The System Wanted Me to Be a Landlady (GL) - Chapter 48: First Collaboration

Chapter 48: First Collaboration

Lou Gao naturally could not imagine that the sixteen-year-old boy in front of him had deliberately discussed making white wax in his presence. At first, he felt ashamed for eavesdropping, but then he comforted himself: “The Song family’s house is too small, and these two people did not pay attention to the fact that the walls have ears, so it’s not my fault for eavesdropping.”

Suddenly, he became happy again and asked the servant: “Hey, did I just say ‘the walls have ears’?”

The servant naturally knew his young master’s character, so he praised: “That’s right, Young Master Erlang’s knowledge has grown again!”

Lou Gao secretly chuckled for a while: “When we get back, you must not tell Madam that this is something I learned from her over the years, then something about ears and eyes? Ear grinding and eye dyeing, yes, ear grinding and eye dyeing!”

The servant: “…”

What do you mean not to say it? Clearly, you hope I will take the initiative to praise you in front of the second madam!

Of course, he would not refute his master’s words, and then he praised Lou Gao thoroughly about the idiom “ear grinding and eye dyeing.”

The servant’s round of praise made Lou Gao feel completely relaxed and comfortable all over. He also forgot the shame brought by eavesdropping, and began to ponder the matter of white wax again.

It had to be said that he was endlessly amazed by this young man from the Song family’s many talents and skills, and he also felt a bit of respect. If the information he inquired about was correct, this young man’s background could be called tragic:

Apart from having his birth mother teach and raise him in his early years, the uncle and aunt who adopted “him” were not good people and did not teach “him” well, but “he” could still return from the wrong path. Moreover, he was good at summarizing and innovating the skills “he” learned during those years of running wild in the streets and alleys, which showed that “he” had not been fooling around all the time back then.

Thinking of his own madam teaching the children to read, Lou Gao summarized one point: “Having a good mother is indeed very important for a child’s education and learning. The madam I married is good enough, hehe!”

The servant: “…”

Today was another day when their family’s Young Master Erlang stylishly praised the second madam!

____

Inside the house, Bai Can, who did not know Song Yuyan’s plans, listened to some of her small suggestions on raising white wax insects and then planned to go back and try them first.

At this moment, Lou Gao saw that he was about to leave, so he quickly stood up to keep him: “I just happened to hear you two talking about something white wax insects…”

He worried that the two would misunderstand him for eavesdropping, so he explained: “It was not intentional eavesdropping on my part, it was really… the sound insulation is not good, so please do not mind. From what I heard, you two have made white wax before?”

Bai Can saw that his attitude was good, so he felt less nervous in his heart. He glanced at Song Yuyan and saw that she had no intention of hiding it, so he said: “Yes, we once got white wax insects by a lucky coincidence and then made white wax.”

Lou Gao became spirited: “Does Mingzhou still have white wax insects? What do they look like?”

Bai Can did not speak, and Song Yuyan also had an expression of “I do not know what you are talking about.” Lou Gao came to his senses and felt a little embarrassed: “Uh, I lost my composure. This is your skill, how can it be easily shared!”

Although he said that, his heart itched, as if a good money-making opportunity was placed right in front of him, but he could only watch dryly.

That was white wax. Although a wealthy family like the Lou family would not even blink when buying wax candles, if the Lou family mastered the skill of making wax candles, not only could they save a huge expense on buying wax candles, but they could also make a big fortune with wax candles!

He had just heard that these two people seemed to have no intention of expanding and developing the white wax insect farming business, so his heart moved. If the Lou family were to farm…

At this time, he completely forgot the original purpose of coming here and focused on how to persuade these two people to hand over the techniques for making wax candles and raising white wax insects.

He first chatted with Song Yuyan and Bai Can to draw closer the distance between them, and then offered to buy out these techniques for fifty thousand coins. Fifty thousand coins was fifty strings, which converted to modern currency was over a hundred thousand. For ordinary people, this was already a large sum.

Bai Can was somewhat tempted, but he could still stay clear-headed. These techniques all belonged to Song Yuyan, and this money had nothing to do with him.

Moreover, Song Yuyan had said back then that she did not know how to raise white wax insects, but she had the advantage of being educated. These days, based on his observations of raising white wax insects, she had come up with many improvement ideas. So, if she were to raise white wax insects, the probability of her succeeding would be even higher than his.

Song Yuyan’s goal was not this immediate large sum of money, so she politely refused Lou Gao. She thought to herself that Lou Gao was indeed a merchant, and the first method he came up with was always to take the money-making opportunity for himself.

She also did not worry that Lou Gao would start with Bai Can, after all, there were people in Mingzhou who knew how to make wax candles. It was just that the supply of raw materials for white wax blocked most people. Only by mastering the technique of raising white wax insects could one truly get rich with wax candles, and it happened that Bai Can did not know how to raise white wax insects.

System: “So you know how to raise white wax insects?”

Song Yuyan said: “I have not raised them, so I dare not say I know. But at least I am standing on the shoulders of giants to see the world. Back then, the handicraft committee cooperated with a certain get-rich program on CCTV to shoot an episode on the related topic, and I vaguely remember the breeding tips that the breeder mentioned.”

White wax insects were not only used for making wax candles; they had high economic value in medical, industrial, health care, and other industries. So white wax had not disappeared in modern times due to the popularity of paraffin and electric lights. Instead, some people saw its economic value and started farming it.

System: “…”

Fine. For this host, even if she had a complete set of theory, any project she had not personally experimented with was “not known.” The standards for engineering students’ “know” and “not know” were really clearly distinct!

It also did not ask Song Yuyan whether that breeder’s breeding tips were reliable, after all, with her identity, distinguishing truth from falsehood was not complicated.

____

As Song Yuyan expected, after Lou Gao could not find a breakthrough with her, he found an opportunity to start with Bai Can. But Bai Can’s attitude was also very firm: “Where would I know these things? It was all taught by Song Dalang. If Young Master Lou Erlang wants to know, then go find Song Dalang!”

Lou Gao really did not believe it and simply went to the Bai family. The Bai family was quite willing to sell the technique, but they neither knew how to make wax candles nor how to raise white wax insects. Back then, they had only seen Bai Can bring back some white wax insects to tinker with, but after so long, they had not seen any success!

After repeated frustrations, Lou Gao finally understood why Manager Lou had been making small moves back then. Meeting Song Yuyan was like kicking an iron plate, equally frustrating.

He felt indignant in his heart, but he did not want to use despicable means like Manager Lou, otherwise, the words he had scolded Manager Lou with back then would not be slapping his own face alive!

So he went to Madam Zhu to complain. Madam Zhu listened to his words and asked doubtfully: “What did Erlang go to find Song Dalang for originally?”

Lou Er: “…”

He seemed to have been careless and drilled into the money hole, forgetting the main matter!

After thinking all night, he could not help but sigh: “Sure enough, capable people are both lovable and hateful.”

Whether it was bamboo weaving, bamboo carving, or white wax, Song Yuyan was like a treasure trove. Digging deeper each time revealed new surprises.

Having made up his mind to get along friendly and harmoniously with the other party, Lou Gao brought quite a few generous gifts to the Song family the next day. Song Yuyan saw that this time he was sincerely cooperating, so she talked to him about the sustainable development of the white wax insect farming business.

Currently, there were naturally people raising white wax insects in the Two Huai areas, but after all, it had just started developing, and many farming methods and techniques were not perfect, leading to low white wax output and high and unyielding prices for wax candles.

When Song Yuyan learned the breeding tips from the white wax insect breeder, there were already relatively scientific farming methods, so she only needed one year to verify the truth through practice.

Lou Gao felt that cooperating with Song Yuyan and Bai Can to raise white wax insects seemed not impossible. He would provide the money to buy white wax insects and enclose forest land, Bai Can would be responsible for the daily care of the white wax insects, and Song Yuyan would be responsible for teaching the Lou family’s workers to make wax candles…

Do not think that Song Yuyan’s job seemed dispensable. Who let her master the technique of raising white wax insects! She could grasp the big direction, so Lou Gao and Bai Can had no objections.

As for how to divide the accounts, Lou Gao provided the money, so he should take the largest share. But Song Yuyan played many important roles in this, so her share was the same as Lou Gao’s. As for Bai Can, taking twenty percent was already taking advantage, so where would he have any objections.

The three people drew up a written contract and went to the yamen for notarization, and only then was the cooperation matter settled.

After these days of conversations and finalizing the cooperation details, the three people’s relationship could be considered relatively close. Lou Gao looked at Song Yuyan, this boy who could be his son, and got the idea to tease her: “Are you not afraid that my people will steal the breeding techniques from you, and then I will enclose another piece of land to raise white wax insects?”

A normal person hearing such words would tense up. For example, Bai Can was a bit stunned at this time, his face full of: “There is such an operation?”

Lou Gao was very satisfied with Bai Can’s reaction. He felt that he had finally regained a bit of ground.

Just as he thought that, he saw Song Yuyan only slightly surprised, then smiled: “Young Master Erlang would not do that.”

Lou Gao raised his eyebrows: “You trust me that much?”

“Young Master Erlang has a reputation as a good person who does good deeds and is willing to help others. His character is naturally praiseworthy and he would not do anything untrustworthy that violates the contract.”

Lou Gao nodded. What Song Yuyan said was right. The Lou family was already wealthy enough, so the next step was to manage how to transform from a rich household to a scholarly family, and then accumulate from a scholarly family to a prominent clan.

Becoming a scholarly family was easy; just cultivate excellent descendants in the clan and let them pass the exams. But to become a prominent clan, the reputation among scholars and the common people naturally could not be too bad. If he left any pretext in the cooperation with Song Yuyan and the others, and it spread out, the good reputation he had built over so many years would be ruined in an instant.

However, he did not say his ambitions, and Song Yuyan did not point it out, so he thought Song Yuyan simply trusted his character, and his mood became even better—this feeling of one’s character being praised was really good!

When he got home, he told Madam Zhu about this matter again. Madam Zhu took the contract and looked at it carefully several times, then glanced at her husband who was playing with the children, and suddenly felt that he was happily fooling himself, being sold and still counting the money for others!

The contract document stated that Lou Gao now cooperated with Song Yuyan and Bai Can to raise white wax insects… All matters related to raising white wax insects must be agreed upon by the three parties and other conditions.

These words placed here could easily be misunderstood as referring to the need for the three parties to consult together in this cooperation of raising white wax insects. But actually, the meaning of these words was: The three people who signed the contract document wanted to carry out work related to white wax insect farming, all had to go through the permission of the other two.

Was this not pinching out their little spark of starting another stove! Her husband was not illiterate, how could he be fooled?

However, considering that many businesses were managed by the clerks below, and signing contracts with people also had the steward assisting from the side, he only took charge of the overall accounts. Unexpectedly, this time even with the steward reviewing the contract, the two still made a mistake.

Fortunately, this contract only cut off the thoughts of the three starting another stove and did not harm the Lou family’s interests in any way. It could be seen that the boy was also a fair person. While she secretly cursed that the boy named Song Yuyan for having so many tricks, she also somewhat admired the other party. After all, a sixteen-year-old boy could think of such a comprehensive method, which could be called shrewd.

Admiration was admiration, but she still had to talk to her own husband about it, lest one day he be persuaded into a bigger pit by the other party and still count the money for them.

After Lou Er listened to his wife’s interpretation of the contract, he felt that he had been too smug in front of his wife just now, and now he seemed a bit unable to hold it together.

So he forcibly calmed himself: “Of course I saw this. I asked him that on purpose at the time, just to know what kind of person he is and whether he is sincere. The result of the test is as you see, he is very sincere and knows that I am a trustworthy great good person.”

Madam Zhu: “…”

To save her husband’s face, Madam Zhu did not say more and instead talked to him about the child in her belly who was about to be born.

Lou Er had been very angry in his heart and kept cursing Song Yuyan: “You Song Yuyan, no wonder you were so calm, it turns out you were prepared long ago!”

Hearing his wife’s words changing the topic, he also could not care about being angry with Song Yuyan anymore. He immediately smiled and held his wife’s belly, full of anticipation in his heart for this fifth child who was about to come out.

_____

Lou Gao did not really get angry with Song Yuyan. He first reflected on himself for being negligent because the other party was young. After all, among the people he had done business with before, where was there such a young boy!

At the same time, he also gave a bit more confidence to this cooperation. After all, from this matter, it could be seen that Song Yuyan was a smart and shrewd person who also kept her word—this was originally because Song Yuyan had been a rascal before, so he did not dare to fully trust her character.

But he learned from Bai Can that making wax candles, raising white wax insects, and so on were all figured out by Song Yuyan. He had completely taken advantage because he knew her. Originally, Song Yuyan had found a big backer like the Lou family and could completely leave out Bai Can to split fifty-fifty with Lou Gao, but she did not do that. Instead, she chose to pull Bai Can along, which showed that she was also a person who valued affection and righteousness.

The five virtues of a gentleman: benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, trust. Song Yuyan almost had them all. Cooperating with such a person was not a bad thing.

Later, he went to Song Yuyan to learn about the bamboo carving matter. But during these days of coming and going with Song Yuyan, he vaguely understood a bit that Song Yuyan carved bamboo not for profit, purely out of interest.

Song Yuyan gave him a poetry tube. When he got back, Madam Zhu told him the meaning of the poetry tube, and he felt even happier in his heart, thinking that Song Yuyan truly recognized his character.

When Lou Hao wanted his poetry tube, he had a look as if flesh was being cut from him. Lou Hao got angry and said: “Fine, I do not want your poetry tube. If you do not give it, others will say you are unfilial. If you give it, your heart will not be happy again. A gentleman does not take what others love. I am an upright gentleman, so naturally I cannot take what my son loves.”

Lou Er praised his father straightly: “Father, what you said has a lot of depth. Your knowledge has taken a big step closer to that of a gentleman!”

Lou Hao was very pleased with his son’s flattery, but on the surface he still kept a straight face and lectured him, then happily muttered to his son about yamen matters: “I do not know what is going on with this Prefect Liu. He was originally eager to organize everyone to dredge the silt from the two lakes, but recently there has been no movement. A few days ago, the assistant magistrate asked him, and he only said to wait until the common people hand over the summer taxes before talking about this matter.”

Even his father, who worked under the nose of the prefect, did not know what Liu Chuo was up to, so Lou Er knew even less. Fortunately, he felt that it was good that this matter was temporarily shelved, otherwise it would definitely cause some trouble.