After listening to Lu Qian's explanation, Li Mai curiously sized him up several times. This young master Lu was truly interesting to her.
He has the demeanor of a teenager, but also the maturity of an adult.
He's like a shrewd businessman, but sometimes he's as innocent as a child.
Seeing that Li Mai was only looking him up and down, Lu Qian felt a little uneasy and subconsciously looked at Zhou Quan.
Zhou Quan also sensed that Li Mai had been looking at Lu Qian for quite a while. He moved his fingers and suddenly reached out to gently turn Li Mai's face towards him.
"Does Madam think I'm more handsome, or him?" Zhou Quan asked softly.
Li Mai chuckled, "Of course, my young master Zhou is handsome!"
Zhou Quan was relieved and gave a soft "hmm." He stood up to take the tea tray from the servant who brought in the tea, and then personally poured tea for Li Mai and her younger siblings.
Lu Qian thought to himself, "Well, I'd better be sensible and order the food myself." He asked them what they wanted to eat.
Zhou Quan directly named several dishes.
Lu Qian looked at Li Mai, who nodded. "Yes, my husband has ordered enough. Thank you, Young Master Lu."
"As for the cooperation opportunities you mentioned, let's see in the future. Perhaps we will have opportunities to cooperate in other industries in the future, but in the jewelry industry, Jin Yu Ge and I are already in a life-or-death situation, so I have to apologize for this!"
When Lu Qian heard Li Mai answer his question directly, he was pleased. "Alright, I certainly won't ask you for a jewelry shop again. I'll look forward to cooperating with you in other industries!"
Li Mai nodded at him and smiled. "I'm curious, Mr. Lu, is your trust in me a little blind? You've never dealt with me before and we're not familiar with each other, yet you're so sure that my abilities can help your Lu family in other industries?"
Lu Qian nodded. "I asked around about you before I dared to say that. Besides, my father often told me that business people rely 30% on their family background and 30% on themselves. Of the 30% they rely on themselves, 20% is on their intuition."
Upon hearing his division of percentages, Li Mai asked with considerable interest, "If you're talking about 30%, what about the remaining 40%?"
"Twenty percent favorable timing, twenty percent favorable location," Lu Qian said.
Li Mai laughed. She hadn't expected the Lu family to view the success or failure of a matter in this way: two parts favorable timing, two parts favorable location, and the main factor was people.
This is probably why the Lu family has become the largest merchant family in this town!
Most people divide the elements of timing, location, and human relationships into four parts and three parts.
"Alright, thank you for your kind words, Young Master Lu!" Li Mai nodded to him and then lowered her head to drink her tea.
After figuring out why he always paid more attention to her, Li Mai no longer had such a strong prejudice against Lu Qian.
"Does Xiaomai think this person is good?" Zhou Quan asked Li Mai, holding his teacup and glancing at the closed door.
Li Mai neither nodded nor shook her head. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Let's observe and see. In the future, Sister Ling's focus will probably be on the capital, while we have already decided to start from Qing Shi Town. Therefore, even if we can't get to know the business people in this town well, I don't intend to offend them."
"It's not that we're afraid of them, but there are certain rules for survival in any circle."
"If we want to survive in the business world, we have to adapt to its rules. I've looked into it, and if we were to rank the top ten businesses in town, the Lu family would be number one, both in terms of reputation and strength."
"Although Sister Ling's Golden Jade Pavilion is doing better now, in this town, Sister Ling's strength is still no match for the Lu family. The main reason is that her strength is not in this town, and her mind was not entirely on business before. Her goal has always been revenge."
Zhou Quan nodded; he was aware of that as well.
"I understand. I'll just give that kid fewer dirty looks when I see him in the future."
Li Mai smiled and nodded. "Currently, there are five families in this town that are in the cloth business, seven cloth shops, but only two clothing shops."
"Moreover, those two families, one is the Pei family, which ranks after the Lu family, and the other is the Yue family, which ranks fifth. Both of them have cloth shops and clothing stores, so it's easy to do business with them."
"The Pei family's clothing store is called Caiyi Pavilion, famous for its gorgeous clothes and good designs. The Yue family's clothing store is famous for its exquisite embroidery."
“If our clothing stores want to survive in this kind of environment, they need to have their own unique characteristics,” Li Mai said softly.
"So, our attention is being drawn to this?" Zhou Quan asked.
Li Mai nodded, "Opening a clothing shop is the first step. The second step is to open our dyeing workshop."
"Opening a shop is easy, but to make money in this environment, or to gain a foothold in the town, you need to either make a good start or follow up with a good second step."
"From now on, we'll follow your arrangements. You tell us what to do, and we'll do it." Zhou Quan said.
Zhou Tao nodded, "I'll listen to my sister-in-law. Whatever you tell me to do, I'll do!"
Li Mai nodded and looked at Zhou Tao, "There really is something I need you to do. Let's eat first. We came out today to prepare all the New Year's goods. We'll talk about the specifics when we get back."
Zhou Tao agreed.
Zhou Lei listened quietly, occasionally glancing at Li Mai.
He thought his sister-in-law was amazing. With her by their side, they suddenly realized that their lives might be different from what they had imagined before.
He had never thought he could go to school, but his older brother and sister-in-law said they would send him to school in town next year.
And in the village, he wondered if, without his sister-in-law coming to the village, their village would still be the same as it is now after that flood.
He thought it was impossible, because the layout of the new village was drawn by his elder brother and sister-in-law. Without his sister-in-law's help, his elder brother would not have been able to stand up, let alone lead the villagers to build a new village.
Zhou Lei felt that if it were someone else, they would definitely not be in this situation now.
Apart from the few people who drowned or were swept away that night, no one in the village starved or froze to death, and no one died from exhaustion while building houses.
The elder brother and sister-in-law thought that the villagers might be exhausted to death building the village themselves, so they went to the town magistrate to ask for disaster relief funds for the villagers.
They succeeded, and with that money they hired many people to help them build houses, which is why the whole village has a new life and a new beginning.
Seeing Zhou Lei glancing at her from time to time, Li Mai smiled, put a piece of braised pork on his plate, and said, "Xiao Lei, eat well. You don't need to worry about what we're talking about. What you need to do is exercise every day and get in good health so you can study hard next year."
“Maybe you can even win a title for your mother in the future!” Li Mai said, smiling as she looked at him.
Zhou Lei quickly nodded, "Yes, yes, don't worry, sister-in-law, I will try my best!"
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