Chapter 16 Supply and Demand

  Although Li Wanqing was not really angry, the unexpected incident still made her feel very embarrassed. For a period of time, she deliberately avoided Xiao Ping and only gradually dared to face him again after more than ten days. Liu Jianguo and his wife also returned from the provincial city. Their nephew had no major problems and went back home to recover. Xiao Ping's life returned to its normal track.

  A few days later, Xiao Ping's small vegetable garden welcomed its third harvest. With the increased supply of spiritual liquid, Xiao Ping was able to utilize the entire courtyard, so in addition to green vegetables, he also grew some bok choy and lettuce.

  Xiao Ping loaded all the harvested vegetables onto his tricycle, with a total weight of over 1,000 catties that made the vehicle creak and groan as if it might collapse at any moment. However, Xiao Ping wasn't too worried about this, and he easily rode the heavily loaded tricycle to the Huayuan Restaurant without even breaking a sweat. Xiao Ping's excellent physical condition also made Sun Lin envious, saying that when he was young, he was also full of energy and could stir-fry dozens of dishes in a row without feeling tired, but now that he was older, he was no longer as vigorous as he used to be.

  Xiao Ping was very clear about how his good physique came to be, and didn't dwell on the topic with Sun Lin. He quickly began promoting his two new varieties of vegetables to him. The vegetables grown using the spiritual liquid all had the same advantages - not only did they look great, but they also tasted extremely good. After Sun Lin tried them, he immediately decided to buy 200 catties of each variety.

  Just the Huayuan Hotel bought over 600 kilograms of vegetables, and the rest were quickly snapped up by several other hotels that had heard the news. Over half a ton of vegetables were sold out in less than one morning, also bringing in over 50,000 yuan in income for Xiao Ping.

  Xiao Ping's dishes stood out in terms of presentation and taste, which made him famous in less than three months. He gained a big reputation in the small circle of high-end restaurants. The news about Xiao Ping at Huayuan Hotel spread quickly, and soon many strangers came to find him.

  These people all wanted to buy some of the legendary vegetables from Xiao Ping, surrounding him in the middle and chattering loudly:

  "Mr. Xiao, I am a procurement officer from Hyatt Hotel, hoping you can sell some vegetables to us."

  "I am the head chef of Shun Feng Restaurant and I want to buy 300 catties of green vegetables!"

  "Mr. Xiao, can you sell some of your Chaozhou wine to us?"

  "Sorry, sorry everyone!" Xiao Ping also found it hard to bear the enthusiasm of these people, and hurriedly raised his hand loudly: "All the dishes are sold out today, really sorry, please come early next time."

  I heard that the dishes have all been sold out, and these people are extremely disappointed. However, they will not miss the opportunity to get acquainted with Xiao Ping, and they hurriedly handed their business cards to him, reminding Xiao Ping to notify them in advance when there is stock next time. A few people even offered a high price of nearly 100 yuan per catty for Xiao Ping's dishes, and they were willing to buy as much as they could.

  These people are all potential customers, naturally Xiao Ping doesn't want to offend them either. He took their business cards one by one and exchanged a few pleasantries before finally sending them off.

  Sun Lin had been watching from the side, and now he walked over to pat Xiao Ping's shoulder and said: "Younger brother, since business is so good, you should seize the opportunity to expand the scale."

  Xiao Ping nodded in agreement: "Yes, I've been thinking about this issue recently, but it's hard to find a big enough place."

  Sun Lin gave Xiao Ping an idea: "If the place is really tense, you should plant some originally expensive vegetables, so you can earn more."

  Xiao Ping humbly asked: "Master Sun, what dish is the most expensive?"

  "Of course, it's truffles that grow in the ground." Sun Lin said: "This thing is of the same kind as mushrooms, but they are all used in Western restaurants. The slightly better black truffle is worth $500 per kilogram, and the ordinary white truffle sells for $2,000 per kilogram, all in US dollars!"

  "It's so expensive! Not bad, not bad." Sun Lin's words made Xiao Ping very interested in truffles.

  Looking at Xiao Ping's excited appearance, Sun Lin couldn't help but laugh and say: "Don't be too happy too early, truffles can't be cultivated artificially, no matter how expensive they are sold for, it has nothing to do with you."

  "What a pity." Xiao Ping's face showed a very regretful expression, but in his heart, he was secretly thinking of cultivating truffles. Just because others couldn't cultivate truffles didn't mean Xiao Ping couldn't either. With the Lian Yao Hu (Refining Pot) treasure, what couldn't he grow? Even if truffles had high environmental requirements, growing them in the Refining Pot shouldn't be a problem, right?

  However, the space in the Lian Yao Hu is too small. With an area of just over ten square meters, it's already crowded with just ginseng, and there's no room to cultivate pine mushrooms. So after saying goodbye to Sun Lin, Xiao Ping went to the antique market again and bought back a large package of jade materials. His wallet, which had just been slightly plump, was now empty again.

  The Lian Yao Hu swallowed the jade stone as if it were a bottomless pit, and the jade material worth over 40,000 yuan turned into half a trash can of stone powder in just half an hour. Although the Lian Yao Hu could help Xiao Ping make money, its spending speed seemed to be even faster, which made him feel somewhat helpless.

  However, this money wasn't spent in vain. After absorbing so many jade materials, the area of the Refining Cauldron's space has almost doubled. The space inside the cauldron is now roughly half the size of a split land, and there's finally a place to cultivate the pine mushrooms.

  Xiao Ping looked up some information about truffles online. It turned out that they were also a type of fungus, parasitic on the roots of oak trees and other broad-leaved trees, all buried underground. Sun Lin was right, truffles couldn't be cultivated artificially. However, Xiao Ping was confident, believing that he could cultivate the best quality truffles in the Lian Yao Hu.

  The next day, Xiao Ping went to the nursery and bought an oak sapling. He carefully planted it in a corner of the Alchemy Cauldron. It was midsummer, and the leaves on the sapling were already slightly wilted when it was planted. However, after Xiao Ping slowly poured the spring water from the Alchemy Cauldron's space onto the roots of the oak tree, the leaves on the tree immediately expanded at a speed visible to the naked eye, quickly restoring their vitality.

  This situation made Xiao Ping very satisfied, he believed that it wouldn't take too long for this oak sapling, which was only half a person tall, to grow into a towering tree, and then they could start cultivating truffles.

  However, cultivating truffles is only part of Xiao Ping's plan. To make a lot of money and live a good life as soon as possible, it is necessary to expand the scale of vegetable cultivation. But in order to expand the scale, land needs to be rented, and renting land requires money, so Xiao Ping finds that the biggest problem he faces is still lack of money.

  The problem of money had been troubling Xiao Ping deeply, fortunately the ginseng he planted previously had grown very well, selling these ginseng should be able to raise some money.

  Xiao Ping first chose a ginseng that grew the highest, with many red seeds already formed at its top. He carefully dug open the mud around the roots. The quality of the ginseng is also an important factor affecting the price, and the more intact the root system is preserved, the more money it can be sold for. So Xiao Ping was very careful and used his bare hands to dig up the ginseng. However, when he finally dug out the whole thing, he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed - this ginseng was too small.

  Xiao Ping thought that ginseng planted in the alchemy pot would definitely grow very well, even if it wasn't as big and white as a daikon radish, at least it should be as large as a carrot. However, the ginseng in Xiao Ping's hand was pitifully small, with its main root only as long as his index finger, not much thicker than chopsticks. On the other hand, the lateral roots and root hairs grew particularly long, exceeding the length of the main root by several times, making this ginseng look even thinner, and it didn't look better than ordinary ginseng sold in pharmacies.

  "This is obviously underdeveloped, I'm afraid it won't sell for a good price!" Xiao Ping was very dissatisfied with this "weak" ginseng and decided to dig up two more to take a look.

  Then Xiao Ping chose two more ginseng with the best growth and dug them up, but ultimately disappointed to find that all three ginseng were thin and long, the thickest was only about the size of a little thumb. This made Xiao Ping start to suspect that maybe he had dug too early, and the ginseng hadn't grown yet.

  Xiao Ping didn't dare to continue digging, deciding to wait a while longer. As for the three he had already dug up, he couldn't be bothered to replant them and planned to take them directly to the Chinese medicine store tomorrow to sell, just to test how valuable ginseng was.