The boys in the countryside were still playing the game of hitting sea buckthorn berries. Shen Huanxi randomly picked one and asked him.
"Zhou Zhou, where do you get these sea buckthorn berries from?"
"We picked them ourselves. There are a lot of them on the outskirts of the city."
"How much pocket money do you have?" Shen Huanxi asked again.
Zhou Zhou pursed his lips.
"I don't have any pocket money."
"How about this?" Shen Huanxi squatted down.
She knew that Zhou Zhou had no pocket money, and it was not surprising because Zhou Zhou's family was not well off in Guixiang Village.
"Go find some sea buckthorn berries and sell them to Auntie. They're 5 cents a pound."
"Auntie, do you want to buy some sea buckthorn berries? Those fruits are everywhere in the mountains and plains, why do you want to buy some?" Before Zhou Zhou could answer, Fang Xiaowan ran over and asked.
Zhou Zhou was unhappy.
"Auntie has a formal job. She is busy at work and has no time to pick sea buckthorn berries. What's wrong with her buying them from me?"
After Zhou Zhou finished speaking, he looked at Shen Huanxi again.
"Auntie, I'm going to pick them now. Are you collecting them at home? I'll bring them back to your house and sell them to you, right?"
"Yes. And you too, anyone who wants to pick sea buckthorn fruits to sell can bring them to me, 5 cents a pound." Shen Huanxi said to the other children.
The women chatting under the big locust tree also heard it and asked her curiously what she bought it for.
"Your eldest brother has told his younger brothers and sisters not to play with sea buckthorn berries, saying that if they get their clothes dirty, it will be difficult for you to wash them. Why did you buy sea buckthorn berries yourself?"
"Buy it and eat it." Shen Huanxi said.
The women all frowned.
"Sea buckthorn fruit is very sour and has a strange smell, but you still eat it. If it were really edible, these children wouldn't use it as a toy."
"It's okay, I have a way to deal with it. And all the sisters, sisters-in-law, aunts, if you also want to sell sea buckthorn fruit, you can pick them and sell them to me. It's 5 cents a pound. As long as the fruit is not bad, I will take it and keep it for a long time." Shen Huanxi said again.
Just now, when those women heard her say that she wanted to take the sea buckthorn berries back to eat, they couldn't help but frown when they thought of the sour taste of the berries. Now, when they heard her say that she would collect them for a long time, they were all tempted again.
According to the current market price, tomatoes are 5 cents per pound, and potatoes are also 5 cents per pound. The cost has to be deducted from the selling price. It takes a long time to grow them yourself, and watering and weeding alone take a lot of effort.
Shen Huanxi collects sea buckthorn berries at 5 cents per pound. They just need to go to the suburbs to pick them. The cost is much lower than selling tomatoes and potatoes, and they don't have to worry about not being able to sell them. This is a good job to make money.
Not long after Shen Huanxi returned home, some children brought some sea buckthorn berries to sell.
The first child to come was Zhou Zhou. His sea buckthorn berries weighed less than one pound, only two ounces. Shen Huanxi gave him one cent, and the child happily ran away with the money.
One cent is enough to buy a cup of sugar water and a lollipop. How can he not be happy?
Then more children came to sell fruits. They didn't have many sea buckthorn berries on hand, so they brought them to sell at this time perhaps to confirm whether this kind of fruit could really be sold. After getting the money from Shen Huanxi, they would run out happily. I don't know whether they were going to pick sea buckthorn berries.
Shen Hengxi's four children came back from the Children's Palace and heard that Shen Huanxi was picking sea buckthorn berries. They were all very curious.
"Mom, why did you pick these fruits?" Changan was the first to ask.
"Is the sea buckthorn juice I made for you a while ago delicious?" Shen Xihuan asked instead of answering.
Several children nodded.
"It tastes good, but mom, we can't drink so much. I heard that many people have gone to the suburbs to pick sea buckthorn berries just to bring them back and sell them to mom. Are you picking these sea buckthorn berries just to make juice? Why do you have to make so much?"
"I want to make juice, but not for you to drink. I want to sell it. If you think it tastes good, there will definitely be a lot of people who think it tastes good too, so it will definitely sell, right?" Shen Huanxi explained with a smile.
"Okay, Chang'an, how did you learn in the Children's Palace today? Go back and review your vocabulary. Changning Zhengzheng, you two should go draw some pictures. You two should all go out. I'm making juice here. Don't let it splash on you. I'll make a glass of juice for each of you in a while."
"Okay!" The four children went out obediently, and then Xiao Shanhe came in.
He was holding a briefcase in his hand and seemed to be drawing some mechanical drawings.
"Aren't you running a shop selling stamps now? Why are you suddenly selling fruit juice when you're doing pretty well?" Xiao Shanhe looked concerned.
Shen Huanxi pursed her lips.
"Making stamps doesn't require much technical skills and is easy to be imitated, but making sea buckthorn juice is different."
"What's the difference? It's just taking the fruit and mashing it into juice. Anyone can do it. Mashing juice is more tiring than making stamps. You can easily lift a thousand stamps, but it's different with juice. It takes a lot of effort for you to carry two bottles."
"That's not what I meant." Shen Huanxi shook his head.
“Shanhe, think about it, there is actually no core technology in making stamps. The stamp market revolves around stamps, but the issuance of stamps is controlled by the postal department, not by those of us who speculate in stamps. It is difficult for the first batch of entrants like me to truly occupy the market.
Making juice is different. As long as I master the core technology and create a fixed flavor, it will be difficult for others to enter the market and share the cake with me. Don't think that anyone can make juice. As long as I occupy the market, I can continue to do it.
It’s like now even the eldest brother in the village can make his own soy sauce and sell it, but the most famous soy sauce brand in our Yunbei City is Doudouxiang, and almost every household uses Doudouxiang soy sauce, just because Doudouxiang soy sauce first won the market by word of mouth, and my sea buckthorn juice is also OK..."
Shen Huanxi told Xiao Shanhe all her thoughts in detail. On the one hand, she wanted Xiao Shanhe to know her determination, and on the other hand, if there was anything wrong with her ideas, Xiao Shanhe could help her point them out.
But as she was talking, she realized that Xiao Shanhe didn't seem to want to pay attention to her.
Xiao Shanhe kept his head down. She took out a draft book from her briefcase. From the moment she started talking, he started writing and drawing on the draft book with a pencil. No one knew what he was drawing.
Shen Huanxi's brows wrinkled slightly.
Xiao Shanhe didn't seem to be happy that she was too tired. He had seen her busy making stamps and making money recently, so he went to various major machinery factories to look for work frantically. He just wanted to make more money so that she could have more time.
Now he said nothing and just kept writing and painting. Could it be that he didn't agree with her?
"Shanhe, are you listening to me?" Shen Huanxi asked.
"Well, this." Xiao Shanhe finally stopped writing and drawing, and handed the draft book in his hand back to Shen Huanxi.
Shen Huanxi took his draft book with some confusion, and saw that he had drawn a picture. The things on it looked familiar, but she couldn't figure out what it was after looking at it for a long time.
"What is this?"
"A juice-squeezing machine," Xiao Shanhe explained.
"Ah..." Shen Huanxi reacted. No wonder she felt that this thing looked familiar just now. It turned out to be a juicer.
Although it is different from the juicers of later generations, they have the same functions after all, so there are always similarities.
“Why did you draw this?”
"If you want to make juice, put the fruit in through this entrance and press this switch, and this machine will automatically squeeze out the juice and filter out the fruit residue. Don't worry about it. I'll take this drawing and find a machinery equipment factory to make it for you. Just use it and don't worry about anything else."
"Dashan." Xiao Shanhe had just finished speaking when Zhang Guifen came in from outside carrying large and small bags of vegetables.
Zhang Guifen put the dishes on the table and turned to look at Xiao Shanhe.
"Don't you always complain that making stamps is too hard and hope that Huanxi can have more free time, so you take so many jobs? Why do you design something for her to make juice when she wants to sell juice now?"
"Mom, how did you know I wanted to sell juice?" Shen Huanxi asked.
"Oh, how could I not know? People outside spread the word that you were going to harvest sea buckthorn berries here. I was wondering, so I hurried back to ask what was going on. Tangtang and Changan just told me.
Hey, Dashan, you haven't answered me yet, why did you make this for her?" Zhang Guifen still didn't forget to ask Xiao Shanhe.
Xiao Shanhe smiled bitterly.
"Mom, do you think we can stop her from doing what she has decided to do?"
Zhang Guifen patted her thigh.
"That's right, that's right. Our Huanxi is just like this. What does she want to do? No one can stop her."
"That's it. Since I can't stop her, I can only help her so that she can have less trouble.
I'm glad you looked at this drawing. This juicer has a filtering function that can filter out the fruit residue after the juice is squeezed out. This is what I just told you. What I didn't tell you is that this filtering function can be adjusted. "
"How to adjust?"
"You see here, there is a filter here, you can choose the size of the particles to be filtered. Some people like to drink juice with some pulp particles in it, while others like to drink juice without any pulp fiber like water.
You can use this to adjust whether the juice you make has some pulp or no pulp at all.”
"This function is great!" Shen Huanxi was very surprised.
Sea buckthorn juice tastes better and has more layers of flavor if it contains a certain amount of pulp. However, if you use an ordinary juicer, or a mortar like she did, it is difficult to control the amount of pulp in each cup of sea buckthorn juice.
With this machine, we can control the pulp content more accurately.
Shen Huanxi looked at the juicer designed by Xiao Shanhe for her, and always felt that Xiao Shanhe, a train power engineer, seemed to be doing things that were getting further and further away from his profession.
Who would have thought that a man who made train engines would actually start designing juicers? This made Shen Huanxi feel even more guilty.
It's better to save the money as soon as possible and get his legs healed.
Xiao Shanhe was also a person who valued efficiency. After showing the drawings to Shen Huanxi, he immediately took them to a machinery equipment factory to work on them after lunch. Shen Huanxi asked him how much it would cost, but he refused, so Shen Huanxi did not insist on giving him money.
Xiao Shanhe said that the structure of this juicer is very simple, and the principle is also very simple. It only requires a few pieces of iron sheets, and it can be made according to the structure he designed, plus an electric gear device.
Shen Huanxi felt relieved when he heard him say this.
She felt like she was dozing off and bumped into a big pillow. Jiang Shanhe was her pillow.
I even feel a little scared.
The news that she wanted to collect sea buckthorn berries had spread. Now, some sandy hills and plains around Yunnan City were covered with sea buckthorn berries. There must be a lot of people picking sea buckthorn berries and selling them to her. If she didn't have Xiao Shanhe's juicer, she would have to rely on a stone mortar and a wooden pestle to pound the berries, and she didn't know when she would be able to pound all the sea buckthorn berries.
But don't let her not have time to harvest them, or the fruits will go bad.
In the afternoon, people came one after another with sea buckthorn fruits to sell. The four children went to the Children's Palace again. Xiao Shanhe and Zhang Guifen stayed at home to help Shen Huanxi, one helping to weigh the fruits and the other helping to pay.
"Have you ever thought about what to use to package the juice?" Xiao Shanhe asked.
"Bottles. I plan to order bottles from the glass bottle factory and use bottles to package it." Shen Huanxi replied.
This is a very crucial question. Xiao Shanhe can think of it, and she can definitely think of it too.
The bottles she was talking about were the glass bottles used to store soy milk, cola, and beer on the streets today.
There is a glass bottle factory in Yunnan that specializes in making this kind of bottles. Generally, it costs two for one cent. The factory also makes bottle caps. The bottle caps are generally made of a layer of iron sheet on the outside and a layer of rubber on the inside. A special machine can be used to put the bottle caps on the bottle mouth. The caps can be tightly closed, and no matter what liquid is inside, it will not spill out.
Moreover, these bottles are reusable. As long as they are cleaned, they can be used to hold things again and then covered with new lids.
"So how do you plan to sell it? Fang Xiaowan's mother used to sell soy milk on the streets, but she couldn't make it because many private restaurants now sell soy milk in glass bottles. People who like to drink soy milk go to private restaurants to buy it. After all, private restaurants are fixed sales points and you can buy it anytime you want. How many people would want to buy soy milk when they meet Fang Xiaowan's mother?
Moreover, it is very hard to sell the juices from door to door. It is fine when the weather is good, but you cannot go out when it rains or snows. It is also very dangerous to sell the juices with your arms around. Have you thought about these problems?" Xiao Shanhe asked again.
Shen Huanxi nodded.
"So I plan to expand it, like the soy milk factory, and supply my juice to private restaurants, state-owned restaurants, convenience stores, and grocery stores. I am essentially a wholesaler. What do you think?"
"Yeah." Xiao Shanhe curled his lips when he heard her say that.
Shen Huanxi looked at his expression and understood everything.
"Were you worried about me just now?" she asked.
"Why do you say that?"
"You saw that I suddenly decided to sell juice and immediately took action to harvest sea buckthorn berries. You were afraid that I had not made all the necessary preparations, so you deliberately asked me those questions to confirm it, right?"
"Yes." Xiao Shanhe did not deny it. "Come here, I will analyze it for you, and we will make plans for every step."
As Xiao Shanhe said this, he went into the study first.
Before Shen Huanxi followed in, he did not forget to turn around and look at Zhang Guifen.
"Mom, someone will definitely come to sell sea buckthorn berries soon, thank you for helping me pick them."
"Okay." Zhang Guifen agreed.
Shen Huanxi followed Xiao Shanhe into the study, and saw that Xiao Shanhe had already prepared the draft when she came in a while earlier, and motioned for her to sit on the chair next to him.
"Huanxi, we have just briefly talked about the channels and methods of selling your sea buckthorn juice. Now let's systematically go through your entire production and sales process from beginning to end.
Tell me first, is making sea buckthorn juice like making stamps? Is it just a temporary thing or will you continue doing it? If you do it, how big will it be? How long will it take?" Xiao Shanhe got straight to the point.
Shen Huanxi nodded.
"I want to create my own brand, just like Doudouxiang soy sauce. If I want to do it, I want to be the best in Yunnan. I think there is no juice brand in Yunnan now. If I start now, I can easily occupy the market and become the best in Yunnan.
But my goal is not just the Yunnan market, I want to sell to more places. In Yunnan, I mainly use glass bottles because they can be reused. But if I sell to more distant places, I will make it into cans, or bottle it in mineral water bottles. "
"Yeah. But you told me about Jiang Xiaomei's canning factory before, saying that their canned food can only be sold in Yunnan City because of high transportation costs, and can't be sold farther away. So how can you be confident that your juice can be sold farther away?" Xiao Shanhe asked again.
Shen Huanxi looked at his serious expression. It felt like they were in a university classroom. She was a student, Xiao Shanhe was a professor, and he was asking her questions.
"You know how to do it, right?" Shen Huanxi asked him.
"I want to hear you say it." Xiao Shanhe curled the corners of his mouth and smiled.
Now Shen Huanxi felt that they were in a classroom...it was even a bit like a graduation defense.
This man clearly knew what to do, but he still had to ask her.
"My factory is different from Luo Bo's. Luo Bo's canning factory produces canned fruits. The fruits he produces are not only available in our northwest, but also in other cities. In this way, the cost of making canned fruits in other cities is much lower than purchasing from him, because the cost of transporting the canned fruits can be avoided.
But I am different. The juice I make is mainly sea buckthorn juice. Sea buckthorn is only found in the Northwest. There is no sea buckthorn fruit in other places. If they want to eat it, they can only buy it from the Northwest. The cost of making canned juice is lower than transporting fresh sea buckthorn fruit, so I will definitely be able to sell sea buckthorn juice."
"Yeah." Xiao Shanhe nodded when he heard her say that.
Shen Huanxi was very nervous just now, not knowing if it was because Xiao Shanhe acted too serious. She completely imagined the current situation in the classroom and also took on the identity of a student. She was always afraid that she might say something wrong and would point it out to Xiao Shanhe, the professor.
But on second thought, wouldn’t it be better if Xiao Shanhe could point out some problems?
Now seeing Xiao Shanhe nod, she felt relieved again.
"Your idea is good, you can go ahead and do it. But you made the decision too hastily. I don't know if you have considered other aspects clearly or have a clear plan. This is a preliminary plan I made for you." Xiao Shanhe said, pushing the draft book to Shen Huanxi.
Shen Huanxi took the draft book he handed over and was stunned again.
This man said she was quick, but wasn't he quick?
It took him only a short while to draw the design of the juicer for her, and now it only took him a short while to make a preliminary plan for her...
Shen Huanxi looked down at what he had written in the draft book and found that he had planned the factory, equipment, warehouse and other things very clearly.
After reading his plan, Shen Huanxi was shocked at how impulsive his decision was.
She was almost completely unprepared and had no plan at all. She just went to harvest sea buckthorn berries as soon as the idea came to her mind. This was indeed too hasty.
She had been a businesswoman for decades in her previous life and had dealt with all kinds of situations, but that didn't mean she hadn't been in a rush. In any case, when it came to planning to make sea buckthorn juice, Xiao Shanhe was much calmer and more thoughtful than her.
"You have already harvested 30 kilograms of sea buckthorn fruit this afternoon alone. Sea buckthorn fruit is not easy to preserve, so we have to buy a refrigerator tomorrow. And if you want to do it on a large scale, we can't do it at home. We have to find an address and build a factory properly, just like what is written in my plan. In addition, there are workers and various licenses that need to be recruited and applied for. You can leave these to me. All you need to do is..."
Xiao Shanhe saw Shen Huanxi reading the plan he wrote, so he added something.
Shen Huanxi looked at the plan he wrote and listened to what he said, and her nose suddenly felt sore.
In her two lifetimes, this was the first time she had experienced someone who could help her in her business, and this person worked more attentively and thought more thoroughly than she did.
Lan Linxiang also always said that Xiao Shanhe was stupid and couldn't make money.
In fact, he knows everything. The analysis he made today is enough to prove that he is a man with great business sense, but he just doesn't want to do business.
This is enough to prove how deep his love for train power is. No matter how many benefits and money-making opportunities were placed in front of him in his previous life, he could resist the temptation and stick to his own ideals. This is really the deepest obsession and love.
Shen Huanxi thought, Lan Linxiang always looked down on Xiao Shanhe, but Lan Linxiang might never know for two lifetimes. If Xiao Shanhe really went into business, there would be no place for Su Liming, right?
However, Shen Huanxi was happy to see what Xiao Shanhe had considered for her, and she was even more unwilling to let him give up his ideals and go into business.
A person who has only Train Power as his deepest love in his life, is willing to take private jobs in the machinery factory for her to earn money and give it to her. Knowing that she wants to sell juice, he helps her analyze and plan how to run the business.
How could she bear to watch a man like this give up her love?
"Why are your eyes red? Is there something I said that makes you feel difficult to do?" Xiao Shanhe was halfway through his speech when he noticed Shen Huanxi's expression and asked.