“Can't sell them…”

Dongfang Weiming, Nie Yunzhu, sat on the steps in front of the small building, propping her chin up and saying with some distress.

"I went to several nearby restaurants to see the managers, just like Young Master Ning said a few days ago, but they said no one has eaten this before, and it's too expensive to sell, so they won't put it on their counters."

After all, productivity is insufficient these days. Foods like rice and grains are considered staples to fill the stomach and are cheaper. Meat and eggs are more expensive. Proportionally speaking, if a pancake that costs two wen can be considered one yuan, then a salted egg that costs ten wen is five yuan, and the Songhua egg sells for twenty wen on Ning Yi's recommendation, which is almost a luxury. In this era when only well-off families occasionally eat meat and eggs, such things are naturally difficult to sell.

Of course, there are many wealthy people around Jiangning. Taking brothels as an example, the more popular girls charge three guan—that is, three taels of silver, or three thousand wen—to enter the door, three guan for singing and dancing, and three guan for going to bed, for a total of nine guan, or four thousand five hundred yuan, for one time. The price of girls selling themselves is extremely high as an exception. If they don't sell themselves, like Yuan Jin'er, Lu Caicai, Qi Lan, and the former Nie Yunzhu, the price is even higher, and there is no limit to it. But anyway, a large group of people are waiting to throw money at you. If you're stingy, you can't even get in the door. If you get in the door and you're still stingy, they won't bother with you next time. Just like Su Tan'er's brothers extort dozens of taels of silver from her each time, which is a huge sum for ordinary families, but if you really want to flaunt your wealth and call a bunch of cronies, it's just a matter of one or two times.

People who are willing to spend nine thousand wen to find a girl may not be willing to eat a twenty-wen Songhua egg at a roadside stall, but at least it proves that this purchasing power exists in Jiangning.

If you want to sell it for twenty wen, you have to find some relatively high-end places nearby, famous teahouses and restaurants, and ask them to help sell it on consignment. But this is, after all, a new thing. If you say I sell an egg for twenty wen, please help me, people are not running charities. Nie Yunzhu used to be very good at various talents, and she is beautiful and can be considered a talented woman, but these skills naturally cannot be used for business negotiations in a methodical way. Selling salted eggs for twenty wen each on consignment has not been successful. Two restaurant managers didn't talk to her much at all, and one saw that she was beautiful but came out to sell pancakes and wanted to get handsy, so she just walked away.

This is naturally a blow to Nie Yunzhu, who is wholeheartedly trying to get rid of her former identity and work hard to earn a living like an ordinary person. However, she is also stubborn. If an ordinary person encountered such a thing, they might consider no longer selling preserved eggs, but she doesn't seem to have such intentions. Ning Yi ran all the way, sweating profusely, playing with a copper coin in his hand, and then smiled: "Speaking of which, I recently made a bet with someone that Songhua eggs will be popular in a month."

"Popular?"

"Yeah, you have to sell at least twenty or thirty a day."

"… Uh." Nie Yunzhu thought for a while, then smiled, "I will try my best to sell thirty. Actually… maybe I can consign a batch to Jin Feng Lou…"

Nie Yunzhu obviously hesitated for a long time before saying this. What she was thinking at this time was obviously different from what Ning Yi was thinking. In her opinion, Ning Yi is a good person, a unique, humorous, and talented scholar, but he has nothing to do with business. Now that he has invented this Songhua egg, he is asking himself to help sell it, perhaps because he boasted to someone. This is also human nature. If he can't sell that many, he will lose face. If there was really no other way, she probably wouldn't consider Jin Feng Lou again. Although the madam in the building abides by the contract and has not forced her to do anything, it is not necessarily a good person. It is not easy to repay favors, but in any case, using such a relationship is probably the only way she can think of at this time.

Ning Yi was slightly stunned when he heard her mention Jin Feng Lou, and then he understood: "No need for that." He shook his head, then pointed to the shed where the small cart was parked, "Close the stall earlier at noon today, and package the cart. It's too simple as it is now, and you can't sell it for twenty wen."

"Package?"

"Uh… just decorate it a bit."

Nie Yunzhu nodded, indicating that she understood with a puzzled look…

When school was out at noon, Ning Yi went to the market to eat, then bought various paints, large and small brushes, and brushes and came to Nie Yunzhu's side. Only then did Nie Yunzhu know what he was going to do. In the afternoon, he washed the small cart clean, and Ning Yi made a simple composition with chalk. After pondering for a while, he moved a short stool and sat down to write.

Nie Yunzhu couldn't help at this time, just squatted next to her to watch for a while. When she returned to the room and saw Hu Tao, Hu Tao said: "Young Master Ning wants to paint on the cart to sell Songhua eggs?"

"I think so."

"But, can oil paint make good paintings…"

"Many lacquerware are also painted with lacquer. Young Master Ning… must have some knowledge in this field…"

Nie Yunzhu was actually a little worried. Qinqi calligraphy and painting are elegant arts. Whether Ning Yi's painting skills are exquisite is another matter. With his current reputation, painting on such a small cart is only to sell that Songhua egg. If people know about it, he will probably cause more controversy. The better the painting, the greater the risk.

On the other hand, Hu Tao's mood was actually not good. She has been worried about her mistress recently. Since Yuanxi that day, after confirming that Ning Yi, who was interacting with her mistress, was the top talent and really talented, her worries have been increasing day by day. For her, she certainly wanted to marry Er Niu sooner, but she was not at ease at all if her mistress had no destination. Now her mistress seems to have a good impression of this person, but what is this? As her mistress said: She can't marry him.

The other party's identity is that of a live-in son-in-law. Even if her mistress likes him, there will be no results at all. The more talented that person is, the deeper her mistress will sink, and she will not be able to like others. The Su family is big and powerful. If the other party's wife finds out about this and comes to the door, what can we do? Thinking about it this way, she became more and more anxious.

In the middle, Ning Yi also called Nie Yunzhu out once and asked her whether the stall should be called "Nie Ji" or "Zhu Ji". Nie Yunzhu thought about it and chose Zhu Ji.

By dusk, the sunset shone from one side of the Qinhuai River bend, and the decoration of the car was finally completed. When Nie Yunzhu went to see it, she felt a little dumbfounded: the style of this painting, she had never seen it before!

It's not that the painting is too bad, but that the painting is too good, too bizarre. The composition of the painting on the car is three-dimensional.

These days, with paint, there will naturally be various lacquerware patterns, either delicate or rough, but the car in front of him is definitely unique in the entire era. The picture is actually simple, but a few bamboos symbolize a corner of the bamboo forest after the rain, hidden in a mist, and a picture of a Songhua egg being cut into four pieces is drawn on one side, which is not very lifelike. The words "Zhu Ji Songhua Egg" float on the screen - however, the picture is three-dimensional.

For Ning Yi, it's just a simple technique. Controlling the imbalance of the proportions of various parts of the picture achieves the effect of the bamboo forest entering the field of vision. The five characters "Zhu Ji Songhua Egg" cooperate with the floating shadows, creating a feeling of falling or drifting in the mist. It's just that the painted Songhua egg is unsatisfactory. For a while, he can't match a very beautiful and appropriate color, so he can only make it look as beautiful as possible. Since the oil paint mixture will appear blurred, Ning Yi carefully added clear black lines to the edges of the different patterns, which makes the conflict and three-dimensionality more obvious. If this car is pushed out, it will definitely attract the attention of passers-by immediately. Moreover, it is different from mainstream paintings. Others will only think that it is a trick thought up by a businessman, and will not think that it is a picture carefully drawn by a certain talent.

The conditions are limited, but looking at the other party's surprised look, Ning Yi is generally satisfied with the results. Probably thinking of Ning Yi's strange taste in music, Nie Yunzhu said: "Liheng's painting is also so... uh, so strange. I have never seen this style before, but it's almost like it's growing out of the wall of the car..."

If a picture is realistic, the first impact is simple. This is different from the taste of music. Nie Yunzhu even wanted to reach out and touch the pillar, but Ning Yi stopped her with a smile, then pointed to the awning above.

"The paint is not dry, so you can't touch it. The awning above should be changed. I will buy it tomorrow. The paint is not dry these days, so you can't do business. Uh... we need to prepare some things, beautiful small bowls, various sauces, vinegar, tofu, there are many ways to eat, it must look clean and beautiful, well, this is the first step..." Ning Yi calculated, "After these things are done, we will solve the stubborn problems of those restaurants..."

In the next few days in the afternoon, things were done in an orderly manner, beautiful bowls and plates, purchasing various sauces, and matching various ways of eating. Ning Yi came over every afternoon, and Nie Yunzhu also seemed happy, but Hu Tao was unhappy and complained to her mistress at night: "Mistress, it's not cost-effective to buy those things at all..."

Ning Yi chose very beautiful bowls and plates. In the eyes of ordinary people, they are not practical and expensive. Although Ning Yi paid for half of these things, saying that they were counted as shares, in Hu Tao's opinion, this was meaningless. There is not much money in the family, and if you save some money, the mistress can still use it for a long time, but now like this, it is simply that Ning Yi is spending money as a matter of course, and the mistress is unwilling to refuse and can only follow him. When the Ning Gongzi doesn't care about wasting money, what can the mistress do? Wouldn't she spend her last savings?

"If Hu Tao has something to say, that Ning Gongzi must be very talented, there is no doubt about that. But he may not understand business. We're just setting up a small stall, why are there so many things to pay attention to, mistress, you can't play with him! We can't afford to play..."

"Ning Gongzi is a truly talented person. Since he is so confident, I will naturally believe him. Until the end, Hu Tao, how do you know he has no way?" Actually, Nie Yunzhu had no confidence in her heart, but naturally, she could only say this to Hu Tao.

"Hasn't my mistress seen fewer talented people?" Hu Tao retorted, "Talent is talent, and doing business is doing business. Those talented people still gamble and lose their family fortunes, and end up penniless. Although Hu Tao doesn't understand, she has seen a lot. There are so many small stalls on the street, they are all like this. Those big restaurants or brothels are completely different. Mistress, that Ning Gongzi is a live-in son-in-law of a merchant family. I heard that his wife is very good at managing things in the Su family. Maybe he just can't swallow this breath, and is using the mistress as an experiment..."

"Shut up!" Nie Yunzhu's eyes narrowed and interrupted her words.

Hu Tao stood there pursing her lips for a long time, tears rolled down from her eyes, and then she gritted her teeth and said with a sob: "Mistress, you also know, you can't marry Ning Gongzi. If the mistress can marry him, then Hu Tao won't say anything..."

After saying this, the room was quiet for a long time, Nie Yunzhu sat on the edge of the bed, leaning against the bed frame next to her, her eyes changing occasionally. After a long time, the light flickered, and she closed her eyes hard: "I know..." When she opened her eyes again, she smiled slightly.

"Hu Tao, you go to sleep too, it's not early..."

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