Chapter 137 [VIP]
The shop is doing booming business and demand exceeds supply, especially the bamboo tube popsicles, which are simply a summer cooling wonder.
Ice is a rare treat in summer, and people really cherish it. They might not be able to afford a drink that costs tens of coins, but they're willing to spend the money on a popsicle that costs ten coins to satisfy their cravings.
However, with increased sales came a problem: there weren't enough bamboo tubes.
During the day, Uncle Chen and Chen Fang would be at home sawing bamboo tubes and stamping characters onto them. They could only saw a few hundred tubes a whole day, and they also had to repair the burrs on the bamboo tubes, which was really too much trouble. In addition, Uncle Chen was getting old, and although he didn't say anything, he was exhausted from working all day and his back ached.
Wang Ying simply told Ma Qianzi to go to the carpenter's shop in the city to inquire about the cost of custom-made bamboo tubes.
After inquiring, the other party quoted a price of 1.5 fen per bamboo tube, with the bamboo provided by the other party. This price was quite reasonable, and Wang Ying placed an order with him for 1,000 bamboo tubes per day until July.
The carpenter is a professional at this; the bamboo cups he made were all the right size, the rims were smooth, and even the lettering he branded was much clearer than what they could do themselves. It was worth the money!
In the morning, before dawn, Wang Ying began carrying popsicles and shaved ice out of the experimental field.
Yuanbao rubbed his eyes and sat up when he heard the sound. "Father..."
"Sweetie, sleep a little longer, it's still dark outside."
"Mmm." The little guy agreed verbally, but he couldn't fall asleep. He fiddled with the little wooden horse in his hand and stared at Wang Ying busying herself with his big, dark eyes.
The bamboo tube popsicles were neatly stacked in a box, with forty in each box, weighing about twenty kilograms. Moving them all out was no easy task.
This physical labor is nothing compared to what she did in her previous life. When Wang Ying was working part-time while studying, she worked as a loader, earning eighty yuan for three hours to load and unload several tons of goods. After finishing the job, she couldn't even lift her arms.
However, his body in this life is different from his previous one, probably due to his gender. Despite doing a lot of work every day, his muscles are not as developed as those of Chen Qingyan, the scholar. When the two of them "fight," he can't exert any strength at all and is always overpowered by Chen Qingyan.
In no time, Wang Ying was covered in sweat, so Yuanbao quickly got up and used a palm-leaf fan to fan him.
Wang Ying was so fond of his adorable little face. "You don't need to fan your father. Go play on the bed by yourself."
"Father is sweating from the heat, but Yuanbao isn't hot. Yuanbao will fan Father."
Wang Ying couldn't help but kiss his little face. "So good."
I don't know who this child takes after, but I wasn't this adorable when I was a kid.
The roosters crowed outside. After the last two loads of ice were moved, the house had cooled down. Dozens of boxes of ice were placed inside, and the cooling effect was almost like that of a cold storage room.
Wang Ying quickly helped Yuanbao put on his outer garment, saying, "Go play in your grandmother's room, your father has to go and do his work."
"Hey." Yuanbao put on his shoes and ran towards Li's side.
Wang Ying went into the experimental field to take a shower in the rain, changed into clean clothes, and then called the servants to come in and bring ice.
These popsicles need to be loaded onto the truck and immediately taken to the shop for storage, otherwise they will start to melt when the sun comes out and the weather gets hot.
With more people, the work was done faster. Before long, more than thirty boxes were neatly stacked on the truck. Tianju and Ma Zhandong delivered the ice to the shop and put it away properly.
Starting this month, Wang Ying raised wages for everyone. When they first arrived, she was short of money and only paid them 200 coins a month.
Now that they had more money and their business was on track, Wang Ying raised their wages to one tael of silver each. Silver was easier to store; if they had been given copper coins, they would have spent them all in small amounts.
By the time they finished picking up the food, it was already broad daylight, and smoke was rising from the kitchen. The family washed up and sat around in the main room to eat breakfast.
Breakfast was simple: millet porridge with steamed buns made from ash flour, a dish of braised pickled vegetables, a dish of cold tofu strips, and a few boiled chicken eggs.
Yuanbao sat on his little stool, holding a bowl and drinking porridge, while Li Shi would occasionally wipe the rice water off his chin with a handkerchief.
Fang Ling said, "Yuanbao is really amazing. He can eat by himself at such a young age. When Qinglan was his age, he still needed to be fed."
Li looked up at Wang Ying. Actually, Yuanbao had been fed by servants before, but Wang Ying wouldn't allow it, saying that always having servants feed the child would spoil him. Li didn't dare to say anything.
However, since the child started eating on his own, he has indeed been eating much more than before.
Wang Ying had little appetite in the morning and only drank a bowl of porridge. After finishing her meal, she told her son to be good at home and then went to her shop to get busy.
The morning is relatively relaxed, with not many people coming to buy popsicles and smoothies. Customers start arriving after 9:00 AM.
"Boss, give me ten bamboo tube ices!"
"Hey, here they are." Lin Sui quickly took ten bamboo tubes out of the box. "How are you going to carry these?"
"Just cover it with your clothes."
Lin Sui placed the bamboo tube on it. "Cheng Hui, that's one hundred coins in total."
The man took a string of copper coins from his waist, which was exactly one hundred coins.
Selling popsicles isn't difficult, but counting money is too tedious, because in ancient times there was no paper money like we have today; everything was in copper coins, and if you bought a lot, it would take half a day to count them.
Lin Sui put away the money and said, "Please take care, sir."
We had just seen one customer off when another big client arrived. "Thirty bamboo tube popsicles, put them in my basket."
"Okay." Lin Sui quickly picked them up.
Tianju was in charge of making shaved ice. He was strong and could make a bowl of shaved ice in no time.
Wang Ying was also busy. He peeled the fruit, chopped it into small pieces, and put them into individual ceramic bowls so that they would be convenient for customers to use when they came to buy smoothies.
As more and more people came to buy popsicles, a long queue gradually formed at the door. Wang Ying wiped her hands and began to maintain order.
Around noon, two women came with a child dressed in a gauze dress to buy shaved ice.
Since most people were buying popsicles, there was no need to queue for shaved ice, so the three of them walked through the crowd and entered the shop.
The people in line behind them were furious. "What's wrong with your shop? We've been waiting outside for ages, why are you letting them in to buy first!"
"Yes, the sun is so strong. I stood outside for half an hour and my head was about to spin."
Wang Ying quickly explained, "Please don't worry, gentlemen. Those people are here to buy shaved ice. There aren't many people buying shaved ice, so you don't need to queue."
However, those who were getting impatient wouldn't listen to any explanations. "You're just a big store bullying your customers. People who spend more money are allowed to go in first, while we who spend less have to wait outside."
"Yes! Doesn't our money count as money?!"
With dozens of people making such a fuss, Wang Ying was immediately overwhelmed; that wasn't what was going on at all...
Some people turned to leave, while others took the opportunity to squeeze in, wanting to buy popsicles as quickly as possible.
He couldn't hold them off by himself. Dozens of people rushed into the house, scaring the child so much that he cried loudly. The two maids holding the child were also pale-faced.
"What are you doing! If anything happens to our young master, none of us will be safe today!"
Wang Ying was sweating profusely with anxiety. While comforting the important person, she helped Lin Sui sell popsicles. In the end, she simply stopped counting the money after collecting it, threw the popsicles into the box, handed them to the customers, and quickly saw them off.
After nearly an hour of this, most of the people in the house had finally left, and Wang Ying told Tian Ju to quickly lock the door.
"Sister-in-law, there are still seven boxes of popsicles left to sell. Aren't you going to sell them?"
Exhausted, Wang Ying slumped onto a stool and waved her hand, saying, "I'm not selling anymore. I'll have the strychnine seeds taken out to sell this afternoon."
Selling like this isn't a good idea. Aside from the fact that we'll lose money, the shaved ice won't sell at all with everyone crammed in like this. What wealthy woman or young man would want to squeeze in with a bunch of men to buy food?
Even if you send servants to buy it, they won't come back after seeing the environment once or twice.
Wang Ying is also planning to develop new flavors, but who will she sell them to?
Although Lin Sui didn't understand the intricacies of business, he knew that this method wouldn't work. Just now, someone tried to pass off four coins as ten, but the difference was too great, and he noticed it and refused.
"Then what should we do, sister-in-law?"
Wang Ying thought for a while and said, "We still need to rent a shop to sell iced drinks and popsicles separately."
Popsicles target the mass market, while iced drinks and smoothies target the upscale market, much like the business model of modern milk tea shops and coffee shops. This approach won't negatively impact the popsicle business while attracting a new group of high-end customers.
As for winter, it's easy to handle. Just change the iced drinks to hot drinks. Most teahouses in the city serve men, so he can target women, young men, and children as his customers.
Wang Ying was a woman of action; once she had made up her mind, she began looking for a new shop.
*
Meanwhile, in a teahouse located in the northwest of Zhengyang Street, two middle-aged men were playing chess.
One of them was thin but had a fleshy face, rat-like eyes, and a slightly upturned nose. His appearance was really not flattering. This person was Wei Linshui, the biggest ice merchant in Jizhou Prefecture.
He had a nickname, Water Rat, but no one dared to call him that to his face. Most people called him that behind his back because he not only looked like a rat, but also had a very dark personality. In his early years, he was so ruthless in order to seize the ice-selling business in the city that it was astonishing.
The person sitting opposite him was the teahouse owner, one of Wei Linshui's few close friends, and the two often played chess together.
"I lost. Old Wei, your chess skills are getting better and better," said Manager Bi as he collected the chess pieces.
"You're giving in to me again, aren't you?"
"Winning and still acting innocent."
Wei Linshui grinned, revealing his uneven teeth, making him look like a sinister and terrifying rat, just like his nickname suggested.
"By the way, what's the background of that shop you mentioned last time?"
Wei Linshui picked up his teacup and took a sip. "We found out. His family is hundreds of miles away from Wang Tongzhi's hometown and they have no family ties at all. He does have an uncle who is an official, but he lives far away in Shanzhou, which is even more distant. There's no need to worry about him."
"So you're planning to take action against them?"
"We sent someone over to test the waters yesterday, and wow, the slightest disturbance scared them half to death. They didn't even dare to open the shop today."
It turns out that yesterday's disturbance was not a coincidence, but rather Wei Linshui had ordered people to go and cause trouble in order to ruin Wang Ying's popsicle business.
Rivals are enemies. Although Wang Ying hasn't started selling large blocks of ice yet, it's better to be safe than sorry, and this business of his must be stopped.
Shopkeeper Bi said, "I also tried their popsicles. They only cost ten coins each. I really don't know how they make money."
Ice harvesting is difficult, and storage is even more challenging, which is why ice prices in the city have remained consistently high.
Wei Linshui scoffed, "What kind of bullshit Mixue shaved ice is this? If you drive the price of ice down so low, how am I supposed to do business? Besides, is this ice something that lowly people can afford? If ordinary people can afford ice in the summer, what will the officials use?"
"Brother Wei is right. So what do you plan to do?"
"It's just a small business; if there's a few troubles, his business will go out of business."
A note from the author:
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