Zhu Jiao made his way back to Lin Manor, with Lin Dong's grandfather still in closed door cultivation, he was sure his uncle and cousin would have a scheme waiting for him. Zhu Jiao excitedly skipped his way back as he opened the door.
"HAH! Right on schedule, there they are! I'll just have to walk on and face the storm." Zhu Jiao walked in, wearing a stern expression on his face. It was one of pure animosity as he approached his uncle and his cousin.
"Lin Dong! You're finally home" Lin Er spoke, walking fast towards Zhu Jiao.
"Yes, I'm home" Zhu Jiao looked Lin Er in the eye.
"Have you eaten? Should I get the chefs to prepare anything for you?" He replied.
"I'm actually quite hungry… Wait whut!? Why?" Zhu Jiao widened his eyes in shock as he looked at his uncle who instead of looking fierce and detestable, now looking like the model uncle next door, with a warm smile on his face.
"Lin Dong, Your cousin and I, we have picked on you in the past and we feel apologetic for that. All this time, we thought that you are a wastrel of the family and wanted you to shape up. I admit that what Lin Chen did to you before was overboard and I will punish him accordingly.
Who knew that all this time, you were expanding our trade channels and speaking to the big bosses of different merchant groups. We've really wronged you this time!"
Lin Er spoke with tears streaming from his eyes.
"What!? What do you mean by that?" Zhu Jiao spoke, in a confused tone, he was even more confused than he was before.
"Don't have to be humble. The 4 leaders of the merchant groups are at the grandhall waiting for you right now. They've come to ask for an audience with you and won't leave until they meet you." Lin Er, looked at Zhu Jiao, with reverence.
Zhu Jiao shrugged and walked into the great hall where he came face to face with the 4 great leaders of the biggest merchant groups.
The 4 large men sat on the seats looking imposing, while sipping on their tea. Zhu Jiao shook his head, he had never seen anyone sipping tea so menacingly in his life.
One of the large men tilted his head as he watched Zhu Jiao walk in with his uncle and cousin in tow.
"Brother Lin Er, this is…."
Lin Er looked towards Zhu Jiao with a bit of confusion.
"This is my nephew, Lin Dong. Master Dong, haven't you met him before?"
"Oh! Young Master Lin! It's a pleasure meeting you. I've long heard of your name. Please have a seat, me and my 3 brothers here have something to discuss with you."
Zhu Jiao cocked his head but sat down anyway, if they came with good intentions maybe he'd get a deal. If they were out to get him, he would just deliver a face-slapping instead.
"Young master Lin, let me introduce myself to you. I am Dong Jin from the Eastern Gold Merchant Union. This is Nan Mu from the Southern Wood Merchant Union, Xi Shui from the Western Waters Merchant union and Bei Huo from the Northern Flames Western Union."
"Nice to meet all of you, you have such… creative names. It must have taken you really long to come up with the names of your merchant unions… Ahem…"
Zhu Jiao spoke as he tried his best to stifle his cough and laughter.
"Let's cut to the chase gentlemen, is there anything I can help you with today?"
Dong Jin turned to Lin Er as he spoke softly, "Mr Lin Er, do you mind, this is something that we need to discuss with your nephew privately."
"Sure sure, certainly. Lin Chen, come with me, let's leave them to chat." Lin Er promptly left the room, walking briskly out, as the 4 men turned their attention towards Zhu Jiao.
"Young master Lin, this old man will be frank with you. I was at the Yang's family and they prepared a feast for me. Within the spread there was a dish that was golden, the young mistress called it the Kar Soo. Needless to say, I was enthralled by it, it is a thing of beauty."
Dong Jin mentioned with excitement in his voice.
"I asked her if she would share the recipe with me and she directed me to you, needless to say I gathered my brothers to see if you would be willing to sell the recipe to us."
The other 3 nodded their heads in agreement.
Zhu Jiao stroked his chin as he looked at the old men in front of him.
"Very interesting, she left my home not even half a day ago and you're all here like sharks the next minute. How much are we talking about?"
"Young Master Lin, we are willing to offer you a total of 1 million gold coins to purchase your recipe."
Considering, 3 gold coins would be able to buy you a decent meal, 1 million gold coins would be quite a sum of money.
Zhu Jiao continued contemplating, he seemed like he was doing the math in his head, the 4 master merchants were very good judges of characters.
They could easily sniff out anything shady, they'd long ago heard that Lin Dong was a good for nothing who was neither good in academics nor in cultivation. So what would he be contemplating about? The only worry they had was that their offer had been too low.
Needless to say, Zhu Jiao's thought process was thinking about multiple different things at the same time. He needed to find the best possible outcome for himself.
In his mind, he started working out the various factors.
"Overhead costs, fixed costs, how much would it take to run a company like this, how much is the annual rate of return if he has more than a store."
At one point, Zhu Jiao even factored him running the store on his own, but soon realised that he would be too lazy to take up so much responsibility. After a few minutes, he had to fragment his mind yet again, because he needed more of his mind to prevent his other segmented portions from being lazy.
Eventually he put his hand away from his chin as he stood up and looked at the old men and replied.
"1 Million gold coins? Are you f*cking kidding me?"
The old men stood up, abruptly, they took what Zhu Jiao said as a provocation.