The Heavens Begin with Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 14: Don’t Use Suspicious People
The Xue family was an imperial merchant family, and their business was to purchase miscellaneous materials using the imperial treasury.

To put it simply, the royal family used the royal money to purchase all kinds of items for the palace, including silks, fabrics, clothing, shoes and socks, rouge and powder, various spices, antiques and paintings, furniture and jewelry, fresh food and other goods.

In fact, even if they were legitimate merchants, they would definitely make a lot of money by traveling back and forth between places to transport goods as imperial merchants and receiving little exploitation.

In addition, using the money from the treasury to do things for the imperial palace and enriching himself at the same time, there is absolutely no reason for there to be a loss.

In the original book, Aunt Xue once withheld the new styles of head flowers purchased for the imperial palace to give as gifts, and every girl in the Jia family and Daiyu got a share.

Logically speaking, this imperial business should be a business that can only make profits and no losses, but anyone who knows a little about government procurement knows that the biggest cost of government business lies in interpersonal costs.

Do you think anyone can do this as they please?
Even though the Xue family was designated by the Supreme Lord back then, if the people around the Supreme Lord always speak ill of the Xue family, how long can the Xue family continue to do the business of the Imperial Merchants?

Therefore, the bulk of the profits must go to the high-ranking officials in the palace.

Normally, the Xue family was highly valued by the emperor, so naturally, these eunuchs would not be excessive. But now that the emperor is in power, the eunuchs in the palace have been replaced several times, and the Xue family has to rearrange the annual offerings.

But the problem is that although Tai Shang has retired, he is still there, and the offerings to Tai Shang cannot stop. Moreover, the Jin Shang line has been added, which means that the original offering now has to be paid twice. When you calculate the inside and outside, the profit becomes a lot thinner.

In addition, in order to purchase on time, the Xue family has branches in major cities across the country. There are many managers and employees, and the expenses are always high, and gradually there are signs of losses.

The manager from outside the province might have been afraid of the Xue family's power and dared not be too greedy, but the people in the capital were always most sensitive to the rise and fall of power. They noticed the weakness of the Xue family and took advantage of the death of Master Xue and the fact that Xue Pan was young and ignorant of the ways of the world, and used all kinds of means to seek personal gain for their family.

As a result, several businesses in Kyoto gradually declined. It was actually impossible to make money in this most prosperous place in the world.

You can't engage in real estate these days. It's not feasible to turn a loss into a profit by selling a building in this era.

Zhan Ershisi and his group slowly came to the most prosperous street in the capital, where the Xue family’s head office in the capital was located.

Zhan Ershisi had someone notify everyone in advance yesterday, so all the shopkeepers have gathered here, awaiting the arrival of the young master Xue Pan.

The head shopkeeper in the capital was called Xue Zhong, also an old man of the Xue family. Naturally, he knew Xue Pan. After seeing Xue Pan riding on a horse from afar, he led everyone to greet him and bowed to the ground from afar.

"Young Master, you are here. We have been waiting here for a long time!"

"It's cold outside, Young Master, please come inside and talk!"

Xue Pan got off the horse, threw the reins aside, pointed at Zhan Ershi and introduced him:

"This is my brother-in-law, Mr. Zhan Niansi of the Zhan family in Hebei. You can just call him Master Zhan."

Everyone hurriedly saluted Zhan Ershisi again, and Zhan Ershisi casually bowed as a return gesture.

Since we are of different identities, there is no need to be too polite to them.

After saying hello, Zhan Ershisi walked into the store first, followed closely by Xue Pan.

The shopkeepers here today are all experienced people. Just by looking at this subtle detail, they can tell the difference between the two men.

They exchanged glances with each other. They didn't know the origin of this Mr. Zhan, but they thought he was a nobleman from some family. They didn't dare to be negligent and treated him with great respect.

After entering the store, Zhan Ershisi took a quick look around and saw that the store was spacious and bright, with all kinds of goods on the shelves on both sides, neatly arranged and classified. Because the owner was visiting the store today, the store did not entertain customers, but just by looking at the flow of people outside, he knew that the business here was not bad.

He didn't stop, but walked straight through the lobby and went to the backyard.

Arriving at the living room in the backyard, the two of them took their seats, with Zhan Twenty-four sitting at the top and Xue Pan sitting at the last.

After the waiters served the tea, Xue Zhong took a stack of account books and placed them respectfully on the table in front of Xue Pan.

"Young Master, all the accounts of our 17 stores in the capital are here."

"If Young Master needs to see the detailed account, just tell me which part you want to see and I will ask someone to get it."

Xue Pan didn't know how to read the accounts, so he pushed the account book aside and handed it to Zhan Ershisi, saying with an apologetic smile:
"Brother-in-law, I don't like looking at this account book at all. I get a headache when I see the numbers on it. I'll have to trouble you to help me."

When the shopkeepers saw this, they became more certain that Mr. Zhan was the leader among the two, and they all turned their eyes to Zhan Twenty-four.

Zhan Ershisi glanced at the account book without even touching it.

He knew without even looking at them that there must be many problems in these accounts, as they were specially made for the boss to audit.

There is no way I could show the real account book to Xue Pan!
Although Zhan Ershisi also understands the accounts, it is impossible for him to understand them better than those shopkeepers who have been in charge for many years. Instead of taking the time to check, it would be better to replace them all and use one's own people to take over.

However, this shop in the capital is nominally owned by the Xue family, but various interests are involved, and many of the palace eunuchs have stakes in it.

Most of the money these managers make will have to be shared with their new backers. If they replace all of them at once, it would be too drastic and could easily lead to problems, so they have to do it step by step.

Zhan Ershisi waved his hands and laughed:
"This damn account book is giving you a headache, it's giving me a headache too, so let's just not look at it!"

"As the saying goes, don't employ someone you doubt, and don't doubt someone you employ. Shopkeeper Xue is a member of the Xue family, and the other shopkeepers are all honest and kind people. There's no need to investigate them!"

"Business was not good in the past. There must be various reasons. In the future, we should work harder and get some rare products. Then we can do better business."

Since Zhan Ershisi said so, Xue Pan would not say anything and could only agree:

"My brother-in-law is right. I won't check the account."

"Manager Xue, please close the accounts. Everyone, please report the Xue family's business situation to my brother-in-law. From now on, my brother-in-law will be mainly responsible for the Xue family's business. Just do whatever he says."

"Do you understand?"

Xue Zhong and his companions were originally worried that it would be difficult to make money after the young master came, so they painstakingly prepared a lot of countermeasures. However, they did not expect to be let off so easily. They were immediately overjoyed and quickly bowed to agree.

"Please rest assured, Young Master. If you and Master Zhan have anything to ask, please tell us and we will obey."

The two sides chatted for a while, and then Xue Zhong smiled and made an invitation.

"We heard that the young master was coming today, so we gathered together and booked a table at Jinxiang Courtyard for a banquet. We reserved the top lady named Yun'er to welcome the young master. We hope you two will do us the honor of moving on."

(End of this chapter)