Chapter 069 Forty Times Difference
Tang Yuan's solution was to build a simple shed on the top of the mountain.
Her current alias is a lunatic, and everyone knows she is a lunatic, so no one would think that she would do business. Originally, she just wanted to buy some tea to make tea eggs or milk tea, but after seeing the lives of the people here, she still tried to change it.
The tea business is good, but it is also bad. From ancient times to the present, only famous brand teas have been selling well. Although real home-grown tea can be preserved for a long time, it is easy to find a channel and cannot be sold.
In Tang Yuan's previous life, there were tea plants growing near the environment where he lived. Every time the tea picking season came, he had to wait for someone to come and collect the tea before he could sell it. It was difficult for ordinary villagers to sell the tea. If they couldn't catch up with the people who came to collect the tea, they had to store the picked tea at home.
Young tea leaves are hard to pick, and 20 cents per pound is not expensive. She charges a little more, and as long as she can sell it for a few dollars per pound in Hong Kong, she will not lose money.
But if the villagers were asked to sell the water themselves, there is a high probability that they would get nothing in return.
It was because she announced the harvest of tea leaves these past two days that the people began to place large bamboo baskets for drying tea leaves in front of and behind their houses.
The next day after she built the shed, she came here early. Through the gate, she saw Gou Wazi who came to bring her food. She also saw him standing in front of the simple shed with a confused look on his face.
About an hour after Gouwazi left, someone else came up and saw a simple shed built some distance away from the house.
"How did this come about?"
"Could it be that the man knew we were going to bring the tea up directly? Why did he build a shed here? Was he afraid that some crazy people would cause trouble?"
"Maybe the man asked the madman to bring the tea up and put it in the shed to avoid the rain. Otherwise, it's hard to tell when it will rain, and the tea would be ok if it got damp. But this is good for us, because it means the man did come up to talk to the madman and then take the tea away."
"So we put the tea here?"
"I think it can work. If it weren't for that person, we wouldn't have picked the tea leaves for a while and would have left them here. In case... we just lose a little tea leaves, we can continue to trade in tea leaves for a while longer. If this works, we can always make money."
"You're right. Xiaomei's madness comes and goes. She may be fine now, but she may not be fine in the future. If she can't bring us here in the future and something happens, I'm afraid that person won't buy tea from us. Since there's a shed here, let's repair it and bring the tea back."
"Then it's settled. This shed is unstable. I'll go pull the bamboo up."
"I'll get some hay."
"Don't forget your knife."
While the people outside were talking, Tang Yuan was sitting by the gate. She had accumulated a lot of scraps of cloth during this period of time. The quantity was really too much. If she took them back now, she really couldn't fit them all in. If she didn't stay here to guard, she was afraid that someone would push the door open and find the scraps of cloth.
But now she is here, if someone comes over, she can make some noise and no one will come in.
Fortunately, those people outside had no intention of coming in.
The shed she built was indeed very fragile and was dismantled in no time.
The shed that was erected half a day later not only took into account the problem of sheltering from wind and rain, but also the problem of placing tea leaves. Not only was a thick layer of dry grass and bamboo joints for drainage laid underneath, but the entire shed was also divided into spaces of different sizes, which could be used to place tea leaves in compartments.
After making sure that everyone outside is busy with their own affairs, Tang Yuan still has the energy to do other things.
She can control several bodies at the same time.
When she arrived in Hong Kong, she followed the address given by Xue's mother and went to a high-end garment factory. She easily bought four bags of rags from the factory and took them back. The security guard at the door already knew her situation and let her in without saying a word.
This was related to the fact that Tang Yuan had completely "moved out" the rags during this period. The security guard watched her move them in and out. Judging from the quantity, there were no extra rags in her house now. Since there would be no fire risk, there was naturally no need for the security guard to meddle in her business.
She would not move too much at one time now. After moving four bags of rags, she went to the recycling station again. When she saw outsiders there, she walked over and found two large baskets of thick old newspapers and old books that looked the latest from the huge pile of waste paper.
After picking these out, she was alert and took the opportunity to weigh them while the people next to her were talking. When she saw the other person nod, she immediately paid, picked up the old newspapers and books, and turned to leave.
After walking a little further, she looked back and for some reason, she felt that the accent of the man selling waste paper sounded familiar.
After pondering for a moment, she walked a little further away and returned to the busy street. She then realized that the man's accent was somewhat similar to when she first started learning Cantonese, with a hint of Mandarin.
After realizing this, she didn't think much about it. She looked down at the two large bags of paper in her hands and calculated that this amount of paper should be enough for her to sell a large batch of tea.
Yes, she planned to use these old newspapers and books to make tea.
If she only had a dozen kilograms of tea, she could consume it all by herself. But if she had hundreds or thousands of kilograms, even if she ate tea eggs every day, she would never be able to consume it all. Anyway, the ways to make money now did not take up too much of her time. She was free anyway, so she might as well sell some tea.
The tea purchasing situation was just as she had expected. Not long after the shed was set up, people started delivering tea leaves one after another. One brought three kilograms, another brought five kilograms, and soon a full eighty kilograms of tea leaves were delivered.
This made Tang Yuan very grateful for the villagers' creative ideas. If they did not distrust her as a "madwoman", she would have to go down and move the tea leaves every few days, which would be tiring.
After the tea leaves were brought up, she did not move them away immediately. She waited until it was dark and then until late at night when she got off work in the boiler room. Then she came over to move the tea leaves and pour them into the dry sacks that she had prepared in advance. Then she put the money for the tea leaves in different bags according to the weight of the tea leaves.
After returning, close the door again.
At the same time, people were talking in the village below.
"Can you do it?"
"Let's see if it works first. Gou Wa Zi has to go up there to deliver food to people tomorrow morning. Let him help."
"I hope so."
"Yes, I hope it will work. If we can earn a little more money, we can make an extra set of clothes for the kids so that both of them can wear clothes when going out."
"Go to sleep and we'll talk tomorrow."
The next morning, Gouwazi climbed up the mountain, put down the things in his hands, looked inside the shed, and after seeing clearly, he subconsciously wiped his eyes to make sure he was not mistaken, then turned around and walked quickly down the mountain.
When we got halfway up the mountain, we ran into someone and started shouting, "They've taken it all! They've taken it all."
"What was taken?"
"The tea leaves were taken away, and only the bag was left."
"Really? I'll go up and see right now!"
Following the sound, the group of people climbed up the mountain briskly, and soon arrived in front of the shed, where they found the bags they used to store tea.
Before everyone could see clearly, someone spoke up first: "Yes! There's money in the bag!"
"Did they really put it in the bag? Oh, I have some too, I have some too, not a penny less, all mine," another person said, "I... I'm going down to pick tea leaves, I can pick a few more kilograms of tea leaves today."
"I'm going too. No, I didn't bring up the tea from my house. I'll go get it down right away."
"If you bring it up today, they may not be able to take it away."
"I don't care. As long as I can make money, you can take it anytime. I have a lot of tea leaves at home. I can make more than a dollar!"
"That lunatic..."
"Go, go, go, don't bother her. If you make her even crazier, she might not come to collect the tea leaves."
"Yes, Xiaomei's condition has improved a lot in the past two years. She is doing very well now. Don't bother her. Go down and do your work, picking and frying tea leaves. Oh, and don't tell anyone about this. If anyone tells anyone, they are against all of us in the village!"
"Don't say anything, I'll beat anyone who says it."
"I've already said it, I won't tell you!"
…
Standing in the house, Tang Yuan could hear everyone's voices. Looking at the crack of the door in front of him, he was touched by the thoughtfulness of these people.
She is in the tea business, and what she worries about most is that after these people come up, they will enter her house and affect her storage. If there is no way to store it, then her vest will be of no use.
Now that she was sure that they would not enter her house, she would naturally be able to do more tea business in the future.
Tea is a one-month business. After this month, the tea leaves will be old and the taste will be much worse when picked. The villagers below are convinced that she can harvest tea, so the scale of tea picking suddenly becomes much larger than before.
Even from her house she could hear the noise outside.
It may also be because the tea trading location is on her side. In addition to Gouwazi who would send food over, other people would also send some every now and then. The quantity was too large, and there was only one body that needed a proper meal, so she didn't need to go out to buy food. She could solve the problem of three meals a day directly through this vest.
Because she needed to eat some other meat and white rice from time to time, there was even some left over from the batch of food delivered to her.
Before she knew it, she had collected hundreds of kilograms of tea leaves.
Early that morning, she took the cut paper, tea leaves, and a scale and went to the market where she used to sell eggs.
There are many seafood in Hong Kong, but not much tea, or even very little. It is difficult for her to compete with others, so she just set up a small stall in the original place and put the notes she prepared in advance on the side.
Tea leaves: 5 ml/liang
At that time, Hong Kong still used the system of half a catty and eight taels, which means that one catty was exactly sixteen taels, and one tael cost five cents. She could earn eight yuan by selling one catty.
As soon as the items were put out, someone came over and asked, "Tea? You sell tea here?"
"Yes, look, these are top-quality tea leaves." Tang Yuan had not yet remembered to open the bag, but he immediately opened it. "These are all new tea leaves this year, picked not long ago."
"This tea is OK," the guest squatted down and looked at the tea carefully, "Then can you give me a pound?"
"I'll pack it for you. Half a pound a pack is fine." Tang Yuan put the newspaper on the scale, picked up a handful of tea leaves with a wooden clip, put them on the scale, weighed the tea leaves neatly, and wrapped the newspaper with skillful techniques.
Two bags of tea weighed one pound and were tied up with a thin cloth rope, tied into a knot, leaving a hole for carrying.
The guest paid with satisfaction.
Just as I stood up to leave, someone else came over and said, "It's only five cents for one ounce, very cheap, give me eight ounces."
"Okay, it'll be quick."
The tea business was better than Tang Yuan had expected. She didn't know if it was because there was less tea from Hong Kong or because the price she set was too low, but the 30 kilograms of tea she carried over in the morning were all sold out in a short time.
Even when she was packing up her stall, some people came to ask her if she would come the next day after hearing that she was leaving.
Tang Yuan naturally nodded. Even if people came to buy her products because of her low price, it would not prevent her from making money in this tea business.
She earned 240 Hong Kong dollars from selling tea at 6 yuan, which is 40 times the profit. This is a really good business that can make money!