ILSITM Chapter 16

Our first live broadcast selling liquor earned us quick money, so we wanted to do it bigger and earn even more.

One day, we took the money to the Imperial Garden to meet Zhu Youxiao.

As soon as Old Zhang saw Zhu Youxiao, he rushed to say, “Your Majesty, as soon as your folding bed was brought to the market, it was surrounded by a crowd of people scrambling to buy it. We had no choice but to use a bidding method. Whoever offered the highest price would get it. The first person offered ten taels of silver, but the second person directly gave us ten taels of gold, so we sold the folding bed to him.”

As soon as Old Zhang finished speaking, Wen Rourou placed the ten taels of gold beside Zhu Youxiao.

Zhu Youxiao was very happy and laughed, saying the buyer had good taste.

Actually, we only sold that folding bed for ten taels of silver.

Old Lin then placed one hundred taels of gold in front of Zhu Youxiao and said, “Your Majesty, this is the labor reward for your help in building cars and bridges last time.”

“So much!” Zhu Youxiao grinned from ear to ear.

“Your Majesty, this is just small money; there’s big money waiting for you later!” I deliberately left him in suspense.

“Really? Then tell me, how much bigger is the money later?” Zhu Youxiao looked at me and said with a smile.

“We want to lay three pipelines for transporting Baidu Liquor, one end connecting to the three liquor stores in the Capital market, and the other end connecting to our Jiudong City. Because the pipelines have to pass through the Royal Palace and the Tiger Cave, we need your Majesty’s permission,” I said, looking at Zhu Youxiao.

Zhu Youxiao remained noncommittal, with a thoughtful expression.

“As long as Your Majesty approves our laying of the pipelines, we promise to pay a toll of one hundred taels of gold every day,” I said with certainty.

“What did you say? Pay a toll of one hundred taels of gold every day? Wouldn’t that mean I’d be earning gold every day?” Zhu Youxiao widened his eyes, looking surprised.

You should know that in the late Ming Dynasty, the country was declining, and the national treasury was empty. Relief for disaster victims, wars, military operations in the north and south, etc., often put the imperial court’s finances in a bind.

“Yes, we can put it in writing,” I said, looking at Zhu Youxiao with a firm gaze.

The next morning, during the early court session, Zhu Youxiao brought up the matter to discuss with the ministers, and they all felt it was a good way to increase financial revenue.

“Your Majesty, they promised to pay a toll of one hundred taels of gold every day, which is no small amount. We must sign a contract in black and white. If they cannot fulfill the contract, they must be punished for deceiving the Emperor,” Li Jinzhong (Wei Zhongxian), the Chief Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, advised.

“The contract must be signed. If they don’t fulfill it, we will no longer provide them with passage. After all, this is a great win-win situation, so I think we can waive the punishment,” this time Zhu Youxiao did not completely follow Wei Zhongxian’s advice.

With the “toll” issue resolved, we contacted Wang Laosi, the boat owner who often transported wood to the Royal Palace, and asked him to help us transport four boats of bamboo from Du Guangfu to the Capital.

Du Guang Mountain is rich in Jianmu trees, which tower into the clouds. Legend has it that long ago, these trees could grow all the way to the sky.

In fact, bamboo also grows on this mountain, growing both tall and straight.

The four of us had disagreements when discussing what materials to use for the liquor transport pipelines.

Old Lin and Old Zhang suggested using our modern PPR pipes, while Wen Rourou and I suggested using bamboo.

In the end, the four of us made compromises and concessions, reaching the following consensus: from Chessboard Street to the Royal Palace, use bamboo pipes; from Tiger Cave to outside the manhole, use PPR pipes.

To this end, we rented a storefront at the entrance of the Pedestrian Street above this manhole, specializing in selling Ming Dynasty liquor.

We also dug a hole not far from the manhole passage, so that the liquor transport pipelines would not need to come out of the manhole, but would come directly out of the passage and connect to the storefront at the entrance of the Pedestrian Street.

After the store opened, we didn’t have to worry about customers. The people who bought the liquor were all my cave exploration live broadcast fans.

Every day, there was a long queue in front of our store.

Some people came to buy a jin of liquor in a mineral water bottle, while others drove up to buy dozens or hundreds of jin.

Some people brought their own containers for the liquor, while others bought Ming Dynasty wine urns and wine jars sold in our store to hold the liquor.

The three types of liquor we sold were priced at 9,999 yuan, 9,888 yuan, and 9,808 yuan per jin, respectively.

Each type of liquor was limited to 300 jin per day, and the daily sales amount, including the sale of wine urns and wine jars, exceeded ten million yuan.

Initially, Wen Rourou was responsible for managing our store, but later we converted it into an unmanned self-service liquor store.

When people bought liquor, they first entered the quantity of liquor they wanted to buy on the computer screen, and after successfully scanning the code to pay, the liquor would automatically flow out of the pipe.

Since our store became an unmanned self-service liquor store, the number of times we went to the store decreased, from once a day at the beginning to once a week.

One day, when the four of us went to check on the store, we found that all three self-service liquor vending machines in our store had been sealed.

The seal was stamped with the “Jiudong City Market Supervision and Administration Bureau”.

We found the person in charge of the Jiudong City Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, who said that they had put up the seals because someone had reported that we were selling fake liquor.

“We received a report from the owner of a famous liquor store on Pedestrian Street, who said that you are suspected of selling fake liquor and also suspected of false advertising,” the Person in Charge with surname Jia said.

Old Zhang had brought a box of Yao Zixue Qu liquor with him and was about to pour a cup for the person in charge to taste, but he was immediately stopped by the Person in Charge with surname Jia.

“I’ve tasted your liquor. The liquor is good, but the liquor you’re selling is a ‘three-no product’,” the person in charge said with a serious face.

“‘Three-no products’ refers to those products that have no production date, no quality certificate, and no manufacturer from an unknown source. Our liquor has a production date, a manufacturer, and a quality guarantee,” Wen Rourou argued on the basis of reason.

“Then explain to me, what day was your liquor produced, which manufacturer produced it, and do you have a quality certificate?” the person in charge questioned, somewhat angrily.

Old Zhang pointed to the jar of Yao Zixue Qu liquor he was holding and said, “This jar of Yao Zixue Qu liquor was produced in the second year of the Tianqi era of the Ming Dynasty. The manufacturer is the Wen Defeng Liquor Workshop of the Ming Dynasty. This liquor and the other two types of liquor we sell are all tribute wines of the Imperial Court. Do you think there is a quality guarantee?”

“That sounds good, but who can prove that the liquor in your hand was produced in the second year of the Tianqi era of the Ming Dynasty?” the person in charge laughed coldly.

“The Ming Dynasty people can prove it! The videos I shot can prove it!” I showed the person in charge the videos I had shot on my phone.

“You’re just showing me a play you hired people to perform, aren’t you? Isn’t it easy to find a place to shoot a costume drama now?!” The person in charge simply didn’t believe that these were videos we had shot after traveling back to the Ming Dynasty.

“How about this, we’ll immediately invite three national-level liquor experts to appraise it. If the liquor we’re selling is not from the Ming Dynasty, we’ll accept the punishment,” Old Lin said to the Person in Charge with surname Jia after glancing at the three of us.

“Okay, then I’ll also call three technical personnel from our bureau who are responsible for identifying the authenticity and age of liquor to come. You follow me, I’ll take you to the conference room, it’s a big place,” the person in charge said, leading us towards the conference room.

After a while, a large group of people suddenly poured into the huge conference room.

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