Qin Yao looked back at the carriage. Yin Le, who had never been far away, looked pale, and the children were sitting in the carriage listlessly without making a sound.
"Okay." Qin Yao raised her chin towards the tea shed, motioning everyone to go there.
He quickly calculated the distance in his mind and found that it was less than fifteen miles away from An County. According to their speed, it would only take an hour and a half to get there. Even if they rested for half an hour, they would still have enough time to enter the city.
So he said to his family, "We will set out in half an hour."
The originally gloomy carriage immediately erupted with excited "Oh oh" sounds. When Yin Le stopped the carriage, the four brothers and sisters rushed to jump out of the car and ran into the tea stall cheering.
There was only an old woman in the tea shed. She looked very nimble and worked very efficiently.
In addition to selling tea, there are also several snacks, including steamed buns, baked wheat cakes, and green rice dumplings limited to March.
However, unlike the green rice dumplings at Zijing Mansion, the ones made by this mother-in-law are actually salty. A green rice dumpling is flattened and stuffed with salty peanuts and pickled side dishes.
Sanlang wanted to try everything he had never eaten before, and immediately called out with a smile: "Grandma, I want this!"
Si Niang immediately followed and shouted: "Mother-in-law, I want one too!"
Da Lang said, "We want seven bowls of hot tea."
Erlang took out his money bag and asked, "How much money is there in total?"
The tea stall became lively in an instant. The old tea seller looked at the four children with a smile. They all looked outstanding and it was obvious at a glance that they were siblings. The two younger ones were actually twins, a boy and a girl. They looked very cute.
"My dear, two Qingtuan dumplings and seven bowls of tea, don't you need anything else?" The old woman asked while wrapping Qingtuan dumplings in her hands.
Da Lang looked at his parents and Senior Sister Le who came in later and asked loudly, "Father and Mother, Senior Sister Le, there are some snacks here, green rice balls or wheat cakes and steamed buns, what do you want?"
"Hey, Dalang is treating us?!" Liu Ji immediately asked excitedly.
Dalang chuckled and looked at Erlang who was speechless. The old father understood instantly that this was a rich man. It was rare to get a penny from him. Wouldn't he regret it if he missed it?
Even though he didn't want to eat these snacks, Liu Ji was determined to order something white, so he asked for a salty green rice dumpling for himself and his wife to try how bad this strange recipe could taste!
Yin Le walked forward curiously, took a look around, and asked for a steamed bun, which was hot and softer than dry food.
She has been feeling a little uncomfortable going to the toilet these past two days, so she needs to eat something soft to help with digestion.
Erlang generously said to his mother-in-law, "Then add two more green dumplings and a steamed bun. Mother-in-law, please calculate how much it costs."
"Let me calculate." Grandma paused what she was doing, calculated silently for a moment, and said to Erlang cheerfully, "It's exactly one hundred coins."
Erlang nodded, took out the money and put it on the operating table in front of the old woman. Unexpectedly, the old woman, who was holding the green rice dumpling in her hand, immediately stretched out her greasy hands to grab the money and put it in the cloth pocket of her apron. After finishing, she did not even wipe her hands and continued to knead the green rice dumpling with the hand that grabbed the money.
Ji Lang was shocked: "You!"
"What's the matter? Do you want anything else, young man?" the old woman asked kindly.
Erlang hurriedly shook his head and said it was nothing, just think of it as something unclean and it wouldn't make you sick if you ate it.
He turned around and planned to complain to his elder brother and younger sister, but he didn't expect that the three of them didn't sit at the table. Instead, they curiously walked around the tea stall and finally stopped in front of a large clay pot. Sanlang's curious little hand was already raised, ready to reach out and open the lid of the pot to see what delicious food was inside.
"Liu Ziming!"
Qin Yao's cold shout came before Erlang's. The little fellow who was about to reach out his hand immediately retracted it, turned around and grinned at her with his white teeth.
Afraid that his wife would blame him for not taking good care of the children, Liu Ji immediately stood up and brought these curious and greedy ghosts back. He pressed them down at the table in a bad mood and said, "Sit down and stop wandering around."
Qin Yao and his wife, who were concentrating on educating their children not to touch other people's things outside, did not notice that the old woman who was making tea behind them had a flash of panic in her eyes when she found the children approaching the big clay pot, and she breathed a sigh of relief after the children were called away.
After Liu Ji finished educating the child, he shyly gave the old woman an apologetic smile.
The old woman's eyes were dazed for a moment. What a handsome young man! You couldn't tell at all that he was already married with children.
One boy, two girls and four children - only one man. The old woman turned around and smiled contemptuously. She picked up the tray with tea and food and prepared to send it to the guests' table.
"Thank you, mother-in-law~" the twins smiled sweetly in unison. They immediately made room for the empty seat so that mother-in-law could put tea and food on the table.
"So cute." The old woman looked at the twins with fondness. After all, she was old and could not hold the tray with one hand. She put the tray down first and then took out the food from the plate.
As soon as the children got the food, they put it in their mouths and ate it.
"Ahem!" Qin Yao coughed, and Yin Le immediately understood. In order to avoid embarrassing the store owner, he calmly reached out his hand to block the green rice dumpling that the twins had already picked up, "The elders haven't touched it yet."
The twins cried out, forgetting that before leaving, my mother had specifically told me that if I bought food from a roadside tea stall, I had to wait for Senior Sister Le to check it before I could eat it.
The brother and sister quickly put down the green dumplings in their hands, licked their lips, and sat down obediently.
Yin Le nodded, "So good."
The old woman frowned slightly. She didn't realize this family was so cautious.
She curled her lips secretly, and suddenly took a glance, and saw the dagger on Qin Yao's waist, her heart skipped a beat.
Qin Yao seemed to sense something was wrong and glanced at her with a cold glare. Her icy eyes made the old woman's hands tremble, and then suddenly loosen. With a "bang", the teapot fell to the ground and broke into pieces.
The scalding tea splashed all over the floor.
"Ah!" Liu Ji quickly picked up the twins who were closest to him and stepped back several steps. He hurriedly lowered his head to check his boots and the children's clothes. He was relieved when he found that they were not splashed with tea and were not burned.
He looked at the old woman angrily and asked, "How did you serve the tea? This boiling hot pot will burn my wife and children!"
Although Qin Yao and Yin Le were still sitting at the table, two drops of brown water stains appeared on their shoes.
Dalang and Erlang had already slipped away on their own. After all, they were older and knew how to avoid crises on their own, so the adults didn't have to worry too much about them.
Yin Le was fine, but when he looked up at his master Qin Yao's expression, he almost overturned the table.
The old woman seemed frightened and stayed still for a long while.
Just now, the tea fell from the old woman's hand, and Qin Yao, who was sitting on her right, accurately reached for the handle of the teapot.
However, a pair of old hands with loose skin and weak bones came over, and whether intentionally or unintentionally, they knocked the teapot out of her hand, causing it to fall to the ground and break, splashing the hot tea.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I hope you are all right. I will boil another pot of tea right away and give you two more Qingtuan as compensation."
Without waiting for the guests to agree, the old woman immediately bent down pitifully to pick up the broken pieces of the teapot, turned back to the stove and served them a new pot of tea and a bowl of green rice balls. (End of this chapter)
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