Chapter 139: Eight Treasure Pickles Successfully Pickled, Taste Beyond Imagination!
Fire and water show no mercy.
There are not a few tragic cases online where years of effort have been reduced to ashes by a fire.
Seeing the first piece of intelligence refreshed today, Jiang Tao also felt a pang of sweat for Li Ming.
Although the two had not known each other for long and had not interacted much, they got along very well.
Li Ming gave Jiang Tao the feeling of being a friend worth deepening his acquaintance with.
Last night, Li Ming alone spent five to six thousand yuan treating him, Xu Li, and Zhang Bo to a meal.
This also shows that Li Ming treated him as a friend.
Now, seeing intelligence related to Li Ming’s car dealership, Jiang Tao naturally could not stand idly by and ignore it.
To take a step back, there’s also the 200,000 yuan thank-you red envelope for him!
Yesterday, he bought a car from Li Ming for 700,000 yuan, minus this 200,000 yuan.
It’s equivalent to getting a Mercedes-Benz GLS worth a million for 500,000 yuan, which is definitely a great deal.
Although it seemed like a long time, all the thoughts that flashed through Jiang Tao’s mind actually took only a dozen seconds.
A single spark can start a prairie fire, let alone a spontaneously combusting car!
This matter is urgent and cannot wait!
As Jiang Tao got out of bed with his phone and walked towards the door, he also found Li Ming’s number and dialed it.
Ring, ring, ring—
“Hurry up and answer! You kid, you’re not drunk, are you!”
Seeing that the call was not being connected, Jiang Tao felt anxious for Li Ming.
A car can burn to an empty shell in a few minutes if it spontaneously combusts.
If surrounding cars are ignited, the loss will be even greater!
…
Inside a guest room at the Bulgari Hotel in Sanlitun.
Ring, ring, ring—
The phone’s ringtone suddenly sounded, startling Li Ming, who was doing important business, and instantly interrupting his mood.
With a look of annoyance, he picked up his phone and saw that the incoming call was from “Brother Jiang.”
“Whose call is it, dear? Don’t worry about that for now, let’s continue.”
Li Ming’s female companion reached out to snatch his phone, but Li Ming dodged by moving his arm.
“I’ll take a call first, you be quiet.”
After signaling to his female companion, Li Ming swiped his finger to answer the call.
“Li Ming, I just saw someone post a video on Kuaidou saying that a used car dealership caught fire.”
“It looked so much like your car dealership.”
“Are you at the dealership? Go check it quickly.”
The moment the call connected, before Li Ming could greet Jiang Tao on the other end, Jiang Tao’s urgent reminder came through.
“Huh? Brother Jiang, you’re not joking, are you? It can’t be our dealership; we have a night watchman.”
“If something like this happened, the night watchman would have notified me immediately.”
Hearing Jiang Tao’s words, although Li Ming felt it was unlikely to be his dealership, a sliver of unease grew in his heart.
“It’s best if it’s not your dealership, I hope it’s not yours either.”
“But with the precedent of other people’s cases, you should pay more attention to this aspect.”
“There’s nothing else, I just saw it and wanted to remind you. I’ll hang up now, I’m going to sleep.”
After reminding Li Ming, Jiang Tao stopped chatting with him and hung up the phone directly.
The reason for hanging up so decisively was also to avoid delaying Li Ming’s best rescue time.
“Who was it, Ming Ge? Calling you in the middle of the night.”
Li Ming’s female companion lay on the headboard, lit a cigarette, and said with some displeasure.
“Shut up, it’s not your place to butt into these matters!”
Li Ming glared at his female companion with annoyance, then lowered his head and operated his phone, opening the surveillance footage of the car dealership on the app.
Seeing the raging fire in the northeast corner of the car dealership, Li Ming was instantly stunned, and a chill ran from the base of his spine to his forehead.
It really was his dealership on fire!!
“Damn it! What is my uncle doing!!”
Muttering a curse, Li Ming quickly found the night watchman’s number on his phone and dialed it!
While dialing, Li Ming, flustered, began to put on clothes, ignoring his female companion’s calls, and rushed out of the guest room.
“Damn it! Hurry up and answer the phone!!!”
While waiting for the elevator, Li Ming looked at the unanswered call on his phone and had already cursed his uncle’s entire family tree in his mind!
Ding!
The moment the elevator car door opened, the phone Li Ming was dialing with finally connected.
“Hello, Xiao Ming…”
“Wu Defa! What the hell are you doing!!”
“Huh??”
Wu Defa on the other end of the phone was stunned by his nephew’s angry curse.
“What do you mean ‘huh’!! Zone D of the car dealership is on fire!”
“You’re still sleeping, aren’t you!! Get up and put out the fire!!!”
In the hallway in the middle of the night, Li Ming’s roar startled many guests who were exercising in their rooms.
Li Ming, filled with rage, didn’t bother to consider public morality.
After cursing, he stepped into the elevator and slapped the close button repeatedly to close the door.
Wu Defa on the other end of the phone also shouted, rushed out of the room to put out the fire without even grabbing his phone.
Half an hour later.
The hotel’s private car carrying Li Ming stopped at the entrance of the car dealership.
After getting out of the car, he anxiously opened the main door and ran frantically towards Zone D of the car dealership.
The vehicles stored in Zone D were all BBA-level luxury cars.
Even used ones were priced between 200,000 and 300,000, or even 400,000 to 600,000 to 700,000.
The most expensive was a G-wagon priced at over a million, which Li Ming had driven out to show off today.
If Zone D caught fire, the losses would be immense!
As soon as he entered the car dealership, Li Ming smelled a strong burnt odor.
Arriving at Zone D, he saw three adjacent cars that had burned into empty shells and were still emitting black smoke. Li Ming’s heart ached immensely.
One was a BMW i3, another was an Audi A4L, and the third was an Audi Q3.
The three cars together cost over 500,000 yuan to acquire!
In other words, this fire tonight cost Li Ming 500,000 yuan!
This was even with Jiang Tao’s timely reminder!
Without Jiang Tao’s reminder, the fire would have spread further, and the entire car dealership might have become an crematorium!
Thinking of this, Li Ming’s gaze suddenly turned to a middle-aged man beside him whose face was so blackened that his original appearance was unrecognizable.
It was evident that the man had also left in a hurry; he was only wearing pants and hadn’t had time to put on shoes or clothes.
“Wu Defa, did you drink again tonight!”
Although he was his own uncle, thinking of the terrible consequences if Jiang Tao hadn’t reminded him tonight.
Li Ming couldn’t help but get very angry, extremely angry!
“I’m sorry, Xiao Ming, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
Wu Defa knew he had caused a huge problem this time. His darkened face was full of guilt.
He also knew the value of the three cars!
With his current salary, he would have to save for seven or eight years without eating or drinking!
As the night shift security guard at the car dealership, he was undeniably guilty and had caused a major disaster this time!
“Is saying sorry useful! Can these three cars be restored to their original state!”
“I give you over 6,000 yuan a month, providing you with food, drink, and cigarettes, and this is how you do things!”
“I’m sorry, Xiao Ming, punish me! I was negligent tonight, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
Looking at his constantly apologizing uncle, and then thinking of his deceased mother.
Li Ming’s eyes flickered for a long time, and finally, he sighed deeply, unable to ruthlessly disown his uncle and fire him.
“Go get a few more fire extinguishers, spray these three cars, and move the surrounding cars away.”
“Okay, okay!”
Hearing Li Ming’s words, Wu Defa ran off to get the fire extinguishers.
After instructing Wu Defa, Li Ming also tagged all employees in the car dealership’s work group chat, asking them to come to the dealership.
Tonight, such a major accident occurred at the dealership, with losses in the hundreds of thousands.
It was necessary to hold another safety meeting.
After sending the message in the work group chat, Li Ming glanced at the black Submariner watch on his wrist.
Seeing that it was already past twelve o’clock midnight, it was very late.
Li Ming could only wait until morning to call Jiang Tao to thank him.
At the same time, he was grateful in his heart to have made such a friend as Jiang Tao.
Jiang Tao’s call tonight saved him immeasurable losses.
Through tonight’s incident, Li Ming’s belief in Jiang Tao as a friend was further solidified.
…
7 AM.
When Jiang Tao opened his eyes after getting out of bed, he found that Xu Li was no longer there.
He could hear his mother and Xu Li whispering outside the door.
Since coming to the capital, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had been living together day and night, and there were no longer any previous frictions.
Harmony brings prosperity; this was embodied in this household.
“A new day has begun~”
Jiang Tao sat up in bed, stretched, yawned, then picked up the clothes Xu Li had prepared for him and started to put them on.
Last night, only the first piece of intelligence about Li Ming’s car dealership had some value.
The remaining two pieces of intelligence were irrelevant information.
Jiang Tao had nothing particularly urgent to do today, so he was completely relaxed.
After getting dressed, Jiang Tao first opened a safe placed by his bedside.
He carefully took out the Money-Attracting Golden Toad with both hands.
In his field of vision, above the Money-Attracting Golden Toad, there was a virtual semi-transparent screen.
The screen displayed a prompt:
“The 10,000 yuan RMB income generated yesterday can be collected. Collect immediately? “
“Yes!”
Without any hesitation, Jiang Tao directly chose to collect.
Immediately afterward, his phone on the table buzzed with a transfer notification.
Receiving 10,000 yuan every day upon waking up.
This experience was simply amazing!
Jiang Tao genuinely liked this Money-Attracting Golden Toad.
He could earn 300,000 yuan every month without doing anything!
This income already surpassed most ordinary workers.
After collecting the money from the Money-Attracting Golden Toad, Jiang Tao picked up his phone and checked his investment income on Alipay.
The fund he had purchased had confirmed its share, and today’s income was +15,888 yuan.
The fund chosen by System Brother was indeed extraordinary!
He had already earned 25,888 yuan without doing anything.
This was equivalent to three to four months’ salary from his previous hauling job!
Life was becoming more promising!
He put the Money-Attracting Golden Toad back in the safe and locked it.
Just as Jiang Tao was about to go out for breakfast, a prompt appeared on his retina again.
“The Eight Treasure Pickles pickled in the Delicious Pickled Vegetable Jar are ready for sale!”
“It’s ready? So quickly!”
Seeing the prompt on his retina, Jiang Tao couldn’t help but be surprised!
The Eight Treasure Pickles had only been pickling for about two days at most, and they were ready so quickly??
At this pickling speed, wouldn’t that mean 15 jars could be pickled in a month?
This production rate far exceeded Jiang Tao’s expectations.
He had expected to produce about six or seven jars a month at best; the actual output had doubled his initial forecast!
Assuming one jar contains 500 jin of Eight Treasure Pickles, 15 jars would be 7,500 jin!
Even at a market price of 15 yuan per jin, the monthly output value would be over 110,000 yuan!
The ingredients for Eight Treasure Pickles were not expensive.
Even if the rent for the vegetable market stall was included, the monthly cost would be at most 30,000 yuan.
The rest was pure profit!
Moreover, Jiang Tao did not intend to sell at 15 yuan per jin.
The System Brother had analyzed and optimized the secret recipe for Eight Treasure Pickles, combined with the pickle jar with its delicious attribute bonus.
Doubling the price would be considered low!
Of course, the specific pricing would depend on the taste test.
But it would definitely be much more expensive than ordinary Eight Treasure Pickles on the market.
“Later, I’ll take out the Eight Treasure Pickles and pickle another jar!”
“Time is money; the Delicious Pickled Vegetable Jar must be fully utilized, minimizing its cooldown time!”
With a plan in mind, Jiang Tao pushed open the bedroom door.
As soon as he stepped out, he saw his mother and Xu Li bringing food from the kitchen to the dining table.
Today’s breakfast was Millet Pumpkin Porridge again, nutritious and healthy.
“Husband, hurry and wash up, your dad went downstairs to buy the steamed pork dumplings and fried dough sticks you like.”
Seeing Jiang Tao come out, Xu Li greeted him with a smile; she really enjoyed their current life.
The family together every day, happy, healthy, and not worrying about daily necessities.
This was the beautiful life she had longed for.
Now, it had all come true.
For Jiang Tao and Xu Li’s small family, 2025 was like entering a new era and starting a new life.
The origin of all this was the stone that fell from the sky and smashed Jiang Tao’s truck.
Of course, this secret would forever remain hidden in his heart and could not be told to anyone.
Otherwise, if the system’s unbinding program was triggered, he would have nowhere to cry!
Jiang Tao washed up briefly in the bathroom and returned to the dining table to eat.
While eating, Jiang Tao said to his parents:
“By the way, Mom and Dad, after breakfast, let’s take the jar for the Eight Treasure Pickles and go to Xiao Shahe to see if the Eight Treasure Pickles being pickled are ready.”
“I estimate they’ve probably soaked up the flavor and can be taken out to pickle new ones.”
“Huh? They’re ready? It can’t be that soon!”
“Didn’t we just pickle them yesterday morning?”
As expected, his parents showed expressions of surprise when they heard Jiang Tao say the Eight Treasure Pickles were ready.
“Husband, don’t joke with Mom and Dad, Eight Treasure Pickles can’t be pickled that quickly.”
Xu Li thought Jiang Tao was joking with his parents-in-law, gave him a charming side-eye, and lightly punched his arm.
“Do I look like someone who jokes about such serious matters?”
Jiang Tao explained with a smile:
“The secret recipe I learned from someone is not an ordinary secret recipe.”
“The pickle brine made with this secret recipe is particularly easy to absorb flavor, and a little over a day is enough.”
“Son, you’re not joking, are you?”
His mother also looked skeptical.
She had been pickling pickles for decades and had never heard of Eight Treasure Pickles being ready in a day.
Jiang Tao smiled, “You’ll know when you go with Dad later.”
His father, Jiang Wen, also asked doubtfully, “Son, if we have this skill, why not get more pickle jars and pickle them all at once? Wouldn’t that be more efficient?”
Jiang Tao, while picking up and eating some Eight Treasure Pickles bought from the supermarket, said half-jokingly:
“Dad, you don’t understand this.”
“The pickle jar we use for pickling was given to me by Old Lu, our landlord, when he visited our home before.”
“The pickle jar has a history of hundreds of years, passed down from Old Lu’s grandmother.”
“An old pickle jar pickles more fragrant and mellow flavors; new pickle jars can’t achieve that taste.”
“Oh… so that’s the trick.”
His father, Jiang Wen, heard Jiang Tao’s explanation and nodded thoughtfully, not asking further questions.
“Of course. Even with the same Eight Treasure Pickle recipe and the same ingredients, you can get dozens or hundreds of different textures. There’s a lot of knowledge involved.”
After taking a small sip of Millet Pumpkin Porridge and swallowing it, Jiang Tao continued:
“The various ingredients for adjusting the pickle brine, not a gram more or less, is crucial.”
“If the proportion of one ingredient is off, the taste will be significantly different.”
After receiving the Eight Treasure Pickle pickling skill rewarded by the system, Jiang Tao could now be considered an expert in this field.
He was proficient in all sorts of pickling knowledge for Eight Treasure Pickles, transforming from a novice to a master.
Jiang Wen and Tian Xiaomei listened to their son talk fluently; they could only nod.
In front of their son, they were now like two obedient apprentices.
Jiang Tao certainly had no reservations or secrets when teaching his parents how to pickle Eight Treasure Pickles.
He always told them everything without holding back, teaching them with his whole heart.
Of course, the fundamental purpose of his doing so was to enable his parents to independently complete the pickling of Eight Treasure Pickles as soon as possible, so he could be a hands-off manager.
After the family of four finished breakfast, Xu Li went to the kitchen to wash the dishes.
She still had to clean the house, do laundry, and follow the Keep tutorials for her fitness routine this morning.
Xu Li’s day was also very fulfilling and not monotonous at all.
Jiang Tao, meanwhile, went downstairs with his parents.
The three of them first went to the market near the residential area and bought five glass pickle jars, each with a capacity of over 20 liters.
They also coincidentally purchased the various ingredients and spices needed for pickling Eight Treasure Pickles.
After buying all the necessary ingredients, the three of them drove to Xiao Shahe.
Due to the large number of items purchased this time, Jiang Tao drove the car directly to the alley entrance outside the dormitory building he rented.
After unloading the car with his parents, he drove the car back outside the village.
He parked the Mercedes-Benz GLS next to his previous truck used for hauling.
He got out of the car and stood in front of the two vehicles.
Looking at his former “comrade-in-arms” and his current “ride,” he felt quite emotional.
In less than two months, he had gone from a truck driver with a debt of seventy to eighty thousand to someone with a net worth of several million driving a Mercedes.
All of this was like a dream!
However, all of this had actually happened and was by no means a dream.
It was certainly not a “fantasy of a loser before his death” as netizens claimed.
“Life will only get better from now on! Work hard, strive!”
Cheering himself on, Jiang Tao turned and strode towards Old Lu’s dormitory building.
After all the effort, Jiang Tao and his parents moved all the materials they bought that day to the room upstairs.
“This place is too small and the conditions are too poor.”
“Mom and Dad, please take some time this afternoon to rent a stall at the vegetable market.”
“From now on, we’ll operate and pickle there directly to avoid running back and forth.”
After moving all the ingredients, Jiang Tao closed the room door and couldn’t help but sigh.
Problems that could be solved with money were not problems for him at all.
“Okay, your mother and I will listen to you; we’ll do as you say.”
Jiang Wen nodded, obeying Jiang Tao’s arrangements without any objection.
“Next, it’s time to witness the miracle.”
Jiang Tao said with a smile, walked a few steps to the Delicious Pickled Vegetable Jar placed by the wall, and stopped.
Jiang Wen and Tian Xiaomei’s gazes followed their son’s steps, finally focusing on the pickle jar.
To be honest, they were even more curious than Jiang Tao about how special and delicious the Eight Treasure Pickles pickled with the secret recipe would be.
Taking a deep breath, Jiang Tao uncovered the protective film on the Delicious Pickled Vegetable Jar.
An indescribable aroma of pickles wafted straight into his nostrils.
The sour fragrance of vinegar, the savory aroma of soy sauce, the sweet fragrance of sugar, and the salty fragrance of salt blended together.
It was also accompanied by the pungent aroma of garlic, the ginger aroma of ginger, and the pungent aromas of Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, and other spices from the spice bag.
The overall aroma was rich, mellow, and had a long-lasting aftertaste; just smelling it could stimulate one’s appetite.
“This… is this the Eight Treasure Pickles we pickled? It’s too fragrant!”
“Just smelling it is streets ahead of those Eight Treasure Pickles sold on the market!”
“This secret recipe is truly amazing. It smells so delicious; the taste must be great too!”
Jiang Wen and Tian Xiaomei were also mesmerized by the fragrance of the Eight Treasure Pickles in the pickle jar.
They gained more confidence in their own product!
“Dad, Mom, come and taste it too.”
Jiang Tao opened a pair of disposable chopsticks, took out some Eight Treasure Pickles from the Delicious Pickled Vegetable Jar, and shared them with his parents.
Crunch, crunch, crunch—
The family of three, each with a pair of chopsticks, began to taste the Eight Treasure Pickles made by their own hands, eating in silence.
“Delicious, these Eight Treasure Pickles are too good!”
“These are the best Eight Treasure Pickles I’ve ever eaten! They definitely won’t be hard to sell!”
After personally tasting the Eight Treasure Pickles, his parents’ faces showed joy and excitement.
It is rare for “color, aroma, and taste” to be used to describe Eight Treasure Pickles.
However, this jar of Eight Treasure Pickles made by Jiang Tao perfectly presented these three aspects.
They smelled good, and they tasted even crisper and more flavorful!
After eating one, you’d want more!
Crunch, crunch, crunch…
Jiang Tao chewed the Eight Treasure Pickles in his mouth, his eyes slightly narrowed, savoring them carefully.
The unique texture of the Eight Treasure Pickles after absorbing the flavor also greatly exceeded his expectations.
Originally, Jiang Tao had thought that renting a shop and selling Eight Treasure Pickles at double the market price was already a significant move.
At this moment, having personally tasted the Eight Treasure Pickles made with the system’s secret recipe and enhanced by the Delicious Pickled Vegetable Jar.
Jiang Tao finally realized how ridiculously he had underestimated the value of these Eight Treasure Pickles!
He had been too conservative, too conservative!
With this texture, they could definitely compete with the Eight Treasure Pickles from Liu Bi Ju, a century-old brand in the capital city!
In the past two days, Jiang Tao had also researched information about Eight Treasure Pickles online.
The loose Eight Treasure Pickles at the 600-year-old main store of Liu Bi Ju in Qianmen, Beijing, could sell for 90 yuan per jin!
The price of Liu Bi Ju’s Eight Treasure Pickles was twice as high as his expected selling price of 30 yuan per jin!
If he also chose to benchmark against Liu Bi Ju’s Eight Treasure Pickles price.
The Delicious Pickled Vegetable Jar could produce about 500 jin of Eight Treasure Pickles at a time, yielding about 45,000 yuan per jar!
The time to pickle one jar of Eight Treasure Pickles, from preparing the ingredients to completion, was about two days.
Pickling 15 jars of Eight Treasure Pickles a month would be no pressure at all!
With 45,000 yuan per jar, 15 jars would amount to over 670,000 yuan!
Originally, Jiang Tao had thought that making over 100,000 yuan in profit per month would be considered good.
Now, it seemed that over 600,000 yuan per month was not a big problem!
After finishing the Eight Treasure Pickles in his mouth, Jiang Tao had a plan in mind.
Since he had the strength to directly compete with Liu Bi Ju, why not!
With the optimized secret recipe from System Brother in his left hand and the Delicious Pickled Vegetable Jar in his right.
Holding the Big and Small Kings (Jokers), he would be a coward not to dare to compete with Liu Bi Ju, wouldn’t that be too timid!
Without even this ambition, what kind of business could he do? He might as well go home and raise pigs!
Of course, before benchmarking against Liu Bi Ju, Jiang Tao had one extremely important thing to do.
Previously, he didn’t know how delicious his Eight Treasure Pickles would be, so branding seemed unimportant.
After understanding the true value of the Eight Treasure Pickle secret recipe from System Brother.
Jiang Tao felt it was very necessary to establish a dedicated company and register a corresponding brand trademark!
Small-scale operations are fine, but to develop and grow, the formal aspects must be handled properly from the beginning.
