Chapter 250 Judging People by Their Eyes

Shuiyun Inn.

This is the largest inn in Nanyang City, with rooms divided into upper, middle and lower classes. When they arrived, only one middle room was left, costing one tael of silver per night.

On the ship, it was three people per room, and here it's still three people sharing a room.

Cheng Wanwan had slept in the same bed with her three sons for several months without any problem, so she paid an extra 500 coins for two more quilts.

She slept in the bed, while the two boys each slept on the floor.

It wasn't that she wouldn't give up her bed for the children, but in this era, elders are respected. If the two children slept in the bed while she slept on the floor, she would be in for a storm of anger from Zhao Dashan when they returned to Dahe Village. Besides, the two children weren't that inconsiderate.

None of the three had rested well on the boat, so the first thing they did after checking into the inn was to get some sleep to recharge.

Cheng Wanwan slept until noon before getting up, washed her face, and took her two children downstairs to eat.

Naturally, I didn't dare eat at the inn. The food here was too expensive. A bowl of vegetarian noodle soup cost twenty-five coins, which was practically robbery.

The three of them went to eat noodles on the street. The noodles with minced pork cost fifteen coins a bowl. There was very little minced pork, but the portion of noodles was very generous. Cheng Wanwan couldn't finish it, so she gave Zhao Ergou and Zhao Dawang each a chopstickful.

"Ergou, Dawang, you two go sell the cloth. I'll wander around Nanyang City and look for opportunities," Cheng Wanwan instructed. "Remember your older brother's words: don't be impatient and cause trouble. You must be patient in business. This is only the first day; there are still two days to go. Take it slow."

Zhao Ergou wrote down every single word.

The two of them returned to the inn, unloaded half of the goods and placed them in the room, taking a portion to test the waters first.

There are too many rich people in Nanyang City, so selling coarse cloth and linen on the main street is definitely not feasible. There are many poor people at the dock, but they are all men, and grown men generally won't spend money to buy cloth.

He pushed the cart to an alley where the poor of Nanyang lived, where seven or eight families often squeezed into one courtyard.

This place is essentially a slum in Nanyang City; because of poverty, there is a market for their cloth.

"Selling fabric! Cheap sale!"

"Coarse cloth is eight coins per foot, buy ten feet and get one foot free!"

The coarse cloth sold at the cloth shops on the street was also eight copper coins, and you paid for whatever you bought without any extras. As soon as he shouted this, several women gathered around.

The women touched the coarse cloth; it was indeed the kind from the cloth shop—durable and wear-resistant, the kind their poor families wore all year round.

Is it true that you get one foot free when you buy ten feet?

"Of course," Zhao Ergou said with a warm smile. "If a few people pool together ten feet of cloth, we'll give it to them too. A foot of cloth isn't much, but it can make a shoe upper or a bib for a child. It's free, so why not take it?"

Several women were tempted. They were all poor people who earned money by washing and mending clothes for others. It was really difficult for them to come up with eighty coins to buy cloth all at once. So two women each contributed forty coins, and each of them could get five and a half feet of cloth, which was enough to make a short-sleeved shirt for the men in their families. The scraps of cloth could be sewn up and patched up to make a shirt for the children...

Zhao Ergou and Zhao Dawang hawked their wares through the alley, easily selling over forty bolts of coarse cloth and fifteen feet of linen, as the locals couldn't afford fine linen.

Full of fighting spirit, the two returned to the inn, loaded all the coarse linen onto the cart, and went back into the alley to continue hawking their wares.

A prosperous city is built by millions of poor people at the bottom of society. Five hundred bolts of coarse cloth were sold out in one day, bringing in more than one hundred and fifty taels of silver.

Zhao Ergou's long-held anxiety finally subsided at this moment.

Although there are still some linen and fine linen unsold, it doesn't matter. We've already made back the costs, and we won't lose money no matter what price we sell the remaining goods at.

Everything is going very smoothly with the children, but there's still no progress with Cheng Wanwan.

She strolled around the streets and finally chose a shop called Zhuomuzhai. The name sounded elegant, but it was actually a shop that specialized in selling toiletries.

She stepped inside. The shop had a wide variety of products, including common items like soap balls, soap powder, and soapberries, as well as original toothbrushes and tooth powder for cleaning teeth, and bath powder and dried flower petals... In short, this shop had everything you needed to clean your body.

Cheng Wanwan casually bought some toothbrushes and tooth powder. When paying, she said gently, "Shopkeeper, can we talk alone for a while?"

The shopkeeper, sitting behind the counter, looked up and sized up Cheng Wanwan. Seeing that she was dressed in linen clothes and didn't even have a simple silver hairpin in her hair, the shopkeeper could guess Cheng Wanwan's identity at a glance. She was an ordinary woman from an ordinary family, and probably couldn't even scrape together two taels of silver. There was nothing to talk about with someone like that.

The shopkeeper, fiddling with his abacus, said indifferently, "It's four hundred and fifty-six coins in total. Pay if you want to buy, otherwise put it back."

Cheng Wanwan: "..."

She finally understood what it meant to look down on someone.

"I can't afford it, so I won't buy it."

Cheng Wanwan put the things back and walked away.

The shopkeeper smiled smugly: "My eyes are still as sharp as ever. These poor people can't escape my notice at all. Ershuanzi, you should learn from me!"

The servant boy named Ershuanzi immediately came over to massage the shopkeeper's shoulders: "From now on, I won't let anyone like this into the shop. Can you afford to pay for the damage she might cause..."

Cheng Wanwan walked to the entrance of another similar shop, went in to inquire, but the waiter wouldn't introduce her to the shopkeeper at all.

This city is too prosperous, which is not good. There are snobs everywhere. Her linen clothes are the best new clothes in Dahe Village, but in Nanyang City, she is just a country bumpkin and no one looks down on her.

Since these people don't want the business that's offered to them, then let them beg her instead.

Cheng Wanwan slowly formed an idea in her mind.

It was getting late, so she bought some necessities before returning to the inn.

When she returned to her room, she saw Zhao Ergou and Zhao Dawang counting money. It was all copper coins, and the table was covered with them. After they had counted them, they strung them together with a rope and put them in a bundle on the ground.

Cheng Wanwan quickly closed the door: "How much did you earn?"

Zhao Dawang said excitedly, "The coarse cloth was eight copper coins a foot, and it was all sold out. We made more than 150 taels of silver. I haven't counted the exact amount yet."

"There are still 280 bolts of linen and 81 bolts of fine linen left," Zhao Ergou said, holding the ledger. "The purchase price was two and five coins respectively, while the market price is around twelve to twenty coins. If we lower the price a bit, we should be able to clear out all the inventory by tomorrow."

“Good, well done.” Cheng Wanwan sat down in the chair. “Dawang, go downstairs to the street and buy some food and bring it up.”

I had noodles for lunch, so I should eat some rice for dinner, otherwise I feel unwell.

Zhao Dawang took the money and ran downstairs.

Cheng Wanwan helped count the money.

Zhao Ergou couldn't help but ask, "Mother, you strolled around Nanyang City today. Did you find anything?"

Cheng Wanwan strung the thousand copper coins together and said with a smile, "Tomorrow morning you sell cloth. Whether you sell it all or not, put it aside for now. In the afternoon, help me promote soap with Dawang."

Zhao Ergou grinned and said, "Okay!"