The wicked mother-in-law doesn't try to whitewash herself; she only abuses her awful children.

Chapter 494 New Supply Channels
"Peach Blossom, find some time to go to the Lian family and have a good talk with Miss Lian about Gu Ruinian."

Tong Huaqiong instructed Gu Taohua to go find Miss Lian.

Before leaving Jufulai, Miss Lian told Tong Huaqiong that if she needed to visit the Lian family, she should just let them know through the side gate.

Gu Taohua, who already disliked Gu Ruinian, now disliked him even more.

They were both girls; if Gu Taohua were to be schemed against like this by another man, she would want to grab a knife and chop him up.

Gu Ruinian has such a big face, daring to covet Miss Lian.

Gu Taohua rushed to the Lian family home, where the second young lady of the Lian family invited her to stay for dinner. By the time Gu Taohua left the Lian family home and returned to her own house, it was already completely dark.

"Mother, Hengruo said thank you for reminding us. She said she knows what she's doing and she can handle this," Gu Taohua said to Tong Huaqiong.

Lian Hengruo is none other than the Second Miss Lian.

Tong Huaqiong learned the name of Miss Lian from Gu Taohua's face.

It seems that Gu Taohua has gained another business friend after Lu Zhaozhao.

"This is going to be interesting," Tong Huaqiong said with a smile.

She had no doubt that Lian Heng could handle it.

Lian Hengruo, at such a young age, managed to enter the Lian family's pearl business as a concubine's daughter and forcibly take a piece of flesh from her half-brother. Such a ruthless character would definitely not let Gu Ruinian get away with it if she knew that Gu Ruinian had plotted against her.

Tong Huaqiong continued to busy herself with the affairs of Jufulai Supermarket.

Two months passed in the blink of an eye, and she really missed her home in Qinghewan.

Tong Pandi had already taken the children back. She was really worried about leaving Tong Pandi under Wu Ji's watchful eye, so she let her go back first. Anyway, the family's pig farm needed Tong Pandi.

She had originally planned to go back in the next few days, but the supply of wool blankets in the shop kept her worried.

A merchant from the Hu region who had previously cooperated with her saw how booming Jufulai's business was and immediately raised prices. Tong Huaqiong calculated that if she followed the merchant's purchase price, she would basically have no profit.

Tong Huaqiong had no choice but to stop supplying goods to Hu Shang, leaving a corner of the shop empty.

The impact is not significant in hot weather, but it will be much greater in winter. Tong Huaqiong wants to make money from wool textiles, but she will not cooperate with the old Hu merchants unless she is willing to compromise on the prices they offer.

Therefore, we have no choice but to find new sourcing channels.

Gu Baishuang volunteered to go to the prefectural city with Gu Dashu. They stayed in the prefectural city for ten days and actually managed to secure a new source of goods.

The new merchant was from Fucheng. He had always done business on the border, purchasing the best wool from the northern deserts and making textiles to sell to the Central Plains.

Such high-quality wool textiles are exactly what Tong Huaqiong wanted.

Gu Baishuang's initial victory gave her even more confidence in managing the shop's supply channels.

When the new wool fabrics were placed on the shelves, the Hu merchant panicked.

He originally intended to take advantage of Tong Huaqiong, but unexpectedly, Jufulai found a new channel, and the wool textiles from the new channel were of better quality and lower price than his.

Unable to endure the pressure any longer, Hu Shang finally turned around and begged Tong Huaqiong to buy his goods.

Shopkeeper Tong is so generous! He always buys a whole shelf full of goods every time he goes in, saving me the trouble of selling them little by little. I wish I hadn't been so greedy.

Tong Huaqiong greeted the merchant with a smile, but never mentioned the matter of purchasing goods. The merchant could only leave with great regret.

Originally, Hu Shang was certain that Tong Huaqiong would not find a new supplier in such a short time. He had a lot of goods in stock and planned to sell them all to Tong Huaqiong after some maneuvering.

In the end, his plan backfired spectacularly.

Seeing Hu Shang's regretful expression, Tong Huaqiong felt a sense of satisfaction, as if she had read a cathartic novel.

Tong Huaqiong asked Gu Baishuang, "How did you find the source of the goods?"

She was very satisfied with this batch of goods, and even more satisfied that the other party was willing to cooperate long-term and promised not to raise prices arbitrarily. Moreover, they were willing to bring Jufulai people to the border to cooperate with genuine Hu merchants.

If we open a shop on the border in the future, it will be a very big business.

Tong Huaqiong originally wanted to open Tong-branded businesses throughout the entire court.

She's unfamiliar with the border, so now she could consider going there to explore.

Before Tong Huaqiong came to Pingchuan County, Gu Daqiao had already thoroughly studied the blueprints for the cotton spinning machine. Perhaps by the time she returned to Qinghewan, the new cotton spinning machine would already be finished. This autumn, she was going to start a cotton textile business.

Then we'll sell cotton textiles to the border, and then bring wool textiles from the border to the Central Plains.

Gu Baishuang said with a smile, "It was introduced by a merchant that Laifu met in the prefectural city."

Was it Su Chengmin who introduced him?

Tong Huaqiong's heart skipped a beat.

Although Su Chengmin's identity was kept secret, Tong Huaqiong could guess that Su Chengmin was either a general or a soldier of the Crown Prince.

In previous years, there were occasional frictions on the border, so it was normal for Su Chengmin to be transferred to the border.

The person Su Chengmin introduced must be very reliable.

Tong Huaqiong thought to herself that she had been taking in Xiaolong, the male lead from Tong Dajiao's previous life, for so long, and had finally been illuminated by his male lead aura.

Su Chengmin is Xiaolong's loyal follower. Su Chengmin found her a source of goods on the border, which is equivalent to Xiaolong's protagonist aura radiating outwards.

With such a powerful male lead aura sweeping across the land, Tong Huaqiong believes that her Tong-branded businesses will surely spread throughout the entire country in the near future.

Tong Huaqiong was happy to have found a high-quality source of goods, but then she suddenly thought of the gossip involving Gu Ruinian and Miss Lian.

Tong Huaqiong instructed Nie Xiaofeng to keep an eye on Gu Ruinian and report any developments to him. After a few days of observation, Nie Xiaofeng discovered that Gu Ruinian was only loitering around the Lian residence and had no other activities.

It's unclear how Lian Heng will deal with Gu Ruinian.

Speaking of gossip, one of the main characters in the gossip, Miss Lian Heng, came to visit.

Lian Hengruo's visit this time was naturally for the pearl stall. Tong Huaqiong had already negotiated the profit sharing with her, and they were just waiting for the pearls to be put into the supermarket.

"Aunt Tong, could you please check the quality of the pearls?"

Lian Heng ordered someone to carry a basket of pearls and place it in front of Tong Huaqiong.

As the lid was lifted, the entire room instantly became dazzling with light. Tong Huaqiong's eyes were dazzled as she saw a string of high-quality, round, and full pearls.

Tong Huaqiong casually picked up a few pearls and played with them.

Although she didn't know much about pearls, she did know that the quality of a pearl depends on its luster. A good pearl should have a bright, mirror-like surface that can clearly reflect the image of an object.

From this perspective, Lian Hengruo's pearls meet this requirement.

"And black pearls."

Tong Huaqiong was amazed to see several black pearls among the pinkish-white pearls.

“I had my pearl growers cultivate them,” Lian Heng said smugly. “My pearl farm is the only one in the whole world that can grow black pearls.”

Tong Huaqiong couldn't help but look at Lian Hengruo with new respect.

All she knew was the Tahitian black pearl, which was hailed as the pearl of queens and the queen of pearls.

From an aesthetic point of view, white pearls and pink pearls are more beautiful. Black pearls are expensive because they are rare. It is said that it takes opening nearly 20,000 oysters to find a natural black pearl. Therefore, before artificial cultivation, they were very expensive due to their rarity.

Once something becomes rare, it will be sought after by many.

If Lian Heng manages to cultivate rare black pearls, it's undeniable that she treats pearls not only as a business, but also as a weapon for her own survival.

Tong Huaqiong couldn't help but sigh, "Whether it's ancient or modern times, anyone who can stand out in business has several core competencies."

Lian Hengruo said, "This is the first time the Black Pearl has been seen on the market."

It made its debut at the pearl stall of Jufulai.

Tong Huaqiong knew that this was Lian Hengruo indirectly showing his sincerity in cooperating.

Tong Huaqiong said with a smile, "It seems that this is a blessing for our Jufulai."

Lian Hengruo smiled.

She nurtured the black pearl, but told no one in her family except her stepmother, believing that her family did not deserve the black pearl that she had devoted all her efforts to nurturing.

She would naturally keep such a rare pearl to pave the way for her own future.