"How much is a bottle of your perfume?"
The man did not answer outright. He was silent for a moment, hesitated for a moment, and held out his hand: "Fifty cents!"
Zhang Fangyuan did not comment upon hearing this, but just lowered his eyes and looked at the short man.
Back then, this fragrant dew caused a huge sensation in Siyang City. Although it was just a small bottle of incense burner, not much bigger than a thumb, it was sold for tens of thousands of coins at its peak. Today, I heard this man asking for only fifty cents. For a moment, I felt like I was in a dream, but also found it very funny.
When he was working for someone in the city in the past, the boss's young master once spent a lot of money and effort to get a bottle of rose water for a girl he liked.
However, when the rose water first came to the market, no one was interested in it. But when it suddenly became famous, it was out of stock. The reason is that the old Taoist who made the perfumed dew disappeared after making a batch of it. The shortage of supply made the perfumed dew unsalvageable, making it even more precious.
It's no wonder that people were fighting for it so fiercely. He had seen this thing in Yunliang Pavilion before. It was placed in an exquisite small glass bottle with a lid on it and one could smell its fragrance when he went in. And the man is not bragging, the fragrance really will not dissipate even if you drop it on clothes for ten days or half a month, and the longer the time, the more elegant and fragrant it will be.
Later I heard that it was a fragrant liquid extracted from rose seeds by an old Taoist priest. Later, the people in the spice shop thoroughly studied the production tricks. When this fragrant dew was once again popular in the market, the craze gradually faded and it was no longer as magical as it seemed.
It's just... before this rose water went crazy in the city, he actually ran into it first.
He couldn't help but laugh secretly, if he didn't make this money, who would?
"I'm a grown man, and you want me to use this? Not to mention that men lose their dignity when using it, if my wife smells it when I get home, she might think I'm having an affair outside, which would only add to her troubles."
The man felt a chill on his back when Zhang Fangyuan was staring at him, but he was relieved after hearing this. He immediately said, "Even if you don't need it, it would be a good idea to buy a bottle of this good stuff for your wife."
"Fifty coins? Why don't you just rob me? Do you think that a man who doesn't know much about spices can just ask for a random price? The spices sold in the shops in the city are usually only 20 or 30 coins. Are you asking for money to eat me?"
The man said, "But this is good stuff! How can it be compared to those vulgar things?"
Zhang Fangyuan said calmly, "Then tell me which spice shop this is from, which master made it, or who is the one using it? Just because you say it's good, then it's good? And if I say my teahouse is a golden signboard, and the taste is the best in the world, do you believe me without any evidence?"
The man prided himself on being eloquent, but this time he was speechless.
"It's not easy for you to carry so many things. How many do you have in total?"
"There are about thirty bottles."
Zhang Fang looked from a distance and saw a row of rice cakes neatly placed in the shoulder pole. He laid two pieces of cloth under the pole in case they were damaged by the bumps.
"Sell them all to me, twenty cents each."
The man's eyes lit up when he heard that. He was happy to sell them all, but he couldn't help but raise his neck again: "Brother, if you think they are not good, then why do you want them all?"
Zhang Fangyuan snorted softly, "I have connections in the city. I can deliver all these things and make a little money from each one. The lunch boxes are the daily business of the teahouse. Who wouldn't want to make money?"
The man thought Zhang Fangyuan was very straightforward, but he was unwilling to give in: "Why don't I just take it to the city to sell it? How would you know that I have no connections?"
Zhang Fangyuan said, "You have a way to catch someone and sell them to them and ask if they want to buy? I have nothing to say about your way. If they don't want to sell to me, then don't sell to me. You can sell them in the city. If you ask them, they know nothing and can't answer anything. See if those spice shops will buy from you. Then try to sell them on the street and see if those rich girls and boys who are willing to spend fifty cents to buy incense will buy from a peddler like you who has no known origins."
After saying that, Zhang Fangyuan lifted his feet and went back to the table to continue eating melon seeds.
The man was a bit clever, but after listening to Zhang Fangyuan's talk, he felt that it made a lot of sense. After all, spices were not like fruits and vegetables that anyone could buy. If he sold the spices too cheaply, he would be reluctant to do so. If he sold them too expensively, people who could afford them would not buy them. If he took them to a spice shop, he would probably get a lower price.
"Brother, our acquaintance is fate. Can you raise the price a little? It's not easy for me to come all the way here. Who doesn't want to make some money?"
Zhang Fangyuan said, "I am sincere in doing business with you, but you are trying to resist. What else can I say? Well, if I think about it carefully, you have so many things, it will cost a lot of money to buy them all. My wife is very strict with money, and I will be unlucky if I lose money."
"Look at what you are saying, big brother. For a man as wise and brave as you, your wife will definitely listen to you. Don't use these to distract me and deceive me."
Zhang Fangyuan crossed his legs and threw a melon seed into his mouth, as if he was pleased: "I ask you, if you tell me honestly where these things come from, the business will be easier to negotiate. The most important thing is to be honest. Everyone should have some idea in their hearts."
The man said, "Brother, you can rest assured. These good things of mine were definitely not stolen or robbed. They are absolutely clean. There is an old Taoist priest next door who likes to tinker with refining things. This fragrant dew was made by him. When I went back to the Kingdom of the Arabs, I collected some money for his travel expenses, and he left this fragrant dew to me as a favor."
Zhang Fangyuan put down his teacup, looking as if he didn't believe it, "Then you can make a lot of money if I give you 20 cents."
"Unfair, I gave him several hundred coins for the travel expenses."
Zhang Fangyuan didn't believe that a stranger would give him so much travel expenses. The most he could give him was a hundred dollars. But he didn't want to delve into it, so he just asked, "So are you going to sell it or not?"
"Brother, give me an extra two cents. I am not from here, so I am not as powerful as you are here. Give me an extra two cents. I can save enough money so I can go back and get married soon."
Zhang Fangyuan hesitated for a moment, as if he was in a dilemma: "Okay, I'm not the kind of person who would bargain with others."
The man's heart was relieved, and he was overjoyed. He left the things to Zhang Fangyuan: "Brother, seven hundred and twenty coins."
Zhang Fangyuan took each one and smelled it, checking to make sure nothing was mixed in before counting the money and giving it to the people.
"Thank you, big brother. Thank you, big brother. Big brother, your business is booming and you are making a lot of money." After saying that, the man took a piece of watermelon and carried the load: "Big brother, we will meet again if we are lucky."
Zhang Fangyuan didn't care about the piece of watermelon, thinking who would want to say goodbye to you.
He was in a good mood. He packed all the perfume into a box, turned around and said to Zhang Shiyue who was busy in the kitchen: "Second aunt, I'm going to go back first. If my brother doesn't see me when he comes back, please tell him."
Zhang Shiyue only knew that there was a man outside buying watermelons, and he didn't know what the two of them talked about outside, so he replied, "Okay."
Zhang Fangyuan took the things back and stored them carefully. He planned to wait until he made a big profit before telling Xu He. After all, this business was different from the previous ones. Xu He would definitely be sad if he suffered a loss. He would tell him after he had made a stable profit. By then, he would be so happy.
But he was in trouble again. How should he explain the more than 700 coins he had spent? He paced around the room, and even if he spent all his private money, he could only collect 50 coins. He was still more than 600 coins short. He was really dizzy.
Borrowing it is obviously impossible. Everyone in the village thinks that their family is well-off now. If he borrowed from relatives, they might think that He Ge'er was abusing him.
Forget it, I'd better sell my face.
"Brother He, come here, I want to tell you something."
Not long after Xu He returned to the tea stall from home, Zhang Fangyuan returned. He had just finished talking to Zhang Shiyue when he was pulled aside.
"What did you do when you got home?"
"Just took a shower, it was hot."
"Then don't wash it here, so you don't have to go all the way."
Zhang Fangyuan said, "We have guests. It would be inappropriate for me to occupy the toilet."
Xu He thought about it and then remembered: "By the way, what did you want to tell me? There's nothing wrong at home, it's just that my aunt came back and asked me to go out for dinner together."
Zhang Fangyuan nodded: "That's good." If Liu Xianglan wanted to do something bad again, he was not afraid to make another trip.
After talking about the Xu family in detail, Zhang Fangyuan laughed out loud. His aunt was really interesting. If it was Xu He's mother, life wouldn't be so annoying.
After talking for a while, he thought of his own affairs, looked around again, and seeing that there was no one around, he whispered, "Well...give me some more money."
"Ah?" Xu He hesitated for a moment: "What do you want to buy?"
"I'm not buying anything. I just want to have more money in my pocket. As a man, I need to have more face." Zhang Fangyuan rubbed his hands and made up an excuse that he thought was pretty good: "It's your cousin. He always laughs at me for not having money. I used to spend lavishly, but now I'm frugal, so he laughs at me."
"What's so funny about this? Didn't my cousin give all his money to Brother Hua?" Xu He looked at the man in front of him, not knowing what he was up to. Thinking that he had rarely been to the city, it might be inconvenient for him to spend money alone in the city, he asked seriously, "Then how much do you think you should carry with you to look good?"
"At least you can spare a dime." After all, he was a big brother who was always surrounded by people. Zhang Fangyuan said, "One tael of silver is the best."
"Are you sure you won't get burned with so much money?" Xu He narrowed his eyes slightly. The gap between one ounce of silver worth one hundred coins and one ounce of silver worth one thousand coins was too big. He didn't particularly want to agree, but seeing Zhang Fangyuan looking like a pitiful dog wagging its tail and praying for good, he couldn't help but sigh slightly: "Okay, okay."
"Didn't you say that all the meat is sold today? Then save the two thousand coins you used to buy the animals for me, and keep the rest for yourself."
Zhang Fangyuan's eyebrows curved. This time he sold more than three thousand coins from the pork. He had some left after handing in the two thousand. It was much better than he expected.
His wife is so generous!
Zhang Fangyuan tilted his head and kissed Xu He on the corner of his mouth: "Great, I will listen to you in the future!"
“You are really…”
Xu He blushed. They had never been so intimate in public before, and he couldn't help feeling embarrassed. But it is true that money makes the world go round. Look how happy that person is.
Two days later, Zhang Fangyuan went to Yunliang Pavilion again in a hurry.
The author has something to say:
Unknown man: He could have just robbed me, but he still gave me twenty cents...
Zhang Fanyuan: Brother, I only have five cents in pocket money...
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