TATSD Chapter 89

“What’s going on? Why is it so noisy outside?” Ji Wei called out as soon as one of the workers from the front hall appeared. “I can hear the noise from in here.”

The two men helping with selling and collecting money in the front hall were honest and steady. After Zhao Hu was reassigned to manage things independently, Ji Wei had to occasionally pick two people from familiar faces in the yard to help out in the front hall.

Seeing the unease on their faces, Ji Wei immediately knew something had happened. He quickly gave a few instructions to others and then jogged over to join them in the front hall.

When Ji Wei saw the commotion, he immediately understood. “Don’t worry, just go back to work. These are all raw materials. Go call the people from the back courtyard to help bring them in, so they don’t take up space here and make it crowded for the others waiting.”

These were the raw materials sent by Old Master Zhang.

They had previously discussed the details of their collaboration. Ji Wei was only responsible for the production, while Old Master Zhang was responsible for the raw materials. Every three days, he would send people to deliver the supplies.

It must be said, Zhang’s family business was truly one of the largest in the county.

Not only did they have shops in several nearby towns, but most importantly, Zhang’s family started with a rice shop and later expanded into grocery stores, bakeries, and other food-related businesses.

Though the other shops weren’t as large as the rice store, they still contributed about 40% of the family’s annual income. Since the rice store had reached its peak, Old Master Zhang had to expand into other industries, starting with the grocery stores.

Luckily for him, these stores could supply their raw materials, which reduced costs and increased profits.

Old Master Zhang was pleased, though it made things harder for the managers of the other grocery stores.

They had just established a stable partnership with Ji Wei and even lowered their prices for him, only to find within a month that Ji Wei’s business with them had been cut off.

Despite their frustration, they dared not oppose the Zhang family, so they swallowed their anger and moved on.

“Alright, you all sit here for a moment. I have something to tell you, but I need to check the goods first.” Ji Wei followed the workers into the yard, asking them to sit down and instructing Ah Qiu to bring them some water.

He checked the flour, sugar, eggs, yeast, milk, and goat milk, noting the quantities of each. Once he had everything figured out, he instructed Zhang’s workers, “From now on, send the goat milk to the Ji family’s place in the West Alley, and bring the rest—eggs, flour, milk—to the shop here.”

The two locations would handle different tasks, each with its own focus. If all the materials were sent to one place, there would be a lot of unnecessary moving around, which would waste energy. It was more efficient to separate the deliveries from the start.

The workers from Zhang’s family acknowledged the instructions and left.

Though these workers had been carefully selected by Zhang’s family, Ji Wei still had them sign contracts after the training was completed.

The contracts were designed by Ji Wei based on modern employment guidelines, with a seven-day probation period.

If they didn’t pass the probation, their pay would be halved. If they passed, they would be paid the regular rate.

Salaries were paid weekly, with each day consisting of three working hours and one hour for lunch. They earned twenty-five coins a day, plus one meal.

While this pay was slightly lower than the ten coins per hour they used to get, it was still a bit higher than the market rate. Additionally, the inclusion of a free meal saved many workers the trouble of running around to find lunch.

The most important part of the contract, however, was the confidentiality clause.

If anyone leaked training techniques or engaged in theft, they would have to pay ten taels of silver for the former and three times the amount for the latter. For ordinary people, ten taels was an unimaginable fortune. If they couldn’t pay, they might end up like Liu Qing—hauled to the county office and put into forced labor.

At first, when they had to sign with their thumbprints, some hesitated. However, considering they had never thought of stealing, they all eventually signed willingly.

There were two copies of the contract, one for Ji Wei to keep. If nothing went wrong, the contract would just be a pile of useless paper. But if something did happen, it would serve as proof, and Ji Wei could collect patent fees, which wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

When the contracts were signed, a few of the older workers murmured that Ji Wei wasn’t generous enough.

But once they started getting a set meal every day—one vegetarian, one meat dish, and one soup—those doubts quickly faded away.

As the saying goes, “A worker must first sharpen his tools if he is to do his work well.”

Ji Wei had a blacksmith in the village make a batch of tools and earned the trust of dozens of workers. With the whole team united, their morale was high.

By day, both locations were buzzing with activity. In the evenings, Zhao Hu would send the finished products—cheese, butter, skim milk, etc.—to the North Street shop, where they were stored in the well. The next day, the workers at the shop would turn them into delicious desserts.

Then, Zhang’s family would dispatch people to deliver the goods to various town branches.

Zhang’s family had stores in all five towns and the city, so transporting goods to these shops every day was no small task.

At first, Old Master Zhang didn’t prioritize the logistics and simply assigned a few of his workers from Changliu Town to handle the deliveries.

However, with such a large volume of goods and insufficient manpower, the deliveries were slow, sometimes taking until nightfall to complete a single round.

This situation lasted for only two days before both Old Master Zhang and Ji Wei realized there was a problem.

It was Ji Wei who first suggested establishing their own logistics system, assigning dedicated people from each town to come to Changliu Town and pick up the goods.

Old Master Zhang happily agreed. This also gave him an idea: to expand their cake business into other towns by using the workers who were already coming in daily to pick up orders.

If there’s money to be made, why not take it? Especially since cakes were indeed highly profitable.

Thanks to Zhang’s family’s many years of connections and reputation, along with carefully crafted promotional flyers, cake orders started coming in fast.

Ji Wei quickly went from fulfilling one cake order a day to six.

Though cake bases and cream could be made in batches, the assembly and decorating still kept Ji Wei running non-stop. He hardly had time to call out to customers in the front hall. Only after selling all the items in the shop did he find a moment to calculate the daily sales.

Once their initial cooperation between the Zhang and Ji families was set up, Ji Wei focused on supplying nearly seven bakeries every day, while the Zhang family concentrated on building recognition in other towns with little to no market base. Old Master Zhang, lacking experience in this, simply copied some of the promotional tactics Ji Wei had used in Changliu and Daxi towns.

Street-side promotions, free samples, discounted sales, and VIP home deliveries.

These advertising strategies, based on an understanding of human nature, could open any local market, no matter the era. Moreover, the simple villagers had never encountered such tactics and quickly took the bait. Everywhere Zhang’s bakeries opened, business boomed—so much so that they often had to close up early, an unprecedented situation.

In just half a month, Ji Wei and his “Wei Jue” pastries were well-known in the surrounding hundred-mile radius.

“Bastard!” Chen Mingsheng slammed the ledger on the table, his face turning pale with anger.

“Xiang Shu, you’ve been with me for so many years, and I never thought you’d do something like this!”

The man called Xiang Shu had a face full of wrinkles, and he looked to be around fifty. Upon hearing Chen Mingsheng’s words, he immediately understood what he meant. With a bitter expression, he shook his head and sighed, “Master, are you saying that I’ve embezzled from the shop?”

Chen Mingsheng snorted through his nose, “What else could it be?” It wasn’t that he didn’t trust him, but the shop’s business had dropped so much this month that something seemed off.

“Ask the workers. Hasn’t there been a rise in customers coming to buy cakes these past few days?” Xiang Shu shook his head. Knowing that Chen Mingsheng wouldn’t believe him unless he saw the situation for himself, he didn’t say anything further. Instead, he led Chen Mingsheng down the street to Changshi Bakery, which was located just a short distance away.

Without needing any explanation, Chen Mingsheng saw immediately what was going on.

“There… how long has this been going on?” He swallowed hard, clearing his dry throat.

“About ten days,” Xiang Shu answered.

At the bakery, a long line of more than a dozen customers had formed. They were packed tightly in front of the small shop, chattering excitedly. Their faces were filled with urgency and excitement, showing just how eager they were to get their hands on whatever was inside.

This Zhang family was Chen Mingsheng’s archrival. Their two families had competed for the past seven or eight years. At first, the competition wasn’t as fierce, since the Chen family had been in the cake and tea business for many years. Apart from Changliu and Qingcheng, they had stores in other towns as well.

As Zhang’s business grew larger, they unexpectedly ventured into the bakery business and started taking away his customers. The two families gradually became bitter rivals, competing against each other.

The Chen family had deep roots, while Zhang’s family was still somewhat inferior. For a while, both families maintained a delicate balance, but unexpectedly, that balance was suddenly shattered.

Chen Mingsheng only checked the ledgers at his various stores once a month. When he saw that this month’s revenue was barely half of last month’s, he was completely stunned.

“Something must have happened! Do you know what’s going on?” Chen Mingsheng said, his voice tense.

“Zhang’s store has started selling all sorts of strange new things these past two weeks. I had my workers buy some of them—things like the ‘song cookies’ or whatever they’re called. I can’t remember them all,” Xiang Shu said with a hint of helplessness. He was older now and wasn’t used to such novelties, so it was a bit difficult for him to accept.

“How do they taste?”

“They’re not bad. It seems like everyone likes them.”

“So, they hired a new baker?” Chen Mingsheng paused for a moment, then suddenly asked, “What if I offer him a large sum to get him to come work for us?”

“No, I asked around. They didn’t change the baker. The new stuff seems to be coming from elsewhere, though. Every day, there are carts hauling boxes of goods to their store,” Xiang Shu replied. He had been spending the last few days outside Zhang’s shop and had seen these deliveries firsthand.

“No! I need to figure this out,” Chen Mingsheng said decisively. Having been in business for most of his life, he quickly made up his mind. “I’m going over to buy some of their new products and try them.”

As soon as the workers at Zhang’s store saw Xiang Shu, their faces immediately darkened. They were not welcoming, though they couldn’t kick him out since he was a customer. They didn’t go out of their way to be friendly either.

Chen Mingsheng didn’t mind. He ordered one of each item that he hadn’t seen before, then quickly pulled Xiang Shu along as they rushed back to his shop. Pointing at a pile of goods on the table, he urgently said, “I’ve seen this before! Isn’t this from Lin’s shop?”

If Chen Mingsheng wasn’t mistaken, Lin Yaozu’s shop had sold something similar not long ago, including those mooncakes that suddenly became popular and made a lot of people happy.

Could it be that Zhang’s products came from that old fox, Lin?

Chen Mingsheng slapped his thigh and exclaimed, “Xiang Shu, please have someone dig into this. Spend some money if needed. I’ll go check the other stores and come back the day after tomorrow.”

If it was just a problem with this one shop, it would be easy to handle. But if… what if it’s bigger than that?

“Pah, pah, pah! Stop thinking such unlucky thoughts…”

Xiang Shu watched as Chen Mingsheng got into the carriage, then sighed, his face drooping. He called over one of the workers, handed him ten copper coins, and said, “I remember you have a young lady you fancy.”

The worker, holding the money, looked at Xiang Shu with surprise.

“Have her go to Zhang’s shop and buy some of the new items that haven’t been seen before. Ask around about where they came from and who made them. This money’s for you, and the rest is for her. Both of us are familiar faces, and if we go, they’ll just clamp up even tighter,” Xiang Shu sighed.