Chapter 58 Egg Drop Rice Wine
They ate the meal very quickly.
Zuo Tianyuan shook his head and threw down his chopsticks, grabbed the top of a dumpling with his hand, and ate half a dumpling in one bite. At the same time, he was quite curious and secretly looked at the bowl of fermented rice wine with a slight wine aroma in Jiang Zhi's hand.
His expression also showed a hint of eagerness.
Then, her mother, who had just finished drinking, pressed her down on the spot, and she could only continue eating dumplings with tears in her eyes, still curious about the taste of the sweet fermented rice that Jiang Zhi had made.
Jiang Zhi's pleasure lies in this: sipping a little wine while watching the expectant eyes, occasionally picking up a dumpling, the crispy skin bursting in her mouth, and then picking up a piece of radish strips that Yan Mo had specially brought to cleanse her palate. Isn't this life wonderful?
*
After finishing afternoon tea, it was still quite early.
Jiang Zhi, who hadn't yet decided what to sell for supper, simply counted out the copper coins she had earned from her transactions and planned to take Pei Ye to the money exchange to exchange her savings for silver, specifically silver ingots and loose silver, which were most commonly used in the Song Dynasty.
She'd been too busy to do this work these past few days. Now, seeing that the coins under the bed were almost full, she decided to go and replace them.
After all, even in modern times, when people sell various small items everywhere, they will almost always go to the bank to exchange them for hundred-yuan bills after receiving a bunch of one-yuan, five-yuan, or ten-yuan notes.
Ancient money shops served this purpose. The exchange made the money easy to carry, and the silver ingots were also pleasing to the eye.
In ancient times, one string of copper coins was equivalent to one tael of silver, but if the copper coins were of poor quality, the price would be reduced. Jiang Zhi herself knew this before she came; she was a street vendor, and the money she collected was usually mostly of poor quality, with good quality coins being less common.
Although Jiang Zhi had already calculated the amount of money in her mind, when she saw the shopkeeper's disdainful look when he saw her pull out a large pile of copper coins, she only needed to blink slightly to understand.
Money exchange owners have always been biased towards the rich and despised the poor, so this manager probably doesn't like doing this kind of business either. Counting money is difficult, and if you make a mistake, you're likely to get entangled with a "poor wretch" like her... In short, there are a whole bunch of reasons, but the bottom line is that he doesn't want to do business with her.
Before the shopkeeper could refuse, Jiang Zhi, who had already guessed most of what was going on, simply pulled out a bored man who was chewing on candied chestnuts from behind. She didn't make him do anything else, but just made him stand next to her and silently look at the somewhat bewildered shopkeeper.
This is also why Jiang Zhi brought Pei Ye out. Although she didn't expect to get anything material from Pei Ye, having the second young master of the Pei family by her side would at least prevent those who looked down on her from causing trouble in front of her.
*
They watched as small stacks of copper coins were piled onto the gleaming copper scale, which the shopkeeper had polished, and then several silver ingots, pressed into round cakes, were taken out and weighed one by one.
Jiang Zhi felt a surge of pleasure as she looked at it, and couldn't help but squint her eyes to look at it.
Pei Ye was used to it. Although his family wasn't involved in the industry, they often had to deal with such things, so he was quite accustomed to them.
So he casually took Jiang Zhi's hand and drew his guesses about her plans to set up a stall that night on her palm.
"Bo Bo Chicken?" Jiang Zhi shook her head.
"Ginger candy cake?" Jiang Zhi shook her head again.
...
By the end, Jiang Zhi was getting annoyed and too lazy to shake her head anymore. She simply focused on the shopkeeper behind the counter who was calculating the money, afraid that he might accidentally underpay her.
After recounting in a smooth and natural manner all the things Jiang Zhi had sold at her stall over the past few days, Pei Ye learned that Jiang Zhi was about to begin her new creative work.
But what else is left at home for her to create with? Should he take this opportunity to go to the Pei family and bring some things over? Pei Ye was still a little confused about the fact that everything at home had been eaten.
*
After returning home, Jiang Zhi saw that it was almost time, so without telling the few people outside who were extremely curious about what she was doing, she hurriedly went into the kitchen and started working.
The younger Zuo Tianyuan had sharp eyes and noticed that Jiang Zhi seemed to have asked Yan Mo for a bucket that had been prepared in advance before going in, and it seemed that something was stuffed inside it.
So what exactly is it?
This question piqued the interest of Zuo Tianyuan, Pei Ye, and Gu Yuan, who had rushed over after finishing his meal.
However, one of the parties involved was hiding in the kitchen, clearly busy. Yan Mo, who might know the truth, was curious, but two of the three were not familiar with each other and couldn't get them to talk, and the third was even more afraid to try.
So they could only quietly carry a bench one by one and wait for Jiang Zhi to come out.
After waiting for who knows how long, Jiang Zhi, who was unusually dirty, finally came out of the kitchen, carrying a large bucket. When she saw the group of people, she didn't care about their curiosity at all and simply let them pick up the wooden tubes and boxes of different sizes that Jiang Zhi had prepared next to her and put them one by one on the food cart.
Then they worked together to push the food cart toward the market.
*
While pushing, Pei Ye was the first to speak out out of curiosity:
"Zhizhi, what did you make today?"
The moment Gu Yuan heard this nickname, he felt like he had seen a ghost. He was going uphill, and for a moment he almost lost his strength and tumbled downhill with the food cart.
No, you two have already made this much progress?
Gu Yuan was filled with doubt.
Before Jiang Zhi could even respond to Pei Ye, she was nearly overturned by the car. She hurriedly pushed it back up, too exhausted to reply.
After catching her breath, she smiled at the bewildered Gu Yuan and Pei Ye, who was also smiling at her, and said:
You'll find out soon enough.
*
When they arrived at the market, Jiang Zhi quickly set up her stall, tidied it up, and prepared to start work.
Seeing that there were no customers in line yet, she simply made one for Gu Yuan and Pei Ye one by one, partly to thank them for coming over to help every day, and partly to stop those two pairs of eyes that were eyeing her so intently.
Jiang Zhi first gently lifted a thin, white pancake from the largest wooden basket with one hand, and in an instant, she had a pancake as thin as a cicada's wing in her hand.
To be precise, it wasn't a pure white pancake, but rather a translucent sheet of dough that looked bouncy and chewy.
Then Jiang Zhi placed this side on the cutting board, rolled it into small strips, cut it into thin, long strips, and finally put it in a bowl.
Then mix in the remaining cucumber shreds, coriander, and blanched bean sprouts from the remaining baskets. Finally, add the quick dipping sauce that Jiang Zhi had been pounding in the kitchen for a long time with minced garlic, vegetable oil, soy sauce, vinegar, and dogwood oil. Finally, sprinkle a peanut or two on top.
That completes the task.
Since Jiang Zhi brought out mostly pre-prepared ingredients, the work was basically just assembling and mixing, so Pei Ye and Gu Yuan completed their two portions very quickly.
However, not long after Jiang Zhi came up with this idea, a cold noodle dish mixed with cucumber shreds, bean sprouts, and a sour, spicy, and salty flavor was handed to the two of them.
They were just waiting for the two of them to start eating.
That's right, if there were another time traveler nearby, they would definitely recognize what Jiang Zhi was doing;
It was that spicy cold noodles that was all the rage and very popular outside the gates of primary and secondary schools.
*
The most difficult part of making this dish is the cold skin noodles themselves. You need to first let the rice flour settle, and then steam it into thin sheets.
Jiang Zhi had already thought it through. She told Yan Mo in advance that afternoon, and after personally teaching her how to make one or two sheets, Jiang Zhi, the employee, began her hard work.
Making liangpi (cold skin noodles) doesn't require much skill; it's basically just repetitive work. By the time Jiang Zhi returned from exchanging money at the money shop, Yan Mo had already exceeded his quota. After carefully preparing the ingredients in the kitchen, Jiang Zhi went out to set up her stall.
*
Once the two of them had taken their first bite and were enjoying it immensely, Jiang Zhi decided to leave them alone.
They can simply act as mascots and attract tourists from the sidelines.
Neither of the two children came to help today, so Jiang Zhi had to start working on her own!
*
"The newly released liangpi (cold skin noodles) is only five cents a serving! It's sour, salty, and spicy—it's both appetizing and satisfying..."
Jiang Zhi's loyal customers arrived shortly afterward, and Jiang Zhi began to introduce her creations to them in a generous manner. She was always like this; when introducing her products, she was the kind of person who talked a better game than she sang.
It's not in a derogatory sense, like saying something that sounds better than it sounds; rather, it's a genuine way of speaking that seems to carry a certain charm, a subtle elegance.
This is the evaluation given to Jiang Zhi by her loyal customers.
If Jiang Zhi herself were to say it, it's actually just imitating the brainwashing style of modern live streaming and e-commerce. She had to insert her own "t" into their style, which would be very easy for ancient people who hadn't experienced this kind of brainwashing storm to remember.
Suddenly, its popularity soared.
Isn't that right?
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The author's note: As I wrote the later parts, I kept thinking of those high heels that I saw on Douyin once and never looked away from again.
This is so brainwashing.
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