In the afternoon, Uncle Qian came over with several boxes in his hands, followed by a servant who also carried a lot of boxes.

"Brother Yan, I went back and found twenty boxes. Please help me make twenty gift boxes."

Uncle Qian placed the gift box on the table in the store and took out a piece of silver. "This one or two taels of silver will be the cost of my custom-made gift box."

Lin Yan quietly calculated in his mind that salty rice dumplings cost 5 wen and sweet rice dumplings cost 3 wen. The cost of egg yolk and eight-treasure rice dumplings would be higher. If they were all 5 wen each, that would be 160 pieces, which is 800 wen.

"Uncle Qian, it doesn't take that much. Besides, you provided the box."

"Oh, no, no, no, this is custom made. Of course it will be more expensive. I know this. Two years ago, I ordered it from another shop, and they charged me 100 coins for a box of 6 dumplings. This is considered a bargain." Uncle Qian gave Lin Yan one or two taels of silver because he knew the selling price of Lin Yan's dumplings. Brother Yan is not the kind of person who would take the opportunity to raise the price.

"Also, this box of mine has been piled up for a long time and is a bit dusty, so I have to trouble you to clean it." Uncle Qian said embarrassedly.

Lin Yan had no choice but to accept it, "Okay, I'll install it and send it to your home after it's done."

"Okay, my home is the third door after entering Lihua Lane. It's easy to find." After saying this, Uncle Qian took the servant back.

The ingredients were sold out at this moment, and Lin Yan and Li Yuemei planned to buy materials for making zongzi. The glutinous rice they bought yesterday was used up, so they had to buy more today, including red beans, mung beans, as well as red dates, longans, lotus seeds, peanuts, walnuts, etc. needed to make eight-treasure zongzi.

"My grandma should have salted duck eggs. Let me go and ask her first." Lin Yan said.

The two of them arrived at West Street. It was the market day, and Zhou Chunlan was busy. They waited for a while, and when Zhou Chunlan was free, they hurriedly asked, "Mo, do you have any salted duck eggs at home? I need them to make zongzi."

"Yes, how much do you want?"

"Big ones? I want 20 big ones." The triangular rice dumplings are not very big, and they will be too full if you put an egg yolk in them. Half one is enough.

"They're quite big. During the Qingming Festival, I picked out some big ones and pickled them in a jar. You can take a look when you get home."

"Okay, let's go first. We still need to buy other ingredients."

They first went to the butcher's and bought 10 pounds of pork belly and a carton of lard, as the family was running out of it. Then they went to the grain store and bought glutinous rice, red beans, and mung beans.

"Boss, please help me deliver it to Douxiangzhai on South Street. We also need to buy other things." They bought too much and Lin Yan and the others couldn't carry it all.

"Okay, I'll deliver it later. Is anyone in the shop?"

"If you have some, just say the owner bought it, and they'll understand."

After Lin Yan finished his instructions, the two of them went to the bakery to buy candied dates. "Mo, let's buy a bag and go back to make more. We can then package them into gift boxes and sell them."

"Will anyone buy this?" Li Yuemei was a little worried.

"If we don't have it, we'll just sell it separately. It will sell well eventually."

"Okay, I'll do as you say." Brother Yan is a man with his own ideas and has never made any mistakes in running a shop.

After buying everything they needed, the two went to the carpenter's shop to look at gift boxes. There were ordinary gift boxes, more exquisite ones, and some woven from bamboo strips. Lin Yan looked at several and chose a square basket made of bamboo strips. It had only one layer inside, which was divided and could hold 6 rice dumplings.

This gift box costs twenty cents each. "It's a bit expensive, even more expensive than meat." Lin Yan muttered softly.

"Master, can you give me a discount if I want more?"

Before the master could say anything, the boss sitting behind him stood up and came over. "Hey young man, how much do you want?"

"I want fifty first, and then more if they sell well." Lin Yan said gritting his teeth.

Li Yuemei was startled, but did not stop Lin Yan.

The boss thought for a while and said, "This gift box costs a lot, and it's not profitable. The most I can get is three cents less per box."

Lin Yan shook his head. "Seventeen each is too expensive. The rice dumplings I sell, plus the gift boxes, are expensive, so it's hard to set a price. How about twelve each?"

The boss waved his hand and said, "No, no, how can I offer such a high price all at once?"

When Lin Yan heard this, he didn't argue and just pulled Li Yuemei away.

"Hey, little brother, little brother, let's discuss it again." The boss was so anxious that he wanted to grab Lin Yan's clothes.

Lin Yan stopped.

"12 cents each is indeed too low. Could you please increase the price a little more?" The boss really didn't want to miss this business.

"I'll add another cent, 13 cents each, the highest. If it doesn't work out, I'll leave." After saying that, he was about to take another step.

The boss gritted his teeth and stamped his feet, "Okay, I'll give it to you."

Lin Yan was overjoyed and went back to discuss the delivery with his boss. In the end, Lin Yan took five back and asked his boss to help deliver the rest to the store tomorrow.

After the two of them walked away, Li Yuemei let out a sigh, "Brother Yan, you bought so many gift boxes, this..."

"Don't worry, mom. You heard it just now. I have already agreed with the boss that if there are any leftovers, we will return them to him and pay for them according to the price of 17 cents." Lin Yan was afraid that he would not need so many gift boxes, so he kept a backup plan.

Li Yuemei sighed and said nothing more.