Chapter 46: Chapter 46: Official Launch
Before he knew it, a week had passed in the blink of an eye.
Lü Weibin had spent the entire week at Nanhu Farm, so busy he was run off his feet. To ensure the strawberries stayed fresh during shipping, he conducted preservation tests by sending free express deliveries to the families of the Hailufeng Company’s non-local employees.
The feedback from dozens of employees’ families showed a clear pattern.
Deliveries within Lingnan Province all arrived the next day.
For areas south of the Yangtze River, deliveries generally arrived on the second day, with occasional third-day arrivals.
Some cities with direct cargo flights also received their packages on the second day, such as provincial capitals or cities in economically developed regions.
Of course, this test had its limitations. After all, most of the Hailufeng Company’s non-local employees were originally from the Lingnan Region and areas south of the Yangtze River.
Therefore, to fill the gaps in the data, Lü Weibin requested a special fund from Jiang Miao and randomly selected 50 people from their online customer base who had previously purchased canned eel.
He also sent them a free one-kilogram box of strawberries.
After this round of testing, Lü Weibin finally gathered sufficient reference data.
For example, deliveries to the Northwest Region, as well as parts of the Xinan and Northeast regions, still took about three days, even with Shunfeng Express.
Although customers in these areas reported that the strawberries were unaffected, with no signs of rot or spoilage upon arrival, Lü Weibin still decided to have the online store department add a special note, advising customers in the Northwest, Northeast, and Xinan regions to purchase with caution.
「March 20th, early in the morning.」
The online store department finally began to officially list the three types of strawberries.
However, the quantity listed was very small.
This was mainly due to the farm’s limited daily output.
Currently, the daily yield for Jasmine Strawberries was about 80 to 90 kilograms, while Cheese Strawberries were at 50 to 60 kilograms. The yield for Vanilla Strawberries was even lower, only 40 to 50 kilograms.
Considering a large portion had to be set aside for pre-order customers, and some were needed for the physical store.
Therefore, only 50 boxes of strawberries were listed on the first day, all in one-kilogram packages.
This stock was instantly sold out the moment it was listed.
Customers who couldn’t get any had to place pre-orders, but the online store department only released 100 pre-order slots per day.
This situation led many customers to either give up or buy strawberries from other e-commerce platforms.
Meanwhile, many of the first batch of pre-order customers had already received their strawberries. This was especially true for customers within the province, who mostly got their deliveries by noon or afternoon on the 20th.
This was because Lü Weibin had personally supervised the loading of two hundred boxes of strawberries the previous evening.
...
「Yangcheng, at the entrance of a residential community in Panyu District.」
A Shunfeng Express courier was on the phone. "Hello, I have a delivery for you!"
"Just leave it with the security guard!"
"What’s the name?"
"Wu Xiaoli."
The courier wrote the name on the package and added a reminder, "This is a perishable item, please pick it up as soon as possible. I’m leaving it with the guard."
"Okay, thank you."
At six o’clock, Wu Xiaoli got off work, picked up her son from kindergarten, and had just gotten upstairs when she remembered the delivery. She hurriedly took the elevator back down.
In the security office, the guard, an older man, was smoking a water pipe.
"Uncle Qin, where are today’s deliveries?"
Uncle Qin exhaled a puff of smoke, revealing a set of yellowed teeth. "Probably on the top shelf."
Wu Xiaoli quickly found her package on the shelf. She then walked under the security camera, turned the shipping label to face the lens, and held it up to be recorded.
She felt a bit helpless about it, but people had been stealing packages and food deliveries before, forcing the property management to resort to this measure.
Wu Xiaoli carried the package home.
When she opened the door, she saw that her husband, Yang Dong, was already back, lying on the sofa and playing on his phone.
"Picking up another package? What did you buy?"
"Strawberries. Can you open it for me? I’m going to start dinner."
Yang Dong didn’t get up right away. He finished another round of his game before grabbing a box cutter from a drawer, slicing the tape, and opening the outer box.
"What kind of strawberries... why do they smell so fragrant?"
He grabbed the fruit platter from the table and began taking the strawberries out one by one from their foam indentations.
"Honey, are any of them rotten? If so, remember to take a picture," Wu Xiaoli called out from the kitchen.
"No... not so far," Yang Dong quickly added as he removed the top layer of foam padding. "Huh? It’s even more fragrant! They didn’t add artificial flavoring, did they?"
Skeptical, he took out the strawberries from this layer. There was no rot or any other problem with them either.
After removing the second layer of foam padding.
"White strawberries?"
He placed these white strawberries on the platter as well.
The one-kilogram pile of strawberries filled the platter to the brim.
Yang Dong carried the fruit platter into the kitchen.
Wu Xiaoli, who was chopping vegetables, saw the large platter of strawberries. "Any rotten ones?"
Yang Dong shook his head. "None. But the strawberries in the middle layer are incredibly fragrant. Do you think they added artificial flavoring?"
"No way! Huh? Wow, they really are fragrant." Wu Xiaoli quickly washed one, wiped it on her clothes, and took a big bite.
"Mmm... so sweet and fragrant..." She popped the rest of the strawberry into her mouth. The unique aroma and sweetness of the Vanilla Strawberry filled her entire mouth.
"I’m still not convinced!" Yang Dong also washed a large one, dried it with a paper towel, and took a bite. "...It’s not that sweet, is it? But it does have a faint scent of jasmine? How strange!"
Wu Xiaoli then realized. "Honey, the one you ate was a Jasmine Strawberry. The smaller ones are the Vanilla Strawberries."
"Huh? They’re different varieties?"
"Yeah! Try this one, this is a Vanilla Strawberry."
Yang Dong took a bite, and his eyes lit up. "Wow! This one is really sweet and fragrant. It’s not a sickeningly sweet taste, but a sweetness full of strawberry flavor. This is the first time I’ve ever had such delicious strawberries. How much did they cost?"
"The Vanilla Strawberries are 99 yuan per kilogram, but I had a discount and a coupon when I bought them. I think the one-kilogram, three-variety pack was 56 yuan."
"That’s a bit expensive!"
"Not really. Dandong Strawberries cost 80 or 90 yuan a kilogram."
Although Yang Dong thought it was a bit pricey, he didn’t feel the pinch too badly when he thought about his stock market gains over the past few months.
Thinking about the stock market, he asked his wife hesitantly, "Honey, that stock I bought... not only have I broken even, but I’ve also made a profit of over 500,000 yuan. Do you think I should sell it? Or should I wait a bit longer?"
The moment she heard the word "stock," Wu Xiaoli bristled. "Don’t wait! Sell it immediately! You had your money tied up in it for over three years before. Haven’t you learned your lesson?"
"Are you sure?"
Wu Xiaoli shot him a look that could kill. "I’m sure! Absolutely! Positively! Sell it tomorrow and pay off the mortgage right away. I don’t want to live another day of making monthly loan payments of over 10,000 yuan."
"Alright! Alright! I’ll sell it tomorrow," Yang Dong said, convinced by his wife.
Both of them worked, but their combined monthly income was only around 28,000 yuan. After the mortgage payment of over 10,000 yuan, fixed expenses like utilities, gas, and phone bills, plus their son’s schooling, they were just barely getting by.
If it weren’t for her father giving them over 2,000 yuan each month, they’d probably be eating grass instead of strawberries.
That’s why Wu Xiaoli had such a strong reaction to any mention of the stock market.
If Yang Dong hadn’t gotten over two million yuan of their money tied up in the stock market a few years ago, she wouldn’t have even needed to work.
Yang Dong finished washing the strawberries and called his son out to eat. The father and son ate strawberries while watching TV.
"Dad! These strawberries are so yummy!"
"They’re 99 yuan a pound, of course they’re delicious! Don’t eat them all, leave some for your mom."
"Dad, my classmate’s birthday is in a few days. Can you buy me a box of strawberries? I want to give it to them as a gift."
A teasing grin suddenly appeared on Yang Dong’s face. "Son, it’s a girl, isn’t it?"
"Uh... um..."
Seeing his son’s expression, he knew he was right on the money. Still, he gave him a reminder, "Giving gifts is fine, but nothing else. You’re still too young, understand?"
"Huh?! Dad! Where is your mind going? We’re just good friends."
"I get it, I get it. Same rules apply even for ’good friends’."
