When Ji Yijun returned to the store from outside, he found that Li Jia and Zhang Hong were arguing as usual, while Hong Lifeng was watching the fun from the side as if it had nothing to do with him.
These two people have been at odds since day one.
"Isn't it good now? We just need to set up a wholesale station here." Zhang Hong pointed outside the door, "How much can these poor bumpkins buy? We need to make money and exchange food here by doing big deals with nearby merchants. Why bother with small businesses?"
"That's not the case. You shouldn't just think of this place as a warehouse. We need to understand the local people's situation and integrate with them, so naturally we have to get into their lives. Now you look like a government official facing south, and you have written the words 'Magician's Shop' on the door. Who dares to come in? Who wants to come in?" Li Jia is a good-tempered person, but when it comes to work, he never shows weakness. What's more, the person in front of him, relying on the fact that he came earlier and is not from the same department, makes things difficult for him everywhere.
"Actually, this is also good. It keeps us safe and saves us trouble." Hong Lifeng interrupted. As the person in charge of security, all he cared about was not causing trouble or causing any accidents.
"The committee sent me here in the hope that this site can play a greater role and become a link to build good relations with local people. Although this town is not big, there are more than a thousand people in the surrounding villages. We will need the help of these local people in doing various things in the future." Li Jia restrained his anger and spoke in a good voice.
"Don't use the committee to pressure me. They were the ones who sent me here. I spent half a month building this shop. I lived among the natives in danger. I used all my strength to deal with those businessmen. Why didn't they give me any support? Now that everything is on the right track, they are trying to take advantage of me. I, Zhang Hong, am not that easy to bully!" Zhang Hong slammed the table and walked to the backyard. Hong Lifeng glanced at Li Jia, shrugged, and followed him out.
Li Jia was so angry that her face turned red. When she saw Ji Yijun leisurely coming in, she let out a sigh of relief and cursed, "You have a heart as small as a pinhole. It's already this late, and you're still counting on your fingers!"
"Hey, there are so many bad people like this, just don't worry about it, at worst we can just do our own thing."
"Oh!" Li Jia sighed again.
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The streets of Suero are very quiet and spacious. They are paved with blue stones. Some roads even have sidewalks and gutters. The houses along the road are mostly solemn and beautifully decorated. The pillars and eaves are covered with carvings. Since there is no glass, most of these houses have shutters made of exquisite wood. Maybe the stones produced nearby are mostly reddish, so the houses here are all red, ranging from light red, rose red to dark red. The shutters and balcony doors are mostly painted white, so the whole city has distinct colors, blue, red and white complement each other.
The gap from a small country town to this big city is so huge that Xiao Chen and others felt like they had traveled from the 12th century to the 18th century.
There were not many pedestrians on the road, and there were no small vendors, but most of the few people were well dressed. Most of the men wore local-style double-breasted jackets and slim-fitting trousers. The rich ones had exquisite patterns embroidered on their clothes, and some even shone with a faint magical light; the ordinary ones were much more exquisite than the clothes Xiao Chen saw outside the city. Some people were dressed like warriors, wearing leather armor or chain mail, and carrying long and short weapons on their waists or backs.
Most ladies wore short-sleeved or mid-sleeved tops with lace and lace trims, and knee-length skirts with layers and many wrinkles. Some young girls even wore short skirts that only covered their thighs. If the patterns on the skirts were not a little complicated, they would have looked like fashionable urban beauties.
Xi Luo was walking on the road with Chen Hansheng, Xiao Chen, and Luo Ling. They all changed into similar attire and went to visit a local big businessman whom Xi Luo knew.
"Xiao Chen, look, the girls here are much more open-minded than those in Floro Town, and they are fair and tender, pleasing to the eyes."
Seeing Luo Ling glanced over here intentionally or unintentionally, Xiao Chen joked, "Old Chen, be serious. We can't make any mistakes."
"If you have to make a mistake, it should be you. What mistake could I make?" Chen Hansheng said this as he turned his head to follow the two girls who passed by him.
But he immediately heard Luo Ling snort: "A hypocrite and an old pervert, what a perfect match."
Xi Luo didn't understand their mumbling, but seeing Chen Hansheng's expression, he said to Xiao Chen with a smile: "Speaking of beauties, even the king can't compare to Suero. This is where the two big rivers of north and south and east and west meet. Big merchants from all over the continent will come here by water. From south to north, all kinds of beauties will appear here, some are daughters of noble families, some are concubines of merchants, and many more are slaves."
"Oh? Slaves are still being sold here?" Xiao Chen and the others became curious.
"Suero has the largest slave market in the kingdom. If you like, Lord Chen, when you go back, just buy two female slaves that you like and take them away."
"And female slaves? How many beauties?"
"That's natural. Some may even have noble or foreign bloodlines, but they are also very expensive."
Seeing that Chen Hansheng was asking questions enthusiastically, Luo Ling interrupted, "I can make the decision on this matter. Xiluo, you go and buy four in total and put them on my account. Chen Hansheng and Xiao Chen, each get two, but you have to pick the most beautiful one. If you want, I can also buy one for you and let her give birth to a daughter for you."
Xi Luo was not stupid. He felt uncomfortable as soon as he heard it. He even said he didn't dare, and then looked at Xiao Chen and the others with squinted eyes.
Chen Hansheng was embarrassed, and quickly said righteously: "It's too corrupt, too degenerate. We are all civilized people, and we don't like this kind of thing."
Xiao Chen's mind worked faster, and he clapped his hands and said, "In fact, we can go and take a look at the slave market. After all, we don't have enough manpower. If we use it well, the construction speed of the school can be accelerated."
"Pretending!" Luo Ling rolled her eyes at him and asked Xi Luo, "Where did these slaves come from?"
"Most of them are poor people brought by the war, and the families of fallen nobles." Xi Luo looked around and lowered his voice and said, "Some of the big families here are in this business, bribing the border troops or organizing mercenaries to kidnap people from surrounding countries."
"Does the kingdom's laws allow this?"
"As long as the kingdom collects taxes and merchants only want to make money, the unlucky ones are still the people of other countries. What does the law have to do with it?"
After walking and talking for a while, they soon arrived at the door of a large house. Most houses in the city were built with red granite, but the entire wall of this house along the street was made of white marble, which was very dazzling on the whole street.
"The owner of this house is extraordinary." Luo Ling observed the sculptures on the outer wall and said, "These patterns and figures are much more exquisite than those in the surrounding houses. They can be said to be high-quality works of art."
"This is normal. Baron Goya Diaz is one of the richest businessmen in Suero and a legend in Floro," said Ciro.
"Oh? This person is your fellow villager." Xiao Chen asked curiously.
"Yes, his father was originally a small timber merchant in Floro Town. However, after he took over his father's business when he was less than 20 years old, he quickly became prosperous and turned his father's stall into a behemoth. Later, he married the only daughter of a ruined baron. After the old baron died, he found a way to inherit the title and is now a genuine nobleman. If my father, an accountant, had not helped him before he became successful, I'm afraid it would have been difficult to even see him." As he spoke, Xiro knocked on the door, and soon a middle-aged butler came to open the door and led them in.
Led by the butler, they walked through the hall and a corridor and came to a reception room. The furnishings in the room were naturally very luxurious, but Xiao Chen and his companions came from the materially rich modern world after all, so they didn't feel much surprise. This made the somewhat trembling Xi Luo look at it with more respect.
"Ah, this is Xi Luo's magician friend." After a while, a very generous middle-aged man came in. He had brown hair, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and a tall figure. He didn't look like a nouveau riche at all. He shook hands with Xiao Chen and the others vigorously and said, "I am Goya Diaz. I am so lucky to meet a magician friend from afar."
Xiao Chen and his friends exchanged pleasantries with him and presented him with a pair of wide-mouthed glass wine glasses. The wine glasses were bulk goods from supermarkets and were packed in a specially made box. These wine glasses would definitely be so ordinary that no one would take a second look at them now. However, they are indeed unique in this era, and are much purer and more beautiful than the glass products currently produced by the school.
"Is this the 'glass' you want to sell?" Baron Goya picked up the wine glass and examined it in the sun, then said to the butler, "Bring a jug of rainbow wine."
Rainbow fruit wine is a kind of wine made from rainbow fruit. Rainbow fruit has seven colors, and so does the wine made from it. When the butler poured the wine into the glass, the liquid in the glass showed a beautiful seven-color luster under the sun.
"Very good, very good! This cup is used to hold rainbow fruit wine, and it can be compared to a crystal cup. But crystal doesn't have such a smooth curve. This thing is a treasure, how are you going to sell it?"
"We have a lot of these products, most of which are not as pure as this set of cups, and they come in a variety of shapes. I want to find a suitable store to sell them on my behalf." Chen Hansheng took out a few more glass products, including vases, plates, decorative sculptures, etc. It must be said that the art students assigned to blow glass, although their skills are not very good, the things they make are still very beautiful. They can also copy the works of world-class masters over the past thousands of years, so the few things in front of them are still very attractive.
Baron Goya remained silent, looking at each of these items carefully, and then asked, "Is the output high?"
"Production is not a problem. This is a skilled job. We have just figured out how to do it, and the craftsmen are not very skilled. I estimate that in a month or two, the production will be considerable." Chen Hansheng replied with some regret, "But I am afraid that we will not be able to make cups like this for a long time, and we don't have much in stock."
"So there are a small number of top-quality goods that cannot be copied, and a large number of ordinary goods that can be supplied?" The baron thought for a while and said, "I do have a store that can sell these things, but I won't do that."
"Why?" Xiao Chen asked in surprise. He could see that Baron Goya was obviously very interested in these things.
"Because your way of selling is wrong." The Baron laughed, and only then did he reveal a bit of his true nature as a profiteer.