Chapter 640: Issue 340: Something’s Off
Old Mrs. Meng looked at Pan Ping’an as if he wasn’t planning to leave anytime soon, and finally decided to serve some tea. She let him sit in the front yard, then went on her own way, taking the little walnut with her to play in the main room.
The location of the Meng Family’s new residence was just right, with the gentle sunshine of spring enveloping most of the courtyard in bright sunlight, giving a warm feeling to anyone basking in it. The mud where flowers and grass were planted emitted a light, dry fragrance, making each breath taken extremely comforting and snug.
Hua Xiaomai pushed the tea bowl toward Pan Ping’an, and seeing his face unable to hide the smugness that seemed ready to spill over, she couldn’t help but smile secretly with her head bowed.
This Uncle Ping’an, having hustled for many years in the Provincial City, had not really made a name for himself, but had certainly witnessed a fair share of the world. Ever since Zhenwei Garden opened, business had always been good. Transactions involving dozens or hundreds of taels were not likely worthy of such a display of eagerness, going out of his way to flaunt. So...
"Uncle Ping’an, why don’t you stop beating around the bush and just tell me directly?" she smiled at Pan Ping’an, lips pursed, "Spill it, let me share in the joy!"
"Heh."
Having posed enough, Pan Ping’an leaned in closer, held up his fingers a tad theatrically as he counted in front of her, and said in a mysteriously low voice, "A whole seven hundred taels!"
What?
Hua Xiaomai was taken aback, and then the smile on her cheeks immediately faded a bit.
Seven hundred taels? This... seemed somewhat off!
It was true that she seldom visited Zhenwei Garden, but there were a few days each month when she did go to keep an eye on Lei An and his wife making sauce. Every time there was new sauce out of the vat, Master Lei would always bring some for her to taste. Therefore, while she might not have a crystal-clear grasp on Sauce Garden’s situation, she surely had an idea in her heart.
Business at Zhenwei Garden was indeed flourishing, but condiments were everyday necessities for common folk that couldn’t be missing from daily life. Even if they were priced high, could they really fetch an exorbitant price? Currently, in the Sauce Garden, the most expensive sauce was eighty wen per pot, and that was because it used quite a few pricey dried seafoods. Other sauces were generally around thirty to forty wen—transactions involving seven hundred taels would equate to delivering over ten thousand pots of goods at once. Were those two merchants planning to use the sauces for a lavish bath?