Qian Xiaoyu was stunned when he heard Huo Xi's question. Yu Jiang and others were also stunned and looked at him.
Qian Xiaoyu thought for a while and shook his head: "Sister Xi'er, I'm afraid I can't do it. I don't know a few words. To be a manager, I need to know how to read the account books and read the contract. I can't do it. I'm afraid it will ruin your business.
."
The shop in Guangfengshui was stable, but it was working for others. Now he rows a boat around to collect and sell goods, making a lot of money a month.
When there was no business, I would fish and sell fish, so I wouldn’t waste any time saving money.
Huo Xi understood it as soon as he heard it.
I sighed in my heart and said with a smile: "It's okay, my shop is short of people, my mother said that my sister-in-law misses her son, and I thought you would want to find a stable job on the shore."
Qian Xiaoyu said with a smile: "My parents are taking that boy with him, and he is very happy. His mother and I even refused to take us back when we went back."
A few people joked for a while and then separated.
Yu Jiang returned to his house and sat on a stool in a daze. Mrs. Zheng was greeting her two daughters to pack their money and luggage and go out to receive the goods. This time, she might have to be outside for a long time.
Seeing Yu Jiang sitting in a daze, he was a little curious: "What's wrong with you? You just sit in a daze as soon as you come back. If you have free time, come over and give our mother some help."
Yu Jiang glanced at her but didn't move his buttocks.
Mrs. Zheng felt strange. He was usually the most considerate of their mothers, so she put down what she was doing, walked over and knelt down, and asked him what was going on.
Yu Jiang said: "I'm afraid Xi'er really needs someone. She knows that Xiaoyu doesn't know a few words, but she still spoke, which means there is really a shortage of people. It seems that she wants to find someone who can work with the boatman.
People who are easy to communicate with.”
Mrs. Zheng nodded: "If she spoke to me, I would go into the shop and help her. If it weren't for the Huo family, we wouldn't have the good life we have now. My two daughters and I are still being abused by your stepmother in the countryside.
Look at our house, how could we have imagined that one day we would be able to have a small courtyard in the capital."
Yu Jiang looked at the house and nodded repeatedly: "No. After we got married, we gave birth to two daughters. I have been saving money for several years, and I only have one or two taels in my hand."
"It was after I followed the Huo family to Huai'an that I picked you up and helped the Huo family collect and sell goods. It has only been four years since we not only owned a house, but also bought ten acres of land from your parents' home.
We also have a deposit, so we can repay our kindness."
Mrs. Zheng nodded: "Then you want to be a steward in Xi'er's shop?"
"Well. She must be really short of people right now. I'll tell her when I get back from selling some cargo."
If she really had to make such a decision, Ms. Zheng was a little hesitant: "But we can make a lot of money a year by running a boat outside. As a manager, we only get two or three taels of monthly salary. This..."
"Didn't you just say that we should repay our kindness? That's what I thought. Aren't you pregnant? You will stay on the shore when the time comes..."
"I don't have to stay on the shore. Besides, even if I stay on the shore, there are Ya'er and Miao'er who can help you share the burden."
Yu Jiang shook his head: "Ya'er will be twelve years old soon. In two years, the sisters will be planning to marry each other. It's very inappropriate to wander around the rivers with us anymore..."
Yu Miao took her sister and was hiding behind the door to eavesdrop. She looked at her blushing sister thoughtfully.
The next day, Huo Xi was in Qionghua Lane looking at the round fans, velvet flowers, handkerchiefs, fans, embroidered handkerchiefs and other items that Grandma Zou had collected.
"The talented ladies in the alley all said they would come to thank you in person. We usually provide them with vegetables and daily necessities. Although they spent money, they also made these round fans, velvet flowers, and handkerchiefs and sent them to them for sale.
We got a high price, we have money for food for the whole family, and there is a lot of surplus every month. They are grateful, look, the shoes and socks in this basket are all sent by scholar ladies."
Huo Xi rummaged through the basket and found her shoes and socks, as well as Nian'er's. She couldn't help but feel warm in her heart.
At first, Huo Xi only traded vegetables and daily necessities with them, and didn't think about anything else.
Later, Grandma Zou chatted with them while delivering goods to them, and also found out the situation at home of these scholars.
People who live in Qionghua Lane and its surroundings almost always have scholars in their homes, whether they own their own homes or those who come to Beijing to study and rent in this area.
The conditions are not that of being rich or wealthy, otherwise I wouldn't live in this outer city.
As long as there is a scholar in the family, he is a real gold-swallowing beast, and the family will spend a lot of money. Scholars cannot do that kind of business, and most families are in a tight financial situation.
He is a scholar and has a good reputation, so his mother, wife and sisters rarely go out for leisure.
When I am free and bored, I usually do some embroidery work at home to pass the time. The skills are very good.
At first, because her family was in a tight situation, she asked her secretly if she would accept the embroidery work for handkerchiefs. The neighbors were in the business of collecting and selling goods, so Huo Xi accepted the embroidery work of the women in the alley and helped her.
For sale on behalf of others.
Slowly, more and more people came to look for her.
The cost of Huo Xi's cloth gathering and stitching thread was lower than what these ladies bought at other shops. It was very profitable to go in and out of the shop. This business started in Qionghua Alley.
I don’t know whether it’s because these ladies have scholars in their families, or because they themselves have good taste. Whether it’s color matching or embroidery patterns, they are better than those embroidered elsewhere.
In Huo Xi's words, the embroidery work in the hands of these ladies has a sense of high-end.
Huo Xi then recognized the truth.
They went to their homes to understand the situation in person, and then asked the scholars in their families to draw pictures, embroidery patterns, fans, pictures of ladies, Buddhist scriptures, poems and big calligraphy.
Most of these scholars have a certain degree of literary talent, and they are all excellent in their writing and drawings.
Huo Xi got the pictures and calligraphy, and invited the ladies in the alley who were skilled in craftsmanship to embroider them into embroidery patterns, or make them into round fans or paper fans. He also framed them and put them in the shop. They turned out to be very easy to sell.
Huo Zhongdu bought embroidery samples from her several times.
Then she purchased silk scraps from Huo Zhong's weaving shop and took them back to make various velvet flowers for ladies and sell them as bonsai. Gradually, this became a serious business.
Part of the shop's profit also comes from this.
After the business started, women from nearby scholar families often came to take jobs to earn some money to support their families.
Both phases are cheap.
Now that Guangfeng Shui also has a shop in the inner city, Huo Xi plans to sell this business in a shop in Sanyuan Alley and make high-quality products for sale, so that small merchants and hawkers can sell them, but the price is reduced.
.
Now when she walks down Qionghua Lane, everyone she knows calls her "Little Boss."
The women in the alley are not short of work, and the family has money to make ends meet. In addition to doing these embroidery jobs, Huo Xi also took over the job of making military uniforms for them a few days ago.
Making a piece of clothing can earn you more than ten or twenty dollars in labor expenses, and you can take the scraps home to paste the soles of your shoes.
Everyone was not unhappy and rushed to get work done.
The women in Qionghua Lane also received Huo Xi's guidance, and they joined forces to divide labor and cooperate and produce on an assembly line.
It used to take two or three days to make one set, but now through assembly line production, one person can make two sets per day on average. The speed is faster, more work can be done, and more money can be earned.
Now, if we say that they are from a poor scholar's family, these ladies will make fun of each other.
Huo Xi was just thinking about this business, looking through the embroidery samples, round fans, and velvet flowers in her hands, and was about to pick some exquisite ones to take to the shop in Sanyuan Lane, when Xiao Miaoer came to see her.