​Transmigrated into Ancient Times to Sell Desserts

After hooking up with Ji Wei, there was one more thing in Liu Yimian's peaceful and stable life.That is, every evening, jumping on the rope in the backyard for an hour, sweating profusely after being tired, and then going to take a shower and change clothes.

In order to grow up as soon as possible, besides skipping rope, Liu Yimian followed Ji Wei's suggestion and took the initiative to drink the goat's milk that she hated before.

One bowl in the morning and one bowl before going to bed at night, nothing can be shaken, Ji Wei was secretly surprised, never thought that Liu Yimian would be so serious, and regretted making this agreement with him.

However, once a gentleman speaks out, it is hard to chase after him. In the future, we will talk about it later, and Ji Wei will not be too entangled.

Not long after, the Zhang family sent someone to invite Ji Wei, saying that he was the second head of the printing workshop that Mr. Zhang had arranged for.

This person came suddenly and there was no sign at all.

The blueprint designed by Ji Wei has not been retrieved from the Publicity Department.He asked the young man of the Zhang family to go back first, and rushed to Wenxuan's house on West Street, took the stack of drawings of different styles, and trotted all the way to Zhang's house, for fear of keeping the distinguished guests waiting for a long time.

The second head of the printing shop, surnamed Nie and surnamed Junqi, was with the first head to help when he was in Guanzhi.Over the years, the head of the family has gradually retreated behind the scenes. Apart from taking care of major issues, Nie Junqi is basically in charge of all matters in the printing workshop, including going out to discuss business.

The friendship between Mr. Zhang and Nie Junqi dates back to 16 years ago.

At the beginning, the business of the two companies was not as big as it is now. Mr. Zhang decided to deal with merchants in Qingcheng, and he met Nie Junqi who opened a printing workshop behind the head of the family.

At that time, the printing shop was a small shop with a backyard connected, many people crowded to work in it, and it opened next door to Zhang's rice shop.The two families got close, and over time, they developed some friendship.

Later, Mr. Zhang's business expanded, and people he knew also hid, and helped deliver many customers. The friendship between the two parties became deeper and deeper along with these business contacts.

When Ji Wei arrived at Zhang's house, Nie Junqi had already chatted with Mr. Zhang for more than half an hour.There were a few plates on the table in front of Nie Junqi, with a lot of exquisite snacks and cookies made into circular patterns.

Seeing him coming, Mr. Zhang waved and urged him to come over.

"Xiao Nie has been waiting for a long time. You are a young man with such slow legs." Mr. Zhang scolded Ji Wei with a smile.

"Didn't you just know that Mr. Nie was coming, didn't you prepare anything, and rushed to get it? Look at me sweating profusely." Ji Wei apologized in a good-tempered manner, and Mr. Zhang asked someone to fetch a handkerchief for Ji Wei After wiping off his sweat and serving refreshments, he finally started talking about business.

"I told Xiao Nie all about you." Mr. Zhang was nearly 20 years older than Nie Junqi, and he called Xiao Nie smoothly.

"The old man should save me some face." Nie Junqi complained half-truthfully.

"Okay, I'll save face for you."

"Let's get down to business." Nie Junqi cleared his throat, and scanned the stack of blueprints on the table with searching eyes, "Mr. Ji just went to pick up the blueprints, which must be related to the next thing to be printed, can Nie take a look? "

"Of course." Ji Wei stood up and brought the blueprint in front of the two for their appreciation.

"What's the difference between these papers?" Nie Junqi took a piece of paper in each of his left and right hands, and compared the two papers in Mr. Zhang's hand.They are all common patterns of Mid-Autumn Festival, such as Chang'e, full moon, lanterns, etc., as well as poems, but they can't tell the difference.

Ji Wei took out the drawings in their hands, arranged them on the table by category, and pointed to the few on the left, "These simple small drawings and short blessings are used as inner packaging. And this complicated long poem , including stories such as Chang'e flying to the moon, are used for the cover of the outer packaging."

The concept of inner packaging and outer packaging put forward by Ji Wei caught Nie Junqi's eyes.

Although the concept of packaging has been produced in this era, it is just a single layer of packaging. The only difference lies in the price of the packaging.

As for the inner and outer packaging, Nie Junqi traveled all over the world and heard about it for the first time, so it is unavoidably novel.

"What about the inner packaging? What about the outer packaging? What's the difference? What's the function?" Nie Junqi inquired curiously, waiting for Ji Wei's explanation.

"I don't know if there is paper in the mansion, the thicker the better."

Ji only had this request, so Mr. Zhang ordered the housekeeper Zhang Quan to look for it.There is a lot of paper, but thick paper is rare.

Zhang Quan couldn't make up his mind, so he found a lot of different styles of paper and brought them to Ji Wei to choose.The left and right are not too different, Ji Wei randomly took a few sheets of the same size, put them together, folded and tore them, and finally put them together into a small square box.

"Look, you two, this small box is the inner packaging. At that time, the moon cakes will be packed in it, and then wrapped in the outer packaging, with patterns and blessings printed on the paper. It's never a better time to give it as a gift."

Nie Junqi and Mr. Zhang looked at each other, and it was Nie Junqi who picked up the small box, looked around, and said, "How to print this box?"

"Simple, print on paper now, and then fold it into a carton style. Mr. Nie's printing workshop only needs to be responsible for printing and cutting. Just like I did just now, cut the opening and send it to me when the time comes. Fold." Ji Wei has already planned everything, and there is only a printing workshop to take over the printing of the packaging.

Nie Junqi raised a few more doubts, and Ji Weiyi answered them all.When it comes to graphics and color printing, Nie Junqi said that the project is huge and extremely difficult, requiring experienced craftsmen to carve out templates first, and then color printing and dyeing.If there is a mistake in any step, the finished product will be destroyed.

The implication is that the price cannot be cheap.

Ji Wei has already considered this point.

This mooncake gift box is for the high-end market, so it doesn't matter if it is more expensive, the most important thing is that it can be sold well.

As for the cheap snowskin mooncakes, they can be sold in bulk, which is simple, convenient, fast, and easy to store, so there is no need for such delicate wrapping paper.

Therefore, based on a box of six mooncakes, Ji Wei preliminarily plans to pack 1000 sheets of 320 inside and 220 sheets outside.However, to take into account the wear and tear, add [-]% to each item, that is, [-] [-] sheets in the inner packaging and [-] sheets in the outer packaging.

In addition, the printing workshop is closely related to the paper workshop. Ji Wei also has strict requirements on the selection of paper, requiring the paper to be made with high hardness, smooth and white with less particles, that is, it has to be customized from the beginning to the end.

Even with Mr. Zhang's sympathy and a 27% discount, it would cost [-] taels of silver, which is outrageously expensive.

"This price is already the lowest, and it can't be cheaper." Nie Junqi looked at Ji Wei calmly, raised the teacup in his hand to take a sip, and praised the tea for its sweet aftertaste.

Gao Ding was not much cheaper, although Ji Wei had figured it out early, but was still taken aback by the price.

But the cost is here, and the final price cannot be cheap.A box of six mooncakes, the cost price of the box alone is 130 five cents per box, not including sugar, flour, lard, fillings, labor costs, etc.

In other words, a box of mooncakes costs two hundred cash.Then at least half a tael of silver must be priced to make a profit.

All the calculations flashed through Ji Wei's mind while counting interest, he quickly smiled politely, took out the money bag, and poured out a few ingots of silver from it.

Copper coins are used as the currency for transactions below the city. After all, silver is precious, far more precious than copper coins of the same value.Therefore, only in large transactions between cities, silver is more in circulation.

Ji Wei carries ten taels of silver with him, which is very surprising in itself.

"I wonder if these are enough as a deposit?" The deposit was supposed to be half of the total transaction amount, but this time the cost was beyond Ji Wei's estimation, and it turned out that there was not enough money.

It's a little embarrassing.

Ji Wei thought that if Nie Junqi refused, he would have to ask Mr. Zhang to borrow some money first.

Fortunately, Nie Junqi is very talkative, and he doesn't get entangled with the difference of these few taels of silver.Witnessed by Mr. Zhang, the two of them stamped and marked in duplicate, one for each person received the cooperation contract, and agreed to make one copy for each different style within seven days, so that Ji Wei could check and make up for any omissions.

As for the propaganda that Ji Wei and Mr. Zhang talked about at the beginning, Mr. Zhang took care of it.

After Ji Wei and Nie Junqi discussed the packaging pricing, they began to chat about a recent bibliographic order received by the printing workshop.

In addition to the most basic classics, the printing workshop also received a lot of romance novels of strange martial arts from the city, all of which are popular best-selling works.It took Nie Junqi a lot of work and lobbying everywhere to finally get the manuscript.

It was the title page of the novel that Mr. Zhang took a fancy to.

Printing advertisements on the bibliography of classic books will not make students curious about the object, but will only resent it for tarnishing the holy words, and then resist it.

But novels are different. What they pursue is excitement and novelty. The rare Mid-Autumn Festival snacks appearing on the title page will only make people want to know more about it.

Compared with packaging requiring special paper and colorful printing, it is obviously much simpler to print black and white advertisements on the title page with simple moon cake patterns.

Mr. Zhang seldom asked for anything, and he took the initiative to mention this matter. Even a shrewd businessman like Nie Junqi would find it difficult not to show favor.

The two only spoke a few words, and in the astonishment and shock of Ji Wei, they set a low advertising fee that made him stunned.

Twelve!

It only costs ten taels of silver to add mooncake advertisements to the title pages of all printed novels before the Mid-Autumn Festival!

What's the difference between this and free gift?

It is equivalent to only charging labor and material costs!

This related appearance, as expected, one tops the other...

Ji Wei can't accept it.

After the business discussion, Mr. Zhang stayed with Nie Junqi to reminisce about the old days. Ji Wei winked and stopped staying. He rejected the proposal to stay for dinner, and said goodbye to the two of them and walked home.

When walking through West Second Alley, you can smell the smell of stinky tofu wafting from a certain house, and it has been walking out of the alley, and it is still lingering in the alley.

Ji Wei secretly smiled in his heart, and couldn't help but wonder how the neighbors around him endured the daily torment of this smell, presumably either someone else's nose is out of order, or someone has a thick skin.

But what did it matter to him?

***

I have to admire the businessman's well-informed information. Just as Ji Wei reached an agreement with Nie Junqi, Lin Yaozu, who was far away in Daxi Town, came to the door, wanting to share a piece of the moon cake.

It's a pity that the Zhang family intervened before, no matter how regretful Lin Yaozu was, he could only watch from the sidelines, helpless.

But before leaving, Lin Yaozu was extremely curious about the mooncakes that hadn't been officially released yet, no matter what flavor it was, after hearing from Ji Wei that there were four flavors, he actually ordered a box of each.

After hearing the quotation, Lin Yaozu was really surprised.He never imagined that an ordinary box of pastries, even if it was launched just before the Mid-Autumn Festival, there were only six of them, could sell for such a sky-high price?

What a good thing this is, he wants to taste it!

In this way, Lin Yaozu left two taels of silver and left inexplicably.

****

The packaging samples were delivered to Ji's house in advance on the agreed day.

It lived up to Ji Wei's explanation, the inner wrapping paper is slightly soft, but it is still much stiffer than ordinary wrapping paper.Fold it into a square flat box along the cut, with a short four-character message written on the front, as well as some borders.

The outer packaging is very hard and cannot be easily bent. It can be seen that the effect can only be achieved by compressing hard.

Compared with modern cartons, this craftsmanship is considered top-notch, but the paper surface is still not smooth enough. This is due to the difference in tools, and Ji Wei didn't care too much about it.

The biggest difference from his imagination is the color. The blueprint of Wenxuan was drawn by him stroke by stroke, so it is naturally much more detailed.

The wrapping paper is to ask the master to carve out the pattern, then render the color, and print it uniformly.Even if it is a small inner package, it needs to carve many different master molds, such as greetings, borders, etc., and then put them together through combination.

The color difference is relatively large, but there is also a [-]-[-]% similarity, which is much better than the finished product Ji Wei thought.

After briefly explaining some flaws that could be improved, the errand worker in the printing workshop rushed back to the city with Ji Wei's opinion.Since the distance between the two places was tens of miles, it was not easy for Xiao Gong to come here, so he rushed back to Qingcheng in a donkey cart while it was still early.

Two sets of samples of different styles were sent, that is, including the inner and outer packaging, which together can form ten boxes of mooncakes.

Ji Wei didn't intend to waste the freshly made samples. He went to the grocery store and the street to buy a lot of ingredients such as duck eggs, red beans, sesame, peanuts, lotus seeds, etc., and he couldn't carry them by himself, so he invited the clerk from the grocery store to go with him Send things back.

When a large amount of ingredients were delivered home, Liu Yimian was taken aback, but knowing what Ji Wei was going to do, he quickly put down the book, rolled up his sleeves, and started working alongside him.

Cantonese-style mooncakes are tentatively made in four flavors, red bean paste, lotus seed paste egg yolk, peanut sesame, and fresh meat.

Only salted egg yolks need to be prepared in advance. Ji Wei asked Liu Yimian to help him separate the egg whites from the yolks of more than 20 duck eggs, and then buried the egg yolks with a lot of fine salt, covered them, and put them in a well to protect against the weather. The heat is broken.

After marinating for about a day and a night, you can get up and make salted egg yolk filling tomorrow morning.

Since Ji Wei made red bean paste once before, the method of lotus paste is basically the same as that of red bean paste. This time, under the guidance of Ji Wei, Liu Yimian made red bean paste and lotus paste by himself. Stir fry into a fine puree.

Sesame peanuts need to be mixed with sugar in advance to stir-fry until fragrant, and then have someone grind them.

Whether it's peanuts or sesame seeds, they have their own oils. After being ground, they have a strong aroma. They can be easily shaped and integrated with the mooncake skin.

Among the four flavors, fresh meat is the most special.

Fresh meat mooncakes in the general sense do not belong to the Cantonese style, but this is Ji Wei’s improved variety. Fresh meat that is [-]% lean and [-]% fat is chopped into minced meat, and minced green onion, ginger and garlic are added with lard, soy sauce, maltose, sucrose and eggs. , everything is evenly mixed, stir vigorously, and combine with Cantonese-style pie crust.

One afternoon, both of them were busy making and baking mooncakes.

The whole courtyard is full of strong fragrance. If the courtyard door is not closed, many people will come to ask Ji Wei what he is doing.

The next day, salted egg yolks are made, washed with fine salt, wrapped in prepared lotus seed paste and cake skin, and after baking, the two of them put the mooncakes into the prepared packaging boxes together, with a total of four flavors and eight boxes in total.

Four of the boxes were prepared for Lu Zhanhong, the county magistrate.

If we want to go to the high-end market, how can we ignore the county magistrate who is the most prestigious among them?

Ji Wei came to visit with four boxes of beautifully packaged mooncakes. Unfortunately, Lu Zhanhong happened to be out to meet old friends, and Lu Yushu was also studying in the county school. There was no one in the family, so it was difficult to stay longer, so he left four boxes of mooncakes. And attached a leaflet of moon cakes, chose to go back to Changliu Town.

****

Neither Lu Zhanhong nor Lu Yushu's father and son were there, and Mrs. Lu was not very curious about it, so the four boxes of mooncakes, including the instructions, were put aside, waiting for the father and son to go home.

Two days later, when Lu Yushu came back from the county school, and Lu Zhanhong also bid farewell to his friends, it was rare for the family to get together at the same table. Madam Lu suddenly mentioned the four boxes of mooncakes.

"Moon cake? What is this?" Lu Zhanhong was quite curious and ordered someone to fetch it.

Lu Yushu recognized Ji Wei, and once told his parents about Ji Wei's cookies and donuts, and his parents were surprised.

However, Lu Zhanhong, who knew Ji Wei in the court, only thought that Lu Yushu was exaggerating and believed that the cookie was made by Ji Wei, so he couldn't believe that he had such talent.

After all, with such craftsmanship, why worry about no money?Why bother to be a bully that everyone shouts and beats, and goes to the streets to beg for money to make a living.

"The Ji Wei you're talking about is the Ji Wei from Changliu Town?" Lu Zhanhong held the exquisite cardboard box in his hand and turned to ask Mrs. Lu in surprise.

"Although I haven't seen it before, the housekeeper said he called himself Ji Wei of Changliu Town. Presumably he is the person your father and son mentioned?" Mrs. Lu is a girl, and it is inconvenient to meet outsiders alone. This is what the housekeeper told her of.

Hearing a few words from Lu Zhanhong, he suddenly became curious.

"It seems that the prodigal son really won't change his money when he turns around." Mrs. Lu clapped her hands and laughed.

"If it's true, that's fine." Lu Zhanhong was still puzzled, or Lu Yushu was quick, had already flipped through it, deftly opened the paper box along the gap, revealing the six small boxes of mooncakes neatly arranged inside.

"Is this the best word can say?" Mrs. Lu took a lavender box from Lu Yushu and couldn't help but marvel.

On the other hand, Lu Yushu looked around, touched @ with his hands, and sniffed lightly with his nose, and he was somewhat sure: "This is not hand-painted, but it looks like it was printed, and the lines are a little stiff."

Lu Zhanhong also nodded and said, "If it's hand-painted, it's low-grade. But if it's printed as it says in the jade book, it's really a wonderful workmanship."

They have only seen printing, but never printing.

But this answer, only Ji Wei himself can answer them.

"Look, father, the words written on each box are different." Lu Yushu held a cardboard box in each hand, and motioned Lu Zhanhong to look at the small characters on the lower left corner.

"Fresh meat, lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk, it sounds interesting." Lu Zhanhong casually peeled off an inner package, revealing the reddish-brown mooncake inside, about half the size of a palm, with uneven patterns printed on the surface .

Complementing each other with the one on the packaging shell is even more amazing.

"I have been an official for more than ten years. No matter whether I am in a big mansion or a small town, I have never seen such an exquisite pastry. This mooncake was actually designed by Ji Wei for the Mid-Autumn Festival? If it was really made by him, I am sorry He looked at it with admiration." Lu Zhanhong urged Madam Lu and Lu Yushu to taste it, while he himself tasted a piece of mooncake flavored with lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk.

The lotus seed paste is sweet and the egg yolk is salty. Coupled with the soft and oily texture of the mooncake skin, the sweet and salty taste made Lu Zhanhong raise his eyebrows and couldn't help but look at the egg yolk inside.

"This egg yolk is salty and fragrant. It is much harder than ordinary egg yolks. It is bright red in color and has a strange taste." Lu Zhanhong said.

"Father, look, these meaty mooncakes are really made of a sufficient amount of pork. They are salty and fragrant, fat and thin. They are [-]% better than your favorite meatcakes!"

"This is..." Mrs. Lu chose black sesame peanuts, and a stronger fragrance than the others rushed into the noses of the three of them.

Roasted black sesame peanuts, plus melted sucrose, sweet in the mouth, the more you chew, the more fragrant.

The three of them just took a bite, and they were all overwhelmed by the unique texture and taste of this mooncake.

"Father, when meeting friends during the Mid-Autumn Festival, it is very suitable to use this thing as a gift." Lu Yushu caressed the pattern of the packaging box, and said with emotion, "I thought donuts and cookies were already amazing enough, but I didn't expect this season Wei, always be ingenious and come up with such good ideas."

"Yu Shu is right, I should order more, and when old friends come to visit, I will give them away." He carefully checked the flavors written on the casing, "how about this, how about picking four boxes of each ?”

"Very good, but I don't know how much the price is?"

"No matter how expensive it is, how expensive can it be? I think this mooncake is complicated to make, and it must take a lot of work. If you really want to order it, you'd better go early." Madam Lu said.

The father and son nodded in agreement, and asked the housekeeper to order them down, planning to go to Changliu Town to find Ji Wei to order mooncakes sometime in the next two days.

However, the sale of the final mooncakes is quite different from the four boxes of mooncakes sent to Lu's residence.

The sales version is a box of six mooncakes, divided into two flavors, two boxes are sold at a time, and the price is one tael of silver.

The mooncakes sent to Lu's house, in order for them to taste them fully, are one box of one flavor, and two boxes were sent.They didn't know the favor of these two taels of silver at this time, but when they saw Ji Wei in the future, they knew how much he had given him as a meeting gift.

This matter will not be mentioned for the time being.

The author has something to say: 1 update + 2 update, what? (づ￣3￣)づ