Chapter 611 That will be Xu Yu’s greatest confidence

The manager seemed not to have expected this. He let out a confused cry and stood there in a daze.

Sang Zhixia met Second Aunt Xu's look, which was like "give me some advice!" and found it amusing. "Second Aunt, there are goods worth hundreds of thousands of silver coins piled up in the store. I guess they are all rare and good stuff."

"That's natural."

Aunt Xu said without hesitation: "All kinds of satin and silk are excellent. Even though you gave them to me without spending any money, they are worth so much money."

"But Second Aunt, have you ever noticed that people here rarely wear satin or silk?"

Sang Zhixia opened Aunt Xu's mind from another angle: "Satin feels warm and smooth, and the embroidery is exquisite. It is a valuable and valuable item no matter where it is made."

"No matter how good something is, it has to be comfortable to wear."

The slippery satin feels cool to the touch, but it is not breathable.

Once you sweat, it sticks to your skin and would rather flow down your elbows, making it impossible for the suffocating heat to dissipate.

Unfortunately, Lingnan is a place where the sun shines brightly for at least 300 days out of 365 days a year. Such fabrics will certainly not become the mainstream choice of most people.

Aunt Xu stared blankly and said, "I actually saw many people on the street wearing coarse linen clothes."

"That thing is breathable and cool, but it can't be made into fancy patterns, and it can't be sold at a high price. If I really sell that instead, how will I make money?"

"Ordinary coarse linen isn't very profitable, but wasn't Second Aunt successful in mixing cotton and cashmere into silk?"

Second Aunt Xu smacked her lips and said, "In such a hot day, adding cotton and cashmere?"

Wouldn't that be even hotter?

Sang Zhixia said with a smile, "Coarse linen feels rough and has limited breathability and sweat absorption, but if you mix a thin layer of cotton in, it becomes more breathable and comfortable."

"As far as I know, cotton and linen are softer and tougher, and easier to embroider and color. Second Aunt, why don't you give it a try?"

Aunt Xu thought about it and felt that it was feasible.

Aunt Xu said anxiously, "Oh, my dear daughter, don't just focus on them, but also give me and your uncle some advice."

"Your Third Uncle has been so worried that he can't eat these days. If the business closes down, we'll have to spend all our money on you when we get home."

Sang Zhixia laughed out loud and jokingly asked, "Aunt San, why do you think people in the North love strong liquor so much?"

Aunt Xu said dazedly, "Well... of course it warms you up."

The wind and snow are strong in the north. The stronger the liquor, the faster you will warm up after a sip. Drinking a few more sips will ensure that your whole body will be warm and you will not be able to withstand the slightest bit of cold.

But……

Aunt Xu suddenly slapped her thigh and said, "It's not cold in Lingnan!"

It's such a hot day, and if you drink a little wine, you'll be as hot as a furnace. Who would be willing to suffer such a serious sin?

I'm already feeling hot and uncomfortable, so wouldn't it be asking for trouble if I drank too much?

Sang Zhixia clapped her hands in understanding and agreed, "So, strong liquor won't work here. We need to try another approach."

"Would you like to try the fruit wine recipe I gave you earlier?"

Fruit wine that is not strong and has a light and refreshing taste may be another way out in Lingnan, where a variety of fruits are produced in abundance.

As for the manager of the soap flower shop who was looking at him longingly, Sang Zhixia sighed and said, "The soap flowers in the shop are so fragrant. Such a smell would be a good thing elsewhere, but not here."

"In a place full of snakes, insects, rats and ants, almost everyone, young or old, wears a mosquito-repellent sachet. The two smells clash, and it's hard to say how people feel about it, but the nose is definitely the first to suffer."

The steward Fulin was impressed, his eyes shining as he said, "So you removed the spices and only kept the original scent of the soap flower?"

Sang Zhixia nodded: "You can try."

"Alternatively, you can ask a local master who's skilled at making these kinds of sachets for advice. At most, you can spend a little more money and work with them to figure out how to blend various herbs into soap flowers. Even if soap flowers can't replace sachets, at least they can have the same value as sachets. That's worth it."

When he was still in the northwest, Sang Zhixia made medicated soap under the guidance of Mr. Qi and Mr. Hu. The efficacy of the soap varied depending on the medicinal materials added.

Although the medicinal ingredients have been changed, the process is basically the same and not difficult.

Actually, there is no need to worry about the things that are not selling well in your hands.

After all, these things just don't sell well in Lingnan. They can spend more time and money to transport them to other places to sell.

As for Monroeque's granary...

Sang Zhixia smiled bitterly and said, "There's nothing I can do about it."

The business of grain stores has always depended on the weather. Business is best when there is a gap between harvests, and opportunities to make money arise during natural disasters and man-made disasters.

But Sang Zhixia disdains to take advantage of the situation at such a time, so the granary has never been a major source of profit.

Fortunately, the manager of the grain store was calm and said with a smile, "Let it be."

"If you really encounter something unstable, you will earn even less."

Sang Zhixia was amused by his contented tone. Suddenly, as if she had an idea, she said to the teahouse manager, "Regarding the poor business of the teahouse, I have an idea."

"But if we want to complete it, we have to build a big enough icehouse first."

Charcoal in winter and ice in summer, these two things may seem unremarkable, but they have always been expensive items that only rich people can afford.

Even if it was extremely hot, ordinary people would just put their food in well water to cool it down before eating.

After all, ice is such a precious thing, how can everyone afford it?

However, for Sang Zhixia, making ice in summer is not a problem.

"There are records from ancient times that people took boiling water and placed it in a jar, sealed it with a new seal, and it sank into ice in three days."

Sang Zhixia murmured this and scoffed, "Besides this, there are other ways."

After carefully questioning Uncle Xu, Sang Zhixia found people to build an ice cellar and ordered them to collect saltpeter for making ice.

Once saltpeter is produced, the old teas of poor quality that have been piled up in the tea mountains for many years may no longer have trouble selling.

It was the slack season on the farm, and Sang Zhixia didn't have much else but a lot of people.

With the crazy construction and experimentation of the power of numbers, the teahouse, renamed Wangyou Pavilion, reopened a month later.

The teahouse originally sold hot tea and good water, but after Sang Zhixia's renovation, it no longer only sold hot tea.

The milk tea is made by boiling milk, honey and tea leaves, and adding crushed ice cubes to cool it down and relieve the heat. It has neither the bitterness of old tea nor the sweet aftertaste of milk and honey.

More importantly, it's iced.

Not only milk tea is chilled, but also various scented teas, and even summer-cooling plum soup with dried tangerine peel, as well as various juices made from seasonal fruits. Each one retains the original fruit flavor, but has a different sweetness and freshness.

The restaurant next to the teahouse took the opportunity to launch a variety of spicy and sour dishes. Among them, the cold shredded chicken and cold noodles with cold shrimps, which were splashed with red oil but tasted cool and smooth, became the favorites of diners in just a few days.

Even the northern and Huaiyang dishes that were previously unpopular have attracted diners to place orders again after their flavors were improved.

The deserted restaurants and teahouses were swept away, and the mosquito repellent soap successfully entered the next stage.

The new cotton and linen products in Aunt Xu's store are of special quality and are also selling smoothly.

As for Uncle Xu's winery...

Diancui, who was following behind Sang Zhixia, said with a smile, "According to your instructions, ten days before the opening of Wangyou Pavilion, each table in the restaurant and teahouse will be given a small pot of chilled fruit wine."

"Fifty percent of the people who have tried it are asking where it was bought and have already started looking for it."

At this point, all the shops in Lingnan Royal City came back to life.

Sang Zhixia tapped the railing beside her with satisfaction and said with a smile, "The shops I had planned to open will be ready to open in half a month."

In the Lingnan territory, in addition to the royal city, there are four cities and thirteen counties.

As early as when preparing for Wangyou Pavilion, Sang Zhixia had already sent people to the remaining four cities to find suitable places, just waiting for the grand opening.

Now that they have a good reputation, the business of these shops will not be too bad.

She wanted to extract the greatest wealth within her ability from the land of Lingnan in the shortest possible time.

These seemingly insignificant bowls of milk tea and plum soup, when put together, will become Xu Yu's greatest confidence.

Just when Sang Zhixia had gotten some results with her shop business, it was already harvest season on the farm.

Jiang Yubai, the busy little prince, rarely showed up on the first day of autumn harvest. He brought a few of his followers, picked up a sickle, rolled up his trouser legs and went to the field.

Jiang Yubai stood under the scorching sun, letting the sweat drip down his chin. He smiled and said, "Sister-in-law, do you think the grain grown in the north would be as much as it was back then?"

Sang Zhixia raised her hand to push down the sun hat, smiling lightly but with a determination that was rare in others.

Sang Zhixia said: "I think..."

"There must be more."

"But there's no basis for speculation. Once all the rice from these thirty acres is harvested, perhaps the answer will become clear."