The sponsorship was something Gu Yin had long thought of.
As early as a few days before the lantern festival, she and Mrs. Wang took time to visit the county magistrate.
Before the trial of the Wang family's case was over, they had already come here once. Because they knew that the county magistrate had a clean sleeve, they didn't send anything valuable, just snacks made by Gu Yin herself.
After asking someone to pass the information, the county magistrate met them and asked them if they had encountered anything. After all, most people come to the yamen to complain.
Gu Yin said no, and directly stated her intention to sponsor the lantern festival.
The Lantern Festival is a custom in Hanshan Town. It is said that the yamen organizes it. However, the yamen does not charge money from merchants for this event. It only charges the basic rent of the venue. Of course, the rent collected is used to maintain the basic operations of the town.
The county magistrate asked her what she needed from the yamen, and Gu Yin said: "Actually, there is no need to do anything, just put our own banners around the lantern festival to promote our moon cakes. Regarding the sponsorship fee, I also listened to the eldest man. the meaning of."
"It's just like this..." The county magistrate thought for a while, "Then this official thinks it's just a little effort, and it's not troublesome. You don't need the sponsorship fee you mentioned. It happened that last time you made suggestions for the case, I haven't rewarded you yet. ."
The county magistrate has a clear temperament of rewards and punishments. Knowing that Wang Shi had adopted Gu Ye, he also rewarded her. In that trial, Gu Yin offered advice twice, which greatly improved the efficiency of handling the case. Although most of the credit was taken by the prefect, the county magistrate was also rewarded, and he was given a half-hearted mention in the assessment. Later, when Gu Yinlai delivered snacks, he mentioned this.
At that time, Gu Yin refused, and she offered the proposal because it was a case related to her own family, and she did not want to rush to make contributions. Moreover, the yamen is really poor, and she can't let her be like her own mother-in-law, and let the arresters come to work for her.
Now that the county magistrate mentioned it again, obviously he has not forgotten to owe her a reward.
Gu Yin didn't refuse any more, she just said: "Then how about I send another 100 pieces of moon cakes? The right to dispose of moon cakes is in the hands of the eldest master, whether it is to reward the public or to send them to the shantang or the lonely old people in the town, It's all up to you."
This speaks to the heart of the county magistrate. During a festival like the Mid-Autumn Festival, the county magistrate originally wanted to send some ceremonies. But the poor are really poor. Every year, they wait for the rent of the lantern festival to be collected, and then rush to buy things and distribute them. The time is in a hurry, and there are leaks every year.
So it went so smoothly. Gu Yin exchanged 100 moon cakes for the exclusive sponsorship of the lantern festival, and the county magistrate didn't do anything. He asked Li Shaotou Shiweitian to help put up the banner. Every citizen who came to participate in the lantern festival could see the banner, and even tapped on his official seal, indicating that it was licensed by the yamen, and others could not destroy it at will.
Before the night fell, the people who came to participate in the lantern festival in advance saw the huge banner of food for the sky.
When the night fell, a circle of lanterns was lit around the banner, which not only made the words more clear, but also made it more festive.
The theme of the lantern festival is naturally to watch lanterns and guess lantern riddles. Gu Yin also had people send moon cakes. The taste is naturally the same as the ones sold in the store, but the size is much smaller, and the cost of one piece is about two cents. A few pieces are given to each booth, and the owner of the lantern booth can give colorful hair to those who guess the lantern riddle correctly as a prize.
Because it is given free of charge, with moon cakes, the owner of the lantern stand also saved a part of the money for preparing the prizes, and naturally he is not unwilling.
And Shiweitian also rented a small stall at the lantern festival, and then did a tasting event. If anyone saw the banner, or tasted the prize moon cake and thought it was delicious, and saw his sign standing on the stall, Orders can be placed on the spot.
Master Bai of Hanxiang Tower and Wang Dafu of Wangyue Tower were almost furious when they saw it.
It was said before that Shiweitian was only playing a small game this time, and he didn't make any tricks. He was waiting for them here!
How many people can the children they trained to sing nursery rhymes sing to? How many people can it affect
And this banner, as long as you are not blind, you can see it. Of course, there are people who are illiterate, but if you see such a big banner, as long as you are not dumb, you will definitely ask someone to find out what is written on it.
But there is no way, the secret weapon that has been trained for so long, it should be used.
Then they found that their family had only trained a dozen or so children, and the two families added up to around 30 children.
But as soon as the child was released, he was surrounded by another group of children.
As Gu Ye said, the few of them have not been trained in advance, and they will not sing any children's songs that are especially praised for their own.
But then he heard his mother say that there are other ways of publicity, so he changed his mind-
If it is not comparable, then do the opposite.
He had already divided two teams, one team was led by himself, and the other team was led by Fan Jinsong, waiting at the lantern festival.
When the trained, face-to-face children came, they would follow, either fighting or laughing beside them.
If a few children sing a nursery rhyme together, it's so cute and gratifying that one can't help but listen to what they sing.
But all of a sudden, ten or twenty children gathered in a pile, laughing and making trouble, and the adults would naturally feel a little bored and avoid it.
Because of this, the voices of the children trained in the two restaurants became hoarse. After a lantern festival, two or three more people came to ask them what they were singing.
They are about to report the name of the restaurant, and the children who follow them will have an "accident".
For a while, he fell down next to him, distracting the other party, another moment, he burst into tears, saying that he couldn't find his family and asked for help, and then suddenly started to sneeze, snot and saliva on his face, which made the other party immediately disgusted when he saw it. gone…
The two restaurants suffered from the losses last time. The children selected this time are all children of their own accord. The adults in the family have warned them that this work is related to the adults' jobs, so they should not be sloppy.
It's been like this all the time, they are also angry, but there are so many people on the other side that they can't beat them, and they can't scold them.
By the end of the first day of the lantern festival, Shiweitian had nearly 300 more orders for moon cakes, while Wangyuelou and Hanxianglou had received a bunch of crying children.
The quarrel made Mr. Bai and Wang Dafu extremely annoying, and he could only say that they were not to blame, and the wages were paid.
When the first day of the lantern festival ended, the two families rushed to the yamen, scrambling to get sponsorships and hanging banners at the lantern festival.
The two of them have deep pockets and naturally can afford a lot of sponsorship fees.
But although the county magistrate lacked money, he also had a bottom line. Since he promised Gu Yin first, he would definitely not go back on his promises.
In a place like the Yamen, Master Bai and Wang Dafu didn't dare to entangle, and they could only hold their noses after being rejected.
As for sending moon cakes to the stalls to be the lucky winners, this is the only way to go for cheap moon cakes. Their moon cakes are priced at a high price, and they will immediately drop the grade if they are given away for nothing. And they didn't make small moon cakes beforehand, and they gave away so many for free, and they might lose money!
On the third day of the lantern festival, Mrs Wang persuaded Gu Yin and said, "I haven't seen such a lively event a few times this year. We have all taken turns to see it, but you are the only one who guards the shops and stalls every day. Today is the last day of the lantern festival. One day, you and your Aunt Xu can go play."
The lantern festival is lively and lively, and there is no business in the shop. Although there are many people in the stall, it is enough to have two or three people in charge.
Thinking that there is really nothing to do, Gu Yin should come down, "Then I'll go shopping and be back soon."
After she finished speaking, she and Xu shi set off together.
Before walking far, Mr. Xu stopped under a big tree full of lanterns.
Gu Yin stopped and saw Xu Qingchuan waiting under the tree.
He was still wearing his usual half-worn scholar's robe, with a wooden hairpin on his head. Still holding a book in his hand, he stared intently at the lantern on the tree.
Perhaps because of the warmth of the lanterns, his handsome face was coated with a warm golden light, and his estranged temperament was reduced by three points, and he looked a lot closer.
Several young girls who passed by slowed down or peeked at him, blushing and whispering to their companions, or even more daring, standing directly behind him a step away, just thinking about how to talk to him.
It's a pity that Xu Qingchuan didn't realize it, until Yu Guang saw Xu Shi and Gu Yin coming over, he put away the book and greeted him.
"You child, you are reluctant to put down your book even if you come out to relax." Xu shi said to him with a smile, and then the three of them went shopping together.
There are lantern riddles on the lantern stalls. Seeing Xu Qingchuan dressed as a scholar, the stall owner will take the initiative to ask him to guess the lantern riddles.
"Mystery eighty-eight, this is the word 'm'."
"Ten mouths, one heart. It's a word for 'thinking'."
"At the foot of the bright moon and half-Evian, the remnant flowers still fall before the horse's hoof. This is a 'bear'."
"There is a lonely boat in the world, shoot a sentence from the Book of Songs. The answer is 'Zai Xuan Zai Huang'."
"Book of Chu, shoot the middle sentence of "Book of Songs". The answer is 'The Chronicle of the Southern Kingdom'."
Gu Yin still understood the person who guessed the word in front of him, but after he guessed more and more, Gu Yin's head became so big that he didn't understand the connection between the mystery and the answer at all.
Of course, it's not just her, Xu Shi also doesn't understand.
Xu Qingchuan asked in a low voice, and Xu Qingchuan explained: "The production of lantern riddles is all based on pictograms, understandings, phonograms, pointing things, borrowing, and transferring notes into embryos. Mother sees the phrase 'pointing to the opening of two plum blossoms' is a method of borrowing. , the answer is 'some is in Sri Lanka, someone is in Sri Lanka'."
Xu Shi immediately praised: "As expected of my son, mother really understands a little bit when you say that."
Gu Yin's eyes were smeared at the side, but she couldn't say anything, so she could only laugh and pretend she understood.
Later, Xu Qingchuan guessed the riddles one by one, and the riddles became more and more difficult, but he didn't stop for a while, almost the moment he saw the riddles, he could guess it after reading it once.
Seeing his son being so smart and quick, Mr. Xu was so proud that he stood up straighter, and the smile on his face never stopped.
Gu Yin also laughed, but because she really didn't understand, she was starting to feel a little bored, her mind was no longer on lantern riddles, and she couldn't help thinking about the order.
During the three-day lantern festival, at least thousands of moon cakes can be sold in boxes, and there are even more scattered ones, with one or two thousand pieces.
Although a piece of moon cake only earns two or three cents, it is also a lot of money.
And in the future, when it comes to the delicious Baian dim sum in Hanshan Town, people who have bought moon cakes will definitely think that eating is heaven.
Although this signboard has only been in business for less than half a year, in terms of popularity and acceptance, I am afraid it is not much worse than Wangyuelou and Hanxianglou.
As for the wealthy customer group that the two families are dedicated to maintaining, food is going to have to intervene sooner or later.
Just waiting for an opportunity to become famous, let the rich customers know that the cutting-edge food of Shiweitian is no worse than the two old-fashioned restaurants.
But there is no hurry, the first half of the year still has to be steady and steady, and only when the foundation is laid can you be eligible to confront those two companies head-on. When these two companies are put down, the profit will definitely be several times higher than now. If that time comes, it is time to plan the next step, or expand the scale, or open a branch in a big place like Fucheng...
She was in a trance when she suddenly heard a burst of applause and applause from the side.
When I came back to my senses, it turned out that Xu Qingchuan had already guessed the lantern riddle of a street, and he could pick the king of lanterns!
Gu Yin also applauded, and turned around to find that Mrs Xu walked away at some point.
"My mother is afraid that she will go to see something lively and forget us." Xu Qingchuan smiled helplessly.
Gu Yin also pursed her lips and said, "It's okay. Before I came out, my mother was worried that the lanterns would be crowded, and she told us that if we got separated, we would go back to the big tree and wait."
"This is for you." Xu Qingchuan didn't want the half-person-high lamp king, but just wanted a small and cute rabbit lamp, handed the lamp king forward in his hand, and covered the emotions in his eyes with long eyelashes .
That rabbit lamp has a big head, a fat body, and a round white shape that is very flattering.
Although the things are not valuable, this is the lucky prize that Xu Qingchuan won by guessing the lantern riddles. Gu Yin naturally waved his hand to refuse, "This is the lucky prize that Xu Gongzi deserves, I can't take it."
"It's just a gadget, it's worthless, just thank you for taking care of my mother during this time."
During this period, Mrs. Xu earned half a tael of money every month for food. When the business was full, Gu Yin would also pay overtime, not to mention the holiday pay for the holidays. After all, the monthly salary is almost more than a tael of silver.
With these money, the Xu family's life is naturally much better than before.
And not just this one. In the past, Xu Qingchuan studied outside and only returned home once a decade. Xu Shi was doing nothing at home alone, and the whole person seemed lazy and lacking energy. Now, although she is tired every day, her energy is getting better day by day, her temperament is more cheerful, and she looks younger.
And all of this is naturally thanks to Gu Yin.
However, Gu Yin did not dare to take credit. When the Xu family was hired, it was indeed because the two families had friendship, so the Wang family first thought of the Xu family.
However, as the owner of food, Gu Yin has a clear distinction between public and private. The wages, overtime pay, and holiday pay that Xu gets are all due to her serious work and responsible work. Otherwise, if she was replaced by someone who didn't work hard because of friendship, she would definitely be fired.
But Xu Qingchuan kept holding out his hand, and Gu Yin was too embarrassed to refuse any more, so she said, "Then I'll take it first, my family Wu An and Xiao Ye will definitely like it, thank you on their behalf."
After the two of them spoke, they returned to the tree and stood three or four steps away.
None of them said a word, and Xu Qingchuan took out the book that he hadn't read before.
Gu Yin didn't feel anything at first, but after standing for more than a quarter of an hour, she came back and felt that something was wrong!
No matter how careless Xu's temper was, he wouldn't have been separated from them for so long, so he should return to the big tree.
Thinking back to the way her mother-in-law and Mrs Xu were laughing and muttering beside them before they came out, no matter how stupid she was, she could guess that this was what they did on purpose.
As soon as she guessed their intentions, Gu Yin was so embarrassed that her face burned.
"Are you feeling unwell?" Xu Qingchuan noticed something was wrong with her and asked aloud.
"Maybe there are too many people, I'm a little bored." Gu Yin resisted the urge to dig a hole and bury herself, fanning the wind with her hands, while thinking about what excuse she should use to escape.
It just so happened that she saw a small figure leading a bunch of children running by.
"Xiaoye!" Gu Yinru was granted amnesty, and immediately called out to Gu Ye.
Although the lantern festival was extremely noisy, Gu Ye keenly caught his mother's voice. He immediately stopped and stood on tiptoe to look around, and finally saw Gu Yin who was beckoning to him under the big tree.
"Mother came out to play too?" Gu Ye ran up to her with a smile.
When he saw that Xu Qingchuan was standing next to him, the smile on Gu Ye's face stagnated, and then as if he didn't see anything, he smiled and took his mother's hand.
"I found a lot of interesting stalls, mother come with me, I will take you to play."
Gu Yin smiled apologetically at Xu Qingchuan, and then quickly left with Gu Ye.
On the other side of the long street, Mrs. Wang and Mrs. Xu peeked from the cat.
Seeing that Gu Yin was pulled away by Gu Ye, Mrs. Xu said regretfully, "It's not the right time for Xiaoye to come. Wang Baoyun, didn't you say everything was arranged? Why did Xiaoye come here?"
"For such a big lantern festival, I didn't expect them to meet Xiao Ye." Wang shi also jumped up and down, but she didn't forget to turn her head and complain, "Don't just talk about me, how did your Qingchuan come to visit? Do you still bring a book to the lantern festival? Look at my family!"
"This... This is what my Qingchuan family usually can't put down." Xu also felt that the lantern festival was still holding a book to read, but it was useless to complain. Today's plan was in vain, and the two didn't stay much longer. He left while muttering what to do next time.
After leaving the big tree, Gu Yin finally exhaled a long breath, took Gu Ye's hand and squeezed it.
Later, she joined the children. Although they were of different ages, Gu Ye and Wu An took the lead. The other children were as well-behaved and polite as them, and they didn't seem particularly noisy.
The same group of children eat, drink, play and play, but Gu Yin thinks it is more interesting and more in line with her interest.
The food at the lantern festival is not expensive, only two or three cents per serving. Gu Yin buys it and tastes it, and then distributes it to the children.
Everyone couldn't eat it, and later they watched the dragon dance and juggling together, so it was getting late.
When it was time to leave, Gu Yincai remembered that she had brought the lanterns all the way, and said to the two children, "Uncle Xu gave it to you, I forgot to give it to you."
After carrying her lantern for so long, the children have seen it, Wu An shook his head and said, "The lantern is easily damaged, I'll just see it, sister-in-law give it to Ono."
Gu Ye likes novelty things the most, and this time he also uncharacteristically said: "I don't like lanterns very much."
On the other hand, Fan Jinsong and the other children all liked this rabbit lamp very much. After Gu Ye said no to it, they still showed a pity, because if Gu Ye wanted it, they could look at it more in the future.
Gu Yin said when she saw it, "Then I'll give it to you."
One is that the children really like it, and the other is that since she knew about Wang's and Xu's plans, she couldn't keep Xu Qingchuan's things around.
Fan Jinsong's eyes lit up immediately, and he promised, "Thank you, auntie, we will keep it well, and we won't spoil it!"
After delivering the lanterns, Gu Yin pulled a child in one hand and went directly back to Zhenyi Lane.
The door of the house was ajar, and Mrs. Wang came back earlier than them and was waiting for them in the main room.
Gu Yin first asked the two children to wash up, and she went directly into the main room, feeling it was necessary to chat with Mrs. Wang.
Wang Shi was drowsy with her chin propped at the table. When she saw Gu Yin entering the room, she immediately recovered herself, stood up and smiled and said, "You guys are back? I don't know why today, I'm so sleepy at this hour. , since you're back, I'll go to sleep first."
Gu Yin reluctantly called out "mother".
Only then did Wang shi stop at the feet that were about to slip away, and said with a drooping head, "Hey, here it is, you can talk about it."
Seeing her like this, Gu Yin couldn't help but laugh at first—it's the mother and son after all, although Wu An and Wang's look are not very similar, but after doing something wrong, the appearance of guilt and waiting for scolding can be said to be exactly the same!
She smiled and held it back, saying, "My mother and Aunt Xu specially arranged the matter between me and Xu Gongzi today?"
Wang's Mosquito hummed "um".
"I've said it several times, but I really don't think so." Gu Yin took his hand and said seriously, "I'll definitely tell you sometime. Don't do this next time, it's embarrassing. "
Wang shi responded again and assured: "Next time I will definitely not know you, so I will arrange it myself."
He and Xu Shi both saw it, Gu Yin and Xu Qingchuan usually looked like smart people, and they were just two elm knots in their relationship! If you don't tell them, it's useless to create a hundred opportunities like today's. Next time it's better to be upright!
Gu Yin didn't know that she was still thinking about the next time in a fair and honest way. After hearing her promise, she would not worry about it anymore, and went to wash and rest.
On the Mid-Autumn Festival, a steady stream of guests come to pick up moon cakes early in the morning.
Especially those who ordered snowskin mooncakes—the other two kinds of mooncakes can be put in, that is, snowskin mooncakes, which need to be refrigerated for the best taste, so they all choose to pick up the mooncakes on this day.
On this day, Shiweitian also completely sold out the more than 100 boxes of mooncakes that were prepared. By noon, after the afternoon market, there was almost no one in the store, and they all rushed home to reunite.
Gu Yin let the family members off work ahead of time. As for her and Wang Shi, the shopkeeper Zhou, and Xu Cook, they simply spent the Mid-Autumn Festival together.
Two tables were set up in the backyard, one table for shopkeeper Zhou, Chef Xu and his two young apprentices, one table for Gu Yin and Mrs Wang and two children.
The delicious moon cakes made by themselves, accompanied by the tea treasured by shopkeeper Zhou, tasted really good even for Gu Yin herself.
She holds a child in one hand, leans half of her body on Wang's body, and gossips while admiring the moon. From time to time, she can eat moon cakes with Gu Ye's hand, and drink hot tea with Wu An's hand... A warm and quiet person The Mid-Autumn Festival is over like this.