After bringing the people to the destination, the Ma Zhongren asked, "Brother Su, how about you take a look here?" ”

Chi Fei took a look at the land in front of him, and saw that there were traces of burning everywhere. The eyes are full of devastation, ruins and ruins.

According to Ma Zhongren, this was originally the ancestral home of a wealthy family in the capital, and it has been passed down for several generations.

But ten years ago, a fire burned down the entire house, leaving only this empty space in ruins.

Chi Fei took a cursory look at it, and this vacant land was about the size of two acres of land, that is, about 1,300 square meters. If converted into a courtyard house, it should be a three- to four-entry house.

After turning around, Chi Fei asked, "Ma Zhongren, is it clean here?" Are there any bad rumors? ”

Ma Zhongren understood what he meant, and immediately replied, "Brother Su, please rest assured, you and I have cooperated so many times, I will not lie to you."

When the fire broke out, the family escaped with all their subordinates, and no one burned to death inside.

The cause of the fire was probably caused by someone in the house accidentally lighting something while using a candle.

For so many years, the surrounding neighbors have not heard of anything strange happening, if you don't believe it, you can go to the neighborhood and ask.

But after all, there was a fire here, and many people who wanted to buy land to build houses felt that it was unlucky, so most of them just came to see it and then there was no follow-up, so the land has been empty.

If you don't like it, I'll help you see if there's a better place.

But to be honest, this place in the capital is full of people. It's not easy to find such a big and cheap vacant land again. ”

"Why didn't the owner come back and rebuild the house?"

"To tell you the truth, the owner of the house also thinks that this place is unlucky, so he bought another house outside, so he wants to sell this land."

"How much does the other party ask?"

"Six thousand two or three hundred silver."

Chi Fei thought about it for a while, it was indeed very cheap for such a big place to only cost more than six thousand taels. If the normal land price of the surrounding area is followed, it will be increased by at least one-third.

If this land is in the inner city, let alone 6,000 taels, even if it is tens of thousands of taels, there are a lot of people rushing to ask for it.

The pattern of the capital is like this, the closer you are to the center of the imperial city, the more expensive it is.

This is a reason for the huge difference in property prices in the first, third and fifth rings of modern Beijing.

"Okay, old rule, you go and help me cut the price, and I can cut the difference for you by 10%."

"Okay, I'll go and help Brother Su, you go and ask the owner of the house." Ma Zhongren immediately responded with a smile.

At the beginning, he helped this little brother in the face of Chen's tent, and the intermediary fee charged was also the most favorable.

But after several collaborations, he became more and more appreciative of this young man who had the ability to keep buying real estate.

What's even more rare is that he is cheerful and generous.

As long as he treats him honestly and does not deceive him, he not only gives enough intermediary fees, but also often gives more tea money, which is a very rare good customer. That's why Malaysians like to work with him the most.

Sure enough, there is money and easy to do, and with the efforts of the Ma Zhongren, the price was cut to 5,800 taels.

After the two sides went through the transfer procedures, Chi Fei also happily paid the Malaysian and Chinese people a bargaining fee, and the two sides cooperated happily again.

After getting the title deed, Chi Fei immediately found a group of craftsmen with good reputation and craftsmanship to clean up the entire land, and then build it according to the drawings he drew.

The so-called employment is not suspicious, and the suspect is not used, and Chi Fei did not stay in the construction site all day to supervise the work, at most, he came to see it every day, and left after the last hour. Sometimes, they would ask the cow to send some fruit or snacks to comfort the craftsmen.

Because Chi Fei gave a good salary and knew how to be a person, the craftsmen were quite moved and worked hard.

Zhang Xiao'e and Da Niu thought that they wanted to buy this land to build a shop for rent, so they didn't think much about it.

But as the whole building gradually took shape, they found that the building did not look like an ordinary courtyard house in any way.

The entire plot is walled, with a two-storey building in front and two parts in the back, a fully opened warehouse on the left, two rows of houses on the right, and a row of houses at the back, with only a vacant lot in the middle.

Zhang Xiao'e and Da Niu have never seen a house with this structure, and it is more like a workshop than a courtyard.

In addition to buying land and building a house in a hurry, Chi Fei also deliberately went to Juyazhai's golden shopkeeper to ask him for something.

"What, you're looking for a craftsman to make a printing press? Could it be that little brother, you want to open a book printing workshop? After hearing what he said, the golden shopkeeper asked in surprise.

Chi Fei shook his head and said, "What I want to print is not a book, but a newspaper." ”

"Newspapers? What is a newspaper? ”

Chi Fei explained, "The so-called newspaper is to print some articles, stories, or some important news on a large piece of paper, and then sell it to others. ”

"Like a newspaper?"

Yes, there are similarities.

But the newspaper is for local officials, while my newspaper is sold to all ordinary people.

The newspaper has a regular edition every four to five days, and each page has a different content.

It can be published both serialized and various short stories. In this way, ordinary people can see the latest serials and short stories at a very low price.

In addition, if the author is not famous, he can also increase his fame and income by serializing himself in the newspaper.

In this way, not only do authors have a new publishing platform, but readers also have a newer and cheaper way.

And those who print newspapers can also make money by selling a large number of newspapers, which can be said to kill three birds with one stone, which is beneficial to all three parties. ”

After listening to him, the golden shopkeeper had a sense of shock that all three views had been refreshed.

This idea is too novel, but after careful consideration, I feel that it is highly feasible, and it is not an unfounded delusion.

Just imagine, for example, the appearance of something called a newspaper on the market.

And this newspaper is much cheaper than the Mandarin book, but it contains the latest ones, such as the now most popular "Xianxia" series.

If this newspaper serializes new content every few days, will the literate common people buy it?

Of course I will buy it!

Because ordinary people can see the latest story content for very little money, how can they not buy it.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that it was feasible, but at the same time he felt shuddering.

Because just by imagining it, he thinks this thing called a newspaper is terrible.

Once it really appears, then where will these bookstores, who sell books for a living, still have a way to live?

If everyone reads the newspapers, where would anyone want to spend money on a book?

Thinking of this, the golden shopkeeper worriedly admonished, "Little brother, have you ever thought about how much impact it will have on the bookstores once your newspaper is published?"

You are equivalent to cutting off the lives of all the bookstores in the capital, and you will definitely be angry. You'll have to think twice. ”

Chi Fei looked at his worried expression and knew that he was thinking wrong, so he patiently explained, "Shopkeeper, you don't have to worry, it is impossible for newspapers to replace regular scripts.

I'll do the math for you, if a book is 150,000 words and each issue of the newspaper only publishes 5,000 words, then it will take 30 issues to publish them all.

According to the publication of a newspaper every three days, it would take 90 days, or three months, to complete the book.

During this period, if one issue is omitted, the book will not be complete.

Also, in order to save costs, the paper of the newspaper is far inferior to the official version, and even worse than the duplicate book.

If there were people who cut out every issue of the newspaper and bound it into a book, then even if there were no newspapers, they would never buy genuine books, so they would not need to think about these readers at all.

In addition to the fact that print and paper cannot be compared with genuine books, there is another way to effectively avoid affecting the sales of genuine books due to the appearance of newspapers.

That is, the bookstore signs the document with the author in advance, and agrees that the content of the genuine book will be marketed earlier than the newspaper, so as to effectively avoid the newspaper from impacting the sales of the genuine book.

Take my "Xianxia" as an example, that is, I made an appointment with you that the content of the latest volume can be published and listed in Juyazhai first.

After your book is on the market for a while, I will be able to slowly publish the rest in the newspaper.

In order to see the latest content faster and earlier, many readers will definitely choose to buy your book instead of waiting for the newspaper to be serialized.

So that there is no conflict between the two of us. ”

The shopkeeper thought about it seriously, if it was really as Chi Fei said, the appearance of the newspaper would indeed not cause too much impact on the market.

Of course, there will still be some impact, but at least there will be no life-or-death situation.

Chi Fei continued, "In fact, the appearance of newspapers is also a good thing for you booksellers.

I'll give you an example, if you write a new book, but you don't buy it because you think it might not sell well.

The author didn't want to write it in vain, so he started serializing it in my newspaper. As a result, I didn't expect readers to like the story very much.

You see how popular the story is, so you can revisit the author and ask him to sell you the manuscript and print it as a full-fledged script.

If the manuscript is very popular in the newspapers, it will also sell well if it is printed and sold.

This way, you don't have to rely solely on experience and luck to buy the manuscript, as you did before, but you can decide whether to buy it or not based on the reader's reaction.

It's much safer to choose which manuscripts to buy in this way, don't you think that's the truth? ”

Listening to Chi Fei's explanation, the more the golden shopkeeper listened, the brighter his eyes became.

That's a good idea.

Even the most experienced booksellers will sometimes look away.

Otherwise, the shopkeepers of the three bookstores where Chi Fei first went back then would not have given up the manuscript of "Liang Zhu" because of the price, and as a result, they would have picked up a big bargain in Yazhai.

Chi Fei continued to add fuel to the fire and said, "Also, serializing the content of the script in the newspaper is also an excellent way to publicize.

I'll give you an example, you might have a book in your store that doesn't sell well because the author isn't well-known.

After all, when readers choose books, they are more casual. I turned the first two pages, and if I didn't like it, I put it down. If the author himself is not famous, it will be even worse.

However, if this book is serialized in newspapers, more people will read it, and naturally some people will like it and some people will not like it. Even if only half of the readers liked the book, and only half of those readers were willing to pay for it, the book would not be a loss.

I assume that there are 5,000 people reading the newspaper, and half of the 5,000 is 2,500.

As for those who were willing to buy books, only half of the 2,500 people, that is, 1,250 people. 1,250 people can buy a book, which is enough to pay for it and make a surplus.

This is still a relatively conservative number, and I believe that once the newspaper rises, it will definitely be read by more than 5,000 people.

Therefore, as long as the bookstore and the author negotiate in advance, the emergence of the newspaper will not only not have an impact on the bookstore, but can also promote its sales, which can be said to be beneficial to all parties.

Actually, I came to you today, in addition to asking you to help me find some experienced craftsmen, there are also some new ways to cooperate with you. ”

The golden shopkeeper felt that he was a little dizzy, and his brain was completely filled with these new concepts and ideas of Chi Fei, which made it difficult for him to digest for a while.

Rubbing his forehead with his hand, he smiled bitterly and said, "Little brother, these things you said are too novel, and the old man can't accept them for a while."

Well, I'll go back and talk to the boss and see what he thinks. ”

"Okay, then I'll bother you. If I could, I would like to talk to Mr. Cao about this in person. ”

"Don't worry, I'll get it right away. I'll let you know as soon as I have news. ”

"Then there's Shopkeeper Lao."

……………………

The next day, the shopkeeper Jin came to inform Chi Fei, saying that their boss, Mr. Cao, wanted to meet with him for a detailed discussion.

Chi Fei immediately dressed up and happily went to the appointment.

When he followed the golden shopkeeper to the residence of Cao Dangjia in the carriage, Chi Fei was surprised to see that Cao Dangjia's home was not only in the inner city, but also the word "Cao Fu" was written on the horizontal plaque at the main entrance.

According to Chi Fei's understanding, although the Great Wei was not as strict as the Ming and Qing dynasties in his world, only vassal kings were allowed to open mansions.

However, there are also relevant regulations in the Great Wei Dynasty, and only officials of noble families or above the third rank can open the government.

In other words, the Cao family is either a noble family with a title, or there used to be an official in the family.

But no matter which one it is, it is destined that the Cao family is by no means an ordinary family.

Although Chi Fei had long known that there must be a very hard backstage behind Juyazhai, he didn't expect that the biggest backstage would be Cao Dangjia himself.

In fact, there is one thing that Chi Fei didn't know, when his Suiyuan soap shop had just become popular and made money, he was already eyeing him with powerful people and wanted to get the formula for making soap from him.

But before the powerful man could make a move, Cao Dangjia greeted the man in advance after knowing about it, saying that the young shopkeeper in the Suiyuan soap shop was his little friend of Cao, and hoped that the other party would stop.

Because the powerful man was afraid of the Cao family, he did not act rashly.

It wasn't until Chi Fei sold the formula to major merchants and joined the soap industry association that the crisis was truly resolved.

After secretly helping Chi Fei so much, Cao Dangjia didn't tell him about it.

Because Cao Dangjia didn't want to use this to blackmail his kindness.

The reason why he helped Chi Fei was only because he admired this wonderful young man and didn't want him to be ruined like this, not because he wanted him to repay himself.

This is the backbone of Cao's family, and he disdains to do this kind of thing.

。