The entire month of October, Su Xiaoqi's focus was mainly on the estate.
This was because it was harvest season.
First, the ten-month lotus roots from the ponds behind Dong Zhuang and Furong Zhuang were to be harvested.
After the harvest, Su Xiaoqi had them nearby process the lotus roots into lotus root powder, which was then sold at Chen Jin Ji in Yizhou Prefecture and Mianzhou City.
Next, the tremella, which Su Xiaoqi had previously asked the people at Furong Zhuang to cultivate, was also ready for harvest.
Large clusters of tremella emerged from bags filled with sawdust and cottonseed.
With natural wrinkles, they were translucent white and particularly pleasing to the eye.
"Young Madam, is this tremella?" Guo'er crouched by the bag, her face full of wonder.
She had never seen this before. When it was planted, she had only heard her mistress call it tremella, and she had remembered.
She hadn't expected that in just over a month, such a large, beautiful, silvery-white flower-like fungus would grow from the previously empty bag.
Not only was Guo'er surprised, but even Shen Yun raised an eyebrow slightly.
His wife was capable and knew everything.
He had never eaten tremella, but he had heard of it.
"Is this Wu Ding Zhi?" he asked gently.
Su Xiaoqi smiled, "That's right. The world calls it Wu Ding Zhi, but I call it Yin Er. Doesn't this name fit very well?"
She picked off a cluster. The fungus, white as jade and shaped like an ear, was held between her fingers. Her knuckles were fair, and her fingers were as tender as green onion shoots.
"You've named it well, my wife is talented," Shen Yun also smiled, praising Su Xiaoqi without reservation.
Although he had read many books, he did not possess the pedantry of a scholar. Instead, he was very skilled in handling people.
"Naturally, it's good, but I didn't name it. In my homeland, it has always been called this name." Su Xiaoqi didn't know how tremella changed its name from Wu Ding Zhi.
In modern times, it was a very common item, and she hadn't paid much attention to it.
Shen Yun raised an eyebrow and said calmly, "Where is your homeland?"
Shen Yun had read widely, but he had never heard the name Yin Er, nor did he know where Su Xiaoqi's "homeland" was.
Su Xiaoqi looked up, and upon meeting Shen Yun's inquisitive gaze, she suddenly realized her slip and quickly denied everything: "Ah, who am I, where am I, what did I just say, I..."
Su Xiaoqi's performance when denying was too obvious, and Shen Yun felt a little speechless, sighing helplessly.
Su Xiaoqi's attitude was clear: she simply did not want Shen Yun to know about her past.
Seeing the expression on Shen Yun's face, Su Xiaoqi, fearing he would press for details, quickly changed the subject.
"After harvesting the tremella, it's best to dry it and then simmer it with sugar water. It can beautify the skin and complexion. I had some prepared tremella back then. Let's simmer some for everyone to drink."
Shen Yun said nothing.
After tasting the tremella and lotus seed soup, he held his bowl with a somewhat complicated expression.
He thought to himself that the tremella and lotus seed soup was nothing special.
As for its value mentioned in many books, he felt it didn't match the taste at all.
"This is like bird's nest, deer antler, abalone, and shark fin. They don't taste particularly good, but that doesn't stop them from being expensive."
"Rarity makes value," Shen Yun concluded after some thought. "If something is no longer rare, it loses its value."
Su Xiaoqi immediately understood his meaning. She said, "I understand. This batch of tremella, oh no, Wu Ding Zhi, is a trial planting, and it's estimated to yield about five hundred jin."
For tremella that could only grow in the wild, this was already a high yield.
If, according to her initial plan, it were all launched at once, it might be very popular at first.
But later, when her estate's second and third batches of tremella were released in large quantities.
The principle of rarity creating value would be broken, and the market's original leverage would cause the price of tremella to fall.
Of course, with Su Xiaoqi's individual effort, she could only influence Mianzhou City and Yizhou Prefecture, and even the entire Bashu region.
However, once Su Xiaoqi started, other businesses wouldn't be foolish. They would surely explore methods for cultivating tremella, and eventually, tremella would become a common dish on people's tables.
Su Xiaoqi thought, "It's not something rare, so why keep it at a high price? What I want to do is make tremella affordable for everyone."
Since she had come here and happened to know the cultivation method of tremella, she naturally wanted to promote it.
It would be in vain for her to have come all this way otherwise.
Seeing that Su Xiaoqi understood and had a plan, Shen Yun said no more.
However, even though Su Xiaoqi said this, the five hundred jin of Wu Ding Zhi sold at the supermarket caused quite a stir.
Su Xiaoqi was not greedy and didn't sell it at a price of twenty taels per jin, but it was still ten taels.
Selling all five hundred jin brought in five thousand taels of silver, and it also led to the complete sale of one hundred积分 cards for the supermarket.
Coupled with the profits from several shops, Su Xiaoqi's purse gradually bulged.
After a brief accounting, excluding the two thousand taels given for medicine to the citizens of Tongchuan County poisoned by moldy rice, the silver deposited in the bank now exceeded ten thousand taels.
Su Xiaoqi calculated and felt reassured. She now had money and was not worried.
Life continued as usual.
The Su family, implicated by Du Wenqian due to the moldy rice incident, had suffered greatly and was still under investigation, unable to trouble her.
Others were also remarkably quiet, allowing her to have a long period of peace.
In fact, Su Xiaoqi didn't realize that things were not as peaceful as they appeared.
While the Su family was occupied, Huang Yuanxiang had indeed sought her out.
After his failed attempt to frame Shen Yun at the Gongyuan, he was caught with a cheat sheet and branded as a cheater in the provincial examination.
He was supposed to be stripped of his academic title and barred from taking imperial examinations for life.
However, his Huang family had managed to secure a noble connection. With the Marquis of Yong'an as a backing, they had managed to grease the palms of various officials.
Later, the case was closed as a misunderstanding.
His Xiucai title was still intact, but he would have to wait another three years to take the provincial examination.
Even so, he couldn't bear it. He hired someone to investigate the situation at the time, but Shen Yun had acted very discreetly and left no trace.
Unable to find anyone to vent his anger on, he saw that Shen Yun, who was inferior to him in every way, had already become the top scholar.
Naturally, his resentment turned towards Shen Yun. After returning from the prefectural city, he had been sharpening his knives, eager to cause trouble.
For example, when the scholars in Mianzhou City hosted a banquet to entertain Shen Yun at a restaurant, he went to spread unfavorable rumors about him.
Or when he deliberately blocked Shen Yun in a bookstore and insulted him with all sorts of nasty words.
However, no matter how much he jumped around, Shen Yun simply ignored him.
Each time, he looked like a clown. His attempts to target Shen Yun always backfired on himself, making him a laughingstock.
Huang Yuanxiang was furious. Later, after hearing advice from someone, he stopped attacking directly and switched to underhanded tactics.