Old Madam Qu turned the long letter over and put it beside her. After a while, she saw the letter out of the corner of her eye and felt very annoyed. She opened the incense burner and threw the letter into the sparks.
waste!
waste!
The empire that He Xianjin had fought for, which had such a bright future, became difficult to advance in Chen Cai's hands - the autumn examination was approaching, and tracing books were supposed to be selling well, but he couldn't find a printing workshop to take the work!
More importantly, after the contracts of the nine towns and twenty-four villages' rural schools, kindergartens, and private schools that had previously signed contracts with He Xianjin expired, they all refused to sign contracts with Chenji of Jing County again!
Even if the contract was saved, he would not be able to produce so much paper at once to make tracing books. It was said that He Xianjin had signed a long-term monopoly cooperation agreement with a secluded village to purchase middle- and lower-end Xuan paper. However, this village, Xiaocao Village, completely ignored Chen Cai's order and only held on to the contract, shouting, "The penalty for breach of contract is 10,000 taels. If you help pay it, I will make paper for you!"
Fuck ten thousand taels!
Cut off Chen Cai’s head and see if it’s worth ten thousand taels!
Materials, channels, processing...all roads are blocked!
If this deal fails, the profits of the Jingxian workshop will never reach the amount that they did during the time when Xianjin was the manager!
Doing business is not about fancy things. There is only one criterion to judge whether the business is good or not - who makes the money!
Chen Cai's trip was a journey that showed his cowardice and led to a disastrous defeat!
In other words, in Jing County, everyone who was related to Xianjin would not buy into Chen Cai's account - these merchants wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to extort money, right? How long had Xianjin been there? How could a bunch of people be so devoted to her! It's business! It's business! Whose money is not money? Whose money is not money? !
Madam Qu held up her cane, rested her hands on the top of it, and said to Aunt Qu in a deep voice, "Bring out the turquoise jadeite necklace that the master gave me."
Second Aunt Qu took it out and prepared to hang it around Old Madam Qu's neck.
But Madam Qu stopped him and said, "Give it away. Bring me a gold-inlaid box."
Aunt Qu felt a little distressed. "This was bought for you by the master when he went to Yunnan to look at materials. At that time, the price of jadeite had not yet skyrocketed. Now this string of beads is rare in the entire Xuancheng Prefecture..."
Old Madam Qu took the gold-inlaid nanmu box wrapped in red velvet cloth, and half an hour later, she appeared at the Longchuanxi Wharf, less than three miles away from the Jixi workshop. There was a large open space on the west bank of the wharf, with more than a dozen row houses built on the left and right, and the tiled houses in the middle were built smoothly and flatly.
There were five or six printing machines placed in order in the tile-roofed house, and several men were carrying stacks of paper half a person's height on their shoulders and walking towards the shed.
Madam Qu and Aunt Qu got off the mule cart. Madam Qu called one of them and said, "Where is your boss Shang?"
The man looked at Madam Qu and said with a smile, "Follow me."
After turning around the row houses and tiled houses, Madam Qu knocked on the door frame with one hand. A loud and powerful male voice rang out from the inner room, "Come in!"
Old Madam Qu lifted the straw curtain and went in. Everywhere she looked, she saw that the ground was made of untiled sand, the roof beams were made of unpolished and unvarnished wood, and even the chest of drawers looked like it had been picked up from somewhere, and it wobbled like a ladybug with a broken leg.
As soon as Boss Shang saw Madam Qu, he went over to her with a sincere smile on his broad face, "What brings you here? Please sit down!" After looking around the inner room for a long time, he brought in a stool without a backrest and asked Madam Qu to sit down. He rubbed his hands and smiled awkwardly, "All the money has been used to survey the land, pay the workers, and buy tools... Repairs and construction will come later..."
Madam Qu didn't realize that there was a hint of envy in her eyes. "Your Shang family has made a comeback under your leadership."
Migrating from a small county town to Xuancheng Prefecture, he has accumulated such a large piece of land and so many employees, and his business seems to be doing well...
How could Boss Shang's mother have such good fortune to have given birth to and raised such a capable son?
She gave birth to three children, but none of them won the prize.
Is it a problem of probability or a problem of quality?
Boss Shang smiled and served a cup of tea. His body was like a bear, but his movements were very delicate. "Look at what you said. If it weren't for your help to clear my warehouse, how would I get the money to move to this big place?"
As soon as Mrs. Qu raised her eyes, Aunt Qu handed her the red velvet box.
Boss Shang jumped back as if he had stepped on a knife blade, "What are you doing?"
Madam Qu smiled, her cheekbones raised high, "Congratulations on your new home. This is a small gift. Please accept it." Seeing that Boss Shang was determined not to accept it, Madam Qu said with a smile, "I know that you have a close relationship with our sister Jin. You accepted my gift. Sister Jin was just happy and didn't blame you."
Boss Shang laughed, took the red velvet box with one hand, and quickly put it back into Aunt Qu's hand, catching Aunt Qu off guard.
"Please don't say that!" Boss Shang took a step back. "I don't want to receive gifts without merit. I am afraid that I can't complete the task you assigned me."
Madam Qu's smile faded. When she heard Boss Shang take the initiative to break the window paper, she took it slowly and said, "You and I are both businessmen. Making money is the most important thing in doing business. Xianjin went to the Jixi workshop, and my son Chen Cai took over the Jingxian workshop. Logically speaking, no matter who you print for, you are helping the Chen family. There is not much difference. Why did you reject my son harshly?"
Boss Shang lowered his head and listened, his expression unchanged. He smiled and poured hot water for Old Lady Qu. "The difference is huge."
Madam Qu's smile disappeared completely.
Boss Shang smiled and brought the teacup to Madam Qu's side. "We don't recognize the Chen family, we recognize the Xianjin brand."
Boss Shang saw that Madam Qu didn't take the teacup, but he didn't get angry. He brought himself a short stool with a big bear statue squatting on a low tree stump, looking simple and honest but also secretly aggressive. "We are all from Jing County. We haven't thought about working together to make money in all these years, right? Jin Jie'er has strung together a bunch of people from Jing County and put the meat in a pot to make soup. Whoever has the ability can eat the meat, and whoever doesn't can also drink the soup. It wasn't like this in the past - in the past, those who ate the meat would vomit and would not let others smell the meat."
Madam Qu looked at Boss Shang with a cold gaze, "You are the only printing workshop in Jing County, but not in Xuancheng!"
Boss Shang made a "please" gesture and said, "Then please do as you please. Even if you spent a lot of money to print the tracing book, the nine towns, twenty-four villages and eighty-one official schools in Jing County cannot bypass Xianjin and sign the contract with Chen Cai."
Madam Qu took a few deep breaths, her voice stuck in her throat with anger, "Jin Jie'er, where do you get such a big face!"
Boss Shang laughed and said, "First, these 81 official schools were run by Jin Jie'er one by one!"
"Secondly, Miss Qiao from Qingcheng Mountain Courtyard was rescued by Jin Jie'er on her own initiative. Yes, those who are loyal are butchers, and those who are unfaithful are scholars. But when the scholars in our twenty-four villages are really loyal, it's not just empty talk."
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