Chapter 64 Contracted Supply

Eating people's food makes one's mouth soft, which was true, but: "Elder Sister, look here, I'm just a junior apprentice, washing bowls, washing vegetables, and doing odd jobs."

Sang Luo curved her eyes, took a clean lotus leaf from her carrying basket, and scooped up several large chopsticks full from the clay basin with rapid swooshes. Once mixed, the visually enticing vegetarian tripe looked even more mouth-watering against the green lotus leaf.

Only after measuring out about half a sea-bowl's portion did Sang Luo put down her chopsticks, wrap up the lotus leaf, and thrust it toward the youth: "I don't need you to help me with anything else; just pass a word to your manager for me. As long as you can let me see him, all of this is yours, taken as a reward for your trouble, how about it?"

How about it?

Well, naturally, it was extremely tempting.

The taste of that bite just now—what a pity there were only two strips, which hadn't satisfied the craving at all.

The youth wiped his hand across his clothes and took the lotus leaf bundle: "Fine, you wait here."

The restaurant also served breakfast, but morning traffic was relatively light. The youth pressed himself against the kitchen's back door, peered inside, and seeing the head chef's back turned, he slipped along the edge into the kitchen, quickly came out again, and rounded the corner into the main dining hall.

He stood against a red pillar, his eyes darting all over the dining hall and the stairs leading up and down. Seeing a waiter with a towel slung over his shoulder descending from the second floor, he gave two sharp, clicking sounds and crooked his finger directly at the man.

The waiter looked left and right, then walked over to him: "What are you doing running out front when you should be in the kitchen?"

"Brother, lead me to the manager so I can pass along a word."

The waiter snorted: "You want to pass a word to the manager? You've really gotten ambitious."

Pulling a stern face, he said, "Do you think the manager is as idle as you, letting just anyone crowd around him? What are you daydreaming about? Go back and do your work."

He turned to leave, but the youth grabbed him: "Brother, no, this is a serious matter. A young mistress came to the back door of the kitchen, bringing some homemade food she made herself, wanting to ask if the manager wants it. I tasted it, and it's delicious—truly! If this gets added to the menu, it's bound to sell well."

With that, he pulled out the lotus leaf bundle, about to unfold it for his brother to see, when his ear was suddenly grabbed by the scruff by his older cousin: "You've got some real nerve, daring to bypass the kitchen and lead prepared food straight to the manager. Aren't you afraid Master Chef Yu will make things difficult for you in the future?"

The youth grimaced in pain, protecting his ear, while his brother laughed with exasperation: "Don't fake it, I didn't even use force."

The youth grinned: "I'm not following him to learn cooking anyway; in the back, I'm just washing bowls and vegetables. If I catch the manager's eye and get transferred to the front hall later, wouldn't that be great? What is there to fear from Master Chef Yu?"

"Besides, this stuff is really delicious. Brother, try a strip. Our restaurant doesn't have food like this."

This time, he finally opened the lotus leaf bundle, unfolding it right in front of his brother. He pinched off a piece himself, shoved it straight into his brother's mouth, and looked at him with bright, shining eyes: "Taste it and see if I lied to you."

The waiter chewed the morsel thoughtfully. Well, indeed, it was rather good.

Dropping his gaze to inspect it, it truly was a foodstuff he had never seen before. He looked at it from all angles, feeling somewhat uncertain: "It looks a bit like beef tripe?"

Yet the taste had its distinctions.

The youth nodded: "It just looks like it, but it feels even more refreshing and delicious."

The waiter took the matter seriously now. If it was food of this quality, he could indeed lead his younger brother before the manager. In this day and age, cattle could not be slaughtered at will. Even though they ran a restaurant and had their own supply channels, beef was scarce, let alone beef tripe.

At this thought, the waiter smiled: "You silly boy, you actually did the right thing this time."

He would definitely be able to leave a good impression with the manager.

"Let's go. Take your lotus leaf bundle, and I'll lead you over. Be sharp when you speak to the manager later."

The youth nodded repeatedly, and the two brothers headed toward the front counter.

The waiter had clearly been at Dongfu Restaurant for many years and was quite familiar with the manager. He walked over, whispered something, and pointed at his brother. The manager looked over, nodded, and only then did the waiter call his brother across.

The lotus leaf bundle was brought out again. The manager inspected it, and the waiter deftly fetched a pair of chopsticks and presented them. The manager took them, tasted a piece, raised his brows, nodded, and after putting down the chopsticks, asked: "The person is outside the back door of the kitchen?"

The youth smiled and answered in the affirmative.

The manager smiled and said: "Then let's go, lead me out to invite the person in."

He was actually going to invite her in personally.

...

Manager Xu of Dongfu Restaurant was in his early forties, with light eyebrows, small eyes, a square face, and a wide mouth. His facial features could not be called handsome, but the first time Sang Luo saw him, the phrase "kind-faced and benevolent" arose in her mind.

Guided by the youth and under the watchful gazes of several chefs in the kitchen, Sang Luo was invited into a private room in Dongfu Restaurant, accompanied also by the head chef of Dongfu Restaurant.

...

A small dish of the vegetarian tripe from Sang Luo's clay basin had been served and placed right on the table in the private room. Manager Xu invited Master Chef Yu to taste it as well before asking Sang Luo: "May I ask what this dish of yours is called, Mistress Sang?"

Actually, what he really wanted to ask was: What kind of ingredient is this?

Naturally, since neither their restaurant nor their professional chefs could recognize it, the other party certainly wouldn't just blurt it out, so he phrased the question differently.

"Manager Xu can simply call it vegetarian tripe."

Master Chef Yu had been studying it for a long time and had already tasted three pieces. Hearing this name, he nodded: "The knife work creates a texture similar to tripe, and the mouthfeel is quite comparable as well. Calling it vegetarian tripe is fitting."

As he spoke, he tried to reconstruct the original appearance of the item in his mind, but while knife work could replicate form, no matter how he tasted it, he could not figure out what the raw ingredient was.

Exchanging a glance with Manager Xu, he shook his head silently.

Manager Xu understood immediately, smiled, and said to Sang Luo: "What the raw ingredient is, it wouldn't be proper for me to press. However, for those of us running a restaurant, food safety is paramount. So Mistress Sang, this item of yours should be completely safe in that regard, right?"

Sang Luo gave her immediate assurance: "Naturally. How could I bring out ingredients unfit for consumption to sell and shoulder such grave responsibility?"

Manager Xu smiled and nodded: "That's good. With Mistress Sang's words, I feel much more at ease."

He then asked with a smile: "I wonder how much Mistress Sang intends to charge for this vegetarian tripe?"

Sang Luo was sweating inwardly, but maintained her smile on the outside, meeting the smiling gaze of Manager Xu without showing a trace of tension: "Let's sell it by the catty. I won't charge excessively—eighteen copper coins per catty, how does that sound?"

Originally, she had intended to pack it in jars and consign it to pastry shops in the county town. But after inspecting the pastry shops in the county today, she found they only sold very orthodox pastries; her vegetarian tripe would look utterly out of place placed among them and might not sell well, which was why she had shifted her focus to restaurants.

Things sent to a restaurant naturally didn't need to be jarred, but Sang Luo was desperately short of money right now, so she bit the bullet and inflated her price like a lion demanding a huge sum, using meat prices as her benchmark.

Manager Xu burst out laughing. People who quoted exorbitant prices often prefaced them by saying they weren't charging much. He looked at Sang Luo with a smile: "Mistress Sang's price for this vegetarian tripe rivals the price of top-grade pork belly."

A smile remained on Sang Luo's face: "Pork has the flavor of pork, and vegetarian tripe has the charm of vegetarian tripe; each has its own merits, does it not? Furthermore, you can buy pork at any butcher's shop, but this vegetarian tripe is not necessarily so easy to find."

Besides, the people who could afford to eat in this restaurant rarely ate pork; eating mutton was what befitted their status.

That's right, in this spacetime, wealthy people hardly deigned to eat pork. Because, much like ancient China, pigs here were not castrated. Uncastrated pigs always retained a stubborn gamey or sour smell in their meat. Skilled chefs could mitigate this through specific processing or seasoning techniques, but most people either didn't know how or lacked the conditions to do so.

Consequently, pork was mostly consumed by the poor.

Sang Luo pricing her vegetarian tripe on par with top-grade pork could hardly be considered an exorbitant price.

However, Manager Xu's focus was on her final sentence. Merchants were the quickest to grasp business opportunities. Hearing Sang Luo mention that vegetarian tripe was hard to find outside, he raised an eyebrow: "Is Mistress Sang willing to grant me exclusive selling rights?"

Sang Luo neither agreed immediately nor denied it. Pondering for a moment, she said: "That would depend on the volume. After all, I make my living by this, wouldn't you say? If I grant exclusivity for a mere three to five catties a day, my household will probably end up drinking northwest wind."

In truth, at the selling price Sang Luo had demanded, three to five catties a day was already a huge sum for a rural peasant family. Fifty-four to ninety copper coins a day—how could that not be a huge sum?

Where could one dig up that kind of money from the fields?

Yet for Manager Xu, who ran a restaurant in the county seat, tens of copper coins a day certainly didn't warrant demanding exclusive selling rights.

Therefore, Manager Xu smiled, exchanged a glance with Master Chef Yu, turned back to Sang Luo, and said: "I wouldn't dare promise too much since it's just a dish, but for the early stage, at no less than ten catties a day, Mistress Sang agrees not to sell this item to anyone else. How about that? Afterward, we can adjust based on sales figures."

Ten catties.

That was one hundred and eighty copper coins a day, and eighteen hundred copper coins in ten days.

Added to the money from selling tofu, paying the rental tax within twelve days should pose no problem.

Sang Luo wasn't greedy either; even if she were, she wouldn't be able to produce that much by herself. Making konjac tofu was extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the money wasn't that easily earned.

Moreover, while konjac was abundant in the mountains, it wasn't infinite. The ones near the village edges had already been cleared out, and she had to venture deep into the mountain to find more. Even with snake-repelling powder, it could only fend off insects and snakes to a degree. The dangers in the mountains were not limited to fierce beasts; she didn't dare go too deep.

Fortunately, konjac possessed truly astonishing water-absorbing properties—one catty of konjac could yield eight catties of konjac tofu. Supplying Dongfu Restaurant with ten catties a day felt quite manageable for the time being.

Thus, she nodded: "Very well. Verbal agreements don't count for much; shall we draw up a contract?"

Drawing up a contract when doing business was second nature to Manager Xu. But observing Sang Luo's attire, which clearly marked her as a peasant girl from a poor family, he felt somewhat surprised. Could this Mistress Sang actually read?

Asking that outright would be impolite, so Manager Xu simply called the waiter to fetch the accountant. The accountant ground the ink and picked up his brush, and Manager Xu began discussing the terms of the contract with Sang Luo.

A contract served as a mutual guarantee. What Manager Xu wanted was the right of exclusive sale, while what Sang Luo wanted was a guaranteed daily sales volume. Naturally, she didn't box herself in; she specified that the ten catties a day was a guarantee provided to her by Manager Xu. As for her own end, she only guaranteed to grant Manager Xu exclusive selling rights during the contract period, without promising a minimum supply of ten catties every single day.

...

She required this condition to be explicitly noted in the contract by Manager Xu.

This stipulation left Manager Xu momentarily stunned.

Sang Luo, however, smiled: "Human strength always has its limits. This contract guarantees your exclusive selling rights and guarantees the sales volume you must meet when I grant you those rights. As for other matters, I naturally cannot burden myself with too many additional restrictions."

Was she supposed to pay compensation if she couldn't deliver goods?

With goods sourced from the mountains, Sang Luo would never make such a promise; naturally, she wouldn't do that.

She simply told Manager Xu: "If I cannot supply the goods, I will notify you one day in advance. When the time comes, you can simply take down that dish placard."

Very well, Manager Xu realized that this young woman not only knew how to read, but was also quite sophisticated in contract drafting, pointing out and preemptively avoiding unstated risks.

He motioned for the accountant to write it down accordingly. The two of them discussed and refined the other details until the very end, where Sang Luo requested that this exclusive sales contract be given a term of six months.

"No other reason—any cooperation should have a time limit. Cooperation brings people together, and the lack of it scatters them. Adding a layer of security for both sides is only proper, isn't it? A pleasant cooperation, and we can renew upon expiration."

Manager Xu, the accountant holding the brush, and Master Chef Yu who was observing: "..."

They always said buyers weren't as shrewd as sellers. Manager Xu had managed Dongfu Restaurant for twenty years; although kind and gentle, he was also a shrewd businessman, yet today he had run into a tough opponent.

A young mistress, yet her handling of affairs possessed twelve parts of sophistication.

Manager Xu laughed out loud upon hearing this. He nodded: "Extremely true, extremely true. What Mistress Sang says makes sense, so let's make it six months. I believe that after half year, we will still be able to continue renewing this agreement."

In his ability to build relationships and get along with people, Manager Xu still possessed considerable confidence. After half a year, under equivalent conditions, Sang Luo would naturally prioritize continuing her cooperation with him. As for whether a competitor might offer a higher price, that was also Sang Luo's own safeguard, which was entirely reasonable; they could negotiate again when the time came.

He turned and instructed the accountant to add the time limit.

Then, turning back to Sang Luo, he said: "There is just one thing: in the future, the young lady only needs to make this vegetarian tripe into a semi-finished product. The final step of cold-dressing or stir-frying can be handled by our restaurant itself. Not only cold-dressing, but we can also ponder one or two hot-stir-fried dishes, which might help sell even more each day. If so, might the young lady be willing to lower her price slightly?"

Naturally, Sang Luo didn't think her culinary skills could surpass those of a restaurant head chef, and the ingredients she used at home could never match Dongfu Restaurant's abundance and quality. Sang Luo possessed at least this bit of self-awareness; Manager Xu's suggestion was not the least bit unreasonable.

After brief consideration, Sang Luo said: "Make it seventeen copper coins. Seasonings don't actually cost much on my end, and this one-coin difference can be considered an extra concession to Manager Xu."

Manager Xu burst into hearty laughter: "Very well. Then formal supply will begin three days from now. Three days from now, the young lady can directly deliver the ten catties of vegetarian tripe to the back kitchen and settle accounts with the accountant."

With that, he glanced at the clay basin Sang Luo had brought and smiled with amusement: "Of course, we will also purchase all of these items the young lady brought today."

Hearing that supply would only begin in three days, Sang Luo calculated that this instantly reduced her earnings by five hundred and ten copper coins.

Yet with a brief moment of thought, she understood. After all, this was a restaurant; how could Manager Xu dare to serve such an unprecedented foodstuff directly to customers? Buying what she brought today and requiring new goods only after three days meant he and the restaurant staff would test-eat it themselves—well, or perhaps some small animals might test-eat it first, but in any case, the trial phase could not be omitted.

With no issues found after three days, the new dish would then be officially launched.

Sang Luo readily agreed. Losing a little over five hundred copper coins wasn't enough to break her stride in gathering three thousand three hundred and eighty-eight copper coins; this and tofu were not her only avenues for making money. Jujube cake could also continue to be made and sold, so Sang Luo wasn't nervous.

With the business settled, the foodstuff Sang Luo had brought today was taken away by the waiter to be weighed. The resulting weight was twenty-three and a half catties, all of which Manager Xu accepted. Matching the price of the pre-dressed version at eighteen copper coins per catty, he instructed the accountant to fetch four hundred and twenty-three copper coins.

He also personally transcribed two copies of the drafted contract, signed and pressed thumbprints alongside Sang Luo. Once the ink dried, each held a copy for safekeeping.

By then, the accountant had also retrieved the cash, leaving Sang Luo in an awkward spot—her coin pouch was full.

Just as she prepared to stuff them into the sleeve pockets of her garments, Manager Xu noticed and smilingly instructed the accountant to fetch a proper money pouch, which he packed and handed to Sang Luo.

That money pouch was far more exquisite than the one Sang Luo had been using; the fabric was fine enough that she worried the weight of the copper coins might damage the material.

Naturally, that wouldn't actually happen, but the thought crossed her mind anyway. She smiled in praise: "This is much more delicate than the one I use. Since I'm receiving such a fine item from you, to show courtesy by reciprocating, I should give you something in return as well."

With that, she rummaged through her carrying basket.

Sang Luo's carrying basket was truly a treasure chest; though it looked small, it held plenty of things. Right beneath the clay basin that had held the konjac tofu was a square wooden board. Lifting the board revealed another clay basin underneath, and inside that basin were several blocks of tofu Sang Luo had deliberately brought along.

Upon seeing the tofu, Manager Xu laughed: "Tofu from the East Market and immortal tofu—does Mistress Sang sell this as well?"