Chapter 21: The Plan to Make Money

  One catty of rice, five cents in gold; one oil pancake, one cent in gold; two meat buns, two cents in gold each; green vegetables and wild vegetables, one cent in gold per catty; steamed buns, one cent in gold each. Ordinary restaurants' vegetarian dishes are generally five cents in gold per plate, meat dishes one yuan in gold per plate, white wine one yuan in gold per tael, a bowl of plain noodles eight cents in gold, a bowl of meat noodles one yuan and five cents in gold.

  Listening to Zhao Quan's family talk, Du Le was stunned, and he felt that this place was simply paved with gold. It seemed that no matter what business he chose to do, he could make a lot of money. For the people here, gold coins might be equivalent to copper coins in ancient China on Earth, but for Du Le, who could transport goods between two places, they represented huge trade profits. No wonder countries made so much money from foreign trade when they first opened up their markets and developed their economies.

  That's 280 yuan per kilogram of rice, and even a single steamed bun costs 56 yuan. If Du Le made steamed buns on Earth and sold them here, even if the cost was 1 yuan each, he could still make at least 55 yuan in profit.

  Du Le's eyes were slightly red as he asked, "Are there many people in Chu State who have gold coins?"

  "Not many, ordinary families can save a hundred yuan in gold coins, it's already considered good. Now the food is not expensive, but it's still rising. It's like this, the small eateries and wine shops in the city, even some wine houses have closed down long ago. It's not that they don't want to make money, but there's just not enough grain. Sometimes, even with gold coins, you can't buy grain. Luckily, our lord saved us, otherwise, the government would have sent us to a refugee camp in the west of the outer city. In the refugee camp, every day there are only two meals of very thin porridge. Even hiding in the city, every night is curfew, and anyone who walks around on the streets after dark will be executed as a spy." Zhao Quan said with some sorrow.

  Although Zhao Quan's words were somewhat disorganized, Du Le still managed to glean some information from them.

  Firstly, the people of Chu State, especially those in Jinyang City, have gold coins, even refugees have gold coins. Secondly, food prices are rising and are almost unaffordable. Thirdly, the situation in Chu State seems to be getting more chaotic, is it true that the legendary armies of Qi State and Jin State are going to attack?

  Du Le nodded, looked at the account book for a moment, and said: "There are still 3,000 yuan in gold on the account book. I will take away 2,000 yuan, leaving 1,000 yuan. Zhao Quan, you and your family can take one-tenth of it, which is 300 yuan in gold as compensation for your hard work during this period."

  "It's not right, Your Honor," Zhao hastily said. "We haven't done anything wrong, helping the master is what we should do, and we shouldn't take so much money."

  "I'm giving you this money so that you can settle down in Jinyang City. Use it to buy a house nearby, the two kids have been living in the shop for too long, it's not hygienic and bad for their health, also inconvenient for cooking and washing clothes."

  Du Le paused for a moment, then continued, "Zhao Quan, go buy another store. I plan to open a noodle restaurant that can hold 50 people at the same time. After this fruit shop sells out of oranges, I'll sell other things instead. Besides that, you need to hire a few more employees. Is 700 yuan enough?"

  Zhao Quan said, "That's enough, more than enough. One apprentice only needs twenty yuan a month, and with food and lodging included, it might not even be five yuan. There is a restaurant across the street from our store that can probably be bought for three hundred yuan. The question is, do we need to hire a noodle-making master?"

  "It's okay, as long as you can cook, that's enough," Du Le said. "The key is that the people we hire must be reliable and have a family to support."

  Du Le took out a package of Kang Pao fragrant mushroom stewed chicken noodles from the space and said, "Lan Shu, is there a stove here?"

  Wu Lan hastily stood up and said: "There is a small stove in the back room, but it's just that burning firewood produces a lot of smoke and smells bad."

  "It's okay, this instant noodle is easy to cook, all the ingredients are already in it, just boil some water and we can have a delicious meal." Du Le tore open the packaging bag and took out the noodles.

  Zhao Quan and others were shocked, Zhao's family even exclaimed, "I've never seen such a beautiful pancake in my life."

  Wu Lan quickly put water in a pot and brought it to a boil. When Du Le added the flatbread and sauce, a rich and savory stewed chicken flavor wafted up to their noses.

  Du Le took a sip first, then ordered everyone to take a bite of noodles and drink a mouthful of soup.

  Zhao Quan's family was in a state of ecstasy, as if they had tasted the most delicious food in the world, and couldn't help but praise it.

  "Your Majesty, what ingredients are used in this soup? I'm afraid that even the delicacies of the imperial palace can't surpass this." Zhao said sincerely as she watched her two grandsons devouring the soup.

  Du Le smiled and said, "Can this store be opened?"

  "Of course!" Zhao Quan said, "This noodle is much better than the two-yuan golden noodles at Fuman Tower." Fuman Tower was a large restaurant in Jinyang City.

  "The secret recipe must be kept confidential!" said Zhao, "Your Majesty, there's no need to recruit a chef, either Zhao Quan or Wu Lan will do, just find a few shop assistants and that's it."

  "Yes!" Zhao Quan also said.

  Du Le wasn't worried that someone would steal his business, these pancakes, the ingredients were all industrialized production line products, ordinary people couldn't imitate them. Even if the imitation flavor of the pancake soup was good, the cost wouldn't be lower than the instant noodles he brought directly from Earth.

  "Hmm, the two stores are operated separately, a fruit store and a noodle store. Zhao Quan is in charge of the noodle store, and Wu Lan is in charge of the fruit store, how about that?" Du Le thought for a moment and said, if both stores were managed by Zhao Quan alone, it might be too much to handle.

  Before Zhao Quan could speak, Du Le decided to say: "Noodle chef, it's not difficult, let's invite two more. You can control the number of noodle cakes and sauce packets, and do not allow them to be taken away at will. You only need to be responsible for collecting accounts and calculating accounts, that's all."

  Du Le looked through the gap in the wooden door, and the sky was getting brighter. He didn't want to waste any more time.

  Du Le is the host, Zhao Quan naturally has nothing to say, and the Zhao family members nodded in agreement one after another.

  "Clean up this place, I'm going to take out all the oranges." Du Le said.

  Du Le's magic was revealed, and Zhao Quan hastily made way. Only to see Du Le take out box after box of oranges from the space. In a short while, both inside and outside the shop were filled with boxes of oranges. Du Le took out all the remaining oranges and then put all the empty boxes back into the space. There were only over ten empty boxes left, but Du Le didn't mind much. Anyway, except for some descriptions of oranges on the boxes, there were no pictures or place of origin indicated. In the paper-thin country of Chugoku, in the city of Kin'yō, these boxes would be taken as nothing more than thick sheets of paper at most, and even if they were circulated outside, they wouldn't cause too much impact.

  Du Le had put away the oranges and saw that it was already daylight, so he prepared to leave.

  "I'm leaving now, you settle the new store's affairs within two days, and I'll come back to arrange things then," Du Le said.

  "Yes!" Zhao Quan bowed and replied.

  "Alright, you're busy, these oranges will probably take two days to sell." Du Le said with a sigh as he looked at the full house of boxes.

  "Your Honor, don't worry, these oranges will be sold out in less than a day." Zhao Quan said confidently.

  "That's good," Du Le nodded and said, "Then I'll go first."

  In the morning, when it was almost daylight outside the shop, Zhao Quan removed the wooden boards and Du Le walked out of the fruit store.

  As soon as the curfew was lifted, people began to appear on the streets and shops started opening for business.

  Du Le planned to take advantage of the remaining time to stroll around Jinyang City. As long as his energy was full, he could teleport back home at any time and place.