I Can See Your Combat Power
Chapter 1084 - Chapter 1084 Chapter Three Hundred and Seventy-Eight A

Chapter 1084: Chapter Three Hundred and Seventy-Eight: A Fortunate End Chapter 1084: Chapter Three Hundred and Seventy-Eight: A Fortunate End He had often been reprimanded by Brother Tian for his swordsmanship, but he knew that none of those lessons had been delivered with real anger. However, the lesson he was receiving now was definitely given in a fit of rage, as the more than two hundred pounds of him stood frightened stiff, not even daring to breathe heavily, his pitiful appearance making Brother Tian hold his forehead.

“Alright, alright, stop playing the pity card!” Brother Tian chided lightly, “I didn’t create this thing to start a business, but if you want to try your hand at it, I can give you the recipe. You can weigh the options and run it yourself. Just don’t stir up the chefs at Yunlai Inn–those people have families to feed. If they stray off path, they could ruin everything!”

“Eh? Brother Tian, weren’t you doing this to start a business?” It was only then that the fat man realized he had misunderstood and sulkily said, “What’s the point then? How much money can brine sell for? You have to procure ingredients every day, remove the gamey taste, and mix the marinade. It’s exhausting and only earns a small amount, it’s better to just stay in Yunlai Building, really boring!”

“You weren’t saying that just a moment ago!” Seeing the fat man’s lazy attitude, Brother Tian laughed and scolded, “Also, don’t underestimate the business of brine. If done well, you can earn as much as any restaurant!”

“How much can these trifles earn.” The fat man waved his hand dismissively, “The brine needs to be nurtured. Just to maintain the base brine could take years, and even once it has matured, you can’t make more than two pots of brine a day. Not to mention pig offal, even if you were dealing in prime cuts of meat, you wouldn’t process more than a hundred pounds a day. How much could you earn from that?”

“Hmm, the kitchen has made quite some progress over the years, you can estimate the output with just a glance. You do have a bit of the old master’s style with these small calculations.”

Brother Tian first praised him, then laughed, “But you’re only calculating the output of one stall or one shop. What about the revenue from ten stalls or a hundred shops?”

“Ten stalls, a hundred shops?” The fat man furrowed his brow in thought, then hurriedly waved his hand after a few moments, “No way, no way. The base brine needs to be nurtured, and to have such a pot of aged brine would take at least two or three years. Even for replenishing the brine, you must proceed step by step. If you disrupt the base flavor, there’d be nowhere to cry. Your brine replenishing skills are this good, yet even you only have two pots of aged brine!”

The fat man pointed at the two pots of base brine wanting to illustrate his point, but he only saw Brother Tian’s inscrutably smile and instantly caught on.

“Eh!? Wait, that’s not right. I didn’t see this aged brine when I came to your place the other day. How come suddenly there are two pots today? Could it be…”

When the fat man looked up, he saw Brother Tian’s eyes full of laughter: “This is new brine, and just a few days ago, there was only one pot!”

“Oh my goodness!”

The fat man suddenly let out a shriek, bouncing over towards Brother Tian like a rolling meatball, only to be slapped back to the ground by a sweeping hand, tumbling in a heap.

The fat man, lying on the ground, face flushed with excitement, quickly got up, and cajoled in a greasy voice, “Brother Tian, you’re truly my brother, no, my own brother! I’m counting on you for this brine-parting technique, whether I can get a wife depends entirely on this!”

Looking at the fat man’s eager face, Brother Tian felt both amused and annoyed, taunting, “Didn’t you just complain about how little the brine earns? And now you’ve changed your tune?”

“Hey, look at this big mouth of mine!” The fat man slapped himself on the face out of annoyance, “It’s all because of this damn mouth. I should have known, anything that Brother Tian fiddles with couldn’t possibly be ordinary.”

“Enough, enough, cut the act.” Brother Tian said unhappily, “When your contract at Yunlai Inn is up, I’ll give you both the recipe and the base brine. Until then, stay put and don’t cause any trouble!”

“Understood, understood!” The fat man nodded vigorously like a bobblehead, “I’ll finish my contract by the end of this year, and then I’ll resign with… Fat Liu, Manager Liu. In the meantime, I promise not to cause any problems at Yunlai Inn!”

“Hm.” Brother Tian nodded satisfactorily, “And one more thing. When you set up your shop, you’ll surely need workers to help out. Consider the old neighbors from East Market, and remember, don’t be as stingy as Manager Liu!”

This was a small request that the fat man should not refuse, but his face fell upon hearing it, “Brother Tian, have you forgotten how those people treated us when Qingtian Gang disbanded? Back in the day, Qingtian Gang took care of so many people from East Market, but not one of them spoke up when the gang was dissolved. After all that, you still want to help them!?”

“What do you want them to do then?” Brother Tian asked with a smile, “The dissolution of Qingtian Gang was a decision made by the cloud parliament to regulate stalls and enforce management through stall owners. Do you want these weak citizens to fight against the rules set by the cloud parliament?”

“I…”

“Justice is in the heart of people. The fact that they didn’t clap and cheer or kick us when we were down, that’s the biggest recognition Qingtian Gang could have ever received!”

Brother Tian stirred the iron spoon and chuckled lightly, not taking it seriously at all.

Fat Liu’s mouth twitched as if he wanted to say something more, but in the end, he just clenched his lips shut.

…

No one has a keener sense of business than the merchants of Chaochang; following Manager Liu’s visit, several more merchants came knocking.

However, Brother Tian’s asking price was not low, and so far, no deal had been made. During this period, several self-proclaimed clever merchants proposed taking some samples to try, only to be kicked out directly.

The secret recipe is called secret because it is not declared by mouth or made public.

The mysterious liquid that’s magical to chefs could be analyzed clearly for its ingredients and proportions by any alchemist skilled in medicine, just with a tube of the original liquid.

Never underestimate a merchant’s bottom line, tricks outside of the contract will be more plentiful than you can imagine.

Just like ever since the news leaked, Brother Tian caught more than one scout triggering the hidden array outside the courtyard, and their target was clearly the original liquid.

It was only that Brother Tian hadn’t left the house these days, and they hadn’t found a good opportunity to act.

Brother Tian knew all too well the tactics of these Chaochang merchants. After dealing with more than a dozen spying figures, the merchants finally came with sincerity.

The negotiation this time went very smoothly. Several big merchants seemed to have agreed to make a joint purchase beforehand, and they accepted the price of one million gold without a second thought.

However, the merchants’ faces were not too happy after receiving the final product, as the liquid turned out to be composed of three parts, and when the costs of the three parts were combined, they were only about thirty percent lower than the market price, while the procedure was three times more complicated.

This discovery made the big merchants somewhat embarrassed; they had thought it was an extremely lucrative deal but found out in the end that they hadn’t gained much advantage.

The merchants left with the secret recipe and the liquid, while Brother Tian marched into the woodshed proudly, carrying a chest full of gold bars. He kicked open the lid with his foot and pointed at Tang Luo, saying, “See this gold? Is it enough to dazzle your eyes?”

Tang Luo sneered, “Such chests, I earned several on my own when I was thirteen.”