Feng Ming had some government affairs to take care of, and Zhuang Li also had to go back to see his sister, so the two parted in front of the Zhuang Mansion.
"I'll go back to the study to study tomorrow." Zhuang Li waved while standing on the steps.
Feng Ming looked at him reluctantly.
"I have a very bad memory. I can't memorize an article of several hundred words for several hours. You have to urge me." Zhuang Li smiled brightly.
Feng Ming was stunned for a moment, then he started laughing too.
"I won't let you go home until you finish memorizing the book." He held the boy's hand.
Zhuang Li stood on tiptoe and quickly kissed the corner of his lips, then ran into the house.
Feng Ming stood at the door for a long time before leaving, looking back every few steps.
In the yard, Mr. Qin was drying medicine. Seeing Zhuang Li's slightly unnatural gait and the red marks on his neck, he immediately snorted, "Where did you have fun yesterday?"
"I went to have fun with Feng Ming." Zhuang Li did not hide it.
Master Qin's eyes suddenly widened, and he looked his apprentice up and down, his tone very surprised: "You are so small, and you are with Feng Ming?"
Zhuang Li felt insulted. His skills were SSS-level, far superior to Feng Ming's. It was Feng Ming who couldn't handle it!
Feng Ming almost died on him yesterday.
However, before he could explain, Mr. Qin hurried back to the house, took out a white porcelain jar, and instructed: "Go back and apply it yourself. Apply a little before going to bed every day. This will help you endure less pain. You are not forced to do this, are you?"
"No, Feng Ming and I are together seriously. No one is forcing anyone else." Zhuang Li explained seriously.
In this era, the master is equivalent to a father, and he will naturally tell his father everything.
Only then did Master Qin heave a sigh of relief, patting his chest and saying, "That's good, otherwise I would have given you a fake death drug and sent you out of the capital."
Zhuang Li walked forward with a smile and gently hugged Mr. Qin.
Mr. Qin pushed him away with a look of disgust on his face, and couldn't help laughing.
It’s good that these two troublesome children are together.
Zhuang Li went back to his room and fell into a deep sleep. He woke up at noon. As soon as he got up, he heard his sister's noisy voice, "Brother, brother, give me some advice."
"What's wrong?" Zhuang Li put on his robe and opened the door lazily.
"Brother, did you have some fun last night?" Zhuang Xiaohui pointed at his neck which was covered with red marks.
"Yes, I have found a sister-in-law for you. I will bring her back for you to see someday." Zhuang Li was afraid of scaring his sister, so he only revealed a little bit.
"Is my sister-in-law so powerful?" Zhuang Xiaohui swallowed.
Through these chaotic traces, she could fully imagine her sister-in-law's unrestrained and passionate nature. Normal women wouldn't be like this, right?
"I'm much better than your sister-in-law. I almost made him ejaculate—"
Zhuang Li's excited description was interrupted by Zhuang Xiaohui: "Brother, stop! I'm a girl, are you sure you want me to listen to this?"
"Ahem, what do you want to talk to me about?" Zhuang Li picked up the teacup and took a sip, then asked in a serious tone.
"This is an invitation sent to me by the Textile Chamber of Commerce. They invited me to Liuyunzhai this afternoon to have tea and watch a play." Zhuang Xiaohui placed a beautifully crafted invitation on the table.
Zhuang Li immediately guessed the Chamber of Commerce's intention and sneered, "Are they trying to collectively pressure you to raise the price?"
"Yes, our cotton cloth is of very good quality and inexpensive, making it affordable for almost everyone. Sales have been booming lately. Not only do people from all over the city flock to our shop to buy cloth, but people from surrounding towns also come here, some even traveling for days at night to buy it. They bring it home in bundles, some even hauling it on ox carts. The threshold of our shop has been trampled down several times."
Zhuang Xiaohui was both proud and distressed: "If this happens, other stores in the city will have no business, so they are banding together to make me raise prices."
"What do you think?" Zhuang Li did not give his sister any advice, but guided her step by step.
"I won't raise prices. Our cloth is all machine-made, with high output and low costs, so we can still make a profit at this price. Although I'll make more money after the price increase, many poor people won't be able to afford cloth. Autumn is approaching, and winter is quickly approaching. I want everyone to be able to buy cloth and make warm clothes. I want to make money while also being true to my conscience."
The more Zhuang Xiaohui spoke, the more determined her tone became, and she had already made a decision.
"If you don't agree to the price increase, the Chamber of Commerce will definitely take action. Can you guess their next move?" Zhuang Li continued to guide.
"They'll probably team up to monopolize my supply, forcing all cloth mills and weavers not to sell me their cloth. But they'll never realize that our cloth is all machine-made, so we don't need to buy from outside. Their monopoly won't work on me, and I'm not afraid of them."
Zhuang Xiaohui sneered disdainfully.
"They attacked you, and you didn't want to fight back?" Zhuang Li asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Harmony is the most important thing in doing business. They couldn't do anything to me, so they gradually gave up." Zhuang Xiaohui's voice became softer and softer, only because her brother's eyes were sharp and he obviously disagreed.
"When they were dealing with you, they didn't even consider peace; their goal was to kill you. So, why can't you kill them? As long as you manage it properly, you can easily destroy 70 to 80 percent of the shops in the capital in this battle."
"Destroy seven or eight out of ten stores in one go?" Zhuang Xiaohui was shocked.
She couldn't even imagine such a big deal.
However, after the shock, she felt a strong sense of pleasure in her heart, as if she would not be able to live with herself if she did not do this.
She wanted so badly to see the men in the Chamber of Commerce who looked down on her kneeling at her feet and crying bitterly. This reminded her of the beggars who hugged her legs and begged for mercy before they died.
It was at that moment that her spine slowly hardened and straightened.
"Brother, what should I do?" Zhuang Xiaohui's eyes were frighteningly bright.
"The cloth in the shop comes from the cloth shop. Where does the cloth in the cloth shop come from?" Zhuang Li pointed out.
Zhuang Xiaohui's eyes lit up more and more. "The cloth in the cloth shop is made of cotton. Brother, I understand. They monopolize the cloth supply, but I can monopolize the cotton! Anyway, we have our own factory. No matter how much cotton we buy, we don't have to worry about it being wasted. We can weave it all into cloth and sell it!"
Zhuang Xiaohui pounded the table with her fists, her tone extremely excited: "Since I have a cotton monopoly, I can continuously produce high-quality, low-priced cloth. But the same cannot be said for the Chamber of Commerce.
"The cloth they collect from various workshops or from weavers is of varying quality. The more they buy, the rarer it becomes, and the more expensive it becomes. Their costs will be two, three, or even ten times what I cost. They can't lower the price; they'll only lose everything. But if they don't lower the price, people won't patronize their shop, because I have a sufficient supply here, and people don't have to worry about having no place to buy cloth.
"If this stalemate continues for one month, two months, or three months, I'll only make a killing, but the Chamber of Commerce will have a hard time. Without cotton, the workshops won't be able to produce cloth, and they won't be able to import goods. If I don't sell them cloth, they'll go bankrupt! Except for a few shops selling high-end silk, the rest of the workshops and shops will struggle to survive."
Zhuang Xiaohui clapped her hands excitedly: "Brother, after this battle, I will become the most powerful cloth merchant in Beijing. No one will ever dare to compete with me in the business world!"
She laughed heartily for a moment, then her face fell again: "Brother, the plan is good, but the problem is that I don't have that much money to monopolize the cotton market."
"Brother can borrow money from your sister-in-law, but you have to pay her three percent interest in the future, okay?" Zhuang Li spread out paper and pen.
"Is my sister-in-law that rich?" Zhuang Xiaohui was extremely surprised, then shook her head repeatedly: "No, no, you and my sister-in-law are not even close, it's not good to talk about money, it will affect your relationship."
"Your sister-in-law is incredibly wealthy, so this little money is nothing to her." Zhuang Li chuckled as he wrote on a long slip of paper. "I've already met your sister-in-law's elders. Forget about the fate of the couple, we're already married. He'll be happy if I borrow money from him, because I don't treat him as an outsider."
Zhuang Xiaohui hesitated and asked, "Really?"
"Really, just wait at home."
Zhuang Li handed the note to the doorman.
The porter immediately mounted his horse and rode to the palace.
Zhuang Li spread out a piece of paper and slowly explained, "Manually stripping cottonseeds is a laborious task. One worker can only process a few kilograms of cotton a day, which significantly slows down your production. The machine I'm designing is called a cotton gin. It's hydraulically powered and can strip the seeds from over 900 kilograms of cotton a day, yet only requires one person to operate it. With it, your production costs will be further reduced, while your productivity will be exponentially increased. Under such circumstances, ordinary manual workshops will simply not be able to compete with you."
Zhuang Li drew the parts on separate sheets of paper and instructed, "Find different carpenters and blacksmiths to forge them, and don't let them learn anything. If someone learns, your factory and shop will go bankrupt."
Zhuang Xiaohui nodded repeatedly, her eyes filled with fanatical admiration as she looked at her brother.
On the other side, Feng Ming, who had received the note, quickly took out the code stick and wrapped it around it. After seeing the line of words clearly, she couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Husband, can you give me some household expenses?"
How much is the word "husband" worth?
Zhuang Xiaohui soon found out the answer.
She stared in amazement at the ten large boxes that the servants carried into the yard. When each box was opened, it emitted a brilliant golden light, and was filled with gold ingots neatly arranged inside.
The housekeeper asked Zhuang Xiaohui to count it, but she was so scared that she kept waving her hands, fearing that she would not be able to bear the huge number.
"Brother, it turns out that my sister-in-law is really rich enough to rival a country. You were not bragging!" She sighed, patting her chest.
After reading the letter from Feng Ming, Zhuang Li pointed to the burly men carrying the boxes and said, "These are the men your sister-in-law has lent you. They have a group of brave veterans under their command, all of whom are very skilled in martial arts. With their protection, you can go to the major cotton-producing areas to purchase cotton without worrying about encountering robbers along the way. You can use this gold as you please, but in two years, you must return it to your sister-in-law with interest. It's not easy for her to run such a large business."
"Of course! I will definitely pay my sister-in-law back as soon as possible. It turns out that my sister-in-law is also in business, how nice!" Zhuang Xiaohui immediately rolled up her sleeves and said, "Come on, everyone, help count a little so I can keep track of the accounts and write an IOU."
After counting the huge sum of money, Zhuang Xiaohui changed into a luxurious long dress and went to Liuyunzhai for the meeting with great enthusiasm.
"What kind of business is a woman in? She has to show up in public all day long, entertaining people and seeing them off, and she's not afraid of losing face! If I were your father, I would break both of your legs and marry you to a beggar!" These were the words that the group of stinky men in the Chamber of Commerce used to insult her in person.
She was going to let these people know today that women were not born to get married, and that women could also become the richest businessman in Dayan!
Her sister-in-law is her role model!
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