Yu Qizhe guessed that Shen Tian was looking for him because of Ji Wudao. He looked at Yu Jiao and said, "I'll be back soon."
Yu Jiao looked up at him and said, "Just go and do your work. I just want to meet the manager of the shop. It's not a big deal."
Yu Qizhe nodded and walked out of the front hall. His expression changed from the gentle one in front of Yu Jiao to a stern one.
When the people from the Shen Mansion saw him, they hurried forward and said, "Master Yu, I am the butler of the Shen Mansion. My master wants to see you."
Yu Qizhe's brows furrowed. Although he didn't want to see Shen Tian, he had to give face to the Prime Minister of the Cabinet. So he ordered Liuzi to prepare the carriage and turned back to the front hall.
Yu Jiao had just asked a few managers to sit down and talk, and when she saw him come back, she asked Jianjia to add a cup of tea.
"I'm going to Prime Minister Shen's residence. You don't have to wait for me for lunch." Yu Qizhe said in a gentle voice.
Yu Jiao nodded and said yes.
Yu Qizhe looked at her, sighed softly, and couldn't help but touch the top of her head before turning away. He could sense that Yu Jiao had been a little uncomfortable in front of him since they got married.
There was still a hint of wanting to treat him with respect.
Yu Jiao didn't understand why he sighed. She stared at Yu Qizhe's departing back for a while, then she noticed that Yu Qizhe was wearing the moon-white bamboo brocade pattern gown that she bought for him when he took the Qingzhou County Examination, and the hem seemed a little short.
After coming back to her senses, Yu Jiao looked at the ten shop managers sitting on the chairs and said, "I see you all brought your accounts. Tell me what your shop does for a living." She said to the first manager sitting on the left, "Show me the accounts in your hand."
The man handed the account book to Jianjia and said, "The shop makes a living by making pastries. This is the account book for the past six months. If there is anything you don't understand, just ask."
Yu Jiao took the account book from Jianjia, opened it and took a quick look, and found that the business of this shop was not very good. Although it was not losing money, the monthly profit was only thirty taels. Yu Jiao asked about the location, size, manpower, types of cakes sold and daily costs of the shop, and the manager answered them one by one.
The other managers saw that she asked in such detail and it didn't sound like she was asking unusual questions, so they didn't dare to look down on her. When it was their turn, they all answered seriously.
Yu Jiao closed the account book and had a general understanding of the situation of these ten shops. In addition to the pastry shop, there were clothing shops, grocery stores, bookstores, rouge shops, etc.
The bookstore with the best business was the one that also sold the four treasures of the study. There were many readers in the capital, so paper, pens and books sold very well.
The shops with the worst business were rouge and powder shops. There were many wealthy families in Beijing, and young ladies and wives would only buy rouge and powder from the most famous ones.
Seeing that it was already noon, Yu Jiao asked the stewards to stay in the mansion for lunch and asked Jianjia to go to the kitchen and tell them to prepare more food.
The stewards were having lunch in the front hall, while Yu Jiao went back to the backyard. Seeing that Yu Qizhe was not coming back for a long time, Yu Jiao did not wait for him any longer and had lunch with Jianjia Bailu. After lunch, she went to the closet in the wing room to take out Yu Qizhe's official uniform and measured the size before going to the front hall.
Let the other managers go back to their shops. Yu Jiao left the manager of the clothing shop alone and said, "I'll go with you to the shop to take a look."
The manager of the clothing shop thought she was going to inspect the shop, so when she arrived, he asked the waiter to serve tea.
"No need to bother." Yu Jiao looked through the ready-made clothes in the shop, touched the fabrics, picked out a few ready-made clothes, and said, "I'll show you some clothes, Master."
After hearing this, the steward introduced the materials for the garments in detail. Yu Jiao chose three gowns and a few pieces of cloth. She told the steward the measurements she had taken and asked the embroiderer in the shop to help make a few more left-fronted robes.
The fabrics used in this clothing shop are all from Jiangnan, including Shu silk, Hangzhou silk, Yunjin, etc. After Yu Jiao asked carefully, she found out that the shop got the goods from the Jiangnan Trading Company, no wonder this clothing shop made a profit of nearly a thousand taels a year.
"Miss, would you like to see some dresses?" Seeing that Yu Jiao had chosen only men's ready-made clothes, the manager asked with great tact.
The managers of these dowry shops had already been instructed by the eldest master, so they treated Yu Jiao with the same respect as if they were meeting Liu Ziqi, and did not dare to fool her at all.
Yu Jiao shook her head. The cabinets in the side room were full of her clothes. Some of them were brought from Liu's house, and many of them were prepared by Yu Qizhe at some point in time. They were enough for her to wear for a long time.
"You take good care of this shop. Everything can remain the same." Yu Jiao did not plan to make any changes to the clothing shop.
The manager quickly agreed and sent Yu Jiao out.
Yu Jiao took Jianjia and Bailu for a stroll on the street again, bought some snacks and spices before returning to Wanfu Bridge.
The carriage was stopped just after it crossed the bridge and before it turned into Osmanthus Lane.
"Second sister?" Yu Jiao lifted the carriage curtain and saw that it was Liu Yaoyu sitting in the carriage opposite. She smiled and said, "Why don't you go to the mansion and wait for me?"
Liu Yaoyu looked anxious and waved to Yu Jiao: "Third sister, it was my elder sister who asked me to come to find you. Come with me to Cui Mansion."
When Yu Jiao heard the voice, a thought flashed through her mind. Cui Mubai might be in trouble...
She immediately said to Bai Lu, "You go back to the mansion to get the medical box. I will go to Cui's mansion with my second sister first." Then she got off the carriage and went to Liu Yaoyu's carriage.
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