Chapter 140: Checking the Shop
After Wan Lao San left, the people in the Wan family had nothing to do. Since Old Lady Wan wanted to buy the shop, they took the opportunity to walk around the shop and familiarize themselves with the surrounding environment.
Just now, everyone just took a quick look around and saw that there was a piece of barren land to the northwest of the shop. If you went further out, you could still see houses, but for some reason, this piece of land was left empty.
This open space is as big as a racecourse, but it is surrounded by ordinary houses.
Everyone looked around but didn't find anything special about the shop. Only Old Mrs. Wan looked calm. She and Second Sister Wan sat on the steps in front of the shop, as steady as a rock.
Wan Ersao was holding little Fubao in her arms. Little Fubao was nibbling on a candied haws, and from time to time he would stick out his little pink tongue to lick the sugar stains on his little hands.
Fortunately, Wan Ersao was wearing dark clothes today, otherwise one could see that little Fubao's paw prints had formed a picture on her body.
Everyone waited for a while before Wan Laosan came back with a thin man.
Friday follows.
"Brother Pang, your shop has been sold for more than half a year. I didn't expect that someone would come to buy the shop today during the Lantern Festival. It seems that you are lucky this year."
Pang Laoqi turned around and smiled at Zhou Wu, saying, "Thank you for your help, Brother Zhou. If it weren't for you, I would have missed a deal. Usually there is a clerk watching over this shop. I gave him a day off today for the Lantern Festival. I didn't expect to meet my destined person today."
Several people came to the front of the shop talking and laughing, and Mrs. Wan San quickly helped Old Mrs. Wan up.
"Oh, the old lady is in good health." Pang Laoqi greeted her with a smile when he saw Old Lady Wan coming out to visit the Lantern Festival at such an old age.
"Well, farmers are not as delicate as you city people. We have thick skin and strong body, and we have trained our bodies. We just have a bit of strength. Are you the boss?"
Old Mrs. Wan looked at the thin man in front of her who was about the same age as Boss Wan and replied with a smile.
Pang Laoqi took out the key from his arms and shook it, "The old man has good eyesight."
Old Mrs. Wan quickly moved to the side, and Old Pang walked over to unlock the door.
A musty smell suddenly wafted out of the room.
"This shop has been vacant for half a year, but someone cleans it every day. There were two heavy snowfalls some time ago, and the house is a bit moldy. The smell is not very pleasant. Please forgive me."
Pang Laoqi led the group inside with a smile on his face.
Old Mrs. Wan, supported by Mrs. Wan San and Mrs. Qiu on both sides, walked in first.
Others followed closely behind. The shop was not very big to begin with, and with so many people coming in, the room seemed a bit crowded.
Pang Laoqi quickly walked to the back door of the lobby and opened the corner door leading to the backyard. Once ventilation was allowed to flow from both sides, the room suddenly became much brighter.
This is a shop of one and a half rooms. The width of the shop is half a room narrower than that of a normal two-room shop, but the depth is deeper than other shops.
The backyard can be entered through the corner gate. There are three thatched houses and two storehouses in the backyard, a total of five rooms. There are several poplar trees planted in the yard, and there is a well under the trees.
This shop originally sold cloth. There were still many shelves in the house that had not been moved away, but there were no goods anymore.
"Brother, I wonder if you guys like it?"
Pang Laoqi looked at Wan Laosan and asked tentatively.
Wan Laosan couldn't make up his mind, so he quickly looked at Wan Laotai.
Pang Laoqi understood that the old lady would have the final say.
"Madam, what do you think of my shop?"
Old Mrs. Wan has looked at the shop inside and out and is quite satisfied with it, but she just doesn't know what the prices are.
"Boss, to be honest, this shop is no different from other shops. Isn't the key to doing business a good location? To be honest, we have been walking around the street for half a day today and didn't see any notices of shops for sale or rent. We planned to come back and take a look after a while, and we saw that your shop was for sale. I just don't know how much you want for it?"
Pang Laoqi is a businessman, so of course he is cunning and treacherous.
"Madam, although the location of my shop is not very good, you can buy it and live here. The price and other things are negotiable. The key is whether you like my shop or not?"
Pang Laoqi did not make an offer immediately, but was testing the attitude of Mrs. Wan.
Old Mrs. Wan had wanted to lower the price in the first place, and now her face had already changed into a calm expression, hiding the excitement that had just begun in her heart.
"This shop is OK, but the surrounding environment is a little hard to describe. After all, our family bought the shop to do food business. Boss, you know that the outside of this shop is full of feces. To be honest, we are still considering it."
Pang Laoqi didn't expect that the other party wanted to run a food business, but this place did have a huge impact. It was because of this impact that he had no business and was planning to sell the shop.
"To be honest, there is a livestock market next to this place. Every five days, a large number of livestock are driven to this open space to trade. The smell is quite unpleasant. There is nothing I can do about it."
Speaking of which, Pang Laoqi was also helpless, especially in the summer, the smell was even more nauseating.
Old Lady Wan pretended to be disappointed and sighed, "Boss, we are all country folk. The money we have saved is earned by generations of people. We finally saved some money and thought about starting a business. We don't know anything else, but my wife's cooking skills are pretty good, so we thought about doing something to make a living and also to provide a family business for the children. You know the weather here, it's windy and sandy all year round, and we can't even get enough food by digging in the soil. If we don't think of a way to find another way out, this family will starve to death."
Pang Laoqi also knew that the people living in the border areas had a hard life and he felt a lot of sympathy for them, but that was all and he could not change the current situation.
"Madam, let's put it this way. Today is the Lantern Festival. Both of our families want good luck. I'll open my shop and you'll buy the new shop. I'll ask for 118 taels of silver, and I'll sell this shop to you."
Old Mrs. Wan was calculating the price in her mind, and this price was similar to the bottom price in her mind, which meant that the boss did not inflate the price.
Qiu spoke at this time.
"Boss, your shop has been on the market for half a year and no one is interested in it. I guess you have tried to rent it out but it didn't work. If we don't buy it today, I guess no one else will. We only have a limited amount of silver, only one hundred taels. How about rounding it up?"
When Pang Laoqi heard this, he shook his head repeatedly, "No, this is not the way you bargain, young lady, how can you get 18 taels at once? Even if I rent out this shop for a year, I can still get 20 taels of silver."
Qiu smiled and said, "Boss, what you said is true, but you have to be able to rent it out and get the money back. You have been letting it go year after year, not only have you not made any money, but you have also lost money. The house is getting older and older. You might as well sell it early at a lower price and use the money to expand your current business. Boss, you are such a smart person, you will definitely be able to earn back the change in less than a month. Am I right in my calculations?"
As expected, Pang Laoqi's face showed a hint of relaxation. He really needed some money to purchase goods. If this batch of goods sold well, he could earn back not only the 18 taels of silver, but even 180 taels.
But he still wanted to fight for it again, "How about this, we each take a step back and give it 108 taels."
Old Lady Wan had already figured out the trick. She said directly to Old Seven Pang, "Since the shopkeeper is unwilling to sell at a lower price, and we haven't thought it through, even though such a smart shopkeeper can't do business here, how can we, a bunch of peasants, go beyond the shopkeeper? I told you that this wouldn't work, but you insisted on buying it. You should know that being cheap is a big loss. Although this shop is slightly cheaper than other places, it may be a big loss if we buy it. Let's go back and think about it carefully."
Qiu looked at Old Lady Wan with admiration. The old lady reacted very quickly. Qiu hurriedly cooperated with her.
"What mother said is right. It was our fault for not considering it carefully. It was mother who reminded us. But I'm really sorry to trouble the boss to make this trip."
Seeing that the cooked duck was about to fly away, Pang Laoqi could no longer hold back. He knew that even if the shop was put up for another year, no one would rent it. He had waited for such a long time and no one had asked. Today, he finally found a buyer, so how could he let them go? If he missed this opportunity, the shop would be a real loss to him.
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