
Qiao Yu'an was also on guard at the beginning, and sent people to keep an eye on her secretly. She was worried that Qiao Yugui had coaxed her sister first, and then poisoned her where she couldn't see.
But over the years, I found nothing unusual, so I couldn't help but relax.
This laxity caused trouble.
Shang Wan reminded Qiao Yu'an, but Qiao Yu'an didn't pay attention at first. Later, Mrs. Qiao mentioned Qiao Weiwei's strange behavior several times, and Qiao Yu'an became interested and sent someone to investigate.
If you don’t check, you won’t know. If you check, you will be shocked.
Qiao Yugui, a vicious man, actually tricked Qiao Weiwei into having a private meeting with her foreign husband and making a private life-long arrangement with the son of Mrs. Qiao's second cousin.
Qiao Yu'an was so angry that she almost killed the wild man without raising a knife, but A Le persuaded him to do so.