"There are only ten copies of the secret recipe for making brown sugar. The highest bidder wins!"
Zheng Yurong stood on the stage, holding a small wooden box in her hand, following the auction process explained by Xie Yuan.
The secret recipe is inside the wooden box.
She smiled gently, exuding the air of a professional businesswoman, and announced, "Let's begin the auction for the first item!"
"Starting price: 10,000 strings of cash! Each bid increment: 100 strings of cash."
boom!
As soon as Zheng Yurong finished speaking, the bidders in the lobby of the restaurant on the first floor erupted in excitement.
Ten thousand strings of cash?
Just one secret recipe?
And that's just the bottom price?
Each price increase costs 100 strings of cash?
This is robbery!
Although the sugar shop was indeed booming, and the profit from brown sugar was extremely high.
However, before the business has even been completed, they're already spending such a large sum of money on a single prescription. Even if these wealthy merchants were prepared, they still find it hard to accept.
"Your presence at the Yue Prince's auction is a great honor for the Yue Prince's residence."
Zheng Yurong noticed that everyone was only exclaiming, discussing, and expressing dissatisfaction, but no one was bidding.
The scene became even more chaotic.
She quickly raised her voice and continued, "Therefore, to thank everyone, our Queen has decided that whoever wins the first bid for the secret recipe will not only receive the recipe itself, but also two experienced craftsmen."
The room fell silent immediately after he said that.
Experienced craftsmen?
The merchants and managers on the first floor who were in charge were basically cunning and experienced.
They knew very well that even if they obtained the secret recipe, they would have to experiment repeatedly to finally get a qualified finished product.
But things change when you have artisans.
You can get started right away and make brown sugar immediately.
"Bidding begins! Starting price: 10,000 strings of cash! Each bid—"
Before Zheng Yurong could finish speaking, someone in the audience started shouting, "I bid 10,100 guan!"
Once there's a first one, there will be a second and a third!
In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the price had been inflated from 10,000 strings of cash to 19,000 strings.
It'll be 20,000 strings of cash soon!
These aren't numbers that can be easily uttered with a simple tap of the lips.
Instead, it was piles and piles of copper coins.
If it were packed in boxes, it would probably take a whole box!
The atmosphere at the scene was somewhat tense.
Ta-da! Ta-da!
In the quiet restaurant, the faint sound of footsteps seemed quite abrupt.
The important person on the second floor has made a move!
Immediately afterwards, the second round of price increases began.
"Twenty thousand strings of cash!"
"Twenty-one thousand strings of cash!"
"Thirty thousand strings of cash!"
"...30,100 guan!"
Ultimately, the first sugar-making recipe was auctioned off for 32,700 guan.
Madam Zheng pinched her palm hard. "Good! Good for Huang Shi!"
She could clearly see that the merchant who was making the crazy bid was a retainer of Madam Huang, the matriarch of the local powerful Chen family.
And Madam Huang was the lady who had just come over to greet her, saying that they should unite and work together to lower the price.
"You slut! You wouldn't let me bid, so you were just waiting for me here!"
Madam Zheng was secretly filled with resentment.
However, the auction on the first floor will not stop just because the First Lady of Yuezhou is angry.
Zheng Yurong congratulated the first bidder with a beaming smile, and after the money and goods were exchanged, she took out the second wooden box.
"This is the second recipe. Although we can't give it to the artisans, we can have them teach the craft to you personally!"
have to!
This bait is very tempting.
Thus began a new round of frenzied bidding.
Madam Zheng acquired the second secret recipe for 32,900 strings of cash.
The third one!
The fourth one!
...When it came to the tenth and final lot, the auction reached its climax.
Those who had been hesitating all along suddenly realized: Oh my god! There's only one left!
If you miss it again, it will truly be gone forever.
Former competitors, or some family from the neighboring county, have already successfully acquired the secret recipe. It's obvious that their workshops and sugar shops will rise rapidly.
At that point, they will only be able to watch helplessly as the other side makes a fortune.
And they, despite having opportunities right in front of them, simply missed them!
No doubt about it, we'll risk our lives to get the last one.
Therefore, the tenth secret recipe was auctioned off to a wealthy family in Ding County for an astronomical price of 49,700 guan.
"The auction has come to a successful conclusion! On behalf of Her Highness the Princess, I would like to thank everyone for their support!"
The ten secret recipes earned the Yue King's Mansion nearly 400,000 strings of cash.
On the surface, it seems to be only two months' income for the sugar shop.
But in reality, just as the princess said, it was obtained for free.
Because making brown sugar is really not difficult.
Some people who managed to photograph the brown sugar recipe solemnly opened the box, unrolled the rolled-up white paper, and after reading the contents of the recipe, their first reaction was—
Damn it!
It's that simple!
The second reaction was to curse wildly—no, I mean to curse the Yue Prince's Mansion for being so heartless!
These few lines of text are worth tens of thousands of strings of cash.
Moreover, some astute individuals discovered that the secret recipe Xie Yuan was selling was merely for making brown sugar.
The more precious white sugar and rock sugar were not mentioned.
Of course, someone offered Xie Yuan a possible explanation: "It's probably not that Xie doesn't want to sell, but that she doesn't have the money herself!"
After all, in the eyes of outsiders, the sugar-making secret recipe that Xie Yuan presented was stolen from Xiao Zixiu.
It's perfectly normal for a stolen recipe to be incomplete.
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