Chapter 527: Shopkeeper Wu's Daily Life (7)

Bai Shenming, Provincial Graduate Bai, is a famous man in Zengcheng County.

There is no doubt about this. For a locality in the Ming Dynasty, a juren was the local "county worthy," a member of the upper class, an indisputable part of the ruling class.

The ruling class didn't get that status for nothing. When Fan Jin passed the provincial exam, Zhang Xiangshen came to offer congratulations and immediately gifted fifty taels of silver and a large three-courtyard, three-bay mansion on East Gate Street; after that, people came in an endless stream to offer up land and shops... This was the case even in the Qing Dynasty, when gentry power was severely suppressed, let alone in the Ming Dynasty, when gentry arrogance knew no bounds.

The Zengcheng White Family's fortunes had flourished just as well.

In the beginning, the White Family was merely an old hereditary sundries shop in Xiancheng, a solidly middle-class household. In theory, the then still very young Young Master Bai would, in the future, simply inherit the sundries shop, going from Young Master to Old Master.

However, Young Master Bai was exceptionally gifted. Although his composition skills were not high and his literary talent was mediocre, on the path of the imperial examinations, he was a tournament-type player who performed well under pressure. During the Wanli Era, he won victory after victory and ultimately secured the eighth-from-last place in the Guangdong Provincial Exam.

After this, Young Master Bai broke his lance at the Metropolitan Exam and did not become a jinshi, but this did not stop the White Family from moving up a class overnight in Zengcheng County, becoming an enviably wealthy and honored household.

After becoming a juren, Comrade Bai Shenming first went to Jiangxi to serve a term as County Deputy. After this, he was originally going to be transferred, but because Bai Laodongjia suffered an attack of intestinal abscess (chronic appendicitis) and finally breathed his last, Master Bai returned home to observe the three-year mourning period and, incidentally, manage the family business.

Yet during this mourning period, Master Bai's desire to be an official gradually cooled — a juren couldn't become a high official anyway, at best he'd be some Assistant Official in a county suffering petty grievances, and even corruption wouldn't fall to him. How could that compare to being a gentry master in his hometown, where a single call summoned a hundred responses and he could order people about at will?

After this, Master Bai settled down contentedly in his hometown to develop the family enterprise. Now, more than ten years later, Young Master Bai had become middle-aged Master Bai. With his dedicated management, the White Family not only had farms and tenant farmers in the countryside, but White Crane Sundries had also developed from its original single shop into a powerful chain enterprise in the Zengcheng region, becoming a true great household, a "farming-and-scholarship family."

One good point, however, was this: despite the expansion of his family business and his high social status, Master Bai had, over all these years, maintained the approachable style of the sundries shop's Young Master from years past. This meant that when Shopkeeper Wu met the Master today, he wasn't overly ill at ease.

"Old Brother Qianshan, this trip into the mountains must have been hard on you."

After they sat facing each other and were served tea in the study used for entertaining close guests, Master Bai said to Shopkeeper Wu with a smile.

"You're too kind to think of me, Master. I'm used to running around; it's no hardship, no hardship."

"Ah, Old Brother, you're getting on in years now too. You must know to take care of yourself. If there's any business that requires going out, let the junior clerks under you handle it. These matters, after all, must eventually be handed over to the younger generation."

Although the relationship between host and guest had always been maintained quite well, Master Bai was now increasingly courteous when facing Shopkeeper Wu, inquiring after his well-being with concern and consideration, truly putting on the attitude of one of the family.

This was only to be expected. Ever since Shopkeeper Wu had last time turned misfortune into a blessing and established a connection with the General Headquarters, Master Bai's attitude toward him had upgraded from that of an old subordinate, an old family retainer, to the level of an intimate comrade and partner.

This regard was not because Shopkeeper Wu's share percentage in White Crane Sundries had increased — the White Family had vast assets and these shares didn't amount to much.

What drew Provincial Graduate Bai's attention was the line Shopkeeper Wu had connected to the General Headquarters.

Although the White Family had also purchased rural landholdings over the years, Provincial Graduate Bai still simultaneously devoted great energy to commerce. All these years, he had personally handled everything, single-handedly building the old hereditary family name into glory and developing it into a chain enterprise.

However, in the last two years, due to the deterioration of the broader social environment, White Crane Sundries had also come under pressure. Channels were blocked, sales were sluggish, and business was worsening by the day. Provincial Graduate Bai was naturally completely helpless against this trend of overall decay. Whenever he thought of this matter, he would always sigh deeply, and in the end could only order Shopkeeper Wu and the others to struggle along as best they could.

Unexpectedly, around the middle of last year, a turning point appeared: due to the successive great battles off the coast of Guangzhou, Provincial Graduate Bai had collected some information about Cao Zong and the Yizhou area.

Provincial Graduate Bai, who came from a sundries shop Young Master background, naturally had a behavioral pattern different from those traditional gentry. Not only was he extremely interested in this information, not begrudging the expense of money to inquire through multiple channels, but in the end he even risked making a personal trip to Yizhou.

Ever since Provincial Graduate Bai returned from Yizhou, he had completely changed: every few days he would run off to Guangzhou. Not only did he buy a residence in Guangzhou City to set up a foothold, but he also closely monitored the every move of certain power bases.

After that, at a bidding meeting that ordinary people knew nothing about, thanks to his forward-thinking business vision and ample information, Provincial Graduate Bai, despite his financial resources not being very abundant, still gritted his teeth and placed a heavy bet, managing to defeat the other wealthy merchants who were still in a wait-and-see mood, and in one stroke won the bid from the Transmigrators for the Zengcheng County agency rights for seven types of Yizhou sundries.

What followed were the stories of White Crane Sundries' revival and Shopkeeper Wu's encounter with the local textiles.

After experiencing all this, as of today, matters concerning Cao Zong and the Yizhou side could be said to be Provincial Graduate Bai's focus of interest.

The reasons for this were not solely business-related... The factory assembly lines in Yizhou had delivered too great an ideological shock to Provincial Graduate Bai back then.

Provincial Graduate Bai, well-read in the histories, no matter how he looked at it, could not see Cao Zong as the type to have "Serve the Country with Utmost Loyalty" tattooed on his back. Therefore, he was now willing to pay any amount of resources, just to establish even the slightest connection with the Transmigrators — in this southern land far from the Emperor, making plans early was the true principle. He had a merchant's mindset, unencumbered by any ideology of "receiving imperial grace for generations."

This was the deep-seated reason why Provincial Graduate Bai now disregarded his status to call Shopkeeper Wu brother, yet it was not something he could speak of to outsiders. Shopkeeper Wu was registered at the General Headquarters, considered a friendly personage who could exchange words with those people. By settling Shopkeeper Wu well now, sooner or later, this line would broaden and bring even greater benefits to the White Family.

"Old Brother Qianshan, don't go to the shop for the next few days. Rest well at home and make up for the New Year. After the New Year is over, we still have one major matter to attend to."

Master Bai conversed with Shopkeeper Wu for the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea. Seeing that the time was about right, he then brought up the next work arrangement.

As soon as Shopkeeper Wu heard the Master had a major matter, the professional habits cultivated over many years immediately brought him into work mode: "Oh, a major matter? May I ask, Master, what major matter? Do we need to make any preparations?"

"Heh heh, no preparations needed." Provincial Graduate Bai at this moment took two pure white cigarettes from a plain dish at his side, handed one to the Shopkeeper, and used a pure silver ZIPPO to skillfully strike a flame: "At Rocky Desert Seven Shoals outside the city, master craftsmen from the General Headquarters will be coming to look at stone then, and we must receive them well. You can speak with that side, so go and get close to them... Quite a few people are eyeing this matter; the County Magistrate is said to be covetous as well. Our family cannot fall behind others."