Su Qingluan took a bite of the eggplant box, revealing the light yellow eggplant flesh and meat filling on the cross section.
The flesh of eggplant has a soft and absorbent texture before it is cooked, and feels like a sponge. Su Qingluan added a little water and eggs to the meat filling and beat it vigorously, so that the whole meat filling is full of moisture but the juice will not flow out.
In this way, when the meat filling is stuffed into the eggplant, although the eggplant gradually changes from a sponge-like soft texture to a soft and dense taste after being heated, it does not absorb too much oil because there is a layer of batter on the outside. Instead, the soup in the meat filling flows out due to the heat, bringing out some salt and seeping into the eggplant flesh.
In addition, no seasoning is added to the eggplant meat and batter to adjust the saltiness, which is just enough to neutralize the overly salty meat filling.
Because eggs were added when stuffing the meat, the meat filling was very tender and smooth. Little Su Xuanhe was scalded several times because he was too impatient. In the end, he finally learned to be patient and eat in small bites.
Su Xueyan, perhaps because she was young and had a small mouth, had some difficulty eating thick food like eggplant boxes, but she was able to do it "gently".
While eating, Su Qingluan suddenly remembered what she wanted to ask before: "Dad, when I left just now, did anyone come following the job posting?"
Su Guangfu nodded. "Finally, a bricklayer showed up today. He said he'd go back and get a few more guys to work with him." He turned to Yang and said, "Find a few women who are good at cooking to help."
Su Xuanhe was grimacing at the heat, and when he heard his father's words, he looked up from his bowl and said, "Why don't you let my sister be in charge of cooking? My sister's cooking is delicious!"
Su Qingluan glanced at the brat and thought to herself that it was really easy to talk without doing anything.
It was her younger sister Su Xueyan who was considerate: "Brother, there are so many people coming! I'm so tired from cooking so much!"
Su Qingluan touched the top of her angelic sister's head and gave her another eggplant box: "Oh, my sister is really considerate. Some stinky brothers are just irritating!"
"Then...then I was praising your delicious cooking..." Su Xuanhe also knew that he had said the wrong thing, so he lowered his head and muttered something and stopped talking.
Su Guangfu and Yang ignored the children's quarrel. Su Qingluan also knew that these two cooks had to be hired and the money had to be spent.
Although she has some skills in cooking, she is not good at making big pot meals, and big pot meals are different from ordinary cooking methods.
Thinking of this, Su Qingluan gave up the idea of cooking a big pot meal. After eating, she turned around and went back to her room. Before it got completely dark, she opened the window and read the borrowed book about house rentals in the light from outside.
When night fell, she could continue reading by candlelight, but the candlelight was dim and the light source was very unstable. After reading for a while, her eyes became sore and dizzy. Su Qingluan thought that there was no need to make herself blind just to read a book, so she simply turned around, blew out the candle and went to sleep.
It was only the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and the dawn was still very early. Before she set up her stall in the morning, Su Qingluan took the time to read a little. During the day, she and her parents were in the county town, tending the stall. When there were not many customers and she didn't need her help, she would also read a book.
After studying for a few days, she actually began to understand a little bit.
There are many laws regarding house rentals, and Su Qingluan can see the predecessors of modern laws in many of them, but one law provision caught her attention - if the tenant sublets the house, then if the house is damaged and it cannot be proved that it was the sub-landlord's personal fault, the sub-landlord and his tenant shall bear the loss of the damage to the house at the same time.
Su Qingluan was shocked: the rent was obviously lower than the market price, and the landlord's anxious attitude...
Although Shopkeeper Liang claimed that after inquiries, the puddle caused by the ground sinking was left by the previous tenant, what if that was a lie? What if the young man claiming to be the "owner" was actually the sub-landlord?
Even though the rent of twenty or thirty taels is much cheaper than sixty or seventy taels, it is still a considerable expense for the Su family, so Su Qingluan has to be cautious.
Fortunately, although the recording methods of various documents are relatively backward in this era, there are still ways to check them if you want to.
With the help of Shopkeeper Liang, Su Qingluan made careful inquiries from many sources and finally understood: the skinny young man who called himself "shopkeeper" was named Zheng Hai, and he was the sub-landlord who planned to rent out the house at a low price.
The reason why he was so anxious to rent out the house was the same as Su Qingluan had speculated before - to transfer the risk of compensation.
Seeing that the matter was exposed, he immediately begged Su Qingluan with a sad face not to tell anyone about it, and he told the whole story like pouring beans.
It turned out that about a year ago, Zheng Hai signed a two-year lease with the real owner of "Gong Yu Pavilion", paying rent once a year.
Since the store is a bit small, and musical instruments are different from ordinary cloth and grain, they are hollow in the middle and take up a lot of space, and there is no way to fold and stack them, so the store is a bit insufficient.
So Zheng Hai started to have a crooked idea. He took advantage of the rainy days when no one came to the store and hung a closed sign outside. Inside, he dug a basement under the floor of the store to store sundries. The space originally used for storing sundries was freed up to accommodate more musical instruments.
Unexpectedly, Zheng Hai's "basement" was built secretly and he did not dare to make it a big deal, so he cut corners in many places, causing the ground to collapse and sink. There was a lot of rain recently, and the disadvantages of cutting corners were fully revealed. The basement collapsed, rainwater flowed back, and a large number of musical instruments on the shelves below were soaked in water.
Each of these musical instruments takes great pains to make. Even the cheapest flute costs three to five taels, not to mention the guqin and other instruments that require higher craftsmanship.
So this time Zheng Hai lost a lot of money.
What's even more terrifying is that the day to collect rent every year is approaching, and he can't fill up the huge hole in the ground.
Just as Su Qingluan had originally thought, since there has been a lot of rain in the past few days, even if the water is scooped out, the surrounding groundwater will still seep in. The best way is to wait until the weather becomes less rainy and drier in autumn, and the surrounding water level drops, and then refill the cave, or build a good foundation and waterproofing to prevent the basement from leaking.
However, it was obvious that God did not give Zheng Hai this opportunity, because just as he was talking about his "miserable experience" with tears and snot, the person who came to collect the rent happened to come over.
Putting aside the man's furious look after seeing the "vast ocean" in the store, Su Qingluan just stared at the man's face, wondering: This man... had she seen him somewhere before?
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