Flowers in full bloom

Before leaving, she agreed with Manager Liu that the official and privately printed books would be available on May 15. After leaving the printing house, Hua Lei took a few pieces of paper, a list of bookstore items she had brought from home in the morning, a few handwritten test papers and a list of test papers, and headed straight to several private schools in the northern part of the city.

Hualei and Uncle Fu first went to a school called "Baichuan" in the North City District. They asked to see the dean of Baichuan School, Qiu, and then showed him the grid copy paper, explained its specific function and unit price. Although it was 15 to 20 wen more expensive than the blank copy paper, dean Qiu accepted it well. After all, the printed copy paper reduced a lot of unnecessary small movements. And the size was uniform, which was pleasing to the eye.

However, when he saw the list of bookstores that Hua Lei took out, he didn't think much of it. After all, the prices of pens and ink in Hua Lei's bookstore were not much different from those in other academies, so there was no need to go far away. When he heard that Hua Lei wanted to sign a three-year contract with him, he was very hesitant.

When he saw Hualei take out several questionnaires of various subjects from previous years, he was ecstatic. You know, he was a scholar himself. He took the imperial examination several times but failed. He was depressed and couldn't find a way out of the imperial examination. He had only seen such complete questionnaires of various subjects during the examination. It was good enough to remember one or two afterwards. He went to the bookstore outside to look for it for a long time but couldn't find it. He supplemented with his classmates, but it was not so complete. I didn't expect it to be delivered to my door now. This opportunity is hard to come by. Qiu Yuanzi readily signed a three-year contract and asked for the papers he needed for the imperial examination.

After Hua Lei received the contract signed by Dean Qiu, she collected the deposit and told him not to spread it easily, and to keep it secret. If there are any good classmates who also work in the academy, she can recommend them, and when she gets a new paper, she can give priority to sending it to the "Baichuan" academy. She also vaguely expressed her ambiguous relationship with the Imperial Academy's chief priest, and euphemistically said that she and Dingbei Houfu were old friends of the grandfather generation. Then she took Dean Qiu's recommendation letter and went straight to the next academy. She followed the same method and signed a contract with the next private school academy.

By the time Hualei and Uncle Fu returned to their house in Qingyun Lane, it was already completely dark. The results were gratifying. At the end of the day, 80% of the private schools in North City and West City had signed contracts. They also sold a lot of pens, inkstones, and paper from their own bookstore, promising to deliver the next month's goods at the end of each month, and the payment would be settled upon arrival of the goods.

The next day, Xile took him to the two academies in Xicheng District that he had not had time to visit the day before early in the morning, and then went to the academy in Nancheng District. He visited all the academies in Nancheng District and Dongcheng District along the route and brought back more than a dozen contracts.

At night, in the study room on the second floor, Hua Lei carefully sorted out the contracts she had received in the past two days. There were a total of 33 contracts, and she received a deposit of 330 taels. Hua Lei was still very satisfied. There were still a few companies that said they needed to consider it, and Hua Lei also said that it was no problem and she would visit them in a few days. She sorted out the names and quantities of the first batch of goods on the order, estimated what her bookstore needed, summarized them, wrote a note, and asked Uncle Fu to deliver the buns to the printing house in the northern city the next day after he sold them. She was going to go to the village schools, private schools and county schools in the suburbs starting tomorrow.

The suburbs are too big, and it takes too much time to travel. So Hualei got up early in the morning and asked Xile to take her to the suburbs of the northern city. After running for a whole day, she brought back four contracts, and the deposit was only 20 taels. Hualei was not disappointed. Although it was hard to travel, the contract would be stable for three years after it was signed.

In the next few days, Hualei kept traveling non-stop in the suburbs of Shangjing City, visiting private schools, village schools, and county schools. It took her six days to complete the suburbs and she received 27 contracts, plus the previous 20 taels of deposit, a total of 135 taels of deposit. She sorted out the names and quantities of the products overnight, and on May 14th, she visited the academies that she had mentioned before, and received five more contracts and 50 taels of deposit.

The materials were collected that afternoon, and Hualei personally sent them to the printing house. After negotiating with the chief steward about the details of the bookstores in the capital coming to pick up the goods, she happily brought the copy paper ordered by her own bookstore back to the store, and also prepared the pens, inkstones and inkstones needed by various academies, including those ordered from her own bookstore, and delivered them all to the door.

From now on, the delivery will be made at the end of each month. The black board in front of the bookstore has also announced in advance that the new copy paper will be available on May 15th. After the printing house preheated it in the official school and the bookstore, the rice grid copy paper was extremely popular. The copy paper in the bookstore sold two months' worth of copy paper in one day. Hualei was very happy.

A few days later, after seeing the newly released grid-lined copying paper, various bookstores in Shangjing City ran to the printing house in Beiting Lane in Beicheng District to request purchase, which made Manager Liu, who was already very happy, even happier. Although the printing house did not make much money from printing, these papers all came from its own paper mill, and it had already made a lot of money from the paper mill. So Hua Lei asked him to ask other bookstores in Shangjing City to get the goods directly from him. After asking the boss, the boss also readily agreed. After all, after many bookstores purchased the grid-lined copying paper, they might also purchase other goods, which would be another considerable income. Hua Lei was sending customers to him, so there was no reason to refuse, and it was also a favor for Hua Lei.

Hua Lei was also very happy. The printing house helped to directly supply the bookstores in Shangjing City, which saved her a lot of trouble. She now used the test papers as bait and signed a three-year contract with 80% of the private schools in Shangjing City. The bookstores only sold books to individual customers. Even if imitations appeared in the future, it would not have a big impact on Hua Lei. After all, she had the contract in hand, and she had also asked Jijiu and Dingbei Hou to leave. It made no sense for those private schools to break the contract halfway.

Because they had agreed to stay at the Dingbei Marquis's Mansion in a few days, Hua Lei decided to sort out the things on hand, and the people in the courtyard were also making arrangements. In the evening, Hua Lei carefully counted the silver in her hand. During this period, she sold engravings and took 300 taels. She signed contracts and took deposits for a total of 515 taels. The two-month income of the bun shop was 30 taels, and the two-month income of the bookstore was 50 taels. In this way, the total income was 895 taels, plus the original surplus of 192 taels, a total of 1,087 taels. Hua Lei went to the printing house twice to purchase goods and spent 50 taels, and paid 12 taels of monthly silver for two months. Because the restaurant and the bookstore gave a net surplus, there was no other expenditure. Two months of living expenses were 12 taels, and now there is 1,013 taels left. Hua Lei carefully put the 1,000 taels of silver away, leaving only 13 taels by her side.

Now the bookstores in Shangjing City have also agreed with Manager Liu that the goods they get from the printing house will be settled every three months. The bookstore has nothing else to do, just proceed as usual, and just deliver goods to each private school at the end of each month according to the quantity on the contract, and prepare more goods each time to cope with the temporary increase in quantity. Let Brother Ping'an manage the bookstore, and Brother Xiaoqun assist.

The business of the restaurant has been getting more and more stable recently, and Auntie Song is becoming more and more confident. The newly launched siu mai has now become the restaurant's signature snack. Nearly 100 baskets are sold every day. Hualei let Auntie Song take charge of the restaurant, and Auntie Fu assists.

Xiaoxiao was in charge of the book repair task and made flexible arrangements. Uncle Fu was in charge of the entire courtyard and told her that if she encountered any urgent matters that could not be solved, she could go to Dingbei Marquis to find someone to pass the message to her. If it was not urgent, she could wait for Hualei to come back. Everyone in the shop and the courtyard made proper arrangements. Hualei was relieved. She left enough spare silver for Uncle Fu, sorted out her and Xiaoyuan's clothes, and took the Dingbei Marquis's carriage with Butler Pei to Dingbei Marquis's mansion on the 20th of May, a holiday.