I'm Buying This Shop

As they were discussing the details of the escort, Lin Weiyuan suddenly remembered the important matter and tapped the stone table:

"Wait a minute, you've only talked about delivering the goods. There's something you haven't told me yet. How are you going to settle accounts with the Zhou Household family for these top-of-the-line all-metal four-wheeled carriages you brought from your Lineage? And how are we, the escort agency, supposed to get paid for the transport?"

Shen Jingchuan was taken aback; he had indeed overlooked the pricing and settlement. He stood there, silently calculating.

The purchase cost of this car in modern times would be only a little over 200,000, which is equivalent to a little over 200 grams of gold. In this other world, even if the gold is not pure enough, it would not be worth more than 100 taels of silver.

However, this vehicle is too large, and he can only take a few with him on one trip. It is inherently not suitable for high-volume sales and can only be sold as a top-tier, rare product.

He knew perfectly well that the consumption logic of the top circles was always the same, no matter the world.

A modern luxury watch can sell for millions, and a top-of-the-line luxury car can sell for hundreds of millions. What people are after is never just transportation; it's a status symbol.

The same applies to this other world. In Chang'an and the Capital, a single watch can fetch a thousand taels of silver. This four-wheeled carriage is equivalent to a modern luxury car and is a symbol of status.

Moreover, this car is no ordinary luxury vehicle; with its titanium alloy frame and bulletproof glass, it was practically an impenetrable mobile fortress in the era of cold weapons.

The interior is fully equipped with a tea room, bed, and toilet, making it comparable to a mobile private residence for long-distance travel. This is an experience that no other carriage in the world can provide; it's a complete game-changer.

If the price is too high, tens of thousands of taels would be too out of reach of the market, and too few people would be willing to buy it; if the price is too low, it would squander its unique scarcity and thus lower its value.

He originally estimated that a retail price of five or six thousand taels would be appropriate, but since it was being handled by the Zhou Household as an agent, he had to leave them enough profit margin.

Furthermore, the journey from the local area to Chang'an and then to the Capital requires the escort agency to provide manpower and horses, and the transportation costs over such a long distance are considerable; these costs must also be factored in.

Having thought about this, he remembered the idea of a limited-edition auction, and a complete plan immediately came to mind.

"Father-in-law, I've made up my mind."

Shen Jingchuan spoke up:

"Transporting these carriages from the Lineage over a long distance is too troublesome and the freight costs are extremely high. Let's wholesale them to our carriage workshop at three thousand taels each, and then you can sell them to the Zhou Household. I think three thousand eight hundred to four thousand taels would be appropriate. As for how much they ultimately sell them for and how they sell them, we won't interfere."

He paused, then said:

"However, I have an even more profitable plan. I'll write a letter to Master Zhou later, and whether he listens or not is up to them."

Lin Weiyuan increasingly felt that he had found an extremely satisfactory son-in-law.

Take the job of transporting horse-drawn carriages, for example. Each carriage only needs a driver and two horses. They just need to follow the official road to Chang'an. It's extremely worry-free. Just one trip like this can net him eight hundred to one thousand taels of silver, which is more than he used to earn from transporting the most valuable cargo, while the risk is less than one-tenth.

Thinking back to the dowry he received when they got married, he was at a loss for words.

Those twenty foreign watches alone, each worth a thousand taels of silver, totaled twenty thousand taels;

Two top-of-the-line four-wheeled carriages, if taken to the market, would fetch five thousand taels each, and there would be plenty of people vying for them; two carriages would cost ten thousand taels.

There were also six glass mirrors, each as tall as a person, so bright they could reflect a person's hair. Each one was worth at least a thousand taels of silver, and all six together would amount to nearly ten thousand taels.

The most remarkable thing was those fifty sets of fine steel armor, made with top-notch craftsmanship and materials. Each set would fetch a thousand taels of silver, so fifty sets would be a full fifty thousand taels.

These few major items alone bring the bride price to nearly 100,000 taels of silver. Lin Weiyuan's entire fortune still falls short of that amount.

Now things are looking up. The son-in-law has helped the family open a carriage workshop, and as business picks up, the Lin Household is poised to truly prosper.

That's why Lin Weiyuan doesn't object to anything Shen Jingchuan says now, and just nods in agreement.

Early the next morning, the Lin Household's Zhenyuan Escort Agency, along with the guards and bodyguards that Yan Shuyao brought from the Capital, totaling more than thirty people, set off for Chang'an in a dozen empty carriages.

Shen Jingchuan followed them all the way out of the city, stopping only at the Inquiring Goose Pavilion, where he invited everyone to go in, rest, and have a drink of water.

During the break, Shen Jingchuan called Yan Shuyao aside and whispered his instructions:

"Senior sister, after the Third Princess sells the watch at the cultivation market, please have her take half of the Spirit Stone stones that should be given to me and exchange them for cultivation pills. Any pills suitable for the Qi Refinement Realm will do; I don't care about the type."

"I've got it." Yan Shuyao replied readily, "I'll definitely relay these words to you exactly as they were."

The caravan then resumed its journey. Shen Jingchuan stood Inquiring Goose Pavilion, watching the caravan travel further and further along the official road until it disappeared completely before turning and walking into the city.

Shen Jingchuan counted the days; it had been more than ten days since he last delivered glass mirrors to the general stores in the city, and he guessed that the owners should have run out of stock long ago.

He returned to the storeroom in the west courtyard, carried out several large boxes of sealed mirrors, and asked Liu Hu to carry them onto the carriage one trip at a time. The two of them then drove the carriage straight to the general store.

When he arrived at the grocery store, the owner was busy calculating accounts on an abacus. He looked up, saw him, and immediately came out to greet him with a broad smile.

"Young Master Shen, you've finally arrived! I was just talking about it the other day; the glass mirrors on the shelves are almost sold out."

The two of them worked together to carry the box into the shop, counted the money, and the owner immediately handed over the prepared banknotes, which Shen Jingchuan casually put into his pocket. His gaze swept over the wooden shelf behind the counter, noticing seven or eight lighters scattered on it, and he casually asked:

"These lighters aren't all sold out yet?"

The shop owner sighed upon hearing this, waving his hand and saying, "Oh, don't even mention it. They were novel when we first put them out, and we sold a few, but afterwards, fewer and fewer people asked about them. Look at these few left; they're practically gathering dust here."

"How much do you sell them for?" Shen Jingchuan asked.

"At first, I set the price at five taels each, and some rich young men actually bought them out of curiosity; later, seeing that sales were slow, I lowered the price to three taels, but still didn't sell many; now, even at two taels each, nobody's willing to pay."

Shen Jingchuan inwardly chuckled at the shop owner's ruthlessness, but outwardly showed some surprise. "Selling so poorly?"

The boss rubbed his hands together and said frankly:

"Young Master Shen, think about it. Our prefectural city looks big, but how many households can really afford to casually pull out several taels of silver to buy such things? Wealthy families all have servants to light the fire; who would carry around this kind of thing for no reason?"

When it first came out, the young masters would get together and show off their newfound possessions. They couldn't exactly be comparing lighters all the time, could they?

This thing isn't a jade pendant or gold ornament; it doesn't make a grand impression. Those who actually use it for starting fires every day are the cooks, waiters, and other servants. Their annual wages are only a few taels of silver; why would they spend several taels on something to start a fire? It's all for rich kids who buy it out of novelty. Once the novelty wears off, naturally nobody wants it anymore."

Just then, footsteps sounded at the shop entrance, and four men entered, surrounding a middle-aged man in a silk shirt with a short beard. Judging from his attire and demeanor, he clearly looked like the steward of a wealthy family. He glanced around as he entered and went straight to the shopkeeper:

"Shopkeeper, our boss wants to buy this shop. Name your price, shall we?"