Su Qingluan said with a smile: "If the young master really gives a reward, I hope it can be exchanged for small-denomination silver notes - such as five or ten taels."
Although denominations of five or ten taels are still considered "huge sums" for ordinary people, they are indeed small amounts compared to silver notes with denominations of hundreds or even thousands of taels.
Moreover, silver notes are not needed for daily expenses, only when purchasing some large items.
Xie Zian seemed speechless at Su Qingluan's request, and the old housekeeper beside him also looked shocked, probably because he had never seen such a materialistic woman - and she was so open about her materialism, not hiding it at all, and directly asked for money.
Su Qingluan was not unaware of the other party's shock, but she didn't care: the money in hand was the best guarantee. As for what kind of image she had in the eyes of a rich young master, was it important? It didn't matter.
After all, to her, this is just a client who has many strange demands, but is likely to be generous.
After putting forward her request, Su Qingluan did not ask for the contract to be notarized or anything like that - after all, Shopkeeper Liang could not afford to offend such a person. As long as the other party wanted to default on their debt, could she still force him to make a fuss?
At worst, there will be more people stabbing you behind your back.
After comforting herself in a very simple way, Su Qingluan followed an elderly maidservant ordered by the housekeeper to the kitchen.
The kitchen of a rich family is very different from the "hard and simple" home with only one stove. There are as many as six stoves!
Perhaps they had received instructions before, and now three of the furnaces were burning fiercely.
It was summer now, and the weather was scorching hot. Even though the doors and windows of the kitchen were completely open and a breeze was blowing in, the servants busy inside were still sweating profusely.
The maid who led the way took a quick look around the kitchen, then called two maids and two servants and said to Su Qingluan with a smile, "The housekeeper has told me to assign a few people to help you. Although these people are not very smart, they are diligent and obedient. They all work in the kitchen all year round."
Su Qingluan thanked the maid and nodded to the four people: "Please help me."
The two maids and two servants immediately knelt down and said they dared not.
Su Qingluan felt a little uncomfortable when she saw them kneeling again, but she said calmly, "We still have to take care of the food. The ground is unclean, and kneeling all the time will easily bring up dust. Let's just forget it."
The maid thought for a moment and nodded, "Just as you say."
After sending the maid away, Su Qingluan rolled up her sleeves: She can finally go to work!
Since Su Qingluan didn't know how well the wealthy families in ancient times prepared semi-finished food, she asked tentatively, "Do you have tofu?"
One of the maids stepped forward and bowed, "To answer your question, madam, yes."
Su Qingluan pursed her lips: "Actually, I'm just a cook hired to cook. There's no fundamental difference between me and you. We're all servants. You don't need to be so polite." Otherwise, she suspected that these four people might have spent a considerable amount of time not on work, but on this matter of courtesy.
Well, it's really unnecessary.
The four of them looked at each other and nodded. Afterwards, they relaxed a lot, spoke more casually, and stopped bowing.
Su Qingluan nodded: "Since we have tofu, take a piece of tofu. We also need mushrooms, ham, a chicken, and..."
The four people who helped her nodded and dispersed to prepare.
Su Qingluan casually picked up a kitchen knife and played with it, sighing in her heart: Rich people are different after all. Not to mention anything else, the feeling of having someone ready for whatever you want just by giving an order is so refreshing!
No wonder they all want wealth and glory and to have servants at their command!
Su Qingluan shook her head. At this time, one of the maids came back first, holding a plate of tofu in her hand.
Su Qingluan touched the tofu, pressed it gently to feel the texture, and frowned slightly: "This tofu won't do. I want tender tofu."
The maid looked up and asked in confusion, "How tender do you want it to be?"
Su Qingluan estimated the firmness of the tofu and the proportion of water to be added and said, "Just follow my instructions and change the amount of water."
After giving these instructions, the little maid turned around and left. Perhaps there was a place outside the kitchen where tofu was made.
At this time, one of the servants came in carrying the cleaned chicken by the neck.
Su Qingluan said "thank you" with a smile, and took the chicken swiftly. She first cut off the thigh and breast, which were thicker but somewhat dry. Then she cut off the tip and head of the remaining chicken meat and cut it into small pieces. She asked, "Which soup pot is this in your house?"
The servant quickly brought another copper pot, scooped some water from the bottom of the pot, and then placed it on one of the burning stoves.
Su Qingluan nodded in thanks, then dumped the chicken nuggets in front of her into the soup pot. She turned back and asked, "Where's the ham? Haven't you brought it back yet?"
"Agui went to the back to get the ham." The servant replied.
Su Qingluan smiled and said, "His name is Agui, what's your name?"
"Ma'am, my name is Arong."
As she was talking, Agui came back with a whole piece of ham in his hand. He probably didn't know how big a piece of ham she wanted.
Su Qingluan took the ham, carefully cut off a small piece, cut the ham into thin slices, and added all the other ingredients and spices except salt into the soup pot.
Because of the addition of meat, after the broth boils, a layer of foam gradually forms on the surface.
Su Qingluan used a long-handled spoon to skim off the foam. Although the broth was still turbid, it was much better than the foam that filled the pot at the beginning.
Su Qingluan let the soup pot boil and asked her little followers to lower the fire on the soup stove a little so that the broth could boil, but not too violently.
Then she turned around and began to dice the chicken she had cut earlier. After making sure there were no broken bones, she used scallions, ginger, and cooking wine to remove the fishy smell. Then, Su Qingluan took another kitchen knife and chopped the chicken into a paste with both hands.
After she scooped up the chicken paste with a knife and carefully checked its fineness, she nodded, diluted the chicken paste little by little with water, picked out all the dry ingredients and seasoning packets in the broth, and used the diluted chicken paste to sweep the soup.
The so-called "sweeping the soup" is to use the adsorption power of the meat wool to absorb the impurities in the broth, making the soup appear clear and transparent. However, this "sweeping the soup" step is too wasteful for ordinary people, so in order to prevent her parents from dying, Su Qingluan decided not to use this step to cook food in front of her parents.
A mess of thoughts flashed through Su Qingluan's mind, and her hands were already "sweeping the soup" for the second time, and the tender tofu over there was also done.
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