It was almost noon, and Li Changlong was getting anxious. He said, "Qiqi, why don't we buy them at a cheaper price? If we keep going like this, we'll have to take them all back tonight."
"No way!" Li Dalang immediately rejected Li Changlong's suggestion. "If we sell this charcoal cheaply, how will the villagers survive the winter?"
Li Shoucai stepped forward and said, "If we don't sell it cheaply, what other way is there to sell this charcoal? If we can't even sell a pound of charcoal, we won't have a single penny!"
Li Dalang couldn't think of any good ideas, so he could only lower his head in silence.
Seeing that Li Dalang hadn't gotten a good solution from Li Shoucai despite his three attempts, Li Shoucai guessed that Li Dalang couldn't come up with any good ideas.
Therefore, Li Shoucai could only place his hopes on Lu Qiqi. He said, "Girl, do you have any good ideas?"
Lu Qiqi watched as baskets of charcoal across the street were bought up one by one, while she herself remained untouched. It was impossible for her not to feel anxious at all.
But she didn't want to just sell off the best silver frost charcoal at a low price.
Otherwise, why would she go to such great lengths to write out the recipe for burning silver frost charcoal, and then have the villagers transport it to Luzhou County to sell?
Lu Qiqi thought for a moment and said, "Second brother, go and buy a tarpaulin. It doesn't have to be new; just buy an old one."
Li Changlong didn't ask Lu Qiqi why he needed to buy tarpaulins at this time. In any case, he believed that Lu Qiqi would definitely come up with a good way to sell all the charcoal.
“Okay, I’ll go now,” Li Changlong said, taking the money from Lu Qiqi and going to buy a rain tarp.
Li Shoucai grew anxious, "Girl, why are we going to buy a tarpaulin at a time like this? Do you plan to spend the night here?"
"The Luzhou Prefecture doesn't allow people to sleep on the streets; doing so will get you arrested and imprisoned!"
“Uncle Shoucai, don’t worry, Miss Lu must have come up with a good idea,” Li Dalang said.
From the moment he received the charcoal-making recipe, he greatly admired Lu Qiqi's wisdom and felt that Lu Qiqi would definitely have a way to sell the charcoal!
......
Here, a middle-aged man and several fellow villagers, carrying charcoal, followed a servant into a wealthy household.
"Just put it here!" the servant said, pointing to a small corner of the woodshed.
"Okay, I'll put it away right away!" The middle-aged man said with a smile, placing the charcoal and bamboo basket together in the corner.
After the charcoal was neatly arranged, the servant took out a money bag from his pocket, counted the silver, and handed it to the middle-aged man, saying, "That's all, count it yourself."
The middle-aged man smiled as he accepted the money, counted it, and then realized that twenty coins were missing. His smile froze.
Then, he glanced at the servant's expression and understood what was going on. He swallowed his resentment and smiled, "That's enough! Thank you for your patronage, sir!"
Seeing that he was a sensible person, the servant chuckled and said, "You're a smart man. If the manor needs more charcoal in the future, I'll continue to buy it from you!"
After nodding his thanks, the middle-aged man led his fellow villager out of the mansion through a side gate.
Just as they stepped out of the side door, a middle-aged man stood in the corner and spat, "Pah! A wealthy family indeed, but they're nothing but lowlifes and filthy scum."
After finishing his rant, he said to his fellow villagers, "Let's hurry back; there's still a lot of charcoal waiting for us to deliver!"
The servant bought a batch of charcoal for winter use and made a lot of money from it. He hummed a little tune as he walked, planning to go to Xiaochunlou to listen to some music whenever he had time.
"Genzi," Manager Feng called out to Genzi, who was humming a tune and walking like a lazy bum, "Have you bought all the charcoal I asked you to?"
Genzi looked closely and saw that it was Steward Feng. He immediately stood up straight and said seriously, "Everything has been bought. The best silver frost charcoal is in the woodshed."
Manager Feng, unsuspecting, nodded and said, "Then take me to see it."
Upon hearing this, Genzi froze on the spot, too afraid to move. In previous years, the coal purchases were never inspected, so why was he caught red-handed this time?
"What? You're no longer useful?" Manager Feng said with a displeased expression.
Genzi was sweating profusely and said, "No way! I'll take you there right away."
"Manager Feng, why do we need to trouble you to personally inspect such a small matter as purchasing charcoal?" Genzi asked curiously.
Steward Feng didn't mince words and said directly, "This year, the old lady is taking the eldest young lady back to the old house for the winter. We servants don't expect to please the old lady, but we can't let her find fault with us either, or we'll all be in deep trouble!"
They walked to the woodshed, which had few windows and was dark inside. Manager Feng then had Genzi light an oil lamp for illumination.
When Steward Feng saw the silver frost charcoal, he nodded, thinking that the charcoal Genzi had bought this time was quite good. Just as he was about to turn around and praise it, he noticed something unusual.
As soon as Butler Feng turned around, Genzi breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that he had escaped a disaster.
Then he could buy some good charcoal without anyone discovering that he was embezzling money.
Just as Genzi was making his plans, a sudden pain shot through his stomach, and he was kicked to the ground. His palm was burned by the oil lamp, and he curled up on the ground in agony, groaning.
"You scoundrel! You even dare to embezzle the master's charcoal money!" Steward Feng cursed.
"Men, tie him up and take him to the Little Spring Pavilion!"
Genzi ignored his stomachache and hand pain, quickly got up and hugged Manager Feng's leg, pleading, "Manager Feng, I was wrong, I won't dare to do it again, please don't sell me to be a pimp!"
You should know that the pimps in Xiaochunlou are all there to pour bathwater for the girls. If they don't please the young masters, they'll be skinned alive and pinned against the wall!
That's not a life for a human being!
Manager Feng kicked away Genzi, whose face was covered in tears and snot, and said disdainfully, "If you had known this would happen, why did you do it in the first place!"
After saying that, Genzi was carried out of the woodshed by two servants, one on each side.
......
At the same time, Li Changlong also bought back the tarpaulin.
The tarpaulin wasn't new, but it was cheap, so Lu Qiqi was very satisfied.
Lu Qiqi said to Li Changlong, "Second Brother, have everyone pour out the charcoal, and we'll sell it in bulk!"
Li Changlong was completely lost on Lu Qiqi's train of thought. He said, "Pour it all out, what a hassle! We'll have to put it all back in if someone buys it later!"
“We have no choice but to sell them,” Lu Qiqi shook her head and said, “Look at the charcoal from the shops across the street, they’re all selling inferior products, and people are still buying them. It’s probably become the norm in the industry.”
“Buyers are afraid that our charcoal will be the same, and that they will not only waste money but also get inferior charcoal. They might as well just buy the cheaper one.”
“We’ll just lay out the silver frost charcoal and show it to the buyers. They won’t have to worry about wasting money, and we won’t have to sell it cheaply!”
After listening to Lu Qiqi's words, Li Shoucai gave Lu Qiqi a thumbs up and said, "Good idea, let's quickly pour out the charcoal!"
Without further ado, Li Shoucai led several villagers to pour all the silver frost charcoal onto the tarpaulin. The faces of the charcoal sellers across the street instantly changed from mockery to gloom.
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