Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 40 The Mewa Brothers

  The driver was sincere and did not want to talk about it.

   He couldn't be arrested and tortured to extract a confession. It seemed that he couldn't ask anything else.

   "I'm just curious, you don't have to be nervous, don't talk if you don't want to." Winters spoke to the slightly flustered driver and stopped asking.

  The coachman bowed his head gratefully.

  Kesa came out of the front door. She changed from her comfortable home clothes to a dark green dress decorated with embroidery and lace, a lilac silk shawl, and a richly decorated hat.

   "It's just a trip to the tailor's shop, which is too exaggerated." Winters walked over to Kesha in surprise: "Isn't it hot? Auntie, you won't be wearing a corset, right?"

   "Silly child, the tailor shop is a battlefield for women!" Kesha glared at her nephew, and happily took Winters' left arm onto the carriage.

   She politely and reservedly gave the driver the destination: "Mr. Barto, please take us to Mewa's house."

  The carriage was driving on the flagstone streets, the wheels made regular bumping noises when passing through the stone cracks, and the horseshoes rhythmically tapped on the road. The carriage of this carriage is suspended from the body by a belt, so it is not bumpy.

  Kesa lifted the curtains and admired the street view, looking in a good mood.

   But Winters had a lot of thoughts on his mind. All he thought about was this coachman who seemed to have joined a secret society, and what he called the Brotherhood.

  Kesa lightly tapped Winters' hand with a small folding fan: "What are you thinking? So ecstatic?"

   "Nothing." Winters replied with a smile. It was obviously inappropriate to tell my aunt about my concerns in the carriage, and I had to tell my uncle about it. So he changed the subject and asked, "By the way, why haven't I seen Ella, isn't she at home?"

As long as Elizabeth is mentioned, Kesha has a headache. She lightly rested her forehead and said helplessly: "She went to Mrs. Anguissola's studio. Alas... your sister makes me worry too much. She is already sixteen years old. Still like a crazy girl, without the slightest bit of ladylike manners."

   "Isn't it good to learn painting?" Winters admires those who are good at painting. Although he is not religious, he always lingers in front of the exquisite frescoes in the church.

Kesha's mood became a little depressed: "Where did she go to learn painting? She just found a name to play with her little girls. When your mother and I were as old as her, we would help you every day. Grandfather counts the accounts, how does she look like she is now? Nvhong doesn’t know how to check the accounts, and she doesn’t have the ability to run a house at all.”

Winters felt that her aunt was a little bit too demeaning to her sister. Elizabeth was rarely able to admit that he was smarter than himself. He had to speak for her sister: "If you teach her to read accounts, she will be able to learn very well. Her I am convinced of my ability to do mental arithmetic.”

"I have taught, of course I have." Kesha's tone was even more serious: "But your sister is not at all regular. Teach her to read the ledger, and she started complaining in less than two days. No matter what it is, I just learned a little bit. The fur has lost interest. How can I get married? How can anyone marry her? Will I be deceived sooner or later?"

   Kesha was silent for a while, and suddenly asked Winters hopefully, "Are there any better boys among your classmates in the military academy?"

   Winters thought about the same period of his own, and suddenly there was a chill, and his whole body shivered. Beginning with Lu You, the military academy has been living with each other for nearly ten years. During the same period of the military academy, they have seen each other's most vulgar side.

   Therefore, whether emotionally or intellectually, he could not accept that any one would marry his sister at the same time. Whoever dared to marry his sister during the same period, Winters had to stab him to death, no matter who it was.

   So he answered firmly: "Absolutely not, none of my contemporaries are worthy of Ella, you must never find a husband for Ella from among them, and don't even think about it."

   "Is that so?" Kesha sighed in disappointment. She suddenly looked at Winters with her eyes, and reached out to hold Winters' right hand: "Let's stop talking about your sister and talk about you."

  Kesa's attitude suddenly became very formal, which made Winters a little strange, and he also sat upright and listened seriously.

Kesha said very seriously: "I said this once when you went to the Union Province six years ago, and I will say it again this time when you come back. After your grandfather passed away, his property was divided into two equal parts. As your mother's and mine's dowry respectively. My share was brought to Serbia Ti's house, and your mother's share was kept by me as a guardian because you are not yet an adult. Next year, when you become an adult, I will take you Mother's dowry will be handed over to you, to settle my worries."

   Winters originally thought that Auntie was going to say something big, but he didn't expect it to be about inheritance. Winters is a posthumous son, his father died twenty years ago as a second lieutenant, and his mother died young.

  Although Kesha has strictly forbidden anyone and her nephew to mention the details of her sister's death, she only said it was caused by illness. But Winters was very careful and thoughtful, and he got the real answer after a few rounds: his mother, Kesha's sister, died of a postpartum emergency.

   But he wasn't really touched by this. In his opinion, his aunt was his mother, and his uncle treated him like his own son.

   Compared with the biological parents he has never met, he is more concerned about the close relatives who raised him. Since the aunt didn't want him to know the truth, he had always pretended not to know.

"Auntie, I've said it several times. You can dispose of this money. You can put it in the family's account book, or use it as a dowry for Ella. I don't have any opinion." Winters very much Oppose Kesha's resolute attitude not to use a share of her nominal property.

   Kesha may be worried about the rumors of outsiders, but in Winters' view, the hard work spent in raising a crappy baby into an adult cannot be exchanged for no amount of gold.

"Silly boy, you still have to start a family and start a business, and you need a lot of money. I replaced your mother's dowry with real estate in the port area, which has increased a lot in the past 20 years." Kesha said, her eyes were wet. Now, she lovingly trimmed Winters' hair: "My eldest nephew is already a big boy, Elizabeth [referring to Winters mother, the same name as Winters cousin] saw you grow up in the kingdom of God , I must be very happy, and when I meet her in the future, I can kiss her face proudly."

   During the conversation, the carriage stopped, and the driver reminded softly, "Madam, the Mewa's house is here."

  Kesa wiped her tears and resumed her mother's tone: "Thank you, Mr. Barto."

   Winters left the carriage first, then helped Kesha out of the carriage.

  The carriage stopped at a chic storefront that occupies a width of about five meters in a row of stone houses.

  The door is painted black, so clean that you can smell the lacquer that hasn't dried out yet. A pair of scissors and a set of needlework were painted with golden paint on the door, and below the pattern was written [Mewa Brothers' House] in swashbuckling characters.

   And the most eye-catching design is not the door, but the wall.

  The two sides of the store door are not brick walls, but small pieces of transparent flat glass fixed with wooden frames. Behind the glass, wooden mannequins display elegant sets of finished garments. Gorgeous women's clothing is the main, and elegant men's clothing is supplemented.

  The price of this small piece of transparent flat glass is not cheap. The average citizen only buys a few pieces to make windows, and most people use wooden shutters. Using this fragile material as a wall, the designer is a generous designer and has an amazing imagination.

  It is also extravagant to paint the signboard with golden paint, and it is not gold leaf but gold powder. Pigments are expensive consumables, and golden pigments are even more so. Winters, who had never learned to paint, knew that gold could not be achieved unless gold dust was used.

  The manner of the Maywa brothers' tailor shop made Winters stunned. He couldn't help but ask the shopkeeper: Aren't you afraid that thieves will come and tear down your shop at night?

   "Isn't it nice?"

   "But all these glasses and paints have to be paid by the customer in the end?"

   "Let's go." Kesha took Winters' left arm and dragged Winters into the store.

  The bell on the door frame was banged, and there were several well-dressed ladies and young ladies in the store picking fabrics. Compared with them, Winters no longer felt that Auntie's outfit was exaggerated. Where is the tailor shop here, it is clearly the arena.

   A handsome young man with the appearance of a tailor quickly walked up to him. This man had a tape measure over his shoulders, and was wearing a rare simple tooling in this splendid sea of ​​flowers.

He smiled warmly and walked up to Kesha, took off his hat and bowed, and said in a slightly reproachful tone: "Mrs. Serbiati, you haven't been to the store for too long. My inspiration is exhausted without seeing you. ."

   If another ordinary person said this sentence, it would definitely make people feel hypocritical and disgusting. But this handsome young man's expression, posture and tone have the right benefits, even knowing that he is talking politely makes life not disgusting.

Kesha was unmoved, smiled and asked, "Then you have many sources of inspiration. How many ladies have you said this to?" She already has a high level of flattery like this. resistance.

"But you are the most beautiful among them." Seeing that the tailor who did not know which of the Mewa brothers did not impress Mrs. Serbia Ti, he started to attack from the flank, and instead praised the young man beside her: "This Who are you, handsome boy? You are born with a clothes hanger."

   This kind of words, Winters blushed, but the young tailor could say it in a sincere tone without changing his face, showing that life is not easy.

   But the effect was also excellent, Kesha smiled brightly: "This is my nephew, who just graduated from the Union Provincial Military Academy and is now serving at the Army Headquarters."

The young tailor made a lot of ingenious compliments again, making Kesha elated, and Winters saw several ladies in the shop sneaking glances at him, only to feel even more shy, and said quickly: "Aren't we here to make clothes? "

   "Okay, measure the size first." The young tailor led Winters to a small clean room at the back of the store and began to measure Winters.

   Winters has always been keenly observant, and there are mostly female customers in the store, so another female tailor should measure her. It's just that there is only one male tailor in front of the shop, and there are only a few child laborers left, who seem to be apprentices.

   And Winters heard the subtle sound of tailoring in the interior of the shop. He thought to himself: Maybe the Mewa brothers are actually the Mewa brothers and sisters.

   "What kind of clothes are you going to use?" The male tailor grasped the point and asked Kesha instead of Winters at all.

   "Two sets of regular clothes and one set of dresses." Kesha thought about it, and then said, "Make another lieutenant's uniform."

  When in the military school, the uniforms of the students were uniformly tailored by the school. But out of the military academy, the officers' uniforms have to be paid for by the officers themselves.

  The officer class of the Alliance Army is still inevitably influenced by the old aristocracy. Just like the aristocrats who brought their own equipment and attendants in the old era, the officers of the new era also need to bring their own uniforms, horses, swords and so on.

  These unwritten rules constitute an invisible threshold. Bud said that if he didn’t go overseas, he couldn’t even afford a military uniform, which is not a lie.

   "I can't wear a lieutenant's uniform yet." Winters hurriedly reminded his aunt.

   Kesha disagreed: "Can't you wear it next year? Do it in advance, and you will have to do it again in the future."

   Winters knew that he had no say in life, so he no longer objected.

   Kesha sat beside her, flipping through a folio, which seemed to be the design booklet of the Maywa brothers, and the seamstress was busy beside Winters.

   But Winters remembered the case at the dock, and pretended to ask casually, "Are you making cloaks here?"

   "Cloak? Do you want a cape? We can do it for you if you need it," said the tailor, measuring Winters' waist.

   "Listen to this, it seems that the Mewa brothers don't usually make cloaks?"

  The male tailor replied with a smile: "The shop usually makes more delicate clothes, but I really haven't done it with cloaks."

   "How many tailors are there in Hailan City?"

   "Not many, less than 100 people." The male tailor added: "Many people don't go to the tailor's shop to find us to make clothes, and most of them buy the fabrics and make them themselves."

   Hearing this, Winters understood that the idea of ​​trying to find the man in black from the tailor was unrealistic. The cloaks of those assassins were not necessarily custom made by outside tailors, they could also be sewn by a maid who knew sewing.

   But even if there was a clue, Winters was unwilling to give up. He politely asked the male tailor: "Can you help me find out, is there any tailor in Hailan City who has received the job of ordering a black cloak recently?"

   "No problem." The male tailor asked politely, "Who are you looking for?"

   Winters replied with a faint smile: "I want to find some friends in black cloaks."

   "If you are looking for clothes, it is better to find fabrics." The male tailor wrote down the measurements in a small notebook and said casually.

   "Looking for clothes?"

"There are more than 40 sewing suppliers in this sea blue city, and each of them has slightly different materials. If you bring the fabric, I can roughly see which material it is, and then ask who the cloth dealer gives it to. It’s much easier to keep looking for supplies.”

   This is indeed a good idea, but unfortunately Winters does not have the clothes of those assassins. He thought about the situation at that time, but couldn't say why.

   "What material? Linen? Cotton? Wool? Silk?" asked the male tailor.

  Winters tried to recall the feel of the cloak when he scuffled with the black-robed man: "I don't know, I only know that it should be a good material, the cloth is very dense, but not as smooth as silk."

   "It should be wool or cotton." The male tailor made a judgment: "I'll help you find out, but there are many cloth dealers selling cotton and wool fabrics in the city, so don't expect me too much."

   "There is work."

   After measuring the size, the rest is to pick the fabric. In this process, Winters completely turned into a puppet. Under the command of Kesha, the male tailor brought one kind of fabric after another for Kesa to choose, and asked Winters to stand on the small stage again and again and drape the fabric over the See the actual effect on Winters. After choosing the fabric, I started to choose the style.

   Winters originally thought that he was just going to the tailor's shop to measure the size, and it would be over soon.

   But when the exhausted Winters and the happy Kesha returned home, it was almost dark.

In the    mansion, Antonio has been waiting for a long time, playing with the cat in the living room to pass the time. As soon as Winters entered the house, he was immediately stopped by Antonio, and his uncle said solemnly, "Come with me, there is something urgent."

The method of making small pieces of flat glass appeared in the German region in the 11th century, and later spread to the Italian peninsula. The Venetians improved this process and were able to make transparent glass at least in the 14th century, but at that time, colored glass was more valuable. .

   The method of making large pieces of transparent glass was relatively late, only appearing in 1674.

   Thanks for the recommendation ticket of the book friend who steals food;

   Thanks to the book friend 20181010005850390 for the recommendation ticket;

   Thank you for the recommendation ticket from the Dudufu developed by the book friend;

   Thanks to the book friend 20181013204343295 for the recommendation ticket;

   Bow and thank you

   (end of this chapter)