Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside

Chapter 689: You Penniless Wretch

Boss An saw the arrival of two major merchants from Jinling and felt uneasy. As soon as the hammer fell, he immediately shouted, "Five hundred and fifty taels."

Young Master Dou clicked his tongue, "People from Jianghuai are really stingy. I bid eight hundred taels."

Boss An was stunned and said to the young man, "Do you even know how to do business? Who starts with such a high bid?"

Young Master Dou oozed extravagance, giving Boss An a look that said "you poor thing" and arrogantly declared, "Eight hundred taels of silver is nothing; it’s not as if they’re eight hundred taels of gold. What’s the big fuss? The ham is worth this price. It’s a rarity that’s prepared once every three years, and when it reaches the Capital, it’s sure to become a coveted New Year gift among the wealthy elites."

Young Master Dou had his eye on just that—the nobles in the Capital were rich and cared about face, the more precious the New Year gift, the more face they gained.

Boss An was so irritated he was close to coughing up blood. He was an experienced businessman and did not continue to bid, afraid of driving the price up further.

But Dong Family’s head jumped in with, "Eight hundred and fifty taels."

Seeing this, Master Qi shouted out to curry favor with the Gu Family, "Nine hundred taels."

Hurry up and bid if you’re going to—he didn’t want to spend nine hundred taels on a pork leg. He was merely putting on a show, casually calling out a bid to please the Gu Family.

Boss An was so angry he felt like coughing up blood, yet he still insisted on not following suit.

Mr. Ouyang Hu, however, bid at this time, "One thousand taels. The ham is the glazed meat among meats, the pearl of the sea among foods, truly worth a thousand taels."

With that one sentence, he completely drove the price of the ham up, and from then on, many people started calling the ham glazed meat, beginning with this incident.

Young Master Dou’s eyes lit up, Oh my, glazed meat, Mr. Ouyang, your words are worth more than the ham itself, and Young Master Dou was even more determined to take the ham to the Capital to auction.

However, he didn’t follow with another bid, leaving the first auctioned ham for Mr. Ouyang, which could help him hype up future ham auctions.

He was the first to stand and said, "Mr. Ouyang’s wisdom and reputation are widely recognized, and as our elder, it is only right that the first ham should be won by you. The younger generation won’t compete."

Having said that, Dong Family’s head naturally wouldn’t follow with a bid either.

Gu Jin’an called out three times to inquire if anyone else would bid, and seeing no one else bid, he struck the block with his hammer and loudly declared, "Mr. Ouyang wins the Yanfu Ham for one thousand taels!"

He used top-quality oiled paper to personally wrap the ham for Mr. Ouyang. Although wrapped in oiled paper, the cloth strip tying the ham held significant importance.

Mr. Ouyang, a man of wide experience, saw at a glance that the cloth strip was in fact a long piece of embroidery, adorned with a prayer for blessings, and at the end of the strip, four characters were embroidered: Mr. Fu’an.

"This is Mr. Fu’an’s embroidery." Mr. Ouyang Hu was very pleasantly surprised, "The ham is well worth the purchase, to also acquire a small piece of embroidery by Mr. Fu’an."

When Boss An and the others heard this, they were shocked, "Is it truly Mr. Fu’an’s embroidery?"

They knew of this Mr. Fu’an, an embroidery master who had appeared three years ago, famous for his vivid people and rural scenes, and for embroidering prayers, greatly favored by the noble families’ Old Madams. Boss An’s own mother had also paid a high price for a piece of Mr. Fu’an’s embroidery, treating it like a treasure, hardly letting anyone touch it and only showing it off when entertaining guests.

"Could it be a fake?" Boss Tian couldn’t help but ask, skeptical. He couldn’t believe that the esteemed Fu’an Embroidery Master would embroider cloth strips for Yanfu Building to tie hams—how could anyone believe such a story?

However, Mr. Ouyang Hu said, "It is genuine. I have two pieces of Mr. Fu’an’s embroidery at home, and the stitching style of the characters on them is exactly the same as this one, without the slightest error."

Mr. Fu’an’s signatory characters were made with a unique pattern of auspicious clouds, and although these cloud patterns were intricate, there was a pattern to follow. As long as one observed closely, they could tell if it was genuine or fake.

Mr. Ouyang Hu laughed, "I’ve made a profit this time, whether you want to buy it or not, everyone can decide for themselves."

Young Master Dou was entirely excited when the second ham went up for auction, he bought it for the high price of 1,500 taels; the third ham was purchased by the Dong Family.

Boss An kept stretching without making a bid, but as he saw the prices getting higher, and Gu Jin’an even said, "To ensure the price of the ham, this year our Yanfu Building will only auction ten hams."

At this remark, almost driving Boss An to curse out of frustration, he had no choice but to spend a high price of 1,800 taels each to buy three hams, spending a total of over 5,000 taels of silver, nearly fuming to the point of collapsing on the spot.

But after calming down, Boss An had already started planning how to sell these three hams for double the profit.

Boss Hu was dumbfounded; initially, he had wanted to buy a few hams to auction off at Futai Building, but seeing how expensive the hams were, he was so frightened that he did not dare to make a bid, fearing bankruptcy with a single offer.

Scared, so scared.

Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, Boss Hu’s body trembled.

All ten hams were auctioned off in less than 30 minutes; Young Master Dou, with his vast wealth, acquired four hams, Boss An three, Dong Family two, and Ouyang Hu one.

Dong Family pointed at Young Master Dou and said, "You really play hard, swallowing four of the ten hams without leaving some for my Dong Family."

Young Master Dou laughed and said, "Uncle Dong, acquiring two hams is enough. Just place these two hams in your Yifeng Garden, and the scholars and wealthy patrons from Jiangnan will immediately gather, bidding high prices for your hams. Although you only bought two hams, you can at least auction them for the price of ten hams later on and earn a lot of fame and profit for the Dong Family."

Young Master Dou was very smart; he had spoken to Dong Family in the carriage that he wouldn’t sell the hams in Jiangnan after buying them, but would transport them to the Capital to fleece the nobles there, advising Dong Family not to compete with him on price.

Dong Family agreed, and today both sides were winners.

County Magistrate Zheng, along with County Magistrates Fang and Captain Jiang, were astonished—the ham had actually sold for a thousand taels of silver!

Wiping away his sweat, County Magistrate Fang thought the hams were too valuable.

County Magistrate Zheng, after his amazement subsided, came back to his senses and invited Mr. Ouyang Hu, "Mr. Ouyang, today is Dongzhi, so it’s fate that we meet. Please do me the honor of visiting my mansion to celebrate the festival."

Brother Cheng was very capable at handling matters, saying to Mr. Ouyang Hu, "Grandpa Ouyang, please come to Brother Qing’s house to celebrate Dongzhi. If you do, I’ll have Second Sister gift you a jar of Yanfu Wine, the kind you just had, made specifically to go with the ham."

Mr. Ouyang Hu was fond of specially prepared wine, but remarked, "Yanfu Wine, such a casual name."

Yanfu Building, Yanfu Ham, Yanfu Wine; these names must have been created for convenience, Second Sister of Brother Cheng is truly lazy.

Brother Cheng laughed and said, "My Second Sister said that the name ’Yanfu’ is easy to remember and signifies good fortune, plus with Yanfu Wine and Yanfu Ham, others will instantly know they’re from our Yanfu Building."

But his Second Sister eventually admitted she was just lazy and didn’t want to rack her brains for a name.

Mr. Ouyang Hu laughed hearing this, "In that case, I will gladly visit the Zheng Mansion."

Upon hearing this, County Magistrate Zheng was overjoyed, very grateful to Brother Cheng and impressed by how well Gu Family’s second son was assisting his Zheng Family.

Zheng Ying greatly admired Mr. Ouyang Hu and said, "Uncle, nephew and Young Master Dou from the Dong Family also wish to visit and impose upon your hospitality."

Dong Family had two sons who were eager to befriend a great scholar like Mr. Ouyang Hu, and they were delighted by the opportunity.