Daughter of aristocratic family

Chapter 288 Shop Tour
During the period of national filial piety, neither the Yao family nor the Yun family can celebrate with wine because of being awarded a title.

But this did not prevent Zhao Wangshu from happily giving an extra month's monthly payment to all the servants in the mansion.

The servants burst into tears of gratitude and came to Linglong Courtyard one after another to kowtow to Zhao Wangshu.

Uncle Rong's son also came. He came to kowtow and tell Zhao Wangshu some unfortunate news. "My father got up at night and accidentally fell and broke his leg."

"How could you be so careless?" Zhao Wangshu frowned slightly, "Let Uncle Rong rest in peace and recover. Don't worry about the affairs in the house. I will take care of it myself."

"Thank you, madam." Uncle Rong's son was so excited that he kowtowed repeatedly.

"Take good care of your father." Zhao Wangshu told him gently, and then rewarded him with a few taels of silver and asked him to retreat.

Although Mrs. Zhao Cui had taught Zhao Wangshu how to be a housekeeper, the Zhao family had only a few servants.

But in the Yun family, although there are only three masters, there are hundreds of slaves. She is actually quite puzzled. Why do they only have three masters and why do they need so many slaves?

Do you want to reduce some slaves?
Zhao Wangshu scratched his head. The Yun family's slaves were divided into three categories: worldly servants, official slaves, and private slaves.

World servants are the descendants of the ancestors of the Yun family and have served the Yun family for generations. Although they are also slaves, their status is higher than that of ordinary servants, such as Rong Bo's family.

Official slaves were criminal slaves who committed crimes and were assigned by the government, or prisoners of war who were defeated and captured. They had the lowest status and were slaves assigned by the Official Slave Division. They were lifelong slaves, and even their children could not redeem themselves.

Their life, death, honor and disgrace all depend on the master's whim. Zhao Wangshu can sell them off at any time, or even execute them, and no one dares to pursue them.

Private slaves are slaves purchased by the Yun family themselves, and their status is between worldly servants and official slaves.

Hong Chang is a private slave, while Qiao Niangzi and Lu Zhi are half official slaves and half private slaves.

After learning about the situation of the Yun family servants, Zhao Wangshu rubbed his forehead and said, "It's troublesome."

The number of worldly servants and private slaves may be reduced, but the number of official slaves cannot be reduced.

The number of official slaves is stipulated by the government, and the Yun family cannot reduce it privately.

If the number of official slaves was reduced and the government discovered it, the Yun family would be punished.

The number of servants could not be reduced. Zhao Wangshu threw the roster aside in frustration and picked up the account book.

The expenses of the Yun family are huge. In addition to the monthly salary of the servants, there are also various expenses for maintaining the mansion, as well as the expenses for the Yun family's education. These are a lot of expenses.

The Yun family has not made any big income in recent years.

If the Yun family hadn't been rich enough and had income from land, shops and forests, they might not have been able to support themselves long ago.

Zhao Wangshu looked through the account books and thought of countermeasures.

Reducing the number of slaves obviously won't work, and cutting expenses obviously won't work either, so we can only find ways from other aspects.

"Thinking about it gives me a headache." Zhao Wangshu picked up the tea cup and took a sip of tea.

Her eyes fell on a place on the account book, which was the profit record of Yun's store.

There are a total of thirty-six shops in the Yun family, but only ten are used by the Yun family themselves, and the rest are rented out.

The people who rented the shops were all former soldiers of the Yun family's army who were injured on the battlefield. In order to take care of them, the Yun family's rent was better than nothing.

As for the ten shops that the Yun family uses for their own use, only two are profitable, one is capital-guaranteed, and the other seven are all losing money. This is without paying rent.

Zhao Wangshu laughed angrily, "It's time to straighten things out."

She planned to inspect these shops tomorrow. Those shops that should be closed should be closed, and those that should be changed careers should be changed. These shops must be profitable. Throwing away the account book, Zhao Wangshu said loudly: "Hong Chang, I'm hungry."

No matter how important the issue of open source is, it is not as important as filling her stomach.

Hong Chang opened the curtain and poked her head in, "Bai Rong has already gone to get lunch. Don't be impatient, young lady."

After a while, Bai Rong came back with the little maid. Zhao Wangshu only had three dishes for lunch, one meat, one vegetarian and one soup.

Zhao Wangshu's way of eating is too frugal compared to other ladies and ladies in other houses.

After lunch, Zhao Wangshu went for a walk in the back garden, enjoying the afternoon tranquility and sunshine. The flowers in the garden swayed gently in the breeze, as if welcoming her arrival.

Zhao Wangshu walked slowly along the path, admiring the surrounding scenery and thinking about the shops.

Go to the swing, sit down, and swing slowly.

In the evening, when Yun Hao came back, Zhao Wangshu told him about Uncle Rong's fall and the losses in the shops, "I'm going to see those shops tomorrow. Even if they don't make money, they can't do business at a loss."

"You can do whatever you want with the store, just don't work too hard." Yun Hao took a piece of fish and put it in her bowl.

Zhao Wangshu said with a smile: "I don't plan to visit all ten shops in one day."

The next day, Zhao Wangshu got up early. After breakfast, Hong Chang and the others went to inspect the shops.

From far to near, the first store she went to was selling silk. When she entered the store, she found that the store was deserted, without any customers. The shopkeeper was lying on the counter listlessly, and the waiter was leaning against the shelf listlessly. .

Hong Chang coughed heavily, and the shopkeeper raised his head and said, "Guest, the shop recently received a batch of fine silk."

Zhao Wangshu had never seen these people before, and the shopkeeper didn't know his master.

Hong Chang said with a cold face: "This is Mrs. An Yuanbo."

The shopkeeper was surprised and said, "I have seen the young lady. I hope you are safe, young lady."

Zhao Wangshu nodded lightly and walked towards the shelves. The silk on them was smooth and soft in texture and bright in color. It was obviously of good quality.

But the silks were a little messy, and there was a lot of dust on the shelves.

Zhao Wangshu gently wiped the dust with his hand, "Although this store does not sell food, but if it is allowed to accumulate dust and is so messy, isn't it driving away customers?"

A look of embarrassment appeared on the shopkeeper's face, "What the young lady is saying is that the business of the shop has been slow recently and the manpower is insufficient, so it is really difficult to maintain it."

"Is it just that business has been slow lately?" Zhao Wangshu glanced at him sideways.

A layer of cold sweat broke out on the shopkeeper's forehead, he lowered his head and said, "Since a big silk shop opened on the next street three years ago, the business in the shop has been declining day by day."

"Is this your excuse?" Zhao Wangshu asked coldly.

"Young Madam, this is not an excuse, this is a fact." The shopkeeper's voice was full of helplessness and bitterness.

"First clean the store, sort out the silk, register it in the register, and send it to the uncle's house. The rest will be done step by step. It will be closed for two days and no business will be done." Zhao Wangshu ordered.

"Yes, Madam." The shopkeeper responded.

Next, Zhao Wangshu went to several shops and found that there were various problems and all needed improvement.

Zhao Wangshu was heartbroken after seeing it, "I'll go see the other ones tomorrow and go back home."