Peasant Girl Bookseller

Chapter 316 Collusion
Since starting to write a book, Mai Xiang has always felt that time flies very fast, and her life is also very regular. She usually sleeps until she wakes up naturally at eight or nine o'clock every day. After breakfast, she writes a book for an hour, and then moves around on the veranda , eat something, take a nap, and write for another hour, Huaici will almost be home, and Mai Xiang will put away the manuscript and prepare dinner for him.

To be honest, for Mai Xiang, who is not used to writing with a brush, for two hours a day, she can write hundreds of words, and the writing must be smooth.Therefore, when all kinds of New Year's goods began to pile up on the street, Mai Xiang's novel had just begun.

This afternoon, Mai Xiang prepared dinner early, but Huai Ci did not come in. It was not until dark that Huai Ci came in from outside with a pile of ledgers, with a very bad expression on her face.

"What's wrong? Where are these ledgers?" Mai Xiang asked.

"The bookstore and Rui Jinxiang's." Huaici's expression softened when he saw Mai Xiang, but he was still a little hesitant.

"What happened?" Mai Xiang flipped through the top ledger.

"Well, I just came out of the yamen gate today, and Rui Jinxiang's shopkeeper sent someone to invite me, saying that there was a Ruijin Pavilion opposite our shop, and it was also in the business of silk, satin and fur, and the goods were similar to our Ruijinxiang's. , but the price is cheaper, so Rui Jinxiang’s business has been affected. I thought, if they are targeting us, there can’t be only one, so I went to Liulichang, and guess what? Opening a Samadhi Bookstore is only one horizontal away from our plaque."

"The shopkeeper of the bookstore didn't notice anything wrong?"

"They really didn't pay attention to this at the beginning. There are dozens of bookstores in Liulichang. Today, this one is opened by Guan Minger's. Now Feng Xiang has gone to the publishing house to be the manager. The shopkeeper of the bookstore was a former boy, how could he understand these key points? Besides, the income of this bookstore has not been greatly affected, so he didn't take it seriously."

Mai Xiang understood immediately after hearing it, because Sanwei Bookstore makes the most money from the books published by its own family, and the only one selling it, the influence is naturally not big.

"However, for similar books, the price of Sanmai Bookstore is also cheaper than that of Sanwei Bookstore, so it's not a coincidence." Huaici added.

"Then if they do this, won't they disrupt the entire market?" Mai Xiang asked suspiciously.

"No, some merchants have already protested."

"Have you found out who is in charge?"

"I just found out about this today, and I have asked them to investigate. I think we only offended one or two people, so it should be easy to investigate."

Mai Xiang thought for a while and said, "If it's targeting us, there will definitely be other actions. Let's wait and see what happens."

Huaici nodded, anyway, the current loss is not too big for them, and it can't hurt the root cause.

It's just that a few days passed, and there was no news from Huaici's side. Mai Xiang was thinking of sending someone to Wu Fu to see what happened at the restaurant, when Wu Fu suddenly came to the door.

"Uncle Wu, I was just about to send someone to invite you. Where are you going to celebrate the New Year this year?" Seeing that Wu Fu was very happy, Mai Xiang exchanged greetings first.

Fuyunlai Restaurant has expanded again and merged a shop next to it, so Wufu has been very busy this winter.Because Zhou's daughter was born two months ago, and Ye Tiezhu and Jiufeng live in their house, Bafu is not able to help Wufu this year like in previous years.

"Let's go home for the New Year, your grandpa and the others won't come to the capital this year." Wu Fu said with a sigh.

Not only this year, but Mai Xiang knew that Ye Tiezhu had sent all his and Jiufeng's belongings back to the countryside, and he probably wouldn't go to Beijing again in the future.

"Where is Uncle Wu coming today?" Huai Ci saw that Wu Fu had something to say, so he asked first.

"I heard a bad rumor in the restaurant today. I don't know if it's true or not. I came here to tell you that your big brother got involved with that bastard Beizi again. I'm worried that they want revenge. You guys, be careful."

"What? The two of them got mixed up?" Mai Xiang and Huai Ci asked at the same time.

"I also heard it from a few guys who were drunk. It seems to say that the bastard is still going around eating, drinking, whoring and gambling as before after he recovered from his lameness. It’s like spending money like water. As soon as I heard about this boy from the Wan family, I immediately thought of your grandpa from the Wan family.”

Mai Xiang glanced at Huai Ci, Huai Ci said: "My elder brother is crazy, why would he go to him?"

"Who said it wasn't? But I'm not sure if it's him, you should pay attention to yourself, it's definitely not a good thing for these two people to get together." Wu Fu was a little worried, after all, the grievances between the Ye family and the Beizi Mansion were not so easy to unravel. past.

"Uncle Wu, is there any movement at the restaurant?" Mai Xiang asked.

"Restaurant? You mean they will target our restaurant?"

"It's hard to say now." Mai Xiang told Wu Fu about the book shop and the silk shop, to make him more vigilant.

"When you say that, I think of one thing. A shop selling southern goods across from us suddenly quit. Now I don't know who they are going to do?"

"Maybe it's targeting our restaurant again." Mai Xiang suddenly had a bad feeling.

"It's okay, daughter-in-law, we have so many banknotes in our hands, if they really want to kill themselves, we will play with them, anyway, we can afford to pay." Huai Ci comforted Mai Xiang with his arms around him.

Mai Xiang thinks about it, too. Her main income is from the porcelain and printing factory. Not to mention the past, this year Mai Xiang also made a lot of money from "Dream of Red Mansions". The first half of the year is the script of "Dream of Red Mansions". Half a year is a novel.

As soon as the novel "Dream of Red Mansions" came out, because of the drama company, script and newspaper serial advertisements, it has already whetted everyone's appetite. In addition, the Queen Mother is a die-hard fan of "Dream of Red Mansions", so the sales are not ordinary. Well, even Nanjing sent a letter and won a good start.

So Mai Xiang has no shortage of money.Another point is that as long as the books are published by her Sanwei Bookstore, Mai Xiang has indicated the copyright on the title page. If someone else wants to pirate her book, she can hold the other party accountable through litigation.

Thinking of this, Mai Xiang smiled and said, "Success, I want to see how capable the other party is."

If the opponents are Wan Zhigao and Changling, Mai Xiang is really nothing to worry about. Wan Zhigao is a spoiled child who doesn't know the dangers of the world, so it is a kind of stupidity for him to choose to fool around with the servant and cooperate with Changling. self-abandon.

Because Changling is purely an idiot, apart from eating, drinking, whoring and gambling, Mai Xiang really didn't see any other strengths in him, not only him, but most of these Eight Banners children are like this, of course, there is an exception.

"I really don't understand why big brother got involved with this stinky shit." After Wu Fu left, Huai Ci sighed.

Although the relationship with the Jiang family was incompatible, Huai Ci didn't have much opinion on Wan Zhigao, because the previous incident had nothing to do with him, Huai Ci was a person with clear grievances and grievances.

"He was too superior in the past, so he couldn't accept the last blow, and he couldn't accept that you were better than him. He saw me because I recognized a prince's brother-in-law and a Baylor brother-in-law. So he also wanted to take a shortcut and recognize a brother-in-law. Brother Beizi. Go talk to him, don't let him ruin his future."

This is much more serious than fooling around with his own servant, Mai Xiang had to ask Huaici to come forward, no matter how bad it is, he is also a brother of the same root, why is it too urgent?
"Understood, anyway, the annual leave will be in a few days, and I will move back to Wan's family for the New Year. I will look for him, and you should remind my sister-in-law, don't lose all the money like this."

On the [-]th day of the twelfth lunar month, Huaici and the others sealed the seal, and the Wan family sent people to invite Mai Xiang and Huai Ci to return to Wan's family for the New Year, saying that they would go back to the countryside to worship their ancestors, and let them go a few days earlier.

After hearing this, Mai Xiang began to prepare the New Year's gifts for each family, and gave away all the New Year's gifts, and then returned to Wan's family on Xiaonian.

Mai Xiang's stomach is already a little pregnant, and this time when she returns to Wan's house, she finally doesn't have to be a maid for cloth dishes, but Mai Xiang can't be happy, because she finds that Wan Baocai's eyebrows and eyes are gloomy and gloomy at the same time. There is also Kang Yi.

Jiang shi couldn't see anything, but Wan Zhigao's eyes and eyebrows were faintly smug.

On the 26th of the twelfth lunar month, the men of the Wan family and the Jiang family went back to their hometown to worship their ancestors. Mai Xiang and Feng Ye were doing needlework in the house, and Kang Yi came to the door again.

Mai Xiang happened to want to talk to her too, so she sent the maids away.

"Sister-in-law, come in and sit down. My sister-in-law's figure has recovered really well, and she's as slim as a girl again. She can't tell that she is a mother of two children, and she is still so young and beautiful." Mai Xiang made a joke first.

Kang Yi is still a great beauty, but unfortunately, she didn't find a good husband.A person who judges a person by appearance, even if a person who looks like a fairy is in his hands, it is only a novelty for a while.

"Okay, brothers and sisters don't make fun of me, others don't know my suffering, how can brothers and sisters not know?" Seeing that there was no one in the room, Kang Yi picked up a handkerchief to wipe her tears.

There is really no place to complain about the bitterness in her heart, she can't go back to her mother's house and say these things to embarrass her parents, and she can't expose her family's ugliness to outsiders. After thinking about it, only Mai Xiang can talk, and Mai Xiang knows the truth of.

"Brother still won't come into your house?"

"It's not at all, there can be one or two times a month."

After Kang Yi finished speaking, she blushed. After all, she is also a lady of every family. If it was not a last resort, how could such a matter be brought up on the stage?
Seeing her blushing, Mai Xiang changed the subject and asked, "Sister-in-law, does elder brother often ask you for money recently?"

Kang Yi raised her head after hearing this, opened her eyes wide, and asked, "How do younger brothers and sisters know?"

Mai Xiang sighed when she heard this, and she really called here.

"Brother and sister, let me tell you a few words from the bottom of my heart. You, if you can listen to it, listen to it. If you can't listen to it, just pretend that I haven't said it. I'm not trying to provoke the relationship between your husband and wife."

Seeing Mai Xiang's serious face, Kang Yi hurriedly took Mai Xiang's hand and said, "To tell you the truth, I'm here today to discuss ideas with my younger siblings. I'm not a foolish person who doesn't know who to blame."

Unexpectedly, just as Mai Xiang was about to speak, Zi Ju came in.

(End of this chapter)