NCCnovel Chapter 102 Honey Sold Out
Chapter 102 Honey Sold Out
The crackling of the firewood was the only sound.
Lin Ran kept this shot for a full twenty seconds, without cutting a single second. Her eyelashes trembled slightly in the firelight, and her fingers unconsciously twisted the hem of her clothes.
Lifting the lid of the steamer, a wave of steam rushes out. The steam billows and then slowly dissipates, revealing a piece of osmanthus cake inside, as white as jade. The surface of the cake is inlaid with tiny osmanthus blossoms, like gold threads embedded in white jade.
Invert the cake to release it from the mold. The steamer was turned over on the wooden board, and the osmanthus cake wobbled slightly before settling steadily on the board. The gauze was lifted, and the cake was still steaming.
Su Peixue picked up the wooden knife and cut it into pieces. The cake bounced slightly as the knife cut into it; the cross-section was delicate, revealing tiny air pockets and fragments of osmanthus flowers embedded within. The knife struck the wooden board at the bottom, making a very soft tapping sound.
She picked up the earthenware jar, and honey slid down the wooden spoon, pouring it over the cake. The honey slowly slid down the surface of the cake, seeping into its body and leaving a glistening trail. The honey pooled at the bottom of the dish, the edges of the osmanthus cake soaking in the honey.
When this set of photos was taken, the area outside the kitchen was packed with people.
The staff of the Magic Book were all gathered around. Old Huang and the owner of the farmhouse were also standing in the yard, looking inside through the window.
No one spoke. Only Lin Ran's camera shutter clicked and the occasional instruction.
This is the first time everyone has seen a video being filmed on location!
We were all amazed!
Turns out, the photographer was the real genius!
Every single scene was designed and directed by Lin Ran.
This is innate aesthetic sense, a talent!
After filming, Lin Ran took Su Peixue to shoot the final scenes. Dusk was approaching. The osmanthus grove was bathed in the warm orange light of the setting sun, and smoke rose from the village below the hillside.
Su Peixue carried the osmanthus cake to the osmanthus tree. The setting sun shone on her from the side, giving her a golden edge. Her braid hung down in front of her chest, and a small cluster of osmanthus blossoms had somehow gotten stuck to the end of it.
A close-up of someone holding an osmanthus cake. The steamed cake is still warm, and a layer of condensation forms on the white porcelain plate. You can smell the sweet fragrance of glutinous rice and osmanthus when you get close to the camera.
Su Peixue lowered her head and took a bite of the cake. She chewed it twice, her almond-shaped eyes curving upwards. The corners of her mouth, smeared with honey, turned up slightly.
As dusk fell, she sat beneath an osmanthus tree on a small hillside, holding an osmanthus cake in her hand, golden petals scattered around her feet. The mountains behind her became a dark silhouette.
Lin Ran turned off the camera.
The two-day team building activity has come to an end.
The bus took everyone back to the city. Before leaving, Lin Ran took all the honey produced by Old Huang's beehives, filling most of the trunk of the bus.
Old Huang insisted on not accepting payment upfront, saying he would wait until the products were sold. He added that it didn't matter if there were no buyers, acknowledging everyone's kind gesture.
Back at her apartment, Lin Ran sat down at her computer and went through all the footage. Three sets of shots: picking osmanthus flowers, collecting wild honey, and making osmanthus cake.
He edited until 3 a.m., adjusting the color temperature and saturation to ensure that the tones of each frame matched each other.
He processed the audio track separately, and the next morning, he posted the video to Su Peixue's Magic Book account.
That evening, the video garnered over 50,000 views. With over 100,000 daily active users on Magic Book, nearly half of them saw the video.
The user demographics in the comments section matched his prediction; most were female students. When they saw the final scene where Su Peixue sat under the osmanthus tree eating rice cake, the comments were full of "So beautiful it made me cry!"
"It smells delicious!"
"Xuexue, don't bite the honey osmanthus cake, bite me instead!"
Lin Ran took samples of different batches of Huang Laotou's honey and sent them for quality inspection.
All results were satisfactory, with all indicators above the standard.
He posted a photo of the quality inspection report in the pinned comment section of his video, and then added it to his shared bike. Half a jin (250g) of honey costs fifty yuan a bottle, about one hundred yuan per jin. The cost alone is around fifty yuan. Considering the quality of Huang Laotou's wild mountain honey, this price isn't high.
Sold out immediately after being put on the shelves. More than 500 kilograms of honey were sold out in two days.
Fang Xun posted a screenshot of the backend in the incubation base's group chat. The order list was so long that it couldn't be scrolled to the bottom; it was all already paid.
He Biqiong said the boss was awesome and the boss's wife was mighty.
Lin Ran transferred the full 50,000 yuan payment to Old Man Huang, along with a short message: "Uncle, the honey's sold out. See you next year."
Old Huang was filled with emotion. He would be lucky to sell half a jin a day if he took his goods to town to sell.
In just two days, a year's worth of supplies was gone.
With this money, Rongrong and Jiajia's tuition fees and living expenses for the next few years are covered!
Su Peixue's number of followers on Bilibili suddenly surpassed 30, and she only posted two videos; the growth rate was incredibly fast. The number of followers for "Magic Book" also reached 5.
The video of 【Honey Osmanthus Cake】 has gone viral on Bilibili, and its views have already exceeded 200 million!
……
The meeting room of the Guishu County Economic Development Office is located on the third floor of the county government building, and you can see the distant mountain ridgeline from the window.
Office Director Fang Shaohui sat at the head of the conference table. He had a square face, wore square-framed glasses, and had a thermos cup that he had used for many years in front of him.
He looked around and said, "There is only one topic for today's meeting: how to boost the economy of our Guishu County."
Our county has excellent natural resources, with no shortage of mountains and rivers. The key is how to utilize them and revitalize the economy.
Rural revitalization is a top priority. Please feel free to speak your mind and share your ideas for discussion.
The atmosphere in the meeting room was lively.
Some people suggest using existing businesses to attract more businesses, saying that once a company settles in, supporting businesses will naturally follow.
Fang Shaohui nodded, indicating that this line of thinking was correct.
Some people have also brought up industrial support, saying that as long as the upstream and downstream industrial chains are set up, there will be no shortage of investment.
Fang Shaohui nodded, but did not say anything further.
He understood that these were all just empty words, which could be said in any county, but Guishu County had neither a ready-made industrial chain nor commercial resources that could attract investment. The premise of attracting investment through existing businesses was that there were businesses to attract.
Yan Xiao, who was sitting by the window, spoke up.
This young man looked scholarly, and he habitually pushed up his glasses when he spoke.
"Director Fang, I have studied the industrial base of our county. Guishu County lacks industrial chains and commercial resources, making it difficult to attract foreign investment based on these two aspects."
But we have beautiful mountains and clear waters, so perhaps we could develop aquaculture.
He paused for a moment, then continued, "I also have an idea: attracting investment through hometown connections. We can take advantage of the peak travel season during holidays to proactively contact successful people and local elites who are working elsewhere, and encourage them to invest back in their hometown through seminars, visits, and other means."
Fang Shaohui picked up his thermos, took a sip, and nodded approvingly.
The young man was offering concrete and actionable solutions, not just empty platitudes.
While the entry point for aquaculture still needs further evaluation, the idea of attracting investment based on local connections is feasible.
Many business owners from Guishu County have left the county. If we can bring one or two back, the economy will have a foothold.