Fu Changfeng finally managed to find the time to openly celebrate the Lantern Festival with Xichun, and all the other glaring third wheels around them became aware of their surroundings and stopped following them.
"Just wait, I'll marry you by the end of the year, and then we can be together every day." Fu Changfeng secretly held Xichun's hand, secretly delighted in the dim light of the crowd.
“Even after we get married, we still have our own things to do. How can we be together every day? Brother Fu will be taking the county exam in February, right? You should all focus on your studies.” Xichun said with a smile.
“You’re busier than me every day, you should take a break.” Fu Changfeng shook his head, feeling helpless at her lack of understanding.
"Of course. By the way, do you have any plans to go anywhere for the Shangsi Festival?"
"The Shangsi Festival is still a long way off, but I can go with you wherever you want to go." Fu Changfeng thought for a moment, wasn't it still more than a month away from the third day of the third lunar month?
"Our village is going to hold a peach blossom festival, where you can see peach blossoms all over the mountains. So, I'd like to invite you and your classmates to come and see the peach blossoms bloom. I think it will be very beautiful to see peach blossoms covering the mountains and fields."
“Sure, but just admiring the peach blossoms isn’t very interesting. If we could do some other activities, I think it would attract some literati and scholars to show off their refined tastes.” When Fu Changfeng heard her say this, he understood perfectly well that no one knew about it and she wanted him to take people on a trip to make a name for himself.
"Oh, so what kind of things can it do?" You can only know the answers to these cultural questions by asking other cultural people.
"For example, a game of floating wine cups on a winding stream, composing poems, playing the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting. It would be best if there were some prizes involved, such as a masterpiece by a famous calligrapher or painter, or some interesting reward, which would also pique everyone's interest." Fu Changfeng casually mentioned a few, and Xi Chun understood.
"I understand. I'll think about it carefully. You'll have to help me by introducing more people to the trip. I hope our village can become a hit too." Xi Chun thought for a moment and had some ideas.
In the days that followed, Xichun spent all her time, apart from opening the shop, thinking about holiday activities.
Even when An Wuji returned from the prefectural city and made a lot of money, Xi Chun didn't have time to inquire about it. She simply asked Brother Qiangzi to continue supplying him with their own products.
Xi Chun showed the activities she had prepared to the brothers Fu Changfeng and Fu Changjin, and the two brothers both felt that this would be much more attractive than simply looking at peach blossoms.
These activities required a lot of preparation. Xi Chun returned to the village in early February and discussed the matter with the village chief and villagers for a long time. After hearing about Xi Chun's plan, everyone was eager to try. Under the arrangement of the village chief, they divided the work and cooperated to make wooden signs, maps, snacks, and writing materials. Xi Chun even brought in many sponsors from the city for this project.
Most of them were familiar shops in the city. Xi Chun invited them all to his restaurant. The shopkeepers didn't know why Xi Chun suddenly called everyone here. Weren't they worried that everyone would cause trouble?
"Gentlemen, I suppose you are all here today. I have invited you all here today because I have something important to discuss with you. Our Peach Blossom Village is planning a Shangsi Festival event, and we will invite people from all over the city to visit Peach Blossom Village and enjoy the peach blossoms. We have carefully prepared a lot of activities for this purpose, but we have encountered a small problem."
"Oh, Manager Chen, what problem have you encountered that you've called us all over here?" The managers were completely confused. If they wanted to do an event, they could do it. What did it have to do with them?
"No, no, no, this is actually related to you all. We want to make things more lively, but we don't have much money, so we specially invited you all here to ask if you would be willing to be our sponsors?"
"Sponsor? What kind of title is that? Are you saying we're giving you money for free to run this Shangsi Festival event?"
"Yes and no. Please listen to what I have to say before you decide whether you are willing to cooperate with us. Here's the thing: we would like to invite you to Taoyuan Village to buy things. For example, the shops that sell snacks will remain open as usual, as will the shops that sell clothes and fabrics. Food vendors will also go there to sell their products in person."
At the same time, you can also be a sponsor of our event. You can provide money or slightly valuable gifts to give us a chance to win. If we hold an event and the winners win, they can receive these gifts for free according to the value and quantity of the items.
People might wonder, what are the benefits of this sponsorship? There are quite a few. We mainly invite literate people and wealthy businessmen who like to associate with scholars. So, as long as what you give is compelling enough, like pastries, if people remember that pastry shop, won't they think of your shop first when they need to buy pastries in the future?
Secondly, there are quite a few shops in our city, and even more selling similar things. If you want to stand out, you must make people remember you. If you are willing, you can come up with your own advertising slogan about your business. Our host will repeat the advertising slogans of the sponsoring merchants. Over time, everyone will become familiar with you. Doing business relies on familiarity and reputation, and these are indispensable. Even the best wine needs advertising.
So don't be fooled by the money you're paying this time; the real benefits are yet to come. If your advertising slogans are catchy and memorable, you'll likely see even more business in the coming year. So while you might be losing money in the short term, in the long run, this will be a valuable and lasting brand.
After Xichun finished speaking, everyone fell silent. They understood what Xichun meant. It sounded like the sponsorship was indeed very effective. However, some people were skeptical. They thought, "Just by giving money to help with an event, will those people really listen?" It probably wasn't that easy.
Therefore, Xichun only managed to secure ten sponsors in the end, which, together with Master Fu's family, made eleven. No matter what Xichun wanted to do, Master Fu told his subordinates to be the first to support her.
Starting from the end of February, people throughout the county began to hear about Taoyuan Village's preparations for the Shangsi Festival. On that day, anyone going to Taoyuan Village could ride in an oxcart for just one coin.
The village chief was worried that there weren't enough oxcarts in the village, so he consulted the village head and then gathered people from several nearby villages to come together and give the job of transporting people to people from other villages.
On the first day of the third lunar month, Xichun had already gone to the village ahead of time. Fortunately, the weather was good and it hadn't rained for the past few days. The peach blossoms on the mountain were also blooming one after another. The village chief gathered the villagers to start building the stage that Xichun had mentioned. At that time, the names of all the sponsors would be hung on the wooden wall behind the stage with red cloth.
Fu Changfeng also came to help in advance, giving Xichun a lot of suggestions. He also personally wrote down the names of the sponsors one by one. All of these fabrics were sponsored by the Fu family.
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