Chapter 623: Imperial Examination Family-Building System (32)

The liquor-selling business of Song Zhisheng and his wife had thus found its market.

Qinghe Village only had about a hundred households, and not every family was willing to spend money on liquor; at most, they would prepare two taels for ancestral worship during the New Year. Therefore, after several days, they had only sold two ten-jin jars of liquor in the village, and the couple was not surprised at all.

With the village sales mostly done, the couple was just planning to carry five-jin liquor jars on their backs to sell in Lin Shi's maiden home, Qingshan Village, when a carriage stopped at their gate.

"May I ask if this is the home of the County School top scholar, Scholar Song?"

The burly man driving the carriage cupped his hands and asked.

Song Zhisheng hurriedly said, "It is my home, but my son has gone to the County School to study and is not here."

"Haha! Then I've found the right place! I'm not looking for Scholar Song! I'm here on behalf of my master to buy liquor! The butcher Xie at the town entrance is your relative by marriage, right? He treated my master to a meal with that liquor the other day, and my master has been praising its taste ever since. Upon learning that the liquor was sold by Scholar Song's family, he wanted even more to buy a few jars to taste, hoping to catch some of your family's good fortune so that my young master might also pass the Imperial Examination and become a scholar in a few years."

So that was how it was!

Song Zhisheng immediately beamed: "Then you've come at just the right time! A moment later and my wife and I would have been out the door!"

"Haha! Why else would they say that arriving early is not as good as arriving at the right time! Manager Song, my master likes lucky numbers and specifically requested six jars. Also, do you have smaller jars? I'd like to buy one to taste myself; my master's constant talk of it has truly made me crave it."

"The small jars are five jin, but one shouldn't drink while on the road!"

"Haha! You can rest assured about that! Once I return and finish this errand, and receive my master's reward, I'll sit down and drink to my heart's content."

Just like that, the Wealthy Philanthropist Chen from town had his servant buy six ten-jin jars, and the servant bought one five-jin jar with his own money.

There was no discount on the liquor, but Song Zhisheng grabbed a handful of their sun-dried bamboo shoot peanuts for the servant to take back as a snack with his drink.

This was also a business tactic Xie Yang had taught him: giving big clients some homemade snacks was better than giving a direct discount.

The liquor sold in town was basically at this price, as it was a thin-margin, high-volume business; if you gave this person a discount, what about the next? And what about the villagers? It was better to have a fixed price, the same for everyone.

For big clients, you could gift some homemade wild snacks. If the other party found them tasty, they might proactively ask to buy some next time, and wouldn't that expand into a new business?

Sure enough, before the burly man had even walked out of the Song house, he tasted a bamboo shoot peanut, and his eyes lit up: "What is this stuff made of? It's so chewy! And the more you chew, the more fragrant it gets! Is this also for sale? How much per jin?"

This stuff was salty, fragrant, and chewy, perfect for drinking! The master would surely love it!

If the master liked it, he would reward those of them who ran the errands.

Thinking that he might get two rewards today, the burly man was overjoyed: "Manager Song, hurry, hurry! Weigh me a jin—no! Weigh me two jin!"

"..."

The bamboo shoot peanuts were made by the daughter-in-law as a snack, so how would Song Zhisheng know how much to sell them for? Fortunately, Lin Shi reacted quickly and immediately went through the back door to the farm to ask her daughter-in-law for advice.

Xie Yang couldn't help but smile: "This is something we made for ourselves, and the process is quite complex. Seeing as he bought so much liquor, let's give him a 'friendship price' of fifty wen per jin, two jin for one hundred wen."

Lin Shi: "!!!"

Fifty wen a jin is a friendship price?

Is this friendship price a discount or a rip-off?

Lin Shi was a bit stunned and felt a little guilty, worried that quoting this price would make the other party turn hostile and stop buying the liquor altogether.

Xie Yang smiled and said, "Mother, just sell it at the price I quoted; if they think it's expensive and don't want to buy, let them be. Don't look at the low cost; first, peanut yields are low, and bamboo shoots are only at their freshest in winter and spring, so you can only eat them in these two seasons. Moreover, the preparation process is tedious. A jin seems expensive, but the quantity is not small, and it can last for quite a while!"

Lin Shi relayed the words exactly as her daughter-in-law had said.

Upon hearing this, the burly man didn't think it was too expensive at all; deep-fried peanuts in town cost more than that. He didn't know how these bamboo shoots were made, but they were so delicious they made one's tongue fall off, and paired with the equally chewy peanuts, and a sip of liquor, it was guaranteed to be intoxicating.

He immediately took out another one hundred wen and took away two jin of bamboo shoot peanuts.

Watching the carriage drive away, the couple closed the courtyard gate.

Lin Shi could not hide the excitement in her eyes: "Manager! The daughter-in-law was right, good liquor doesn't fear a deep alley! Good goods don't fear a high price! We live in such a remote place at the end of the village, yet someone actually came to our door to buy liquor! That bamboo shoot peanut was priced so high, and he bought it without even blinking!"

Song Zhisheng also smiled from ear to ear: "The in-laws have run a butcher shop for so many years; the daughter-in-law has seen and heard much, so naturally, she knows more! It's definitely right to listen to her more in the future!"

My goodness!

In just this short while, it brought in over one thousand one hundred wen of income for his family!

"Keep the one thousand-plus wen from the liquor well; give the one hundred wen from the bamboo shoot peanuts to the daughter-in-law later."

"No need to give it to her; the daughter-in-law said that the bamboo shoot peanuts were made from bamboo shoots Zhi Zhi dug up and peanuts the family traded for. Since it was made for the family to eat, the money earned should have a portion set aside for Zhi Zhi's pocket money, and the rest turned into the public fund."

Both of them felt that their son must have accumulated great virtue in his past life to have married such a good wife in this one!

After sighing with emotion, the couple did not forget today's plan: they still had to go to Qingshan Village to sell liquor!

They immediately put away the silver, shouldered the baskets filled with small liquor jars, locked the courtyard gate, and set off.

Xie Yang took her sister-in-law to inspect the farm.

They first went to the chicken and duck coops and the sheep and horse sheds to feed the poultry and livestock some Spirit Spring Water, and while at it, she taught her sister-in-law how to milk a sheep, brush a horse, and distinguish between hatching eggs and regular eggs.

She might not necessarily do this work after she marries, but she must understand it.

Otherwise, if the people below present account books—for example, if they register random numbers for how many eggs the chickens and ducks lay each month or how much milk the ewes produce each day—you wouldn't even know you were being fooled.

It's like a historical joke: it is said that during the time of the Qianlong Emperor, the Imperial Household Department's purchase price for an egg was ten taels of silver, and by the time of the Guangxu Emperor, because the Guangxu Emperor liked eating eggs and ate four a day, the Imperial Household Department's purchase price rose with the times to thirty taels of silver each. The Guangxu Emperor would spend over one hundred to two hundred taels on eggs alone in a single day, and thus thought that eggs were a very expensive delicacy that ordinary people could not afford.

Song Jinzhi laughed happily after hearing her tell this story: "How can there be such stupid people in the world!"

Xie Yang: "That is because Zhi Zhi knows the price of eggs, so you won't be fooled. Just like sheep milk; if our family hadn't gotten this ewe and hadn't drunk sheep milk, we wouldn't know the price of sheep milk either. If one day you were a guest at someone's house and someone handed you a very delicious sheep milk pastry, saying that this pastry cost several taels of silver each, would Zhi Zhi agree with them?"

Song Jinzhi was thoughtful: "Sister-in-law, I understand! Only when we have seen it with our own eyes are we less likely to be deceived."

"That is the logic! Learn more now, and you will have fewer chances to be fooled in the future."