The Blessed

Early in the morning, two horse-drawn carriages suddenly drove into Ling village through the junction of those few villages. After the front one asked about where Ling Jingxuan lived, both directly headed to the foot of Yuehua Mountain. On the way, a lot of farmers who were working saw it, but no one dared to ask what they were doing here. Almost everyone was wondering who they were here for.

Whoa~

The carriage stopped at the gate of Ling Jingxuan’s house. Shopkeeper Zhang of Xinyuan Restaurant got off from behind, gesturing one of the carters to watch the carriage, then knocked on the gate taking two servants.

“Who is it?”

The small bun’s crisp voice was heard, then, squeak~ The wooden gate was opened from inside. Standing behind the door, the small bun cocked his head to look them up and down. Before Shopkeeper Zhang opened his mouth, the small bun already turned around and ran back.

"Daddy, daddy, that uncle from the restaurant yesterday is here, daddy…"

"Oh..."

Seeing this, Shopkeeper Zhang froze there, only ooking at that small frisking figure.

"Sorry for my son’s ignorance , please come in!"

Before long, Ling Jingxuan walked out of the room, followed by Ling Jingpeng who just came over and the two little buns, only at this time Shopkeeper Zhang came to his sense and forced out a smile, with his hands cupped before, “Please, Childe Lin.”

"Haha...So let’s save the courtesy. Please."

How could the host walk in front of the guest? He still wants to do his business.

"Haha... Then I won’t stand on ceremony. To be honest, actually I'm here to talk to you about the jam stuff today. Yesterday…Hmm? You can catch such big carp in this season? Childe Lin, are these also yours?”

After entering the courtyard, before Shopkeeper Zheng finished what he was saying, he got attracted by the buckets of fish. Seeing those fat and big carps, Shopkeeper Zhang couldn’t help asking. Actually it was not that there were not fishermen who were living on fishing. Let alone fish in the river, there were even seafish here. But due to all-year-round fishing, plus no food to feed them, it was really a rare thing to see such big carps. That was also the main reason why its price was so high.

"Well, I raise my own medicinal fish in a nearby stream, but they don't produce much and I can only sell them for a living."

Ling Jingxuan obviously did not want to say more, just casually muddled a few words. He did not think that Shopkeeper Zheng was easy to fool like those peddlers in the market. It’d be bad if he asked him to take him to where he raised the fish. Before he built his own fishpond, he didn’t plan to catch too much of them.

"Medicinal fish? Raising by yourself?"

Keen enough to grasp the key point, Shopkeeper Zhang could not help exclaiming. For over hundreds of years, no one could have ever made it!

“Haha...I was just lucky enough to figure out a peculiar prescription for raising fish with medicinal herbs."

He knew it! Ling Jingxuan also felt helpless. If he said he only caught them somewhere, given Shopkeeper Zhang’s shrewdness, he wouldn’t buy it at all, because this is not the right season, besides, it was only early in the morning, how could there are so many fish for him to catch?

"Can you supply on ration every day?"

Seeing that he was hiding something, Shopkeeper Zhang decisively dropped that topic and stated that he liked those fish. Ling Jingxuan pretended to ponder for a moment and then said, “For now, 30 fish tops. And it may not be carps, there are also chubs and grass carps. If you want them, you can only send a cart to get them yourself. Sorry I really have no time to send them to town every day.”

Since Xinyuan Restaurant could open branches all over the Great Qing Dynasty, one could imagine its background. It’s a good thing if he could keep a long-term corporation with them. But the thing is he doesn’t have his own fishpond, so he has no mass production. When he has his own fishpond in the future, he still has to reply on them to raise money.

"OK, let's go inside and talk it over."

Taking a last glance at those bouncy fish in the buckets, Shopkeeper Zhang moved his steps forward. Ling Jingxuan secretly gave Ling Jingpeng an eye, indicating him to take the two buns to the backyard first. The kids’ first job is reading books and playing. He could forget about the past. But in the future he didn’t want them to get involved in business too early.

"Childe Ling, I'll be straight with you."

After sitting in the guest room, Shopkeeper Zhang directly got to the point, “To be honest, right after you left yesterday, I launched that appetizer, and the guests’ feedback exceeded my anticipation. After the peak time at noon, I went to town myself. And the shopkeeper in the town also showed great interest, and immediately wrote a letter to the shopkeeper in the prefecture on that very night, elaborating the making method of the appetizer and purchasing jam stuff. And early the next morning I received the personal letter from the shopkeeper in the prefecture. And we decided to launch this appetizer in all branches throughout the whole prefecture. So I am here to ask if you can supply us a thousand pots in ten days and at least five thousand pots every month from the next month?”

It was a big, scary number, and it was their conservative estimation, which was why he came in person, and frankly speaking, he also didn't expect the shopkeeper in the prefecture would appreciate this so much.

"Yes, I think I can, but I'm afraid we'll have to calculate the price another way."

Like having already expected this, Ling Jingxuan answered seriously after thinking a while.

"How?"

Hearing that it might be plausible, the shopkeeper immediately showed great interest. At this time, Ling Jingpeng came in. Ling Jingxuan gestured him to wait a bit and then said to Ling Jingpeng, “You go bring me a pot of jam in the cellar for me.”