Zhou and Wei Shu had a brief discussion and then it was time to decide on the price.
The material chosen by Shen Cui was indeed cheap, but the military coat was made wide and large, so it was quite wasteful of material.
Moreover, cotton is not cheap, costing one hundred coins per pound. A military coat that reaches the calf requires about three pounds of cotton.
This alone is three hundred coins, or three qian of silver. Including the cloth, the cost was about five cents of silver.
If we need to add wages, how much to add...that is another difficult problem.
Wei Shu did not urge her. Zhou looked at Chen Cui in embarrassment. Chen Cui did not help her decide directly, but asked her: "Were you not with me when we went to the cloth shop to buy cloth that day? There were also ready-made clothes there. Wasn't it just that someone was preparing to buy New Year's goods and asked the price?"
Zhou nodded and said, "The ready-made clothes are hanging next to the cloth we bought. They are made of the same material, but they are not stuffed with as much cotton as ours, and they are not as big. Each piece costs one tael of silver."
"Isn't that it? Just follow this."
Zhou calculated that she could earn five cents of silver by sewing one jacket. If she made ten large cotton-padded jackets, wouldn't that mean she could earn five taels of silver?
Even though Zhou had been doing this job for such a long time, Chen Cui had casually calculated for her and it turned out to be correct. She could only earn twenty or thirty cents a day, and a few cents a month.
Five taels of silver was equivalent to all the money she had earned in the past six months!
At first, she just heard about making ten coats and didn't think much of it. But when she really calculated the specific number, such a large sum of money, she was a little hesitant to agree to it.
Chen Cui didn't look at her, but only at Wei Shu: "Give me half of the deposit first, and the construction period will be set before the New Year. You can take some of it over during your ten-day break in the second half of the month. If you have already gone home, Zhou and I will send it to the academy."
Wei Shu nodded and took out five taels of silver.
When Zhou took it, she found something wrong and said hesitantly, "Master Wei...did you fail to collect the deposit from your classmates?"
If it was the deposit given by those ten people, then it must have been in round numbers, and it would not be exactly five taels of silver.
Wei Shu said yes, "I don't know how much money they have, so I will confiscate it. We have been classmates for many years, so I will pay for it first. It's okay."
"This... Master Wei helped introduce the business and also paid the deposit. This is not a good idea."
"What are you talking about, sister-in-law? Purchasing materials and cotton requires capital, and we can't just start making it at the expense of capital."
While the two were arguing, Chen Cui had already taken the silver and put it into Zhou's hand.
"Wei Shu is right. This is the capital. How can we buy cotton and cloth without the capital?" Shen Cui asked the two of them to enter the house and asked Zhou to write ten receipts. Each receipt stated that she had received a deposit of five cents of silver, which together amounted to five taels.
He also asked Wei Shu to write two copies of a simple contract, indicating the price of each item, the total quantity and the delivery time.
Soon they both finished writing, and after the ink dried, Shen Cui handed a small stack of receipts to Wei Shu first.
"Take this and give it to your classmates. Collect one deposit and give one to them. Tell them that you will send them a jacket in return. They only recognize the note and not the person."
Next were the two deeds. Chen Cui asked them to sign them and keep one copy each.
It was only a quarter of an hour since she got hold of the matter, and she immediately understood it clearly.
However, Zhou was still a little embarrassed. She didn't say anything in front of others. When everyone went back to their rooms to rest at night, she went to Chen Cui's room.
"Mother-in-law, Master Wei is my husband's best friend, and those in the academy are also my husband's classmates. And I still earn so much money from them..."
At this time, Chen Cui had already washed up and was preparing to go to bed, but after hearing her hesitant words, she was no longer in a hurry to go to bed. She sat up again, pointed at the edge of the kang and asked her to sit down and talk.
"Let me ask you first, if I want to buy a big coat like ours in the city for one tael of silver and I want it to be wearable within a month, can I buy it?"
Zhou thought for a moment and said, "Everyone is busy before the New Year. If you want to wear clothes right away, you can only buy ready-made clothes. And the style of our jacket was designed by you. You have never seen such ready-made clothes anywhere else."
"Then let me ask you again, with your skills, how much worse are the clothes you make than those sold in the cloth shop?"
"I'm definitely not as skilled as the old tailor, but our styles are simple, and I work hard, so the stitching won't be any worse than the ones in the cloth shop."
"That's it. Our styles are new and our materials are good. Your craftsmanship is not bad either. We are inferior to theirs, but we don't have a storefront and are not well-known... The two offset each other and our prices are the same, so the pricing is very reasonable."
Seeing that Zhou was still hesitant to speak, Chen Cui continued, "I know you are thinking about favors. But since we are doing business, we should be honest and don't be clingy. For example, Wei Shu helped deliver the order today and paid the deposit. You can wait until this order is completed and then buy him a thank-you gift, but in the process of doing business, don't mix in favors. When it is necessary to sign a document, sign it, and when it is necessary to collect money, collect it. Didn't you see that Wei Shu was not unhappy today?"
Thinking of Wei Shu's reaction - when she refused to accept the deposit he paid in advance, Wei Shu was very embarrassed. Later, Chen Cui helped to collect the money and wrote the receipt and the deed in black and white. He looked relaxed instead, and did not waste time on this matter and devoted himself to his homework.
She was the only one who hesitated for the whole night and finally couldn't help talking to Shen Cui before going to bed.
In the past, she would not have dared to speak to Shen Cui like this, but after living together for almost a year, she knew that her mother-in-law was really different from before, so she dared to say it out loud.
She was a little scared when she said this, afraid that Chen Cui would think that she, the junior, questioned the decision of her, the elder, and would point at her nose and scold her like before.
Shen Cui didn’t scold her, but analyzed it to her from beginning to end, and said: “There is another thing, I don’t know if you remember, that is, our family was collecting eggs in the village earlier, and the old lady insisted on giving them to you.”
Zhou said she remembered.
That old lady was the one who had given Mu Yunchuan malt candy earlier. Her mind was confused at one moment and clear at another. When she came to her senses, she realized that she had done something wrong. She had passed the imperial examination and was returning home happily, but she had given such a disgusting thing to Mu Yunchuan. The scholar was really good-tempered. Not only did he not get angry with her, he also defended her face in front of others.
Not long after, Zhou was collecting eggs in the village. The old woman recognized her as the scholar's wife and refused to take the few cents, wanting to give them to her.
A few cents may not seem like much, but the old lady lives in poverty and has difficulty taking care of herself on a daily basis. How could Zhou be willing to take advantage of her? After several attempts, they couldn't figure it out. Later, when Zhou wanted to collect eggs, he avoided going to her house and asked someone to help collect them. This added an extra step and was quite troublesome.
"So, business is business, and relationships are relationships. They should be treated separately. If they are mixed together, it will not be good for both parties."
Apart from anything else, Zhou is a person who is quite receptive to advice. After hearing what Shen Cui said, he stopped worrying about it, went to bed immediately, and started working early the next morning.
By the time Wei Shu had his next day off, she had rushed to make five coats. In fact, at her previous pace, she could still finish one piece a day.
But at that time the system task was under tight time constraints, so Shen Cui helped her, and the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law worked together to complete it.
Now she was the only one working. Although she used the candles from the system and did needlework at night without worrying about hurting her eyes, even an iron man could not stand the long days of hard work. Shen Cui still watched her take time to rest and let her do one piece every two days.
Wei Shu took the jacket back to the academy the next day.
Chen Cui in front of him handed him a stack of receipts written in black and white, and the people who ordered the jackets immediately and readily exchanged silver for their receipts.
The person who got the news first entrusted the receipt and the balance to Wei Shu before the ten-day holiday. Now that he got the jacket, he put it on and tried it on on the spot.
Like Wei Shu's, although the cut is very simple, each jacket is thick and warm, the stitches are densely sewn, and there is enough cotton. Once you put it on, no wind can get in at all! We didn't rush the work just because of the tight time schedule!
It is also better to make it loose so that they can wear their own clothes on ordinary days and put them on at any time when the wind blows at night. It was already evening then, so it wouldn't affect their image as scholars.
Some people did not put it on immediately, but instead covered themselves with the quilt in the big coat, knowing that they would not be woken by the cold at night.
"The shop that Brother Wei is interested in is indeed good. This tael of silver is not worse than what is sold in the tailor shop on Shuyuan Street. Moreover, you have to make reservations for the tailor shop. I ordered it before winter, and it is still not ready."
"It's just that I came too late. I haven't gotten the first five items yet. I have to wait another ten days... In ten days, it's the New Year holiday. Brother Wei should go home, right? Why don't you just tell me the shop and I'll go get them myself."
Wei Shu said, "The shop said that they will deliver it directly to the academy when it's done. You just need to issue a receipt then."
…………
A few days after Laba Festival, Qingzhu Academy had its New Year holiday.
There are many students from all over the world in the academy, for example, Wei Shu and Wei Xi, whose families are far away in the capital, and it takes them more than half a month to go back and forth.
Last year, Wei Shu didn't go home because he thought the journey was too long. This year, Wei Xi came with him. If the two brothers don't go home, it will be difficult to explain to their parents.
Wei Shu actually wanted to go back alone, fearing that Wei Xi would get sick on the way.
But it’s also strange. Wei Xi, who used to get sick at the beginning of winter, didn’t even have a cough this year for the first time ever?
Wei Xi felt that he could do it. If he didn't go back, even if Wei Shu said that everything was fine for him outside, the two elders would only think that he was only reporting good news and not bad news.
On the one hand, he wanted to comfort his parents, and on the other hand, he felt very comfortable during his time in Cuiwei Academy. If he wanted to stay here for a long time, he would have to go home and explain everything to his parents.
On the tenth day, Chen Cui and her group saw the Wei brothers off. After seeing them off, Chen Cui accompanied Zhou to deliver clothes in the afternoon.
At that time, only people like the Wei brothers who were going on a long journey back to Beijing left first. Most of the people did not leave, especially the few who did not get the new jackets, and they were all waiting.
Zhaifu helped to pass the message, and soon five young men came out with receipts.
Zhou and Shen Cui rarely come here. The last time they dealt with Qingzhu Academy was during the August Academy Competition, but at that time everyone was in their respective stands, far away. Shen Cui and Zhou rarely showed their faces in front of people, so these five people did not recognize them.
The five people readily gave the receipt, paid the balance, praised the jacket again and again, and asked where their shop was located.
Shen Cui facilitated this deal in order to train Zhou, so naturally she kept silent and let Zhou come forward.
"We don't have a shop. We just do the work at home. It can barely be considered a small workshop." Zhou said, her eyes unconsciously looking at Chen Cui.
Shen Cui still said nothing, but just gave her an encouraging look.
Zhou took a deep breath and continued in an orderly manner, "A small workshop also has its advantages. There are fewer orders and the work is done quickly. If you have anything else you want to do next time, whether it is a purse headband or a long gown or short jacket, you can make it to order."
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