Chapter Twenty Market Survey

  Although the price of rice in Jinyang City is unknown, based on the sale of oranges and the many refugees and displaced people in the city, Du Le can infer that when a country is in trouble, the price of rice will definitely rise. The rise in rice prices will also lead to an increase in various grain products, so the grain trade should be very promising. This was the conclusion Du Le finally came up with.

  Moreover, grains are different from fruits and are absolutely essential for everyone. Good grain business can bring huge profits. However, generally speaking, grains are a country's strategic materials. Operating grains in troubled times comes with certain risks.

  Anyway, Du Le made a preliminary plan for the next step. Although there is some money now, it's not suitable to stock up in large quantities for the time being, and we need to do a good job in market research and reserve some grain and grain products.

  At mealtime, Little Sister Du Lan was calling out for Du Le to come out and eat.

  Du Le glanced at the small clock on the table, 6:01 pm. Du Le didn't think he had slept for so long, but he didn't seem to be very hungry yet. Hearing his little sister's cries, a smile appeared on Du Le's face. A family dinner doesn't necessarily require being very hungry.

  Du Tian and Du Lan were very efficient, as soon as Du Le sat down at the dinner table, they handed him a copy of the bank card account number written on paper. Du Le took a glance, folded it up, and put it in his pocket.

  After dinner, Du Le and his family sat in front of the TV for a while, watching two episodes of a costume drama. At around 9:30, Du Le went to their small grocery store at home, picked up some food, made an excuse, and returned to his room to rest.

  Du Lejia's family economy is not very good, but as a local resident of the small town, the ancestral house site left behind is quite large, and several rooms have been built. The three children all have their own small room.

  At around eleven o'clock at night, when almost everyone in the family was asleep, Du Le took off his clothes, put his clothes and food into space, set his room as a temporary coordinate point, and restarted the transmission function of the locator transmitter.

  When Du Le reappeared in the alley, he looked up at the sky and saw that there were still two moons. With his previous experience, Du Le was no longer flustered, and he quickly put on his clothes.

  The moon in the sky was still there, but Du Le could feel that it was almost dawn. Had it already become morning? Du Le had always been unclear whether the Earth's time and this world's time were synchronized. However, in Du Le's opinion, although there were some differences, they shouldn't be too far apart.

  Not for the first time here, the city hasn't changed much either. Du Le had long remembered the route and avoided patrolling soldiers to quickly arrive at the front of his own fruit shop.

  There were no pedestrians on the street yet, everything was quiet, and only a few watchmen's voices could be heard from afar.

  Du Le gently knocked on the wooden door of the fruit shop, loud enough for those inside to hear but not so loud that it would carry too far. The fruit shop was small, and if Zhao Quan's whole family lived there, they definitely wouldn't all be sleeping in the back room.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, after three rings, Zhao Quan's voice came from inside.

  "Who is it?"

  "It's me, Du Le."

  "Ah! Is it the master?" Zhao Quan asked in a low voice, but his hands and feet were not slow. With a burst of noise, the wooden door of the fruit shop was opened, and Du Le quickly drilled inside.

  "Bring in the wooden board and close the door." Du Le said after entering.

  Zhao Quan closed the door tightly. Du Le had just found a stool to sit down, and all members of Zhao Quan's family knelt in front of him to pay their respects.

  Du Le was still very unaccustomed, almost at a loss for what to do with his hands and feet, hastily calming himself down, letting them all get up and sit on one side.

  "It's all right, don't be too polite, no need for more courtesy." Du Le said lightly.

  "Thanks for your kindness!" Zhao Quan stood up and bowed his head to say.

  "How's the situation in the store?" Du Le was eager to know if everything here was going as smoothly as he had imagined.

  "Your Honor, the oranges in the store were all sold out less than an hour after you left yesterday." Zhao Quan took out a ledger and said, "Many households have also made deposits, as per your instructions, I've recorded them all."

  "Hmm," Du Le took over the account book and carefully looked at it under the light of the oil lamp, "Is there anything else?"

  Zhao Quan smiled excitedly and said, "The oranges are selling well. Even the imperial palace has sent someone over, saying that the emperor wants to eat some oranges."

  Du Le frowned and asked: "What does it mean? Are we supposed to donate?"

  Zhao's speech paused, and he found that Du Le was not as happy as him. He hurriedly said: "Of course not, it's just that the imperial palace is offering a discounted price of five oranges for one yuan in gold coins. And 500 yuan in gold coins has already been put down."

  Is the emperor trying to force a purchase? Du Le thought for a moment and said, "The imperial palace has priority supply, this time I brought a lot of oranges over. However, selling oranges is not a long-term solution, once the goods are sold out, you have to tell the customers that due to the war, it's impossible to transport oranges to Jinyang City again."

  Zhao Quan's expression was a sight to behold, and Du Le was somewhat displeased. Although Zhao Quan had become his own house slave, it seemed that in his mind, he didn't put his master as the top priority. If the Emperor of Chu were to give an order, he might even be able to sell Du Le off. Du Le just had a fleeting thought and didn't take it seriously.

  "Although we can't do the fruit business, we can still do other businesses." Du Le didn't mean to blame Zhao Quan at all. He needed someone as dedicated as Zhao Quan. Moreover, there were some business plans that required his assistance to complete.

  Zhao Quan and his family all had obedient expressions, and Du Le's imagined interrogation did not appear.

  Du Le said somewhat uninterestingly: "Now is a chaotic era, if the fruit shop can't be operated for long, then we have to change."

  "You said, in Golden City now what is the most profitable?" Du Le said.

  Zhao Quan thought for a moment and said: "The business of making money should be jewelry stores, pawnshops, and banks."

  "I think what's making the most money now is rice shops, with prices changing daily and getting higher and higher." Zhao said.

  "That's right!" Du Le nodded and said, "In peaceful times, jewelry stores, pawnshops, and money houses are the most profitable businesses. But in troubled times, the most profitable business should be related to food. In troubled times, fewer people cultivate, grain yields are greatly reduced, and grain merchants deliberately raise prices, causing rice prices to rise dozens or even hundreds of times. Therefore, the business I am going to do next is a business related to eating."

  Du Le thought of the food he had stored in space, rice cakes, potato chips, dried beef, and several bags of instant noodles.

  "Do you know the prices of some food in Golden City? For example, rice, vegetables, meat, buns, oil cakes, steamed buns, and even the menu prices of wine houses. How much does a bowl of noodles cost?" Du Le asked.

  Zhao Quan and his family looked at each other, then Mrs. Zhao said: "Rice, vegetables, meat, buns and other street food, my daughter-in-law has bought vegetables on the street before, so she should be relatively clear about the prices of dishes in restaurants. Zhao Quan has been to wine houses too, so he should also know some."

  Du Le nodded and said: "Then you tell me all the market conditions you know."