Casting Nets to Catch a Husband

Chapter 105: Ask a matchmaker

Hongdu Prefecture, with its water and land routes traversing all directions, is a crucial transportation hub connecting the river and the sea. It serves as the root of the Jiangyou merchants.

Unlike the fame of Zhejiang for silk, the Jiangyou Merchant Guild, one of the three major commercial guilds in Daqing, has an extensive business scope. Due to the unique geographical advantages of Hongdu Prefecture, the bustling scenes along the river are no less than those in Zhejiang.

For Lu Chengxiao and the others, this was their first time entering Hongdu’s territory. Standing at the bow of the ship, they saw a bustling scene of merchant ships lined up along the river for several kilometers.

There are thirty-eight docks in the area. The destination of Lu Chengxiao and his companions on this trip is the headquarters of the Jiangyou Merchant Guild—the Guangrun Gate Dock. This place is one of the three major commercial centers in Daqing, and it’s where Lu Chengxiao has always wanted to visit.

From both his father and adoptive father, Lu Chengxiao had heard the saying, “Goods pour out of the Guangrun Gate.” Porcelain, summer cloth, silk, spices, and many other goods passed through this gate daily.

Because of their experience in Zhejiang, everything was handled skillfully. However, unlike Zhejiang, taxes here are collected at the gates. They first found a warehouse near the dock, paid the ship fare, and planned to leave Liu Yanan and the others to watch over the goods while Lu Chengxiao and Liu Yanping went into the city to find buyers.

But before they could go in search of buyers, buyers had already found them. In Hongdu Prefecture, silk was highly popular. While there were many silk merchants in the city, not all of them dared to venture alone to purchase silk. Instead, they mostly waited at the docks to inspect and negotiate prices when silk was brought into the city.

This business unexpectedly started right in the warehouses near the dock. There were more than one inquiring about prices. Most of these people were running cloth shops in the cloth distribution center in Hongdu City. They could afford large quantities and bought raw silk to dye and sell, making about ten percent more profit than buying from cloth merchants directly. Especially during the season for autumn cloth, there were many buyers, and raw silk was almost snatched up as soon as it entered the city.

Lu Chengxiao and his companions has just over 300 rolls of silk so it was easy for a small cloth shop to take them all. They usually bought them for 850 coins, but the highest bid was 380 coins, totaling 761 taels. When Lu Chengxiao and the others bought these 320 rolls of cloth, they spent 592 taels, making a profit of 169 taels.

Lu Chengxiao and Liu Yanping purchased 22 rolls of high-quality raw silk purchased from the Cheng family. But due to the small quantity, the cloth shops bargained to lower the price, offering 2 taels and 8 qian per roll, resulting in a profit of 13 taels per roll.

After some calculations, they realized they would make a profit of more than 180 taels from the 340 rolls of raw silk they had collected in the mountains of Wuxing. Deducting the ship fare and the fact that they had not yet entered Guangrun Gate, they did not need to pay gate taxes. This transaction was indeed profitable, saving them several days of dyeing time.

After a brief discussion, they agreed. The cloth merchant was overjoyed and paid a deposit first before going back to call his helpers to inspect the goods, transport them, and pay the final payment.

With 823 taels, deducting the ship fare, plus the nearly 100 taels left over from before, they had brought 300 taels of capital when they left. Lin Huaigeng and Liu Zhang each had 20 taels, and the Liu brothers had borrowed 200 taels to buy cloth, 65 taels of capital. By the return journey, after two transactions, they had earned more than 900 taels.

Over 900 taels, something they hadn’t even dared to dream of when they set off with 600 taels. Now they had more than nine hundred taels after one round trip.

At this point, Lu Chengxiao had four hundred and thirty taels in his hands, Liu Yanping had three hundred and ninety-five taels, Lin Huaigeng had forty-three taels left, Liu Zhang had thirty-six taels, and there were five taels that Lu Chengxiao had given as gifts. This could be considered a great harvest.

“Now what? Are we going back to Yuanzhou?” Lin Huaigeng was a bit excited. He had earned twenty-three taels in a month and couldn’t wait to share this with his family and with Zhou Ruyi.

Liu Yanping chuckled, “How can we not enter the city after reaching the capital? Let’s go in and take a look. We’ll learn something new.”

Liu Yanping had no interest in the Tengwang Pavilion, a must-visit for scholars and poets, but was full of longing for the commercial center famous throughout Daqing. Lu Chengxiao felt the same way. Lin Huaigeng then scratched his head with a smile and said, “I’m so happy I’m acting silly.”

Liu Yanping smiled and gave them a reminder, “Keep your money safe and stay alert. After all the hard work, don’t let it go to waste at the last moment.”

Then they all headed towards Guangrun Gate together, showed their travel permits, and entered the city.

The wealth of the capital city was beyond the imagination of these young men, who had only seen Yuanzhou City. Lin Huaigeng and Liu Zhang were better off, having traveled to some places over the years. However, Lu Chengxiao had mostly stayed in Yuanzhou City, so this was his first time in the capital. As for the Liu brothers, everything they saw was new and exciting.

With several hundred taels of fresh silver in their hands, all earned from selling cloth, the main attraction as they strolled through the city was the cloth shops.

The cloth shops in Fucheng.

These were large shops with two floors and six sections, filled with luxurious fabrics that were breathtaking at first sight.

Places like cloth shops were rarely visited by men, but none of the six could resist. Lu Chengxiao was relatively composed, as his family was in this business, so he was more interested in comparing the cloth shops in the city with those in Anyi County. However, for Liu Yanping and the others, their eyes were fixed on the various fabrics displayed on the shelves, especially when they saw summer cloth and silk, they couldn’t help but ask about the prices.

After a round inside, everyone’s eyes were wide with amazement.

Looking at the cloth shop, Liu Yanping murmured, “Chengxiao, Cao Jinian’s family runs more than a dozen tea shops. The tea he brings back from Fujian is sold at market price. If we could also afford to open a dozen cloth shops, have our own source of goods, and sell them directly at market price without intermediaries, imagine the profit. Just think about the silk we brought back, the profit is more than double, almost triple. Cloth is like this, and tea, and probably other goods too.”

The raw silk they usually bought for 850 wen was sold for over 5 taels per roll after dyeing.

Standing on the street, Liu Yanping watched as the cart full of cloth came out of the side entrance of the large cloth shop they had just visited, and he was already yearning for it.

Lu Chengxiao also looked at the cloth shop, but he was watching the direction from which the cloth was coming out of the shop’s side door. He said, “Yes, when we have enough capital, I also want to open a large cloth shop and have branches of our family’s Lufeng Cloth Shop all over Yuanzhou.”

Lin Huaigeng and Liu Zhang exchanged glances, then looked at the cloth shop. Such big dreams were beyond their daring.

But Liu Yanping already had a plan in mind. “You open a cloth shop, and my family specializes in making clothes, so the Liu family will fill Yuanzhou with embroidery shops!”

With these two young men talking like this, they all turned their eyes away from the cloth shop and smiled at each other. They raised their hands and slapped each other’s palms. “Alright, let’s open a cloth shop and an embroidery shop. Within ten years, we’ll dominate half of Yuanzhou.”

This bold statement was partly a vision and partly a joke, but at this moment, both of them were so excited that they even had the urge to return to Anyi County to try their luck.

This urge might have passed if it had been just one of them, but now that they both felt it, they also started thinking about their families. They suddenly felt a strong desire to return home.

Liu Yanping looked at Lu Chengxiao and the others and asked, “Why not return now?”

Lin Huaigeng and Liu Zhang had no objections. They had seen enough; it was good to broaden their horizons. Staying longer meant more expenses on food and lodging, so they nodded in agreement.

However, Lu Chengxiao looked towards the street until he spotted a silver shop in the distance. Then he smiled and said to Liu Yanping and the others, “Wait for me here; I’ll buy something and be right back.”

With that, he quickly headed towards the silver shop.

Liu Yanping and the others didn’t know where he was going at first, but when they saw him entering the silver shop, they suddenly understood. The two brothers also wanted to buy some gifts for their mother and sister to bring back. They felt it wouldn’t be right to return empty-handed after such a journey.

However, even though they had three hundred and ninety-five taels of silver in hand, two hundred taels had to be paid to the villagers for buying cloth, leaving only one hundred and ninety-five taels. Both brothers were thinking about the idea of opening an embroidery shop in the county, so they hesitated to spend any money.

Liu Zhang didn’t think too much about it, but Lin Huaigeng had second thoughts. After earning more than twenty taels on this trip, he couldn’t afford expensive things, but it was always good to buy something small for his cousin with one or two taels of silver. He gritted his teeth, told Liu Yanping and the others, and went to the silver shop.

When Lin Huaigeng arrived at the silver shop, Lu Chengxiao was still picking out items. He looked over and saw that gold and jade were beyond his means. After discussing with the attendant, he decided to choose a small silver ornament and went to the counter where silver jewelry was sold.

Although they arrived at the silver shop one after the other, they both finished their purchases almost at the same time. After paying the silver, they collected their items without asking what they bought and went out together.

After inquiring about which dock was convenient to hire a ship to return to Yuan Prefecture, they left the city. On the way, they bought some food and hired a boat to return to Anyi County.

They departed on May 29th and returned to the territory of Anyi County in early July.

The boat first arrived at the dock in Xifeng Town. Liu Yanping and Liu Yanan began to pack their luggage to disembark. Lu Chengxiao secretly wanted to follow them ashore and visit the Liu family, but considering the dusty journey they had been through, he cared about his image in front of Liu Yu and decided to accompany them to the dock. He said to Liu Yanping, “Tell Yu’er that I’ll go see her tomorrow.”

This cheesy line made Liu Yanping want to laugh. Lu Chengxiao was shrewd outside, but when it came to his sister, he was like this. Liu Yanping patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile, “Alright, I’ll pass on your message.”

With a wave of his hand, Lu Chengxiao bid farewell without any reluctance. With nearly four hundred taels in his arms, the two brothers couldn’t wait to see the expressions on their mother and sister’s faces when they saw so much silver.

Lu Chengxiao could only envy them. As he watched the two brothers walk away briskly, he returned to the boat. He let the boatmen untie the ropes and continued on to Anyi County.

As they were about to reach the dock in the county, Babao began to pick up his baggage. Lu Chengxiao took it from him and left only Babao’s luggage and the two bows and arrows. He said, “I’ll just go back to the cloth shop. You go back to Changfeng Town with Huaigeng and the others.”

Babao: “Why?”

Lin Huaigeng and Liu Zhang also looked at Lu Chengxiao, thinking that Lu Chengxiao might not trust them with the silver. Together, they had eighty taels, but when they looked at the boatmen, they felt that the two of them wouldn’t encounter any trouble. Even if they did, they could handle it.

But before they could politely decline, they heard Lu Chengxiao say to Babao, “Go back and tell my mother to prepare gifts tonight, and tomorrow morning, invite the matchmaker to propose marriage in Yangshan Village.”

He was going to see Liu Yu tomorrow. Since Liu Yu had agreed before, he could propose as soon as he returned. Lu Chengxiao didn’t want to delay it for a day.

With a face full of smiles, overflowing with happiness.

Lin Huaigeng: I’m thinking too much.

But Liu Zhang and Lin Huaigeng also smiled, happy for their friend.

Babao was overjoyed. “Great, I’ll definitely pass on the message.”

Finally, Miss Liu was going to become the third young mistress of their family.

Sansukini: I’m really terrible at Math, usually and I don’t know how ancient money work in this era, so I just brush over the numbers because they make me feel so confuse.

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