Jiang Sheng was startled.
Zheng Ruqian also gasped.
The brother and sister were both speculating and wondering: had their enthusiasm yesterday caused this trouble? Or was the fishmonger just too cunning?
Suddenly, a figure darted out, lunging at the sausages and cured meat, grabbing them and stuffing them into its mouth.
Jiang Sheng's eyes widened. "That's raw..."
But the person ignored it, took a bite of each one, and sighed contentedly.
"How is it, Brother Zhou?" the fishmonger asked, rubbing his hands together. "Is it the taste you wanted?"
The man spat out the unchewed sausage from his mouth, nodded, and turned away.
The brother and sister then realized that the person who came was actually the head chef of You Ran Ju. Jiang Sheng had once developed a liking for him because he knew how to stir-fry cured pork with garlic sprouts.
Although we don't know what twists and turns happened in the middle, the fact that the head chef came to us means that Youranju came to us.
Jiang Sheng was so happy she almost jumped for joy, but remembering her elder brother's composure even in the face of a collapsing mountain, she forcibly suppressed her joy.
Zheng Ruqian breathed a sigh of relief and asked softly, "Did you two uncles come all this way because you have something to say about our sausages and cured meat?"
The fishmonger quickly waved his hand, "I have no objection. It's just that last night I asked my wife to stir-fry it casually. When Brother Zhou came over and smelled the aroma, he took a couple of bites and insisted on asking where the cured meat and sausages came from. I had no choice but to bring them over."
Then, the scene unfolded where the master chef ate raw sausage just to taste it.
It was obviously a misunderstanding.
But the head chef didn't have time to explain or apologize. He gripped the two sausages in his hands and asked urgently, "May I ask where you two young friends obtained these sausages?"
Jiang Sheng and Zheng Ruqian both had a meal.
The head chef realized his words were ambiguous and quickly explained, "I don't mean to buy things from you. I just wanted to ask if you could buy more. Youranju buys large quantities of this kind of sausage and cured meat, as much as you have."
Jiang Sheng turned her head and exchanged a glance with Zheng Ruqian.
It's here! The long-awaited collaboration has finally arrived.
However, in order to stand tall in front of these people from Fengjing, Jiang Sheng and his sister did not readily hand over the goods. Instead, they carefully said, "Not many."
"How many do you have?" The head chef pointed to dozens of sausages. "You can't just have these on the table, can you?"
Zheng Ruqian was still thinking about how many kilograms would be appropriate.
Jiang Sheng stood on tiptoe and poked her head out from behind him, "One hundred jin."
"Only a hundred catties?" The head chef was very disappointed, but something was better than nothing. "Then let's have a hundred catties. At the price we paid before, five hundred coins a catty, send them all to Youranju."
The fishmonger next to him stumbled, nearly choking on his own astonishment at the price.
Jiang Sheng and Zheng Ruqian did not immediately respond. Instead, they exchanged a glance and tacitly agreed that the price should be raised.
Jiang Sheng looked up as if to respond, but Zheng Ruqian pressed her back down.
The boy sniffed and decided to play the villain himself. "Master chef, it's not that we don't want to give it to you, it's just that the weather is so hot that it's hard to make sausages and cured meat, so the price can't be the same as before."
"Difficult to make?" The head chef, true to his word, immediately grasped the key point. "Did you make these sausages and cured meat yourselves? Or did you buy them from outside?"
Zheng Ruqian lowered his head and remained silent, which was taken as tacit agreement.
The master chef's mind started to stir again.
A hundred kilograms of cured meat can only quench immediate thirst; long-term cooperation is what Youranju needs.
It's not hard to guess the two kids' idea of raising prices. You Ran Ju is rich and doesn't care about this. Most importantly, no matter how many coins you buy the preserved meat for, you can sell it for dozens of times more at You Ran Ju.
"What price are you looking for?" the master chef asked.
In his estimation, something worth 500 coins would be raised to 600 or 700 coins, at most 800 coins.
However, Zheng Ruqian stretched out his hand and made a "two" gesture.
After a moment of stunned silence, the head chef asked incredulously, "You're not talking about two taels of silver per pound, are you?"
Both cured pork and sausages are made from pork, which costs about 20 wen per jin. There are labor costs in production and losses in drying, but it's impossible for them to sell for 2 taels of silver per jin. These are outrageous prices.
No matter how wealthy and powerful You Ran Ju is, it's impossible for anyone to treat it like a servant.
The head chef shook his head. "No, no, it's too expensive."
Without saying a word, Zheng Ruqian turned around and started packing his things, not forgetting to take out two sausages and give them to the fishmonger.
The vendor dared not accept it, and only after several refusals did he finally accept it in his palm.
Zheng Ruqian packed up, carrying his bundle on one shoulder and leading his younger sister with the other, and walked out at a leisurely pace.
The master chef watched helplessly, his heart filled with reluctance.
Finally, just as the siblings disappeared, he spoke up to stop them, "Wait... two taels of silver it is, but I'll buy one hundred catties first, and we can discuss the rest later, okay?"
Zheng Ruqian readily nodded.
Regardless of how the cooperation goes in the future, the key is to earn these two hundred taels of silver first and solve the problem of our declining standard of living.
You Ran Ju needed the goods urgently, and the head chef urged them repeatedly. The brother and sister rushed back to the courtyard to deliver the preserved meats as quickly as possible.
On the way, Jiang Sheng couldn't help but ask, "Second Brother, two taels is really not a low price. Will Youranju really agree to future cooperation?"
Merchants are inherently profit-driven, and doing business is all about profit. The higher the cost of buying preserved meat, the lower the profit of Youranju, which they will definitely disagree with.
But when the workshop's preserved meats become the only ones available, Youranju has no choice but to agree, whether it's good or bad.
"Besides, I don't necessarily need two ounces." Zheng Ruqian smiled slyly. "Taking two steps forward and half a step back is better than taking one and a half steps forward directly."
Jiang Sheng's eyes widened, and she felt she had learned something again.
The brother and sister delivered 100 catties of sausages and cured meat to Youranju and received 200 taels of silver in return.
During this time, the head manager remained seated, watching them expressionlessly, clearly dissatisfied with the exorbitant purchase price.
Zheng Ruqian didn't care. He straightened up and took the two silver notes, counted them, and handed them to Jiang Sheng.
With these two hundred taels, the family can eat meat again.
Jiang Sheng smiled broadly and, as usual, put the silver notes into her purse and then hid them deep inside her sleeve pocket.
The brother and sister whispered amongst themselves, discussing whether to buy a few large pork knuckles for their aunt to stew that evening.
The head manager, sitting at the top, was so angry he felt dizzy. In a flash, he remembered what Jiang Chengyuan had said, and he tentatively asked, "These goods were transported from Anshui County, weren't they?"
Or perhaps people in Anshui County also make this kind of preserved meat sausage.
Jiang Sheng was taken aback, and had not yet had a chance to answer.
The head manager continued, "I've never heard of anything from Anshui County selling for two taels of silver per catty. Even if I send someone to Anshui County to transport the goods back, how much can I get per catty?"
Zheng Ruqian twitched his lips, knowing that Youranju wanted to negotiate the price.
He felt obligated to tell the head manager the truth.
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