The Great Tang's King of Provisions

Chapter 20: Cleverly Resolving the Restaurant’s Troubles

After eating and drinking their fill, Li Xuanba and Mei Hanxue began handling matters at the Plum Blossom Restaurant. The first issue to address was the delivery of ingredients to the restaurant. This matter could only be entrusted to Mei Hanxue to handle. After all, Li Xuanba was new to the area and unfamiliar with the surroundings, unlike Mei Hanxue, who had lived there for nineteen years. However, Li Xuanba wasn’t worried that Mei Hanxue and the other two women would face any danger; with Du Xingxuan and Du Shuangshuang—both skilled in martial arts—by their side, the three women’s safety was assured. The three women went out to find vendors to supply ingredients to the Plum Blossom Restaurant, while Li Xuanba stayed behind alone at the restaurant. He needed to further process the coarse salt to refine it into the high-quality salt typical of the 19th century in his own time; otherwise, the coarse grains simply wouldn’t satisfy his palate. He relit the stove, set a large pot on it, filled it with spring water from his spatial pocket, and then poured the entire bamboo tube of coarse salt directly into the pot, beginning the boiling process. “Huff… huff…” As the flames in the stove relentlessly scorched the bottom of the large pot, wisps of steam rose continuously from the boiling water. The spring water gradually diminished, while the concentration of the brine steadily increased. After five minutes, tiny crystals of bright white refined salt began to precipitate. When the refined salt had crystallized to about half the volume of the coarse salt he’d started with, Li Xuanba reached out with his large hand, lifted the large pot, and poured out the still-boiling water, leaving only that last bit of bright white refined salt. “You—you’re being so wasteful! Even if this coarse salt is very cheap, and even if you had all the money in the world, you shouldn’t waste it like this! Haven’t you seen all those beggars who can’t even get enough to eat? You—you…” Li Xuanba was stirring the remaining refined salt when he heard Mei Hanxue’s reproachful voice ringing in his ears. But as Mei Hanxue spoke, her voice gradually grew quieter. After stir-frying the last bit of moisture out of the refined salt, Li Xuanba poured the powdery, snow-white salt directly into a small bowl beside him. He looked up at Mei Hanxue and chuckled wryly, “I only wasted half a jin of coarse salt—is that really worth getting so worked up over? If you want to help those beggars, I can give you money, and you can go give it to them.” “Gulp!” Mei Hanxue didn’t respond to Li Xuanba’s words. After swallowing hard, she, along with Du Xingxuan and Du Shuangshuang, stared blankly at the snow-white salt in the small bowl in front of the three women. After a long moment, they looked at Li Xuanba in shock. “You… you know how to make green salt?” Blue salt? Hearing Mei Hanxue’s words, Li Xuanba blinked. Oh, the refined salt of the Tang Dynasty. “Um… Isn’t this right in front of you? It’s just refined salt. It’s made by boiling water—such a simple method. You shouldn’t be so surprised, right?” As far as Li Xuanba knew, refined salt should already have existed in the Tang Dynasty. He’d only made half a jin of it—did the three women really need to be so surprised? Hearing Li Xuanba’s words, Mei Hanxue rolled her eyes in a charming way and stared at him blankly. “You just boil a pot of water with coarse salt and that’s how you make refined salt? If your method really worked that well, refined salt wouldn’t be selling for a hundred wen per bamboo tube.” “One hundred wen per bamboo tube?!” Hearing the price Mei Hanxue had mentioned—which was much higher than expected—it was Li Xuanba’s turn to be taken aback. As far as he knew, thanks to improvements in salt-making techniques, a shi of coarse salt in the Tang Dynasty cost only twenty wen—which, converted to modern terms, meant that 177 jin of coarse salt sold for twenty wen. Yet a single bamboo tube could hold only one jin of refined salt. One jin of blue salt selling for 100 wen, compared to 177 jin of coarse salt selling for 20 wen—just how enormous was that profit margin? Over 400 times! “Ahem… All right! Forget about the method for making blue salt. Even if we managed to produce 10,000 jin of it, we wouldn’t be able to sell it—both salt and iron are under government control, and private trade is illegal.” Whether it’s illegal or not, Li Xuanba didn’t care. The crucial point was that while he could pass on the method for making refined salt to his second older brother, he couldn’t share it with ordinary people like Mei Hanxue—otherwise, it would bring her mortal danger! After moving past the topic of refined salt, Li Xuanba grew curious when he saw the three women return empty-handed. “You three were out for half a day—you didn’t come back with absolutely nothing, did you?” Hearing Li Xuanba bring up the topic of going out to buy groceries, the three women immediately set aside the subject of the rock salt purification method, their expressions turning somewhat sour. Du Shuangshuang pouted and said unhappily, “Those vegetable and meat vendors—every single one of them—acted as if we were some kind of dangerous beasts lurking in deep waters. As soon as they saw us, they said they wouldn’t sell to us. Even when we offered double the price, no one would sell to us.” Du Xingxuan cast a casual glance at Li Xuanba and analyzed, “I think these people are all being controlled. It’s not that they don’t want to sell us vegetables—it’s that they’re too afraid to.” Mei Hanxue’s face darkened, and with a look of grievance in her eyes, she said bitterly, “Don’t even bother guessing—it’s definitely that Hong Dangtou’s doing. It wasn’t enough for him to threaten those eight vegetable delivery vendors; he’s gone and threatened all the other vegetable vendors as well, just to force my Meihua Restaurant to shut down and go out of business.” “Hong Dangtou? That kid must not want to live anymore. I’m going to beat him to a pulp right now, so he stops causing trouble for this young master every single day!” Hearing that Hong Dangtou had the audacity to lay a hand on “his woman,” Li Xuanba clenched his fists—as big as clay pots—until they creaked. His expression darkened, and he took a step forward, intent on storming into the Hongyun Casino to punch Hong Dangtou to a pulp. Li Xuanba had taken only one step when Mei Hanxue grabbed the back of his coat. “Come back! We have no evidence that he did any of this. What good would it do to go beat him to death? Are you just relying on your status as a prince?” “I’m a simple man—do I need to worry about some stupid law when it comes to beating or killing people?” Though Li Xuanba spoke these words, he did not break free from Mei Hanxue’s grip and headed toward the Hongyun Casino. Of course, he wanted to smash the casino boss’s face in with a single punch, but when “his woman” advised him against it, he had to listen. Otherwise, wouldn’t that be a huge slap in the face to “his woman”? Besides, he really didn’t want to reveal his identity as a prince right now—otherwise, he’d likely have to return to Chang’an to face his step-second older brother! Meeting his step-second older brother was fine, but he had to take care of “his woman” first; otherwise, such a virtuous and gracious wife might end up with some other bastard. Clearly, Li Xuanba was so preoccupied with chasing women that he’d forgotten he was the very one who wanted to sleep with Mei Hanxue! Although he withdrew his fist, Li Xuanba’s mind was racing. When he spotted the beggar children still begging on the street, his eyes lit up instantly. Without a care for whether the three girls were embarrassed or not, Li Xuanba yanked them close to him. After whispering in their ears for a moment, he strode purposefully toward the kitchen under their astonished gazes and resumed his culinary duties. While Li Xuanba was back in the kitchen making Bai Ji buns again, Mei Hanxue and the other two women gathered the young beggars who had come begging earlier in front of the main hall. “Here, take this money. Don’t buy too much—just a little bit each. Don’t draw attention to yourselves. When you come back, deliver the ingredients to the back door.” After handing each little beggar some copper coins, Mei Hanxue gave them these instructions. She then patted each child on the head in turn and directed them to wander around the city, “incidentally” purchasing various necessary ingredients such as vegetables, meat, and eggs.