Chapter 323: The Bai Grocery Store Is Not Short on Money

The Young Master Li said this, sat down at the table with a bold, unconstrained air, and beckoned to the waiter.

"Come, bring me the best and most expensive wine and dishes your shop has."

"My workers are tired from escorting the goods; I am treating them tonight, so let them have good wine and good food."

The waiter immediately threw his towel over his shoulder, his face full of smiles.

"Young Master, please order your dishes."

Young Master Li glanced at Xiao Moting and his group, deliberately raising his voice.

"Just bring a few of your shop's signature dishes: white jade fish slices, spiced braised pig head meat, secret-recipe pork knuckle..."

His voice was very loud, and he ordered over a dozen fine dishes in one breath.

The other merchants in the restaurant all turned their heads to look, whispering to one another.

"Ordering so many fine dishes, it must cost at least three hundred taels of silver."

"As expected of Young Master Li from the Fuji Trading Firm, he really is wealthy and imposing."

"Eating three hundred taels of silver worth of dishes in one meal, the Fuji Trading Firm is truly extravagant; as expected of imperial merchants, they have money."

Listening to the envious voices of the crowd around him, Young Master Li suddenly felt very prestigious, and even his chin was raised two inches higher than before.

Steward Liu, standing to the side, was grinning from ear to ear, flattering him incessantly.

"Young Master, you are the one who is truly wealthy and imposing; following you, our future is guaranteed to be bright."

After ordering the dishes, Young Master Li deliberately turned his head to look at Bai Wei's table.

He ordered so many dishes just to show off in front of Bai Wei.

But when Young Master Li looked, he was stunned.

Bai Wei and Xiao Moting were sitting at the table by the window, chatting to themselves, not even looking in his direction.

On their table, for some reason, there were several strangely shaped transparent round bottles, filled with liquids of various colors.

In the middle of the table, there was even a large ice bucket, and inside the ice bucket was a large bottle of strange black liquid.

Seeing the ice bucket, Young Master Li's pupils constricted.

"Where did they buy ice?"

In the Daliang Kingdom, there were shops that specialized in selling ice.

These ice shops usually had very deep cellars; they stored ice in the cellars during winter, sealed them well, and waited until summer to dig them open and take the ice out to sell.

This ice could be used to chill fruits and water, and could also be used to make ice bowls; although the price was not cheap, it was very popular among the people of the Daliang Kingdom.

This year, Yannan had been in a drought for more than half a year, and the ice shops in the city had all raised their prices; the price of ice cubes had increased several times over, and ordinary people could not afford them at all.

Moreover, even if there were ice cubes, they were very hard to buy.

Therefore, for Bai Wei to bring out a whole bucket of ice cubes was equivalent to bringing out a bucket of silver!

For a moment, the merchants in the shop all turned their gazes toward the ice bucket on Bai Wei's table.

Bai Wei took a Cola out of the ice bucket, grabbed a few paper cups, and poured a cup first to hand to Xiao Moting.

"The Cola is chilled; everyone drink some to cool off."

The ice bucket and the Cola were things she had taken out from her space.

However, when she took them out, she provided cover by running to the carriage outside, closing the door, and only then taking the ice bucket and Cola out of the space.

Xiao Moting took the Cola.

Inside the ice-cold Cola, there were even ice cubes.

He took a sip, and a wave of coolness immediately seeped into his heart.

The other few members of the Beijiang Army also scrambled to take the paper cups.

Qin Zhan tilted his head back and drank a cup of Cola, along with the ice cubes, in one gulp.

The bubbles of the Cola burst in his mouth, and combined with the ice cubes, it was simply freezing and cool.

He couldn't help but let out a burp and shouted,

"Refreshing!"

The other members of the Beijiang Army also exclaimed how satisfying it was.

With the weather being so hot, there was nothing more refreshing than drinking a cup of iced Cola.

Compared to them, Xiao Moting appeared much more reserved; as a prince, even though he had spent years mingling with these soldiers, he remained gentle in his manners and maintained his noble bearing.

Although he didn't shout and holler like the others, from his expression, Bai Wei knew that he was in a very good mood as well.

She giggled.

Usually, Xiao Moting would never voluntarily say what he liked, but Bai Wei knew that he just liked drinking Cola.

Thus, she poured another cup and handed it over, saying generously.

"Everyone drink as much as you like; there is plenty of drink."

"When the Cola is finished, there is still Sprite, Mirinda, and Nongfu juice."

The crowd cheered and immediately grabbed the drinks to pour into their paper cups.

Seeing Bai Wei and her "workers" drinking iced water and using ice cubes to cool off, the people from the other trading firms in the shop were extremely envious.

"The Bai Grocery Store is also a master that isn't short on money; to actually buy so many ice cubes just to cool off."

"Cough, they aren't using the ice cubes for eating, they are using them to chill their drinks; ice cubes are so expensive, it's simply extravagant."

"I remember now, the things they are drinking seem to be drinks from the Western Regions; I heard Western Region merchants say that there is also a kind of noodle in the Western Regions packed in paper bowls that you can eat just by soaking it in boiling water; it's especially delicious."

Seeing the people from the other trading firms in the shop discussing Bai Wei one after another,

Young Master Li's expression was extremely ugly.

Refusing to be outdone, he turned his head and called to the waiter, "Do you have ice cubes here? Bring me a bucket."

"Young Master, with the weather in Yannan so hot, where would there still be ice cubes in the city?" The waiter replied with a fawning smile, "Even if there were, they would be the same price as gold; ordinary families can't even afford to eat them, let alone buy them."

Young Master Li was furious, reaching out to point at Bai Wei's table.

"Then where did they get the ice and the Western Regions drinks on their table?"

The waiter scratched his head, "They brought them themselves."

It would have been better if he hadn't mentioned it; once he said this, the eyes of the other merchants in the shop filled with even more surprise and envy.

Buying ice from an ice shop was already expensive enough.

To think that Bai's Grocery Store actually brought their own ice!

What absolute nouveau riche!

Even if the ice were kept in a chest wrapped in thick towels, a great deal would still melt along the way.

This trading firm simply didn't treat silver like money.

A flicker of jealousy also flashed in Young Master Li's eyes.

Even with the deep pockets of Fuji Trading Firm, it was impossible to be this extravagant, having the caravan bring their own ice buckets!

"Come, everyone, drink up."

Seeing that one bottle of Cola was finished and the other drinks on the table were nearly gone, Bai Wei stood up and walked outside.

"I'll go to the carriage and get a few more bottles."

She couldn't openly take drinks out of her space, so she had to go to the carriage.

Just as Bai Wei went out, the waiter brought the dishes up.

"Serving the food!"

The fragrance of the meal wafted over.

Several steaming, high-quality dishes were placed on the table in front of Young Master Li.

Steward Liu and the few servants at the table had long been ravenous and immediately sniffed the air.

"So fragrant!"

The waiter smiled, "These few dishes are the most famous in our shop, especially this Baihuai Yupian, made with fresh mandarin fish caught from the river that very day. With the drought over the past six months, the water in the nearby small rivers has dried up, so one has to go to a river far away to catch fish. The fishermen had a hard time catching just this one, and it has been brought straight to you, Young Master Li."

This flattery of his helped Young Master Li regain some of his lost face.