webnovelfull Chapter 243 Tea Fragrance Pavilion
Chapter 243 Tea Fragrance Pavilion
Tian Tian returned to Songxi County without stopping.
In Songxi County, Rong Yan'er had also chosen a shop and started to open it up and renovate it.
Unlike the elegant and Zen-like decor of tea shops, dessert shops are decorated in a more feminine style.
Rong Yan'er had thought of everything: pink and white curtains, various floral decorations, cute tables, chairs and cabinets, plush carpets, soft cushions and seat cushions.
Tian Tian did the same, installing solar panels on the roof of her dessert shop, and then installing all the necessary equipment such as air conditioners, refrigerators, ice makers, ice cream machines, and juicers.
Finally, I also bought a lot of board games and some plush toys from the space.
Rong Yan'er posted a job advertisement and found people in less than half a day.
It's easy to make all kinds of desserts.
The fruit delivered from the Rong family's field, I chopped it up, juiced it, and scooped some ice from the ice machine...
Then I'll make some milk tea and some small glutinous rice balls.
The most difficult thing is making pastries in an oven.
But everything had very detailed recipes provided by Tian Tian, so everyone learned them very quickly.
The shop was named by Rong Yan'er; it's called Sweetheart Abode.
The shop's signboard was inscribed by Empress Li; her calligraphy was beautiful and lovely, just right.
And so, Sweetheart Abode opened at the tail end of summer.
From the moment Rong Yan'er began preparing to open the shop until its official opening, it had already attracted a lot of attention.
Especially when she saw Rong Yan'er and Tian Tian frequently going in and out of the new shop.
Everyone had been talking about it for a while now: the Rong family was partnering with the manager of Baishi Teahouse to open a shop, but no one knew what kind of shop it would be.
"They sell ice cream, drinks, and pastries from Baishi Tea House."
"I've heard there are many things I've never seen before."
Have you ever heard of a melon called watermelon?
"No."
"Have you ever seen a red fruit called cherry tomato?"
"No."
"I might buy one to try later."
"Then I'll try it too."
Rong Yan'er invited her best friends to support her, but these girls all looked down on her.
"Yan'er, why did you have to open a shop all of a sudden?"
"That's right, you used to run one too, but you closed it down."
"It's a complete waste of money. You might as well buy more jewelry."
"Indeed, Ruyi Pavilion has received quite a few good things again..."
Rong Yan'er glanced at Tian Tian, her chin held higher than the others, "You guys won't say that in a moment."
As soon as a group of girls reached the shop entrance, they felt a chill emanating from inside.
"It's so refreshing!" They immediately changed their expressions.
"Yan'er, why is it so cool here?"
"Oh my god, could it be..."
"Could it be that treasure from Baishi County that keeps the place warm in winter and cool in summer?"
Rong Yan'er looked around at everyone triumphantly, "That's right, it's the treasure of Baishi County that's warm in winter and cool in summer."
"My business partner is that Miss Tian Er from Baishi County."
"Really?"
"I heard that the food she makes is all very novel."
"Does Sweetheart's Abode also have a lot of novel and interesting foods?"
Rong Yan'er nodded affirmatively, "Of course."
Not only do they offer novel frozen treats, but they're also perfect for this weather.
There are also many novel pastries, including the tea-scented pastries that Cha Xiang Zhai will be releasing.
She couldn't understand the meaning of the names of many of the pastries.
For example, egg tarts, mochi, cakes, sandwiches, snowflake crisps, cream puffs, etc...
Everything was incredibly delicious!!
"You don't need to order, I'll arrange it for you."
Rong Yan'er took on everything directly.
Arrange delicious and beautiful ice cream and pastries for her younger sisters.
Each dessert was served in a pretty pink bowl, with a crisp waffle cone bowl containing three scoops of ice cream, topped with various nuts and jams, garnished with fruit and mint leaves, and garnished with a small cookie.
The pastries were all kinds of things, and each one looked very appetizing.
"Oh my god, what are all these? They're so beautiful!" All the girls stared wide-eyed.
"These are... matcha box cakes, taro box cakes, crispy box cakes, chestnut box cakes..."
"And egg tarts..."
"Try it quickly."
"Let's eat for a while first, then we'll play some games."
"what game?"
"There are... Ludo, Gomoku, Monopoly..."
When we arrived, everyone said it was boring, but we ended up staying for a whole day and left still wanting more.
"Oh dear, I'm having such bad luck today. I've rolled the dice so many times and only managed to get three airplanes. There's still one that just won't come up."
"Me too, our planes keep getting crashed back."
"This is so interesting, let's come again tomorrow."
"Let's do something different tomorrow."
Rong Yan'er reminded them, "Didn't we say we were going to Ruyi Pavilion?"
"I'm not going anymore. Ruyi Pavilion always says they have new items, but the styles are always the same. It's boring."
"Yeah, it's so hot in that shop, it's not as cool as here."
"That's settled then, come again tomorrow."
"Okay, I'll come first thing tomorrow morning."
That evening, the shopkeeper calculated the day's revenue.
"We sold five rooms today, each for four hours, at two hundred coins per hour, for a total of four taels of silver."
"The total cost of ice cream and desserts in these five private rooms is ten taels of silver."
"A total of thirty taels were sold from the first floor and the window."
Ice cream is priced at around fifty coins, while pastries are priced at around twenty coins.
Because of the rarity of the ingredients, the price doesn't seem expensive.
The income for that day was forty-four taels.
Tian Tian wasn't entirely satisfied, after all, it couldn't compare to Baishi Teahouse, but this was only the first day, and there was still room for improvement.
Rong Yan'er was very happy.
"That's forty-four taels a day, so that's more than thirteen hundred taels a month."
"One year can yield 16,000 taels."
"My God, I've never earned so much money before."
Tian Tian thought to herself, "This is nothing."
Once word gets out, business will only get better and better.
What girl could resist these pastries and desserts?
"I'm leaving the business of Sweetheart's Abode to you. I'm very busy right now."
Rong Yan'er knew she was referring to the opening of Chaxiangzhai. "You go ahead, I'll take care of things here."
"It definitely won't go bankrupt this time."
Tian Tian left Songxi County the next morning, while Rong Yan'er was completely bewildered when she opened her shop for business the next day.
Rong Yan'er looked around in a panic at the girls crowding at the door...
"Everyone, don't rush, one at a time..." The shop assistants were all women. "Boss, please don't block the way here."
Rong Yan'er awkwardly moved a few steps to the side.
"Why are there so many people today..."
The female manager, whom they had hired at a high price, pulled her behind the counter. "The feedback from customers who came yesterday was excellent. Once word gets out, we're sure to have more and more customers."
"Boss, you'll get used to it."
I'm used to it...
Rong Yan'er said she wasn't so quick to get used to it...
After all, the number of customers at her previous shop dwindled day by day, and then... that was it.
"There are no seats inside, everyone please wait a moment, or you can go to the window to buy them."
Rong Yan'er was shocked. There were more than twenty private rooms on the second floor of the shop, and seventy or eighty seats on the first floor.
Is that all?
Rong Yan'er went around to the window area. There were five windows in total: two for cashiers and three for pickups.
She initially thought using two cash register windows would be wasteful, but unexpectedly...
Right now, the two cash registers are already too busy to keep up with demand, so the three cash registers are even busier.
However, everyone behaved well; after paying, they took their receipts and lined up to pick up their goods.
On this day, the shopkeeper did his accounts.
Goodness, it's three times the number from the previous day.
"That much?" Rong Yan'er exclaimed in surprise, "One hundred and thirty-seven taels?! Earning that much in a day?!"
"There are this many." The shopkeeper handed the ledger to Rong Yan'er.
"No wonder the second young lady wanted to combine the two shops."
After the shops were combined, there were more spaces on the first floor, and the number of rooms on the second floor doubled.
Otherwise, there would be even more people waiting outside today.
“Miss Rong, you didn’t see it, there are no seats left in the shop, and those girls at the door would rather wait in the cold wind coming from the shop than leave.”
After Rong Yan'er finished reading the ledger, she returned it to the shopkeeper. "This thing called air conditioning from Miss Tian Er is really amazing."
Her sisters all come from wealthy families, and today they asked her if she could reserve a long-term room in the shop so they could come to escape the summer heat and spend the winter there.
Tian Tian was unaware of the grand occasion at Sweetheart Pavilion; she didn't arrive in Xiushui County until evening.
Shen Zhian specially reserved a fixed room for her at the estate, so that she would have a place to stay whenever she came to Xiushui County.
The next day, the two went to the shop together.
"When will the plaque that Aunt Li asked someone to write arrive?" The shop is almost ready, except for the plaque.
"Let's wait," Tian Tian said calmly.
"That's Mr. Su Bing's calligraphy, of course we have to wait." Shen Zhian was anxious, but he didn't know what to say.
Su Bing's calligraphy is priceless.
As long as he can write, he will wait, even if it takes a year or two, it will be worth it.
“The chefs are already able to make tea snacks according to the recipes you gave us, let’s try making them today.”
The chefs Shen Zhian hired were all skilled workers; the one in charge had been a chef for over twenty years.
Although this is the first time I've heard of using tea leaves in cooking, it's not that difficult to make as long as you treat tea leaves as a regular ingredient.
After practicing for a few days, the chefs were full of confidence.
Hearing that Miss Tian Er was coming to taste the dishes, everyone was eager to try them.
Those of them who were cooks had long heard that the dishes prepared by Tian Er, a girl from Baishi County, were particularly novel.
I was skeptical before, but after seeing the recipes for the tea snacks, I'm completely convinced.
They all wanted to show off in front of the Second Miss when she tasted the dishes.
When cooking, I'm more serious and meticulous than when I practiced before.
"Brothers, the second daughter is here. Get ready to serve the dishes."
With a shout from the head cook, everyone worked even harder.
A short while later, the manager called out again, "Serve the dishes."
One after another, tea and snacks were served to Tian Tian and Shen Zhian's private room.
The cooks waited anxiously outside.
"Try it." Shen Zhian picked up his chopsticks.
Tian Tian picked one up and tried the tea-flavored spare ribs first.
"The tea leaves weren't steeped long enough, and they were fried too much, so they turned a bit dark."
"The tea-scented shrimp is excellent, just right."
"The tea-flavored pastry is too strong. Use less tea leaves. Everything else is good."
"The tea eggs can be soaked in the soup a little longer."
"Everything else is fine, that's good enough."
After tasting all the dishes on the table, there was only one minor problem.
"These chefs are truly experienced; they pick things up so quickly," Tian Tian couldn't help but admire.
When she first opened Baishi Teahouse and Baishi Hot Pot Shop, many of the kitchen staff she hired were novices, and she had to train them for a long time.
“During this period without a plaque, I plan to invite some literati to come and taste the dishes,” Shen Zhian said.
Tian Tian nodded, "That's fine too."
"Aunt Li's plaque will probably take a while to arrive. I'll have someone deliver it to you then. You can arrange the opening yourself."
"At that time... the rice in various places should be harvested, and I'm afraid I won't have time to come."
Shen Zhian counted on his fingers and realized that... it was almost time to harvest the rice.
"Then leave the opening to me. Come and take a look when you have time."
This is the only arrangement we can make for now.
Tian Tian definitely needs to make a trip to each county town to buy up the surplus rice.
With the acquisition of rice, her system can be upgraded.
She was really looking forward to... what would happen after the space was upgraded.
"Sweet girl, you're going to all these places... don't work too hard." Shen Zhian admonished like an elder, "You're so young, you can't overwork yourself."
*
Tian Tian started arranging the purchase of rice grains in Baishi County, where rice seedlings were first cultivated.
The people of Baishi County were already familiar with the process; they would keep the tax grain, store two years' worth of grain, and sell the rest to Tian Tian.
This way, you don't need to set aside special space at home to store so much grain.
The idea of reserving grain for two years was proposed by Li Huaiyuan.
His point was that Yunzhou Prefecture had enjoyed favorable weather in recent years, but precisely because of this, it was necessary to prepare for the worst and guard against disasters.
The grain reserves for the next two years need to be elevated during storage to prevent damage from heavy rain or dampness.
In this way, each household can only sell about one or two thousand catties of grain to Tian Tian.
The final statistics show that Baishi County has 3,400 households and 8,500 mu of farmland.
Tian Tian purchased a total of five million catties of grain, spending 25,000 taels of silver.
These grains were resold to the system for exactly 100,000 taels of silver.
The night before leaving Baishi County for the next county...
"System upgrade successful."
"Current system level: LV2"
Tian Tian couldn't wait to check the list of items available for purchase in the system...
Previously, rice, flour, emergency supplies, various farm tools, electrical appliances...
There are many more pages now.
Upon closer inspection, Tian Tian was quite surprised.
The new products added after this upgrade are... all kinds of skincare and makeup items.
Not only finished products, but also semi-finished products...
Facial cleanser, body wash, face mask...
Other ingredients include olive oil, almond oil, coconut oil, glycerin, vitamin E, pearl powder, and ginseng essential oil.