Traveling through the Republic of China, I married a dead person

Zi Yan moved aside, and behind her stood Shopkeeper Wan and a young lady.

"Madam, this is Qili. She has been with me since she was little. She can send telegrams and will follow you from now on!"

Su Bai observed the girl named Qili. She was in her twenties and tall. Although she was dressed as a maid and her appearance was not outstanding, she exuded a foreign air that was not found in the people of Longxing.

After all, he came from Shanghai, so his temperament is indeed different.

"Come on, come on, sit down."

Su Bai asked Manager Wan to sit down. Zi Yan made tea and then took Qili to her room.

Shopkeeper Wan placed the suitcase on the table and opened it, revealing a radio inside.

After seeing the radio, Su Bai remembered that he had originally planned to go to Linhua to find Huang Wenchang to get a set of radio registration procedures and have Xu Tianyi send it to Shanghai, but he had been so busy recently that he actually forgot about it.

"I know the young lady is busy, fortunately nothing was delayed." Manager Wan said that the journey was smooth, they just checked once when boarding the ship, asked a few questions and then let them go.

Manager Wan first took a boat to Qingdao, stayed in Linhua last night, and hired a carriage to Longxing early this morning.

After arriving in Longxing, they went to the trading company first. On the way back to the Kong Mansion, Zi Yan mentioned that since she took charge of the trading company, there was no one to serve Su Bai, and Qili came at the right time.

"Qili has been growing up in the Wan family since she was a child. She is smart and hardworking. She will be the eldest young lady's personal maid in the future!" Manager Wan said. For a start-up entrepreneur like Su Bai who has not yet expanded his business across the country, the frequency and time of sending telegrams are extremely rare. Maybe he only sends a message once every few days. It is not worth hiring a full-time telegraph operator, so let Qili serve as a maid.

It sounds like a good idea, but Su Bai feels that there is something awkward about it.

This time, Manager Wan purchased all the things Su Bai wanted. Except for the radio he brought with him, all the other things were placed in the backyard of the store.

"I need to buy two more things when I go back this time." Su Bai patted his head: "I don't know what's wrong with me lately, I always lose things."

One is a tablet press, also called a tablet punching machine, which is used to make tablets. There is no shortage of this kind of equipment and it should be available for purchase soon.

The other type was medicine bottles. Su Bai drew a rough size on paper for Shopkeeper Wan to use as a reference. "Don't be too strict, just make sure the size and shape are similar. Buy a batch first."

"If we want to use this for a long time, we should order it from the glass factory?" asked Manager Wan.

"No need, just buy more at one time. If you need custom-made products, let the businesses do it." Su Bai felt that custom-made products might not be necessary. There were many kinds of bottled pills on the market, so he could just pick up the more common medicine bottles and buy some.

Shopkeeper Wan immediately understood Su Bai's meaning and kept it confidential.

He told Su Bai that, apart from the stockings, perfumes and cosmetics needed by Su's Company, he used the pseudonym Liu Abao when purchasing other items Su Bai needed. He only paid a deposit in business dealings with the other party and did not leave a phone number.

"Manager Wan's work is really reassuring and thoughtful." Su Bai praised from the bottom of his heart.

When he was the shopkeeper of the Shanghai branch of Kong's Trading Company, Manager Wan's salary was one hundred dollars. Su Bai felt that now was the time to settle these things, and he couldn't let others help him without any reason.

Su's Modern Trading Company was originally just a show, and no one expected it to bring much profit. Although Zi Yan was very confident, Su Bai felt that this trading company could not afford to support a figure like Manager Wan.

Although these fashionable items are considered new things in the Sanlong area, most people in this area cannot accept them. Some people even think that women who use these things are somewhat immoral.

The salary that Su Bai offered to Manager Wan was two hundred dollars a month, plus half of the company's net profit.

"This... is too much! This is more than what a professor earns!"

"That's it. I don't know how to do business." Su Bai said to Shopkeeper Wan. In addition to purchasing goods for the company, the more important thing is...

"I understand, I understand." Manager Wan was a man who understood things quickly. He didn't need Su Bai to finish the words. He knew that the list of pharmaceutical raw materials and equipment that Su Bai had obtained for him was the most important thing.

Manager Wan kept saying that the salary was still too high. The most famous university professors today only earned three or four hundred yuan, and a salary of two hundred yuan was already higher than the average level of ordinary professors, and this did not include the company's share.

In this era, intellectuals were treated almost the best. A county government clerk only earned a few dollars, while a professor earned hundreds.

"Let's talk about Qili's salary. How much should I give her? Don't tell me you don't have to pay me. I don't have that kind of thing!"

Su Bai was going to pay Qili the standard salary for a telegraph operator. Manager Wan said he didn't know much about this, but it should be around 10 yuan.

"Okay, I'll give you 20 yuan. I'll ask Qili when I have time. She must have learned more about this industry when she was learning to send telegrams."

This means that the monthly expenses will increase by several hundred yuan. Su Bai thought that if she were really asked to manage the household, she would definitely be a spendthrift woman.

Fortunately, the profit from medicines is big enough, otherwise, if he were to run an ordinary business, Su Bai felt that he would lose everything in a few days.

Manager Wan was in a hurry to return to Shanghai, so Su Bai didn't keep him for dinner and asked Xu Tianyi to go with him and bring the tablet press back as soon as possible.

"Choose two people from the backyard to go with you." Su Bai was referring to the twelve soldiers who had taken off their military uniforms in the Li Mansion, and asked Xu Tianyi to choose two people from among them.

Although the tablet press is not big, it still weighs about two or three hundred pounds. Plus, the glass bottle is also heavy. It would be easier to take care of it on the way if a few more people were there.

"How about I take Yuan Yuze with me?" Xu Tianyi felt that there was no need for Yuan Yuze to sell stinky tofu, so he simply closed the stall and stopped selling it.

"Stupid!" Su Bai only gave him one word.

This stinky tofu stall, which sells only a few cans a day, is very important. It is used to explain Su Bai’s fermentation base in the ancestral hall.

If all the fermentation steps were moved to Panlong Cave, then this stinky tofu stall would no longer be necessary.

Xu Tianyi and two soldiers went out through the back door and made an appointment with Manager Wan to meet in Linhua.

Su Bai, Qili, Zi Yan and Manager Wan walked through the front gate of the Confucius Mansion.

When passing by the front yard, I saw someone looking over here from behind the moon gate in the west front yard.

In the first few days, Su Bai didn't understand what the purpose of Kong Li letting these people live in the Kong Mansion was. They just looked around when Su Bai went out and never noticed that someone was following him.

In the past two days, when Su Bai learned that Captain Tian had frequent interactions with the wives of various families, he realized that Kong Li had changed his strategy this time. He was focusing on Su Bai's movements rather than the details.