"Miss Jiang, why are you so late today?" Sun Nian had been waiting in front of the stall for half an hour.
“Something came up and I was delayed. Here are ten salt-baked chickens, and here is another dish made in a different way, spicy and sour lemon chicken feet. Take some back with you for your boss and Manager Bai to try.”
As Jiang Hua spoke, she packed two pounds of spicy and sour lemon chicken feet for Sun Nian to take back.
"Okay, thank you." Sun Nian accepted the gift, expressed his gratitude, and quickly left.
"Huahua, shall we cut some of this for everyone to try?" Aunt Liu asked, just as Jiang Hua had done before.
“Sure,” Jiang Hua said, picking up the scissors and cutting the chicken feet into appropriately sized pieces, placing them on a plate.
Both are priced the same. Now, people who come to buy salt-baked chicken feet will try the new lemon spicy chicken feet. Some people don't like them, but more people like the sour and spicy flavor.
"Huahua, you're amazing! You can even make this kind of flavor." Aunt Liu said, looking at the customers coming and going.
The chicken feet sold out even faster than last time, so Jiang Hua went to get the chicken feet and chicken for tomorrow and then went back.
This time the quantity is not large, only about ten pounds of chicken feet. Jiang Hua plans to make half of each flavor and send them to Mingyuelou along with the chicken, and also send over the shop's decoration plans.
"Huahua, then Auntie will head back now," Aunt Liu called to Jiang Hua in the kitchen.
"Okay, Auntie, take care." Jiang Hua came out of the kitchen and saw Aunt Liu to the door.
"Xiao Yi, stop reading and come on, let's go for a walk in the mountains." Jiang Hua went into the kitchen again and brought out a basket.
“Yes, stepmother.” Jiang Jingyi put down the book in his hand and followed.
There were quite a few people on Black Wind Mountain today. Seeing that they were deliberately choosing to go into the bushes, Jiang Hua understood that they were looking for ginseng.
"Stepmother, shall we gather herbs?" Jiang Jingyi asked, having also noticed the villagers.
"No, let's go somewhere else."
Black Wind Mountain was so big that Jiang Hua didn't want to get too close to these people, so she led Jiang Jingyi to another mountain path, which led to a bamboo forest.
Just what she wanted, as she was preparing to go up the mountain to dig bamboo shoots. Jiang Hua immediately took a liking to two bamboo shoots, took out a machete from the basket, dug around the bamboo shoots, and finally stepped on them, breaking the bamboo shoots. After breaking them, she put them in the basket.
Jiang Hua used the same method to leave Jiang Jingyi completely bewildered.
"Let's go," Jiang Hua said, lifting the bamboo basket in one hand and holding a kitchen knife in the other.
That's it?
Jiang Jingyi had no choice but to follow in Jiang Hua's footsteps.
After returning home, Jiang Hua processed the two bamboo shoots, keeping some to stir-fry with meat that evening, and putting the rest into a jar to pickle. To speed up the fermentation, Jiang Hua simply put it into her spatial storage.
After processing the chicken feet, it was still early, so Jiang Hua sat in the courtyard washing clothes, and Jiang Jingyi brought a stool to help her.
"Stepmother." Jiang Jingyi suddenly called out while washing.
"What's wrong?" Jiang Hua looked up at him.
"I will pass the imperial examinations and then buy ten or eight maids to serve you, and then build you a big mansion to live in!" Jiang Jingyi promised.
Why does this sound so familiar?
Jiang Hua was taken aback. Was this something she had said before, and the child had overheard it?
However, it did remind her that she had some money on hand, so why not build a big mansion to live in?
However, when Jiang Hua thought about the atmosphere in Xujia Village, she changed her mind and decided to go to the town another day. But compared to the town, Jiang Hua still preferred to live in the village, where the mountains and rivers were so beautiful.
“Yes, I’ll wait for you to buy ten or eight maids to serve me and earn money for me to spend,” Jiang Hua replied earnestly.
The next day, Jiang Hua took Jiang Jingyi and the salt-baked chicken and lemon spicy chicken feet she had made to Mingyue Restaurant, and handed the blueprints to Manager Bai along the way.
"Where is your boss?" Jiang Hua asked.
"Our master is out," Manager Bai said. "Miss Jiang, is there anything you need from our master?"
"Yes, when your boss returns, tell him that Ye Shaoling is recuperating in Xujia Village."
"Okay," Manager Bai replied solemnly.
After speaking with Manager Bai, Jiang Hua took Jiang Jingyi to the market. After wandering around, Jiang Hua still couldn't find the person she was looking for.
"Auntie, has the little girl who sets up her stall next to you every day already packed up and gone home?" Jiang Hua asked the vegetable vendor.
"Your daughter Honghua, I guess her grandma is sick. She hasn't been able to set up her stall for three days." The vegetable vendor shook her head and said, "Sigh, I guess she can't hold on any longer. This girl has been living with her grandma since she was little."
"Auntie, do you know which village she's from?" Jiang Hua asked again.
“Shili Village,” the vegetable vendor replied.
"Okay, thank you very much, Auntie," Jiang Hua said.
"Stepmother, are we going to Shili Village?" Jiang Jingyi asked, following Jiang Hua's steps.
“Yes, I’ll go take a look. I need to talk to her about something,” Jiang Hua replied.
The two arrived at the intersection of East Street in Qingshi Town, boarded an oxcart, and headed towards Shili Town.
After the oxcart stopped in Shili Town, Jiang Hua and Jiang Jing got off the carriage. Looking around, they saw thatched huts everywhere, with very few mud-brick houses.
"Uncle, do you know where Honghua's house is?" Jiang Hua stopped a passerby who was walking quickly and asked.
"Who are you? What do you want with the red flower?" The passerby gripped his hoe tightly and asked Jiang Hua and her companion warily.
“We meant no harm. We bought some pickled cowpeas from Honghua before, and we hadn’t seen her in town for the past few days, so we thought we’d come and check on her,” Jiang Hua explained.
Upon hearing this, the passerby stopped looking at them with fierce eyes. However, just as the passerby was about to answer her, he was called away by another woman.
"Husband, what are you standing there for? The red flowers will be taken away soon!" the woman called out anxiously.
Upon hearing this, the man in front of Jiang Hua had already left with his hoe on his shoulder.
“Let’s go up and take a look.” Jiang Hua led Jiang Jingyi and followed the man.
When the man stopped, a group of villagers surrounded a dilapidated thatched hut. Surrounded by several burly men wielding knives, the villagers, holding hoes and sticks, glared angrily at the men.
Jiang Hua could tell that although the villagers were afraid, they still gritted their teeth and fought against the big men.
“I’m telling you, don’t meddle in other people’s business. Before she died, the old woman entrusted this girl to me.”
Among the group of burly men, a woman spoke with a sharp tongue, looking disdainfully at the jar of red flowers on the ground, where the little girl's eyes were swollen from crying.
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