In ancient times, there was a person in Suzhou City, surnamed Wang Kangping, who was very intelligent and ingenious when he was a child, no matter what he learned, he could get through it at one touch. Although Wang Kangping is smarter than ordinary people, he is not persistent enough, and all skills are superficial, piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, blowing, playing and singing, and in the end they are all at the level of "slightly understanding".
When he was a teenager, Wang Kangping's father, Wang Laohan, spent thirty copper coins to find an old Taoist in Suzhou City to give him a hexagram. The old man twisted his goatee, rolled his cloudy eyes, and said that Wang Kangping had "huge wealth". Wang Laohan was happy, and gave the old man fifteen copper coins.
In the blink of an eye, Wang Kangping is twenty-six or seventeen years old, he thinks very highly of himself, he can't work hard, and he is idle all day long. After Wang Laohan died, the family property left behind was gradually eaten by Wang Kangping, and seeing that his wife and children were about to starve, Wang Kangping began to think about how to do business.
Wang Kangping was wandering on the street one day, sitting in a tavern and chatting, when he heard others say that the fans in the capital were very good. Wang Kangping took out a tael of silver from his cuffs, invited people to drink a few glasses of wine, and inquired about the fan business. Wang Kangping has always regarded himself very highly, thinking that with this small meal, he has touched the door of the fan business.
After returning home, Wang Kangping took out the last family foundation, and used a set of family heirloom Huanghuali tables and chairs as a set of fans.
Don't look at this small paper fan, it is only three or four taels in your hand, and there are indeed a lot of doorways inside. The fan made of high-quality wood and paper has to be taken to the famous Mr. Genius to ask for a pair of calligraphy and paintings, if Tang Yin and Zhu Zhishan write a few strokes, this fan will be worth dozens of taels of silver.
Ordinary wood and fan surfaces can be sold if they are taken to scholars who do not have any reputation, and they can be sold by pretending to write a few strokes. If this scholar imitates the master's handwriting skills, the fan can also be used as a good object to fool people. The white fan without words and paintings is the least valuable, and it is sold for a dozen copper coins, which is almost unprofitable.
Wang Kangping didn't have enough money, so he naturally couldn't ask for calligraphy and painting from talented people like Tang Yin and Zhu Zhishan, so he could only find an old talent in Suzhou City, wrote a few popular Tang poems on the fan, picked an auspicious day for the zodiac, and went straight to the capital with a box on his back.
It's a pity that the sky is not beautiful, the rain in the capital was very heavy that summer, and it rained for more than ten days in half a month, and it was cold all day, where was half a minute of heat? Wang Kangping came to the capital for more than a month, but he didn't sell a fan, and the entanglement on his body also bottomed out.
I finally waited until the sky cleared, but it was also the beginning of autumn. Wang Kangping hurriedly carried the box on his back to sell fans on the street, opened his throat and shouted for a long time, drank two pots of tea, and finally a son-in-law was attracted by Wang Kangping's "Su Paper Fan" signboard, pacing in all directions.
Wang Kangping hurriedly opened the wooden box and asked Brother Gongzi to choose a paper fan, but Brother Gongzi looked down, frowned, and got up and left with a cold snort. Wang Kangping was stunned, he looked down and was dumbfounded.
It turned out that Wang Kangping's paper fan was not completely dried and dried, so he hurried to the capital, and the weather was humid for more than a month, and the fan surface was glued together with ink, and it could not be opened at all. As soon as I lowered my head, an unpleasant musty smell came to my face!
Wang Kangping was unwilling, and opened a paper fan with force, and the fan surface really festered and cracked. Wang Kangping calculated that he couldn't go back to Suzhou no matter how much he consumed, so he hurried home. This box of paper fans was also thrown on the side of the road.
After returning to Suzhou City, Wang Kangping tried to do business a few more times, but unfortunately nothing worked, and each time he lost his capital. Within a few years, the family's savings were all wiped out by Wang Kangping, and people also gave him the nickname "Unlucky Man"! In desperation, his wife took her two sons back to her parents' house, and she couldn't follow Wang Kangping to starve every day!
His wife is separated, his family is surrounded by walls, and Wang Kangping himself has accepted the nickname of "unlucky man", maybe I was not born to do business. The neighbors laughed at him, and Wang Kangping had no choice but to be cheeky and laugh. Life has to pass, Wang Kangping has to eat and drink in the village, occasionally do chores to help out, and live in a muddy way.
One day, a group of seafarers who went to sea came back from Suzhou City, and they were a group of more than 30 people, and they returned to the land after four years at sea. In addition to bringing back a lot of goods that everyone has never seen, the seafarers also brought back white silver taels, which one is not greedy?
Wang Kangping looked even more greedy, and he thought to himself: "Anyway, I've fallen to this point, my wife is separated, what else is there to worry about?" Go to sea with them, whether you can make money or not, look at the scenery on the sea, even if you are buried in the wind and waves, it will not be in vain. ”
Wang Kangping was pondering, and it happened that a seafarer came over and patted him on the shoulder, which turned out to be his distant cousin Wang Yafei. Wang Yafei has been at sea for many years and has saved a lot of family business.
Wang Kangping said his thoughts, Wang Yafei nodded frequently, and said: "The most unbearable thing at sea is loneliness, it is best for you to go to sea with me, let's talk and laugh with the brothers, what days can't you live?" It's just one thing, before we go to sea, we have to buy our own bulk goods, if you don't have the capital, you can buy some food and drink by yourself, and work the ship to earn wages. After having the capital, then purchase the goods to go to sea. ”
When Wang Kangping heard this, he nodded more than once, he has always been unlucky in business, this time he must find out the way before starting, not to mention that he really has no capital. agreed with Wang Yafei to go to sea ten days later, and Wang Kangping hurried to buy his own food on the ship.
Walking on the street, after Wang Kangping bought food, he still had some money left. At this time, it is the season when oranges are ripe, and the streets and alleys are full of oranges, and a scrap or two of silver can buy a whole basket!
Wang Kangping thought about it, I bought this big basket of oranges, not only to quench my thirst on the boat, but also to give it to fellow seafarers to win affection. So he took grain and a basket of half-lived oranges and went to sea ten days later.
Half a month after going to sea, Wang Kangping's ship docked on a piece of land, and he didn't know which island it had arrived, but the people on the island had no hair on their heads, were short and stocky, and they couldn't understand their speech. Everyone else was busy trading goods, and Wang Kangping himself was holding an orange while eating it.
Suddenly, a short bald man walked over and startled Wang Kangping. The short bald man held two silver coins in his hand and pointed to the orange in Wang Kangping's mouth and gestured. It turned out that he wanted to buy Wang Kangping's oranges with silver coins!
Wang Kangping was surprised and delighted, this orange arrived on this small island, and it could be exchanged for two silver coins? This is not a small coin, it looks like it must be more than a tael! Wang Kangping had a spin in his head, ran back to the boat like a fly, and carried out his basket of oranges!
At this time, the oranges are ripe, and you can smell the fruity aroma from afar. The short bald man was overjoyed when he saw this, handed the two silver coins to Wang Kangping, and took out two oranges from the basket to feast. The short bald man cried while eating, as if he had never eaten such a delicious thing in his life.
There were more and more short people around Wang Kangping, and they took out silver coins to buy oranges. His oranges went from one silver coin to three silver coins each. Wang Kangping's basket of oranges was finally exchanged for more than 500 silver coins! After the oranges were sold, Wang Kangping took out more than 100 silver coins and distributed them to all the seafarers on the ship, three for each person!
In this way, Wang Kangping returned with a full load when he went to sea for the first time. Since then, Wang Kangping began to buy fruits, shipped to several small islands, and eventually became a celebrity on the rich side.