northernbook Chapter 112: Deception
Chapter 112: Deception
Chapter 112: Deception
The delivery date soon arrived, and Ji Meiqing returned home a day early. Lu Yu was a little worried, so he followed her.
Li Ming brought over a sample of the wine for Lu Yu to taste, and only after confirming that there were no problems did he begin packing it into boxes.
This time the quantity was quite large, so Ji Meiqing had to hire several more young and strong men to help transport the goods.
There were several large carts, each carrying four to six large wine vats. Stacked up, they were more than a meter long.
This time there was more, and there might be even more in the future. They delivered the wine to the red-light district, where Madam Hu was already waiting for them. Upon seeing Ji Meiqing, she immediately swayed her hips and came over.
"Meiqing, I have a guest here who wants to see you."
"Me?" Ji Meiqing pointed at herself, looking at her incredulously. "I'm not a girl from here, what do you want with me?"
"That guest is also a bartender. He wants to ask if you'd be willing to cooperate with him," Hu's mother whispered in her ear, then added, "Their family is in the capital. You must seize this opportunity."
"Really? Then please take me to see it, Mom."
She gave some instructions to the person behind her before going upstairs with her. The food was ready in the room, and there were girls playing musical instruments and singing, behaving like capitalists.
Ji Meiqing went over with her and then listened quietly as Madam Hu introduced herself and him.
Upon hearing that the person in front of him was Ji Meiqing, his expression immediately changed, and he smiled obsequiously as he asked her to sit down.
The two got straight to the point, but Hu's mother was sent away.
“Our family is in the capital, I’m sure Aunt Hu has already told you that.”
He said this with an undeniable sense of pride on his face, while Ji Meiqing smiled without changing her expression, listening to what he would say next.
“My surname is Huang. If Miss Ji doesn’t mind, I won’t mention my given name.”
"Ah."
“Our Huang family also runs a restaurant and brews wine, but your wine tastes quite good, so we are very curious about how you make it…” He paused for a meaningful look at her halfway through his sentence, and then continued, “Our courtyard will help you open a branch in the capital… but we hope that Miss Ji can take a look at the winemaking recipe.”
"We don't have a recipe for brewing wine," she told him seriously, then, fearing he might not understand, kindly added, "We rely on technique to brew wine..."
"If Miss Ji uses this as an excuse, then I'm afraid I can't help you."
"Goodbye." The conversation had broken down. Ji Meiqing stood up, nodded, and then left.
Outside, Mrs. Hu was tasting the wine, but after tasting it all, she didn't find anything wrong. After putting the wine away in the cellar, she came out with her entourage. However, when she saw Ji Meiqing, she excitedly rushed over and asked, "How did it go? How did your talks go?"
"Nothing much, I'm afraid the talks just fell apart." She said calmly, as if what had just happened had nothing to do with her.
Mrs. Hu was stunned and couldn't help but step forward to ask her, "What happened?"
"He thought I had a recipe for mixing wine and wanted me to give it to him."
She recounted the events truthfully, without any embellishment.
"That……"
Seeing her expression, Ji Meiqing knew what she was about to say and immediately changed the subject.
"If the drinks are good, can we pay the bill now? I need to go back and have lunch."
"You wait here." Mother Hu led the people back to the room, and Ji Meiqing sat in the courtyard for a while to bask in the sun.
Upstairs, Mrs. Hu looked at the person in front of her with trepidation, and said with a sense of helplessness, "I don't know the recipe for this wine. Why are you making things difficult for me, young master?"
"You may not know, but... Ji Meiqing does. Try asking her... see what's written on the prescription..."
He explained the method to her directly, and Madam Hu said, "I really can't get the recipe for brewing wine. Otherwise, young master, send someone who knows martial arts to investigate."
"Don't you want to make money?"
"Yes, I want to!" Mrs. Hu replied immediately, "but I can't earn that kind of money."
"There's no money you can't earn if you want to, unless you don't want to earn it." He flatly denied what she said, leaving Mrs. Hu speechless.
Who is Ji Meiqing? In such a short time, she has established her wine's reputation here, relying on its quality and the people behind her. Anyone could make this wine, and her path to wealth would have been cut off long ago.
Her eyes darted around, and an idea immediately came to her mind. Looking at the person in front of her, she flattered, "Actually, this method isn't impossible. Miss Ji is currently recruiting people. If you don't mind, you can send one or two people to investigate. Wouldn't that solve the problem? Just be careful not to let Miss Ji find out."
"Mrs. Hu has a good approach. If this works out in the future, we can reduce the cost of our cooperation."
The two exchanged a smile and quickly reached a consensus.
She rummaged through the cabinet, found a few silver notes, put them away, and went out. Ji Meiqing happened to be sitting at the stone table in the courtyard. Mama Hu glanced at her and immediately walked over with a smile.
"Here, this payment is settled. Next time, could you please bring some different flavors? It gets boring if the guests always try the same few."
Ji Meiqing took the money, counted it, and then handed it to Lu Yu behind her.
Looking up at Mrs. Hu's radiant face, she immediately smiled and said, "That's true. Next time, I'll have one of my men send you a wine list. You can decide whether to take it or not."
"Hey, that's good."
She smiled broadly and called out "Good!" three times in a row to send them off.
After delivering the goods, she stretched and looked at Lu Yu beside her with a look that was so bright it made people suspicious.
Just as she was about to speak, Li Ming walked over and interrupted them, "The wine has been delivered, so we'll head over now."
"Okay, you guys go ahead. I'll give you a day off today, so take a good rest." She was in a pretty good mood, and she was going to use the money to buy some things.
She thought about it and then asked Lu Yu to take out the silver notes, giving him half of them.
Li Ming didn't understand her meaning, so he looked at her with a puzzled expression.
"Go and get some more brewing materials. If there's any left over, keep it for settling accounts at the end of the month," she said, then put the remaining money back with Lu Yu.
Li Mingming understood, and then left with his men.
Looking at the cars, Ji Meiqing suddenly fell into a daze. Seeing her like this, Lu Yu gently reminded her.
She didn't ask what they were supposed to do, and simply followed him obediently. Her heavy thoughts along the way made Lu Yu inexplicably irritable.