The entire Shaoxing Fucheng is divided into two counties with Fuhe River as the boundary.

One side of Fuhe River is Shanyin County Street, and the other side is Kuaijishan Street.

Shanyin County Main Street is the Liberation Road for later generations.

On this east-west street, there is Fuminfang, where several jewelry stores from Shaoxing Prefecture are concentrated.

Chen Tianhua visited several jewelry stores, and one jewelry store called "Donghu Yueming" was the largest. It is said that it has many branches outside the city.

There is a vertical wooden sign on both sides of the entrance of this store, with a poem about flying dragons and phoenixes on it: The bright moon in the East Lake has tears, and the sun in Lantian is warm and the jade produces smoke.

The meaning of these two verses probably means that this jewelry store mainly sells pearls and jade.

Chen Tianhua was going to go in and have a look, on the one hand to understand the market, and on the other hand to see if he could meet the owner of this jewelry store.

This Donghu Yueming Jewelry Store is indeed unique, luxuriously decorated and magnificent.

The male clerks all wear long robes and mandarin jackets, and the female clerks all wear Qing Dynasty one-sleeved cheongsams, which are fresh and elegant and welcome customers as if they are at home.

The guests coming in and out were in twos and threes. In addition to the local rich young masters and ladies, you could also see foreigners.

They wore fedoras on their heads, gold-rimmed round glasses, holding civilized staffs in their hands, wearing shiny leather shoes, and wearing rare three-piece suits.

Whether they are foreigners or locals, they are all wealthy and powerful trendsetters in Shaoxing Prefecture today. If they are not rich, they are noble.

Chen Tianhua looked around in front of the pearl counter, sometimes looking at the price and pearl quality against the glass of the counter.

"Seven hundred yuan, eight hundred yuan, one thousand two hundred yuan...the quality is too ordinary!" He looked at it and muttered something in his mouth.

The freshwater pearls here are of the best color and are jade white. There are more than twenty pearls in a string. The diameter of the largest pendant pearl is no more than 0.3 centimeters. The price on the counter is 1,500 yuan.

Chen Tianhua curled his lips in surprise and shook his head in disdain, just like a common man who said the grapes were sour when he couldn't eat them.

Suddenly, there was a "pop..." sound and his shoulder was slapped hard.

"For what?"

Before he finished speaking, several sturdy men in short shirts and long trousers with martial arts belts around their waists surrounded him with cheers.

Judging from their appearance, you can tell that they are the caretakers of a jewelry store.

"We didn't want to do anything. The big shopkeeper of my family is here to inspect the goods. Hehe... It's a pity that the pearls you have here are of poor color and small size. Are there any better ones?"

Chen Tianhua calmly opened the paper fan in his hand with a "Whoosh...", shook the paper fan gracefully, and set up the score.

This kind of pretending is easy and effortless.

The nursing staff looked Chen Tianhua up and down, and saw that he had good features, a long figure, a long linen gown, a brocade mandarin jacket over his shoulders, flat-top mille-layer cloth shoes, and lantern trousers. He was clean and neat, and he looked impressive, like someone from a wealthy and powerful family.

Follower.

All the guests came, and the nursing home did not dare to neglect them, so they invited a few stewards to meet and murmur.

After a while, a man in a long gown walked out of the jewelry store. He was about thirty years old, with a pale complexion and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses hanging on the bridge of his nose. He looked very scholarly.

He was holding a brocade box in his hand, and in front of Chen Tianhua, he slowly opened the outer layer of the gold velvet cloth.

In an instant, the true face of Lushan was revealed.

"Wow...it's the ultimate chicken blood red!"

Chen Tianhua finally saw the best pearls, a string of twenty-five or six natural pearls, jade-white and blood-red, arranged in a balanced size. The largest one was about 0.8 centimeters in diameter and had a bright color.

"How much does this bunch cost?"

"One price, five thousand oceans!"

"It's too expensive. Please give me a real price and I can consider it." Chen Tianhua showed an attitude of being ready to bargain.

"In this way, please come in, young gentleman, and we can sit down and talk slowly!"

The steward wearing gold-rimmed glasses looked at the young man in front of him. He was definitely an expert, and of course he did not dare to neglect him.

"Where's your boss?"

"boss?"

The manager wearing gold-rimmed glasses was stunned for a moment, then smiled slightly, bowed with his hands clasped in his fists and said, "Forgive me, young sir, the chief shopkeeper of our store is not here, I am the young shopkeeper."

Nowadays, the title "boss" is mostly used by Southeast Asian Chinese businessmen to refer to shopkeepers, and Southeast Asian Chinese have a special liking for freshwater jewelry.

The young shopkeeper was overjoyed, secretly thinking that a distinguished guest had come today.

"Oh... well, I won't talk about it now. I have to go back to my boss and introduce what I know about it. If possible, it would be more appropriate for my boss to talk about it in person!"

Chen Tianhua saw that today's situation was almost over, so he thought of trying to escape.

"That's true. Please go away, young gentleman. Next time, please be sure to invite your boss to come over and talk. This store has the most complete range of jewelry in the entire Shaoxing Prefecture."

"It's easy to talk...it's easy to talk..."

Chen Tianhua and the young shopkeeper cupped their fists and left in a swaggering manner.

…

Guxuan Pavilion, Shaoxing Prefecture

The environment here is elegant, with lotus ponds, small bridges and flowing water, white walls and gray tiles.

Jingming Academy is located here.

Jingming Academy, now also known as Chinese and Western Academy, was one of the first new schools established by the imperial court in the late Qing Dynasty. It implemented a new academic system and cultivated new talents, commonly known as: New Learning.

This school covers an area of ​​about 100 acres, with a construction area of ​​about 3,000 square meters. It has an auditorium, classrooms, faculty dormitories, canteens, teachers' offices, deans, supervisors, etc. There is also a playground outside, and everything is complete.

Chen Tianhua walked around inside and was surprised to find that the scale of this place should be a government-run school. The curriculum posted on the wall of the teacher's office listed the following classes:

Classical literature, ethics, history, English, geography, nature, mathematics, music, art and physical education.

Damn it, doesn’t this sound a bit like the primary school curriculum of later generations? It belongs to Western learning nowadays.

Western learning, which was originally resisted, now entered the society and replaced the status of Confucian classics, which greatly touched Chen Tianhua.

In his mind, there was still a memory of Chen Tugen stealing Western learning from the Catholic church. In the end, the church was burned down by the Boxers. The priest died and escaped, and now he is nowhere to be found.

A math class was being held in the next classroom. A young teacher wearing a robe, gold-rimmed glasses, and a braid on the back of his head stood in front of the podium and spoke eloquently.

He was explaining addition and subtraction to the students on the blackboard. He probably hadn't learned multiplication and division yet.

There were more than thirty students in the classroom, holding brushes in hand, listening attentively and practicing on their own.

The desks and chairs in the classroom are one-piece benches that can seat five students. There is a long wooden board on the back, which is one foot wide, for students in the back seat to put textbooks and ink trays on it.

, paper and pen, writing at the same time.

This kind of one-piece bench was still used in many factories or commune meeting rooms until the 1970s and 1980s.

This kind of bench represents fashion, Westernization, and new learning nowadays.

"This classmate, why don't you go in to class?"
Chapter completed!