Besides lying down, I also know a little about power struggles

Chapter 129 She is also a family person
A drizzle of rain fell from the sky. Fang Tong walked out of the woodworking workshop and took the oil-paper umbrella handed to him by Lu Tao.

The sound of fine rain hitting the umbrella was like silkworms eating mulberry leaves, rustling.

Lu Tao smiled and said, "After ordering the tables, chairs, beds and stools, the girl can have a good rest for a while."

Fang Tong looked back at the sign of the woodworking workshop and sighed: "Yes, I can take a few days off."

Over the past half month, she walked through every street and lane in the capital and finally decided on a satisfactory house. The day before yesterday, she paid the money and received the title deed. From now on, she has a home in Dazhao.

Although the small courtyard is not big, it fully satisfies the dreams of modern people.

There are several spacious and bright houses and a yard of about 100 square meters. When the gate is closed, it becomes a separate world. After leaving the gate and turning two corners, there is a bustling market.

The house was neither new nor old, and the neighbors were all scholars. There had not been any thefts in the alley for many years, which met Fang Tong's requirements very well. What made her even more satisfied was that the house was just the right distance from Prince Rui's Palace. It only took half an hour to go there and back on horseback.

Now that she has a new house, the next step is to make new furniture. The repair and painting of the house will take more than half a month. After painting and the moisture has dissipated for a few days, the tables, chairs, beds and benches she ordered from the wood workshop should be ready.

She ordered the simplest styles, and there didn't even need to be any carvings on the bed frame. For her, the more carvings, the more troublesome it would be to clean. She had no plans to buy a maid for the time being, so the less work the better.

After going in and out of the pharmacy these days, she learned that Dazhao already had jobs similar to hourly workers, such as cooks, laundry maids, and seamstresses. People could be hired temporarily to do all kinds of chores at home, so she didn't have to worry about daily chores.

Fang Tong also plans to buy a horse after moving into her new home so that it will be convenient for her to go wherever she wants.

Adding up all the miscellaneous expenses mentioned above, including the big expense of buying a house, she still had two hundred and fifty taels of silver left.

Fang Tong touched the banknotes in his arms, took out the list he had prepared in advance, looked at it, and said to Lu Tao, "There are several cloth shops over there, let's go and take a look."

As the saying goes, a poor house is worth a fortune. In addition to large pieces of furniture, there are also many daily necessities that need to be purchased. Fang Tong plans to order some fabrics to make bed curtains and quilt covers.

When the two men reached the street corner, they saw a carriage stop and a woman in brocade clothes got out of the carriage.

Fang Tong and the woman's eyes met, and they were both stunned.

The woman was the first to smile: "Miss Fang."

Fang Tong nodded slightly: "Manager Ming."

The person who came was Ming He, the owner of Tianyixuan.

"Miss Fang, are you here to buy something at the cloth shop?" Ming He was a businessman, so he was very welcoming as soon as he opened his mouth. "I wonder what you want to buy? I can help you."

Fang Tong smiled and said, "I want to choose some fabrics to make bed curtains and quilt covers. Are you here to discuss business, Shopkeeper Ming?"

As they were talking, they walked to a place where Ming He stood under the eaves. He asked the servant to put away the umbrella and said, "I just took over this cloth shop. I happened to be free today, so I came to take a look."

Fang Tong remembered that Feng Twelve had said that Ming He planned to expand the store, but he didn't expect that they would put it into action so soon.

She looked at the cloth shop in front of her and saw that the walls of the store were painted snow-white and several rows of brand new shelves were mostly empty, which meant that it had not yet officially opened.

The manager of the store was telling the waiter to work. When he saw Ming He, he hurried out to greet him.

"Manager Ming, it's raining so hard, why did you come here in person?"

"I came to see how everything is going," Ming He said, "We will open the day after tomorrow. Have you prepared all the goods in the warehouse?"

The manager smiled and said, "Everything is ready. The fabric samples are being cut in the backyard right now. They will all be on the shelf tomorrow."

Ming He nodded: "You have been with me for many years, I trust you to do things, if the store is missing anything, just pass me a note." The manager hesitated for a moment: "I have something to discuss with the shopkeeper."

"What's the matter?" Ming He asked.

"As for the old fabrics left by the previous shop," the manager said, "the colors of that batch of fabrics are all outdated. They have been piled up in the warehouse for a long time, and many of them have been eaten by insects. We hurriedly sorted out some of the fabrics, but the sizes are not consistent. I'm afraid we can only sell them half and give them away half."

"Then use it as a bonus when you open the store." Ming He said.

"That's what I was thinking," the manager said. "Otherwise they'll just pile up in the warehouse, taking up space and possibly damaging other materials. But if we sell them halfway and give them away halfway, we won't make any money and we'll probably even lose some of our capital."

"Don't worry, we'll settle this separately." Ming He said, "If there's a profit, it'll be the store's. If there's a loss, it'll be mine."

"How can I ask Shopkeeper Ming to make up for it?" The manager smiled embarrassedly. "I was worried that the account would not look as good as you thought after the opening. Now that you said so, this account will naturally be charged to the store."

"That's fine," Ming He didn't argue with him, "Tell the guys that I'll give everyone a red envelope on the opening day."

"Ah." The manager smiled, "You are kind-hearted. When you took over this shop, you even counted these old materials as money. If it weren't for you, the previous owner would have to take the materials away and hire them out himself."

Ming He said, "His family has been in trouble and there is no one at home to help. Let alone finding a place to store it, it would cost a lot of money just to haul it away. I will just treat it as a good deed and hope for a good start."

"Manager Ming is so kind, our business will surely prosper."

Ming He smiled and looked at Fang Tong: "Of course it's booming. Look, the first customer came in before we even opened."

Fang Tong was looking at the layout of the store. Hearing this, he laughed: "Since Shopkeeper Ming said so, I will come to add to the festive atmosphere. Shopkeeper Ming, please don't think I bought too little."

Seeing her graceful manner, Ming He smiled more sincerely: "You are a noble person in our family, I dare not despise you."

She led Fang Tong to the backyard and ordered people to open the warehouse.

"Miss Fang, just choose. Since you are the first customer in the store, I will give you a 20% discount."

At a glance, Fang Tong saw various fabrics neatly arranged, most of which were made of cotton and silk.

"Manager Ming, does this store serve ordinary people?" she asked as she looked around.

Nowadays, most common people and low-ranking officials wear cotton, linen or silk clothes. Fang Tong didn't see any brocade here, so he knew that this cloth shop was targeting the common people.

She was looking at the cloth, and Ming He was also looking at her.

Hearing this, she smiled and said, "Miss Fang has a good eye. Most of the people around this cloth shop are ordinary people doing small businesses and some clerks working in the government office. Even if they have a little savings, they don't have the time to take care of complicated fabrics. So I bought this cloth shop and only do business with people who are well-matched."

Fang Tong nodded: "It should be so."

She turned her eyes and saw several large boxes of cotton cloth in the corner. The colors were either gray-green or dark red. Most of them were simple and dull.

"Is this the old material the steward was talking about?"

"That's right." Ming He pulled out a piece of cloth and twisted it between his fingers. "It is made of high-quality cotton thread, but the color is not bright enough, and it has been in the warehouse for too long, so no one is interested in it."

"It's fine if you sell it with other materials at a discount, but customers may not like it, and the cloth shop won't make much money either," Fang Tong said.

Ming He was moved: "Miss Fang, what do you think?"