My sister became the empress, but I'm still growing vegetables and raising chickens

Chapter 482 Teaching Qiu Nanzhi

Si Jing'an kept rambling on and on, as if he wanted to tell all the rambling he had ever done in his life.

He continued, “When I was a child, I had no close friends, and no one was close to me. I loved to study, but people laughed at me, saying that exiled prisoners could never take exams, so what was the point of studying? I envied Song Chunbo in the village, even though he looked down on me the most, I still envied him…”

"He used to look down on me, but later he really liked me and even taught me how to study hard. He said I was very smart. Hehe, he treated me as a friend, and I was so happy... No, no, no, Wan Cheng, you are my friend, my best friend. Song Chunbo isn't. All those people behind me fawn over me, but I know they aren't my friends either!"

As if afraid that Wan Cheng would misunderstand, Si Jing'an pushed forward and snuggled into his arms.

"You are my best friend."

Rambling on and on, in a daze.

"Her... name is very beautiful, Nan Zhi. After I marry her, I will bring her to see you..."

I don't know when he stopped talking, or how much time passed before he fell asleep.

When I woke up again, I found myself in my room.

His attendants came to help him with his grooming.

Si Jing'an asked, "Where is this? How did I get here?"

The attendant replied, "It's a guest room at Nanshan Manor. Yesterday, Miss Qiu came here on the orders of the eldest young lady to handle matters here. She found you sleeping in front of Young Master Wan's grave, so she brought you back."

Si Jing'an was taken aback: "Miss Qiu... she's here? When... when did she..."

The attendant asked in confusion, "What happened to Miss Qiu? She said she had something to do this morning and went back first."

"nothing……"

Si Jing'an carefully considered the situation yesterday, but he had drunk too much alcohol and couldn't remember what he had done.

He seemed to remember seeing Wan Cheng and then talking to him for a long time.

Could that person be Qiu Nanzhi?

So what exactly did he say?

Si Jing'an was uneasy and wanted to ask Qiu Nanzhi, but he was too embarrassed to do so.

As the year draws to a close, Si Muyan sits with Shao Qin in the courtyard, watching Si Xingzhi and Si Yunxia fish.

Shao Qin remembered some things from the past, but she was always exhausted and needed to sleep for half the day. Now, lying on the recliner, she actually fell asleep.

The maid, being sensible, quickly came over and covered her with a blanket. She asked softly, "Miss, should we take Madam inside so she doesn't catch a cold?"

Before she could finish speaking, Shao Qin woke up: "No need, I wasn't asleep."

Si Muyan laughed: "Mother is always like this. She falls asleep while we're talking, and when I want you to come in, you insist that you're not asleep."

Shao Qin rubbed her face and said, "It's still early. I don't get sleepy until noon."

As the mother and daughter were talking, Qiu Nanzhi came over with the account books and told Si Muyan all the accounts that had been audited. Instead of leaving immediately, she hesitated.

Seeing this, Si Muyan had a chair brought over and asked her to sit down before saying, "Just ask me any questions you have, don't be shy. Since I said I would bring you along, there's no need to hold back."

Qiu Nanzhi then took an account book and said, "I used to be in charge of the estate's accounts, but now Miss wants me to look at the down jacket workshop's accounts. I have some doubts."

"You said."

"The down jacket workshop's accounts are very clear, but I've looked at them, and there's three thousand taels for customer favors. Miss, He Laiqian has already told me what this customer favor fee is for, but after careful examination, I found that this workshop's customer favor fee has already been partially covered by the specialty store. Even if there's more, it wouldn't exceed two thousand taels at most..."

Si Muyan nodded: "You mean, there's a thousand taels of accounts that you're not quite clear about?"

Qiu Nanzhi was a little embarrassed and explained, "At first I thought so too, but after checking carefully, I found that the accounts were clear. The money was skimmed off by the managers from top to bottom."

Si Muyan delegated a lot of authority to Qiu Nanzhi, telling her that she could investigate whatever she found directly, and only need to report back to her when it was time to take action.

Hearing Qiu Nanzhi say this, Si Muyan asked, "So what do you think you should do with these people?"

However, Qiu Nanzhi was troubled: "Miss, I checked the accounts from previous years, and they were all like this; it didn't just start this year. But these accounts should all be given to you for review. It's such a simple matter; you couldn't possibly be unaware of it, Miss..."

Si Muyan smiled and praised, "Not bad. You are not only meticulous and thorough in your investigation, but you can also detect my laissez-faire attitude. You are a good candidate for management."

Qiu Nanzhi blushed with embarrassment at the praise and asked shyly, "Then... why is that?"

Si Muyan took the accounts and showed them only to her: "The down jacket workshop has a large scale, and the duck and goose down inside has to be collected from various places. However, if a manager is arranged in each place, the cost for the workshop will be huge. So there will be corresponding distributors in the local area. They will provide raw materials according to the quality we need and supply us regularly."

Qiu Nanzhi nodded: "I understand."

Si Muyan continued, "But when we first started doing this, we discovered that the distributors were pressuring us to lower the price they were paying for the down. So we changed the terms of our cooperation to stipulate that the price we pay, after deducting shipping costs, must be the same as their down payment price. But how do they make money then? By giving them rebates from us."

“I understand. In other words, the price we pay for wool to the people is determined by our workshop. So every year, each workshop gives these distributors a rebate and a certain amount of customer service fee.”

Si Muyan smiled and said, "Yes, and there are also discounts for large quantities. In order to cooperate with us, distributors will also give our managers certain benefits. This is absolutely not allowed in our Si Family Trading Company. But we can't dampen the enthusiasm of our managers, so we tacitly approve of them receiving a certain amount of good quality cashmere and extra customer service fees."

Qiu Nanzhi couldn't quite understand it. After all, she had always been used to people following the rules and being rewarded by those in a good mood. But she didn't quite understand how rewards could be directly included in the calculation.

Seeing this, Si Muyan said, "You didn't see it at the food shop. If you had, you would have found that the same thing happened there. The purchasing agent was supposed to spend 100 taels a day to buy this quality of goods, but he bought it for 95 taels. The actual cost was 90 taels, and 5 taels was the rebate from the other party. He had to hand over these 5 taels to the food shop, but the food shop would return them to him as a customer service fee."

"Requiring them complete transparency and no hiding anything is for better business management. But continuing to give them rebates is to ensure they are willing to do their jobs better. Otherwise, why would they spend more time searching for cheaper, higher-quality raw materials?"