It's hard for my elder sister. I rely on the mountains to farm and pay off my debts.

The next day, before dawn, except for the villagers who were assigned to make jelly early in the morning, other villagers also rushed to the Song family early.

The millstone in the yard was turning with a whirring sound, and the women were busy grinding beans and washing starch.

Everyone worked as hard as they could, as if they were worried that the jelly they made wouldn't be enough to sell.

Song Zhi was awakened by the noise outside the yard. She rubbed her eyes and slowly sat up.

At that moment, Mrs. Wu rushed into her granddaughter's room, took her hand and said anxiously, "Azhi, the villagers just came to ask me how much jelly we can give them. I have no idea!"

"Grandma, don't be so anxious. First, tell me how much jelly we can make at a time, and how many villagers are willing to mix it with jelly to sell?"

Mrs. Wu knew this and said hurriedly, "If we cook three pots at the same time, it shouldn't be a problem to make 400 yuan each. As for how many people want to sell jelly, I think at least half of them want to make jelly with other ingredients today."

"As for the remaining half, except for those at Grandma Tian and Daya's homes who already have few people, the others probably want to wait and see for another two days."

Song Zhi nodded to show that she understood.

After a moment's contemplation, she said, "Because we promised the county magistrate, we have to keep the market open for half a month to attract people. I'll still serve jelly in the morning as usual."

"Don't we have three pots boiling at the same time now? We can prepare some extra to take with us today. The jelly we make later can be exchanged for the villagers. If they can't exchange it all, we can ask the clan leader to send it to the county town by ox cart to sell."

Hearing her granddaughter's words, Wu finally understood what was going on and nodded, "Okay, I know what to do."

Song Zhi originally thought that everything was fine and was about to stand up, but her grandmother grabbed her hand again.

"By the way, Ah Zhi, you need to go to the city today and buy some more mung beans. I don't think the beans we have at home will last until tomorrow."

Song Zhi suddenly had an idea and suggested, "Grandma, you can also ask the villagers to exchange mung beans for jelly with us!"

She knew very well that the people in the countryside lived a hard life and were reluctant to spend money easily, but if she could exchange it with beans grown in her own home, they would definitely be willing to try it.

She added, "Also, you can tell the villagers that if someone wants to sell jelly in other villages, they can exchange it with mung beans. If mung beans are unavailable, peas are also acceptable."

"However, the quality of the beans must be up to standard. There must be no rotten or shriveled beans!"

In fact, compared to mung beans, the most commonly grown dry goods in Qishui County, besides soybeans, are peas.

If she hadn't wanted to make mung bean cakes with mung beans at the beginning, she would have made mung bean jelly.

Compared with mung bean jelly, pea jelly is more popular in modern times. Most of the jelly that can be seen everywhere in the commercial streets are also made of pea starch.

And in a few days, it will be the season for harvesting peas in large quantities.

She had some vague guesses in her mind that if jelly became more popular and the demand for mung beans increased, she was worried that the price of mung beans would go up.

Making jelly is a very hard job, and the money earned is just hard-earned money.

If the price of raw materials eventually rises, causing the price of jelly to also rise, this is not what she wants to see.

Mrs. Wu had no objection to her granddaughter's suggestion, but she asked with some confusion, "We are making mung bean jelly, so what are we going to do with all those peas?"

Song Zhi, "Not every household in the countryside grows mung beans, but they certainly grow peas. That way, the jelly will sell better, right?"

This point did not convince Mrs. Wu. She still insisted, "But why would we need so many peas?"

Song Zhi deliberately leaned close to Wu's ear and lowered her voice, "Change some milk first. I want to try and see if it's really useless."

Mrs. Wu was stunned for a moment, and after a long while she said, "You mean, these peas can also be made into jelly?" After saying that, she widened her eyes and looked very surprised.

Song Zhi didn't seem very sure. She just said, "Let's give it a try. Mung beans and peas are both beans. If it works, we'll have another choice."

"If it doesn't work, it's just a waste of beans. We'll still have to bear this little loss."

"Also, I'm worried that with the popularity of mung bean jelly, the price of mung beans will also increase. If peas can also be used to make jelly, wouldn't that give people another option?"

Mrs. Wu nodded, then suddenly thought of something and asked, "If peas can really be made into jelly, should we also tell everyone about it?"

Song Zhi said without hesitation, "Of course!"

"Grandma, you have to know that the villagers now know how to make jelly. If the price of mung beans goes up, do you think the villagers would think of trying other beans?"

This is a very obvious thing.

We are not stupid, we are just uneducated and have little experience.

The working people are still very wise.

Mrs. Wu suddenly realized something. She rubbed her granddaughter's messy head and chuckled, "Our Ah Zhi is really smart. It was Grandma who was wrong."

"Okay, you can sleep a little longer. I'll go talk to everyone about this." After saying that, she walked away with a relaxed pace.

Mrs. Wu returned to the courtyard and told the villagers what she had just discussed with her granddaughter.

The villagers immediately started talking.

Although the jelly business has been booming these days, we still have to make them pay to buy it before we sell it ourselves.

Those families who didn't have much money to begin with hesitated and didn't dare to try it rashly.

After hearing what Wu said, they immediately changed their attitude as they were ready to observe the situation first.

"Well, if I can exchange it for beans, I'll give it a try."

"Me too, me too."

Some of them ran back to tell their families the good news before going to work.

When Song Zhi went out with her elder brother, many villagers had gathered in the small farmyard, carrying beans and waiting to exchange them for jelly.

Because of this time, Song Zhi had to go into the city to the pastry shop.

Song Ping simply brought his younger sister Song Huan with him, so that she could help out when there were many people around.

Song An was still assigned by him to follow Song Zhi.

This was also for her safety, so Song Zhi was very tactful and did not refuse.

After the brothers and sisters entered the city, Song Zhi led her younger brother to the pastry shop.

When Song Zhi approached the pastry shop, she saw the young man standing by the door looking at her, and he turned around and called out to her.

Soon, Manager Zhou was seen running out of the shop holding up his clothes.

He hurriedly trotted forward and said enthusiastically, "Miss Song, you're finally here!"

"What you told me yesterday is starting to make sense!"

"My young master is very interested in what you said yesterday. Please wait here for a moment. I think the young master wants to discuss what you said yesterday!"

Song Zhi nodded and followed Manager Zhou into the shop.