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Delicate Flower - Chapter 100

Published at 21st of September 2022 08:17:22 AM


Chapter 100

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Chapter 100 – Supercede

If Yu Tang could do it, then couldn’t he try to do the same?

Yu Yuan contemplated and felt his confidence return.

He asked, “I’ve never managed the fields, farms or a forest land before, so how I can do it properly? And how can I make father feel that I am capable of managing the family’s assets?”

At first, Yu Tang was worried that Yu Yuan would not trust her. Now that Yu Yuan was willing to listen to her, she was able to offer more advice.

“Didn’t we visit the countryside estate when we performed the ancestral rites before?” She explained, “I didn’t pay much attention to the fields, but the forest was filled with different varieties of trees. I remember hearing people say that the forest on our side of the family plot was suitable to grow a certain type of fruit tree for fruit preserves. If we manage to successfully grow those trees, when the time comes, the fruits can be harvested, made into fruit preserves and sold.”

Back when both Yu brothers split the family’s inheritance, Yu Bo figured that Yu Wen was only interested in academic pursuits, so he voluntarily gave the good portion of land to Yu Wen and took the forest lands which yielded little income if any. Thus, the forest land that Yu Tang mentioned actually belonged to Yu Yuan’s family. All this while, that plot of forest land was only used for cutting down trees and selling firewood in the winter; apart from that there was nothing else to gain.

Yu Yuan’s eyes lit up and he asked eagerly, “Think further. Who was the one that told you about this? Has anyone ever made such preserves? What was the taste like? Even if we could make fruit preserves, where would our family find a master who was skilled in making it?”

Most of the sugar in Lin’an City came from Guangxi, so it was comparably more expensive. For low income families, sometimes when they have porridge during the confinement period after childbirth, they would use fruit preserves instead of sugar. That was why fruit preserves were especially popular. However good fruit preserves mostly came from Hunan. Even if someone knew how to do it, it was also an exclusive craft, which not many people were willing to share.

Yu Tang patted her chest and smiled with a twinkle in her eye, “Why not ask me?”

Yu Yuan looked at her sly expression and was suddenly filled with admiration towards his sister as she still kept her cheerfulness despite all she had been through.

He couldn’t help but smile broadly as he stretched his hand toward Yu Tang and said semi-seriously, “Please teach me, dear sister!”

Or perhaps because his mind was free of worries, Yu Yuan’s laughter was a bit loud, which attracted the attention of others on the boat.

The Gu family’s people also turned their attention to him.

Except that they didn’t know each other.

The people from the Gu family thought that they were worldly wise and experienced, but they did not expect to see a pair of siblings with such unique temperaments and appearances on the boat travelling to the countryside. As they sighed in their hearts, they couldn’t help but think that Lin’an was also a beautiful place with remarkable talents and individuals and perhaps their future young master who was respected by their madam for his “good looks” would also be like these two siblings ……

Yuyuan soon realized that they were disturbing the others. He turned red, lowered his head and kept quiet, which caused everyone to withdraw their gazes and start talking again amongst themselves.

“Sister, do you have a plan?” Yu Yuan asked, with a lowered voice, “Come on, don’t keep it a secret.”

Yu Tang stifled a laugh as she lowering her voice just like Yu Yuan, saying “I can make fruits preserves, but only on a much smaller scale. If we were to sell to vendors and traders, we still have to find an economical way to make fruits preserves to sell at a profit. As for the kind of fruits that can be grown in our family’s forest, you’ll have to investigate. However, I heard that the tree is about the height of a house, the fruit is red, about the size of a thumb, the taste is sour and sweet, with a seed in its core. When making preserves, we have to take out the core, and the resulting preserves will be sour and sweet, especially appetizing and a good palate cleanser, and many children or elderly people who do not have an appetite would buy some and eat a few at home. They …… *coughs*, once we have successfully made some fruit preserves we can use this as our marketing tool and it will certainly sell very well.”

In her previous life, Madam Gao often scolded Yu Yuan about that forest land, even Yu Tang, who seldom visited them, would see such outbursts frequently. She became curious about the forest land they sold to the Pei family, who turned it into a land that brought in a decent amount of revenue. On one of her visits to her parents’ grave to offer incense, she visited that forest land. Although the Pei family was strict about people accessing their property, once they heard that she was the young lady from the Yu family who married into the Li family as a widow, and after reporting this to third master Pei, they respectfully invited her in to have a look and even presented her with two large boxes of the very best preserves as gifts.

Thinking back, she owed Pei Yan a favor.

Not only that, the steward in charge of the mountain forest once told her proudly that the fruit was called sea buckthorn, which was something Master Pei found when he visited a friend of his who was serving as an official in the Northwest region.

Thinking of this, Yu Tang’s face burned a little and she felt a little guilty.

She mused, “If our family could grow that kind of fruit and make preserves, it would be good if we could sell them in the Pei family’s store.”

This business of making and selling preserves, the ones who earn the most would be those merchants selling them and not those who toiled to make them. Just like those cotton farmers who could not afford cotton clothes, rice farmers with no rice to eat, those were profited the most were those merchants.

Yu yuan had never done anything like this before, and did not know how profitable this business was. The most important thing for him was to rebuild the Yu family’s lacquer store and make it successful. Doing preserves, for him was more about proving his ability, so he could have a bigger say in matters.

He remarked, “The Pei family may not want to collaborate with us, seeing as they do bigger deals and not this kind of minor ones. If you are able to make it, it is the same if we ask Yao San’er to sell it for us. Now we just have to find the kind of tree you described.”

This was different.

If this really works out, their family would only be taking over laborious work that needs to be done in the early stages, but the profits would still belong to the Pei Family, just like in her previous life.

Although this plan was only in its formative stages, and things were not quite clear at the moment, it’s not appropriate for them calculate the benefits and cost yet. However, this matter weighed on Yu Tang’s conscience, so she felt she owed Yu Yuan an explanation.

“Brother, the Pei family has shown a great deal of kindness towards our family,” she insisted, “what our Yu family has today, it’s all thanks to the Pei family, we can’t forget that fact. This fruit preserve business, as long as it’s our family’s business venture, we must sell it to the Pei family. Whatever businesses that’s fated for our family will belong to us.”

Although she was fortunate enough to be reborn, she could not harm the interests of others and seek to steal possessions and benefits which did not originally belong to her.

Yu Yuan thought it over carefully and felt that Yu Tang’s words made sense, so he had no further objections and said, “Then this matter is thus settled. When we return, I’ll talk to father and see what he says.” He grinned at Yu Tang, “If father lets me manage the store, then you’ll have to go to the forest land and plant those trees. That plot of land is just lying there unused, and now since there’s a way to utilize it, we can’t just leave it there and waste it.”

Yu Tang was speechless.

Yu Yuan grinned cheekily.

Yu Tang didn’t know if she should laugh or cry.

Was this a case of lifting a stone only to drop it on your own feet?

They went home to Lin’an City without a hitch.

In Lin’an city, everyone was preparing to celebrate the New Year’s.

Yu Tang had just finished dressing up before Yu Wen came and took her to eldest uncle’s house.

Perhaps Yu Bo had just returned from the store or that he did not go to the store at all, but was actually waiting for her in the house. After greeting her eldest uncle, Yu Bo had someone call Yu Yuan over, who had only just finished freshening up. He asked the two of them, “How was the trip? Did you gain any insights from your trip to Hangzhou City?”

He sounded somewhat impatient with excitement.

Yu Yuan exchanged looks with Yu Tang, and he spoke on their behalf. “It went pretty well! I went to Yao San’er’s place, we had a meal with Second supervisor Tong, and I took sister out for a stroll on the streets, and found that the stores in Hangzhou City all have their own specialties, either selling things cheaper, or that the store staff were exceptionally well-trained, or that they possess unique techniques and skillsets.”

He calmly shared the various things that happened in the two days they were in Hangzhou City. Only two days had passed, but Yu Tang suddenly felt that her older cousin seemed to be a lot more confident, and gradually she could see the beginnings of that successful and self-assured figure from her previous life.

Was it because he now had a goal to achieve?

Yu Tang mused, but her thoughts couldn’t help but wander off to that sea buckthorn fruit.

She couldn’t share with her brother about her rebirth experience, so naturally she couldn’t ask him to look for the sea buckthorn tree directly. Just relying on her description to find the sea buckthorn tree was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack, perhaps it would be several years before they found anything, which was much too slow for her older cousin who was anxious for eldest uncle to recognise him. The best way was for her to figure out how to find the sea buckthorn tree through her memories of her past life and then succeed in planting it as soon as possible.

Who else knew about this tree then, besides Pei Yan and the Pei family?

Yu Tang struggled to think.

As expected, their family’s store was not doing well, apart from the sales on the opening day, there was little to no sales in the past few days. However, Yu Bo still refused to let Yu Yuan manage the store.

In the words of her eldest uncle, her eldest cousin hasn’t even started a family yet, so what would he know about managing a business?

As for Yu Yuan’s proposal that he should take care of the fields and the forest land, Yu Bo only scoffed and retorted, “What can you do with the income from those few acres of fields and forest land? You should stop dreaming and follow me to learn the business. After you and Lady Xiang get married, have a few big and chubby grandchildren. By that time, I will be ready to retire and then the business of the store will be handed over to you and Ah-tang. I will work with your uncle to help you discipline your children, and make them into scholars.”

Yu Yuan got really depressed.

Why was he now inferior to Yutang?

The family’s store was not given to him solely to manage and to look after Yu Tang, but to the two of them.

Then what’s the point of him being an elder brother?

Was his role no more than to father a few big chubby grandchildren?

He sat alone in the house and sulked for a while.

But after his anger subsided and he thought about it further, it was true.

Yu Tang, with her own ability has gained his father’s respect. Somehow, she has already managed to stand on equal footing with him. In addition, the recent events shown that Yu Tang indeed has the ability as equals with him, no, it could be said that Yu Tang was much more assertive and capable than he was.

He, as an elder brother, was already inferior to his sister.

Yu Yuan paced around in the house several times before running to Yu Tang’s house.





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