Picturesque Rivers and Mountains in the Red Chamber

Chapter 178 Chapter 3.85 The business of the head office in Beijing

Volume Three

3.85 The business of the head office in Beijing

That night, it was also the living room of the Xue family’s back house. There were sixteen appetizers, sixteen main dishes, and six big dishes for one table, covering flying in the sky, running on the ground, swimming in the water, and burying in the soil. The round table was filled with all-round materials, but only three masters, Wang Shuying, Xue Baochai, Xue Baoqin, and Zhou Yang were seated. Qingwen, who came here for the first time, couldn't keep her mouth shut.

Originally according to the rules, a man and a woman should not see each other again unless it is an extremely special situation, but now that the Xue family is in serious decline, they really don't care about these things. The only male, Xue Pan, doesn't know where he is now. It would be even more unruly for Wang Shuying to entertain alone, so she would have to do something special and have men and women at the same table.

"The dishes are a bit simple, brother Zhou, don't dislike it." At this time, Wang Shuying, who was sitting at the main seat with rosy cheeks and bright eyes, waved to Zhou Yang to sit down, and set up another high-ranking officer next to Zhou Yang with a smile on her face. He arranged for Qingwen to sit down on the stool, "Girl Qing, you are not considered a servant. We won't talk about so many rules at today's family dinner."

"Young master servant," Miss Qingwen, who was always eloquent, lost her sense of proportion at this time. She stared at the table for a long time, then suddenly reacted and looked at Zhou Yang, "Slave dare not."

"Sit down!" Zhou Yang smiled and sat down next to her. He didn't think there was anything wrong because he remembered that in the original work, Ping'er ate at the same table with the Jia family's daughter-in-law more than once, " As my wife said, there is no need to pay too much attention to today's family dinner - why not add a stool for Ying'er!"

"You are such a hoof, why don't you thank Brother Zhou!" Seeing someone's intention, Xue Baochai just smiled gently and motioned to Ying'er to move a stool and sit down, "Little sister chatted with sister Qingwen this afternoon. I know a lot about things in Beijing, and I want to thank Brother Zhou for his hard work. Today I will take advantage of my mother’s meal to give Brother Zhou a drink!”

"How much can this stupid girl say!" Seeing that Xue Baochai had already taken a sip and put down the glass, Zhou Yang drank the Huadiao in the glass with a smile, and Qingwen beside him quickly poured it, "As for the business of the head office in Beijing, we were originally planning to do it in the afternoon It means that unexpectedly, my wife was unwell, which is why it has been delayed until now."

"I'm not feeling well. I just couldn't stand the heat, so I went back to the yard to hide for a while." After nodding to Xue Baochai, who looked worried, Wang Shuying secretly gave someone a roll of her eyes, and then said with a smile, "Just in time. It’s cool and quiet at night, and it’s cheap for the whole family to eat, drink, and talk about things at the same time—don’t just focus on drinking, try this!”

"I've long heard that Jinling's bad fish is the most delicious. Today I saw it and it's well-deserved." Zhou Yang smiled and picked up a small piece of bad fish from the small plate sent by Tongfu. "Paired with Huadiao aged wine, it's really amazing. Days that don’t even change!”

"Brother Zhou, thank you!" Xue Baochai smiled softly, took a small plate from Ying'er beside him, and put two duck paws in it, "My little sister has been liking these for many years, but she has never been able to eat them. Damn, Jinling’s bad-flavored side dishes are famous all over the world, so I guess the capital is also indispensable, right?”

"It happens that a restaurant under the jurisdiction of Xue Zihao has such side dishes." Zhou Yang said with a smile, "Unfortunately, I don't know if it is because of the difference in climate and materials, but I always feel that the food there is worse than here in Jinling. These meanings are just like, well, copybooks and copies of famous people obviously look very similar, but they are just awkward."

"Pfft - the young master's metaphor is really interesting, but I wonder what happened to the young master's handwriting now?" Ying'er said with a smile and sent the small plate to Zhou Yang, "I remember that the "Art of War" written by the young master was written by our girl. After seeing it, hee hee!"

"There are two restaurants like this in the capital, both of which are under the jurisdiction of the general manager of the capital." After taking the small plate and glaring at a certain maid, Zhou Yang turned his head and said to Wang Shuying, "Besides the restaurant, Xue The brand also has six branches in the capital, including two pawn shops, two banks and two department stores."

"Brother Zhou has worked so hard for so many things!" Seeing him take a sip of the wine glass, Wang Shuying smiled slightly and motioned to Tongfu behind her to come over and fill it up. "We women, there are always many things that are inconvenient to show up, so I can only ask you to take care of them. ”

"Don't worry, madam!" Zhou Yang smiled and nodded, "In addition to the eight branches in the capital, there are a total of forty branches in the northern region centered on Gyeonggi. Together with the larger number of small branches in the county towns, the coverage has basically been completed. , most of them existed originally, and a few were newly established recently. Relying on the care of the mentors of Qi Guogongfu, Senior Brother Chen, and the Wuxun family, everything was finally on the right track.

Most of these industries are department stores, focusing on all kinds of southern goods. They are supported by Uncle Er's shipping fleet. Looking at the north, no store can compare with us. Nowadays, profits are huge, with a monthly turnover of more than 30 yuan. Two, I dare not say more about the net profit. It is okay to be as small as 10 taels, and it should reach one million in the whole year - of course, all of this money will be in my own hands, excluding the profit sharing of each company. "Really?" "Xue Baochai and Ying'er didn't know much about the situation, so they didn't react much. Wang Shuying, who had always been indifferent but knew the general situation, was not so calm. "When the master was here, even if all the semicolons in the north and south were added up, the annual interest would be as much as But if that’s the case, why is it just in the north now?”

"Because the projects we make money from are not just these shops." Zhou Yang said with a smile, "If we just rely on our own purchase, transportation, and sales, it would be good if we can make half of the profit; now I provide a large amount of goods to Wu Xun Core Although each company earns less per unit price, the advantage lies in the huge quantity.

These goods not only brought us money, but also tied these people together with us. Afterwards, whenever Xuezihao encountered trouble, they were more active than ourselves, because it would make them earn a lot less money, There is a saying, "Destroying a person's wealth is like killing his parents." This is especially true for these martial artists. "

"Thank you for your hard work, Brother Zhou. Even after excluding the money handed over to each family, we have much more left than before." Wang Shuying breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I just don't know, what else does the second uncle have to ask for? "

"I'm too worried." Zhou Yang continued to explain with a smile, "As for the second uncle, there is no need to worry about it. On the one hand, we will no longer care about the branches of Xue Zihao Jiangnan; on the other hand, he still has a Bigger revenue.”

"Hee hee, aunt and sister can rest assured. My father doesn't even pay much attention to the business of Jiangnan. He leaves it all to the people below to take care of it. He has no time to care about the affairs in the north." He has been talking to me all the time. Xue Baoqin, who was very competitive with the dishes, took over the conversation with a smile, "I don't dare to say that there are too many nieces. I'm sure my father will explain it at the right time.

Let’s just talk about the business of transporting goods from the south to the north. Generally, the Jinling main ship receives the goods and then ships them away. Our ship is big, and we can go directly to Jinmen Port without stopping along the way. If it weren’t for that The rivers are not suitable for large ships to navigate, and it is not a big deal to send it directly to the capital. That's all, my father doesn't even bother to ask about the freight and other troubles. "

"Madam, all you need to know is that the actual largest supplier of salt in the Jiangnan area is Miyako Island, owned by my second uncle." Looking at Xue Baochai and her daughter in disbelief, Zhou Yang smiled and revealed, "Only for this one item, the entire Most of the businesses in Jiangnan are incomparable, not to mention that my second uncle asked me to bring a lot of people and technology this time. My wife can just arrange these things.

Specifically, they are new textile machines that have increased efficiency more than ten times, a basically unlimited supply of all kinds of iron products, marine products, and foreign goods in large quantities, plus many treasures produced in the sea, such as corals, tortoiseshells, Pearls and the like, please be aware of these things. In the future, we should no longer have to worry about money issues. "

"Brother Zhou, these..." Xue Baochai said in disbelief, "It's not that my little sister can't believe it, but it's just less than a year since her father passed away. How can there be such a big change in the family?"

"Same business, different heights, the result is likely to be as big as a chasm." Zhou Yang said with a smile, "It's not that Mr. Xue didn't want to change, but that he didn't find a higher foothold, and only relied on the so-called 'Jinling Four' Everyone, don't expect to achieve today's results anytime."

"Okay, look at you, this is a family reunion dinner, but it's good for you. All you talk about is business. Nowadays, there is a lot of business talk, but few chopsticks are used to eat the food." Wang Shuying smiled and "criticized" a few words. He pointed at the table and said, "Don't say any more. Let me eat first. After you finish eating, you can say whatever you want!"

"I'm sorry, Brother Zhou, I'll punish myself with a drink!" Xue Baochai was obviously greatly irritated. After speaking, he drained the glass in one gulp, followed by a visible blush that quickly spread across his cheeks, "I've been worried about that place these days. What happened, now that I know the result, my little sister really doesn’t know what to do.”

"Then just follow what my wife said, eat food!" Zhou Yang smiled and drank a cup, picked up a few dishes with chopsticks and said with a smile, "This time when I went south, I also brought 10 taels of silver over here, and now I'm here On the biggest ship at the pier, madam, remember to send someone to take it over."

The Xue family's mother and daughter suddenly froze.

(End of this chapter)