She explained hesitantly, "Thank you, young master. I never said the jam was made from peaches, did I?"

Just kidding! She knew about Hantao, which was what she'd called "cherries" in her previous life. Ripe cherries were very sweet, and while they were fine for fresh jam, adding too much sugar to preserve them for a long time would make them too cloying.

Moreover, although peaches are a common fruit on the market, they are more expensive than ordinary vegetables. If such an expensive fruit is used as the raw material for jam, the cost will certainly be further increased.

The most important point is that the "local resources" that could have been utilized - the wild fruits growing in the pits and valleys - are completely useless.

So no matter what, Su Qingluan would never use peaches as the raw material for jam.

Hearing Su Qingluan's words, Xie Zian was stunned: "Then what was the fruit jam I ate before?"

"It's the wild fruit you mentioned that's not presentable." Su Qingluan told the truth - after all, this thing will be mass-produced sooner or later, so there is no way to hide it, so she just admitted it generously.

"You actually tricked me with wild fruits!" Xie Zian pointed at Su Qingluan with a shaking finger, "I even said a lot of good things about your fruit jam in the letter!"

Su Qingluan thought to herself: In view of all these good words, she decided to temporarily stop flooding the screen with messages about Zuan.

After a brief thought, she looked up at Xie Zian and asked in a very calm tone, "Young Master Xie, why do you think wild fruits are 'not presentable'? Is it because they grow in the wilds?"

Xie Zian didn't expect Su Qingluan to ask in this way and was stunned.

Su Qingluan asked, "Then may I ask Young Master Xie, don't the wealthy families have their own herb fields growing precious herbs like ginseng and Ganoderma lucidum? Why would they spend tens of millions of dollars to collect wild ginseng?"

When Xie Zian heard Su Qingluan's words, he couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

Seeing that the other party had listened, Su Qingluan quickly struck while the iron was hot: "Besides, you are a wealthy person, so you naturally have no shortage of delicious food. Why do you bother to go to so much trouble to find wild game from the deep sea and high mountains?"

For example, the flounder mentioned earlier, according to the standards of that era, was definitely not "common", and strictly speaking it could be considered a "delicacy from the mountains and the sea".

Xie Zian grew up surrounded by gold and silver, and didn't have many memories of illness. However, when it came to eating and drinking, he had very little experience.

So when Su Qingluan mentioned "mountain and sea delicacies", Xie Zian immediately understood what Su Qingluan meant, and nodded seriously, thinking: Indeed, in comparison, many mountain delicacies are much more delicious than those grown in the fields and raised in the gardens.

Seeing that the other party was already about 70% convinced, but the old butler next to him was still skeptical, Su Qingluan began to deceive him even more: "As the saying goes, 'survival of the fittest'. To survive in the mountains, birds and beasts must hunt, and flowers and trees must absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and the essence of the sun and moon. How can fruits nurtured by such spiritual energy be compared with ordinary fruits?"

In fact, if Xie Zian knew a little bit about crop improvement and hybridization, he would understand that Su Qingluan was using an individual case to frame the whole set of sophistry.

Although there are indeed some species that taste better than artificially bred ones due to their superior natural environment, in the vast majority of cases, through generations of improvement and cultivation by humans, whether it is fruits, pears, peaches, or grains and vegetables, the taste is likely to get better and better.

Those with poor taste have been gradually eliminated through natural or artificial screening.

Su Qingluan naturally understood that if her words were heard by someone who understood agriculture, they would most likely not hold water - but who could blame Xie Zian and a housekeeper who was definitely not a farmer for hearing these words?

In that case, of course she can talk as much as she wants.

After hearing Su Qingluan's words, Xie Zian was no longer angry, and did not let Su Qingluan kneel like that. He asked two maids to help her up, and very "generously" let her sit opposite him - according to the terms of that era, it was considered a great honor to be on equal footing with her.

However, Su Qingluan felt her knees were numb from kneeling, and in her heart she once again secretly performed Zuan pantomime to Xie Zian.