Chapter 71: Make money! There are many ways to make money.

Yuanxiang Town is not particularly big, but it is the only town in the area.

If people from the nearby mountains and villages want to buy something, this is the first place they come to. In recent years, the weather has been good and many people in the surrounding villages have saved some money. If they want to have a meal in the town or go to a restaurant next time, they will not be reluctant to do so.

It was the first day of the new shop's opening. As soon as Sanshui hung up the red cloth, someone walked over on the street.

"Has the owner of Jinwei Restaurant changed? Has the previous chef returned?"

"The shopkeeper has changed, so naturally the chef has also changed. On the first day of the new shop's opening, the signature dishes will still be two cents cheaper." Sanshui repeated to everyone what Qiu Yu taught him.

"Are they both two cents cheaper?"

“What’s the signature dish?”

Sanshui walked down the stairs and approached the man. He said enthusiastically, "If you want to enjoy some meat, order the braised pork. If you prefer vegetarian dishes, we also have stir-fried vegetables."

He didn't tell everyone the recipes one by one, but just picked out the good ones to share.

"Braised pork, this price is not cheap." Although the diner also wanted to try the braised pork, if the price was too expensive, he might as well go out and cut some meat and cook it at home.

Now that winter is almost over, the price of pork has become cheaper, only twenty copper coins per pound.

"The price is the same as the restaurant next door. It's the first day of opening, and it's two cents cheaper. It's a good deal!" After all, they were on the street, so Sanshui didn't say the price directly.

The diner thought, since they were going to a restaurant anyway, they might as well go to this one first since it’s cheaper.

The diners came into the shop with their wives and children. They were the first table of the day and had chosen a place sheltered from the wind.

"I want braised pork and fried tofu." For their family of three, one meat and one vegetable is just right.

"Okay." Sanshui took note, poured them some tea and went to the kitchen.

There are two dishes, one of which, the braised pork, has been stewed a long time ago and is now warming on the stove.

Qiu Xuan cut the tofu neatly and when she stir-fried it in a pan, she poured in the beaten eggs.

"Second sister-in-law, why are you pouring eggs in it?" Zong Anji heard that Sanshui was talking about fried tofu.

"Improved version, it tastes better this way. Besides, we sell this dish for fifteen copper coins." Qiu Xuan opened a shop for the first time and did not consider herself a profiteer.

A piece of tofu costs only a few cents, so a plate of fried tofu costs less than two cents... Even if you add an egg, it will only cost seven or eight cents. This is when eggs are expensive. If they are cheap, it will cost less than five cents.

Since she can make money no matter what she does, Qiu Xuan still hopes to make the dishes more sumptuous, at least to retain customers.

As expected, when the plate of tofu was served, it was the first thing that attracted heated discussion.

"Waiter, we want stir-fried tofu. This..." The customer pointed at the egg inside and waved his hand, "We didn't order that."

"That's right, this is how we make the tender fried tofu in our shop. It has tofu and eggs. If you don't like eggs, just tell us next time and we'll ask the chef not to put them in." Sanshui explained with a smile.

Eggs are good things. Now it is equivalent to getting half a plate of scrambled eggs for free. How can diners not want to have it?

The family enjoyed the meal very much. At the end, they dipped the dry buns in the gravy and there was not a single bit left.

When paying the bill, Sanshui added two more copper coins, so the total was only fifty-three copper coins.

"It's a real bargain! If it were at a nearby restaurant, this meal would have cost at least sixty copper coins." The diner readily took out the money and praised, "I'll come back next time to try your other dishes."

Once the first table is filled, there will be a second table of guests.

When the Liu family arrived, the restaurant was already full of people.

Butcher Liu thought he had come to the wrong place. He went out and then in again, until he saw Liu Zhong, the waiter in the shop, and then he was sure that this was the place.

"Dad. Why are you here?" Liu Zhong brought the dishes to the table. He was busy now and had no time to chat with his parents. "Dad and Mom, wait a minute. I'll go get my little sister."

Mr. Liu rushed into the backyard and quickly brought Liu Yueyang out.

Liu Yueyang's eyes lit up, and she stepped forward and took their arms, "Dad and Mom, do you still remember this restaurant?"

How could Liu the Butcher forget that this was Liu Yueyang's favorite place. When he was a child, he always insisted on coming here to eat on his birthday.

"How could Dad forget?"

"There are too many people in front, so I'll take my parents to the backyard first. We're cooking there." As she passed the kitchen, she pointed inside. "My second sister-in-law and Anji are cooking. They're busy, so we won't go in and make things worse."

The kitchen was filled with steam and the sound of frying was ringing in his ears. Butcher Liu took a deep look at the two of them. He had been a butcher for so many years, but this was the first time he saw his sister-in-law and brother-in-law working as cooks together.

However, this also indirectly shows that the Zong family has a good relationship, otherwise how could they work together.

As soon as I entered the backyard, I saw several people from the Zong family gathered around the table working on something.

The grandmother was cutting the meat, dividing it into two parts, one into slices and the other into blocks and then chopping it into stuffing.

Zong Xiao was mixing the stuffing, and judging by the pot, it looked like he was going to make meatballs.

"The in-laws are here." The clan mother's hands were occupied and she couldn't free anything.

"Just go about your business. We just happened to come over to take a look. We heard you rented a shop, so we wanted to see how business is going." Mrs. Liu smiled kindly and said, "From what I've seen today, business is really good."

The clan mother said politely, "It's only the first day, I don't know how it will go from here."

Liu's mother said auspicious words: "The first day is good, and the rest will be fine."

They chatted for a while longer, and seeing how busy they were, Butcher Liu took Liu's mother out first.

They also have things to buy when they come to town this time, so it would be better for them to go buy them now and come back when they are done.

"Don't eat out. We'll cook it ourselves. We'll have dinner when there are fewer people." The grandmother was afraid that they would be too polite, so she added, "This is also your son-in-law's first day selling his own food. You should try it quickly."

"Okay, then we'll come over and take advantage of it."

Dinner time is when many people come, and coupled with the incident at the Jinwei Restaurant, there are quite a few people coming to watch the fun today.

Qiu Xuan and the others haven't stopped cooking since they went to the kitchen. Fortunately, they are cooking together. Qiu Xuan couldn't imagine how she would be able to cook so much if she was alone.

They were busy until 3 p.m., and only after seeing off the last table of customers in the restaurant did Qiu Xuan and the others close the shop.

Everyone was hungry, and some of them ate half a steamed bun, but that didn't help.

"Eat first, eat first, and then we can talk about other things after you finish eating." Qiu Xuan brought out the remaining dishes, which were all the diners' favorites today.

There was braised pork and meatball soup. Qiu Xuan originally wanted to save some pork elbow, but so many people wanted it that there was nothing left.

Zong Xiao put two square tables together to make it convenient for the two families to eat together.

There were plenty of dishes and rice today, and everyone enjoyed their meal to their heart's content.

Butcher Liu ate at restaurants the most often, and he nodded in approval, "It tastes good, indeed."

With his words, Qiu Xuan felt reassured.

If you open a restaurant, you have to make the diners approve of the dishes.

Only in this way can the restaurant continue to operate and the business can grow bigger and more prosperous.

After dinner, everyone was busy cleaning up. Once the restaurant was tidy, they began to welcome diners in the evening.

As it is not that warm today and it gets dark early, there are fewer people coming out to eat at night.

Qiu Xuan didn't keep Zong Anji, she felt she could do it alone.

But she was wrong. Many diners came in the evening, and she was so busy in the kitchen that she almost died of exhaustion.

At night, she didn't even count the money and just collapsed on the kang.

Zong Xiao massaged her gently, his eyes full of heartache.

If his shoulder wasn't injured, he could at least help her share some of the burden, but now he had to be gentle even when massaging her shoulders.

"No need to pinch me." Qiu Xuan turned her head to look at him, then raised her hand, motioning Zong Xiao to come closer.

"You have to pinch it, otherwise you will be sore all over tomorrow." Zong Xiao knew this because he had done hard labor.

Seeing that he insisted, Qiu Xuan didn't say anything else. She lay down obediently and let him massage her for another half incense stick.

Qiu Xuan felt very comfortable being served, and even hummed twice in the middle. "I must have made money today, but I'm too lazy to count it. We can count it together tomorrow when my third brother and the others come."

We do this business as a family, so it's better to count the money together.

"Okay, I'll do as you say." Zong Xiao covered her with the quilt and crawled in himself.

He gently embraced her and fell asleep in each other's arms like they did yesterday.

The next morning, Zong Anji arrived early.

He only brought Yueyang today. The little girl Huaixue was so tired yesterday that she didn't even get off the kang this morning.

The grandmother had to take care of Huaixue, so she didn't follow.

"You're here just in time. Let's count the money first." Sanshui went out to buy vegetables. Now everyone in the shop is his family, so there is no need to hide the fact of counting the money.

Half a can of copper coins was poured out onto the table.

Zong Anji stared in amazement. So many copper coins must be at least two taels of silver.

Qiu Xuan took out a hemp rope and strung a hundred copper coins together. The four of them sat at the table and counted them one by one.

In the end, all fifteen hemp ropes were used up, but there were still a lot of copper coins left.

Including the small change, Qiu Xuan calculated that she had sold a total of two taels and one qian yesterday.

After deducting the cost of buying meat, vegetables, seasonings, oil and firewood, they earned at least five coins of silver.

Five cents...that’s fifteen taels in a month!

Zong Anji: “That’s quite a lot!”

"This money may seem like a lot, but it's actually earned by our family together. We also have to pay rent and hire people, so it's not that much in a month," Qiu Xuan said. "In fact, each of us only gets less than three taels."

"Sister-in-law, you don't have to count it for me." Liu Yueyang felt that she didn't do any work and she couldn't take the money.

"You get it if you do the work. We'll split it up according to your work." Qiu Yun put the money back into the jar. She said, "We'll pay you once a month. This is only the first day. Let's see how business goes in the next few days. If it's not so good, we'll try some new businesses."

Zong Anji became interested: "Second sister-in-law, what else can we do now that we have opened a shop?"

There are so many things he can do. Qiu Xuan gave him examples one by one: "In the morning, we can set up a stall in front of the shop to sell breakfast. At noon, we can cook some dishes. If that doesn't work, we can set up a noodle stall outside. In the evening, when it gets hot, we can sell barbecued skewers outside. Don't you think these are all new ways to make a living?"

Zong Anji's eyes went dark and he almost fainted. He lowered his head and said, "Second sister-in-law, we are human beings... We are human beings..."

Zong Xiao couldn't bear to see him look so dead, so he raised his hand and tapped him on the forehead.

"Hiss!" Zong Anji sat up straight in an instant, "Second brother!"

Qiu Xuan was already used to the brothers acting this way. She exchanged a glance with Yue Yang and smiled helplessly, "I told you I was just giving you an example. If business isn't good, we'll do it again. For now, let's just focus on cooking."

In the blink of an eye, it was noon again.

Tianjin Restaurant is bustling again.