Chapter 1308: Chapter 1286: Temptation
As soon as these words were spoken, someone nearby smacked their own head, angered. “Stop saying things like that from now on. Our furs are already hard to sell; if you keep saying this fur is bad or that fur doesn’t look good, what if Zhou Si stops buying them altogether?”
“I’m just worried about one thing—does Zhou Si really have tea leaves?”
“Definitely he does. I’ve heard the Shu region has plenty of tea leaves, but those tea merchants look down on people like us. They think our tribe is too small to bother and refuse to sell their tea leaves to us.”
Of course, merchants wouldn’t care about their tribe’s size; they simply think the money they offer is too little.
But when the furs can’t be sold, there’s no money. Moreover, those merchants specializing in fur trade not only push the prices down to absurdly low levels but also refuse to buy if there’s even the slightest flaw.
As for Zhou SiLang, he didn’t have much money on him and ran into these merchants—both local and foreign—due to his trip escorting the medicinal herbs to Jishi Hall. On that journey, there was a stretch of road covered in deep snow. By the time they cleared the way and passed through, a massive crowd of merchants traveling the same route had blocked the road behind them.
Zhou SiLang, thick-skinned and outgoing as ever, had never seen this many foreigners in his life. These foreigners rode particularly tall and impressive horses.
He couldn’t help but take a few extra glances, and that led to him striking up conversations with them.
These foreign merchants were not only trading furs but also rare medicinal herbs, gemstones, horses…
None of which Zhou SiLang could afford.
Well, he could afford some, but only in extremely small quantities. After thinking it through, he concluded that whatever he bought wouldn’t sell because the people he knew wouldn’t be able to afford such goods.
Besides, most of these goods already had designated buyers lined up—the medicinal herbs, gemstones, and horses would all go to regular customers. The only thing he could spare the effort to pick through was the bulk fur stock.
But after hearing the prices, Zhou SiLang backed off.
The snow-covered road turned out to be harder to traverse than he imagined. What was supposed to be a two-day roundtrip took them more than a day just to clear the snow, followed by two and a half days of travel.
After delivering the medicinal herbs to Jishi Hall, he and Sanzi dashed off to mingle with the merchants, both local and foreign.
They weren’t picky about the type of work—they could help shout, advertise goods, or carry loads. And having shared the same journey for three days, they were pretty good at finding jobs.
Zhou SiLang mainly wanted to gather information and see if there was anything he could afford to buy, while Sanzi and the others were simply earning money.
After all, they were eating and staying at the house in Changqing Alley at the moment, and it wouldn’t sit well with them to keep freeloading.
In the end, after hanging around the market for a few days, Zhou SiLang ended up involving himself with a few members of the Bald Hair Tribe.
He couldn’t help it—they were too conspicuous. They had brought a pile of furs that only sold a few pieces, and the rest were sitting untouched. They nearly ended up in a brawl at the market over price haggling.
The prices offered by the merchants were ridiculously low—so low that selling at those prices wouldn’t even cover their costs for salt and tea, let alone their roundtrip travel expenses.
The price was barely higher than what merchants would offer when buying directly from their tribe.
They vaguely understood that they were being targeted, but they had no idea how to solve the problem, like trapped beasts stuck in the market.
After watching for two days as they grew increasingly despondent, Zhou SiLang finally intervened.
He boasted proudly to his brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews, “While I was hauling goods and advertising in that market, I figured out the prices for those furs. I tell you, those merchants are truly despicable! Bullying Ah Liudun and his group because it’s their first time here and their Mandarin isn’t very fluent, they directly slashed the price to less than 10% of the value!”
Manbao’s eyes widened. “That ruthless?”
Zhou SiLang nodded. “Exactly! That’s how I managed to take their goods off their hands entirely.”
He hadn’t brought much money with him, and while those two carts of medicinal herbs seemed like a lot, they weren’t particularly valuable. Altogether, they sold for 128 taels—a decent income for their family, considering the land used to grow medicinal herbs was mostly in the mountains and arid areas.
But for Zhou SiLang, who wanted to dabble in the fur trade business, it wasn’t nearly enough. Including all the assets he brought from home to the capital, he barely had over 400 taels—not even close to 500.
In the end, Zhou SiLang used the promise of nonexistent tea leaves as collateral to take the remaining furs on credit, totaling 1,000 taels.
Zhou Lijun, who often kept the accounts, was intrigued. “Strange, how did the price come out so neat—exactly 1,000 taels?”
Zhou SiLang grinned cheekily. “It wasn’t that neat originally. A few foreign merchants also had furs that were slightly damaged and harder to sell. They had been pushed hard by the other merchants. Ah Liudun knew them, so he gathered those furs and packed them together as part of his goods.”
Everyone’s mouths hung open. So Ah Liudun had to fork out money to buy furs from others before turning around and handing them over to Zhou SiLang on credit?
Zhou Wulang swallowed nervously and asked, “Fourth Brother, this interest…”
Zhou SiLang glared at him. “What interest? Ah Liudun is my friend. I told him this is the deposit for tea leaves—it doesn’t count as interest!”
Everyone: “…Then what are they after?”
Zhou SiLang declared righteously, “It’s my credibility! Understand?”
Everyone shook their heads in unison. They truly couldn’t imagine Zhou SiLang having credibility as a bargaining chip.
After all, in the Zhou Family, he was the one with the least credibility!
Zhou SiLang took a deep breath. He still needed people’s help, so he decided to refrain from getting upset.
Forcing a smile, he turned to Zhou Liulang and said as kindly as possible, “So, Old Six, why don’t you stay in the capital for New Year?”
Zhou Liulang looked horrified. “Alone? Honestly, you’re basically leaving me as collateral with the foreign merchants!”
“Collateral? Nonsense! While I’m not back yet, you can run the shop and do business as usual. Once I’m back, we’ll settle the accounts,” said Zhou SiLang. “Otherwise, if we all go home for New Year and shut the shop, Ah Liudun and his group might overthink…”
Zhou Liulang turned to Zhou Lijun, pointing at her and saying, “If you want me to stay, Erya has to stay too. There’s no way I’ll manage alone; she’s always handled the shop’s transactions and bookkeeping.”
Zhou SiLang hesitated. “But Lichong and Liwei can also handle that, can’t they? I was planning to take Lijun back to collect tea leaves.”
Zhou Lijun replied firmly, “No way. I’m going home for New Year!”
Zhou Lichong and Zhou Liwei chorused, “We’re going home too!”
Zhou SiLang berated them, “You’re still young. Don’t be so obsessed with home. The outside world is great—why are you always thinking about going back? When I was your age, all I wanted was to go out and explore. Look at me now, haven’t I made something of myself?”
The group eyed him coldly, clearly unimpressed by his so-called “success.”
Out of options, Zhou SiLang sighed, “Fine, whoever stays will get ten taels of silver!”
They collectively perked up and asked, “From public funds?”
Zhou SiLang snapped irritably, “Of course! This is a business belonging to the collective. If it doesn’t come from public funds, what—do you expect me to pay it out of my personal stash?”
Zhou Wulang felt a slight temptation but ultimately stuck with his decision to go home for the New Year.
Manbao wasn’t tempted by the ten taels of silver, and she wasn’t within Zhou SiLang’s persuasion range. If her parents found out he was trying to stop Manbao from going home for the New Year, they’d chase him around Qili Village with a stick.