When Zhou Qiong, Zhou Xihu, and the yamen runner got up, someone came to serve them. After a while, the yamen runner was led to another place to eat. Zhou Xihu and his nephew were invited to a separate dining room. Everything had been set up. The bowl of porridge was still steaming. It was obvious that it had just been served.
There were more than a dozen small salted vegetables. Beside them were deep-fried dough sticks, steamed buns, and steamed buns. In addition to the two types of porridge, there was also soy milk and tofu pudding.
Zhou Qiong originally thought that he would have to drink since morning. He didn't expect that there would be some ordinary food prepared. The small salted vegetables were just meat and vegetables. There was no other meaning to it.
This time, the old masters of the Zhang and Wang families didn't come out. Only Father Zhang came to accompany them. There were only three people in the dining room. Looking at the food on the table in front of him, Zhou Qiong felt that there were too many types.
He said, "Brother Yongcheng, there are so many things that I don't know which to choose. Why don't we take some away and let the servants eat at noon? By then, the servants will be hungry."
Father Zhang didn't expect Zhou Qiong to ask such a question. He smiled and replied, "Brother Miaoran, you don't have to worry about this. Everyone in the courtyard, except for those who are working, is eating. At noon, these things have to be fried in oil. Otherwise, the servants won't eat them."
Yesterday, Father Zhang called Zhou Qiong "Lord". After being rejected by Zhou Qiong, he started calling him by his courtesy name.
Zhou Qiong was stunned when he heard this. He picked up a steamed bun and put it in front of his mouth. He said, "Does Zhangjia Zhuangzi take care of the servants' breakfast?"
"Brother Miaoran has never been here before. Naturally, you don't know the situation here. Not to mention Zhangjia Zhuangzi, even the Wang family's Zhuangzi is the same. In addition to three meals a day, the night watch also has supper," Father Zhang said to Zhou Qiong.
"Why do they do this? They eat a lot of food every day, right? " Zhou Qiong didn't even have this in his own residence. The servants only had two meals a day. When he came to Zhuangzi, he actually heard such an unbelievable thing.
"Brother Miaoran, you don't believe me. Why don't you let Little Tiger take a look?" Father Zhang said to Zhou Qiong. In fact, he wanted Zhou Xihu to go check it out. Zhou Xihu felt that this was not good. Seeing his uncle nod, he could only get up and leave. He went to the courtyard to take a look. Before he left, he glanced at the food on the table. He knew that the taste of Zhangjia Zhuangzi's side dishes was definitely better than the ones outside.
After Zhou Xihu left, Zhou Qiong saw that only he and Father Zhang were left in the hall. Only then did he say, "Brother Yongcheng, what are your plans this time?"
"I can't say what I plan to do, but there's something I need to trouble Brother Miaoran with. Zhuangzi and Zhuangzi are running two businesses together, and they will continue to run them in the future. However, when it comes to splitting the profits, Zhuangzi has taken too much of the advantage, especially when it comes to the white sugar. Zhuangzi has already recouped its capital, so why don't we change it to 10%?"
Father Zhang purposely sent Zhou Xihu away so that he could discuss matters with Zhou Qiong. When Zhou Qiong asked about it, the first thing he mentioned was the white sugar.
"Brother Yongcheng, I can't make the decision on this matter. When the time comes, Zhuangzi will send someone to discuss with Xiao Hu. Whether Xiao Hu thinks it's feasible or not, it's up to him to decide." Zhou Qiong didn't care about this matter. A little more money wouldn't affect his position.
Father Zhang saw that there was no need to worry about this matter, so he said, "There's one more thing. Zhang Wang and Ge San have jointly built a restaurant in Zhuangzi. This place is remote. When the time comes, I hope Brother Miaoran can help us. Brother Miaoran can rest assured that the restaurant's dishes won't damage Brother Miaoran's reputation."
"Oh, so that's how it is. Okay, I've already seen that place when I came. It seems pretty good. When the time comes, I'll definitely bring someone over." Zhou Qiong didn't care about this matter. When the time comes, he'll just find an excuse to come over. It wasn't the first time he'd done something like this.
This matter could be considered to have been discussed properly. There was only one last thing left. Father Zhang didn't know what to say. According to him, it was to send out the grain for peace of mind. However, according to his wife, not only did they have to send it out, they also had to sell it. When the time comes, they would get the same amount of money from selling it. They couldn't lose money.
After hesitating for a moment, he said, "There's one more thing. There's a drought in Taihang Mountains and Henan. Zhangjia Zhuangzi still has surplus grain. I wonder if they can send it over there to solve the urgent situation. Here in Zhuangzi, Zhang Wang and Zhuangzi also want to buy a mountain. It's more than one thousand mu, and it costs one thousand five hundred taels of silver. When the time comes, County Magistrate Cheng can use this money to suppress the price."
When the third thing was mentioned, Zhou Qiong pondered deeply. At this time, he finally understood why County Magistrate Cheng told him to delay the investigation until after the summer. It turned out that Zhangjia Zhuangzi had this idea. At the end of summer, there would be a shortage of grain. As long as Zhangjia Zhuangzi sold the grain at a fair price, they would get a lot of benefits. It seemed that the Zhang family wanted to give it away for free.
He also knew that the grain had been bought by Zhang Wang and Zhang Wang since last year. It was the autumn harvest season, and the two families had spent almost all of their savings. After adding in the money they earned from some transactions later, the amount of grain was not a lot, but it was not a small amount either. In total, they had obtained nearly ten thousand dans of grain.
In total, there were 800,000 jin of grain. It was impossible to solve the food problem of so many people with this amount of grain. However, if it could solve the food problem of tens of thousands of people for a few months without any problem, it would be a big contribution.
Seeing that Zhou Qiong was thinking about something, Father Zhang did not disturb him. He put his chopsticks on the chopstick holder and waited there.
After a while, Zhou Qiong finally said, "I heard that you have 800,000 jin of grain. Are you going to give it all away directly?"
"Well …" Father Zhang did not expect Zhou Qiong to know so much. It was indeed as Zhou Qiong said. His family had been thinking of ways to store grain, and they did have this much now.
However, this grain could not be given away for free. He could only say, "My family's intention is to give away half of the grain and leave the other half for others to help earn back the capital. I wonder what the imperial court will reward us for doing this?"
Hearing this, Zhou Qiong understood. It turned out that Zhangjia Zhuangzi wanted to sell the other half at a high price and earn back the money they gave away. If they really did this, it would not be as simple as just earning back the money, but at least they would gain some profit.
Zhou Qiong was not surprised at all. It did not matter who sold the grain. There were more big grain merchants who wanted to make money from disasters. Since Zhangjia Zhuangzi said this, it meant that he did not treat Zhou Qiong as an outsider.
After thinking for a while, Zhou Qiong said, "If you can really take out so much grain, you have to let County Magistrate Cheng submit a report first. I will also submit a report on my side. Not to mention keeping the grain, it is not impossible to go one step further. However, when you sell the grain, you have to find someone reliable. Don't make any mistakes. I just don't know who is handling the disaster this time. Otherwise, they can help even more."
Father Zhang listened to Zhou Qiong's words and stared straight at the small dishes on the table. If someone looked closely, they would find that his pupils were out of focus. He was in a trance. In this state, he did not even need to adjust to look at a three-dimensional picture.
He did not know what to say now. To be precise, he did not know if he should follow his wife's words or that immortal son's words.
All of Zhou Qiong's reactions were predicted correctly. Even the content of his words was predicted. These were all what his wife told him. However, he knew that only his son and daughter-in-law had this kind of ability. From the breakfast arrangement until now, there was no difference at all.
Father Zhang suddenly felt that Zhou Qiong was a little pitiful. After saying so much, everything was under the control of his son and daughter-in-law. They were really monsters, no, immortals.
"Brother Yongcheng, what's wrong? Did something bad happen again? "Zhou Qiong saw that Father Zhang was in a trance and raised his voice to ask.
"No, it's nothing. This time, it might not only be a drought, but also a plague of locusts. Zhangjia Zhuangzi has prepared close to ten thousand chickens and ducks. When the time comes, you can go over and help. The people sent by the higher-ups are not ordinary people. I heard that Prime Minister Yao has always been good at handling government affairs. Perhaps the Prime Minister will personally take care of it."
Father Zhang had memorized all these words. No matter how he thought about it, he could not think of a Prime Minister who would personally take care of these matters. However, these words came from his wife, so he had to believe them.
"Plague of locusts? Why is there a plague of locusts again? Brother Yongcheng, this is not something to be worried about. The locusts are the emperor. If there really is a plague of locusts, then it is a sign from the heavens. You raised so many chickens and ducks in Zhuangzi. Could it be that you already planned for this? "
As Zhou Qiong was speaking, he suddenly remembered that Zhangjia Zhuangzi had raised many chickens and ducks since last year. They also made a pond and dug a well. Could it be that the experts in Zhuangzi had already thought of this? Did they arrange it in advance?
The more Zhou Qiong thought about it, the more fearful he felt. Not only was the expert powerful, but he was also afraid of the plague of locusts. If this was true, then this year's losses would not be enough. The east of Taihang Mountains and Henan would be affected. When that time came, not to mention several times the price of the grain, it would not be enough.
"Brother Yongcheng, where did you hear all this from?" Zhou Qiong had to ask.
"I didn't hear from anyone. It's all blind guesses. Why do you ask?" Father Zhang tried his best to control himself and said with a smile.
"Oh, it's nothing. I was just casually asking. Brother Yongcheng, today's breakfast is very good." Seeing that Father Zhang was unwilling to talk about the expert behind this, Zhou Qiong could only suppress his guesses and pick up a piece of shallot to mix with tofu.
"Brother Miaoran is too polite. It's nothing good, just ordinary food. Xiao Hu should be back soon, right? Brother Miaoran, eat first. It will be cold soon. "Father Zhang picked up a fried red shrimp and stuffed it into his mouth.
He actually did not like to eat shrimp, especially this kind of shrimp that had to be eaten even with the shell. However, Madam would prepare some for him every day. If he did not eat it, then Madam would go to his parents and complain. He did not know why his parents doted on Qiao 'er so much. If Qiao' er complained, he was guaranteed to be scolded. He did not even dare to throw a tantrum. Qiao 'er gave birth to a big fat boy who was like a demon or an immortal.
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