Her mom is making fruit platters in the store and set up a stand at the entrance. When Second Aunt isn’t busy at work, she comes over to help with sales. Seeing his son with so many unsold oranges, Second Uncle finally decided to package them and distribute them as benefits at his workplace.

Seeing they couldn’t harvest fast enough, Lin Wan came up with an idea: during some holidays or weekends, when families with children have nothing to do, they can come for an autumn outing and pick oranges themselves.

When you pick your own, the price is cheaper.

Once this idea was suggested, Second Uncle somehow managed to get them a bus. It usually parks at their restaurant entrance, with two banners on it, reading: ’Orange Picking Base, the first choice for leisure picking and business friendship.’ Every Saturday and Sunday, shuttle service provided.

Quite a few people who came for meals inquired about this, thinking picking your own oranges sounded appealing. It’s actually quite cheap, and picking with kids on a Sunday is a nice activity.

Besides this, Saozi even took a few days off, visiting kindergartens to inquire. Some are organizing autumn parent-child activities and could come to their place.

That’s how Saozi got into deals with a few kindergartens and some primary schools for first and second grade parent-kid autumn outings.

With all these participants, their oranges weren’t wasted much. Apart from some rotting on the ground, all others, whether expensive or cheap, were dealt with. Over the years, the couple put in a lot of effort, and now having such a yield is already very good.

Although last year they threw away quite a lot, when counted, the cash income totaled over 300,000 yuan. Oranges costing one mao per jin sold for five fen and three fen. Even so, they earned quite a bit that year.

No one in the family expected that with only 800 yuan invested in the land for two people, after five years of hard work, it would bear such fruit in a few months.

They say hard work pays off. Over these years, the eldest brother and Saozi have invested a lot in the orchard. Having some gains now is considered successful.

Saozi found the parent-child projects quite convenient last year, so she took part of the earnings and built a few simple children’s play facilities at their place. Also a big yard was constructed for receiving guests and casual supervision.

The site for the parent-child projects was advised by Lin Wan, recommending her to find Ying Han. These things of later times now appearing before the public are considered avant-garde, providing people with a new entertainment option.

After the building was completed, Saozi and her group found nearby villagers to help watch over the orchard. They found an elderly couple. Generally, they have not much to do, so they help oversee the orchard.

This year, the eldest brother and Saozi made quite an effort in promoting their orange base themselves. So they didn’t panic like last year.

This year, besides hosting families interested in experiencing rural fun and school groups, they also approached a few major fruit farmers. This solved the problem of unsold produce.

But managing things this way isn’t convenient, as both of them are formal staff of the Agricultural Academy. Having developed an orchard, they can’t balance both sides. So they’re worried about finding someone to operate and supervise it.

Really, for this kind of thing, you could just find a reliable relative, but unfortunately, Saozi’s family has parents who are civil servants, and both her brothers have good jobs and wouldn’t want to leave them.

No one is available from either family, finally, the eldest brother came up with a bold idea. He plans to apply for a patent, afterwards taking only picking business, employing staff to supervise. For unsold produce, they could hire workers to separate the seeds and pulp, sell the pulp to the canning factories, and package the seeds. In the future, they might sell orange seeds and seedlings.

The couple are originally into agricultural technology, so selling seeds would be easy.

...

After reviewing Chen Haichang’s ledger, Lin Wan had no objections, telling him to go ahead. Compared to her, Chen Haichang had more economic acumen and rarely incurred losses in his business dealings, which earned them, and Mei Lang Jun’s trust.

Chen Haichang was glad to see their trust in him. Compared to others, he felt different about these relatives.

Chen Haichang had matters to attend to at the port, so he couldn’t stay long here. Meanwhile, Little Star was already on break. Besides Sister Yaoyao, there were no familiar peers in the yard, and since she had gone back to her grandma’s house this year, Little Star was left alone, facing a computer day in, day out, bored. Upon hearing Mom mention how bustling it was at the port, she wanted to go see the world and paint more pictures while at it.

Little Star wanted to follow Chen Haichang to the port. As soon as she mentioned it, Chen Haichang agreed, since living alone in such a large house could be boring as well. Having a little one accompany him this year sounded like a good experience.

But Han Yi and Lin Wan were a bit worried, as their daughter had never left them alone before. It was natural for them to be nervous.

"I’m an adult; how could I possibly lose a child? I have plenty of servants at home; don’t worry, even if I’m not there, Little Star won’t get lost. Star, the port is lively during New Year’s, Three Grandpa will show you around well."

"Great. I’ll pack my clothes now," Little Star responded gleefully.

"No need; once you get there, Three Grandpa will buy you new ones. Whatever you want, you can have," Chen Haichang offered generously.

"There’s no need to waste more. We have clothes at home." Seeing her daughter so eager to visit, Lin Wan helplessly shook her head, going to help prepare for her trip.

On the side, Hu Lijuan gently ruffled Little Star’s hair, remarking regretfully, "Aunt just got here and the little girl is already leaving."

"Auntie, when summer holiday comes, I’ll bring my brother along to Grandma’s place, and spend the whole break with you, okay?" Little Star, always good at comforting, hugged her aunt, promising.

"You and your sweet talk." Smiling, Hu Lijuan touched Little Star’s forehead and went to help pack too.