Under the willow trees by the side of the lotus pond, about forty or fifty peonies and paeonias were neatly arranged. Many people came to watch, and many were bargaining, among whom most were dressed in luxurious clothes, with proud expressions, picking and choosing again and again. However, there were also those who were dressed simply, watching the excitement on the side, surrounding the flowers and making a fuss. Every time they saw a successful transaction, when a large sum of money was transferred from the buyer's hand to the seller's hand, they would show envy on their faces.

  Peony's horse riding skills were not good, and she carefully got off the horse after handing the reins to Yuhe. She pulled Zhangshi and Sunshi along, and they also surrounded her. But what she saw was that there were many more varieties than she had imagined, although she didn't see those famous ones like Yao Huang, Wei Zi, Dou Lv, Lan Tian Yu, etc., but there were also several traditional precious varieties like Er Qiao, Da Hu Hong, Zhao Fen, etc. There were also some varieties that had already been lost in later generations, and she couldn't call out their names.

  After careful observation, Peony had a number in her mind. She figured out why the things she brought with her as a dowry, such as Yao Huang and Wei Zi, as well as that pot of Yulu Diancui, would become objects for Liu Can to show off with, why Qinghua Junzhu wanted to monopolize them, and why Pan Rong tried to curry favor with her in order to buy them at a high price.

  Firstly, from the perspective of color, most of these flowers are single-colored, with very few being multi-colored. Among them, pink and red account for the vast majority, while yellow, purple-red, and white are extremely rare, and blue and green are nowhere to be seen, let alone the black series that is currently the most popular. Even among the existing colors, there isn't a truly bright red or yellow, with the red leaning towards reddish-purple and the yellow leaning towards white. To make a splash, it's necessary to enrich the flower colors.

  Secondly, from the flowering period, peony flowers have a short and concentrated flowering period. After this season, they can no longer be appreciated. There are so many flowers that bloom at the same time, but there are only a few buyers, and the price and quantity cannot increase, so you can only watch it wither away. Usually, customers cannot see the scene of the flowers in full bloom, so it is impossible to buy them at a high price. Therefore, if you really want to make it big and long-lasting, you must think of ways to extend the flowering period.

  Again, from the shape of the flowers, it can be seen that among the varieties of peonies placed here, there are not many double-layered ones, and most are single-layered or semi-double-layered. Obviously, customers generally prefer half-double and double-layered flower types, especially those with elegant, large and full shapes, which are also more expensive. However, Peony thinks that even if it's a single-layered variety, if the color is rare, the shape is proper, the petals are straight and don't droop or deform, it still has its own appreciation value, and when met with someone who likes it, it can still be sold at a high price. For example, Yu Ban Bai is a representative of this type. Unfortunately, there was no time to get a graft from Liu Chuan's Yu Ban Bai!

  The peony let out a slight sigh, and a smile emerged. Give her time, she was confident that she could cultivate new varieties! She could rely on no one but herself, and with her own two hands, live the rich life she had always wanted!

  "Zhang pointed at one of the peonies that was in full bloom and smiled: 'Dan Niang! This one is not bad, let's buy this one!'"

  That flower master was a middle-aged man wearing hemp clothes. Seeing that guests had taken a liking to his flowers, he hastily stood up and greeted them, pointing out the flowers for everyone to see, boasting: "Ladies and gentlemen, please take a look, I'm not bragging, but among these flowers today, my flower is the best! You see, there are eight flower buds in total, six of which have bloomed, and on the same stem, there are three types of flowers!"

  The peony walked over to take a look, and this big red flower was indeed not bad. The petals were light red in color, with pink tips, the corolla was five inches (about 17 cm) wide and two inches (about 8 cm) high, and the stamens had transformed into delicate green sepals. Among the six flowers, there were three types of flower shapes: imperial crown shape, lotus shape, and peach blossom shape. Among these flowers today, it was indeed a rare find, but it hadn't been sold yet, so its value must be quite high. He smiled and said, "Big brother, how much do you plan to sell this flower for?"

  The flower master glanced at the peony a few times, shook his head on purpose and sighed: "Little girl, if you're just asking casually, then don't ask, it's better for me not to speak, or else you'll say I'm cheating people."

  Sun saw his condescending look and felt uneasy, smiling faintly: "You'd better speak up and let's hear it. If you're cheating people, everyone will know once they've heard it."

  The host of the flower heard this and stretched out his thumb: "One hundred thousand dollars!"

  Peony hesitated for a moment, turned her head and asked Sun in a low voice: "Sixth Aunt, how much is a dou of rice now?"

  "Sun said in a low voice in her ear: 'One hundred and fifty coins per dou, the best ones are also available for one hundred and eighty to two hundred coins.' Then she said loudly to the flower seller: 'Your flowers are excellent, but they're not worth ten thousand coins!'"

  The people around gathered to watch the excitement. Among them, a man in his thirties with a jade-colored round-necked robe, hooked nose and eagle eyes, smiled and said: "Zou Laosan, I told you that this flower is not worth so much money. If it was sold for 600,000 yuan, I would have bought it."

  The flower master, nicknamed Zou Lao Qi, hugged his hands and said: "I'm going to sell that many! You've been looking at flowers for several days, have you seen anyone's better than mine?"

  Everyone just laughed and said, "It will be over in a few days."

  Zou Laoqi rolled his eyes: "Let him keep it for autumn sales of connecting heads!"

  His relationships with others were generally not good, and people would often turn against him, saying: "If that's the case, what's the point of coming here every day? How many connections can this flower have? Although Dahurian lily is not bad, it's still far from being comparable to those famous flowers like Yao Huang and Wei Zi. How many years will you take to sell at this price? Be careful not to drop the price!"

  The peony didn't care about the commotion around it, and just quietly calculated that one dou of rice is approximately twelve jin according to modern calculations. At two hundred coins per dou of rice, ten million coins would be six thousand jin of rice. Goodness, how many people could eat for a year with that? It turned out that when Pan Rong was willing to spend one million coins to buy those Weizi and Yulou Diancui, she had indeed paid a high price. No wonder Pan Rong got angry when she refused, saying she didn't know what's good for her. But compared to the crazy degree of modern people speculating on orchids, this is nothing.

  She was calculating the bill with her head down, but Zou Laoqi vented his anger on her and said impatiently: "Hey, little girl, are you going to buy it or not?"

  For this appreciation type, peony was just to understand the market situation and did not really intend to buy. What she wanted to buy were those rare varieties and native species dug from the mountains and wild fields, or flowers that had undergone mutations, so as to facilitate hybrid breeding. However, today's selection didn't seem to have anything suitable. Moreover, Zhou Laosi's attitude was really too bad, and just as she was about to shake her head, Zhang Shi, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up: "Seven hundred thousand yuan! If you sell it to us, we'll buy it."

  "Peony hastily stopped her: 'Wu Sao, don't...'"

  "Isn't it just a flower? Sister, I bought it to give to you!" Zhang Shi grasped her hand and signaled her not to speak, looking seriously at Zou Lao Qi: "I'll be straightforward, you also be straightforward! Are you selling or not?"

  Zou Laoqi hesitated for a moment, just as he was about to speak, the man with the white jade shirt and whiskers suddenly said: "Seven million five thousand dollars, sell it to me!"

  Zou Laoqi was overjoyed, scratching his ears and cheeks, and looked at Zhang with his eyes, saying: "This lady, what do you think?" This whiskered fellow, who knows where he came from, has been turning around here for several days, buying a lot of flowers, and every day comes to ask about the price, each time pressing the price down very low. Now that someone wants to buy it, can't bear it anymore?

  They were being taken advantage of just because they were women! Zhang and Sun were both furious, glaring at the man as they said in unison: "800,000 yuan!"

  Sun said in a low voice to Zhang, "Let's each pay half!" Although Zhang and Peony were closer, she was also Peony's sixth aunt. How could the fifth aunt give something and not the sixth? It wasn't like they didn't have money.

  Zhang didn't say it was good or bad, he just provocatively stared at that goatee.

  He coldly swept a glance at Zhang and Sun, then said to Old Qiao: "Eighty-five thousand!"

  Sun didn't have a chance to speak, Peony hastily stopped her and said to Old Zou: "We don't want it." For things that aren't clearly priced, the worst thing is to encounter people who raise prices arbitrarily. Who knows if they're in cahoots? Based on the price Zhang mentioned earlier, she still thought it was a good deal. If this vicious bidding continued, what if they got taken advantage of? So she firmly refused and decided to withdraw early.

  Zhang and Sun did not think so, but they respected Peony's opinion.

  Zou Laoqi was disappointed to death, but he looked at that goatee and said: "Add a bit more, it's yours!"

  Luo Yanhu sneered: "Human hearts are insatiable, like a snake swallowing an elephant!"

  "One hundred thousand dollars, sell it to me!" With this loud shout, Liu Chuan strode over, first giving Peony a fierce glare, restraining the urge to rush over and strangle her. He turned his back on her, puffed out his chest, and glared savagely at the man with the whiskers, thinking to himself: Dead woman! Does she think that if she moves away those few pots of broken flowers, there won't be any more flowers to appreciate in the Liu estate? Ha! As long as he has money, what can't he buy?

  The Sun and Zhang families exchanged a glance, stepped forward to firmly protect the peony, and the He family's servants and maids also rushed up.

  Zou Laoqi was overjoyed and turned back to look at the man with the whiskers: "This young master is offering 100,000."

  I thought it was a sure thing, but who knew a fierce Zhang Fei would suddenly appear out of nowhere, and to make matters worse, with such an unfriendly expression! The whiskered man, seeing Liu Chuan's elegant attire and haughty demeanor, seemingly that of a noble young master, didn't flinch, and instead said menacingly: "One hundred and ten thousand!"

  Liu Chuan sneered: "1.2 million!" He proudly said to Zou Laoqi: "No matter how much he bids, I'll always be higher than him!"

  That whisker must have seen that he was looking for trouble, and couldn't figure out whether he had offended him or if he was in cahoots with Peony and the others. He didn't bother to acknowledge this young dandy anymore, but instead looked at Zou Laosan and said: "I heard that your family's courtyard is near Baiji Temple? Were these flowers given to you by the temple monks?"

  Zou Laoqi's face changed color and he said: "Is it none of your business?!" Then he turned his head to ask Mudan: "Little girl, do you really not want him?"

  Peony had been guessing that Liu Chuan was drinking with Pan Rong just now, and he felt a little nervous. Although he wasn't afraid of being beaten on the spot, he didn't want to provoke him either. He certainly didn't dare to compete with him to buy things, especially such expensive ones. At this moment, he grasped the reins tightly in one hand and shook his head, saying: "Don't want it."

  Zou Laoqi didn't even look at the whiskered man and said to Liu Chuan: "This gentleman is yours!"

  Liu Chang didn't care about the murderous gaze of that whiskered man, and calmly pointed to Xi Xia: "Wait, I'll go get the money later!" Turning his head back, he saw that Peony had already gone off in another direction with Zhang Shi and Sun Shi, completely ignoring him. He couldn't help but grit his teeth and clench his fists at this detestable dead woman!

  The peony had already lost its charm and was about to leave, but then two young men with tattered clothes and hemp shoes carefully carried a single-stemmed pink-purple peony that was about one person tall, their faces filled with anticipation as they walked over. The peony took just one look and knew that the purple-spotted peony was wild! This was exactly what she wanted!

  The peony changed its mind and went forward to ask the two young men: "Are you selling this flower too?"

  Liu Chang saw him and followed with a gloomy face.

  [bookid=1736421,bookname="Joyful Entrance"][bookid=1296881,bookname="Heavy Flower Shadows"][bookid=1421817,bookname="Leftover Woman is Not Virtuous"][bookid=1589709,bookname="Heavenly Clothes are Enchanting"][bookid=1797584,bookname="Imperial Husband Handbook"]