"Ten thousand pieces?"
Master Qu was startled on the spot.
"What, nothing?"
The foreign translator raised an eyebrow: "Didn't Master Qu just confidently guarantee that he could have as much as you wanted?"
"this…"
Master Qu wiped the sweat from his brow and whispered, "But ten thousand items... that's just too many..."
The foreign translator complained, "Master Qu, it's not easy for us to come to Anguo, so we need to buy more. In our country, there are at least 8,000 to 10,000 members of the royal family and local officials, so 10,000 cotton-padded coats are not enough! We were worried that your Qu family's cloth shop wouldn't have enough, so we wanted to go to the Zhou family's cloth shop to buy some as well, but Master Qu wouldn't agree, so we can only buy them here!"
"..."
Master Qu thought for a moment, then said seriously, "Our cloth shop has plenty of cotton. It's just that the demand in Ruzhou City wasn't that high before, so we only made a few thousand cotton coats. But if Mr. Aoli needs ten thousand, we'll work overtime and deliver them all in a month—no, at most half a month!"
"No, we must take the cotton-padded clothes with us this evening, or at the latest tomorrow morning. We can't delay any longer."
After the foreign translator finished speaking, he communicated with Mr. Olig for a while and finally said, "Mr. Olig said that our caravan will be returning by tomorrow at the latest, and we can't wait for you to make them. However, Mr. Olig also said that we will take as many cotton coats as you have. As for the rest, just give us the cotton! We'll have our tailors sew them ourselves when we get back!"
When Master Qu heard this, he thought it was a good idea. After all, the goal was to prevent him from doing business with the Zhou family's cloth workshop. Moreover, it would be better to just sell him cotton instead of going through the trouble of processing cotton clothes for him!
So he immediately agreed and found a servant to draw up a written agreement.
"I, Qu Wenlong, voluntarily sell 10,000 cotton-padded coats to Mr. Aolige at a price of 35 cash each. In return, Mr. Aolige voluntarily agrees to cease all business dealings with the Zhou family's cloth workshop. If anyone violates this agreement—"
At this point, the translator directly stated, "If anyone violates this rule, then a fine will be imposed!"
"fine?"
Master Qu thought for a moment. He originally wanted to say that anyone who violated the rules should be arrested by the Crown Prince of Yu, but then he thought, how easy is it to arrest these foreign merchants? It would be better to impose a fine.
"Yes, a fine of ten thousand taels!"
"Alright, ten thousand taels it is!"
So the two parties happily wrote down the agreement, and then signed and sealed it. However, when Mr. Austin signed, his movements were very strange, and the words he wrote—well, even after looking at them for a long time, Master Qu couldn't recognize them.
The foreign translator explained from the side: "In our country, no one uses a brush; everyone uses a stiff quill pen. So Mr. Ollie is not skilled in it. Moreover, Mr. Ollie does not speak the national language, so his signature can only be in a foreign language."
"Understood, understood!"
Master Qu nodded, appearing very professional.
...
Afterwards, Master Qu led the group of foreign merchants to the backyard of the Qu Family Cloth Shop and began to count the cotton-padded clothes. In the end, there were only a little over five thousand pieces of cotton-padded clothes. Then Master Qu promised to use all the cotton in the warehouse to replenish it. Master Qu was not too worried about running out of cotton because he knew that the Prince of Jin had sent people to transport several carts of cotton from Jinxi, which would arrive in Ruzhou in a few days and be enough to deal with the Zhou Family Cloth Shop.
Besides, without foreign merchants, Zhou's cotton-padded clothes and cotton would be even harder to sell, and it would only be a matter of time before it was acquired by Qu's Cloth Shop. At that time, why would they have to worry about not having cotton?
Because the quantity of cotton-padded clothes and cotton was so enormous, the shop assistants at Qu Family Cloth Shop were busy helping the foreign merchants load goods from morning till night, filling nearly ten carts!
Because a cotton coat costs only thirty-five coins, even if there are ten thousand of them, it would only cost three hundred and fifty taels. If it weren't for dealing with the Zhou family's cloth workshop, a cotton coat would surely sell for four or five hundred coins.
So this back and forth allowed the foreign merchants to benefit.
Furthermore, since the Qu family's cloth shop had less than 10,000 cotton-padded coats, and Mr. Aoli emphasized that the price of cotton must be lower than that of cotton-padded coats, the final price of all the goods was less than 350 taels.
Whether it was fate or not, one can imagine how Master Qu felt when he saw the foreign translator hand over two hundred and fifty taels of silver.
Of course, the money still has to be collected.
"Master Qu, it's a pleasure doing business with you!"
The foreign translator smiled as he watched all the goods being loaded onto the truck.
"Mr. Ollie, are you satisfied now? If you have any business in the future, please don't forget about Qu Family Cloth Shop!"
As he spoke, he patted his chest. The agreement was in duplicate, with each person signing their names. Master Qu kept it in the pocket of his shirt, and the pat was a way of saying "Okay, okay!"
Aoli stepped forward, grabbed Master Qu's hand, and exclaimed excitedly, "Fuck you, who the hell! Fuck you, fuck you!"
"..."
This time, Master Qu couldn't hold back any longer and turned to look at the foreign translator beside him: "What exactly does 'fuck you' mean?"
"Master Qu, 'Fake You' is a greeting in our foreign language, similar to a greeting in Anguo dialect. Mr. Aoli Ge said it because he was happy!"
"Oh, I see!"
Master Qu nodded, gripped Aoli Gei's hand tightly, and said, "Mr. Aoli Gei, I'll give you the same treatment!"
"Fuck you!"
"..."
The foreign translator said they were in a hurry to get to Jingzhou, while the carriages would be returning early the next morning. Therefore, they declined Master Qu's invitation and left the Qu family's cloth shop under the cover of the bright night.
...
Today, Ruzhou City is even more bustling than yesterday.
Everyone was expecting Zhou's Cloth Shop and Qu's Cloth Shop to continue their price war, but then foreign merchants appeared.
Because the negotiations between Master Qu and Mr. Aolige took place inside the Qu Family Cloth Shop, outsiders did not know the specifics of their discussion. However, what everyone knew was that that night, nearly ten cartloads of cotton-padded clothes and cotton from the Qu Family Cloth Shop were loaded onto the cart.
There is no doubt that the business between the foreign merchants and the Qu family's cloth shop has been successful, while the Zhou family's cloth shop seems to be in a more depressed state.
Nearly half an hour after the foreign merchants left, it was getting darker and darker. In the front hall of the Qu Family Cloth Shop, wine and dishes were served.
It is said that people are in high spirits when they have good news. After finishing this big deal, Master Qu was a little smug. He thought that if he hadn't been so shrewd, he would not only have failed to make the deal with the foreign merchants, but the Zhou family's cloth shop would have gotten there first.
He couldn't help but feel smug: With me by his side, how could the Crown Prince of Yu not be able to bring down the Zhou family's cloth workshop?
The more he thought about it, the happier he became. Master Qu originally wanted to go to the Yu King's mansion to report the good news, but then he thought that at this time, the Yu King's heir might be lying on some girl, so he shouldn't go and spoil the mood. So he had his servants prepare wine and dishes, humming a little tune, and drank by himself.
————
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