88: Chapter 88 Pushing aside the napkins, reaping the benefits of the Yuan people!

"Winner winner, chicken dinner."

Zhao Fusu arranged for someone to go out and buy roast chicken.

"Eat, eat, eat! Dig in!"

Zhao Fusu invited Li Si, Feng Quji, and Feng Jie to eat chicken together.

He got straight to it, reaching out to tear off a chicken leg.

Although Li Si, Feng Quji, and Feng Jie didn't quite understand the phrase, they didn't stand on ceremony with Zhao Fusu and reached out to tear into the roast chicken.

The four of them ate the roast chicken with great relish.

Before long, a whole roast chicken had been reduced to a pile of bones.

Compared to women, men were much less likely to carry handkerchiefs.

Li Si, Feng Quji, and Feng Jie didn't have silk scarves on them either. Just as they were about to go find water to wash their hands and the grease from around their mouths, Zhao Fusu had someone bring over a pack of tissues.

"There are napkins here."

As Zhao Fusu spoke, he pulled out a napkin and wiped the grease from his hands.

Once his hands were clean, he pulled out another tissue to wipe the grease from the corners of his mouth.

His forehead and nose were also quite oily, so he pulled out yet another napkin to wipe them clean.

The expressions on the faces of Li Si, Feng Quji, and Feng Jie were rich with emotion, looking somewhat like Li Yunlong watching Chang Naichao drink wine and eat meatballs after a long run.

Zhao Fusu's every move exuded elegance and a strong sense of civilization, making them feel that this was exactly how a member of the upper class should behave!

"Tissues! Take some tissues!"

Seeing Li Si, Feng Quji, and Feng Jie standing there as if petrified, Zhao Fusu quickly urged them.

"Oh, right, of course."

At Zhao Fusu's call, Li Si, Feng Quji, and Feng Jie finally woke from their petrified state.

They cautiously pulled out a napkin.

These napkins were different from the A4 paper they used for writing.

The A4 paper they used for writing was thicker and stiffer.

These napkins were fluffy, soft, and very absorbent. With just one wipe, the grease on their hands was significantly reduced.

After another wipe, most of the oil on their hands was gone.

They couldn't help but marvel at it.

Li Si, Feng Quji, and Feng Jie each pulled out another sheet.

For some reason, they found pulling tissues to be quite stress-relieving.

As soon as one sheet was pulled out, the next one popped up.

They couldn't help but look at each other, all finding this strangely interesting.

Never before had they seen something so amusing.

As Zhao Fusu's mouth gradually fell open and his eyes widened, he watched Li Si, Feng Quji, and Feng Jie taking turns pulling out tissues, one after another.

A look of disdain couldn't help but cross Zhao Fusu's face.

Li Si, Feng Quji, and Feng Jie were the second, third, and fourth most powerful men in the Great Qin Empire, yet here they were, acting like they'd never seen the world, playing with tissues in a way even kindergarteners wouldn't.

Zhao Fusu shook his head, thinking of his wife, Wang Xia.

When he had returned to the Xianyang Palace from the Paper Mill in the Industrial Zone, he had given his wife Wang Xia a pack of tissues. She had been just like Li Si, Feng Quji, and Feng Jie, pulling them out one by one endlessly; it was quite boring.

However, Zhao Fusu knew why this was the case.

Li Si and the others had too few entertainment options, which was why they couldn't stop fiddling with a novelty like tissues.

Zhao Fusu thought to himself that if he organized a gala for the Spring Festival, it would surely attract the entire population of Xianyang City to come and watch.

They might even climb trees just to get a glimpse.

Zhao Fusu shook his head slightly; it was too early to think about that.

Before the summer harvest began, he wanted to ruthlessly harvest a wave of wealth from the nobles of Xianyang City and the landlords Inside the Pass.

"His Majesty the Head of State, this is truly interesting!"

Feng Jie gave Zhao Fusu a simple, honest smile.

'You big dummy!'

Zhao Fusu grumbled in his heart, but kept a standard, albeit forced, smile on his face as he said, "Yes, quite!"

Feng Quji asked, "His Majesty the Head of State, how do you intend to sell these tissues?"

Li Si's gaze also turned toward Zhao Fusu.

Since the Paramount Leader had given them napkins to use, it meant he intended to sell them.

How the Paramount Leader planned to sell them was the key point.

These napkins were indeed very useful.

Making them into this pop-up format made them very convenient to use.

But if the price was too high, nobles would still prefer to use silk handkerchiefs.

Although silk was expensive, it could be washed and reused repeatedly.

Zhao Fusu said, "A pack of one hundred ordinary tissues will cost three qian."

This was the lowest grade of napkin Zhao Fusu had produced.

It was very fluffy and weighed fifty grams at most.

One qian was equivalent to twenty yuan, so three qian was sixty yuan for a hundred sheets.

His costs were truly minimal.

Labor was cheap; he just had to provide the workers with food.

As for cutting trees, he just had to pay a small logging tax.

The rest was just the consumption of coal and limestone.

Material costs were negligible, yet they could produce a massive quantity of napkins.

Even if the cost for a hundred sheets was five yuan, that would be an overestimate.

He was making a massive profit of 55 yuan.

Zhao Fusu didn't feel his conscience pricking him at all; he was simply harvesting the wealthy.

As for the common farmers, they wiped their mouths with their hands and their backsides with clods of earth.

If he tried to sell napkins to the common farmers, his Paper Mill would go bankrupt.

The nobles of Xianyang City and the landlords Inside the Pass were his target market.

As for Outside the Pass, Zhao Fusu's Paper Mill didn't have enough capacity yet, and he didn't have the energy to tackle that market. He would focus on the market Inside the Pass first.

"Three qian? That's quite cheap!"

This price was far lower than Li Si, Feng Quji, and Feng Jie had expected.

These nobles were equivalent to big bosses in modern society with billions in assets; sixty yuan for a pack of tissues was not expensive to them at all.

These napkins were more comfortable than silk and much cheaper.

"Correct!"

Zhao Fusu said without a hint of guilt, "Three qian is indeed very cheap. The reason I've set the price so low is to ensure more wealthy people can afford them; it's a special blessing I'm granting."

"His Majesty the Head of State is truly benevolent!"

Li Si, Feng Quji, and Feng Jie couldn't help but say with emotion, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for granting us this blessing!"

"You are all my family, and I have always been completely devoted to my family."

"Let me introduce another product to my family: the premium 'Heart-to-Heart' tissues from our Paper Mill."

"Family, look here. Why are they called 'Heart-to-Heart' tissues? Besides being in the same pop-up format, have you noticed that the 'Heart-to-Heart' paper has many interconnected heart patterns embossed on it?"

"This represents that our factory's heart is linked with yours; we put our hearts into every single sheet of paper."

"For the same hundred sheets, the 'Heart-to-Heart' paper is much thicker, larger, and tougher, and it uses a double-heart embossing process."

"This is our unique double-heart embossing technology, the only one of its kind in the industry—way ahead of the competition!"