Everything on Pei Yan's side was proceeding in an orderly manner as he had planned, but Yu Tang was a little flustered.

First, she couldn't figure out whether Pei Yan's business was going well or not. Second, the family shop didn't catch up with the boom before the Spring Festival this year - because her great uncle Yu Bo stayed in Jiangxi for too long, and it was already the Ramadan when he came back. They hurried to open the shop on the 20th of Ramadan, but according to custom, the shops in the market would be closed on the 22nd and 23rd of Ramadan, the days before the Little New Year, and would not open until the 15th of the next year. This year's business didn't make much money, so they had to open the shop before the New Year to get a good start.

Because of this, Yu Tang was called by his uncle to help in the shop for two days.

In her uncle's words, she didn't have to understand how to run a business, but she had to understand the family's financial affairs: "Even if you marry a son-in-law, you have to know how much money the family makes in a year, whether it is a loss or a profit, otherwise you will be easily fooled."

Yu Wen and Chen both thought it made sense, so they asked Yu Tang to wear coarse clothes and keep accounts in the back warehouse. They also asked Yu Tang: "Come to the shop every five days in the future. You have to know what kind of things we sell in our shop and how much money we make for each item."

Yu Tang shook his head inwardly after hearing this.

No wonder no one wants to be a live-in son-in-law?

Their family is considered to be kind, but they are already on guard against this son-in-law even though they don't even know where he is. Even if the son-in-law comes to their house willingly, as long as he is not a fool, he will probably feel uncomfortable if he is treated like this. How can they talk about trust and dependence?

If a couple lacks even the most basic trust and dependence, how can they live in harmony?

Perhaps, having a live-in son-in-law may not be able to solve all the problems.

While Yu Tang was daydreaming in his mind, he stood at the door of the warehouse with an account book in his hand, recording the goods coming in and out.

When Yu Tang's grandfather was still alive, his family had their own small workshop, and they could make things like carved red lacquer, which was a complex craft and required craftsmanship. But when his grandfather passed away, his father had not yet passed the imperial examination, and the master who had been supported by the family for two or three generations was suddenly poached by a century-old shop in Suzhou. His great uncle was the only one who knew the craft of carved red lacquer in the family. Unfortunately, there were not many descendants in their family, and his great uncle became more cautious after this incident. He kept the skills hidden from the apprentices he recruited after they had worked at home for more than ten years and was unwilling to teach them the skills completely. He was also too busy to handle it all by himself, so the number of carved red lacquer objects produced became fewer and fewer, and there were almost no fine products. The business in the shop was getting worse and worse every year.

The uncle did not try to recruit a talented apprentice, but placed his hopes on Yu Yuan. Yu Yuan studied hard for several years, but whether it was because of her talent or because her uncle was not good at being a role model, Yu Yuan's skills were mediocre, and she was not as good as her uncle's eldest apprentice Xia Pinggui.

Xia Pinggui was an apprentice at the Yu family when he was six years old. He was two or three years older than Yu Yuan. He was an apprentice taken in by Yu Tang's grandfather's son when he was still alive. When he was young, he lived in the Yu family. Later, when Yu Tang grew up, Wang asked him to move into the shop to live in consideration of the difference between men and women. When Changxing Street was flooded, Wang preferred to arrange him to live in the old house of the Yu family instead of letting him move back to the Yu family.

This time when the shop was completed, Xia Pinggui moved back to the shop with several of his fellow apprentices.

Although Xia Pinggui and Yu Tang didn't see each other often, they grew up together. He would run into Yu Tang occasionally when he went to Yu's house. Seeing Yu Tang helping with the accounting at the door of the warehouse, he asked the maid in the shop to get some soup and handed it to Yu Tang: "Miss, the weather is too cold, you should cover yourself up and be careful not to catch a cold."

In the entire lacquerware shop, apart from the people of the Yu family, Yu Tang only knew Xia Pinggui.

She smiled and thanked Xia Pinggui, then took the soup pot.

A smile appeared on Xia Pinggui's honest and loyal face. He said "You're welcome" and continued to urge the young men in his family to put the goods into the warehouse.

Yu Tang saw two black lacquered square tables in the warehouse. She couldn't help but ask Xia Pinggui, "Why are we still selling furniture?"

When she was little, she had been to the storeroom with her father. In her memory, the storeroom was full of shelves, on which were placed all kinds of lacquer boxes and cases of all sizes, from nine-grid boxes for snacks to boxes for rouge.

Why does it look like a grocery store now?

Xia Pinggui hesitated for a while, and when he saw Yu Bo and Yu Wen standing in front of the shop discussing the layout, he lowered his voice and said, "We are too close to Hangzhou City. Mother-of-pearl is becoming popular outside now. People who want to carve red lacquer are particular about the craftsmanship. If we don't sell tables, chairs, boxes and the like, our business will be even worse."

Yu Tang didn't understand.

Xia Pinggui explained to her: "In the past, when marrying off a daughter or a wife, they would always buy one or two red lacquer boxes to store things. But since the Sheng family from Jiangxi opened a shop in Hangzhou three years ago, it has become popular in Hangzhou to buy boxes with brooches and ornaments."

After all, her family runs a lacquerware shop, so she knows how to make lacquerware. She polished conch shells and seashells and inlaid them on the box. The conch shells shimmer with colorful luster under the light, with the luster of gemstones. Some people who care about their reputation but cannot afford a treasure box would buy this as a substitute.

But people have different preferences. Some wealthy people particularly dislike jewels and precious things, especially when the objects inlaid are not gems but gem substitutes such as shells and conchs.

Yu Tang thought for a moment and said, "Could it be that the Sheng family has some new craftsmanship that can make mother-of-pearl much cheaper than carved red jade?"

Xia Pinggui's eyes showed admiration, and he said admiringly: "Miss, you are really smart. It is indeed as you said. Their family now makes a kind of 'contrast color brooch'. The original color is much cheaper than the general brooch. If you want other colors, you can customize it. Customization is much more expensive than the general color. It has not only made a name for itself, but also made business. Now it is in its heyday. I heard that the Zhejiang Provincial Government gave a twelve-panel screen with a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix made by their family during the Qianqiu Festival." Speaking of this, he hesitated for a while, "However, our shop is mainly about patterns, and it has not changed for many years..."

Although the words were said politely, Yu Tang still understood them.

She asked, "Are you saying that our carving skills are not good enough?"

Xia Pinggui blushed and responded vaguely. Yu Tang didn't hear clearly what he said, but understood the meaning.

She was silent for a long while.

In her previous life, their shop was sold after it burned down, and she didn't know how their business was doing. Later, Yu Yuan made money, and her uncle wanted to revive the family business, but she passed away before her uncle could build up the family business.

Now they have put a lot of effort into rebuilding the shop and spent a lot of money to buy a lot of goods. They can't just linger on, right?

This is what she can't stand the most.

I spent the same amount of time and energy, but I didn't do as well as others.

We have to find the reasons and think of solutions.

She looked at the various items piled up in the warehouse and sighed in her heart. She didn't even want to look at these goods for a few seconds, let alone those who were buying things.

I wonder if I can postpone the opening and try to re-adjust the products?

Yu Tang pulled Wang aside and asked her quietly.

Wang smiled bitterly, hugged Yu Tang, and whispered, "Good boy, you are thoughtful. Your uncle has been doing business all his life, how could he not know these principles? But our shop still owes money to the Pei family, where can we have extra money to buy goods. Besides, the good utensils are kept by each shop as treasures of the town, how can they be sold to our family easily? Even if they are sold to our family, if a merchant takes a fancy to them, we can't do anything with them, and it will easily cause trouble. It's better not to put them on display."

Yu Tang was stunned and asked, "Is it because you don't have money?"

Wang paused and lowered her voice: "It's not entirely money, it's just that there is no manpower at home..."

I just don’t have the skill to do it at home.

This is exactly what Xia Pinggui said.

In recent years, the shop has been run by her uncle. She was afraid that if she asked too much, her aunt would lose face. After hesitating for a few words, she returned to the shop with her aunt. She found an opportunity to pull Yu Yuan aside and talk to him in private: "How are the skills of the chefs we invited back from Jiangxi? Do you think it's possible to rely on just these few people?"

Yu Yuan has been worrying about this these days.

He said, "The skills of those masters are all average. One of them is not bad, but he is good at gilding. My family started out by doing red carving. My father said that gilding is cheaper. But I think it is putting the cart before the horse."

Every lacquerware shop has its own characteristics. It took their family several generations to build up a reputation for red carving. Now they switched to red tracing, a craft they were not familiar with. Yu Tang agreed with Yu Yuan's point of view.

Yu Yuan had argued with Yu Bo for several times. Wang stood firmly on Yu Bo's side and said something like "haste makes waste. First make some money with gilding, and then find some friends of your uncle who are scholars to help draw some new red-carved patterns, and the situation will gradually improve." Now that he suddenly met someone who thought the same as him, he could no longer suppress his resentment, and couldn't help saying, "I don't know what my father is thinking. No matter how good gilding is, it's not our family's craft. If we lose our roots, how can the Yu family survive?"

The father and son had quarreled over this matter in their previous life.

Yu Tang smiled and said, "Didn't you say you were going to open a shop in Hangzhou? No matter how big the flood is."

Yu Yuan blushed and said, "If my father insists on doing it, I will go to Hangzhou to open a shop." After saying that, he was afraid that Yu Tang would misunderstand him, so he hurriedly said, "This is not your sister-in-law's idea. It's my own idea. She can't be my head of the family yet."

Seeing that he looked like he was trying to hide something, Yu Tang burst out laughing.

Yu Yuan realized that he had said something wrong and started to smile shyly.

Yu Tang thinks this might not be a bad thing.

In his previous life, Yu Yuan had already proved his abilities but still failed to convince his great uncle. In this life, he is still a kid learning skills from his father, so it is even more impossible for him to convince his great uncle.

Instead of having unpleasantness with the father and son, it would be better for them to separate temporarily and run their own business. Anyway, the family business will eventually be left to Yu Yuan.

Of course, Yu Tang also has a little selfish motive.

She wanted to be like Jiang Ling in her previous life, a remarkable woman who could earn money to support herself and her family.