Zhao Xian smiled and asked, "Do you have any local specialties or similar items in stock? These things sell very well during the Spring Festival."
“Our family doesn’t have any local specialties, so we wanted to wholesale some New Year’s goods to sell. But there are so many people selling New Year’s goods, and the Little New Year is just around the corner. We’re afraid that the goods we wholesale won’t sell and will just be stuck with us.”
It's not easy for us farmers to cultivate the land; we don't earn much money at the end of the year. I don't want to lose that little bit of money, but is there any business in this world that guarantees a profit without any risk?
Zhao Xian nodded. If you want to do business, you have to take risks. If you could make money from any business, everyone in the world would choose to do business.
However, he had thought of a way; whether it would make money was uncertain, but it would definitely not result in a loss. So he said:
"The Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Besides buying some New Year's goods, we also need to make some. What New Year's goods do we plan to make at home this year?"
"What other New Year's goods can we make? We mainly make some rice cakes, maltose, winter rice candy, roasted peanuts, fried food, etc., but we don't make many. They are mainly for the children and guests to eat during the New Year."
"You haven't started making these New Year's goods yet, have you?"
“People in the village usually start making these things after the Little New Year. Nowadays, children are greedy. If we make these things now, they will be stolen and eaten in a few days. What will we use to entertain guests when they come to visit during the New Year?”
"I have a way to make money without investing a single penny. Would you like to do it?"
"What good idea do you have, clerk? If it can make money, I'm certainly willing to do it."
"Don't you have a stall? Bring your things from home and make New Year's goods here. These are rural specialties, real New Year's goods, which you can't buy in the market at all."
Moreover, many of the people come from the town and rarely make these New Year's goods. If you make and sell them here on the spot, you're sure to find buyers.
Even if no one buys it, we all need it at home anyway; it's just a little inconvenient and tiring.
"That's a great idea. I'll go home and prepare now, and try to set up a stall tomorrow." The villager said before hurrying away.
Zhao Xian continued to observe the market. In his mind, ancient markets should be like the scenes depicted in the painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival," but he couldn't find that feeling in this market, which made him a little disappointed.
As the Spring Festival approached, Zhao Xian felt that the family should prepare some New Year's goods, so he asked Qin Shiyu and her sister to do these things.
"Master, the village market is full of New Year's goods. Some of these goods are not available in the town, but can be found in the village."
The maltose sold by the villagers is delicious; I must buy a lot this time, because it won't be available after the New Year.
"Maltose." Zhao Xian was taken aback.
"Yes, it's maltose. There are many villagers making it on-site at the market, and then pulling the syrup into white maltose. Many people are queuing up to buy it, but there aren't many people yet, so it should be available soon," Qin Shiyu said.
"Then I'll go take a look too." After saying that, Zhao Xian followed Qin Shiyu and Qin Yingying to the market.
The scene at the market surprised him. Many villagers were making New Year's goods. They set up stoves next to their stalls, some were stir-frying the goods, and others were cutting rice candy. Fried dough, which is rarely seen during the New Year, was also appearing in the market.
The entire market was shrouded in smoke and bustling with noise, a scene typical of the Chinese New Year.
It's still early morning market, but there are already people queuing at many stalls. Since these New Year's goods are all handmade, the turnover is a bit slow.
Take making maltose as an example. A full pot of sugar water needs to be boiled for more than an hour to get a few pounds of syrup. Then, pulling the syrup into white maltose takes even more time.
Therefore, making maltose is time-consuming and laborious, and this kind of New Year's goods are snapped up as soon as they are made.
"You, sir, have come and take a look too. Thanks to your guidance last time, I went to the market to make New Year's goods the next day, and I found that the results were really good. As soon as I made them, they were sold out."
Seeing that making New Year's goods on-site could earn money, others followed suit, and soon many villagers came to make New Year's goods. Even with so many people making them, the supply still couldn't meet the demand.
At this moment, Zhao Xiancai realized that the person he was talking to was the same villager from last time. The whole family was now working together and busy with their tasks.
"This is a good thing. This is how the New Year should be. Are you making maltose?"
"Yes, the price of maltose we make changes every day. I guess we won't be able to make it anymore in a couple of days."
"Why?" Zhao Xian asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Making maltose requires malt, and it takes time for wheat to germinate. The malt we are using now was prepared more than ten days ago. Since we didn't prepare much malt, we used it up very quickly."
It's too late to prepare malt now. The malt we've been using these past two days was bought at a high price from a neighboring village, and it'll probably only last for two more days.
Zhao Xian nodded, understanding what was going on.
"However, you can also make some malt now, so you can make malt sugar again in the first month of the lunar calendar. There are many people who like to eat malt sugar, so you can make money in the first month of the lunar calendar, maybe even more than you do now."
This man was very clever. Zhao Xian's words enlightened him, and it's estimated that no one in the village had thought of this.
If I start preparing now, I can make maltose in the first month of the lunar calendar. At that time, I will have exclusive rights to the business and may be able to make a fortune.
Upon hearing that maltose would soon be unavailable due to a shortage of malt, Qin Shiyu quickly took out a silver ingot and handed it over.
"Uncle, give me all the maltose you made today; this is the deposit."
This silver ingot is worth at least ten taels, enough to buy all the maltose in the market, so he quickly spoke up:
"I can only make seven or eight catties of maltose a day at most, which is not even worth a tael of silver. Why would I need so much deposit? Besides, how can I accept money from you, sir? I will not sell the maltose I make today to anyone else. It will all go to you, sir."
"That won't do. You're running a small business and it's been very hard work. We absolutely have to pay you. Here's what we'll do: I'll give you one tael of silver first, and we'll make up the difference later."
After Qin Shiyu finished speaking, she took out one tael of silver and handed it to him.
The villager took the silver and held it tightly in his hand. This was the first time in his life he had received silver, and he was very excited.
"Okay, then. You don't need to wait here. I'll bring the maltose to you once it's ready."
The group strolled around the market for a while longer and bought a lot of New Year's goods. Since there were so many people in their family, they couldn't buy everything in one trip, so it seemed they would have to come back several more times.
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