Meng Yulou returned home. Before he even entered the courtyard, a waiter came up to him and said with an ugly expression,"Furen, Fourth Uncle said that he wants fifty taels of cloth from us and won't give us a single cent more.”
Upon hearing this, Meng Yulou's expression immediately turned cold.
Meng Yulou's husband's family was in the cloth business. Her deceased husband had returned from selling cloth in Sichuan and handed it over to his fourth uncle, Zhang Si, to sell. The two families worked together to do business and split the profits according to the ratio.
This cloth was produced by Meng Yulou's family, and Fourth Uncle would sell it. In the past, Meng Yulou's family would take the bulk of the money while Fourth Uncle would take the smaller portion.
However, this time, Fourth Uncle was asking for an exorbitant price. He wanted to buy all the cloth worth 600 taels for 50 taels. This was clearly bullying.
He saw that Meng Yulou had lost his husband, so he planned to extort a sum of money from this widow.
Of course, Meng Yulou couldn't agree. He said coldly,"Let's go and reason with him."
He brought the servant girl to Zhang Si, but he sat down steadily on the chair, just like an elder.
Meng Yulou could only endure his grievances and bow to him. Then, he said,"Fourth Uncle, I heard from the shop assistant that you want to use fifty taels of silver to buy our thousand bolts of cloth. Is that true?”
Zhang Si said," That's right. Don't think that 50 taels is too little. The market hasn't been good recently. It's very difficult to sell the fabric."”
"That batch of cloth is worth at least 600 taels of silver. Even if the market is bad, it can't be sold for only 50 taels of silver." Meng Yulou was slightly angry.”
Zhang Si shook his head and said," You're being insensible. The cloth in your hands has been in the warehouse for a year. If you don't sell it now, it will rot there. When that time comes, you won't see a single cent.”
"I'm only willing to buy your cloth because we're relatives and I pity a widow like you. If it were someone else, who do you think would want it?”
Meng Yulou and his family did not have a shop in Qinghe County. The sales had always been in the hands of Zhang Si. If they did not use Zhang Si's shop, there would be no place to sell the fabric.
Meng Yulou did not stand on ceremony with him and directly said,"You want fifty taels to buy this batch of cloth? Since you don't want it, don't blame me for selling it to someone else.”
Zhang Si, however, seemed to have a well-thought-out plan. He slowly took a sip of tea and said,"Who are you selling it to? In Qinghe County, the only bigger cloth shops are my Zhang family and the one on Liuyun Street. The other small shops simply can't take in so much of your goods.”
"And the cloth shop on Willow Cloud Street was said to have been transferred to someone else. They can't even open it themselves, so why would they accept your fabric?”
"Let me put it this way. Either you sell this batch of cloth to me for 50 taels, or you wait to rot in the warehouse.”
In this era, storage technology was not very good. Cloth could not be stored in the warehouse for a long time, or else problems such as dampness and insects would appear.
Meng Yulou gritted his teeth, so angry that he couldn't speak.
But he also knew that what Zhang Si said was true. If she didn't take over the cloth as soon as possible, they would really rot in the warehouse.
Meng Yulou did not continue to argue with him. Instead, he left with the servant girl.
Zhang Si looked at Meng Yulou's back as he left and sneered.
In the past, when Meng Yulou's husband, who was also his nephew, was still alive, he had to rely on the goods provided by his nephew, so he could only take a small portion of the profits.
But now that his nephew was dead, and the batch of goods in Meng Yulou's hands was the last batch, he did not need to be polite with her. He just wanted to take the goods from her at a low price. She was a widow, what could she do? What could she do?
Therefore, he was very confident that his niece-in-law would eventually agree to his conditions and sell the goods at a low price.
He was not in a hurry. He just needed to wait a little longer.
Back home, Meng Yulou's servant girl, Xiu-Er, said angrily,"Madam, this fourth uncle is clearly bullying someone who doesn't have the power to make decisions in our family.”
Meng Yulou sighed helplessly." You think I can't tell? But what can I do?" I'm just a woman. I can't do much in business.”
"Then what should we do? Do we really have to promise Fourth Uncle to sell the cloth for fifty taels? That's too much of a loss.”
Meng Yulou said," The only way now is to find another market. It's just that I don't know any business people. Who should I look for?"”
Meng Yulou pushed open the door and walked in. Her room was empty. She took off her coat and lay on the bed. Suddenly, she thought of the cloth shop on Liuyun Street.
He thought to himself, Why don't I go there and ask the boss if they need cloth? If it really didn't work out, he would just give out more profits. Perhaps there would be a chance.”
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