Chapter 13 The matter of taking over the soup noodle shop has been settled.
After the Dragon Boat Festival, it often rained in Bianjing. Their stroller was left idle in the courtyard after a few days of use, so they stayed at home for the past two days, only going out to buy daily necessities.
The rain was falling softly outside the main room, forming a curtain of rain under the eaves. Fortunately, it wasn't hot anymore, and it was much cooler.
After lunch, Lu Qiong reclined on a bench, resting on a long, soft cushion filled with dry straw. That morning, she had gone to a steamed bun shop with an umbrella and bought bamboo shoot and pork buns. Even in the rain, the shop was bustling with business; the steamer baskets were lifted, releasing plumes of steam, and customers rushed to buy them all. The shopkeeper's hands were sore from collecting money. She was so envious.
However, Lu Qiong is not bad either. She has been in Bianjing for almost a month and has earned more money than she has saved in the past few years. It's good to do business. With the development of commerce, even ordinary people like her can get a share of the pie.
The courtyard gate was pushed open, and Jinniang came over holding an umbrella, carrying a basket of apricots: "These are Imperial Concubine Apricots. As you said, they are all about 80% ripe, but the ones I just tasted were very sour."
“It’s better if it’s sour,” Lu Qiong said as she walked over and picked at the greenish fruit. “It will be sweet when made into candied fruit, and it will also have a chewy texture.”
Qiong Jie'er was skillful and willing to put effort into food. Jin Niang, being her neighbor, often benefited from it. She then recalled their conversation a few days ago: "Is the public certificate at Longjin Bridge really not being renewed?"
Lu Qiong nodded with a smile: "Zhouqiao is close to the capital, the night market is more lively, and you can earn more than during the day."
Jinniang didn't try to persuade her further. Of course, her tofu business was busier during the day, while Qiongjie'er's situation was different. After chatting for a few minutes, she went back.
After everyone left, Lu Qiong went back to her room to rest for a while. She quickly became drowsy with the sound of rain, and when she woke up, the rain had stopped.
Perfect timing! I can make candied apricots and prepare some pastries and drinks so I can set up my stall tonight.
In her past life, she loved sweet and sour things, and after coming here, she couldn't stop, pickling all sorts of food every year. When she heard someone selling apricots, she remembered the dried apricots she had eaten before, so she immediately bought several pounds of them. She even specially chose the ones that were not fully ripe, firstly because they were easy to pickle, and secondly because they were cheap, costing eight coins per pound.
Whether it's raining or not, all the containers that can hold water are placed in the yard, and now there's quite a bit of water stored up. It's rare for her not to have to go outside to fetch water, which is quite comfortable.
Soak all the apricots in water, rub off the skin, and rinse them several times. The difficult part is removing the pits. Lu Qiong was afraid she wouldn't be able to finish, so she called Lu Xuan out of bed to help. The two of them used a knife to cut the apricots in half, took out the pits, and set them aside.
She was busy for a full half hour, and by the end her hands smelled of apricots.
Lu Xuan's hands wrinkled, and her little face looked miserable: "Sister, let's just buy it next time. It's too much trouble to make it ourselves."
Lu Qiong was also bitter. Some of the money had to be earned by others. She had originally planned to sell it after the business was completed, but she didn't expect that the first step would be so difficult.
After removing the pits, the meat needs to be marinated in sugar for half a day, then covered with a wooden basin and placed in a cool, shady place to sit until the next day when the juice is simmered.
Next, Lu Qiong had to wash the bayberries. These days, bayberry juice was selling better than plum juice, so she stopped making plum juice and focused solely on bayberry juice. Even so, bayberries were difficult to process. With plum juice, you could just buy the ingredients and boil a big pot, but with bayberries, you had to wash them first. If you bought a large quantity, you might even find a few with worms, which you had to pick out first.
Lu Xuan also squatted down to help pick the fruit, putting the good ones directly into the water, and it was done in no time.
"We can start a fire now, and steam the filling for the pastries while we're at it."
Shuangjie sat on the stool, letting Jinniang comb her hair into a bun, still a triangular bun, with a small flower inserted on each side. She took a bite of a steamed bun and ate it with relish.
Smelling a faint fragrance of osmanthus, Jinniang exclaimed, "Qiong'er has gone out to set up her stall again."
Even when it rains, Liu Haiyan doesn't go to work; he stays home weaving bamboo, his hands covered in marks. "Are you envious?" he asks.
Jinniang glanced at him and said, "If I didn't call you a fool, what would I have to envy about others? Sister Qiong is not only skilled, but she also always comes up with clever ideas. The other day she said that if you buy six portions of pastries, you can get a bowl of water for free, which attracted a lot of people."
"I guess I'll have to sell tofu now."
Liu Haiyan was tongue-tied and couldn't find words to comfort people. Jinniang knew his personality, so she just grumbled a bit and then went to make dinner.
The car was piled with food boxes and water containers. Lu Xuan arranged two stools on each side, and Lu Qiong placed the water containers on them, attaching the words "Yangmei Water" written in calligraphy. The various food boxes were also opened and arranged in a row.
Lu Qiong has set up her stall several times, and each time people find her vehicle unusual. Today, she saw several identical vehicles, even the places where the signs were hung were the same.
There's nothing she can do; she can't monopolize the market. But business isn't as good as it used to be. After all, customer traffic has spread out, and in a few days, the streets will probably be full of cars like this.
Fortunately, they had regular customers.
Lu Qiong, wearing a floral apron, smiled at the newcomer and asked, "One serving of water? And four servings of jujube and yam cake?"
The customer nodded and ordered two more servings of mung bean cakes. She folded the cakes on oil paper, packed them up with hemp rope, and said, "Take care, sir!"
Lu Xuan was also collecting money and handing out water, serving more than a dozen guests in succession.
Lu Qiong chose to set up his stall at Zhouqiao for a simple reason: besides the large number of people, it was also close to the capital, where he often encountered wealthy families who were generous with their money. Sometimes they would leave a small piece of silver and leave without needing to give change.
She couldn't help but think that if she encountered customers like this every day, she would become rich in no time.
"Sister, sister?"
Lu Xuan called her several times before she came to her senses. It turned out that guests had arrived, so she quickly stood up to greet them.
The young lady was pretty with delicate features. She wore her hair in two buns and dressed in fine fabric. A sachet of lotus root powder hung from her waist. "I want two servings of thirst water, six servings of mung bean cake, and six servings of osmanthus cake."
"Okay!"
Having earned seventy coins in one go, Lu Qiong's smile deepened. Just as she was about to fill her bowl with water, she was stopped.
He handed her a carved lacquer and gold food box, and the young woman smiled and said, "This will do."
Lu Qiong looked at her shiny food box and compared it to her own bamboo food box. The difference between people was really huge, but she quickly put it out of her mind. No matter what, the guest is the most important.
The food box had three layers: water at the bottom, mung bean cake in the middle, and osmanthus cake on the top layer. It was made sure to be sealed tightly before being returned to the young lady.
The young woman took out a silver ingot, which looked to be about two or three taels. Seeing that Lu Qiong didn't understand, she explained, "My wife is currently pregnant and can't eat much, but she can eat your pastries. They're refreshing and not greasy. From now on, we'll have someone come and pick up pastries every few days. This is considered a month's payment."
Lu Qiong was stunned by this unexpected wealth and didn't realize what was happening until the person left. She clutched her chest and couldn't calm down for a long time.
Lu Xuan reacted just as quickly, holding the money in a daze, the money box almost overflowing: "Sister, where do I put this money?"
"Take this." Lu Qiong put it into her money bag and stuffed it into her inner clothes. This was equivalent to putting several thousand yuan in cash in her pocket, which was more than half a month's salary for many people.
The auntie who sells fruit next door also chimed in: "That young lady from earlier was a maid in the Xie family. I heard that the Xie family is generous to their servants, they don't deduct wages, and they even provide food and lodging. Look how pretty that young lady is."
"Is it really that good?" Lu Qiong was skeptical. What kind of boss would treat employees well without exploiting them?
Seeing her shake her head, her aunt wasn't in a hurry: "If you're starving and cold, just being able to get a meal is good enough. Being a servant in someone's household is the best thing you can do. Young lady, you didn't experience the famine, but many people died..."
My aunt started by talking about her birth, how she escaped famine, and how she settled down in Bianjing. She also talked about the Xie family, which had several branches. The eldest branch lived in the main house, while the others were assigned to other houses. The eldest branch had two sons. The eldest son married two years ago; he was the woman the young lady had just been serving. She didn't know much about the second son, only that he had passed the imperial examination and become a scholar, after which she had lost contact with him.
Seeing how clearly she explained it, Lu Qiong felt uneasy. Being rich is not easy; everyone knows about any slight disturbance. It's better to be an ordinary person, living a quiet life behind closed doors, knowing the joys and sorrows of life only to oneself.
The aunt was a chatterbox, and she started talking about other things, like how many children the porridge seller at the bridge had, and who had passed the imperial examination. Lu Qiong nodded in agreement while serving the guests. When she saw that the food box was empty and it was getting late, she said goodbye to the aunt.
The food boxes were stacked together and placed under the cart next to the bucket. Lu Xuan and I each held one side of the cart and pushed it back.
As darkness fell, more people came out to have fun, and the shops along the street remained open, showing no signs of closing.
"Sister, it's so nice to run a shop." Lu Xuan saw that the shop was lit up and her wife was making pancakes for customers by the stove. She could just pinch off a ball of dough and spread it into a pancake. Unlike them, who had to prepare in advance at home and go back after selling out, they would lose money if they didn't sell out.
Lu Qiong certainly knew that opening a shop was a good thing.
Actually, she's made quite a bit of money from her stall during this period; although it's been tough, she's managed to take over a shop. The only problem is that she hasn't seen anyone selling their shops; if they have, they're quickly snapped up. She doesn't know when it will be her turn.
From Zhouqiao to Tongjifang Street, you can see the fish stalls that used to be there.
The shop where the trouble started on the Dragon Boat Festival was rented out early on. It's said that it only costs two taels of silver a month. And this is in the city center! If he weren't short of money, Lu Qiong would definitely have taken it over.
The shop later also sold soup dumplings. The young lady's relatives initially caused trouble, but the people who rented the shop were not to be trifled with. Without saying a word, they went to invite the government officials. It turned out that the shopkeeper's son was a yamen runner. After detaining the people for a few days, no one dared to cause trouble.
But why is this shop so deserted today?
Lu Qiong was pushing her cart when she was stopped by the fishmonger.
"Young lady," he said in a low voice, "come here quickly."
She asked Lu Xuan to stay by the car, somewhat surprised: "What's wrong?"
The young man said, "Didn't you want to rent that soup noodle shop before?"
Lu Qiong nodded, then frowned slightly: "But it was already rented out a long time ago."
"Sigh," the young man sighed, "Don't even mention it. Their soup dumplings are not good. Well, not that they're bad, they're just average. The soup dumplings at the previous shop were absolutely delicious. Compared to that, these soup dumplings are just not good. And the owner has a bad temper. Who would dare to eat at his place? It's making our business bad too."
Lu Qiong didn't know how to comfort him, but she felt sorry for him. His business had been bad because of the trouble caused by the previous incident, and now that the store across the street was deserted, he had no customers either. It was really too miserable.
The young man added, "I just heard them say yesterday that they want to transfer the shop. If you still want to rent that shop, young lady, you'd better hurry."
Seeing how anxious he was, clearly tormented by the situation, Lu Qiong found it amusing. She told him to think about it some more, and then took Lu Xuan home.
A note from the author:
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On a list that no one can find [Lucky Lotus]
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