Yunniang is quite skilled, so much so that Lu Lin rarely cooks anymore, though he might occasionally show off his skills on a whim.
The family bought a batch of sweet potatoes, and Lu Lin cooked sweet potato pancakes.
The fried sweet potato pancakes have an appealing color, and when eaten hot, they are soft, delicious, and irresistible.
Because frying sweet potato cakes requires oil, Lu Lin didn't fry many, but each of the children in the family still got one.
Chen Xiaomai munched on a sweet potato pancake, her eyes shining.
"Brother Lin, this is delicious."
As Chen Xiaomai was about to take another sweet potato pancake from the plate, Lu Lin slapped her hand away and said, "You've already eaten three. If you eat any more, you'll eat up Qin Lang's share."
Qin Lang licked his lips and said, "Brother Lin, let Xiaomai eat it."
Qin Lang had been helping Lu Lin earlier, and when he came out after washing his hands, there was only one sweet potato pancake left on the plate.
Lu Lin glanced at Qin Lang and said, "There's no need to spoil him like that. Besides, too much food isn't good for him."
Upon hearing this, Chen Xiaomai pushed the plate of sweet potato cakes to Qin Lang.
Qin Lang took a bite, and his eyes lit up immediately. "Brother Lin, it's delicious! You're really amazing."
Looking at Qin Lang's reaction, Lu Lin thought to himself: The people here are easy to please. As long as there is good food, that's enough. Good food can stimulate people's enthusiasm for work.
Chen Xiaomi had already eaten two sweet potato pancakes, one in her mouth and another in her hand. After Chen Xiaomai pushed the sweet potato pancakes on the plate to Qin Lang, Chen Xiaomai looked at Chen Xiaomi longingly. Helpless, Chen Xiaomi could only share half of the pancake with Xiaomai.
Wheat took half a pancake and began to eat it with unusual care.
Lu Lin found it somewhat amusing to see Chen Xiaomi looking at her pancakes with such heartache.
Lu Lin went to Dawan Village. Many people in Dawan Village grow sweet potatoes. Knowing that Lu Lin came to buy sweet potatoes, the villagers were very happy.
Liu Guiyong looked at Lu Lin somewhat embarrassedly, "Young Master Lin, I'm troubling you again." Liu Guiyong felt that Lu Lin probably didn't want to eat the sweet potato at all, and that his purchase of it was likely just out of a sense of duty.
The people of Dawancun are eager to sell their sweet potatoes, and the price is not very high. Last year, sweet potatoes cost five coins for three catties, but this year they are only one coin per catty.
Lu Lin spent eight taels of silver to buy eight thousand catties of sweet potatoes, and the people of Dawan Village said they would deliver the sweet potatoes to the town.
Lu Lin could already be considered a major customer, but many families in Dawancun grow sweet potatoes, so Lu Lin's purchase of eight thousand catties was just a drop in the bucket.
When Chen Xiaomai saw the people from Dawancun bringing over a large quantity of sweet potatoes, she couldn't help but widen her eyes in surprise.
"Brother Qin Ming, there are so many sweet potatoes!"
Qin Ming nodded and said, "Yes!"
Chen Xiaomai asked with some doubt, "Does this mean we won't eat rice anymore and will only eat sweet potatoes?"
Qin Ming: "..." Probably not. Sweet potatoes taste good, but eating too many of them can easily cause bloating.
Lu Lin, along with Qin Lang and his brother and Chen Xiaomai, dried some sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes in Dawan Village were quite sweet, so the dried sweet potatoes were also very sweet. After the dried sweet potatoes were dried, everyone said they were delicious.
When Lu Lin and Qin Lang went to Liuzhen to deliver goods, they gave a lot of dried sweet potatoes to Chen Xiaocai and Shen Chi.
Chen Xiaocai and the others were quite frugal with their meals. Lu Lin had told them several times to eat when they should, but they still ate very sparingly. Lu Lin asked Qin Yi to keep an eye on them, but Qin Yi ended up eating even less.
Lu Lin had no choice but to find a maid for the three of them to cook for them every day.
Lu Lin planned to send the two boys some more dried sweet potatoes so they could have a treat when they got hungry.
Taking advantage of the sunny weather, Lu Lin dried several batches of sweet potatoes.
Chen Xiaomi chewed on a dried sweet potato and said, "Why are you drying so many sweet potatoes again? They'll go bad if we can't finish them."
"Business has slowed down recently, so I'm planning to do some promotional activities."
Chen Xiaomi rolled her eyes and said, "Like you said, buy one get one free?"
Lu Lin nodded and said, "Yes, that's the one."
Chen Xiaomi tilted his head. He'd heard Lu Lin mention many "buy one get one free" promotions, but most of them seemed to be scams. For example, a "buy one get one free" deal usually meant buying a shirt and getting a pair of socks for free. But people always like to get a bargain; something free is better than nothing!
"You want to give me dried sweet potatoes?" Chen Xiaomi asked, holding up the dried sweet potatoes in her hand.
Lu Lin nodded and said, "Not bad."
Chen Xiaomi blinked, thinking to herself: Buying a doll and getting sweet potato chips as a gift, isn't that a bit strange! However, since Lu Lin is so smart, there must be a reason why he did this.
A few days later, the store launched a promotion where customers who bought backpacks or toys would receive dried sweet potatoes as a gift.
Lu Lin made some small cloth bags in different colors and filled them with dried sweet potatoes. Anyone who bought something at the store would receive a free bag.
Sweet potato chips are nothing special, but the people who receive them are very happy. Many customers have given them high praise and always ask the store to give them extra when buying plush toys.
"Young Master Lin, those dried sweet potatoes taste pretty good, could you give me some?" Yang Hengzhi said to Lu Lin.
Two days ago, Yang Heng bought a doll at the shop. Since he was a regular customer, Chen Xiaomi gave him a few extra bags of dried sweet potatoes. Yang Heng didn't think much of it at first, but when he took them home, the old lady really liked the taste of the dried sweet potatoes and took all the free gifts by herself.
Lu Lin said helplessly, "Young Master Yang, those dried sweet potatoes are not for sale; they are a free gift."
Yang Hengzhi winked at Lu Lin and said, "Young Master Lin, you're pulling this trick on me again. Your store's prized possessions aren't for sale; they're only for those who are destined to have them. These dried sweet potatoes are probably the same. Just look at my face, and you'll know I'm the one destined to have them."
Lu Lin chuckled awkwardly, "Since Young Master Yang has said so, I'll give you some. But Young Master Yang, please don't tell anyone..."
Yang Hengzhi nodded and said, "I understand."
After some of the sweet potato chips were sold as free gifts, they were very well received. Many people asked if the free gifts were sold in retail. Lu Lin didn't have many sweet potato chips, so he told people that they weren't sold in retail, which caused many people to leave empty-handed. Of course, there were also some people like Yang Hengzhi who came and kept pestering him.
"Your dried sweet potatoes taste really good! I've eaten other dried sweet potatoes before, but none of them are this sweet," Yang Hengzhi said.
Lu Lin smiled and said, "I used small sweet potatoes from Dawan Village. The sweet potatoes grown there are smaller, but they are quite sweet and taste good. If Young Master Yang likes them, you can go and buy some."
Yang Hengzhi said with some interest, "Really? That sounds good. My grandma loves sweet potato porridge the most."
During this time, Lu Lin recommended the sweet potatoes from Dawan Village to many people, but it's unclear whether those people actually went to Dawan Village to buy sweet potatoes.
If the problem of unsold sweet potatoes in Dawan Village is not resolved, it seems that many families in Dawan Village will have trouble getting through the winter. Lu Lin felt sorry for the farmers in the village who toil in the fields.
A dozen days later, several villagers came to the entrance of the courtyard where Chen Xiaomi lived.
Qin Lang looked at the villagers and said, "Gentlemen, is there something you need?"
Liu Guiyong said somewhat nervously, "This is a villager from my Dawan Village. Thanks to Brother Lin, our village's sweet potatoes have almost all been sold. We've come to express our gratitude."
The people of Dawancun were originally worried about how to sell their sweet potatoes.
Unexpectedly, a while ago, someone actually approached me and said they wanted to buy sweet potatoes.
At first, the villagers were worried that the sweet potatoes would be too small and that the guests wouldn't be satisfied. But they didn't expect that these people liked the small ones, and later, more and more people came.
One person was an accident, but when people kept asking about the sweet potatoes in their village, the villagers felt something was wrong.
After making inquiries, Liu Guiyong learned that it was a Huaxia store that sold dolls and gave away dried sweet potatoes. Many people liked them, but couldn't buy them, so they came directly to Dawancun to buy sweet potatoes.
As more and more people came, the problem of unsold sweet potatoes in the village was solved. Many villagers were very grateful to Lu Lin. After discussing it, they felt that they couldn't let Lu Lin help for nothing, so they came over and gave Lu Lin some things.
Chen Xiaomi was very happy to see the mushrooms, yams, and bamboo shoots that the villagers had brought him. There were plenty of these things in the mountains, but he hadn't been going into the mountains recently, so he bought them whenever he wanted to eat them.
"Uncle Liu, you're too kind," Chen Xiaomi said with a smile.
"No, no," Liu Guiyong said to Chen Xiaomi, "This is the village head of our Dawan Village."
Chen Xiaomi glanced at the middle-aged man next to Liu Guiyong and said, "So you're the village head. My apologies."
Liu Tian quickly returned the greeting, saying, "Brother Xiaomi, you're too kind. Thanks to you and Brother Lin, otherwise our village's sweet potatoes would probably have rotted in the warehouse."
Chen Xiaomi quickly waved her hand and said, "It was nothing, no need to be so polite."
Zhang Cheng, the village head, always looked down on Chen Xiaomi, thinking he was corrupting the village's atmosphere. Chen Xiaomi had always assumed that village heads were like that, but when she suddenly encountered a village head who was exceptionally polite to her, she felt a little uncomfortable.
Looking at Chen Xiaomi's round belly, Liu Guiyong said, "Brother Xiaomi, your child is not small anymore!"
Chen Xiaomi touched her belly and said, "I'm quite a few months along. With this baby in my belly, I can't even stretch my arms and legs properly. I need to give birth to it as soon as possible."
Liu Guiyong smiled and said, "Brother Xiaomi, you're joking. You should rest and recuperate now..."
Chen Xiaomi puffed out her cheeks and said, "Stay still? I've gained so much weight."
Lu Lin always makes a fuss when he sees him doing heavy work, which is really a bit unreasonable. Even if the women in this village are pregnant, they still have to work.
After Chen Xiaomi put away the things, she asked Chen Xiaomai to bring out some dried sweet potatoes to entertain the guests.
Liu Guiyong and others had recently heard a lot about the sweet potato fries sold at Huaxia Trading Company, so they all tried them.
"Brother Xiaomi, your sweet potato fries are dried really well!"
Chen Xiaomi said proudly, "It should be alright. Many customers like it and come over to ask if we sell it in bulk. However, this is a free gift and we don't sell it in bulk."
The sweet potato fries were just a gimmick for the shop. Sweet potatoes weren't anything special, and it would be difficult to make much money selling them. Lu Lin didn't expect to make money from them, so he didn't bother with it.
As Liu Guiyong and the others ate their dried sweet potatoes, they pondered that sweet potatoes weren't selling well. Perhaps they could consider selling a batch of finished dried sweet potatoes. However, it was Chen Xiaomi who first came up with the idea of dried sweet potatoes, and they wondered if selling dried sweet potatoes would affect Chen Xiaomi.
When Liu Guiyong mentioned it to Chen Xiaomi, Chen Xiaomi generously said it was no problem.
Sweet potato chips are just a promotional tactic; if you can't have them, you can have something else.
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