Even if she herself did not think that only scholars were useful people, that was indeed the case in that era. Scholars did not even have to kneel before the county magistrate. In ancient times, scholars were highly valued.

In addition, both children are smart and interested in learning, so sending them to school early will help them lay a solid foundation.

However, now that the two brothers have gone to school, Fan Mu has to take them with him.

Fortunately, Mu'er is the most obedient.

Having finished speaking, Liu Yuanyuan took the child out to clean up the dishes, leaving Liu Yuanyuan to quietly collect the money.

In ancient times, collecting money in hundreds of coins at a time was incredibly difficult!

After tidying up the house and cleaning, it's time to go to the shop to work. I didn't do enough preparation yesterday, and since I need to stew meat today, I need to go there a little earlier.

The first thing to do when you arrive at the store is to cook rice. Brown rice takes longer to cook, so it's always cooked in advance.

The meat for braised pork slices needs to be coated with a batter, which requires soaking starch in water beforehand.

At this moment, Granny Liu also arrived. Pei Yuezhi asked her to help cut the shallots into shreds, and also cut the eggplant for the "Three Treasures of the Earth" into chunks, the potatoes into chunks, and the green peppers for the braised green peppers later.

Then, without adding oil to the pan, put the meat and onions in and stir-fry.

Keep stirring and stir-frying until the oil comes out and the pan sizzles. If you turn the heat down, continue stir-frying.

Once the pork is golden brown and a lot of fat has been rendered out, add a handful of rock sugar and stir-fry until melted. Then add light soy sauce and dark soy sauce, stir-fry until fragrant, and finally add a few pieces of fermented bean curd and stir-fry again until fragrant.

Add plenty of water and simmer for two hours.

After simmering for almost an hour, someone needs to watch the pot, because as the broth becomes thicker, it will start to burn.

This arduous task was left to Liu Yuanyuan, while he himself began to prepare the meat slices for the braised pork.

Yesterday, I cut the meat into chunks, added salt, and then vigorously rubbed it until it became sticky and began to gelatinize.

Pei Yuezhi especially likes to prepare a sauce when cooking, so that she won't be flustered when stir-frying.

Add MSG, sugar, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, aged vinegar, cornstarch, and water to a bowl and mix well.

Drain the water from the starch after soaking it. The starch will be very hard at this point. Crush it with your hands, add the meat, and knead it for a while to make the meat and starch evenly mixed.

After kneading for a while, add a little oil to the bowl; this will make them crispier when fried.

Heat a pot of oil and prepare to fry the meat pieces, dropping them into the pot in small, scattered pieces.

After it has set, stir it again, fry until golden brown, then remove it and fry it again at a higher oil temperature.

Fry for a few tens of seconds.

While the oil was still hot, Pei Yuezhi also fried the ingredients for the Three Treasures of the Earth in the oil.

First, fry the potatoes over a low heat, otherwise the outside will burn before the inside is cooked.

While frying the potatoes, lightly sprinkle small amounts of cornstarch onto the chopped eggplant and coat it evenly.

Potatoes are cooked when they have been fried for about five minutes and have a hard, golden-brown crust on the outside.

Pei Yuezhi took the potatoes out and set them aside, then added some firewood, raised the oil temperature, and prepared to fry the eggplant.

Eggplant doesn't need to be fried for too long; it can be taken out when the surface is golden brown.

The green peppers only need to be fried in the pan for about ten seconds.

Leave a little oil in the pan, heat the oil, add minced garlic, stir-fry until fragrant, then add the sauce from the "Three Treasures of the Earth" dish.

Light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, MSG, starch, and water.

Once the sauce has thickened, you can add the stir-fried potatoes, eggplant, and green peppers.

After stir-frying evenly, sprinkle with a generous amount of minced garlic, and it's ready to serve.

To make braised green peppers, first fry the peppers until they develop a tiger-skin pattern, then add minced garlic and sauté until fragrant. Add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and a little sugar, and stir-fry evenly.

Then add a little water and simmer for about one or two minutes. Then sprinkle in a little MSG, reduce the sauce, and it's ready to serve.

It's about time to make the braised pork slices. This dish will be ready very quickly after frying, and it might get a little soggy if left out for too long. Stir-frying it just before dinner will make it crispier when everyone eats it.

Heat oil and sauté ginger and garlic until fragrant. Pour the sauce from the bowl into the pot and reduce it over high heat until thickened. Then add the freshly fried green peppers and meat pieces, along with plenty of minced garlic.

A perfect braised pork slice is now ready.

"Yuanyuan, how's the braised meat?" Pei Yuezhi asked Liu Yuanyuan, who was watching the pot, after serving the dish.

Liu Yuanyuan said confidently, "There's definitely no problem. Look how thick the sauce is after I reduced it over high heat."

Pei Yuezhi took one look and saw that the braised meat was a great success, with a rich sauce and a fragrant aroma filling the room.

"That's great! Quickly serve it out and take it out; today's dishes are sure to be a hit."

Sure enough, as soon as the dishes were served, everyone exclaimed how delicious they smelled.

Especially braised pork, it's incredibly fragrant when poured over rice.

These dishes are all very appetizing, so Pei Yuezhi prepared extra rice in case of need.

"Boss lady, these pork slices and this stir-fried eggplant, potatoes, and green peppers are deep-fried, aren't they? That must have taken a lot of work."

Pei Yuezhi waved her hand and said, "It's no trouble at all. This dish tastes good, everyone likes it, and I can sell it well, hahaha."

"The proprietress is so kind! Please give me another serving of rice. This stir-fried potatoes, eggplant, and green peppers is really good with rice!"

"Okay, I'll get your food right away."

The three of them worked for half a day. Pei Yuezhi served food, collected money, and did the accounting, while Liu Yuanyuan and Granny Liu cleaned the table and washed the dishes. Now they had a great understanding of each other and worked even more efficiently.

Just after lunchtime, Pei Yuezhi's dishes were sold out.

The customers had all left, and the shop was all cleaned up. Exhausted, Liu Yuanyuan leaned against the wall, saying helplessly, "I'm so tired! How come everyone ate so fast? I couldn't keep up with the cleanup!"

"Oh dear, I'm lucky I'm not too old, otherwise I really couldn't do it. With so many people coming at once, and so few plates, I still have to keep up with the cleanup." Grandma Liu was exhausted.

Pei Yuezhi scratched her head sheepishly: "The guests seem to have eaten a little too quickly today. This food is just too delicious. Let's go home and eat."

The two nodded repeatedly. The shop was filled with delicious aromas every day, but they had to work during mealtimes and couldn't eat. It was truly agonizing!

Before leaving home today, Pei Yuezhi prepared the rice and water ratios and instructed Fan Chao to cook the rice before they returned.

That way, as soon as they get home, they can enjoy a delicious bowl of white rice!

Braised pork, stir-fried pork slices, stir-fried potatoes, green peppers, and eggplant, and braised green peppers in oil—these four dishes are definitely perfect for eating with rice, especially when paired with white rice, which we only eat a few times a year.

The group remained silent, focusing solely on their rice.

After eating and drinking her fill, Pei Yuezhi didn't forget that she had an important matter to attend to today: she needed to go to the town's school to inquire about schooling.

Granny Liu happened to be there too. After telling her about it, she strongly agreed and immediately took out one or two taels of silver and gave it to Liu Yuanyuan, saying that Liu Yuanyuan didn't need to worry about Li Nian'an's tuition fees. This was a good thing, and she especially agreed.

Unable to refuse, Liu Yuanyuan accepted it.

Just then, Granny Liu was about to leave, so the group went out together.