mtl008 Chapter 128: Clan Elders
Chapter 128: Clan Elders
No. 9 Yongxing Lane welcomed a wave of distinguished guests on the first day of the dog days of summer.
In the main hall of the front yard, three middle-aged men sat upright, lined up in a row facing the door, and sat in the main seats. My grandfather sat respectfully at the bottom.
About a cup of tea later, Wang Jinyi was dressed neatly and led by her mother to the hall.
Grandfather stood up, bowed, and introduced:
"This is the daughter of the great-great-grandson of the Shu generation, her maiden name is Wang Jinyi. Jin'er, these are the clan leaders, all of whom are elders of the great uncle generation. Jin'er, call her the clan leader."
The mother and daughter greeted each other respectfully.
"Jin'er, stay here. You go down and prepare dinner. Shuli will be here soon."
This is telling the mother not to worry about her daughter, because the father will be back soon and the child will be taken care of by family members, so there is no need to worry.
In fact, the mother was not worried that her daughter would be restrained or suddenly afraid of strangers, but she was worried that her daughter would not follow the rules and make these clan elders angry.
The mother glanced at Qing'er, who stood at the door without moving. The mother left, and Qing'er stayed behind to stand at the door of the main hall with the wet nurse, acting as door gods.
Wang Jinyi stood in the middle of the main hall, looking up at the three men sitting there without any psychological burden.
The man sitting in the middle, who was called the clan leader, had a bookish look on his face, more like a scholar from his previous life. He had a faint expression on his face and seemed to be smiling. He did not look very old, probably no more than forty.
The other two people sitting on both sides of him were older, and it seemed that the person in the middle was the leader, and this person was the main person every time they spoke.
However, the three of them were dressed differently. The clan leader wore a dark cloth robe, with a jade pendant on each side of his belt. Only one of the three wore a brocade robe, with a wide brocade belt around his waist, with a conspicuous jade belt buckle.
Wang Jinyi guessed that the person sitting in the middle must be an elder in the clan, who had the power to make decisions. The two below must have come to negotiate terms with him. As for the one in the brocade robe, he might be the one who made money for the clan!
Sure enough, the following series of events confirmed Wang Jinyi's guess.
The master asked:
"You are the kid who made the charcoal? Did you really come up with that?"
Wang Jinyi put her hands on her sides, playing with the ribbons on her skirt, raised her tender little face, and said childishly:
"My name is Wang Jinyi, Sect Leader. I am not very good at writing, so I thought that changing to a different writing tool would make it better. So I came up with this idea. In fact, this pen is a little cheaper, so maybe someone will buy it and use it.
My grandfather thought it would be useful in promoting cultural popularization..."
As Wang Jinyi spoke, he looked at the expressions of the adults sitting high up in the seats, then turned his head to glance at his grandfather and gave him a reassuring look.
But I don't know what's wrong with those three clan leaders? Why are there no expressions on their faces? What do they mean?
Wang Jinyi thought about it and decided to express his ideas first. Anyway, if they had any ideas, they could discuss them. If they really disagreed, they could hand over the business to "Huaguoshan".
So he asked:
"Have you seen the pencil, clan leaders? What do you think? I am willing to cooperate with the clan. But there are conditions. Do you have any ideas? Then tell me, let me hear it!"
The three clan leaders hadn't yet recovered from their "promotion of cultural popularization" when they were hit by a second wave of attacks.
The little person standing in the hall, who hadn't even grown all his teeth yet, calmly let them propose conditions, and this little person even said seriously that she would need to consider it!
What does this mean? Shouldn't this child take the initiative to hand over the formula and wait for the clan to give her benefits, and then she should make the conditions? How come it's the other way around? Something's wrong!
The three of them looked at each other subconsciously and exchanged glances. Just as they were thinking about how to talk to such a young child, Wang Jinyi said again:
"It's like this, this pencil can be used for writing, accounting, and drawing. It can also come in different colors, that is, it can be a colored pencil. Here, let you try it, and then we will talk about it!"
Wang Jinyi stretched out the red and blue pencils in her hand and spread out her little hand.
The three clan leaders had not expected that the child would behave like this and even wanted to take advantage of them. They all looked at each other and then turned their eyes to their grandfather.
The grandfather quickly stood up, walked to the main hall, squatted down, took the two colored pencils from his granddaughter, and looked at them carefully.
Yes, it is a red and blue double-ended pen. One side is red and the other side is blue. The pen cores at both ends have been fixed.
"Jin'er, have you come up with a new pen? Or do you have any new ideas? Want to add them to the contract?"
"No, this one won't cooperate for now. Let's see how the charcoal pencil cooperates. We also need to test it again to see if this colored pencil is easy to use."
The three clan leaders finally understood that although this child was small, she actually had an independent self-awareness, and she wanted to challenge them.
This kid has his own ideas!
The clan leader spoke:
"You want to cooperate with the clan? Do this..."
Before the leader could finish his words, Wang Jinyi interrupted him unceremoniously:
"No, I don't have to cooperate with the clan."
The three clan leaders were initially unhappy with the child's rudeness, but after hearing what the child said, they were a little overwhelmed.
"Do you want to start this charcoal pencil business yourself?"
Do you think you don't believe that you have the ability? Wang Jinyi decided to let these clan leaders who have always been high and mighty hit a snag, so that they can talk to him calmly.
"It's like this. I don't have to do the business myself. I can provide recipes to attract investment, process investment, and operate investment. Each person can only earn their own portion of the money, and I earn money from supervision and management. Our Xunyang Wang family, um~ has not entered the market, and can make the most money!
I can also have more money to buy more books and train more outstanding juniors, which is actually possible.”
The three clan leaders and the grandfather were stunned when they heard this. It turned out that business could be done this way. In this way, they didn't have to do anything, just supervise and still make a lot of money!
"Whose idea was this?" the clan leader asked with a hint of anger on his face.
Finally you have some expression, even if you are angry, it at least shows that you still take it to heart and you have the intention to cooperate with me!
"It was me! At that time, my grandfather thought that this business would benefit the Wang clan, scholars, and the common people. It would be best to cooperate with the court in the name of the clan. My grandfather convinced me by explaining the pros and cons..."
The three elders looked at their grandfather deeply and realized that the child was probably a money-grubber.
The grandfather did not expect that his granddaughter would use this method to scare the clan leaders, so he mediated between the two sides:
"Jin'er also agreed to cooperate with the clan at that time. Let's try these two pens first, and then talk about it."
Then he said to the maid at the door:
"Bring me some paper for the ledger."