After hearing from several regular customers that the pancakes at "Cui Bing Xishi" were very sugary and difficult to swallow without the soup, Su Qingluan went across the street out of curiosity to buy a pancake to try.
When the lady saw that it was Su Qingluan, she hurriedly pushed him away and said, "Hey, two cents can buy three of my pancakes. I just drank that big bowl of soup for free, and you didn't even ask for money!"
Su Qingluan refused: "What you said is true. How should we repay your kindness in helping my family catch that pickpocket? Actually, my family only gave you a bowl of soup. It's really unreasonable."
Madam Xi is a person who becomes stronger when facing a strong opponent. When she meets ordinary local thugs or unreasonable customers, she will immediately curse them in a series of ways without repeating herself. If others become more aggressive, she will resort to violence.
But when she met a family like the Su family, who were honest and reasonable, she was at a loss as to what to do. When Su Qingluan said this, she stammered, "Oh, it's not a big deal. I'm just helping out."
Su Qingluan insisted on giving her the money: "We are all running small businesses, who has it easy?"
Madam Xi sighed and said, "Young lady, if you don't mind spending a few cents, why not go to the sesame pancake shop on the street? The pancakes they make are soft and fragrant with sesame, much better than my dry ones."
The skinny old man selling melons nearby put his hands behind his back and shook his head: "Look at you, woman, other people are just trying to trick more people into buying from you, but why are you pushing customers away?"
Su Qingluan smiled and said, "Mrs. Xi is a very honest person. Besides, if she ruins her reputation, who will come to her for business in the future?" What's more, Mrs. Xi also understood that as long as people came to her house to buy pancakes, they would not care about the taste or texture.
Su Qingluan took a bite of the oil paper and chewed it in her mouth.
This pancake is indeed drier than other ones, but it is more chewy, which is obviously because the dough was not fully fermented. But the texture...
While Su Qingluan was eating the pancakes from Xi Niangzi's house, the old man selling melons next to her was still muttering, "This pancake is a bit dry, why don't you go drink some water to loosen it up, little kid?"
Madam Xi quickly turned around and tried to bring a bowl of water to Su Qingluan. Su Qingluan quickly stiffened her neck and forced herself to swallow the pancake in her mouth, causing her throat to ache.
But she didn't care about this little detail and hurriedly said to Madam Xi, "Why don't you change the way you make pancakes?" As she spoke, she whispered a few words in Madam Su's ear.
"Can that stuff be used on pancakes?" Mrs. Xi was skeptical.
"It will be fine if you heat it up a bit to remove the fishy smell," Su Qingluan said confidently. Then she turned and went back to her stall.
"Daya, what have you been doing? Come and help me take the dishes to the back to wash them." Yang and her husband were busy as a top. They finally breathed a sigh of relief when they saw their eldest daughter finally come back.
Su Qingluan took the stack of bowls and blinked mysteriously: "I'm going to deliver the money." After that, she hummed a little tune without any melody and walked towards the well behind her.
On the other side of the road, an old melon seller was curious about what Su Qingluan had said to Madam Xi, but Madam Xi didn't answer. She was trying to recall what Su Qingluan had said to her.
Generally speaking, most people wouldn't take the words of a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl too seriously. However, Madam Xi felt that Su Qingluan's words couldn't be a trap, so she decided to give it a try.
A few days later.
While serving soup to a customer who had handed over a wooden sign with his number, Yang nudged her husband, who was collecting the bill, and said, "Boss, look at the business at Xishi's Pancake Shop across the street. It seems to be doing much better than before."
Su Guangfu didn't think too much about it. He fiddled with the copper coins in his hand, counted them, and put them into the box below. "Didn't they say before that our offal soup and the pancakes across the street sell more together?"
Yang was busy with her hands, but her eyes were fixed on the opposite side. After a while, she shook her head: "I don't think so. It seems more."
A customer overheard Yang's whispering with her husband and came over to jokingly ask, "What's up? Seeing that their pancakes are selling so well, are you thinking of changing your career?"
Yang smiled and said, "Why would you want to change your career? I'm just curious. If you want to change your career just because your business is so popular, then I don't have to do anything else all day and just change my career."
When the people around heard this, they all laughed out loud - that was true. In this small county town, there are many vendors, and people are flowing in and out. Every day there are vendors doing a booming business, and every day there are also vendors that can't survive.
All kinds of life have their ups and downs. There is no one in the town that is always lively, but the town is always so lively.
At this time, someone happened to be in the front row, holding a pancake bought from the lady opposite. So Yang asked the man what was going on out of curiosity.
"I'm not quite sure." The man's clothes were tattered, with a patch on his arm. He looked like he was living in poverty. The young man pinched the oil-paper in his hand and said, "Mrs. Xi's family must have changed the way they make their pancakes a few days ago. They're still dry, but for some reason, they get more delicious the more I chew them!"
As he spoke, the young man raised the pancakes in his hand - there were six of them!
You know, before, he always bought two steamed buns and a small bowl of offal soup from the Su family stall. Five cents was a meal.
But today the young man smiled and said, "The pancakes are still very chewy even when they are cold. The more you chew them, the more delicious they become. I bought a few more to eat back home!"
Su Qingluan, who was stacking wooden bowls nearby, smiled inscrutablely upon hearing this. Others didn't think anything of it, but Yang and Su Guangfu knew from their daughter's smile that the booming business on the other side must be due to their daughter's "handiwork."
When the Su family was closing their stall that day, Mrs. Xi came over with two roast chickens and a pot of wine, insisting on giving them to the Su family. She also said, "A small thank-you gift is nothing," which further confirmed the speculation of Su Guangfu and his wife.
"Young lady of the Su family, the Su brothers and eldest sister," Madam Xi looked at Su Guangfu and Yang, and finally stopped at Su Qingluan, patting her chest vigorously. "If there is anything I can help you with in the future, I will do my best to help you!"
Su Guangfu and Yang understood that although Madam Xi's words were ostensibly addressed to their entire family, the one she should ultimately thank was Su Qingluan.
Although they are Su Qingluan's parents, Su Qingluan's behavior makes it difficult for them to treat her as a child, but rather as an adult of equal status.
Therefore, even though they were elders, Su Guangfu and Yang did not speak rashly by relying on their "generation", but waited for Su Qingluan to step forward.
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