The lucky girl in the village has a good way of making money.

Chapter 496 Both Sides Are Good (Two in One)

Zhou Wang arrived the next morning. It was a coincidence that Li Jigui and his son had just returned home from a long trip yesterday evening. He planned to rest at home for two or three days before going out to sell goods. When he heard that Shi Liu had a job for him, he was very happy and was excited all night.

So, he got up early, dressed neatly, put on his best clothes, and hurried to Xiahe Village.

When he arrived at the door, Shi Liu had just gone out to the sheep workshop. Li Jihe came to greet him and called him Brother Zhou in a friendly manner.

They were all relatives, and Li Jihe had met Zhou Wang before, so they knew each other.

Knowing that her daughter had some work to assign to Zhou Wang, she called him over. She asked someone to go to the sheep workshop to inform that Zhou Wang had arrived, and then invited Zhou Wang to sit in the main hall and drink tea. She moved a brazier to her feet so that he could warm his feet by the fire.

Zhou Wang is only thirty years old, but he is exposed to the wind and sun all day long, and his skin is very dark and rough. He looks almost the same as Li Jihe, who is already thirty-nine years old this year.

The main reason is that Li Jihe has not worked in the fields in recent years. He eats well and wears fine cotton clothes. He looks a few years younger. Of course, you can't look closely at his hands. Although Li Jihe no longer works in the fields and is no longer exposed to the wind and rain, he has never stopped doing carpentry work. Now he is making furniture for his daughter's dowry, all by himself. Naturally, he has a lot of calluses on his hands, and it is common for him to get his skin rubbed off.

That is to say, just looking at this man and his clothes, you can't tell that Li Jihe is a country boy, but looking at his hands, you can still tell that he is a laborer.

Zhou Wang was a little reserved at first, but when he saw that Li Jihe spoke in a gentle manner, just the same as before, he gradually relaxed. He was also a talkative person, and soon he and Li Jihe started chatting about all sorts of things, all of which were about their experiences while selling goods.

Li Jihe was fascinated for a moment and was very envious of him for having traveled to so many places.

—

At the Sheep Workshop, Shi Liu was sitting and talking with Liu Wu in the office. Outside, boxes of knitted goods were being carried out of the Sheep Workshop and loaded onto trucks.

Shi Liu started with the routine greetings. "How is Uncle Liu? I'm afraid the eldest grandma is about to give birth. Last time, the tenth aunt said she wanted knitted gloves with rabbit patterns. It just so happens that the workshop has made them, so today, Manager Liu Wu will bring them to the tenth aunt—"

Liu Wu responded to the questions one by one, and finally said the first question, "My master took a boat to the capital yesterday."

Shi Liu was stunned when he heard this. "Why did he suddenly go to Beijing? I didn't hear him mention it when I had tea with Uncle Liu before I came back."

Liu Wu smiled, but lowered his voice and said, "According to the news in the capital, the emperor has officially appointed a crown prince. We will all hear about it in a while."

Shi Liu's eyebrows jumped. Seeing the joy between Liu Wu's eyebrows, he immediately realized something and said, "I wonder what he is doing..."

Liu Wu smiled and said, "It is His Royal Highness the Fifth Prince."

When the Fifth Prince was named Crown Prince, the Marquis of Jing'an's Mansion naturally rose in status. The Liu Family and the Marquis of Jing'an's Mansion were related by marriage, and the Liu family had close contacts with the Fifth Prince, so it was naturally even more special. No wonder Liu Wu was so happy.

Not to mention the Liu family, Shi Liu was also happy when she heard that the Fifth Prince was confirmed to be the Crown Prince.

It is said that it is easy to be an official if you have someone in the court. She does not want to be an official, but she has a relationship with Liu Dongjia, and she has met the new prince once, and they also have cooperation that cannot be told to outsiders.

If I need help from the prince in the future, I think he will lend a hand.
In short, compared to someone unknown becoming the crown prince, it is a good thing that the fifth prince whom we know becomes the crown prince and will become the emperor in the future.

After hearing this good news, Shi Liu had a new idea about his future toy business...

Not much was said at the moment. Shi Liu didn't know when Liu Dongjia would come back, so she told Liu Wu about the visit to the teacher first.

When Liu Wu heard this, he said that there was no need for the master to take action. With the Liu family's connections, it would not be a problem to find a few failed scholars to be teachers. He would go back and report to the master.

Nowadays, Liu Dong's family often brings his eldest son Liu Yao with him. Many businesses go through his hands. He is also slowly training this successor.

Shi Liu hurriedly said, "Then I'll trouble Uncle Liu."

After the boxes of goods were loaded onto the truck, the accountant brought by Wei Feng and Liu Wu quickly checked the bills of lading.

At this time, the security guard came to say that someone had come home and asked her to go back quickly. Shi Liu then thought that it was Zhou Wang who had come, so she said something to Liu Wu and went home first.

As soon as he entered the door, he heard Zhou Wang talking and raised his eyebrows slightly.

The chattering came to an abrupt end when he saw Shi Liu. Zhou Wang had seen her when Shi Liu was still a child. Now he didn't dare to recognize her carefully. He just saw her aura and knew it must be Shi Liu. He stood up subconsciously.

"This is Uncle Zhou, right?" Hua Ge'er followed her cousin and called Zhou Wang Uncle. She could always be right by calling him that.

But Zhou Wang felt embarrassed all over. How could he accept the call of uncle?

"Stone, pomegranate, can't do it, can't do it."

Li Jihe smiled and said, "We are all relatives. You are the elder, so it is okay for her to call you uncle."

Shi Liu also nodded and called out naturally, "Uncle Zhou, sit down and talk."

As he said this, he sat down on the chair opposite.

Zhou Wang also sat back stiffly.

"Uncle Zhou should know that I asked you to come here because I wanted to entrust you with a purchasing job. Since you are here and you are willing to do it, let's talk directly."

Shi Liu immediately said, "Uncle Zhou has been selling goods in the streets for many years. He is familiar with the villages around here, and he is also familiar with the surrounding counties, right?" When it came to business, Zhou Wang immediately became serious, and his reservedness naturally disappeared. He nodded hurriedly, "I have been around frequently in recent years. I also went to Dacheng Prefecture this year. I can't say I am very familiar with it, but I have been to various places and have a few familiar faces."

"That's great. It's best to entrust this shopping job to you." Shi Liu nodded and said, "I want Uncle Zhou to help me buy cotton."

Soon after the founding of the Jin Dynasty, cotton cultivation was widely promoted. Except for those families who did not have enough land to plant cotton, the average family would plant one or two acres of cotton. Not every woman could weave or afford a loom, so most of the cotton grown was to be sold outside.

What's worse is that if you grow six or seven acres of cotton, in addition to making cloth for yourself, the rest will be sold outside.

Some merchants go to the countryside to collect them, and some farmers carry them to the shops in the city and town to sell...

The current unified selling price of cotton in shops is 75 wen per catty, and if farmers send cotton to shops to sell themselves, they can get 60 wen per catty. If merchants come to their homes to collect it, they will charge 2 wen less. 2 wen less saves the farmers from going all the way to the city, and most farmers who live far away from the city are willing to do so.

"Uncle Zhou, you can go and negotiate the price with the farmers yourself. I don't care how much you charge, but I will give you 62 cents per pound of cotton when you send it to me. I will buy as much as you can.

I can advance you fifty taels of silver to help you collect cotton in advance, so that you don’t have to worry about not getting the money.”

Zhou Wang was surprised and delighted when he heard this. He never expected that Shi Liu would arrange such a job for him. After so many years of selling goods, he was no problem at all doing the math. His mind was working very fast at the moment.

The common people sent their cotton to the shops from far away and sold it for 60 wen per catty, while the shop owners went to the villages to collect it for 58 wen. When he was doing business before, he had seen small merchants who came to collect cotton and then sold it in batches to the shops in the city, making a profit from the difference of 2 wen.

He also inquired about it. Some people who had been doing business with the shops for a long time and had been able to negotiate with them could get the price down to 61 or 62 wen. In this way, they could make a profit of 3 or 4 wen per kilogram. If they collected a lot, the accumulated amount over time would be a considerable amount of money, and it was a guaranteed profit. Once they got the cotton, they would definitely sell it. He had also seized this business opportunity before and wanted to do it, but he didn't have that much money as capital, and he was alone, so he didn't dare to do it...

Now, Shi Liu is willing to advance him the capital and charge him whatever he has left. As long as he works hard, it will be fine. This is totally giving him money to make!
He charged fifty-eight cents and then delivered the goods to Shi Liu, making four cents off the resale. It was quite stable, but it was tiring and hard work. However, he had been selling goods for so many years that he was used to the running around. He was not afraid of the hard work as long as he could make money!
Zhou Wang's mind was turning faster and faster. He had limited ability, but he had known many peddlers over the years and was very familiar with them. He could easily contact them and give them a price of 61 kilograms, asking them to collect cotton and sell it to him. Then he could take it back and make a profit of only the difference of two cents. After all, he didn't have to go out and collect it himself, and he could still make two cents. If he didn't do this, he wouldn't be able to collect it, and he wouldn't make any money from the two cents.

"Don't worry, Shi Liu. You entrusted this job to me. I will do my best and will not let you down!" Zhou Wang promised solemnly with a gleam in his eyes.

Shi Liu nodded slightly, and then asked Sui Lu to fetch fifty taels of silver. For Zhou Wang's convenience, the silver was in loose pieces, including small change and copper coins.

Zhou Wang took it carefully, wrapped it in cloth, put it in the basket he brought, and asked Li Jihe for some sawdust to put on top to cover it.

He brought the basket; he did not come empty-handed. It was not good to visit relatives empty-handed. And since Shi Liu had assigned him the task, he could not come empty-handed, so he brought a basket of eggs.

It's just right to use the basket to hold the silver now.

As he was thinking about the big money-making event, Zhou Wang quickly thanked Li Jihe for inviting him to dinner and left for home.

After he left, Song came in and asked Shi Liu, "So you went to him to buy cotton? We go to the shop to buy cotton for 75 wen per catty, and it is indeed more cost-effective to collect it ourselves, but for 58 wen per catty, you can just find a few people in the farm to go, why did you go to him and give him 4 more wen?"

She was just sitting in the pavilion when she heard people talking in the main hall.

Shi Liu said, "Mom, you also said that it costs 75 wen per jin to sell it in the store. I only sell it for 62 wen per jin, which means I save 13 wen. How can it not be a good deal?"

Song stared at her in confusion.

Li Jihe said, "Before we got rich, we sometimes planted five mu of cotton a year. Mom and her family couldn't weave enough, so we had to sell at least two mu of cotton. We were far from the city, so sometimes there were cotton merchants in the village, and we sold directly to them. I remember that the cotton merchant who often came to our village was named Hu. One year, Hu didn't come, but a man named He came instead. My father didn't sell anything. Not only did we not sell anything, but many families in the village didn't sell anything either. We were wary of a merchant we didn't know, so how could we sell to him?"

Song had a vague understanding, but still didn't quite understand.

Seeing this, Shi Liu continued, "It is indeed cheaper to just find a few people from the village to go out and buy cotton, but they are all strangers. Not to mention that they are not familiar with the roads, but when they go to those villages, people will be on guard. How can it be easy to pick cotton?
But it was different for Uncle Zhou. He had been to all those villages, and he knew the faces there. He also knew many peddlers. Peddlers traveled everywhere, so he had been to even more villages...

Although Uncle Zhou would definitely be happy to be paid 60 cents per pound, but if I give him an extra two cents, it is also hard-earned money. Besides, the extra two cents are also given by me on purpose. How much cotton can Uncle Zhou collect by himself? But with these extra two cents, he can ask others to help collect it together. In this way, he can still earn the extra two cents, and he is willing to do so. We can also collect more cotton, which is good for both sides, right? "

After hearing this, Song understood and clapped her hands, "No wonder! I was wondering why you asked your uncle to do all the work of collecting eggs and duck eggs and buying pigs—"

Then he laughed at Shi Liu and said, "You have a clever little brain. Your mother is not as good as you. You should just take after your father!"

Li Jihe blushed slightly and coughed awkwardly. He couldn't compare to Shi Liu's brain.

Shi Liu laughed, and finally winked at Song, "Of course, the most important point is that Uncle Zhou is the uncle of Fourth Uncle's uncle!"

Song blinked, "What's the explanation for this?"

Shi Liu looked at Li Jihe and asked, "Didn't Fourth Uncle always ask Dad to speak well of him in front of me, not to let him do the painting and odd jobs, but to let him be a small manager like Third Uncle, in charge of the warehouse shipments, which is an easy job and pays more?"

Li Jihe blushed again, "Your fourth uncle is just like that, you don't have to care about him."

Song also added, "Your fourth aunt is in charge of him, so let him grind. Anyway, he can't be the manager. Your grandmother said that it's fine to let him do odd jobs. If he really takes charge, there will definitely be something wrong!"

Shi Liu burst out laughing, "But Dad can't stand Fourth Uncle's constant nagging, so I arranged a good job for his uncle's uncle. If Fourth Uncle keeps nagging Dad, Dad can just use this matter to stop him. All good things can't be given to one family, right?"

Of course, Zhou Wang is suitable and reliable, otherwise, she would not have hired him.

Just like the sister-in-law from my third aunt's family, she was a relative, and she would still fire her even if she only brought a little bit of wool home.

She will help and employ her relatives more because of their relatives, but that requires that the person is worthy of help.

Song suddenly understood, and her smile widened. "Oh, Shi Liu, you have a really smart brain!"