Chapter 80 It’s going to rain heavily
Wen Zhenyi placed the finished shaomai in his palm and moved closer to Zhu Tao: "Do you understand?"
"Let me try." Zhu Tao had probably seen it clearly just now.
Wen Zhenyi stood by, watching her as she wrapped the dumplings. After confirming that she had done nothing wrong, he let her do it and she continued to fry the remaining black rice.
Old Lady Wen and Ma Yinghe also came in to help. They put the steamed dumplings they had wrapped into the steamer. They would be ready in about a cup of tea.
As soon as the steamed buns came out of the pot, Ma Yinghe walked out of the kitchen and went to the hall to ask the diners how much they wanted.
Wen Zhenyi looked up outside. The dark clouds in the sky were already pressing down, and it felt like a rainstorm would come at any time: "Grandma, I'm going out to buy some things."
Mrs. Wen didn't say anything, but took out a tael of silver from her pocket and handed it to her: "Is that enough?"
"Grandma, I don't need that much. I'll just buy some ingredients. Just give me some copper coins."
Old Lady Wen smiled and took out a purse from her bosom and handed it to her: "There are small change and copper coins in it, take it."
Wen Zhenyi took it with a smile: "Okay, I'll be back soon."
"Bring an umbrella so you don't get wet when it rains."
Wen Zhenyi smiled and nodded: "Okay." Then he took an oil-paper umbrella outside the kitchen door and walked out of the backyard.
She walked towards the market, fearing that if she went any later, everyone might have packed up their stalls and gone home.
There weren't many people setting up stalls at the market today, probably because of the weather. There was no one selling seafood, and there were very few people selling vegetables.
Wen Zhenyi saw that the mutton seller was still there, but he also had a worried look on his face: "Boss, I want to buy some mutton."
When the boss saw that it was Wen Zhenyi, he immediately laughed and said, "Miss Wen, take a look at how much you want. I'll give you a discount. If you can buy all of it, I'll give you an even better discount."
"Are you in a hurry to close the stall?"
"Isn't it going to rain? If it rains, the market will be deserted, and no one will buy this mutton."
"No wonder the owner of the beef stall didn't come today."
"He's very cunning. If he sees bad weather, he won't open his stall. Otherwise, he would lose more than me."
Wen Zhenyi took a look and found that the sheep sold at the mutton stall were all ordinary goats, each weighing about 60 to 70 kilograms, and this was the weight of a ram.
After removing the fur and internal organs, there is not much left. The boss had sold some before, and now there are only about 20 kilograms of meat left.
She was thinking about what she could do with lamb.
Although the owner of the mutton stall was anxious, he did not rush and could only wait patiently.
Wen Zhenyi thought carefully about it. There might be even fewer ingredients for sale at the market tomorrow. Buying mutton today and making mutton pancakes or mutton stewed noodles tomorrow would be a good idea.
"Boss, I want all of these. Can you help me deliver them to the store?"
"Okay, okay, I'll deliver it to you now."
"How much silver is the total?"
The mutton seller weighed the mutton and said, "Including the skin and bones, it's 22 pounds. I usually sell it for 100 coins a pound, but today I'll give you 98. I'll also give you the head, feet, and offal."
"Boss, how much do you usually buy a sheep?"
"We buy sheep for about 250g. It's hard to tell, it fluctuates. And sheep don't have much meat, so the price is high. I usually only slaughter one. I don't dare to kill more than that."
"I didn't bring that much money when I left. Could you please deliver it to my shop? My grandma will pay you the remaining money."
"Okay, I'll send it to you now. I have to thank you today, otherwise I would have lost money."
Wen Zhenyi hurried to the market to see what vegetables were for sale. He bought a lot of vegetables for today and tomorrow and had them delivered to the store.
When Mrs. Wen saw her coming back, she waved at her and said, "Yi Yi, what do you want to do with the mutton?"
"Grandma, I'll take care of the mutton, you just make the siu mai."
Old Lady Wen nodded. "Okay, is the mutton two taels, one qian, and fifty-six wen?"
"Well, he was in a hurry to close his stall today, so he sold it to us for two cents less."
"It looks like it's going to rain. If he doesn't sell it to us at a low price, I'm afraid few people will buy it. We'll lose money if we take it back."
"Grandma, among beef, mutton and pork, isn't mutton the most expensive?"
"Yes, a sheep doesn't produce much meat, but it's not cheap. Look, our family spends twelve taels of silver on a cow, but it produces more meat than mutton, so it's the most profitable."
"I didn't see the beef seller today. I wanted to buy some."
"If the weather is bad, he usually won't come out to do business. He usually makes as much as we make in several days by selling one cow."
"Grandma, how much does he sell a pound of beef for?"
"Thirty cents."
“It’s not very expensive after all.”
"But for ordinary people, it's a luxury. For every kilogram of beef you buy, you can buy two kilograms of pork."
"That's true." Wen Zhenyi made a rough calculation. If he sold all the cows, he could earn at least six taels of silver. A sheep would only make one tael of silver, which was less than what he earned from slaughtering a pig.
Ma Yinghe and Zhu Tao were in the kitchen and running back and forth in the hall.
"Boom, boom." Lightning and thunder began to flash in the sky.
The big trees in the backyard were rustling in the wind.
Ma Yinghe came over from the hall: "Mom, it looks like it's going to rain heavily."
“Are there still diners queuing outside?”
"There are still some, and most of the ones in the back are gone."
"Please have everyone go into the hall and wait. If the rain starts to fall, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold out for a while."
"Okay, I'll go get everyone in to take shelter from the rain." He looked outside the courtyard gate and said, "I wonder if Chengwen and Dad are doing well over there."
"With Mr. Shen here, there shouldn't be any big problems."
Wen Zhenyi looked outside and heard "tick, tick" the rain was falling and hitting the leaves.
The doors and windows in the hall were closed to prevent rain from coming in, but this made the entire hall much darker.
Ma Yinghe took out a few oil lamps from the warehouse, added some sesame oil, lit them, and brought them to the hall to illuminate everyone.
Looking at the heavy rain in the backyard, the diners simply sat cross-legged on the ground and waited for a while to eat.
"This rainy season really comes with a sudden downpour."
"Yes, but it won't rain for long."
"I was planning to buy some to share with my family, but now I can't go back."
"There aren't many people here today, so there should be quite a few left. I'll ask the owner of the Wen family if we can buy some to take home."
"Oh, yes, I forgot about it if you didn't mention it."
Ma Yinghe brought out plates and gave them chopsticks: "You guys eat first, the guests behind you can wait a moment, it will be ready soon."
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