Great Tang Idyll

Book 2: Chapter 19

Cheers to littlistwolfpup for commissioning this chapter!

Volume 02

"It's about the people of our Great Tang?" Li Xun, who was about to leave, couldn't help but stop when he heard these words.

If it was anything else, he could easily reject it. No matter how powerful the masters of the Zhang and Wang manors were, they meant nothing to him. If they wanted to invite him, then it would depend on his mood, however, Housekeeper Zhang's words forced him to go there to have a look and listen to what they have to say.

At the very least, he was still surnamed Li, and at the same time, he still has a special identity, so he has to care about these kinds of things. If he manages to accomplish something, then he will definitely be praised. This was exactly the accomplishment that he has been hoping for ever since he was a child.

"Childe Li, please come here." As soon as Housekeeper Zhang saw Li Xun's expression, he knew that Li Xun would not refuse. He stretched out his hand in the direction of the Between The Water and Clouds Restaurant, and he walked towards there.

Li Xun glanced at the children again, then he nodded and followed behind the Housekeeper with his few personal guards. He believed that the Zhang family would definitely not dare to lie to him.

Those children did not win even once. Whilst they were unhappy, several people came out of the restaurant and each person had a plate in their hand. On the plate was an object that was shaped like an egg, except that there was a layer of paper on the outside which made it hard to tell what it actually was.

Five of these were placed in front of every child who persisted in competing in all four games. As for those who lost confidence and quit halfway through, they were each given only one.

While speaking, Ga'zi even walked in front of everyone with the egg in his hand. These people looked at the egg, and it was exactly how he described it to be. It obviously looked like an egg, but it was a translucent black colour that carried a bit of red and also some yellow. It was sort of like jelly since it jiggled slightly, and it was covered with patterns of pine flowers.

They had never seen such a thing before. Everyone stared at the waiter while waiting for him to continue talking.

"You shouldn't eat too much of this egg. You can eat one or two at a time, but you shouldn't eat it every single day. Perhaps you don't know what this tastes like. That's fine, we can cut some and let everyone have a taste of it. "

After Ga'zi walked a circle around the crowd, he signalled for others to come out to cut the eggs into pieces. Each egg was cut into eight wedges that were all approximately the same size. They were placed on plates and brought to everyone so they can have a try.

Some people felt that their bodies were too precious so they were unwilling to take risks. After picking up the egg pieces, they watched what others were going to do. The people of the Zhang Manor who came to accompany their children did not have worries like that. They did not believe that their master would harm them, so they ate it as soon as they picked them up.

A special flavor entered their mouths, and they all nodded and praised the egg. They exclaimed about how delicious the egg was.

"You finally succeeded in making pine flower eggs today. Xiao'bao, when we get up tomorrow morning, we will eat pine flower eggs and lean meat porridge. I'm craving that."

Wang Juan was laying on her stomach next to Zhang Xiao'bao and spoke while smacking her lips a few times.

Zhang Xiao'bao shivered, "I don't want to eat that. I don't like to eat this thing. It has a weird smell. If you want to eat it, eat it yourself. Don't drag me in with you."

"From this, I can tell you don't know how to enjoy yourself. If you don't want to eat it, then forget it. I'll eat it by myself. Obviously, you don't know what it means to enjoy the blessings of life." Wang Juan was different from Zhang Xiao'bao. She liked eating pine flower eggs, and especially those that were made using the traditional technique. Unfortunately, she didn't know how to make it, and Zhang Xiao'bao knew how to make it, but he doesn't eat it.

This egg can be used to make rice porridge, or it can be directly eaten after its cut into wedges. When she ate it back then, she felt like it was best paired with white rice. She liked to toss in some tofu, and she would be able to eat two bowls of rice with it. She heard that it was harmful for the body to eat this, but she ate it ever since she was a child, and none of the harms ever showed up in her.

The only regretful thing was that the majority of the ones she ate were made using special techniques, and it was not made using limestone, rice husk and mud. It was clean, and looked no different from ordinary eggs and the taste was not as good.

The people below didn't know how this thing was made. When they saw that somebody ate it, they ate it too. Some said it tasted good, and some said it smelled unpleasant, but the taste and aftertaste were much stronger than ordinary eggs.

Seeing that they were happily eating, Zhang Xiao'bao was also happy even though he never took a bite. He said to Wang Juan, "This thing was only made because there's no way to store all of those chicken eggs. Other than making salted eggs, the only other way of preserving eggs is to make it into pine flower eggs. Storing salted eggs takes up too much space. After they're done brining, they must be cooked and then thrown into brine again. That's too troublesome.

Make sure the people in the yard work carefully and don't leak the recipe. All of the dirt, rice husk, lime powder and salt must be washed off with water, then dump that water with all that stuff into the manure tank. It's good to add more stuff into there; it would make great fertilizer. "

"Five coins each." Zhang Xiao'bao gave a terrifying price.

"It just uses up a little bit of brine, limestone powder, rice husks and soil. How could you come up with such a high price? There are many commoners who can't afford to buy it. That's the same cost as a gosling, and it has to be a female gosling. See, female ones are more valuable."

Wang Juan didn't expect that Zhang Xiao'bao would dare set such a high price. The cost of making pine flower eggs was less than a coin, so it meant that he wanted to make a 400% profit.

Zhang Xiao'bao did not think like Wang Juan. "The value of the mother goose reveals how significant the male goose is. As long as there is one male goose in a flock of geese, not only will he help the mother goose so that she can lay eggs to produce offspring, but he also ensures the safety of the geese.

The price cannot be changed. No matter how good the pine flower egg is, can it compare to steamed sponge cake? Can it be compared to a poached egg with runny yolk? People who don't have money will usually eat eggs boiled. I don't intend to market this item as an every item food item. Many people like to eat braised beef, but how many people can actually afford to eat it?

Do people who don't have money absolutely have to buy pine flower eggs to eat? It's not salt. It's not a necessary consumable. It has to be five coins. We have to look at what kind of eggs they are. Ones that have more pine flower patterns and are more red have to be sold for ten coins each. This difference between the two types has to be emphasized. Why not earn those people's money while we can. "

"You really are a capitalist. When pursuing profit, your heart is black." Wang Juan agreed with Zhang Xiaobao's statement that the nutritional value of pine flower eggs was never as good as normal eggs. Both of these require vinegar for sterilization, and in particular, aged black vinegar was used. Bacteria was used to destroy bacteria.

However, she still had to refute that high profits came with high risks after all. Some people can't stand seeing others doing well, and they will find ways to cause others trouble. Everyone knows how much an egg costs, so if they really did sell it for five and ten coins, things would become complicated. The buyers might not say anything since they like the taste, but there will always be others that will come up with destructive ideas.

Zhang Xiao'bao naturally knew what Wang Juan was thinking about, and he tried to persuade her, "What is going to come will always come. Unless you don't want to further develop this place, you can't run away from the things you need to face. I'll sell the recipe to whoever dares to target this business. It's just pine flower eggs anyway.

At that time, I'll make sure that they regret spending that money. I can just announce the recipe to the public---secretly announce it. If we sell ten copies of the recipes, they will definitely think about who leaked the secret. If we raise the price of the recipe by several folds the day after we sell it to them, do you think they would still suspect us?"

"Right. What did you study? Could it be possible that they also studied criminal psychology? Do they also have the same experience as you?"

"Are you scared now? Then don't lie to me. What's with all this male goose, female goose nonsense. Do you eat honey? Do you know which position is highest in a beehive?" Wang Juan bobbed her happily.

Of course Zhang Xiao'bao knew what the social structure of beehives were like. He glanced at Wang Juan, who was looking proud. "Actually, you don't need to be so vague. You can just say Wu Ze'tian, or that Empress Xiao. They're both not ordinary people. Good thing you're in this time period. According to your personality, perhaps the cavalry will be trampling all over the place already."

"Okay, let's not talk about this anymore. Let's talk about that Li person. Do you think he will fall for the trap? Oh no, I mean, will he cooperate with us?"

"No problem at all. This is a brand new idea. Most people can't think of it. The more a person thinks that they're on the top of the pyramid, the more they think about these things."

Li Xun, who was being calculated right now, didn't even know that there were two people on the rooftop talking about him. At this moment, his whole body and mind were focused on things that could affect the entire Great Tang.

Father Zhang personally came out to discuss matters with Li Xun this time. He could never push his son and daughter-in-law out to the front of others. Although he was normally a bit of an introvert, right now he appeared to be quite lively.

In the eyes of other people, it was a bit unbelievable, but Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan understood that their father was introverted because he wanted to study well and then surprise everyone when he suddenly rises up. In fact, he was not an introvert at heart. .

Father Zhang had nothing to comment about his son. If he had to tell him what he felt in his heart, it was pride. At this time when facing Li Xun, he voiced out his son's thoughts bit by bit.

The matter was not troublesome, and was actually very simple. He needed to invite Li Xun to help organize and participate in a children's game activity in the San'shui County. The activity was divided into three events.

One is the grassland, the other is the desert, and the other is the flat terrain. The children had to undergo survival training in these three places. Each event lasts for five days, and including the time it takes to travel back and forth, the entire activity will last about 25 days. It was too dangerous inside the forest, so that area was excluded.

According to Zhang Xiao'bao's words, the activity was supposed to let all children adapt to living in various environments and improve their fitness. The children's age was selected to be between eight and twelve years old.