kingnovel Chapter 476: Deal at the Dinner Table
Chapter 476: Deal at the Dinner Table
Shopkeeper Qin was even more respectful, "Excuse me, I'm sorry, but you are from a scholarly family."
Zhou Guo couldn't help but look up and glance at him, and said with a smile: "We are just peasants digging for food in the fields, how can we be considered a scholarly family? We don't dare to claim to be one. I have read your document, and everything else is fine, but the price is still under discussion."
"Oh? I wonder what the young lady is not satisfied with? Do you think two hundred wen is too low?" Shopkeeper Qin frowned. Two hundred wen per catty is not a low price.
Zhou Guo said, "It's like this. You see, pine mushrooms grow naturally, and they are like spirits in the mountains. We villagers have to rely on God and the mountain gods for our food. If they are in a good mood one year and let the pine mushrooms grow more, we will naturally harvest more. If one day they suddenly change their mood and we can't harvest anything in the forest this year, we can't do anything. As the saying goes, things are precious because they are rare. We can't harvest 10,000 catties this year and 1,000 catties next year. We can only harvest so little from all over the mountains, and we still charge 10,000 catties for it, right? You old man, you eat meat, don't you have to let us ordinary people have some soup too?"
"This..." Shopkeeper Qin didn't expect her to be so difficult to deal with. She was unwilling to take any loss. The price had to change every year. If they raised the price, she had to raise the price too.
Zhou Guo smiled and said, "Don't worry, shopkeeper. Once the ingredients are in your Fu Man Lou, how much you sell them for has nothing to do with us. Even if you sell one flower for one or two taels of silver, customers who want to eat them will have to pay for them. After all, this stuff is only available in your Fu Man Lou. Even if he wants to eat it somewhere else, where can he get it from elsewhere?"
Shopkeeper Qin gritted his teeth, slammed the table and said, "Can you really guarantee that pine mushrooms won't appear in other restaurants?"
Zhou Guo smiled calmly and said, "I guarantee that every mushroom brought into Chengding Mansion by our village will only appear in your Fumanlou. Look, isn't that what is written in your document? What are you afraid of?"
The shopkeeper nodded and gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, then add another one."
Both parties signed their names and put their fingerprints on the document. There were two copies of the document. Zhou Guo solemnly put the document into an ugly little purse, which she made herself.
After signing the documents, both parties breathed a sigh of relief.
The shopkeeper clapped his hands, and the waiters came in one after another carrying small boxes.
Zhou Guo looked at the boxes, half of which were filled with silver ingots and the other half were filled with copper coins.
Shopkeeper Qin said, "You said this is a business for all of your villagers, and you will definitely share the money with the villagers when you go back. I will take the initiative to change as much as I can into copper coins for you. If you are not satisfied, I will change it back immediately."
Zhou Guo thanked him, "This is exactly what I need. If you give me the silver, I will have to go to the silver shop to exchange it."
Seeing that she was satisfied, the shopkeeper was satisfied too and clapped his hands again.
Then another waiter came up carrying a black lacquered tray with two neatly arranged layers of silver. Behind him, two waiters came in carrying two large wooden boxes.
Shopkeeper Qin smiled and said, "Here is another 100 taels of silver. Consider it as buying Madam Zhou's method of preserving pine mushrooms."
Pointing to the two large boxes, he said, "In addition, these are some gifts I prepared for your family. These small gifts are not a token of respect, but we have made a friend. I am so lucky to have a friend like you at my age!"
Zhou Guo smiled and said, "It is my honor to make friends with such a great man as Manager Qin."
The two of them came and went and exchanged polite words.
Finally, Zhou Guo carefully wrote down on paper the method that would last for a year or two.
Shopkeeper Qin's mouth twitched slightly as he held the paper. He had never seen such ugly handwriting before. There were ink blobs everywhere, and some of the words were either missing a stroke here or having an extra stroke there.
Zhou Guo was a little embarrassed and said, "My handwriting is not good, please find someone with good handwriting and copy it down. If you do this well, it can be preserved for at least a year!"
"It's worth it!" When Shopkeeper Qin heard the last few words, he couldn't help but slam the table!
If you can wait a year for the next year's pine mushrooms to come out, then what is there to be afraid of? I am not afraid of anything.
He smiled and said to Zhou Guo: "Whatever goods you have in your village, send them to us when you collect them. We can eat as many as you want, as much as you want!"
Zhou Guo nodded and said with a smile: "Of course, you are our first big customer, and we are still friends, have you forgotten?"
The shopkeeper laughed, "Yes, yes, yes."
The Zhou Cheng brothers felt like they were in a dream, watching Zhou Guo chatting happily with the old shopkeeper with a big beard, and signing the documents while talking. All the mushrooms from the village behind were sold out. They felt like they were dreaming, it was really an eye-opener, they didn't know things could be sold this way.
They would never dare to enter such a big restaurant, and the most they could do is set up a stall in the vegetable market.
Zhou Guo looked at the boxes and said, "Manager Qin, could you please give me a few more sacks?"
Although he didn't know what she wanted the sacks for, he didn't ask. He just waved his hand and asked someone to bring a dozen sacks. They didn't have much else, but lots of sacks.
A group of people carried the boxes downstairs and put the empty baskets into the car.
Zhou Guo said goodbye to the shopkeeper, and took Zhou Sulu, Zhou Chenghuzi and his party to the provincial capital to buy things, mainly dry food. There was no food left in their car, so they had to buy more. They bought two baskets of steamed buns, baked cakes and dumplings, and after thinking for a while, they bought two stone of rice and flour.
It was already noon when he left the city. In order to avoid any further trouble, Zhou Guo left without stopping.
On the way, people were asked to bring down boxes, sacks and baskets. Important things and silver were put into sacks and stuffed with hay. Stones and hay were put into the boxes, and broken sacks were put into the baskets in case of emergency.
Everyone knows what this means. Even though they are not refugees, they have been refugees before and have naturally been robbed.
The group walked until midnight and did not rest until they were out of Chengding's territory.
Zhou Guo said: "Make a fire and cook, leave a few people to guard the night, and the others can rest."
It's the middle of the night and everyone is tired.
Fortunately, there were many people, and in just a moment, a fire was lit, and hot water was boiled to heat the dry food.
Zhou Guo was chewing on dry food while thinking about the big meal he had in the morning. It was so delicious. The fish was fresh, the meat was delicious, everything was delicious, and it was worthy of being made in a big restaurant.
The others were also thinking about it, treating the dry food in their hands as a feast and eating happily.
Du Zhou Su ate every bite with gusto, it was so sweet.
After finishing the meal, three people stayed behind to keep watch while the others went to sleep.
Peaceful night.
Zhou Guo opened his eyes and looked at the gradually dying fire and the faint dawn in the sky. He heaved a sigh of relief. It was great that they had spent another peaceful night.
It was already midnight when the group arrived at the village.