10
Expanding the Pickled Vegetable Sales Network: Getting Others to Help Make Money
After packing up the night market stall in the evening and returning home to wash up and sleep, Chen Yidong lay in bed tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep for a long time. He felt something wasn’t quite right.
Qian Xuemei was nearly driven mad by him and directly kicked him: “If you’re not going to sleep, get out of bed.”
“No, it’s not that.” As the saying goes, an uncle is like a mother – the man was worried. “Ah, Xuemei, don’t you think there’s something off about Xiao Xiao? She’s so obsessed with making money, even more frightening than when she was studying day and night for college entrance exams.”
Qian Xuemei thought the man was making trouble out of nothing: “What’s wrong with her focusing on making money? You said yourself that Xiao Xiao never slacks off in anything she does. Would you be happier if she stopped making money and went looking for that man instead?”
This frightened Chen Yidong even more, and he quickly stopped her: “Please say something more positive.”
Qian Xuemei rolled her eyes: “I don’t know who’s making trouble here. You have to let the child find something to do herself.”
What’s wrong with making money? Despite all the propaganda in previous years about how being poor was glorious, the wealthy households in the production team always lived better than those in poverty.
Xiao Xiao was right – they should focus on making money properly.
For the rest of October, Wang Xiao truly went crazy with earnings.
Setting aside the steady income from selling braised food, just the wedding market alone kept her extremely busy.
Interestingly enough, October had always been the peak season for weddings. Besides clustering their weddings on National Day, locals mostly scheduled them for mid-to-late October after the autumn harvest. It was unclear whether this symbolized the joy of harvest or simply because people finally had time to get married after being busy.
Thanks to the good reputation from Xiuyun’s wedding, Wang Xiao entered a mode of rushing from one event to another every day. On her busiest day, she did makeup for three brides in just one morning, covering not only all eight villages in Zhou Town but even reaching five neighboring towns. Her rural economic survey range also expanded to surrounding villages.
If not for the considerable distance and her uncle’s family’s concerns, she could have even taken orders from the county town.
Her hard work paid off. When they sat down to settle accounts on the last night of October, even Wang Xiao was surprised. After deducting all costs, they had actually earned 669 yuan and 9 mao in just half a month.
Without hesitation, Qian Xuemei took out one mao from her pocket and added it: “Alright, 670 yuan.”
670 yuan in half a month meant 1,340 yuan per month. How much would that be in a year?
Chen Jingjing, currently the mental math champion among the four, immediately gave the answer: “16,080 yuan.”
Good heavens, that was astonishing. Who would have thought selling braised food could be so profitable? No wonder those selling Braised Dried Tofu could build three-story houses without taking loans.
Adding this to her parents’ salaries from work and the money from selling grain and pigs, the family could almost qualify as two ten-thousand-yuan households.
Wang Xiao was also pleased with these results, though she suspected future sales might decrease. After all, October had many weddings, and farmers had more money to spend after selling their autumn harvest. This might not continue in the coming months unless they could find ways to expand their sales range.
She cheerfully divided the money into four portions: “Come on, end-of-month distribution, 167 yuan and 5 mao each.”
Strictly speaking, it shouldn’t be this way. Not only was the idea of selling braised food hers, and the recipe also provided by her, but she and her cousin had been the main sales force for the first five days, so she deserved a larger share. However, considering adults wouldn’t calculate so meticulously, and since her uncle and aunt had taken over the main workload—selling Braised Dried Tofu in the evenings and running the late-night snack stall after she left for wedding gigs—she decided to simply split the earnings evenly.
After all, constrained by geographical limitations, this business couldn’t scale much. She treated it as building goodwill with relatives after transmigrating into this book.
Yet her uncle and aunt were taken aback. Both Chen Yidong and Qian Xuemei shook their heads and waved their hands in unison: “No, no, this is your money. We only helped out a bit.”
They were the elders; how could they take advantage of a younger family member? It would be too embarrassing if word got out.
Chen Jingjing also felt uncomfortable accepting the money. She’d be perfectly happy with just five yuan as pocket money.
But Wang Xiao insisted, pushing the money toward them: “Take it. Jingjing, don’t you want to learn English? I’ll take you to the provincial capital bookstore to buy more English tapes later. Uncle, Aunt, this money is what you’ve earned. Look, I didn’t share the money I made from doing the bride’s makeup and hosting the wedding—that was my own income.”
She’d been living and eating at her uncle’s house without paying a single cent.
“Alright,” she said confidently. “This is just the beginning. Better days are ahead.”
This era was like the wide-open streets with hardly any cars—with the steering wheel in your hands, you could drive wherever you wanted, smooth and unobstructed.
Qian Xuemei accepted the money and nodded: “Fine, let’s consider it a partnership then. Later when you go back to work, you’ll still get dividends from the braised food business.”
Though exhausting—with no rest except during work hours—selling braised food earned far more than overtime pay. Even making just seven or eight yuan a day added up to about two hundred yuan monthly, which was quite worthwhile.
It seemed they could repay the thousand or so yuan borrowed for building the house even before year-end. Saving the remainder… well, they might afford a big color TV for New Year’s. No, no—better save up for a refrigerator first. That would keep the braised food from spoiling and make it easier to sell.
While her aunt was thinking about how to spend the earnings, her niece was still pondering how to make more money.
After all, even when she’d earned tens of millions before, she never thought about indulging herself. A few hundred yuan was nowhere near enough to make her relax and rest.
She wanted to earn more from the braised food business.
Their manpower was limited—only four people, including herself. This confined their direct sales to Zhou Town, not even reaching surrounding areas, let alone the slightly remote villages. In this era of underdeveloped transportation, expecting people to travel hours just for some braised food was unrealistic.
The only solution was to expand sales points—simply put, establish more outlets in neighboring villages.
Expecting her uncle’s family to handle this wasn’t practical. They were settled comfortably in Qianjia Village; why would they separate from family to open shops elsewhere?
The only potential partners she could consider were those already living in other towns.
Her uncle and aunt exchanged glances and tentatively asked: “Do you want to partner with braised food shops in other towns for dividends?”
“No.” Wang Xiao shook her head. “Sell the recipe directly. Profit-sharing isn’t practical—they’re not Uncle and Aunt, so there’s no way for me to know exactly how much they earn. They could easily deceive me. A one-time transaction is simplest; selling the recipe is the easiest approach. Besides the braised food shops in town, we can also sell to smaller shops in more remote villages. I’ve noticed they buy pig head meat and fermented tofu from town to resell, which shows they have some business sense, but they haven’t tailored their offerings to village tastes, so their business is mediocre. Hmm, we can charge 600 yuan per recipe in town and 500 in the villages.”
If they had never sold braised food before, Chen Yidong and Qian Xuemei would surely have thought their niece had gone mad, daring to ask for such an exorbitant price—more than a year’s wages for some people.
But now, they simultaneously had the same bizarre thought: How cheap! She’s selling it so inexpensively; they could recoup the cost in just over a month.
Chen Jingjing suddenly understood: “Sis—all that running around you’ve been doing in the surrounding villages was actually conducting market research, wasn’t it?”
Wow, so clever and impressive, as expected of a college student.
Her sister had been taking braised food to sell in towns and villages, which essentially served as promotion. Once people bought it, enjoyed it, and then couldn’t find it again, they’d inevitably talk about it and miss it.
By then, when her sister went to sell the braised food recipe, those who recognized its market appeal and popularity would naturally be tempted. So, she wouldn’t have to worry about the recipe not selling.
After hearing their daughter’s explanation, Chen Yidong and Qian Xuemei instantly grasped the situation.
Good heavens, is this how college students operate? Not only making multiple streams of income in one go but also setting the stage for future earnings? Seriously, those who get into college are definitely not bookworms—they have at least three times the brains of ordinary people.
Wang Xiao felt a little embarrassed by all this flattery. This was nothing remarkable, hardly worth mentioning.
Chen Jingjing asked curiously, “Sis, if this isn’t impressive, then what is? You’re scooping up all the money.”
“Money can never all be scooped up.” Wang Xiao laughed. “Selling the braised food recipe is just the first step. The next step is supplying raw materials. I’ve looked into it—there aren’t many sellers of chicken feet in the surrounding villages. A town market might only have one or two stalls selling chicken feet, and very few people fry tofu. We can supply chicken feet and fried tofu to the shops that buy our recipe. For the former, we can find wholesale suppliers, buy in bulk at low prices, and deliver directly. For fried tofu, we can fry it ourselves using soybean oil for better flavor, then deliver it too. Making tofu from scratch is too labor-intensive; we can just wholesale it from tofu sellers. This way, we earn the price difference—small profits but quick returns.”
She smiled, encouraging her team. “Don’t worry about them not wanting our goods. It’s human nature to be lazy. At the same price point, the more convenient, the better. Even considering time costs, if the price is slightly higher but still within an acceptable range, they’ll likely agree. Our goal is to build their dependency—once they’re used to getting supplies from us, that customer loyalty becomes a stable sales channel for us.”
The trio’s faces simultaneously turned to (ΩДΩ).
Good grief, she really doesn’t let anyone else earn a single cent.
However, Uncle and Aunt, being adults, considered things more practically: “This would require covering a lot of ground. We don’t have enough people to manage all that running around.”
Even by bicycle, it would take at least an hour to get from their Qianjia Village to the neighboring town. And then to the villages further out? Goodness, it’s just not feasible, definitely not feasible.
Wang Xiao had considered this issue too: “We need to plan the routes rationally and deliver in batches at different times. It’s already past First Frost now, and the temperature drops low at night, so the Fried Tofu won’t spoil overnight, and chicken feet soaked in water will be fine too. We can deliver in batches in the morning, noon, and evening, coordinating the timing as much as possible. Once we save up enough money, we can buy a motorcycle.”
Chen Yidong was nearly frightened to death—his niece really dared to dream big! Motorcycles were so expensive, how could ordinary people afford one?
Wang Xiao had no experience in this area, but she didn’t dwell on it: “Or maybe a diesel three-wheeler or something like that. Whatever is convenient to buy, we’ll use it for direct deliveries.”
Qian Xuemei snapped back to reality: “That won’t work. We have to go to work; we won’t have the time. We still need to sell our braised food ourselves.”
Wang Xiao didn’t make decisions for others and only discussed the braised food business: “Actually, we don’t need to go to the villages to peddle ourselves anymore. We can just focus on selling late-night snacks. As for the village business, we can find people to help us with deliveries.”
She gestured with her fingers, “I’ve noticed that the workers at the town’s factories come from various villages. Uncle and Aunt, you could pick some reliable ones among them to compile lists of people in their respective villages who want to buy braised food. Then, after work in the evening, they can bring the orders over. Hmm, for each portion of braised food, we can give them a 10% commission. That way, they’ll be more motivated to work.”
Truth be told, people nowadays weren’t all that different from those thirty years later. Those bold enough to run their own businesses and bear the risks were always in the minority. But if they could earn a stable service fee on the side, just by investing time and effort—really, as long as the money was right, plenty of people would jump at the chance.
Chen Yidong and Qian Xuemei exchanged glances again.
If they did this, wouldn’t they cover all eight villages in Zhou Town in one go?
Would that be inappropriate? They’d be taking business away from the old man selling Braised Dried Tofu.
Wang Xiao never accepted moral coercion; she was quite ruthless: “Customers have the right to choose. If our braised food isn’t tasty, they can always go elsewhere or simply not eat braised food at all. By the way, the same delivery method could be used for supplying ingredients to the village shops—it depends on the actual demand. I’ve only briefly heard about this aspect and haven’t had the chance to do any on-site research yet. If the wholesale price is low and the profit margin is high, I think it’s still worth considering.”
Qian Xuemei fell silent. Whether or not they went into wholesale, if she wanted to focus on selling braised food, she definitely couldn’t manage her job at the garment factory. She couldn’t ask her husband to quit his job—his salary was higher than hers.
Wang Xiao continued unhurriedly: “When the business expands, we’ll have to hire help. The people we hire must be quick and efficient, reliable in character, and most importantly, hygienic. When it comes to food, uncleanliness will definitely lead to trouble.”
She went on and on, stirring Qian Xuemei and her husband’s hearts into a whirlpool of thoughts. If it weren’t so late, and with work, school, and business to attend to the next day, she could probably have talked all night.
Only after turning off the lights and lying in bed did Qian Xuemei grit her teeth and make up her mind: “Tomorrow, I’ll ask my parents to come and help.”
She was a native of Qianjia Village, and to outsiders, Chen Yidong, an outsider settling in the village, was practically seen as marrying into her family. To avoid suspicion and prevent gossip that might embarrass their son-in-law, her parents lived with her eldest brother, only coming to their daughter’s home to lend a hand during busy times.
Chen Yidong hesitated, “Is that appropriate? Your eldest brother and his wife might feel uncomfortable.”
“What’s inappropriate about it? We’ll pay my parents the same wages we pay outsiders. It’s already past First Frost, and next week marks the Start of Winter—there’s not much left to do in the fields. Why shouldn’t my parents come help? We don’t take the money they earn anyway; it all goes to my eldest brother’s family. Hmph! They should earn that money. With cash in hand, even my sister-in-law would put on a brighter smile for the sake of money.”
Chen Yidong wisely refrained from commenting.
The relationship between sisters-in-law was hardly different from that between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law—it mostly boiled down to familiarity breeding contempt. Living in the same village, it was perfectly normal for them to rub each other the wrong way.
Fortunately, Qian Xuemei didn’t need her husband’s support. After venting, she felt refreshed and simply ordered, “Let’s sleep.”
Tomorrow, there would be a pile of tasks waiting. If they really wanted to make the braised food business successful, they had to consider every aspect carefully.
Hmm, tomorrow she would have a thorough discussion with her niece and draft a concrete plan.
Little did this aunt know that her well-laid plans would be shattered by a bolt from the blue the very next day.
Wang Xiao had to return to the provincial capital immediately.
Why?
Work!
The wedding leave taken by the original host had long ended. The chemical research institute had directly called Zhouzhen Chemical Factory, notifying Wang Xiao: she must return to the institute for work at once.