Zhang Jinbao’s sudden appearance left the onlookers stunned.
Before they had a chance to say anything, they watched as Zhang Jinbao’s father smacked him on the back with a stick.
“I told you not to run off!”
Crack! The small wooden stick snapped in half.
Crowd: …
Just watching it made them wince.
Zhang Jinbao, who had taken the blow, frowned and reached to scratch his back. “Dad, can you stop hitting the sa spot? My left shoulder’s a bit sore—try hitting the left side instead.”
Father Zhang’s eyebrows shot up. Holding half the broken stick, he raised it again to hit.
But the crowd quickly stopped him.
“Third Brother, Third Brother, hold on! Let Jinbao tell us what’s going on in town first. You can beat him later, beat him later.”
“Yeah, Third Brother, that stick wasn’t sturdy anyway. I’ll get you a thicker one later.”
“Co on, you know how thick-skinned Jinbao is. Why bother with such a tiny stick…”
While the villagers tried to calm Father Zhang down, Zhang Jinbao was dragged off to the side by a few aunties.
The aunties asked about the white salt.
“That white salt—was it any good? Did you buy so?”
Zhang Jinbao shook his head. “The officials at the Salt Bureau said there wasn’t much of this batch, and tons of people wanted it. By the ti I squeezed my way in, it was already sold out.”
The aunties were disappointed. “A lot of people bought it? Then that’s it—it must be good stuff! If it’s popular, there might not be any next ti.”
Hearing this, Zhang Jinbao suddenly grinned.
He sneakily glanced over at his father, and seeing that he wasn’t paying attention, leaned in close to the aunties and whispered, “I paid the official to get so inside info. This white salt ca from Jiaozhou. It’s sold out here, but there’s definitely still so over there!”
That didn’t sound quite right. The aunties looked at each other, puzzled.
One of them asked, “Don’t tell
you’re planning to go to Jiaozhou to buy white salt?”
Zhang Jinbao’s eyes lit up. “Exactly! I am planning to go to Jiaozhou! But not just for the white salt—I want to buy that glass!”
A carpenter who didn’t like to travel wasn’t a good businessman.
Unlike most folks in Zhangjia Village who were content with staying put, Zhang Jinbao was restless—he loved to travel and learn new things, was fascinated by novelty, and enjoyed watching people haggle in the streets.
He had talent in carpentry, but unfortunately couldn’t stay still.
Thanks to the incident with Zhang Jinbao’s family, the whole village eventually learned about the white salt and the glass.
But since the Salt Bureau’s stock was already sold out, and the next batch wasn’t available yet, the villagers could only give up on the idea for now.
As for Zhang Jinbao, his idea was only just beginning to take root. This update ??s available on novel-fire
Wanting to go to Jiaozhou to see glass and other curious things, he pestered his father nonstop for five days straight—he even followed him into the bath and to the toilet.
In the end, Father Zhang couldn’t take it anymore. After giving him a thorough beating with a stick, he finally agreed to let him go to Jiaozhou.
Zhang Jinbao was overjoyed. The next day, he went to the local yan to get a travel permit, then headed south toward Jiaozhou.
—
The bottled white salt had been selling for over a month, and the second batch of white sugar was already loaded up and ready.
Wei Yu went over the account books, and after looking at over a month’s worth of sales, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He glanced over at the guards who were crunching the numbers nearby and gave them a thumbs-up.
“Thanks for your hard work, everyone. It’s truly a blessing to have you all with . This month, you’re getting bonuses—five taels each. No need to thank .”
The guards, now dood to a lifeti of accounting, said nothing. Including Ding Facai, there were eight of them—all veterans from their old estate who had experience with bookkeeping.
Only Fang Sheng, standing by the door, closed his eyes leisurely.
Five taels each for eight people—that’s forty taels.
Honestly, for their penny-pinching Ninth Prince, that was a hefty sum.
But Fang Sheng considered himself a good guard.
He would never stoop to skimming from the Prince’s private funds. Not at all. And certainly not because he was glad he wasn’t stuck doing the bookkeeping.
After talking about bonuses, Wei Yu stopped interrupting the guards and turned his attention to planning a kiln factory in Ziyang County.
Salt had low production costs and sold for over a hundred wen per unit, netting over twelve thousand taels in a little over a month. As for the first batch of white sugar, the accounts weren’t fully settled yet, but a rough estimate showed at least eight thousand taels. The cost of the glass hadn’t even been calculated yet.
Of course, that cost barely mattered. In the past month, plenty of wealthy people had co to the Salt Bureau asking where they could buy glass. As long as there were buyers, he could raise the price a little and make a killing.
Wei Yu had already given the Salt Bureau instructions: if anyone asked about glass, just tell them that the best glassware was in the capital. That’s where the real market was, filled with elegant items for refined gentlen… He figured quite a few people must have headed there by now.
He hadn’t written to his Fourth Brother in a while, so he didn’t know what things were like in the capital.
But regardless, he had successfully hyped the place up. Whether or not they could seize the opportunity to make a fortune—that was his Fourth Brother’s problem now.
Still, all that said, Wei Yu didn’t like the hassle of transportation. So a couple of days ago, he had asked his father for permission to build a white sugar processing plant right here. He also wanted to build a kiln for glass bottles specifically for the sugar—create a unique “Jiaozhou White Sugar” brand and go head-to-head with Yizhou’s sugar.
He’d already scouted the kiln workers!
Just in the neighboring Heyang County, there was a modest private kiln that looked like it was about to go out of business. Once his glass kiln was set up, he could easily poach those craftsn.
As for the processing plant workers—well, that was even easier.
Ji Prefecture had suffered from years of banditry and had a struggling economy. Many people had fled. Weren’t the beggars in the city of Pingnan just ready-made laborers?
An official sugar factory, governnt-run, brand-guaranteed, with fair wages, and offering perks like cafeterias and dormitories—wasn’t that more than enough to attract people?
Wei Yu certainly believed so.
After ntally reviewing his next steps, Wei Yu left the study.
As he walked out into the courtyard, Fang Sheng followed closely behind.
The mont he stepped out the gate, Wei Yu asked:
“Anyone today?”
Though the question was vague, Fang Sheng understood right away.
He replied, “No one.”
Wei Yu let out a long sigh.
He clasped his hands behind his back, looked up at the sky, and said mournfully, “My heart longs so deeply for talented people—how is it that no one sees it? Even a dog showing up would ease my heart a little.”
Fang Sheng: …
The recruitnt notice had been posted for nearly two months, and not a single person had co forward. Wei Yu was seriously starting to wonder if there was sothing wrong with the way he wrote it.
He had originally planned to ask Deng Zhengde for help, but now, Wei Yu turned on his heel and headed for the front gate.
“Today I’m going out to look myself. I refuse to believe no one would show up!”
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