Chapter 343
Zhu Yuyan wanted to recreate the momentum of the night market and show the Japanese how profitable it was to sell grain!
Now the city’s blockade is not completely closed, trains, ships, riverboats will still transport some goods every day, but those are all held by the Japanese, folk merchants, merchants have no way to transport, the entire commercial road is completely cut off, which is one of the causes of the city’s shortage of supplies, and is the most fatal reason.
On the one hand, the rich did not lack food and clothing; on the other hand, the market was closed resulting in the ordinary people having no place to buy food.
Vermilion door stinks of wine and meat, and there are hungry bones on the road.
Fortunately, there were more than Japanese forces in the city. American, British and French merchants still had territory in the city, and the Japanese did not dare to stop their ships, so imported goods became a lifesaver for a while.
The poor people had no savings to buy food, but the rich were not yet hungry.
Zhu Yuyan’s poker game is now held every day, starting at 3:00 p.m. sharp and continuing until 9:00 p.m., when Su Chunjun comes home from work.
Mrs. Shao brings in a lot of customers for her, all of whom are prominent members of the city’s prestigious families or businessmen who still have money in their hands.
Suzuki Yoshiko also comes to play cards, and her Chinese is getting better and better. Zhu Yuyan praised her and bragged for her, saying that she was the eldest daughter of the Hirata family and married into the Suzuki family as a daughter-in-law, and that the Japanese Chamber of Commerce was equivalent to her family’s business.
Mrs. Suzuki also has a fleet of ocean-going vessels specializing in smuggling.
Zhu Yuyan told everyone who came to play cards with a “whisper”.
Everyone smelled the money and started to chase after Suzuki Yoshiko, hoping to get rich with her. Zhu Yuyan also credited Suzuki Yoshiko for making the charity night market famous, as well as her charitable foundation.
These women and the men behind them are crazy.
The hatred of their country and their families was nothing in the face of money. As Yoshiko Suzuki’s reputation grew, even Saburo Suzuki benefited, and a lot of money that had nowhere else to go was sent to them.
Of course, these people were there to make more money, and they didn’t mind doing business with the Japanese, just as Master Jin didn’t mind doing business with the French or the English at first, and now that the Japanese ruled the city, these people didn’t mind doing business with the Japanese either.
Changing from Master Jin to Master Ma, Master Zhao, and Master Zhang made no difference.
Suzuki Yoshiko got a taste of the sweetness, but this time she didn’t dare to get rid of Zhu Yuyan, she had already suffered last time, she had also already realized that it was fine for Zhu Yuyan to leave her, but she couldn’t leave Zhu Yuyan.
Suzuki Saburo reminded her, “You need to learn more from Yan Ji, learn from her intelligence and vision.”
Suzuki Yoshiko knew that grain was very profitable now, and that the Chinese couldn’t buy it to eat. But she had never looked too favorably on the Charity Night Market because things were sold so cheaply here, how could one make money on something so cheap. To make money, of course you have to sell expensive things.
Although she agreed with Zhu Yuyan’s statement of making a name for herself before making money, but now that the Charity Night Market was already famous, was there a need to make it even more famous?
She already knew that the people in this city didn’t really mind the Japanese and Japanese goods that much, when there was nothing to buy, they would choose Japanese goods as well, in that case, by killing and driving away all the Chinese merchants in this city, wouldn’t that force the Chinese to only buy Japanese goods?
Zhu Yuyan was greatly in favor of this when she heard her talking about opening a Japanese store.
Suzuki Yoshiko didn’t want to open a store in the name of the Hirata family, she was still holding a grudge against her elder brother for refusing to give her more dowry, especially for refusing to give her a real fleet of ships, and in the end, she even refused to give her a share of the shares, and she could only shell out the same amount of money as everyone else to buy from the Hirata family’s fleet of ships after she changed her last name to Suzuki, which made her extraordinarily unconvinced, and she was even more in favor of the Hirata family’s second one going to compete for the Hirata family’s position as the family’s leader .
Suzuki Saburo also supports this matter, he praises Yoshiko for her good work, and even pays for Yoshiko to be sent back to her mother’s house to help with the Hirata family’s internal turmoil.
Suzuki Yoshiko has the intention to hang on to the Suzuki family’s sign, but remembers that the Suzuki family is tantamount to banishing Suzuki Saburo, and since she can hate the Hirata family, she can of course hate the Suzuki family as well, and as long as they are Suzuki Saburo’s enemies, they are her enemies.
Zhu Yuyan also supported her to come up with another name, different from the Suzuki family and the Hirata family.
Zhu Yuyan said, “This will be like a store for you and Mr. Suzuki, just like your children.”
Suzuki Yoshiko was instantly impressed. She carefully chose the location of the store, customized the furniture and counters, and even chose the color of the door curtains herself; she also wrote the name of the signboard with her own hands, gave it to the master to make a seal, and made it into the family crest, which was embroidered on the door curtains and engraved on the counters.
She named the store “Yixiong”.
Zhu Yuyan complimented her fondly, “That’s very nice! What does this store sell?”
Suzuki Yoshiko had no idea what to do when she started the charity night market, and she had to listen to Zhu Yuyan’s instructions. Now that she had opened her own store, she couldn’t help but have many dreams to realize.
She wanted to open an elegant store, making beautiful flowerware, delicate pottery, tableware, hand-embroidered silk scarves and handkerchiefs, as well as men’s special ties, handkerchiefs, belt buckles, wallets, and other things.
Zhu Yuyan grinned.
Suzuki Yoshiko felt that Zhu Yuyan was very good at doing business, she wanted this store to be full of customers every day, with many customers begging to come and buy the store’s goods, she wanted this kind of pomp and circumstance.
She asked Zhu Yu Yan, “Yan Ji, can you give me a few ideas to make this store popular?”
The meaning of this sentence is: if this store is not popular, then it is your fault for having bad ideas.
Zhu Yu Yan said fearfully, “I have never opened such an elegant store before, all the ideas I thought of were cheap business, all very cheap, I …… used to be very poor, never went to an elegant place, and I have no money, so I really don’t know how to give ideas for such a noble store. ”
Suzuki Yoshiko immediately got upset, “Yan Ji, I thought we were friends, now that I need your help, you’re actually rejecting me?”
Zhu Yuyan sighed, “Yoshiko, you’re really misunderstanding me, this really saddens me. Think about it, if I had the means would I still intentionally not help you? We are so good, I bought all the goods you shipped without saying a word, and now so many people who went to look for you were all introduced to you by me at my home. How can you misunderstand me. I really don’t understand. Think about it, I’m so poor, I’ve never been to a good store, how can I come up with ideas? Only a noble lady like you who often goes to these stores can come up with ideas.” She said, “As the Japanese saying goes, one who has never eaten fish cannot pick the fish’s spines. How can you give me a hard time as a person who has never eaten fish, right?”
Is there such a saying in Japan?
Suzuki Yoshiko didn’t know, but it did sound like a Japanese sentimental saying, probably something some Japanese person had once told Zhu Yuyan.
But the saying sounded reasonable.
Zhu Yuyan’s family had fallen into ruin, and it was only after she married her husband that she was able to make a good living again.
Suzuki Yoshiko had always believed that the most important thing for a woman was to get married, and that she could only be happy if she found a good husband. No matter how much education a woman had and how beautiful she looked, not having a good husband was a failure in life.
She had always believed that she was better than Zhu Yuyan because Suzuki Saburo was a better man than Su Chunjun. And since she was married to Suzuki Saburo, then she was rightfully superior to Zhu Yuyan.
As a result, Suzuki Saburo had been praising Zhu Yuyan and asking her to learn from her, which was extraordinarily unacceptable to her!
Now, Zhu Yuyan admitting to her face that she was a poor person, had no money, had never seen anything good, and that she had never even been to a store that was very common in Japan, this really made Suzuki Yoshiko incomparably happy!
Actually, thinking about it, Zhu Yuyan had always followed her like a follower, doing things for her and never complaining. Such a good follower was also something to be proud of.
Thinking about this, Suzuki Yoshiko forgivingly decided not to blame the idea-less Zhu Yuyan anymore.
Suzuki Yoshiko: ”Alright then, I was wrong to blame you. Since you don’t have an idea, then I shouldn’t force you.”
Zhu Yuyan said from the bottom of her heart, “You are so unbelievably forgiving and generous!”
Suzuki Yoshiko decided on her own how to make a name for this store.
First of all, a famous store, of course, should not post advertisements all over the place, but should be spread by word of mouth by people with status, in order to keep the store’s noble status, as long as the customers are all noble people, then the store will slowly become popular among the upper class.
Suzuki Yoshiko on their own body wearing this store’s products, in Zhu Yuyan’s card table, with all the wives chatting, “inadvertently” said that she bought something in a store, not bad, Mr. Suzuki also very much like.
Mr. Suzuki also liked it very much. Zhu Yuyan quickly praised the store and said that the store was too elegant, and that buying something there was really a boost to her status.
Regardless of whether it was true or not, in order to get in touch with Mr. Suzuki, they all went there a few times to patronize the shop.
The store was finally doing business!
Yoshiko Suzuki was very happy! She thought that success was so easy, and she had finally achieved it! She couldn’t wait to tell Suzuki Saburo the good news.
Instead of listening to her nonsense about “having opened up the Chinese market, there will be a final victory, and Japanese goods will completely capture the hearts of the Chinese people,” Suzuki Saburo asked her to come back and tell him after the store had been open for three months.
Suzuki Saburo: “If what you say is true, then your store should be able to double its sales in three months. Then I’ll believe you’re a success, Yoshiko, so don’t let me down.”
Yoshiko Suzuki agreed with confidence!
She thought she had opened up the market, that those wives who used the products in her store, and those who saw them in use would be fascinated by those products, and that soon her store would be in demand by Chinese people all over the city!
But that obviously didn’t happen.
The store, which had barely survived the first month, had no business at all in the second month, and for a whole month, not a single item was sold, and no customers came to the store.
Yoshiko Suzuki is furious and blames her wives at the poker table for not helping.
The wives had to rush to the store to spend some more money because they were begging the Japanese.
But they can’t go shopping every day. So whenever Yoshiko Suzuki complains, the store has a few days of peak sales, and when that time passes, the store is once again deserted.
Yoshiko Suzuki doesn’t think it’s her store that’s bad; she suspects that the Chinese are ganging up behind her back, working together to marginalize her store.
She dared not complain to Saburo Suzuki for fear of disappointing him. She couldn’t find anyone else, so she had to go back to Zhu Yuyan and ask her to come up with a solution.
Suzuki Yoshiko: “I am going to make this store a success! I’ve promised Saburo that I can’t fail!”
Zhu Yuyan sighed, “What can I do? Unless, you sell food in front of the store.”
Suzuki Yoshiko screamed, “How can Goya’s store become a grain and rice store!”
Zhu Yuyan thought for a moment and added, “Then turn the food into freebies, only those who bought something in the store will be given a gift, packaged so beautifully that you can’t tell what it is from the outside.”
Suzuki Yoshiko: “Then what to give away?”
Zhu Yuyan: “A catty of eggs.”
Suzuki Yoshiko reluctantly agreed, because it was already the third month and she had to accomplish doubling her sales!
Zhu Yuyan personally carries the goods, takes the reporter to a photo shoot, approaches the store herself, buys the cheapest handkerchief she can find, and then is given a box of something as she walks out the door. She went out of the store before opening it for the reporter to take pictures: in the box were nine eggs.
Zhu Yuyan smiled and said, “Welcome to shop.”
In the third month, Yixiong’s sales doubled tenfold.