Chapter 394: Gains
Editor: Atlas Studios
Fan Zijin gritted his teeth and said hatefully, “That b*stard who values a girl over his friend. How much time can it take to write another letter to me? I shouldn’t have worried about him for nothing.”
Yanmo looked down as he stood below, pretending not to hear him.
After being angry for a while, Fan Zijin recalled how Qi Haoran had repeatedly instructed him to take care of Mu Yangling before he left. So, he resigned himself to helping Mu Yangling plan the bookstore. “Find a shopkeeper for her and have him sign the indenture contract. Let them discuss between themselves where the bookstore will be opened.”
“But Miss Mu doesn’t seem to like indentures…”
“Then bring the indenture to me.” Fan Zijin liked to use slaves when it came to hiring people. This way, their lives would be in his hands. It was the complete opposite of Mu Yangling’s employment system. “Just send the person over later. It’s not as if she’ll ask you.”
Fan Zijin pursed her lips. “At most, she’ll just ask about the salary.”
Indeed, Mu Yangling did not expect the shopkeeper to sell himself to Fan Zijin. She thought that he was an experienced professional he had found for her, so she only asked politely about his salary. After knowing that the other party could for his family himself, she confirmed the size of the bookstore and the location of the workshop. Then, she handed the operations and funds to Shopkeeper He, and Mu Yangling washed her hands off of the matter.
Lin Ke experimented a few times and finally confirmed that there were two types of cheaper and more effective wood. After casting them, the effect was not bad.
Mu Yangling directly gave him a 30% share of the bookstore. Although she still asked him to study clay type matrices, she did not let him neglect his other studies. She said, “Considering you’re still young, I don’t want you to spend all your time on this. Your path should be wider. Don’t neglect the other wonderful stuff in your life.”
Lin Ke only smiled shyly. Mu Yangling didn’t nag further.
This autumn, she had a great harvest. After paying taxes, Mu Yangling divided all the grains into two portions. Half of them were stored in a warehouse not far from the nursery, and the other half was transported into Chef Mountain. There was a granary built by Qi Haoran inside, and half of the grains were stored there in case of emergencies.
Other than Qi Xiuyuan, only Rong Xuan and Fan Zijin knew about this. The people escorting the grain cart were Qi Xiuyuan’s own clique.
Other than Mu Yangling’s batch of grains, there was also Fan Zijin’s acquisition. He also quietly took out some and placed them in the granary. Everyone made these preparations quietly, and did not announce it to the public.
While Mu Yangling was tabulating last year’s yield per acre and farming situation, Shopkeeper He had also found a shop in Hanzhong Prefecture. He came over to report to Mu Yangling and bowed. “Miss, I’ve found the shop and bought it directly. The bookstore has also engraved 3,800 characters. Among them, 3,500 are commonly used characters. They’ve made 20 molds of each of the most commonly used characters. They can be imprinted now.”
Mu Yangling nodded and said, “Then do it. Print some commonly used books first.”
“Then how do we set the price?”
“A little lower than the average bookstore. You can set the price at your own discretion. Try to lower the price.”
Shopkeeper He frowned. “Miss, the price of books is usually fixed by bookstores. If we go cheap, we’ll probably become the target of public criticism…”
“Then tell them that the quality of our books is inferior to other bookstores.” Mu Yangling looked at the shopkeeper seriously and said, “The reason why I use movable type printing is not only to reduce the cost, but also to lower the price of the books as a result of that. Having the natural wood patterns, the characters imprinted using movable type printing are naturally not as exquisite and flawless as engraving. It’s understandable that it’s cheaper.”
With a smile, Mu Yangling said, “If the people from the other bookstores want to know about this printing method, you can do business with them and sell this technology.”
“What about the price?”
Mu Yangling waved her hand nonchalantly and said, “Exercise your own discretion. You don’t have to ask me.”
Her goal was to spread the movable type printing technique, not to earn money.
Stunned by Mu Yangling’s generosity, Shopkeeper He looked at her speechlessly for a while.
“By the way, 70% of the money received from the sale of this technology will be given to Lin Ke, 10% to the bookstore, and 10% to the nursery. The remaining 10% will be yours.”
Shopkeeper He’s pupils constricted. For a moment, he was unsure if Mu Yangling was doing this on purpose.
However, Mu Yangling had already waved him away. She took out the seeds of the wild rice that Qi Haoran had sent back to her and wondered if the rice could be improved next year.
Mu Yangling had spent most of her energy on grains cultivation in the past year. In the second year, not only for rice, but they also chose wheat seeds for different experiments.
It was also this year that Mu Yangling, Liu Ting, and the others finally confirmed the superiority of dry rice seeds. Its resistance to drought was far higher than ordinary rice. Most of Mu Yangling’s production that year was used as seeds.
Mu Yangling named it Dry Rice No. 1. She only left a third of the grain seeds and sent the rest to Qi Xiuyuan. Other than the ones used by her family, she also gave some to the Liu family. Then, she gave half to Magistrate Wu and Magistrate Fang, which Qi Xiuyuan had hinted to do so.
His situation did not allow him to get too close to the local officials, but Mu Yangling was unaffected.
This time, Qi Xiuyuan did not report Dry Rice No. 1 to the Imperial Court. Even Magistrate Wu and Magistrate Fang did not mention it because they knew that even if they did, the Imperial Court could hardly take care of themselves.
The outcome of reporting it to the Imperial Court was most likely that they would send their men to take the rice seeds away and let them fall into the hands of the nobles, just like what happened with the corn seeds. In that case, they might as well distribute them to the commoners under their rule.
Moreover, since last year, there had been many rebellions and suppression of rebellions. Not only did the two assistant commanders sent by Qi Xiuyuan not return, but he also sent another one out. But now, apart from Jiangnan, the rebel army was everywhere. Even the state capital under General Yuan’s rule had seen the appearance of the rebel army, but Qi Xiuyuan’s side was much more stable.
Firstly, this place was relatively small, and because this was the main area for corn cultivation, no one starved to death, so they were not forced to rebel.
The magistrates were living in fear, afraid that a rebel army would appear under their rule at any time. Everyone also deeply realized the importance of grains. Therefore, after obtaining Mu Yangling’s seeds, Magistrate Fang and Magistrate Wu tightened their pockets and did not leak any out.
This naturally referred to outside the state capital. Ultimately, they had to distribute these seeds to their citizens.
Magistrate Fang was fine, but Magistrate Wu would definitely take care of himself and some of the squires first. Therefore, Mu Yangling favored Magistrate Fang when she gave them the seeds.
Magistrate Fang didn’t go around bragging about it after benefiting from it. He silently accepted Mu Yangling’s good intentions, but whenever military matters were involved, he would make things easier for Qi Xiuyuan. This was a pleasant surprise.
This year, Qi Xiuyuan brought people north to reclaim two more counties. After that, he guarded the reclaimed lost land and quietly watched the chaos in the pass.
Unknowingly, his state of mind was also slowly changing.