Naturally, Yellow Cake disagrees.
Seeing this, Song Wan Yue and Gu Yi excused themselves to go to the front shop.
When they had just walked out of the house, Huang Gao was so angry that he threw the thin blanket onto the floor and said angrily to the woman, “I am injured, not dead! It’s not your turn to make decisions on such a big matter!”
The woman was not annoyed, she bent down and picked up the blanket, patted the dirt off it and put it back on the bed, “Old man, I know you are upset, but the nobleman is right, we are in the light and those who covet are in the dark. This time you only hurt your arm and leg, but what about next time? We’re not getting any younger, so if anything happens to us, it will only burden the children, so why don’t we listen to the nobleman, sell the formula and let’s retire in peace.”
“If you want to go, you go, I’m not going.”
The woman still spoke softly and warmly, “In fact, I want to sell my son, but I also want to repay your kindness. She is not a relative of ours, but she taught us such a good pastry recipe, I have been thinking about how to repay her. If you still can’t leave this craft behind, we can just open a new one when we go to our son’s place.”
……
Two quarters of an hour later, the woman came to the shop in front of her, “Nobleman, my old man has agreed to sell the recipe, what do you think, how much is the right price to sell it for?”
“Naturally, the higher the better, let’s put up a notice so that those interested can come and negotiate the price, the highest bidder will win.”
“I’ll do as you say.”
The woman took out the red paper left over from the New Year and prepared pens and ink, placing them on the table.
Song Wangyue gave Gu Yi a look to go and write.
Even though she had followed Gu Yi for a few days to practise her handwriting, it was still no better than a dog crawling.
Gu Yi raised the corners of his mouth, as if he was laughing at her.
Song Wangyue plucked out a glance at him, and the corner of Gu Yi’s mouth rose even higher.
Gu Yi got up and walked to the table, and quickly wrote out the notice as Song Wan Yue had just said.
The woman took advantage of his writing time to get some paste out, and when he was done, she asked Xiao Si to help her post it outside.
The pastry shop had not been open today, so the people waiting outside were anxious, and when they suddenly saw the door open, they thought it was time to sell pastries.
Unexpectedly, they saw Xiao Si come out with a piece of red paper and were just about to ask when the woman raised her voice and said, “Everyone, because of family matters, we are leaving the capital and would like to sell this shop and the recipe for snow maiden, so please help to pass on the message to each other.”
The people in the queue exploded.
“Why are they suddenly not selling? We haven’t had enough yet.”
“Yes, yes, my son loves this bite, if he doesn’t buy a piece or two back every day, he’ll have to cry his eyes out.”
“Sorry, sorry, it’s true that there’s a family emergency, but there’s no need to rush, even if we don’t sell it, we will sell it when someone buys the shop and the recipe, it’s just a matter of waiting a few more days, I hope you can understand.”
What if you can’t understand? If someone has a family emergency, you can’t stop them from leaving, right?
The people in the queue were disappointed and dispersed in twos and threes.
……
“Boss, a notice has been posted over at the Huang family pastry shop to sell the recipe for snow maiden.”
A fellow ran from outside the shop to the backyard in a fiery manner to report.
The shopkeeper stood up, “Have you confirmed it? Is it true?”
“It’s true, I ran to see it on purpose.”
“Good, good, good.”
The shopkeeper couldn’t help but walk back and forth in the room, his heart very pleased with himself, he knew that what he said would not go unheeded by Master Yao.
“Can it be said how much silver it will be sold for?”
“I didn’t say, I just said the highest bidder would get it.”
The shopkeeper stopped in his tracks, “The highest bidder will get it?”
“That’s what the notice said.”
The shopkeeper narrowed his eyes, the last time that little girl had asked for 100,000 taels, although it was a lion’s choice not to sell to him, it also showed that there was no way they could sell this recipe for less, at the very least it was higher than the 10,000 taels he had offered, and there were not many pastry shops in the capital that could spare that much silver.
Thinking of this, he lifted his feet and walked out, “I’ll go out, you guys keep watch over the shop.”
……
“Nobleman, when do you plan to leave?”
The woman asked seemingly casually, she and the old man had just discussed that no matter how much the formula could be sold for this time, it would be given to the two noblemen and they would not keep a single penny.
Song Wan Yue didn’t know what she meant by this question, so she smiled and said, “We will leave after you have sold the recipe.”
The woman dropped her heart.
……
As the day went by, a number of people came to the Huang family pastry shop to buy money, from giving a few hundred taels to 1,000 taels, 2,000 taels, 3,000 taels, and no one offered any more.
The couple were in no hurry, since there were people who wanted them, they would naturally be offered high prices.
Sure enough the person who arrived the next day offered a higher price, a few thousand taels. This was still farther than they had expected, and the two still did not relent.
On the third day, someone offered 10,000 taels, and still the Yellow Cake couple did not nod. The nobleman said that they should not be anxious, and that if they held steady, someone would naturally buy it.
Only when they saw that the fire was almost ready did the head of the Qin family pastry shop come over and sit down in front of the few remaining shopkeepers, “Mr Huang, just give a quick word, how much do you intend to sell this recipe for?”
Huang Gao thought of the fact that he had ordered him to do this, and the fire in his heart rose up, but he tried his best to suppress it and said coldly, “Thirty thousand taels.”
At the sound of his words, several gasps rang out in the room, as everyone thought he was crazy for money.
In the past, buying a pastry recipe was only a matter of a few hundred taels, and it was rare to find more than a thousand taels, not even ten thousand taels.
The reason they offered this price was because they saw that Xue Mei Niang was selling like hotcakes, but even if Xue Mei Niang was selling like hotcakes, it would take some time to earn back the 30,000 taels.
There are a few wealthy people who can afford it, but they feel that 30,000 taels is too much, and if they buy it this time, what if all the sellers follow suit in the future? Wouldn’t that invariably cost a lot more silver?
A few people got up and left, leaving five people in the shop.
“It’s too expensive, Boss Huang is also in this business and knows our profit, I’m afraid that by the time I sell this 30,000 taels, the people in this capital will almost not like Xue Mei Niang anymore.”
The rest nodded in agreement, no pastry would sell for long, no matter how good it was, people would naturally get bored of it after a long time.
“But ……”
Boss Qin stretched his voice, “For the sake of us being neighbours for so many years, I can buy it for thirty thousand taels, but you must give me the recipe for the ice-skinned mooncakes.”
There was a silence in the room.
The rest of the few people swished their eyes towards Master Huang, and the ones on their knees tightened slightly. How could they forget that there was still a recipe for ice-skinned mooncakes in Master Huang’s hand, and this one alone could make a fortune every year at the Mid-Autumn Festival?
