Chapter 354: New Business

After the lanterns were finished, Su Qing'an put all kinds of lanterns into the warehouse because there was still some time before the New Year's Day.

If she hung them up now and lit a candle every day, Su's mother would beat her to a pulp, not to mention that she felt bad.

Candles cost dozens of coins each, but she lit dozens or hundreds of them every day for fun. It was still a small thing to call her a spendthrift.

It was estimated that she and Su's father would carry the remaining candles to Yongfenghao to sell them overnight.

The weather was cold, and the whole village was hibernating. Everyone was idle.

Su Qing'an was a little restless again.

Since her hundred hectares of fertile land in Yuedi produced rice, other places in Yuedi also planted rice and got a good harvest, and the price of their dry rice on the mountain was much lower.

The taste of dry rice is definitely not as good as that of rice.

But it is especially difficult to open terraces on the mountain, store water, and grow grain on the mountain. The fertilizer is not enough, and you have to prevent birds and beasts from destroying it, and you have to arrange people to check it day and night.

It is several times harder than growing rice on the plain.

But the effort is not proportional to the benefits.

Su Qingmei is a little unwilling.

The mountain people have no land, and they finally opened terraces on the mountain and planted grain. Now the land of Yue is peaceful, and each state capital has planted grain, and the grain has increased. The grain planted on the mountain cannot be sold at a high price.

Su Qingmei does not want to see this situation.

If these dry rice are processed for the second time, for example, processed into rice noodles and sold, will it be more profitable than simply selling rice?

Su Qingmei used to sell convenient food for marchers, merchants and travelers in Fengting Town, various dried vegetables, dehydrated dried fruits and vegetables, and fried noodles. She cooperated very happily with Xu Shaoyan.

She also made a lot of money.

Now the north is still in constant war, and the south is also divided by various forces.

If there are some convenient foods that can be sold to the army as convenient military rations, merchants and some travelers, is it okay? First, it is convenient for people, and second, it can increase the price of dry rice and let the mountain people get more benefits.

Do it when you think of it.

Su Qingmei asked Su Dahu and Su's father and others to go to the cave and pick up a few loads of dry rice.

Then she opened another rice noodle house in the village and tried to study it.

After making rice noodles, she tried different methods at home, such as soup rice noodles, dry rice noodles, fried rice noodles, cross-bridge rice noodles, small pot hot noodles... After eating a few meals, everyone in the family applauded.

Dabao and Xiaobao especially like it.

The two brothers took a noodle and sucked it into their mouths, and competed with each other to see who could suck it faster.

The last half of the rice noodles with soup was thrown on the faces of the two brothers, slapping their little faces. The two narrowed their eyes and looked like they were enjoying it.

Looking at the two brothers who got dirty on their faces after eating a bowl of noodles, Su Qingmei was disgusted.

"It's delicious! If you keep eating like this, I won't make it for you anymore!"

The two were scolded and then they behaved.

Xiaobao was always cheerful, and Dabao was originally very well-behaved. It has only been a short while since Xiaobao started to be cheerful.

The village has a new food. After making rice noodles for everyone in the canteen, everyone surrounded Su Qingmei and asked her to make more.

Everyone wanted to stock up on rice noodles that were so delicious and easy to cook to eat at home during the winter.

When Su Qingmei saw that the experiment was successful, she immediately took the women in the village to open the rice noodle shop.

After making it, they stocked up a lot in the village, and sent a lot to the restaurants in the market town.

Only two days later, Xiang Zhen and Ding, the shopkeeper, came to the village to find her.

Xiang Zhen asked her to make more, because many mountain people in the shop were asking about it and wanted to buy it. Moreover, the amount delivered by the small restaurant in one day was not enough, so they asked to increase the delivery volume.

Shopkeeper Ding saw a business opportunity and wanted to discuss cooperation with Su Qing'an.

Su Qing'an naturally wanted to sell the rice noodles she made.

She had always been working hard to sell rice noodles to various places through Yongfenghao, so that the rice and dry rice in the mountains could be sold at high prices and the mountain people could live a better life.

The village used traditional methods and manual labor to make rice noodles, so one catty of rice could only produce one and a half catties of rice noodles, and only half a catty of dry rice noodles after drying.

The price of rice noodles would have to be twice the price of rice to break even. The labor cost must be added, and there are many and complicated processes involved.

It would not be cost-effective to sell it cheaply.

Su Qing'an told Shopkeeper Ding all this.

Shopkeeper Ding originally wanted to lower the price, but he didn't expect to hear what Su Qing'an said, and heard that there were so many processes, so it was difficult to lower the price.

Thinking that rice noodles are indeed easy to store, carry, and cook, if they are purchased in large quantities and then sold to various places through Yongfenghao, there should be a good market.

The more the quantity, the greater the profit.

So he discussed the price of rice noodles with Su Qingmei.

Su Qingmei thought that their Yongfenghao would sell to various places, and there would be a lot of costs involved, and it would not be easy to raise the price too much when selling to the common people.

In the end, it was only sold at three times the original price of mountain rice.

Even if the price was not high, it was much more cost-effective for Su Qingmei than selling mountain rice alone.

The price of mountain rice was raised, and the extra manpower was utilized. The mountain rice in the village was sold at a higher price, and the villagers of Xingeng Village got more profit, and their lives would naturally be better.

And if the rice noodles on the Yongfenghao side can sell well, Su Qingmei will buy back the extra mountain rice from the 45 allied villages and process it into rice noodles, then the lives of the mountain people in the allied villages will also be better.

Shopkeeper Ding ordered 10,000 kilograms of rice noodles from Su Qing'an, and asked them to be ready before New Year's Day.

Su Qing'an calculated the daily output and agreed.

Now there is no shortage of workers in the rice noodle room, and it is not a problem to dry thousands of kilograms of dry rice noodles a day. When everyone is proficient in the process, the daily output will be even higher.

There is still one month before the New Year's Day, and the delivery can be completed.

He agreed.

Shopkeeper Ding paid the money very readily, and left happily with all kinds of food given by Su's mother.

Su Qingmei was also very happy to get the money. Although it was only three hundred taels, this was only the first batch of goods. She believed that she would sell more in the future.

Ten thousand kilograms of rice noodles had to be delivered before the New Year's Day, and the village became busy again.

Fortunately, there were more than enough people, and Guo recruited a group of hardworking men and women in the village, divided the work, and started working on each assembly line.

Xiaobao and Dabao now have something to play with again. Every day, they ran to the rice noodle room to see the rice noodles drying in rows, like drying cloth in a dyeing room, row after row.

It looked very spectacular.

But considering the hygiene problem, no strangers were allowed to approach.

Xiaobao is also a smart kid. He led a group of kids to stand on the hillside and look down. He clapped his hands, stamped his feet, and cried.

He never got tired of doing this every day. I don’t know what’s so good about it.

He is almost four years old. He jumps up and down, making Dabao jump.

Su Qingmei was busy for a few days. When she returned home, she found that her two sons were gone again. She felt that this could not go on.