"However," An Jing added, "if you deliver the tofu to my house in one day, then I won’t need these hundred catties of tofu, and you can deal with them yourselves at that time."
Shi Xiaolan, An Fu, and An Quangui were all amused by An Jing’s final threat.
"Then we will deliver the tofu to your house the day after tomorrow afternoon," An Fu said. He still felt it was better to deliver the tofu to An Jing, their benefactor, sooner rather than later.
"Agreed," An Jing was too lazy to argue further, as long as it wasn’t within one day. That really could make one sick from exhaustion.
After that, An Jing and Xiao Changyi left West Market and went to the Hundred Dishes Restaurant.
As soon as An Jing and Xiao Changyi arrived at the Hundred Dishes Restaurant, a waiter there saw them and immediately greeted them, "Are you Lord Xiao and his lady who are here to deliver the fermented bean curd?"
An Jing smiled and said, "That’s us."
The waiter immediately gestured for them to follow, "Quick, quick, quick, please come in. Our boss has been waiting for you."
Upon entering the Hundred Dishes Restaurant, the waiter shouted to the shopkeeper, who was tallying accounts with an abacus by the counter, "Shopkeeper, Lord Xiao and his lady have arrived!"
The shopkeeper quickly put down his abacus, stepped out from behind the counter, and greeted An Jing and Xiao Changyi with a cupped-fist salute, smiling, "You have finally arrived, our boss mentioned several days ago that you would be coming. Quick, quick, quick, this way please, the boss has been waiting for you."
The waiter went off to tend to other tasks, and the shopkeeper led An Jing and Xiao Changyi to the back courtyard of the Hundred Dishes Restaurant.
In the back courtyard, Wang Youbao was sitting at a stone table, drinking tea. As soon as he saw An Jing and Xiao Changyi, he hurriedly set down his porcelain teacup and stood up, "You’ve arrived earlier than I expected."
Xiao Changyi set down his carrying pole.
An Jing smiled and said, "I thought we would be very late, too, but the fermented bean curd sold much faster than expected. As soon as we sold the last four jars, we came right over."
"Each jar holds ten catties, to sell so quickly..." Wang Youbao was very surprised. It seemed the fermented bean curd was even more popular than he had anticipated.
Only after Xiao Changyi took out the four unopened jars from the basket and placed them on the ground did An Jing speak again, "Here are the forty catties you wanted. You might want to find something to transfer them into, as these jars were bought by my husband and cost five coins each, so we can’t give them to you. However, it’s best if you also use smaller jars to prevent the bean curd at the bottom from being crushed."
Wang Youbao didn’t say anything but looked at the shopkeeper instead.
The shopkeeper quickly responded, "Boss, all our small jars have been used to pickle things; we have no empty ones left."
It was then that Wang Youbao spoke up, "How about you sell the jars to me as well?"
"That’s fine, but if you buy our jars, it will cost six coins each because we will have to buy more, which is troublesome," An Jing never did business at a loss.
Wang Youbao thought it was reasonable too, and since the four jars only cost an additional four coins, he did not mind and readily agreed, "Agreed."
The forty catties of fermented bean curd amounted to four hundred coins, plus the four jars at twenty-four coins, making a total of four hundred twenty-four coins. Since a deposit of two hundred coins had already been paid, only two hundred twenty-four coins were due.
This time Wang Youbao didn’t take out the money himself but instructed the shopkeeper, "Go get two hundred twenty-four coins."
Once the shopkeeper brought the money, Wang Youbao had him hand it over to An Jing.
An Jing’s purse was already too full to fit the coins, so she handed them to Xiao Changyi, asking him to keep them.