September passed, bringing three rainfalls. The saying goes that each autumn rain brings a chill, and ten autumn rains call for wadded cotton.
The weather suddenly turned cold.
Fortunately, during this time, the houses for the estate servants were completed on the open ground behind Furong Manor.
A row of houses with blue bricks and tiled roofs stood neatly arranged, exuding the festivity of new homes after being washed by the rain.
Su Xiaoqi, accompanied by Foreman Li, inspected them once and was very satisfied. She then prepared relocation gifts for five households, as if preparing them for their own new homes:
Each family received two dou of rice, two jin of meat, a bag of sugar, four types of preserved fruits, and two bolts of coarse cloth.
Such generous gifts shocked all the servants in Furong Manor.
They gazed for a long time at the gifts piled on the stone table in the center of the courtyard, their eyes wide with disbelief.
"This, this is from the master?" someone stammered, their heart filled with excitement, unable to speak for a moment.
Foreman Li nodded heavily. He glanced at the gifts that filled half the courtyard and said solemnly,
"This is the master's kind intention. We, as subordinates, can only do our duty to express our gratitude to the master.
The master said there will be plenty of work in the future, ample opportunities to earn money, and a bright future for those with capability."
These were Su Xiaoqi's original words. Foreman Li was also moved and, not knowing what else to say, borrowed them.
Seeing everyone nodding, he knew his words had hit home.
Soon, everything that had happened here reached Su Xiaoqi's ears.
Seeing Guo'er, who came to deliver the message, she smiled. Though she said nothing, her attitude was clear.
Their gratitude was what she desired.
No one is good to another without reason. She spent money and bestowed small favors to provide them with a place to live, so that they could wholeheartedly work for her.
Although Su Xiaoqi was at Furong Manor, she didn't neglect her estates in Yizhou Prefecture.
She always had the newly appointed foreman Qin Tietou and Uncle Li and Aunt Li relay information to her, ensuring she accurately understood their movements.
The most important matters recently were the production of supermarket and Chen Jinji membership cards.
To prevent the two establishments from being linked, she specially designed two different types of cards, varying in their visual design and membership mechanisms.
Chen Jinji leaned more towards top-up and points accumulation.
The supermarket, on the other hand, primarily featured points.
By the end of September, the first batch of cards, made by Qin Tietou, was produced: one hundred of each type.
When Su Xiaoqi saw the sample cards, she was momentarily lost in thought.
She had seen the first sample card made previously.
At that time, she felt it was passable.
She hadn't expected Qin Tietou to be so capable. His skills had improved remarkably in a short period, producing such beautiful cards, exactly as she had envisioned.
The supermarket points card had only one tier. Made of rosewood, it was the size of a modern business card, with the supermarket's circular emblem in the top left corner, the card number in the bottom right, and the points system in the center.
It was agreed that this card was exclusively for customer points accumulation, with one card per household. Customers could choose not to bring the card when shopping at the supermarket, simply by stating their card number.
For every ten wen spent, one point was awarded.
Once the accumulated points reached a certain threshold, they could be exchanged for gifts.
Chen Jinji's membership cards, however, were a bit more complex.
They were divided into four tiers.
Bronze Card, Silver Card, Gold Card, and Diamond Card.
The nature of the card determined the discount rate. Both silver and bronze cards could be obtained through a one-time top-up.
Bronze cards were free with a one-time top-up of ten taels, offering a 10% discount on member days every ten days. Silver cards were free with a one-time top-up of one hundred taels, offering a 15% discount on member days.
Gold cards required a cumulative consumption of five hundred taels by Silver card members to upgrade, offering a 20% discount on member days. Upon upgrading from Silver to Gold, the Silver card would be collected.
Diamond cards required a cumulative consumption of one thousand taels by Gold card members to upgrade, offering a 25% discount on member days. Similarly, Gold cards would be collected.
After all, the craftsmanship of Su Xiaoqi's cards was quite costly.
Of course, when the cards were initially launched, to attract customers, Su Xiaoqi suggested that Chen Jinniang offer a 10% bonus on all card top-ups.
For example, a 100-tael top-up would receive an additional 10 taels, and a 10-tael top-up would receive an additional 1 tael.
This promotion, however, was not a recurring offer, only applicable to the initial top-up when activating a card.
As for other times, Chen Jinji would decide whether to offer it based on the situation. All rights of interpretation belonged to Chen Jinji.
Once launched, the cards were an instant hit.
The regular affluent customers of Chen Jinji immediately applied for them.
Furthermore, upon hearing that only one hundred cards in total were available for the first batch across the four tiers, some people applied for several cards at once and gave them to acquaintances.
As a result, a hundred cards were not nearly enough.
Chen Jinji complained to Su Xiaoqi, saying that in just ten days, all the cards were gone.
Su Xiaoqi looked surprised. "All the cards? Didn't we make five Diamond cards and fifteen Gold cards?"
How were these cards issued when others hadn't yet consumed the required amounts?
Unexpectedly, Chen Jinniang told her that some families, in their eagerness to obtain these cards, had consumed crazily in the past few days, managing to upgrade to Diamond cards within a mere ten days.
"Alas, it's fortunate you provided the lotus root powder. Otherwise, where would we get so many precious pastries for them to buy?"
The lotus root powder was packaged in boxes of one jin, with ordinary packaging selling for one hundred taels of silver per box and high-grade packaging for two hundred taels per box.
As this item was in high demand and coincided with the implementation of the membership cards, the lotus root powder prepared by the people of Furong Manor sold out quickly.
The sales revenue for those ten days alone reached over ten thousand taels.
After deducting costs, each person's net profit was two thousand taels.
This was another estate's worth of money.
Shen Xiaomei unhesitatingly used her earnings to purchase an estate in Mianzhou City.
This time, Su Xiaoqi did not buy another estate but quietly deposited the money into the Huitong Bank, which had branches all over Daliang.
Mianzhou City was not a place she intended to stay for long.
Adding the advance payments for the cards, the shop's turnover reached over twenty thousand taels.
If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, who would have believed that such a small shop could achieve a turnover of over ten thousand taels in such a short period?
But whether one believed it or not, it had happened before their very eyes.
Su Xiaoqi, however, remained relatively calm. She had witnessed far more popular businesses in her modern life.
Especially during events like Taobao's Double Eleven and Double Twelve, those were projects worth hundreds of millions.
What was this in comparison? A mere drizzle.
Su Xiaoqi tried to remain composed, but she was undeniably happy.
Simultaneously, another event made Su Xiaoqi even happier.
The scandal of the rotten rice in the disaster relief grain for Tongchuan County had erupted.
Suddenly, it was the talk of the streets and alleys in Mianzhou City.
Su Xiaoqi's heart fluttered. When Shen Yun returned, her first concern was this matter.
"The rotten rice issue has been exposed. Will the people of Tongchuan County
be able to eat good rice?"
Shen Yun was slightly surprised.
Seeing her rush to him with such urgency, he thought she was going to ask if the Su family was involved.
He hadn't expected her to be concerned about the people of Tongchuan.
"I gave them grain seeds with Yiyi before, so I wanted to inquire about their current situation."
The grain seeds she had given them needed them to survive to the day they could plant the crops.
Earlier, she had helped Prefect Du gather grain and provisions, believing that their lives would improve once the imperial disaster relief grain arrived.
However, what they received was disappointment, even despair.