55 Chapter 55
◎Chili sauce◎
Xiaoqi's performance was excellent.
Huang Nian'an, somewhat appreciative of talent, warned, "Genius comes from hard work. There's no secret to studying; the only thing you need to do is be down-to-earth."
Xiao Qi accepted. Huang Nian'an asked, "Your official name is Xiao Qi? Mu Xiao Qi?"
Xiao Qi scratched the back of his neck, "...Cheng Xiao Qi."
Huang Nian'an pursed his lips and said nothing more. He gave some further instructions on studying and then left.
Xiaoqi took this matter to heart.
He went to find Cheng Mu with a frown on his face.
"Mom, can I have a proper name?"
Cheng Mu was packing tomatoes and peppers. She had just forgotten to tell Mr. Huang that she had planted a new variety and should let him taste it. She packed the tomatoes and peppers and asked Gui'er to ride Feixue to chase after him.
Xiaoliu came to Cheng Mu and said dissatisfiedly, "Mom, have you used up all the tomatoes and peppers you gave to Shopkeeper Hu tomorrow?"
She still has to sell snow cheese tomorrow!
"It's here. Mom saved it for you a long time ago." There were plenty of them in the space.
When he found a cloth bag for Xiaoliu, he smiled happily. "When you go to Hu's restaurant to sell things, how can you not bring some gifts?"
Cheng Mu sighed and laughed. No one taught him, but Xiaoliu was really born to understand human nature.
"Mom, can I have a proper name?" Xiao Qi asked again and again. This matter was very, very important.
Xiao Qi was born in extremely dangerous conditions and was a tiger cub. It was only after Cheng Mu picked him up that he successfully grew up and was able to go to school. Cheng Mu had thought about it long ago and believed that he was a manifestation of the hexagram "after misfortune comes good fortune", so he was named after this character.
"Tai." Cheng Xi wrote the word on the paper stroke by stroke.
Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi stood beside him, reciting silently.
"It means peace. From now on, your name will be Cheng Tai."
Xiaoliu clapped his hands, "Xiaoqi, you've become famous!"
Xiaoqi picked up the word "Tai" written by Cheng Mu and looked at it carefully.
"Rain on a spring night heralds peace." Xiao Qi looked up and said, "Mom, I like it very much."
Xiao Liu pointed with his finger, "This is clearly a three-person pyramid on the water." After saying this, he ignored Xiao Qi's angry sword shot at him and pouted, "Mom, where's my snow yogurt?"
"How about I personally take you to Tianma Town to sell snow yogurt tomorrow?"
Xiaoliu jumped up, "Really? Mom, you're so kind!"
Xiaoliu coaxed Xiaoqi again, "You are like the joyful rain on a spring night, and I am like the happy ice in summer."
In the past, when there was something to do in town, Mu Yun was always sent. After Mu Yun was gone, Gui'er was often sent. Cheng Mu had never been to the town once.
For Xiaoliu's first business, she risked everything.
When Yu heard that she was going, she wanted to go too, "Madam Cheng, leave all the work to me."
"Aunt Yu, you stay home and look after the house. I'll take Gui'er with me."
Aunt Yu looked at Cheng Mu and said, "Madam Cheng, to avoid any trouble, you should disguise yourself." She still remembered what the pervert in the paper-making shop in Puyang City had done.
Cheng Mu painted her fair face a yellower and darker color with powder, wrapped her silky hair with a turban, and wore a patched coarse cloth dress.
Yu still felt uneasy, "Let me go with you."
In the end, Cheng Mu only brought Gui'er, and the two of them accompanied Xiaoliu to sell snow yogurt.
Tianma Town is a small town in the northwest, closest to the border. Besides soldiers, the most common people in town are merchants. Decades ago, the Tatars could trade with the people along the border through the horse market, located 30 miles northwest of the town. Merchants often stopped here, and Tianma Town was once very prosperous.
There are three main streets in Tianma Town, and Shopkeeper Hu's restaurant is on the main street. Today, he only got five red tomatoes and a small bag of peppers, which he could only give to Shopkeeper Hu himself to taste.
Gui'er delivered it first and told Xiaoliu that they wanted to sell snow yogurt in the restaurant. She came back to tell Xiaoliu, and Manager Hu agreed.
So they put the ice bucket next to the table at the entrance and used that table as a serving table. Xiaoliu took out a table sign made of starched hard cloth, on which was a couplet of poetry copied by Xiaoqi, "Seemingly greasy but also refreshing, just condensed but about to float; jade shatters at the bottom of the plate, snow melts at the mouth."
When they were enthusiastically making the table cards, Cheng Mu reminded them that there were very few literate people in Tianma Town, and it was like flirting with a blind man, a waste of effort.
Xiaoliu said that he had to do it, because the food in the palace had to have some culture.
Cheng Xi followed her.
After the food was laid out, Gui'er sat down at the table with her legs and a golden sword, Cheng Mu was in charge of piling up the ingredients, and Xiaoliu went upstairs and downstairs to sell them at every table.
Xiaoliu is a well-behaved little girl with a sweet mouth. Almost every table wants a bowl, and at some tables, everyone wants a bowl.
The bowls they brought were high-legged, open-mouthed wooden bowls designed by Cheng Mu and made by Zhao Shitou. They were not as deep as ordinary bowls, nor as shallow as plates. When filled with snow yogurt, they could just highlight the iceberg and dried fruits, which looked very beautiful. If they accidentally melted, they could also hold the snow water.
One bucket can hold more than 30 bowls, and they were sold out in one morning.
A bowl sold for thirty coins. Xiaoliu happily counted the copper coins. There were a total of eleven hundred coins, which was one or two taels of silver.
Cheng Mu invited them to have a meal at this restaurant to celebrate.
Everyone was having a good time until two people came to the table next to us.
They were talking about the wheat in the field and mentioned a person's name, Lu Cricket.
Cheng Mu quickly realized that they were talking about the wheat in the palace, and the steward who was now in charge of the palace's farm was called Lu Quer.
She still remembered that Lu Qun'er was the brother-in-law of Manager Lei, and he used to be in charge of the horses. He was responsible for the crops trampling in Zhaojia Village by horse. Now that the royal palace had moved to the capital, the fields that originally belonged to the palace were still their fields, and someone had to stay to take care of them. It seemed that Lu Qun'er was the one left behind.
Last year, the palace used her hybrid seeds to grow wheat, with an output of more than three dan per mu, nearly four dan. This year, the harvest was just finished, and the yield per mu was only two dan.
I still remember that when the officials from the palace came to buy wheat seeds two years ago, she reminded them that the seeds would only produce high yields for one year, and they would have to come back to buy seeds from her the following year. Last year, when the war broke out, the palace did not send anyone to buy seeds.
Maybe he forgot about the personnel handover, or maybe he simply didn't trust her.
The characteristics of hybrid varieties are unstable and the yield will decrease after the seeds are saved.
In the first year that Lu Qu'er took over, the output was reduced by nearly half. He was reprimanded by the chief steward Lei in a letter and ordered to go to Beijing to truthfully explain the situation.
Cheng Mu was worried that this disaster would spread to herself.
Cheng Mu's eyes met the gaze of a person who was looking over here at the counter.
The man was dressed in brocade, had a beard on his cheeks, and his eyes were bright. He walked forward quickly, bowed, and asked, "I wonder if this lady is Madam Cheng?"
Gui Er said to Cheng Mu, "This is Shopkeeper Hu."
Shopkeeper Hu was delighted and said apologetically, "I've heard of you for a long time, but we haven't met. I'm very rude today."
"You're too polite, boss."
When Gui'er came earlier, Manager Hu just thought she was here to sell snow yogurt, and blamed him for being busy with the accounts all morning and not coming down to see her. If he had known that Madam Cheng was coming, he would have treated her well no matter what.
Shopkeeper Hu glanced at the dishes on the table. They only ordered the restaurant's signature ginseng chicken soup and wanted to add two more dishes for them. Cheng Mu declined, saying that one chicken was enough for the three of them and there was no need to waste it.
Manager Hu wanted to arrange for them to go to the private room, and Cheng Mu understood.
Just now, a regular customer said that the snow yogurt was good, so Manager Hu praised the snow yogurt. When he learned that it was made by Madam Cheng's youngest daughter, he quickly praised Xiaoliu and asked Xiaoliu to come and sell snow yogurt every day in the future. After praising Xiaoliu, he praised Guier, and after praising Guier, he thought of Mu Yun and lamented that since Brother Mu was not around, he could not get ginseng of such good quality.
Cheng Mu asked him to try the two new ingredients delivered today. If he liked them, she would supply them to the restaurant. She also said that the chili peppers could be used to make sauce, and she would give it to the owner to try when she got it.
Shopkeeper Hu, who had a rare opportunity to see the legendary Madam Cheng, paid the bill for them before expressing his admiration. After a pleasant exchange with Shopkeeper Hu, the three of them returned to Zhaojia Village after noon.
After returning, Cheng Mu arranged for Gui'er to move back and specifically told her that since there were two children at home, she could come back, but her husband should not come back and should not bring any male companions with him.
"Madam Cheng, I've been protecting you for a long time, how could I not know what's going on?"
Gui'er's real purpose in coming to Cheng Mu was to protect her. Now that Cheng Mu doubts her professionalism, she is a little annoyed.
Cheng Mu said solemnly, "This time it's a serious matter, we can't be careless."
From what she heard from other people and what she saw when she trampled the crops that day, she knew that Lu Cricket was a person who was very good at bullying others by taking advantage of her power. All the people who were in charge of him in Prince Yanyun's Mansion had left, and County Magistrate Huang had also left. If Lu Cricket wanted to take advantage of the current royal family to embarrass her, who would protect her?
After a few days, Cheng Mu still felt uneasy. She said to Yu, "For Xiaoqi's education, why don't we go to the county and live there for a while?"
Cheng Mu kept Lu Cricket's matter to herself and told no one. Yu Shi only thought that Cheng Mu was concerned about Xiao Qi's education and agreed with her, saying, "It would be great if Xiao Qi could go to the county to attend elementary school."
Madam Cheng said to stay for a while, but Yu was unsure, "If Xiaoqi goes to school, he will have to live in the county forever. How long will we stay for a while?"
If Lu Cricket doesn't cause trouble after returning from the capital, she won't come back in the future. Cheng Mu calculated the time and said, "Go and take a look first. If it's fast, she'll be back in winter. If it takes longer, she'll be back in spring."
Yu also calculated what she needed to arrange, "Okay, then I'll prepare what I can first."
The vegetables in the field are bearing fruit, it would be a pity to throw them away.
Yu picked all the red and green peppers. Since they could not be kept for a few days, she divided them into piles and prepared to give them away.
Cheng Mu said it could be made into chili sauce and preserved.
The method is very simple. Chop the chili peppers and stir-fry them with onions, ginger, garlic, spices and wine. It takes a bit of effort. Although the chili peppers are not very spicy, your hands will still feel hot when they are stained with juice.
Fortunately, it can be preserved for more than half a year after being sealed in the jar, and if stored well, it can be kept until the next year when the peppers are harvested.
After making the chili sauce, they simply baked steamed buns. Yu pointed at the tomatoes and sighed. These tomatoes had only been around for a short time. She asked Cheng Mu, "Can tomatoes also be made into sauce?"
Of course, tomatoes can also be made into sauce, which is sour and sweet and is children’s favorite.
But it takes more time to make, Cheng said, "After peeling the tomatoes, chop them up and mix them with the chili sauce to make tomato chili sauce."
I did it right away. I boiled some sauce mixed with tomatoes and chilies, and added soybean paste. It was sweet and sour, and full of flavor. It was very appetizing to eat with steamed buns as a dip.
Yu's eyes sparkled as she ate. The unique aromas of the peppers, tomatoes and sauce blended together in a very rich flavor. Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi could also eat it and said it was better than soybean paste.
"Grandma Yu, I want to pour this sauce over the noodles when we eat them tomorrow."
Cheng Mu thought that after it was made into chili sauce, it could be eaten for five or six months. Judging from how much they loved it, it would be good if it could be eaten for a month.
Xiaoliu licked the sauce off his fingers and said, "Mom, can we sell tomatoes and peppers when we get to the county town?"
Guier asked her, "Why do you love selling things so much?"
Xiaoliu said, "I can earn money, so Manager Hu asked me to sell snow yogurt again, but my mother won't let me go."
Gui'er snorted, "If it doesn't cost you, sir, who will care about you?"
Cheng Mu agreed, "You are still young, and I am not short of money. It is not your turn to worry about making money."
Xiao Qi said, "Sister, when we get to the county, you and I can study and write together."
"Do I still need to spend time reading and writing? What can you do, I can't do?" Xiaoliu was very upset. "How long will it take for me to grow up?"
Cheng Mu and Yu Shi were amused by her and started laughing.
Mrs. Yu asked her if she wanted to eat more, and coaxed her, "The child eats his fill every day, and he grows up in the blink of an eye."
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