Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Du Le continued to cultivate the Long Spring Formula for a while longer, until just before dawn, when he finally stopped.

  Du Le didn't go to the front yard to greet Zhao Quan and his family, but instead walked out directly from the back door.

  Taking advantage of the city gate having just opened, Du Le walked to his estate outside the city.

  In the manor, both Xiao Duo Cai and Yan Fu were present, just in time for Du Le to ask them about their situation over the past two days.

  Xiao Duo Cai first handed Du Le an account book, then said with his hands down, "The accounts of Mei Wei Xuan are here. In the past two days, due to limited sales, Mei Wei Xuan has only been open for half a day. The daily income is fixed."

  Du Le flipped open the ledger, and after glancing at it for a few moments, he couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed. The ledger listed every single transaction, whether income or expenditure, in meticulous detail. For now, only two days' worth of entries were recorded, so it was still manageable. But as time went on, the accounts would surely become increasingly complicated and unclear.

  Du Le shook his head and asked Xiao Duo Cai to take a pen. Then, he drew a vertical line in the middle of the account book and said: "From now on, record income on the left side and expenses on the right side. Make a small summary every seven days, a big summary every month, and a total summary at the end of each year. This way, I can know the specific amount and whether Mei Wei Xuan is losing or making money."

  Xiao Duo Cai listened for a while and suddenly realized, "This method of yours is indeed much simpler, thank you for teaching me."

  "And how has Zhao Quan been doing lately?" Du Le asked again.

  "Zhao Zhanggui is diligent and hardworking, very dedicated, and even refused the official reward from the government." Xiao Duocai replied.

  Du Le nodded, it seemed that the last time he beat Zhao Quan had some effect after all.

  "Yan Fu, how's the wine shop you're preparing? Any difficulties?" Du Le turned his gaze towards Yan Fu.

  "I've already bought a wine house in Jinyang City, which was sold by Zhao Quan, the boss of Zhao's wine house. The staff is complete, and I also kept two master chefs and one pastry chef from the wine house. I also bought some special dishes and secret recipes from the wine house." Yan Fu said, handing over a few papers to Du Le.

  Du Le took a look and saw that there were soups such as Dragon and Tiger Spirit Soup, Phoenix Beauty Whitening Soup, Ten Complete Great Supplement Soup, Clear Liver Bright Eyes Soup, Nourish Stomach Strengthen Spleen Soup, etc. Du Le counted them up, including the dishes, and found that there were a total of twelve secret recipes.

  Du Le nodded and looked at Yan Fu, indicating for him to continue speaking.

  "It's easy to find people to help, but it's harder with materials. Chu State is currently experiencing a severe grain shortage, and many ingredients are unavailable. Food is being rationed, and I'm afraid the restaurant won't be able to stay open for long," said Yan Fu.

  Du Le asked: "Famine? Is there a shortage of food in Jinyang City now?"

  "This is not necessarily the case, but it's certain that most of the arable land in the north has fallen into war and Chu State can no longer harvest more grain. The treacherous grain merchants have raised their prices, taking advantage of the situation to hoard grain, causing a sharp rise in grain prices. Except for a few wine houses that are still struggling to stay open, most only have vegetable soup left." Yan Fu is worried about the current state of Chu State's food supply.

  "Don't worry about the grain, at least our tavern will have a sufficient supply of rice. What you need to do is set a reasonable price and maintain a reasonable supply. The price of white rice can be set a bit higher, so that the rich can afford it. And the price of congee should be set lower accordingly, so that most people can afford it. Besides, the management of the tavern will largely depend on you, I won't interfere too much." Du Le said.

  Du Le flipped through the few secret recipes in his hand, thinking about whether he could open a high-end restaurant like this in the city. However, after looking at it for a while, Du Le had to put down this idea temporarily. The ingredients on these recipes, he hadn't even heard of them before, and they were probably local specialties from this world, and he didn't know if they existed on Earth.

  However, in the process of flipping through them, Du Le discovered a common point among these secret recipes - they all contained an ingredient called five-leaf grass.

  "Why is there clover in all these formulas? What kind of material is clover?" Du Le couldn't help but ask.

  Yan Fu found it somewhat strange that Du Le didn't recognize the herb, and replied in a low voice: "Five-leaf grass is a spice that not only has a fragrance but also contains a unique fresh scent. When cooking dishes or soups, adding a small amount of five-leaf grass can remove the gamey smell of meat, enhance the flavor, and increase the taste of the dish."

  "Oh?" Du Le became somewhat interested, "Is there any five-leaf clover in the manor? Bring some over and let me take a look."

  Yan Fu nodded and quickly went outside to find a handful of five-leaf grass, which he brought back in a dish.

  Du Le took a look at the five-leaf clover and then asked Xiao Duo Cai to prepare boiling water and a large bowl.

  Before long, a steaming bowl of instant noodles was ready. Du Le added some five-leaf grass to the noodle soup, and something surprising happened.

  The flavor of the instant noodles seemed to have improved a lot in an instant, and just the aroma that wafted out was tantalizing, full of temptation. Looking at Xiao Duo Cai and Yan Fu's reaction on the side, they were staring at the noodles in the bowl with shining eyes, drooling with desire.

  Du Le took a bite of noodles and drank a sip of soup.

  It's so delicious! Du Le exclaimed. He didn't expect a bowl of ordinary instant noodles to be this good, it was hard to believe. If he added the five-leaf grass ingredient to his own production of instant noodles, it would definitely be a top-notch delicacy!

  Du Le asked somewhat impatiently: "How much is the yield of five-leaf grass? What's the price?"

  "It mainly grows on the mountain waist, one yuan per kilogram, and it's abundant on the mountain. It's not valuable itself, but it takes labor to pick it." Yan Fu replied.

  Du Le touched the remaining clover in the plate and asked: "Have these clovers been roasted?"

  "Dried? In order to keep it for a longer time, after picking, they are all dried in the sun."

  "Good job, Yan Fu. Xiao Duo Cai, you're not bad either. Each of you will be rewarded with 500 gold coins." Du Le then said to the outside of the door, "Housekeeper, come in too."

  The estate manager who had been standing outside the door also walked in.

  "Xiao Duo Cai continued to stare at Mei Wei Xuan, wait a moment and I will give you some pancakes, find a car, you are responsible for transporting it to Mei Wei Xuan, tell Zhao Quan that he can increase the daily sales volume, also tell him that there are several new flavors of noodle soup inside, which will gradually replace the existing flavors." Du Le was planning to gradually let his factory-produced instant noodles replace the original ones and become the mainstream at Mei Wei Xuan.

  "Yan Fu, don't worry about the rice for the wine shop. Prepare to open for business and I'll provide you with rice after a day or two. There's another task that needs your attention. Help me purchase dried five-leaf grass at one gold coin per kilogram, buying in bulk, with a maximum purchase price of no more than three gold coins. You can hang up a notice at the entrance of the wine shop to announce this. Hmm, we can also get the refugees to help us pick and collect fresh five-leaf grass that hasn't been dried yet - 20 kilograms for one bowl of uncooked rice. The collected five-leaf grass will be stored in the manor first."

  "Housekeeper, I'll give you some money later, and you quickly go to the nearby mountain to buy a piece of land full of five-leaf grass. I want to plant five-leaf grass specifically. Hire some tenant farmers to help with management, and after harvesting the five-leaf grass, dry it and bring it back to the manor as well. Also, the manor can be expanded, build several warehouses, specifically for storing five-leaf grass." The housekeeper of the manor was a nearly sixty-year-old old man, originally just a slave in the manor. After Du Le took over the manor, he looked honest enough, so he promoted him to be the housekeeper, responsible for managing the other slaves and general affairs of the manor.

  "You three, work hard and you will be allowed to hire your own people. Every month, based on the estate's net income, 2% to 10% of the industry you are in charge of will be given to you as a reward, depending on your performance. This way, in the future, you won't have to worry about not having enough money to redeem your contracts."

  Du Le encouraged them and then warned, "Having personal motives is nothing, but absolutely cannot harm my interests. For every single gold coin embezzled, you must be prepared to pay back ten times as much, and also face the consequences of being sent to the authorities for punishment."

  "We understand! We dare not disappoint Master's expectations, we will do our best to serve Master!" The three of them knelt down and replied in unison.

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