Xie Youwei's eyes flickered, and he stretched out his hand to tap a hairpin.
"This one is pretty good. Can you take it out and show it to me?"
What Xie Youwei lit was a hairpin inlaid with red jade.
After listening to Xie Youwei's words, the woman hurriedly handed the hairpin to Xie Youwei's hand.
Xie Youwei lowered his head and began to look at it.
She had also seen this hairpin in Zhuyu Pavilion, but the hairpin in her hand now was made of much worse materials than the one in Zhuyu Pavilion. Take the ruby for example, there is no Zhuyu Pavilion.
It's translucent and beautiful.
It also looks like gilded gold.
As Xie Youwei looked at it, the woman next to him smiled bitterly and spoke.
"Is this hairpin made of pure gold? It's just a gold-plated hairpin. The red jade on it would have looked better if it were blood jade, but we really don't have that much money, so we used lower-grade red agate. If the girl
If you want, you can take it cheaper."
The woman spoke in a low tone and looked at Xie Youwei nervously.
Xie Youwei raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"How much are you prepared to sell?"
"If you want it, girl, just take the three taels of silver."
Thirty taels of silver, equivalent to six hundred yuan in modern times.
Xie Youwei remembered that the price of the hairpin she saw in Zhuyu Pavilion was ten taels of gold, which had doubled several times.
Seeing that Xie Youwei didn't speak for a while, the woman sighed.
"The girl is not satisfied with the price. How about she give me a price?"
Xie Youwei looked in the direction of the woman.
The little girl underneath tugged at the hem of Xie Youwei's clothes.
"Pretty sister, if you like it, buy it."
The little girl's eyes are big, but her cheeks are a little thin, and her face is a little yellow from malnutrition.
The woman sighed.
"This girl, I didn't mean to be miserable. The situation is actually a bit special now. The father of the child..."
Halfway through the story, the woman suddenly choked up and did not continue.
Xie Youwei sighed.
"Aren't you considering selling out the store?"
The woman sighed.
"What I have thought about is that my husband disagrees. This shop is his life's work. He said that even if he dies, he is not willing to sell the shop."
"I want this hairpin." Xie Youwei handed out three taels of silver, bent down and put it in the little girl's hand, then straightened up and looked at the woman, "I want to negotiate a cooperation with you, is that okay?"
The woman looked at Xie Youwei in surprise.
"Cooperate? With me?"
"Yes." Xie Youwei nodded, "I will make a design draft and you will make it and sell it to you."
Xie Youwei could see that with the same style, although the material inside the Yuanyang hairpin was not as good as that of Zhuyu Pavilion, the production process was a bit better than that of Zhuyu Pavilion, and many small details were much more exquisite than the hairpins in Zhuyu Pavilion.
Based on those details, Xie Youwei could basically confirm that the plagiarist was probably Zhuyu Pavilion.
There was a hint of surprise on the woman's face, but then it dimmed.
"It's not that I don't want to, you should have seen this lady, we are completely unable to uncover the truth, and we have no spare money to pay you..."
Xie You smiled.
"Let's go inside and have a chat."
The woman nodded, signaled the little girl to look outside the store, and walked towards the backyard with Xie Youwei.
While walking on the road, Xie Youwei learned the woman's name.
The woman's name is Gao Li, and she married her current husband very early.
Her husband's surname is Lin Qi, and he was a craftsman of Zhuyu Pavilion a long time ago.
"Did you use the money from Zhuyu Pavilion to buy this shop?"
Gao Li smiled bitterly.
"Half and half. After Zhuyu Pavilion changed its current owner, the wages of the craftsmen were greatly reduced. My family began to think of going out to work alone, and began to buy some materials and make them to sell to other shops. I saved up from going back and forth.
After getting some money, we later met a nobleman who fell in love with his craftsmanship and asked him to hire a young lady who wanted to become a monk. The salary was very high, which was enough for us to own the current shop.
"
Xie Youwei touched the hairpin she just took away in her hand.
"What about the plagiarism they rumored about Yuanyangzang?"
After hearing Xie Youwei's question, the woman's face showed a bit of anger.
"Obviously it was their Zhuyu Pavilion villains in front! Those jewelry were all created by Lin Qi when he was in Zhuyu Pavilion. Zhuyu Pavilion probably noticed it at that time, but didn't say anything. Instead, we opened the mandarin duck hairpins.
After the business started, Zhuyu Pavilion launched the exact same jewelry!"
"We don't have much money, so most of the jewelry can only be made with gold plating. Zhuyu Pavilion can make pure gold. Zhuyu Pavilion said that our Yuanyangzang plagiarized the materials used. Their store has such a big name. With a little publicity, our Yuanyang Hairpin
The bad reputation spread throughout the streets..."
"Lin Qi has been making jewelry all his life and spent so much effort. He couldn't bear this kind of grievance. He fell ill in a fit of anger. We invested all our money in the mandarin duck hairpin and almost lost everything. We had no money to buy medicine at all, so
We can only sell these jewelry at low prices here."
Xie Youwei looked at the tired look on the woman's face and sighed slowly.
"The pair of mandarin duck hairpins in the Zhuyu Pavilion belong to you, right?"
When the pair of hairpins were mentioned, the woman's face became even more sad, and her voice became even more trembling.
"yes."
"Lin Qi personally tied the pair of mandarin duck hairpins for me a few years ago. They were brought with me when I got married, and they were also a gift given by Lin Qi to me. However, I don't know when they were stolen by Zhuyu Pavilion.
, and he said it was not for sale! He even changed his name!"
Gao Li wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes.
"I went to Zhuyu Pavilion several times to get it back, but I was kicked out every time..."
Xie Youwei couldn't help but reached out and patted Gao Li's shoulder to express comfort.
She knew everything Gao Li said.
This afternoon Gao Li was kicked out of the Zhuyu Pavilion in such a panic, and everyone around her commented negatively on Yuanyang Hairpin and Gao Li.
It took Gao Li a while to calm down her emotions, and she smiled sheepishly at Xie Youwei.
"I'm sorry for making the girl laugh."
"Our Yuanyang Hairpin is in such a situation. Girl...do you really want to cooperate with us?"
Xie Youwei nodded.
"I will pay to cure your husband's illness first, and you won't need to pay for my design draft. We will share the profit when the time comes, 40 to 60 to us, 6 to me, 4 to you, okay?"
Gao Li had a look of confusion on her face.
"But in our situation, Yuanyang Hairpin, there is no way to make much money. I'm afraid that the girl won't even be able to earn back her capital..."
Under the veil, Xie You curled her lips slightly.
"You don't have to worry about this. Leave it to me. Sales will increase."