During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a "Yihe" pawnshop in Beijing. As the old shopkeeper Yu Daosheng grew older, he asked his son Yu Chang to stand at the counter.

Early that morning, after the pawnshop opened, Yu Chang noticed a man in his forties hesitating behind the crowd, acting very strangely, and couldn't help but pay attention. As the day approached noon, there were fewer guests in the shop, and it rained again, leaving only the man still lingering. Seeing this, Yu Daosheng greeted him and ordered the man to serve tea.

The man was flattered and hurriedly thanked: "Xiacheng Guoyu is an old buddy of'Jiuweizhai 'under Dongxian Bridge. He has worked with the old owner for more than 20 years, and he does not bear to think that the old owner will pass away. The young owner is a prodigal son who is unsuccessful. In order to repay the gambling debt, he has to sell Jiuweizhai for half price. I feel sorry for the old sign of'Jiuweizhai', and I promise the young owner the full price, and want to buy the store by myself. The young owner is anxious and can only allow the next three days. Unfortunately, I don't have much savings, and I still need 8,000 taels of silver to raise from many parties..."

Yu Chang, who was on the side, sneered in his heart when he heard this, Hmph, I don't know, and I don't have a sponsor. I opened my mouth for 8,000 taels of silver, who would dare to lend you? Sure enough, my father Yu Daosheng smiled and politely rejected Cheng Guoyu.

Cheng Guoyu sighed and said goodbye with a red face. At this time, it rained even more, and Cheng Guoyu untied the burden, took out a long shirt and a pair of old lasagna cloth shoes from it, and took off the gorgeous clothes and satin square shoes, and replaced them one by one.

When Yu Chang saw it, he sneered: "The guest officer is afraid of getting his good clothes dirty, so he will live a good life!"

Cheng Guoyu's face turned even redder: "Just… I borrowed this dress from a friend. If it gets dirty, how can I explain it to others?" As he said that, he carefully wrapped the clothes into the bag.

Not wanting Yu Daosheng to see this, he quickly walked out of the counter, grabbed Cheng Guoyu and said, "Guest officer, go slow! It's raining and the road is slippery, and you can have a drink or two, how about that?" After saying that, he pulled him to the back living room of the store to sit down, and let the servants prepare a table of sumptuous wine and food. Yu Daosheng pushed the cup with Cheng Guoyu, and went from place to place, drinking and talking, and it was very much like meeting each other late. This banquet was drunk until it was dark, and only to see a young man rush over in a hurry, whispering to Shopkeeper Yu, Yu Daosheng nodded frequently, and called a few more guys to give some instructions.

After Yu Daosheng returned to the table, Cheng Guoyu was about to leave. Yu Daosheng smiled and said, "Guest Officer Cheng, the young man just told me that our store has prepared the 8,000 taels of silver you want to borrow for you. Please go to the silver warehouse to count!" Yan Bi pulled him to the silver warehouse, and saw that the guys had already arranged the large and small boxes of snow-patterned silver. Cheng Guoyu was stunned, and it took him a long time to wake up.

After Cheng Guoyu left, Yu Chang was puzzled and complained that his father was too imprudent. Yu Daosheng stroked his beard and said with a smile, "With my thirty years of experience, I believe I will not misjudge the person. Knowing people is important in knowing good things, Cheng Guoyu's heart is the master, and he cherishes the reputation of the store, which is already admired by people; he still loves to borrow clothes, and values his reputation so much, how can he not cherish 8,000 taels of silver? During the banquet, I seemed to be chatting with him, but in fact, I tested him and found that he did have a lot of business experience, and I secretly sent a little buddy to Dongxianqiao'Jiuweizhai 'to inquire, and confirmed that his words were indeed true, so I dared to give him silver!" Yu Chang just shook his head.

In the blink of an eye, a year passed, and as Yu Daosheng said, Cheng Guoyu ran the "Nine Flavors Zhai" very well. At the end of the year, Cheng Guoyu, who made a fortune, personally bet the principal and interest, carried a gold plaque, blew it all the way, and sent it to Yihe Pawnshop. Since then, "Yihe" has become even more famous, and it is well-known in the capital, and Yu Daosheng is also known as "Righteous Merchant." Only then did Yu Chang convince his father!

In a flash, another few years passed, and under the influence of his father, Yu Chang became more and more mature. Yu Daosheng came to a "semi-retirement" and only went to the store every now and then.

On this day, a blue felt palanquin carried by four people stopped in front of the door of "Yihe", and a servant walked into the store with a bright red full post. Yu Chang took the post and looked at it, and it turned out that it was Xinco Tanhua Zhu Dawei. Yu Chang did not dare to neglect, and hurried out of the store to greet him. Zhu Dawei took a seat in the palanquin, swallowed a mouthful of fragrant tea, and went straight to the point and asked for a loan of 12,000 taels of silver.

It turned out that Zhu Dawei was from Huizhou. After high school, he was a candidate for an official position in the capital. Recently, he heard that the wealthy Taicang Mansion in the south of the Yangtze River lacked a prefect, and it was not his turn to sort according to the officialdom. Zhu Dawei did not want to lose this good opportunity, and after a lot of running, he finally had a way, and the official secretary promised his request. Just need 10,000 taels of thank you silver!

Yu Chang listened and pondered, "Xie Yi's silver is enough, why do you want to borrow 12,000 silver?" Zhu Dawei said with a red face: "To be honest, my family is poor, and after ten years of cold windows, there is still no food for sleeping at home. At first, in order to enter the capital to take the exam, I asked my relatives and friends to borrow 2,000 silver. As the saying goes, one guest does not bother two masters. Today, I will lend it out at your store together. Please ask the Hui merchants who returned home to take it back first, so as not to lose their trust..."

When Yu Chang heard this, he no longer hesitated, so he arranged a loan of 12,000 taels of silver for Zhu Dawei. Zhu Dawei thanked him again and again, and promised to repay him in the future.

Not long after Zhu Dawei left, Yu Daosheng strolled into the store, listened to Yu Chang's exuberant account, and paused: "My son was wrong, my son was wrong!" Yu Chang was surprised: "This matter can be said to be a replica of the silver you lent to Cheng Guoyu at the beginning - Zhu Dawei is in a hurry to repay the money of relatives and friends first, and he is trustworthy; now he is going to the wealthy Taicang Mansion to take office, who knows that'three years of Qing prefect, 100,000 snowflake silver ', this loan is sure to make money..."

Yu Daosheng shook his head bitterly and said, "You only know one thing, but you don't know the other. Loan silver to ordinary people, you need to know their character, and lend silver to officials, and you need to learn from their official character! This is to wish a high reputation, as long as you follow the rules of the officialdom slowly, you can be a high-ranking official in the future, and you have a great future. But he is in a hurry to grab officials and buy officials, and his heart is known to be greedy! After taking office, he will definitely exploit the people and scrape the ground three feet! In this way, wouldn't the money we lent him become crime money? Although we are a businessperson, we must not only talk about business experience, but also talk about business products, which is also the way to be far from disaster!"

After Zhu Dawei took office, he really paid off the loan in just half a year. After a few years, Zhu Dawei was promoted to the governor of Jiangsu again. For a moment, he did not forget his old kindness, and sent a subordinate book office to the capital, and invited Yu Changjiang to visit the south, and help him do "good business" by the way. Yu Chang was very moved, but after Yu Daosheng found out, if he met a snake and scorpion, he said to the book office: "Thank you for your kindness, Governor Zhu, but there are many things in the store, so I can't leave!"

A few years later, Kangxi died, Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, rectified the officialdom, and eliminated corrupt officials. Zhu Dawei was the first to cause an incident, raiding the family and beheading them, and countless business people were implicated in breaking up the family. The Yu family was implicated in this and was punished for losing most of their property. Fortunately, due to his father's dissuasion, Yu Chang had already cut off contact with Zhu Dawei, and Cheng Guoyu came forward to help Yu Chang out of prison.

At that time, Yu Daosheng had passed away. After thinking about it, Yu Chang sighed that he really did not have his father's ability to understand people. Frustrated, he closed the pawn shop and changed to another business.