Chapter 136

Chapter 136

The house instantly became much quieter after Chen Qingyan and the others left for the government school.

Old Liang, with nothing else to do, decided to travel again. He didn’t go far, just wandered around the counties and towns near the prefectural city with Liang An and Chen Guang.

Wherever there was beautiful scenery or delicious food, he went. With enough travel funds and people to protect him, the old man naturally traveled with ease.

Both Li Shi and Fang Ling were relatively introverted women. Back in their hometown, it was a bit better—Li Shi had many long-time friends to chat with, worship Buddha together, and spend leisure time.

But here in the prefectural city, where they were unfamiliar with the place and the people, neither was willing to go out and make new friends. Most of the time, they stayed at home looking after Yuanbao, preparing Qing Yun’s dowry, and making clothes for the children.

Once the fifth month of the lunar calendar arrived, the weather gradually grew hotter. Pedestrians on the streets changed into summer clothes—the wealthy wore gauze garments, while ordinary folks wore short shirts made of ko-hemp fabric for coolness and breathability.

Wang's Vegetable Shop, which had been closed for half a month, reopened.

Wang Ying had started preparations several days in advance. First, he had Uncle Chen bring back batches of fruit from the experimental field outside the city.

The peaches, grapes, cherries, and honey oranges from the experimental field were ripe and perfect for making ice sticks and ice drinks.

Next, they prepared the sweet syrup for the ice sticks. Er Shun and Tian Ju set up a stove in the yard and boiled several pots of syrup. Since sugar was expensive, to reduce costs, they used the crudest sugar instead of refined white sugar.

The boiled syrup was left to cool before being poured into pre-prepared bamboo containers.

The idea for the bamboo containers came to Wang Ying when he bought water from the mountain. Since he wanted to sell at a good price, the packaging had to be proper. Without something to hold them, the ice sticks would melt into a soupy mess, and customers wouldn’t want to buy them.

Bamboo was cheap—each bamboo tube cost less than one copper coin, though splitting them required some effort.

Not only did the bamboo tubes need to be split properly, but they also had to be branded with the characters "Mixue" using a small branding iron. The purpose of this branding was to create a brand effect.

When others held the bamboo tubes to eat ice, if someone asked, "Where did you buy this?"

If they couldn’t remember, they’d see the characters on the tube and casually say, "Mixue Smoothie!"

That’s right—Wang Ying had renamed the shop Mixue Smoothie. He originally wanted to call it Mixue Ice City, but the name "Ice City" felt too grand, and Wang Ying worried it would be too much to live up to, so he changed it to Smoothie, which also fit what he planned to sell.

The prefectural city was different from the town—the spending level was slightly higher, but to establish a foothold, the customer base still had to be the common people. Affordable, practical, and delicious were the keys to long-term success.

Besides, ice was different from vegetables. Selling vegetables in winter could be considered unique, but ice wasn’t. A few days earlier, he had inquired around and found that there were at least four shops selling ice in the city.

They were all major ice merchants with icehouses storing tens of thousands of pounds of ice, waiting to sell to wealthy families in the summer.

So Wang Ying’s target customers couldn’t be these people. Once competition arose, it would inevitably create resistance. Cutting off someone’s livelihood was like killing their parents—by then, even if he were Deputy Prefect Wang’s fake nephew, or even his real son, it wouldn’t end well.

The sugar syrup ice sticks, left in the experimental field overnight, froze solid. On the first day, they didn’t dare make too many—only three hundred. Wang Ying planned to price them at ten copper coins each, which would bring in three strings of coins.

The main reason was the limited number of bamboo tubes. Otherwise, the experimental field could freeze thousands more.

Besides these, there were also frozen ice blocks reserved for smoothies. The ice blocks were poured into a previously cleaned stone basin, pounded into shaved ice with a wooden pestle, then drizzled with prepared honey milk and sprinkled with raisins, sweetened beans, and fresh fruit. A bowl of smoothie was thus made.

A bowl the size of a palm sold for thirty copper coins, and a larger portion for fifty copper coins, specifically targeting wealthy families.

On the fifth day of the fifth month, Wang Ying and his team took down the old store sign and replaced it with a new sky blue-colored one.

Written in black characters was "Mixue Smoothie," accompanied by a simple drawing of an ice drink in oil paint, catching people’s attention.

As soon as the new sign was hung up, the owners of several nearby shops came over to see what was happening.

"Shopkeeper Wang, your family isn’t selling vegetables anymore?"

Wang Ying replied, "No, vegetables don’t sell well in summer and don’t keep—if they aren’t sold within a few days, they all spoil."

"True, even scallions and garlic are just a few copper coins a bunch now—can’t make much profit from that."

Speaking of selling vegetables, they had been jealous of Wang Ying for a long time. All winter, they watched long lines form outside his shop, selling expensive produce that people rushed to buy, undoubtedly making a fortune.

Now that the weather had warmed up and vegetables weren’t selling, everyone felt a bit more balanced.

"I see you’ve changed your sign—planning to do another business?"

Wang Ying smiled and nodded. "The weather’s hot, so we’re planning to sell some ice drinks."

"Oh, your family has an icehouse?"

Where would his family get an icehouse?

But he couldn’t tell others the ice was frozen in his experimental field, so he just smiled and nodded evasively.

Others unloaded baskets of bamboo tube ice sticks from the carriage and placed them into pre-filled straw "insulation" boxes, covering them with a thick cotton quilt. They wouldn’t melt even after a whole day.

Everyone watched curiously at the door, truly unsure what Young Master Wang was up to now.

After arranging the ice sticks, Wang Ying brought out the cut fruit. At the sight of the fresh fruits, everyone’s eyes widened.

"Grapes already?!"

"Is that a peach? How are there peaches in spring?"

"What’s that orange fruit? I’ve never seen it before."

Wang Ying smiled and explained, "Our estate is near a hot spring, so the fruit trees ripen early. But the harvest is too small—each tree only produces a few dozen peaches. It’d be embarrassing to sell them as is, so we decided to cut them up and put them in ice drinks to let customers taste something fresh."

Everyone understood. No wonder his family had fresh vegetables in winter—they had an estate with a hot spring. Fortunately, the fruit yield was low; if it were like the vegetables, he’d make another killing!

While talking, Wang Ying had Tian Ju pound some shaved ice, drizzle it with honey milk and fruit pieces, and serve each person a palm-sized bowl.

"All you shopkeepers, come in and sit down to try the taste. We’ve just started selling, so we’re not sure how business will be."

Some, being shy, waved their hands and left, claiming stomach issues and inability to handle cold treats. Others, shameless, took the bowls and tried them immediately.

The owner of the sesame oil shop next door was one of the shameless ones. He disliked Wang's Vegetable Shop but loved taking small advantages. Although Wang Ying had often given him vegetables, he still complained behind his back that the shop was heartless for selling at high prices.

He took the ice drink Wang Ying handed him, glanced at it disdainfully—thinking it was just ice and couldn’t be anything special—but after one spoonful, he immediately sat up straight.

The crushed ice mixed with the prepared honey milk was sweet and delicious. Paired with fresh, refreshing fruit pieces, it awakened taste buds dormant through winter, as if he were sitting under a cool fruit tree.

He eagerly took a second spoonful. The sweetened beans and raisins added new textures, chewy and pleasantly sweet and sour, leaving a lingering taste.

He finished the small bowl in just a few bites, drank the last bit of melted remains from the bottom, and sat on the stool holding the bowl, feeling a sense of emptiness.

He remembered many years ago, when his parents were still alive, they once brought him to the street to shop. It was a hot day, and his mother, seeing ice drinks for sale, secretly used her private savings to take out silver coins to buy him a bowl.

The taste seemed similar to this, yet completely different, but it reminded him of his mother taking a cloth pouch from her waist to take out silver coins. Little him held up the earthenware bowl, asking his mother to try some, but she patted his head and said, "Mother isn’t hot, son. You eat it quickly."

"Shopkeeper Song, Shopkeeper Song?"

"Huh?" Shopkeeper Song came back to his senses, quickly wiped the corner of his eye with his sleeve, and handed the bowl back to Wang Ying.

"How does it taste?"

"It's... not bad. Should sell okay."

Wang Ying smiled. "Glad to hear it. I was worried it might not sell."

"How much for a bowl like this?"

"This small one is thirty coins."

"Thirty coins?!" Shopkeeper Song's voice cracked. Might as well rob people!

"Well, you know the ice itself is pricey. This also has honey, milk, raisins, sweetened beans, plus fruit chunks—I'm barely making any money on these."

He thought about it; the ingredients really weren't cheap, but thirty coins was still too expensive. An occasional treat is fine, but having it daily would bankrupt a family. He felt around in his sleeve, pulled out thirty coins, and handed them to Wang Ying.

"This one's on the house, for you to try."

Shopkeeper Song said, a little embarrassed, "I'll take another one, then..."

"Sure! Xiao Tian, make another portion for Shopkeeper Song!"

Before long, Shopkeeper Yang from across the street also came by. Wealthy and free-spending, he took one look at the smoothie and felt sure his husband would love it, immediately ordering three large portions and asking his assistant to deliver them straight home.

Business quickly picked up, though most customers were previous regulars. Ordinary folks, even if they could afford it, were too hesitant to even come in and ask.

That's where Ma Qianzi came in. Having sold ice pops in the village before, he was both business-savvy and had a booming voice. He hit the streets with a cart loaded with bamboo-tube ice pops, hawking as he went.

"Ice pops! Sweet ice pops! Ice-cold and refreshing! Ten coins for a big one~"

His calls soon drew curious crowds.

"Hey there, what are you selling?"

"Whoa there~" Ma Zhandong stopped the cart, pulled out a pop, and handed it over. "Bamboo-tube ice pops. Great for cooling down in this heat! Care to try, sir?"

Ten coins wasn't expensive. The man counted out the coins, placed them on the cart, and took the bamboo tube. "How do you eat this?"

"See the stick inside? Let the tube warm in your palm for a bit, then give it a twist—pop!—out it comes. If you can’t finish, just put it back."

The man licked the pop—it was indeed sweet. "Pretty clever. Will you be selling these every day?"

Ma Zhandong replied, "Not necessarily, but we have a shop. See the characters 'Mixue' on the tube? That’s our shop’s name, on Zhengyang Street. It’s also ten coins a pop if you buy there."

"Great, I’ll stop by next time!"

After collecting the payment, Ma Zhandong continued his calls. By noon, all hundred ice pops were sold, and he’d also promoted the shop.

Soon, many knew about the new ice drink shop on Zhengyang Street, selling sweet bamboo-tube ice pops for just ten coins each!

Considering how expensive ice was—a block about a foot square cost nearly three strings of cash, which worked out to dozens of coins per piece—selling them for just ten coins was a real steal.

The next day, Wang Ying prepared three hundred ice pops, and they sold out before noon.

Even the smoothies were snapped up, quickly making Mixue Smoothie the latest trend in Jizhou Prefecture.

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Author’s Note: Wang Ying: Doing business standing on the shoulders of giants.