The town of Huaishan tonight is completely different from the town during the day.
Every household placed incense and candles in front of their doors, silently mourning those they wished to say goodbye to, and sincerely hoping that the war would end soon and that the days to come would be peaceful and prosperous.
After the Cheng family finished their family ancestral rites at home, they went to a nearby stream and found an empty spot to release river lanterns. At this time, there were quite a few people standing in twos and threes along the stream, and the winding stream was filled with all kinds of river lanterns, among which lotus-shaped lanterns were the most numerous.
Everyone looked solemn as they silently released their river lanterns, watching them drift slowly away into the distance until they disappeared from sight.
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
The solemn and melodious sound of bells came from the distant temple. In an instant, the whole city was filled with flying sparks and burning paper scraps, which reflected the lights in the river. From a distance, it looked like ten thousand sky lanterns were being released at once.
For the entire night, the town of Huaishan was filled with the smell of burning incense and the faint sound of monks chanting scriptures, as if reminding everyone not to forget what they had experienced recently.
The next morning, Ruyi got up early to start making the dough rise, and the Cheng family's furniture shop finally opened its heavy doors, which had been closed for several months, and officially opened for business.
Cheng Yan set up a long wooden board by the left window of his shop. On the board were three drawer-like wooden frames. The frames were polished very smoothly inside and out and painted with a bright lacquer, making them look very clean.
The bottom of each of the three wooden frames was lined with parchment paper; one was for pickled mustard greens, one for egg pancakes, and the other for scallion pancakes.
On her first day of doing business, Ruyi didn't dare to be overconfident. She made one pound of flour for both egg pancakes and scallion pancakes, which was enough for twelve servings. She also prepared some extra flour and eggs for later use.
After yesterday's shopping trip, the family members' opinions on the price of egg pancakes have changed from thinking it was expensive to thinking it was a rip-off. However, Ruyi doesn't want to raise the price drastically, as it would be too expensive for the neighborhood residents to afford. So, she came up with a compromise.
The price of egg pancakes was slightly increased from six coins each and ten coins for two to eight coins each and fifteen coins for two. Scallion pancakes were changed to six coins each and ten coins for two.
Moreover, originally one pound of flour made ten pancakes, but now by making the pancakes smaller, it can make twelve. Also, originally, I planned to put one egg in each pancake, but now I've changed it to three eggs mixed with a little water, which is enough to make five pancakes. One of the three eggs comes from my own hen, and the other two are from outside, so the taste hasn't changed too much.
The cost of three eggs is about ten coins, and five cakes can be sold for forty-odd coins, so it's still barely profitable.
It wasn't that she was heartless; if they calculated based on the current price of 200 wen per jin for flour in the city, their family would really be losing a lot of money by selling it at this price. Fortunately, this flour was obtained for free, so they could "sell it cheaply".
Not long after the shop opened, a neighbor came to Cheng Yan to have his furniture repaired.
"Ayan, several of our bed legs and chairs are broken, and a lot of flower stands need to be repaired. When do you have time to come and take a look?"
This is Mr. Zhang, who lives at the head of the alley. He is nearly seventy years old. His family runs a small but exquisite flower shop on the main street. They live a rather elegant life and are regular customers of Cheng's furniture shop.
Cheng Yan looked up and saw that it was an old acquaintance. He said, "I'm free, I'm free. I can go with you right now. Wait a moment, I'll go in and get the tools."
Upon hearing this, Old Zhang found a chair and sat down. He had just sat down when he noticed that Cheng Ruyi was also there, and there was even a smell of food in the shop.
"Ruyi, why are you helping out at the shop today? Where's your Yunping?"
"Good morning, Uncle Zhang! Have you had breakfast yet? Today is the opening day of our Chengji Snack Stall. Our egg pancakes are a unique treat that's only available in the whole county. Would you like to try one?"
Cheng Ruyi knew that the Zhang family was one of the wealthier families in the neighborhood, and that their type of family was her main target customer!
After hearing this, Old Zhang became interested. "What kind of egg pancake? I've never heard of one before. I'll have one then!"
He had watched Cheng Ruyi grow up. Since the Cheng family had started selling food in their furniture shop, they must have been going through a tough time lately. He was thinking about what else was broken and planned to ask Cheng Yan to fix it all. Sigh, he would help if he could!
"Uncle Zhang, these egg pancakes are eight coins each, or fifteen coins for two. Buying two is a better deal! You can take them home for your family later."
Old Zhang frowned upon hearing the price, walked over to Cheng Ruyi's stall with a serious expression, and then scolded in a low voice, "Nonsense! Do you know how much a pound of flour costs in the county town now? You can't even buy two eggs for ten coins. Is this how you do business? Does your father know?"
Ruyi felt a warmth in her heart after hearing this. "Don't worry, this flour is from our old stockpile, and the eggs are from our own hens. Uncle Zhang, we're not stupid~~"
Although prices are soaring outside, most of the small eateries in the city that cater to local residents don't dare to raise prices like this. They only symbolically raise prices to a level that prevents them from losing money, like the Cheng family did. This is because these kinds of snacks are supposed to be cheap and good, and their customers are all regulars, so they naturally feel embarrassed to sell them too outrageously.
Just then, Cheng Yan came out with his toolbox, so he patiently explained again. In the end, the old man Zhang was barely satisfied and bought two egg pancakes and two scallion pancakes to take home.
What a great start! The first order was a big one, and we made twenty-five coins right away!
It's a pity that Zhang's grandsons are all grown up and she hasn't had any children yet, otherwise she could have taken the opportunity to promote her children's furniture, which is the real money-maker!
After that, many neighbors came to buy bean sprouts. They were very supportive and bought some pancakes to take home for their families to try. After all, everyone had been trapped for so long, and now they were very willing to spend a little money to buy some fresh food to improve their lives.
The snack stall was doing better than expected; before 7 a.m., all the bean sprouts and pancakes were sold out.
When the family found out, they were very happy. All the cakes together earned them more than 300 coins, and the bean sprouts earned them about 100 coins. If they sold them for a month, they could earn more than 100 taels of silver, which was even higher than the income from the furniture shop!
Seeing her family members so excited as if they were about to strike it rich, Cheng Ruyi couldn't help but remind them, "Don't be too happy yet. First of all, today is only the first day. The neighbors are only buying the pancakes so generously because of the mutual help they've given each other during this period. Business may drop a lot tomorrow."
"Also, prices in the county will definitely come down in a few days, and we will have to lower our prices accordingly, so we can't make that much money every day."
Actually, this money is just revenue, not net profit. If costs and labor are deducted, the profit is not very high.
After listening, Yun'an thought for a moment and said, "Mom, even though the price will drop, can't we just make more? I can help too; I know how to knead dough!"
“Yes, Ruyi, I think we can’t sell enough of these bean sprouts. A lot of people have been asking me about them! Why don’t we order a few more pots and sell a little more each day to earn more money?” Xu Cui had indeed been asked about these bean sprouts by many people today, so she felt that this unique business could definitely be expanded.
After hearing this, Ruyi immediately refused, "We only have about ten catties of soybeans left. They are selling for sixty or seventy coins a catty outside. If we use up the remaining soybeans within a few days, we will have to buy soybeans at a higher price later. Should we raise the price or not?"
"Although there's no meat available these days, there are still plenty of vegetables. With so many choices, there's no need for people to eat bean sprouts every day. So it's more suitable for our family to focus on a smaller, more refined selection of bean sprouts."
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