On the morning of December 29, Kane, a German cotton merchant, walked out of his villa study, his eyes were red and swollen, and his eyelids were black.

After washing, Kane walked out of the bathroom and walked to the table to prepare for breakfast, in fact, he didn't have any appetite at all, it was only the habit of eating breakfast that prompted him to come to the table.

Then a servant came up and handed a letter and said, "Sir, a child outside the gate has just delivered a letter that is for you!" ”

"Oh? For me? Then I'll take a look! Kane said as he took the envelope, opened it, pulled out the letter and read it, he quickly read the letter, and then his face kept changing.

After a long time, he picked up a hamburger and got up and shouted, "Bring my coat quickly, tell the driver to prepare the carriage, I am going out soon!" ”

"Sir, are you going to leave after breakfast?" The maid built yì road.

"It's too late, you go and prepare!"

"Yes, sir!"

Half an hour later, Kane rode out of the concession in a carriage to a teahouse in Huajie, he got out of the carriage and told the coachman to drive the carriage to the side and wait, and then walked into the teahouse with a civilized staff and a top hat.

A shopkeeper at the door saw Kane coming over, so he immediately stepped forward to greet him: "Hello sir, are you Mr. Kane?" ”

Kane was a little surprised how could this shopkeeper know his name, could it be that he was already so famous in Shanghai Tang that even a shopkeeper knew him? However, he quickly nodded and said, "I am!" ”

After confirming that he was Kane, the shopkeeper immediately bent down and said, "Hello Mr. Kane." Mr. Xiao has been waiting for you for a long time, please come with me. Please! ”

Kane said in his heart that Xiao Zhenlei had arranged for the shopkeeper to wait here, so he followed the shopkeeper through the noisy lobby downstairs and walked up the wooden stairs to the second floor. On the second floor of the tea house, there are not only loose tables, but also separate private rooms, which are leaning against the windows, and can also see the situation on the first floor, and can hear the storyteller on the first floor commenting on the story.

Kane was taken to a private room in the middle by the shopkeeper and left, there was Opiyin standing at the door of the private room, he opened the door of the private room, Xiao Zhenlei saw Kane standing at the door and got up and smiled: "Oh, Mr. Kane." My friend, it's such a pleasure to see you, please come in!"

Kane was extremely depressed in his heart, what the hell, did you burn my cotton worth more than a million taels, and now you are pretending to be like an old friend meeting, should you be so thick-skinned? I always thought that Qing people were the most face-loving people, but I didn't expect you to have no face at all!

Although he wanted to strangle Xiao Zhenlei to death in his heart, Kane's face was not too annoyed. He just looked a little ugly, walked into the private room and sat down opposite Xiao Zhenlei's greeting.

Xiao Zhenlei hurriedly greeted, put down a saucer and knife and fork in front of Kane, and said with a smile: "Mr. Kane." I'm guessing you didn't have breakfast, but come on, I've ordered the most famous dim sum in this teahouse. If you try it, it's definitely much better than your Western broken bread and rotten burgers! ”

Broken bread and rotten burgers? Do you want to be so insulting? Kane felt a little angry in his heart. He said coldly: "Mr. Xiao, in the words of you Chinese. Let's not hide it, Mingren doesn't say dark words, let's get straight to the point, what are you looking for me for? ”

Xiao Zhenlei swallowed the snack in his mouth when he heard this, picked up a white towel on a plate on the table and wiped his mouth, took a sip of tea and said with a smile: "It seems that Mr. Kane knows our Chinese culture very well, okay, then I'll get straight to the point, I've heard about the fire at the dock last night, if I'm not mistaken, Mr. Kane still has a gap in some cotton, as far as I know, it's difficult to receive cotton on the market now, only I have some here, if Mr. Kane needs it, I think we can talk to each other! ”

Hearing these words, the anger that Kane had just suppressed suddenly came up again, but he still took care of his gentlemanly demeanor, forcibly suppressed his anger, and said coldly: "Mr. Xiao, I have to admire your deep scheming and the thickness of your face, you set a fire to burn all our cotton, and now you ask me to say that you want to sell me cotton, you are the most shameless Qing businessman I have ever seen!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei shook his head and smiled: "Mr. Kane, please don't slander others without evidence, that's not what I did!" It seems that you have a deep prejudice against me, the words businessman and politician have been full of shamelessness since birth, between businessmen and businessmen, between politicians and politicians, whoever is more shameless will be more successful, you are a successful businessman, I believe you should understand this better than me, when it comes to shamelessness and hatefulness, we Chinese are probably not as good as you invaders, right? You tell me? ”

"You ??????" Kane huffed, "Did you come here to humiliate me?" ”

Xiao Zhenlei shook his head again and said, "No, you slandered me first!" Mr. Kane, I am different from other Chinese, I do not think you are nobler than me, so in front of me, I hope you put away your arrogance and talk to me on an equal footing, unless you are not here to make money in China! ”

Kane is not stupid, he knows that only Xiao Zhenlei has cotton in his hands now, and if he wants to make more money, he must buy cotton from Xiao Zhenlei, just like Xiao Zhenlei said, unless he came to China not to make money, since he is here to make money, don't be rash, people who can't get along with money are fools, and Kane thinks that he is not a fool, so he quickly calmed down his mentality.

"Well, Mr. Xiao, you are the most special Chinese I have ever met, indeed as you said, I came to China to make money, well, I still have a shortage of 100,000 stones of cotton, of course, if you have enough inventory, you can sell me 200,000 stones, I can also accept, how to calculate the price?"

Xiao Zhenlei smiled, and he raised two fingers: "I don't want much, twenty taels per stone!" ”

"Hah! Hahaha! Kane laughed angrily, "Mr. Xiao, you can't be crazy about money, right?" Our highest purchase price is only 16 taels, and you want 20 taels? You are taking advantage of the fire, you must know that I do not have to buy this batch of cotton, if you don't sell it to me, the cotton in your warehouse will rot! ”

Xiao Zhenlei sat up straight and said: "Mr. Kane, everyone wants to make money, I collected this cotton at a high price, you always have to let me make some money, besides, even if you spend twenty taels to collect it, there is still a lot of money, now there is a shortage of cotton in Europe, many people do not have cotton clothes, even if you go to Germany to sell thirty taels and one stone, there are textile factories to pay, isn't it?" In this way, I will make a concession, nineteen taels of silver per stone! ”

"No, no, no, I can only give sixteen taels at most!"

"Kane, you're very insincere, you know? You should understand that the sooner this batch of cotton is pulled back, the sooner it will generate profits, time is money, what is your purpose? It's about making money, not being angry with me, isn't it? ”

The defense in Kane's heart wavered, he hesitated for a moment, and fired a price: "Okay, I'll pay seventeen taels, it can't be higher!" ”

"That's not going to work, Mr. Kane, you big businessmen eat meat, you have to let me have some soup, right? I only earn one tael of silver per stone, but you can earn more than ten taels, this is absolutely unfair, okay, I'll take a step back, nineteen taels, it can't be lower! ”

Kane disagreed, and the two immediately engaged in fierce bargaining, and for the next half an hour, the two sides quarreled over the price of one penny, knowing that at last an agreement was reached at the price of eighteen taels of silver.

Kane also knows that time is pressing, the sooner the cotton is shipped back, the sooner he makes money, and the more he earns, he does not talk nonsense with Xiao Zhenlei, the two sides immediately signed a procurement contract, after signing the contract, the two immediately arranged for the delivery of money and goods, Kane also warned Xiao Zhenlei that if his cotton was burned again, he would work hard with Xiao Zhenlei, Xiao Zhenlei said that if the arson was caught, he would personally avenge Kane.

Xavier and other foreign cotton merchants were so angry that they were furious when they learned that Kane had contacted Xiao Zhenlei alone and took the lead in buying enough cotton, and they all cursed Kane for being a traitor, and there was no discipline at all, but they also began to contact Xiao Zhenlei, no one wanted to lose business opportunities, as long as there were interests, they would not care about face, but in three days, most of all the cotton in Xiao Zhenlei's warehouse was sold to foreigners, leaving only a very small part of it as raw materials for his own textile factory.

On the evening of December 31, Xiao Mansion.

In addition to Xiao Zhenlei in the study, there are also Chen Huizu, Song Shijie, Cheng Yusheng, Li Shulin and others.

Xiao Zhenlei asked, "Mr. Chen, let's talk about our harvest this time!" ”

"Okay!" Chen Huizu opened the account book and looked at it as soon as he agreed: "We had a capital of 45 million taels in our hands at the beginning, and in the first stage of the acquisition process, we spent a total of 17 million taels, and repaid 22 million taels from the nine major banks, and there were more than 500,830,000 taels left at that time. There were 16,830,000 taels left, and in the second stage, 8.3 million taels were used to collect cotton from the people, and 8,530,000 taels of funds were left, and finally all the cotton was sold to foreigners, and a total of 9,800,000 taels were obtained, and now we still have 18,330,000 taels of funds in hand, excluding the 10 million taels that we borrowed from major banks as collateral with rubber stocks, we have earned a total of 8,330,000 taels this time, which is ?????? It's definitely a big deal! (To be continued......) R1292