chapter 41

Chewing slowly and trying to spread all the flavor to his every taste bud, Song Qinghan took quite a long while to swallow it down. At the moment Lin Dafu seemingly showed a disappointment right in his eyes, shaking his head and saying, “Taste bad? Doesn’t it?”

Pondering for a brief while, Song Qinghan smiled big, answering, “NAH! I never expect a good flavor of the dishes for your first time. But, it tastes not bad!”

With that utterance, he picked up another dish with his chopsticks, delivering it directly to his mouth. Closing his eyes, he tried to enjoy the food.

Lin Dafu came to look at Song Qinghan in an astonishment. Noticing the sincerity of Song Qinghan when he uttered the words, he pondered a while but then commenced picking up some dishes himself.

“Well, you’re right, despite they are not some dishes with divine flavors, but at least not bad though.” murmured Lin Dafu, tasting all the dishes he made.

It was but Song Qinghan who was gobbling all the dishes he had picked up in his bowl, happily. Then it seemed that something occurred to him right away, he jabbered, “It’s perfect for you now, I mean, for your first time cooking. You probably can’t imagine how I cooked in my first time. The kitchen almost blasted out of my attention.”

Lin Dafu was stunned, but still keeping his silence sitting there.

Today is the last day any way. If Song Qinghan wanted to say something, he would. But if he didn’t want to, he would shut his mouth. Whatever.

After dinner, Lin Dafu spoke to Song Qinghan, “I will take you to my shop, will you like to?”

Nodding, Song Qinghan answered, “Fine, but what for?”

Lin Dafu stared at Song Qinghan, saying, “Didn’t you say that what you want the most is to make money? I probably can be your tutor showing you some knacks in business even though I am not that kind of magnate.”

Not a MAGNATE? Was he kidding? Obviously Song Qinghan didn’t care much on his utterance or something seemingly “humble” words. But since he could get a free tuition, he rose and said, “Great, then let’s go now.”

Well, it bears no doubt that some truths still rein in a modern world, that people would spend bunch of money, no matter how much it will cost, to invite a tycoon in a certain career for a single tuition or lecture. And now, it was a great chance for Song Qinghan to attend a fee-free tuition. How lucky, thought he.

The Lin Family, despite its ordinary fame nationwide, is a total business tycoon even in this ancient time.

Well, in Song Qinghan’s mind, he never nursed an ambition to expand his business in such a large scale. What he indeed pursued now was a peaceful and happy life.

Losing in his wild thoughts, he found the carriage stopping all of a sudden.

Accompanied by Lin Dafu, Song Qinghan finally got off the carriage. In his first glance of that, he saw numerous and various being placed neatly there within the shop, he couldn’t help but exclaim, “Oh, you own a fabric shop?”

Lin Dafu smiled big, saying, “Well, this is one of my shop. Actually, I own other shops. I don’t specifically sell something.”

Being a bit gloomy hearing that, Song Qinghan murmured himself in his mind: Ha? He own no shop but a GROUP. Well done!

They walked inside the shop while talking. The accountant in the shop rushed out in a big smile, and earnestly reported everything to Lin Dafu. But catching a glimpse at Song Qinghan, he got confused not knowing how to greet him in a proper way.

Nodding, Lin Dafu turned to Song Qinghan and asked, “Do you know why Lin Family would choose the fabric career?”

Pondering for a brief moment, Song Qinghan answered with a serious face, saying, “Because it posts a promising prospect? Or it gains less competitor? ”

The accountant stood there chuckling when he heard the seeming gibberish uttered by Song Qinghan. But then he quickly withdrew the expression when he noticed a menacingly grim squint from Lin Dafu, and kept his solemn silence standing there.

From the strange reaction of the accountant, Song Qinghan knew the answer was wrong, he then ponder for another moment, and then continued to say, “Maybe it is because fabric sells well? And people long for that.”

With an utter astonishment, Lin Dafu smiled big, nodding and saying, “Almost the reasons.”

“If you want to run a business, you should bear a long-term perspective longing for a big picture. In a nutshell, it’s rather crucial in the very beginning for you to choose a right direction, or let’s say, a CAREER. For instance, the restaurant, different people possesses different taste, you have to deliver the dishes of various flavors catering to your customers. At that level, you can easily make your success like the Xiangpiao Restaurant, the most famous one within this area.” He continued to explain.

“However, it may be impossible for a further step. At least for the Xiangpiao Restaurant, it bodes ill.”

“But why? Is it because it doesn’t match the appetite of people from other places? Well, then, hire chefs from their places.” Song Qinghan asked, being confused.

Lin Dafu shook his head, smiling and saying, “The best chefs are all hired in some certain restaurant in their original areas well-paid. They will never come to your restaurant unless you pay them higher. But in this case, you should suffer a heavier prime cost. So once the business is in recession, the restaurant is doomed to vanish.”

“After all, people would be more eager to entertain themselves in a restaurant which offers a cheaper price yet delivers the same food with no distinguished flavors.”

Scratching himself on his head and driving himself stunned, Song Qinghan pondered a while and then asked, “So that made you choose the fabric career?”

“Although the folk preference on the color and texture of the fabric varies, it ain’t a stumbling block at all. On the contrary, expanding the business bodes rather well for us.” said Lin Dafu.

“But…” murmured Song Qinghan for a brief moment, “Don’t you get some driving competitors in this career? I mean, there must be some businessmen cutting their prices for selling better or something.”

Lin Dafu smiled and motioned the accountant aside to explain.

The accountant explained hurriedly, as if he was afraid of agitating Lin Dafu again, saying, “Young Master, did you forget that here in this place we produce cotton? We rein all the process from the plantation of the cotton to the ultimate fabric making, the prime cost will naturally be the lowest here. The other businessmen who don’t own that whole producing process should pay for other, like cotton and the original fabric. In that case, we prevail.”

Nodding, Song Qinghan came to ask another question in curiosity, “Then no one imitate you and run their business by copying your ideas?”

The accountant glanced at Lin Dafu, and then clapped his hands, saying with a smile, “Our boss is the pioneer leading the creative business. Moreover, we do pay attention to our security work. So we never worry about that. The day the other knows the secret, the day we monopoly.”

Well, true dat, this method is quite avant-garde even applying in a modern world, let alone in this ancient time.

And it is also a truth that Lin Dafu is though not a reliable partner when it comes to love or something. But he has done a excellent job in his business.

Visiting the place where the fabrics are produced, Song Qinghan scratched his head again, saying awkwardly, “I know this is kind of stuff people require in daily life, it’s tough for me to run such a large-scale business.”

Lin Dafu chuckled and then accompanied with him onto the carriage, heading to the next place.

Again getting off the carriage, Song Qinghan found they were arriving at a diner.

“Is this diner belonged to you too?” He turned to ask Lin Dafu.

Lin Dafu nodded and smiled, saying, “Something you like to eat? I will order some.”

Song Qinghan casually picked a few preserved-candies and put them in his mouth. With that try, he turned his face into bitter one, asking, “How do candies taste salty?”

Without waiting for Lin Dafu to answer, the shopkeeper of the diner came to introduce, saying, “This is the specialty of our diner, you will find none in other restaurant or diner. Would you like to try this sour soup out?”

Nodding, Song Qinghan took over the sour soup in the shopkeeper’s hands. Since the soup featured no strange look at all, Song Qinghan drank it without hesitation.

Well, the taste of the sour soup, as Song Qinghan could tell, bore much resemblance with syrup of plum (a popular soup or beverage in China), but also tasted like over-fermented fruits. With a slow swallowing, it delivered a sense of addiction although it seemingly tasted not good at the first bite. The sweetness then spread.

Noticing Song Qinghan was gobbling all the soup down, the shopkeeper smiled big and stretched out to take back the bowl, asking, “Do you want more soup? Or you would love to try some others?”

“One more bowl please!” said Song Qinghan.

Lin Dafu smiled to Song Qinghan while the shopkeeper was turning and went to picked up another. He said, “If you can’t produce something people require in daily life. Then you can try impress them with some special stuff, something that they will surely remember.”

Song Qinghan nodded thoughtfully, saying, “In short, we have to stay in the same boat with our customers. Right?”

With an astonishment, Lin Dafu praised over the excellent comprehension that Song Qinghan got, nodding and saying, “That’s right. Well, ostensibly, it is a simple task, but most merchants will never be able to know that.”

Taking back the sour soup and coming over, the shopkeeper delivered the bowl in Song Qinghan’s hands, and then smiled to Lin Dafu, saying, “Young Master. I found another novelty recently. And I am figuring out what I can use of it.”

With Song Qinghan aside, Lin Dafu didn’t seem to hide, asking, “What is that?”

The shopkeeper took out two brown fruits in round-shape from the counter, answering, “Someone in Huichun Shop told me that these fruits are called monk fruits. They can be used to make a tea or something. I made that yesterday, and it tasted not bad. Well, I would say it is possessing a simplest taste. Probably it will be prefect with other flavors.”

Song Qinghan was stunned standing there, asking, “Monk fruits?”

Of course Lin Dafu knew the fact that they were fruits from Song Qinghan, he did get one bag of monk fruits and seasonings from Wu Dahu. Though he never tried, he still could recognize them.

He then chuckled and said, “You are lucky today. No one would better knows the fruits than Childe Song.”

The shopkeeper would never show any suspicion of his to Lin Dafu, so when he heard that he turned to Song Qinghan, asking in a tentative tone, “Did you plant the fruits?”

Pondering for a while, Song Qinghan answered vaguely, “Well, kind of. But I only know one certain way to make a tea of it. It is too sweet, better for making a dessert.”

Nodding, the shopkeeper answered, “True dat. I will smash them and make them into syrup. Let’s see if the syrup of them tastes good or not.”

He then rolled his eyes, something seemed to occur to him all of a sudden, he looked at Lin Dafu and said, “Since Childe Song plants the fruits. Why not let him sell the fruits to us directly. It’s better and more convenient for us not getting them from the Huichun Shop.”

Song Qinghan nodded vigorously, saying, “That’s great. How many do you want? I can give you preferential price if you require in a large quantity.”

Lin Dafu coughed lightly and said with a smile, “It won’t be late for you two to talk about that. But now it’s time to go back and have lunch.”

The shopkeeper looked at the sky and hurriedly sent them to the carriage. By the way, he made an appointment with Song Qinghan tomorrow to discuss the deal.

As the carriage started moving ahead, the fact that the “deal” between him and Lin Dafu would come to an end soon occurred to Song Qinghan suddenly. He got his mind wild yet anxious.

Did Lin Dafu interrupt the deal just then? What if the shopkeeper changed his mind tomorrow?