Shao Yunan didn’t bother to care about how the Sun family was going to distribute, so Wang Shihing also didn’t ask Sun Erjiang about it. The next day at noon, Uncle Sun came over with 50 teals of silver, it was not one ingot but scattered silver and copper coin. That day, Sun Erjiang and Sun Xiaojian also did not go to the fields and went together to the mountains.
The Sun family did not collect wild chrysanthemums from the villagers, but from the next day onwards, Master Sun rarely showed up and was always at home. The villagers didn’t know that the backyard of grandpa Sun house was full of wild chrysanthemums drying in the sun. The whole Sun family stayed up all night, making up dozens of bamboo steaming trays.
Burning this time, the shape of Wang Shijing’s new house began to appear making everyone in the village realize at how how big a house Wang Shijing’s family was going to build when they bought such a large land. As soon as shape come out, it naturally attracted a lot of discussion. Thirty acres of land were all sown, and the vegetable field in the backyard also emerged. Just when the villagers were staring at Wang Shijing’s house, the first batch of chrysanthemum tea made by the main family of the Sun clan was delivered to “Yongning Hall” on the same day. Then Grandpa Sun came over in person and gave a bag of chrysanthemum tea he made himself as well a whole ingot worth fifty silver
The chrysanthemum tea made by the Sun family tasted worse than Shao Yunan and its appearance might also not be as beautiful as his. After all Shao Yunan used spiritual spring water and was pretty skilled. However, boss Feng did not lower the price and still paid two teals of silver, after all even if it tasted a little worse it was still very good compared to others. The first batch alone of chrysanthemum tea earned Sun family nearly 200 teals of silver. The wild chrysanthemums were all picked by their own family members, while Grandpa Sun also planted one acre of chrysanthemums, which would come in handy in the future. Just like the Zhao Lizheng family, the mainfamily of Sun clan had a male wife as daughters-in-law as wall as daughters and sons who are still to be married off. All the people who were told about this by the patriarch and participated in this matter tried their best to pick all the wild chrysanthemums they could. They also planed as a clan to set aside few acres of land to plant chrysanthemums.
Then it come time to share the money, naturally the cost of picking wild chrysanthemums was not counted. So after a single sale the Sun clan patriarch got pretty nice net profit. Wild chrysanthemum does not bloom in the coldest four months of the year, but for the remaining eight months they continued to bloom so how much they could earn in a year? The boss Feng was still promoting the sale of goods but how many pharmacies and tea stores there was in their province? After getting this chrysanthemum tea, the owner of Yongning Hall become very ambitious and wanted to spread the reputation of Yongning Hall thought the whole province.
When the patriarch Sun saw this situation, he discussed it with grandpa Sun and immediately called respected clan elders for meeting. Any family with good character and kindness in their clan could join this business. While Patriarch Sun’s family accounts for 50% of the profits, 10% of which went to Shao Yunan while the remaining half went for public use like buying land and sponsoring clan children to study. The remaining 40% was set aside by Patriarch Sun family according to the number of families involved in production of chrysanthemum tea. Of course, this distribution would not be disclosed to all the clan members.
The Sun clan was dazzled by the pie that fell down from the sky during this busy farming season. Except for a few unreliable families that were excluded, almost every family in the Sun clan could participate. Some of the participating families even set aside some land to plant chrysanthemums.
After the Sun patriarch left, Uncle Zhao Lizheng asked his eldest son to call Wang Shijing and Shao Yunan over.
The two of them went to Zhao Lizheng house where Zhao Lizheng together with Zhao Yuande and Zhao Yuanqing were all present. Then Zhao Lizheng told the directly what he heard from Patriarch Sun about the chrysanthemum tea. Zhao Lizheng also thought Shao Yunan’s idea was very good, and he also decided to fund the children of his clan in the village who did not have the clan’s blessing to study, with a reward for good performance. The goat’s milk fruit was gone and the Yizhang Xuan was also out of the stock. Hearing that Zhao Lizheng begin collecting red dates and hawthorn, Yizhang Xuan boss Xu observed them for some time, sending people over every day to ask when they can start making them.
The Zhao Lizheng family was also worried, they collected a lot but Shao Yunan told them not to rush and wait until the end of year before preparing it. Uncle Zhao Lizheng also wanted to pull more people in this business and plant few acres of goat’s milk fruit so he called Wang Shijing and Shao Yunan over to explain the whole matter and then ask them whether they want to plant goat’s milk fruit, while also remind them that Wang Shijing surname was Wang. After such a big deal in both Zhao and Sun family, the Wang clan couldn’t justify it.
Wang Shijing did not speak when the topic turned to the Wang clan, if he wanted to break away from the clan he needed patriarch to remove him. Also, he himself he no feeling for Wang clan but then Shao Yunan said: “Uncle Zhao, if you want to make this jam into an industry of the Zhao clan like the Patriarch Sun, you and big brother Yuande can discuss it. I already sold you recipe so you should make your own decision how to do business.”
“This year, when buying New Year’s goods and giving gifts you should lunch red date jam and hawthorn ham that could be sold at the higher price. Although it is said that business is based on honesty, but sometimes you can not be too honest. You have to have a plan of what jam to offer in which season. You can also add some ginger to red date ham, woman likes to drink it very much. After you make it the price can also be a little higher. As long as women from rich families know this thing is good they definitely won’t care about money To be honest I don’t know for how long we can sell jam so you should rise your worth when you can.”
Zhao Lizheng, Zhao Yuande and Zhao Yuanqing all thought it made sense. But they still feel little guilty about Yizhang Xuan restaurant, but now that Shao Yunan said this they immediately put their heart at ease, Shao Yunan was always right when it come to doing business.
“As for planting a few acres of goat’s milk fruit, I think it’s good, not only goat’s milk fruit but also peaches, apricots as well as some wild fruits tress from the mountain that can be moved over and planted. If you are afraid that the villagers would have opinions, then cut some branches and wait a few years. Uncle Lizheng you are good at farming so fruits trees would certainly not be a problem. My family is no longer involved since we also have land at home, Shijing and I also plan to buy mountains on the west side and grow things there. Uncle Zhao you help me collect some if you can. As for Wang’s side, it’s not that I don’t want to help, it’s just that they should fix themselves a bit first. If I give Wang clan in its current situation such a big deal, not only it would not end well but it might also turn problematic. Trying to exchange a bag of rice and piece of meat for my tea making method. Doing things so blatantly would only finding trouble.”
Zhao Lizheng shook his head and sighed: “Patriarch Wang was too partial to your family so in the end other clan members started not to trust him. Luckily, Wang Shuping is good one but he is still too young to overpower the old ones. The Wang clan needs a person who can convince the public and suppress the people so your concern are also right. But after all, there are also people in the Wang clan that are sincere to you, so you have to take care of them.”
“Well, we will repay them.”
“If you guys have thought about it, I won’t say more.”
Wang Shijing said, “Uncle Zhao, do you know about Tang brothers, right?”
Zhao Lizheng nodded: “”Yes, I know. After all his family’s land is rented from my family.”
Wang Shijing said, “Uncle Zhao, that boy Genshu is very good so I and Yunan are willing to help him. But the situation of sister Yumei is not the same, if I help too much it will be easy to cause trouble and gossip instead. If the younger brother is smart, you and uncle Sun should pay for his education together. In the future, if Genshu can support his family you won’t have to worry about it anymore. I will hire Genshu to help my family with the work but its really not good for me to meddle in Gensheng and his mother’s affairs.”
Zhao Lizheng understood his meaning and just said: “Don’t worry, your uncle Sun and I will help since you asked. It also true after all, Yumei is a widow. Although Genshu and Gensheng are surnamed Tang, they are also cousins to Wang Benchang family so it would be better for you and Yunan not to involved with them. That child Genshu might look introverted but is also in fact ruthless, when he grows up a little more he will be able to protect his mother and his brother.”
Wang Shijing also saw Tang Genshu tough heart thought his shy appearance so he was willing to help him. If he had soft nature he would be more hesitate.
When he saw Tang Genshu and Tang Gengsheng, Wang Shijing thought of his own son and daughter. But if he directly funded Tang Gengsheng studies the village people would inevitably start gossiping what else he was founding. Not to mention that many people in the Wang clan were not right-minded not only his own mother knew how to make trouble so leaving this matter to Zhao Lizheng and patriarch Sun would be the most appropriate. Anyway the two of them planned to found studying of village children. Tang Genshu and Tang Gengsheng were not considered Wang’s clan members, so Zhao Lizheng and uncle Sun would not hit the face of the Wang clan.
Two people came out of the Zhao Lizheng house and went home together hand in hand. After dark, Xiushui Village was very quiet. In order to save lamp oil, the villagers would rest after eating. Now that it was busy farming period, everyone would also go to the bed earlier. Walking in the fields, they were only accompanied by sound of chirping and buzzing insects.
Wang Shijing asked curiously, “Yunan, why didn’t you recommend chrysanthemum tea to Yizhang Xuan Restaurant?”
Shao Yunan replied, “Jam was recommended to Yizhang Xuan Restaurant because they were the best choice since they are the biggest the demand for ham would also be large. Zhao Lizheng family also had no other good connection so the cooperation between the two parties would naturally be pleasant. Grandpa Sun also said that he is good friends with Yongning Hall boss so he have his own connection so I also didn’t intervene. Besides, Yizhang Xuan Restaurant is not my family so I am not obliged to give them every kind of business, if they have the ability they can snatch if from the Yongning Hall.”
Wang Shijing asked: “What about our tea and wine?”
Shao Yunan: “I have not yet thought about it, to be honest with our tea and wine the boss Xu identity he is not qualified to talk with me. It also something we need to avoid, our business initiative should be in our own hands. If everything needs to rely on a Yizhang Xuan side we will only be used by others.”:
“Our family is not short on money now so I want to take time to find a partner. If the true owner behind Yizhang Xuan comes to em I may be cooperating with them directly. Our wine, for one liter should be no less than 50 teals of silver and not even mention tea. Even the inferior kind can be sold for not less than 200 teals of silver. While the most special one is even a thousand taels, it also only the autumn tea, if it was the spring tea, the price would be even higher. The tea that little Tang found is kind of black tea that is at least 20% more expensive than Longjing. I will not be foolish and try to find a buyer myself I will just let them beg to come to buy it from me.”
Wang Shijing hold Shao Yunan’s hand: “Our tea and wine is worth so much money. Since I don’t know anything about this business I will listen to you.”
“That won’t work. You should follow the business since the early stage since you will need to come forward later. My physique and temperament can’t subdue people. My vision of the future is that our family will own a large tea estate and winery. I will be responsible for making tea and wine while you will be responsible for talking to people about business, Qing will be responsible for studying hard and inheriting the family business in the future while Nizi is responsible for looking beautiful.”
“Haha,” Wang Shijing laughed: “How come is Nizi responsible for looking beautiful?” Only his Yunan would have such strange thoughts.
Shao Yunan just said: “Of course a girl should dress up beautifully. As for her future marriage or something, I think there is no need to force it. While men are afraid of entering the wrong profession, women are afraid of marrying the wrong man. I also don’t care if people would gossip I she can’t find the right one, I would rather she didn’t get married. Her little father can support her for the rest of her life.”
Wang Shijing’s breath sank a bit: “As long as she likes it, I won’t force the marriage. If it really doesn’t work, I’ll find someone to marry into our family, I will not let her suffer again.”
“Well, the most difficult one is finding someone to marry.”
The four-year-old Wang Nizi did not yet know that her father and little father already considered her future marriage.