Chương 239: The Fox's Cry, Chen Sheng is King

The soup base of the spicy strip soup is orange-red, with fresh vegetables, beef, and a can of spicy strips. There are also scallions floating on the surface. It actually looks pretty good.

"Is this the recently popular, affordable spicy noodle soup?"

Jenny, who was in charge of bringing the soup over, smiled and nodded in response.

"Yes, Miss Roland, this soup is very popular now."

"Not only within our group, but also in pubs outside, spicy noodle soup has been introduced, and people have found it to be perfect for dipping dark bread."

Roland suddenly realized.

In this era, the staple food of the poor at the bottom of society is still mainly black bread.

Dark bread is mostly made from rye flour and coarse grains, and poor-quality bread may even contain wheat bran and sawdust.

Once cooled, this black bread becomes so hard it could almost be used as a weapon; to eat it, you have to dip it in hot water or soup.

Now, there's the spicy snack, "Feilong Spicy Strips," a condiment that's high in oil and salt, yet inexpensive and delicious.

The taverns at the bottom of the street would mix spicy strips into the soup, selling each bowl for an extra copper coin. This not only increased their profits by 10-20%, but also made the poor happy to buy it.

After all, it contains real flavors, oil, salt, and even vitamins provided by alchemical materials.

Of course, the poor didn't know what vitamins were.

They just felt that drinking spicy noodle soup was more cost-effective, as it was oilier and gave them more energy to work.

Roland picked up a metal ladle and began to taste the peculiar spicy noodle soup.

Hmm... the taste is actually not bad, it's a bit like instant noodle soup on Earth, but it's a bit greasy.

Seeing this, Jenny took the opportunity to introduce the group's recent situation.

With the greenhouses and spice factories operating smoothly, the Roland Group has begun to generate stable profits.

Employee cohesion has also been increasing, especially after the group's department stores started selling "Feeding Dragon Spicy Strips" for only 20 group tokens, which further strengthened the employees' determination to follow Roland.

They even take pride in being employees of the Roland Group.

A can of spicy strips that costs 60 copper coins outside is only 20 company tokens inside the group.

With the launch of the spice factory and the provision of a number of high-paying jobs, quite a few people have started eating spicy strips as a snack.

As a result, a new batch of offerings appeared at the base of the Roland statue in the greenhouse and square: canned spicy strips for feeding dragons.

The maids who clean the statues every day receive a large amount of food, which they then hand over to the group's internal orphanage.

"By the way, Miss Roland, speaking of spicy strips, something interesting happened at the department store."

Roland looked up and asked curiously.

"What interesting thing happened?"

Jenny answered with a smile.

"There are many small vendors and tavern owners around New Sprout Street who are trying to exchange silver and copper coins for the group tokens we issued with their employees."

"They acquired the group's tokens at a ratio of 1. 5 times."

"Then they use the group tokens they exchange to buy relatively cheap spicy snacks for feeding dragons at our department store, making a lot of money in the process."

Jenny spoke with a somewhat strange expression on her face.

Unexpectedly, the group tokens that Roland printed as a substitute for employee salaries due to insufficient working capital were eagerly exchanged by merchants from the outside world.

Moreover, the exchange rate wasn't even 1: 1; it was 1. 5 times the amount of real gold and silver, just to exchange for a few thin pieces of paper.

It was truly eye-opening.

Roland was also somewhat stunned when she heard the news.

She was just selling spicy snacks, but she ended up even messing with currency exchange rates.

The nightingale, with its extremely high concentration of capitalist influence, blushed even more, no less than when she secretly tasted a bite of Roland's Solomon's Seal last time.

Nightingale immediately thought of a certain approach and made a suggestion.

"Miss Roland, since the surrounding merchants are happy to exchange for our group's tokens, why don't we open the exchange window?"

"A few tokens with almost no cost can be exchanged for real money, which is almost like a rain of money."

Even Jenny was somewhat tempted by the suggestion.

After working as an industry manager for six months, Jenny vaguely sensed that something was amiss, but limited by her limited perspective, she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

She had no choice but to turn to Roland, hoping she could offer some specific advice.

Roland's expression changed upon hearing Nightingale's suggestion.

"Absolutely not!"

"We absolutely must not open the exchange window for company tokens; in fact, we'll need to slightly restrict the channels for external merchants to exchange them!"

Roland's voice was resolute. She even stopped drinking the spicy soup, took out a piece of draft paper, and began to draft orders.

While casting the spell of the mage's handwriting, he gave instructions to Jenny.

"Jenny, the employees shouldn't have exchanged too many group tokens yet, right?"

"Not much, because the purchasing power of tokens within the company is actually higher than that of copper coins given by merchants."

"That's good. Next, we'll introduce purchase restrictions. Daily purchases are fine, but for large-scale purchases, we'll let outside vendors and the Old Port Area Business Alliance discuss it."

Upon hearing Roland's order, Jenny immediately understood the reason behind it.

"Ms. Roland, are you worried that the low-priced spicy snacks sold within the group will impact our business alliance partners?"

Roland rolled her eyes inwardly.

That's not what she's worried about. A few boxes of spicy strips in the department store are nothing compared to the Wangdu Market; they're not enough to shake up market prices.

"Sigh, I'm worried about other things."

"Any other questions?"

Jenny and Nightingale looked puzzled.

Roland nodded slightly, her expression extremely serious.

"Yes, it's a problem with the group's token itself."

"We absolutely cannot touch the exchange between group tokens and circulating copper coins right now... at least not now."

"We now have a complete food industry chain. Once the exchange is opened, there will be a steady stream of merchants exchanging group tokens to import relatively cheap products from us."

Nightingale still didn't understand, so she placed her hands on Roland's shoulders and gently massaged them.

Her rosy lips drew close to Roland's fox ears as she whispered a question.

"Miss Roland, isn't this a good thing? Our influence and revenue will increase as a result, and the cost of printing tokens is not high."

Jenny, on the other end, looked grim.

She understood.

She finally understood where her previous unease came from.

"Miss Roland, are you worried that our group's token is too influential?"

Roland was taken aback, then looked at Jenny with approval in her eyes and nodded.

"Yes, if our group's tokens start to circulate in New Sprouts Street and even the Old Port area, and we control the minting rights, we can print as many as we want..."

"What do you think the nobles in the old port district, with warehouses overflowing with copper coins, will think? And what will the empire think?"

Upon hearing Roland's explanation, Nightingale paused slightly in her massage movements.

In an instant, her pupils contracted sharply.

From her perspective, all she could see on Roland was her long, flowing golden hair and the cute, twitching fox ears, which made Roland's overall demeanor appear delicate, weak, and easily bullied.

He doesn't seem to have much ambition.

But what she had just heard made her realize that something was wrong.

Yes, nowadays, the Roland Group is self-sufficient in food and water, its employees are all loyal to Roland, and it enjoys a very high reputation in the old port area.

If the group's token, the "Roland Coupon," becomes the mainstream currency in the Old Port Area, and an internal economic system is established... wouldn't that be a country within a country?

The nightingale swallowed.

Miss Roland, you wouldn't happen to be vying for the throne, would you?

This unrealistic idea was immediately dismissed by the nightingale as soon as it appeared.

impossible.

Miss Roland doesn't seem to be interested in power.

Setting aside strange thoughts, Nightingale's train of thought veered off course, and she secretly glanced at Roland's white silk ice cream swaying in mid-air.

Ahem, if Roland wore the Queen's attire and changed into a bodysuit of stockings, she would definitely be very alluring.

It will likely create a sense of contrast between majesty and vulgarity.

I wonder if Queen Roland's tastes better than the High Nun's.