Chapter 73
73
Some time ago, after Yuanbao learned how to make soap, he carefully wrapped each piece of soap in paper. However, their family lived in an alley and they were new, so they had not yet made their name and had not had a single customer for several days. He was anxious, so he took the soap out to sell it.
He first looked for some shops that sold rouge and powder. Those shops also sold soap, but they all had their own fixed supply channels, and the prices were similar or even lower. No one had ever used his soymilk soap that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and the shopkeepers looked down on him as a country boy.
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Unless he lowers the price, he won't make much money if he does that.
Every time he left a piece for people to try, he also left his address, hoping that the other party would find it useful and place an order. However, no one came to place an order for a long time. He took the initiative to inquire about it, but he got vague answers saying to wait a little longer. But once he waited, there was no time left.
He went to sell on the roadside like the Liu family next door, but all of Sister Liu's buns were sold out, but not a single piece of his soy milk soap was sold.
Later, I saw a widow selling fried dough sticks on the street. Everyone called her the Fried Dough Stick Xishi. Because she was pretty, many people would take a detour to come and eat her.
He went back and stared at his face in the mirror for a long time, then he got an inspiration. He was much more handsome than that fried dough stick beauty, so why not dress up as a boy? If he were a real boy, he might be in danger if he set up a stall on the street. But he was a boy, so even if someone targeted him, nothing could be done to him.
After thinking about this, he made beautiful clothes and set up a stall on the street. He sold his clothes to people while performing and speaking in a gentle, brotherly voice.
The fourth brother helped with the transportation and packaging of the goods, while Wild Dog stood by and collected the money.
In the eyes of outsiders, Wild Dog and Fourth Brother are like bodyguards protecting this handsome boy.
On the first day of setting up the stall, a lot of people gathered around, including men, women and boys. When the woman and boy came to buy, they asked him if using this soy milk soap would make his skin as hydrated as his.
When Yuanbao heard them asking this, he put powder on his face to make his skin look whiter.
Many men also came to buy, but they wanted to buy the ones he cut himself. Although he explained that every piece was cut by him, some were cut at home and some were used for performance on the spot, they didn't listen and insisted on seeing him cut it by hand, wrap it by hand and hand it to them before they bought.
On his way home from school, Cheng Yeran saw Yuanbao surrounded by several layers of people. Fortunately, he was tall, otherwise he would not be able to see Yuanbao.
"It's too hard." Cheng Yeran looked at the group of men drooling over Yuanbao and was almost moved to tears by his spirit of sacrifice.
After Yuanbao returned, Cheng Yeran asked him to attend a meeting with his fourth brother.
Yuanbao just saw his cousin on the street, but his cousin turned and walked away. Yuanbao thought his cousin was angry, and he hung his head like a child who had made a mistake.
The wild dog stood in front of Yuanbao with its teeth bared. If Cheng Yeran dared to say anything bad about Yuanbao, he would rush up and bite him.
Cheng Yeran sighed, picked up the wild dog and put him on the chair, "Let me talk about the wages. In the past, Yuanbao received a commission of one cent for each bar of soap in addition to the fixed salary. I think it is too little. From now on, I will give you a commission of four cents for each bar of soap."
"Four coins!" Yuanbao was stunned by the sudden money, "But a bar of soap only costs twenty coins."
"Yeah." Cheng Yeran saw how hard he was working and felt guilty if he didn't raise his salary.
"And Fourth Brother and Wild Dog also got raises. Wild Dog's salary is fixed and he doesn't get any commissions. His salary will be raised by 10 wen per month, but he is young and can only do so much. Cheng Yeran also doesn't let him do manual labor. Fourth Brother grinds soy milk and delivers goods, and his commission is calculated based on the amount of soy milk produced and the number of deliveries. It's an increase of two wen per delivery."
Although Fourth Brother's increase was less than Yuanbao's, he had no objection. The more Yuanbao he sold, the more he earned. Moreover, his base salary was also higher than Yuanbao's, so he was very content.
Even if he paid them a salary, Cheng Yeran would still make money. Apart from the soybeans, the rest of the cost was purchased from Taobao. Those costs were not included. Excluding the salary he paid them, he could still make about five cents from a piece of soap.
"Okay, let's adjourn the meeting. Yuanbao, come here, I want to talk to you alone." Cheng Yeran left Yuanbao here. Wild Dog and Fourth Brother were still looking at them worriedly.
"Don't worry, I won't curse." Cheng Yeran threw two coins to the wild dog and said, "Go out and buy two pieces of candy."
Yuan Bao also waved at him, "Buy the one at the intersection, their food is delicious."
Seeing that both of them were smiling, the wild dog took the money and left.
"How long do you plan to keep pretending to be a liar and selling goods? What are your plans for the next step? Aren't you afraid of being recognized and beaten?" Cheng Yeran was worried that others would call him a liar and beat him up. His small body wouldn't be able to withstand a few punches.
"My cousin is a very capable man. He will be a high-ranking official in two years. Then I will go to Beijing with my cousin to open a shop. No one here will find out in two years." Yuanbao said confidently.
"Aren't you afraid that they will follow you home, or that the villagers will come to the county town and see your appearance and expose you?" Cheng Yeran asked him worriedly.
"It won't happen by coincidence, don't worry, cousin. I plan to sell it for a while. After I become famous, I will deliver the goods to various shops and won't sell them on the streets anymore." Yuanbao told Cheng Yeran about his little plan, and Cheng Yeran thought it was okay, as it could be considered an advertisement.
But what everyone wants to see is the soap made by the handsome guy played by Yuanbao. If there is nothing to see, they won’t buy it.
This is just like celebrities advertising. Some people will buy products only after seeing the pictures of their idols printed on the packaging.
Printed with photos! He suddenly had a good idea. He could print a picture of Yuanbao on the wrapping paper so that he could sell it.
He was thinking when he heard Shen Yuntang calling him to eat.
These days, in addition to being busy decorating the noodle shop, Shen Yuntang is also studying how to make soup noodles.
They brought the express boxes from the countryside and placed them at the door of their own house instead of at the front door. At first they just wanted to give it a try, but they didn't expect the express to be placed accurately in the box. It was very user-friendly.
After the book on noodle soup arrived, Shen Yuntang began to study the cooking methods.
The noodles are hand-rolled, and there are three types of soup: one is pork bone soup, one is chicken soup, and the other is vegetarian soup.
He is the only one cooking noodles in the store, and he doesn't know whether the business is good or not, so he plans to make these three kinds of noodles first.
I had chicken noodle soup tonight. The noodles were chewy and the soup was just the right amount of fragrant but not greasy. It was also sprinkled with shredded chicken and chopped green onions.
Cheng Yeran used to dislike eating any noodles except instant noodles. He always felt that the sight of that big lump of noodles was annoying, and if he ate slowly, the noodles would stick together and become very soft. He can eat instant noodles because they are separated into individual noodles.
But Shen Yuntang’s noodles were different. Each noodle looked cute, without any feeling that made him feel upset, and the taste was also great.
"How is your shop going?" Cheng Yeran ate two bowls of noodles in a row before he remembered to ask about Shen Yuntang's noodle shop.
"Manager Wang hired a man to help me. He looks very strong, like a mountain." Shen Yuntang couldn't help but gesture, "When I first met him, I thought he was a man. I was scared. He also spoke in a rough voice."
Cheng Yeran was a little worried when he heard this, "Don't be like Yuanbao, a man pretending to be a husband to help."
"No, he and his husband came to help. Originally, I only wanted to hire him alone, but these days, when we bought tables and chairs, painted the walls, and repaired the stove, his husband rushed to help. He also said that it would be fine even if he was not needed. I thought it would be a bad idea to break up the couple, so I hired them together. The monthly salary for two people is only three cents of silver, which is very cost-effective. Others would only charge two cents of silver per month." Shen Yuntang's face turned red when she mentioned the matters in the store, and she was very excited.
"That's fine." Cheng Yeran liked listening to him talk about things in the store, which were actually all small things, such as what kind of bowls and chopsticks to buy, the three flavors of noodles prepared in the store, and the noodles were divided into three types of bowls, large, medium and small. The large bowl cost twelve cents, the medium bowl cost seven cents, and the small bowl cost five cents. The large, medium and small plain noodles cost six cents, four cents and three cents respectively.
In addition to these, the stove was repaired and a cabinet was built. Before it was delivered, the blackened walls were repainted.
This kind of trivial matter can be talked about all night long, but Cheng Yeran loves to listen to it. However, he has to study recently and cannot listen to too much. He has to go to study. Sometimes he can read until two or three in the middle of the night before going to bed, and he has to go out at dawn in the morning.
After dinner, he couldn't help but listen to Shen Yuntang talking about the noodle shop for half an hour. He really couldn't bear to leave, but he could only get up and read. "Studying is too busy. If I don't study, it would be great if I could open a noodle shop with you. We can still talk to each other and do everything together, just like when we used to sell dried tofu in the village. Studying is our enemy in love."
"Don't talk nonsense. What great future can you achieve by opening a noodle shop? No matter how good my cooking skills are, I can't be a royal chef. But if you study well, you can become a high-ranking official and meet the emperor." Shen Yuntang coaxed him to study, helped him open his textbooks, and sat beside him to help grind.
"Has the noodle shop set a date for opening? I'll send an invitation to County Magistrate Chen. I'm thinking there's no reason to look for County Magistrate Chen. If we don't interact for a long time, even the greatest favor will fade away." Cheng Yeran still expected County Magistrate Chen to back him up. He didn't want to do that.
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Whatever the matter with evil forces bullying the people, I just want to avoid being bullied by them and find a backer.
"It's almost done. I'm going to order a plaque. I asked and it will take about ten days to make it. I'll open the business after the plaque is made and hung up." Shen Yuntang handed him a piece of paper and said, "Write the words for the plaque."
"What name do you want?" Cheng Yeran asked him.
"Don't make it too complicated. It's better to make it easy to remember." Shen Yuntang said.
"Then let's call it Shen's Noodle House?" Cheng Yeran wrote four big words on the paper. He had specially studied calligraphy fonts, chose one he liked, practiced for quite a while, and wrote it quite well.
"How can it be called Shen's Noodle House? It should be called Cheng's Noodle House." Shen Yuntang reminded her husband that after getting married, she belonged to his family.
"But you opened this noodle shop. Although I invested in it, I am just an investor, not the boss." Cheng Yeran knew that he was influenced by feudal ideas again. "It's not that after you marry me, you are mine. You are still yourself, and I am me."
"So what you mean is that you are not mine?" Shen Yuntang pouted and turned his head away angrily, "Then just continue to be yourself."
"Yes, of course I am yours." Cheng Yeran quickly hugged his waist and held him on his legs, rubbing his nose against his fair neck. With such a beauty in his arms, who could still study?
The next thing was naturally not to study by lamplight. Shen Yuntang still sat in his arms, but his upper body was leaning forward on the table, and his shoulders exposed outside his clothes were moving. Even with the lights off, they were dazzlingly white in the moonlight.
Cheng Yeran discovered that Shen Yuntang also had a small red mole on his shoulder, like a red bean falling on a white jade plate. He lowered his head and kissed the red mole, feeling the other's fragile trembling.
I didn't dare ask for more, and after the inkstone on the table was accidentally knocked to the ground, it ended.
Shen Yuntang sat on the table, a thin layer of sweat on her body. She was only wearing a coat, her long legs draped over the chair, giving her a kind of post-sexy look.
He lowered his eyes and stared at Cheng Yeran who was squatting on the ground wiping the ink. "The words you just wrote are ruined. Fortunately, you put the book away in time, otherwise you will be scolded by the teacher."
"I don't regret being scolded." Cheng Yeran raised his head with terrible aggression in his eyes, wanting to hold him down and beat him up roughly.
"Have you finished your homework? It's my fault. I shouldn't have provoked you." Shen Yuntang turned his head away, but he couldn't extricate himself from the scene just now.
"You shouldn't have provoked me. What are you doing now?" Cheng Yeran threw away the paper in his hand and pounced on him.
This night was destined to be sleepless, so the two of them just did it until the second half of the night. They were extremely sleepy, but neither of them wanted to go to sleep.
Although they have to go home every night, this place is different from the village. In the village, they can see each other every day and spend all the time together. But now they have to go out during the day and do homework at night. They go to bed after just a few words, just like a long-distance relationship.
The two felt that if they fell asleep now, they would have less time to spend together.
"I still have twelve days to rest. When you open your business again, I will bring my classmates and friends to support you." Cheng Yeran hugged him, feeling soft and warm. Sleeping with his wife in his arms is happier than sleeping alone.
"You've made good friends?" Shen Yuntang asked in surprise.
"What do you mean?" Cheng Yeran bit his ear in dissatisfaction, "Am I such a difficult person to get along with? I can't even make friends?"
"I never saw you have any friends in the village before, and I thought you didn't like to socialize with people." Shen Yuntang avoided him, "Stop making trouble, do you want to go to bed?"
"Do you mean you still want it?" Cheng Yeran teased him.
"No way..." Shen Yuntang said without confidence, but suppressed the desire and found a topic to chat with him, "I haven't heard you mention anything that happened in the academy since you entered the academy. Suddenly you said you have a good friend, so I was surprised."
"I'm having a pretty good time in the academy. There are four classes in total, A, B, C, and D. We newcomers will go to the last class. After three months of exams, we will be divided into classes according to our scores. The four classes will have large lectures and morning readings together. My life is very fulfilling. The people there are all very nice and they all take good care of me. There is one person who I have a good relationship with, and I'll bring him to meet you someday." Cheng Yeran said while playing with his fingers.
"That's good." Shen Yuntang was also relieved.
But what Shen Yuntang didn't know was that Cheng Yeran only told part of the story and concealed all the bad things.
In fact, when he first entered the academy, he caused quite a stir.
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