109 The Glittering Golden Abacus
"Okay, let's sign the contract."
Xingtou took the chopsticks, her nose moved slightly, and a light but not negligible fresh fragrance rushed into her nose. She raised her eyes slightly and looked at Ye Yunzhao who was standing next to her, a little surprised: she had not lied just now, this mushroom that she had never seen before smelled so special.
She picked up a piece of woven mushroom, blew on it a few times and put it into her mouth. The taste was different from the popular north wind mushroom in Beijing. It had a special toughness. It was salty and fragrant at first, and then a little sweet.
Xingtou's eyes lit up. If this kind of mushroom was sent to Heda Restaurant, it would probably be very popular.
She lowered her eyes to look at the white porcelain soup bowl. Apart from the golden tofu on both sides, there were only a few green and white cabbage floating on it.
She picked up another shiitake mushroom. The soup looked like it contained ordinary vegetables, but she had never expected it to taste so delicious with this addition. She picked up the bowl and drank the delicious broth in one gulp.
Although Ye Yunzhao was a little nervous just now, she felt relieved after seeing the clothes were so comfortable. She raised a smile and asked, "What do you think of the clothes?"
The headmaster placed the empty soup bowl on the table, sighed contentedly, and asked, "Just now I saw you left the fire on. Is there still something cooking in the pot?"
Ye Yunzhao's tone faltered. She had actually forgotten what was in the pot! She forced herself to remain calm and said, "That's right. I'll go check it out."
She walked quickly to the kitchen. As soon as she entered, the room was filled with rich aroma. Ye Yunzhao was afraid that the bottom would be burnt, and even more afraid that things would mess up because of this, so she quickly opened the wooden lid and took the fresh and domineering Braided Fungus out of the pot, which attracted the other cooks in the room to look back frequently.
Ye Yunzhao didn't care about these things. He quickly turned off the fire and hurriedly stirred the mushroom and pork rice in the pot. The rice grains on the top looked oily, and when the rice grains at the bottom turned up, they turned into pieces of golden rice crust. Fortunately, the bottom was not burnt, and some of the rice crust looked a little overcooked.
She breathed a sigh of relief, quickly scooped out the contents of the pot and served it to Xingtou to taste.
This time, Xingtou didn't let Ye Yunzhao serve her rice. Instead, she couldn't wait to scoop up a spoonful with a spoon, blew on it twice, and then eagerly put it into her mouth.
This time, the taste is different again.
The oily rice is mixed with fried shiitake mushrooms with slightly burnt edges. There is not much pork, but the occasional bit of pork makes the taste richer, salty and delicious, with a burnt aroma. The overbearing freshness is wrapped in a little bit of sweetness and runs rampant in the mouth. The golden, crispy rice crust is the finishing touch, which not only enriches the taste but also reduces the greasiness caused by excessive oiliness.
"Why did you make two dishes?" After eating a full bowl, Xingtou gently wiped the grease from the corners of his mouth and said slowly, "Could it be that you are the cook?"
Hearing this, Ye Yunzhao shook his head and explained sincerely, "Two dishes, one vegetarian and one meat. I want to let you know the specialness of the braided mushroom. I believe that eating it yourself will be worth a thousand words."
"For the sake of the meal you cooked, I won't hide it from you." The head of the group said with admiration, "If you can guarantee the supply volume, the capital will buy it continuously."
Ye Yunzhao's eyes lit up, and his face was filled with unconcealable joy: "Really?"
"Of course it's true. How much can you produce?" asked the leader.
If every household in Xixiang built a mushroom shed, based on the previous scale, they could harvest about three crops of baili mushrooms each winter. This would yield at least 200 kilograms of fresh baili mushrooms. 200 kilograms sounds like a lot, but if dried, it would only be around 25 kilograms... The more Ye Yunzhao calculated, the more worried she became. Previously, she was worried about not being able to sell them, and now, even though she could sell them, the yield was too low. She resolved that this time, when she returned, she would have to encourage the people to expand their production!
She looked up at the owner, her mind made up. "The yield isn't small, but spring is almost here, so it's no longer the season for shiitake mushrooms. If the owner is willing, we can probably produce another hundred pounds of fresh shiitake mushrooms this year. I'm sure the owner has seen other mushrooms, but I'm afraid it takes eight or nine pounds of fresh ones to make one pound of dried ones."
Hearing this, the owner felt a little disappointed. The yield was so small, only a dozen pounds of dried woven mushrooms in total. He estimated that any large restaurant in the capital could order it all. "Next year? How much can be produced?"
"Don't worry, our cultivation of woven mushrooms is quite large." Ye Yunzhao lied, "We can have at least 400 kilograms of fresh products, don't worry."
The leader nodded slightly, thought for a moment, and then stood up: "Okay, how much is a pound of dried woven mushrooms?"
Ye Yunzhao immediately began to calculate. In Lingnan County, seven or eight fresh stalks of ...
If it was one penny for three or four mushrooms, Ye Yunzhao would not be willing. She had gone to the capital with so much trouble, not just to make a few dollars, but if it was one penny for each mushroom, it sounded a bit arrogant... The more she thought about it, the more she regretted it. If she had known it would be so smooth, she should have gone to the market to inquire about the price of ordinary mushrooms.
Seeing her so conflicted, the head of the shop couldn't help but ask, "What's the matter? Haven't you agreed on a price yet?"
"Not really." Ye Yunzhao sighed in feigned worry and grabbed her hand. "I'm not being sluggish, but you just tasted this woven mushroom. It's really delicious. Even in a remote place like Yuezhou, it would fetch a high price. But..."
"But what?"
Ye Yunzhao looked up at her, his eyes filled with worry. "But I have a good relationship with the owner. If I ask for a high price, it would be really ignorant. But if I ask for a low price, I'm afraid I'll let down the villagers. Sigh..."
Having seen countless people, Xingtou guessed her little calculation in her heart. However, the woman in front of her was really interesting. She looked a bit like herself when she was young. She admired her so much that she didn't think her words were abrupt. Instead, she smiled and said, "Okay, we are destined to be together. I will help you with the land. The most I can give you for these weaving fungi is this-"
As she spoke, she raised her hand, dipped her index finger in some tea, and wrote her lowest price on the table.
Ye Yunzhao knew that she was on guard against Chen Jingshan who was standing beside her. She looked carefully and saw that the tea stains read "Four Hundred Wen"!
This figure far exceeded her expectations. Ye Yunzhao suppressed her joy and confirmed again, "Is this the price of one pound of dry goods?"
Seeing the boss nod, she also imitated him by dipping her index finger in tea and writing "reduced text" next to "four hundred texts". She smiled and said, "Boss, the profit I can give you is not much, I just hope you don't think it's too little, just consider it as making friends."
After seeing the tea stains on the table, the shopkeeper's eyes were filled with disbelief. She looked at Ye Yunzhao in astonishment. She had been working as a shopkeeper for more than ten years and had never seen a businessman lower the price on his own initiative. Now she admired him even more. She felt that she had not made a mistake in choosing the right person. She was sincere and said, "Okay, let's sign the contract."
After she finished speaking, she raised her hands and clapped them. Immediately, a maid came in from outside with writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone, and skillfully placed the things on the table.
The maid picked up the pen and wrote on half a page of paper. Then she asked the head of the group to write something before putting the paper in front of Ye Yunzhao.
She quickly leaned over to take a look, carefully reading each word three times. After confirming that it was correct, Ye Yunzhao smiled and pointed to a place and asked, "Is this where my name is written?"
The tailor replied: "Yes, but..."
She paused as she thought about the production issue.
"But what?" Ye Yunzhao quickly put down the brush.
The head of the company said, "However, some merchants will specifically write down the origin, type, etc. in order to promote the reputation of their own crops. Do you want to write them down?"
Isn’t that the brand name?
Ye Yunzhao had never thought that the ancient times were so advanced. Not only did they have contracts, but they also had brand names. With a brand name, perhaps the sales channels could be expanded, and the price might even be higher in the future. The more she thought about it, the happier she became. Why not do it?
"Write!" Ye Yunzhao said firmly.
She then picked up the brush and wrote her name on the paper, adding the six big characters "Lingnan County Bian Lijun" at the end. Fortunately, her original body was a talented woman with good handwriting. If she asked her own body to write calligraphy, she would be exposed.
"Okay." The traveler smiled and said, "It's already stated in the contract that the goods must be delivered by the end of this month at the latest."
"I know." Ye Yunzhao nodded hurriedly. "Then I'll arrange the shipping according to what I just wrote. I wonder if we have a deposit here? Well, you know, we come from a poor and remote village. If I don't show my fellow villagers some real money this time, I'm afraid they will..."
She said so, but she didn't really think so. The people of Xixiang were simple and kind, and with her, the county magistrate, acting as guarantor, not having a deposit wasn't a big deal.
But Ye Yunzhao had a selfish motive. On her first day in Daqi, she'd stepped into the mud. She'd vowed to herself that she'd paved both townships with bluestone. Even though she'd been busy all day in Lingnan County for over five months, this thought had always weighed heavily on Ye Yunzhao's mind, and she'd never forgotten it.
Moreover, she had also thought that if she could get more deposit, it would be best to repair the mountain road from Lingnan County to Yuezhou City. In this way, it would be more convenient to transport the straw mushrooms to Yuezhou City by water in the future.
The traveler smiled and said, "Don't worry, of course we have it."
As she spoke, she took out a small golden object from her bosom. Ye Yunzhao took a few glances at it curiously, but couldn't see clearly what it was.
It was not until she started fiddling with the little thing and it made a continuous clattering sound that she realized:
This! This! This is actually a golden abacus!
"Oh my God!" Ye Yunzhao accidentally cried out in surprise. After realizing that something was wrong, she quickly covered her mouth and stammered to explain, "My outfit... I'm really sorry, don't be angry, oh, it's really because I haven't seen the world..."
She felt a surge of regret. She had bought gold jewelry in her past life. Even her colleague wore a 40-gram gold bracelet, but she had never done this. She wondered if it was because she had never seen gold in ancient times that she felt so unworthy.
Well, forget about gold. After coming to this ancient time, Ye Yunzhao has hardly seen silver. All he sees all day are round, thin copper coins!
"Hahahaha." Xingtou didn't mind. She really liked Ye Yunzhao's natural demeanor and actually handed over the little golden abacus. "It's okay. Here, you can play with it too."
【Author’s words】
I'm going to advertise, please take a look, my dear county magistrates. I wish you all a happy reading. There are many pre-collected books in this column, welcome to come and have a look [Come on]
[Pre-collection 1] "The Guide to Making a Fortune by Setting Up a Street Stall in the Song Dynasty": See how the heroine makes a fortune by setting up a street stall in the Song Dynasty, and opens a shop that is comparable to Fanlou.
[Pre-collection 2] "Daily Business of a Teahouse in Bianjing": See how the heroine, after being forced to dress as a man, restores her identity to run a teahouse, marries a rich and handsome man (the hero becomes her son-in-law), and reaches the pinnacle of her life.
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