Shibata's movements were very professional, and he kept scanning the surroundings with a vigilant gaze. His left hand was always resting on the knife scabbard on his left waist, and his right hand was slightly raised, maintaining the most convenient movement for drawing the sword.

Because Shibata and Ogata were guarding Hatsuko at the rear, although many people came around, no one dared to approach Hatsuko casually.

Ogata and his party were like a small boat cutting through the waves, and the "waves" they cut were the "human waves" composed of these onlookers, slowly walking slowly towards their destination tonight, Xutian House.

Like Yoshiwara, the shops in Shinmachi are not all tourist houses, there are also some normal shops.

Shoutaya is the largest teahouse in Shinmachi, similar to a high-end restaurant in modern times. It is a favorite place for countless wealthy people in Osaka.

Just now, while chatting with Shibata at Hatsuko's practice room, Ogata learned some basic information from Shibata about the guest who invited Hatsuko tonight.

Shibata didn't know much about tonight's guest. He only knew that he was a big businessman with samurai status. He was hosting a banquet at Xutian House tonight. It seemed that he was just having an ordinary dinner with friends and spending 80 taels of money to buy the guest.

Chu Guang invited him to perform at their banquet.

Although in the Edo period, the shogunate adopted a very strict status hierarchy, demarcating the four classes of "scholars, farmers, industry and merchants" and defined merchants as a class with a social status only one level higher than that of the shogunate, and did not allow all classes to

Free circulation.

But as the power of merchants gradually grew, in order to get rid of their low political status, merchants gradually discovered many "bug-like" methods to transform themselves from humble merchants to warriors.

One of the commonly used methods is to recruit a samurai as a son-in-law.

The principle is to take advantage of the institutional flaws of the shogunate.

The Edo shogunate had a strange system: as long as a samurai was recruited as his son-in-law, the family's place of origin could be changed to that of the samurai, and the whole family could use the samurai's surname and family crest.

For example: Ogata married into the family of a businessman named Sangoro and became Sangoro's son-in-law. From then on, Sangoro could change his name to "Ogata Sangoro" and the family became the Ogata family.

, you can use Ogata's platycodon pattern to make a new family crest, and the whole family changes from a merchant's family to a samurai family, and can be called Saber.

Most of them are samurai who do not want to endure hardship and want to be the son-in-law of a wealthy merchant family and enjoy the glory and wealth from then on. Therefore, countless merchants rely on this method to become samurai overnight.

As an economic metropolis where wealthy businessmen gather, Osaka is most indispensable for businessmen who have obtained samurai status through various methods.

From the Seven Thatched Cottage to the Xutian House, the distance between the two places is not that far.

Although there were countless people on the road who came to watch the famous Hatsuko, they did not block the road very much. Ogata and the others arrived at Xutianya smoothly.

As soon as they arrived at the gate of Xutian House, a dwarf with a somewhat sinister look on his face, who had been standing by the gate looking around just now, hurried towards Ogata and the others with a cheerful face.

"Miss Chuguang, welcome to your arrival." Although this short man is a bit ugly, he is eloquent and knows etiquette. "Please come with me. My young master has been waiting for you for a long time."

"Thank you." Chu Guang bowed lightly to the dwarf.

The short man led Ogata and the others straight to the top floor of the Xutian House.

Xutianya is indeed a famous teahouse in Osaka. Not only is it huge in size, but the quality of the waiters is also extraordinary.

When following the dwarf to the top of Xutian House, Ogata noticed that every person dressed as a waiter in Xutian House, whether male or female, all had young and upright facial features.

Because the Xutian House was very large, Ogata and the others walked a short distance before arriving at the door of a room on the top floor of their destination, which had a very exquisite picture on the door.

"Master!" the dwarf shouted into the room, "Miss Chuguang is here!"

As soon as Chaozi finished speaking, a very excited voice immediately sounded in the room: "Oh! It's finally here! Let Miss Chuguang come in!"

Um?

At this time, Ogata's expression changed.

The one whose expression also changed slightly was Atachi.

They both said the same thing in their hearts at the same time: The voice just now... sounds so familiar...

When Ogata was thinking about when he had heard this voice, the dwarf had already opened the door of the room, Hatsumi had already walked into the room first, and Ogata, who was Hatsumi's temporary guard and temporary assistant respectively, had opened the door to the room.

He and Atachi had to go in together.

As soon as he entered the room, Ou was stunned.

No.

It should be said that Ogata, Amachi, and someone in the room were all stunned at the same time.

This is a very spacious room, with a total of 13 people having a banquet in it.

Twelve of them were sitting on the east and west sides of the room, facing each other.

There was only one very gorgeously dressed young man sitting at the head of the banquet. Ogata and Omachi were stunned at the same time. It was this person.

And this person is none other than the Miura who struck up a conversation with Atachi yesterday.

…

…

at this moment

Xutian House, a large luxurious house not far from Ogata and the others

This is the most luxurious and high-end room in the entire Xutian House.

Not only is it extremely spacious, the interior decoration is also extremely luxurious. The tatami mats are high-end goods produced in Kyoto, and the walls are painted with famous paintings by famous artists.

In the room, a middle-aged man with a scar on his face from the left corner of his forehead to the left corner of his mouth, and a scar from his left ear to his right cheek, these two scars just formed a cross wound, sat upright.

On a cushion.

With a flattering smile on his face, he said in a respectful tone to a young man sitting opposite him who was sipping tea:

"Sir, this is the new Longjing tea from Tangtu West Lake that I recently purchased. How does it taste?"

"Hmm... I don't know much about tea, but it tastes pretty good."

The young man sitting opposite the middle-aged man has a tall build of nearly 1.9 meters, with long hair tied up casually and dragged behind his head.

At his side is a very powerful Odachi sword.

"Speaking of which, Yukimura, I haven't seen you for a while. Your business has grown so big." The young man said slowly, "You even bought such a luxurious tea house. I heard that you were involved in the silk business a while ago.

.”

"I don't dare to take it, I don't dare to take it." The middle-aged man known as Yukimura continued to laugh, "I was just lucky enough to buy some silk shops cheaply from a friend named Miura a while ago."

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Chapter completed!