In the end, seizing the initiative is very important, gaining the recognition of prestigious families is even more important, and raising the reputation and word-of-mouth of Jiuzhen Store is the most important.
As the ancients often said, after the willows and flowers comes another village. Jiang Sheng feels that she has thoroughly experienced this today.
From her still immature ideas, with the help of Auntie Zhang and prompts from the long banquet, she finally found a breakthrough.
Jiang Sheng's eyes lit up brightly, and she even derived other ideas.
Such as finding the best carpenter to carve exquisite molds, which would delay others from imitating their steps, and also reduce the sophistication of counterfeit products.
Such as having Eldest Brother Xu Mo personally depict cake molds, striving for novel and beautiful patterns that make people's eyes light up at first sight.
No sooner said than done.
That night when Xu Mo returned from the Imperial College, he saw the youngest sister in the family running over to him excitedly with sheets of paper in her arms, stopping in front of his desk.
"What's the matter?" He chuckled lightly, the corners of his eyes slightly upturned, "Are you practicing your clumsy handwriting again?"
Jiang Sheng's small face immediately drooped.
Xu Mo quickly changed his words, "Eight years old for enlightenment, nine years old for practicing calligraphy. Being able to write like this is already not bad. Your eldest brother is not as good as you."
"What's more, you don't need to take the imperial civil service exam. Being able to broaden your mind and understand the world beyond yourself through reading is enough."
Only then did Jiang Sheng place the sheet of paper on the corner of the desk and plead in a low voice, "Eldest brother, I want to trouble you to draw me a picture."
"Draw?" Xu Mo was startled. He had studied literature since he was young, and could recite the Four Books and Five Classics backwards fluently, with his handwriting forming a unique style. The only thing he was mediocre at was drawing.
If one had to speak of someone who was truly skilled at drawing, it would be Wang Fufeng.
The shockingly talented young master Fufeng was not only accomplished in literary talent, but his painting skills were also strong. He could be called a master of both calligraphy and painting.
It was just that the more so, the more it made people feel regretful about his health.
Xu Mo sighed lightly. He took out a thick stack of envelopes from the desk drawer, opened the one on top, and a scene of the siblings playing in Hairpin courtyard appeared.
The younger siblings were frolicking playfully, while the third oldest brother Fang waved a long stick, Zheng Ruqian fiddled with an abacus, Xu Mo read quietly, and Auntie Zhang nimbly repaired shoe soles.
It was such a vivid painting. With just a few strokes, the characteristics of the figures were displayed. It was as if the painter had envisioned it countless times in his heart before leaping onto the paper, and it was also as if that lively picture had always lingered in his mind.
"What is this?" Jiang Sheng peeked over, "Is this us? Who drew this? It looks really good!"
"It's us." Xu Mo lifted his brush and after much deliberation, still boldly added another figure at the door.
A delicate Wang Fufeng, an otherworldly young master.
Xu Mo's painting skills could not be considered outstanding, but he always felt that after adding this figure, the picture became more complete and vivid.
Putting down his brush, he turned his head, "My painting skills are not as good as Fufeng's. If you can wait, I will write to him and ask him to paint a few pieces for you."
"I can't wait." Jiang Sheng said honestly, "But eldest brother can paint two for me first, and then let Brother Fufeng paint a few more. There's no such thing as too much anyway."
The little sly girl was actually trying to take advantage.
After solemnly putting away the painting with the dried ink, Xu Mo picked up his brush again, "Go ahead, what do you want me to paint?"
He had assumed it would be a landscape painting or a figure painting at worst.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Sheng's pink little mouth opened and closed, "Paint some flowers or little animals, the more novel the better, the more rare the better."
Half an hour later, she happily left with a stack of sheets.
Auntie Zhang was cooking, the kitchen was brightly lit, and the mother and daughter huddled together to look through the paintings, picking out a few of the best and most suitable ones.
"I'll go find the craftsman who made the molds last time tomorrow and ask him to hurry up." Zhang Xianglian estimated, "It should take about three days."
Jiang Sheng nodded, her eyes staring straight at the flowers and plants on the paper. She suddenly felt it was a bit monotonous.
Putting herself in the customer's position, if she herself went to buy pastries from Jiuzhen Store, relying solely on one pattern would not arouse a strong desire to purchase, because everyone's preferences were different.
For example, Auntie Zhang liked sunflowers, while she preferred wild flowers herself.
If they had to buy, it would probably only be the pastries with the words "Jiang Sheng" on them that would catch their eye.
The little girl was struck by inspiration once again.
She raised her head urgently and pointed to the novel flowers and plants on the paper, "Auntie, auntie, I thought of it. We not only need to carve flowers, but also engrave words on them."
Sell to whoever's family name, or simply print their full name.
Not only unique, other pastry shops would not dare to randomly imitate.
This idea was simply too brilliant. Jiang Sheng was so excited she almost jumped up and down on the spot.
However, Zhang Xianglian hesitated, "Then who do we sell them to?"
Without definite customers, they could not carve the molds.
Without molds, they could not make pastries.
Without pastries, how would customers be willing to buy?
This was a vicious cycle. To break it, they could only find a family willing to take a blind shot with trying this.
"Leave this matter to me," Jiang Sheng clenched her fists. "I will find someone."
The next day.
Jiang Sheng squatted at the entrance of Jiuzhen Store and started waiting.
Be it the Qi family, the Zhu family, or the Jiang family, as long as she saw a familiar eldest brother, she would shamelessly go up and recommend, trying to use "free samples" to exchange for the first cooperation between the two parties.
But unexpectedly, the one who showed up to wait was Zhao Yuan.
The already seventeen or eighteen-year-old young man walked to the entrance of Jiuzhen Store, seemed about to go in, remembered something, and then stopped at the entrance.
"Whoosh!" Jiang Sheng rushed up to him, smiling ingratiatingly, "Brother Zhao Yuan, I haven't seen you in a long time. Why don't you come in and take a look?"
"I... I wanted to eat snacks, but my mother doesn't want to eat them. She even said she would beat me if I ate any more." Zhao Yuan swallowed, recalling the fierce appearance of the little girl last time, then looking at her full smile right now, he felt very wary. "What are you trying to do?"
"Nothing." Jiang Sheng put away her smile and said with a straight face, "I just wanted to ask Brother Zhao Yuan if you want to eat snacks, a kind of snack that belongs only to you alone."
Zhao Yuan's eyes lit up immediately.
"Except for you, I won't sell this snack to anyone else no matter how much they are willing to pay for it." Jiang Sheng stressed, "And I won't charge you any money for it."
This was also the reason why she did not ask her big brother for help, but instead worked hard herself.
Under the temptations of "free" and "one-of-a-kind", most people would be moved.
Zhao Yuan was no exception. He quickly nodded, "Deal. Where is it? Let me try it."
"In three days." Jiang Sheng looked serious, "Come to Jiuzhen Store in three days. The snack placed right in the middle of the store belongs to you alone."
After sending Zhao Yuan away, she immediately asked Eldest Brother to write the character "Zhao" and paired it with a hibiscus flower to deliver to the carpenter.
Three days later, the special chestnut and lotus seed pastry exclusively for the Zhao family came out of the oven.
The chestnut lotus paste filling was newly developed by Zhang Xianglian. The position of the hibiscus flowers used vegetable juices to adjust the color. Along with the engraved surname, it could be said to be unique.
Jiang Sheng heaved a long sigh of relief. She placed the snack at the highest position directly facing the entrance, and posted the four words "not for sale" handwritten by Eldest Brother underneath.
After doing all this, she opened the door of Jiuzhen Store, formally accepting the test from the citizens of Nanjing.
