Qingfenglou is the leading restaurant in Jiangcheng County. The food and service are the best here, and of course the price is the highest in the city. Especially on the highest fourth floor, it costs more than ten taels of silver to place a table of banquets, which is almost worth one or two years of expenses for ordinary families.

Today, there was a banquet on the third floor of Qingfeng Building. The participants were all the owners of the bookstores in the city, so the banquet was naturally Gu Yuezi. The two sides had been in contact for many years and had a very good relationship, so it was impossible to refuse. The owners of the six bookstores in the city arrived before dark, and greeted Gu Yuezi and Manager Wu who were waiting in front of the building, and then went straight to the third floor to enter the seat.

It was not until they got upstairs that they found that a young man had already been waiting in the meal first, and he was smiling and holding his fists to them. The few of them looked at each other, but they all saw doubts in their eyes. Obviously, no one recognized him. Could it be that he was a junior of the Gu family, but he had never heard of it before. And if he was a junior, it would be impossible to wait upstairs so rudely.

With various speculations, the bosses took their seats. As various dishes and fine wines were delivered one by one, the atmosphere on the table became relaxed and warm, and greetings and toasts continued. Then someone raised his glass and looked at Li Ling: "Who is this young man?"

"Let me introduce you to you. This young master Li Ling has two identities. One is like you, and he is also the owner of my Jiangcheng County Zhong Bookstore..." Gu Yuezi smiled and recommended them, but everyone was stunned when he heard it. Are there any other bookstores in the city besides them?

It was still a boss named Chen in his thirties who remembered a little, looked at Li Ling and said, "Are you the owner of the Li Family Bookstore on Dongxie Street?"

Li Ling smiled and nodded as if he didn't hear the bad things in his words: "What Boss Chen said is that the bookstore belongs to the younger generation."

"Hmph!" This time, more than one boss Chen was unhappy, and the other families also hummed softly. They had been dissatisfied with Li Ling's behavior of renting books out for a long time. They just didn't cause trouble for him because of their identity. But unexpectedly, this guy actually came to him today and was so annoying.

Feeling the hostility of everyone, Li Ling was not embarrassed at all. He just smiled and raised a glass of wine to say to him, "I naturally know that all seniors have some prejudices against Li Ling. Indeed, my shop can only be maintained by renting books for some reason, which has reduced your business. Here, I will apologize to you first." After that, he raised his glass and drank it all, and then poured two more cups in a row, which made all the apology look bright.

Although his posture was free and easy, Li Ling finally underestimated the impact of alcohol on his body. The eighteen-year-old body had never drunk alcohol before. Now he drank three glasses of strong wine in one go. As the alcohol was full, his face suddenly turned red and he coughed twice. He could only sit down quickly and eat a few bites of food to suppress the alcohol.

Seeing that the others had not eased much, Gu Yuezi spoke up and smoothed out: "Bosses, please listen to me. I just mentioned Brother Li's first identity, and this is the author of Xiaoyaozi, the book "The Romance of the Gods" which is popular in Jiangcheng County now."

Now, the few people who had a gloomy face changed color again, and some people were even more surprised and said, "What did you say? Did he write the Book of Gods? Take this seriously?"

"Of course it's true. Will I still make people pretend to be Xiaoyaozi?"

"Since this is the case, I can't wait to accept it. The book "Fengshen Yi" lasts for several months, and the manuscript fees you earn are above your store. So why do you have to break the rules and grab our business?"

Gu Yuezi immediately sighed: "This is a long story. Brother Li is forced to make a living because of this." Then, he briefly told the matter of Li Ling's family, which moved several people. Unexpectedly, Li Ling's situation was so embarrassing. It seems that everything he did is acceptable. After all, he was just to pay off the foreign debt owed by his father and to survive well.

Li Ling also took the opportunity to get up again and bowed, "I am young and I am just entering the bookstore industry again, so I didn't think much before. I hope you seniors don't blame me. I promise that as long as I can pay back the debt, I will never do anything about renting books or something in the future."

He said this, and these elders couldn't continue to hold on, so they made a statement to forget about it, and they revealed this section. As a result, the relationship between the people during the meal looked closer, and they were drinking and laughing constantly, and they were still happy.

Until the drink was halfway through, Boss Chen, who was still outspoken, said, "Boss Gu, you wouldn't just ask us and Mr. Li to get to know each other today, right?"

As he asked, the others also stopped drinking and looked up at Gu Yuezi. The latter's expression became solemn, and his eyes were paired with them one by one, then nodded: "Boss Chen said that Gu asked everyone to come today. There is a major event related to the rise and fall of the bookstore market in Jiangcheng County, and I want to discuss with you.

"I guess you already know that a few days ago, the Wanjia Bookstore from Hengzhou Prefecture had already opened a semicolon in my city, but what you don't know is that they have already set their minds on my Gujia Bookstore, which is to steal the entire book market in Jiangcheng County into their hands!"

“So what boss Gu means?”

"My meaning is very simple. I want you to stand with my Gujia Bookstore and resist their invasion together. For example, your bookstores resist selling the books printed by his Wanjia Bookstore. In this way, it won't take long to give up."

"This..." These bosses looked at each other a few times, and their faces showed dismay. One Boss Wang coughed and said, "Boss Gu, you should know that in addition to selling books published by your family, our bookstore also bought books with booksellers outside the county, which naturally includes Wanjia. Now you ask us to resist Wanjia Bookstore like this, isn't it a disagreement?"

Gu Yuezi hurriedly explained: "I am not asking you not to sell his books anymore. As long as it is the same books that my Gu family can print, you should not ask him for. In addition, you can also put their books in a corner that is unsightly, so that their business cannot be carried out. This can always be done, right?"

Several people still did not agree to his request, and they all looked as if they were worried. Li Ling saw it and knew that he should have appeared on the stage, so he coughed dryly, attracting everyone's attention and said: "Seniors, I have a few words to say below. You are both my seniors of Li Ling, and you have been doing business older than me, so I dare not explain some truths in detail, but one thing I still need to explain is that the shopping mall is like a battlefield. Although Wanjia Bookstore enters Jiangcheng County today, it is just a competition between two bookstores, in fact, the benefits involved are much more than you think."

"Mr. Li, are you a little alarmist?" Boss Wang shook his head disdainfully.

Li Ling immediately replied: "It's not an exaggeration, because there have been examples. You should know that Jiangcheng County is the fifth target in the province during the expansion of Wanjia Bookstore. What is the book market in the four counties like now?" Seeing that everyone could not answer, he answered himself: "The original bookstores in the other four counties either went bankrupt or were swallowed by them, and then only he was the only one left. Perhaps at the beginning, other people in the book market, such as bookstores, the authors of books, and the workers who wrote the book can get a lot of benefits from them, just like the guarantees made by Wanjia when they came into contact with you recently.

"But have you ever thought about it. Once they really become the monopoly who controls the book market in the county, will he still give you so many benefits? His Wanjia is involved in the books industry and does not come to do good deeds, but in the end it is to make money. So I want me to say that by then, it will be time for them to take back all the benefits they gave you before. Even if I was the head of the Wanjia family, I could open a bookstore here by myself, and then take out books at a price far lower than you. Just like dealing with boss Gu, you will be desperate and have to close the door in the end. And all of this is because you chose to cooperate with him early in the morning to force Gujia Bookstore to close."

This time, everyone's faces finally changed, and a few even showed deep thoughts, obviously accepting Li Ling's inference.

Boss Wang asked again at this time: "But I remember that now I only have Gujia Bookstore, one bookstore in Jiangcheng County. What is the difference between this and Wanjia Bookstore dominance?"

"The difference is big. You have had many years of friendship with Gu Boss Gu and Gu Family Bookstore. Isn't it clear what kind of person he is? In terms of appetite and ambition, can Gu Boss Gu compare with Wanjia? As the saying goes, the big shop bullies customers. Now you are equally strong, so you can be at peace. But once you change Wanjia, how many bookstores you still want to compete with? As I said just now, as long as they take out money to open a few bookstores, they can all run and close the door."

After a pause, he said earnestly: "So, in my opinion, the interests in front of me must be fought for, but more importantly, the future is to look forward to the long-term. As the same goes, the shopping mall is like a battlefield, and the enemy is powerful. Only when the two sides join forces can we defeat the strong with the weak and chop back the claws of the Wanjia family that stretched into our Jiangcheng County, otherwise it would be too late to regret."
Chapter completed!