Her body's instincts immediately gave rise to eight hundred thoughts of wanting to gossip.
But a single thought immediately extinguished those eight hundred ideas.
Mrs. Han is now her employer.
She is someone who can make money for her.
If she spreads any information about her private life without permission, the money she hasn't even received yet will probably disappear.
Moreover, she had experienced this woman's methods firsthand.
Madam Han knew perfectly well what was said behind her back; she must have many eyes and ears, so it couldn't be hidden.
Aunt Guo greeted He Youyou with a smile, saying, "Greetings, Madam Han."
He Youyou: "What brings Aunt Guo here?"
Aunt Guo was a shrewd and clever woman.
Seeing that He Youyou did not introduce the handsome young man in the room to her, she understood that Madam Han did not want her to know.
She immediately acted as if she hadn't seen anyone else in the room.
"I have already taken care of the task that Madam asked me to do last time. I have come here specifically to report back."
As she spoke, she placed the bundle slung over her arm on He Youyou's desk and untied it.
It was wrapped in three layers, with the innermost layer being waterproof oil paper.
Take out a thick stack of papers from the oil paper package; they are covered with small writing.
He Youyou picked up the stack of papers and looked at the top one.
The handwriting resembles that of a child learning to write; each stroke is neat and orderly, but not beautiful, and has not yet developed into a mature font.
Aunt Guo rarely showed a hint of self-doubt: "Hehe, the writing was done by my brother. He attended a private school for a few years when he was young and can write. However, he wasn't very good at studying and wasn't cut out for the imperial examinations, so he stopped studying later. Please don't be offended by his poor handwriting, Madam."
He Youyou smiled slightly: "The handwriting is very neat. It seems that Aunt Guo and your younger brother are both very serious people."
As a boss, you should promptly acknowledge and recognize the strengths of your employees.
Upon hearing this, Aunt Guo was naturally delighted: "Thank you for your kind words, Madam."
After flipping through a few pages, He Youyou knew she had found the right person.
This investigation is very detailed.
He Youyou asked her to ask about the price, and the person not only asked, but also asked about last year's price, noting how much it had increased or decreased.
There were only twenty or thirty cloth and silk shops in the entire Jizhou region, which was incomparable to the wealthy Jiangnan region.
(During the Ming Dynasty, there were more than 130 cloth and silk shops in Suzhou.)
After a quick glance through the investigation records, He Youyou already had a good idea of what was going on.
"Thank you for your hard work, Aunt Guo. How did you manage to ask about so many shops? A few days is probably not enough time."
Aunt Guo seemed to have anticipated her question: "Madam, I certainly couldn't do it alone. I asked several sisters-in-law, aunts, cousins and relatives to help. Once the job is done, we'll give each of them a few hundred coins as a reward."
He Youyou: Wow, this old woman even knows how to outsource labor now.
Fearing that she might not be at ease, Aunt Guo quickly added, "Madam, please rest assured. Before they do anything, I give them detailed instructions. I have each person rehearse in front of me what to ask and how to ask. I only use those who are clever enough; I would never dare to use those who are dull and clueless. I also carefully check what they ask. Anything that is even slightly unreliable will not escape my sharp eyes and will never reach you."
He Youyou: Yes, this is the pre-job training for employees.
That old woman, she's really capable.
The reason I used to focus on gossip was definitely because I had too much free time.
Geniuses are buried and talents are wasted.
Such talent, if properly utilized, can create considerable surplus value.
He Youyou smiled with satisfaction: "Thank you for your hard work, Aunt Guo. Go and collect your money from Steward Qian now."
"Madam Xie!"
Aunt Guo was overjoyed and was about to go.
Just as I reached the top of the stairs, I remembered something and turned back.
"Madam, do you think I've done a good job on this assignment?"
"You did a good job. Aunt Guo is a really useful person."
"Since you did a good job, then... Madam, if you ever have any more errands like this in the future, please remember this old woman. Leave it to me, I guarantee I'll handle it perfectly and without a single fault."
He Youyou shared the same thought.
“Aunt Guo, if I have any similar investigations in the future, I will assign the task to Steward Qian. Someone will then notify you to go to Old Qian to pick up the task.”
"Yes, yes, yes, then you must tell Butler Qian to give this task to this old woman first, so that it can't be given to someone else."
Aunt Guo seemed to realize she had been too hasty, and added with a smile, "Hehe, this old woman has done it once before, so I know what to do the second time. If it were someone else, I'm afraid they wouldn't be able to do it well, and if they messed it up, wouldn't that ruin Madam's plans?"
He Youyou smiled slightly and said, "I understand. Besides the tasks I assign, if Aunt Guo has any gossip about business in this city, feel free to bring it to me. If it's valuable, I'll pay for it."
Can information be sold for money?
Aunt Guo's eyes lit up: "That's great! I wonder... how much is a piece of information worth?"
"That depends on the value of this information to me. If I think it's valuable, I'll pay a high price. If I don't think it's valuable, then it's worthless."
Aunt Guo was helpless.
This information-selling market is purely a buyer's market.
No one else would buy it except He Youyou.
How much it's worth is entirely up to He Youyou.
He Youyou knew this, of course, so she wouldn't say anything like "Don't worry, I'm fair and I won't treat you unfairly."
Promises made beforehand are meaningless.
"Yes," Aunt Guo replied, then took her leave to collect her money from Steward Qian.
The amount of money wasn't much, but He Youyou could give it to her from her own pocket.
However, just to be on the safe side, we'll go through the motions with Butler Qian.
After receiving the silver, Steward Qian wrote a receipt and had Granny Guo put her fingerprint on it to avoid any disputes later.
Cheng Tingrui watched the whole thing from beginning to end, his curiosity piqued.
He Youyou naturally didn't need to hide it from him, and pushed the stack of papers that Aunt Guo had given her in front of him.
"Second Master Cheng, take a look. Is my investigation thorough enough?"
Cheng Tingrui took the stack of papers and began to examine them carefully, starting with the first one.
After reading three or four pages, my emotions were already stirred.
He looked up in surprise at He Youyou: "Mrs. Han, are you interested in the fabric business?"
He Youyou shook her head: "It's not that simple, there are just too many industries, I don't know where to start. I can only start with the simplest and most common fabric industry to see if there are any investment opportunities."
She was just conducting a preliminary industry survey.
After researching fabrics, we can then expand to upstream industries—dyeing and textiles—or downstream industries—garment manufacturing.
A few days later, it was the third day of the third lunar month.
The third day of the third lunar month, also known as the Shangsi Festival, is a statutory holiday for those who work hard.
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