Chapter 85: Infiltrating the Society of Socialites (Part 2)
Mrs. Chen and Mrs. Xu were chatting here, and someone from the sedan chairs in the queue in front of them came over and joined in their conversation.
Su Luo quietly looked at the five ladies in front of him. The oldest one was Madam Xu, whose family ran a restaurant business, but the most powerful one in the family was obviously Madam Chen, followed by Madam Yuan, whose family ran a medicinal materials business, because she always spoke when Madam Chen didn't want to talk, and no matter what the others said, they didn't look impatient. Madam Xu, who ran the seafood store, should have a relatively ordinary family background among the five, because she was very flattering to everyone. The last one, Madam Tang, also ran a dried seafood business. Maybe because she sold too much dried seafood, she looked like she was dried by the wind. She looked about 40 years old, skinny, and no matter how beautiful the clothes were, they looked very weird on her.
Su Luo noticed that no one came out of the first sedan chair, and the sedan chair behind was empty. Madam Chen's maid said, "The sedan chair in front belongs to the wife of the Tongpan of Yingtian Prefecture. She was invited to meet the wife of the prefect. The sedan chair behind is Miss Ji Mei's."
"Miss Jimei?"
"You didn't know?" The little girl looked surprised, then she returned to normal, "Oh, you just came to Nanjing, you must know this. Miss Ji Mei's father was the former president of the Nanjing Chamber of Commerce, and the current president is her father-in-law."
It seems that Qin Huai is not that powerful. At least he didn't get to be the president of the Nanjing Chamber of Commerce. Of course, this is Nanjing, where strong men are everywhere, which is different from Zhuxian Town.
From this it seems that this beautiful girl... eh?
"She's married, why are you still calling her Miss Jimei? Shouldn't you call her Madam?"
The little girl sighed, "Rich people like them sometimes don't have such good luck. Miss Ji Mei was engaged since she was a child, and Master Chang has always been in poor health. On the day of their wedding, he died before they even finished the ceremony. After all, Miss Ji Mei has already entered the Chang family, so she can only accept her fate."
This is unfortunate, but what's even more unfortunate is that since the ceremony hasn't been completed, it's not considered as a formal marriage. According to what this girl said, Miss Ji Mei's family is also very powerful. How could they be willing to let their daughter become a black widow as soon as she gets married? It's just for the sake of a strong marriage, and the bitter fruit is let on a girl.
However, although Miss Ji Mei is very powerful, it seems that something is still missing.
"Miss Ji Mei's aunt is the wife of the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture."
Yes, that's it. This official title is immediately the fourth rank. The five people at the door have to wait, right? It's because they have no political background.
"Could it be that the prefect's wife is here today?"
"Of course not." The little girl knew the market situation very well. She looked around and snickered, "They really want to invite the prefect's wife, but how can she appreciate such a small occasion? If she rushes to see the prefect's wife, she will lose her status."
Haha, people always want to move up, and no one will do anything that is not beneficial to themselves. Take the prefect's wife for example, there is absolutely no reason for her to waste her socializing time on the governor's wife, as she has to entertain the wives of high-ranking officials of the third or even second rank.
But speaking of the Yingtian prefect, Su Luo always felt that he sounded a little familiar...
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Shit! Su Luo panicked. Her mansion! When she cheated for the mansion, Yang Cheng, the manager of Hongyun Casino who sold her the house, said that the eldest brother of the owner of their casino was the prefect of Yingtian.
The prefect of Yingtian probably still thought that he had given a house to Li Rusong, and had not thought about the fact that he was deceived. If this beautiful girl got suspicious of the address of the beauty salon and told her uncle, and the prefect of Yingtian went to confront Li Rusong... If Su Luo had used Qin Huai's name at the beginning, she would not be worried at all, because Qin Huai would definitely not betray her. As for Li Rusong... she was not sure. If she met him in a bad mood, he would say that I didn't confiscate your mansion at all, and you, a fool, were deceived... Ouch! Su Luo scratched her head, thinking that she would have to take out the fake contract for the second pass when she got home. What if this kid still hated her for not treating him to a super meal of 200 taels and deliberately retaliated, she would have a countermeasure.
Looking back at the tightly closed gate of Qin's mansion, Su Luo planned to retreat. Although the opportunity was good today, it would be useless if she couldn't get in. She wanted to strike up a conversation with the ladies outside the door to build a relationship, but they all classified her as a maid. She was glared back after she tried to talk twice, so she failed and could only try again.
This is the reality. Even though Su Luo is unhappy, he has to understand the difficulty of rolling his eyes. Once he has established connections in the future, the eyes of the socialites should be able to return to normal.
Thinking of this, Su Luo suppressed the resentment in her heart, said hello to the little girl, and went back to her sedan chair. The sedan bearer had not gone far when he heard a burst of hurried horse hooves. The sedan chair shook violently. Su Luo exclaimed and supported Su Shi, and leaned out to see what was going on.
It turned out that a fast horse passed by the sedan bearer. Su Luo looked back and saw that the horse stopped in front of the Qin Mansion. On the horse was a woman wearing a bright red dress, which was very eye-catching. She jumped off the horse, threw the reins to the young man who had just asked Su Luo a question, and walked towards the gate of the Qin Mansion.
Judging from the attitude of the gatekeeper, the woman should be from the Qin Mansion. Su Luo was not close, but she felt that the woman's outline was familiar. Just as she was about to ask the sedan bearer to turn around and take a look, she saw several ladies gathered in front of the Qin Mansion surrounding her and talking to her. The woman seemed impatient and asked the gatekeeper to stop the ladies and went into the mansion on her own.
This should be an extremely impolite behavior. The reason why everyone was waiting in front of the door before was because the host had not shown up and there were guests at home. It would have been fine if she didn't greet them, but this woman was obviously from the Qin Mansion, but she was so impatient when she saw everyone. This was not an appropriate behavior.
Even if she felt that she had the strength, or looked down on everyone, she had to at least give in to them. Maybe her family was not as strong as the Qin family now, but that didn't mean they would always be like this. Even though the Qin family was strong, it was not the strongest. At least the power of Miss Ji Mei was not inferior to that of the Qin family, and it might even be higher. Su Luo had no good impression of such a young lady who didn't understand human relationships and didn't take everyone seriously.
But one thing is another. Not having a good impression is one thing, and finding a customer base by blending into the society of celebrities is another. Before any product enters the market, it must clearly position its product. Shiseido's customer base is Nanjing celebrities. The richer and more affluent the better. People like them are not afraid of spending money, but getting them to spend money willingly, or even actively sending money to their doorsteps, is a very worthy subject of study.
Su Luo did not want to simply form a business relationship with these socialites. Behind these people were the most powerful big business owners in Nanjing, or even officials of the current dynasty. If she put herself on the side of the servants, she would always be dependent on others. Once one of them started the same business, even if the other party's products and services could not keep up, it would cause a fatal blow to Shiseido just by relying on her connections. Besides, they might not be really incompetent. Perhaps it was one of Su Luo's advantages that she never underestimated her opponents.
Therefore, she wanted to build up her network while Shiseido was just getting started, so that everything would fall into place naturally after Shiseido opened.
Su Luo's calculations were good, but who knew that he would hit a snag in the Qin Mansion today. It makes sense. There are countless people who come to visit every day under the name of Qin Huai. If Su Luo did the same, he would undoubtedly be lost in the crowd.
