Chapter 676 Crayfish Poisoning Incident
The economy of the entire Ping'an County, except for the remaining 35 villages in Dahe Town, has also been boosted.
As long as the villagers grow new crops to sell, Cheng Wanwan can take a cut of the profit. The small amounts of money accumulated together can become a considerable income.
Of course, the most popular is the crayfish.
Last year, crayfish were only available for a short time. Many people heard of them and wanted to eat them, but the season had already passed. They are all waiting to enjoy them this year.
Yangzhou is already a bustling and prosperous city, and because of the mantis shrimp, it has once again attracted wealthy people from all over the country. As more and more diners come, the demand for mantis shrimp in Yangzhou is increasing day by day.
The villagers of Lijia Gou have already caught all the crayfish of similar size in their ponds, and they will have to wait another month for new crayfish to grow.
It just so happens that the crayfish in Cheng Wanwan's fifty-acre pond are ripe, which can take over the supply. Otherwise, if the crayfish supply is cut off, it is easy to cause some unnecessary problems.
She picked out the large and good-looking lobsters separately, which were to be tributes to the capital.
Dahe Town has priority in planting and raising new species, but at the same time, it is also required to pay tribute every year.
In the past, she would have felt sorry for the free offerings, but now, the more money she earns, the less she cares about them.
Because of the title of tribute, the lobster can be placed in a high-end position and attract more diners, so she can naturally make back her investment.
"There are 12,000 jin here in total," Wu Xiaochui recorded the data in the ledger. "We'll depart tonight and arrive at Yangzhou Wharf in the early morning of three days later. The next batch of crayfish will be caught starting tomorrow night and shipped out the morning after tomorrow..."
Cheng Wanwan nodded: "Judging from this trend, it seems that we will not be able to expand our langoustines distributors this year, otherwise we simply won't be able to supply them."
They're already incredibly busy in Yangzhou and Qingzhou alone. If they had another regional agent and dug up the entire Lijia Gou area for shrimp farming, it probably still wouldn't be enough.
However, since shrimp farming is so profitable, by the end of the year, many people will definitely come to buy shrimp seedlings, so she won't need to worry about expanding her farming operations.
On the tenth day of July, the account books and dividends for the previous quarter were delivered.
The town's preserved eggs, braised food, ice jelly, and various snacks made thousands of taels of silver. The soap workshop and the skin care workshop combined had a profit of over 100,000 taels of silver in three months. The income from the Dahe Banquet was very considerable, and the lobsters also made 30,000 to 40,000 taels... The silver in her private treasury was close to 300,000 taels, and these were all liquid assets.
The assets accumulated by the Qian family through four or five generations of business are probably around this much.
At this rate, she should be able to become the richest person in Yun Province within a year... After another three to five years, maybe she will become the richest person in the country.
She couldn't keep the money all to herself, so she planned to divide it into four parts, one for each of her sons, and also to buy more property.
You still need to think carefully about where to buy property.
In the height of summer, as the weather grew hotter, Cheng Wanwan sat under a large tree in the courtyard, enjoying the cool air while eating grapes and reading a letter sent by Asabu.
Over the past two years, trade between Asab and the Great Yu Dynasty has become increasingly close, and correspondence has become more frequent. Some letters cover a wide range of topics, and when Lord Zhang is unsure of the specific meaning, he will send the letters over for her to translate.
In addition to sending the translated version back, she also wrote some crash courses on the Assab language and sent them to Beijing.
She herself believed that she was worthy of the monthly salary paid by a sixth-rank Sibin.
While translating the letter, Ninglan walked in from the courtyard gate: "My lady, Master He from Yangzhou has arrived and says he has important matters to discuss with you."
Cheng Wanwan put down the brush.
Ever since the lobster business got on track, Mr. He has not come to Dahe Town in person anymore, because he is needed in Yangzhou.
The diners who go to Yangzhou to eat lobsters are basically rich people, so Mr. He naturally has to come out to entertain them. He doesn't have the time to travel so far.
The hotter the weather, the better the business. Logically, Mr. He would not come here at this time. It seems that there is something very important.
Cheng Wanwan closed the letter, put it away, stood up and walked towards the reception room.
The people who came to Dahe Town this time included Mr. He and several businessmen who participated in the investment promotion last time. They all looked anxious and depressed.
She sat down in the main seat and asked, "What happened?"
Mr. He sighed and said, "Mrs. Sui, we really have no other choice but to come and disturb you. Please take a look at this record."
Cheng Wanwan took the booklet, opened it, and her expression became more and more solemn.
This booklet started recording six days ago, and on that day, it recorded that a diner suddenly started vomiting half an hour after eating crayfish.
On the first day, only one diner had a problem. Mr. He asked a doctor to treat the patient properly and made compensation to calm the diner down. He thought it was just an accident.
Unexpectedly, the next day, as many as eight diners showed the same symptoms, accompanied by severe abdominal pain, diarrhea and bloody stools.
On the third day, as many as seventeen diners had accidents...
After three days of development, the news could no longer be suppressed and became a hot topic throughout Yangzhou City.
On the morning of the fourth day, the restaurant was still open for business as usual, but in the afternoon, it was surrounded by local people and was forced to close.
After discussing with the Chamber of Commerce, Old Master He decided to come and ask Sui Gongren for advice.
They heard that when Sui Gongren was in the skincare business, a few women developed rashes all over their bodies after using the products. At the time, Sui Gongren said it was just an allergic reaction and they recovered after using another medication, without causing any major adverse effects.
This time, it should be the same.
Cheng Wanwan pursed her lips.
In modern society, a very small number of people are allergic to crayfish, but it is really only a very small number of people. It is impossible for more than a dozen to suddenly appear in the same place on the same day. Moreover, crayfish allergy does not present with these symptoms. These symptoms look more like poisoning.
She put down the booklet and asked, "Has anyone been killed?"
Grandpa He shook his head: "The worst thing is vomiting. He keeps vomiting. After he finishes vomiting everything in his stomach, he starts vomiting yellow and bitter fluid, and he also vomits blood."
She continued, "What did the doctor say?"
"The doctor said it was poisoned," Old Man He scoffed. "He actually said it was some kind of scorpionfish... He also said the lobsters in our restaurant are highly toxic and will make people sick if they eat them... So many people ate them last year and were fine, how could they be poisonous? This is absolute nonsense!"
Several merchants nearby chimed in, "The key is that so many people in Yangzhou actually believed it."
“When we weren’t busy recently, we ate crayfish every day, so how come we didn’t get poisoned?”
"I've heard that arsenic is a poison used in the martial arts world, and it's very difficult for ordinary people to buy it. How could it possibly appear in the body of a crayfish?"
"Could it be that someone deliberately poisoned our kitchen?"
"But didn't Qingzhou also have a poisoning incident? Could it be that the person behind this went to Qingzhou to poison people?"
Just then, Ninglan hurried in to report: "My lady, Manager She from Qingzhou has arrived. Shall we invite him in now?"
Cheng Wanwan's expression was quite serious: "Let him in."
Shopkeeper She entered with a disheveled beard. Before he could even bow, Cheng Wanwan told him to sit down and get down to business.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
