Zhang Qingquan paused for a moment, stared at Jiang Yimian and thought it over carefully before nodding, "Okay, I agree. Miss Jiang, how many bars of soap do you have? I'll buy some to try first. If they sell well, we can then discuss a contract and long-term cooperation."
Soap is a novel product. He can get a rough idea of the results by trying it in a few surrounding counties. If it sells well, he will consider shipping it to shops further away.
At that time, Huichuntang's reputation will be further enhanced, and their business will be even better.
Jiang Yimian then said, "I have a hundred portions here now, and I estimate there are nearly a hundred more at home. If you want them all, I can send them over tomorrow."
Because she was unsure whether the deal would go through smoothly, she only prepared this much. She was originally afraid of having too much, but now it seems that she underestimated Huichuntang.
Zhang Qingquan paused, sighed, and then said, "Alright, let's start with two hundred portions."
Although it's a bit too little, it should be enough to try it out at a shop in the county town.
Jiang Yimian took the medicinal herbs, which were packed in a cloth bag, out of her basket and handed them to the shop assistant next to her, saying, "These are medicinal herbs. Calculate how many copper coins they can sell for."
The shopkeeper quickly took it, but didn't leave immediately. He just peeked into the basket on the ground.
Jiang Yimian took out two small boxes from her basket, opened the lid, and said, "Count them."
The box contained neatly arranged bars of the same color; soft cloth was sewn into the sides of the box, seemingly to prevent the soaps from chipping or breaking.
Each bar of soap is flat and smooth, exuding a sweet fragrance of osmanthus, making it a pleasing sight to behold.
Zhang Qingquan and his assistant were somewhat surprised to see the various kinds of soaps in the box.
I thought there was only one color, but it turns out there are other colors too, including pink, green, and blue, which saved me the trouble of reminding them to create different patterns.
The girl in front of me had clearly come prepared.
However, when they vaguely saw a large box full of soap, the two of them felt something was strange.
As the shopkeeper carefully counted the items, he said, "Luckily, Miss Jiang handed me a box. If she had just given me this whole box, I doubt I would have believed it."
There seemed to be too much stuff, and it hadn't been packaged yet. If he saw it, he'd probably think this person was some kind of conman and be too eager to sell the whole box.
Jiang Yimian just smiled. She had already thought of this. If she just took out a bunch of them, it would only make them look cheap. So she specially prepared a box for display.
Zhang Qingquan expressed his understanding, saying that if so many soaps were all packed in small boxes, it would not only be troublesome, but also add unnecessary weight.
This box lined with soft cloth would be a good fit.
After the inventory was completed, the shopkeeper checked the medicinal herbs in the cloth bag, gave Jiang Yimian two taels of silver, and counted out two hundred and thirty copper coins for her before smiling and inviting Jiang Yimian to come back and sell more medicinal herbs.
Jiang Yimian was in a great mood when she left Huichuntang. Although she knew that she would still be able to make deals with other shops even without Huichuntang, she did not expect it to go so smoothly.
The thought of having a main source of income in the future, not having to sit around and eat her savings away, and that her life would get better and better made her feel much more relaxed.
When she returned to the konjac stall, both buckets on the table were empty, as were the tasting plates, with only one bucket still having a little over half full.
As for the other items like eggs and cloth, they had almost all been sold out, and now there was only a neatly folded piece of gray linen in the basket.
A few people were still gathered in front of the stall. The woman holding the items looked somewhat familiar.
Jiang Yimian thought for a while before remembering that it was the little woman who was the first to come to the stall to buy konjac last time.
The young woman held a portion of konjac wrapped in bamboo leaves in her hand. Her gaze fell on a piece of cloth in the basket on her back, and she asked curiously, "How much is this coarse cloth?"
Liu Dayong quickly said, "This is the last piece. If you want it, I'll sell it to you forty coins. This piece of cloth is about fifteen feet long, which should be enough to make a set of spring clothes."
The young woman carefully calculated that the cheapest coarse cloth in the shop cost six coins per foot. Although it was better than the cloth in her hand, it was cheaper, so it was still worth it to make a set of clothes.
She placed the konjac in the bamboo basket slung over her arm, wiped the water off her hands, picked up the cloth, looked at it, and said with a smile, "Okay, I'll take it."
Just then, several women passing by exclaimed in horror, "How terrifying! The tofu stall on the street ahead was overturned, and those men, I don't know what they do, grabbed that girl and tried to take her away, saying it was for a wedding or something. What's going on?"
"You don't know this, I heard that one of those men is the girl's second uncle, and he wanted to take her to get married. She didn't want to, so she made a scene, and quite a few people watched."
The young woman froze, then stood up abruptly, forgetting to put down the cloth in her hand, and ran off with her belongings.
Liu Dayong was stunned. By the time he realized what had happened, the person had already run quite a distance. He stood up to chase after him, saying, "Hey, you haven't paid yet."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Dashu immediately rolled up his sleeves, grabbed the cleaver he used to cut konjac, and rushed over. "Gousheng, you stay here and watch the stall. Uncle Dayong and I are going to collect the money. It's really strange that they dare to rob people in broad daylight."
Gou Sheng quickly responded.
When Jiang Yimian walked over, Zhao Dashu and Liu Dayong had already run quite a distance. After finding out what had happened to Gousheng and learning that Zhao Dashu had taken the kitchen knife, she put down her basket and hurriedly chased after them.
They were afraid that Zhao Dashu might act irrationally and cause trouble.
When she chased after them, she saw a crowd gathered on the street not far away, with a lot of arguing and cursing coming from inside. Zhao Dashu and the other person had disappeared.
Jiang Yimian had no choice but to squeeze into the crowd. Fortunately, there was no basket, so she easily squeezed in. She immediately saw Zhao Dashu, who was being held down by Liu Dayong while holding a kitchen knife. The two of them seemed to have forgotten what they came for and were only looking at the people in the center of the crowd.
Jiang Yimian breathed a sigh of relief; at least they didn't make a move.
With a huge weight lifted from my shoulders, I'm now in the mood to enjoy the show.
Standing in front of the smashed table was the familiar young woman, her face now filled with anger, looking rather fierce, quite different from how she appeared when buying things at the stall.
Behind her were a boy of about ten years old and a young girl.
The little girl was wearing a veil, so her face couldn't be seen, but you could tell from her trembling body that she was sobbing.
Crushed tofu was scattered all over the ground, along with some white liquid that looked like soy milk.
Four men stood opposite the young woman, the middle-aged man in the lead looking impatient.
"Widow Cheng, get out of my way! I'm taking my niece back. What business is it of yours, a mere aunt? She's from Xujia Village. What right do you, from Liushu Village, have to meddle? Get out of my way, or I'll get rough with you."
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