Chapter 69: Dreams Are Necessary
The lunch at the Prince’s Estate’s villa was lavish and exquisite. Only Li Xiaonan and Wan Jing were eating, so Wan Jing asked the kitchen to send an extra plate of blanched mutton and a plate of peanut cake. She wrapped them in oiled paper and tucked them into her cape.
After the lesson, the two of them got into the cart. The guard captain waiting at the entrance handed a small brocade bag to Wan Jing, “Miss Wan Jing, Master Shi Gun sent this for you.”
Wan Jing held the blanched mutton and peanut cake in one hand, hidden in her cape so as not to reveal them, while the other hand was lifting her skirt to get into the cart. She quickly gestured for Li Xiaonan to take it.
Once inside the cart, Wan Jing first placed the mutton and peanut cake near the gap of the window.
There was an incense burner in the cart; blanched mutton is better served cold than hot.
Li Xiaonan handed the brocade bag to Wan Jing. Wan Jing exclaimed, “Shi Gun told me this is for you, your wages.”
“Tuition!” Li Xiaonan corrected her. She opened the brocade bag and poured out an exquisite silver nugget. She poured again, and another bamboo token, about half a finger’s length, came out. The bamboo token was covered in patterns, very beautiful.
“Let me see,” Wan Jing reached out and took the bamboo token, examined it carefully, and handed it back to Li Xiaonan, “This is one of our estate’s matching tokens. This one is for five taels.”
Li Xiaonan made a sound of understanding.
This was her tutoring fee for today: five taels in silver nuggets, and five taels recorded.
This matching token was too exquisite and beautiful. Where should she put it? Her sachet had also been taken away by her Eldest Sister.
Li Xiaonan held the matching token and looked at it for a while before handing it to Wan Jing, “You keep it for me. Save up ten of them and give them to me all at once.”
“Alright,” Wan Jing readily agreed, took the matching token, and put it in her sachet.
Li Xiaonan held the brocade bag and looked at it carefully.
This brocade bag was embroidered with many flowers, extremely beautiful, and surely worth a lot of money.
“This, do you want to take it back?” Li Xiaonan asked.
“What would I do with it? I don’t want it,” Wan Jing shook her head.
“This bag and the silver, they’re all for me? You’re not keeping them for next time?” Li Xiaonan confirmed.
“There will be a next time. This was made by a new person in the needlework room practicing. It’s not anything special,” Wan Jing gave Li Xiaonan a look.
“This is quite valuable,” Li Xiaonan lifted the cart curtain slightly and looked closely in the light.
When she went shopping with her Third Sister, they visited several shops selling sachets, fan covers, and incense sachets. The best sachets in those shops seemed less exquisite than this.
“You absolutely cannot sell this!” Wan Jing realized and quickly warned, “Look here, there’s our Prince’s Estate’s emblem. If you dare to sell this, they’ll take you to the officials as a thief! No one would dare to buy it.”
Li Xiaonan immediately felt utterly deflated.
Alas, if she couldn’t sell it, then it was just something that looked good but was useless.
Li Xiaonan’s sigh, full of disappointment, made Wan Jing’s eyebrows shoot up. “You, why do you think about selling everything you see! Are you so obsessed with money that you can’t get out of it?”
“I want to be obsessed with money right now, but I don’t have any money to be obsessed with,” Li Xiaonan sighed again. Before Wan Jing could speak, she raised her hand and placed it on Wan Jing’s shoulder, “Let’s talk business.”
“Okay, go ahead!” Wan Jing said impatiently.
“Tell me, what business is the most profitable?” Li Xiaonan rested one arm on the table in the middle of the cart and looked at Wan Jing.
“How could you…”
“I told you it’s business, I really want to do business!” Li Xiaonan cut off Wan Jing.
“Your family runs a preserved egg business, you said it’s doing very well,” Wan Jing saw Li Xiaonan’s serious expression and also became serious.
“Two preserved eggs net one copper coin, three salted eggs net one copper coin. That’s too little! Even if our family had all the preserved egg and salted egg business in Pingjiang City, it wouldn’t be much money,” Li Xiaonan sighed, resting her chin on her hand.
“That’s true,” Wan Jing frowned. “There are profitable businesses. Like our estate’s weaving workshop, it’s quite profitable.”
“What does your family’s weaving workshop weave? What’s the most profitable?” Li Xiaonan moved closer.
“It’s not my family, it’s our estate! Our estate’s weaving workshop only does silk weaving. The most profitable is Kesi silk, followed by jacquard and double-sided different colors. Ordinary silk brocade is just average,” Wan Jing replied.
“Eldest Sister said silk weaving is very difficult, it takes one to two years to learn, and two to three years to get the hang of it,” Li Xiaonan frowned.
“Two to three years is too long. Kesi silk takes at least ten years to start. For jacquard, if you can learn it, after ten years, you can probably operate a loom yourself. Even for the most ordinary silk, it takes over five years to weave silk that is even enough.
“Also, not everyone can learn it. We recruit seven or eight-year-old girls and boys as apprentices every year. Seventy percent can learn to weave ordinary silk, over thirty percent, less than forty percent, can learn jacquard with two colors. Kesi silk is much harder; out of a hundred people, maybe not even one. In our estate’s weaving workshop, there are only about a hundred people who can weave Kesi silk.”
Wan Jing, as expected of someone who learned to manage a weaving workshop from a young age, knew all the details.
Li Xiaonan let out a long sigh of disappointment.
The barrier to entry for the silk weaving business was too high.
“Let me tell you, why don’t you collect cocoons, reel silk, and dye it? If you do it well, you can sell it to our weaving workshop, and it’s quite profitable,” Wan Jing suggested.
“How much can I earn?” Li Xiaonan asked listlessly.
“That depends on how much capital you have. I heard my Mother say that those who do it well can have a net profit of half a percent to one percent.
“Collecting cocoons, reeling silk, and dyeing takes about a month, and you can earn a ten percent net profit. What a great business,” Wan Jing leaned forward and said in a low voice.
“First, you can only do it once a year. Second, it requires a lot of capital. Third, it’s only a ten percent profit!” Li Xiaonan counted on her fingers.
“Ten percent profit isn’t little! Then how much do you want to earn?” Wan Jing looked at Li Xiaonan sideways.
“The profit margin can be thinner, but the business needs to be large enough. At least it shouldn’t be something you can only do once a year. This business won’t make money,” Li Xiaonan rested her chin on her hand again and sighed.
“Then how much money do you want to earn? How much money is considered a lot?” Wan Jing asked impatiently.
“Hmm~” Li Xiaonan drew out the sound, “As much money as your estate has.”
“Huh? Is it my family, or our estate?” Wan Jing asked in disbelief.
“How would I know if your family has money or not? Of course, it’s your estate.”
Wan Jing stared at Li Xiaonan. After a moment, she let out a deep breath and exhaled forcefully. She pointed at Li Xiaonan repeatedly, and after holding back for a while, she finally spoke.
“Don’t you know what kind of family our estate belongs to? Don’t you know who our Young Lord is? You want as much money as our estate has? What do you want to say about you? Do you want to be rich enough to rival the nation? What can I say to you?”
Wan Jing clicked her tongue a few times, pursed her lips forcefully, and clicked her tongue again.
Li Xiaonan watched Wan Jing, resting her chin on her hand.
She just wanted to be rich enough to rival the nation.
One must have dreams; what if they come true!
