When Mrs. Lu said this, she actually thought that if the young lady in front of her was unwilling to sell the recipe, she would not force her. Even if she and Miss Xu were to form a partnership in the wine business, it would not be possible for her to expand the business too much in the early stages. It would probably only increase by 10,000 or 20,000 taels of silver each year, and she was not short of this 10,000 or 20,000 taels of silver. She thought that it would be okay if the young lady was unwilling to sell the recipe to her, and she was not the kind of person who would force anyone to buy something.
But if the young lady is willing, she will provide the venue and manpower next year so that she can make more wine, and both of them will make money.
In short, this transaction still depends on Miss Xu's wishes.
By the next year, Mrs. Lu really joined hands with Miss Xu to start a wine business. They bought land in a village closest to Yuanbao Town and built a workshop. To make wine, any location that could be shaded would do. When her people started helping to pick and wash the grapes and finally to seal the vineyards, Miss Xu did not avoid her people.
It is unavoidable that this winemaking method seems too simple.
Some people were selfish and secretly tried to brew the wine themselves. However, after the secondary fermentation, the wine they brewed tasted either too sweet, too sour, or very astringent, or just ordinary. It was completely impossible to brew the taste of Miss Xu's wine.
Mrs. Lu then believed that it was not that Miss Xu was unwilling to sell the recipe, but that others really could not make such delicious wine using the same recipe.
Later, Mrs. Lu punished the subordinates who secretly brewed wine.
Of course, these are all things to come. Now Mrs. Lu is still waiting for the young lady in front of her to reply to her.
For Xu Qinyu, it is natural to make money if there is money.
Naturally, she agreed readily and discussed specific matters with Mrs. Lu, such as the construction of the subsequent workshop, the arrangement of manpower, and the sharing of the profits from the wine produced.
There was no room for Shopkeeper Zhou, Cheng Ge'er and Feng Ge'er to interrupt. They could only sit there and wait quietly.
Shopkeeper Zhou realized that even though Miss Xu was young, she was already able to work on her own and her cooking skills were amazing. She was not even nervous when discussing business with Madam Lu and spoke very fluently.
Even Mrs. Lu was a little surprised. The young lady in front of her was only in her teens? When talking about business with her, she was more experienced than many patriarchs of aristocratic families, and she thought through every aspect clearly.
In the end, the result of the discussion between the two was that Xu Qinyu would not interfere with the workshop and the staff. She did not need to do the chores such as picking and washing grapes. She only needed to find time to mix the ratio of wine and sugar, decide when to have people fill the jars and seal them, and control the time of the subsequent first fermentation.
She didn't even have to pay for the wine jars and bottles for bottling the wine. Even the money for the sugar was paid by Mrs. Lu.
In short, she was the one who had to allocate the ratio of grapes to sugar in the early stage, and then use her nose to see when the grapes could be bottled for fermentation.
The wine was sold to Mrs. Lu at the price of one or two taels of silver per pound. As for how Mrs. Lu sold the wine, where it was shipped, or what price it was sold at, she no longer cared.
After half an hour of negotiation, Mrs. Lu said with a smile, "I really didn't expect a young lady like you who is only ten years old to be so eloquent and to be able to talk to me so well. I actually agreed to it."
Mrs. Lu originally thought that she would provide the workshop labor and her people would help with odd jobs, but the remaining wine jars, wine bottles and the cost of sugar would all belong to Xu Qinyu. It would be almost the same as now, and the wine would be purchased at the same price of one or two silver coins.
The result now is that Miss Xu only needs to provide herself and does not need to spend any capital.
Xu Qinyu smiled and said, "Even if I don't have to invest any capital, I promise to Madam Lu that I will only sign a contract with you to do the wine business, and will never do this business with anyone else. Even if someone imitates the wine in the future, it will never taste like this, so Madam Lu will not lose anything."
Not only will she not lose money, Mrs. Lu will not sell the wine too cheaply. She will definitely ship it to other wealthy states and sell it at several times the price, and she will earn more than her.
Mrs. Lu smiled and said, "Then let's write the deed first."
In fact, after deducting all the costs and manpower, she earned more than Xu Qinyu by transporting the wine to rich places to sell it, but she also had a lot of things to worry about. She even had to hire an escort agency to escort the wine on the way to the rich places.
She is a businessman, and naturally she wants to make more money by exploiting the other party. This is also the nature of a businessman. She also thinks that the other party is just a person, and doesn't even need to do things like vineyard planting, which is really too calculated.
But she was still convinced by the young lady in front of her.
To be honest, the one who makes the most money from this business is Miss Xu, who doesn't have to worry about anything.
Madam Lu asked the maid to bring paper and pen to write the contract. Of course, the contract also stated what Xu Qinyu had said before, that he would only do this business with Madam Lu, and that the taste of subsequent wines had to satisfy Madam Lu. If the taste changed, Madam Lu could ask Xu Qinyu for compensation, etc.
After signing the contract, Madam Lu smiled and said, "It's getting late. Miss Xu, Shopkeeper Zhou and the two young men would like to stay for dinner?"
Xu Qinyu smiled and said, "After discussing such a big deal, I should be the one to entertain Madam Lu. It's a pity that I can't accompany Madam Lu to dinner today. I have to go back to Yuanbao Town, otherwise the city will be closed at that time. I still run a restaurant at home, so I have to be busy before dawn tomorrow."
Mrs. Lu knew from what Shopkeeper Zhou said that Xu Qinyu could cook, but she didn't expect that she actually opened a restaurant.
"I never thought that Miss Xu would open a restaurant at such a young age. She is indeed very successful at a young age."
These words were naturally just polite remarks. Mrs. Lu could not have expected that Xu Qinyu's cooking skills were just like the wine she brewed, which was endlessly memorable. It was not until she went to Yuanbao Town the following year that she tasted Xu Qinyu's cooking skills. She was naturally amazed and regretful. She regretted not coming to Yuanbao Town to meet Miss Xu earlier.
After Xu Qinyu and Manager Zhou left, Xu Qinyu thanked Manager Zhou, saying that if it weren't for Manager Zhou, she wouldn't have known Madam Lu and negotiated such a big deal. She also planned to give Manager Zhou the commission for the two thousand bottles of wine, which was about eighty taels of silver. Manager Zhou was unwilling to take it, saying that Miss Xu was willing to teach Daqing how to cook those dishes, and she was already Daqing's master, and she also allowed Daqing to cook these dishes in the inn. He and Daqing were very grateful, so naturally they couldn't accept the money.
In the end, Xu Qinyu did not force it. After returning to the inn, she told Zhou Daqing about some techniques and seasoning methods for cooking, stewing, braising and steaming dishes. Zhou Daqing has a basic knowledge of cooking, and if he slowly figures it out, these techniques will be very useful to him.
It was almost the end of the afternoon when Xu Qinyu, Cheng Ge'er and Feng Ge'er set out to return to Yuanbao Town.
The next day, Mrs. Lu sent someone to Yuanbao Town. It was breakfast time and there was a queue outside Xu's Restaurant.
The man who came to pick up the goods was a man in his thirties. He was tall and strong, with a handsome appearance, thick eyebrows and narrow eyes, but he didn't like to talk much.
It was Cheng Ge'er who received him. He knew that the man's name was Zhen Wu, and he was the leader of the caravan under Madam Lu. He was very serious.
Zhen Wu first moved all the wine from Xu's Restaurant to the carriage. Cheng Ge'er said, "There are two more batches of goods in Guihua Lane. One of them needs to ferment for another eight days before it can be opened. When Zhen Biaotou accompanies me to pick up the goods later, I will tell him which batch it is. Just pay a little attention and leave it for another eight days when we get back."
Zhen Wu handed the two thousand taels of silver to Cheng Ge'er, who returned to the kitchen and gave it to Xu Qinyu, who asked him to lead people to Guihua Lane to carry the wine.
There were about seven or eight people in the caravan. When they were moving things to Guihua Lane, someone couldn't help but shout, "Boss, we haven't had breakfast yet. This Xu's breakfast smells so good. How about we eat here?"
Zhen Wu glanced at the diners in line and said, "Go get some wine first, and then find another place to eat."
Cheng Ge'er was helpless. It was the busiest time of the day and there were many diners queuing up, all with numbers in hand. It was not easy to get food from the kitchen for them. There were seven or eight people, and they seemed to have big appetites. They would probably finish half of the food prepared by the kitchen. The other diners would have to wait too long.
These men scratched their heads and wanted to say something, but Zhen Wu had already got on the carriage and drove away.
The others had no choice but to follow. They didn't want to eat breakfast from other restaurants or food stalls. They just felt that Xu Ji's breakfast smelled too fragrant and tempting, and wanted to try it. However, there were too many diners and the boss asked them to leave, so they had no choice but to follow.
Cheng Ge'er took them to Guihua Lane and loaded all the wine stored by the Pei and Wen families onto the carriage. Only then did Zhen Wu take them back to Raozhou City.
When Mrs. Lu saw Zhen Wu, she opened a bottle of wine and asked him to taste it. Zhen Wu simply took the small white porcelain bottle and drank the wine in one gulp.
Mrs. Lu said helplessly: "You are really like a cow chewing a peony."
Zhen Wu said, "The sweet and sour taste is what you like."
He likes strong liquor, but the people he likes are petite and delicate.
Mrs. Lu couldn't help but look at him, and finally sighed, "Why are you doing this?"
Regarding her situation in the Shi family at that time, Shi Ling's death had nothing to do with her. Even though she was willing to live with Shi Ling later, she never slept in the same room with him again. She did not forgive Shi Ling, but she didn't know what to do in the future. She thought of living in the Shi family first and see what to do in the future. Unexpectedly, Shi Ling himself was unlucky. In less than half a year, he died in an accident on the way to do business.
The Shi family's caravan is mainly managed by Shi Ling.
As soon as Shi Ling died, the other members of the Shi family naturally wanted to take over the caravan and the business that Shi Ling had been doing in the past few years.
She was just a woman, even if she was the daughter of Duke Lu, the Duke Lu's Mansion was thousands of miles away from Raozhou City. She could not argue with the Shi family for anything. If Zhen Wu had not come forward to help her, the Shi family might not even want to return her dowry to her, and would want to drive her away.
Zhen Wu was two or three years younger than her, but his words carried a lot of weight in the caravan. Zhen Wu brought people who were willing to follow him to help her make a scene at the Shi family, and took back her dowry, and most of Shi Ling's livelihood also belonged to her. The caravan was divided into two, Zhen Wu took half of the people to follow her, and the rest followed the Shi family. Zhen Wu devised a plan to make those people and the Shi family have a dispute over interests. The caravan left the Shi family, and the Shi family lost both the caravan and their livelihood. Zhen Wu also suppressed them secretly, and the Shi people could not bear it and left Raozhou City, so she could live her current life.
Mrs. Lu actually always knew how Zhen Wu felt about her, before Shi Ling died and before she knew Shi Ling's character.
When she was pregnant, she met Zhen Wu, and he looked at her like a wolf.
Later, Zhen Wu helped her and she followed him.
Over the years, Zhen Wu helped manage the caravan and business, and all the money earned was in her name.
Zhen Wu had been with her for more than ten years. He neither married nor took concubines. He only had her. She also said that they should just give up and asked him to marry someone else. She had a difficult childbirth and was injured, so she couldn't have children anymore and she didn't want to marry again in this life. But Zhen Wu didn't say a word every time. He just looked at her deeply and left angrily.
He was angry for only two days, and finally he took the initiative to find her and coax her.
Thinking of this, Mrs. Lu couldn't help but feel soft-hearted.
She naturally had feelings for Zhen Wu, and knew that no matter how many times she told him, he probably would never marry and have children, so that was fine, as long as he was willing, she would just accompany him for the rest of his life.
Mrs. Lu pulled the tall and burly man to sit down and took the initiative to sit in his arms.
His anger finally subsided a little and he hugged the person.
Mrs. Lu asked about his trip to Yuanbao Town, and then asked about Miss Xu. She also said that she had opened a restaurant where she could taste Miss Xu's cooking skills.
She was thinking that when Zhen Wu and his friends went to Yuanbao Town, they would have the chance to have breakfast, and Miss Xu would open a restaurant where they could sit down and eat something.
Zhen Wu shook his head. "That young lady's restaurant is very popular. There was a long line outside the door. So I didn't get to taste her cooking, but it must be very good and smelled delicious."
Mrs. Lu was a little surprised. It seemed that Miss Xu was quite capable. She had opened a restaurant at such a young age and was able to run it on her own. She even dared to negotiate business with her. I don't know which family taught this girl, but she was quite capable.
Madam Lu also told Zhen Wu that she and Miss Xu were planning to open a winery to brew wine, and they might have to buy land near Yuanbao Town to build a workshop after the New Year, so she needed his help to keep an eye on it.
Zhen Wu nodded to reassure her.
…
Xu Qinyu was busy in the restaurant until the evening when she returned. She counted the banknotes and found there were exactly two thousand taels. She put the two thousand taels in her box and took out several dozen taels from it to give as rewards to Cheng Ge'er and the others.
Although she earned 2,000 taels of silver from brewing wine, after deducting the wine jars, bottles, and sugar, the cost was about 500 taels of silver. This means that she earned 1,500 taels of silver from brewing wine this summer, which was the restaurant's income for more than two months.
In fact, it was the brothers who contributed more to the brewing of wine this time, so everyone got a reward.
The next day, Xu Qinyu went to the restaurant and called several children over, saying that they made a lot of money from brewing wine this time, and everyone contributed, so everyone would get a red envelope.
Cheng Ge'er, Gong Ge'er and Xu Feng, three young boys, contributed the most and were the main force in picking grapes on the mountain. Each of them was given ten taels of silver.
The next one was Luo Da Niu. She was not as strong as the three boys, but she was diligent and efficient. She was the one who did most of the work, such as washing and drying the grapes, so she was given a reward of eight taels of silver.
Xu Tiao also got six taels.
Xu Yu and Xu Shun were too young and only got 4 taels.
Even the youngest girl, Luo Erniu, received a reward of one or two taels of silver because she also helped to wash the grapes.
Xu Qinyu had agreed to the red envelope this time, so everyone blushed and accepted it readily.
Luo Da Niu and Luo Er Niu also wanted to give the reward to Lin so that Lin could pay back the thirty taels of silver to the Luo family.
Lin refused and asked the two girls to keep the money themselves, telling them that this was their own money and they should keep it for themselves. They could spend it as they wish or save it for later use if there was anything they wanted to do.
Lin thought that five hundred coins a month was just right for the Luo family. If she really wanted to give the young lady the nine taels of silver in one go, she was afraid that old Luo would be tempted by money and come up with some evil intentions to harm Xu Ji.
Only then did Luo Da Nv and Luo Er Nv save all the money.
Luo Da Niu is a few years older than Er Niu and has her own ideas. She no longer just thinks about playing and eating. She wants to learn pastry cooking from Miss Xu, hoping that she will be more diligent and smart. Miss Xu will be willing to accept her as an apprentice in the future. When she learns how to make pasta, if Miss Xu is willing to let her be a pastry chef in Xu's, she will naturally be willing to stay in Xu's. If not, she can open a noodle stall to support her mother and sister.
Erniu's idea was simpler. Neither she nor her sister had any pretty hair ties or silk flowers, so she wanted to buy two pretty hair ties and silk flowers for her sister and herself.
Xu Feng and his friends had been beggars for several years and had suffered a lot. They were very grateful to have met such a good master like Xu Qinyu, and they kept the red envelopes they received.
…
The days that followed passed quickly, autumn turned into winter. As winter began, Xu Feng led the other three to buy two sets of winter clothes. In addition to the red envelope given by the master before, they now had a salary of 100 coins per month to receive.
They had just recently become Xu Qinyu's disciples, and the eldest girl also became their disciple. Now all five of them are Xu Qinyu's disciples.
Xu Qinyu was willing to accept them as apprentices because they really wanted to learn cooking. Da Niu and Xu Tiao had some talent in cooking. Da Niu was better at making pasta, while Xu Tiao was more sensitive to smells. The others were also willing to learn and cook from her.
You don't have to be a natural cook. As long as you are diligent and willing to learn and practice, you can still make delicious food.
So a month ago, Xu Qinyu planned to accept them all as his apprentices, so he just accepted them all.
Xu Feng and the other three are still living in the small storage room of the restaurant. Xu Qinyu hired a carpenter to build a bunk bed in the room to save space and provide enough space for them to live in. Now they have their own wages and they also received a red seal of wine a few days ago, which is enough for them to buy things for themselves.
Xu Ji's business has always been good. In addition, Xu Ji provided relief to disaster victims in early summer and was praised by Magistrate Yang. Even though some restaurants and hotels were jealous of Xu Ji's business, they did not dare to play any tricks against Xu Ji, for fear of being caught and punished by Magistrate Yang like Ping An Restaurant before. In short, even though some people were jealous of Xu Ji's business, it was able to survive peacefully for half a year.
The weather in the southwest this year is quite normal. Unlike last year when it started snowing heavily in early winter, this year's early winter is just the beginning of wearing thin clothes and it hasn't snowed yet. We have to wait for another month before there will be a few snowfalls here and there, and then it will be the end of the year, and then spring will come, and the weather will warm up.
The days passed by, and in the blink of an eye, another month had passed.
Xu Qinyu didn't have much free time. Xu Ji was too busy, so she didn't have much spare time to think about her fourth brother. She would fall asleep immediately after washing up at night. Even during her two days of vacation every month, she would mostly sleep. But she would still worry when she occasionally thought of her fourth brother.
Fourth brother has been doing business for almost a year. He left home in the spring after the Chinese New Year. Now it’s the Chinese New Year in a month, but he hasn’t returned yet.
It would be a lie to say that I'm not worried. Normally, it only takes two to three months to do business in the provincial capitals of the Great Sheng Dynasty. Even if you go to other countries on the mainland for trade, it only takes four to five months, and at most half a year to be back. But it's been almost a year since Fourth Brother came back, and he hasn't even sent back a letter.
Sometimes even Xu Qinyu couldn't help but have wild thoughts, worrying that her fourth brother had died outside.
It's not her fault for having wild thoughts. It's true that no one has seen him doing business for almost a year and there is still no news.
Even Mrs. Wen was worried that her fourth brother might have a heart attack. He fell ill a few days ago, but fortunately it was not serious. He got better after a few days of taking medicine. Xu Qinyu asked her to have a good rest for half a month and invited Mrs. Meng, the mother of Cheng Ge'er, to work as the manager of the restaurant for half a month to help with the accounting.
Mrs. Meng has been at home all the time. Her father is a businessman, and Cheng Ge'er and Gong Ge'er also get wages every month. In addition, Cheng Ge'er and their sister Tao Jie'er is now helping Ning Jie'er make dumplings, and Ning Jie'er pays her wages every month, so Mrs. Meng has no shortage of money. She just needs to take care of the people inside and outside the house and Aunt Bai.
Now the third branch of the Wen family has bought the yard they were renting, and they are living a prosperous life.
During these two days, Wen rested for seven or eight days, but he couldn't rest any longer and returned to the restaurant to continue helping out.
But it can be seen that Wen is still thinking about her son.
It’s not that Pei Weixuan didn’t want to go back. Even he didn’t expect the sea to be so big, so majestic and so dangerous.
From the beginning of the journey, they encountered four big storms. Three of them were saved because he could observe the sky and found islands. But one time, even though he observed that the sky was not good, he still couldn't find the island. That time, the whole ship was almost wiped out. Such a big ship was just like a small boat on the sea, and was beaten to pieces by the rain and the sea water. But fortunately, they survived.
Afterwards, they really encountered other countries. The people here had golden hair, green eyes, and deep faces. It was very strange to see them.
Pei Weixuan found what he wanted here.
Huo Ye looked at the baskets of crops and the seeds of other fruits and vegetables that he had never seen before. He couldn't believe that His Highness took them out to sea, almost risking their lives, just to find some crops?
But His Highness said that they were of great use, and Huo Ye listened to His Highness, but he still couldn't figure out what great use these crops could be.
Having obtained what he wanted, Pei Weixuan did not plan to go any further and wanted to return.
But winter had already arrived, so they could only stay in a strange country for two months and wait until spring to return to Dasheng.
Xu Qinyu had never expected that, when she had just casually told her fourth brother that she had some high-yield crops that would allow everyone to have surplus food, which would save the victims from starving to death even in times of natural disasters, her fourth brother would actually get a boat and go out to sea.
The ships here are different from those in later generations. They are slow to go out to sea and can only be driven by a sail and rope system. Going out to sea is almost always dangerous.
She didn't know where Pei Weixuan was at the moment, but that night, the sky was dark and snowflakes began to fall.
They went to bed early at night, and in the middle of the night, there was a sudden knock on the door outside, which woke up the Pei family.
Wen thought it was Brother Xuan who came back, so she hurried to open the gate wearing a long robe, but she found that it was not Pei Weixuan.