vstars Chapter 722 Low Price Purchase
Chapter 722 Low Price Purchase
Hearing the price, Guo Hei's heart trembled. He should have agreed to Lin Ping's offer much earlier; why did he have to sell at a loss?
Ten coins are still money, and it's better than losing them for nothing.
"Sell, sell, sell! I'll sell them all to you!" Guo Hei said obsequiously, and the situation finally turned around.
"Have you forgotten another request?" Lin Ping asked with a sarcastic smile.
Guo Hei tried hard to recall Lin Ping's words, his body went limp, and he knelt directly in front of him.
"Boss Lin, please, please have pity on me and buy these grapes, otherwise I won't even have the capital for next year." Guo Hei's forehead kept hitting the wooden floor, making a "thud" sound.
Although the thousand acres of land belonged to him, and he didn't need to plant grapevines every year, it still cost money to hire people to manage the vineyard.
In the face of money, dignity is nothing but a fart!
"Mr. Guo, please get up quickly. We are business partners. How can you kneel before me? I'll send someone to get the grapes right away," Lin Ping said hypocritically.
Guo Hei was extremely grateful and regarded Lin Ping as an ancestor, wishing he could even make shoes for him.
Although a peck only sold for ten coins, the grape yield was high, with one mu (unit of land area) yielding two hundred pecks, which was worth two taels of silver. One thousand mu could sell for two thousand taels.
If he hadn't acted recklessly, he could have sold it to Meng Qingge at market price for a whopping ten thousand taels of silver.
Meng Qingge glanced at Lin Ping, clearly not wanting to waste her money.
But the other party's attitude was firm, and it didn't seem like they were joking.
The silver in the Meng family's warehouse was all borrowed with Lin Ping's help; a mere two thousand taels was still a concession to him.
"Don't worry, Mr. Guo, if your grapes are still frozen solid next year, I'll still buy them. I'll raise the price for you then, how about eleven coins?" Lin Ping laughed as he left.
Guo Hei fawned over him as he saw him off, and after he had gone some distance, he punched the door frame, and blood kept flowing down.
"Meng Qingge, if you hadn't been bothering me every day, the grapes wouldn't have frozen into ice blocks." Guo Hei gritted his teeth in anger, but could only accept his bad luck.
He secretly resolved that he must harvest the grapes earlier next year, even if they were still a little unripe.
"Why would Young Master Lin spend two thousand taels of silver to buy a bunch of ice cubes?" Meng Qingge couldn't contain her curiosity.
On the way to the vineyard, Lin Ping was in high spirits and said mysteriously, "Miss Meng, do you remember me saying that there are two kinds of wine that will sell very well?"
“Of course I remember. There’s a type called dry red wine, which needs to be aged for three months, and another type called sweet wine, which needs to wait for a specific opportunity,” Meng Qingge said verbatim.
Having grown up in a winery, she was intimately familiar with winemaking and naturally wouldn't forget Lin Ping's words.
"Could it be that this is the opportunity?" Meng Qingge suddenly had a terrible thought.
"Miss Meng is indeed exceptionally intelligent," Lin Ping said, snapping his fingers and showering her with praise.
"The reason why sweet wine is difficult to make is because there aren't enough sweet grapes, meaning the grapes contain too much water. Removing this water is not easy, even with more advanced technology," Lin Ping explained patiently.
"So, I freeze the grapes into ice blocks, then crush them, filter out the ice crystals, and the water is naturally removed, but the sugar is preserved, making them an excellent raw material for making sweet wine. There is a place called Italy that makes wine this way, and it is said that they have made a lot of money."
Meng Qingge had solid knowledge in this area and immediately understood Lin Ping's meaning, but she stared at him with a look of horror.
"Did Young Master Lin already guess that it would snow and freeze in the coming days? So he deliberately distracted Guo Hei, preventing me from picking the grapes in time?" Meng Qingge calmly analyzed.
In fact, she cannot remain absolutely calm. This is not a simple strategy; she must be able to accurately predict the weather half a month from now and be good at understanding people's thoughts.
Lin Ping is an expert at reading people's minds, but he's a complete novice when it comes to judging the weather.
The reason I guessed that it would snow and cool down recently is because the Daye Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty are similar in timeline, and now we are in the Little Ice Age.
He wasn't quite sure at first, but then he heard that there had been a severe drought in recent years, which he thought was a sign of the Little Ice Age.
Lin Ping didn't deny it, but nodded indifferently: "Predicting the weather is essential knowledge for rural children, just like you are born knowing how to read and write."
This answer was somewhat perfunctory, yet it was impossible not to believe it.
Rural areas rely on the weather for their livelihood, so it's indeed important to master the art of weather observation.
It turns out that ordinary people in ancient times did have this skill, but predicting snow and ice in half a month was a bit of nonsense.
Lin Ping reached out and picked an ice grape, put it in his mouth, and found it sweet and delicious. No wonder Guo Hei was afraid of making people sick from the sweetness.
"Miss Meng, would you like to try one?" Lin Ping asked with a smile.
This was not only Lin Ping's kind intention, but also a necessary process for tasting the ingredients. Meng Qingge should not refuse, but her face turned slightly red.
Yes, she was shy.
Wait a minute, Lin Ping felt something was off. Could a grape really make him shy?
Lin Ping suddenly remembered that girls shouldn't eat cold food during their period, so he awkwardly put both grapes into his mouth.
"Let's try it after we remove the ice crystals, otherwise it might be so sweet it hurts your throat," Lin Ping said hastily to avoid embarrassment.
His reaction was too obvious; he had clearly guessed the other person's menstrual cycle.
Meng Qingge's face was redder than the grapes; she was mortified.
"Who said you can't eat it?" Meng Qingge picked a grape and popped it into her mouth. The icy sensation made her shiver slightly.
"What a strong-willed woman. Another bowl of ginseng soup is going to be wasted." Lin Ping shook his head helplessly.
To help Meng Qingge get rid of the cold, Lin Ping wanted to cook a special ginseng soup, but he didn't know what excuse to give it to her.
In order to conceal her menstrual period, she could eat iced grapes and thus avoid drinking Lin Ping's ginseng soup.
Drinking it would be equivalent to telling Lin Ping that she was menstruating.
Therefore, Lin Ping decided to focus his efforts on Yun'er, hoping that the girl would be clever enough not to reveal any flaws.
Upon hearing that the grapes would be crushed while they were still frozen, Meng Qingge didn't dare to delay and went straight to the winery, though she clutched her lower abdomen the whole way.
"What a strong-willed woman, she even has to endure menstrual cramps?" Lin Ping shook his head again.
In this era without heat packs, there really isn't a particularly good way to keep your lower abdomen warm.
Although there were magical hand warmers in ancient times, they could not be placed on the lower abdomen.
"This should be enough to make a few hot water bottles," Lin Ping thought to himself.
The reason why hot water bottles did not exist in ancient times must be because there were no good sealing devices.
Lin Ping is a man who owns natural rubber; making a few hot water bottles would be a piece of cake for him.
In this ancient era where industry was extremely underdeveloped, there were many aspects that Lin Ping needed to improve.
It wasn't simply about making money; it was about improving people's lives. The former was Lin Ping's original intention...