That day, at the foot shop, after finishing her lunch shift, Aunt Wang asked Wang Yan to stir-fry the bok choy and pork she had made that day, and cook some noodles, as she was tired of eating rice these days.

When Wang Yan looked around and saw that the vegetable vendors had all gone home, she realized that the shop had run out of vegetables.

We had to change tactics and make another spicy stir-fried dried tofu dish. This dried tofu was a gift from the tofu shop; it was free. The Zhou family's tofu shop was thanking them for giving them so much business.

Pour water into a pot, bring it to a boil, add salt and light soy sauce, blanch the blanch briefly, and then remove it from the pot.

Then stir-fry over high heat. Just as the dish was finished cooking, the noodles in the small earthenware pot on the stove over the tea maker were also ready.

A bowl of noodles topped with a bowl of dried tofu—it's still tofu, but the taste is quite different from eating regular tofu.

Aunt Wang even praised her cooking, saying the taste was just right, "If your grandfather had known you were such a good cook, your father might not have been beaten every day back then."

Wang Yan was startled by her mother's words. Don't misunderstand, she wasn't afraid because she remembered her father being beaten.

Besides, she discovered that Wang Pangzi was beaten not because he couldn't cook, but because he was good at everything else but couldn't cook, which was why his grandfather was so disappointed and beat him.

If he were truly an idiot, unable to do anything, he wouldn't have to be beaten every day.

She suddenly realized that after Fatty Wang left the mansion, the family could make money by hosting banquets!

Selling large-scale cooking requires controlling costs, and it can't be too refined (that's too tiring), nor can it taste bad, so there are many limitations on the choice of dishes.

But it's different when you go out to cook a banquet. They provide the ingredients, and each banquet costs three hundred taels of silver, not to mention the top chefs.

We can earn a regular five taels of silver, right? After all, Fatty Wang is the head chef of the Marquis's mansion, isn't he?

With his brand name, charging 5 to 10 taels is a piece of cake.

Wang Yan was overjoyed. Once her shop gained some recognition, she would put up a sign saying it was suitable for banquets.

Isn't this better than making a profit of just a few coins? Sure, sure.

…………………………………………………………

More than half a month later, the weather had completely cooled down, and the tofu was not selling well every day. It would start to get cold soon after being taken home.

Many diners have requested that they change to other spicy dishes, or to make soup dishes, or to renovate the second floor and build a heated wall so that they can sit in the restaurant warmly and eat.

Aunt Wang also took the advice and suggested that the food stall should be renovated next year, since winter was coming and bricks and other materials would be hard to buy.

And so Wang Yan's spicy hot pot made its dazzling debut. Back then, there was a room separated on the first floor, wasn't there?

However, the partition only extends along the stove side, leaving a large passageway on the right. Moreover, there was only one table on the work surface, so Wang Yan went to make another table.

Unlike ordinary tables, it has long poles on both sides and a hollowed-out hole in the middle, which can hold bowls of vegetables. Wang Yan checked it and it fits perfectly.

The side dishes are provided by them: lamb's blood, tofu, freshly bought vegetables every day, thinly sliced ​​pork, a serving of fish balls, and a serving of noodles cooked in the pot, or you can choose a flatbread.

The price of the pancakes was negotiated by Aunt Wang after she led them to a stall that specialized in selling pancakes.

Six pieces for ten coins, that's the wholesale price, so it's much cheaper than retail. One serving of spicy hot pot comes with two flatbreads or a bowl of noodles.

The noodles were bought wholesale from Aunt Lu next door. Aunt Lu makes steamed buns; Wang Yan had tried her sour (vegetable) steamed buns before, which cost three coins each. They were quite delicious.

Every day after making steamed buns, I roll out a small basket of noodles and bring it to them, which costs 80 coins. That's enough to support their daily sales of spicy hot pot.

Why doesn't Wang Yan's family make their own pancakes or noodles? Because it's tiring; Wang Yan prefers to make her own fish balls.

Isn't this the Wei River? The fish here will be cheaper, and Aunt Erhua even cleaned and delivered the fish for us.

However, this process is still quite time-consuming. The fish meat is cut into strips, rubbed with salt, and then rinsed with water.

Then mince the fish meat into small pieces, add ginger and scallion water that has been soaked in ginger and scallions, and knead and stir it into a ball.

Then add salt and pepper to the fish paste, stir again, and add some cornstarch.

Stir again, then squeeze into small balls and cook in water until done.

To make these fish balls, Aunt Wang has to spend an entire afternoon a day in advance. Luckily, the weather is cool now, so they can be stored for a while.

The cost is about the same as when making tofu, since fish is cheaper and sugar is not needed for braised tofu.

Wang Yan slapped her forehead. She realized that she hadn't included the sugar for the braised tofu in the last cost calculation. Well, the sugar at home was delivered by Fatty Wang, so she hadn't included it.

If you include the sugar, the cost should be around 19 or 20 taels? Sigh! Never mind, never mind, I don't make tofu anymore anyway.

We must quickly establish our shop's reputation and then start accepting banquet invitations. This way, we can make money without being too tired.

Once the mala tang (spicy hot pot) was introduced, not only boatmen and college students from the surrounding area came to buy it, but even local residents would bring a small pot of it every day at noon to take a serving home.

It's a bit more expensive than selling tofu, at 16 yuan a serving. The broth is pork bone soup, and it comes with a flat spoonful of sesame paste and half a spoonful of almond paste.

On top of that, a layer of chili oil made from soybean oil is added.

The key is that the soup is free, and you can get two extra spoonfuls, which attracts nearby residents to take a couple of extra spoonfuls of soup home, cook it again, and add a bowl of noodles for lunch. How great is that!

This spicy hot pot business is now much better than the tofu business; Aunt Erhua delivers almost all the fish she catches every day to them.

Aunt Wang couldn't make all the fish balls by herself, so she hired Aunt Erhua to help, paying her 50 yuan a day. The amount of vegetables she made also increased from two baskets a day to four baskets.

After a month, the profit had doubled compared to when I was making tofu, because I sold a lot of it.

Now, the spicy hot pot at Wangjiajiaodian has become a daily staple for the boatmen in the area.

………………………………………………………………

The Marquis's mansion was nearing the end of the year when suddenly the family decided to separate from the second branch of the household.

The whole household was in an uproar. Why was this happening?! Dividing the family property during the Lunar New Year?

In Ronghua Garden, the second master, Gu Xiao, shamelessly knelt before the old lady and the old marquis, begging for mercy.

But this time, the old Marquis showed no mercy. "Gu Xiao, to be honest, I just can't believe you could be such a shameless and brazen person!"

After saying that, she threw the two pieces of paper in her hand at his face.

This was sent by the Anbo Mansion; it's evidence of their scheme to swindle Xu Shaoqing out of ten thousand taels of silver.

When Gu Xiao saw the confessions of the two gamblers, his eyes twitched violently. He should have killed them both back then!

Seeing his expression, the old Marquis sighed from above!

Staying here any longer will only bring trouble, alas! "If you don't want the Marquis's family to be tarnished by your reputation, and your sons to suffer because of you, then leave!"

Gu Xiao refused, for he had neither official rank nor reputation. The only reason he could flaunt his status in public all day was because of the Marquis's name.

If he were really assigned to a different position, where would he be respected like he is now?

He was unwilling to divide the family property. What did his sons' future have to do with him? The legitimate son was being managed by Zheng Jin, while the illegitimate sons were doing well in their studies and didn't need anyone to take care of them.

It was just a matter of calculating his daughter-in-law's money; how could it possibly drag down the Marquis's mansion?

He didn't believe a word of this, so Gu Xiao just knelt before his father and mother, weeping bitterly, and refused to agree to the division of the family property.

He refused to believe that the Marquis of Anbo's mansion would actually spread this news. How could Xu Shaoqing possibly live in the Marquis's mansion then?

"This time it was my fault, but I hope Mother can be more understanding. Gu Yan will be taking the exam next year. At this critical moment, our family has been kicked out. Won't this affect the child's future?"

Father said that we would separate from the second branch of the family after these younger generation members had all passed the imperial examinations and obtained official positions. Now Gu Yan hasn't even finished the imperial examinations yet.

The old Marquis was so angry his hands trembled. He grabbed a stick and struck Gu Xiao on the back. This despicable, vile fool! How dare he mention Gu Yan!

He hit and cursed, "Gu Xiao, how dare you make a fool of yourself here? How dare you mention Gu Yan?"

If you really cared about those children, you wouldn't have done such a despicable thing!

"My Marquis's family has maintained a reputation for integrity for generations, how could we have produced someone like you...?"

Gu Xiao was also annoyed by the scolding and probably realized that he could no longer let his family stay in the Marquis's mansion.

"You're just biased towards your eldest brother. Well, he is the eldest legitimate son born to the daughter of the Chen family of Yingchuan. How can I, a son born out of wedlock, compare to him?"

These words made the old lady sneer, "Compared to your eldest brother, you are indeed no match!"

Your elder brother is capable of handling the affairs of the Marquis's household because of his upright character, exceptional intelligence, and both academic and professional achievements. Furthermore, he is self-reflective and tolerant!

He scoffed again, "Of course, the legitimate heir has the right to be born of the principal wife! He knows his own worth and his place! This is indispensable!"

The old lady added those last two sentences because she was really angry, just to deliberately provoke Gu Xiao.

In Mo Yuan Courtyard, Gu Ting also knelt before Xu Shaoqing in repentance, "My wife, I really didn't know the cause of the accident. I knew nothing about what Father did. My wife, if you don't forgive me, I will truly have no peace of mind from now on."

Xu Shaoqing was somewhat bewildered. After this incident, she knew that Granny Lin and Guixiang had repeatedly reminded her that it might be a setup by Gu Ting.

Xu Shaoqing didn't want to believe it at the time, but now the Anbo Mansion has delivered the evidence to her doorstep. And Gu Ting's words now sound so sincere.

Gui Xiang, standing behind, couldn't help but close her eyes. This was a serious dereliction of duty and disrespect to her master. But she was so angry that her heart ached, and she couldn't care less about being impolite.

"Third Young Master, I've heard that the Second Madam is in charge of all the assets and property of the Second Branch."

"The second master took out a ten-thousand-tael silver note without going through the second branch's accountant. Didn't you suspect anything at the time? That's hard to believe, isn't it?"

Gu Ting said with a hint of resentment, his voice trembling with tears, "I took this money to smooth things over. My father said he would give me all his savings from the past years."

I was so overjoyed at the time that I didn't pay much attention. If I had known this would happen, I should have pressed for details and asked more questions; this misunderstanding wouldn't have occurred.

Gui Xiang cursed in her heart again, then turned to look at Xu Shaoqing's reaction.