Chapter 269 - Competition (2/2)
After inviting Yu Xiaocao and her group into the private room, Third Young Master Zhou suddenly discovered that the capital’s current hot topic, Royal Prince Yang, was there too. Why was Royal Prince Yang currently a hot topic? There were several reasons. First of all, the court gossips all said that Royal Prince Yang had lived up to expectations by bringing back the high-yielding crops that were drought resistant: corn and potatoes. The emperor himself had rewarded the youth. Secondly, he had brought back exquisite items that had never been seen before. For example, a desk clock that could accurately tell the time, beautiful enamelware, delicate ivory carvings...and they were all being sold at Treasure Pavillion, which was under his name. The shop was blazingly popular. Thirdly, Royal Prince Yang had managed to procure some ripe watermelons out of season from a place no one knew. These watermelons set off a frenzy of buying at the capital. In short, everyone in the capital was talking about Royal Prince Yang, the man of the moment.
After they greeted each other, the three people took their seats. Yu Xiaocao started off the conversation, “I was still under the impression, Third Young Master Zhou, that you were currently in the capital busy beyond compare! How do you have the time to come back to Tanggu Town ah?”
“In the last few years, the imperial family hasn’t carried out any large construction projects. Thus, their requirements for lumber has not been high. The Zhou Family has their own lumber operation, so there’s no need to worry about it. Furthermore, our dried seafood quota has been fulfilled for the next couple of months. The second branch store of Zhenxiu Restaurant in the capital has also formally opened…” Third Young Master Zhou had something to ask of her, so he described everything very clearly.
Zhu Junyang felt quite surprised inside. He raised his eyes to look at the future head of the Zhou Family and thought, ‘What is this fellow trying to do in telling all of this to Yu Xiaocao?’ However, he couldn’t feel any malice or ill-will coming off of Zhou Zixu. He lowered his eyes again and stared at the cup in front of him before he curtly ordered, “Tea!”
Yu Xiaocao tacitly understood his request and lifted up the tea cup and placed it near his mouth. Zhu Junyang leisurely blew on foam in the cup and then lightly drank a sip. He nodded his head as a hint to Yu Xiaocao.
Zhou Zixu watched as Xiaocao helped Royal Prince Yang drink tea in a practiced manner. Only when she placed the cup down did he stare at her with astonishment. This little lass, who was never polite when she spoke to him, had suddenly become so obedient? Was this the same Yu Xiaocao whose temper blew all the time? Perhaps...Royal Prince Yang used his power to suppress her?
Zhu Junyang could tell that the future head of the Zhou Family had an inquisitive look in his eyes. He continued to sit silently and played the mysterious guest.
Yu Xiaocao laughed hollowly and pretended to not see Third Young Master’s astonishment. She stated, “Third Young Master, you don’t need to report to me about your Zhou Family’s industries. It has very little bearing to me!”
Third Young Master Zhou nodded, “The Zhou Family’s industries aren’t related to you, but you have quite a stake in Zhenxiu Restaurant. The Zhenxiu Restaurant in the capital has encountered some difficulties, so I need you to help me.”
Yu Xiaocao was now the one who was surprised, “The capital’s Zhenxiu Restaurant? The furthest I’ve been is the prefectural city. I don’t know anything about how the capital works, so I can’t really do much. Third Young Master, you’re looking for the wrong person, okay?”
Zhu Junyang raised his head again to look at Third Young Master Zhou in the eye. What was the point of finding a little rural village girl for help when there was a problem with the Zhenxiu Restaurant in the capital? If he needed to find someone, then he should find someone like himself, someone with the status to act as a patron ah!
“I will just say it bluntly then!” Third Young Master Zhou looked at Royal Prince Yang and clenched his jaw, “Our osmanthus duck has met a rival! One of the capital’s long standing restaurants, ‘Defeng', has come out with a new duck called, ‘furnace roasted duck’. It has skin that is glossy and crisp, exquisite white meat, tastes astoundingly delicious, and is flavorful without being greasy. Furthermore, they have also copied our ‘starvation marketing’ strategy and limit their daily sales quota. Their price is a bit more expensive than our osmanthus duck, yet their supply does not meet the demand. They have taken away quite a few customers from Zhenxiu Restaurant and the sales volume of our osmanthus duck keeps dropping!”
Apparently they had met a business rival ah! She remembered that in her previous life the people selling ‘Peking Duck’ claimed that it had been around for a millennium. Was this when it first started? This ‘furnace roasted duck’ was likely the predecessor to ‘Peking Duck’.
She was very good at making roast duck ah! In her previous life, at her braised food shop, she had also especially learned how to make ‘fruit-scented roast duck’. This wasn’t hard to make. All it required was an oven, accurate heat control, and a special blend of spices. Fruit-scented roast duck was considered a type of roast duck that was cooked by hanging in an oven and had its pros and cons over furnace roasted duck.
Roasting duck by hanging in the oven created a product that had less fat under the skin, so the skin was crispy and the meat tender. Furthermore, it had a fruity smell. On the other hand, furnace roasted duck had more fat and moisture in the end product, so the meat was even more tender. The duck that came out of a furnace seemed like a steamed roll: flexible and soft. She not only knew how to make fruit-scented roasted duck but also knew how to make floral-scented flaky roasted duck and vegetal crispy roasted duck. She was not convinced that the products from more than a millennium of food experimentation in her previous life couldn’t beat a recently new furnace roasted duck in popularity.
Third Young Master Zhou lowered his head and fidgeted in his chair as Yu Xiaocao pondered. He shifted forward a bit and said, “Xiaocao, do you have any new recipes that could compete with this new roast duck? We can go with what we did with the osmanthus duck recipe. I will give you dividends for the next twenty years from the sales. How’s that?”
Judging by the current sales volume of the osmanthus duck, she was currently earning two to three thousand taels a month. That meant in one year, she would get thirty thousand taels from the sales. If it was roasted duck, the sales wouldn’t be much lower than this. Third Young Master Zhou had a lot of sincerity and had extended the terms of the contract by an additional ten years. The profits to be earned from an additional ten years weren’t a small number ah!
“I know a recipe for fruit-scented roast duck. The first thing we need is to build a giant fireplace and the heat in that oven must be homogeneous.” As she talked, she drew and wrote the specifications of this fireplace that she needed on a piece of paper.