After the branch store matter was temporarily put to rest, Cheng Ruyi focused her attention on dealing with the drought.
Since the beginning of July, not only has the temperature been rising, but for a full two weeks, Huaishan County has not received a single drop of rain.
When Ruyi went to the prefectural city this time, she specifically asked her aunt's family and learned that it was not just Huaishan County, but probably the entire Chongzhou Prefecture that had not seen any rain this month.
It seems that the drought has now truly begun.
Fortunately, she had started preparations half a year ago. The dozen or so storage ponds built at the villa not only have enough water to meet the daily water needs of everyone in the villa, but also ensure that farming is not delayed. In this way, the impact on the autumn harvest should not be too great.
The village chief of Lishan Village is a cautious yet decisive person. Under his mobilization, the village not only raised funds to build a medium-sized reservoir, but also dredged the upstream channel of the village's small river, dug a deep well at the entrance of the village, and organized every household in the village to do their own water storage work, so as to at least ensure that basic domestic water can be self-sufficient.
So when the water level of the river in the village was getting lower and lower, most of the villagers in Lishan Village remained relatively calm, unlike other nearby villages that were in a panic and only started to start storing water now.
As for the drought and water shortage, the impact on the county town is not too great. After all, the people here do not need to farm, and their daily water consumption is not that high. Besides, the Jinshui River next to the county town is wide enough, and although the water level has dropped, it is definitely not at a level that causes panic.
However, the county town is densely populated and lacks green trees, so people are more afraid of the scorching heat than the drought.
As the weather gets hotter, the stone slabs on the streets of the county town become scalding hot. If you go out at noon, you feel like you're being boiled alive. So, gradually, people don't dare to go out during the hottest part of the day, making the whole county town seem quite deserted during the day.
After discovering this, Cheng Ruyi suddenly sensed a business opportunity and quickly launched a summer-limited cold spring pool and a limited-edition refreshing iced drink package at the spa.
The Cold Spring Pool is essentially a lower-spec version of the Mingxin Cold Pool, but without the addition of Qingling Fruit. Instead, it contains a little spiritual spring water and cooling ingredients such as chrysanthemum, orange peel, and dandelion. Most importantly, a large amount of ice is added to the pool to keep it at a very cool and comfortable temperature.
The inspiration for refreshing iced drinks comes from modern milk tea and dessert shops, such as grape jasmine green tea, brown sugar grass jelly milk tea, lychee iced cheese dumplings, osmanthus honey almond tofu, and so on.
The package was an instant hit, with many people even traveling from other places to try it out. This led to an exaggerated situation where reservations were booked a month in advance. Ruyi and her team had to make immediate adjustments, deciding to increase the number of morning sessions and temporarily remove the Menghe Xiangchi and Runmai Lingchi pools to make room for the cold spring pools and make a big profit during this period.
Since the spa was launching new products, the snack shop at the Cheng family's old house naturally followed suit, offering some refreshing drinks and ice cream. Drinks included mung bean soup, perilla drink, mint drink, and plum juice, while ice cream included red bean sweet shaved ice, papaya cheese ice, and chilled lychee syrup. Although the ingredients were all ordinary, the shop was very popular because they were generous with ice, the taste was good, and the prices were reasonable. It had a bit of the feel of a trendy online store in later years.
The mung beans, red beans, perilla, mint, ice cubes, and saltpeter were all prepared by Ruyi starting half a year ago. In addition to these, she also stocked up on enough staple foods such as rice and flour, as well as some easily preserved foods, when grain prices were not high. She filled the cellar of the villa, so she had to build another storage warehouse in the woodland behind the back gate.
After all, drought will directly lead to reduced grain production, and the price of grain will rise by who knows how much. The worst case scenario is that there will be no market for grain. Having learned from last year's lesson, she will certainly not panic about grain this time.
However, due to the hot weather, in addition to worrying about reduced food production, she was also concerned that people might get sick because they couldn't adapt. Just in case, she added a tiny bit of fasting pills and Qingling fruit to these drinks and ice creams.
Since the lockdown was lifted, the Bigu Pills have not been used much. The current stock is close to thirty pills, and the Qingling Fruits are all in full ripening. There are so many fruits that we can't finish them all, so the cost is negligible. We can make money and help everyone improve their health at the same time, so why not?
Ultimately, she still felt that if she wanted to live more comfortably, the best thing to do was to make the whole living environment comfortable. If everyone lived well, then naturally no one would think that they were anything special.
Seeing how popular Lingyun Pavilion and Cheng Family Snack Shop were, many people in the city started to imitate them. Those who were thin-skinned would make slight modifications to the recipes, while those who were thick-skinned didn't even bother to change the names and just copied them directly, since there were no relevant laws or restrictions in Da Yue.
For a time, a wave of craze for eating ice and drinking cold drinks swept through the entire Huaishan County. As its reputation spread, it attracted a large number of tourists from other places, making the streets and alleys of the county crowded with people, which was really beyond Ruyi's expectations.
In early August, temperatures continued to rise, and there was still no sign of rain.
In one of the private rooms on the second floor of Zhiwei Restaurant, huge wooden freezers were placed all around, and the table in the middle was filled with various seasonal fruits, some of which were already cut and chilled.
As soon as Cheng Ruyi stepped into the private room, she felt a temperature difference of several degrees between the room and the outside, as if she had instantly transitioned from the sweltering summer to the cool autumn.
"Master Zhou, you really know how to enjoy yourself~" Ruyi didn't stand on ceremony after entering the room. She drank a large glass of "Grapefruit with Succulents" and ate several pieces of chilled fruit before she finally felt better.
"Mind your manners! What woman eats like this? It's unsightly!" Although Zhou Yin's words were full of disgust, he still had a slight smile on his face. After speaking, he gestured to the servant to bring Ruyi a few more cups of "Grapefruit with Succulents".
Cheng Ruyi had gotten used to Zhou Yin always finding fault with her no matter what she did. After all, he was all bark and no bite. So she simply invited You Sanniang, who was standing next to her, to sit down and eat fruit with her. After all, these fresh fruits were not something that ordinary people could afford.
You San Niang had never been interested in food or drink; instead, she kept staring at the freezers around her, even more shocked that these rich people could be so extravagant with ice.
After more than half a year of recuperation, Meng Xiaodi not only recovered his health, but was even able to run around and play with the other children in the courtyard. It was because of this that You Sanniang agreed when Ruyi asked her again.
Firstly, it was to repay a debt of gratitude, and secondly, she felt that the Cheng family was reliable. In today's chaotic world, staying here would be much more stable than wandering around doing odd jobs.
She hadn't expected that following Cheng Ruyi for the past two weeks would broaden her horizons so much. She could freely enter and eat in luxurious and extravagant private rooms of grand restaurants, freely enter and leave the imposing and terrifying county government office, and experience unheard-of spas. She even took a luxurious and comfortable boat, like a room, to the prefectural city for a day. Oh, and her employer said that this was called a "business trip" and that it could be "reimbursed," although she didn't quite understand what he meant.
Despite her taciturn nature and inability to speak, she couldn't help but share these amazing experiences with her family after returning home, gesturing wildly for most of the day.
After hearing this, the family members all showed shocked expressions. While eating a sumptuous dinner, they discussed it excitedly. Seeing that the whole family no longer had to go hungry and that they had all gained a lot of weight, You San Niang became even more determined to stay and work for the Cheng family.
Therefore, she cherishes this job very much and tries her best to fulfill her duties as a guard and maid.
In response to Ruyi's invitation, she lowered her head, took out a small notebook clipped to her belt, skillfully turned to a page, and held it up.
Ruyi looked up and saw the words "Not hungry" written on the palm-sized piece of paper.
“I’m not hungry either, and these fruits won’t fill me up…” Cheng Ruyi said, but seeing that You San Niang wanted to continue turning the page, she immediately interrupted her: “Alright, alright, if you don’t want to eat, that’s fine, I won’t force you.”
Upon hearing this, You San Niang put down her notebook and stood respectfully to the side, continuing to observe the freezer.
"Pfft! This maid is a perfect choice—she's just right for you!"
Ruyi glanced at the old-fashioned man across from her, who wore multiple layers of clothing even in the sweltering heat and drank hot tea, and decided not to argue with an ancient person. "Did you call me out in this heat just to say this? Is Master Zhou so free lately?"
"Of course not. Let me ask you, what do you think about the increasing number of shops imitating ours opening up in the county town?"
"What do you think? I think it's fine, there's no problem," Cheng Ruyi replied while eating fruit.
In the past few days, two or three new perfume shops have suddenly opened in the city, and they have also launched similar cold soak pools to imitate their spa. The key point is that the price is low and there is no limit to the number of people, which has instantly attracted a lot of customers.
Of course, these cold soaking pools are just filled with ice and maybe some mint, and have no therapeutic effect whatsoever. Soaking in them is purely for temporary comfort, which is very suitable for people from the lower and middle classes.
However, these customers were not their main customer base to begin with, so even if they were recruited, it wouldn't really affect them. Therefore, Ruyi wasn't worried at all.
Moreover, this provides ordinary city dwellers with another good place to escape the summer heat. It's entirely healthy competition, enriching the market and benefiting the people, so it's a good thing!
A monopolistic market with one dominant player is not a good thing; a diverse and vibrant market is what she would prefer to see.
Seeing that Zhou Yin seemed to have a different opinion on the matter, she couldn't help but ask curiously, "Their target customers are all ordinary people, which doesn't conflict with ours. Why do you think there's a problem? Have you discovered something else?"
"It's not really a discovery, it's just that the owners behind these perfume shops seem to be the Zhang family..." Zhou Yin noticed Ruyi's expression and instantly became tense. He changed his words before he could finish, "But maybe I'm just overthinking it. They probably just want a piece of the pie and don't have any other intentions. Of course, you still need to be careful!"
It was the Zhang family? This was something she hadn't expected. Come to think of it, those perfume shops seemed to be located in the west of the city. No wonder... Luckily, Zhou Yin had reminded her. Better safe than sorry.
Thinking of this, Ruyi turned to Zhou Yin with heartfelt gratitude: "I see, thank you for reminding me! Don't worry, I will be careful."
"Ahem, you... it's good that you know." Zhou Yin was a little unaccustomed to the other party's frank and natural gratitude.
Afterwards, the two discussed the progress of the branch in Fucheng and then left separately.
Cheng Ruyi was still somewhat wary of the Zhang family. After all, they were likely desperate criminals, or even had hidden forces. She didn't know what their purpose was, so she was really afraid that they would suddenly go crazy and kill indiscriminately.
Fortunately, even as the Mid-Autumn Festival approached and the branch in Fucheng was about to open, the Zhang family still made no move.
Meanwhile, Ruyi was busy with both the upcoming opening of the branch store and managing the shop in the county town. She was so busy that she wished she could have a few more hours each day, and gradually she put the Zhang family's affairs out of her mind.
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