So, those families who didn't keep bees last year hurriedly carried baskets on their backs and went into the mountains to pick tea and find local products.
Now, Jiang Xiaoman no longer needs to go door-to-door to mobilize people. The special tool that Jiang Baichuan made for him to make small tea cakes has become popular in the surrounding villages.
Jiang Baichuan didn't patent anything. People everywhere borrowed the molds and frantically copied his tea cake making gadget. He wasn't angry at all; on the contrary, he was very happy that his little invention could provide poor mountain people with a new way to make money.
With Jiang Baichuan's tacit approval, the villagers built a bunch of tea-making gadgets at home. It just so happened that it was the season for picking new leaves from the wild tea trees in the mountains. During this period, there were actually more people selling tea cakes to Jiang Xiaoman than selling mountain products!
Fortunately, he recently made money selling honey and previously selling mountain products, which he used to pay for the tea cakes.
But how can we sell all these tea cakes?
Jiang Xiaoman always felt that her fan base was predominantly young people. Now that it wasn't a holiday, young people didn't need to buy tea gift boxes as gifts. With that in mind, Jiang Xiaoman dejectedly crossed the tea cakes off the live stream's product selection and decided to just put them in the shopping cart without introducing them separately, so that fans could buy them as needed.
Because of his laid-back, Buddhist-like attitude, Jiang Xiaoman never thought that his fans would actually buy these slightly rustic tea cakes, so he simply put up all of his current stock of more than 5,000 kilograms of tea cakes.
Then they diligently continued to promote their Langshan farm-raised honey in the live broadcast room.
A night passed, and they still hadn't sold all of their newly harvested honey. Unexpectedly, the small tea cakes that Jiang Xiaoman had casually left in the shared bicycle were all snapped up as soon as they were put on the shelves.
Jiang Xiaoman: ? ? ?
Is there a bug in the system?
After carefully checking the backend system and calling customer service, Jiang Xiaoman finally had to admit that his mini tea cakes seemed to be really popular...
He seems to have forgotten a very important point: his fans are indeed mostly young people.
But it's not just his fans who are paying attention to him! There are also many fans of Jiang Cancan... As we all know, because of that previous competition, Jiang Cancan has accumulated a large number of fans of grandparents, uncles and aunts, and countless fans of wild parents. These people are not interested in milk tea, which is popular among young people, but they almost all love to drink tea.
Moreover, the tea cakes from Jiang Xiaoman's family are genuine wild teas that local people find deep in the mountains, carried in baskets on their backs. With this quality, they could easily sell for several hundred yuan per kilogram.
Even though the last sale was good, Jiang Xiaoman did not raise the price. Instead, he set different prices for half-jin (250g) tea cakes at 58 yuan, 88 yuan, and 128 yuan, depending on the quality of the tea cakes.
The 58 yuan tea is mostly tea picked from farmhouses at the foot of the mountain, the 88 yuan tea is made from the first batch of spring tea, and the 128 yuan tea is all wild tea from deep in the mountains.
How can you buy genuine wild tea from deep in the mountains at this price?
A group of seasoned tea enthusiasts, who often spend tens of thousands of yuan to stock up on tea, emptied Jiang Xiaoman's entire inventory overnight!
Jiang Xiaoman's fans were stunned.
Could this tea cake really be some kind of exceptionally good tea?
Young people these days don't really like drinking tea anymore, but this tea cake is so cheap and has such a high repurchase rate, it must be a good product. Why don't we give it a try?
This test was surprisingly effective!
One by one, those born in the 90s and 00s who originally vowed to wait until retirement to start appreciating tea bought tea cakes and couldn't resist buying all sorts of teapots, teacups, and tea stoves...
Some enthusiastic fans reminded Jiang Xiaoman in the comments section that since he was already selling tea, why didn't he also pick out some useful tea utensils to hang in his shared shopping cart?
Since I'm going to buy it anyway, and it's the same price, I might as well support Brother Xiaoman instead of buying it from someone else.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Xiaoman agreed that what the fans said made sense. Coincidentally, because his tea cakes were selling well recently, many brands that specialize in selling tea utensils had approached him to discuss cooperation. Jiang Xiaoman asked the brands for some samples, tried them out personally one by one, and then put a few tea utensils that he felt were particularly useful on the market.
Fans almost died laughing when they saw him acting like a retired old man, with several tea sets next to him every time he did a live stream.
However, after laughing, many netizens who had never tasted Kung Fu tea before couldn't help but place orders in Jiang Xiaoman's shop window, buying tea cakes and tea sets. They even saw that there were homemade snacks to accompany tea, so they bought some to try as well.
Jiang Xiaoman truly hadn't expected that during the peak season for wild honey, he wouldn't sell much honey, but instead, the little tea cakes he had previously neglected would suddenly become popular again...
Many fans of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" joked in the comments section that Langshan Wild Tea Cake, after regaining favor, is just like Zhen Huan returning from Ganlu Temple, transforming into Niu Hulu Zhen Huan and defeating all other local specialties in Jiang Xiaoman's shop window!
Jiang Yu laughed out loud after watching it, and couldn't help but go and rewatch "Empresses in the Palace" again. As a result, every time Jiang Xiaoman went to Jiang Yu's house to pick up goods these past few days, he could hear classic lines from "Empresses in the Palace" coming from the yard. After a while, he almost memorized them.
Let's get back to the main topic.
In short, ever since Jiang Xiaoman's Langshan tea cakes unexpectedly became a hit, the number of orders has surged and there is a real shortage of manpower.
Fortunately, the beekeeping cooperative was just starting out last year, and most villagers were hesitant. Not many were actually willing to join them in beekeeping. Many families were worried that the honey they produced wouldn't fetch a good price, so they tried keeping more than a dozen hives in the first year. Therefore, the harvesting pressure for spring honey this year is not actually that great.
With that in mind, Jiang Xiaoman discussed it with Shan Yan and decided to have the bottling and packaging of the local honey done at his place, hiring a few more people instead.
Since Jiang Yu spends most of his time at home these days, it's convenient for him to mentor these newcomers. After all, their beekeeping cooperative will need even more manpower as it grows, so training them now will prevent them from being overwhelmed when production increases later.
As for Jiang Xiaoman's side, it has now been transformed into a small tea cake packaging workshop, and occasionally it also needs to repackage some mountain products. With Lang Ying, the group leader, overseeing things, Jiang Xiaoman doesn't have to worry about anything.
Those who help others will always be helped.
When Jiang Xiaoman offered help to Lang Ying, she didn't expect anything in return.
Unexpectedly, in just a few months, the rural woman who was kicked out of her home by her cheating husband has undergone a complete transformation and become one of his top lieutenants...
Chapter 167
From April to mid-June, the entire Langshan Village was thoroughly busy, thanks to the efforts of Jiang Xiaoman and Shan Yan.
At this time of year, the village is busy, but it's all about spending money: buying seeds, fertilizer, repairing farm tools, renting farm machinery, hiring people to do the work... everything costs money!
If someone in the family works away from home, they can bring some money back to help support the family during the Spring Festival each year.
If no one in the family goes out to work, or if everyone is like Jiang Erming, who wants to spend every penny they earn on themselves, then it's pitiful. During the busy spring planting season, he works himself to death, and almost empties his savings in order to plant all the land in the family.
But this year is different.
Seeing that picking tea leaves and gathering wild produce on the mountain could earn them more than they could from a year of hard work planting potatoes and corn, the villagers hurriedly planted their own potatoes and corn, and without caring about anything else, they carried their baskets and rushed into the mountains to pick tea leaves, gather mushrooms, and cut bamboo shoots.
All the able-bodied men in the family went into the mountains, and the women didn't stay idle at home taking care of the children. After sending the children to school, they would change into neat clothes and go to Jiang Xiaoman or Shanyan to do odd jobs.
In just two months, by selling mountain products, tea cakes, and doing odd jobs, the more diligent families have already made a net profit of 20,000 to 30,000 yuan. Not to mention the few bolder ones in the village who followed Shan Yan and others from the beginning to open up beehives and beekeeping, and made a net profit of tens of thousands of yuan from this batch of spring honey alone!
Jiang Youliang, who stayed at home, couldn't stop smiling.
Recently, the villagers have been praising him to the skies!
No matter who goes up the mountain to pick tea or mushrooms, they will bring Jiang Youliang something when they pass by his house. Even if they don't bring anything, they will still offer him a couple of cigarettes and exchange a few pleasantries, praising him for raising such a good son. Many of the older folks still remember the old shaman who told Jiang Xiaoman's fortune.
Everyone said that the old shaman was right after all; his Xiaoman was indeed the lucky star of the entire Langshan Mountain.
Now, not to mention Langshan Village, even in the surrounding villages, anyone who can walk will go to the mountains to pick mushrooms and wild tea to sell to Jiang Xiaoman and earn some extra money.
Jiang Youliang was beaming with pride after being praised by his fellow villagers, and he worked even harder.
Jiang Xiaoman had long wanted to renovate the second and third floors of his house. He had recently made some money, so he gave his father 30,000 yuan and hired a professional renovation team. The team provided labor but not materials. Jiang Xiaoman bought all the renovation materials, appliances, and bathroom fixtures online and had them delivered directly to his shop.
After the goods arrived, Jiang Youliang hired people to carry them up the mountain.
It was a bit tough, but fortunately Jiang Xiaoman had plenty of money and bought high-quality brand-name products, so she wouldn't have to change them frequently in the future.
His son was busy doing business down the mountain, so Jiang Youliang, as the father, didn't dare to hold his son back. He was busy at home renovating the house and farming and raising pigs.
No matter how busy I am, I am happy.
As long as his son is by his side, Jiang Youliang is happy all day long.
In the entire Langshan Village, the only unhappy people are probably Jiang Hongyi and Lang Liugu, those two wicked old devils.
Jiang Xiaoman originally didn't intend to argue with the two old people.
But who told that old hag Lang Liugu to be so inhumane?
Seeing that Lang Ying absolutely refused to remarry her son, Lang Liugu was both angry and resentful, and finally tore off her hypocritical mask. Now that she had sprained her ankle and could not work, she simply sat on her doorstep every day, stopping anyone who passed by and saying bad things about Lang Ying.
Lang Ying is now one of Jiang Xiaoman's top generals, how could he tolerate this?
Jiang Xiaoman told Shan Yan about this, and after they discussed it, they decided to add Jiang Erming's family to their cooperative's blacklist.
From now on, any business transactions involving their two families will not involve Jiang Erming's family, nor will they purchase his family's local specialties.
Once the news spread, the villagers who wanted to make big money with Shan Yan and Jiang Xiaoman were so eager to avoid Jiang Erming's house that they practically wanted to take a detour.
They didn't want to be stopped by Aunt Lang Liu, and then Jiang Xiaoman might mistakenly think they were in cahoots with Jiang Erming's family and blacklist them, preventing them from making money.
Ultimately, rural people love to gossip and watch the excitement because they have nothing better to do. If they were busy making money every day, like office workers in the city, working nine to five, they would want to sleep as long as they could after work. Who would have the time to gossip?
And so, Jiang Hongyi and his wife, Lang Liugu, were completely ostracized by the villagers...
Previously, some people saw that Lang Liugu had sprained her ankle and couldn't go to the fields to plant vegetables, and Jiang Hongyi was a lazybones who wouldn't even help someone who had fallen over. Seeing that the old couple was pitiful, they would sometimes pick some fresh vegetables from their own vegetable garden and bring them over.
But who told Aunt Lang to be so shameless?
She herself was having a hard time, so she didn't want her former daughter-in-law to have a good time either, and she talked badly about Lang Ying all over the village every day.
Speaking of which, Lang Liugu and Lang Ying's family are from the same village. Although they are not from the same ancestor, they are still considered half relatives. When she proposed to Lang Ying, she made many promises that she would treat Lang Ying like her own daughter after she married into the family.
And what was the result?
The son cheated on his wife, and the mother-in-law, instead of standing up for her daughter-in-law, actually allowed her son to kick her out of the house.
Now that the two children are divorced, it is in the wrong of Lang Liugu. Unexpectedly, instead of reflecting on her mistakes, she has gone even further to spread rumors and slander Lang Ying!
Such morally corrupt people will be despised everywhere.
Soon, the villagers were no longer willing to help those two heartless old men.
Forget about them bringing vegetables over; Jiang Hongyi had been eating instant noodles at home for days and couldn't stand it anymore. He wanted to borrow some vegetables from his neighbor's garden, but was met with sarcastic and unfriendly rejections.
"I'm so sorry, Uncle Hongyi. We've been busy picking wild vegetables in the mountains lately and haven't had time to gather pig feed. Our two pigs are relying on these vegetables in the garden, and we don't even have enough for our own consumption. Why don't you go ask around at other people's houses?"
"By the way, didn't I hear that your Erming found a rich father-in-law in the city? Why don't you two go to the city to enjoy your son's life? What are you doing back here?"
Jiang Hongyi was too embarrassed to explain the reason behind this.
He dared not let anyone know that his son had lost a kidney and was now practically a cripple.
Seeing the old man walk away with a red face, the neighbor lady sneered and locked the fence around her vegetable garden.
Bah! Even if pheasants peck at her vegetables, she won't let those shameless Jiang family members benefit from them!
People's true character can only be seen through interaction. Lang Ying's character has become clear to everyone after spending time with her.
Even if Shan Yan's apprentice is only enthusiastic about barbering, and even if Lang Ying really comes to his senses and is willing to live with him, they can only happily go to his door for a wedding feast.
Lang Ying is such a wonderful woman. She is beautiful, capable, and generous. Not to mention Qing Shan, if her family had any unmarried brothers, everyone would be fighting over her, okay?
When it comes to Lang Ying's competence, Jiang Xiaoman, as her boss, is the one who feels it most deeply.
Since the renovation of the guest room at home began, as it was intended to be used as a bed and breakfast, Jiang Youliang knew nothing about anything from the design drafts to the specific construction process. Jiang Xiaoman had to go home almost every two days during this period. As a result, the heavy burden of the acquisition point inevitably fell on Lang Ying's shoulders.
Jiang Xiaoman specially gave Lang Ying a position in his newly established "Langshan Tea Cake Cooperative". The cooperative currently has only three people: he is the chairman and manager, Jiang Yu works part-time as the accountant, and Lang Ying is the secretary-general and office director in charge of daily work.
As a result, Lang Ying, who was originally just a rural woman doing odd jobs, suddenly had a formal job. She was affiliated with the cooperative, and Jiang Xiaoman paid her a monthly salary of 2,800 yuan, plus holiday benefits and performance bonuses, and also paid for her social insurance and housing fund.
Don't underestimate this 2,800 yuan a month; even the substitute teachers at their village primary school don't actually receive that much in a month.