You are unlucky and I am tough

Chapter 196: New Soap Arrives

The soap workshop was completed. It was made of square blue bricks and gray tiles. There was no particular design, only emphasis on being sturdy and durable.

Early in the morning, Wei Qinglang went to the neighboring Taohua Village to get back the custom-made plaque. He and Wei Nanxing moved a ladder and hung it at the door of the workshop. The plaque was inscribed with five large characters "Yunxi Soap Shop" in vigorous and powerful strokes, and was written by Wei Qinglang himself.

Cheng Shuang paid the craftsmen and handed a hundred-yuan note to Manager Chang. "The workshop is finished today. Thank you all for your hard work. Here are your wages. Manager Chang, take them."

"Madam Wei, don't forget me if you have any work in the future. I will give you the lowest price." Manager Chang took it with a happy face. The Wei family gave him a lot of work, and he wanted to make friends with this family.

Cheng Shuang nodded and smiled, "Of course, you guys have good skills and work hard, I'll remember that."

After the workers dispersed, Cheng Shuang went to the warehouse at the foot of Yunxi Mountain. Since the workshop had been built, they would move there today.

Cheng Fu saw Cheng Shuang coming and hurriedly came forward to greet her and asked, "Sister-in-law, why are you here? Is the new workshop finished?"

He knew that the workshop behind the Wei family's house was built to make soap, and he had been looking forward to it for several days. Since his family couldn't live in a blue-tiled house, others would envy him if he told others that he was working in a blue-tiled house.

Cheng Shuang nodded: "Yes, it's done. You guys can clean up and move everything in the warehouse over there."

Peng He came running over upon hearing this. "We've all been planning to move over there for a long time, just waiting for your word!" He then turned and called out to the workers, "Everyone, stop what you're doing and come help move things."

The warehouse was filled with soap and various materials for making soap. A group of people responded and moved. They put the shelves, water tanks, raw materials, and whole boxes of soap, such as heavy items, on the donkey cart and transported them over, while some scattered small items were carried over in their hands.

The donkey cart's movement back and forth made quite a noise, which soon attracted the attention of the villagers. Some villagers ran outside the workshop and started talking about it.

"What are you moving? Why is there such a big fuss?"

"Soap, didn't we say during the recruitment that we were looking for people to make soap?"

"What's written on that door plaque? It's really beautiful."

"I don't even know what soap is, and I'm building a brick house to make it. Can I even make back the money I spent on it?"

"It's really strange. I heard this is called a workshop. I wish I could go in and work there."

Cheng Shuang heard the villagers' discussions outside, so she walked out of the warehouse and said to everyone with a smile: "Dear villagers, the workshop is finished today and we need to move the things in the warehouse here. Sorry to bother you, we will be there soon."

Someone asked, "Cheng Shuang, what exactly is soap? You make so much, what's the point?"

Cheng Shuang said, "Soap is used for washing clothes, but it can also be used for washing hands and bathing. It has a strong cleaning power and is much better than soap nuts."

The villagers were curious when they heard this. Someone asked, "Is your soap expensive? Can we afford it?"

Cheng Shuang smiled. "My dear uncles and aunts, I'm going to sell this in the city. You'll definitely think it's expensive based on my price of several hundred coins. However, I have some defective products here that aren't made well enough. Although they don't look very good, they can still be used. If you're interested, I can sell them to you at a discount of 20 coins a piece. Each family can buy a maximum of two pieces, so that you can try them out."

When the villagers heard that something that cost hundreds of coins could be bought for only twenty coins, they immediately became excited and clamored to buy it. Cheng Shuang then asked Peng Jiang to move out a box of defective products and sell it to the villagers at a low price.

The villagers lined up to buy it. Those who bought it took the soap, looked at it left and right, smelled it, and some immediately ran to the river to try it. It was indeed very powerful in cleaning and produced a lot of foam. It could wash their dirty hands clean in an instant. It was much better than soap nuts.

A group of aunts and grandmas praised Cheng Shuang for her ability, saying that she could even make something like soap.

Cheng Shuang responded with a few words with a smile, then turned and went into the workshop. Together with Wei Qinglang, she directed the workers to put things away and divided each room into different areas, so that it wouldn't be as messy as before in the warehouse.

After everything was moved and sorted, the two of them counted the soap inventory in the warehouse, classified the different soaps into boxes, and planned to go to Fu Ya Zhai to deliver the goods in person early tomorrow morning.

Wei Qinglang closed the account book. "Unscented soap is one thousand yuan, shampoo soap is three thousand yuan, and the five types of floral scented soap are one thousand yuan in total. That's a total of five thousand yuan. The amount is correct."

Cheng Shuang nodded and said, "Get up early tomorrow and go deliver the goods."

Nothing happened that night. Early the next morning, Song Gaoshan and a worker drove a donkey cart and followed the horse carriage into the city.

After arriving in the city, Song Gaoshan parked the donkey cart at the back door of Fu Ya Zhai as if he was familiar with the place. The waiter came out to count the goods and saw Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang getting off the carriage. He immediately went to find the boss.

Qin Suyue arrived just as the shop opened, and hurried to the backyard after receiving the news.

"Sister Shuang'er, you're finally here. You didn't come in person this time and only brought a few hundred dollars, did you?"

Cheng Shuang stepped forward, opened her palm with a smile, and said, "Five thousand yuan. This time I won't limit how much you can sell. I want to see how much I can sell in this morning."

Qin Suyue smiled and nodded to Wei Qinglang as a greeting, then took Cheng Shuang's hand and went in. "That's great! You don't know, the door to my shop is almost broken down. There are also other shops coming to my door wanting to cooperate. I am almost annoyed by them."

Cheng Shuang said, "Sister Qin, just send them away as you please. I can't supply so many goods right now."

"Of course, I will definitely hide you and not let anyone else snatch you away."

After a few jokes, Qin Suyue clapped her hands and called to the waiter, "Quick, move all the things in and put them directly on the shelves!"

The shop assistants responded quickly and swiftly carried boxes of soap into the store. Qin Suyue took Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang upstairs.

"We'll just watch from here."

Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang stood by the railing on the second floor, looking down at the counter downstairs.

It was still early and there were not many people in the store. The guys were busy tidying up the shelves.

Qin Suyue had someone put up a sign saying "New Soap Arrived" at the door of the store, and also specially took apart a few bars of soap and placed them on the counter, with a basin of water next to them for trying.

The soap was dyed in red, white and pink, and looked particularly beautiful. A lady with her maid came over, picked up a piece of rose-scented soap, sniffed it gently, and her eyes suddenly lit up.

The waiter quickly stepped forward and introduced: "Madam, this is a new floral scented soap. You can use it for washing your face or taking a bath. It leaves a fragrance and nourishes your skin. You can try it in the basin over here."

The lady actually asked the maid to wash her hands for her. After washing, she smelled them and said, "Hmm, this fragrance is really good, even more elegant than perfume!"

"The young ladies will probably like it." The maidservant beside the lady spoke.

The lady looked at the price, which was only one or two taels of silver, and said without hesitation, "Then give me five pieces!"

The waiter said enthusiastically, "Okay, ma'am, what kind of scent would you like? We have five kinds of floral scents: rose, jasmine, hibiscus, camellia, and osmanthus."

The lady waved her hand and said, "I want one of each!"

The clerk quickly responded, swiftly wrapped the soap, and handed it to the lady, who paid the money and left satisfied.

The soap had become famous in the city during this period. People came early every day to buy it. After the sign at the door was put up, many customers flocked into the store and went straight to the cleaning supplies counter.

There were ladies and ordinary people there. The two guys at the counter were explaining the uses of soap and shampoo soap very fluently.

"Can this shampoo soap really make hair smoother?" A young lady picked up a piece of shampoo soap and asked curiously.

The waiter smiled and said, "Don't worry, miss. This shampoo soap is specially made by our boss. After using it, your hair will be smooth and slippery without any damage to your hair."

The lady nodded and said, "Give me two bars, I bought a bar of soap from you before and it's very useful for washing hands!"

On the other side, an old lady picked up a piece of unscented soap and sniffed it. "Because this soap has no fragrance, does it only work for washing clothes?"

The guy quickly replied, "You can also wash your hands and take a bath. But taking a bath too often might dry out your skin, but if you don't wash it every day, it's not a problem."

"Okay, I'll have one too. It's perfect for my old man. Those scented powders are too strong."

"I want this shampoo soap. Give me two bars."

"This floral soap is so fragrant. Give me one with jasmine and one with osmanthus."

"Give me three bars of unscented soap. I'll take this rare gift to my parents when I return to their home in a few days."

Various noises came one after another, and customers from other counters came over when they saw this. The waiters were so busy that Qin Suyue sent a few more people to help.