Chapter 125 - Opportunity
With a worried look, Laura was standing outside Casa city's most famous commodity store. Not only was this large store run by Laura, it was also the Markey clan's branch headquarters in the Purcell Duchy.
Today, the reason why she was standing outside, and not sitting inside like she did usually, was because she was waiting for the convoy to return from Stony Mountain. Although this time she hadn't purchased much, only one jin of magic radishes, this purchase called for all of her attention.
In addition to the fact that this was the first time she was collaborating with Zhao, it was very important that she checked the quality of the radishes. Although radishes could be regarded as a low-end consumer good, if many of the radishes were of high quality, it could have a very large impact on her business.
It was like if two food stores were selling radishes, the first one would sell big radishes at a price that wasn't expensive, while the second one would sell radishes that were not as good at the same price. Certainly, you wouldn't go to a store just to buy radishes, you would also buy other vegetables as well. So naturally, the customers would only do business with the first store because they were selling the highest quality radish at a decent price.
Although Zhao had assured Laura that all the radishes he produced were of the same high quality, she still didn't believe him. If you do business, you should always keep the mentality that you would be cheated a few times.
Kun was also standing outside the store. Normally, Laura and Kun wouldn't care about such a low amount of goods, but this time was different. This cooperation could rise or fall from this first purchase.
Just then, a small team of people could be seen from far away. They had a banner with the Bana symbol on it, letting everyone know that they belonged to the Markey Company.
When Laura saw this convoy return, she immediately went to the store's backyard. After all, when a team comes back with goods, they would directly go to the back where the warehouse was and place the goods there.
Kun followed behind Laura. They really wanted to know if the radishes Zhao sent were as good as the one he showed them on Stony Mountain.
The team quickly went into the backyard, which was large and had a lot of room. There were isolated places where they could put their horses and carts, while the rest of the area was taken up by a warehouse, a place to live, and an office.
It was Sean who led this team. Originally he was a porter captain, but he had gotten a promotion. He was now a team captain that was responsible for their transactions with Zhao.
Three days ago, Laura had told him to buy five oil presses for Zhao, which was something that didn't cost much. In Casa city, there were too many places that sold it. After Laura told him to make this purchase, she then started cleaning up her stores.
That was to say, Laura was cleaning out everyone who wasn't loyal to her. This was something she had been meaning to do ever since she had been attacked during her trip to Montenegro Fortress. But no one was prepared for how fast she was doing it, so they weren't ready to fight back. She was doing this right now because of her alliance with Zhao. If Zhao found out that her control of her stores was unstable, it may affect his cooperation with her. So Laura used these three days to clear out members of the Markey clan who weren't loyal to her, and put her most trusted men in important positions.
Sean has always been loyal to Laura, plus he has had some contact with Zhao's people. That was why Laura promoted him to team captain. Although a team captain was similar to a porter captain, he now got better treatment.
Sean knew that Laura took her cooperation with Zhao very seriously, but he didn't think she would take it seriously to such a degree, and even personally wait for them to arrive.
Sean immediately walked up to Laura and said, "Miss, here are the magic radishes you ordered."
Laura just gently nodded her head, then she quickly went to the carriages. The carriages were just wooden trunks that were more than a meter high, allowing it to hold many things. It was covered by a coarse rope in the form of a cage.
Sean loosened the rope, allowing Laura to look into the trunk. The insides of the trunk had a layer or weeds, on top of which were the white magic radishes. Reaching inside, Laura took out a radish.
This radish was no different than the one she saw in the manor. It was the same size, and had the same smooth skin that was both tender and moist. She could see that it was a top quality radish.
Laura then picked up another radish. It looked exactly the same. Even their weight was equal.
She turned to Sean and asked, "Are of these magic radishes the same quality?"
Sean quickly nodded. "Yes, all the magic radishes are of the same quality and they even weigh the same. After so many years, these are the best magic radishes I have ever seen."
Laura and Kun saw the shocked look on each other's faces. They knew that magic radishes weren't a precious commodity. It was precisely because of this that the requirements for the quality of magic radishes weren't particularly strict. Some magic radish growers wouldn't take out any of the bad magic radishes when they sold them to Laura. The result of this was that, unlike the big magic radishes, the bad ones would be sold at low prices. A lot of well-paid commoners would buy these low quality magic radishes to eat.
All of the magic radishes that Zhao gave them were actually quite good. There was only one explanation for this: Zhao would take out all the bad magic radishes before he sold them, but why would he do that? Doing so would make him lose a lot of profits. Or did he grow all of these magic radishes at the same high quality? Ah, but that can't be. Even for someone who studied plants, it would be impossible for them to guarantee that everything they grew would come out the same.
Laura really wanted to make Zhao tell her how he did this. But she would never know about Zhao's space, which would produce things based on data, like carving something out of a mold. The space didn't behave like an ordinary piece of land.
Laura placed the white magic radishes she was holding back into the carriage, then she turned to Sean. "For now, put these magic radishes into storage. They will go on the shelves tomorrow."
Sean saluted, then he immediately directed people to start unloading, while Kun and Laura went into the office in the backyard.
"What do you think, Grandpa Kun?" Laura asked.
"It seems that Zhao is cooperating with us because he has faith in us," Kun said after he sat down. "The force behind him must have a good quality piece of land. This land is not small, otherwise it wouldn't be able to produce so much high quality magic radishes."
Laura frowned. "But even with good land that could make high quality magic radishes, if you take out all the bad ones, wouldn't your losses be too big?"
Kun gave a slight chuckle. "That's why I said Zhao must have a lot of faith in us. It seems that he wants to create a brand. He's taking out all the bad magic radishes and only sending us the good ones to sell. Slowly, people will begin to recognize this brand of magic radish, and then the business will grow."
Because of Kun's words, Laura couldn't help but feel surprised for a moment, then her eyes brightened. "So if we can work together for a long time as he would give us large quantities of high quality magic radishes, then we would start to build a reputation on this Continent."
"That is so. For us, this is definitely an opportunity. If Zhao really could provide us with large quantities of magic radishes, then it wouldn't take long before the entire commodity market in the Purcell Duchy is ours."
Laura excitedly stood up. Although they were doing good business here, there were also other companies that had branches in the Purcell Duchy. The competition between them was very intense. Up til now, they would only tie with the other large companies. If she wanted to suppress them, it would be impossible.
But now there was an opportunity in front of Laura. As long as she seized it, she would have control of the entire commodity market in the Purcell Duchy.