Chapter 75: The Second Round
Chapter 75: Chapter 75: The Second Round
’Hmph. To think I misjudged him. I never expected that kid from the White Tiger Boxing Hall to be so lucky.’
’But just wait until tomorrow. You’ll get what’s coming to you then.’
Huang Ziyu’s gaze turned icy as he watched Fang Yue walk further and further into the distance.
"Young Master, bad news! Young Master, this is terrible!"
Just then, two Servants dressed as household staff came stumbling from a side street.
They had clearly run the whole way, covered in sweat and gasping for breath.
The two were born into the Huang Family’s service and had always waited on Huang Ziyu.
"Yelling like that, have you no decorum! When we return, you’ll each receive ten lashes."
Huang Ziyu berated the two Servants first before asking with a stony expression, "Now, speak. What exactly happened?"
"The White Tiger Tea House... it... it’s open for business!" the Servant stammered.
"Open for business? So what? I knew they were planning to open. The Huang Family already beat them to the punch. They can’t make any waves now."
A smug look appeared on Huang Ziyu’s face upon hearing this.
’The Huang Family was one of the four great families in Xiahe County Town, with businesses in brothels and tea.’
’When they’d set a trap for Wang Teng a few days ago, it was just to find out what the White Tiger Boxing Hall had up its sleeve by suddenly entering the tea trade.’
’They never expected to learn about something called "fried tea" from him.’
’The Huang Family immediately realized this fried tea was a game-changer, powerful enough to upend the entire tea market.’
’So, they decided to seize the opportunity and make a killing. Their tea masters worked around the clock to rush-produce a batch.’
’Then, they immediately launched it.’
’Sure enough, the response had been excellent.’
’Their Huang’s Tea House had already secured a large number of orders.’
’In just a few days, their business volume had reached what they’d normally do in a year.’
’This naturally whetted the Huang Family’s appetite, making them want to swallow the White Tiger Boxing Hall’s market share whole.’
’And so, they had devised a strategy to crush the White Tiger Boxing Hall.’
"No, Young Master, that’s not it! The White Tiger Tea House has poached all our customers!" the Servant cried out anxiously.
"What did you say?! Say that to me again!"
Huang Ziyu snatched the Servant by the collar and lifted him clean off the ground. The force was so great that the Servant could barely breathe.
Just as it seemed he might actually kill him, Huang Ziyu finally threw the Servant aside in a fit of rage.
"You. Tell me what in the hell happened."
The other Servant, seeing his companion sent tumbling a great distance, was already shaking in his boots.
"Young... Young Master, our tea house’s business... it’s been... been taken by the White Tiger Tea House... Their tea is better than ours."
"All the major teahouses in town are using their tea leaves now. Even the County Magistrate’s Office has switched over."
The color drained from Huang Ziyu’s face.
Without another glance at the two Servants, he immediately broke into a run toward his family’s tea house.
’For this venture, their tea house had bought up a massive amount of tea leaves at a premium, counting on making a fortune from it.’
’If something went wrong with the business, his family was going to suffer a devastating loss.’
~~~~~~
「Meanwhile, at the White Tiger Boxing Hall.」
"Master, wonderful news! Absolutely wonderful news!"
Chen Tong burst through the door, his face wreathed in smiles.
"Always so rash. How many times must I tell you? Managing the Martial Arts Hall requires a steady hand. When will you ever overcome this flaw?"
Hall Master Zheng first lectured Chen Tong, then took a slow sip of tea before continuing, "Go on, then. What is this wonderful news?"
"Our tea house opened today! Oh, wait, it wasn’t an official opening. It was... a ’soft opening.’"
"In just one day, we sold one thousand taels of silver worth of tea!"
Chen Tong had to think for a moment to remember the new term Junior Brother Zhang had told him earlier.
"A ’soft opening’? One thousand taels?"
Hall Master Zheng was puzzled. ’Wasn’t the secret recipe leaked? Didn’t the Huang Family get the jump on us and start selling the tea first?’
’He might not be a businessman, but he understood the principle of first-come, first-served.’
’Huang’s Tea House has already established its name. For the White Tiger Boxing Hall to start selling fried tea now means they’re already a step behind.’
’Their rivals would surely spread malicious rumors about them.’
’Once the White Tiger Tea House’s name was tarnished, they wouldn’t be able to do business at all.’
’In this day and age, reputation is everything in business.’
"And Huang’s Tea House didn’t try to make trouble?" Hall Master Zheng asked.
"Oh, they tried," Chen Tong said with a cold smirk. "They came raising a fuss, claiming we stole their secret recipe and threatening to have our people arrested."
"They were just trying to use that as a pretext to cause chaos at our tea house. Too bad for them, the tea Junior Brother Zhang presented today is far superior in quality to anything from Huang’s Tea House."
After all, if they want to claim we stole the recipe from them, they should be able to produce fried tea of the same quality. But they can’t.
Of course they can’t. We only just managed to produce tea of this grade ourselves in the past two days.
"In that case, the one who leaked the secret definitely couldn’t have been Nephew Yue. It must have been someone else," Chen Tong concluded.
Previously, when Hall Master Zheng had him investigate, all the evidence pointed to Fang Yue. The rumor was that Fang Yue was resentful because the Martial Arts Hall had taken the fried tea recipe for itself while he, the one who provided it, hadn’t been properly rewarded. So, he supposedly leaked it out of spite.
However, those who knew the inside story understood that today’s success was not due to Zhang Boyang’s abilities.
It had to be Fang Yue who had provided a new recipe.
So, this proves that it wasn’t Fang Yue who leaked the secret.