Moreover, having a small plot of land for homesteading is not a difficult problem.
If we can't expand horizontally, let's expand vertically. Let's build a three-story, two-bay villa. When his father gets old and it's inconvenient for him to live on the mountain, he can move here.
But right now, he's used up his last bit of money to buy honey, and even though the village says the plot of land is only 15,000 yuan, he can't afford it. o(╥﹏╥)o
These two old tile-roofed houses are really dilapidated; most of the roof tiles on the western one are broken!
When Jiang Xiaoman posted the video of him taking possession of the house, his fans initially thought that his Xiaoman-ge might have run out of money due to his honey-buying spree.
Seeing that all the top-liked comments on this video were concerned about whether he had gone bankrupt, Jiang Xiaoman found it both funny and touching, and had to urgently record a video to explain to his fans.
"It's really not because the cash flow has dried up, haha~ It's just that this house is the closest to the road in our village."
“I’ve always been planning to open a parcel collection point in the village. I asked around at the parcel delivery outlets, and they said it’s best if it’s easily accessible, so that delivery trucks can drive right up to the store.”
“I searched all over our village and this is the only house on the roadside. But don’t let its dilapidated appearance fool you. Once I make some money, I’ll renovate this old house and open a courier service point. That way, courier costs will come down a bit, and everyone can buy things cheaper.”
This is the main reason why Jiang Xiaoman is so eager to open a package collection point.
Previously, when he sold things online, in order to save on shipping costs, he would charter a car to deliver the packaged goods to the county town for mailing. This back-and-forth trip not only caused him to lose a lot of profit, but also made his local specialties more expensive than others.
People are already bringing this up in the comments section.
They say he started exploiting people after becoming famous, selling his products at higher prices than others...
If possible, who wouldn't want to make small profits but sell large quantities and build a good reputation first?
The problem is that Langshan Village is too far from the county seat, and the transportation costs alone are a huge expense!
He had no choice because there were fewer delivery orders in the past.
He already has several bulk commodities on hand, including konjac, salted eggs, local honey, and rock honey. In the future, he can add other local specialties, such as dried bamboo shoots and dried vegetables.
With a larger volume of parcels, you can negotiate with the courier company to open an independent branch, which will reduce your parcel delivery costs.
So even though the house was dilapidated, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and rent it.
Jiang Xiaoman originally wanted to explain why he rented such a shabby house, but he didn't expect his fans to be so sharp-eyed, managing to extract the keywords they wanted most from his words—
"Ahhh! Is Brother Xiaoman finally going to sell wild honey?"
"If I can't afford rock honey, I absolutely have to snag some genuine wild honey!"
"Okay, I understand. Please delete this video so that more people don't know about it. I'm afraid I won't be able to get it."
...
The video received over 100,000 comments in less than half a day.
Jiang Xiaoman certainly wouldn't delete the video.
After all, he's so poor he's practically starving, he can't afford any promotions, and can only rely on his current number of fans to keep things going.
Unlike the konjac he sold before, the price of wild honey is low, so fans can easily spend a dozen yuan to place an order to support him.
To save on shipping costs, he plans to sell in quantities of two bottles or less this time.
He priced one kilogram of local honey at 80 yuan, with free shipping to most parts of the country.
This price wasn't competitive on the platform, so he didn't expect to sell them all in one live stream.
If all else fails, just shamelessly do more live streams, or sell them slowly through shared shopping carts.
However, to his surprise, just as he was planning to stay up several all-nighters and do a few live streams to try and sell the honey as quickly as possible, Tang Xinlan called—
"You little brat, you think you're all grown up now? Opening up business without telling us?"
"Alright, I won't say anything more. Save me a hundred cases of your wild honey, two-pound packs each, I'm going to give them away as gifts."
"Oh right, keep another hundred of the same ones for my sister Hui to use as giveaways in her live stream. Let me know when you post the link, and I'll have someone buy them in your live stream. It'll also help you build up some viewership."
Tang Xinlan hung up the phone as soon as she finished speaking, as if Jiang Xiaoman would charge her if she lingered even a second longer.
Jiang Xiaoman: "..."
That's great, half of the inventory is gone in one go, and there's no pressure with the live stream anymore.
What are you waiting for? Let's get started!
The honey collected earlier was stored in the house Jiang Yu rented in the village. After the courier delivered the glass bottles and packaging boxes that Jiang Xiaoman had ordered, Jiang Xiaoman simply borrowed the main room of Jiang Yu's house to start packaging the honey.
Shan Yan and Jiang Yu both joined in to help, and even Shan Cha helped by getting tape and attaching shipping labels.
Many hands make light work; over three thousand bottles of local honey were packed in just one day.
Jiang Xiaoman learned from his experience and knew that what netizens fear most when buying honey online is encountering adulterated or substandard local honey. So, when packing the honey, he simply broadcast the whole process live!
The camera was focused on the honey bottling area, allowing fans to watch as the harvested wild honey was scooped out of large barrels and then packaged into glass bottles.
Once full, seal the container on-site and pack it directly into boxes!
The entire process is transparent, leaving no room for fraud.
The fans watched with great interest, and the comment section was filled with laughter.
"I'm dying of laughter! This is the first time I've ever seen a livestreaming sales host who takes things so seriously!"
"Wait! I think I just saw a bee larva mixed in with one of the bottles of honey!"
"Huh? Buy honey and get bee pupae free? Is there really such a good deal?"
"I don't crave bee pupae, I just want Brother Xiaoman to buy me some old honeycomb to help my child! He has chronic rhinitis!"
"Can eating old honeycomb really cure rhinitis? I'd like to try it too."
During his break, Jiang Xiaoman checked the comments section and saw that many people were asking if they could get some old beehives to hang on shared bikes, especially the kind of old beehives that he and Shanyan had cut down in the deep mountains and forests last time, which were said to have a relieving effect on chronic rhinitis.
Just then, Shan Yan was right next to them, and Jiang Xiaoman casually asked a question in front of tens of thousands of fans in the live broadcast room.
To everyone's surprise, Shan Yan actually agreed immediately.
“You can definitely find old beehives in the old mountain valley. I’ll take some people into the mountains to look for them later. If we find them, they’ll all be yours.”
Looking at the camellia girl bustling around, Jiang Xiaoman suddenly understood why Shan Yan and Jiang Yu, who had always been indifferent, had suddenly become so interested in making money.
With three more children suddenly in the family, how can we not work hard to earn money?
Jiang Xiaoman couldn't discuss the specific profit sharing and selling price during the live stream, but he would clarify this issue after the broadcast.
“Even close brothers should keep clear accounts, right? How about we stick to the old rule, Shanyan, how about you give me the old honeycomb at the wholesale price, and I can resell it for a little extra cash?” Jiang Xiaoman rubbed his hands sheepishly. “Actually, I mainly want to increase my order volume. I heard that the more orders you have, the cheaper the delivery fee is…hehe!”
“Okay! We’ll sell you the honey from our own farms from now on. It’s all at the purchase price anyway, so it’s better to give it to you for a discount than to sell it to outsiders.” Jiang Yu was a straightforward person.
At this point, Jiang Yu casually reminded Shan Yan to remember to cut down some trees to make beehives when he went back this time.
The people in the mountains are used to planting trees on the hills they are allocated to. Firstly, to prevent landslides, and secondly, because the government no longer allows the cutting down of large trees in the forests. Sometimes, when they need to make furniture or build a house, they don't have to spend money to buy wood from others since they have trees on their own hills.
Hearing Jiang Xiaoman secure the supply of goods from Laofengchao in just a few words during the live broadcast, the fans were even more excited than if they had succeeded in starting their own business.
"Our Xiaoman is so popular!"
"A good person will naturally have good interpersonal relationships?"
"If I were Jiang Yu, I would also help Xiao Man. Xiao Man's family is so good to them!"
"I suddenly remembered the dishes that Xiaoman made for Jiangyu. My mom saw them and said that they were enough to entertain the new son-in-law."
"Have you all forgotten? If it weren't for Brother Xiaoman, how could Shanyan and Jiangyu have adopted three children all at once?"
"Oh right, I almost forgot about this!"
"Hey! Stop chatting and hurry up and fill the honey container! We're waiting to drink it!"
...
The comments section was bustling with activity, and Jiang Yu's home was also lively.
After filling the honey container, Jiang Xiaoman checked the time and it was only a little past three in the afternoon. She decided to go to town and buy some hearty dishes, planning to borrow Jiang Yu's stove and cook something nice for them that evening to express her gratitude.
On occasions like today, when he was short on time to pack honey and villagers came to lend a hand, it was inappropriate to give them money directly, as that would hurt their feelings. The usual practice was to prepare a good meal to entertain them.
The problem is that time is tight, and there's no time to go home to get groceries, so I can only go to town to buy some.
However, this was no challenge for Jiang Xiaoman.
I chopped two pounds of local pork, made braised pork with potatoes with half of it, and steamed pork with rice flour with the other half.
Cut a whole black carp into chunks, add some firm tofu, and stew it. The black carp from the small reservoir has exceptionally delicious meat. The tofu, simmered in the fish soup over low heat, absorbs the broth and tastes even better than the fish.
There wasn't enough time to kill a fresh duck, so he bought a frozen one. After cutting it into pieces, he braised it with dried green beans and bamboo shoots that he had sun-dried in the summer. Although the duck meat wasn't as firm as that of a local free-range duck, its tender texture was just right for his three children.
Jiang Xiaoman bought meat dishes in town, but she didn't spend any money on vegetables.
Why spend money? His uncle grows a lot of vegetables in the garden near the school; they can't possibly eat them all!
Without any hesitation, I grabbed a large woven bag, ran to the school's vegetable garden, and filled the bag with all sorts of fruits and vegetables. I only used a small portion of it that evening.
He didn't take the rest with him; he gave them directly to Jiang Yu.
"Isn't this a bit much?" Jiang Yu fell silent, looking at the woven bags stuffed full of fresh vegetables.
At that moment, he suddenly thought of the scenes in Jiang Xiaoman's video where Principal Baichuan was chasing and hitting him with a broom head...
So, the root of all this actually lies here?
The reason why Uncle Shirakawa always chases after his nephew has finally been found!
"What's wrong with that? Anyway, my uncle grows so many vegetables that he can't eat them all, so he just feeds them to the pigs." Jiang Xiaoman waved her hand dismissively.
"I'd rather eat it than feed it to the pigs."
"I can support him in his old age, but can a pig?"
“That makes sense!” Jiang Yu thought this logic was indeed correct.
After all, Principal Baichuan doesn't even have a sworn brother, and there's no news of him planning to adopt a child. When he gets old, won't he have to rely on Jiang Xiaoman to take care of him in his old age and see him off in his final days?
Feeding pigs is definitely not as good as feeding them during the Lesser Fullness of Grain (a solar term) ┓( ??` )┏
Chapter 108
Jiang Xiaoman always cooks very quickly.
As the saying goes, "It takes half an hour to get to the market and an hour to cook."