Her Cultivation Diary
Chapter 813 - 803. What are you trying out for business?

Chapter 813: 803. What are you trying out for business?

Guai Bao, without any hesitation and recognizing Song Tan as someone likely to feed him, opened his mouth and successfully seized half of the cucumber.

Sibao managed to snag the cucumber in his mouth and quickly retreated a step, while Sanbao and Wubao, who had been silently watching, eagerly rushed forward, resulting in the three dogs jostling together on the ridge.

Barking and howling ensued, creating quite a commotion.

It was only then that Boss Niu came to his senses. He first stared at the empty palm of his hand, numbly chewing on the last bite of the cucumber he had left, before turning back without hesitation to where the old cucumber vines were.

"Forget about searching!" Song Tan burst into laughter: "What month do you think it is? How could there be any more cucumbers? These vines were only left because no one had the time to pull them out!"

Of course, on the mountain, there were the autumn cucumbers provided by Professor Song which were now blooming. These were a fast-growing variety of cucumbers, not the best in taste but very quick to grow. They could expect a good harvest before the major temperature drop.

Boss Niu was heartbroken.

Now looking at those dogs again, the earlier sentimentality was gone, replaced by him squatting down and picking up by the foot the dazed pheasant that didn’t want to leave (its wings all wet with dog saliva):

"Can this thing be eaten?"

Song Tan: ...That’s quite a brutal thought.

...

Brother Xiaozhang raced up the mountain and finally reached the factory entrance with some difficulty, where he then quickly stepped down from his vehicle with the box—

This was his first visit to the factory!

Now that he saw it, the space was indeed very spacious!

He carried the box into the courtyard, only to see the village aunties coming out carrying plastic baskets and even greeted him:

"Don’t go in, there are hygiene requirements inside—come on, give me the box, let’s pack quickly, I still want to go pick vegetables tonight!"

Brother Xiaozhang was startled: "How many are we packing this time? Where’s the order list? I should check the list first."

After pondering, he asked: "What vegetables are you picking tonight? Isn’t it a bit late to pick vegetables for dinner after a day’s work?"

The Auntie—Li Lanhua, carefully set down the basket and took half of the box from his arms, then expertly started folding boxes and tearing tape:

"Hurry up, a total of eight thousand jars of sauce need to be shipped, Wu Lan said dealing with order forms is too troublesome, we’re packing them one jar at a time."

Eight thousand jars of sauce, but the orders numbered over six thousand one hundred; they didn’t have enough customer service staff to sort through the orders (and it’s easy to make mistakes when numbers are chaotic), so they’d rather bear the additional cost of cardboard boxes and delivery—just send ten parcels if someone ordered ten jars.

Wu Lan felt pained thinking about it—but then she remembered these sauces are worth 800,000!

Then it was okay, she was reassured again.

Brother Xiaozhang was on the verge of making a fortune thanks to Lao Song’s family, tearing tape with vigour and delight similar to Qingwen tearing her fan in high spirits:

"Oh boy, that’s not a small number! That’s several days’ worth of work!"

Absolutely!

As for picking vegetables, it wasn’t about picking them to cook dinner at home, but starting from tonight, every day from midnight until 4 a.m., picking vegetables on the mountain.

Li Lanhua was also blissfully calculating:

Starting from tomorrow, she would earn wages for packaging during the day, after eating dinner at seven in the evening, she would go straight home to sleep.

She would sleep until midnight then go to Lao Song’s family’s mountain slope to pick vegetables! She’d pick until four in the morning before heading back to sleep, then at eight continue with packaging on the mountain...

Although the eight thousand packages they were cooperating on would take about a week, the vegetables supposedly needed to be picked every day. She had the energy, the age to sleep less, she could handle it!

At 160 per day, oh boy, that’s way better than going out to work!

This job doesn’t demand much labor, the wage for each job is eighty bucks, but the killer part is the lack of sleep. At first, Wu Lan was reluctant to have them work together, but after crunching the numbers, there’s no one left in the village!

Why is that?

Because Boss Niu suggested building two more fermentation tanks, and the construction team was short of manpower, so they started hiring directly from the village.

This kind of physical work pays two hundred a day, and the village men were all thrilled, gearing up to start working enthusiastically tomorrow!

...

Facing Boss Chang’s business, Wu Lan took it very seriously: "Our vegetables, it takes driving four or five hours to get there, will that work?"

It’s also a matter of luck, the company Boss Chang originally contacted for the preservation transport needed about eight hours to return, and they negotiated with Song Tan to start picking/collecting vegetables at 10 pm every night.

But not long ago, the elevated highway in Huacheng was completed, saving a considerable amount of time.

Otherwise, were it not for the mountainous roads being so tough to navigate, we could probably shave off another hour.

Yet, Song Tan was very reassured: "No problem, the restaurant only opens for lunch, and we’re delivering vegetables. Reaching there by 8 am doesn’t delay a thing!"

Not only does it not delay, but it also ensures the freshness of the vegetables, truly justifying the high prices on the menu!

Wu Lan glanced at her, thinking to herself, was she worried whether they could deliver on time? Clearly, she was more concerned about how long they could keep selling vegetables at the high wholesale price of 40 yuan per half kilo!

Every day they supply 100 half kilos of local green vegetables at 20 yuan each.

The rest, aside from online store sales (excluding leafy greens that can’t be preserved), is monopolized by Boss Chang at the price of 40 yuan per half kilo.

Bok choy, wow, what does 40 per half kilo even mean? When Wu Lan heard that, she felt as if her brain snapped like a rubber band, just broke with a twang!

At that moment, she saw Boss Chang through a filter, and on that filter, it read [Moneybags, Big Sucker].

No matter how Song Tan and Zhang Yanping, along with Professor Song explained the cleverness of such monopolizing behavior and the business tactics of high-priced bundling, in Wu Lan’s eyes, it all seemed like passing clouds.

As a result, during this vegetable picking session, she was unusually serious about it, even pulling Song Sancheng into the fields.

She hadn’t planned to spare Song Tan and Qiaoqiao either, but on second thought, since they were her own flesh and blood, she couldn’t bear it, so she ended up ordering Song Sancheng around instead!

This guy, studying for his driving license, failed the subject three twice and begged her to take the subject four with him, otherwise, the kids would laugh... How much time had this set her back?!

Clearly not the brightest bulb, better suited to doing physical labor!

Song Tan: ...

A business deal of one to one and a half million, yet my folks still labor in the fields. What is one to say to that?

She could only order firmly: "Work for at most two nights. Changleju has a small-scale soft opening on 10.1, official opening on 10.2. By the morning of 10.3, I’ll have cleared up the feedback on vegetables; you’re not allowed to go into the fields in the middle of the night after that. I’ll oversee it myself."

Truthfully, she didn’t want to oversee it either—cultivating one’s skills is one thing, and work is another, who would want to work in the wee hours?

After toiling for half a year, it was about time for her to enjoy some fruits of her labor!

Looks like I’ll need to find someone willing to work the night shift!

As for Song Sancheng, he grumbled: "What’s this soft opening about? Can’t we just open directly? Not sleeping at night, it’s just uncomfortable..."

A soft opening means he has to work for two nights.

But Wu Lan was curious: "You say the cost of these vegetables is so high, how are they going to sell them to break even? Even wealthy people shouldn’t be spending money like that, right?"