The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

Jiang Quan went to town and bought ten kilograms of sugar frosting, as well as a few earthenware jars.

His second aunt told him that preserved fruit should be stored in jars, so he bought them in preparation.

Then came the apricot picking.

They chose the ones that were seventy to eighty percent ripe, fully ripe ones that had bugs were unusable.

They were then cleaned, pitted, and preserved with crushed sugar frosting. A bit of salt was also added during preservation.

After being preserved for a few hours, the apricots would exude juice, at which point they were directly boiled in a pot.

They couldn’t be boiled for too long, otherwise the apricot flesh would lose its form.

The apricot flesh and juice were promptly scooped out and let to stand for two hours, then the apricot halves were plucked out of the juice, laid out one by one on bamboo trays, and then taken out to bask in the sun.

After being sunned for two to three days, the apricot flesh becomes as chewy as a persimmon cake, its color a brilliant yellow, and it tastes sour and sweet, extremely delicious.

The sun-dried preserved fruit was sealed in the jars, where it could be preserved for a long time.

The remaining thick, sour and sweet juice is not only loved by children, but also praised by adults.

Yingbao wasn’t interested in preserved apricots, but she loved the sour and sweet juice left over from boiling the apricots.

If some ice cubes were added, it would be absolutely refreshing to have a sip in hot weather.

Yingbao looked at the apricots hanging from the trees and made a plan in her mind.

“Brother, let’s pick all the apricots on the trees,”

She said to Jiang Quan, “Let’s give some ripe ones to the villagers, and make preserved apricots from the half-ripe ones. These apricot kernels can’t be thrown away either, they can be ground into almond flour later.”

In her past life, she had drunk almond tea, which was made by grinding almonds into powder, adding it to rice milk and milk to boil, then adding some malt sugar, the strong aroma of which was enticing.

However, there was one thing, almond toxins, especially the surface skin of the almond was highly toxic. If not handled properly, it might endanger life, and children should not even touch it.

But she had the Pupil Spring, she could soak the almonds in the spring water to presumably reduce some of the toxicity.

Jiang Quan widened his eyes, “Yingbao, there are so many apricot trees, how many preserved apricots are we going to make? If we can’t sell them, the money we spent on sugar would have gone down the drain.”

“They will be sold.” Yingbao was not worried at all.

Worst case scenario, they could sell them for less to merchants, which was still better than letting so many apricots rot for nothing.

Yanru suggested, “Let’s trade the apricots for items at the dried fruit and candied fruit shop in the county town, although the profit won’t be much, it would still be some income. At least the cost of the sugar can be covered.”

Her suggestion coincided with Yingbao’s thoughts.

“That can be done, big brother, let’s go to the county town after all the preserved apricots are ready.” Yingbao was full of confidence.

It was also convenient for Yingbao to go to the county town to check out their new house, to see what was needed, so she could prepare accordingly.

“Second aunt, can peaches also be made into preserved fruit?” Yingbao asked.

Yanru replied, “Yes, the process of making preserved peach fruit is similar to that of apricots. It would be nice to make some.”

“Then let’s make some preserved peaches. The peach pits can’t be discarded either. Preserved peach seeds are a kind of herb, we can sell them to the herbal shop later.” She estimated the price wouldn’t be high, but it could at least recoup some costs.

Jiang Quan was still unsure, “How much sugar is required?”

“Let’s do it this way first, we can talk to the store if we bought more sugar than needed, the price will surely drop a bit.”

In her previous life, Yingbao had run some business, so she knew a little about bargaining.

Yanru nodded, “Going to the big stores in the county town to buy sugar would indeed save a lot of money when buying in bulk.”

“All right.”

Jiang Quan scratched his head, asking, “So when are we going to the county town?”

The fruit on the trees wouldn’t wait for them. Day by day, they were ripening and spoiling. Just watching them spoiling was distressing.

Yingbao didn’t speak, she was frowning and contemplating.

With so many fruit trees at home, apples and grapes that are about to ripen certainly wouldn’t all be consumed. We wouldn’t be able to sell them all in the countryside either, but we also can’t bear to give them all away.

This is rather distressing.

We worked hard to grow these fruit trees, thinking that they would bring some money in, but unexpectedly, they have instead become a burden.

Perhaps, we should have my second cousin open a shop in the county town dedicated to selling fruits and dried fruits.

We still have more than three hundred taels of silver, enough to buy a storefront.

With the storefront, the fruits and dried fruits from our trees wouldn’t have to be sold off in desperation. In the future, the rare apples and grapes might even make our shop the center of attention in the county town.

Even if the fruits go out of season, we will still have golden and silver mushrooms, and in the worst case scenario, Yanru could make scented powders and rouge for sale in the shop.

Yingbao has already scattered many flower seeds on the brown land in the grotto, such as roses, magnolias, peonies, and others. She has also scattered some lotus seeds by the pond, and now small round lotus leaves have sprouted.

But the difficult question is, how should we position our shop?

Other shops have a specific focus, like baked goods, grains, fabrics, jewelry, and so forth. Even the bamboo ware shop only sells bamboo products.

Our shop’s offerings are diverse, but we can’t call it a general store.

Suddenly, a light bulb went off in her head.

Why not call it local specialties?

Although Qinchuan County is a lesser-known county, it has its fair share of travelers. If our shop is branded as local specialties, those visiting friends and family would likely want to buy some things to take away.

Each place has its own specialties, such as wooden combs, pears, persimmons, chestnuts, tangerines, tea leaves, and so on. Travelers visiting these places would feel compelled to buy some.

However, Qinchuan County doesn’t seem to have any specialties.

No tea, no silk embroidery, no inkstone, no rare herbs.

It’s just an ordinary small county where most people make a living by farming.

Ironically, Qinchuan County is located in hilly terrain, with little arable land. However, they still have to pay a heavy annual tax. It’s a wonder that people here aren’t impoverished.

Previously, the Imperial Court allowed each family to have a hundred acres of land. When it came to this place, however, each family could only get sixty acres.

And these sixty acres weren’t all quality farmland, part of it was hilly.

Nowadays, even the sixty acres can’t be allocated due to the lack of available land in the countryside.

My elder cousin is already seventeen this year. By rights, he should have been allocated some land, but there hasn’t been any movement on Lizheng’s side.

It’s not that Lizheng isn’t doing anything, but that the land in the countryside has been essentially divided up. What’s left are barren rocky lands where not even grass can grow.

If these barren lands were assigned to the people, it would be equivalent to forcing them to their deaths.

Who could afford the taxes for a plot of land on which not a single grain could be grown?

Therefore, Yingbao decided to follow an unconventional path and create a money-making opportunity for her elder and second cousins.

Our golden and silver mushrooms are indeed special to Qinchuan County. Even the Wen Family has assigned people to wait for the harvest and purchase them. Labeling them as a special product of Qinchuan County isn’t an exaggeration.

Then we could also label the dried apricots, peaches, and pears as specialties of Qinchuan, which would be a logical next step.

That’s right, we also have grapes and apples. Although they are not specialties of Qinchuan, they could still be sold alongside them.

Having made up her mind, Yingbao chuckled and said to Jiang Quan, “I’ll go to the county town tomorrow.”

Not just to buy sugar, but also to purchase a storefront.

She’s already thought of a name for the shop, called “Jiang’s Specialties”.

Although the primary offerings are Qinchuan’s specialties, the name of the shop absolutely cannot contain the word Qinchuan, otherwise, she could get arrested and taken to the county government for punishment.

Merchants are treated as lower-class. Not only can the name of the county or township not appear on the shop name plague, but even the two characters of ‘Murong’ cannot appear on the shop sign.

This is because the current royal family is surnamed Murong, and all subjects must avoid these two characters.