This summer is exceptionally hot. It’s only the first day of the Lesser Heat season and the temperature has already soared to 39 degrees.
Vegetable vendor Lao Zhao drove to Song Tan's house and drank two bowls of Tremella soup in the yard before wiping his sweat.
“The temperature is too high!”
Wu Lei, who was busy moving watermelons from the back hill to the car, gave him a sad look.
The source of his daily labor pain is Old Zhao, who has thick eyebrows and big eyes in front of him!
Damn it! Either I go to the vegetable garden early in the morning to pick vegetables, or I pick watermelons in the afternoon under the scorching sun...
I have only been working at Song Tan’s house for half a month now, and I am completely tanned. When I look in the mirror, I can only show off my white teeth (I can’t see the cavities inside)…
Even because she became darker and darker, Lili... Lili refused to accept video calls recently!
Wu Lei felt extremely upset.
But he gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, with a sense of tragic heroism in his heart as he fought for love.
Lili, wait for me! Wait until I get the down payment for our future, and we will never be apart again!
Zhang Yanping, however, looked at his back and sighed with both superiority and regret:
"Fortunately, I have a quicker brain... You say he works very hard here. But with that much effort, if he finds the same job anywhere else, the monthly salary will be at least two or three times what you get here, right?"
"If we work hard for two years, we can at least save 100,000 or 200,000 yuan for our family, not to mention the down payment... Why did he—"
“Who knows?”
Song Tan also glanced at Wu Lei's increasingly majestic back:
"Maybe he is still a homebody by nature."
Zhang Yanping: … I’m afraid you want to say he’s stupid.
At this time, Lao Zhao sighed again: "The weather is so hot this year, your watermelons will definitely take a long time to sell! Why didn't you plant more?"
Isn’t that enough
Song Tan was speechless - if she had not been penniless at that time, she could have divided this watermelon field into more than ten lots and planted a little of each kind she wanted to eat.
Lao Zhao is now an important partner, and his salary has been upgraded. She poured him a cup of old tea leaves. Even though the tea was right in front of him, he still felt regretful:
"If it were ordinary watermelons, I would definitely not say this, but your watermelons are so delicious - oh! You don't know, we don't sell to other places, but now in the afternoon there are people driving over to buy my place."
"A melon costs about 100 yuan a piece, and they want at least 100 pieces... They are here to buy it for them!"
But there was no other way. He was fighting a protracted war here, and there were not many watermelons every day. If he gave away these 100, he would not be able to entertain his old customers, so he had to give up.
Song Tan doesn't care whether it's a purchasing agent, a wholesaler, or a middleman...
After all, she only has so many watermelons, and even if a wholesaler comes to her, he can't give her a large quantity at a time.
Also because there is no production, she has not yet worried about finding wholesalers.
Once word of mouth spreads after this year, you won’t have to worry about anything next year, as people will come to you on their own.
Lao Zhao has been running a stall in the vegetable market for many years and now has some business experience. Now he is going to talk about it:
"I'm telling you, peach orchards are not suitable for growing watermelons. No matter how much space there is, it will still block the sunlight - watermelons cannot be intercropped!"
"Next year, why don't you just plant soybeans and find a hill for watermelons—don't you own a hill?"
The place is big, so it can definitely be planned in this way.
Song Tan responded: "Don't worry."
She turned around and received a call from the logistics department—her fruit box arrived.
Old Zhao became excited:
“How many were there in the first batch?”
"1,000. At the suburban logistics center. I'll pick them up tomorrow."
Lao Zhao waved his hand. "What are you pulling? Isn't the logistics center just outside the city? There are people on duty there 24 hours a day. I'll load it up for you tomorrow when I pull the vegetables."
"The driver is my own nephew, it's okay to assign him some work - if you want, give him a watermelon!"
"Sure!"
Song Tan was quite generous in carrying and lifting things: "Give me two!"
Old Zhao smiled and said, "Okay! Don't worry! I will definitely get it done for you!"
Then he looked at her expectantly: "Now that you have all these cartons back, when will you sell the peaches on the mountain?"
Song Tan thought for a while and said, "Let's do it tomorrow. As soon as the packaging boxes arrive here tomorrow morning, we will arrange for the picking, and also promote the products in the live broadcast room. Do you want any? For the sake of convenience, this batch is sold by the box."
"How did you sell it? What's the price?"
Old Zhao perked up instantly.
Song Tan: "... I haven't decided on the price yet. Try it tonight first."
At first, we planned to set the price at 40 yuan per pound. We thought it was a bit expensive, after all, the big peaches on the mountain weighed half a pound each. But we picked a few and took them home to try...
Okay!
Both Zhang Yanping and Xin Jun disagreed.
So, I’m thinking of tasting the ripest peaches and finally setting a price.
"You are such a..." Not in a hurry at all!
I’ll start picking the fruits tomorrow, and start selling the goods tomorrow, but I haven’t decided on the price tonight... Lao Zhao was speechless.
He sat in the air-conditioned room for a while and drank two bowls of iced Tremella soup. The dryness in his body subsided. Seeing that the sun was setting, he simply slapped his butt and said, "I'll go to the mountain to take a look."
Song Tan thought about it, and followed with a basket: "Okay, then pick some to try first, and then bring you some later."
This really touched Lao Zhao—
"You are really generous now!"
What I mean is that there are still 6,000 fruit boxes to be delivered later. If someone brings them along, she doesn’t have to make a special trip to the city!
But there is no need to go into such detail.
After climbing up the back hill, Lao Zhao looked at the rope net erected high above the orchard with his mouth open, and at this moment he could not help but be speechless:
"You're defending it like you're building a house. Isn't it too tight?"
Song Tan also sighed: "Do you think I want to? It's because the fruit is not yet ripe, and the birds come to steal it every day, and I can't drive them away..."
After all, there are 20 acres of land, and if the king runs here and there, he can't take care of it comprehensively even if he runs his legs off on the mountain. So he simply set up a layer of net, which serves as a 360-degree hollow cover for strict protection.
The mesh should be as fine as possible to keep birds of all sizes out.
Lao Zhao looked at them for a while, then looked at the flocks of particularly brave birds standing on the net outside, and couldn't help wondering: "Aren't there those extra-fine wire meshes now? They seem to be lighter than this, and your rope seems a bit thick and heavy... Why don't you use that?"
Song Tan sighed:
"The people at the Forestry Bureau said that many of those nets have the property of attracting birds. If you are not careful, it is easy for a bird's claws to get caught and it cannot fly... If there are national level 1 and 2 nets, I will be in trouble."
"So, just in case, we should use this thick wire, just as a cover for the back mountain."