Dad, don't be greedy! My brother climbed into the emperor's bed, and I became famous overn

Chen Sandao opened the top book and pointed to the numbers on it.

The smile on his face almost reached his ears.

"Boss, our shop has sold over a million braised ducks in the past three months alone!"

"What?!"

Gu Mingyue's eyes widened.

The back room fell silent.

Even the emperor gasped slightly.

More than a million?!

Gu Mingyue's gaze fell on the number in the ledger, and her pupils contracted slightly.

Chen Sandao didn't notice his boss's expression of utter despair.

They're still going on.

"After deducting the costs of raising ducks, feed, labor, shop maintenance, and sauces, the net profit is 80,000 taels!"

Gu Mingyue slowly closed her eyes.

When she first opened this shop, she paid everyone a high wage.

The prices for ducklings and adult ducks are both very high.

The original intention was to keep costs from being reduced so that profits would be so thin as to be negligible.

As a result, 80,000 taels of silver were laid out in the account book.

Gu Mingyue did not respond.

I feel so sad I want to cry.

Chen Sandao thought his employer was moved.

He rubbed his hands together, grinning from ear to ear, his tone full of eagerness to present his treasure.

"Don't be in such a hurry, sir, I haven't finished yet."

Gu Mingyue's eyelashes trembled slightly.

You...aren't you finished?!

Chen Sandao had someone pull out a thin account book from the shelf next to him.

"Boss, after you left, our shop encountered a big problem."

A glimmer of hope flashed through Gu Mingyue's mind.

Problem? What problem?

Is it possible to encounter some issues that result in losses?

"There are too many duck eggs."

Chen Sandao spoke these words with a troubled tone.

But that distress was tinged with a thin layer of pride, which couldn't be hidden.

"Our farm has more than a thousand female ducks, and they lay seven or eight hundred eggs a day."

"Let's sell fresh eggs. Jiangzhou City is only so big, and every household raises ducks for us."

"Nobody wants duck eggs in Jiangzhou anymore. They just pile up in the warehouse and go bad in a few days. What a waste!"

He slapped his thigh, his voice full of heartache.

"I watched those eggs, piling up and piling up, piling up and piling up."

"I'm so worried! I can't sleep at all, night after night."

"The employer spent a lot of money raising ducks, and now the produce is rotting in my hands. Isn't that a waste of money?"

Gu Mingyue's lips twitched almost imperceptibly.

Actually, it's okay to ruin it a little.

Chen Sandao didn't notice her expression and continued speaking.

"Then I wondered, if fresh eggs can't be sold, could we pickle them?"

"When I was a child, some people in my hometown made salted duck eggs by coating them in salt mud, burying them in a jar, and they would be ready in a month. I tried it..."

He turned to the next page of the ledger and pointed to the numbers on it.

"The first batch consisted of 3,000 salted duck eggs. We took them to the dock for a trial sale. Each salted duck egg cost two coins."

"Two hundred were put out on the first day, and they sold out in half an hour."

Chen Sandao's eyes lit up as he spoke.

"Those men who work on ships love this the most. Salted duck eggs with white porridge are both filling and appetizing."

"A ship captain bought fifty of them in one go. He said his sailors ate dry biscuits every day and their mouths were so bland."

"Later I increased the quantity. I pickled 200,000 in one month. They were all sold out."

He drew a line down in the ledger and wrote a number next to it.

"Salted duck eggs, four thousand taels."

Gu Mingyue's expression didn't change much.

But her fingers, gripping the corner of the ledger, turned white at the knuckles.

Chen Sandao showed no sign of stopping.

That energy was like something that had been building up for three months, finally waiting for the boss to arrive, and he couldn't wait to pour out all the good news at once.

"Master, this isn't even the worst part."

Gu Mingyue looked up at him.

And there's something even more amazing?!

As he spoke, he opened the account book again.

"The preserved eggs were made over a month ago. The first batch was sold to restaurants and eateries in the city for five coins each. They were sliced, made into a cold dish, and served as an appetizer with drinks."

"Later, word spread, and restaurants from the three neighboring counties came to place orders. A merchant from Hangzhou ordered five thousand at once, saying he wanted to take them back to sell."

Chen Sandao emphasized the numbers in the ledger with his finger.

"Century eggs, five thousand taels a month."

The back room fell silent once more.

Gu Mingyue lowered her head, looking at the numbers in the ledger.

Four thousand taels of salted duck eggs. Five thousand taels of preserved eggs. In addition to the eighty thousand taels of braised duck from before.

The duck business alone netted 89,000 taels of silver in three months.

But that's not the key point.

The key is...

Chen Sandao was still scrolling down.

"Oh, right, boss, there's still a big sum we haven't settled."

Gu Mingyue slowly raised her head and looked up at the sky.

The sky is really falling.

Chen Sandao didn't notice that his boss's heart had already quietly shattered.

He was still flipping through the account books.

"Boss, our duck farming business currently has a stock of live ducks..."

"Twelve million."

The air in the back room seemed to have been sucked out.

"What?"

Gu Mingyue thought she had misheard.

"One million...two million?"

"right!"

Chen Sandao stood tall and proud, his chest puffed out.

"Our farm has been running non-stop since you left. The breeding ducks hatch ducklings, and when the ducklings grow up, they lay eggs and hatch them again."

"Jiangzhou has a good climate and many ponds, so the ducks grow quickly. We've had several batches in three months."

"I rented all the idle ponds in the surrounding four villages. The villagers help take care of the ducks, and we pay them wages monthly. At the end of the month, we buy back the ducks by weight."

He counted on his fingers.

"Twelve million live ducks. At market price, each duck is worth at least thirty coins."

He paused for a moment as he was doing his calculations.

"That's... 360,000 taels?"

The back room was completely silent.

Gu Mingli's lips twitched involuntarily as he secretly glanced at his sister's profile.

Gu Mingyue stood in front of the ledger, her gaze fixed on the "twelve million" figure, and didn't look away for a long time.

Her mind raced.

No! We absolutely cannot let those 360,000 taels of silver go into our hands!

These live ducks haven't turned into silver yet; they're just assets.

As long as it's not sold, it doesn't count as a profit.

But twelve million ducks need to be fed every day and watched over every day.

The cost of raising livestock is astronomical.

This is a good thing.

The higher the cost, the faster the money is spent.

But the problem is...

Chen Sandao's next words extinguished her last glimmer of hope.

"Don't worry, the cost of raising them is not high."

He patted his chest with a smile.

"Our method is a combination of free-range and semi-enclosed farming. During the day, we drive them to the pond to forage for food, and in the evening we feed them a meal of bran mixed with vegetable leaves. The ducks aren't picky eaters; they'll eat anything."

"Villagers from all four villages are vying to do this job. The pay is 10 coins per duck, which is easier than farming."

"They even brought scraps from their own vegetable garden to feed the ducks, saying that they wouldn't let the good stuff go to outsiders."

He became more and more excited as he talked.

"So, on average, the cost of raising a duck from hatching to market is only two coins."

Gu Mingyue took a deep breath.

"Old Chen."

"exist!"

"We're not in a hurry to sell the live ducks."

Gu Mingyue closed the ledger.

"Let's keep it for now."