This little farce did not cause much of a stir among the villagers of Shanghe Village. As soon as the sweet potatoes arrived at the workshop, the villagers there began to work enthusiastically making sweet potato flour and brewing sweet potato wine.
Hot weather has its advantages; it makes drying sweet potato starch and making dried noodles faster.
The sweet potato flour workshop is divided into five sections based on the sweet potato production process: cutting, grinding, washing, extruding, and drying. The winery is divided into two sections: sweet potato wine and monkey wine. All the workers in each section are recruited from Shanghe Village and the surrounding villages.
The workshop implements a system of assigning specific tasks to specific individuals. Everyone signs a confidentiality agreement, prohibiting them from disclosing the procedures they are responsible for to others. If such a disclosure is made, not only will their relatives within five generations be permanently barred from employment, but they will also have to pay ten times the losses to the workshop.
With a monthly wage of 500 coins, plus holiday allowances and two new sets of clothes a year, none of the villagers hesitated when signing the agreement. Such good treatment was more than enough for several lifetimes. Only a fool would leak the secret!
As for the various managers in the workshop, they were all taken on by Mudfish Girl and a few others. These were all people whom the Su family knew well and had been on good terms with since the Su family was poor. The Su family trusted them.
The workshop also has a canteen to prepare lunch for the villagers who work in the workshop. It is staffed with older women from the village who are efficient at their work. The canteen manager is Wang Ergou's mother, Old Lady Wang.
When she was young, Old Mrs. Wang was an excellent cook. In the past few months, she has been drinking boiled bamboo water, and her ailment has been completely cured. She is now busy in the canteen and is completely at ease.
Today's meal was not the most popular dish, nor the bone broth, but the freshly steamed sweet potatoes. Everyone held a big sweet potato, their eyes and hearts burning with warmth as they ate.
At noon, the aroma of sweet potatoes wafted throughout the surrounding villages and towns of Shanghe Village. As the farmers ate the golden sweet potatoes, they felt that the days to come would also be bright and promising.
They took extra care of the sweet potato vines they had previously brought back from Zaozhuang, Le'an County. Every single vine was a descendant of the Zaozhuang sweet potatoes. As long as they tended to them diligently, they didn't need to worry too much, even in a drought year like this.
Two flowers bloom, each telling its own story. Just as Qingshui County was filled with joy, a thousand miles away in Tangshan Prefecture, Tongxin Lane was in an uproar.
A large crowd of people gathered in front of Liu's Restaurant, but this time they weren't queuing to buy food; they were causing trouble.
"Refund the money! Refund the money! Refund it now! Give me back all the black gold memberships that cost three thousand taels each!!"
"That bullshit hotpot! It's given me diarrhea every day. If it keeps going like this, my intestines will come out!"
"It wasn't just the hot pot, but also the zodiac animal plush toys. They were all stinky within a day of being bought. My son slept with them all night and broke out in rashes all over his body."
"That's right! This isn't running a restaurant, it's blatant murder for money! Give us our money back, give us our money back right now..."
Manager Liu bowed and scraped, his forehead covered in cold sweat. "Please calm down, everyone. There might be some misunderstanding. Our Liu's Restaurant is managed by the Prefect's daughter, and we will definitely give you a reasonable explanation..."
Unexpectedly, the people refused to acknowledge the truth and instead made an even bigger fuss.
"We don't want any explanations, we just want the money! Return the money immediately!"
"That's right! Don't try to use the prefectural governor to intimidate us! Prefect Liu is the big boss of Tangshan Prefecture, but he can't just bully people like this. Everyone has powerful relatives. If this money isn't returned, I'll take this directly to the Ministry of Personnel and let the officials in the capital handle it!"
"We clearly wanted to go to Su's Restaurant, but your staff dragged us in. Now that something's happened, you're trying to shirk responsibility? No way..."
In the private room on the east side of the second floor, the girl's face was ashen with rage. She smashed all the tables and chairs, her teeth grinding together in fury. "Su Hua, that Su Hua, she deserves to die..."
"Su Hua?" Liu Lin frowned so deeply it could trap flies. "What does this have to do with Su Hua? Didn't you say back then that all these hot pot broths were made by the chef!"
He had only made a trip to the neighboring prefecture to do some business for the Third Prince, but when he returned, his sister had already taken the Third Prince's money and opened Liu's Restaurant in more than ten surrounding counties.
Most importantly, these hot pot restaurants that were used as a gimmick have now run into trouble!
Liu Yuxian gritted her teeth, her face full of impatience, "This has nothing to do with my brother, you don't need to worry about it."
"It has nothing to do with me?!" The man laughed angrily. "If you weren't surnamed Liu, and weren't my sister, Liu Lin, I wouldn't even bother to care."
If this shop under your feet loses money, so be it, the Liu family can cover it. But right now, there are more than ten restaurants behind you, all of which are receiving money from the Third Prince.
The Third Prince is not a soft-hearted man. He came south this time to make money. You didn't let him make any money; instead, you made him lose everything, leaving him with nothing. Do you think he'll let you off easily, or let the Liu family off the hook?
Liu Yuxian's face paled, and she hurriedly grabbed the man's sleeve, "Brother, this base sauce, it's not...it wasn't made by the head chef, it was stolen from Su's Restaurant by a master thief I asked..."
The girl hurriedly recounted the whole story, and by the end, tears were streaming down her face. "Brother, Su Hua did it on purpose. She deliberately made a trap for me to fall into."
She predicted it perfectly: I would use these hot pot base ingredients to open a restaurant, causing me to lose money and incurring the Third Prince's displeasure. Brother, you must help me get revenge! I swear I will not rest until I avenge this!
Liu Lin was furious as he listened, and by the end he almost snorted out in anger, "Revenge? What are you going to use to get revenge!"
If it were a month ago, the Su family and Su's Restaurant would have been easy to deal with, but now, the Su family is a benevolent family personally bestowed by the Emperor, and Su Hua is the Lady of Le'an County who has been kind to the people of Dayu. Who would dare to touch them!
"If we're not careful, the reputation of our Liu family in Tangshan Prefecture will be completely ruined, and you might even cut off Father's official career."
“How could it be that serious?” Liu Yuxian said indignantly. “She’s just a commoner county princess, not a member of the royal family.”
"Brother, are you unwilling to avenge me because you still have your eyes on that vixen, Su Hua?"
"Liu Yuxian!" the man exclaimed angrily. "Is your brain full of water? You've caused such a huge disaster, and instead of trying to solve it, you're spouting nonsense. Quickly tell the manager to refund all the people who want their money back."
Liu Yuxian bit her lip, "The restaurant has no money to refund right now."
Liu Lin almost thought he had misheard. "What did you say? No money? Didn't you collect so many membership fees? Where did the money go?"
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