Contentment with modest wealth

Chapter 18 Helping Madam Zhang Beat the Dog

The next afternoon, Lu Jia carried a bamboo basket across Tangxing Bridge to sell needles and thread upstream.

The Zhang family's Yufeng Shop is thriving; it seems like there are even more customers coming in than yesterday.

Li Chang arrived while he was setting up his stall among a group of girls selling flowers and pastries.

"I've found out that the Zhang family's new shop is mainly used to open up new businesses, which has brought in quite a few new customers. Like the He family and Lu family you saw yesterday, they used to do business with the 'Hongtai' ship for a long time. In the past half month, the Zhang family has already secured several landlords to buy rice, and has also contacted two merchant ships that sell rice overseas."

He gave a general description of what the merchant ships looked like, then turned and pointed to two of the many cargo ships moored on the water.

Lu Jia said, "These new customers didn't just appear out of nowhere; they're all from around Shawan. Logically, they should have been buying rice from other grain shops before, so why did they switch to the Zhang family so quickly?"

"That's because the Zhang family offered a high price. For families like the He and Lu, where one tael of silver is worth two shi of rice on the market, the Zhang family added one hundred copper coins, which is equivalent to one thousand one hundred coins for two shi of rice. Merchants are profit-driven, and when people see that they are offering more money, they naturally switch to this place."

Lu Jia crossed her arms and squinted at the Yufeng store across the street: "The Zhang family won't do a losing business. Sneak in and find a chance to take a good look at their scales."

Li Chang decisively replied, "Yes, sir!"

Most of the young men, both inside and outside the city, work at the docks and spend all their time hanging around the merchants. How many of them don't know how to read scales?
The Zhang family bought at a high price, and they must sell at a high price to make a profit. With so many grain shops at the dock, why do large cargo ships choose theirs?

There must be something fishy going on between these two transactions.

Tampering with the scales is just too much in line with the character of Zhang Qi and his wife.

After Li Chang left, Lu Jia sat on a small stool listening to the girls gossip about the new imperial envoy who had arrived at the yamen. Meanwhile, she calmly sold half a basket of purses, fan covers, and other items.

Before her marriage in her previous life, Lu Jia lived in the Lu family mansion for a year. The Lu family would not tolerate a young lady who couldn't even do needlework. Since Lu Jia had nothing better to do, she managed to learn the skill. While her skills couldn't be said to be better than those young ladies in the capital who had been doing needlework since childhood, they were quite impressive in this small Shawan County.

The girls mentioned that they hadn't seen the imperial envoy, but the attendants he brought were all incredibly handsome and dashing. Lu Jia was listening with great interest while cracking pumpkin seeds when Li Chang returned, looking furious.

"Zhang Jiaming only has one scale on the surface, but I checked, and there's another one hidden behind it. Moreover, there are several weights under that scale! There are two big ones and two small ones. Their employees use the big ones to buy and the small ones to sell!"

Lu Jia sneered, "Just as I expected."

Li Changdao said, "Then what should we do? Shall we go and find their scales right now?"

No, there's no need.

Lu Jia cracked open a melon seed, then gave him half a handful, before looking at the Hongtai Grain Store ahead: "Take this matter and pass it on to the employees at Hongtai. Remember, make sure it gets through to them."

……

He has been extremely busy these days.

Business is booming!

Thanks to God, they finally caught the wave. Only half a month has passed since the shop opened, and the Yufeng ship alone has already signed contracts for several thousand shi of grain. The cargo ship has also been signed, and they are just waiting for the landlords in the county to transport the rice and grain to the shop and arrange for it to be loaded into the cabin. Several thousand taels of silver will be in their pockets!

Although it was a great pity to lose the Xie family's shop, this way, the losses of the past two years could be made up in less than half a year, and the Zhang family would become a well-known wealthy family at Shawan Wharf, which was somewhat comforting.

The thought that her storeroom would soon be filled with so much silver that it would get moldy made Madam He work faster than a whirlwind these past few days.

"Madam He, don't you trust the Zhang family to do business? Go and ask around in Shawan County, which business can be more honest than the Zhang family?"

The He family owned thousands of acres of fertile land, and several of their relatives were also landlords. It could be said that the He family was a well-known and influential major client. Unfortunately, they had always done business with Hongtai Company, and even their relatives had been drawn to Hongtai Company, which made the He family extremely envious.

Taking advantage of the fact that the daughter-in-law of the female manager of Hongtai Shop was away from the shop for several days while giving birth, He Shi finally managed to seduce He Shi. How could she not use all her strength to keep her here?

Madam He, holding the invoice she had prepared, said, "It's a full hundred coins more than the market price. Madam Zhang, aren't you losing out?"

Mrs. He patted her chest and said, "It's worth it to give up a hundred coins' worth of interest just to make you my friend!"

Madam He smiled and put down the list: "Then I'll routinely check your family's scales, you won't object, will you?"

Madam He remained calm and composed: "Please feel free to look around! Come, I'll show you the way."

After he finished speaking, he gave his colleague a wink.

The shop assistants quickly brought out a large scale, as thick as a child's arm, and placed it on the scale stand next to the counter.

Madam He turned around and took a weight from her servant's hand. After hanging it on the scale, she had someone bring over a sack of sealed grain.

After the large scale was set up, the weights and grains were hung securely at both ends of the scale beam.

"So, madam, aren't we Zhang family honest and trustworthy?"

"Now that you've seen it, we're fair merchants, so can we finalize this deal?" Mrs. He said smugly.

Madam He nodded: "Where's the contract?..."

"Make way! Everyone, make way!"

Just as Madam He was happily having someone bring the contract, a commotion suddenly broke out outside the door. Before she could turn around, a huge black dog rushed in, followed by several men wielding sticks, shouting as they rushed in!

"That's a mad dog! Get away from it, or it will bite you!"

The sudden turn of events caused the crowd to scatter to the sides, allowing the black dog to run freely throughout the shop as it was being chased.

The counter was right next to the scale, and the few shop assistants who had chased it in seemed to be trying to stop it as quickly as possible, so they were shooing it toward the counter.

Madam He was shocked and exclaimed, "What are you doing? Aren't you from the Hongtai Ship Company? What are you doing barging in here?!"

One of the men turned around and said, "When we were chasing it, it suddenly rushed in. We were afraid it might hurt someone, so we quickly came over to help you beat the dog, Madam Zhang!"
"Madam, get out of the way!"

No sooner had the waiter finished speaking than a loud crash came from behind the counter. In the midst of the chaotic fight between man and dog, half of the counter collapsed, and a scale almost identical to the long scale on the nearby weighing stand fell down!
"Hey? How come the Yufeng ship has two identical scales?"

Mrs. He's expression changed drastically!

He rushed over, and there were several more crashes. The overturned counter was turned upside down, and several weights of different sizes rolled out from it!
"Wow, there aren't just two scales, there are actually several weights!"

The sound wasn't loud, but the Zhang family's business was booming!

The shop was packed with people, some buying grain and others selling it. Everyone deals with abacuses every day, and those with sharp eyes and quick hands could easily recognize what this is.
Right now, regardless of whether it's buying or selling, the sight of these two scales and several weights immediately caused an uproar!

"You Zhang family, you've been secretly using double standards on us?!"

(End of this chapter)