Chapter 120: The Culinary Tycoon

Hongyun

Yu Qingze once again asked Boss Kang about the time when the seafood boat would return. He learned that the seafood boat usually comes back every three days and makes deliveries in the morning, but he wasn’t sure about the exact time.

Yu Qingze then talked with him about the dock and finally returned to the restaurant.

Chang Le and Jiabao saw him coming back and asked about the situation.

Yu Qingze briefly explained the situation to them.

Both of them fell silent upon hearing it. The situation didn’t look optimistic.

After a while, Yu Qingze said, “I will go to the dock tomorrow and take a look. Don’t worry, there will always be a solution.”

After a while, Da Song came back.

“Did you buy it?” Yu Qingze asked.

Da Song nodded and handed the remaining silver taels to Yu Qingze, saying, “I bought them from the boss you mentioned, Boss Luo. I kept them in the place we are staying.”

“Okay, Dazhi, you go to a different shop later. And tomorrow, Da Song, you switch to another shop,” Yu Qingze said.

“Alright.” “Okay.”

In the afternoon, Brother Chang came over and said that Tiezhu had already bought the flour at the regular price.

Yu Qingze nodded and said, “Tomorrow, let Er Niu go and switch to a different shop. We’ll buy from each shop one by one. Tell Tiezhu and the others not to buy from the shops they’ve already visited until we complete the full cycle.”

Chang Le and Brother Chang looked at him, somewhat puzzled.

Brother Chang asked, “Aren’t the other shops a bit more expensive than Boss Kang’s?”

Yu Qingze explained to them, “It’s alright, a little risk is nothing to be afraid of. After a couple of days, when they see that we’re still running the shop and the quality hasn’t declined, they will definitely investigate. If we concentrate all our purchases in one shop, the risk would be too high, and it would also cause trouble for Boss Kang. By spreading out and buying from each shop, even if the other side finds out, they won’t be able to stop Boss Kang, Boss Luo, and the others from getting supplies from all of them.”

“They transport the flour and seafood from far away, and they also want to make a profit. There are only a few seafood sellers in the city, and only a few shops buy flour from them. If they don’t supply those shops, the others who don’t sell seafood but have regular flour sources will suffer losses if Hongyun and the others don’t deliver quickly. Unless they go and sell in the market themselves.”

Upon hearing this, the group found it reasonable and felt relieved.

At night, under the cover of darkness, Brother Chang, Tiezhu, and Er Niu brought the flour, shrimp, and clams to the snack shop. After the restaurant closed, they transferred the seafood to the restaurant.

The next day, after the rooster crowed three times, Yu Qingze woke up.

Boss Kang didn’t know the exact day the seafood boat would return, only that they made deliveries early in the morning. As for Boss Luo at the seafood stall, he refused to provide more information. Therefore, Yu Qingze had no choice but to go to the dock and keep watch.

Chang Le also wanted to go with him but was held back by Yu Qingze.

“It’s still early, get some more sleep. It’s cold outside, I can go alone. Rest well, I’ll be back before noon. I don’t know how many days I’ll have to wait, so during this time, you and Jiabao will take care of the kitchen. Da Song and Dazhi will come to the shop after they finish buying seafood. Sort out the things that need to be done before that,” Yu Qingze said.

Chang Le nodded at his words and lay back down.

“Sleep tight,” Yu Qingze kissed Chang Le’s forehead, tucked him in, and then left through the back door. He locked the back gate from the outside to prevent anyone from entering. Jiabao had the key, so there was no need to worry.

It was already November, and the north wind was blowing fiercely. Yu Qingze deliberately wore a thicker cotton coat and put his hands in the coat pockets as he walked towards the dock.

The wind by the river would be even stronger, and if he didn’t dress warmly, he would probably catch a cold soon.

At this time, the day had just begun to break, and there weren’t many people on the street. The few scattered individuals were also heading towards the dock.

When he reached the North Gate of the city, it was open because there was a lot of loading and unloading of goods at the dock. The North Gate opened earlier than the other gates.

Yu Qingze rarely came to the dock, only during festivals or when floating river lanterns, so his knowledge of the dock was limited to its location and some general layout. He didn’t know the specifics.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

He had a conversation with Boss Kang yesterday, and that’s when he learned that the dock was divided into seven docking areas and loading/unloading areas. The central area was the passenger area for travel to and from the north bank, while the other six were cargo areas. The three areas to the west were for ships returning from the north, while the three areas to the east were for ships returning from the south.

The city had seven major fleets, each of which had its own territory in the loading/unloading area. They covered both the eastern and western areas. There were also several smaller fleets, adding up to around twelve or thirteen fleets in total.

Yu Qingze thought it was fortunate that he had talked to Boss Kang earlier, otherwise, he wouldn’t have known which of the six docking areas to look at.

Since Hongyun’s seafood boat came from the north, he walked towards the docking areas to the west, observing as he went.

There were boats docked in each of the three docking areas, with a small distance between each area. There were empty boats waiting to depart in those spaces.

Not far from the docking areas, there were many wooden houses set up on an open ground. The signs on top of the houses read “Jiexun,” “Huihai,” “Hongyun,” “Jinsheng,” and so on. There were about ten wooden houses in total, representing different fleets.

These wooden houses served as storage warehouses for the fleets after unloading their cargo. The goods from the ships would be placed in these houses, and customers would come here to transport the goods. For ships like Hongyun that handled their own deliveries, this place also served as a wholesale point, where customers would directly come to conduct transactions.

Yu Qingze was delighted when he saw the sign “Hongyun.” He had found his target. It was convenient to have designated loading and unloading areas like this.

Instead of directly watching in front of the Hongyun’s entrance, he stood behind a tree, two houses away from the fleet’s wooden house.

It was still early, and there weren’t many people on the dock. None of the wooden houses were open yet, except for some shop owners who needed to wholesale goods. They were waiting in a crooked line on the open space in front of the wooden houses, hoping to get a head start in purchasing the goods.

There were a few people waiting in front of the Hongyun’s entrance with hand trucks and carts.

Seeing this, Yu Qingze knew they were not there to buy seafood, but he couldn’t be certain if there would be any boats returning. He could only continue waiting.

As the sky gradually brightened, the wooden doors of the various shipping houses opened one after another. The loading and unloading area became busy, with some busy shipping out goods and others bringing goods to be loaded onto the ships.

Hongyun also opened its doors, and Yu Qingze stared intently at that area. The people waiting in line at the entrance started to enter, and shortly after, the first person walked away pushing three sacks of goods.

Yu Qingze looked at the sacks and walked a little closer, blending into the crowd as he passed by the Hongyun’s entrance. Inside, he saw many sacks on one side of the floor and many large wooden barrels on the other side. However, the barrels were stacked up, indicating that there were no seafood inside.

He circled around a group of people and changed his position to continue waiting.

When the sun came out, a man in his forties arrived at one of the wooden houses. The people inside showed a respectful demeanor towards him, indicating that he held a distinguished position.

Yu Qingze took another round from the Hongyun’s entrance and carefully observed the man’s appearance: a round face with a double chin, small eyes, and prominent ears.

After about half an hour, the man left, and nothing significant happened afterward. Yu Qingze waited until almost noon and confirmed that no boats had returned. He returned to the inn feeling frustrated.

On the first morning, he gained nothing.

Back at the restaurant, Chang Le asked him how it went, and he shook his head.

“There will be a flour delivery in the afternoon at the hour of rooster (5pm to 7pm). I’ll go and check again.”

In the afternoon, Yu Qingze arrived at the dock fifteen minutes early. He deliberately changed into old clothes and darkened his face a bit. He dragged a cart, pretending to be a customer coming to purchase goods. Keeping his distance and hiding between two wooden houses, he squatted and waited.

There were quite a few people dressed like him, which was the conclusion he reached after observing for the entire morning.

It didn’t take long before he saw Boss Kang, along with several other owners of grain and oil stores, arriving with their teams and carts. Almost every store had brought two carts.

Yu Qingze discreetly lowered his head and pulled up his collar to cover his face, afraid of being recognized.

After a while, the round-faced middle-aged man he had seen in the morning arrived, accompanied by several porters.

About another hour or so passed, and the sky began to darken. Lanterns were lit in front of each wooden house belonging to the shipping companies, and along the route between the berthing and unloading areas. Yu Qingze finally saw the round-faced middle-aged man and the porters pushing their carts toward the berthing area.

The boats had arrived.

Yu Qingze followed along and walked toward the berthing area, wanting to catch a glimpse of the person in charge on the ship.

Over there, the person speaking to the round-faced middle-aged man was a young man in his twenties who bore some resemblance to him, likely his son.

On the ship, someone was directing the porters and the crew to unload all the cargo and transport it to the wooden houses. The goods were weighed, recorded, and then a grain and oil store owner directly opened the sacks, inspected the quality, tied them securely, and loaded them onto their own carts.

As they unloaded and sold simultaneously, the speed of the Hongyun’s sales was fast. By the time all the flour and other grains were unloaded from the ship, the grain and oil store owners had finished purchasing and left.

There were only a few sacks left in the store.

Yu Qingze pondered for a moment and saw that the middle-aged man was still on the ship and hadn’t returned yet. He took his cart and approached.

Taking a chance, maybe he could make a purchase. Even if he couldn’t, if someone recognized him, it could serve as a distraction, making them think he was in dire straits.

“Excuse me, how much is the flour here?” Yu Qingze asked, disguising his voice.

The person in charge of registration responded, “Four and a half wen per jin.”

Yu Qingze asked again, “Approximately how many jin is this sack?”

“About a hundred jin. Some sacks might be a pound or two more or less,” the person in charge replied as they finished writing the numbers on their paper. Then, they looked up at Yu Qingze and asked, “Are you going to buy? If you want to buy, you need to be quick. They’ll be gone early tomorrow.”

“How many sacks do you have left? Can I take a look?” Yu Qingze asked.

“Sure, take a look. We have… one, two… eight sacks left. They’re almost sold out. Here, the eight sacks in the front tied with a green cloth strip are the flour,” the person in charge explained.

Yu Qingze went over and opened each sack of flour to inspect it. It was indeed the same as what he bought from Boss Kang. He then said, “I’ll take all of them, please.” In the city, Boss Kang and the others sold flour for at least six wen per jin.

“Alright. Assistant, weigh it,” the person in charge responded. They called one of the assistants behind them to reweigh the flour. Then, they looked up at Yu Qingze and smiled, saying, “I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”

Yu Qingze chuckled and replied, “I’m planning to open a grain and oil store. I heard that the flour here is good, so I came.”

The person in charge laughed and said, “Great taste! The flour from our Hongyun is the best in the entire Tongshan City!”

“Yeah, I knew it was good, so I came,” Yu Qingze nodded and agreed.

The eight sacks of flour were quickly weighed, and Yu Qingze paid the bill. The assistant helped him load the flour onto the cart and secured it.

“Thank you,” Yu Qingze smiled and thanked the assistant and the person in charge. Then, he dragged the cart and started walking back.

Just as he took a few steps, he happened to encounter the round-faced middle-aged man and the young man returning.

Yu Qingze nodded at them and quickly walked with the cart.

The round-faced man recognized him as their customer and nodded back with a smile. As he watched Yu Qingze’s figure recede, he suddenly felt a sense of familiarity. Where had he seen that person before?

Where was it?

The round-faced middle-aged man frowned, thinking hard. When he returned to the wooden house and just entered, he slapped his thigh, finally remembering.

That person, isn’t he Yu Qingze, the owner of Yu’s restaurant and snack shop!

Ah, despite being cautious and not selling flour to him, he managed to buy it right at his own doorstep, and they didn’t recognize each other!

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Thandar: shooot, they found out eeek