20 Drunken Shrimp

◎Opportunity itself is sometimes a gamble◎

The next day, Song Jinyi couldn't go see Xie Wuyang again. Nanny Wang said with an embarrassed look on her face, "I was scolded by Lingyuxuan yesterday. If I leave you again today, I'm afraid I'll be kicked out tomorrow."

When Song Jinyi heard that the matter involved Lingyuxuan, she felt that it was not good, but it was not good to make things difficult for Nanny Wang anymore, so she said that she would not go, and only asked Nanny Wang to go to Yunlan Garden to visit Xie Wuyang more often.

When asked about Xie Wuyang's condition, Nanny Wang said that the doctor had prescribed medicine, but the accounting office had not yet transferred the money. Upon hearing this, Song Jinyi took out the gold hairpin on her head.

Nanny Wang took over and looked at Song Jinyi hesitantly. She said, "No matter how precious this item is, it's not more important than human life. Use it to buy medicine."

After seeing off Nanny Wang, Song Jinyi sat on the corridor of the courtyard. She leaned sideways against the pillar, her legs swinging gently, and the layers of her skirt swayed gently like a lavender cloud. She looked up at the scenery outside the square courtyard: the setting sun melted into gold, and the evening clouds merged into one.

She suddenly sighed deeply. Seeing that the courtyard was deserted, she muttered to herself, "It's worse than outside. Yesterday I had a jade bracelet, today I have a gold hairpin. The original owner didn't have many valuable jewelry. If she were here, she would call me a spendthrift."

Later, that old woman Wang became more and more greedy.

Song Jinyi didn't have any valuable jewelry to give them, but she was worried about Xie Wuyang's condition and wanted to go and see it in person.

After Song Jinyi finished her dinner, she felt lonely for a while and wanted to eat some side dishes to relieve the loneliness.

Nanny Wang knew that her cooking skills were good, even better than the chef of the restaurant. She wanted to get a share of the pie, so she turned a blind eye and let her go to the kitchen.

Song Jinyi asked someone to bring a pot of white wine with a strong aroma. Song Jinyi opened the lid of the pot, and the strong aroma instantly occupied her taste buds. For someone like Song Jinyi who never drinks, the mellow smell of the wine is no less than a drug, and she gets drunk just by smelling it.

Song Jinyi was afraid that Wang Pozi would become suspicious, so she prepared the ingredients while acting out her words: "These shrimps are fresh and tender, and with the addition of minced ginger, garlic, chili peppers and other seasonings, they are sour, spicy, fresh and fragrant, and have a soft and glutinous texture.

Eating this kind of raw pickled food in the summer is simply perfect—” As she spoke, she couldn’t help smacking her lips.

The hand pouring the wine showed no mercy and poured the whole pot of wine in.

After the drunken shrimps were marinated, they were divided into two small porcelain plates. There were only three or four shrimps on her plate, but there were more than twenty shrimps on Wang Po and the others' plate.

She knew that the women who kept watch at night could drink a lot, so she made enough to make them drunk.

She returned to the room and waited patiently for a while. Seeing that everyone at the gate was drunk, she tiptoed to Yunlan Garden with the prepared Eight Treasures Soup.

The courtyard of Yunlan Garden is bright and spacious, with only a row of small bungalows. It is stuffy and hot inside in the summer. The doors are often open with straw curtains hanging during the day and closed at night.

Song Jinyi walked straight to the dilapidated room in the corner. Because Xie Wuyang was sick, others were afraid of the disease, so they asked him to have a single room.

She quietly lifted the curtain and went in. Seeing Xie Wuyang sitting up vigilantly and staring at the door alertly, she immediately gestured to him to keep quiet.

Song Jinyi moved over and said in a low voice, "This is the Eight Treasures Soup. It can replenish blood and qi."

Song Jinyi saw that he had finished drinking and asked about his recent condition. Xie Wuyang answered truthfully.

Xie Wuyang asked her, "Sister, where is this? How long will it take for us to get out?"

Song Jinyi's face looked a little gloomy, she also wanted to know the answer to this question.

Xie Wuyang saw that she was in a bad mood and asked, "Is it because of Song and Zhang Ye?"

She was a little surprised how he knew the name "Song Zhangye".

Xie Wuyang said that he had heard from his subordinates in the past two days. Song Jinyi smiled and asked, "Then tell me, what else did you hear?"

Xie Wuyang said that he heard from others that Song Zhangye had encountered problems in his business in the past two days. It seemed that the other party lowered the price of the same goods, disrupting the market price, which gave Song Zhangye a headache.

Song Jinyi raised her eyebrows slightly and said, "It doesn't sound like a big problem."

"Sister, do you have a solution?"

"Yes, I do, but..." Song Jinyi said halfway, then turned back to look at Xie Wuyang, "I haven't seen you for a few days. Your Chinese has improved a lot."

Xie Wuyang's ears suddenly turned red after being praised by Song Jinyi. He tilted his head a little embarrassedly and said in a low voice: "I have been lying down these past few days and heard many people talking outside. Their words were very mixed. I listened and learned a lot."

Song Jinyi pulled the quilt for him and praised: "It's very good."

******

The next day, Song Jinyi, contrary to her usual behavior, asked someone to wash her up and change into a decent set of clothes. Even the maid noticed her difference and asked her tentatively, "Miss, where are you going today? There are people guarding the door, so you can't get out easily."

"Go and tell the guard outside to tell my father that I have a plan to help him out of this difficult situation."

Song Jinyi followed the maid around the mountain corridor, walked through the hall, and followed a cobblestone path to the bamboo forest and the mountain retreat surrounded by bamboo.

There are window sills next to the eaves of the mountain house, and a bamboo-paved corridor outside.

Song Jinyi entered from the corridor and stepped onto the stairs, only to see a different world inside. The courtyard was spacious, with rock bonsai placed on it, and green ivy hanging on it. A faint bamboo fragrance came from outside the house, which had the charm of an elegant guest in the bamboo forest.

Song Jinyi walked straight through the courtyard and stood in front of the well-patterned door. She watched as the maid opened the bamboo curtain for her and announced, "The young lady has arrived."

There was a sound coming from inside, and Song Jinyi then walked into the house. This quiet room was not very big, and the furnishings inside could be seen as soon as you entered.

Opposite the door stood a pearwood carved desk, on which Song Zhangye was sitting. On either side of him stood two vermilion lacquered and gold-painted bookcases, with two rows of mahogany armchairs placed below.

The first person sitting on the left was his father-in-law, who was about the same age as Song Zhangye. He was wearing a camel-hair robe and holding a few blue books in his hands.

Song Jinyi walked closer and took a glance, noticing that Song Zhangye looked tired, with bloodshot eyes and dark circles around his eyes.

She bowed and glanced down to see several open notebooks on the table, all filled with dense words. They were all account books, almost filling up the entire table.

Song Zhangye moved his eyes away from the account book. He leaned back in his chair, his eyes half closed. He raised his hand to motion Song Jinyi to sit down, and Song Jinyi sat in the first row of chairs on the right.

She looked up at the person opposite her and guessed that this person should be the manager of the Song family trading company, who came to discuss the business issues with Song Zhangye.

Song Zhangye said in a calm tone, "You're really capable. You actually ran away from home alone while I was away. If I hadn't sent someone to look for you, would you not have planned to return home?"

Song Jinyi hadn't expected Song Zhangye to bring this up. Her hand, hidden beneath her sleeve, rubbed lightly. She didn't continue the conversation, but said, "I heard there's been a minor problem with my father's business. I'm not very talented, but I've come up with a simple plan that might help."

"You little brat, you just went out to play for a few days, but you really think you have acquired some skills, don't you?"

Song Jinyi suppressed her anger and forced a smile, "Father, why should you be angry? If it doesn't work, just treat it as a joke."

Song Zhangye remained silent for a long time. Instead, the man opposite Song Jinyi suddenly spoke up: "Boss Song, Sister Yi is smart and clever. She might have some clever ideas that neither you nor I have thought of. It wouldn't hurt to let her talk about it."

Song Jinyi said: "Since the other party has reduced the price by 10%, then we will reduce the price by 20%."

As soon as she finished speaking, Song Zhangye snorted heavily, showing disdain for her proposal.

The man opposite said, "Sister Yi, you may not know that the Song family recently made new soft smoke silk and heavy lotus silk. Your father, Shopkeeper Song, bought them from Shengjing at a high price.

"Half of the embroiderers in the workshop stopped working to research these two new fabrics. The time and investment costs alone are huge. If the price is reduced to the same as Luoshangfang, it's already very unprofitable. If it is reduced by another 20%, they will lose money."

Their reactions were all within Song Jinyi's expectations. She smiled softly and asked, "How long ago did this Luoshangfang open? What kind of fabrics do you mainly sell? Do you have your own embroidery workshop?"

The man was stunned, thought for a moment, and replied, "It's a new shop that opened a year ago. We mainly sell soft smoke silk, heavy lotus silk, and brocade. We don't have an embroidery workshop, so we buy it from Lizhou and sell it. Because we have a family relationship with the largest embroidery workshop in Lizhou, we can offer the lowest price."

It turns out there's someone behind the scenes. No wonder they're so bold as to engage in a price war with the Song family. "Luoshangfang deliberately lowered the price of our products by 10% when they were launched. They wanted to monopolize the market share and force the Song family to abandon the development of new products.

You can obviously choose to stop loss and exit in time, but you keep calculating the accounts and worry about it, which means you are unwilling to give up the market for new products.

In that case, we can lower the price by 20% as I said and compete with them for the market. After a long time, we will have a fixed customer base. Once we have brought down Luoshangfang, we can slowly raise the price to recoup our investment. After all, doesn't the Song family have other products besides this newly made fabric?

The Song Family Silk Shop mainly sells high-priced silk, and also makes silk, satin, and gauze according to different techniques. Among them, Moonlight Brocade, Colorful Halo Brocade, Floating Light Brocade, and Gold-woven Brocade are the best-selling ones.

In particular, Imperial Concubine Jiang praised the woven gold brocade: "The golden shuttles are rustling, and the thousands of red threads are woven, and the woven gold brocade is just completed." The nobles in the capital bought it one after another, and it could even be sold for fifty taels per piece.

"If the embroidery workshop's fabrics are divided into two batches, one for new products and one for older fabrics, the profits and losses from the two batches will offset each other," Song Jinyi said, watching Song Zhangye's reaction. She knew that someone like Song Zhangye, who had been in the business world for many years, was very sensitive to numbers, so she would calculate it for him with real money.

This method is not very clever, but if you lower your price, I will lower my price too.

But... this method is risky. He is old and less courageous, so someone is needed to take this responsibility, so she is here.

The shopkeeper opposite continued to ask, "What if the other party also lowers the price?"

"If the price drops by 10%, he can at least make some money. If the price drops by 20%, the Song family won't make any money. If the price drops by 30%..." Song Jinyi laughed, "Since he is willing to sell the goods at a loss, then the people will naturally be happy to see it happen.

Over time, even the national treasury will be empty. Even if Lizhou has some connections, they may not continue to supply goods once their interests are involved."

Song Zhangye said coldly, "If you lower the price today and I lower the price tomorrow, it's just a fight between two parties, and it will only lead to a vicious cycle."

"Of course, if we continue to waste time, it will only benefit the Song family. I still have a trick that can crush them and allow the Song family to reap the benefits."

Song Zhangye gestured for her to continue.

Song Jinyi suddenly stood up, knelt on the ground and said, "I have a condition. It has nothing to do with family or interests, but only concerns me. I hope father will agree."

Song Zhangye's face darkened slightly, knowing that Song Jinyi was deliberately trying to show off in front of outsiders, but he still agreed and let her speak first.

"The best way to break malicious bidding is product differentiation, that is, introducing new products. Compared with price cuts, new products can stimulate customer consumption more.

Of course, developing new fabrics is time-consuming and labor-intensive, so we should create new products in colors and patterns that our partners don’t have.”

"It's still a gamble after all."

"Sometimes opportunity itself is a gamble." She looked calmly and looked at Song Zhangye neither humbly nor arrogantly.