You are unlucky and I am tough

Cheng Shuang and the person next to her exchanged glances, and Wei Qinglang nodded, "You decide."

She held out her hand. "Ten taels."

"Okay." Shopkeeper Meng offered without hesitation a price slightly lower than what he had in mind.

"Boss, I haven't finished speaking yet."

Cheng Shuang smiled and said, "The premise is that the shopkeeper must eat the ingredients grown in my family. I will also grow other things in the future. I hope we can maintain our cooperation. I will only charge you for the ingredients, and I will also teach you what dishes can be made with these ingredients, but you only have the right to use these recipes and ingredients, not the ownership."

"Also, I'm the only one who owns these ingredients. You can't check where I got them, or ask me to grow them yourself. Otherwise, the cooperation will be terminated."

In fact, she was not afraid of them investigating. At most, she could find green beans, mustard greens and tomatoes from foreign merchants. The others were bought in the mall. The types planted this time were just the tip of the iceberg. The most important thing was that she was the only one who had the seeds.

Shopkeeper Meng was a little hesitant. He was just the shopkeeper, not the owner. He looked at the basket of ingredients he had never seen before and pondered. The chef was already squatting beside the basket, checking each one, his eyes full of curiosity.

"How about this, Madam Wei, you two make a dish out of all these ingredients, and I'll try it. If it tastes good, then we can close the deal."

Cheng Shuang guessed this would happen, smiled and said, "Okay."

The two of them quickly got busy. This time, Shopkeeper Meng and the chef stood by and watched. Shopkeeper Meng also called a waiter in to boil water.

Wei Qinglang was cutting bitter melon, while Cheng Shuang was cutting the eggplant into thin strips. The chef watched for a while and asked him to do it. Then he showed off his knife skills. Cheng Shuang simply asked him to help chop a piece of lean meat into minced meat, and then cut garlic and ginger into shreds.

The ingredients in the small kitchen were still limited, so Cheng Shuang asked Shopkeeper Meng, "Do you have beef brisket or beef?"

Manager Meng went to the kitchen of the restaurant in front and quickly brought back what she wanted.

The chef volunteered to help prepare the ingredients, and the three of them worked together to slice the bitter melon into thin slices, pick the green beans, blanch the tomatoes in boiling water, and cut the eggplant into long strips.

Cut the beef brisket into small pieces, slice and shred the beef, chop the lean meat into minced meat, then cut half a braised pig ear and beat a few eggs.

Finally, wash the cabbage and choy sum, and set aside.

The kitchen had two stoves, two large pots, and a casserole for stewing soup. Cheng Shuang first made tomato and beef brisket soup, while Wei Qinglang had already started stir-frying bitter melon and beef. After taking them out of the pot, they were served to the chef and Manager Meng while they were still hot.

Then I used the remaining bitter melon to make stir-fried bitter melon with minced garlic and bitter melon scrambled eggs.

Both pots were in motion, with minced meat and spicy eggplant in a pot, braised eggplant, beef brisket soup with tomatoes, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, stir-fried green beans, and braised pig ears with green beans. There were also stir-fried green beans, green beans with shredded beef, and a sauerkraut chicken pot with pickled cabbage.

As well as spicy and sour cabbage, vinegar-fried cabbage, cabbage with pork belly, stir-fried cabbage, and finally stir-fried bok choy.

After eating for a while, Manager Meng and the chef had someone serve them some rice. The table was full of dishes and the two of them ate until they were full.

After eating and drinking their fill, both of them were very excited. With so many new dishes, Taibailou's business will definitely be taken to a higher level.

Especially Manager Meng, his boss is from the provincial capital. He and his son manage the branches in Qushan County and Hekou County respectively, but the business is not too good, and is slightly worse than the local Grand Hyatt Restaurant.

But if these dishes were available, Taibailou would definitely become the most popular restaurant in the county.

After tasting the last stir-fried bok choy served on the table, Shopkeeper Meng put down his chopsticks and said impatiently, "Brother Wei, Madam Wei, there's no need to say anything. We at Taibailou want all the ingredients you grow. Name your price."

Wei Qinglang said, "Then please prepare some paper and pen, so I can discuss this with my wife."

After the shopkeeper gave the order, the waiter quickly brought pen, ink, paper and inkstone. The two went into the kitchen to discuss and wrote down the prices of various ingredients, as well as two copies of the cooperation agreement.

Watermelon is 20 wen per pound, sauerkraut is 25 wen per pound, bitter melon, eggplant and tomato are 15 wen per pound, string beans are 12 wen per pound, cabbage and lettuce are 8 wen per pound, and chili pepper is 300 wen per pound.

Except for peppers, the prices of other items are not high. They were decided after discussion between the two of them. Maybe they will drop when large quantities of crops are planted in the future.

After reviewing the price list and the contract, Shopkeeper Meng had no objections to anything else. He simply asked, "This chili pepper is the green thing you use in your cooking, right? Why is the price so different?"

Cheng Shuang guessed he would ask, so she smiled and said, "Chili peppers are used for seasoning. One pound can be used to make many dishes. You can use it to replace dogwood and Sichuan peppercorns. It's worth the price, and I believe the chef can use it to explore other dishes."

Chili peppers have so many uses and many varieties can be grown. She treasures them very much, and three hundred coins is not a high price.

In order to keep the exclusive rights, she chose seeds from the mall that were only suitable for planting in one year.

That is to say, peppers only produce fruit for one year, and no peppers will grow the next year and they have to be replanted. Even if someone is smart and thinks of using pepper seeds to save seeds for sowing, the germination rate of those seeds is less than one in a thousand.

Shopkeeper Meng looked at the chef and saw him nod. He had no objection and said readily, "Okay, I'll take the price you mentioned. Just give me an address and I'll send someone to deliver the ingredients and watermelons tomorrow morning."

The two smiled at each other, wrote the address, and began to teach the chef how to clean the pig intestines. After teaching, they received ten taels of silver from Manager Meng.

As for the ingredients and watermelons made today, they were not charged for. The remaining seven or eight peppers were also given to them. The chef put them in a bowl like treasures.

There was also a small jar of pickled cabbage weighing about 25 pounds. Two pounds were used and the remaining jar was taken away by the chef, who said he would make some new dishes today. Shopkeeper Meng directly gave them 625 coins based on the 25 pounds.

After signing the cooperation agreement, the two left Taibai Tower. After spending the entire morning selling tens of thousands of pounds of watermelon and the vegetables they had grown at home, they should be able to start growing some other vegetables when they return, considering the customer flow at Taibai Tower.

The two went to the market to find Yang. Cheng Zhengyi had also returned. Seeing them, he stopped what he was doing and walked over happily.

"How was your conversation going, you two?"

"It's going very well. How about you, Uncle? Did you sell the pickled cabbage?"

Cheng Zhengyi smiled happily, "It's sold out. I made stir-fried beef with pickled mustard greens and fish head soup with pickled mustard greens in two stores, and each store ordered 100 kilograms."

He didn't expect that sauerkraut would be so popular. Even with his not-so-good cooking skills, he could still make a dish that was praised by the chef. He would make it for his family when he got home in the evening.

The result was not surprising. After chatting for a few words, the two of them parted ways. Cheng Zhengyi's braised food was almost sold out, so he bought some meat and went back, but they had other things to do.