Chapter 621: Visitors
The next morning,
Wayne was thinking that after everyone finished lunch, he would take the Agents who had recovered well and continue to the Dock Area. Then, two groups of people successively found their way to the workshop.
The first group of visitors truly surprised Wayne. They were Mr. Russell's butler, a technician from Brook Factory, the steward of the Plantation where the workshop was located, and servants from two City Hall officials' homes, among others.
The reason they came in a group was simple—recently, the people they represented wanted to regularly purchase some luncheon meat, and even intended to buy more for gifting.
Although Wayne was happy to see the consumer market for luncheon meat gradually expanding,
after a brief inquiry, he learned that their reasons for wanting to purchase luncheon meat had absolutely nothing to do with the product's price, quality, or taste.
Their reasoning was roughly as follows: The Cathedral had recently assigned senior members of its guard team and the Detective Agency to investigate the plague in the Dock Area, and the Detective Agency had been sending people to aggressively promote luncheon meat in the Dock Area. Furthermore, compared to normal meat products, the price was so cheap that it seemed certain to be a loss, and they even half-sold, half-gave it away.
Thus, by association, some people believed that consuming this luncheon meat might be beneficial for preventing the plague. The Detective Agency's actions might even have been subtly orchestrated by the Church, both to reduce impact and avoid panic, and to control the scale of the plague's outbreak, similar to how the Church sometimes seemingly inexplicably distributes holy water for free.
Otherwise, why would a normal person do something unprofitable for no reason?
What the hell?
The transportation lines for livestock from Kankakee State to Virginia haven't even been established yet. Currently, most of the meat in the workshop is purchased from the local market. If the demand for meat suddenly increases too much, the price of raw materials is likely to rise, and the supply to restaurants will also be affected.
Luncheon meat already operates on thin margins and high volume. If cost control isn't good, wouldn't it truly be a loss-making venture just for the sake of publicity? Moreover, they might stop buying after a while. Who would the increased production supply then? They can't just give it all away, can they?
Some people might think that if meat prices rise, and everyone's prices rise, then it's as if they haven't risen.
But preservation technology wasn't advanced in those days, and the market's sales logic wasn't like that—because the daily supply of fresh meat after slaughter was roughly stable, local slaughterhouses and butcher shops would prioritize supplying meat to long-term, stable customers. Whoever suddenly bought too much in the short term would instead bear the brunt of the price increase.
They were all businesspeople; they knew the difference between
a full meal now
and
a full meal always.
That's why Wayne would rather let the sales team give away the excess luncheon meat than reduce the workshop's current production. This was to keep the workshop's daily meat purchase volume stable overall, and then he would be in a position to negotiate prices in reverse.
The current production was already Wayne's calculated optimal solution. The original plan was to produce roughly this much every day. It would be best if it sold out. If there was more, it would be moderately rationed, and production would only increase when the market truly expanded, rather than having a sudden influx of orders like now, which might never come again after a certain day.
However, these visitors were all somewhat connected to the Detective Agency, and Wayne didn't want to offend them. They also didn't listen to Wayne's explanation that
luncheon meat sales and the plague were actually completely unrelated.
So Wayne could only agree to them while stating that the workshop's current production would likely struggle to fully meet their demands and would be slightly limited, feeling both pain and joy.
Sales temporarily increased, but short-term profits might decrease instead of increase…
What made Wayne even more speechless was that when they saw Wayne seemed a bit troubled and said the quantity was limited, it only strengthened their suspicions.
Sigh, I can't explain it clearly to you all anymore.
Looking on the bright side, if the workshop's meat purchasing volume expanded rapidly, then driven by profit, local slaughterhouses and butcher shops might also blindly expand their capacity. When this wave of demand passed and the workshop's demand decreased again, the workshop could then appropriately leverage them.
However, the workshop's ultimate plan was to use meat sourced from Kankakee State. If the local slaughterhouses and butcher shops became too well-established, and then the workshop stopped buying from them, these locals might cause trouble…
There were pros and cons; he could only proceed like this for now.
After sending off this group, the second group had already been waiting for some time.
These five were the second batch of
companions from Kankakee City
that Connal had mentioned. Their arrival was expected by the Detective Agency, and there should be a final, largest batch coming later, totaling at least sixteen people.
Compared to when "Slingshot" and his group arrived, the Detective Agency's condition today looked a bit grim.
Everyone had just encountered two Feathered Serpents last night, whose authenticity was unclear. If Wayne hadn't been there, the entire group would have almost been wiped out. Although everyone had rested for half a day, they still hadn't recovered to their best state, and Connal still looked a bit pale.
The newcomers were initially happy, but when they saw "Slingshot", who had arrived not long ago, looking exhausted, and heard that the Detective Agency had almost faced an evil god last night, their expressions instantly became a bit apprehensive.
Inessa, who had the most influence among the hunters, was currently absent, so Wayne could only let them rest first and then arrange for Doug to slowly introduce them to the situation at the Detective Agency.
Fortunately, Connal's judgment was reliable. When they heard that the Detective Agency was about to go to the Dock Area again to investigate disruptors from a hidden organization, they hardly hesitated and still voluntarily stepped forward:
“Although we are not yet clear about the situation, since it is about investigating evil Extraordinary Persons, please let us participate. The induction training can perhaps wait until everyone has arrived.”
Wayne disliked forcing people when he had the capacity to avoid it, but he still thought highly of those who showed more initiative in certain aspects. “Very well, then let's keep everything simple. Let's deal with the immediate matters first.”
So, after distributing the spare red armbands, the carriages departed one after another. Everyone could explain the general situation to each other on the way; there was no need to waste time right now.
Inessa had changed into her hunting attire last night and returned to the Dock Area overnight. Even if Wayne himself wasn't too afraid of that
Coatle,
this alone made him realize that the situation was probably more serious than he had imagined.
He felt that the plan targeting the Dock Area gangs might have to be put on hold for a while. After all, no matter how deranged the gangs were, they were ultimately trying to make money and wouldn't go too far. At least, they wouldn't indiscriminately cause wanton slaughter.
