. In Bianjing City, there is an alley named---Pig Killing Alley.
A very domineering name.
This pig-killing alley is also the gathering place for pig-killing workshops. From morning to night, more than 10,000 fat pigs are killed here every day.
Five o'clock in the morning.
Originally, this was supposed to be the busiest time in Pig Killing Alley, but today, the alley was extremely deserted, with only a few scattered butchers and a few clerks busy opening their businesses.
The people who came to buy meat were very surprised.
Could it be that the plague is coming?
For a time, people were panicked.
Boom, boom, boom!
While Li Qi was still asleep, there was a sudden knock on the door.
"Who is it?"
Li Qi shouted subconsciously, and opened his eyes with difficulty. Seeing that it was still dark outside the window, he said depressedly: "It's not even bright yet, who is knocking on the door?"
"Master Li, it's me."
Aunt Chen's voice came from outside the door.
"Oh, it's Mrs. Chen, what's the matter?" Li Qi rubbed his eyes and asked.
"Madam asked you to go to the front yard immediately."
lady?
Li Qi asked doubtfully: "What time is it now?"
"Just after the fifth watch, Shopkeeper Wu also arrived."
Old Wu is here too? Could something have happened?
Li Qi's face tightened, and he lost all sleep, and replied: "I understand, you go tell my wife, I will come right away."
After briefly washing up, Li Qi rushed to the front yard. At this time, Mrs. Qin and Wu Furong were sitting inside, both looking extremely anxious.
"Master Li, you are here. Eh? What's wrong with your face?"
When Wu Furong saw Li Qi coming, he hurried over and suddenly saw three deep red marks on Li Qi's forehead. He was stunned for a moment.
"Uh, he was caught by a cat." Li Qi said sarcastically. In the battle between him and Feng Yinu yesterday, he was finally defeated and ran away. The three red marks on his face were relatively light. If Wu Furong saw it,
The spider web-like criss-crossing scars on Li Qi's arm would probably shock him.
The cost of this advantage is too great.
Li Qi thought that he would have to see Feng Yinu later. Even though he had a headache, he didn't think about it and said: "By the way. Uncle Wu, did something happen to you coming here so late?"
Wu Furong was slightly startled, slapped his thigh suddenly, lowered his head and stamped his feet and said, "Mr. Li, something big happened?"
Li Qi was startled by Wu Furong's action and said in surprise: "What's the big deal? Did something go wrong?"
Wu Furong shook his head and said in horror: "Now there is no meat to buy in the entire Bianjing city."
“No meat to buy?”
Li Qi was stunned and said in surprise: "Uncle Wu, please explain clearly, what does it mean to have no meat to buy?"
Wu Furong trembled a few times and said: "The thing is like this. Originally, at the fourth watch, Butcher Zheng and several other butchers would deliver meat to Zuixianju, but today the fourth watch has passed.
, but no one came to the door. The uncle who looked after the door was a little strange when he saw this. He told Liuzi about it, and Liuzi went to Butcher Zheng to have a look. You asked what was wrong, it turned out that the meat in his place had been sold out long ago.
Not only that, but now there is no pork or mutton in the entire market."
Pork and mutton are the most popular meats today!
Li Qi was stunned. After a while, he said: "You mean, you can't find a piece of pork in the entire Bianjing city?"
Wu Furong nodded and said: "Now I have sent Liu Zi and others to go everywhere to find out the news."
"Li Qi, this is too strange." Mrs. Qin frowned slightly.
"That's what the lady said."
Li Qi narrowed his eyes and said: "When something goes wrong, there must be a monster. This matter is definitely not that simple."
Wu Furong said: "Do you suspect Jade Xuan is responsible?"
Li Qi nodded and frowned: "But how can he eat such a big piece of meat? It's simply impossible. Let's wait until Liu Zi and the others come."
Now he is also confused here, so he can't think of any way to deal with it.
Wu Furong was pacing back and forth even more anxiously. It would be dawn soon. If he couldn't get pork and mutton, it would be a problem to open today.
After about half an hour, Liuzi, Chen Anan and the others finally arrived.
"Brother Li, it's bad, something big has happened."
Wu Xiaoliu rushed in in a hurry, without caring about etiquette, and shouted loudly.
Li Qi frowned slightly and said, "Speak slowly, what happened?"
Wu Xiaoliu gasped and said: "Then---then Yuanwai Cai bought all the meat."
"What?"
All three of them were shocked.
Li Qi frowned and said: "How is this possible? How can he have so much money? This is not a small amount of money."
"it is true."
Chen Anan also had a look of fear on his face and said: "Jade Pavilion, together with Pan Lou, Yang Lou, Lion Restaurant, and twenty other big restaurants, have taken away all the pork and mutton that can be bought in the market."
Wu Xiaoliu nodded hurriedly and said: "And I also heard that they have signed contracts with most of the butchers to buy their meat for the next two months. In addition, the four largest butchers in the capital have also signed contracts with them.
I don’t know the details of the contract, but they are not allowed to sell meat to us, otherwise these restaurants will not buy meat from them.”
Wu Xiaoliu then told Li Qi and the others the information he had obtained in detail.
The situation was more serious than Li Qi imagined.
In today's meat market, apart from the palace, there are probably three sales channels. One of them is the houses of dignitaries. They all have their own dedicated cooks. This part of the meat is basically fixed, and no one dares to buy it.
Pay attention to this aspect; the second is restaurants, which are the main channel, because nowadays people don’t cook at home, they usually go to restaurants to eat, and some of the nearby foot shops also buy meat directly from restaurants, so restaurants every day
The amount of meat needed every day is very huge, and Cai Minde and others took away this part of the meat. Thirdly, it was in the homes of a small number of ordinary people, most of whom were small vendors, such as
When it comes to selling steamed buns, this part is almost negligible.
Although there are already large-scale pig farms and pastures, wars are raging these days, the situation is turbulent, the market price of food is also extremely unstable, there are more natural disasters, and the relationship between butchers and restaurants is that of restaurants.
Dominant. Therefore, restaurants are unwilling to sign very strict contracts with butchers. They usually choose the best ones. Whose price is cheaper and whose meat is of better quality will be used.
The so-called cooperative relationship is just a verbal promise. In the past, the butchers came to the restaurant to compete for business.
And Cai Minde took advantage of this loophole. He suddenly launched an attack, united a large number of restaurants, and robbed all the pork and mutton that could be purchased on the market. Naturally, he did not dare to touch the meat that belonged to the houses of dignitaries.
He didn't dare to move. Naturally, Zui Xianju didn't dare to move either.
Pork and mutton are the most popular among guests nowadays. If Zuixianju doesn't have even a piece of mutton, it will have to close its doors.
As soon as Cai Minde came up, he immediately launched his killing move, which really caught Li Qi off guard.
But what makes Li Qi curious is that with so much meat, even if so many restaurants join together, it is difficult to guarantee that the meat will be sold out every day. If it cannot be sold, let alone two months, one month, Jade Pavilion
It would have to go bankrupt, not to mention other restaurants.
"That's unreasonable. I didn't expect that Mr. Zhang from Yanglou was actually a white-eyed wolf. When Jade Xuan robbed his business, we helped him. But now, he has teamed up with Old Fox Cai to deal with us. Really.
It's so abominable." When Wu Furong heard that Yang Lou had also participated, he was so angry that his whole body trembled.
Mrs. Qin was also very angry. Zui Xianju and Yang Lou had always had a good relationship, but she never expected that Yang Lou would turn him upside down. She stood up and said, "I'll go find him to reason with him."
Reasoning? There is no reason to say anything in business.
Li Qi hurriedly stopped him and said, "Madam, you don't need to worry. I think it must be Jade Tower that gave Yang Lou some benefit, so he would do this. If you try to talk to him about it, you will only be humiliating yourself."
It has to be said that Cai Minde's move was indeed brilliant. He was able to unite so many restaurants in such a short period of time to jointly fight Zui Xianju, and he was also able to sign a good contract with the butcher so quickly.
, this is really incredible.
"Master Li, why don't you ask the Grand Master to come forward?" Wu Furong said.
Li Qi shook his head and said: "Master Cai may still hope that Zuixianju will close down, so that I can cook for him. Besides, we ask him to help us with business matters. What a big deal."
Wu Furong said anxiously: "If this doesn't work, that won't work either, so what should we do? Without meat, I don't think we can do business."
Mrs. Qin said: "How about we wait two months before opening the door for business?"
This lady has some bad ideas.
Li Qi smiled bitterly and said: "In this case, it would be better to sell Zuixianju directly."
"Then Mr. Li, do you have any good plans?" Wu Furong asked with expectation on his face.
Li Qi shook his head and said, "Not yet, but suspending business is definitely not an option." Then he asked Wu Xiaoliu: "What is the price of pork in the market today?"
Wu Xiaoliu stretched out two fingers and said: "It's almost one hundred and fifty yuan. But that little meat is not enough for us."
Li Qi sighed lightly, and then said: "Then do you know how high the price of Feicui Xuan and the others purchased pork?"
Wu Xiaoliu said: "I heard from Butcher Zheng that it was one hundred and ten cents."
"This is five cents lower than the previous price. It must be that the butchers saw that Cai Minde and the others were selling so much meat at once, so they gave him a preferential price."
Li Qi thought for a while and then asked: "Did Fan Lou participate in it?"
Wu Xiaoliu shook his head and said, "It seems not. I just went to Fan Lou for a walk and heard from the bartender there that the meat in their store was delivered on time, but there was no more meat than usual."
"It seems that Fan Lou has not joined forces with Jade Xuan, and Jade Xuan is also using this to show its goodwill to Fan Lou and not to steal its business."
Li Qi nodded slightly and said: "It seems that this is the only good news tonight."
If Fan Lou joins forces with Jade Xuan again, the situation will be really bad.
"good news?"
Wu Furong jumped up anxiously and said: "Master Li, are you still in the mood to take care of Fan Lou? What should we do now?"
Li Qi thought for a while, smiled, and said: "Since we can't buy meat, let's go vegetarian. Now we have to figure out how Jade Hall sells so much meat." Then he turned towards Mrs. Qin.
Said: "Madam, please write a few words."
Mrs. Qin was stunned and said: "What word?"
Li Qi raised the corner of his mouth and said: "The best cake in the world."
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