In the evening, the bedroom.

"Young master, our Baihe Town is an important commercial town in the Xiangjing area, and there are dozens of large and small businesses in the town, the largest of which is naturally our Li family's Baokun, followed by Fuxiang, Baocheng and Guixi."

Rou'er washed Li Hongyu's feet while softly telling him about the business pattern of the town, "In addition to Guixi, which is our local business name, Fuxiang is opened by Shanxi people, and Baocheng is opened by Zhejiang people. ”

Li Hongyu nodded thoughtfully, the Jin merchants, the Zhejiang merchants and the Hui merchants were the three major merchant gangs that rose in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, so it is not surprising that there were Jin merchants and Zhejiang merchants in Baihe Town.

Since it is no longer possible to change the fact that the grain business has been seized, then he must focus on the cloth business, and if he wants to do a good job in the cloth business, he must first understand the current market situation.

In Li Hongyu's memory, the daily life trajectory of this young man with the same name and surname as himself is that there is a line between home and school, and his mind is full of fame and fame, and he doesn't know anything else.

"Sister Rou'er, you said that if we make the fabric business bigger in the future, will my uncle and them think of taking it away again?" After Rou'er finished introducing the business pattern of Baihe Town, Li Hongyu asked with a smile after a deep sigh.

"As long as the young master has gained fame, then the uncle will not dare to fight the idea of our third room again." Rou'er smiled when she heard this, she believed that Li Hongyu, who studied hard in the cold window, would definitely be able to pass the examination and glorify his ancestors.

Li Hongyu also laughed, if he said something else, he might not be sure, but he was indeed sure of his fame, otherwise I'm sorry he spent six years in the Academy of Literature.

After washing Li Hongyu's feet, Rou'er wanted to make Li Hongyu's bed, but Li Hongyu pressed her to sit on the stool and instructed the two maids standing on the side, "Fetch a basin of hot water." ”

Rou'er is Li Hongyu's personal maid, belonging to the senior maid of the Li Mansion, and there are maids of various levels who are responsible for miscellaneous work below her, so she can be regarded as a little master in the maid.

"Young master, this can't be helped!" Saying that, Li Hongyu moved to take off Rou'er's shoes, and Rou'er was stunned for a moment and understood Li Hongyu's intentions, as if she was going to wash her feet, so she was so frightened that she quickly stood up and hid backwards with a red face.

"What's the point?" Li Hongyu smiled and pulled Rou'er back to her seat, pressed her shoulders and said, "This is the young master's kindness, you can't live up to the young master's wishes." ”

"Thank you, young master!" Rou'er, who wanted to struggle to get up, suddenly sat there without moving, her cheeks were like red apples, she bit her lip and thanked Li Hongyu, her chest pounding like a deer.

The two maids in the house also realized what Li Hongyu was going to do at this time, and after glancing at each other in surprise, they hurriedly went out to fetch water: the local famous families are strictly hierarchical, and the two of them have never met such a bizarre thing as the master to serve his subordinates, which is a mess of dignity.

However, Li Hongyu is the eldest young master of the Li family's third room, that is, the master of all the subordinates in the Li family's third room, so Li Hongyu's order naturally does not dare to disobey, even if it feels unreasonable, they must carry it out.

Under Rou'er's nervous and delicate gaze, Li Hongyu squatted down and took off the red embroidered shoes she was wearing on her feet, and untied the white foot coat on her feet to reveal a pair of white and delicate jade feet.

To Li Hongyu's surprise, Rou'er's toenails were not only very neatly trimmed, but also dyed with red nail polish, which must be very popular among women and is a very good decoration.

"Young Master!" Seeing Li Hongyu looking at her red nail polish-stained toes in a daze, Rou'er's cheeks couldn't help but become more rosy, and she snorted a little coquettishly, and subconsciously shrank her feet.

As a maid, Rou'er can't wear nail polish like the ladies in the family, so as not to disturb the main and secondary dignity, but a girl of her age likes nail polish, so she applies it to her toenails so that no one will notice.

"Sister Rou'er, is there any other color besides red nail polish?" Li Hongyu came back to his senses, pondered for a while, and then asked with a smile, just now he thought of a wonderful business opportunity from Rou'er's nail polish in a flash of inspiration.

Li Hongyu used to sell cosmetics for a year, and if he remembers correctly, the nail polish Rou'er now uses is mashed with impatiens petals, then applied to the nails with alum, and the nails are dyed from pink to bright red after a night.

Therefore, impatiens are also known as henna in Guda, from princes and nobles to peddlers and pawns, and the young ladies of his family are all very fond of it.

Of course, Li Hongyu's business opportunities are not just nail polish, the Ming Dynasty can be said to be the most wealthy dynasty of all dynasties, and the people's spending power is amazing.

In Li Hongyu's view, the business in various fields of the Ming business community has now been basically divided up by various forces, and if he wants to let his family's business gain a foothold in the business world, he must find another way, otherwise he will definitely be controlled by others.

There is no doubt that women's groups from ancient times to the present day have huge consumption potential, and if you get some perfume and nail polish, it will definitely be very popular in the market.

Rou'er shook her head and looked at Li Hongyu in surprise, in her impression Li Hongyu was completely a nerd and didn't care about anything else except reading.

"Great!" Li Hongyu's face suddenly turned happy, and he couldn't help laughing, "Sister Rou'er, you can do me a big favor." ”

A suspicious look appeared on Rou'er's face, and for some reason she suddenly felt that Li Hongyu in front of her was both familiar and unfamiliar, giving her a very strange feeling.

The two maids quickly brought hot water, so Li Hongyu put Rou'er's pair of white and delicate jade feet into the basin and bathed carefully, he couldn't help but be glad that Daming had not yet popularized the style of foot wrapping, otherwise it would be a pity for Rou'er's beautiful jade feet.

At this moment, in the master bedroom of the small courtyard.

"Miss, for the sake of the young master, you should mention the matter of splitting up the family to the uncle, if it goes on like this, you won't even be able to keep the fabric business." Zizhu said worriedly while massaging Zhao's shoulder.

Since the old lady left, Li Renhe has relied on the power of the patriarch to place his henchmen in those properties in the third room, which makes the Zhao family very passive now.

"Now that Yu'er is still young, I can't say this, otherwise it will inevitably attract criticism." Zhao frowned slightly when he heard this, and then shook his head, looking quite helpless.

In fact, after the old lady left, the four brothers of the Li family have already split up, but because Li Hongyu is not yet an adult, the property under his name is managed by the clan, which is also what the old lady means.

Therefore, before Li Hongyu became an adult, the Zhao family could not open his mouth to ask for a separation, otherwise it would be considered ill-intentioned.

Besides, how can the affairs of the Li family be told by a married woman? I'm afraid that without Li Renhe's coming forward, those clan elders alone won't agree.

"Miss, it's better to let the fourth master come forward, the fourth master has the best relationship with the master, and he also maintains our third room the most on weekdays." Zizhu knew Zhao's concerns, so after thinking about it, she said tentatively.

Because they all have the fame of Xiucai, the relationship between Li Renbo, the fourth master of the Li family, and Li Hongyu's father, Li Renhai, is the closest.

Li Renhai wanted to participate in the township examination of that subject after being admitted to Xiucai, but unfortunately at this time, the Li family's business in Jiangnan encountered big trouble, and the old lady had no choice but to let Li Renhai, who was stable and resourceful, go to Jiangnan to deal with it, which made Li Renhai give up the road of official career and embark on a business career.

Li Renhai did not live up to the high expectations of Mr. Li, not only successfully solved the troubles in Jiangnan but also took the opportunity to expand his business, which more than doubled the scale of the Li family's business, and there was a tendency to become the successor of the Li family.

However, when Li Renhai went to Jiangnan ten years ago, he was unfortunately killed on the way, and the passenger ship he was on sank in the Yangtze River, and he could not even find a corpse, and he ended up with no corpse.

Zhao, who had a deep relationship with Li Renhai and his wife, fell seriously ill after learning the bad news, if it weren't for the memory of the young Li Hongyu, then she was probably exhausted at that time.

Although Li Renhai embarked on a business career, he often talked with Li Renbo about the past and the present in private, got together to study Confucian classics, and talked about the political trends of the court, which can be said to have common ambitions and aspirations.

Therefore, Li Renhai's death made Li Renbo deeply shocked, and he cried loudly in the mourning hall, and it was a great pity for him to lose a confidant-like brother in his life.

Compared with Li Renhai, who has a stable personality, Li Renbo's nature seems to be a little extreme, especially not used to the party struggle in the court, and he used sharp words to criticize in the article, and called those ministers who are the same party and different ministers as ****.

This made him repeatedly defeated in the previous township examinations, depressed, and later simply became a teacher in the Baihe Town School, because of his deep qualifications, even the county magistrate had to be polite to him.

There is no way to deal with this unsophisticated fourth brother Li Renhe, even if Li Renbo's mouth sometimes chokes him to death, and he is not emotional at all when he speaks, but because Li Renbo has a meritorious reputation, it can be said that he is the face of the Li family, and he is obsessed with teaching and rarely asks about family affairs, so Li Renhe will let him go.

If Li Renbo can call the shots for Li Hongyu and personally preside over the division of the family, then Li Renhe will have to agree, after all, his forcible exchange of the fabric business for the grain business of the third room has already caused a lot of rumors in secret, and if Li Renbo is angered, God knows what kind of chaos will happen.