sjar Chapter 145 Everyone Can Hear
Chapter 145 Everyone Can Hear
If I take okra to those shops now, wouldn't it be like publicly admitting: "I did this!"
Of course, if Qiu Kui got the news and figured it out herself, Daiyu would pretend to know nothing and would never admit that she had anything to do with it. It was really inexplicable how she could empty out so many shops overnight.
Daiyu rolled her eyes and called Honglian and Qingwen. Anyway, it would be their turn to go out next time, and the other maids did not suspect anything.
She said to them mysteriously, "We won't take a carriage today. Let's go out on horseback! I'll take you to see the fun!"
When they heard that they could go out on horseback, they were extremely excited. Although they had learned horseback riding in the Lin Mansion, they had never been out on the street.
Daiyu rode Zhuiyun, while Honglian and Qingwen rode the same horse.
In the city of Shenjing, except for urgent war reports, no one was allowed to ride on the street. It took the three of them several times as long as Daiyu did last night to reach Gulou West Street.
As soon as they arrived there, they saw a large group of people gathered there and could faintly hear someone crying.
Qingwen asked curiously, "What happened ahead?"
Daiyu saw her unconsciously walking forward, so she quickly pulled her back, looked around, and pointed to the restaurant across the street and said, "Let's go there!"
"Aunt...Young Master is really smart!" Qingwen smiled and almost let the cat out of the bag.
Honglian squeezed her hand and reminded her softly, "You! Don't say the wrong thing next time!"
"I know! Mr. Feng!" Qingwen made a face, grabbed the reins, and followed Daiyu closely.
This restaurant has three floors. There are no private rooms on the second floor, which is only separated by a few screens. In order to hear the noise downstairs, the three of them chose a seat facing the street on the second floor.
Daiyu didn't care that there were other diners on this floor. With her face painted black and a beard glued on, she looked like any idler on the street, and it was hard to recognize her as a woman.
The waiter came over to greet them warmly. Daiyu ordered a few side dishes and snacks and asked casually, "What's going on over there? Why is it so noisy?"
"Sir, I'm sorry. If you find it noisy, I can help you close the window." He looked in the direction of Daiyu's finger, understood, and explained to Daiyu, "The pawnshop opposite, I heard that the owner is a wealthy businessman from Jiangnan, and just returned to Shenjing City not long ago. But I don't know why, the things in the pawnshop were moved out last night, not even the tables and chairs were left. Now they have sent someone back to inform the owner, and I don't know how they will deal with it!"
"No need to close it, I'm just curious and want to see the excitement." Daiyu smiled faintly after hearing this, estimated the price of the food, took out a small piece of silver from her sleeve and put it on the table: "The rest is yours!"
The waiter's face lit up immediately. Seeing that they were the only customers around, he stopped worrying and whispered, "If you ask me, maybe the manager and his employees robbed the store and emptied it out."
When Daiyu heard this, it seemed that there might be something hidden in it, so she asked with great interest, "Oh? Tell me more about it." As she spoke, she took out a dime of silver weighing about two cents and placed it on the table.
The waiter knew that he had met a wealthy and idle man, so he apologized first, went downstairs to report the dishes ordered by Daiyu to the kitchen, brought a plate of salted peanuts and a plate of fried dim sum, and quickly returned to the second floor.
"Looking at your appearance, you should not be an old neighbor nearby!" The waiter just described it, not expecting Daiyu's answer, and began to describe it vividly like a storyteller, "The manager of this pawnshop has bought a house on the edge of the west city. His employees are also very extravagant and often come to our restaurant for drinks."
Daiyu looked at him with a half-smile and said teasingly, "It's not appropriate to talk about the guests' privacy like this."
The waiter was a little embarrassed by what he said, but he quickly became confident: "Every time they get drunk, the noise is so loud that everyone on the first floor can hear it. Why do they need me to keep it a secret for them?"
Daiyu nodded slightly, eating peanuts nonchalantly while looking at the man who looked like a manager downstairs. With her excellent eyesight, she soon discovered that although the manager was wearing an ordinary cotton robe, his headscarf and shoes were all exquisite.
She laughed sarcastically and encouraged him, "Keep talking. If you speak well, there will be a reward!"
The waiter smiled even more happily, and described in detail the daily behavior of the steward and the waiters, as if pouring beans from a bamboo tube.
After listening to this, Daiyu felt that this steward's ability to make money was no less than that of Lai Da and Zhou Rui's wife.
She couldn't help but sigh that if she had brought Qiu Kui with her today, she wouldn't have to give any special instructions, as Qiu Kui would have asked someone to investigate the manager's background when she returned home.
The three of them watched for a long time and saw that the manager was just crying and had no intention of reporting to the police. The crowd around him also looked as if it was none of their business and no one wanted to meddle in other people's business.
Gradually, some people began to get curious and asked the steward, "Steward Fan, you said earlier that your master had already arrived in Beijing, so why haven't you sent anyone over in such a long time?"
Manager Fan was also a little puzzled, but he soon figured it out: from here to the Jia Mansion, one does need to cross most of the inner city, plus the time required for notification, if the people inside are delayed a little, they will not arrive so quickly.
He wiped his nose and said with his neck stiff, "What do you know! Our master lives in the Duke's Mansion in East City. The yard is big, and the master has to ride in a carriage inside. How can it be that fast!"
The people around him laughed, thinking that he was just bragging and perfunctorily responding to Manager Fan's words. Some curious people even walked to the door of the pawnshop and poked their heads in to look inside.
“Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing!” Manager Fan was originally crying on the street. When he saw someone approaching the pawn shop, he immediately rushed over to stop them. “What do you want to do! Are you in cahoots with the thief? Do you want to go in and help him destroy the traces?”
The man sneered and pointed inside the pawnshop, saying loudly, "Anyone tall enough can see inside. Except for the counter of this pawnshop, the whole place is emptied out. What other traces could be left?"
As soon as these words came out, the people around became restless and came to the counter to look inside. They found that it was really empty inside, even the tables, chairs and benches behind the counter and the row of old clothes hanging on the beams were gone.
The crowd immediately started talking.
"Could it be that Heng Shudian has offended someone?"
"It's hard to say! I guess it must be the shopkeeper's accomplices who stole the money. Apart from them, who else can know what the pawnshop looked like originally?"
"Yes!"