Chapter 58: Counting the Big Money
On the day of Qixi, the entire shop was like a battlefield. The few people in the shop were all exhausted.
It wasn’t until the end of the Hour of the Dog(7 PM to 9 PM), when the crowd on the street had dispersed and there were no more customers, that Lin Shuang instructed them to close the shop.
The shop was connected to a courtyard in the back, with a total of four rooms. Lin Shuang, Jiang Huaizhen, and Dongzhi shared one room. The remaining two were for Hu Guiying and the three little girls, and one was used as a storeroom.
The four shop assistants had been standing all day and were exhausted. Lin Shuang directly ordered a table of good food from the restaurant next door and had it delivered. Everyone ate and drank well, and after washing up, they went to rest.
Lin Shuang’s room only had one bed. Dongzhi slept with them, with Lin Shuang in the middle.
The little girl had been jumping around all day. When she was taking a bath, she could barely keep her eyes open. It was Lin Shuang who had wiped her clean and carried her back to the room. She was so sound asleep on the bed that ten oxen couldn’t have woken her.
Lin Shuang could see that Jiang Huaizhen was also very tired, not from physical exhaustion, but from the weariness of dealing with so many people. So she let her wash first, and she was the last to wash.
When she returned to the room, the woman was sitting on the bed, drowsy, the cattail fan in her hand having fallen to the floor at some point.
Hearing her footsteps, she barely opened her eyes.
Lin Shuang stepped over her and got into bed, picked up the cattail fan, and fanned her, saying softly, “Why didn’t you sleep first if you’re so tired?”
Jiang Huaizhen closed her eyes and replied, “I’ll sleep when you’re ready.”
Lin Shuang’s heart softened. She gently stroked her long hair and asked, “Do you not like staying in the prefectural city?”
Jiang Huaizhen was silent for a moment, then replied softly, “I want to go home. I miss Grandma, I miss Ping’er…”
It was too noisy and chaotic here.
Her voice was soft and a little wronged, a stark contrast to her usual stoic image.
Lin Shuang’s heart ached. She said softly, “When I’ve arranged things tomorrow, we’ll go back. Just bear with it for one more day, okay?”
Jiang Huaizhen hummed in agreement and leaned her head over.
Lin Shuang had never seen her so docile. She pulled her closer to her shoulder and said, “Good girl, go to sleep.”
With that, she gently fanned her, and a gentle breeze blew from the fan. Jiang Huaizhen closed her eyes and fell asleep.
The day after Qixi was the eighth.
There were significantly fewer pedestrians on the street, and the flow of people in the shops had dropped sharply. There were still a few young girls browsing in Linglong Pavilion, but the other shops that specialized in selling mohele had no more customers.
This was the drawback of trendy products. Lin Shuang had been mentally prepared, so she didn’t feel much of a psychological gap. In the afternoon, she had the girls watch the shop while she, Jiang Huaizhen, and Hu Guiying were in the storeroom, taking inventory and counting the silver.
There were several heavy bundles of money. Lin Shuang had a rough idea of the amount, but when she actually put the silver on the table, her hands were still trembling.
The few of them counted for half a quarter of an hour, then checked it against the data in the account book. The final sales amount was one thousand and eighty taels.
Lin Shuang listed out all the expenses.
The cost of the mohele dolls was a total of one hundred taels. The cost of the materials for the clothes, accessories, and wooden boxes was ten taels. In addition, the labor cost was thirty taels, half of which had not yet been paid.
The short-term rent and decoration costs for the two shops in Changping County and the prefectural city were a total of ten taels.
Also, she had spent twenty taels to have Lu Qing help her with the connections in the prefectural city. He had also helped with the taxes, which included a three-part residence tax and a one-part market stall tax, for a total of 43 taels of silver.
The labor cost mainly included the wages of the few shop assistants. They had been extremely busy this month, so each of them would get a bonus, for a total of less than ten taels.
In total, the profit that their shop had earned during this period was 850 taels.
As previously agreed, Hu Guiying would get three-tenths of it, which was 255 taels. The remaining 595 was for Lin Shuang and Jiang Huaizhen.
Hu Guiying looked at the more than twenty silver ingots on the table and couldn’t sit still. Two fires were dancing in her eyes, and she was extremely excited.
“We said we would earn quick money, but I never expected it to be this kind of quick money, and I never expected to earn so much.”
She cried and laughed. “I’m a constable at the yamen, and I only earn five hundred copper coins a month. Even if I don’t eat or drink, I can’t earn this much in a lifetime. Now, I’ve earned it all back in three months. Three months ago, I wouldn’t have believed it even if you had beaten me to death.”
“I thought we were just doing a business of ten or eight taels, and now you’re telling me it’s a thousand-tael business—”
Lin Shuang smiled. “Now you don’t have to ride a big black donkey to chase after thieves.”
Hearing this, Hu Guiying instantly sat up straight. “That’s right. Then I’ll buy the best and most handsome horse!”
“Aren’t you afraid of it being conscripted?”
“What’s there to be afraid of? I’ll have my old uncle go to the yamen and register it as a post horse. No one will dare to conscript my horse.”
Hearing this, Lin Shuang was surprised. “You can do that?”
Hu Guiying shrugged. “Otherwise, do you think that with so many petty officials in our yamen, and so many good horses in their families, how do they hide them?”
Lin Shuang clicked her tongue a couple of times and got back to the point. “After Qixi, there’s not much hype for mohele. There were only a few people in the shop today, but we can still earn a little money.”
“But no matter what, we’ve made a name for Linglong Pavilion this time. In terms of quality, we have no rivals. We might be able to do it for another year next year, but before next year’s Qixi Festival, we won’t be able to have such a big scene.”
“So should we close this shop? After all, we can’t always be here. Should we hire someone?”
Hu Guiying shook her head, indicating that she had no idea.
This business had indeed given her a taste of earning quick and big money, but she knew that she was just riding on Lin Shuang’s coattails. Otherwise, this money would not have been hers to earn.
Of course, she didn’t really think that she had a genius for business and could become an invincible merchant from now on.
Coincidentally, Lin Shuang also thought the same.
But her advantage was her experience and knowledge from her past life, and the success of mohele this time also had a lot of luck in it.
She didn’t know if she could solve the problems that had not appeared in her past life, or if she would be so successful without the knowledge from her past life.
And, Jiang Huaizhen didn’t like the prefectural city.
She wanted to go back to Changping with Jiang Huaizhen, back to Whitewater Village.
Unless there were changes in the future.
But Jiang Huaizhen, who was next to her, said, “Why don’t we ask Sister Wang if she’s willing to take over this stall? Her family fires ceramics, so she can restock at any time. Although the mohele business is not good after Qixi, there are still some. She can still make some profit.”
Lin Shuang thought it was feasible. “Then we’ll go and find her tomorrow morning to discuss it.”
…
The next morning, when Lin Shuang and Jiang Huaizhen arrived at Wang Xiuxiu’s stall, she and her husband had already set up their stall.
Since Lin Shuang had placed a large order last time, her husband had quit his job and had been running back and forth, busy with Lin Shuang’s order. Now that the order was completed, and there was some business these few days, he had also come out to set up a stall with her.
The dolls on the stall were almost the same as the ones in Linglong Pavilion, but they were not packaged in boxes, nor did they have small clothes and decorations, so they couldn’t be sold for much.
But compared to the ten copper coins before, they could still sell for a good price of twenty or thirty coins. And before, the stall was deserted, but now, they had seen a few little girls picking and choosing early in the morning.
Seeing the two of them come, Wang Xiuxiu was a little embarrassed. “I saw that you had ordered a lot before, and I thought that this thing might have a market, so I had my father-in-law make some more to sell…”
Lin Shuang was not the kind of person who would eat meat herself and not even let others drink the soup. She smiled. “It’s alright. At this point, if you still don’t know how to take advantage of this opportunity to earn a wave of money, then you’re too stupid.”
Seeing that she didn’t mind, Wang Xiuxiu was relieved. “You’ve been so busy these two days. How did you have time to come to my place?”
“Qixi is over, and there are fewer people. I just have something I want to talk to you about.”
“What is it? Tell me. If I can do it, I’ll definitely do it for you.”
Lin Shuang had ordered over a hundred taels of silver worth of goods from their family. After deducting the labor and some material costs for rushing the order, the family could earn twenty or thirty taels.
In these few years, their family’s annual income had not exceeded ten taels of silver. Now, with an income of thirty taels in three months, their family’s situation could improve in all aspects. She was full of gratitude to Lin Shuang.
Lin Shuang then told her about the shop. “Our goods come from the same place. I believe you also know the price of Linglong Pavilion. It’s several times more than yours. My grandmother is old and can’t be left alone. We can’t stay in the prefectural city for a long time. We thought that we could still earn a sum of money on Qixi next year, so we didn’t want to close the shop. It just so happens that you’re also in this line of work. Why don’t you take over that shop? It will also be convenient for you to get the goods.”
Hearing this, Wang Xiuxiu and her husband exchanged a glance. They were clearly a little moved.
Clothes make the man, and a saddle makes the horse. They had heard customers at their stall mention Linglong Pavilion more than a dozen times a day, saying how good it was, how high-end it was. Just selling one ordinary gift box was enough for their family to live on for several months.
“Then how does sister want to cooperate?” Wang Xiuxiu asked.
Lin Shuang waited until there was no one in front of the stall and said, “I don’t want to earn any money. It’s just that there are a few families in the village who rely on making clothes and accessories for the little dolls in the shop to earn a living. I want to protect this job for them. So I was thinking, after deducting the cost of the goods from your family, and the money for the clothes and accessories and the rent, and if we hire people, then we’ll deduct the wages, and we’ll split the rest fifty-fifty.”
Just the cost of the goods for the shop was a large item. Wang Xiuxiu didn’t even need to consider it.
All the decorations in Linglong Pavilion were ready-made, and the name was already out there. They could earn money as soon as they took over.
And from what Lin Shuang had just said, that she wanted to protect the villagers’ jobs, it was enough to see that she was kind-hearted. Cooperating with her, they would definitely not be at a disadvantage.
The other had not even mentioned a transfer fee, which was clearly letting them, husband and wife, take advantage of this.
Wang Xiuxiu’s husband had naturally also thought of all aspects and gently nudged his wife, nodding at her.
Wang Xiuxiu said, “This… Linglong Pavilion is a brand you’ve built. It’s so embarrassing for me to take it over.”
Lin Shuang said, “It’s easy to open a shop, but hard to keep it. Now that Qixi is over, there won’t be as many customers. We’re all just earning a living. We’re helping each other and getting what we need. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”
Thus, the deal was done.
This is the greatest outcome