Chapter 62 Chapter 62 Coming out of Plum Blossom Lane, Shen Xuan didn’t…
After coming out of Plum Blossom Lane, Shen Xuan did not go home, but went directly to Zijin Street.
The carriage stopped near Baihua Lane on Zijin Street. Shen Xuan took a closer look and found that the shop Xue Fenglin bought was next to the hairdressing shop Changcuifang. This is exactly the place Shen Xuan wants most!
Shen Xuan did mention this to Xue Fenglin last night, but he just complained that the shop was too expensive and he couldn't afford it for the time being.
Later, Xue Fenglin kept asking him for interest, but he didn't respond. Shen Xuan thought he didn't hear it.
Unexpectedly, Xue Fenglin had already remembered what he said, and specially called Wu Xin over last night. He was asked to find a dealer before dawn and buy the shop that Shen Xuan valued so much!
The storefront is about ten feet wide, with a hairdressing shop and a cosmetics shop on either side, both doing good business.
The original shop sold silk flower jewellery, but its business was taken away by the hairdressing shop next door. So the shop owner simply sold the shop and bought a farm instead, saving the trouble of running the business.
Chen Xuan opened a shop here, and the customers on both sides were his ready-made customers, so why would he worry about not being able to sell his products?
He was delighted and went to look for Master Wang from last time. I drew a sketch for him and asked him to renovate the store according to my requirements.
The shop should be bright and spacious, and have cabinets for displaying goods. The store's color, however, is no longer the festive bright red like the one in the theater, but a natural wood color. In order to stand out among the dark-colored stores, it presents a fresh and refined feeling.
This shop is several times larger than the Xianwei Theater, so the renovation work naturally required a lot more work. Fortunately, the two courtyards behind the shop were in good condition and did not need to be renovated, which saved a lot of effort.
Chen Xuan went to find a shop that made custom plaques, wrote the three characters "Xuan Zi Fang" by hand, and asked someone to make a plaque according to the font.
The plaque of Xuanzifang is different from the fairy-like atmosphere of the theater. What matters is not the magnificent grandeur, but the elegance.
Therefore, this plaque does not use the usual black color, but uses the original wood color as the base, and the font on it is black instead of gold, in order to highlight the elegance of the font.
After Shen Xuan finished all this, he prepared to recruit a few assistants for Xuanzifang.
Because the soap formula needed to be kept secret, he decided to buy a few people like the theater fairy and keep the body contract in his hand for better reliability.
However, before Chen Xuan had the chance to go to the Human Market again, Wu Wang came over and handed him several indentures, saying that Xue Fenglin had already selected several people for Chen Xuan, and they had all been trained, so he could just use them.
Shen Xuan didn't expect Xue Fenglin to have even prepared this level for him. He followed Wuwang to the shop and saw the four servants sent by Xue Fenglin.
The four people included two brothers and two girls, all of them were sixteen or seventeen years old.
Making soap is not difficult, nor is it physically demanding work; it just requires carefulness. These servants all seem to be smart and capable, so they can be put to use.
Their appearance was also in line with the standards used by wealthy families to select slaves and maids, and they were extremely beautiful.
Shen Xuan asked them a few questions casually and found out that the two boys were named Wenzhu and Wensong, and the two girls were named Wenlan and Wenju, all of whom were reborn by Xue Fenglin.
They were all illegitimate sons and daughters of the family, and their family was also in business. Because of the locust plague, the whole family had no food to eat, so they were sold by the mistress just to earn some food for the family.
Shen Xuan was surprised after listening to their introduction. Before, those sold in the market were all children from poor farmers, but now even those running small businesses have started selling their children?
Shen Xuan asked them in detail about the situation in their hometown, and several people told him in detail with tears in their eyes. Just take the locust plague that has hit the northwest as an example. Food prices have already skyrocketed, and even corn and beans have increased dozens of times.
In those rural areas, there were even cases of people exchanging their own children for food. They sold their children for money because their families had no other options, which was better than letting the whole family starve to death.
Shen Xuan's heart sank after hearing this, and he felt a little more worried. Is the locust plague in the northwest really so serious?
Fortunately, he had stockpiled a lot of food in advance. Even if the impact of the locust plague continues to expand, it should be enough to last until the first batch of grain harvest next year.
But if the disaster continues, the people who can't survive may become refugees.
At that time, refugees will flee from the surrounding areas and the public security in the capital will also be affected. I don't know if this capital city will be in chaos...
As a brother, Shen Xuan couldn't do anything even if he was worried about the peace of Dajin.
But because of this little worry, Shen Xuan called Jingui again, gave him three hundred taels of silver, and asked him to quietly go to the market to buy some inferior rations.
The price of grain in the market has skyrocketed recently. Before, three hundred taels of silver could buy two hundred dan of good rice, but now it can only buy one hundred dan of brown rice.
Although Jin Gui didn't understand why Shen Xuan still wanted to spend money to stockpile food when his family already had so much food stored.
However, we still bought the food according to his request. And they were stored in the warehouses of Xianwei Theater and Xuanzifang respectively.
Although Shen Xuan bought so much brown rice, he did not deduct people's food. On weekdays, the guys still eat the rice and flour they bought before, and these corns are used as a reserve for emergencies.
Chen Xuan took some time to teach a few of his fellow writers the steps of making soap.
These people have been helping their families since they were young. They are experienced in this kind of work and business, and they quickly learned the production techniques without much training from Shen Xuan.
Seeing this, Shen Xuan purchased the first batch of raw materials and with the four of them working, they made more than a thousand bars of soap from these raw materials in just a few days.
After all the soaps are saponified and packaged, the door facade can be renovated.
Shen Xuan had the packaged soaps placed on the counter, and some unpackaged ones were opened and placed on the counter as samples for people to see.
He then put up a board and marked the prices of all the soaps.
No matter what kind of soap it was, it cost two taels of silver each. Although the price is high, this soap is a precious item and only rich people will buy it.
A mere two taels of silver is nothing to a rich man...
It is already the winter solstice, and the Chinese New Year will be here in a few days. Shen Xuan picked an auspicious day, hung up the plaque, and opened the business with gongs and drums.
The Spring Festival is the most important festival of the year, and the famous families in Beijing also attach great importance to it.
As the Chinese New Year approaches every year, every family will buy various New Year goods and gifts. Chen Xuan opened the store during the preparation period for the New Year in order to make a fortune before the New Year.
On the first day of opening, four waiters from the literary generation stood at the door in very elegant robes to attract customers.
Unlike most shops that employ only men as clerks, the two men and two women in Xuanzifang catch people's eyes. One can't help but want to take a closer look at what is sold in this shop.
Because the shop is filled with scented soaps, you can smell the fragrance just by passing by outside the shop.
Customers passing by thought that the store sold spices, but then they saw several shop assistants holding wooden trays with some translucent block-like objects on them.
"What on earth is this? Why is there a flower carved into it?"
"It looks exquisite and smells good, but I wonder what it's used for?"
"This thing looks very familiar. Why does it feel like soap?"
"Isn't it just soap?" The literate lady said, "Look at the sign next to it that says 'fragrant soap', it must be scented soap, and it costs two taels of silver a piece, it's not cheap."
…
Although many people thought that two taels of silver for a bar of soap was too expensive, many people were still attracted to the store because the soap was so fresh and beautiful.
"Is this soap the same as soap?" A girl looked at the soap on the counter and couldn't help asking Wenlan next to her.
Wenlan hurriedly stepped forward and used the words that Shen Xuan had taught her in advance, saying, "Girl, this soap can be used to wash your face and take a bath just like soap, but it is more sophisticated."
"The soap in your hand has osmanthus flowers in it, so it has a sweet osmanthus fragrance. If you use it to take a bath or wash your hair, your body will have a sweet osmanthus fragrance, just like your own body fragrance."
It was popular among the men and women of the Jin Dynasty to use perfumed powder, and there were even special perfumed powder shops on Zijin Street.
But most scented powders have a strong smell, and if used too much they are very pungent, and are far less natural than the scent of this one with only one kind of flower essential oil. After taking a shower, the smell on your body will disappear.
When the girl heard that this soap could leave a scent on the body after washing the face and taking a bath, she was immediately attracted.
At this time, Wenlan brought a plate of warm water and encouraged the girl to try it.
The girl did not refuse, but used the osmanthus soap to wash her hands.
After washing her hands, she put her hands to her nose and smelled them. Sure enough, she smelled a sweet osmanthus fragrance.
"This soap smells really good!" The girl was delighted and immediately wanted to buy the osmanthus-scented soap.
Wen Lan on the side said, "Girl, this soap is our trial product. If you like the smell of this soap, I will get you a new one."
After that, he took out a packaged sweet-scented osmanthus soap and brought it to her, and then said to her: "There are some other scented soaps and shampoo soaps that can nourish black hair in the store. They are all the same price. If you like, you can take a look at them."
The girl was Sheng Ruzhi, the daughter of Shengfeng cloth merchant in Beijing, so her family was not short of money.
Seeing that the soap was beautiful and smelled good, and the service in the store was attentive and polite, I was so happy that I bought a piece of all the soaps there.
Seeing that Sheng Ruzhi bought a whole set of six soaps of different flavors at once, Wenlan led her to the counter.
She took out a very delicate bamboo box, put the six bars of soap neatly in the grid, and then closed the lid with the word "Xuan" printed on it.
"Miss, the total is twelve taels of silver." Wenlan said.
"Isn't this box free?" Sheng Ruzhi asked in surprise.
If such an exquisite bamboo box were sold separately on the market, it would probably cost five hundred coins!
Wenlan: "Miss, you bought a whole set of soaps. This box is for you."
Sheng Ruzhi was even more delighted when she heard this. She asked her maid to pick up the box and went out happily.
Someone in the shop next to him saw that the knowledgeable daughter of the Sheng family also bought these soaps, and immediately became eager to buy some.
Many people rushed to ask several shop assistants to introduce the effects and smells of the soaps. After trying them one by one, they readily paid the money, bought the soaps they liked and left.
Shen Xuan was drinking tea in the teahouse opposite at this time, watching the situation in the shop through the window of the private room.
This Xuanzifang shop is a high-end shop, so customers don't line up in long lines like those at Xiyuan Xianwei snack bar.
All the customers who came into the shop, especially those coming from the shops on both sides, basically bought something and left. The average customer order rate was quite high!
By noon, most of the guests on the road had gone to eat, and Xuanzifang became a little quieter.
Shen Xuancai asked Jingui to go to the shop quietly and count the proceeds from this morning.
Unexpectedly, in just one morning, the shop sold 24 bars of soap and earned 48 taels of silver.
This shop was indeed extremely profitable, just as Shen Xuan had expected.
Even after deducting the higher production cost of the soap, half a day's net profit is equivalent to two full days of theater entertainment.
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