The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 89 Taking advantage of the girl
At this moment, a poem could not help but emerge in Jia Huan's mind: the spring water is as clear as the sky, painting a boat and sleeping in the rain.The people on the side of the locust are like the moon, and their bright wrists are covered with frost and snow.If you are not old, don't go back to your hometown, and you have to break your heart when you go back to your hometown.

The owner of the bright wrist is hidden behind the screen, as if he is in the misty rain in the south of the Yangtze River. The graceful and graceful figure attracts infinite reverie, but appreciation is appreciation, and business is business. Jia Huan will not give in just because the other party is a beautiful woman, so he went straight downstairs after taking back the script without any hesitation.

"Mr. Jia, wait a minute." Just as Jia Huan reached the stairs, the woman behind the screen suddenly stopped him.

Jia Huan stopped in his tracks, turned around and cupped his fists and said, "What can I teach you, Miss?"

There was silence behind the screen for a long while before the gentle voice came again, but the tone seemed a little emotional, and he said calmly: "This "Palace of Eternal Life" script, the little girl wants it, and the price is 150 taels, but Mr. Jia needs to sign a contract and promise not to resell it to others, otherwise, how about paying ten times the compensation?"

Jia Huan said calmly: "No problem, a gentleman loves money and gets it in a proper way. It is absolutely impossible for me to do such a dirty thing. Girl, don't worry."

"Little girl can trust Mr. Jia, but when it comes to business, it's better to write clearly in black and white. If there is a dispute in the future, there will be a basis for going to court, right?" the woman said earnestly.

At that moment, Guanshi Yuan drafted a simple agreement, in duplicate, signed by both parties, Jia Huan hesitated, and signed the word "Jia Huan" on the agreement, but when he got the agreement signed by the woman, he found that there was only the word "Xue" signed on it, but his fingerprints were on it.

Jia Huan didn't care, anyway, it was a one-off deal, and after the money was settled, it didn't matter to him, and he couldn't sell more than one book, so the agreement was dispensable to him.

"This is 150 taels of silver, Mr. Jia, please count it face to face." Steward Yuan solemnly presented fifteen ingots of silver in front of Jia Huan. One ingot of ten taels of snowflake silver was exactly 150 taels, and its purchasing power was equivalent to 15 RMB.

Jia Huan was not pretentious, and verified the authenticity of the silver ingots one by one, so he handed over the script to Yuan Guanshi, and smiled: "The silver and goods are cleared, but I have a proposal. If Yuan Guanshi wants to publish it, it's better to divide it into ten volumes, or even twenty volumes. Anyway, don't print all at once. If you release it in installments, the income should be much higher. In addition, if Yuan Guanshi has familiar theater troupes, you can also distribute this play to them. 150 taels, it can still be easily earned back, and even several times, or even ten times the profit."

Guanshi Yuan glanced at Jia Huan in surprise. He hadn’t tried this mode of operation before, but after careful consideration, he felt that it seemed feasible. Released in installments, it could not only avoid being pirated all at once, but also attract readers’ attention for a long time. If coupled with a wave of drama performances, the sales of books should also increase greatly. This plan is very clever!
The woman behind the screen seemed to let out a little surprise, and then there was the pleasant sound of gold and iron colliding, which should be from the ornaments on the woman's body.

Jia Huan turned around and went downstairs at this moment. As the saying goes, it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish. His idea is actually as valuable as the script itself, so strictly speaking, Jia Huan only charged 150 taels.

After Jia Huan left, the screen was finally removed, and the woman behind the screen revealed her true face. Her face was like a silver moon, her eyes were like apricots, her lips were not smudged but red, her eyebrows were not painted but emerald.

It turned out that this Moxue Bookstore was one of the Xue family’s properties in Beijing. Due to successive years of losses, it was already in a state of suspension, but it had to pay workers’ wages every month. So since arriving in Beijing, Xue Baochai has been urging his elder brother to check the accounts and deal with these negative assets as soon as possible.

However, after that bastard Xue Pan recovered from his injury, he had long forgotten about checking accounts. He only had eyes on the bustle and bustle of the capital. He spent every day hanging out with people like Jia Lian, Jia Zhen, and Jia Rong.

In desperation, Xue Baochai had no choice but to go out on his own. He searched the bookstore's old accounts for several days, but in the end he couldn't find anything.

In the end, Xue Baochai could only fire all the old people who were in charge of Moxue Bookstore. All the clerks also settled their wages and dismissed them all.

"Miss, aren't you going to close the bookstore? Why do you still want to buy scripts?" Yinger, the maidservant, asked in confusion.

Xue Baochai sighed and said, "It's not about closing it down, it's just starting over from the beginning. Moxue Bookstore was created by my father, so how can a child have the heart to close it down?"

Ying'er heard the words and suddenly said: "Those bastards left a bad debt, and relying on being the old man of the master, they don't pay attention to the girl at all. It is a good way for the girl to dismiss them all under the pretext of closing the door."

Xue Baochai opened the script, looked at it, and then looked at the signature of the contract. She was in a delicate mood. She had been in Jia's mansion for almost a month, and she had never had the chance to meet this man. She never expected to meet him in this way. It seems that my cousin Huan is not only good at reading, but also good at business. He is really... a strange person!
Ying'er glanced at the signature on the contract, and wondered: "Jia Huan? This person has the same name and surname as Third Master Huan in the Rong Mansion... Hey, the age is also right, so it can't be him."

Xue Baochai thought, who else would there be if it weren't for him. I have heard that cousin Huan is not only good at calligraphy and painting, but also can write scripts. Now the age and name match.
Ying'er covered her mouth with a smile and said: "Oh my God, this is too coincidental, but this Third Lord Huan is quite interesting. The servant girl thought he was a nerd, but I didn't expect to know how to do business. He is very experienced at a young age, and he took away the girl's 150 taels of silver all at once. It's really abominable. When I see you next time in the mansion, my servant girl will not shame him."

Obviously, Ying'er was quite dissatisfied with Jia Huan's refusal to give up the price, and the behavior of taking away 150 taels of her own girl.

Xue Baochai shook her head and said lightly: "This is just a normal transaction, Yinger, don't mention it to anyone in the house, lest some rumors spread."

Ying'er nodded when she heard the words, "The servant girl is a person who doesn't know the importance, but I always feel that the girl is taken advantage of by the third master Huan."

Yinger's words were obviously ambiguous, Xue Baochai blushed slightly, cast a blank look at Yinger and said, "Nonsense."

At this moment, Ying'er also realized that she had said something wrong, covered her mouth and giggled, and changed the topic: "Speaking of which, Third Master Huan won the top case at a young age, so he should be a serious scholar who hates business affairs. Unexpectedly, he is also keen on it, and he seems to have a lot of experience."

Xue Baochai was also a little surprised by this. The method Jia Huan proposed before leaving was indeed very clever. I don't know how he came up with these clever tricks to make money when he was studying at home every day.

…………

Let’s say that after Jia Huan came out of Moxue Bookstore, he suddenly had a huge sum of 150 taels in his pocket. He felt that walking was windy, so he went straight to the ice cream shop with Xiaosi Baoshu.

"Haha, Chief Jia is here, sit down!"

As soon as Jia Huan stepped into the ice cream shop, he saw the little fat man Xu Wei sitting there eating ice cream. There were already several sticks stacked on the plate in front of him, obviously he ate a lot.

Four bodyguards with big arms and round waists stood around Xu Wei, but each of them was licking an ice cream there, the scene was really funny.

Jia Huan sat down opposite the little fat man, and said with a smile, "When did Brother Xu come?"

Xu Wei belched and said, "I've been here for quite a while, and I thought Chief Jia missed his appointment again."

By the way, Xu Wei now knows that Jia Huan is the concubine of Rong Guo Gongfu, and also knows that those sketches are actually drawn by Jia Huan.Jia Huan also vaguely guessed Xu Wei's identity, but the latter didn't reveal it, and he also pretended not to know. After all, this identity is a bit special, and it would be difficult to get along with if exposed.

Jia Huan shook his head and said, "It was just an accident last time. Brother Xu, why bother with it? Look, I brought the painting tools with me."

As Jia Huan asked Jin Shu to bring over his easel, Xu Wei's eyes lit up and he said, "That's not too bad, time is waiting, let's start."

Jia Huan nodded, and walked into the yard behind the ice cream shop with Xu Xiaopang.It turned out that after the last reunion, Jia Huan not only revealed his identity to Xu Wei, but also promised to teach him how to sketch, and promised him to start the first lesson after the county examination.

It is said that Xu Xiaopang's talent in painting is really average, but his interest in painting is really high, so that Jia Huan couldn't bear to beat him, so he patiently taught him the basic skills.

After teaching for about an hour, Jia Huan said: "Let's stop here for today. Later, you can try to draw a cup first, and draw more than three pictures from different angles."

Xu Xiaopang seriously agreed, and half-jokingly said: "Mr. Jia, when is the next class?"

Jia Huan murmured: "Next, I have to prepare for the government exam. How about this? Later, I will find time to write a lesson plan, and you can practice accordingly. If you don't understand, come and ask me."

Xu Xiaopang happily said: "That's even better, Jia's case is high-minded, it's not in vain that I often help you with your business, by the way, the ice cream shop of Brother Jia is doing a good business now, and it's making a lot of money every day."

Jia Huan's heart moved, and he said with a smile: "It's not that exaggerated, by the way, is Brother Xu interested in buying shares? I'm planning to open a few more branches. If Brother Xu joins, I will give you [-]% of the shares!"

Xu Xiaopang said disapprovingly: "Thirty percent? Who do you look down on, at least fifty percent!"

Jia Huan immediately patted the table and said, "Deal, you pay 1000 taels of silver, and you will have half of the ice cream parlor in the future!"

Xu Xiaopang's eyes widened and he said weakly, "Are you serious?"

Jia Huan pointed to his own face, and asked back: "Do I look like a joke?"

"That... I have to think about it first." Xu Xiaopang hesitated.

Jia Huan smiled and said: "No hurry, think it over before telling me, don't force it!"

(End of this chapter)