Flowers in full bloom

Such a good wine with the meaning of "Tanhua Zhuangyuan" was not cheap, with one kilogram of wine costing one or two taels of silver. However, the wealthy families did not care about this little money and bought dozens of jars at a time. Therefore, it was sold out as soon as it was put on the shelves. It was put on the shelves from the end of March to the end of April. In just one month, Hualei earned more than 800 taels of silver.

Uncle Zhao on the farm was stunned and regretted that he had picked too few peach and pear flowers. Because there were too many flowers, which affected the fruiting, it was necessary to pick some flowers from each branch. In previous years, they were just thrown away.

But after Hualei fiddled with it, the flowers that were thrown away turned into nuggets of gold. If he had known this would happen, he would have picked more flowers to make wine. Uncle Zhao regretted it. But Hualei knew that he couldn't make as much wine as he wanted.

During the Dasheng Dynasty, it was stipulated that the annual output of two acres of farmland out of a hundred acres could be used to make wine. Now the output of one acre of land is around 300 to 350 kilograms, so the maximum amount of grain that can be used is less than 700 kilograms.

Even for these 700 jin, they had to report to the government and obtain a certificate before they could brew the wine. So even if they plucked all the flowers, they couldn't brew the wine. The selling price of one jin of brewed wine is usually between 400 and 700 wen.

I joined the gimmick of peach and pear blossoms, and made a lot of money by selling them at one pound per pound. So I am very satisfied.

Hualei also did not miss the following Dragon Boat Festival, because there is also a custom of eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival here, but the rice dumplings here basically follow the northern taste, and most of them are sweet.

Hualei specially launched salty rice dumplings with southern flavors. Large meat rice dumplings, medium meat rice dumplings, but unfortunately they didn’t make salted duck eggs, otherwise they could make egg yolk rice dumplings, but on the one hand, salt is now regulated and relatively expensive, and on the other hand, there are not a lot of duck eggs to buy near Shangjing City, at most they can go to the countryside to collect them, and the quantity is not large.

Hualei was too busy, so she didn't go to buy and make them. Although only salty flavors were introduced, in addition to the normal fist-sized zongzi, a mini version of Yikou Zongzi was also introduced, which is a bite-sized zongzi as the name suggests.

It is exquisite and small, and then nine of them are strung together. It is loved by many women from aristocratic families. Many people buy it to eat when they go out for an outing to enjoy the flowers, and it is sold in large quantities. The rice dumplings were only sold for more than half a month, and the sales stopped. Now there are no cold storage or refrigerators. After the Dragon Boat Festival, the weather becomes hot again, and the rice dumplings are easy to spoil. The rice dumplings themselves are made of glutinous rice, which is not easy to digest. The combination of the two can easily make you upset.

If they sell it to a rich family and get sick, they will be in trouble. So they would rather earn less money than bring trouble to their family.

After half a month, I earned about 180 taels.

Considering that everyone in the manor had been busy and dedicated for more than half a year since the purchase of the manor to make canned fruits, Hua Lei specially took out 200 taels of silver and distributed rewards to the people in the manor according to their contribution points.

Everyone in the village was so happy that they were all smiling and working harder. Xiao Kongge's wife gave him a son in February, and now he has been a hundred days old. Hualei also gave him brown sugar and cotton cloth, fulfilling her duty as a host. Xiao Kongge's family was very grateful, and Xiao Kongge also worked harder to teach everyone in the village to read and count.

At the beginning of December, Hua Lei bought the ownerless hillside next to Baihua Manor from the government. The land was about 38 acres in total, and she paid 100 taels of silver.

Hua Lei asked Uncle Zhao to bring a few men to pile the dead branches and leaves on the hillside into the dug pits, and taught Uncle Zhao and the others how to make compost. Fruit trees and crops both need fertilizers. Now there are no chemical fertilizers like those produced in the previous life, so the fertilizers for fruit trees and crops can only be piled up artificially in this way.

The branches of the trees that were growing well were also trimmed, and the dead trees that were growing poorly were directly cut down to be used as firewood. In this way, there would be no need to buy firewood for the farm and Qingyun Lane.

It turned out that Uncle Zhao paid special attention to the maintenance of that small bamboo forest. In the spring, he also ate delicious bamboo shoots, and he also expanded the bamboo forest to a large area.

Recently, since the bookstore became the only selling point for imperial examination books in Dongcheng District, sales have been rising steadily. Not only have imperial examination books increased in large quantities, but also storybooks, picture albums, pens, ink, paper and inkstones have increased significantly. The net profit every month exceeds one hundred taels of silver.

What is even more surprising is that the business of the bun shop next door has also improved a lot. Many students will stop by the bun shop to have a bowl of wontons or a basket of steamed buns after reading and buying books here. So the business is even better, with a net profit of 60 to 70 taels per month. The delivery of private schools and academies has also continued, and there are still dozens of taels of income every month.

As for the matter of selling buns and steamed buns at the market, considering that Uncle Fu had to go to the farm frequently and had no time to take care of it, the matter was left to Aunt Fang and her eldest daughter-in-law, leaving Aunt Fang with so much gratitude that she didn't know what to do.

Every day, the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law get up early to help Aunt Song make dumplings, steamed buns, and wontons. When it's almost time, the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law go to the market together to sell dumplings and steamed buns. They earn seven or eight taels of silver every month, which is almost more than the monthly salary of the eldest son Fang Youtian who is a yamen runner. Aunt Fang and the daughter-in-law are also very happy.

The printing house could also receive two to three hundred taels of silver every quarter, far exceeding Hua Lei's original expectation of four to five hundred taels per year.

Although there are some imperial examination books printed by private printing houses, Hualei has also been making official imperial examination books and defective books. After all, the cost of purchasing the books is low, and there is a lot of profit margin after they are repaired.

Moreover, from time to time, I can receive some books that are not available on the market, such as regional records of various places in the Great Sheng Dynasty, which are similar to the geography books in my previous life. I can also receive court reports similar to the news newspapers in my previous life.

Every time she saw these, Hualei asked Ping'an to keep a copy for herself and put it on the bookshelf.

The maids in Qihuayuan would receive about one or two taels of silver stuffed under their pillows by Hualei every month, which was almost equal to their own monthly salary.

Although the gatekeeper Zhang and the kitchen lady Li were illiterate, they would help with the needlework and handicrafts. Hualei was not stingy and gave them 500 to 800 coins every month. They were also very happy, after all, it was unexpected money.

As for Zhenzhu's bookstore in Xicheng District, it also had the convenience of being a sales point for the imperial examination books, so its business was very good, with an income of eighty or ninety taels of silver each month, which made Zhenzhu very happy.

Recently, the maids in her courtyard have learned from the maids in Qihuayuan that after doing their own work, they also help to repair books and start to earn extra money. And Zhenzhu still comes to Qihuayuan from time to time to discuss some business with Hualei.