"I can't sell it …"
It was still dark in the east. Nie Yunzhu was sitting on the steps in front of the small building, holding her chin as she spoke with some distress.
"A few days ago, just like what Young Master Ning said, I went to look for the stewards of several nearby restaurants, but they said that no one had eaten this before, and it was too expensive, so they didn't want to put it on their counters."
After all, productivity was insufficient these days. Food such as rice and flour were the concept of filling one's hunger, so the price was cheaper. Meat and eggs were a bit more expensive. According to the ratio, if a pancake that cost two copper coins could be regarded as one yuan, a salted egg that cost ten copper coins was five yuan, and under Ning Yi's suggestion, century eggs were sold at twenty copper coins, which was already close to the meaning of luxury goods. In this era where well-off people only occasionally ate meat and eggs, such things were naturally difficult to sell.
Of course, there were still many rich people in the Jiangning area. In terms of brothels, the more popular girls could enter a brothel for three times — that was, three taels of silver, three thousand copper coins — three times for singing and dancing, and three times for bed, which was a total of nine times, 4,500 yuan for one time. The girls who sold themselves were the extreme exceptions. If they didn't sell themselves, such as Yuan Jin 'er, Lu Caicai, Qi Lan, and the former Nie Yunzhu, then the price would be even higher. There was no limit to this, but there was a large group of people waiting to throw money at you. If you were stingy, then you wouldn't be able to enter the door. If you were stingy after entering the door, then naturally they wouldn't pay attention to you next time. For example, Su Tan 'er's gang of brothers would extort a few dozen taels of silver from her every time. In an ordinary family, it was already a huge sum of money, but if they really wanted to show off and call a group of scoundrels, it would only happen once or twice.
People who were willing to spend nine thousand copper coins to find a girl might not be willing to eat century eggs for twenty copper coins at a roadside stall, but at least it proved that this purchasing power was still there in Jiangning.
If he wanted to sell it for twenty copper coins, he would have to find some high-end places nearby, famous teahouses and restaurants, and ask them to help him sell it. But after all, this was a new thing. She wanted to sell an egg for twenty copper coins. She wanted to help, but she wasn't doing charity. In the past, Nie Yunzhu was naturally talented in all kinds of things. She was beautiful and could be considered a talented woman, but these skills naturally couldn't be used to discuss business. This twenty copper coins for a salted egg consignment sale, on the other hand, didn't succeed. There were two restaurant stewards who didn't talk to her at all. There was also one who saw that she was pretty but came out to sell pancakes. He wanted to touch her, but she just walked away.
This was naturally a blow to Nie Yunzhu, who wanted to get rid of her previous identity and work hard to earn a living like an ordinary person. However, she had a stubborn personality. If an ordinary person encountered such a situation, they would probably consider not selling century eggs anymore, but she didn't have such a plan. At this time, Ning Yi was sweating all the way. He played with a copper coin in his hand and then smiled. "Speaking of which, I recently made a bet with someone that this century egg can be sold in a month."
"Sold?"
"Yes, at least twenty to thirty a day."
"… Uh." Nie Yunzhu thought about it and then smiled. "I will try my best to sell thirty. Actually … maybe I can send a batch to Golden Wind Restaurant …"
Nie Yunzhu obviously hesitated for a while before saying this. What she was thinking at this time was obviously different from what Ning Yi thought. In her opinion, Ning Yi had a good personality and was a maverick, humorous, and witty great scholar, but he had nothing to do with business. Now that he invented the century egg and asked her to help him sell it, perhaps he had boasted about it. This was also human nature. If she couldn't sell so many, he would lose face. If it weren't for the fact that there was no other way, she probably wouldn't have considered Golden Wind Restaurant again. Although the mother in the restaurant abided by the contract and didn't force her to do anything, she might not really be a good person. It was not easy to return a favor owed, but in any case, using such a relationship was probably the only way she could think of at this time.
When Ning Yi heard her mention Golden Wind Restaurant, he was slightly stunned, and then he understood. "You don't have to do this." He shook his head and then pointed to the shed where the cart was parked. "Close the stall early today and pack the cart. It's too simple now, and it can't be sold for twenty copper coins."
"Pack?"
"Uh … Just decorate it casually."
Nie Yunzhu nodded and expressed her understanding with a puzzled look …
At noon, after school, Ning Yi went to the market for lunch. Then he bought all kinds of paints, big and small brushes, and brought them to Nie Yunzhu. Only then did Nie Yunzhu know what he was going to do. In the afternoon, the cart was washed clean. Ning Yi used chalk to make a simple composition. After thinking about it for a while, he moved a low stool and sat down to write.
Nie Yunzhu couldn't help at this time, so she just squatted next to him and watched for a while. When she returned to the room and saw Hu Tao, Hu Tao said, "Young Master Ning wants to paint on the cart to sell century eggs?"
"I think so."
"But, can paint paint well …"
"Many lacquer wares also use paint to paint. Young Master Ning … must have dabbled in this field …"
Nie Yunzhu was actually a little worried. Zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting were all arts of elegance. Whether Ning Yi's painting skills were exquisite or not was another matter, but with his current reputation, if people found out that he was painting on such a small cart just to sell century eggs, she was afraid that it would cause him to be criticized again. The better the painting, the greater the risk.
On the other hand, Hu Tao's mood was actually not good. She had been worried about the young miss recently. Since she confirmed on the day of the Lantern Festival that Ning Yi, who was in contact with the young miss, was the number one scholar, and he was really talented, her worry increased day by day. For her, although she also wanted to marry Erniu as soon as possible, she was not at ease at all if the young miss did not have a home to return to. Now the young miss seemed to have a good impression of this person, but what was this? As the young miss said, she could not marry him.
The identity of the other party was a live-in son-in-law. Even if the young miss liked him, there would be no result at all. The more talented the man was, the deeper the young miss was afraid that she would fall in love with him, and on the contrary, she would not be able to like others. The Su family was powerful. Once the other party's wife found out about this and came to the door, what should she do? Thinking of this, she became more and more anxious.
Halfway through, Ning Yi also called Nie Yunzhu out once and asked her if the stall should be called "Nie Ji" or "Takeshi". Nie Yunzhu thought about it and chose Takeshi.
In the evening, the sunset shone from the side of the bend of the Qinhuai River, and the decoration of the small car was finally completed. When Nie Yunzhu went over to take a look, she felt a little dumbfounded. She had never seen this style of painting before!
It was not that the painting was too bad, but it was too good, too bizarre. The composition of the painting on the car was three-dimensional.
In this day and age, there was paint, and naturally there were all kinds of lacquer patterns and styles, either exquisite or rough. But the small car in front of her was definitely unique in the entire era. The painting was actually very simple. It was just a few bamboos symbolizing a corner of the bamboo forest after the rain, hidden in the fog. On one side was a scene of a century egg being cut into four pieces, but it could not be considered very lifelike. The words "Takeshi Century Egg" floated on the picture, but the picture was three-dimensional.
For Ning Yi, it was just a simple technique to control the uneven proportions of the various parts of the picture to achieve the effect of the bamboo forest inserting into the field of view. The words "Takeshi Century Egg" with the floating shadow had the effect of falling or floating in the fog. It was just that the painting of the century egg was not satisfactory, and it could not be matched with a very beautiful and appropriate color, so he could only make it look as beautiful as possible. Because the mixture of paint would appear blurred, Ning Yi carefully added clear black lines on the edges of the different patterns, which made the conflict more obvious and three-dimensional. If this small car was pushed out, it would definitely attract the attention of passers-by. Moreover, it was different from mainstream paintings. Others would only think that it was a small way that a businessman came up with, and would not think that it was a painting carefully drawn by a certain scholar.
The conditions were limited, but looking at the surprised look on the other party's face, in general, Ning Yi was still satisfied with the result. Probably thinking of Ning Yi's strange taste in music, Nie Yunzhu said, "Liheng's painting is also so … uh, so strange. This style, Yunzhu has never seen before, but it seems to grow out of the wall of the car …"
For things like paintings, if a more realistic style was taken, the first impression would be simple. This was different from the taste in music. Nie Yunzhu wanted to reach out and touch the pillar, but Ning Yi stopped her with a smile and then pointed to the canopy above.
"The paint is still wet, so you can't touch it. The canopy above needs to be changed. I will buy it tomorrow. The paint is still wet these few days, so you can't do business. Uh … we need to prepare some things, beautiful small bowls and plates, all kinds of sauces, vinegar, tofu, and a variety of ways to eat them. It has to look clean and beautiful. Hmm, this is the first step … "Ning Yi calculated," After these things are done, we can solve the stubborn problem of the restaurants … "
In the afternoons for the next few days, things were done step by step. Beautiful bowls and plates, buying all kinds of sauces, and matching all kinds of ways to eat them. Ning Yi came every afternoon, and Nie Yunzhu was also very happy. However, Hu Tao was not happy. At night, she complained to the miss, "Miss, buying those things is not worth it …"
The bowls and plates that Ning Yi chose were all very beautiful. In the eyes of ordinary people, they were not very practical and expensive. Although half of these things were paid for by Ning Yi and were considered as shares, in Hu Tao's eyes, it was meaningless. There was not much money left at home. If they saved it, the miss could still use it for a long time. But now, it was as if Ning Yi was spending money recklessly, and the miss was not willing to reject him, so she could only follow him. When the time came, the Young Master Ning did not care about wasting money, but what could the miss do? Wouldn't she be spending the last of her net worth?
"If Hu Tao were to say it, the Young Master Ning must be very talented. There's no need to say anything about that. But he might not know how to do business. We are just opening a small stall, so there's no need to be so particular. Miss, you can't accompany him to fool around! We can't afford to fool around … "
"The Young Master Ning is a person with real talent. Since he is so confident, I will naturally believe him. Hu Tao, how do you know that he doesn't have a solution until the end?" Actually, Nie Yunzhu did not have much confidence in her heart, but she could only say that to Hu Tao.
"Miss, haven't you seen a lot of talented people?" Hu Tao retorted. "Talent is talent, and doing business is doing business. Those talented people also gambled and squandered, and in the end, they were penniless. Although Hu Tao did not understand, she had seen many stalls on the streets, and they were all like that. Those big restaurants and brothels were completely different. Miss, the Young Master Ning married into a merchant's family. I heard that his wife is very powerful in the Su family. Maybe he couldn't take it lying down and used you as an experiment … "
"Shut up!" Nie Yunzhu's gaze froze and interrupted her.
Hu Tao stood there for a long time with her lips pursed. Tears rolled down from her eyes. Then, she clenched her teeth and choked with sobs. "Miss, you also know that you can't marry the Young Master Ning. If you can marry him, then I, Hu Tao, won't say anything …"
After she said that, the room was quiet for a long time. Nie Yunzhu sat on the edge of the bed and leaned against the bedframe. Her gaze changed occasionally. After a long time, when the light flickered, she closed her eyes. "I know …" When she opened her eyes again, she smiled.
"Hu Tao, you should go to sleep too. It's getting late …"
*****
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