They've all separated, so what does it matter to me if they get poorer and poorer?

Chapter 218 The Strawberries Are Ripe

"These are fresh fruits called strawberries. I don't grow many at home, but they taste really good. Grandma, try them and see if they're delicious."

"These fruits are small and pretty, and they smell sweet too!"

Granny Xi had never seen anything like it before and found it quite rare; it was indeed beautiful.

She took a bite, and her eyes lit up instantly. "Madam Xu, what's this called again?"

"This is called strawberry, what do you think, Granny?"

"Not just okay, this tastes really good! Strawberries, strawberries! Madam Xu is truly a capable person, managing to grow such wonderful things. I'm sure you'll love it when you see it."

"That's good!"

Granny Xi carefully carried the basket of strawberries herself, refusing to accept the live chicken and eggs, only wanting the strawberries and tomatoes.

“It wasn’t easy for Madam Xu to raise two chickens. Keep them for yourself. As for the eggs, we have plenty in our household. Madam Xu can keep them to nourish her body and also to help Liang Tongsheng.”

Xu Zhichun couldn't refuse, so he had no choice but to agree.

After the Qin family visited, Manager Tang also specially sent a senior employee to deliver holiday gifts: mooncakes, pastries, fresh fruit, and a box of dried goods, which he said were dried shrimp and scallops from the southern sea, and would be delicious in cooking or soup.

Qingshan County is astronomically far from the sea, and seafood is rarely sold in this small county town.

Only large restaurants like Lianhua Restaurant would send people directly to the provincial capital to make purchases.

This box of dried goods is obviously very valuable.

Xu Zhichun thanked him repeatedly.

In return, besides tomatoes and chicken, there was also half a basket of bright red strawberries.

The day after Tang received the strawberries, when Xu Zhichun set up her stall, Tang personally invited her to the Biyue Tea House to discuss matters.

Manager Tang rubbed his hands together, his face beaming with smiles.

"Madam Xu, hehe, these strawberries are really a wonderful thing. I wonder if Madam Xu could provide some? Our Lotus Restaurant needs them, and so does the Green Water Tea House. Madam Xu, we'll take as many as you have, and the price is negotiable."

Wealthy families are already tired of eating all sorts of fruits like grapes, oranges, peaches, plums, apricots, persimmons, hawthorns, and pears. These strawberries are beautiful, sweet, and rare, so they are sure to be very popular.

Only a fool would refuse a restaurant or teahouse.

Xu Zhichun hesitated, "If I could sell them, I would have approached Manager Tang long ago, not before. The quantity is really not much. Maybe there will be more next year, but it's hard to say. Strawberries are precious and difficult to cultivate."

In this era without plastic greenhouses, it is indeed not easy to get good quality strawberries by growing them outdoors. Xu Zhichun's warehouse has countless organic fertilizers and various other fertilizers available. With meticulous care, he was able to obtain these good-looking strawberries.

However, compared to the space in the warehouse, there is still a significant gap.

Even if she could take a lot out of it to participate, she couldn't take as much as she wanted.

So let alone now, even if cultivation is expanded next year, she doesn't know whether the yield can maintain a stable quality and appearance.

Shopkeeper Tang nodded repeatedly: "I know, I know. Good stuff can't be produced in large quantities. As long as Madam Xu says, we'll produce as much as we can. Just give it to us."

Xu Zhichun mentally calculated, "About three to five kilograms a day, no more than that."

So little.

Manager Tang sighed.

Pity.

However, it seems to make sense. Strawberries are different from other fruits. Other fruits have a skin to protect the flesh, but strawberries don't.

It's ready to eat after washing.

The epidermis is very delicate.

It breaks easily with the slightest touch. It's normal that production is low for such a delicate product.

Manager Tang's logic, it must be said, makes a lot of sense.

"Alright, three or five catties it is. Just bring them over, Madam Xu. How about five qian of silver per catty?"

"Row."

Xu Zhichun readily agreed.

Even if strawberries are rare and fresh, they are still just fruit, not precious ginseng, bird's nest, shark fin, or abalone. They may sell for five mace a pound, which is fine for wealthy people, but if they are sold for several ounces a pound, they may not sell well.

At most, I'll just try it out for the first time.

Everyone cares about cost-effectiveness.

Four catties a day should be no problem, that's two taels of silver.

Shopkeeper Tang left happily.

Xu Zhichun picked a full basket and sent it to Madam Lu to let her try some fresh fruit.

Madam Lu was very pleased, but regretted that the strawberries could not be kept for long. She specially asked Granny Ji to ask Xu Zhichun to send some more over the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival when she delivered the festival gifts, and she would buy them with silver.

Her little girl will definitely love it.

Xu Zhichun agreed.

On the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, they sent another basket of strawberries to Madam Lu and another basket to the Qin family, and then took Liang Mingxuan home to celebrate the festival.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family reunion, and every household attaches great importance to it. They eat mooncakes, kill chickens and buy meat to worship gods and ancestors, and worship the moon. Uncle Qitian and his family also took a day off to come back and celebrate the festival.

This was the first important holiday that Xu Zhichun had celebrated after transmigrating. Although it was just her and her brother-in-law, they still prepared a very sumptuous dinner.

After dinner, a table was set up in the yard with fruits, snacks, mooncakes, and other treats for moon-gazing.

After dinner, Aunt Zhu'er, Uncle Qi Tian, ​​Zeng Xiaoyan and her husband, Zeng Xiaojuan and her daughter, Chunfen, and many other women from other families in the village came to visit, making Xu Zhichun's courtyard extremely lively.

Everyone ate fruits, snacks, mooncakes, and gossiped while admiring the moon, their laughter and chatter filling the air until the moon was high in the sky.

Xu Zhichun originally thought this Mid-Autumn Festival night would be very quiet, with only the three of them—her uncle and sister-in-law, plus the moon in the sky—but she didn't expect it to be so lively and vibrant.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, a fresh fruit called strawberry quickly became popular among the wealthy.

It looks delicious and tastes great, and more importantly, it's rare and expensive; if the servants in the household are a step too slow, they won't be able to buy it.

When Master Zeng learned that the strawberries were still supplied by Xu Zhichun, he felt a lump in his throat again.

Then, remembering that Zeng Xiaoyan hadn't delivered any gifts before the Mid-Autumn Festival, only Zeng Xiaojuan had come once, bringing two bundles of noodles, twenty cheap eggs, and some vegetables, Master Zeng became even angrier.

"Good, good, good! Third Sister really doesn't care about her family at all. And what about the Liang family? Do they even consider us, their in-laws, as relatives?"

Madam Zeng forced a smile and advised, "Master, don't be angry. Even without her, would our Zeng family's business fail? Would our Zeng family still depend on her?"

In the past, when Master Zeng would scold and berate Zeng Xiaoyan with utter disgust, Madam Zeng would feel very happy and pleased. But now, when she heard him scolding her, she felt inexplicably nervous and uneasy—she was afraid that he would find out that Zeng Xiaoyan had been kicked out of the house by her.

She had a feeling that if the master found out, he would definitely scold her.

They've been married for so long, she doesn't want to get scolded.

I don't want to be scolded because of Zeng Xiaoyan. This is absurd.

She doesn't accept it.

(End of this chapter)