After Xia Chunmei completed these two business deals in the county town, the reputation of her longevity peach buns became widely known.
People in the county town are wealthy, so more and more people are approaching Wang Aiju, wanting Xia Chunmei to make longevity peach buns.
"Grandma Wang, I'm getting married in a few days, so please don't take any more orders for longevity peach buns, but you can still accept banquet orders."
Although Xia Chunmei is no longer teaching Xia Mingshi, Aunt Lihua, and Chen Jinlian cooking, Xia Hongfen is.
Although they hadn't tried making those dishes before, they had watched for so long that they understood the specific steps. With the chef's guidance and their occasional practice with fish, they were actually quite good at making the dishes.
"You're getting married? Congratulations! When is it? I'll definitely come over for a drink at your wedding."
"The 12th of this month," Xia Chunmei said. "We won't accept any more cases this month, but we can accept cases around November."
Baili Xiao has already bought two servants for Xia Chunmei. She only needs to learn how to make a longevity peach bun. Xia Chunmei thinks that even if she's slow, she can learn it in half a month.
So November is the perfect time to start taking orders.
**
"Who is Xia Chunmei? Come out here right now!"
That day, Xia Chunmei was frying crispy pork when she suddenly heard someone shouting outside.
Who are you?
"You're Xia Chunmei?" The man was immediately surprised, not expecting to see such a beautiful girl in this place.
Xia Chunmei was displeased by the man's gaze, and she said bluntly, "Don't you want your eyeballs anymore? I don't mind doing it for you."
The man was taken aback; he hadn't expected Xia Chunmei to have such a temper.
"This little girl has quite a temper. Does she know who my boss is?"
Xia Chunmei ignored her and turned to leave.
"Hey, hey, don't go! I'm one of Boss Qian's men. To tell you the truth, our boss thinks your longevity peach bun tastes pretty good and is willing to spend five taels of silver to buy it." He had an attitude of "I'm giving you money, don't be ungrateful."
Xia Chunmei never expected that someone would actually try to make longevity peach buns.
She was about to give birth and couldn't take care of many things. It wouldn't have mattered if she sold herself, but this guy was acting all high and mighty and only offered five taels of silver. What was the difference between that and robbery?
She earns nearly two hundred coins from a single transaction, which is less than five taels of silver—it's better to rob someone!
“Not for sale!” Xia Chunmei refused outright.
"Not selling? Five taels of silver is enough for you to live on in the countryside for several years. If it weren't for our boss's kindness, you wouldn't get a single penny. You should know when to be pragmatic and not be so greedy."
Before Xia Chunmei could retort, a portly man walked towards them and said, "You think you can get your hands on someone else's formula for just five taels of silver? Let me see who's the greedier one."
"Manager Song."
"Oh, who do we have here? It's you. Go back and tell Qian Laoba that Juxianglou wants the prescription that Miss Xia has."
This man was none other than Song Yuandong, the manager of Juxianglou, the largest restaurant in the county.
Upon hearing Song Yuandong's words, the man hurried back to report.
As soon as the man left, Song Yuandong said to Xia Chunmei, "Miss Xia, your longevity peach buns are quite good. It's not safe or convenient for a young lady like you to run to the county town every day. Why don't you sell us the recipe? I'll give you ten taels of silver, which is double what that man did."
"Manager Song, this is a family secret recipe passed down through generations in my Xia family. It cannot be passed on to outsiders."
"Miss Xia, is it too little?"
“I think it’s too little,” Xia Chunmei said directly. “Business like this is all about volume. I make several hundred at a time, and after deducting costs, I can earn two hundred coins each time. If I do five orders a month, I can earn one tael of silver. And now I’ve made a name for the longevity peach buns. Ten taels of silver, hehe, Manager Song, do you think I’m stupid?”
Song Yuandong choked.
He hadn't expected Xia Chunmei to be so good at calculations.
He had initially thought that the country girl was naive and easily fooled.
After all, ten taels of silver is no small amount. Country folk save every penny and can easily make a living. Ten taels of silver can last for about ten years.
How much do you want?
“I heard that your Juxianglou is a chain restaurant with about ten branches throughout Xiangzhou. I will sell you the recipe for 500 taels of silver, but you cannot sell it to Zhaoling County. I can only sell it to Zhaoling County myself. However, in Zhaoling, I can cooperate with you in depth.”
"Five hundred taels!" Song Yuandong gasped. "Miss Xia, you really dare to ask for such a price. It's just the recipe for a steamed bun. Do you really think it's some rare treasure?"
"Although it's not a rare treasure, it can bring huge profits if managed properly," Xia Chunmei said. "If I can make the longevity peach buns soft and sweet, then I can make other buns the same way."
Juxianglou does sell breakfast, mainly noodles and congee. However, business isn't very good; Juxianglou's main revenue comes from lunch and dinner.
If the steamed buns really taste as good as the longevity peach buns, adding all kinds of steamed buns to Juxianglou's breakfast menu will undoubtedly boost the business even further!
Seeing Song Yuandong's expression, Xia Chunmei knew he was tempted, and said, "Five hundred taels of silver, that means each of your Juxianglou restaurants only spent a few dozen taels of silver to learn the skills. What are a few dozen taels of silver to Juxianglou?"
"Can you really make other steamed buns taste that good too?"
"Of course. If Manager Song can't make the decision, he can ask someone who can to come and talk to me."
My stance is that 500 taels is the minimum. In Zhaoling County, you cannot sell longevity peach buns, but you can sell other meat buns, vegetarian buns, etc.
"If you want to sell longevity peach buns, you can source them from me, or help me connect with customers who need them. I can then share the profits with you proportionally."
Juxianglou has been operating in the county town for many years and has a wide circle of upper-class people. Although the Longevity Peach Bun has also become famous, it is not so easy to enter the upper-class circle.
Wang Aiju suggested that she was good at dealing with ordinary people, but she might not be so good at talking to wealthy families.
Therefore, Juxianglou was still the only way to sell longevity peach buns to wealthy families!
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