Chapter 50: Selling the Recipe

Lady Lin and Wen Yuan were both startled. "This..."

Wen Ye said, "The old family residence already knows half of the recipe. If their business starts to flounder one day, there's no guarantee they won't sell it. The only things we had that they didn't were the sesame oil and the numbing fruit."

"The master chefs in the large restaurants are no slouches. Once they get half of the recipe from the old family residence, they'll figure out the sesame oil and numbing fruit in no time. By then, our recipe won't be worth a copper."

"That's why we have to sell it first, before they do."

Lady Lin forced a smile. "Yesterday... we shouldn't have been so impulsive as to teach it to them. If the old family residence could keep making money, they wouldn't sell the recipe, and we could keep doing business."

"It's all my fault. I was blinded by anger yesterday. Actually, thinking about it now, wealth is meant to be shared. Even if we felt resentful, we should have just endured it. We really shouldn't have gone against our own profits."

Wen Ye shook her head. "You can't put it that way. Our recipe must have caught the attention of the restaurants long ago. As long as the price offered was high enough, the old family residence would definitely have sold it. Instead of letting that happen, we might as well sell it ourselves! At least that way, we cut off the old family residence's financial lifeline."

Lady Lin was still sighing. "But... the old family residence probably wouldn't sell it. After all, a one-time buyout versus a continuous stream of money—even a fool knows how to choose."

Wen Ye replied, "Once a secret recipe is known by a second party, it's no longer a secret."

Wen Yuan urged anxiously, "Mother, listen to Second Sister. Second Sister is never wrong."

Lady Lin sighed and nodded. Since they had already given away the recipe yesterday, they had no choice but to sell it now.

...

Half an hour later, the Wen sisters arrived in the county town.

They found the most prosperous restaurant in the county: Decai Restaurant.

"What would the two of you like to eat?" A waiter greeted them with a beaming smile, sizing them up.

The two young girls were dressed ordinarily, though they were as pretty as carved jade, they didn't look like they had much spending power.

However, the dining rush hadn't started yet, and with the weather getting hotter day by day, business had plummeted. So the waiter was very patient and quite enthusiastic.

Wen Ye said, "We'd like to sell a dish."

"This..."

Manager Wang, standing behind the counter, stopped clicking his abacus and looked over in boredom. "Oh? What kind of dish?"

Lately, people kept complaining that the menu was too old-fashioned, with the exact same dishes over and over again.

Even regular customers were visiting less frequently.

Manager Wang had been getting a headache over it, constantly urging the chefs to come up with new tricks. But after struggling for half a month, it was still the same old soup in a new bowl, lacking any real novelty.

Wen Ye and Wen Yuan walked over. Wen Lan put down her back basket, took out a small earthenware pot, and said with a blushing face, "It's this, called mixed cold dish."

Lifting the lid, a sharp, tangy, spicy, and fragrant aroma shot straight into their nasal cavities.

Manager Wang's eyes lit up slightly. "Hiss... This scent packs a punch. Well now, made with vinegar and chili peppers?"

Wen Ye smiled and said, "This is called a cold mixed dish. Manager, please give it a try."

The waiter, being a sharp-witted fellow, had already brought over a pair of chopsticks.

Manager Wang ate a piece of the mixed cucumber, and his taste buds instantly bloomed. "It's sour and spicy, quite appetizing."

Then, he slurped up a mouthful of the mixed cold noodles, and his eyes lit up even more. "Refreshing! Such a kick!"

Wen Ye smiled. "These cold mixed dishes are perfect for summer. We've been selling them in the township for half a month, and business is booming!"

Although Manager Wang was satisfied, he still narrowed his eyes. "Since business is good, why sell it?"

"Oh, well, the restaurants in the township had their eyes on it too. But their offer was far too low... We felt we were getting cheated!"

"Look here, originally we were running a long-term business, making a couple of taels and hundreds of copper cash a day—how wonderful that was. But they are big restaurants, and how could small farmers like us dare to fight them? So I figured, if we're going to sell it, we might as well sell it here in the county town."

Manager Wang snorted. "Aren't you afraid that we'll also throw our weight around, using power to force a buy and sell?"

Wen Ye replied, "How could that be? We all know that Decai Restaurant is the property of Scholar Zhang, and Scholar Zhang is famously known for his noble character. He would never do such a thing."

Wen Ye had, of course, done her homework beforehand.

After all, possessing a treasure is a crime in itself. If anyone really tried to target her recipe, she would simply sell it directly to Decai Restaurant.

Manager Wang chuckled. "Consider yourself sensible."

Wen Ye added, "There's one more thing. I hope that after we sell you this recipe, we can still set up our stall in the township for another month. Don't worry, we will never bring it to the county town."

Manager Wang thought for a moment and nodded. "A minor matter. But you must not sell this recipe to any other restaurants in the township. If we find out... Heh heh! Let's talk price!"

Wen Ye said, "Well... perhaps the Manager would like to make the first offer."

Manager Wang snorted. "You're quite slippery. How about this: I'll offer eighty taels. That's not a small sum."

Wen Ye said, "We can make a tael a day! With a restaurant as large as yours, right here in the county seat, selling five or six hundred catties a day isn't asking too much, is it? You could make over two taels a day easily."

"One hundred taels!"

"One hundred and fifty taels, final offer."

Manager Wang pondered for a moment before nodding. "Very well. Where are you from, which village?"

Wen Ye: "Dahe Township, Qingshui Village."

"Fine then! If it doesn't sell well, heh heh..."

"Don't worry, don't worry, I guarantee it."

If they continued selling the cold mixed dishes themselves, one hundred and fifty taels was only a matter of a few months' work. But now that the old family residence knew half of the recipe, it was far too dangerous; they had to cash out immediately.

Manager Wang handed Wen Ye a stack of silver notes worth one hundred and fifty taels, and in return, Wen Ye handed the recipe over to him.

Manager Wang stared blankly at the paper. "Why are these all medicinal herbs?"

"Just try it according to the recipe and you'll see. Smell how fragrant it is!"

"Do you happen to have these herbs on hand? If you do, come with me to the kitchen and brew a batch as a test."

Wen Ye naturally had a foolproof plan prepared. She reached into her sleeve and fumbled around—actually accessing her portable dimension—and moments later pulled out a medicine packet.

The two sisters entered the kitchen, and Wen Ye set about brewing the special soy sauce.

Before long, a rich fragrance drifted out, causing Manager Wang to nod repeatedly in approval.

Half an hour later—

The two sisters walked out of Decai Restaurant.

Wen Lan was nearly bursting with excitement. "With these one hundred and fifty taels, Ye-girl, as long as you spend sparingly, you can live comfortably for the rest of your life!"

Wen Ye pulled a long face. "I don't want to spend sparingly. I want to squander it lavishly."

Wen Lan was still floating on cloud nine. "If we think of any other business ventures in the future, we can sell them to the restaurant too."

Wen Ye couldn't help but roll her eyes at her. "I wasn't a chef in my past life. How could I make a fortune just by selling recipes?"

In her previous life, she had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth and rarely stepped foot in the kitchen; she hadn't known how to cook many dishes to begin with.

The cold mixed dishes were simply one of the very few things she could make reasonably well.

Not every transmigrated woman possessed boundless culinary genius; some were complete clumsy failures, and she happened to be one of those clumsy ones.

Otherwise, if she could just sell recipes every day and lie flat, why would she bother getting up early and working like an ox? She wasn't crazy!

Therefore, she had to cherish her limited repertoire of recipes and avoid selling them whenever possible.