CH 86.1

In the account room in the backyard of Yunlong Pavilion, Eunuch An was listening to the report from the shopkeeper. Business at Yunlong Pavilion was booming, so a lot of ingredients needed to be purchased every day, with money going in and out all the time and made the shopkeeper need to report to Eunuch An every day. Since it was around the time of the New Year, the restaurant was full of customers. 

The restaurant had just opened not long ago and many things still needed to be done by Eunuch An personally. Adding to this were the newly opened snack store, flower tea store, etc. and their inspection was also part of Eunuch An’s responsibility, making him too busy to do anything else. He urgently summoned Jiang Kangchen back to the capital.

Thanks to the inspiration from Shao Yunan, after Eunuch An returned to the capital, he asked the Empress to build a greenhouse specifically for growing vegetables. This was not to earn money like the tea or wine, but the Empress still made the decision to build a large greenhouse at the outskirts of the capital. 

A total of ten greenhouses were built to supply the restaurant’s needs. Sometimes they would also send some vegetables to the palace, but most of the vegetables grown there were used by the restaurant. Therefore, other restaurants in the capital were more or less short on vegetables, resulting in a shortage of dishes. 

But Yunlong Pavilion could supply a variety of fresh vegetables every day, making their customers choose to go there even more often. This also led the proprietors behind those restaurants to send people to inquire about where the vegetables at Yunlong Pavilion actually came from.

When he was informed that Jiang Kangchen had returned, Eunuch An was so anxious that he asked him to hurry. As soon as Jiang Kangchen stepped into the room, Eunuch An called out, “You’ve finally come back.” He then waved his hand to let the shopkeeper go out and asked, “Did Yunan ask you to bring back anything?”

Jiang Kangchen smiled. “Naturally, I did. Yunan also made a new paste and asked me to bring it back to you Lord An, as well as some dishes and snacks. But most importantly, Shao Yunan also came up with a new idea, please look at it.”

Jiang Kangchen presented the plan for the hot pot store, but Eunuch An took it and put it aside, asking slightly anxiously, “When will Yunan’s tea and wine come out at the earliest? People have come everyday to ask about it, even a kilo of third-class tea has come to this number already!”

Eunuch An raised two fingers, Jiang Kangchen blinked, “Two hundred taels of silver a kilo?” Eunuch An gave him a look that said, ‘How petty do you think I am?’ and spoke loudly, “Two thousand taels!”

“Hiss…!” Jiang Kangchen got goosebumps. “Two thousand taels? Isn’t first-class tea only 2,000 taels?! The third-class tea was just 100 taels a kilo before!”

“That was before!” Eunuch An wiped the sweat on his forehead. “The special tea and first-class tea now have a price of ten thousand taels of silver a kilo! The fruit wine has also gone up to a thousand taels, but we still don’t have any goods at hand!” Jiang Kangchen’s eyes widened. “What? When did it happen?! I was in the palace just yesterday, but the Empress didn’t mention it?”

Eunuch An was so anxious that he slapped the table. “Someone came to us yesterday and offered us this amount, and there were several of them! How could we dare to tell His Majesty about it. If I knew about it before, I wouldn’t have sold all the tea and wine. It’s such a big loss!”

Jiang Kangchen also became anxious. “This… what kind of people were they? This price is simply too high!” Eunuch An said, “It was a merchant from the Shanren Tribe and the Xianlu Kingdom! They got some tea and wine from other places and now they are willing to pay this price.”

“… “ Jiang Kangchen froze for a moment. At this time, he suddenly remembered that Shao Yunan said that in the future, they would sell wine and tea to other countries to earn money. It has not been that long and now merchants from other countries have come to their Great State of Yan to buy wine and tea! Thinking of Shao Yunan’s business and economic development idea… Jiang Kangchen swallowed, tongue-tied. “Well, then it’s good?” He was also out of ideas.

Eunuch An gritted his teeth and said, “Let’s send a letter to Yunan to ask him to think of something. That kid has a lot of ideas, so he might come up with a good idea for us. Thousands of silvers are right in front of us. If we can not take it, we will have no face to show in front of the Emperor for years to come!”

Hearing this, Jiang Kangchen became anxious. “What can Yunan do? Tea leaves can’t be picked until the rainy season after the New Year. Qingming tea was also sealed not long ago, so it will be a while before it can be sold. The wine will take even longer.”

Eunuch An said, “We also know, but the Emperor and Empress are now short of money, so if we have such a large amount of money right in front of us, we can’t let it go or we will become sinners! Yunan always has a lot of ideas, so he might think of a good way. You can write in the letter that if they are able to come up with a good idea, they can call me Uncle!”

Jiang Kangchen didn’t know what to say now. Eunuch An was the eunuch beside the Empress, so his status was even higher than Zhuo Jin’s, otherwise the Empress would not be confident to let Eunuch An take charge of the external business. The people who wanted Eunuch An to be their godfather or uncle were numerous. There were many officials in their dynasty who kept it in mind, but to have Eunuch An take the initiative and be willing to be called uncle really gave a big face.

In the end, Jiang Kangchen could only say, “Let’s see what Yunan says. Are these people still in the capital?” Eunuch An nodded. “I told them that I would give them an answer in half a month and hope that Yunan will be able to do something in this time, giving us some good news.”

Jiang Kangchen said, “Lord An, don’t be in a hurry. Even if the business fails this time, they will do business with us in a few months. Didn’t Yunan also speak about it? By that time we will have even more good tea and wine in our hands.”

Eunuch An said, “You don’t understand. I don’t know how many people are staring at us now. If we can’t make these few deals this time.. let’s not speak about it any longer. If we can’t make these deals, not to mention how those people will speculate behind our back. Now that the Marquis house has secretly sent people to buy tea and wine, we can only sell small, but still get big connections. If Marquis Hengyuan wants to do this business, even if we have tea and wine in the future we might not be able to rise to this price again.”

Jiang Kangchen understood. This was probably the business opportunity Shao Yunan was talking about. He frowned. “Would the Marquis Hengyuan mansion dare to steal our business so openly? Don’t they know that our business actually belongs to the Emperor and Empress?”

Eunuch An immediately spoke sarcastically. “How could they not know? They simply don’t put the Emperor and the Empress in their eyes. The Marquis of Hengyuan mansion’s treasury is many times more abundant than the treasury of our country, but has the Marquis of Hengyuan ever shared the Emperor’s worries when he needed money? Who did not know that the Hengyuan Marquis wanted to marry his eldest daughter into the palace, but the Emperor refused? He probably still wishes for the Emperor to have no money.”