Chapter 298 (2/2)
Yu Xiaocao also felt antsy on the side as she watched the proceedings. She hurriedly spoke to the two family's stewards, ”You guys should stop bidding! You've already reached a sky-high price, so when you guys return, your masters will definitely peel the skin off of you!”
Steward Yao smiled, ”Miss Yu has a kind heart! However, our patriarch had already said that no matter how expensive I need to buy these vegetables! Money is not a problem!”
The Zhuang Family had grain shops in all three prefectures, which consisted of more than a dozen villages and towns. Thus, at the start of this disaster year, they had also made a killing. Therefore, the a.s.sistant steward of the Zhuang Family proudly stood up tall and looked at Steward Yao with disdain in his eyes, ”In terms of money, our Zhuang Family has never feared other people either!”
Yu Xiaocao forced out a smile, ”I know both of your families have deep pockets, but you can't just swing around our family ah! This money will burn our hands if we take it ah!”
Zhu Junyang had been watching the proceedings for some time at the side. When he heard Yu Xiaocao's words, he curled his lips, ”These people are shoving money at you. It's not as if you're stealing it or forcing them to give it to you, yet you feel like this money will burn your hands ah! Truly too small-minded!”
The two stewards both knew Royal Prince Yang's status. When they saw him talking, they immediately became quiet. However, Steward Yao still bravely gave his opinion, ”Miss Yu, ever since our patriarch ate the vegetables from your family, he can't stomach the taste of any other. In the past, the patriarch only liked to eat meat and very rarely touched the vegetables. He started to feel faint and dizzy, and the doctor advised him to eat more vegetables. Despite that, he refused to follow the doctor's advice. Ever since your family's vegetables came onto the market last spring, the patriarch can't eat a meal without your vegetables, especially the tomatoes. Our patriarch eats your tomatoes like they're fruits! After the locust plague, there hasn't been any fresh vegetables in the past two months. Thus our patriarch's appet.i.te has plummeted. Only after we bought some dried vegetables from your family did he finally have some desire to eat, otherwise…”
”Hey, hey! You can't compete on price, so you're trying to use the emotional card instead ah! Steward Yao, didn't you already agree to selling to the highest bidder earlier ah? Then let's continue ah!” The a.s.sistant steward of the Zhuang Family had also been promoted to his position recently and wanted to use this opportunity to show off his abilities in front of his master. In any case, the master had already said that it didn't matter how much the vegetables cost as long as they could get some to allow the matriarch to eat.
The Zhuang Family's matriarch suffered from chronic constipation. Doctor Sun had told them she needed to eat more coa.r.s.e grains and vegetables. Coa.r.s.e grains? That was food fit for only poor peasants. If the other rich families in town found out that the Zhuang Family was giving their matriarch coa.r.s.e grains to eat, wouldn't they be mocked out of house and home? However, it was a disastrous year after the locust plague had pa.s.sed. Where would they be able to get fresh vegetables?
The master had no idea what to do until the one time he attended a banquet at Zhenxiu Restaurant. There was extremely expensive lettuce seasoned with oyster sauce and vegetables sauteed with s.h.i.+take mushrooms on the table. Everyone praised these two dishes without end. Furthermore, the lettuce and other green vegetables were very fresh and could not have been left over from the previous year. The master of the Zhuang Family had asked several times, but the people working at Zhenxiu Restaurant had their mouths tightly closed. Later on, he sent some people to stealthily follow the purchasing carts of Zhenxiu Restaurant and only then did he find out that the Yu Family of Dongshan Village was able to grow vegetables. Only then did he send the a.s.sistant steward out to buy some.
However, someone had leaked the information and almost the entire Tanggu Town knew that the Yu Family had fresh vegetables available. After eating two months worth of dried vegetables, salted vegetables, and meat, all of the rich families in town wanted to eat some fresh green vegetables to clean the palate. Thus, the scene in front of the Yu Family occurred today.
Yu Xiaocao saw that the two people were starting to argue again and hurriedly interjected, ”Both of you, please calm down a bit! Look, you both know that we only have two hundred catties of vegetables available every day. How about you guys split it fifty-fifty? This year, vegetables can only act as a side dish and can't be eaten as the main meal. Don't you think that makes sense?”
The two stewards looked at each other and finally managed to reach an agreement. Every day, each family would get a hundred catties each. Miss Yu was right. Their two families probably had around a dozen family members each, so a hundred catties a day was more than enough for them. Perhaps they would even have some vegetables left over that would be rewarded to the higher-ranking servants.
As for the price, the locusts hadn't been eradicated yet, so they stuck with the price that was hollered out earlier, one tael per catty. The young royal prince was right. This money was being shoved towards them, so refusing it would only be silly. It wasn't like they were forcing these people to give them money. Thus, the Yu Family was now going to make an additional two hundred taels a day from their vegetables sales.
Yu Xiaocao then addressed the other disappointed stewards, ”We don't have a lot of people here, so we're unable to take care of too many vegetable fields. However, I do have a pesticide that can drive away locusts. You guys can buy some to take back home to plant some vegetables and grains that are easy to raise. Every day you need to spray some pesticide on the fields in the morning and night. By doing that, you can avoid the locusts eating all of the vegetables!”
When the rest of the people heard this proposal, they thought about the amount of time it took for green vegetables and lettuce to grow. At most it would take a month until they were ready to be eaten. If they went back and planted them now, they would be able to eat some fresh vegetables before the start of autumn. Furthermore, if they planted autumn season vegetables now, it wouldn't be too late for them to harvest later. Thus, all of the stewards asked Xiaocao about the price of this pesticide.
The pesticide was bottled up in wine liquor bottles that came out to a catty each. The ingredients to make one catty of pesticide cost around one tael. Furthermore, this pesticide required an extremely valuable ingredient: mystic-stone water. Naturally, the price could not be too cheap. Yu Xiaocao set the price at five taels a bottle. One bottle of pesticide was enough to spray one mu for a whole month, so when compared to reserving vegetables, it was a bit more worth it. The only difference was that they had to wait a bit to eat fresh vegetables. The other dozen or so families who weren't able to compete for the vegetables mostly ended up buying some pesticide to bring back. After calculating the sales, Yu Xiaocao had earned eighty-five taels from selling the pesticide alone.
Liu Hu privately spoke to his wife in admiration, ”Wife, your younger brother's ability to make money is truly very good. First it was watermelons, now it's vegetables. Money is just pouring into his pockets ah!”
Yu Caifeng smiled, ”In actuality, it's not Yu Hai who is good at making money. Haven't you figured it out after half a year? Every method of making money has something to do with Xiaocao. Xiaohai also told me that the idea for growing watermelons came from Xiaocao. In fact, the methods used for planting and selling the melons all came from Xiaocao while he implemented them. As for these vegetables, if Xiaocao didn't come up with a method to create pesticide, how could they possibly make that much money?”