Yu Youyao thought to herself that Shuchuan was vast and had abundant resources. There were many mountains and forests, and it was also the handover place to Yun, Gui, Gansu, Shaanxi, and many other places. It was considered the largest medicinal real estate area in the Great Zhou.
“l have more than ten medicinal herb shops under my name. The medicinal herbs produced in the ten major medicinal herbs areas are all different. If I can negotiate with Miss Lin, it will be a huge business that will definitely be profitable.”
Eldest Aunt had taken the initiative to mention the Lin Residence to her because she wanted to introduce her to Miss Lin and befriend her. It seemed that the Xie Residence had a good relationship with the Lin Residence, and
Miss Lin’s character was not bad.
Indeed!
Madam Wang smiled. “Miss Lin has a straightforward personality. If you get along, you have to go out more in the future. You can’t stay at home all day without anyone to befriend.”
Yu Youyao quickly nodded.
After roughly looking at a few shops, Madam Wang brought Yu Youyao to the best restaurant in Quanzhou for lunch. She ordered braised tofu, peanut crisps, dried bamboo shoots, green fruits, and so on.
They were all specialty snacks from Fujian.
Yu Youyao had eaten a lot of these dishses in the capital in the past. It was because the Xie family had sent these dishes to the capital through a merchant ship.
After lunch, Madam Wang brought Yu Youyao shopping again. “This is the most prosperous street in Quanzhou. It’s located in the center, and trade is very prosperous.”
On the 12th Street of the capital, there were all kinds of streets. Tumen Street was even more prosperous than the capital.
There were people coming and going on the streets, and there were all kinds of shops on both sides of the street. There was a dazzling array of goods.
When they reached a crowded place, the old maids spontaneously stepped forward and surrounded the two of them to prevent them from being hit by the passing crowd.
Quanzhou welcomed guests from all walks of life. There were all kinds of people. Businessmen emphasized harmony to make money and did not easily get into conflict with others.
The guests who came and went also had the mentality that it was better to avoid trouble.
Madam Wang had an imposing aura. It was obvious that she was either rich or noble.
Yu Youyao was dressed plainly, but she was the eldest daughter of a first wife and she had been raised by an aristocratic family. Her etiquette and upbringing were extraordinary, so she naturally exuded a delicate and noble aura. She was not to be trifled with.
Those who had traveled extensively were all sharp-eyed. As long as they were not arrogant and domineering people, they would basically give way.
The Imperial Court had set up eight thousand households in Quanzhou and 45 patrol divisions. When the pirates arrived in Fujian, they had to take a detour to Quanzhou, and even the heinous villains had to be restrained.
This delicate balance maintained the prosperity and peace of Quanzhou. As time passed, the atmosphere in Quanzhou became bolder. The young misses who were raised in private rooms could also walk around fearlessly.
Madam Wang pointed at a two-story shop in front of her. “The Jade Pavilion in front is the rouge shop that your mother opened back then.”
Yu Youyao followed Madam Wang into the Jade Pavilion.
When Manager Ren of the Jade Pavilion saw Madam Wang, he quickly came over to greet her. Madam Wang introduced Yu Youyao to him, and he was very excited. He knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Yu Youyao.
Yu Youyao was shocked.
Madam Wang patted her hand. “Manager Ren used to be your mother’s maidservant. Before your mother passed away, she returned the indenture to her. On account of her master-servant relationship with your mother, she followed the merchant ship back to Quanzhou and has been helping to manage your mother’s three rouge shops in Quanzhou. She hasn’t married yet. ”
Manager Ren had learned many methods of incense medicine from her aunt and was also quite talented.
Yu Youyao hurriedly stepped forward and bent down to help Manager Ren up. “Mother Ren, get up quickly.”
Manager Ren looked very excited. “Young Miss, you’ve grown up. I thought that I wouldn’t have the chance to see you again in my life. I didn’t expect…” Her voice was choked with sobs, and her eyes turned red. “When Young Miss came to Quanzhou, 1 originally planned to visit you at the Xie Residence after you were completely settled. I didn’t expect you to come personally today.”
Now that Manager Ren had taken back her indenture, she was no longer a slave. She no longer needed to call herself a “servant” in front of Yu Youyao.
Yu Youyao appreciated her loyalty. “My mother has returned the indenture to you. Don’t act like a servant anymore. In the future, you’ll have to continue managing the business in the shop. Don’t be too polite.”
Manager Ren quickly agreed and brought Yu Youyao to look at the incense and makeup available in the shoo.
The quality of the incense medicine in the Jae Pavilion was not bad, and business was very stable.
In Yu Youyao’s opinion, most of the incense and medicinal items in the shop had been popular in the capital two years ago. It was just that they lacked novelty and there had not been any innovation for a long time.
It was not difficult to tell that the reason why the Jade Pavilion could maintain a “stable” business was all thanks to Manager Ren’s efforts, the reputation of the old name, and even the name of the Xie family.
However, if no improvements were made, this business would be eliminated and replaced sooner or later.
Manager Ren told her a lot about the operations of the shop. When Yu Youyao heard that a box of peach-colored lipstick that had been popular in the capital two years ago actually cost eight taels of silver, her eyelids twitched.
Just because peach color was rare?!!
However, in fact, the cost of a box of peach-colored lipstick from spices to manpower was less than one tael. She had her own incense shop under her name and did not use any middlemen or distributors.
A box made a net profit of seven taels.
Yu Youyao finally realized that she had a treasure mountain and did not know it.
She had a large number of incense recipes in her hands. There were at least 800 of them, if not 1,000. Many of them were even lost ancient recipes. On the basis of each recipe, she could modify even more…
Yu Youyao took a deep breath.
Currently, other than the escort business being established by her alone, most of the businesses under her name were given to her by the Xie family, as well as the dowry her mother had left her. Even the merchant ships were revered by the Xie family.
She had yet to run her own business.
Today, she had come out to visit the shops with Eldest Aunt. There was no veiled hat on her head that restricted her.
There were no old servants by her side who constantly reminded her to pay attention to rules and etiquette.
Without the restrictions of the rules, Yu Youyao had broadened her horizons and had a more intuitive understanding of doing business. Unknowingly, she was also thinking about this in her heart.
Yu Youyao was very excited. Her eyes began to glow as she looked at Manager
Ren.
If she ran the incense business, Manager Ren would be the most capable person on the spot.
However, Quanzhou was not stable at the moment, so this idea had to be delayed for the time being. She had never done business seriously in the past, so she could take this time to understand more about the incense workshop and the business of incense medicine.
Only when everything was ready would it be appropriate.
The most important thing now was to interact with Miss Lin first and see if he could establish a cooperation with her for the supply of medicinal herbs.
Yu Youyao’s mind was filled with messy thoughts about doing business. Suddenly, she heard a delicate reprimand from outside the door—
“Jia Changfeng, open your dog eyes and see clearly who I am. Whether you’re really drunk or pretending to be crazy with alcohol, I, Lin Ruoru, am not afraid of you.”
Yu Youyao’s position happened to be by the door. When she tilted her head, she saw a man and woman confronting each other on the street outside the Jade Pavilion..