Chapter 054 Two Hundred and One Jin
The Chinese New Year does not bring any changes to Tang Yuan, except that he does not have to go to work.
Many employees of the machinery factory have settled here, and their whole families are in the factory, so even during the Chinese New Year, they still stay in the factory. As for her, the Tang family is a bit far from the machinery factory, and this year Tang Jianguo and his wife are at home to take care of her, so she doesn't need to go back.
However, on the day of the Lunar New Year, the factory still organized a slightly larger New Year's Eve dinner so that the employee who was the only one in the factory could have some fun on that day.
This is also the day that Tang Yuan stayed here for the entire day.
After the Chinese New Year comes the Lunar New Year’s Day, when every household has to visit relatives. Tang Yuan had nothing to do, so he simply “locked himself in the house”. In fact, he picked the strawberries grown in the game space and planned to try to sell them in Hong Kong.
The quality of this batch of strawberries is very good, but the quantity is small. The planting area is limited, and only a small piece of strawberries can be planted. If the price is too low, there is no need to do this business, but if the price is too high, people may not be willing to spend money to buy it.
After much thought, she decided to start with the rich people, and the only rich person she knew in Hong Kong was Xue Shiqi, who ran a handmade sweater shop.
Holding the address that Xue Shiqi had given her, she got off the bus with a basket of strawberries, and walked along the road for more than ten minutes before arriving at Xue Shiqi's house.
The Xue family's building is a single building, and there is a security guard at the door. After the message was passed, Xue Shiqi appeared at the door a few minutes later.
"Jiaqi, why are you here?"
"Isn't today a bit inappropriate to come and pay New Year's greetings?" Tang Yuan said embarrassedly.
"How could that be? I'm very happy that you're here to pay New Year's greetings, and my mom has always wanted to see you. Come on," Xue Shiqi took Tang Yuan's hand and led her into the house. "Guests are guests. You are my friend, so you are my guest today."
After hearing this, Tang Yuan felt something was wrong. When he entered the house, he found that there were already many guests sitting in the house.
But she chose to come here today with a special purpose.
Thinking of this, she greeted Mother Xue with a smile.
"Shiqi has mentioned you to me many times, but I didn't expect you to look so young," said Mother Xue, her eyes falling on Tang Yuan's hand. She saw her hand extended several times, but she didn't know who to give it to, so she took the initiative to ask, "Is this a gift for our Shiqi?"
"And my gift?" Xue Shiqi was very supportive.
"It's not a grand gift, just a small token of my appreciation." Tang Yuan said as he took the initiative to open the dark plastic bag wrapped around the basket and handed it to Xue Shiqi.
Xue Shiqi took it, looked down, and immediately exclaimed in surprise: "Oh my God, it's strawberries, Mommy, Jiaqi brought me some strawberries, can I have some?"
"Of course, I brought it for you." Tang Yuan said with a smile.
Xue Shiqi immediately took a strawberry from the basket and handed the basket to Xue's mother: "Mommy, eat too. Everyone eats."
Her voice has already attracted the attention of the guests in the room.
Mother Xue was also a little surprised when she saw the strawberries in the basket. She immediately asked the servant to fetch a large plate and distribute the strawberries: "Today I am offering flowers to the Buddha. Thanks to my wife Shiqi, I will give them to everyone to taste."
The guests came back to their senses one after another: "Strawberries are rare at this time."
“Can strawberries still grow in this season?”
"It's probably some greenhouse technology. It's been developed overseas for many years and is also being developed in Hong Kong. Many vegetables sold on the market are grown using greenhouse technology. However, growing strawberries is rare and must be very difficult."
"Yes, the temperature must be well controlled in order to grow them. The color of this strawberry is really beautiful."
By this time, the strawberries had been packaged and placed in front of different guests, and Tang Yuan was pulled by Xue Shiqi to sit among the crowd, easily blending into everyone's conversation.
As they were talking, she heard the accent of one of them change, taking on a Northeastern accent, so she whispered in Northeastern Mandarin, "Sister, were you from the Northeast?"
As soon as I said this, the other person's eyes lit up and his accent immediately changed to that of the Northeast: "Yeah, you too? Hey, your accent is pure Northeastern accent."
Tang Yuan thought that she could be, but she is definitely not now.
"I have relatives from Northeast China. I lived with them for a while before and my accent changed without me noticing. The Northeastern dialect is so contagious that people can easily learn it without even realizing it."
"Yes, our Northeastern dialect is indeed like this. Many people say it is easy to learn. For example, after so many years, I still have a Northeastern accent. But I don't plan to erase it completely. It is also my mark."
"Sister, have you been here for many years?"
"Well, it's been almost 20 years. I was still a kid when I came here, but my family always spoke Northeastern dialect at home, so I can speak it. You are better than me. You can speak Northeastern dialect just because your relatives speak it?"
"My closest relatives are from the south and learn Mandarin more, but because I have a relative from the northeast, sometimes I speak with a northeastern accent."
"So that's how it is. No wonder. When did your relatives come? Did they tell you about what's going on in the Northeast? Tell me about it. My parents miss the Northeast so much. Now that they are older, they miss it even more. They don't know when they can go back."
"I said something..."
Tang Yuan selected some things that happened in the Northeast, most of which were some exciting things she heard from people in the boiler room.
As for daily life, it is indeed very ordinary, and people who came to Hong Kong earlier should not know about it.
The two of them were talking happily, and before they knew it, they were sitting close to each other.
People around looked over from time to time, but because of the language barrier, they didn't know what the two were talking about, so they just looked at them a few more times and continued chatting with others.
But there are also people who have been watching them.
When Tang Yuan noticed it, the older sister sitting opposite her also noticed it: "Don't bother with him, he's just bored and listening to gossip."
Tang Yuan raised his eyebrows.
The other party has already spoken in Mandarin: "Yeah, I'm bored and listen to gossip. Since I came here, most people around me speak Cantonese. It's rare to hear people speaking Mandarin like you guys."
"Yes, in order to learn Cantonese, he doesn't allow people to speak Mandarin to him," the eldest sister said, "others don't know that he can speak Mandarin, so of course they speak Cantonese to him."
Tang Yuan smiled: "Are you from the south?"
"Can you hear it?" the other party was surprised.
"Well, it's quite obvious. I guess you are from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. There is a clear difference between Wunong Soft Language and Northeastern Dialect." Tang Yuan said. She is from the south herself, so her accent unconsciously took on a southern tone when she spoke.
"Your accent is amazing too. I just heard you say you learned it from your relatives, so your relatives must also be from the South."
The conversation between two people turned into a conversation between three people.
Tang Yuan did not forget the purpose of his visit today, and he looked at the table from time to time while speaking.
Just because strawberries are rare in this season doesn’t mean they are rare at this time. People living in Hong Kong will definitely not be short of strawberries on a normal day, but it is extremely rare to eat strawberries during the Chinese New Year.
She didn't bring many strawberries today, so she put them on several plates in front of different people. It could be seen that everyone was very restrained when eating the strawberries, but with only so many strawberries, the plates were empty before they knew it.
Although Mother Xue asked someone to restock the plates with other fruits promptly, she still noticed that a few people looked at the empty plates of strawberries with a slightly regretful expression.
Tang Yuan hesitated, wondering whether she should speak first or let them speak.
She carefully looked at the eyes of some people and saw that their thoughts on Strawberry had gradually faded. She pursed her lips slightly and said to Xue Shiqi with a smile: "Actually, I have something to ask you for help."
"You tell me, I will definitely help if I can." Xue Shiqi patted her chest and promised.
"It's not a big deal. I just wanted to ask if anyone is short of fruit," Tang Yuan said in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft. "This strawberry business is a partnership between me and my friend. We spent a lot of effort growing it. The product is very good, but I don't know where to sell it. After all, if the price of these strawberries is too low, I'm afraid I won't be able to do this business anymore."
"Did you grow them yourselves? Then give me some. How much is one pound?" Xue Shiqi asked excitedly.
"Strawberries mature at different times, so we plant them in batches and can only pick a few kilograms a day," Tang Yuan first explained the difficulty of supplying them, and then raised the price, "The price of one kilogram of strawberries is 200 yuan."
During the Chinese New Year, the price of apples is eight yuan per pound, and two hundred yuan is enough to buy nearly thirty pounds of apples.
But things are valuable because they are rare. The harder it is to grow, the higher the price. Two hundred yuan is still the medium price she set after weighing the pros and cons.
Xue Shiqi immediately turned around and said, "Mommy."
"Just buy it, and Mommy will reimburse you," Xue's mother said with a smile, "You can keep your income for yourself. It's not easy to make money by knitting sweaters."
"Thank you, Mommy," Xue Shiqi thanked her and turned to talk to Tang Yuan, "Then can you get me three pounds of strawberries?"
"Sure," Tang Yuan nodded. "I can pick up to five kilograms of strawberries a day. I guarantee they are all fresh. I'll deliver three kilograms of strawberries to you in the evening."
After I finished speaking, someone on the other side asked, "Do you deliver the goods to your door?"
"Yes, we can deliver to your door," Tang Yuan nodded. "Since we don't have many strawberries, I will deliver them. I will deliver them as soon as I pick them every morning, so that customers can eat the freshest strawberries."
The actual amount of strawberries she grew was a little more than she said, but it would not exceed six kilograms. In this case, five kilograms would be more appropriate.
"Then go to my house tomorrow morning and deliver five kilograms of strawberries, enough for the day." The other person was one of the people who had not yet finished eating the strawberries.
Tang Yuan smiled and immediately took out a pen and paper: "Give me the address and I'll send it to you tomorrow morning."
The other party reported the address, and Tang Yuan wrote it down on a piece of paper. While writing, she was thankful that she had read a lot of books and newspapers during this period, and because she wanted to know more about Hong Kong, she wrote down many place names and residential names. Otherwise, she would probably not know how to write when she picked up the pen.
After the first order, there were second and third orders, and each order was for five kilograms of strawberries.
Including the strawberries that Xue Shiqi ordered, a total of 18 kilograms of strawberries were sold today, earning her 3,600 yuan, enough for her to live in her current place for more than four months.
"If I need strawberries later, how can I find you?"
"I'll give you a phone number," Tang Yuan tore up the paper and copied down the phone number of the security booth where she currently lives. "You can find me at this number."
Fortunately, I have moved to a new place, otherwise I would still be living in the original place without even a phone.
She is not greedy. After receiving a few orders today, she will not continue to promote. It is enough to pay the rent for a few months. If no one wants the strawberries she grows, she can eat them herself.