"Spot goods are goods that can be handed over on the spot. Futures are goods that can only be handed over on a specified date. Didn't you say you needed to transfer stock and could only complete the delivery ten days from now?" Wang Shouzhe casually enlightened him.
"That makes sense. Now that you've put it that way, Brother Shouzhe, I understand the difference." Manager Qian perked up, his eyes rolling as he lowered his voice. "Brother Shouzhe, these five thousand bags of Pest-Exterminating Powder surely aren't from your own supplies. Could it be that you've found a new business opportunity?"
"Hehe, Elder Qian, you already called it a new business opportunity." Wang Shouzhe smiled as he raised his teacup. "I'll help your trading firm clear its inventory, while I earn a modest profit from it. If we work together, it's a win-win situation. Elder Qian, give me an honest price."
"Hahaha, a win-win situation—Brother Shouzhe, your words really are interesting. Then I won't pry. Since that's the case, I'll give you a ten-percent discount on these five thousand bags of Pest-Exterminating Powder. Four thousand five hundred Qian Gold in total."
"Four thousand!"
"Four thousand two hundred is the lowest I can go, brother."
"Four thousand two hundred it is. But I will be using the credit of the Ping'an Wang Clan to pay for this shipment." Wang Shouzhe said calmly, "One month from now, I will deliver all four thousand two hundred Qian Gold, not a coin less."
Manager Qian was briefly stunned, but then smiled. "That will work, but we must draw up a contract. If you fail to pay when the time comes, our trading firm will have the right to use any means necessary to recover the debt."
No matter how destitute the Wang Clan had become, it was still a Profound Martial Aristocratic Clan with some foundation. Fenggu Farm alone could fetch at least ten thousand Qian Gold if sold. So long as both sides had a contract, the mighty Qian Clan Trading Firm had plenty of ways to recover the debt.
"Even if Elder Qian hadn't mentioned a contract, I would have drafted one myself." Wang Shouzhe said with a solemn expression. "I have already contacted merchant ships. Three days from now, I will send people to your firm's warehouse to move two thousand bags of Pest-Exterminating Powder. The second batch will be collected ten days later. If your firm breaches the agreement by refusing or failing to deliver the goods, you must pay us a penalty equal to three times the value of the goods."
"Rest assured, brother. The reputation of our Qian Clan Trading Firm is the foundation upon which we have stood for centuries." Manager Qian's expression turned extremely grave. "No matter what happens, we will deliver the goods on time and in full."
"I trust your firm's reputation, but this transaction is of vital importance to our small Ping'an Wang Clan." Wang Shouzhe's face was equally stern. "With a contract written in black and white, I will be at ease as well."
"Then let us put it in writing." Manager Qian did not believe his side had any reason to breach the agreement. Besides, this was merely a transaction worth a few thousand Qian Gold; to the entire Qian Clan, it was nothing much.
The two spent a full hour, and under Wang Shouzhe's nitpicking scrutiny, every clause of the contract was clearly settled.
By the time both parties pressed their seals, signed their names, and received their copies of the contract, Manager Qian was already drenched in sweat. Wiping his brow, he gave a wry smile. "Qian has been in business for twenty years, yet this is the first time I've seen contract clauses so detailed and wording so rigorous. But then again, such detailed clauses will prevent needless disputes in the future. It has truly opened Qian's eyes—I have learned much."
Hehe~
Wang Shouzhe merely smiled. What did this amount to? Some complicated commercial contracts on Earth were a hundred times more intricate than this crude agreement. To an outsider, they were as incomprehensible as a heavenly tome.
At last, with the contract in hand, a great stone in Wang Shouzhe's heart fell to the ground.
Based on what he knew of the Qian Clan Trading Firm, even without such detailed terms, they would not violate their reputation. A reputation accumulated over centuries was a trading firm's most valuable possession.
As for sending experts to wipe out his clan over such a trifling sum of money, that was even more impossible.
Although Ancestor Longyan did not have long to live, she was still an old Spirit Platform ancestor who had emerged from the Purple Mansion Academy. No one knew what trump cards she kept hidden. If she threw caution to the winds and erupted with all her might, she could very likely take a Spirit Platform Realm cultivator down with her.
After weighing all these factors, Wang Shouzhe had made the decision to take this risk. There was no helping it—the Wang Clan was simply too poor, poor enough to scheme over a single Lesser Foundation-Cultivating Pill. If this continued, they would only sink into a vicious cycle.
The only person he might be letting down was probably Manager Qian.
Already middle-aged, yet only a minor manager at a branch in this remote region, he clearly came from no prominent branch within the deeply rooted and luxuriant Qian Clan. This money-losing operation would very likely leave the branch shopkeeper making him shoulder the responsibility.
"Elder Qian, it has been a pleasure working with you this time." Wang Shouzhe rose to take his leave, then said quietly, "If nothing unexpected happens, I will send you a great merit before long."
Manager Qian froze for a moment, then chuckled. "I'll accept your auspicious words, brother. Let me see you out, Brother Shouzhe." Laughing and chatting, Manager Qian personally escorted Wang Shouzhe out the main gate.
Once he left the Qian Clan Trading Firm, Wang Shouzhe's mood immediately brightened. Three days—just three days, and he would be able to greatly ease the Wang Clan's financial crisis.
"Clan Head."
The two clan retainers who had been waiting outside led over the horses and greeted him respectfully.
"Wang Zhong, Wang Yong." Wang Shouzhe smiled. "I haven't come out in a long time. Accompany me for a proper stroll around the Citadel City."
"Yes, Clan Head." The two clan retainers answered respectfully, leading the horses as they accompanied Wang Shouzhe on a leisurely walk through the Citadel City.
When Ancestor Zhouxuan was still alive, the Wang Clan had forty-seven clan retainers at its peak, the strongest among them having reached the ninth level of the Qi Refining Realm.
But the present Wang Clan had only nine clan retainers left, and even the strongest was merely at the fifth level of the Qi Refining Realm.
Clan retainers differed from household servants. They were no longer registered as slaves, but as dependents. Yet they also differed from guest retainers, who were outsiders hired through contracts.
The overwhelming majority of clan retainers were trusted confidants cultivated within the clan. They enjoyed relatively high status and treatment within the clan, yet did not have the freedom to come and go as they pleased. They were born clan retainers and would die clan retainers.
Their fates, lives, deaths, illnesses, and old age were tightly bound to their master clan. When one prospered, all prospered; when one suffered loss, all suffered loss. That was why some clans often married collateral-branch or concubine-born daughters to exceptionally outstanding clan retainers. First, it bound them even more tightly; second, it improved the clan's bloodline.
Of the Wang Clan's current nine clan retainers, their ancestors had all been retainers personally cultivated by Ancestor Zhouxuan. As descendants passed down through generations, their loyalty was exceptionally high.
"Wang Zhong, if I remember correctly, your younger son is already seven or eight, isn't he?" Wang Shouzhe asked casually. "Has his Xuanwu aptitude entered the ranks?"
Wang Zhong hurriedly took two steps forward and replied, "Thank you for your concern for my son, Clan Head. The boy participated in this spring's aptitude test and was assessed as lower-grade C. He has now entered the Clan School for enlightenment and begun the stage of nurturing his meridians."
As he spoke, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly into a smile. Clearly, he was very satisfied with his son's aptitude.
Xuanwu aptitude was first divided into ranked and unranked. Whether one entered the ranks was exceedingly important, as it determined whether one possessed the potential to be cultivated. Lower-grade aptitude was further divided into A, B, C, and D grades. Being rated lower-grade C already placed one in the second tier, making one worthy of the clan's intensive cultivation.
"Sure enough, a tiger father has no dog son." Wang Shouzhe praised him. "Teach him well. In the future, he may surpass you."
"Thank you for your auspicious words, Clan Head." The wrinkles at the corners of Wang Zhong's eyes piled up as he smiled. He was thirty-six this year and had fathered two sons, one older and one younger. Both had ranked Xuanwu aptitude. His elder son was already fifteen and would be considered an adult in another year, able to become a clan retainer and serve the clan. His younger son's talent had even reached lower-grade C, placing him among those selected for key cultivation.
Meanwhile, the other clan retainer beside them, Wang Yong, looked somewhat embarrassed. He was around the same age as Wang Zhong and had married a woman from a collateral branch of the Wang Clan, fathering a son and a daughter.
His son's Xuanwu aptitude had failed to enter the ranks and could only study literature. He was now seventeen and worked at the Sericulture Farm. His daughter was only six and had not yet undergone her Xuanwu aptitude test. But even if she did possess Xuanwu aptitude, she was still only a girl.
"Wang Yong, you must seize these last few years of opportunity. Work harder with your wife and try to have another child." Wang Zhong teased with a grin. "Perhaps fortune will turn, and you'll have a lower-grade B son."
"Go, go, go!" Wang Yong waved him off impatiently. Whenever this subject came up, he became somewhat gloomy.
The three wandered through Changning Guard City, while Wang Shouzhe's memories of Changning City gradually grew clearer. The city had roughly one hundred fifty to one hundred sixty thousand permanent residents. Several old Profound Martial Aristocratic Clans lived there, and among those relatively close to the Ping'an Wang Clan was the Changning Xu Clan.
But they were only relatively close. The disparity in their scale had grown ever wider, and they were no longer clans on the same level. Thus, Wang Shouzhe had no intention of visiting the Xu Clan Head.
Besides managing traditional farms, the Changning Xu Clan's distinctive industries were mainly concentrated in silk and cloth workshops.
All the cotton, hemp, and raw cocoons grown and produced throughout the Changning Guard region were supplied to several workshops of the Changning Xu Clan. They produced cloth and silk, selling them throughout the prefectures and commanderies, earning until their bowls overflowed and their basins brimmed.
At the same time, raw cocoons produced by Xinmao Silkworm Farm—one of the Ping'an Wang Clan's pillar industries—were supplied to the Changning Xu Clan.
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