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

When it was time for dinner, the whole family sat together in the courtyard. Mrs. Wu was not in a hurry to talk about business. After everyone had finished eating, she mentioned the matter of her granddaughter becoming a disciple.

"Dashan, do you know what kind of apprenticeship ceremony I need to prepare when I become your disciple?"

Song Youshan was also happy that his niece had such an opportunity.

He thought for a moment and said, "I heard outside that one has to pay six gifts when paying respect to a master. I heard that there are red dates, red beans, longans and other things with good meanings."

He scratched his head. "I'm not sure which ones they are specifically. Mom, you can ask the shopkeeper at the grocery store. They often sell these, so they'll definitely know."

Yang reminded her, "Can the apprenticeship ceremony of this scholar be the same? I think it would be better for us to sew the clothes and shoes by hand to show our sincerity."

Mrs. Wu clapped her hands and said, "That's a great idea! Prepare the six necessary rituals, as well as the clothes and shoes. The more gifts, the better."

Song Zhi, however, felt that Doctor Zheng was not such a materialistic person, and could not help but remind her, "Grandma, just make a pair of shoes first. You have to go to become my disciple the day after tomorrow, and I'm afraid you won't be able to handle the clothes."

"Becoming a disciple doesn't just mean showing respect to your master for the first day. You should show respect to your master regularly in the future, so you can prepare the clothes later!"

Wu thought the same and said, "Okay, then I'll prepare it as you say. I happen to have some ready-made soles and fine cloth in my box. I originally wanted to make them for Ah Ping, so I'll give them to your sister first, and then I'll make them for you again when I get back!"

Song Ping didn't care about this at all and said bluntly that it was more important for his younger sister to become his disciple.

The matter of becoming a disciple was thus temporarily settled.

After the discussion, the family did not rest, but continued to prepare for the banquet the next day.

The weather was hot, and Mrs. Wu was worried that the meat and vegetables she bought would go bad, so she pre-processed everything that could be cooked, and marinated those that could not be cooked with salt, and then placed them all in ceramic pots and hung them on the beams.

The dough also needs to be fermented first, and steamed buns will be started early tomorrow morning to prepare for the roof beam raising.

Of course, when making pastries, Song Zhi also specially made some extra mung bean cakes and millet cakes to entertain guests tomorrow.

The family was busy for a long time lighting the lights, and got up early the next morning to get ready.

When Song Zhi got up, Wu and Yang had already started kneading dough and steaming buns.

The steaming water covered the entire kitchen, and Song Zhi felt like she had entered a fairyland as soon as she stepped into the door.

She didn't dare to delay any longer, so she picked up the prepared mung bean cake and a plate of fruit leather that had been dried yesterday, said something to Wu and others, and hurried out.

After arriving at the county town by ox cart, Song Zhi had a clear goal and went straight to Wei Yue Fang.

After entering the door, Song Zhi did not rush to hand the basket to the waiter. After greeting Shopkeeper Zhou, she immediately took out a plate from the basket and said, "Shopkeeper Zhou, try this. This is a snack I made recently."

Shopkeeper Zhou first looked at the food rolled into small sticks on the plate with curiosity, then subconsciously reached out to pick one up and put it in his mouth and took a bite.

The texture is soft and chewy. When you chew it, the sour and sweet taste spreads on the tip of your tongue, making you salivate.

Shopkeeper Zhou's eyes suddenly lit up. His many years of business experience enabled him to keenly discover the business opportunity.

The weather is getting hotter day by day, and many ladies and old ladies have no appetite.

If this thing were sold in their shop, it would definitely attract a wave of customers!

Thinking of this, Shopkeeper Zhou did not hesitate, "What is this food? Miss Song, can you sell it exclusively to me?"

Song Zhi first introduced the name of the food, "I call it sweet fruit peel."

Then he rejected Shopkeeper Zhou's request, "I also want to sell it exclusively to you, so that I can save a lot of trouble."

"It's just that this stuff is very seasonal. If you make it all into food, it would probably weigh over a thousand pounds. Are you sure you can sell it all in such a short time?"

"Besides, the weather is hot now. Although this food can be kept for a while, it won't be as fresh as freshly made food."

"Besides, you guys in the food business are all about freshness and cleanliness. If your customers get sick, you'll be ruining your reputation!"

When Shopkeeper Zhou heard this, he immediately backed out. If this was like a gold and jade cake, it would be fine if it could be delivered to the shop in a fixed quantity every day.

He delivered dozens or even hundreds of kilograms of goods to the shop at one time. No matter how good his business was, it was impossible for him to sell all of them in one day.

Although Shopkeeper Zhou really wanted to obtain the exclusive sales rights, he also knew that Song Zhi was right.

His rationality returned, and after some consideration, he said, "I was not thoughtful enough. Could Miss Song supply our shop with goods?"

"I really enjoy eating this sweet fruit peel. I wonder how much a pound of it costs?"

In fact, before coming here, Song Zhi had already made a calculation in her mind.

She boiled more than one pound of sauce from the five or six pounds of fruit, and used the sauce to make about one pound of fruit leather.

Five catties of apricots cost ten cents, and the labor and firewood costs roughly fifteen cents. There was also almost half a catty of sugar, which cost twenty-five cents.

But because she made the malt sugar herself, the price of the sugar could be cut in half, so the final price was about thirty-eight cents.

In this way, not only can you make money, but the other party also has a large profit margin.

Song Zhi said, based on the principle of win-win, "Thirty-eight coins per pound!"

Song Zhi was worried that the other party would think it was expensive, so she made a special effort to explain, "Manager Zhou, don't think I'm expensive. It really takes a lot of sugar to make this sweet peel..."

Shopkeeper Zhou was delighted to hear this, because all the candied fruits in his shop were priced at fifty cents per pound.

This was obviously lower than he had expected. He immediately raised his hand to stop Song Zhi from saying anything else. "Miss Song, you don't have to say anything more. I agree with this price."

I even couldn't wait to ask, "Can it be delivered tomorrow? I'll order five pounds to test the waters first."

"If it's not possible tomorrow, let's do it the day after tomorrow. I'll deliver it together with the pastries the day after tomorrow!" Song Zhi replied.

It wouldn't make any difference if it was a day or two late. After the two of them had discussed it, Song Zhi accepted the payment and left.