In order to open up the market, last year mosquito coils were sold for only two coins a coil, but this year Jiang Zhi plans to produce a batch of luxury goods!

Foreign luxury goods sell their trademarks, but the luxury goods from our ancestors are the real gems.

In modern times, mosquito coil products made in small workshops cannot actually use natural mosquito-repelling materials such as mugwort and camphor. Instead, they are made by pressing wood chips and clay into finished products.

Simply spray a low concentration of pesticides and fragrances at the factory, and you have a mosquito coil with amazing mosquito-repelling effect and a pleasant aroma. It is usually sold at street stalls in towns and villages.

Jiangzhi is now preparing two sizes of mosquito coil trays. One is processed in the same way as last year, except that some camphor and cypress wood chips are used instead of leaves, and clay is added to reduce the amount of starch, making it cheaper and more affordable.

This is only relative.

Mosquito coils produced in modern factories cost only a few cents a coil, while here they cost two coins a coil, enough to exchange for half a pound of coarse grains. Ordinary families obviously couldn't afford them.

Another method involves carefully selecting and processing medicinal powders into a paste, which is then repeatedly pounded, similar to making ink sticks. The finished mosquito coil is then pressed out, dried, and repeatedly sprayed with the extracted essence to allow the mosquito coil base material to fully absorb it.

As a result, a single stick of incense burns for a long time, has a lasting fragrance, and is very effective at repelling mosquitoes, so its price naturally needs to be several times higher.

Qiaoyun is currently producing high-end products, and there are only three fragrance options available for now.

Jiang Zhi carefully explained the processing method to Qiaoyun. Qiaoyun and Errui listened attentively and nodded repeatedly: "Mother, these incense sticks don't require much more effort than the mosquito coils we used before. We just need to pound them with a stone mortar for a while longer. If we sell them for twenty coins a roll, we can earn a lot more!"

One plate, not one box, can only burn for three hours, no matter how long it burns.

If Errui hadn't already experienced the price of corn at thirty coins a stalk, he certainly wouldn't be as calm as he is now.

Qiaoyun was still a little unacceptable. Before, it was only two coins a plate, but the water from steaming and boiling it now costs twenty coins... How can it be sold?

However, she knew that Errui and her mother often went to the city and must know the prices.

The family of three was still discussing how to make it convenient to spray the serum and how to package it appropriately.

Then Nini and Caixia ran up the cliff again: "Grandma, it's time to eat!"

Just like that, Xiaoman's grandmother and Chunfeng had already prepared the meal and invited everyone to eat together.

On the dinner table was meat that Jiang Zhi had brought back, which Li Laoshi had bought in Lihua Town the day before and had been floating in the water of Longdong Cave.

The temperature inside the cave was low, so Jiang Zhi placed an earthenware jar in the water. When food needed to be kept fresh, she would put it in the jar, and it would stay fresh overnight.

Besides the meat, there was also a freshly killed chicken on the table, but only half of it was stewed.

Grandma Xiaoman said, "That half chicken has been rubbed with salt. Bring it to Laoshi and Xiaoman when you go down the mountain tomorrow. Add some vegetables to make a soup."

Two roosters on the mountain will be kept to be exchanged for breeding with people; the rest will be culled.

No one thought about selling it for money; they usually just sat together and ate like that.

However, he was still thinking about Xiaoman and Li Laoshi, who hadn't gone up the mountain yet.

Jiang Zhi agreed, and then Xiao Man asked about Xiao Man's work at the pharmacy. He wanted to know how she was getting along with the Tian family woman.

Jiang Zhi said, "Xiaoman usually has to collect medicine, grind medicine, chop firewood, and also go to the back mountain to plant some herbs. Tian Tao also has to stay in the medicine-decocting room, so the two of them don't have time to meet."

However, Xiaoman would pick up Tiantao every morning while jogging, and she also had to go to the village to teach in the evenings, so the two got along quite well!

As for Xiaoman and Tiantao's situation, only their elders have informed them yet; the two children are still completely unaware.

During the two weeks they spent at the pharmacy, they got along naturally and harmoniously. They worked separately without disturbing each other, and only chatted and laughed a few words after work.

Jiang Zhi thought this was quite nice, it felt a bit like childhood sweethearts.

When Xiaoman heard that Xiaoman hadn't neglected his duties, Grandpa Xiaoman nodded repeatedly: "That's good. Go do what you need to do. The important thing is to get things done."

Xu Dazhu asked Chunfeng, who was sitting next to him, "How much silver do you have at home? And you have quite a lot of dried fungus, so please have Aunt and Errui take it to the city to sell this time!"

Chunfeng said, "Now we have five taels of silver. If we sell more wood ear mushrooms, we'll have seven taels. When we go down the mountain to build a house for Xiaoman in the village, we can raise ten taels."

As the eldest sister-in-law, she kept everything at home in mind. Xiaoman's house repairs and marriage were big events, and she had saved up all the money for them.

We now have enough dried black fungus to sell for half a year, and summer is just around the corner. I'll be helping my aunt make mosquito coils, and she'll pay me for it. We can also pick mushrooms from the forest, which should be enough to cover the house repairs during Xiaoman (the 21st month of the lunar calendar).

When the topic of going to the city came up, the group asked about mosquito coils again.

This time, the method of making mosquito coils was changed, and Chunfeng and Dazhu naturally knew that they would be helping.

Although the mosquito coil powder, which can be used after being mixed evenly, requires a refining process, adding an extra step, some pharmacies grind it in advance, making it actually faster and easier to produce without wasting time.

Jiang Zhi was just about to mention the proposed price increase for mosquito coils when Nini ran in from outside, shouting, "The chickens are fighting! The chickens are fighting!"

What's so special about chickens fighting? These days, dozens of chickens on the mountain fight all the time, and the adults at the dinner table don't even move their bottoms.

Just then, Peiqi, who had been lazily sunbathing and sleeping at the bottom of the steps, turned around and sprang up, rushing out with a "whoosh".

Oh dear, now everyone was restless and dropped their bowls and chopsticks to leave the table.

Grandpa Xiaoman asked anxiously, "Is the hawk coming to catch chickens again?"

The incident of a hawk catching a chicken happened a year ago. At that time, the wild boar was only a few months old. It easily defeated the hawk that swooped down to catch the chicken and ended up as roasted chicken. After that, no hawk dared to land again.

As soon as everyone stepped outside, they stood there dumbfounded. Beside a bamboo basket, two roosters were being pecked away by Peiqi, one after the other.

It turns out that the big black rooster that they had just caught on the mountain was released by Nini and Xiao Caixia.

Because the chickens are newly caught and might not stay home, they are kept in bamboo baskets for a few days to prevent them from becoming wild.

Even when released, they need to have ropes around their feet until they are completely familiar with the people and the surrounding environment before they can be let go.

Chunfeng loosened the wings of the two new roosters, but kept their feet tied, and covered them with a bamboo basket.

But when the two children saw that the chicken in the bamboo basket was uncomfortable jumping around with its legs tied, they opened the basket and quietly untied the ropes from the chicken's legs.

The frightened rooster, once freed, immediately ran off and bumped into the old employee patrolling the territory.

The big red rooster, which hadn't crowed for half a year after going up the mountain, had survived the clutches of refugees, suffered a broken wing as a result, and had painstakingly bred a hundred offspring, working diligently for everyone's happiness and food, suddenly felt threatened...

A chicken king competition has begun!

These are just Jiang Zhi's imagined scenes. In reality, the two roosters had just started their hand-to-hand combat, kicking and pecking, when they were discovered by the peace-loving Peiqi, who then knocked them away with a single beak.

What appeared before everyone was a scene of two wild boars being chased and trying to break up a fight, jumping up and down and flapping their wings wildly.

Unfortunately, one of the veteran employees had a broken wing, so now when he flies, he's wobbly and almost lands on someone.

The new employee, though physically intact, had been tied up for most of the day before being untied and immediately engaged in combat. Then, it was tossed aside by a large wild boar and flew far away in terror, flapping its wings and hurtling down the mountain...

Well, now no one can eat. Let's all go out and look for chickens!