Chapter 164 - A Trivial Matter

When the Ninth Month came, Casa City was already completely peaceful. Not only had the food prices become stable, but even the prices of other daily necessities were now a little cheaper compared to before.

The big firms had no other way but to do this. If they didn't reduced the prices, then nobody would be going to their stores to shop. As a result of them lowering the prices, there was a chain-like response that cheapened the prices of most commodities.

Of course, the Higanbana stores also reduced their prices. Most people bought food from them too. This wasn't only because the Higanbana firm had helped them during the crisis, but also because the food commodities they sold were of really high quality.

In the beginning, the Higanbana firm mostly sold normal commodities and when other stores reduced their prices, the people would then go and buy from those stores. The civilians now ranked food commodities among the stores . If the Higanbana store's food was regarded as first, then the other stores can only be regarded as ninth1.

The main reason for this was because the food commodities being sold by the Higanbana firm were not only of high quality, but also because they had a very high quantity of magic elements2 within. An example would be the radish that they sold, which a lot of people bought.

Zhao Hai knew of this matter after Laura had informed him. He immediately made a decision. This decision was to create a trademark for his food products. From now on, they would then be called Taoyuan3 products.

On the Ark continent, nobody knew of Taoyuan. However, in China, Taoyuan was actually a place everybody knew of. When spoken from a foreign language, it could be called Utopia4.

Zhao Hai's biggest desire was to build a new world within the heart of the Black Waste. A place that meant 'this was what everyone yearned for,' a Utopia.

Because of this idea, Zhao Hai had used Taoyuan. Zhao Hai didn't only think of this name, but also personally designed a trademark. This trademark was really simple as it was a drawing of a small bridge over flowing water with a family on top. Even though it was simple, on this world it was a very refreshing idea.

Trademarks in this world just included a name and didn't have any formally printed seal on the commodity. It was usually just spread by word of mouth. Zhao Hai, however, actually made a trademark design this time. This was a big step forward for this world.

Laura was not stupid and after immediately seeing Zhao Hai's trademark, she'd quickly made her own decision. Later on, all commodities from Zhao Hai would be called Taoyuan commodities. Rice would be placed in a big box, wherein the outside of those boxes would have the engravings of the trademark. The other commodities, such as radishes and oil, would be done the same as well. Furthermore, they'd separated their other commodities from Taoyuan commodities in the shortest possible time.

In order to open up the market, the Taoyuan commodities hadn't experienced a rise in their prices. Instead, they were sold at the normal price. This had made the commoners really happy as the commodities that Taoyuan produced were really of the highest quality. This was especially true for those families that had a child that went to the magic academies5. This allowed those juniors eat bamboo rice everyday and, sometimes, radishes.

The reason why the parents knew of the high magic content of these commodities was because of Julie6. Julie was the first person who bought the radishes from the Higanbana store and her son, Ross7, after eating it only once, had been able to become deeply learned in magic. He later became an official apprentice, and even acquired subsidies from the trade union for his studies.

As a result, their family's living condition became better. Although Ross was only a magic apprentice and couldn't receive much in terms of subsidies from the trade union, he still received a gold coin each month. For commoners, this was very good. A gold coin could be saved for spendings, and was almost enough to last for the month.

Julie was a very thrifty person. When the food crisis happened, she wasn't afraid because they had stocked up on food supplies. Julie had a habit of scooping out a small amount of rice before she cooks, every time, in order to save that rice in the family's rice jar. She had been doing this for a long time and, unknowingly, she had saved a cubic meter of rice. This was enough for their family to eat for several months, which was why Julie wasn't worried.

However, afterwards, the food prices didn't rise. Julie then decided not to use the rice in the jar and continued buying rice from the Higanbana store. Still, in order to cope with the next famine, if ever there'll be one in the future, Julie started to be more thrifty. She made lunch boxes for Ross everyday to avoid letting him eat in the cafeteria.

One day, Ross' magic instructor8 had noticed the food he brought. The instructor couldn't help it and curiously took a look, then felt that the food that Ross ate had a sufficient amount of magic elements in it. The instructor immediately asked Ross where it came from. Ross naturally wouldn't deceive his instructor and said that the food was bought by his mother. He didn't know where she'd bought it.

Ross' magic instructor asked him to bring him to his house. He then asked Julie about this matter, and Julie told her everything honestly. She also asked why this rice was so different from the other rice.

Ross' instructor didn't deceive them either and told them that the magic element in the rice was very adequate and that eating it often would give advantages while cultivating magic. This matter had slowly spread since then.

However, during that time, the Purcell Duchy was under a strict food control. If they wanted to buy, then they couldn't buy too much. But now that the food crisis had passed, Taoyuan's bamboo rice ushered in a new wave of high sales in the city.

Nowadays, Taoyuan bamboo rice was very popular in Casa City. However, Julie didn't buy a lot as she heard that magic products would lose much of their magic elements when not consumed after some time. They feared that buying too much bamboo rice would just end up being stocked up and just turn into regular rice as time passed by.

Afterwards, Taoyuan oil products were also reported to contain high magic elements. The news spread fast and Taoyuan oil also became a hot commodity. Now, every commoner recognized the Taoyuan brand.

Zhao Hai didn't feel anything about this matter. If he planted bamboo rice everyday, he couldn't sell them easily. Afterall, in the entire Purcell Duchy, the food prices had already dropped. It was impossible that everyone in the duchy would eat his personally produced bamboo rice.

However, Zhai Hai hadn't thought that the magic academy and aristocrats of Casa City would buy several hundred thousand kilograms of Taoyuan bamboo rice. Moreover, the orders were for one year which made Zhao Hai's income very stable.

Laura, however, was thinking of another matter. Zhao Hai had previously asked Laura to look for a buyer of blue-eyed rabbits. Laura actually wanted to cooperate with Zhao Hai, which he approved. Laura then started selling blue-eyed rabbit meat with an affordable price. Moreover, the magic elements it contained was higher than that of the radish and bamboo rice. Furthermore, since the commoners could also afford to eat it, this time around the commodity sold with a blazing speed.

Needless to say, Laura received huge orders from the aristocrats. Yet, they didn't order much of the blue-eyed rabbit meat. Adding them all up, it would only amount to 3000 blue-eyed rabbits per month. This, in turn, made them rely heavily on the retail sales instead.

Nowadays, within the Purcell Duchy, if you hadn't heard about the Taoyuan brand then it meant that you were an outsider. Everyone in the Purcell Duchy knew of the Taoyuan brand. Right now, the Higanbana stores currently had four types of products from this brand which made their business hot.

Nobody even thought of faking Taoyuan products because the quality of those products compared to other products was too different. It would be easy to spot the difference. Even trying it once would let one know if it was a legitimate or fake product. This could easily ruin a store's reputation.

Laura was also prepared for such cases. She'd immediately taken measures to prevent it from happening, such as letting the buyers be presented with Taoyuan cards by store personnel in order to prove their legitimacy. Furthermore, these cards were exclusive only for Higanbana stores, so buying from other stores would mean that what you bought were counterfeit goods.

Taking advantage of the popularity of Taoyuan products made the Higanbana business prosper. Laura opened up a lot of store branches throughout the Purcell Duchy. Now, one could see a Higanbana store everywhere within the duchy. This resulted in increased demand for Taoyuan products.

Zhao Hai was happy to see this situation. Considering that he still couldn't plant high level plants in the Space, Zhao Hai had still been yielding an astonishing amount of products, enough to deal with the demands of the Higanbana stores. Given the situation, he was getting a lot more gold coins and this made him happy.

He also sent a lot of blue-eyed rabbits to Laura to be processed. This procedure separated the rabbit furs and meat. Laura would then sell the rabbit meat and send back the processed rabbit fur to Zhao Hai.

Zhao Hai had also told Laura to use the money from selling the rabbit meat towards the processing of the rabbit fur. He also gave Laura some rabbit fur as he believed that human relationships would have better sentiment if you gave them something.

Laura decided to accept it in the end. However, she thought it was somewhat unfair for her to get something while Zhao Hai didn't get anything in return. Lately, she had been too busy managing the Higanbana stores, especially the newly opened branches. Thus, she didn't have much time to collect the different magic plants and beasts that Zhao Hai needed.

Zhao Hai didn't care much about it because, at present, the Higanbana firm had increased their demand for food and oil commodities. He was now planting a lot of radishes and had no time to plant other types of crops. Additionally, Zhao Hai was also too busy managing the matters on Fort Iron Mountain recently. Thus, he didn't have much free time and he was not worried, but rather quite relieved as he waited.

Fort Iron Mountain was presently in very good condition. There was a lot of firewood, corn stalks, oil trees, and bamboo rice. As long as you dried them up, one could use these plants to make a fire, especially the oil fruit trees. Not only did it have many applications, it could also be used to make a fire last for a longer duration. A fifty centimeter long piece of the oil tree can last for a whole day. Zhao Hai had way too many oil trees, so this was something that would be useful for the winter. As long as you placed an oil tree in the brazier, the room would be warm for the whole night.

Zhao Hai had also improved the land in the Black Waste everyday. He then tasked the slaves to grow some vegetables. These vegetables would then be used as food during winter period. Zhao Hai had also wanted to observe if these vegetables would be able to grow properly. In the end, he wanted to see the results of his land improvement.

Notes:

- This chapter was MTL'ed. Please leave a comment for constructive criticisms and advice.

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- Please check out the Editor's footnotes, thanks.

1 Probably means that there is a wide gap in quality.↩

2 魔法元素 - Mófǎ yuánsù. Basically, Magic Elements. 魔 has various meanings such as magic, devil, monster, sorcery. When paired with 法 it becomes 魔法 which is basically magic or magic law. 元素 is chemical elements or just elements. 元 is primary or basic. 素 is elements or base.↩

3 桃源 - Táoyuán. 桃 is peach. 源 is origin or basic or primary. If we go with a legitimate translation, I would use Peach Origin. However, due to the backstory of the name for Zhao Hai and Earth's China, I decided to stick with the pinyin, like for the Higanbana firm. Read on for more reasons why.↩

4 So yea, this is that background I was talking about. Taoyuan is a special municipality within Taiwan that has seen some astounding growth. The alternate name for it would be Peach Garden, due to the peaches that used to grow there. Peach Origin would have been my choice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoyuan,_Taiwan↩

5 魔法学院 - Mófǎ xueyuàn. Basically, Magic Academy with 魔法 being the same as in Magic Elements. Not to be confused with 魔武学校 or Mó wǔ xuexiào, which is Magic Military Academy.↩

6 朱丽 - Zhū lì. An old side character makes another appearance. Julie is from http://trungnguyenwriter.blogspot.com/2016/06/bringing-farm-chap-126.html↩

7 罗斯 - Luósī. Ross.↩

8 魔法老师 -Mófǎ lǎoshī. Magic teacher or instructor.