Chapter 2159 - 2156: Business
Chapter 2159: Chapter 2156: Business
The busiest place had to be outside the yamen’s special pavilion for selling newspapers, where many people gathered specifically to buy the newspaper.
Next was outside the Yonghe Bookstore.
The shopkeeper stayed up late last night overseeing the reprinting of books to avoid mistakes, and only got to bed very late, yawning when he woke up in the morning.
As soon as he told the bookstore’s waiter to open the shop doors, he was startled by the crowd of customers outside.
"Waiter, do you sell ’The Imperial Examination Path’ here? Where is it? I’d like to buy two copies."
"Waiter, I want to buy this book too, I need three copies..."
"Hey, I came yesterday, queued all day and still couldn’t get one. You said today it would be available, don’t let me wait in vain again."
The waiter was almost overwhelmed by the crowd, quickly stretched out his hand, and shouted, "Please don’t rush, we have new stock today, plenty, as many as two thousand copies; please don’t crowd, there’s enough for everyone."
"Really? That many? Quickly, line up." The eyes of the customers lit up instantly upon hearing the news.
The waiter finally squeezed out of the crowd, calling for others inside the store to help move the books out, he decided to sell them at the door. After all, the bookstore wasn’t big, and with so many books inside, letting people in and risk damaging them wasn’t worth it.
The shopkeeper, yawning, made a prompt decision: "Sell them right here, open the door when you’re done."
The shopkeeper realized that those coming so early were mostly there to buy the book ’The Imperial Examination Path.’
He could open the shop later without delaying business.
The waiter, sweating profusely, said, "Everyone, just come here one by one..."
"Here’s the silver, I want two copies."
"For me, one copy."
"I want three copies..."
The waiter was in charge of handing out books, the cashier quickly collected money, and two assistants helped move the books over.
Even though two thousand copies didn’t sound like much, it still formed several large piles, thick and quite heavy.
After handling most of the customers looking to buy books, about eighty percent of the copies were sold, and the waiter finally managed to take a break and have a drink of water.
"Excuse me, waiter, I’d like to discuss some business with you, could you introduce me to the shopkeeper?" asked a middle-aged man in a gown, with a polite demeanor.
The waiter, upon hearing this, gave him a few more glances.
Seeing this, the middle-aged man quickly introduced himself: "Waiter, my surname is Zhong, I’m a merchant, and I run Zhong’s Escort Agency, I hope you could inform the shopkeeper."
"Alright then, please wait for a moment." The waiter happened to have someone to take over.
Seeing that the visitor had a good attitude, he went to inform the shopkeeper.
Shortly, the waiter came out and waved at Zhong Shan: "You may come in."
"Thank you." Zhong Shan courteously clasped his hands in gratitude, showing no disdain for the waiter’s position.
This made the waiter feel quite comfortable.
Inside, the bookstore shopkeeper received Zhong Shan in the inner room.
"What business does Master Zhong propose?" The shopkeeper pretty much had an idea, as those coming to discuss business at the bookstore around this time were mostly interested in ’The Imperial Examination Path.’ Zhong Shan was not the first to come, nor would he be the last.
But he had instructions from the lady to choose partners based on character, eliminating merchants who deliberately came to gather information before determining partnerships.
As a result, he had yet to make a decision.
Zhong Shan was a straightforward person and spoke plainly: "Shopkeeper, I’d like to inquire if you could sell me five thousand copies of ’The Imperial Examination Path’."