Tianliangyuan

Chapter 160 His reputation was completely ruined

Deng Dalang insisted that it was the Xu Hou Mansion that had made the move.

The problem is, they have no evidence.

Deng Xuan also suspected that it was done by the Marquis of Anxin's mansion, but there was no evidence. More importantly, this papermaking workshop seemed to have nothing to do with the Xu family!

Furthermore, there are now more and more bamboo paper workshops, with several in the capital alone, making it even more difficult to find the workshops targeting the Deng family.

Moreover, those who can get into the papermaking industry must have some connections.

Just like the Deng family, if the Deng family hadn't been currying favor with the powerful and wealthy, how could they have maintained a stable paper-making business all this time?

Ultimately, it all comes down to who has the strongest backing!

Deng Xuan repeatedly encountered setbacks when he went to the Jiang family's residence. He worried that the Jiang family was going to abandon the Deng family, so he became more and more anxious.

It wasn't until Jiang Wenhe visited again that Deng Xuan saw a glimmer of hope.

The two plotted in the study for half an hour. When Jiang Wenhe finally left, he was full of pride, and Deng Xuan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

A few days later, Deng Xuan's legitimate daughter became engaged to the illegitimate son of a fourth-rank official, and the six rites of marriage began.

The day after the engagement, one of Deng Xuan's illegitimate daughters was carried in a sedan chair into the side gate of a powerful and wealthy family.

After that, Deng Xuan's family business began to show signs of recovery, which finally put his mind at ease.

What Deng Xuan didn't know was that the slight recovery of his business was nothing more than a final burst of energy before his death.

The sacrifice of the two daughters brought the Deng family only a few days of glory.

Nearly half of the bookstores under the Deng family's name have been closed down, and a large portion of them have even been sold off.

Of the remaining bookstores, only those in the capital have improved. In addition, the paper production of their paper mills has decreased rather than increased, which has added to their costs.

Just as Deng Xuan was arranging for people to speed up papermaking, news broke that the rattan paper produced by the Deng family could tear at the slightest touch.

The Deng family's paper mill had been in business for many years, so it was impossible for them to make such a basic mistake.

However, even if only a small batch of the papers produced that day were problematic, that would be enough to deal a blow to the Deng family.

The area outside Deng's bookstore is now completely blocked by a large number of scholars and talented men!

"Give me my money back! You heartless merchants, how dare you try to fool people with such shoddy goods! You call yourselves a century-old brand? This paper is beyond writing on; I could tear it just by touching it. This is simply outrageous!"

"Yes! This is outrageous! I spent so much money on this paper, but it's unusable. This kind of unscrupulous merchant should be brought to justice!"

"That's right! Hand them over to the authorities!"

"Send him to the authorities! Punish him severely!"

The situation escalated and became increasingly out of control.

Paper prices are falling across the market these days, and the Deng family is no exception.

But the problem was that the Deng family's paper mill had even lower output and the paper quality was problematic, which naturally aroused public anger!

The brief business recovery that the two daughters brought about was also shattered in an instant!

The reason why Deng's bookstore's business has rebounded is because some people have received news that the Deng family has gotten in touch with some important figures. As a result, some people will try to curry favor with the Deng family and patronize their business.

Who could have imagined that it would end like this?

If ten out of a thousand reams of paper in Deng's bookstore were defective, the impact would be significant. Moreover, the actual number of defective sheets of paper they had was far greater!

Just as Deng Xuan was pondering whether or not to slowly reopen the bookstores that had been shut down, the steward came running over with the news.

"What? You mean seriously? That's impossible! Our Deng family has been making paper for over a century, how could this be?"

"Sir, several bookstores have been besieged, and the owners and waiters of two of them have been beaten up. Please think of a solution!"

Deng Xuan felt a sudden darkness before his eyes. At this point, what could he do?

He didn't understand business at all. He thought it was just a simple matter of buying low and selling high to make money. Who would have thought it would turn out like this?

"Butler, quick, think of something! Our Deng family paper mill can't go bankrupt!"

In addition to supplying their own bookstore, the Deng family's paper mill also naturally sold some paper to other businesses. Their own bookstore didn't use that much paper, and the sales volume was also limited.

Now that things have blown up, merchants who were previously interested in cooperating with the Deng family will definitely back out!

But that's not the most urgent thing.

Right now, the most important thing is to keep the people under my command.

"Quickly, open the warehouse, carry it to the bookstore, and we'll pay the compensation!"

"Father, we can't just pay the money like this. Who knows who's telling the truth and who's lying?" Deng Dalang hurriedly stopped him.

This situation makes it easiest for people to take advantage of the confusion.

But Deng Xuan knew that it was impossible to suppress this kind of thing without paying compensation, unless it went to court!

But if those people dare to cause trouble at my door now, then something really must have happened.

Whether someone didn't work properly or was tricked, the problem lies with the Deng family themselves, and those scholars certainly won't think it's their fault!

"Butler, you go yourself and tell the manager to bring those papers back. We will only refund the ones with problems; we won't refund the ones without problems. And we will refund whatever amount they bring back."

"Yes, sir."

Deng Dalang breathed a sigh of relief; if that was the case, the losses shouldn't be too great.

Even if someone manages to gain some benefit from this, it will be limited.

At this moment, Deng Xuan thought of the merchants who had already signed contracts with them. His mind raced, and he knew he couldn't let the cooperation fall through.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned!

What you fear most is what will happen to you.

Several merchants came to the door one after another, all wanting to cancel their cooperation with the Deng family because of this paper issue.

They are business people, and their goal is to make money.

They only patronized the Deng family's business because of their influential connections; now that this has happened, they can't just throw money away for nothing.

They would rather send the money directly to a nobleman's residence than spend money to buy a pile of worthless paper.

Most importantly, this incident has ruined the reputation of the Deng family's paper. Even if the paper they purchased is genuine, those stubborn and aloof scholars will likely no longer be willing to buy from them.

Ugh!

Therefore, sometimes a person's ability and luck are both indispensable!

Despite Deng Xuan's best efforts to persuade them, he ultimately failed to salvage these collaborations.

This means that Deng's paper mill is very likely to face closure and shutdown.

Deng Xuan lost his balance and fell onto the couch. Before Deng Dalang could come forward to comfort him, Deng Xuan felt a metallic taste in his throat and couldn't help but spit it out!

After spitting out a mouthful of blood, Deng Xuan lost consciousness!