Everything was good, but it also depended on others’ knowledge.

Su Qingyu took the store staff to try many times before finally making a finished product that satisfied her. If she couldn’t exchange it for money, she would be very sad.

Xu Shaoyan ate one and stopped eating, and ate dried fruits instead, and ate several kinds in a row, and liked it very much.

“Master Xu, what do you think if I transport these dried vegetables and fruits to the north to sell? People in the north should be short of vegetables and fruits in winter. Although they also dry vegetables in autumn, if we have more varieties, they can also afford to eat them. Do you think there will be a market?”

Seeing Xu Shaoyan in deep thought, he said, “Besides the North, how about selling them to people along the coast, along the river, and on the water? There are also some caravans. They barter between the north and the south all year round and spend a lot of time eating and living in the wild. If there are some easy-to-carry dried vegetables and some ready-to-eat dried vegetables and fruits to help them supplement the nutrients they lack, do you think there is a market for them?”

Seeing that he didn’t speak, she said, “Dried vegetables and fruits contain a lot of good things that are very effective for the human body. If you eat less of them, your body functions will decline, your hands and feet will peel, and you will also lose your appetite, develop anemia, have poor resistance, bleeding dental pulp, and loose teeth…”

“Madam Su, to get me to buy him, you don’t have to say so many terrible things, right?”

“I’m not talking nonsense, it’s just that everyone has these symptoms and doesn’t know why it happened.”

“Then how did Madam Su know about it?”

“There are always predecessors who have summarized and explored. Master Xu can also find out by asking experienced doctors. I wonder if Master Xu has ever come into contact with some sailors living on the water or the sea? If you come into contact with them, you will find that many of them will have rotten mouth corners, mouth ulcers, decreased eyesight, back and leg pain, scurvy, etc. This is because they have not eaten vegetables and fruits for a long time.”

Xu Shaoyan looked serious after hearing this, thinking about some of the sailors he had come into contact with. It seemed that they all had these symptoms. Many people returned to land, and some of the diseases had not been cured for many years.

Was it really because of the lack of vegetables and fruits?

Xu Shaoyan looked at the dried vegetables and fruits on the table seriously for the first time.

In addition to the caravans and sailors going out, could they also be sold to the army?

“I wonder if the Young Master has ever camped outdoors? If it’s winter, after a few days of eating dry biscuits, you want to eat something hot with water. As long as there is water, put a handful of rice to cook porridge, and then put a few handfuls of chopped dried vegetables, you will have hot rice and hot dishes to eat. If you have southern rice noodles, add a handful of dried vegetables when cooking, and you will have a bowl of hot noodle soup. In the wild in winter, if you can have a bite, it’s really worth it.”

“And these things are all dehydrated. As long as they are not exposed to moisture, they can be stored for a long time. They are not heavy and easy to carry. Dried vegetables can be soaked and used for cooking. When it is inconvenient to cook, you can carry dried vegetables and fruits with you to eat…”

Su Qingyu talked a lot, like a salesman, chattering to her potential customers. She poured out all the advantages of the product, waiting for the other party to wave his hand and say “I will buy all!”

But in the end, Xu Shaoyan left without expressing his opinion.

After eating various dishes made with dried vegetables, he took some vegetable crisps, dried fruits and vegetables back, and did not say anything before leaving.

Granny Zhou and Su Qingliu became anxious when they saw that the people had left and the goods had not been sold.

“Qing’an, did Mr. Xu say he wanted them?”

Su Qingyu shook her head. She didn’t understand his attitude.

Although she was a little anxious to sell the goods in the cellar, it was not urgent. If not, she would go to the county to see if there was a way to get them without a caravan. Anyway, they could still be stored for a long time, so she comforted the two of them.

On the other hand, after Xu Shaoyan returned, he asked his chef to use the dried vegetables to make a few dishes, and also gave the family vegetable crisps and dried fruits to eat, and everyone who ate them said they were good. His son hated eating carrots the most, but he still scrambled for them this time and cried when he ran out of them.

Xu Shaoyan then worked non-stop, using his connections to contact some of the crew members and caravan members who had been on the ship to see if they had the symptoms Su Qingyu mentioned. He remembered what Su Qingyu had said to him: “Since the South has made rice noodles, which are convenient to carry, the North likes to eat noodles. To make it easier to carry, Mr. Xu can try to dehydrate the noodles and make it easier to carry…”

Xu Shaoyan asked her, if he had someone figure out how to make dehydrated noodles, he could even make dehydrated vegetables and fruits, shouldn’t she be worried?

Unexpectedly, Madam Su was not panicked after hearing this, and said to him, “If Mr. Xu realizes that this is a good thing and wants to sell it to all prefectures and places in the court, then the quantity produced by my small workshop will definitely not be enough to supply the goods. I know my own limitations. In the beginning, I just thought of this method because I was afraid of wasting the leftovers. Moreover, I don’t have a farm, so even if I have the ability, I don’t have the supply. If others cut off my supply, I can’t do business. As long as Mr. Xu wants my goods, he doesn’t compete with me for the markets in Pingchuan County and Guangning Prefecture. I am just a woman and can’t go further than that…”

Xu Shaoyan didn’t go out for a month, and he and his men stayed in the kitchen to try various things…

If these dehydrated noodles, vegetables and fruits could be made that were easy to carry, and introduced to the army with their family being the only supplier, it could increase the share of the Xu family’s supply to the army!

The business in the army was a big business.

He would not compete with her for the market in this prefecture, and he would remember her favor.

Su Qingyu didn’t wait for Xu Shaoyan, and she was very anxious in the first few days, but she gradually let it go. If Xu Shaoyan didn’t work out, she would find another way.

After autumn, Father Su and Su Dahu brought back cartloads of fruits to the store.

Su Qingyu also became busy and had no time to think about it.

Some fruits that were not fully ripe were put in the cellar, and those that were ripe were put in the store for sale. Su Qingyu used the fruit ripening technique to put a lot of fruits on the shelves these days, many days earlier than others, and made a lot of money.

The other stores didn’t know what was going on, so they just thought she had someone go to far away to collect them. The fruits ripen earlier than the local fruits.

So Su Qingyu was far ahead of the other stores in terms of business with fruits.

Although there was a lot of profit in fruits, the loss was also great. Fruit farmers only picked fruits when they were ripe. If they only purchased them at this time, they would lose a lot of money during transportation. If they were not sold after being transported back and put on the shelves for one or two days, they would be overripe and not look good, so they couldn’t be sold.

The risk was too great.

Several big stores dared not sell large quantities of fruits, and only Su Qingyu dared to buy and sell large quantities.

She asked Su Dahu and Father Su to pick the fruits from other people’s orchards when they were 70% to 80% ripe. On the way back, the fruits were not fully ripe, so there was not much loss. After transporting them back, some of them were ripened and put on the shelves for sale, and some were washed and cut to make dried fruits.

She put them on the shelves earlier than others, and they looked better than others. Fruit alone became the largest income of the store. Even the profits of cooked meat and raw meat were far less than that.

Relying on the fruit item, many customers were brought back to the store.

After all, no one wanted to buy some vegetables from this store, some meat from that store, and some fruit from the next store. If a one-stop service allowed customers to buy all the goods that satisfied them, who would be willing to run to three stores?

Did they think their feet were not working enough?

(End of this chapter)