Chapter 3: The Good Play

  "You're just daydreaming," said the elder sister angrily, pulling out another contract from her bosom. Song Jiu wanted to get rich, but before getting rich, he had to make something for Li Tiejiang. Without this thing, gold bricks wouldn't fall from the sky. He mortgaged part of his house for 100 guan, with a deadline of three months. Although Song Jiu's father was dead, he had a high reputation in the river and the interest rate wasn't heavy, 3% per month, which meant that within three months, he had to repay 9 guan of interest. In the Song Dynasty, this interest rate was as cheap as cabbage.

  Where did Song Jiu get the money from? He dragged it on for three months and still didn't pay back. Even if they were familiar with each other, they would have to take away his father's house.

  The elder sister, upon hearing the news, anxiously gathered money and redeemed the house again.

  "Big sister..." Song Jiu didn't know what to say. It's often said that the Song family is wealthy, with tens of millions or hundreds of millions of guan in assets, but that was later on. Now, such wealthy merchants are still very rare, including big sister's wine shop. This amount of money is almost equivalent to big sister's wine shop's annual net income.

  It's nothing, some people say that husband and wife are predestined in their previous life, the relationship between husband and wife, sister and brother is the same kind of closeness. Moreover, since parents are no longer around, siblings should be even closer, not to mention 100 yuan, even if it's 500 yuan, when necessary, they must give it, but big sister's husband.

  "Sister, why don't you believe me?"

  "You've grown up so big, you should be able to earn a lot of money."

  "Sister, this year's imperial examination in the Song Dynasty only produced eight jinshi. You still want me to study for the imperial examination? Why don't you believe I can make some money?"

  "How can this be compared!" Eldest sister stretched out her hand and knocked on Song Jiu's forehead.

  ……

  The Bian River, Jinming Water, Cai Water and Wuzhang River four major rivers cut the Eastern Capital into pieces. There are also dozens of large and small lakes. In March when cold and warmth alternate, dawn mist often appears, which turns into morning fog. The high city walls on all sides block the fog, and the morning wind cannot disperse it. The fog drifts back and forth in the city, like a fairyland.

  Song Jiuxiao walked through the layers of mist, arrived at Li Tiejiang's blacksmith shop, and Big Sister redeemed the contract from the pawnshop, so Song Jiuxiao borrowed money from Big Sister.

  He's not afraid of owing money to the pawnshop, but he's somewhat uneasy about owing money to his sister.

  But can't be rushed, quality is crucial, and if lives are lost, Song Jiucheng won't be able to afford it.

  Li Tie asked strangely: "Xiao Jiulang, what are you doing?"

  "It's a kind of crane, a simple lifting crane," Before it was even finished, Song Jiu examined it. The principle wasn't complicated, but there were several things that shouldn't have appeared in this era, such as screws, and they were extra-large screws too. With screws came the need to manufacture wrenches. These two things might have a revolutionary impact, or maybe not. The casting technology was too backward, and the production cost had increased by at least hundreds or thousands of times compared to before.

  Song Jiuyi never thought that when he was poor, he would only take care of himself, and when he was rich, he would take care of the whole world. He couldn't even take care of himself, how could he take care of others?

  There is also something that this era has, but it must be precise. Originally, it was a bearing, and bearings are available, but the bearings at that time were also backward. Song Jiudan dared not use them, so he replaced the bearings with gears.

  "Little Ninth Brother, do you want to use it to hang goods?"

  "In."

  Li Tiejiang was even more puzzled.

  "Li Weng, you'll know in a few days, at noon follow me to the river embankment, we'll first assemble the high platform."

  "End."

  Anyway, Song Jiu has paid the money, so he can do whatever he wants.

  Song Jiuzi walked back with his hands behind him.

  The river is too biased, originally the Bian River was very vast, and the Later Zhou Dynasty was roughly established. The Song Dynasty's founding time was not long, although it renovated the capital city, widened the roads, and built an outer city wall, which actually made the river more unfavorable. Originally, the Bian River divided into two at the Lower Earth Bridge, forming a huge sandbank in the middle. Now, with the outer city wall, the sandbank is only one-third of its original area inside the city, with only two small bridges connecting north and south. The southern Bian River branch bridge still leads to the warehouse district, and only the northern small bridge is used by civilians. This terrain makes the river area not only a slum in the capital but also one of the most notorious dirty and chaotic areas.

  The four seasons are in spring, the day is in morning, and the streets are crowded with people. Song Jiu squeezed through the crowd and returned home. His house was still inhabited by six tenant families, two of whom sold small goods, making and selling them themselves. There were also two families from Hedong Funshui who had come to the capital to make a living due to frequent floods in their hometown, and they worked as laborers on the river embankment like Seventh Brother. Two other families made a living by performing in Shangjiawazi, one of whom was a candidate who had taken the imperial examination with Song Jiu last year but did not pass, so he lived in Song Jiu's house and told stories in Shangjiawazi at night to make some money. This storytelling was not like later performances or long novels, but rather short pieces, including prose and poetry, which were recited when it was prose and sung when it was poetry, with a mix of both. The shorter ones could be finished within half an hour, while the longer ones took one or two hours to finish, with one or two key points sold in between to get the audience's reward money. Finally, there was a pair of brothers who sold dog skin plasters and performed a show before selling them, lying on iron spikes and having someone hit them with an iron hammer, scaring the audience, while performing and advertising their medicine at the same time.

  The last two households didn't start going out until the afternoon, and it was just their rest time in the morning. The other four households were ready to set off and saw Song Jiu, so they greeted him.

  Song Jiuyi nodded and sat in the house drawing a picture.

  Outside, there was a burst of instrumental sound, and Song Jiu curiously came out to take a look.

  As soon as he got angry, a team of betrothal gifts came to his house in an imposing manner. Nearly three thousand households in the river, weddings and funerals are quite normal, before marriage, the man must give betrothal gifts, and the woman must prepare dowry.

  This line of people is not right, although the river is poor, there are a few families that are relatively well-off, such as the Liu family and the Zhu family. In this small area, about the size of a village, half of the people know each other. The one who sent the betrothal gift was from the Zhu family.

  Both families are merchants, with considerable wealth, and intend to form an alliance. The matchmaker comes over, checks the eight characters of their birth dates, inquires about their family income and property status, the groom's side sends someone to take a look at the bride, then they proceed to exchange betrothal gifts and dowry. The pace is somewhat fast.

  Liu's little daughter is seventeen years old, and it won't be strange if she gets married soon. But there was originally a big road from Zhu's family to Liu's family, they didn't take this road, but instead walked in front of Song's family's bitter well alley. Both the Liu and Zhu families are wealthy, and the wedding procession is very long. The people in front have almost arrived at the Song's house, but they deliberately slow down, crawling like a snail, with various musical instruments blowing non-stop.

  What tune is being blown, Song Jiuye didn't hear it clearly, from time to time he heard the fragrance of grass and dogtail grass, so there's an idiom called "good and evil are not equal", this commotion, countless neighbors came over to watch, Song Jiuye was so angry at home that his lungs were about to explode, he ran into the courtyard and jumped with rage.

  "Brother, the hatred for killing my father and stealing my wife, and now you personally come to humiliate me, is this something that can be tolerated or not? Let's fight."

  "Brother Zhu, let's work together."

  "Brother, it's taking your wife, not taking mine."

  "Brother Zhu, you think I want to get involved in an official lawsuit?"

  This is the capital, but it's not like the riverside where a group of laborers would beat each other up. The law doesn't blame the masses, so if you take a big stick and charge into the Zhu family's procession, the officials will catch you and throw you into the Kaifeng prison.

  "Well, just listen slowly then." Zhu San said with a tone of gloating over someone's misfortune.

  Both were from a family of officials and had failed the imperial examination multiple times, so they sympathized with each other. They usually got along well and joking around was no big deal, but in Song's heart, he was furious to the extreme.

  Originally, Song Jiu was a man of great self-discipline, not like himself who gambled and indulged in food, drink, and entertainment. That Song Jiu rarely drank alcohol, but last year when the rankings were released and he didn't make it, he drank a lot. In terms of moral integrity, he was far superior to himself.

  Not too early, not too late, he was only eighteen years old at the time, some were over thirty, forty, fifty, and even sixty years old. That's why I got drunk that day, worrying that time would drag on and the Liu family couldn't wait any longer.

  I'm fed up!

  He was so infatuated with her that he didn't even let his elder sister bother him too much.

  Come yourself, it's not a big deal. If you pass the exam, any Liu or Zhang family's daughter is fine, choose whoever you like. If you don't pass, no family's daughter will do, that's how simple it is.

  I didn't expect classical Chinese to be so difficult, especially the rhyming couplets in four-six meter. It's hard to master it even after a year of study. Since it's hard to pass the exam, I'm also looking for other ways out, including this machine, which is just my first pot of gold. There should be many more methods, and while becoming an official is difficult, making some money is relatively easier.

  Liu's family came to break off the engagement, and Song Jiu didn't care either. The old steward said a witty remark, and Song Jiu didn't get angry. After all, the other family's conditions are better than their own now, and they're afraid of being bothered by their own family.

  In fact, both families were discussing marriage, and our family never went to their doorstep to bother them, why make things difficult for themselves? That's asking for trouble!

  The dowry of Zhu's family was carried all the way to Kuaijing Alley and stopped right in front of their own door.

  And then deliberately slowed down his pace at his own doorstep, which was even more inappropriate.

  What are you talking about with that fragrant grass and wild grass? Not only is it wrong, but this is clearly slapping yourself in the face!

  More and more onlookers gathered in the alley, and Song Jiu heard various comments. Some said that Zhu's dowry was too much, some said that Zhu's family had done too much, and some said that Song Jiu was not good either, a toad can't eat swan meat, if Song Jiu's father were still alive, it would be slightly better. These three opinions are relatively fair, originally, if Song Jiu hadn't let his elder sister send someone to propose, he wouldn't have suffered this humiliation today.

  There is another saying, and it is recognized by the majority of people, that a big sister who opens a wine shop must have all kinds of customers, and if she doesn't have a strong personality, she won't be able to handle it. This is a necessity of life, having a strong personality doesn't mean being shameless. However, the neighbors don't know the inside story, they see that Zhu's family intentionally came to humiliate Song Jiu, thinking that after Liu's family and Zhu's family got engaged, big sister went to their house to cause trouble, making Zhu's family unhappy, so they did this.

  Listening to these gossipy discussions, Song Jiu became more and more indignant.

  After some thought, he took a slingshot and several pebbles, and climbed up the old locust tree in the west of the courtyard.

  This locust tree has been here for many years, before Father came to Beijing to settle down and start a business, it was already here, growing luxuriantly with dense branches and leaves. Last summer, Song Jiu often rested in its shade.

  Sneak up to a high place in the tree, hide among the leaves, take out the slingshot and pebbles, and look down.

  A very long procession, with wealthy families, many sedan chairs, and everything else, including wine, sheep, tea, fruit, meat, gold and silver, cloth, silk, and jewelry. The leader is the third uncle of Zhu Jia's new husband, the third of four brothers in the Zhu family.

  Song Ji took out three pebbles and shot them at Zhu Jia San Shu. At this time, the slingshot didn't have rubber bands, but used real cow tendons, which made it even more powerful. Song Ji had originally used it to shoot birds in his spare time, and if he was lucky, he could cook a plate of them for dinner. Now he wasn't shooting birds, but people.

  Three stones flew out, and in the blink of an eye, they silently landed in front of Third Uncle Zhu. One missed, one hit Third Uncle Zhu's head, and another hit even more precisely, landing squarely on the horse's leg, which was also the largest stone.

  Third Uncle covered his head, wondering what had hit him on the head, it hurt so much that the horse was startled awake.

  There is even more cleverness. After Kaifeng was rebuilt by Shi Chonggui, the main streets became very wide, 50 steps, 30 steps, and 25 steps. According to later calculations, one step is equivalent to about 1.4 meters. The main imperial street was as wide as 145-150 steps, over 200 meters, which is even wider than the Zhuque Gate Street in the Tang Dynasty by 50 steps.

  It's not waste, but the result of transportation.

  The transportation tools in the Song Dynasty were ox carts, sheep carts, rickshaws and a small number of horse-drawn carriages. People mostly walked or rode horses, so whether it was pedestrians or vehicles, the speed was very slow. If the roads weren't this wide, traffic congestion would occur immediately.

  That was the main thoroughfare, in front of Song's family gate there was a narrow alleyway called Ku Jie, similar to those found later on. To the west was Shi Zi Xiang and another slope. An old tofu vendor from the south pushed his cart down the slope, seeing so many people he couldn't stop it, so he shouted loudly: "Make way, make way!"

  Originally, there was no problem, but Zhu Jia San Shu's horse was startled and refused to listen. The carriage was about to collide, and the old man, being somewhat advanced in age, had slow legs and feet. He forcibly pushed the tofu cart to the side, and it collided with the sedan chair carrying gifts from behind. The cart overturned, and the gift-bearing sedan chair also fell over. Soft tofu, old tofu, dried tofu, tofu flowers, and tofu dregs were all scattered on top of the silk fabrics carried by the man.

  "This is also okay," Song Jiu's eyes almost fell off, and he slid down from the locust tree with a rustling sound, eager to watch the good show.