The Zhou family is one of the largest merchants in Qingzhou Prefecture, starting from a small grocery store, after nearly 100 years of operation and four generations, there are now dozens of stores, all over the state capitals of Shandong. In Nanjing, Beijing, Hangzhou and other places, there are Zhou's warehouses.

Today is the day of the monthly meeting of the weekly journal. In the living room of the back house of Qingzhou Zhouji, the shopkeepers of each branch came here early in the morning, waiting for the arrival of Zhou Xuhai, the current master of Zhouji. The regular meeting has not yet begun, and all the shopkeepers have gathered around the shopkeeper Xu to inquire about the hot sale of soap.

The shopkeeper Pang of the Yishui store took the lead in asking the shopkeeper Xu: "Shopkeeper Xu, I heard that the people who went to the store to buy soap in the past two days have all broken their heads, and the soap has been sold for 300 yuan a piece?" The 3,000 pieces of soap were sold out in two days, and the bonus of the shopkeeper Xu this month must be the highest for you. ”

"Shopkeeper Xu, I heard that some people buy more than ten, dozens, or even hundreds of yuan at a time, and they can sell it for 400 yuan a piece?"

"Shopkeeper Xu, where did you buy the goods from? Give us some evenly, too. ”

"Don't worry, shopkeepers, the owner will come in a while, and after I report to the owner, the owner will decide." Shopkeeper Xu kept coping with it.

At this time, the big boss Zhou Xuhai walked in from outside, and the hall was immediately quiet, and everyone returned to their seats and sat down. After Zhou Xuhai sat down on the main seat, the shopkeepers successively reported the profit of the month to the owner and submitted the account book.

This is the rule of the weekly diary, the first ten days of each month must be completed before the settlement of the previous month, the twelfth day of the general number of meetings, by the shopkeeper to the general number of the account book, report the month's profits. Near noon, after the shopkeepers of each store finished reporting, Zhou Xuhai asked the shopkeeper Xu: "I heard that Juzhou branch soap is selling well, and some small traders have sold it to Qingzhou, but is there such a thing?" ”

"Indeed, this soap is produced by a long-term workshop in the countryside of Juzhou, and it is much better than pancreas. The price is cheaper than that of pancreas, and large local families have bought it. ”

"And what about the profits?"

"Boss, I was just going to report something to you alone."

When everyone retired, the shopkeeper Xu said again: "The owner, this soap is very profitable. I bought from Helichang Workshop at 80 wen per piece, and after replacing it with our imprint packaging, I could sell it for 300 wen, and there was nearly four times the profit in the middle. I brought 3,000 yuan this time, and I will test sell it at the main store first. ”

"It's a lot of profit, how much does that workshop produce in a day?"

"I don't know at the moment, but the day before yesterday I went to buy the goods, and they were very vigilant. But the number of people is not very large, and it is estimated that the production will not be very large. Now the Qi family and the Liu family in Juzhou are secretly inquiring about the source of the soap, and it is estimated that it will not be kept secret for long. The owner, can we sign a contract with the He Li Chang's family, if we can underwrite their goods, it would be good. ”

"It is a bit difficult to underwrite, we still have some channels in Shandong, but it is difficult for us to control it in other provinces, and there are several opponents of the Qi family and the Liu family competing."

"If you can't underwrite, then order more goods, and take this opportunity to make more money."

"Look at the sales situation in Qingzhou, if it sells well again, two days later, we will go to Hejia Workshop again and talk about underwriting. During this time, let the guys from the store keep their mouths tight and don't leak the news. ”

After the matter was negotiated, the shopkeeper Xu left the back house, and at this time, the three thousand pieces of soap on the car had also been unloaded.

On the embroidery floor of the Zhou family's back house, Zhou Fuliu sat at the table in a daze, she was the predecessor of Sun Wenguo's wife Li Wei, Li Wei crossed over to Zhou Fuliu after Zhou Fuliu fainted due to fever.

Since that car accident, Li Wei has experienced almost the same thing as Sun Wenguo, he knows that his husband and son have traveled to the Ming Dynasty, but whether they are contemporaries and how far away from him are also unknown.

Even in the same era, how to find one's relatives in the vast sea of people? Since she recovered from her illness, she has been depressed, she has not thought about tea and dinner, she has been bored in the house all day, and she has not even gone downstairs for several days.

Zhou Xuhai and his wife were anxious in their eyes, but they were helpless. I went to the doctor and saw it a few times, and I said that I was not sick, but I was weak, and I should pay attention to recuperation.

The Zhou family has a son and a daughter, and the son is the elder, 25 years old, who is a member of the Bingchen Kejin in the ninth year of Hongzhi, and is in charge of politics in Beijing. Zhou Fuliu is 16 years old, talented since childhood, not only good at poetry, but also good at arithmetic, since last year to help his father take care of the shop.

In a daze, Zhou Fuliu heard the sound of running upstairs, and after a while, the maid Vanilla ran to the house and shouted: "Miss, Miss, I brought you good things, look what this is." ”

Vanilla was holding a paper bag in his hand, Zhou Fuliu took it, opened the paper bag, saw a yellow square, sniffed it again, and said, "Soap?" ”

"Miss has read a book, but it's different, and you recognize this as soap at a glance?" Vanilla said in surprise, "This is what the master brought from the store for the lady and the lady to try." It is said that the shopkeeper Xu bought 3,000 yuan and tested it in the store. ”

Zhou Fuliu's heart moved, and suddenly his heart beat faster, could it be them? She knew that soap was a modern washing product, and it was impossible for soap to appear in the Ming Dynasty, only one of their fathers and sons made it after crossing over. So he asked: "Is it the shopkeeper Xu of the Juzhou branch?" Is he still in the store? ”

"It's him, he's gone in the morning."

"Vanilla, let's go to the store and have a look."

"Okay, let's go now." Vanilla is very happy, the young lady has not been out since she recovered from her illness, and she is naturally happy to go to the store now. Vanilla has grown up with Zhou Fuliu since she was a child, and it can be said that she is both a maid and a best friend. She could naturally see the change in the young lady's expression after seeing the soap.

In front of the main store of Zhou Kee, it was bustling with people, and there were people everywhere who came to buy soap.

A few days ago, there were occasional hawkers who came to Qingzhou to sell, a piece was sold for 400 Wen, or even 500 Wen, only a few rich people who knew earlier could buy it, and today I heard that Zhou Ji 300 Wen, which naturally attracted the crowd to rush to buy. There are domestic servants of large families here, and they are also small traders and peddlers. Especially the small traders, they are simply the scalpers of the Ming Dynasty, and they buy dozens or even hundreds of yuan.

"Yao Laoba, how many yuan did you rob?"

"It's not much, it's only fifty yuan, but it's a pity that the money is small, so I have to buy more."

"Yao Laoba, you can make money, this tomorrow in Changle, you can earn at least five taels of silver in the blink of an eye."

Yao Laoba laughed, his mouth cracking to the root of his ears.

"Hey, it looks like I can't buy it today. When I go back, the master will definitely be scolded. A young man who looked like a domestic servant stood outside the crowd and sighed.

"This little brother, do you want to buy soap?" After Yao Laoba heard the young man's words, he quietly approached the young man and asked in a low voice.

"How much?" The young man asked.

Yao Laoba pulled the young man to a secluded place and said, "Four hundred wen." ”

"You rob money, Zhou Ji sells for 300 Wen, and you sell it for 400 Wen when you change hands?"

"This little brother, there are only 500 yuan in the store now, looking at this situation, it will definitely be sold out today. The next shipment is not necessarily when. ”

"Didn't you say three thousand?"

"You don't know this, just now the shopkeeper of Jinan Mansion and the shopkeeper of Laizhou Mansion pulled away two cars respectively, and one car is 1,000 yuan. I've been staring here this morning, and I've only grabbed fifty dollars until now. ”

"That's okay, 400 wen is 400 wen, give me two pieces."

Zhou Fuliu and Vanilla stood outside the store, seeing that this scene did not enter the store, they kept thinking in their hearts that it must be right if it was one of their father and son.

This soap requires chemical knowledge, and the son's study of literature is not good at mathematics, physics and chemistry, and it is more likely that he is a husband. Tomorrow I will find an opportunity to ask my father, and try to persuade him to go there, if only I could accompany him.

Who did he cross over to, and how old was he? Don't be an old man, thinking to himself, his face couldn't help but flush.

The next day, Zhou Fuliu came to his shop and saw his father reading the account book, so he sat down to read the account book together. But it looked like he wanted to say something, Zhou Xuhai was such a shrewd person, so he asked: "Whisk willow, is there something wrong?" It's rare to see you in the store these days. ”

"No, I saw that soap sales were booming yesterday, and today I was afraid that my father would be busy, so I came to help my father."

"Well, this soap is really easy to sell and profitable. In two days, my father will go to Juzhou to buy goods in person. ”

"Father, may you take me with you?"

"It's not appropriate for girls to go to their homes, it's better to settle accounts at home."

"Father," Zhou Fuliu said in a coquettish voice: "You see that I have just recovered from a serious illness, so you should take me to relax, okay?" ”

"No, it's better for girls not to show their heads, do you want to marry in the future?"

Speaking of getting married, it has always been the heart disease of Zhou Xuhai's old couple, and his son has not been able to take care of his own business since he was admitted to the Jinshi and went to the household department as an official.

Zhou Xuhai is an only son, and he also has a thin number of children under his knees, he only got a daughter in his forties, and now he is almost sixty years old, and there is no suitable person to manage the family's business. So I have always wanted to recruit a door-to-door son-in-law, but this is not easy to say, so the marriage of the daughter who has come and gone has been delayed.

"Father, my daughter doesn't want to marry yet." Zhou Fuliu continued to persuade: "Father, you are getting older, and my brother is an official in the capital, and I will need to take care of the business in this family sooner or later." If you don't take me to talk about business now, it will be difficult for me to do it then. ”

After his daughter said this, Zhou Xuhai felt that there was some truth, so he relieved himself and said, "Okay, but you have to ask your mother again about this matter, as long as she agrees." ”

"Father, can you just say no to your mother?"

"Say your own business."

"Why did I become my own business for the sake of our family's business?"

"Then you're not going."

"Okay, I'll talk to my mother. I'm afraid of you. ”

After speaking, Zhou Fuliu called on the herbs and went home. They didn't leave for a while, and the shopkeeper Xu came to the back house and saluted the owner: "The owner, I heard that the people of the Qi family are going to Helichang's village tomorrow, and nine times out of ten they are going to ask for goods." Without hesitation, we have to hurry. ”