Song Sanniang's Journey to Wealth

But now I have to customize the mooncake box and lava mold. I remember that when I made mooncakes myself before, it took about 30 minutes to make a batch of mooncakes, which included the time for baking without egg liquid and the time for baking again after brushing with egg liquid.

If we exclude the time for making mooncakes, and calculate that baking the cakes takes eight hours a day, we can bake sixteen batches.

She was not sure how the business would be, so she decided to start with ten batches, with twenty pieces on a tray, which means she would make two hundred pieces a day.

Song Sanniang found a gift shop she had seen before. This shop specializes in making custom gift boxes or various molds for others.

After entering the house, the servant came to ask Song Sanniang's purpose and called the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper listened to her request and called a fifty-year-old master.

The master had a dark face and a simple smile. His hands were rough and covered with old scars of varying sizes. He was obviously an experienced carpenter.

The custom-made flow core mold was not made of silicone. In order to facilitate demoulding, the master listened to her request and designed it into a wooden box for her.

The upper layer is a thin plate with 24 round holes, and the lower layer is a box with round ball grooves corresponding to the 24 round holes.

When making the flowing filling, put the upper and lower layers together and squeeze the filling in.

When you want to demould, just remove the top thin plate and separate the frozen ball filling.

Because I wasn't sure how the business would be at that time, I decided to order according to the quantity and ordered twenty.

Because it needs to open many round holes, the price is a little higher than ordinary wooden boxes, 60 coins each.

After negotiating the price, we settled on fifty-eight coins each, spending one hundred and sixty coins for one tael.

After the order was completed, we started discussing making the mooncake box.

The paper box is only made in round shape and comes in two colors, one is dark blue, like the deep color of the night sky, and the other is red, which makes people feel festive at first glance.

The paper box is made of cardboard, and the lid and the box body are covered with paper painted with auspicious clouds and full moon patterns.

The outer diameter of the box lid and the outer diameter of the box bottom are made of original cardboard color.

There is also a red decorative seal sticker in the middle of the box lid.

The sealing sticker is a three-finger-wide strip with a diamond pattern in the middle and the word "Joy" written in large letters.

The paper box also has a cardboard handle in the original color, which looks simple and elegant.

The inside is very simple, just use cardboard to set the space for the four mooncakes.

Wooden boxes are available in two shapes: square and rectangular

The square one is made of old redwood with wavy patterns.

The lid of the box is decorated with embroidered cloth with peacock tail feathers.

In the middle, there is a palm-width rice-white gold-rimmed seal sticker for decoration.

In the middle of the seal is a plum blossom pattern painted in gold.

The four characters "reunion, joy and happiness" are arranged from left to right on the four sides of the plum blossom pattern.

I originally planned to make it into a basket, but considering it would be difficult to place, I had to use a silk ribbon to carry it. The whole box looks very elegant.

The rectangular material and pattern are the same as the square one, but it is made into a flip-top with seven moon cakes placed inside, called Seven Stars and the Moon.

A paper box costs thirty-eight coins, and forty were ordered.

A square wooden box costs 188 wen each, and 40 of them were ordered.

A rectangular wooden box cost 218 wen, and twenty rectangular boxes were custom-made.

Finally, I selected four types of pancake molds that the store already had, five of each.

One is in the shape of a plum blossom, with a carved pistil in the middle.

One is carved on all four sides with the word "reunion" printed in the middle.

One is the Jade Rabbit pattern.

The last one has carved patterns on the four sides and a full moon printed in the middle.

The price of these molds is the same, ten cents each, and I spent two hundred cents.

The mooncake boxes cost a total of 13 taels, 600 wen. Pay a deposit of 3 taels first and pick up the goods on the third day.

Song Sanniang also asked carefully whether the price would increase if she continued to order the same thing in the future, whether the materials would still be sufficient, and whether the construction period would be the same.

The shopkeeper's surname was Yan. He smiled and said, "Little girl, I'm not afraid of offending you.

Your order is only a small order here.

We have a large stock of all the styles and panels that we can display in our store.

If you come to us to place your order earlier, we may not have time to accept your order.

Other bakeries place orders for mooncake boxes one or two months in advance.

There are hundreds or even thousands of orders for a single box. It's too late for you to do it now. "After saying that, he shook his head.

It was Song Sanniang's turn to feel embarrassed. She hesitantly said, "I just remembered it now. I thought I'd sell it for about a week."

Manager Yan nodded and said, "Well, you are a capable girl who can think of making money during the season.

I think the result you discussed with the master is better than that of many of my clients. I’m sure your products will be very popular.”

Song Sanniang was happy again after hearing this, and hurriedly thanked him, "Thank you for your kind words, if the business is good, I will give you a box."

Shopkeeper Yan laughed out loud, "Then I'll wait."

After leaving the gift shop, Song Sanniang went to the fish market. She found a fish stall run by an auntie and pointed to the bucket of crushed ice in front of her and asked, "Sister, I want to ask, where do you get the ice for freezing fish?"

There were no customers at the time, so the aunt thought Song Sanniang was here to sell fish. When she heard what she said, she smiled like a flower.

"Oh my, my, little girl, I'm already a grandmother, and you still call me sister."

As she spoke, she pulled Sanniang over. The ice was made from saltpeter. She told Sanniang in detail the method of making ice, the ratio of saltpeter to water, etc.

Song Sanniang really didn't expect that she would teach him everything she knew. She was very moved. She bought a fish from her, promised to give her some sweet soup, and went to the Nanyang Trading Company to see if they had any butter.

Nanyang Trading Company's products come from a wide range of sources, including goods from all over the world.

Overseas countries, the Western Regions and Northern Frontiers, Inner Mongolia and Tubo, and domestic prefectures and counties, the things inside are also strange and varied, covering all aspects of food, clothing, housing and transportation.

There are gold and jade ornaments, pearl and diamond jewelry, music boxes, watches and pocket watches, perfumes, spices, carpets, blankets, various exotic clothing, pepper, cumin, coffee, betel nut, coconut oil, etc.

The Nanyang Commercial Bank has two floors. The first floor is a storefront with four rooms. When Song Sanniang entered, the store was bustling with people of all ages, men and women, some came to look around, some came to choose gifts, and some came to look for rare treasures.

Song Sanniang entered the store, and the waiters in the store were busy entertaining the guests.

She had no choice but to look for herself first. She actually saw dates in the place where Western specialties were sold, so she had no choice but to find a servant to ask.

The servant scratched his head. "We don't have much butter at home, but we do have cream. It's stored in the cellar with the wine. The shopkeeper said it needs to be kept at a low temperature."

When Song Sanniang heard this, she thought cream would be fine, so she asked the servant to bring it over. The servant went and came back with a wooden jar of bees. He handed it to Song Sanniang.

"This is butter. Merchants from the Western Regions and overseas like it very much. Our shopkeeper just bought a batch, and there is not much left."

Song Sanniang asked, "Do you know what it's like inside?"

The servant said, "Yes, it's just like lard, but it's yellow in color."

Song Sanniang knew that this was butter, but now it was called cream. If there was no cream, she could only make it herself.

I asked about the price. A can of this kind weighs one jin, and costs 500 wen, which is quite expensive.

But for something that needs to be kept at low temperatures, ice is probably needed during transportation.

And I don’t know whether it is imported from overseas or from the Western Regions. The journey is long, and the price here is already very reasonable.

She paid for a jar, took the receipt, and left the butter here.

Because their cellar was dug deep, only this temperature could preserve the water. Her cellar had to wait until she bought saltpeter to make ice before it could be stored.

This trip made Song Sanniang sweat all over. When she returned to Song Laoer's stall, he had been waiting for her there for a while. The two of them bought some vegetables and hurried to find Song Dazhi.