Chapter 426 - 426 Dumbfounded
Shi Qingluo asked her people to bring out some jars of canned fruit.
“This is canned fruit. I’ll let everyone try it today for free.
“But I don’t make many jars of canned fruit, so I won’t sell them.”
These words made the people who had just calmed down a little dumbfounded.
“What? Can fruits be canned?”
“What’s so good about canned fruit? Is it just stuffing fruits into a jar?”
“It shouldn’t be that simple, or else why would Madam take it out for us to taste?”
“Look, they had opened a jar of canned fruit.”
Shi Qingluo asked one of her people to bring out the green leaves that had been prepared and rolled them up into the shape of a container.
“It will still be one spoon per person. Line up and try it.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the crowd quickly rushed to line up.
Then, they tried all the canned food made from grapes, peaches, and apricots.
“Oh my God, this is too delicious. Its juice is so delicious. I’m sure there’s sugar in it.”
“So this canned fruit. We all got it wrong.”
“It’s so delicious. It’s better than fresh grapes.”
“I also think it’s more delicious than fresh peaches.”
“The canned fruit’s juice is especially delicious.”
“Nonsense, how can it not taste good with sugar?”
Everyone was sighing as they tasted the food.
All in all, they were all shocked again. This kind of canned fruit was really delicious.
The main reason for this was that sugar was expensive now, and there were not many people who were willing to eat sugar.
Moreover, the taste of the canned food cooked with sugar together with the secret recipe was something that the ancient people had never tasted before, which was why they were amazed.
After all, in the modern era where there was no shortage of sugar and fruits, there were many who liked to buy canned fruit to eat.
It meant that the acceptance rate among the public was very high.
“Madam, how much are these fruit cans for?” Someone asked.
Shi Qingluo smiled. “60 wen each. On the first day of sale, it will also be half price. For the next month, it will be 40 wen with limited quantity each day.”
“It’s so expensive,” Someone exclaimed.
In their hearts, these were just fruits. How could they be so expensive?
Shi Qingluo laughed. “Not only are there fruits in here, but there’s also expensive sugar. It’s made with a secret recipe. That’s why it’s so expensive.
“And there’s a rubber ring in the bottle cap. There aren’t many of these in the entire Daliang, so it’s very expensive.
“If you want to buy canned food, but you don’t need to use this can to store things, you can return it together with its cap and the rubber ring to our workshop. We’ll recycle them. Six wen each.”
It wasn’t expensive to produce porcelain jars by themselves. What was expensive was the rubber transported from the capital.
The emperor wasn’t giving them for free. They would have to pay according to the market price.
However, the emperor was already very kind to agree to continuously transport rubber to the canned food workshop.
After all, rubber could not be bought with money, but after the rubber flowers harvest next year, the cost could be reduced.
Recently, she had asked the people working in the county government to collect rubber flowers. If they found them and sell to them, they could also earn a lot of money.
Moreover, the main target of the canned fruits were not those living in the county, but the big families in Beijing and other places.
After hearing what she said, everyone felt that it made sense.
After all, sugar was expensive. They didn’t know how much sugar was put in this can to have its current sweetness.
The rich people thought of buying a few canned fruits to eat when they started selling them.
After tasting the canned food, Shi Qingluo ordered someone to bring out the candles, soap, and scented soap.
“These are the candles, soap, and scented soap made by another workshop of ours.”
“What are soap and scented soap?” many people asked.
Although Xi Rong had opened many rouge shops, she didn’t have any in the northern border.
Many vendors purchased goods from the rouge shops in the capital or the South and brought them to Northern City to sell.
Therefore, the dignitaries and people in Northern City knew about soap and scented soap.
However, no one knew about the remote, less-developed and poor Heyang County.
“It’s used for bathing and to wash hands and clothes clothes,” Shi Qingluo replied with a smile.
Then, she waved to a big man with dirty hands. “Show us”.
The burly man was a worker of the workshop, so he was not embarrassed.
He walked forward with a sneer, and Qingqing fetched a basin of water and handed him a bar of soap.
The big man wet his hands with soap and then rubbed them in water.
Then, many people crowded around to watch.
Then, they saw that the water had become dirty.
After the burly man was done scrubbing, he took his hands out of the water and wiped them with a handkerchief.
Everyone noticed that his hands had become clean.
“It’s really clean to wash your hands with this soap!”
“Yeah, this is good stuff too.”
“You can wash clothes?”
“Of course you can,” Shi Qingluo replied with a smile.
Then, a servant boy came forward with a dirty white shirt.
After changing the basin of clean water, the servant boy squatted down and used soap to rub the dirty spots on his clothes.
Everyone was shocked to see that the place was cleaned up very quickly.
“This is too magical. It was so simple to clean this.”
“It’s much better than a black soap horn.”
“It’s not something that we can compare to plant ash.”
“Aiya, with this soap, it’ll be much easier and cleaner for us to wash our clothes.”
“Yes, yes, this thing is really good.”
The men were interested in washing their hands, but not in washing clothes.
After all, they did not do this at home.
However, the women who were there to join in the fun were in an uproar, and all their eyes expressed their desire to get one.
Following that, Shi Qingluo had a maidservant and a manservant bring out soap with different scents and place them in the center.
“Everyone can come up and try the soap. Not only can it clean your hands, but there’s also a faint fragrance on your hands after washing.”
After hearing what she said, many people swarmed up to try it on.
This time, they were more self-conscious and took the initiative to line up.
After the trial, even the poor would want it.
This soap was so good to use when taking a bath.
Not only would one be clean, but would also smell good after the bath.
It was also good to use soap to wash clothes.
“Madam, how much are you selling for the soap and scented soap?”
Shi Qingluo laughed.
“Soap without any carvings is three wen per bar. The cheapest carved one is ten wen. A set is at least thirty wen. The highest quality set is at least a hundred wen.
“Five wen for a soap without any flowers, but only limited to these two fragrances.
“The flower carvings are based on the different fragrances and packaging. The cheapest one costs twenty wen, and the set costs fifty wen. The most expensive one costs more than one tael of silver.”
The latter part was mainly targeted at the rich and powerful.
Everyone was shocked when they heard this. The difference in price was too great.
Soap that cost three to five wen was something that anyone with some financial means would be willing to buy.
They also thought that although they only used a few wen, it would have the same effect as the rich buying expensive ones.
It was just not as exquisite and beautiful.
Although one could only choose from two fragrances, it would still be fragrant when used.
It seemed that the gap between them and the rich and powerful was not that big.
“Madam, are you selling these soap and scented soap?” Someone couldn’t help asking.
Shi Qingluo laughed. “Yes, I’m selling them. Today is the grand opening of our workshop. All candles, soap, and soap are at half price.
“Each person can only buy four pieces of each item.”
Upon hearing this, everyone was excited. They didn’t expect this to be sold at half price today.
Then what’s there to hesitate about? Buy, buy, buy!
This time, not only the people in the county who bought it, but many of the slightly richer families in the village could not help but join in the rush to buy it.
The workshop workers were all dumbfounded when they saw everyone buying things as if they were snatching to get them.
All of their previous worries had subsided and were replaced by excitement.
Since the workshop’s business was good, they could continue to do work here.
Moreover, they were all extremely proud because, in addition to their wages, the workshop gave each of them a bar of soap and scented soap every month as their welfare.
When they went back to rest, they would bring them back to give their wives and family.
Just thinking about it made them feel that their future was getting more and more promising.