jdhmnovel Chapter 108 Bargaining
Chapter 108 Bargaining
"Hey~ You're not... working as a waiter here, are you?" Boss Zhou took a look at Chen Fan's attire and made a bold guess.
"Haha, cousin, you're right. I've been working in the restaurant for quite some time."
Several men put the wild boar down, and the shopkeeper took an oil lamp and brought it close to the scale to see how heavy it was.
"Brother, come and take a look. One hundred and five."
As soon as the shopkeeper said this, the people who followed him looked at Boss Zhou. This doesn't match the number they weighed? !
Boss Zhou took a closer look and saw that the weight was indeed 105, which was a full five kilograms less than what they weighed. That was ten kilograms of meat.
Boss Zhou had never encountered such a thing before, so he looked at his second uncle standing beside him.
Zhou Tiezhu went forward to take a look, and it was indeed one hundred and five.
When the shopkeeper saw that the expressions of the people in front of him were not right, he knew that something bad was going to happen. He had weighed them before they came.
He thought that such a heavy object would be impossible to weigh for a group of country folk without a big scale, but he didn't expect that his plan was wrong.
If word gets out that their scales are inaccurate, who will deliver food to them? It will be bad for the restaurant's reputation.
"Brother, is it that the weight you weighed doesn't match? It doesn't matter. Just tell me the weight you weighed."
Zhou Tiezhu stepped forward and said, "Boss, we did weigh it before we came here. We used the official scale of the village chief and it came out to be 110. But then I thought, this wild boar is tied with so many ropes and a net bag, it must weigh several kilograms, and the hemp rope is also used to weigh it. What do you think about setting it at 1080?"
The shopkeeper patted Zhou Tiezhu on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Okay, then one hundred and eight, that's the price... How about we set it at thirty cents per pound?"
For them, thirty cents per pound is already a lot.
But wild boars are really rare, and they are majestic and powerful, with no rivals in the forest, so men of that era admired them very much, and their prices also rose accordingly.
The taste of wild boar meat and domestic pork is also different. In short, some people love it and some hate it. And the fangs are said to have the effect of warding off evil spirits. Even pig kidneys and pig penis can be sold at a high price.
"Hey, shopkeeper, can we raise the price a little? It's too low. Lean pork on the street only costs thirty yuan per pound. This is a wild boar. If your restaurant spreads the word that you have got a wild boar, I wonder how many customers it will bring. And this pig is not very old, and the meat is very tender."
Although they spoke in a low voice and guests who were far away could not hear it, it was still clear from the atmosphere between them that they were discussing the price.
"Boss, my wife is about to give birth. Please leave me one of the fangs to ward off evil spirits for my child."
"Boss, please keep the pork kidneys for me. Whenever you slaughter the pigs, call me and make me some braised pork kidneys. I want to entertain guests..."
"Boss, it's not easy to catch a wild boar. You can charge a higher price without damaging your reputation as the 'No. 1 restaurant in Jinmiao Town'. If the news that you have wild boars in your restaurant gets out, I'm afraid people from the neighboring town will come to eat there. Just wait for the door to be trampled down."
……
Everyone was talking about this and that. The shopkeeper wiped the sweat from his forehead. It was true that the scales in the restaurant were short of some weight, but they were repaired after being punctured. He wanted to lower the price, but he didn't expect it to be so tricky.
Chen Fan also tugged at the shopkeeper's clothes, "Shopkeeper, this is my cousin, please give me a fair price for my sake."
Butcher Yang also stepped forward to persuade them. Even if others didn't know, how could he, a butcher, not know? Thirty cents was indeed a little too little for such a good wild boar.
"You little brat, how much is your face worth?" The shopkeeper smiled and kicked Chen Fan.
Chen Fan was not only not angry, but also put his arm around the shopkeeper's neck.
The shopkeeper looked at the wild boar in front of him with a reluctant look on its face, and calculated in his mind what the appropriate price should be and how much profit he could make.
"Then let's do thirty-eight, brother. It's not easy for us to earn some money..."
The shopkeeper actually started to cry poor to them and told them how difficult their life was.
Boss Zhou was persuaded by him and was about to nod in agreement when Zhou Tiezhu stepped forward and grabbed the shopkeeper's hand.
"Oh, no matter how difficult your life is, you are better off than those of us who work in the fields. We can hardly fill our stomachs after deducting taxes for a year. My nephew lost his father last month and has a lot of debts to pay off. Now he happened to get a wild boar and can earn some money with it. Shopkeeper, please be kind and have mercy on this young man. He has a mother and children at home waiting for food. If he pays off his debts, he can't even afford a quilt for the winter..."
Who wouldn't feel pity?!
When Zhou Tiezhu cried, Zhou Lao Da's eyes turned red when he thought of the situation at home.
The shopkeeper looked up and saw Boss Zhou's red eyes. "Okay, okay, thirty-nine, thirty-nine is fine."
"Forget thirty-nine, how about forty-five? You haven't even bought the pig yet, but the pig's tusks and kidneys have already been ordered. This shows how popular wild boars are. Wild boars are precious from head to toe, and even their blood is popular. You're not losing out, boss."
Zhou Tiezhu offered a higher price, and the shopkeeper was so shocked that his eyes widened and he couldn't even keep the smile on his face.
"No, no, forty-five is too high. If I accept it at this price, I will lose money."
The eldest and third Zhou were also shocked. They didn't expect that their second uncle would be so bold to ask for it.
Chen Fan and Yang the Butcher also stepped forward to persuade them that forty-five was too high, and it would be better for both sides to take a step back and settle on forty-two.
This wild boar is indeed a good deal, and it is definitely not a loss to take it. If the negotiation fails and they send it to another restaurant, it will be their loss.
The shopkeeper's expression eased a little, this price was barely acceptable.
Zhou Tiezhu took out a cigarette from his belt and said, "Alright, alright, then it'll be forty-two. I feel sorry for my brother. I didn't sell it to my nephew at a good price. It's my fault." After saying that, he sat aside and started to sip the cigarette.
Seeing him like this, the shopkeeper hurried into the house to count the money.
Chen Fan had been a waiter for many years and had learned some arithmetic from the owner. He broke off a small stick and wrote and drew on the ground, and in a few breaths he came up with the final price.
"First cousin, third cousin, the total is nine taels of silver and seventy-two coins more. The shopkeeper will come over to give you the money later. Give it to me and I will help you count it."
Whether there are too many or too few copper coins, he can tell just by touching them.
"Okay, thank you for what I did just now. I will definitely treat you to a meal when I am free."
"Hey, we're a family, why do you have to be so polite? Forty-two is a good price, it's not a loss at all." Chen Fan said with a smile.
The shopkeeper came over quickly with a cloth bag in his hand. "Take a look carefully. We have paid for the goods. We will not be responsible if anything is missing after you leave the store."