“You don’t need to worry about me. Maybe it does exist, and even if it doesn’t, so what? Who says a woman must get married?” Wu Caiwei shrugged indifferently, unaffected. Su Dan Novel Network
This was the first time Liu Moran felt Meng’er was rebellious. How could a woman not get married?
“Are you leaving or not? If our business spreads all over the city, it has nothing to do with me.” Wu Caiwei found him annoying and didn’t want to see his face, so she directly asked him to leave.
Liu Moran opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but swallowed the words back. He sighed and left dejectedly.
Wu Caiwei didn’t take the matter to heart. After all, she had to run her business and look for him. Every time, they could appear in the same place. The reason she willingly followed Liu Moran to the capital was twofold: first, she had just arrived and couldn’t adapt too quickly; second, she felt that he would appear here.
Although she didn’t know which household he was living in in the capital, they met every time. She quietly waited for that day to come.
These past two days, Wu Caiwei found that her business was terrible. Usually, customers flocked to her door, but today there were only one or two. She raised her eyebrows in surprise, knowing that something she didn’t know must have happened.
She hurried to the streets to inquire and found out that two similar shops had opened not far from hers. She even went to visit them. Their variety wasn’t as complete as hers, and their goods weren’t as good, but they couldn’t resist the lower prices.
The capital had many high-ranking officials and noblemen, but even more common people. Wu Caiwei catered to the common people, who had some spare money but not much. Naturally, they would go where the value for money was higher.
Actually, the profit margin of her shop wasn’t large. The reason for the slightly higher income was that Wu Caiwei had added her own custom-made goods, which she made herself in her spare time and mixed with the others.
With the already small profit margin, and the others selling at such low prices, it was clear that she wasn’t making money but losing it. Who would do such thankless work? Wu Caiwei’s mind immediately conjured up a person’s figure: Gao Xuejuan.
It was obvious that the other party was targeting her. She had only been in the capital for a short time, knew few people, and hadn’t had any conflicts. There were only two or three people she had had disputes with. Prince Xiaoyao would not use such underhanded tactics, and Liu Moran’s entire focus was on promotion and getting rich; he wouldn’t confront her. That left only Gao Xuejuan.
Wu Caiwei smiled faintly, thinking her opponent was very childish. She was not in a hurry, but the shopkeeper was frantic.
“Owner, are we just going to let them do this and not do anything?” The shopkeeper had finally met such a generous owner and genuinely wanted to do great things with her, at least to manage this shop well.
“Don’t worry. Everyone was exhausted a while ago. Let’s take this opportunity to have a good rest. Our goods are here. Even if we don’t make money, we won’t lose any. I want to see how long she can last.” Wu Caiwei sneered. Knowing your enemy and yourself is the key to victory. Although she hadn’t been in the capital for long, she had investigated Gao Xuejuan. While her father was a high-ranking official, formidable in a small place, he was insignificant in the capital. Moreover, the Gao family only prospered after her father passed the imperial examination; their foundation was not solid.
The old madam of the Gao family loved her grandson and kept stuffing people into her son’s back courtyard. Even though Gao Xuejuan was the legitimate daughter, due to the large number of descendants in the Gao family, the money she actually received was not much, only a little more than others in the Gao family.
She believed that before long, Gao Xuejuan would realize that doing business was not that easy and that one couldn’t act on impulse.
Wu Caiwei was wrong. She thought it would take two or three months for Gao Xuejuan to face a financial crisis and get trapped, but to her surprise, after only half a month, Gao Xuejuan was already struggling to hold on.
The Gao family had many shops, but none of them fell into her hands. The Gao family had many sons, and there wasn’t enough to go around, so how could it be distributed to daughters?
Gao Xuejuan did business in secret, with little money. She didn’t plan to do it long-term; she just wanted to anger Wu Caiwei, steal her business, and earn some pocket money. So, she rented two shops and hired a few people to help her manage them.
She knew from the start that it would lose money, as the selling price was the same as the purchase price. Considering the human and material resources involved, it was clearly not worth it. Originally, she thought that as soon as she stole Wu Caiwei’s business and made her unable to continue, she would quickly close down, and then she could raise prices and make a lot of money.
Who knew that while she had no business, Wu Caiwei showed no panic? Her informant reported that she opened and closed her shop as usual every day, appearing extremely calm.
While she was calm, Gao Xuejuan couldn’t be. Although she was very happy to have stolen Wu Caiwei’s business, the more popular her business was, the more money she lost. Every item sold made her heart bleed. In a day, not to mention making money, she lost at least one to two hundred taels.
On the tenth day, the money in her hands was all spent. She had no choice but to pawn her precious jewelry. On the fifteenth day, she could no longer bear it and couldn’t help but inform the shopkeeper to raise the prices back to normal levels.
Customers happily selected their goods and went to pay, only to find the prices doubled compared to what they usually paid. They couldn’t help but curse, “You sold them so cheaply a few days ago, why are they so expensive today? We come here to buy from you every day precisely because your things are cheap. At this price, we’ll definitely go to the opposite shop, as their quality is there.”
“Yes, yes, we don’t want these things. Of course, if you calculate the price according to the previous few days, we still want them. We cannot accept this price and will not patronize you again in the future.”
The two old ladies looked expectantly at the shopkeeper, hoping he would quickly lower the price due to their threats. However, they were disappointed. The shopkeeper shook his head firmly, stating that the goods could not be sold at that price.
All the customers in the shop were paying attention to the situation. Seeing that there was no room for negotiation, they silently put down their items and left without a word.
Business returned, and Wu Caiwei felt nothing, but the shopkeeper was overjoyed. The owner had said that if the goods sold well, she would give him a commission, which would be much more than his monthly salary. He had learned this new term from the owner. After the period of quietness, everyone worked with extra vigor, and smiles never left their faces all day.
As for Gao Xuejuan, when she heard the shopkeeper’s report, she couldn’t help but slam the table and shout angrily, “What use are you useless people? You can’t even handle this small matter properly.”