dtnovels Chapter 121 Returning to the Village
Chapter 121 Returning to the Village
People outside waited for a long time but no one came out. They could see many people holding cups or bowls, drinking and eating heartily with satisfied expressions on their faces.
As it gets hotter outside, those who were still hesitant stopped hesitating. They figured they'd only know if it was good after they tried it, and they started placing orders one after another.
Song Jiaojiao and her group quickly got busy, working until late afternoon, and only stopped to rest after all the items had been sold.
Seeing that everyone was too busy to eat, Song Jiaojiao quickly asked Meng An to buy some food. While buying food, Song Jiaojiao took out the money she had collected that morning and let everyone count it.
“I have 15 taels, 500 mace, and 64 cash here.”
“I have 20 taels, 200 coins, and 75 cash.”
……
After everyone finished counting and adding it all up, they were surprised to find that they had sold 134 taels, 300 coins, and 56 cash. Today was the first day, and they hadn't prepared much. After deducting costs and labor, the net profit was about 80 taels. Eighty taels a day would amount to 240 taels a month, which was a decent income. Right now, it's just one store, but once more chain stores open, things will be completely different.
Looking at the pile of silver in front of them, Song Jiaojiao waved her hand and said that everyone would receive a reward of one or two taels of silver today.
Half a month passed like this, and Banrixian gradually got on track. Although there weren't as many people as in the first three days, the daily income was stable at around 200 taels.
Due to the large demand for milk, Sangli had to urgently add a significant number of dairy cows.
After the Ghost Festival (July 15th of the lunar calendar), Song Jiaojiao planned to go home.
"Mu Qing, I'll be taking Mu Xue and Xu Fang back tomorrow. If you get too busy later, you can hire or buy people. You and Bai Shuqin can discuss the staffing issues. I'll officially hand over half a day's free time to you. As for how far you can go, that's up to you. You have to remember one thing: no matter what you do, you have to innovate to retain customers. You see, white glutinous rice balls are a bit monotonous. We can add sweet potato to the glutinous rice flour to make it orange, or grape skin to make it purple, and so on. You'll have to research that later."
"Mother, don't worry, I know what to do next," Mu Qing assured her.
"Okay, I'll write down all the new drinks I know later. As for when and how to launch them, that's up to you." Song Jiaojiao thought that the grapes at home were almost ripe, so she could make fruit drinks with them. She could also add the sour plum drink that was popular all over the country in the last generation.
The next day.
Song Jiaojiao took Mu Xue home early in the morning. It had been almost two months since she had been back, and she wondered how the workshop was doing and if anything had happened.
Wang Baozhu returned to the county in early July and often went to Banrixianlai to drink milk tea. This brought Song Jiaojiao a lot of orders from wealthy families, and Banrixianlai became known among young ladies. Every day, many servants came to buy milk tea for their mistress.
When they arrived in town at noon, Song Jiaojiao was thinking about sour plum drink, so she went to Huichuntang to buy medicinal herbs. The herbs in sour plum drink were not too expensive and could basically be bought at any pharmacy.
Song Jiaojiao told Liu Xuewen what medicinal herbs she needed and waited in the shop. While waiting for the herbs, Liu Xuewen came to Song Jiaojiao.
Song Jiaojiao was surprised that Liu Xuewen hadn't left and was still waiting. She knew that Yunshui Town was not like the capital. There were few people selling ice here, and the environment was definitely not as comfortable as in the capital.
"Madam Song, you've finally arrived! I've been waiting for you for quite some time. I wonder if you've finished researching the thing?" Liu Xuewen said, fanning himself with a fan.
Song Jiaojiao looked embarrassed and replied, "I'm afraid I've disappointed Mr. Liu. I just returned from the county today and haven't had a chance to go home yet. Here's what I'll do: I'll bring you good news in three days."
Liu Xuewen thought to himself, "I've waited for over a month already, what's three more days?" He replied, "Alright, I'll wait three more days. Madam Song, are you here to get medicine today? Is something wrong at home?"
"It's nothing, nothing, just something I grabbed. I've been in the county town lately, running a small beverage shop called 'Half-Day Leisure.' If you're free, Mr. Liu, you can try it out; I guarantee you'll find it refreshing." At this moment, the medicinal herbs Song Jiaojiao needed were ready.
"Half a day of leisure, that's a good name. I'll go when I have time."
"Alright, then I'll take my leave now. See you in three days." Song Jiaojiao picked up the medicinal herbs and said goodbye to Liu Xuewen.
After Song Jiaojiao left, Liu Xuewen said, "Madam Song just grabbed all those medicinal herbs, grab another portion."
Liu Xuewen said to the apprentice who was dispensing the medicine, "If it's something that Song Jiaojiao would personally make a trip for, it can't be something you just randomly dispense."
Liu Xuewen looked at the medicinal herbs in front of him: dried plum, hawthorn, dried tangerine peel, hibiscus, mulberry, licorice, and mint. He fell into deep thought. These things didn't look like a prescription at all. Never mind, he'd try decocting them first.
Liu Xuewen called an apprentice and gave him the medicinal herbs to brew, and the result was predictable.
Song Jiaojiao was unaware of what was happening with Liu Xuewen.
After buying the medicinal herbs, Song Jiaojiao went straight home. The weather in mid-July was really hot, and there were hardly any people on the streets. She didn't encounter a single person on her way back.
When they got home, the workshop was still in full swing, so Song Jiaojiao quickly asked Xu Fang to make mung bean soup and deliver it to everyone.
After the soup was cooked, Song Jiaojiao took Xu Da to the sweet potato shop. Since they stopped making sweet potato noodles last time, they had moved the mung bean noodles back.
When Aunt Li saw Song Jiaojiao coming over, she quickly went up to her and said, "Jiaojiao, you're back. Is the store in the county all set up?" Aunt Li had heard about Song Jiaojiao opening a shop in the county from Wang Baozhu.
"Alright, Auntie, you've worked hard these past few days. I asked Xu Fang to make some mung bean soup. Everyone, take a break and have some mung bean soup to cool off." After Song Jiaojiao finished greeting everyone, Aunt Li pulled Song Jiaojiao aside.
"Jiaojiao, before you left last time, you asked your sister-in-law to collect wheat and put it in the sugar mill next door. Jiaojiao, why did you collect so much wheat?"
"We're not making sweet potato flour anymore, so I'm planning to use sweet potatoes to make sugar, which requires wheat," Song Jiaojiao explained.
Aunt Li stared in shock, her eyes widening, and said even more cautiously, "What! Sweet potatoes can be made into sugar!!!"
"It should be possible. I recently remembered it, and my memory is fine. We'll only know if it works after we try. Auntie, could you please tell everyone to come back to work tomorrow? We'll probably need quite a few people this time." Song Jiaojiao was thinking that the rice puffs and sweet potato candy needed to be made together so that the finished products could be completed in three days.
To make rice puffs, the rice must first be steamed and then air-dried to become dried rice before it can be fried into rice puffs. This process takes at least two days.
Sweet potatoes also need to be steamed, and wheat needs to be soaked in water to sprout, which will take at least two days. It seems that the wheat will need to be soaked soon, and Xu Fang will need to steam a lot of rice.