"Second brother, don't worry, there will definitely be customers buying it by then." Lin Yuanqiu was extremely sure.
Lin Sanzhu spoke at the right time, "In a few days, our rented shop will expire. After taking it back, you two can put these pickled rabbit meat in the shop for trial sale, and you can catch up. This business is for the Chinese New Year.”
Lin Yuansong and Lin Yuanhuai nodded "Uh-huh, uh-huh". The two of them have been busy marinating rabbit meat for the next few days, just for the next New Year's business.
Ever since he saw groups of rabbits being raised in Zhuangzi, Lin Yuansong had the idea of raising rabbits and selling rabbit meat.
Because he thought of his aunt's craftsmanship in pickling rabbit meat, which made people feel like they couldn't get enough every time.
When Lin Yuansong mentioned this idea to his family, no one objected.
Speaking of which, this is also the reason why there are so many rabbits in Zhuangzi.
You must know that a rabbit can give birth to at least six or seven litters of rabbits every year, and then these rabbits will regenerate when they grow up. Therefore, since last year, Xu Laoshi has made so many cages for rabbits.
Nowadays, Xu Laoshi and his wife no longer have to cut and dry the weeds in the village to use as firewood like they did before. Instead, they just pull them out and feed them to the rabbits.
As for rabbit droppings, they are easy to deal with. Just dig a hole next to the persimmon tree and bury them in the ground to make fertilizer.
It is precisely because there is no shortage of fertilizer that the persimmon trees on Zhuangzi grow particularly strong.
In the words of Lao Lintou, if we have laid the foundation now, we will definitely be able to bear a lot of persimmon fruits in the future.
It can be said that the most troublesome thing in the whole village is these rabbits. The main reason is that there are too many rabbits. When they are sent to the restaurant, the restaurant owner often lowers the price.
But it won’t work if you don’t sell it.
Now that I have the idea of selling pickled rabbit meat, whether it works or not, I have to try it.
So, after making up their minds, Lin Yuansong and Lin Yuanhuai began to learn the art of marinating rabbit meat from Zhou.
Mrs. Zhou took the trouble to teach her over and over again, after all, this was a business that could make money for her family.
Lin Yuansong and Lin Yuanhuai also studied seriously. In just two months, they let their families taste it five or six times. When they tasted it again on the seventh time, the taste was no different from Zhou's. .
The same thin but not spicy, fragrant but not greasy.
However, facing the fragrant pickled rabbit meat, Lin Yuanqiu had another thought.
In his opinion, although there is no shop specializing in pickled rabbit meat in the capital, as long as others are willing to put in the effort, others will learn to eat it sooner or later.
Just like the embroidered bookmarks at home, other shops saw their business doing well and followed suit.
Fortunately, if other shops try to learn from it, they can only follow the same pattern and cannot create similar innovations. After all, this unique painting skill is not so easy to learn.
This shows how important it is to have a skill that others cannot learn.
The same goes for eating. This can be concluded from the persimmons. If you want others to learn it, you must have a unique secret recipe.
So Lin Yuanqiu came up with the idea of adding spices when marinating rabbit meat.
As for the spices, of course they are ones that no one else has ever used, such as licorice.
Licorice has a sweet taste. If added to the marinade, the marinated rabbit meat will have more sweetness.
Lin Yuanqiu knew from his previous life that sweetness was the magic weapon for improving freshness. As far as he knew, the people here only used licorice as a medicinal material.
Therefore, if their family uses it, the marinated rabbit meat they make will definitely be unique.
Another thing is to pour some white wine into the marinated meat. In this way, the marinated meat can be stored for a long time without spoiling.
Mrs. Zhou must have believed what her nephew said. So I quickly pickled a few more using a new method, in which licorice and white wine were naturally added.
What we tasted today was these marinated rabbits with licorice and white wine.
After hearing their grandson say it tasted good, Lao Lintou and Wu both took a piece and put it in their mouths. Because it has been steamed for a long time, it tastes salty and meaty.
So the family's business of selling rabbit meat was settled.
As for the price of pickled rabbits, Lin Yuanfeng had already calculated the cost. Adding in the manpower, the final price was 160 yuan per piece.
In fact, Lin Yuanhuai has other plans in mind. He plans to sell it like this first. If the pickled rabbit business is good, then he will also arrange pickled chicken and duck in the future.
…
The Imperial College was on holiday on the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, and Zhou Zixu moved into Nanluogu Lane on the sixth day. His wife is still living with her parents-in-law, so he doesn't want to stay at home alone to guard the vacant house.
Seeing Zhou Zixu move here, the happiest person was none other than Wang Wenchang. With his brother-in-law here, the two of them could discuss articles together again.
Lin Yuanqiu often joins them.
So, Uncle Lang and the three of them recited poems, wrote poems, and talked about the past and the present, which was very enjoyable.
…
Chapter 165 The Crown
The annual leave of officials in Beijing and central China is unified on New Year's Eve, and then until the opening of the seal on the sixth day of the lunar month, a total of seven days off.
On the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, after dinner, the whole family gathered in the hall of the main house and began to take stock of the family's income in the past few months.
According to what Old Lintou said before, Yuan Qiu still keeps the money from selling paintings by himself and does not count it to the public.
As for all household expenses, including the servants' monthly money, they all come from the income of the two shops.
In Wu's words, if you want to make more money per month, the family must work together. Yuan Qiu has helped the family buy a shop and a village that can make money. If you all can't live a good life relying on the shop and the village, then go back to the small mountain village as soon as possible!
I have to say that Wu’s words are still very “morale-boosting”. No, the Zhou family, Liu family, Gao Cui, Qin Hehua, and Lin Yuanfeng immediately made up their minds. By the way, they finally followed their nephew (brother-in-law, fifth brother) from jumping from the bran basket to the rice vat, so they didn't jump back stupidly.
Besides, my mother-in-law (grandmother) was right. There are shops and a village here. If I can’t live a good life, I might as well go back to the village and farm.
Lin Yuanqiu naturally had no objection to his grandma's arrangement, and he would not take the initiative to count the proceeds from the sale of paintings into the public account.
It's not that Lin Yuanqiu is reluctant to part with the money, but if he does this, over time, there will only be a group of lazy people in the family.
How wonderful it is now that all the adults in the family participate in supporting the family and then express their opinions. After earning money, everyone is happy and energetic. This is a manifestation of self-affirmation.
This reminded Lin Yuanqiu of several colleagues in the Hanlin Academy. Their situation was the same as his own. They also moved their families to the capital after entering official careers.
However, the "whole family" here is only the parents, brothers and sisters of colleagues.
What is difficult for Lin Yuanqiu to understand is that after his colleagues and their families moved to the capital, except for themselves who were on duty every day, everyone else was idle at home. As for the daily expenses at home, in addition to the salaries of colleagues, they rely on the capital accumulated in the past.
Expenses in the capital are high, especially the end-of-year holiday gifts, which can't be saved at all. In this way, as time goes by, the capital saved gradually becomes insufficient.
Then he began to have various difficulties. The cuffs of his official robe had already been frayed, but he was still reluctant to buy new ones.
But even so, those colleagues still firmly insisted on their opinions.
In their view, how can officials be like ordinary people, showing up every day to make a living.
To be honest, Lin Yuanqiu doesn't feel qualified to judge the practices of his colleagues. He can only say that everyone has different ideas and concepts.
In Lin Yuanqiu's understanding, it is most important to think too highly of yourself, otherwise you will only be bound by invisible shackles and lose your freedom.
What's more, in Lin Yuanqiu's view, as long as he relies on his own abilities and the money he earns with his own hands, there is nothing to be ashamed of.
Back to business.
Lin Yuanfeng took out the account book and began to report the accounts to everyone one by one, "Since our family moved to the capital, except for the first two months, we still used the previous capital for home expenses. Starting from the third month, sales The money earned from embroidery can be equal to daily expenses. The next month, that is, last month, Mo Linxuan's bookmarks alone made a profit of 28 taels. And this month, it exceeded the previous month's profit. That’s sixty-seven taels a month. The most amazing thing is our Lin Ji, who bought a total of sixty-seven taels of silver this month."
Seeing the admiring glances from their grandparents, especially their fifth brother, Lin Yuansong and Lin Yuanhuai felt so proud that they almost overflowed with pride, and then the two of them mentally planned the next marinated chicken and duck.
Lin Yuanqiu took out the patterns he had drawn these days and handed them to Feng, "Mom, these are new patterns for bookmarks. Next year, the cloth bookmarks sold in our shop should be embroidered according to these patterns."
Feng took over the pattern, expecting it to be similar to the previous one, with figures, flowers and birds. But when Feng opened it and looked at it, he was a little stunned. Could the pattern on the painting be too simple?
Seeing the stunned expressions of the three younger siblings, Mrs. Zhou and Mrs. Liu hurriedly came forward. After they saw the paintings clearly drawn on the paper, they felt a little unbelievable. Mrs. Zhou couldn't help but ask, "Yuan Qiu." , will this embroidery be simpler?"
In fact, what Zhou was thinking was that it was more than simple. Strictly speaking, this was no longer an embroidery pattern.
According to the character painted on the little nephew, she only needed to use silk thread to outline an outline on the embroidered cloth. Apart from the clothes on the character and a few green bamboos or podocarpus trees on the side, there was no other need to be fully embroidered. The place.
Zhou was certain that with his embroidery speed, he could embroider at least a dozen pieces of embroidery with this pattern in a day, and it would be easy.
So, will anyone buy a bookmark with this pattern?
Not only the Feng family, the Zhou family and the Liu family, but also Gao Cui were not very optimistic about it.
Nowadays, the bookmarks they embroidered cost 20 yuan more than they did in Hengxi Town. At such a price, if the pattern is too simple, will customers feel that it is too uneconomical and will not want to buy in the store again in the future?
It can be said that among the people present, except for Lao Lintou and Lin Sanzhu, everyone else is not very optimistic about the future sales of the new bookmark.
Old Lintou felt that his grandson must have his own explanation. Lin Sanzhu, on the other hand, unconditionally believed that his dog had never disappointed anyone before.
Lin Yuanqiu saw everyone's confusion in his eyes, and then told Mrs. Feng his thoughts on drawing these patterns, "Mom, the reason why my son draws simple patterns is because he and his uncle, mother, are in consideration." My aunt, and my sister-in-law’s eyes. I think you should also be able to see that since we came to the capital, our family’s bookmark patterns are no longer as complicated as they used to be.”
Feng nodded after hearing this. Her son was right, the current tricks were indeed simpler than before. At that time, Ms. Feng thought her son was too busy and had no time to paint. Only now did she realize that her son was worried about her eyes.
Then Feng carefully recalled the patterns from previous years. It seemed that they were getting simpler and simpler every year, especially in the use of colors. It no longer required more than 20 colors of silk thread to embroider just one bookmark, which saved a lot. Time to change thread frequently.
Mrs. Feng thought of it, and Mrs. Zhou and Mrs. Liu naturally thought of it too. The two of them also remembered that when they first started making pencil cases and book covers, Yuan Qiu emphasized that they must not do embroidery work at night.
Therefore, the little nephew has always been thinking about them.
Zhou has always been a straight-laced person, and she felt a little embarrassed at the moment, "My nephew is trying to think of ways not to hurt the aunt's eyes, but the aunt thinks the trick is too simple and is afraid of losing business. She really deserves a beating."
Mrs. Liu also said, "It's the same with Second Sister, she deserves to be beaten. Yuan Qiu, to tell you the truth, Second Sister's eyes are much easier this year than in previous years. Originally, Second Sister thought she was coming. In such a big place in the capital, my eyes were also opened, and I didn't realize that it was Yuan Qiu who took the credit for using the right method that doesn't hurt my eyes. Do you think Second Auntie should be beaten?"
After hearing what Liu said, Gao Cui and others suddenly realized that this was really the case.
Lin Sanzhu had a proud expression that I knew, and he knew that his dog had never disappointed anyone.
Although his original intention was made known to his family, Lin Yuanqiu felt that he still needed to talk about his trick this time. This was not just for the sake of simplicity.
The theme of the patterns painted by Lin Yuanqiu this time is Zen. Each embroidered picture contains a sentence of sentiment, such as "life is full of joy", such as "people have no need to seek self-improvement", such as "how can there be more in life" As you wish, everything is only half-satisfactory", and "Laughing at the ups and downs of the world, sitting idle with a fan and a pot of tea" and so on.
And matching them are paintings with a Zen feel, such as a pot of tea, a handle of cattail leaf fan, a clay stove cooking a fire, or Panasonic playing chess. Although they are all just a few strokes, they can outline a pure, simple and plain picture. The artistic conception of life, this kind of artistic conception and open-mindedness are exactly what the literati nowadays pursue.
And they are the consumer groups for these study embroidery products at home.
Lin Yuanqiu can predict that when these bookmarks are put on sale, the business will not be bad.
Although Lin Yuanfeng didn't understand embroidery, he understood what his fifth brother said, and he also studied the words carefully and felt that if this batch of embroidery work was done, there would definitely be good business.
Wu was excited when she heard about the good business, "Let's save more at a time as before, and make a big fortune if we want!"
Seeing Wu's big wave, Old Lintou couldn't help but laugh out loud. He thought to himself, "I don't know, I thought this old woman was the copycat king in the play."
The more I thought about it, the funnier it became. Just when Old Lintou was about to laugh again, he soon met the old woman's rolling eyes.
"Yuanqiu, Dad thinks that we can restart the business of pencil cases, purses, and handkerchiefs, and just embroider these patterns on them. I think the business will not be bad."
