Clouds and Moon Shadow

Chapter 428: A 52 yuan entry fee per person, can you believe it!

Gu Yuanen was about to speak when Gu Qingyue stopped him.

She lowered her voice and mimicked the young waiter, seemingly very interested: "We came here for that. We only recently heard about it, but... we know very little about it and don't know where to start if we want to ask. We just happened to stumble upon the right place."

Beside him, Gu Yuanen's lips twitched.

The waiter's eyes lit up when he heard Gu Qingyue's words.

"Sir, you're a sensible person, that's good. However, if you want to know the specific time and place, then you'll have to—" At this point, the waiter rubbed his thumb and forefinger together, indicating that money was required to buy information.

Without hesitation, Gu Qingyue took out a five-tael silver note. Seeing the clerk's satisfied expression upon seeing the note, she had a general idea of ​​what was going on.

She held the silver note between her fingers and shook it. "Let me see what kind of information the waiter can provide, and whether it's useful. If it's useless, you'll have to return double what you took."

Upon hearing this, the young waiter's eyes widened in disbelief.

The two left the Fengzhuang salt shop a quarter of an hour later, but they were in good spirits.

Because they received some very interesting news.

Simply put, tomorrow, a secret trade fair will be held in a secluded courtyard five miles outside the county town, whose owner is unknown. You can enter by paying an entrance fee.

Of course, this will not be publicized. Meng County has a special salt inspector set up by the imperial court. In principle, in order to ensure the stability of the supply of brine salt in the Great Chu, this brine salt well cannot be resold casually.

However, merchants are profit-driven, and some may sell the brine wells and run away if they feel they are not making money.

Therefore, this so-called grand event is all spread by word of mouth, and only business people, especially those interested in the Mengxian salt business, would want to come and see it.

There are auctions of brine wells here, as well as transfers of some experienced brine well operators.

The "old hand" the young man was referring to was a craftsman who specialized in surveying and excavating brine wells.

For example, someone opened a few brine wells here and found that the brine quality was not good and it was not profitable. He wanted to resell them and also sell the old craftsmen to people who wanted to do brine business in Yu County.

Then you can come to this private trading venue to find a buyer.

Gu Yuanen showed absolutely no interest after hearing the young waiter's introduction!

What? Auctioning off brine wells and artisans?

What does it have to do with him?

But the young waiter, having received five taels of silver from Gu Qingyue, introduced the product with fiery enthusiasm and boundless energy.

He said it was their annual grand event in Yu County. He had met three or four groups of people before who wanted to come to Yu County to find brine wells and prepare to open salt fields.

In his eyes, Gu Qingyue and the others must also be eyeing the salt business and want to get a share of the profits.

Gu Yuanen wasn't interested, but Gu Qingyue, whose life motto was making money, was!

Although we need to get to Nanzhao as soon as possible, it's still worthwhile to stay an extra night to learn more about the brine salt business.

After all, she knew in her heart that the brine salt from Meng County held a very high position in the Great Chu.

Moreover, the importance of salt is self-evident.

We have to go see it!

So, the next evening, Gu Qingyue and Gu Yuanen took Yue Ling to the villa that the shopkeeper had mentioned.

All three had disguised themselves; they had ordinary appearances but looked very wealthy.

In particular, Gu Qingyue insisted on putting a big mole on her chin, making her look like a thin, weak young man, waving a folding fan and acting like a scoundrel.

Upon arriving at the villa, Gu Qingyue paid an entrance fee of one hundred and fifty taels.

Heartache!

An entrance fee of fifty taels per person! Can you believe it!

Seeing Gu Qingyue enter the courtyard, and fanning herself faster and faster with her fan, Gu Yuanen's eyes twitched. How stingy was this little sister?

Are you so angry because you paid over a hundred taels of silver?

Of course, he had never lacked money growing up, so he naturally didn't know what Gu Qingyue was thinking.

The three of them, holding the admission tickets they had bought, arrived at a very large backyard. A small platform had already been set up, with rows of armchairs underneath.

It was getting dark, and lights were being lit under the eaves of the surrounding corridors.

Indistinctly, Gu Qingyue could only see servants in gray clothes coming and going, serving tea and water with great attentiveness.

Gu Qingyue estimated that there were at least a hundred people here, but the chairs were still not full.

I wonder who organized this trading event; it's quite large and interesting!

The three of them found some armchairs not far from the platform and sat down. She strained her ears to listen to what the people next to her were saying.

"I heard that both Feng's and Liu's are auctioning off their brine wells this time. Does that mean they're not doing that business anymore?"

As soon as Gu Qingyue and the others sat down, two middle-aged men spoke in hushed tones diagonally in front of her.

"How could that be? I don't know about Liu's business, but the brine well in Fengjiazhuang is the best among the brine wells in Meng County. The brine it produces is of high quality, and the salt has few impurities. The imperial court purchases the most of it every year. Would it be auctioned off?"

The other man could hardly believe his ears.

"I heard it's true. Apparently, the old master of the Feng family is not in good health. His son passed away from illness a few years ago, and the old master only has a little grandson left. That little grandson loves to play with swords and knives and has no desire to take over the brine well, so the old master of the Feng family wants to sell some of it."

"Really? No wonder so many people came to Meng County this time. Did they hear something?"

The man who just asked the question almost jumped for joy; this was incredibly good news!!

Whoever takes over Feng's brine wells, can just lie at home counting money every day!

The Feng family's brine wells may not be the most numerous in Meng County, but their quality is absolutely the best!

This is a golden opportunity!

Upon hearing this, Gu Qingyue raised an eyebrow, suddenly realizing that the 150 taels of silver she had paid at the gate earlier were truly worthwhile!

If she could acquire Feng's brine well...

Gu Qingyue had already begun to imagine herself lying on a mountain of gold, counting her silver.

She lowered her voice and whispered something to Gu Yuanen.

Gu Yuanen's eyes immediately sparkled.

In less than 15 minutes, all the armchairs in the courtyard were full.

Gu Qingyue looked back and saw that there were still quite a few people standing in the distance. It seemed that they had arrived late and hadn't managed to get a seat.

It seems that the news that Feng Ji is going to sell off the brine well is true!

Gu Qingyue was very fortunate that she had just made it to this year's grand event.

But recalling how enthusiastically the young shop assistant talked while holding the money, he probably didn't know that the reason this grand event attracted so many people was because Feng's was going to sell brine wells, haha.

However, it is said that in addition to the auctions of brine wells and artisans, some very rare items are also auctioned at this annual event, but these are not the focus of the event.

At the hour of Xu (7-9 PM), the auction of brine wells began.

Everyone instantly became as excited as if they had been injected with chicken blood, and they were all eager to get started.