Courtyard House: Is Xu Damao a childless man? Let me help.

After saying that, Ye Jianchuan turned around and went to the front yard. Banggeng stood there, sulking, watching Ye Jianchuan's back. Then, with a hint of resentment, he turned back to look at Jia Zhangshi, whose house was now quiet.

Although she had taken a day off, she was still more active than before when she stayed home doing nothing. So, not long after dinner, Jia Zhangshi went straight to bed to rest.

At this moment, Banggeng thought of his 'disliked' grandmother and was immediately filled with anger. If it weren't for the fact that he still needed to get money from her, Banggeng probably would have already turned against her.

However, Banggeng didn't have any good ideas, so after feeling depressed for a while, he turned around and headed to Uncle Yi's house.

As for Ye Jianchuan, after delivering the goods to the middle courtyard, he carried a bowl of popcorn to the front yard, distributed some to the residents there, and finally went directly to Uncle San's house.

"Teacher Yan, come here, I've made some popcorn. You can have Jiefang, Jiekuang, and Jiedi take some to eat."

"Oh, by the way, could you also ask your sons Yan Jiefang and Yan Jiekuang to come out for a bit? I need to talk to them about something."

Although Third Uncle was a little confused about what was going on, he didn't stand on ceremony when he smelled the aroma of popcorn and immediately called out Yan Jiecheng and Yan Jiekuang.

Moreover, Third Uncle seemed afraid that he had disturbed them, so after calling the two brothers out, he prepared to turn around and go back inside.

However, Ye Jianchuan eventually stopped him, since there was no point in hiding it. "Jiefang, Jiekuang, are you still on holiday? When do you guys start school?"

"Less than two weeks, right?"

Ye Jianchuan nodded. Two weeks is more than enough time. In fact, a week would be more than enough for this job.

"Less than two weeks left, right? Okay, then I'll give you a chance to earn some pocket money. Do you want it?"

Upon hearing this, the two brothers immediately nodded. Although their third uncle was not as stingy as before, he was still not very generous with his allowance, since his salary was still not high.

So when the two brothers heard about the opportunity to earn pocket money, they naturally wouldn't miss it.

Ye Jianchuan nodded, then said with a smile, "You guys should try this first."

After the popcorn was served to the two brothers, they took a bite and immediately looked at Ye Jianchuan with wide eyes.

Ye Jianchuan didn't keep them in suspense any longer and asked directly, "Do you think you can sell this?"

Hearing Ye Jianchuan's words, the two brothers flinched slightly, because since Ye Jianchuan said he was going to sell them, it naturally made them think of the crime of 'speculation and profiteering'.

Seeing the two brothers like this, Ye Jianchuan immediately said, "You don't need to worry about the crime of speculation, because I'm not really asking you to sell this, but to give it away for free."

Since they're not charging money, it doesn't count as speculation, right?

The two brothers were completely dumbfounded upon hearing Ye Jianchuan's words. Give it away? If we give it away... how will our reward be calculated?

Ye Jianchuan said calmly, "Don't worry, I won't let you come for nothing. One yuan a night shouldn't be cheap, right? How about it? Want to do it?"

The two brothers perked up when they heard it was one yuan a day and nodded in agreement. Fortunately, their third uncle asked them how the so-called "gift" would work.

Ye Jianchuan continued to explain, "I'm not just giving these things away randomly. I need you to take these things to the movie theater."

After someone buys a movie ticket, you give them a small bag of popcorn and tell them it's a new product the food factory is about to launch. You're giving it away for free to see if the public will accept it.

Remember, this is only for people who buy tickets, not for others to exchange their ticket stubs for yours. Don't let others take advantage of you, understand?

The two brothers nodded and prepared to take the bowl of popcorn from Ye Jianchuan's hands. Ye Jianchuan did hand it over, but shook his head and said...

"Keep these for yourselves, there's not much left. Let's start this from tomorrow."

If government officials question you, just tell them the truth and let them come find me.

After saying that, Ye Jianchuan turned to look at Uncle San beside him and said, "Teacher Yan, after dinner tomorrow, just have the two brothers come to my house to get some popcorn."

"By the way, Teacher Yan, if you're free too, you could also get involved and help keep an eye on things. That would be great."

Uncle San didn't hesitate and nodded in agreement. One reason was that he was also on holiday with the school, so he didn't need to go to work at the school.

On the other hand, it's also because this job is done at night, and he doesn't have much to do at night. So why not take this opportunity to earn some money?

Besides, I'm still a little worried about my two sons, so having them look after them would put my mind at ease.

Chapter 215 Ye Jianchuan's 'Abstract Painting'

After settling things over with Third Uncle, Ye Jianchuan returned to the central courtyard. Sha Zhu had already taken the popcorn he had just distributed and strolled around the backyard.

Well, saying I took a stroll around the backyard really just meant I went to Uncle Er's house.

Xu Damao? There's no need to pay any attention to him. The two sides have long been enemies who will never speak to each other again. This is not something that can be changed by sending a couple of popcorns.

So, besides Xu Damao, who else lives in this backyard? The deaf old lady? Although Sha Zhu did go there once, the old lady only 'enjoyed' one piece of popcorn before Sha Zhu took it away.

Unfortunately, the old lady's teeth no longer allow her to eat such crunchy raw food, so if she wants to eat popcorn, she can only put it in her mouth.

However, if you eat it this way, you can indeed taste the sugar coating on the outside of the popcorn at first, which is sweet and quite nice.

But what happens next? Once the popcorn gets soggy, it loses its original texture and becomes less appealing. Plus, the sweetness has already been consumed beforehand, so the flavor is gone. Naturally, the old lady wouldn't like it.

Apart from Uncle Er, Xu Damao, and the deaf old lady, only Ye Jianchuan and Qin Huairu's family remained in the backyard of the 27 courtyard house.

Needless to say, Ye Jianchuan made this popcorn. Why would we need to save some for Ye Jianchuan?

Qin Huairu didn't need to go there specifically, because when the pots were being distributed, all the families in the central courtyard only received about half a pot.

The front yard was divided into a whole basin, since Ye Jianchuan had given all the remaining portions to Third Uncle's family.

However, when they arrived at the backyard, Uncle Er's family didn't feel comfortable taking much, and in the end, they only took less than one-fifth of the remaining popcorn.

The remaining popcorn, aside from keeping some for Sha Zhu's family, could only be given to Qin Huairu.

So we'll just deliver this to Ye Jianchuan when he gets back.

When Ye Jianchuan returned from the front yard, Sha Zhu went up to him and said, "There are only a few families in this back yard. I asked Uncle Er's family to take some."

I ignored Xu Damao. I went to see the old lady, but it seems her teeth can't handle this. Could you take the rest to Sister Qin?

Ye Jianchuan nodded, then said to Sha Zhu, "Brother Zhu, thank you so much for today. If you didn't know how to make this butter, I would probably have had to spend a lot of time finding someone outside to learn."

Sha Zhu didn't say anything, just waved his hand and went home, while Ye Jianchuan took the remaining popcorn to Qin Huairu's house.

The reason Ye Jianchuan asked the Yan brothers to give away popcorn for free was to promote the product as quickly as possible.

Although this model sounds incredible now, it was very popular in later generations. Things like supermarket tastings are just promotions for this model.

Furthermore, Ye Jianchuan's approach is more targeted, as he only gives the gift to those who buy movie tickets, thus preventing others from taking advantage of him.

The most crucial point is that Ye Jianchuan can get reimbursed by Factory Director Zhou for the money spent on this method! So since it's not his own money, Ye Jianchuan doesn't feel the pinch at all.

Even after the popcorn flavor was decided, Ye Jianchuan didn't rest after returning home. Instead, he worked overtime to make a folding cup out of cardboard and other materials.

Then he randomly drew a few sketches to show how to make popcorn. In just one night, Ye Jianchuan successfully completed all the designs for the popcorn.

The next day, Ye Jianchuan went directly to the food factory and found Director Zhou. "Uncle Zhou, take a look at what I made last night. This should make things much simpler and clearer, right?"

Factory Director Zhou took a small cardboard piece and a piece of paper with fancy drawings from Ye Jianchuan's hand, looking completely bewildered. "What's this?"

Ye Jianchuan quickly explained, "This little cardboard is actually foldable. You see, if you bend it over like this and unfold it, it becomes a complete cup."

Then, the popcorn they make themselves can be stored in this cup, making it much more convenient whether they're eating it at the movie theater or entertaining guests at home.

Factory Director Zhou nodded, then looked at another item. "This cup is nice, but what is this...?"

Ye Jianchuan scratched his head awkwardly, because his drawing skills were really a bit 'abstract', but he could only bite the bullet and say it.

"Ahem... This is a drawing I made myself, showing people who have bought our product how to properly make their own popcorn."

Initially, I wanted to describe it directly in words, but then I thought that many people might be too lazy to read just text, so I felt that adding illustrations would be better.

Factory Director Zhou looked at the illustration on the paper with a strange expression, then at Ye Jianchuan, and couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Hahahaha... This is the illustration you drew? Hahaha!! Jianchuan, I've finally discovered your weakness, 237!"

Your drawing is so ugly! If I hadn't looked closely, I wouldn't have recognized that dark, murky thing in it as an iron pot!

Seeing Factory Director Zhou smiling so happily, Ye Jianchuan was speechless. He had already tried his best to draw it last night!

Fortunately, Director Zhou had laughed enough and quickly recovered. "Alright, these two things of yours do have some merit, but this painting... let's find someone more professional to paint it."

Oh, right, anything else? Didn't you say yesterday you wanted to adjust the flavor of this popcorn? Packaging and stuff are things we need to consider later. The most important thing, I think, is the taste of our product!

Ye Jianchuan naturally knew about this, and immediately nodded, then said, "Uncle Zhou, don't worry, how could I not be prepared for this when I'm doing something?"

Last night, I discussed this with my brother-in-law and figured out how to adjust the flavor.

However, there's a problem: I need a machine to help me with the mixing, otherwise doing it manually is too tiring.

Chapter 216 Giving Factory Director Zhou a 'Lesson'

Seeing the disbelieving look on Factory Director Zhou's face, Ye Jianchuan said, "Uncle Zhou, let's go to the kitchen together again. I'll demonstrate for you and you'll understand."

Factory Director Zhou was already quite satisfied with yesterday's popcorn, so when Ye Jianchuan said there were improvements, he was naturally very curious.

Adding to the fact that Ye Jianchuan had just said that piqued Director Zhou's curiosity, the two of them quickly went to the kitchen.

And then... the scene of me and Shazhu manually stirring things up last night was repeated again today in the food factory kitchen.

This time, Ye Jianchuan was too lazy to do it himself. Since there were so many kitchen helpers in the canteen and it wasn't mealtime yet, they were free. So Ye Jianchuan decisively grabbed a few strong laborers to help with the mixing.

Ye Jianchuan quickly got the butter out, and then he repeated the steps from yesterday slightly. However, the finished product turned out completely different from yesterday's.

Yesterday's popcorn did smell a bit, but the smell was mostly the caramelized aroma of popped corn.

But today's is completely different. Today's flavor is overflowing with milky aroma, and it can travel a very long distance.

After inviting everyone in the kitchen to try it, Factory Director Zhou immediately made a decision: this product should start mass production by next week at the latest!

As for the matter Ye Jianchuan mentioned, which requires a machine for mixing, it's not a particularly difficult task for a food factory.

After all, the jam in the sandwich bread that Ye Jianchuan provided before was made using a mixer, so the food factory itself has machines that can act as mixing tools.

Moreover, Zhou, the factory manager of this popcorn factory, has figured it out: apart from the churned butter, the rest of the ingredients basically don't need any processing.

This means that the production line for this product is actually not as complex as the previous sandwiches, which is why Factory Director Zhou decided to start production next week.

The remaining materials were left to Nan Yi, who was instructed to make the remaining popcorn for the workers in the canteen and distribute it at the factory so that everyone could have a taste. Afterward, Director Zhou took Ye Jianchuan back to his office.

"Jianchuan! You did a great job this time. Once the new workshop is built, you can go directly to the new workshop as the workshop director!"

Ye Jianchuan was not in a hurry, but continued to say to Director Zhou, "Uncle Zhou, actually I have some other ideas about this popcorn I made this time."

"Uncle Zhou, what price do you think we should set for this?"

Factory Director Zhou pondered for a moment, then said, "This stuff doesn't use many corn kernels, so it's not worth much money."