The Big Landlord

Chapter 95.1 - Carving Workshop

The shop that Fu Wu Tian found was ready-made.

The shop originally sold herbs, but later, the competition was so great that the business became worse and worse. The owner of the shop finally decided to sell the shop, take the money, and go some place else to try his luck.

When people from the Imperial Fu Palace found him, the owner of the shop was anxious, because the selling price he set was not low. Most people could not afford it, and any interested buyers would try to haggle the price to as low as possible, so the owner never found a suitable buyer.

An Zi Ran was very satisfied with the shop.

He had already went and looked over the shop. The shop had two facades. Because it was used to sell herbs, the place always carried a touch of herbal medicine smell, but it was not an unpleasant smell.

What An Zi Ran liked about this shop was the structure of the rooms in the back; they were practically arranged into a single line. It was perfect for having people work there. After a bit of development, they could open the door for business.

To this end, An Zi Ran deliberately spent a lot of money to buy a few of the rooms. Because they was located in the marketplace, the price was comparable to the courtyard that he had previously purchased (when he had first came to Jun Zi City).

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After that, it was time for interior decoration. Since the shop was ready-made, An Zi Ran only painted over the walls again, covering up the mottled traces left behind. Now it looked clean and neat.

The next day, he personally went on a trip to the market.

In addition to bovine bones and ivory, there were rhinoceros horns, whale bones, and the like that could be used for engraving, but not all materials were suitable. Some were expensive due to price problems, so it was not conducive for mass production. Only the lowest cost and most common bovine bones could be selected.

However, most of the cattle in Da Ya were used for farming. Very few people would purposely slaughter them just for meat, unless it was a very large and wealthy family.

Although there were many large families in the capital, it still wasn't possible to find a large supply of cattle bones every day. Moreover, some people liked to use the bones for beef bone soup, so he could only go to specialty slaughterhouses to find what he wanted.

After knowing this, Fu Yi told An Zi Ran where he could find such a place and An Zi Ran went to contact them.

Next day

Accompanied by Fu Wu Tian, An Zi Ran took the carriage to the slaughter field on the outskirts of Jun Zi City.

The place was not small. It was located in the suburbs where there was a water source.

The owner of the field was surnamed Niu* and had been in contact with Fu Yi several times for business purposes. He knew that Fu Yi was the steward of the Imperial Fu Palace, but he didn't know who the two of them were, only that they were introduced by Fu Yi. When he heard that they wanted to buy cattle bones, the owner revealed an expression of surprise.

[*T/N: Also means "cow"]

Bovine bones have only one use for them and that was as a soup base. People of this era still did not know that bovine bones could be used for decoration or in crafts, so the endless bovine bones were usually thrown away.

The things thrown away were naturally worthless things, even the owner of the field thought the same, so today there was someone who told him that they wanted to buy all the bones from his field, he was very surprised.

"These two sirs, are you certain that you want to buy all the bovine bones?" The owner asked very deliberately.

It was always a good thing to make money, but since these two were friends of Fu Yi, he was not willing to take advantage of them. He also wanted to maintain a long-term cooperation with Fu Yi.

An Zi Ran nodded. "Owner Niu, you don't have to doubt, we really want to buy all the bones from your field. The more the better."

Translations by Vanilla Muse.

Owner Niu had already asked for confirmation, so he did not say any more.

"In that case, please come with me, sirs."

Owner Niu took them to see the bones from the slaughter field. There were bones from chicken, pig, sheep, etc, but this field had the most bovine bones.

This year, his field slaughtered hundreds of cows. Asides from some bones that were sold, many of them were piled up in the warehouse. Originally, he intended to have the workers transport them to nearby counties to see if they could be sold, if not, then they could only throw it away.

The amount of bovine bones accumulated was more than what An Zi Ran had imagined.

Because the scent of blood was too strong, they didn't get too close, and they left after looking around for a bit.

Inside a little house, An Zi Ran talked with Owner Niu about the price.

On the market, ten coins could buy you one catty of beef bones, which was much cheaper than what it would be in later generations. But An Zi Ran wanted a great quantity of bones, so he offered the owner a price that was two coins less than the market price. The profit wasn't high, but the slaughterhouse could produce several tons of beef bones every month, and it was impossible to sell all of them, so instead of losing out, the owner actually earned.

Later, the masses would discover that they could no longer buy cheap beef bones. When An Zi Ran's shop first started, they couldn't use up that much bones. But later on, when the shop expanded and the number of workers increased, the demand for bovine bones would also increase. Some far-seeing slaughter field owners would jack up their prices and take the opportunity to earn a high profit. But this was all stuff that happened afterward.

At present, An Zi Ran bought nearly a thousand kilograms of beef bones from Owner Niu, and spent less than ten silvers. Transporting more than a thousand kilograms of beef bones back to Jun Zi City would be very eye-catching. After considering the problem again and again, he and Fu Wu Tian decided to build a small farm in the suburbs. First, they would transport all the bones to the farm, pick out some that were suitable for carving, clean up the bones by removing the fat, and then transport them back to the capital.

Although An Zi Ran bought all of the cattle bones from Owner Niu, not all of the bones could be used for carving. There were four kinds of bones that could be used for engraving, namely the triangular bones, cylindrical bones, flat bones, and the hooves. But before the bones could be used for carving, they must be degreased, as mentioned before.

Removing the fat was a very important step. There were no bovine bone crafts in Da Ya, so this method of degreasing has not appeared yet.

If An Zi Ran were an ordinary person, then even if he wracked his brains until he had a migraine, he still would not be able to come up with the method of manufacturing caustic soda. Fortunately, he was not just an ordinary person, and in the past he had been exposed to this aspect of expertise. Although he could only create a small amount alone, it was enough to cope with the current demand. If there was something unsatisfactory about the situation, then it would that Fu Wu Tian was very dissatisfied.

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