Hearing Su Qingluan's words, Xie Deshun couldn't help but take a breath: He actually secretly sent people to monitor the Su family and confirmed that the farthest place the family had been to recently was only Lefeng Town.
The capital is thousands of miles away. How did she know the exact price of the jam?
Su Qingluan knew that this incident was purely accidental - it all started when she went to Hongfulou before.
At that time, while waiting for the dough to rise, she went upstairs to write down the method of making "Silver Thread Noodles".
But no matter how detailed the steps were, it would only take the time of a recipe. In just a quarter of an hour, Su Qingluan had written down every step and precaution she could think of.
With nothing to do, Su Qingluan started chatting with Manager Liang in the private room upstairs, mainly about their experiences during this period and their observations on the previous "Moon Eating by Heavenly Dog".
Su Qingluan was not as outspoken in front of Manager Liang as she was in front of Mu Xingzhi, so she was only vague. However, when Manager Liang said that he fell down while trying to drive away the heavenly dog and was bounced up by his big pot belly, Su Qingluan burst into laughter.
Afterwards, he spoke mysteriously about a traveling merchant friend who had brought rare delicacies from the capital. It was said that the price of a small jar was as high as twenty gold, and if all the flavors were collected, they would be priceless.
Shopkeeper Liang also said that after eating this food, he felt that all the desserts tasted a bit bland.
So, with Su Qingluan's expectant expression, Manager Liang took out the hollow wooden box that Su Qingluan was very familiar with.
Su Qingluan had a bad feeling at the time, but she could always convince herself that this design wasn't patented and wasn't complicated. With so many designers, perhaps there would be some common ideas...
Then Su Qingluan felt like she was slapped in the face the next moment, because she found that the porcelain bottle in the wooden box was actually very damn familiar!
But at this moment, Shopkeeper Liang was still talking about something else, praising the ingenuity of the "blind box" packaging design in an admiring tone, saying that each series together formed a more complete picture...
When Su Qingluan heard the embarrassing compliments, she wished she could move her feet and immediately create a Jiangnan garden, with small bridges and flowing water.
So she originally planned to explain the true origin of the jam to Manager Liang, but seeing this situation, Su Qingluan silently swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue, otherwise it might be even more embarrassing.
In fact, Su Qingluan was very confident that her jam would be popular, and she also understood that according to the temperament of those rich and idle people in the capital, they would even spend a lot of money for a bite of food that they loved.
But twenty gold coins for a jar is really outrageous. It turns out that the rich really have money.
Su Qingluan thought again about her fixed commission of "one gold per can" and felt that even the capitalists would praise her for being kind.
Of course, she also understood that "Twenty Gold" was just a situation where supply was less than demand at the current stage, and everyone was still feeling the novelty, so the price was inflated. This situation could not and should not continue forever.
But even so, Su Qingluan would not allow the people in the Xie family to treat her as a fool.
So when the other party wanted to play tricks on her in the negotiation, she directly revealed her trump card: "I know you guys took the lion's share of the profits," and overturned the entire negotiation table.
Originally, Xie Deshun wanted to play some Tai Chi to scare Su Qingluan into not raising the price any more. But now Su Qingluan has directly revealed all her cards, and there is no point in playing around with her anymore.
So Steward Xie put away his overly attentive and kind smile, like that of Maitreya, and his small eyes flashed with calculation: "But Madam Su, we agreed at the beginning that once the commission price is set, it cannot be changed."
Su Qingluan said with a forced smile, "I also said at the beginning that Su Ji can let Xie Mansion be my only legal channel to sell Su Ji jam, but this does not include deliberately buying out most of the stock and using the small amount of stock for hunger marketing."
Even if it is hunger marketing, selling one hundred sets of jam and stockpiling more than 60% of the jam to make it a "rare commodity" cannot be compared - after all, hunger marketing is simply to "keep people's appetite", and malicious stockpiling is to drive up the price of goods.
In reality, Su Qingluan had no real basis for this statement; it was just her conjecture. However, the allusion to Liang's words, hinting at the high demand for jam and the difficulty of obtaining a single jar, made Su Qingluan suspicious.
This wasn't the age of information explosion, so even the best things took time to truly gain traction. And the "trial sale" Su Qingluan had given the Xie family wasn't enough to make the wealthy people of the entire capital "snatch it up like crazy."
Unless there is an invisible hand behind the scenes fanning the flames.
Having been exposed once again, Steward Xie felt a bit embarrassed. Su Qingluan asked in confusion, "Even if they weren't operating behind the scenes, the profit from this jam would still be quite high. Steward Xie, as the head steward of a high-ranking family, wouldn't be so short-sighted. If this malicious price manipulation were discovered, the reputation of both the Su family and even the Xie family would be severely damaged."
Thinking of this, Su Qingluan actually regretted cooperating with the Xie family - such a short-sighted attitude was like someone who was extremely hungry and would not let go of any edible food.
Wait... Su Qingluan's heart moved: this metaphor made her realize that something was wrong, but before she could figure it out, Xie Deshun's words interrupted her thoughts.
"Madam Su, you don't know." Seeing that he couldn't fool people, Xie Deshun's face fell, revealing a worried expression. He sent away the maids and servants on both sides, and then lowered his voice and approached Su Qingluan as if revealing some secret. "In fact, I am just a manager. Aren't the masters of the Xie Mansion the ones who really make the decisions?"
Su Qingluan watched the other party's acting with a cold gaze, her heart completely unmoved. However, she looked extremely curious. "Why? Wasn't it Manager Xie's idea that they were so impatient and maliciously manipulating the price?"
"How is that possible?" Xie Deshun looked wronged. "From the beginning to the end, this job was just a matter of reward if done well and punishment if done poorly! You're doing business with the entire Xie family. Do you think the income will go solely into the pocket of a small steward like me? It all goes to the master anyway!"
"It's just..." The originally smiling Maitreya face turned bitter. "My master has given the order, how dare I, a servant, say no? Ever since I learned that the temperature has dropped, we can't produce new jam for six months. My master is very worried about whether Madam Su's family can continue to operate!"
"oh?"
"But I am still very confident in Madam Su's craftsmanship, but... I can't do anything about it! The owner is anxious to get the profit on time every month, and I can't produce it on the spot. I can only... resort to this last resort..." After saying this, he looked guilty, as if he had no choice.
Su Qingluan understood: This is a scam and now that it doesn’t work, is he planning to play the emotional card?
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