I am a temporary worker in Jinyiwei, how did I become a powerful official?

Chapter 5: Rich Family Lin Shisan

In the evening, in Gouqibu Hutong in South City.

In the capital of the Ming Dynasty, most of the powerful and wealthy lived in the North City, while most of the peddlers and hawkers lived in the South City.

Most of the alleys in the south city are named after the good fortune of a humble name. For example, an alley that looks like a cat's ear is called Maoerduo Hutong; a alley that has nine bends and eighteen turns is called Yangchangzi Hutong.

The alley where Lin Shisan's family lived was named after its shape. It was shaped like a dog's back and was narrow, so it was called "Dog Qie Bo" alley.

There is a small shop at the entrance of the alley. The shop has a tall square sign with the three characters "Fuyuanhao" written in large letters in the middle. Next to it are two lines of small characters: "Selling ice tickets for the next summer in autumn, no cheating, refreshing."

Ice cellars have existed since the Han and Tang dynasties to store ice for the royal family in summer, but there were only official cellars, not private ones.

During the Song and Ming dynasties, the government allowed private merchants to open ice cellars, and summer ice was no longer exclusive to the royal family.

Lin Shisan's home is a typical shop-in-front-and-home-in-back model. There are four shops in the front and a clean and decent courtyard in the back.

If Lin's father did not have this wealthy property, how could he have come up with two hundred taels of silver to send Lin Shisan to the elephant training school three years ago?

It only took Lin Shisan half an hour to find Gai Xiongji. In the afternoon, he and his fat apprentice Sun Yue did not return to the elephant training station, but went to the teahouse to listen to songs, play insect fighting, and drink strong tea.

When he reports for duty tomorrow, he will just say that he did some work today. Gao Xiaoqi has taken full advantage of him and will not go into details.

Lin Shisan returned to his courtyard from Fuyuanhao. His father, Lin Youniu, was lying on a recliner, holding a purple clay teapot in his hand, drinking tea leisurely.

Lin Youniu is over sixty years old and is a well-known abacus expert.

Seeing his son coming home, Lin Youniu said, "Come here."

Lin Shisan walked up to Lin Youniu and said, "Dad, I'm on a mission."

Lin Youniu glanced at Lin Shisan and asked, "When can I enter the Northern Pacification Division?"

For three years, Lin Youniu asked his son this question every day, without getting tired of it.

Everyone in the capital knows that even a small captain from the Jinyiwei Beizhenfu Division can walk around the capital with his head held high.

But it costs 1,500 taels of silver to buy a certificate of marriage to the Northern Pacification Office. After all, Lin Youniu is a small businessman and cannot afford it. He can only spend 200 taels of silver to send Lin Shisan to the elephant training school, hoping that his son will work hard and be promoted to the Northern Pacification Office as soon as possible.

Lin Shisan said with a smile, "I will be promoted to the Northern Division in a year. This is not a bad thing. I am not cruel or treacherous. In less than a year after entering the Northern Division, you will have to send off your son."

Lin Youniu blew his beard and glared: "Rebellious son! Good-for-nothing! I knew long ago that the little money I have worked hard to save for half my life will all be wasted on you!"

Lin Shisan said slowly, "Dad, your useless and rebellious son has got you a business today."

Lin Youniu said with disdain: "Humph, what? You have won the business of ice for elephant training? With your ability? I'm afraid you'll have to hope that the sun will come out of your bed."

The ice used to train elephants cost more than 30,000 taels of silver every summer. But this business was handled by the pawnshop under the name of Yan Maoqing, the Left Censor-in-Chief. Others had no chance to get involved and could not get a share of the profits.

Lin Shisan took the purple clay teapot from his father and sipped the tea. "The sun didn't come out from the quilt, nor did it come out from the crotch. What I took over for you is a small business."

Lin Youniu rolled his eyes at Lin Shisan and said, "You rebellious son! Are you trying to keep your father in suspense? It must be that one of your colleagues needs to buy a cubic meter or half cubic meter of ice tickets for next summer. Humph, it's not even enough to pay for the labor of walking to deliver the goods."

Ice cellars in the capital sell ice tickets in the fall, and make and store ice in the winter according to the number of ice tickets sold. In the summer of the following year, the ice cellars will hire footmen to deliver ice to buyers and then take back the ice tickets. Lin Shisan picked up a tin kettle and watered the orchids in the courtyard: "You know Liuxinju, right?"

Lin Youniu's eyes lit up: "Of course I know." After a moment, his face fell again: "Humph, Liuxinju is a big businessman. How can a useless person like you take over their business?"

Lin Shisan put down the tin kettle and said seriously, "The boss of Liuxin Bureau told me at noon that from now on, all ice will be purchased from Fuyuan. He will send his clerk to deliver the money and ice tickets tomorrow morning."

Lin Youniu was skeptical: "You didn't scare me?"

Lin Shisan said, "Why would I scare you? Aren't you afraid of being punished? I helped him find a top-quality cicada today, so he owes me a favor. He uses a hundred square meters of ice every summer."

When Lin Youniu heard the number "one hundred dafang", a pile of ten-liang silver ingots seemed to appear in his eyes. This old man has a dog-like face and changes his mind at any time.

Lin Youniu jumped up from the recliner with a big smile on his face: "Hey, good son. They say that when you are old, you will have a son who is a dragon and a phoenix. Since you were a child, I told your mother that you are an extraordinary child and you will do great things!"

Just now, Lin Shisan was still a "rebellious son" and a "waste" in his mouth. In a moment, he became a "good son" and a "man who does great things".

Lin Shisan smiled and said, "My mother has passed away six years ago. Only God knows whether you said this or not."

Lin Youniu dragged his son to the recliner and said, "Oh, you've been working all day, you must be tired. Take a rest, dear."

Lin Shisan said, "No need to rest. I've been working all day and I'm starving. Didn't Biyun say this morning that we should have a small bowl of fried food tonight?"

Lin Youniu's eyes were already slits with laughter, and he said happily: "One hundred taels a year is ten taels of interest. Ten years is one hundred taels. Why do you want to eat a small bowl of fried food tonight? Let's have four small dishes of stewed sick beef from Zuixiaolou!"

Emperor Hongwu issued a decree prohibiting the killing and eating of cattle, except for sick cattle and cattle that died of old age. The word "except" left a loophole.

Whether it is sick, old or healthy, isn’t it just a matter of a word from the official?
By the Jiajing period, beef was no longer a rare commodity. The largest butcher shop in the capital was run by Chen Hong, an eunuch in the Imperial Household Department, who supplied beef to all the major restaurants in the capital.

However, since ancient times, dog meat has to be sold under the guise of sheep meat. Boiled beef has to be labeled as "sick".

Lin Youniu shouted towards the east kitchen: "Biyun, stop working and come here."

Eighteen-year-old Yang Biyun came out. She was Lin Shisan's wife, and they had been married for three years. She lived up to her name, a beautiful girl from a small family.

She has an oval face, a medium-sized body, fair skin, and is extremely beautiful. She walks with a graceful and graceful manner. She is such a beautiful wife.

This is not surprising. Beautiful women always like to marry into wealthy families. This has been the case since ancient times.

Lin Shisan was a member of the Imperial Guard, which gave him great reputation. He was also very respectable-looking. His father had run an ice cellar for forty years and was quite wealthy. He was a rich man in the eyes of the matchmaker.

At the beginning, the matchmaker came to the Lin family every day and persuaded Yang Biyun to enter the Lin family after she had done her best.

Beautiful women are common, but beautiful, virtuous and capable women are rare.

Biyun was not only good at both housework and cooking, but was also very proficient in mathematics. She usually helped to manage the ice shop's accounts and occasionally gave the shop good ideas for selling goods.

Ever since Biyun married into the Lin family, everything in the Lin family seems to be in order.

Even the always picky Lin Youniu sighed: "Biyun's marriage into the Lin family is like the Lin family's ancestral graves emitting green smoke, not spitting fire, or being struck by lightning."

(End of this chapter)