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1. This is an unofficial translation and no permission has been obtained from the author/ official publisher. It may be taken down if the author/official publisher requests.
2. This is a fan work and the interpretation represents only the translator’s personal views without any input from the author.
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Feng town, the Liu residence.
It was already time to have dinner, but Liu Sen hadn’t yet arrived home. Liu Changgeng was very anxious. He paced around the courtyard door relentlessly. Whenever he heard the sound of footsteps outside, he would open the door for a look.
Liu Shu came out of the back courtyard. He had recently cut down on trips out of the house, preferring to accompany Shao Rong. Shao Rong would be delivering very soon, so the entire household was rather anxious, especially Liu Shu. By now, he couldn’t wait for her to be safely delivered!
Liu Shu watched as his father paced around anxiously. He called out, “Dad, what’s wrong?”
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Nkw Ubydttldt vbld pyke, “Fldgk zlqv vbl bswpl lyazu vbkp xsadkdt. Tso kp kv vbyv bl pvkzz kpd’v cynj? Pke bl… tlv kdhkvle qsa y xlyz cu psxlsdl ytykd?”
Nkw Fbw oyzjle shla, “Rv pbswzed’v cl? Pye, usw’hl vsze bkx dsv vs clqsal, ps bl oswzed’v es kv ytykd. Fldgk kp ayvbla sclekldv….”
“Jwv wpwyzzu vbyv cayv kp bsxl clqsal dktbv vkxl! Rpd’v bl pvkzz pnyale sq vbl eyaj? Ebu kpd’v bl cynj ulv?” Nkw Ubydttldt zssjle yv vbl pju, “Rv’p yzalyeu nsxrzlvlzu eyaj.”
Nkw Fbw oyp ycswv vs pyu vbyv kd vbl okdvla, vbl eyup olal pbsav, yde vbyv dktbv nyxl lyazu. Rv oyp sdzu fwpv rypv 5rx aktbv dso, cwv pllkdt bkp qyvbla’p ydmkswp qynl, bl pyke, “Pye, esd’v osaau. R okzz blye swv vs zssj qsa bkx!”
Nkw Ubydttldt dseele bkp blye, “Gzaktbv, ts yde zssj qsa bkx!”
Fs Nkw Fbw zlqv bsxl yde blyele ekalnvzu qsa vbl nzsvb pvsal. Mbl nsxckdle bydeknayqv pvsal oyp wdela Nkw Mys’p xydytlxldv, obkzl vbl vlmvkzl pvsal oyp xydytle cu Nkw Nkd. Mbkp dlolpv nzsvb pvsal bye clld srldle cu Nkw Fbw, yde bye yv qkapv clld xydytle cu bkx, cwv dso vbyv Fbys Ssdt’p raltdydnu oyp xsal yehydnle, yde Nkw Fbw’p zletlap bye tasod pktdkqknydvzu, bl nswze sdzu byde kv shla vs Nkw Fld vs xydytl.&dcpr;
Ebld bl yaakhle yv vbl pvsal, bl nswze pll lhld qasx y ekpvydnl vbyv vbl pvsal oyp caktbvzu zkv. Nkw Fbw zlv swv y pktb sq alzklq clqsal awpbkdt qsaoyae. Ebld bl tsv nzspla, bl tsv y pbsnj!
Mbl qykazu tldlaswp pkgle pvsal oyp nsxrzlvlzu rynjle okvb rlsrzl!
Liu Shu thought at first that someone had come to pick a fight. Perhaps some dissatisfied customers wanted to return their buys. And when it was refused, they started to quarrel and summoned backup from their family and friends.
The reason Liu Shu thought that way was because he had never seen the store this crowded! It was only after he squeezed in that he heard someone repeatedly calling, “Slowly, slowly! There’s enough for everyone!”
“Don’t squeeze! The counter is about to topple over! I’ve already said there’s enough for everyone, so stop pushing! Prepare your money! We will give you the goods and you will hand us the money!” It was Liu Sen’s voice.
Liu Shu had to push and shove to get past and saw that the counter was piled with countless bolts of fabric. The two store assistants, He Zhongshuang and Liu Sen were all busily working. Each of them held a ruler, and were continuously cutting, wrapping and collecting money.
The entrance to the counter had already been blocked off by the countless people squeezing past. Liu Shu had to vault over the counter to get there. Then he heard someone shout, “Hey, hey, hey! Why did that person go in?”
In the midst of doing a hundred things, Liu Sen twisted his head for a look. The instant he saw him, he shouted, “Dage! You’re here, that’s great! Quickly help.”
Liu Shu hurried over and found a ruler. Then he asked the people in front of him, “What do you want?”
The person held out a strip of paper in his hand, “Three chi of embroidered brocade! It’s written there!”
Liu Shu was stunned. He took the piece of paper and sure enough saw the words, “Embroidered brocade, discount 10 wen”. It was clearly Liu Sen’s handwriting, so he turned and asked, “Senzi! What is this?” He raised the piece of paper.
Liu Sen glanced over and shouted, “It’s a promotion I planned. Dage, just give him the discount according to the paper. Remember, no matter what cloth is written down, they need to buy at least three chi before they can get the discount!”
In all his years, Liu Shu had planned many different promotional activities. Although he still didn’t understand what Liu Sen had done, he swiftly measured out the cloth and collected 35 wen. It was originally 15 wen per chi, so three chi should have been 45 wen. With the 10 wen discount, that would be 35 wen.
Even as Liu Shu busied himself, he was feeling rather apprehensive. The margins these cloths brought them were already rather small. There was maybe only a wen or two to be made for each chi of ordinary cloth sold. These types of silks and brocade may fetch more, but it was only maybe three to five wen per chi. With a discount like this, would they be able to break even?
But there were too many people to serve. He had no time to ask any questions. He needed to help out.
Time blurred as they worked frantically. When the number of customers finally dwindled, he saw that more than an hour had passed! The workers quickly moved to settle the remaining customers. Then, without bothering to count the money, Liu Shu directly picked up the strong box and the accounts book, dismissed the store assistants and He Zhongshuang, before bringing Liu Sen home with him.
On the way back, Liu Shu quickly asked Liu Sen about the details of the promotion he had planned? Liu Sen was a bit shy. He said, “It’s just something I thought of on a whim. Our store does have some low grade silks and brocade, but those take a long time to sell. So I thought of a way to get them off our shelves….”
“How did you do it?” Liu Shu asked.
Liu Sen became more animated as he shared, “Dage, think about it, what are the most popular items in our store? It would be Jiading’s patterned cloth, Songjiang’s calico patterned cloth or their white cotton cloth! The most popular low grade silk would definitely be the bright red silks. Why? It’s because villagers seldom buy cloth. If they were to buy silks, it would most usually be the bright red for weddings. So I thought of an idea. If they bought some of our more popular cloth, at least 10 chi or more of it, I would give them a note. On the note, I would write down some cloths that don’t sell as well, but would be heavily discounted….”
Liu Shu thought it over a moment before nodding, “It is very heavily discounted. If they were only to have bought the discounted cloth, we would definitely have lost money. To the customers, it would definitely be a bargain, so quite a lot of them would definitely make use of the note. But if we think about the big picture, and include the 10 chi or more of cloth that they bought before, then we should still be able to turn a profit.”
Liu Sen quickly nodded and smiled, “That’s right! That’s what I planned.” He smiled and scratched his head, “I never thought that doing business could be this interesting.”
Liu Shu smiled and very naturally stretched out his hand to rub his head, “Senzi, you are actually rather intelligent. Before, you weren’t too willing to think, but if you really gave business some thought, you would find there’s a lot you can do.”
Liu Sen smiled and said, “It’s mainly because dage and erge have it well in hand, as well as jie…. That’s right, did jie say when she would be back from Hanzhong city?”
“They should be back within a few days.” Liu Shu smiled and said,
Liu Sen nodded his head.
The brothers headed back. They hadn’t been walking long when they met up with Liu Lin who had similarly been dispatched to locate Liu Sen. When Liu Changgeng had seen that Liu Shu hadn’t returned, he had become even more anxious. So when Liu Lin returned, he directly instructed him to head back out.
When Liu Lin saw them, he asked Liu Sen why he was back so late? Wasn’t Liu Sen usually the first to arrive back home? Liu Shu explained what had happened, and Liu Lin was also rather delighted. He praised Liu Sen repeatedly.
When they got home, and Liu Changgeng understood what had happened, he finally let out a sigh of relief. As Liu Sen ate, he smiled and promised Liu Changgeng, “Dad, you don’t have to worry! No matter who invites me, I won’t agree to go out for a meal with them.”
Liu Changgeng then said, “It’s best if you do that! How old are you? Those 17, 18-year-olds bringing you out to eat – what kind of intentions do they have? You would know if you thought about it.”
Liu Sen nodded his head, “I do know – they just want to social climb and borrow my fame.”
“So long as you are aware, that’s good!”
He shi then said, “Oh, since Senzi already knows, then stop nagging him. You’ve been repeatedly saying those same few sentences.”
Liu Changgeng finally nodded and stopped. Instead it was Liu Shu who added a final sentence, “Now that you find business interesting, then you should put more effort into it. We don’t need you to ensure the store is packed all the time, but you should be making slow and steady progress in building the business. It should be getting better and better day by day.”
Liu Sen smiled and nodded, “I know.”
As the family continued with their meal, someone knocked on their gate. Then servants came in to announce and said that someone called xiucai Wen was here for the Fourth Young Master.
When Liu Changgeng heard, he slapped the table so hard their chopsticks nearly bounced off. He was about to rush out when Liu Sen stood up and said, “Dad! Let me speak to him!”
Liu Lin quickly held onto Liu Changgeng, “Dad, let Senzi go.”
Liu Changgeng stood still, while Liu Sen left the house. When he got to their gates, there were two youths standing there. They were both xiucai from Feng town. They had gone last year, along with Senzi to take the juren examinations, but both of them had failed. When they found out that the 12-year-old Senzi had passed, they had called him a “child prodigy’! And insisted on making his acquaintance.
The both of them had invited Liu Sen for a meal, and even tried to give Liu Sen money to tutor them. Then they tried to include Senzi in some literary society they had, saying that they usually met to compose poetry.
Liu Changgeng loathed the two of them.
Senzi was still rather young, and had no interest in literary pursuits, but had indeed been brought by those two to have a meal once. When Liu Changgeng found out, he had scolded Senzi roundly!
When Senzi got to the door, both of them smiled and tried to pull him over, “Liu Sen, let’s go! Tonight, we will bring you someplace great! We promise that after going once, you will want to keep going everyday!”
Liu Sen stood at the door and cupped his hands together and gave both of them a greeting. That made both of them panic and quickly said, “Please don’t; we cannot accept your bows!”
Then they quickly gave Senzi even deeper bows.
Senzi then asked, “My two elder brothers, what on earth do you want? You keep inviting me to different events – to have a meal, to join your society, as well as to this good place… I thought about it – do the two of you want something? If there isn’t something you want, then why would you keep interacting with me? I’m only 12, a kid in your eyes. Why would you treat me with so much courtesy? If there’s something you want, please just say it. If I can help, I would…. But I don’t think I can, after all, I’m still just a kid!”
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