Chapter 19 Sour Plum Drink

"Is Master Xue available now?"

“The masters are all inside today,” a servant outside the door reminded him.

When Song Yushu entered, he indeed saw several teachers from the academy. Unexpectedly, Teacher Xue was the youngest among them, while the other three teachers all had white beards and gray hair.

“Master Xue, I apologize for bothering you. I brought Chengyu here today. He has realized his mistakes recently. If he skips school again, you need not be lenient,” Song Yushu said, handing over the food box he had brought.

"This is a token of my gratitude. It's nothing valuable, just some food. Please accept it, Master Xue!"

Seeing that Zhou Chengyu behind Song Yushu now looked respectful and had indeed lost some of his previous indifference, Xue Huai'an nodded.

"There's no need for that. Since Chengyu has decided to study here, let him go to his original Qisi class first. Later, I will properly check whether he has slacked off in his studies during this period."

After hearing this, Zhou Chengyu grabbed his books and fled from Qingsong Hall as if he were escaping.

Seeing this, Song Yushu placed the food box on Xue Huai'an's desk and quickly took his leave.

"Wait a moment! Madam Wei, please take this food box back. I didn't do anything, and I shouldn't accept a reward without merit," Xue Huai'an called out to Song Yushu.

"It's just some food, Master Xue can accept it. It's nothing special," Song Yushu said, not intending to take the things back with him.

“This lady is right, so please accept it. The food provided by our academy is really just so-so. It’s a rare treat to have a change of pace, so why bother with these empty formalities? They seem even more old-fashioned than us old folks!”

The other teachers also offered their well-intentioned advice.

"Then thank you very much, Madam Wei," Xue Huai'an could only accept it helplessly.

As soon as Song Yushu left, one of the old teachers who was most familiar with Xue Huai'an came up to him: "Master Xue, open it and take a look. If you don't like it, let me take care of it. After eating the academy's food for several days, I also want to change my taste."

Xue Huai'an had no choice but to open the food box that Song Yushu had brought.

There were only two dishes inside: one was his daughter's favorite braised pork, and the other was Dongpo pork, which he had tasted once and could never forget. Both were very large.

"Oh my! I've had this braised meat before, and it tastes quite good, but I've never tried this other dish before, though it smells delicious!"

Even Xue Huai'an was reluctant to give it up. Finally, noon arrived, and the old teachers simply moved the food provided by the academy over, shamelessly mooching off the food.

Xue Huai'an couldn't be too stingy, so he simply shared some of the dishes in the food box with the old scholars. In no time, these two dishes became the scholars' favorites.

After leaving the academy, Song Yushu hurriedly went to help Wei's mother.

Sure enough, before he even got close, the area was already crowded with customers who came to buy Dongpo pork. It took Song Yushu a lot of effort to squeeze in.

"Don't push! There's plenty of Dongpo pork this time!" Song Yushu quickly came out to calm the guests down.

Seeing her daughter return, Wei's mother breathed a sigh of relief. Although she had been helping Song Yushu sell braised meat, today's scene was truly frightening, and she was afraid she wouldn't be able to handle it.

After Song Yushu returned, she started selling Dongpo pork from another pot, and customers spontaneously came to her to buy meat, which made the process much faster.

The mother and daughter were so busy that they could only catch their breath around noon.

"The Dongpo pork is all sold out! Two pots are quite a lot. Should we prepare more for tomorrow?"

"No need. Customers won't come to buy every day. Even the best meat gets boring after a while. Right now, they're just eating something new. If we can sell out these two pots a day, that will be considered good."

Song Yushu explained the situation to Wei's mother, which finally dispelled her concerns.

Dongpo pork sold well, but fewer people bought braised pork. There were still a few pounds left, so Song Yushu simply took out the few pieces of Dongpo pork he had saved for Wei's mother, along with the few pounds of braised pork, packed them up, and had Wei's mother take them back. It would be a good addition to the Wei family's menu.

"These add up to over a hundred coins. Wouldn't it be a waste to take them back?" Mother Wei thought of the price of the meat and repeatedly refused.

"Take it. The meat we make can't be kept overnight. It's too hot and it will spoil easily. If the guests get sick, we'll be in trouble. There are only the three of us at home now, mother and son. We can't finish it. You can take it back to add some meat and vegetables to the family." Song Yushu tolerantly stuffed it into Wei's mother's arms, telling Wei's older brother to take Wei's mother back quickly.

Song Yushu filled his entire day with activities: setting up his stall in the morning and cleaning up the shop in the afternoon.

Since moving to town, Zhou Chengzhu has stayed at home every day, only helping with housework when Song Yushu comes back.

Song Yushu was worried that she would get bored and wanted to find something for her to do.

Raising poultry in town was impossible, and Zhou Chengzhu wasn't very good at embroidery. Song Yushu thought it best to have Zhou Chengzhu work alongside her selling food, so she could practice and be of help when the restaurant opened.

With Wei's mother's help, selling braised pork and Dongpo pork is already enough. Why not make another dish?

Zhou Chengzhu was still young, and the only simple and low-cost job she could do was make sour plum soup. With one packet of ingredients, she could make a large pot of soup, which cost one penny per bowl. Even if she didn't sell many, she wouldn't lose money.

Song Yushu was initially worried that Zhou Chengzhu was too proud to show her face, but when the topic of making money came up, Zhou Chengzhu got excited and dragged her out to buy ingredients for making plum juice.

The mother and daughter didn't even cook a meal, but they made a pot of sour plum drink. It tasted really good, sweet and sour and appetizing. They left some of the leftovers for Zhou Chengyu, and gave the rest to the neighbors to try and get closer to them.

The sour plum drink was indeed effective; at least after drinking it, the neighbors became much warmer towards them.

Because making plum juice took up a lot of time, dinner was a little late tonight. However, Zhou Chengyu was kept behind by Master Xue for a test, and he returned just in time for dinner.

"Mother, can I pack some food to take to lunch tomorrow? I can't get used to the food at the academy anymore," Zhou Chengyu said. He hadn't expected that eating Song Yushu's cooking had spoiled his palate so much that he could no longer eat the food at the academy.

“Okay, I’ll bring it to you at noon. Otherwise, the food will be cold if I bring it over in the morning,” Song Yushu said, thinking that he would close up shop at noon and it wouldn’t take long for him to come back after delivering the food.

"Okay! Thank you, Mother!" Zhou Chengyu finally perked up.

“Brother, try this plum juice. Tomorrow I’m going to set up a stall with Mom and sell this plum juice!” Zhou Chengzhu couldn’t help but show off to Zhou Chengyu.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Chengyu liked the sweet and sour taste of the plum juice and kept pestering her to prepare a serving for him the next day.

The next morning, Zhou Chengyu brought a full pot of sour plum soup to the academy.

After several months, Zhou Chengyu returned to the school, but he couldn't integrate so quickly. His former classmates who had skipped school with him would hide when they saw him.