Chapter 135 Almost broke up
The western kitchen was finished, and Zhao Xiping led Sui Yu over to inspect it. Zhao Xiaomi and Sui Liang also jumped over to follow. The walls and roof were finished, but the surrounding dirt hadn't been cleared yet. The ground outside the wall was so bumpy that walking on it made it difficult for people to walk. The four of them circled halfway around and then turned back, entering through the door frame.
The western kitchen's courtyard was quite large, and when there were many guests, it could accommodate more than ten sets of tables and chairs. Similarly, the kitchen for cooking was also spacious. Sui Yu walked in and took a look around, saying, "Build two rows of stoves, with at least six burners. The two burners near the chimney are used to cook braised dishes, meat, and eggs. They use the residual heat from cooking in the front pot, so these two burners don't need to be heated, and the braised eggs and dishes cooked in the pot won't get cold."
She is an expert in this area, and Zhao Xiping has nothing to say.
"Can we take the iron pot we're using now to a blacksmith shop, melt it down, and add some iron to make two pots?" Sui Yu pondered. After a while, she couldn't find anything comparable. Seeing some mud at the base of the wall, she pinched a lump of it and shaped the bottom of the pot into an oval shape. She said, "When you have time, ask the blacksmith if he can make an iron pot of this shape. This shape will be more convenient for cooking."
Zhao Xiping took the mud, looked at it, and said, "Okay, I'll go ask when I have time."
There are warehouses on the left and right of the kitchen, and firewood rooms at the corners of the walls on both sides. There are four rooms in total in the north and south rows. Guests can sit in them while eating on windy, rainy and cold days.
Coming out of the west kitchen gate, you will see the west door of the first guest house. When you walk in, you will see empty doors, twelve rooms in a row, and a total of twenty-four rooms in a small courtyard. The rooms with doors facing south are guest rooms, and opposite is the warehouse, which is convenient for the merchants who stay there to store goods.
"It's on the west side, near the west kitchen. I plan to convert the side room next to the east door into a toilet." After checking everything out and preparing to leave through the east door, Zhao Xiping pointed to the side room and said, "Once the wall is dry, I'll have someone drill a hole in it to get rid of the smell."
Sui Yu subconsciously wanted to cover her nose. The smell was strong when there were so many people around. If possible, she would prefer to build a separate toilet outside, but it was just inconvenient.
"The wing room near the west door was turned into a water room. After it was completed, we used the remaining mud to wrap a stove and placed a large pottery cauldron here. After winter came, we provided hot water every evening to prevent merchants from going to bed without washing their feet and making the house stink. I went to deliver food to the merchants staying at Lao Tu's house before, and the smell gave me a headache as soon as I entered the house." Zhao Xiping continued.
"Okay." Sui Yu nodded. She walked out and headed to the livestock pen in the east. As she walked, she said, "With the livestock pen, there will be no shortage of manure for the fields. I'll sell the human feces to the nightshade collectors and have them come and clean it up regularly to avoid disgusting people."
Hearing this, Zhao Xiping looked down at her and Sui Liang's expressions. Both siblings had expressions of disgust. Then he looked at Xiaomi, whose face was filled with joy. She had no feelings for the things that the siblings disliked. He snorted inwardly, thinking that even someone who had been a young lady and a young master was still so particular.
The livestock pens also ran east-west, with twenty pens in a row. Because camels are large, each pen was large, accommodating six or seven camels, making it more spacious than a human dwelling. The gates faced west, and behind the pens was an excavated pit, the primary source of soil.
Sui Yu walked around and stood at the edge of the pit to look. The bottom of the pit was already one person high, and there were shoveled steps on the side. People carrying grass went down from the south, and people carrying mud went down from the north. They each went their own way and did not disturb each other.
The sun in June is scorching. The cut grass is spread on the ground and dried in the sun for two days to become hay. The hay is chopped into palm-length grass heads and mixed into mud and sand mixed with water. Four strong, bare-chested men hold thick wood and stir and beat the mud and hay continuously, turning the mud and sand into a sticky and hard state. Finally, they shovel the hard mud into a wooden frame and beat it. After it is formed, it is poured out. This is the mud brick.
The man pounding the mud raised his wooden axe, beads of sweat slid down his back, and the sun's halo fell on his bronze skin, making people dizzy.
Zhao Xiaomi's face suddenly felt hot. She stood up and walked to the side. Seeing Uncle Lao Niu turning over the grass, she ran over to help.
"You are all here, where is A Shui?" asked Uncle Lao Niu.
"I asked Grandma Yin to take her back. My third sister-in-law said it's too sunny here. If we don't bring her here, the child's skin will be sunburned because of her tender skin." Zhao Xiaomi said.
Uncle Niu didn't ask any more questions after hearing this.
"Xiaomi, go and take a look at the second guest house." Sui Yu couldn't resist Zhao Xiping's urging, so she had to give up watching the process of ramming earth and drying bricks.
The second guest house had not yet been completed. The walls were only calf-high, with damp mud bricks piled up on top. The soldiers lifted wood as thick as their legs and hit the mud bricks, constantly tamping the wall until the upper and lower mud bricks stuck together and became one.
Even though I knew building a house was hard work, no matter how much I thought about it, it was nothing compared to what I saw with my own eyes. Dust flew in the air, and the sweat on my face and body was mud-yellow. The sweat dripped onto the mud bricks, and the sweat towel around my waist was also soaked with sweat. The people who were holding wood and tamping the earth even had blisters on their fingertips.
"Tomorrow I'll have Grandma Yin slaughter two chickens and stew them in a pot. I'll bring it to you in the evening." Sui Yu said to the people nearby, "I'm sorry for all the hard work you've put in to build this house."
"The captain's wife said she would stew two chickens for us tonight." The shirtless man shouted loudly.
The man who was working with a gloomy face suddenly became energetic and had strength back, and wanted to perform well in front of the master.
"Now that this one is completed, will we continue to build it?" someone asked.
"We'll talk about it later. The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and I'm worried that you'll tire yourself out." Sui Yu glanced up at the sky and then tilted her head to discuss with Zhao Xiping, "We should stop construction once the second phase is completed. We can resume construction in August or the end of July when the heat subsides."
In fact, I have no money.
Zhao Xiping nodded and instructed, "From now on, come here half an hour earlier in the morning and leave work half an hour earlier at noon. At noon, you can rest in the guest house in front."
The men tamping the earth exchanged glances, their thoughts of quitting wavering. They decided to hold on for a few more days. Working so hard under the scorching sun was exhausting. After half a day of tamping, they'd lost their appetites. They worried that if they didn't rest, they might collapse.
It was almost noon, and Gan Da and Gan Er went back to fetch food. Sui Yu and Zhao Xiping also returned with Zhao Xiaomi and Sui Liang. On the way, Sui Yu said, "When we get back, tell Yin Po to cook an extra pot of millet porridge every morning. Make it thinner, let it cool, and have Gan Da and Gan Er bring it in buckets. Cold porridge is both filling and thirst-quenching, so no one will get water poisoning from drinking too much."
"Water poisoning? Can people be poisoned by drinking water? What kind of water did they drink?" Zhao Xiaomi didn't believe it.
"When it's too hot and too thirsty, you drink a lot of water, which makes you feel nauseous and you can't pee. You can only dig your throat to vomit it out. Isn't that like being poisoned?" Sui Yu shrugged. "Am I right?"
"You're right." Sui Liang immediately spoke up to defend him.
"Flatterer." Zhao Xiaomi muttered softly.
Walking into the city and standing at the fork in the road, the family, who were used to being busy, hesitated and didn't know which way to go. When they closed the shop in the morning, they planned to take a day off, but there was nothing to do when they went back now. It would be better to open a shop and do business, at least they could make some more money.
Sui Yu and Zhao Xiaomi looked at each other, and the two sisters-in-law smiled and chose to walk west.
Zhao Xiping and Sui Liang followed him. Halfway through the journey, Sui Liang ran back to pick up A Shui.
Walking into Minxiang, Sui Yu found that the people in the alley looked at her strangely. She greeted them, and although they were willing to talk to her, they did not look enthusiastic.
"Boss Sui, is the new building that is almost completed in the north of the city yours? I heard that it will be used as a guesthouse?" asked the bald old man directly.
Sui Yu nodded in agreement. She asked doubtfully, "Don't you know? I thought you already knew. Ah Shui is here with me, and her father must be helping me with work. The people who delivered the food were Gan Da and Gan Er. Haven't you all seen them?"
The old bald man was speechless. One was inside the city, the other outside. Even if they were building a house outside, even if they were demolishing a house or the wall collapsed, they wouldn't hear any noise. Not to mention that in the scorching heat, no one wanted to move around. Even if someone did, they couldn't go outside the city, so how would they know where to go? He had heard someone nearby mention it while eating in the shop, but the details were vague and no one took it seriously.
It was not until yesterday that the niece of Aunt Erhua who lived at the end of the alley gave birth to a child. She went to give gifts and attend a banquet. At the banquet, she heard the wife of a garrison soldier mention that the house in the north of the city belonged to Sui Yu, and it was used to provide food and accommodation for merchants. Isn't this stealing their business?
The old bald man followed Sui Yu and his family into the shop and said jokingly, "What you did is really dishonest. People from our entire alley come to take care of your business from time to time, and you make money from us and then turn around to steal our business."
"If that's the case, then everyone in this alley is just trying to steal the merchants' money. Why can't I be one of them?" Sui Yu gestured for Zhao Xiaomi to light the fire and cook, while she handled the situation. Her smile faded as she explained gently, "The food business is exhausting. It's non-stop all day long. I want to be like you, busy in spring, busy in autumn, busy for half a year, and then have half a year of leisure. Still have money to spend, wouldn't that be wonderful? We haven't advertised the inn, not because we're hiding it from you, but because we're afraid of being laughed at if it doesn't work out. There's no question of stealing business. If I bought up a lot of houses here to use as guesthouses, I'd be competing with you. But my guesthouse is outside the city, not as well-located as yours. When the caravans heading west return, they'll definitely choose a familiar place to stay. I'm planning to attract merchants staying at Yumen Pass or leaving Dunhuang for Jiuquan."
A wave of people walked in from outside, their resistance somewhat weakened, clearly having taken Sui Yu's words to heart. Merchants knew that the city lacked accommodation for traveling merchants and camel caravans. Most merchants who flocked into the city at the end of April and October had nowhere to stay, so they would choose to settle in Yumen Pass or Jiuquan. Weather permitting, they would even head to Zhangye and Wuwei Commanderies.
"I went to see it last night. The guesthouse you have there is quite nice. Is the yard by the river used for cooking? There is also a livestock pen. This really puts us in a difficult position." A man said.
Sui Yu looked over and said, "I'm not forcing you to improve your conditions. If you think what I'm doing is good, you can follow my lead. My place is outside the city. If it only provides accommodation without food, who would want to stay there? I run a guesthouse to make money, not to save money."
"Then you move out. I want to turn this yard into a livestock pen." The old bald man spoke rashly, and after he said it, he felt a little regretful. He was worried that Zhao Xiping would use his power to cause trouble for him.
"We will move out before September. There won't be many returning merchants at that time, so it won't delay your business." Zhao Xiping said.
The old bald man didn't say anything. In fact, with Sui Yu's food shop attracting customers, there was never a shortage of merchants staying in his house. In fact, many caravans were willing to pay a higher price to stay in his house just for the convenience of eating.
"Forget it. Just treat what I said before as bullshit. You can continue to sell food in this yard." He relented.
"We will move out before September. We can't manage both businesses at the same time, so we have to stop this business." Sui Yu explained, "If you hadn't mentioned it today, I would have come to you in a few days to tell you."
The old bald man sighed, "Yes, you must attract business for your own guesthouse."
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