amaotonovel Chapter 193 Easily Earn Him 12
Chapter 193 Easily Earn Him 12
The Jingnan Kingdom's cultural delegation marched towards the capital in a mighty procession.
Li Zong took the reception team to the city gate to greet them early in the morning. Because they arrived early, many people were still sleepy.
Mingyue Teahouse opened its doors early, and the waiter invited the officials in for a seat, free tea, and free drinks. At first, some officials hesitated out of respect, but standing there in the cool autumn air, some boldly entered. One person led the way, and others followed.
Li Zong had no choice but to let the accompanying older officials go in as well!
"Gentlemen, please enjoy your tea here. I'll ask my servants to guard outside the city. If an envoy arrives, they will come here to inform you." The shopkeeper was very considerate.
Then tea was brought up pot by pot, along with exquisite snacks, and the officials were very happy.
After a while, the outpost came to report that the delegation had arrived. Everyone stood up, tidied their clothes and prepared to go to greet them. The shopkeeper asked everyone to settle the bill.
“Isn’t it free?”
"The tea is free, but you ate a lot of snacks, which weren't free. There were twenty of you in total, and you ate eighty pieces of snacks. Each piece cost five hundred coins, so the total cost was forty taels of silver."
"You're robbing me!" someone said angrily. "Whose dim sum is so expensive?"
"This is made according to a secret palace recipe. The taste is comparable to palace pastries. We are all prominent officials of the current dynasty. If you don't want to pay, that's fine. I will keep it a secret and won't spread it."
The officials were so angry that their faces turned red and their necks became thick. It was clearly extortion, but he still felt wronged.
Li Zong took out a fifty-liang silver note and gave it to the clerk: "No need for change."
The shopkeeper took the banknote and said to the clerk with a smile, "Give each official a bag of our specialty snacks."
Two waiters happily went in and brought out many boxes, one for each official.
"Your house is a black shop."
"Our shop clearly marks prices and we are fair to everyone. This gift box is not available on the market. We only give it to our most distinguished guests."
So everyone came out carrying a gift box. Some people looked calm, as they didn't spend a penny and had food, drinks and gifts. Some people felt that they were ripped off and it was unfair. They looked at Li Zong and were very grateful.
Li Zong felt a little distressed, but when he thought about spending fifty taels to win everyone's favor, it was worth it.
The cultural delegation of Jingnan Kingdom finally arrived in the capital. Leading the delegation was Jingnan Kingdom's second prince Jingwu. He was tall and very strong, with delicate features. There was something inexplicably mismatched about him, as he had an exquisite head on a strong body. The head was meticulously carved, while the body was casually sloppy.
Behind him were a dozen or so well-dressed people, probably members of the diplomatic mission. Behind them were fifty or sixty followers, and a dozen horse-drawn carriages lined up behind them, blocking the city gates. Li Chuang and his men were conducting the clearing and inspection.
When Jingwu saw the officials of Da Chu standing in a row, each holding an exquisite gift box in his hand, the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.
After a brief handover between the ceremonial officials of both sides, Jingwu came over to greet the officials of Da Chu.
"I didn't expect the people of Da Chu to be so hospitable. They brought us gifts on our first meeting." Jing Wu took the gift box from Li Zong with a smile. Li Zong didn't care and gave it to him.
Seeing Jingwu accept the gift box, the others became less polite and went to other Da Chu officials to accept the gift boxes. The Da Chu officials had no choice but to give them, otherwise they would appear stingy.
After they took it, they opened it and saw that there were exquisite snacks of various colors inside. There were four in total, red, green, yellow and pink. They looked very appetizing and some people couldn't help but taste them.
Jing Wu saw the Da Chu official's surprised expression and said with a smile, "We in Jing State have a custom that when we receive a gift from someone, we must open it in front of them."
Everyone laughed and said, "Very good, you guys can eat. It must have been hard coming all the way here."
"Yeah, it's delicious. Where can I buy it? I'll go buy some for my brothers to try."
At this time, the waiter from Mingyue Teahouse came over with a teapot and cups, offered them free tea, and said with a smile, "This is a custom gift box from our Mingyue Teahouse. Each box costs ten taels of silver, and usually needs to be pre-ordered in advance. If you want it, it will probably take ten days to get it."
The officials of Da Chu had complicated expressions. They were really cruel. They gave it away for free just now, but now they charge ten taels of silver for a gift box.
Jingwu smiled and said, "Then let's order one hundred."
"This shop is a small business, so we need to pay half of the deposit."
Jingwu gestured, and the servant beside him took out a silver note of one thousand taels. The waiter happily took it and ran to the teahouse happily.
Some officials thought, this money is so easy to make, how delicious is this thing?
He looked at an official from the Jingnan Kingdom standing beside him and asked, "Can I have a taste?"
The official was very generous and gave him half of a pink dessert. He took it and it melted in his mouth. It was sweet but not greasy. It was indeed delicious, even better than the desserts in the palace. No wonder it was so expensive.
He smiled and called out to the waiter, and another waiter came over and asked him what was the matter?
"I'll order two boxes. Please deliver them to my house in the evening."
The waiter waved his hand: "We don't sell it to the public. We take pre-orders, and the minimum order is usually 20 boxes."
Another official couldn't stand it anymore.
He said, "We just ate 40 taels of your snacks, and you gave us a gift box worth 200 taels. Now someone wants to buy it, but you won't sell it. How on earth do you do business?"
The waiter wasn't in a hurry at all. He said slowly, "Tea is free, but dim sum is charged because we have costs too. This gift box is not sold separately. The shopkeeper sees that you are all prominent officials in the court. If you like our custom dim sum, maybe one day someone in your family will have a birthday, take the imperial examination, get married, and have children, then we might need a hundred or eighty boxes. That's how we make money."
After hearing what the guy said, no one could get angry.
At this time, the customs inspection was over, so Li Zong accompanied the cultural delegation to the post station to settle down.
At this time, another waiter came over with a few bags of tea and handed them to the Jingnan Kingdom delegation: "It's free. Thank you for customizing the gift boxes in our store."
After the people left, the guys returned to the store and everyone was very happy.
"The princess is really smart. She easily earned a thousand taels."
"If it's not a thousand taels, then after deducting the cost, you can make at least nine hundred taels."
Li Chuang came in with a smile and asked if he could customize a gift box.
The shopkeeper asked the clerk to get one for Lord Li: "But you can't take it away now. Come back and get it when you return home."
Li Chuang took out fifty taels and said, "I'll buy five!"
The shopkeeper asked him for forty taels of silver: "We are one family, so I can make a profit by charging you ten taels of silver."
The guy brought over another big box: "This is for the brothers to eat."
"Isn't it inappropriate to eat and take at the same time?"
"The princess has instructed us that the brothers in the City Patrol work very hard every day. With them around, we can avoid a lot of trouble. Also, the dim sum in our teahouse is made and sold on the same day. These were left over from yesterday, so we usually take them home to eat."
After hearing what he said, Li Chuang no longer insisted and took the box back to the duty point at the city gate to distribute snacks to everyone.