Besides, Tan You had her own plans. ’If you want to truly integrate into a new place, you have to get involved in its business interests—the deeper, the better.’

Tan You tried to help with the packing, but the aunties all shooed her away, telling her to go rest. Now, they all looked at Tan You with gratitude. The mountain delicacies from their homes had been sold, and at a higher price than before. Things would be a little easier for their families this year.

Xu Liang was busy with post-production, something Tan You couldn’t help with. She had never specifically studied it, so she was no match for a professional like Xu Liang.

So in the end, Tan You found herself with nothing to do. After a moment of thought, she beckoned to Shen Le and pulled her notebook out of her bag.

The moment they saw the notebook, both Shen Le and Shen Xiaochuan straightened their backs. They knew that Sister Ali only brought out this notebook when she was getting down to business, just like she had with the mountain delicacies.

She had made several plans in it.

The two teenagers sat down across from Tan You, their expressions suddenly serious and focused.

Tan You twirled her pen twice, then wrote down two words: Tea Factory.

Shen Le asked, "Sister Ali, are we going to start a tea factory?"

Tan You said, "We have to. Everything is about the place of origin these days. We aren’t just messing around, so we have to do everything by the book. If we want to scale up and get bigger in the future, all of this is essential."

Shen Le swallowed, feeling a little nervous for some reason. "Oh."

Tan You continued, "Our village used to have a tea factory. It’s just been languishing for all these years. To revive it now, we have a lot to do, starting with all the equipment."

Shen Le said, "The village still roasts all the tea by hand..."

Tan You got it. So there was a tea factory in name, but the equipment inside... might not even exist.

"Alright, we’ll go check out the factory in person tomorrow." Skipping past the tea factory item, Tan You wrote down two more words: Tea Plantation.

Shen Xiaochuan said, "I know about that. The tea plantations here are all grown in contiguous plots, and the trees are all over ten years old. There are old tea trees in the mountains, too. I heard my grandpa say some are hundreds of years old."

Tan You’s eyes narrowed slightly. "Okay, you’ll have to take me to see those old tea trees. They’ll be very useful."

Shen Xiaochuan immediately nodded. "Okay. Our tea plantations here are about 800 mu in total, which is considered a small plantation. The density isn’t high, less than 1,000 trees per mu, probably around 900."

Shen Le added, "We calculated it before. One mu of tea trees yields about 50 jin of tea leaves per year. But my grandpa refuses to harvest them too aggressively, so we usually pick about 40 jin of fresh leaves."

"And after they’re roasted, you’re really only left with about 10 jin of finished tea."

Tan You quickly jotted down the numbers. "So, calculating based on a yield of 10 jin per mu, the spring harvest should be about 8,000 jin. What about the autumn harvest? The loss rate for roasting autumn tea would be even higher, right?"

Tan You didn’t know much about tea. Her focus was mainly on the marketing side. As for the other professional matters, there were experts to handle those.

Shen Le said, "My grandpa says if we’re making autumn tea, it takes about five to six jin of fresh leaves to make one jin of dry tea, and it also depends on the quality of the fresh leaves."

Tan You understood. "I see. Take me to see the tea plantations in the next few days. We need to get a clear picture of what we have."

"Also, tea masters. Does the factory have any tea masters?"

Shen Xiaochuan said, "My second grand-uncle knows how to roast tea. He used to be a master roaster at the state-owned tea factory."

Tan You understood. She then fell into deep thought. Shen Xiaochuan and Shen Le didn’t disturb her, and the two teenagers quietly slipped away. Seeing Tan You sitting there thinking, everyone else also consciously lightened their footsteps.

They all lived in the same village, so everyone could guess what was on Fifth Uncle’s mind. And when Tan You had just pulled Shen Le aside to ask about the tea factory, it only took a moment for everyone to figure it out.

’Speaking of which, if they harvested autumn tea...’

At that thought, everyone’s movements became quicker. It felt as if their lives finally had something to look forward to.

Originally, Xu Liang could have left after helping Tan You shoot the video. But he didn’t. Instead, he followed her around, looking at everything and, of course, filming nonstop with his camera raised.

Tan You didn’t try to send him away. Xu Liang was quite useful. If he stayed, he could help her out.

Before any concrete plans were made for the tea factory, feedback on the mountain delicacies had already started coming in. There were many people these days who knew quality when they saw it. Besides, the aunties had been especially meticulous when preparing the goods, so it was no exaggeration to call them top-grade.

Now, Ji Li’s account was flooded with all sorts of requests to restock. Tan You wanted to sell more mountain delicacies, but she didn’t have any inventory. Where was she supposed to start?

"Actually, there are plenty of other mountain villagers like us. If you’re up for it, Fifth Uncle, you could organize people to go to other villages and buy from them. We can sort through it when it gets here. If the quality isn’t as good as ours, we can just lower the price a bit. It’ll save them from being lowballed by the bulk buyers."

Tan You mentioned this casually during a meal. Nowadays, everyone was at Shen’s grandma’s old house, and mealtimes with Tan You were always crowded. Since everyone was so busy during the day, it was the only time they could gather together.

Fifth Uncle paused, his chopsticks hovering. "That’s not a bad suggestion. We don’t have much to do right now. Who do you think should be in charge of buying?"

Tan You smiled. "That’s village business, so you can decide who to arrange. I have a lot on my plate, too. But at the very least, we can’t be as unscrupulous as those bulk buyers, right? Life isn’t easy for anyone. We should help where we can."

Shen’s Aunt placed a large chicken drumstick in Tan You’s bowl. "Speaking of hard work, our Ali is the one working the hardest. You’re running up the mountain all day. Are you going into the mountains again this afternoon?"

Tan You picked up the drumstick and took a big bite. "I found a few old tea trees, but I want to go deeper to see if I can find more. If we discover an Ancient Tea Tree here, it’ll give the factory a prestigious name to build on."

Fifth Uncle’s heart warmed. The normally eloquent man felt as if his mouth had been glued shut. All he could do was pour Tan You a cup of tea. "You’ve worked so hard, running around for everyone in the village, young and old."

Tan You was pragmatic. "Everyone is getting what they wanted out of this. The village gave me a job, too. ’Tea Ambassador’ has a nice ring to it."

"We haven’t even started producing tea yet," Fifth Uncle couldn’t help but chuckle, but in his heart, he was still deeply grateful to Tan You.

"We won’t hold you back while you’re handling important business, but you have to take care of yourself." Shen’s Aunt put on a stern face. "Look at you—up the mountain during the day, making plans at night, and you still have to tutor Little Yu."

"It’s good to be busy. It puts my mind at ease." Tan You shoveled a couple of mouthfuls of rice into her mouth. "Isn’t life all about being busy like this? At least I’m not just running around in circles."

Right now, Tan You was the one leading this group of villagers forward. To be honest, Tan You had never done anything like poverty alleviation before. She was good at financial management, sure, but she didn’t know how to run an industrial enterprise. She would have to figure all this out on her own.

Judging by the sales of the mountain delicacies, Tan You knew the sales for this batch of autumn tea would probably be high. But she couldn’t rely entirely on online channels; she had to get a grip on offline sales too. And as for the operation of the tea factory, to be honest, Tan You really didn’t dare to count on the villagers.