Chapter 65 Chapter 65 On the tenth day of April...
At noon on the tenth day of April, the convoy arrived at Xiaofangpan City.
After paying the Wusun horsemen, Jiang Wan gave them some extra copper coins, the currency of the Great Zhou Dynasty, to help them settle down in the small town. Many caravans from the Western Regions passed through Xiaofangpan City, and after a while, they would be able to follow other caravans back to Wusun.
After entering the city, she first went to the Zhang brothers' home, handed their belongings to their families, and gave them a large amount of silver as compensation. Then she returned to the Jiang family shop.
Wang Er managed the shop with impeccable management. For two months, he practiced business acumen while continuing to refine his porcelain-making skills. He expanded the Jiang family shop to three more storefronts, and his daily revenue reached eighty taels, nearly matching Jiang Wan's previous success. It became the most popular shop on the entire commercial street.
Jiang Wan nodded with satisfaction, praised him a bit, then carefully checked the account book, looked at the porcelain made by his apprentice, and helped him correct some shortcomings.
When the sun rose to the top of his head, Jiang Wan returned to the Jiang family courtyard he had been longing for.
The trees in the yard sprouted new buds, and the warm spring sunshine shone into the yard. The temperature was much more comfortable than when she left in February.
Jiang Wan's mother, her back to her, was washing clothes in the yard. Jiang Wan remembered that when her mother sent her off two months ago, she was still wearing a thick cotton coat, but now she had changed into a double-layered cotton coat.
Hearing the footsteps, Jiang's mother put down the clothes in her hands and turned around to see her daughter whom she had not seen for two months.
Jiang Wan squatted down beside her and looked at her greedily.
Well, Mom looks much better, more energetic, and has some flesh on her face.
Jiang Wan held her mother's face, her eyes reddened uncontrollably. She had to tilt her head back to prevent the tears from flowing out.
"Wanwan, you've lost weight." Jiang's mother hugged her daughter with heartache.
Jiang Wan couldn't hold it in any longer and hugged her mother tightly, tears welling up in her eyes. She was the leader and the boss of the team, so she had to be strong and decisive, smart and confident, and she couldn't show any weakness.
But in her mother's arms, all the suppressed emotions burst out like a flood, and she finally burst into tears.
Mother Jiang patted her back gently, coaxing her like a child, until she was tired of crying and fell asleep in her mother's arms.
It was almost dusk when he woke up, and the familiar aroma of food lingered in Jiang Wan's nose.
She realized belatedly that she was home, not sleeping in a bumpy carriage or lying in some strange room in Wusun or Loulan.
Her clothes were neatly folded at the head of the bed. They were freshly washed by her mother and still had the delicate scent of soap nuts. Jiang Wan smiled, changed into the clothes her mother had prepared, and trotted out.
"Mom!" She hugged Jiang's mother and said, "I brought you a lot of good things. They are all in the carriage. Come and see."
Jiang Wan climbed into the carriage and unloaded two boxes, feeling like a child bragging to his parents about getting a perfect score on a test.
"This is a wolfskin coat, bought from Wusun. It's very warm. These are grapes from the Western Regions. They're sweeter than those from Lin'an. I bought some ice in Loulan to keep them fresh. And this is the Wusun's sacred medicine, Silver Bush. There's nearly three ounces left. I'll have Doctor Zhang grind it into powder and mix it with water for you to drink. It'll strengthen your constitution."
Jiang's mother smiled until her eyes narrowed into slits: "Okay, okay, my Wanwan has grown up!"
She took two bites of grapes, smacking her lips with enjoyment, and pulled Jiang Wan back to the house to sit down. "Wanwan, tell me, what happened to you in the Western Regions?"
Jiang Wan sat across from her mother, wanting to say a lot, but she didn't know how to begin. She was worried about worrying her mother, and she was also afraid she'd blame her for being frivolous and cruel. After much thought, she couldn't find the right place to start.
She was eloquent in the business world and every word she said to the King of the Western Regions was precious, but now she finally experienced the feeling of being homesick.
Jiang's mother seemed to be able to read her thoughts. She placed her hands over hers and said, "You burst into tears when you came back at noon. I know you've been wronged. It's okay. You can tell me everything. We are connected as mother and son. No matter what you want to do, I will support you."
Jiang Wan buried his head in his mother's lap for a long time before he said sullenly, "Mom, I want to go back to Lin'an."
The hand stroking the back of her head paused, and a sigh came from above.
"You are really different from before, kid."
Jiang Wan's fingertips trembled as she clutched the hem of her mother's clothes. Yes, her temperament was indeed very different from the original owner's. The original owner was an innocent little girl, peaceful and kind, never fighting. She, on the other hand, had seen all the ugliness in the world, was vindictive, and would not stop until she achieved her goal.
From redeeming herself, opening a shop, to traveling to the Western Regions, to now going to Beijing... every single one of these things was not something the original owner would do.
Because of the exile, Jiang Wan's change wasn't surprising to others. But mother and daughter are connected, so could Jiang's mother have sensed it long ago?
If she knew that I was not her real daughter, would she not want me?
Jiang Wan felt a surge of fear in his heart.
But Jiang's mother's gentle voice interrupted her wandering thoughts: "Okay, if you want to go, I will accompany you."
After sunset, Dunhuang Prefecture.
Jiang Wan went to the same noodle shop to eat noodles, but this time the person sitting opposite her was Jiang An instead of He Wanrong.
"Wanrong left for Lin'an half a month ago," Jiang An said, "You're anxious to find her. Is there something wrong?"
"Well... nothing much. She set off half a month ago, so she should have arrived by now." Jiang Wan said.
In fact, she wanted to talk to He Wanrong about Guard Bai. The scarred Xiongnu man had been sent to the Imperial Guard, and she didn't know what the interrogation had revealed, and whether it would help to overturn the verdict.
It was just that she and He Wanrong tacitly agreed not to tell Jiang An about the matter of overturning the verdict, so Jiang Wan swallowed her words and asked instead:
"How's our shop going? Is the factory finished?"
Speaking of this, Jiang An said excitedly: "The factory was built last month and has started operation. I hired a hundred permanent workers, and the daily output is a total of 6,000 pieces. Of which 5,000 are batch-produced, and 4,000 can be sold every day."
"If I sell a piece of porcelain at fifty copper coins, I can earn two hundred taels of silver a day. If I order one thousand pieces of porcelain, the average selling price will be about one hundred copper coins, which is one hundred taels of silver, a total of three hundred taels, which just meets the requirements for building a factory in the western suburbs."
Jiang Wan smiled and nodded, praising him, "Brother, this is your first time running a porcelain shop, and you're doing so well."
"It's mainly because your porcelain-making method is good and customers like it." Jiang An scratched his head embarrassedly after being praised by his sister. "But the factory requires an average daily income of 300 taels. Before the factory was built, the output could not keep up. If we calculate the average, it is still a little short."
Jiang An lowered his head and stirred the noodles with his chopsticks. "Chen Xi has made rapid progress since learning textile embroidery. Although the whole dress is still not quite up to par, the embroidery is already selling very well. I set up a counter in the shop specifically for embroidery, which can bring in an extra fifty taels of income. But it's still a long way off."
Jiang Wan asked, "How much more is left?"
"The government will come to check on April 16th. From February 10th to April 16th, a total of 19,500 taels of silver will be needed for 65 days. We are still short of 6,000 taels." When Jiang An said this, his eyelids drooped and he frowned slightly.
Jiang Wan stood up and patted his brother's arm, comforting him, "It's okay, brother, you've done a great job. There are still six days left, and if you count the next six days, you're only three thousand taels short. I brought some specialties from the Western Regions that I can sell in the store. Then I'll try again in the next few days to see if I can take on two big orders to make up the three thousand taels."
"There's another question..." Jiang An sighed, "Well, I'll take you to see it."
After sunset it is night market time, and the colorful lights in the West Market gradually light up, making it very lively.
The Jiang siblings walked to their shop, which was packed with customers. They saw Wang Da promoting the store's new products.
After two months of absence, Wang Da has become more composed and can handle customers' baffling questions with ease. Customers now address him as "Manager Wang" instead of "boy."
But when he looked at Jiang Wan, his eyes were still full of admiration and closeness.
"Master!" He put down the porcelain in his hand and walked forward quickly, "You are finally back."
Jiang Wan patted his head with satisfaction: "Not bad, you really understand the business philosophy that Master taught you before."
"Hehe." Wang Dahan laughed twice and was about to speak when he heard a loud shout outside.
"Master Liu has new products today!"
Immediately afterwards, the crowded crowd around him dispersed, and the bustling shop suddenly became much quieter.
Jiang Wan looked back and saw that only half of the customers were left. The other half had all flocked to the other shop across the street.
It was an independent small three-story building, decorated quite luxuriously, with the words "Yuwanlou" inscribed on it.
Yuwanlou, with dozens of shops across the Great Zhou Dynasty, is renowned in the arts and crafts industry, and a leading brand in the celadon industry. The owner, surnamed Liu, was originally a humble craftsman. However, he later developed a unique celadon polishing technique, resulting in a smooth, icy-smooth, radiant luster. Ten years ago, this celadon was presented to His Majesty by Earl Wenyuan, who greatly appreciated it and bestowed upon it the name "Liuguang Yuwan."
Master Liu's fame spread, and he became the first merchant in Dunhuang County to receive permission from the prefect to establish a factory. Today, the combined daily revenue of all shops in Yuwanlou exceeds five thousand taels.
"I don't know why, but since five days ago, Yuwanlou has been intentionally or unintentionally competing with us for business. First, they moved near our shop, and then they deliberately lowered the price to sell the same products." Jiang An worried, "Our shop's revenue has not increased in the past five days. Especially the expensive porcelain, almost no one buys it, and sales are all supported by the affordable porcelain."
Jiang Wan was surprised, "Yuwanlou is a large and powerful business, not on the same level as us. Our target customers are also different. Why are they willing to lower their prices to steal our business?"
She looked at Jiang An: "Brother, do you know why Yuwan Tower is targeting us? Has anything happened recently?"
Jiang An frowned and thought: "We have never had any contact with Yuwan Tower before, and there is nothing special about it... I have been thinking about it for a few days, but I really don't know how to deal with it."
"Then go and ask," Jiang Wan's eyes were cold. "If there is a misunderstanding, then resolve it as soon as possible. But if brother has done nothing wrong, I won't be afraid of him for just a Yuwan Tower."
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