Since the other party had said so much, Su Qingluan also understood that what happened next was not something that "outsiders" like her and Yaoguang could interfere with.

When Su Qingluan arrived at the door of "Su Ji", there was already a long line at the gate.

But just as Su Qingluan's carriage passed the door and headed towards the end of the team, she discovered that there were actually no new products on sale in the store. Instead, the shop assistants were handing out number plates.

Su Qingluan was confused and turned to look at Yan Min: "Excuse me, what does that number plate mean?"

"To grab the jam."

"Fruit jam?" Su Qingluan raised her eyebrows.

"Madam Su is new here, so I'm afraid she doesn't understand the intricacies of this," Yan Min explained, looking at Su Qingluan. "This hollowed-out golden nanmu number plate costs twenty taels of gold per piece, a total of ten pieces. With such a number plate, you can definitely get a set of the newly released fruit jam. The rosewood number plate costs five taels of gold per piece, and such a number plate costs thirty pieces. Sometimes, if the families with the first ten golden nanmu plates take three or four sets, they may not be able to get the rosewood plates later, but this is relatively rare."

When Madam Yan said this, she explained carefully to Su Qingluan that although many families sent maids to do the shopping, those who could do this kind of work were personal maids or housekeepers. The social circle in the capital was so small, and the number of personal maids in each family was limited.

In this way, anyone who wants to find out how much jam each family buys every day can find out.

If you buy too many sets at once, and it's not a holiday or a family elder's birthday, where there's no need for a grand celebration, then you'll inevitably be laughed at for buying too much—no matter how delicious the jam is, it's just food after all. If you're too greedy, you'll be hard to maintain a reputation as a "glutton," which is not a good thing for any woman in the family.

Of course, there are weirdos everywhere, and there are also people who completely disregard their reputation and let others treat them with contempt just for a bite of food.

However, perhaps because he felt that talking about others behind their backs was impolite, Yan Min did not name the specific people who "did not care about their own reputation".

Su Qingluan wasn't really interested in these family matters, so she didn't ask any more questions. As for Yaoguang, Su Qingluan hadn't seen her interested in anything other than eating and sleeping, so she basically just played a background role.

She was obviously quite pretty, and a beauty if you looked closely, but Yaoguang could avoid attracting anyone's attention if she wanted to - even after Yan Min was helped down from the carriage by Xia Ying, he thought for a moment that Yaoguang was lost.

Su Qingluan wondered if this was one of the "training results" of the secret guards and wanted to ask Yaoguang about it when she got back.

But right now, Su Qingluan was even more captivated by something else. She quietly approached Yan Min and asked, "But the signs I see these people lining up to get aren't made of either golden nanmu or redwood?" Su Qingluan didn't recognize golden nanmu, but she did recognize redwood.

However, the people in front of her were holding identical wooden number plates. Even though she had never seen golden nanmu before, she knew it was very expensive. Expensive wood has a texture that cheap wood can't match.

However, the wooden plaques of these people were visibly cheap, and Su Qingluan saw that the price they paid was only one or two taels of gold.

Su Qingluan looked at Yan Min: "Do you want to queue up by yourself?" At this moment, they had already got off the carriage, and the coachman went to park the carriage in another place specially for carriages.

Yan Min smiled and shook his head: "I asked Xia Ying to go, but she came too late this time and didn't have time to catch up with the redwood number plate. I can only try my luck and get a beech plate first."

"What's the story behind the beech wood sign?" Su Qingluan asked as she brought Yaoguang and Yan Min to a shady spot on the other side of the street.

"Although there are times when you can't get jam from the redwood brand, after all, everyone sees each other every day and rarely goes to extremes, so you can usually pick up at least a set or a jar of jam - of course, these are the leftovers from the golden nanmu brand, and may not be your favorite. But it's different with the beech brand."

Yan Min sighed as he spoke, "There are only a few bottles of this brand of jam available, so nine out of ten times, even if you grab the brand, you won't be able to get the jam."

Su Qingluan raised her eyebrows: "But I see there are quite a few people holding beech wood signs!" Although they are not so common that they are everywhere, Su Qingluan can still see at least a hundred or eighty people at a glance.

"There's nothing we can do about it... Su Ji's jam is always delicious. Even if there are substitutes, they're still inferior." Yan Min sighed softly. "The store has a rule that if you don't grab the wooden sign, you're not even eligible to buy jam."

When Su Qingluan heard the first half of Yan Min's words, she felt a little smug. After all, she was the complete inventor of the jam recipe, and the finished jam was the result of the hard work of her and her employees.

My hard work has been sincerely praised by others, and the other party does not know the relationship between me and "Su Ji", so this kind of praise must be without any water added.

However, before Su Qingluan could get enough of her complacency, Yan Min's second half of the sentence infuriated her, so she immediately said coldly, "How come I've never heard of this bullshit rule about having to buy a wooden sign?"

Su Qingluan's reaction was so strange that Yan Min looked up at her. Yaoguang came forward and gently patted Su Qingluan on the shoulder. "Cousin, don't be so angry. After all, if you're going to buy jam, this one or two taels of gold should be enough to offset the price, right?"

Su Qingluan regained her composure after being interrupted by Yaoguang. She thought to herself, "Maybe there's something hidden?" She must not lose her composure.

Thinking of this, Su Qingluan also looked at Yan Min.

Yaoguang's speculation made perfect sense—after all, even the cheapest beechwood plaque cost one or two ounces of gold. While one or two ounces of gold might not be enough for the wealthy in a capital city teeming with rich families, it was still a significant sum.

Even in a wealthy family, the monthly salary of a maid was only one or two taels of silver, and this one tael of silver was equivalent to their salary for most of half a year.

These are considered "high-paying" jobs. Most people can only earn three or five taels of silver a year - after all, the vast majority of families are still ordinary people.

Unexpectedly, Su Qingluan and Yaoguang underestimated the shamelessness of the unscrupulous merchants. Yan Min shook his head under their gaze: "Regardless of whether I can finally buy the jam or whether it is the one I like, the money I paid for the brand is considered a 'deposit'. The golden nanmu and red wood brands will be recycled, and the beech ones will be rejected - they are not worth much anyway."

After all, beech is a common furniture material in ordinary people's homes and cannot be too expensive.

Su Qingluan and Yaoguang gasped when they heard this: This is too dark!