Warring States Survival Guide
Chapter 84 - 50: "This is not a wise ruler, sooner or later it will be uprooted! _2

Chapter 84: Chapter 50: "This is not a wise ruler, sooner or later it will be uprooted! _2

"Soy sauce?" Ah Man was stunned again, feeling like this wasn’t what she was thinking at all, and asked in confusion, "Of course I know that—who doesn’t? Isn’t it just the sauce leftover from brewing miso? Monks love to eat it, and wealthy merchants and nobles are pretty fond of it too, so what about it?"

"So, it can be sold? What kind of price does it fetch?"

Ah Man was getting even more confused, her bean-shaped brows drooping as she scratched her face and said oddly, "If you have some, of course it can be sold. The price isn’t exactly cheap either—about the same as sake. One go would go for three or four wen of good money!"

"So that’s about three or four kan per koku?"

"Mm, you can’t really calculate it like that though. There’s a big difference between retailing and selling by the koku. If you sell by the koku, it’s only about two kan of wen per koku. Gotta leave some profit for the shopkeepers too!"

Harano did a quick mental calculation of the costs and nodded lightly: "Two kan is not bad. If you get too greedy, it’ll just draw trouble."

Ah Man inspected him carefully, finally starting to catch on, and said in disbelief, "You locked yourself in a room for three days, ignored everything, and this is the shitty idea you came up with? You want to make money selling soy sauce?"

She was truly resigned. All that happiness for nothing! She thought Harano would emerge with some doomsday weapon after three days—like a poison strong enough to kill three thousand people at once, and be ready to raid the warehouses of Takeshige Manor with the whole family. She had scoped it out these past two days: this place was one of Oda Danjo Chonosuke’s key supply hubs, the storehouses were overflowing with all sorts of things, and surely lots of money too. Doing one big score and then skipping town would be totally worth it. But after all of Harano’s rambling, this was it?

Making money by selling soy sauce?

Is this a freaking joke? This guy really is that clueless young master after all, practically a moron!

I must’ve been an idiot to trust him!

Harano had no idea that in Ah Man’s world, "making money" basically meant "robbery." In his mind, Ah Man was the ’heroic original ninja’ who’d travel four hours on foot for a six-wen favor to save him. He just looked at her strangely and asked, "What’s wrong with selling soy sauce? Isn’t this a legit business? As long as we make money, what’s the difference? How’s that a bad idea?"

This good idea about selling soy sauce was something he’d thought long and hard about!

He’d fallen into trouble in Japan in the Middle Ages, and there’s no way he dared reveal any modern science or technology. One careless move and if Japan’s Middle Ages experienced a massive tech boost and stormed into Great Ming to rampage, who’d want to shoulder that responsibility?

For instance, he was an engineering geek, grew up in a mechanical factory complex; if he really prepared a bit, making a flintlock by hand was trivial for him. But he absolutely didn’t dare do it, couldn’t risk that responsibility—who’d want to? One slip and you’d be branded a national traitor!

So he could only try making things Japan already had in its Middle Ages, and only things that couldn’t boost national power. Anything that touched on modern knowledge had to be done entirely by himself, one hundred percent secret, before he even dared try making a living out of it.

Tough life, huh. If he’d ended up in Great Ming instead, he’d probably already be cooking up some synthetic glue and hand-making a steam engine by now. None of this hassle!

He was nothing like the MCs from Qidian transmigration novels. Those MCs definitely had it way easier than him. He was basically dancing in shackles—and had to dance well or else get beaten or starved or even get pointed at by a thousand people and die for nothing. Seriously, he had it rough.

But all those things he couldn’t explain to Ah Man. He could only stress to her, "Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. I’ll definitely make money. I’ve got... um, I’ve figured out a new method to brew soy sauce using soybean cake!"

Ah Man was stunned again. She remembered other Tibetan craftsmen—or brewers—made soy sauce with soybeans, and they had to be good soybeans. The rich were super picky—they had to have the best. How did he end up using soybean cake?

But who cares!

She just drooped her bean eyebrows again, giving him a "you idiot" look, totally speechless: "You clueless guy, I really don’t even know what to say to you! Even if you really could brew soy sauce with soybean cake, so what? Do you know how long it takes to make a vat of soy sauce? A whole year! Soy sauce does sell for about as much as sake and it’s expensive, looks like good money, but it’s backbreaking work! You have to babysit that crappy vat for a whole year, and only then do you get any money!"

"Yeah, I know, but I told you already—I’ve got a new method! Just let me handle it!" Harano was done listening to her doubts. As long as soy sauce could be sold and make a profit, it was fine. He got up right away and said, "If it doesn’t work out, no biggie. I’ve got plan B... mm, I mean, I’ve got plans C and D too. As long as my luck doesn’t absolutely suck, one of them will work. Making money won’t be a problem!"

Ah Man thought he was hopeless. He wouldn’t listen no matter what, so she stood up, waved her hand dismissively, and left with a bad attitude: "Fine, it’s your house, do whatever you want! Anyway, I’ve already said what needed to be said. You ignore the words of the wise, you’ll regret it sooner or later, so knock yourself out!"

Harano didn’t care about her bad attitude. Whether she genuinely meant well, he wasn’t dumb—he could tell. He just called out, "Get everyone to the main hall. I’m handing out tasks!"

Ah Man couldn’t even be bothered to talk back anymore. She just waved and took it as a response, starting to gather people, but the whole way she was grumbling and muttering, still very annoyed that he wouldn’t listen to advice—he’s definitely no wise lord, and bound to hit a wall soon!

Ah Qing was in the front yard weeding and fixing up the fence. She loved this quiet, delicate little yard and was happy working away. The usual coldness on her face was gone, and even her little hair tuft was bouncing in delight, but soon she saw Ah Man stalking over with a dark look and couldn’t help tilting her head in confusion.

Ah Man didn’t stand on ceremony. She waved sloppily: "That guy wants everyone to meet. Go to the main hall and find him now."

Ah Qing wiped her hands and softly asked, "What’s up, sister?"

"Don’t even ask! That guy’s like a dung beetle on an empty stomach—off looking for trouble again!" Ah Man was already heading to the kitchen to call Yayoi, still muttering nonstop, "I can’t be bothered. I’m not angry enough for this. You’ll see when you get there—the guy’s gonna start another round of crazy stunts!"

She’d thought that after Harano moved to Takeshige Manor, with fewer paupers around and having connections to Oda Nobunaga, he’d try to cozy up to Nobunaga for some land to farm and get life back on track—at least have more coming in than going out. But nope, he was still the same—still hell-bent on doing dumb shit!

Counting on making money brewing soy sauce—how is that even possible? Could you even call that making money a year from now?

In this crap world, who knows if they’ll even be alive a year from now? Using up what little money they had left to turn it all into soybean cake and then piling up vats of soy sauce in the backyard—might as well just throw it all away!

Just a complete waste—she’d be better off eating it herself!

Anyway, in her eyes, Harano’s doomed to fail. She’d probably have to go back to the original plan—once Harano’s money and rice run out, she’ll just drag him off to beg for food, and have him sell fake medicine to make a living!