"Haha, thank you boss. Long time no see..."
"Boss Chen, how are you doing?"
"After today's banquet, let's go to the Treasure Casino together?"
"I've had a bad hand recently, not to mention what happened today..."
"Last time, regarding the shipment of goods in Qingzhou, Brother Li gave a helping hand, and is grateful for the high righteousness..."
"Belonging to peers, we should watch and help each other..."
Amidst the lights, the noisy and lively voices, and the voices of people upstairs gathered in Luyi. There is still a while before tonight's banquet. The crowd gathered, and when the carriage came, someone related to the weaving industry came down from above. On the second floor, Ning Yi has been here with everyone from the Su family for a while. While being seated, he is also dealing with the merchants who come to say hello one by one. They are optimistic about the Su family, not optimistic about the Su family, and have a cooperative relationship. , If there is no cooperative relationship, in short, they will not ignore the Su family.
However, compared to Ning Yi, Su Zhongkan, and Su Yunfang, the masters of the Su family, it may be that shopkeeper Liao and others received the most attention tonight. It's no wonder they are like this. In the situation tonight, others originally guessed that either Su Tan'er would come forward, or I'm afraid Su Yu, the old lady of the Su family, would come over. If these two people come, the Su family will be the finalizer of the royal business tonight. Of course it was them, who knew that neither of the grandfather and grandson had appeared, so they really cared about some of the real people in the royal business, so they mostly focused their attention on the people who are now at the helm of the Su family's big house on a practical level. Shopkeeper Liao and others.
As for Su Zhong and Su Yunfang, the two of them would definitely not be able to intervene in matters related to the Royal Merchant. But if the Su family's royal business fails tonight, the status of these two will be completely different, so after all, there are still many people guessing about this, and they used to be regarded as tycoons in Jiangning's weaving industry. Of course, there will be no less attention. On the other hand, Ning Yi, although he is now in charge of the big house of the Su family, is just a symbol. It symbolizes that the position of the head of the Su family has not been overridden by Shopkeeper Liao and others, but if he really wants to decide something, then Naturally impossible.
Therefore, at this time, the people who will greet and chat with the shopkeeper Liao and others are mostly powerful figures from various households, who care about the royal merchants, or the shopkeepers who are dealing with other cloth merchants. They will come over to greet each other for a while. , and sometimes some officials of the Manufacturing Bureau who had been connected before, came over with a smile and suggested that there was no problem tonight.
As for Su Zhongkan and Su Yunfang, there are probably some big businessmen, people with similar status, such as the owners of some medium-sized cloth merchants, and even the head of the current cloth merchants, Wu Chenghou, the owner of the Wu family. At first, I would say hello to them and talk about things in the line of work.
As for Ning Yi, he has been chatting with all kinds of people. After everyone confirmed that Su Tan'er would not be present, their attitude towards Ning Yi was very enthusiastic. many. In any case, he was standing at the center of the stage tonight after all, and those in the family who were weaker than the Su family would not be stunned and would not give Ning Yi face at all. If the family situation is similar, some people have learned not to care about it. The Xue family and the Su family arrived early, and the differences between the two sides were relatively clear. Xue Sheng only said hello to Su Zhongkan and ignored Ning Yi. , Xue Yan came over and said a lot with a smile, mentioning that he met Li Pin a few days ago, and after the city gate reopened, Li Pin must invite him to the farewell banquet in Beijing.
Xue Yan and Li Pin are not familiar with each other, that is to say, they have some contact with things like the Yancui Building last time. But after Ning Yi started to manage the big room, Xue Yan invited Ning Yi to eat twice, and the atmosphere was pretty good each time. As long as Xue Yan wanted to make a gesture, his attitude could still be in place. At this time, he also regarded Li Pin as a After meeting the acquaintances, Wu's family came in a while, Wu Chenghou and his two sons came over to talk to Ning Yi respectively, Wu Qilong also joked about Ning Yi's late arrival this morning: "Today I listened to Luo When the shopkeeper mentioned this, it seems that although Liheng has always been indifferent, he is still a little nervous when it comes to today's incident, haha..."
As the head of the cloth line, the Wu family has always had a good relationship with each family. The relationship between the Xue family and the Su family is tense, and they often mediate and ease. During this time, the brothers Wu Qilong and Wu Qihao both I have met a lot of Ning Yi, at least it doesn't matter if they are familiar friends, Ning Yi shook his head and smiled, a little helpless: "I originally wanted to persist in doing these things until the last day, but who would have thought that I would wake up late this morning. ... uh, you all know about this... it won't spread again..."
"Haha." Wu Qilong lowered his voice and suppressed his smile, "I'm afraid everyone already knows..."
"Tsk..." Ning Yi was stunned for a while, then rolled his eyes again, and then Wu Qihao also laughed out loud.
"Brother Ning's affairs are not afraid of being known. Everyone in Jiangning now knows that Brother Ning is confused in small matters, but not in major matters. Tonight, this royal businessman... Cough, to be honest, everyone is an opponent, so I don't wish you anything, haha..." Wu Qilong smiled open-mindedly, "However, although Brother Ning's side is powerful, our Wu family also has killers. No matter whether we succeed or fail, you and I have to be convinced."
The two brothers were open-minded, and the people next to them listened to it, and they also had a good impression. The three exchanged a few words. The two brothers turned around fiercely. Ning Yi smiled and looked at their backs, and then began to deal with some other "acquaintances".
When the time was about to come, everyone took their seats one after another. The space on the second floor of Luyi Building is spacious, and the merchants who are eligible to come this time basically have their own seats. Everyone in the Su family is a big round table, and the rest of the merchants have also been allocated a round table to sit down. There are a few merchants with few people, but they will not arrange a table together, because this banquet, in fact, It is also necessary to decide on the ownership of the royal merchants, and each household must have its own position.
The Su family, the Xue family, and the Wu family were located at the three ends of the venue. At this time, the venue was a little calm, and some people were still coming. The officials of the Weaving Bureau came over to say hello and exhort some words.
Royal Merchant's bids are actually not based on the general fair bidding method to let people compete. This is mainly because of the particularity of the royal merchants in previous years. The problem of Suibu made everyone avoid it. If there is an open bid and no one comes, it will obviously be very shameful. After decades of changes, the task of the royal merchants was actually in the form of "contribution". To decide, as if you have something good to dedicate to the royal family, the royal family will give you some privileges, of course, it will not do so on the surface.
The cloth that is actually sent to the palace will be more profitable. If the royal family wants it, it doesn't matter at all, and it doesn't matter when it is presented. But at this time of the year, the weaving bureau has to arrange and distribute the share of the old cloth. If a few merchants who regularly undertake royal merchants complain too much, they will often allocate some of them and assign such as the Su family, the Wu family, and the Xue family. : There is a batch of tasks here, you have to help to get a point. No one dares not to give face. If you don't give face, you will definitely wear small shoes. Of course, the weaving bureau will not be too excessive, and there will always be some sense of proportion.
So most of the patterns recalled by the Weaving Bureau in the past few decades are like this: each family has some good cloth, and they take turns to show it off for everyone to judge. Although the share of the burden of each household's annual cloth has been decided secretly, it is still very beautiful on the surface, like a performance exchange and appreciation of good cloth. This year is still the same on the surface, but the inside is actually quite different.
Everyone is well aware of this.
Others whispered, paying attention to the situation of the three families of Su, Xue, and Wu. Manager Liao and others were actually inquiring about the wind direction from the caliber of others. When he was seated, he whispered to Ning Yi: "Looking at the atmosphere today, there should be no problem with the royal merchants. After all, the efforts of the past month or so have not been in vain. Most people are optimistic about my Su family..."
He paused for a while, then sighed: "In the end, it was the second miss's foresight, and he started it a few years ago. Although I was vaguely aware of it in the past, I didn't know how the matter was going. I really thought that the Su family was going to have a big somersault... But after all, small means can't compare with real accumulation, and with that fabric in hand, it can be regarded as a real confidence. This month's events can be regarded as a so-called conspiracy. "
Ning Yi pursed his lips slightly and looked around: "Is it really okay?"
"It's not a big problem." Shopkeeper Liao also looked around: "The Lu family has a new cloth recently. It's good, but unfortunately it's not suitable for the royal requirements. It's called smoked tea silk. I've seen it before. In the past, there was a signature purple cloth, which has always been favored by large households, and the price was relatively high, but there should be nothing new recently. In their home, cloth weavers are always better than others, but in front of my Su family, Jin Xijin, the weavers are better, so it probably doesn't mean much..."
For the time of the Su family's royal business, Manager Liao and others did a lot of homework, and they talked freely, and then frowned slightly: "However, the real mastermind behind the assassination of the uncle has not yet been found, if this person is really the master of the Xue family. So, I'm afraid they will have another..."
Shopkeeper Liao glanced at the Xue family, then shook his head and smiled, comforting Ning Yi: "The possibility is not high, and... the personnel has been exhausted. Now that this matter has developed to this point, you can watch it with peace of mind..."
Ning Yi nodded, stopped talking, and then turned back to motion for Chan'er to put the brocade box she was carrying on the table in front of her. After a while, an official came over to talk to Shopkeeper Liao, Shopkeeper Liao laughed and tilted his head toward Ningyi: "Master Dong and the others have already come, this time my Su Mansion is the loudest, Dong Your lord wants this banquet to be good-looking, and arranges for my Su family to be the finale."
"The finale is good?"
"It was the best cloth finale in previous years, and a few are still available for Royal..."
In the words, shopkeeper Liao was actually a little nervous, he told Ning Yi about it with a smile, and then spread the word to several shopkeepers around.
"The finale..." Ning Yi muttered, sat there for a while, then shook his head and smiled slightly: "Tonight's business is settled..." Since his tone was a bit like asking a question, shopkeeper Liao next to him He smiled: "I don't know yet, Uncle, it's hard to say."
At the same time, someone in the venue also glanced at this side, playing with a sapphire wrench in his hand, and whispered from his lips: "Tonight's event... Is it settled?" The voice was too low, like a low voice He murmured, as if he was asking softly about the wrench on his hand, and there was an indifferent smile on the corner of his mouth.
The formal banquet will take some time, because it is always necessary to wait until there is enough to boast about before it is suitable for eating, drinking and carnival. What almost no one thought was that what really belonged to tonight, almost half an hour later, had already happened completely. The darkness hidden behind it is so deep and the various twists and turns inside it, when they are uncovered layer by layer, this matter has become Jiangning Weaving in the following months and even years. A deep scar that the industry or even the business world keeps talking about...
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Ning Yi will write the third poem, I don't think anyone can guess which one it is ^_^