Xiaofeng was momentarily taken aback. She had credentials?
"So, you and Uncle Liu are not just barefoot doctors; you’re bona fide medical personnel."
Ye Cheng shook his head. "We both are."
Whether legitimate or not, as long as they could practice medicine, that was enough.
Forget it, why worry about whether he can practice medicine or not.
Ye Cheng remembered something and said seriously, "You were calling me ’big brother’ quite smoothly just now."
"Out here, calling each other siblings makes things a lot easier. Besides, if we said we were a couple, it would obviously look like I was taking advantage of you."
Ye Cheng, who didn’t even have a girlfriend, found himself with someone in his arms, and it definitely seemed like he was taking advantage of Ye Cheng.
Watching her indifferent expression, Ye Cheng felt a surge of irritation but quickly regained his composure. "Have you ever thought about finding the father of the child?"
Xiaofeng gave a bitter smile. "How can I find him, when I don’t even know what that bastard looks like? If I ever find out who he is? I definitely won’t let him off the hook."
The original host seemed to have amnesia about that day. She could only gather that the original host had tumbled down the mountain and seemed to have collided with someone. Then, all that followed was a blank, up until the original host woke up in pain and panic and left.
There was no image of the man in between.
Had she encountered a beast? The original host might have lost consciousness while tumbling down the mountain and just happened to run into someone, then that happened...
Thinking this, Xiaofeng shook her head. It couldn’t possibly have happened like that.
Seeing a flash of anger on her face, which then turned awkward, Ye Cheng hadn’t meant to bring it up on purpose; it just came up during their conversation, so he had casually asked.
Of course, if he ever found out who it was, he wouldn’t let the person off either.
When they reached the front of the Provincial City Grand Hotel, it was just past nine in the morning. Xiaofeng got out of the car and looked at the majestic hotel, hardly believing her first big business deal was taking her straight to Provincial City.
Ye Cheng stayed outside with the truck while Xiaofeng went to the front desk to inquire, "Hello, I’m looking for Mr. Duan from the purchasing department. Is he in?"
The receptionist, clad in a black suit, smiled sweetly, "Miss, please wait a moment while I check if Manager Duan is available."
After hanging up the phone, the receptionist smiled at Su Xiaofeng, "Manager Duan will be down shortly. Please wait over here."
She thought to herself that this woman was attractive but dressed a bit out of date, as if she was from the countryside. She wondered whether she could be Manager Duan’s girlfriend.
It wasn’t long before Duan Gongquan came down. Seeing Su Xiaofeng by the side, he was very surprised. "President Su?"
The receptionist was startled. So she was a president after all; she certainly didn’t look like it, looking rather young.
After all, in today’s society, without some age or experience, becoming a leader is somewhat challenging unless you are exceptionally capable.
"Manager Duan, hello." Xiaofeng smiled and stepped forward. "Didn’t we agree to deliver three thousand units within a week? Today is the seventh day, so here they are."
"Ms. Su really knows how to handle business, she sent it over first thing in the morning." The journey was long, and Duan Gongquan hadn’t expected the other party to deliver on time, but it seemed he had underestimated the young leader: "I didn’t expect you to arrive so early. Was the trip difficult?"
"Not really, the roads are much better now, so it wasn’t too hard." Xiaofeng led Duan Gongquan to the front of the truck: "Here it is, three thousand bottles. You should check the goods first."
Duan Gongquan glanced at Ye Cheng, who was standing in front of the truck, greeted him with a smile, and went around to the back of the truck to inspect the goods.
After confirming the goods were all right, Duan Gongquan called over several staff members to help unload the goods to the warehouse.
That many bottles of pepper sauce would be enough for the restaurant for a while.
"You’ve had a long journey, come, let’s go upstairs to eat. You can also try the new dish our chef has developed using your pepper sauce. It’s really quite delicious and became very popular as soon as it was introduced."
How should I put it, pepper sauce is the same everywhere, but the taste of Su Xiaofeng’s family’s sauce is different—it’s memorable and makes you want more.
"It’s the chef’s skill." Xiaofeng honestly didn’t dare claim her family’s pepper sauce was that exceptional. A single type of pepper sauce can be made a thousand different ways by a thousand different people.
"Ye Cheng, right? Please have a seat." Duan Gongquan called over a waiter to place an order.
"Ms. Su," Duan Gongquan poured Su Xiaofeng a cup of tea, "our chef suggests that we would like to secure exclusive rights to your pepper sauce for Provincial City. That means, aside from selling to us, you can’t sell your product to any other shop or restaurant in Provincial City."
With exclusive rights, others couldn’t get the recipe, and if people wanted to taste this kind of sauce, they’d have to come dine here.
Upon hearing this, Xiaofeng understood: "Manager Duan, how do you plan to buy these exclusive rights?"
She hadn’t considered exclusive rights, but she was contemplating an exclusive agency.
"We’ll pay you a yearly fee for the exclusive rights, on the condition that your products, once they arrive in Provincial City, can only come to our restaurant. Understand?" Duan Gongquan wasn’t joking, and with their status in Provincial City, they had no reason to be refused.
Moreover, they were only considering this because the factory was just starting out. If the collaboration with the major restaurant in Provincial City were canceled, who knew what the future of the factory would be?
If the person in charge of the factory was wise, he would obviously know how to choose.
Of course, it can’t be denied that because the factory was small, they dared to make such a proposal. If the factory were larger, they wouldn’t have considered it.
Listening to Duan Gongquan’s words, Xiaofeng pursed her lips, then chuckled softly: "Manager Duan, you really have a sense of humor. If your restaurant in Provincial City was a huge mall wanting exclusive distribution rights, I would definitely agree. But it sounds like you want to monopolize our sales rights in Provincial City, and I certainly won’t agree to that."
The market in Provincial City is huge; how big could a single restaurant’s market be? No matter how you choose, she wouldn’t sell the operating rights of her family’s products in Provincial City outright.
Duan Gongquan had thought she would agree and was surprised she refused without a second thought: "Don’t you want to ask how much we are willing to pay each year?"
The supply fee plus the exclusive fee would be no small income.
"How much could it be? Everybody isn’t a fool; surely it can’t exceed the value of my goods." Three thousand bottles a month, four thousand plus Yuan—they surely wouldn’t be willing to pay over four thousand Yuan a month as an exclusive fee.
"Ms. Su, you’re a woman; you might think a bit more emotionally. In the long run, this deal is still good. At least, the cooperation between our two sides can ensure that your factory will have earnings and won’t go under."
Thousands of Yuan a month, the factory definitely couldn’t go under.
"How do you know our factory will go under rather than develop?" Xiaofeng met Duan Gongquan’s eyes, chuckling, "Let’s put it this way, the pepper sauce is like our factory’s first child, and I’m not planning to sell the exclusive rights."
"Dr. Barefoot, Ms. Su is a woman, and you are a man. You analyze the pros and cons for Ms. Su. If she can accept these terms, naturally we can continue discussing. If not, our restaurant might have to consider whether to continue the cooperation."