The old gentleman, dressed in brocade, walked steadily and swiftly, showing no signs of old age, and his eyes were bright and piercing.
"I heard someone could make ice, but I didn't believe it," the old man said cheerfully. "People said the owner was a woman, which I also found unbelievable. But seeing her today has really broadened my horizons."
His eyes shone with a sharp, piercing light, and his laughter was loud and clear, both authoritative and grand.
Before Guan Yingying could say anything, as soon as he said those words, she immediately knew that she had encountered someone with a powerful background.
She was already a natural actress, so she immediately transformed into a social elite.
"Sir, you flatter me. May I ask where you are from? How long ago was this large order placed? Is it in cash?"
Guan Yingying led the people into the tea room, and the two sides began to discuss this big business deal.
“Cash, of course. We don’t need that little bit of money,” the old man said earnestly. “As long as you take out the ice, I’ll pay the full amount right away.”
The old man introduced himself as Ni Keng, from a prominent family. His family had a shipment of seafood to be delivered to a neighboring country, so they urgently needed a large quantity of ice.
The 30,000 taels of silver worth of goods is only one batch. If the ice shop supplies well, he will continue to place orders, but there is one thing to note: the first batch must be urgently needed.
"I wonder how long it will take the owner to finish making so much ice?"
Guan Yingying once again felt the superiority of five thousand years of civilization. In this era, ice making was simply a god-like existence, absolutely the client.
"How urgent is your so-called urgent need? For me, ice worth 30,000 taels of silver can be made in just one day, but you will need to pick it up yourself."
Guan Yingying was very shrewd and suggested that Ni Keng pick up the goods himself, as the transportation cost was a huge sum of money in this era.
"Okay, okay, no problem, I'll send someone to pick it up myself. There's no need for the employer to be in such a hurry; providing so much in one day would make me seem a bit unfair."
Ni Keng readily agreed, "How about this, I'll give you ten days, okay?"
Guan Yingying shook her head: "Giving me too much time for ice isn't a good thing either; it's also troublesome for me to preserve it."
She was telling the truth. If she had ten days, what would she do with the ice she made? She had nowhere to store it.
Both parties finally agreed that it would take five days, with the goods to be picked up on the fifth day.
Ni Keng was straightforward about unit prices and payments, but he was quite strict about penalties for breach of contract.
“Miss Tu, since we agreed on five days for delivery, I will arrange for people to prepare the seafood in the next few days. You must give me that much ice on the fifth day, otherwise I will suffer huge losses.”
"Don't worry, making ice is a piece of cake for me." Guan Yingying was very confident.
"Alright, Miss Tu, my seafood shipment is worth hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. If you can't deliver this batch of ice on time, I'll suffer huge losses. What do you think about the penalty for breach of contract?"
Guan Yingying could understand; after all, it was a contract, so there had to be a penalty for breach of contract.
Both parties agreed that Ni Keng would pay a deposit of 3,000 taels today, and would pick up the goods on the fifth day to settle the remaining balance, cash on delivery.
If Judingxin Ice Shop breaches the contract, it shall pay a penalty of 300,000 taels, which is ten times the amount of the breach.
Guan Yingying was too confident. Fortune favors the bold; there's no business without any risk.
Ni Keng also said that this was only the first batch, and a large number of orders were waiting.
Besides, her skills are absolutely top-notch; there's no way she couldn't have completed it.
With the Crown Prince backing her, what does she have to fear?
There was something she didn't tell Gu Chengyan: when she left the Crown Prince's residence today, Shi Xiu had slipped a piece of white jade into her hand, adorned with the royal yellow tassels.
The crown prince valued her highly and specially gave her a token.
She felt inexplicably excited; she felt that the way the Crown Prince looked at her was very different.
Anyway, she didn't want to tell Gu Chengyan about the jade pendant the crown prince had given her.
With the Crown Prince as his backer, Ni Keng must have had the audacity to cheat her out of her money.
So she signed the contract without hesitation.
Because this contract was so important, Ni Keng went to the government office to register it after both parties signed it.
After taking the contract, Ni Keng handed it to his servant and readily paid a deposit of three thousand taels. Guan Yingying also happily wrote down the deposit receipt.
After the signing was completed, both parties were very excited. They took the manager, Wei Bufan, to Wanghaige Restaurant for a meal. Ni Keng praised Guan Yingying and Wei Bufan highly.
"The younger generation is truly formidable! Miss Tu is no ordinary person; she will surely rise to prominence sooner or later." Ni Keng, drunk, stroked his beard and continued to praise her.
As the drinking party was in full swing, Yuanyuan from the Xie family heard the fluttering of birds' wings under the eaves.
I walked steadily to the birdcage, looked at the male robin perched on the mother robin's cage, grabbed it, and took the paper tube off its leg.
Open the cage and put it in the cage, poor thing, let it reunite with your wife for a while.
He took the note and went inside.
Yuanyuan said to Xie Zhaozhao, "Miss, Dongqin has already signed the contract. Let's move on to the next step."
Xie Zhaozhao took out 10,000 taels of the 200,000 taels of silver she had earned from betting on the flood and gave it to Yuanyuan.
“Go and give this silver to Dongqin.”
Yuanyuan responded and soon gave the silver to Dongqin.
Dongqin took the silver and went to the silver shop to exchange it for small-denomination banknotes.
Back in his courtyard, he told the dozen or so men below, "Quietly, without making a fuss, buy it all, no matter how much they have, and immediately transport the saltpeter to the East City warehouse."
"yes."
A dozen or so people bought a large quantity of goods at night, and then rushed to buy more at dawn.
By the time of 9 AM the next day, all the saltpeter in the city had been bought up, and not a single ounce and a half could be found on the market.
The group then went to the neighboring city and county, and bought up all the saltpeter within a 300-mile radius in batches within three days.
After collecting all the saltpeter from the area 300 li from the capital, Dong Qin said to his brothers, "Alright, let's rest and wait."
The brothers were puzzled: "Dongqin, what can we do with so much saltpeter? What if it all goes to waste?"
They didn't know what was going on. Dongqin told them to collect, so they collected. Every day, silver flowed out in a rush. Even a fool could figure out that this was a way of hindering someone.
But we can't just throw ourselves into it, can we? Killing a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred of our own is too irrational, isn't it?
Dong Qin didn't quite understand Miss Xie's next plan either, but he always felt that Miss Xie would never do something foolish.
For example, at the last peony festival, Yuanyuan didn't hesitate to bet on Lingxun as the leader.
So he immediately followed suit, betting 500 taels on the ice, and then his 500 taels turned into 10,000 taels.
He felt the same way this time.
Judingxin.
Guan Yingying, her eyes bloodshot, stood up immediately as she watched the shopkeeper and his assistant return on horseback. She asked anxiously, "How is it? Do you have any in the nearby towns?"
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