Chapter 170 How to Make Money at Flower Viewing
Wen Zhenyi looked at its affectionate appearance and said, "It really isn't shy at all."
Chen Hanxing reached out and rubbed Cream's little head: "Tell me, what do you want to draw?"
Wen Zhenyi told him the general idea, and also told him to put a lid on the pastry to prevent dirt from getting on it.
Chen Hanxing looked at the basket on the paper: "Can this be used at the flower viewing party?"
"Well, yes."
"Brother Shen, I'd like to ask, do we have to pay to enter the flower viewing club?"
"The number of visitors is limited to 100 per day, so the price is not cheap. There are also calligraphy and paintings by famous artists, antiques and the like inside, so everyone who goes needs to spend one or two taels of silver. Not everyone can enter."
"Isn't this a way to earn a hundred taels every day?"
"Not only that, some of the calligraphy and paintings will be auctioned off, and Heyuan will take a 10% commission, so they will make more than just this one hundred taels."
"No wonder they are so generous."
"How much did you get this time?"
"Including the money for the basket, I gave him one hundred and sixty taels."
"That's quite generous."
"I'll send the blueprints to my father and the others first. It's too late today. We'll go to the fishing village tomorrow."
"Okay, I'll come early tomorrow morning."
Wen Zhenyi took the blueprint to show Wen Chengwen: "Dad, take a look."
Wen Chengwen looked at the basket on the drawing. The style was not complicated, except for the lid. "This isn't difficult. I can make it myself. If I'm quick, I can make several in a day."
"Let me see." Old Man Ma also came over to take a look: "It's not difficult, I can do it too."
"Grandpa, if you do it, I'll give you thirty cents each."
"Give me back my money?"
"Even brothers have to settle accounts clearly." Wen Zhenyi said seriously.
"Then I won't make it up for you."
"Grandpa, I don't want that either."
The two of them just stared at each other.
Finally, Mrs. Ma looked at the two of them helplessly and said, "This money will be used as our food and lodging expenses for the next few days."
Wen Zhenyi finally had no choice but to compromise: "Okay, okay, as long as you are happy." Then he looked at Wen Chengwen and said, "Dad, you have to tell the village chief that I will pay a high price, but everyone must ensure the quality. If it is not good, you can't bring it in."
"Don't worry, we'll check it again."
Wen Zhen gave them ten taels of silver: "This is for making baskets."
Wen Chengwen and the others planned to go back early so that everyone could prepare materials to weave bamboo baskets as soon as possible, otherwise they were afraid that it would delay her work.
Old Mrs. Ma and the others didn't have dinner here either. They drove their ox carts back to the village.
Naiyou, Huzi and the others were playing, and the laughter of several children could be heard all over the yard.
Aunt Dou and the others were in the kitchen, grinding the soaked rice into rice milk.
Aunt Ding heard the conversation between Wen Zhenyi and the others and said, "You said Yiyi is a kind-hearted child. He always thinks about the villagers when doing good things."
Aunt You added a spoonful of rice to the millstone. "That's right. A bamboo basket like this wouldn't cost thirty coins. It would only fetch a few coins at the market."
Aunt Yin: "Just look at our wages and you'll understand. So we have to work hard and not let her down."
Wen Zhen heard her last words as soon as she came in: "Who are you holding back?"
"Just drag it for you." Aunt Yin said with a smile.
"My aunts are my right-hand men, and they won't hold me back."
"Is your mouth full of honey?" Aunt You looked at her and smiled.
"I didn't apply the honey, but I do have something I'd like to trouble you aunts with."
"What's up?"
"We're going to build a pigpen at home. You uncles are all skilled masons. Why don't you go back and help us?"
"when?"
"These past few days."
"Okay, they probably haven't gone back yet. I'll go tell them." Aunt You said with a smile.
"Xiao Taozi, pack some herbal tea for the uncles and ask the aunts to take it."
"No, no, no, keep these things and sell them for money."
"I'd rather use the money I earn from selling pigs to bribe some uncles and ask them to help me build the pigpen quickly."
Aunt Ding rolled her eyes at her. "You're talking as if they can be lazy without this cold tea."
"That's right. If they dare to be lazy, I will make them kneel down when I get home." Aunt You said angrily.
The others burst into laughter: "Okay, everyone knows you."
Zhu Tao smiled and filled each of them with a large pot of herbal tea, asking them to take it and distribute it to their fellow workers.
Aunt Ding and the others called the children in the yard and asked them to go with them.
Wen Zhenyi said to Cream in the yard, "Cream, play by yourself for a while. If you feel sleepy, go back to your room and sleep."
Cream giggled a few times and then wandered around the yard.
Zhu Tao looked at Naiyou and liked him: "Naiyou is so obedient."
"Xiao Taozi, I will teach you some more things. Remember what you need to do in the next half month." Wen Zhen dictated while grinding the millstone.
Zhu Tao listened carefully and started to do it.
After Shen Hanxing sorted out the account book, he came to the kitchen to help: “I’ll grind it, you add it.”
"Okay." Wen Zhenyi also wanted him to exercise more, so he asked him to grind the millstone.
She would go to see what Zhu Tao had done from time to time, point out what she had done wrong, and ask her to do it again.
Zhu Tao would listen carefully, and if he made a mistake, he would try again until he got it right.
"Xiao Taozi, please take some time to make some red bean paste for me. You don't have much left."
"Okay, I'll soak the beans today and make it for you tomorrow."
She went to buy fish today and planned to make Zhou royal steamed bream in the afternoon.
After cleaning the fish, marinate it with ginger, salt and wine, and add some spices during and after steaming.
Just don’t add spicy Polygonum leaves.
Wen Zhenyi put the bream into the steamer, cooked some rice, added some Hou's bean sprouts, and made a simple soup.
We can have dinner when Aunt Ding and the others come back.
"Brother Shen, take a break. You've been busy all day."
"If you're not tired, I'll teach you some words."
"Okay." He turned to look at Zhu Tao and said, "Little Taozi, do you want to learn a few words?"
"I haven't finished my work here yet, so you can study first and teach me later."
"Okay, don't be too tired, take a break."
"I know." Zhu Tao looked at the backs of the two people leaving with a smile on her face.
Wen Zhenyi went to the room and took out his own pen, ink, paper and inkstone: "Hey, why hasn't Grandpa Shen come here today?"
"He has a dinner party today and asked me to tell you. I forgot about it."
"Isn't he coming today?"
"Well, the teachers at the academy are going out for a few drinks today, and it's not easy for him not to go, so he asked me to tell you."
"Okay, wait for me to make some hangover soup and you can take it back later."
"No need to bother. I remember the recipe you gave me last time."
"You remember it, but do you have the ingredients?"
--
Little knowledge: soybean sprouts from the Wuhou family.
On bamboo slip No. 122 from the Han Dynasty Tomb No. 1 at Mawangdui in Changsha, the inscription "Huang Juan Yi Shi" appears. A wooden plaque containing a bamboo box unearthed from the tomb also bears the inscription "Huang Juan Si."
Opening the entry "Soybean Yellow Roll" in Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica", it turns out that yellow roll is what we call black beans and soybean sprouts today. This vegetable and its production method first appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
The inscriptions on the bamboo slips from Mawangdui Tomb No. 1 in Changsha indicate that bean sprouts had already appeared on the menu of the nobles and ministers as early as the early Western Han Dynasty 2,100 years ago.
Steamed bream of the Zhou royal family: Bream was already famous in the Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn Periods, and it is the name of the edible fish that appears most frequently in the Book of Songs.
The steamed bream here is a fish dish for the royal family of the Zhou Dynasty recorded in the Book of Rites.
The above knowledge comes from "The Essence of National Cuisine".
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