Chapter 193
"Does this match? Could it be that Mr. Zhou's temper is not that good? Or is it that Madam Liu's personality was very likable before?" Tian Bajiao guessed.
"Neither. This Zhou Ye is a gentleman, and Liu Suniang was a lunatic. Who knows how they fell in love? I heard that they weren't harmonious even after their marriage. They had a small quarrel every three days and a big fight every five days. Both the eldest brother and his sister-in-law suffered a lot. Fortunately, there was Madam Zhou, the mother-in-law, to keep them in check. Otherwise, the Zhou family would probably have to change their surname to Liu."
Boss Shen has heard of this kind of thing many times.
"If that's the case, there are quite a lot of people who want to kill her." Tian Bajiao sighed.
Boss Shen also said: "That's for sure. Look at her condition. Who can hope for her well?"
There may be people like Mr. Zhou Er, but not everyone is Mr. Zhou Er. Most of the people in this town who know Madam Liu don't like to deal with her.
Boss Shen also said something fair: "But you can't blame her for that. Her family is a mess. She has three children and three mothers. Her father is probably unlucky. His three wives all died early. The fourth one he married didn't die, but she couldn't have children and was too lazy to take care of the three children. She eats vegetarian food and chants Buddhist scriptures every day like a nun, not caring about anything.
Her father and two brothers were also unreliable. They treated her like a maid, asking her to do all the work and were not nice to her. If she didn't become more capable, she would be bullied to death.
When she asked for her dowry, she made a scene, throwing kerosene everywhere and nearly setting the house on fire. She only asked for 20% of the house as her dowry, which scared a lot of people. I squeezed over to see it and someone stepped on my foot, so I didn't go to her wedding day. Guess what happened?"
"What's going on?"
Shen Jiao asked curiously.
Boss Shen said, "She ended up being desperate for money and had her maids deliver invitations to every household, refusing to leave unless they gave her a gift. At the time, it wasn't this maid, but a maid called... Yun'er. I heard that the maid was sold to the Zhou family. It seems she was sold that same day because of this incident."
Tian Bajiao: "Then Xing'er will be in trouble this time."
Boss Shen waved his hand: "That's not the case. I heard that Xing'er bought this with her own money. The Zhou family has no right to interfere."
Tian Bajiao: "She's quite smart."
Knowing that the Zhou family's servants would not listen to her orders, she bought one for herself.
"What about Yun'er? Why doesn't she buy Yun'er? That maid must be loyal to her."
"I guess she couldn't take care of it. Old Madam Zhou thought she was embarrassing, so she made her kneel in the ancestral hall for several days. She even limped when she returned home three days ago, making her two brothers laugh at her."
Tian Bajiao really didn't understand her: "You're still going back home after making such a fuss?"
"Of course. Not to mention the Zhou family, even ordinary people like us have to observe etiquette. Her father is still alive, and her stepmother is still her mother. There's no reason for her to not visit. But she went back on her own, empty-handed, and returned with half a pig's shank."
"Aren't the Zhou family a family of scholars? Shouldn't they be more polite? Why didn't you prepare things for her? Why didn't Mr. Zhou come with her?"
"It was said that Madam Zhou was ill and Mr. Zhou couldn't leave. The gifts were prepared, but she took them out and took them back again. She never gave them to her family."
Boss Shen found these things very interesting. If Liu Suniang's personality wasn't so unpleasant, she would really want to be friends with her.
It's a pity that she looks so unapproachable.
It would be fine if she treated her father and brother like that, they deserved it, but no one had provoked her, so why was she frowning and glaring at them so cruelly every day?
It seems like everyone is plotting against her.
This time, I really brought disaster upon myself.
Boss Shen was a little worried and asked people several times, but he hadn't heard anything happened to the Zhou family.
Tian Bajiao didn't care about this. She had devised a way to prevent counterfeiting for her shop. For cheaper spices, she put seals on the openings. For more expensive ones, she added a layer of hand-painted paper with patterns on the outside of the box, and then stamped it with wax.
You can also soak spices in water and spray it on the paper box to add an extra layer of protection.
Before selling the item, write down the delivery time on a piece of paper, and add a statement that payment and delivery are settled, no returns or exchanges, and ask the person who takes the item to put their fingerprint on the box.
These things are not expensive, but they can prevent you from buying fake perfume here when you clearly haven't been there, just by changing the box.
But this would be much more troublesome, so Tian Bajiao felt that their products had to be better so that the buyers would feel that it was worth the effort.
For example, give the spice a better-sounding name, ask a few storytellers to make up some stories, saying that the spice has spirits and can choose its owner, so that people feel that they are not just buying spices, but... something better. Or make the boxes of spices more beautiful, and give some worthless but interesting things as gifts, such as giving eggs when buying spices, giving flowers when buying spices, giving purses that have been hanging outside the door for a long time when buying spices, so as to build its reputation.
This way, we will have more customers and earn more.
If Boss Shen comes up with some new aromatics from time to time, they will surely be flooded with customers and make a fortune, and then—
"Just give me more wages and hire two more people to help me with the work."
Tian Bajiao lay carelessly on Boss Shen's bamboo chair, his face full of longing for a better life.
Boss Shen studied the paper box and listened for a long time. Then she asked, "What if we lose money?"
"What?"
"What if no one comes and we lose money?" Boss Shen sighed. "Your idea sounds good, but it's useless here. It'll only be warm for ten days or half a month. Once you stop sending things out, no one will come. Besides, these are spices, not oil, salt, sauce, or vinegar. How many people use them every day? And if we can do this, why can't other shops? If we get in the way of those spice and medicine shops, they might try to squeeze us out. We're weak and alone, so let's just forget it."
"No."
Forget it, where is her salary going to go?
Tian Bajiao's mind raced as he said, "Every penny earned is a penny earned. Besides, no one buys this thing simply because it's expensive. Why not find a way to make it less expensive? If everyone can afford it, why worry about no one buying it?"
Boss Shen looked at her like she was crazy and said helplessly, "How about this, I'll give you an extra hundred coins every month."
What's the use of that? Just have some snacks.
Tian Bajiao said, "I'm serious. Wait for me to think about it."
"Okay, okay, go ahead and figure it out, but don't use anything from the store to figure it out."
"I know, I know."
Tian Bajiao is annoying her...
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