Chapter 99

The housewarming banquet was spent in a lively and joyful atmosphere.

Everyone ate to their heart’s content, and after Farewell, Fan Jin saw the guests off.

After closing the door, Shuiqing led the children to start washing dishes and cleaning the courtyard.

The area where they built the house is extremely large, with spacious rooms and a very wide courtyard, allowing sunlight to shine through unobstructed.

When they originally built the thatched house, they left this side of the spring so that the new house could be built nearby for convenient access to water.

Now, instead of building a new house next to the spring, they have directly encircled the spring within the courtyard.

Water is crucially important to them, especially with their large family, and they cannot be at ease with it placed outside the courtyard.

Whether it’s washing up, cooking, washing clothes, or brewing wine… everything requires water, and the convenience of dumping dirty water directly into the clear ditch to drain outside is extremely convenient.

After everyone finished cleaning up, Shuiqing followed Yan Qiu and the others to check on the brewing of the wine.

The kitchen is located on the east side, originally two rooms, one for cooking and one for dining.

Later, for brewing wine, they directly added two more rooms, fortunately large enough, making a total of four rooms.

On one side is still the kitchen and dining hall, while on the other side, they also built a stove with a row of three stove holes for steaming rice conveniently. Another room houses the large wine vat.

To ensure good fermentation in winter, the brewing room of Shuiqing borrowed the pattern of northern kang beds. There, rice is steamed and fires are burned, and smoke flows along the smoke duct, gradually warming the temperature here.

The temperature is easy to control, and there’s no need for cotton quilts anymore.

After all, they are currently producing 200 pounds of wine per day and storing three to five days’ worth at a time. Depending on cotton quilts would be too troublesome.

“Mother, sales haven’t increased for several days and might even drop,” Fan He reported, looking up.

“In these past few days, Brother Ling and I have visited many places, but none have worked out. Brother Ling went to inquire, and other places’ wine is cheaper than ours!”

Shuiqing calmly asked, “How much cheaper?”

Business people always consider the issue of price reduction in sales.

After all, they are not the only ones brewing wine in the market. If other places start a price war, preventing them from selling is the most common commercial strategy.

Fan He originally thought this was a big deal, unable to eat or sleep well for several days. Now that they’ve moved to a new home, he thought Auntie could finally relax, so he dared to tell her.

He was afraid she would suffer like he did, unable to eat or sleep well, managing three meals a day and taking care of a large group of people and matters every day, exhausting her body.

Unexpectedly, Auntie wasn’t worried at all, just as calm as asking about the weather today.

Affected by Auntie’s calm mood, Fan He gradually settled down and replied, “It’s cheaper by eight wen per catty, and the restaurant can even lower it by two wen per catty.”

Yan Qiu and the others silently calculated that one catty of rice could produce up to two catties of rice wine, with a net profit of about 30 wen. The other places directly lowered it by ten wen per catty, meaning a loss of 20 wen for two catties!

“Auntie, other places have lowered their prices too much!” Xinghui took a deep breath, worriedly saying.

“So should we lower ours too?” Fan Jiang understood it very simply. If others could lower their prices, they could too! Let’s see who can outlast whom.

Upon hearing the price reduction figure, Shuiqing immediately understood that this was an attempt to drive their family to ruin with price cuts.

Originally, one catty of rice brewed wine could earn thirty wen, but now it’s only earning ten wen. This is cutting profits to the bone!

It’s important to note that most families hire workers; city labor isn’t cheap, costing several tens of wen per day. Some even have to rent shopfronts, which is a significant expense—much higher than their own costs.

And now, this figure is profitable for their own family, but for them, it might not just be unprofitable—it could be a loss!

But they would rather incur losses just to lower prices, simply to prevent their own wine from selling out.

As long as their wine doesn’t sell, with time passing, they can only withdraw from Guangning Prefecture. By then, they will be able to set prices and continue making money.

She looked only at Fan He, asking, “Did those taverns lower their prices?”

Fan He was stunned, not knowing why Auntie asked this.

Shuiqing asked again.

Fan He shook his head. “I… I didn’t ask.”

He only inquired about the purchasing price of the wine, not the selling price at the taverns.

Next to him, Ling Ran looked up at Shuiqing, pursed his lips, and spoke, “I asked. The taverns didn’t lower their prices by a single penny;

We’ve tasted their wine as usual, without any improvement, not as good as Yan Qiu’s sweet brew.”

Shuiqing approvingly glanced at Ling Ran, thinking that this child’s keen reaction was quite unusual—perhaps a matter of innate talent?

Yet Fan He was still young, following behind Ling Ran and honing his skills. In the future, he would undoubtedly also excel.

Upon hearing Ling Ran’s words, Fan He’s mind flashed with a thought. He quickly looked at Auntie, waiting to see if his thought was correct!

Shuiqing taught her children on the spot, “Lowering prices is the most useless tactic. Ultimately, it leads to mutual harm.

The most important thing is to ensure the quality of our own products. If others have better products than ours, even without lowering prices, we won’t be able to compete. That’s when we should really worry and focus on improving our recipes to enhance quality.

The taverns didn’t lower their prices; their wine tastes the same as before. Customers didn’t get any benefit; all the profit from the price cut goes straight to the tavern owners!

For the same price, customers naturally prefer better-tasting products. Even if the taverns reduced their prices by a few wen, most customers who can afford to drink at taverns will choose what they like rather than just what’s cheap.”

After all, during this era, alcohol was a luxury item. Those who could afford to drink at taverns wouldn’t compromise on taste for a few wen.

Only necessities like coarse grains, coarse cloth, and hemp cloth, which were the lowest-level essentials, would be bought cheaper even if they were a wen cheaper.

She looked at her eldest daughter and instructed, “Yan Qiu, from today, make less each day, with a daily supply of about 150 pounds.”

“Okay,” Yan Qiu replied without any objection.

Fan Jiang didn’t understand. “Mother, we used to sell two hundred pounds a day. The taverns alone ordered one hundred twenty to one hundred thirty pounds a day. Is the rest enough for those individual customers to buy?”

“Not enough is just right,” Shuiqing said, and everyone in the circle looked puzzled. She explained calmly, “Limited daily supply means only those who miss can only go early the next day.

You think about it. A wine that can only be bought by queuing early, one that can be bought with a fluttering gate anytime, would you buy it if it changed?”

“The wine that queues early!” Including Ling Ran, the answer was surprisingly consistent.

They didn’t know why they felt that people who bought a lot would inevitably be better tasting or better tasting.

Shuiqing laughed. This is the psychology of people.

It’s not to blame them. Everyone is ordinary, and everyone makes similar choices.

She continued, “If you wanted to eat a certain cake today, and when you didn’t buy it, would you think about buying it the next day? Or do you have to?”