Xu Qinyu then followed her fourth brother back to the house. Ning Jie'er's room was between her and her fourth brother's. She didn't notice anything unusual about her fourth brother and went straight back to the house. She didn't notice that her fourth brother looked back at her when he walked to the door.
After going to bed at night, Xu Qinyu fell asleep quickly as usual.
Pei Weixuan did not sleep all night.
The next day he got up early, with no sign of abnormality on his face, and drove the donkey cart to take Yu Niang to the restaurant.
Yu Niang asked him to go to the restaurant for breakfast later.
While making breakfast, Xu Qinyu soaked the dried snails, planning to use the snail meat to make snacks for her fourth brother to take away.
She is not so tired of making breakfast now, as she has the help of her big girl Cheng Ge'er.
The girl is very talented in making pastries. Xu Qinyu not only taught her how to make pastries, but also some sweets and desserts, and she learned very quickly.
Now most of the noodles in the morning are made by my daughter.
When summer comes, Xu Qinyu will give Da Niu a separate stove and table, let her make desserts, and add some new desserts to the restaurant.
While steaming breakfast, Xu Qinyu fried the soaked snail meat until dry, then added the seasonings she prepared, and the fragrant spicy dried snail meat was ready. She fried the dried snail meat relatively dry, so it was chewier and could be eaten longer.
During breakfast, Pei Weixuan planned to leave.
The bag he took with him when he went out contained only two sets of clothes, nothing else.
After having breakfast in the backyard, Yu Niang stuffed a large bag of oil paper into his hand. The bag was bulging and it was obvious that it was full of something. Before he opened the oil paper, he could smell the tempting fragrance inside, but Pei Weixuan didn't feel anything. He just looked at Yu Niang again.
Yu Niang also reminded with a smile, "Fourth brother, have a safe journey."
"Yeah." Pei Weixuan responded and turned to leave.
Watching her fourth brother's tall figure leaving the backyard, Xu Qinyu felt a little lost for some reason.
…
As soon as Pei Weixuan left, the house became deserted.
In fact, my fourth brother doesn’t talk much when he is at home.
Xu Qinyu felt a little reluctant to leave her fourth brother. She comforted herself by treating her fourth brother as a family member. Her fourth brother had to go out to make a living. Although the family was no longer short of money, her fourth brother was a grown man and could not always help her with the work of making fire and chopping wood. A man should have ambitions and should go out to explore the world.
It is normal for family members to feel reluctant to part with their fourth brother. Look at Wen's Ning Jie'er and the others, they are all the same, they are reluctant to part with their fourth brother.
Pei Weixuan went to the bamboo forest outside the city, where Huo Yedatou and Chen He were already waiting.
The three of them were eating, and their breakfast was packed from Xu's.
Pei Weixuan didn't plan to share these snacks with the three of them. He only gave them to Chen He and told him, "Share them with the children on the island."
If they rode at full speed, they would be able to return to the island in one day, so the dried snail meat would be good enough to keep for a few days.
There are many children on the island, all of whom are the families of Chen Yi's group of pirates.
The island is quite big. Even for the families of the pirates and hundreds of black-armored guards, it is very spacious. There are at least tens of thousands of acres of land, but these lands are uncultivated. They need to be cultivated before crops can be grown. Over the past year or so, the residents of the island have been reclaiming the land one after another. Now there are a large number of crops that need to be planted. They are busy reclaiming the land day and night. Hundreds of black-armored guards also stay on the island to reclaim the land and farm.
Pei Weixuan did not plan to bring too many people with him on this trip. He only wanted to select a dozen black-armored guards with strong martial arts skills to follow him.
After selling these colored glasses this time, he will set up a workshop on the island to specialize in making colored glasses.
The fired colored glaze will continue to be sold to wealthy provincial capitals in the future, so Pei Weixuan plans to set up a caravan.
Neither he nor Huo Ye could come forward to be the owner of the caravan, and the owner of the caravan was officially Chen Yi.
When he came back this time, Chen Yi already knew his identity, but the others did not. Needless to say, the black-armored guards were all loyal enough and knew his identity.
In addition, Chen He should have noticed something. He was the military advisor of these pirates and was smart. The caravan's daily accounts were managed by him.
The group rode at full speed and finally returned to the island after a day and a night.
There were many children on the island, and Pei Weixuan asked the black-armored guards who could read and write to teach these children how to read and write, and also teach them martial arts.
Teach both boys and girls.
Pei Weixuan asked Chen He to distribute the dried snail meat to the children on the island.
The children really liked the dried snail meat. They ate until their heads were sweating and they couldn't bear to put it down. They chased Chen He and Datou and asked, "Brother Chen He and Big Head, what is this? It's delicious. It's spicy, but it smells so good."
Chen He smiled and said, "It's delicious, isn't it? It's made by your brother Pei's wife. Do you want to eat it again in the future?"
The children said in unison, "We want to eat."
"Then study hard. When we leave the island, I'll take you there to eat. Your brother Pei's wife can not only make this, but also many other delicious dishes, such as custard buns, crystal shrimp dumplings, roujiamo, and all kinds of breakfast stir-fries. Every one of them tastes even better than the dried snail meat you have now."
These kids used to be wild, but now they can't sit still when they are forced to study.
The children drooled as they heard this.
They couldn't help but look at Pei Weixuan and felt that Brother Pei was cold, like an ice sculpture. Was the wife he married also like a piece of wood?
…
Xu Qinyu didn't know that her impression in the eyes of the children had also turned into ice and wood.
Half a month after Pei Weixuan left, the grapes in the mountains gradually ripened, so Madam Lu and Zhen Wu went to Yuanbao Town again to start the winery.
There are not many ripe grapes on the mountain now, so the winery did not invite many people to pick wild grapes on the mountain.
It only takes a few people to pick them.
Xu Feng handed this task over to Tao Qi and the other two.
The three of them were very skillful and could pick hundreds of kilograms of wild grapes from the mountain every day, almost picking all the ripe grapes on the mountain.
They were busy picking grapes, so other people would definitely be needed to wash and dry them.
The people who washed and dried the grapes were Mrs. Lu's people.
They are the women of the caravan who come to the winery specifically to work. They are paid 500 coins a month, with food and lodging provided. They live in a large bunk bed in the winery, and their meals are prepared by a special cook. In the future, this number of women will not be enough, so Madam Lu plans to find some capable women from nearby villages to help.
But for now, only Tao Qi and the women of these caravans are enough.
After all, it takes a month for the wild grapes on the mountain to mature in large quantities.
After washing and drying the grapes, Xu Qinyu would go to Dagu Village during the lunch break to check the dried grapes, then distribute the grapes and rock sugar in the right ratio, and have someone spread the grapes and rock sugar in the wine vat.
The women in Mrs. Lu's caravan worked very carefully, and there wasn't a single bad grape.
Because even just one bad grape can affect the taste of the wine.
Mrs. Lu had already prepared everything, including a large amount of rock sugar.
Xu Qinyu didn't need to worry about filling the jars; she only had to take care of the ratio of grapes to rock sugar.
Then just wait for it to ferment.
Xu Qinyu comes to the winery every day. She can tell the fermentation status of the wine in the wine vat by just smelling it. Once the first fermentation is completed, the wine can be bottled for the second fermentation.
Mrs. Lu was afraid of delaying Xu Ji's business, so she provided Xu Qinyu with a carriage and asked Cheng Ge'er or Feng Ge'er to drive the carriage to pick up Xu Qinyu every day. After all, a carriage is more than twice as fast as a donkey cart.
Xu Qinyu was busy with the restaurant and winery.
Sister Ning was also busy looking for a shop.
A few days ago, before the winery started brewing, Xu Qinyu talked to Sister Ning and said, "Sister Ning, your bags are getting better and better. Have you ever thought about setting up a small workshop and hiring some women who are good at needlework and embroidery to make them? You can draw the patterns and make a limited number of ten bags for each bag. The cost can be increased. After they are finished, they can not only be sold in Yuanbao Town, but also sent to other state capitals by Madam Lu's caravan."
Unexpectedly, Ning Jie'er excitedly said, "Fourth sister-in-law, to be honest, I was thinking of discussing with you a few days ago about opening a shop specializing in making bags. I even asked Madam Lu before, and she also thought it was a good idea. She also said that if I could set up a small workshop, she could help me deliver the bags I made to other states for sale."
Mrs. Lu felt that Sister Ning's workshop could not be too large at the beginning. The number of bags that could be made in a month would definitely be limited. On weekdays, the caravans would go to other state capitals, and she would help bring the bags to sell for free, which would not take much time and manpower.
In addition, the winery she and Xu Qinyu jointly run will definitely grow bigger and bigger in the future, so it can be regarded as a favor to Xu Qinyu.
Ning Jie'er didn't expect that her fourth sister-in-law had the same idea.
Fourth sister-in-law really cared about her and kept her affairs in mind.
Ning Jieer added, "I definitely can't manage the workshop by myself, so I can ask Tao Jieer to come and help me be the manager."
Tao Jie'er is Wen Yuntao from the third branch of the Wen family. She is the biological sister of Cheng Ge'er and Gong Ge'er, and is two years older than Ning Jie'er.
Before, Tao Jie'er helped Ning Jie'er make dumplings every day. She inherited the personality of Meng from the third room. She looked gentle on the surface, but she was actually stubborn in her bones. She was kind to her family and would not allow others to bully her.
Xu Qinyu said, "It's great to have Sister Tao helping you. Do you want my sister-in-law to help you look after the shop?"
Ning Jie'er shook her head. "No need, Fourth Sister-in-law, you can go about your business. Don't worry about the other Fourth Sister-in-laws. Tao Jie'er and I can find them ourselves. Tao Jie'er also wants to work with me."
She only wanted to take care of the shop with Tao Jie'er, which would also serve as a training exercise for the two of them.
Tao Jie'er has also saved some money over the past year and plans to invest it together, but she will take the larger share, so it would be enough to give Tao Jie'er 10%.
The two of them have already discussed it.
Tao Jie'er usually helped her a lot. She once met a picky buyer who bought a bag from her. After using it for a few months, he didn't take good care of it and washed it until it was in tatters. He then came to her and asked her to return the money.
Her handmade bag, like the delicate silk and embroidered clothes she usually wears, needs to be washed and cared for. She needs to be gentle when washing it, and use good soap to clean it. After washing, she needs to stuff something inside and put it in a ventilated place to dry, otherwise the strong sunlight will easily damage the material.
Tao Jie'er is usually gentle and kind. When the girl came to cause trouble, Tao Jie'er scolded her and asked her if she had washed and cared for the clothes according to the methods they told her. She also said that even the silk clothes she was wearing had to be washed gently on a daily basis. She had used them for several months and wanted to return them, but she was dreaming. If she was not allowed to return them, the girl could only leave in disgrace.
And with Tao Jie'er with her, she could let Tao Jie'er do the accounting and take care of the customers on a daily basis, and she only had to concentrate on drawing her own patterns in the back.
Xu Qinyu was worried that her sister-in-law didn't have enough money on her, so she gave her sister-in-law another 500 taels of silver notes, saying that she had to rent a shop and buy high-quality fabrics such as silk, satin, and gauze, and also hire an embroiderer, all of which required money. She asked her to take the 500 taels first to make sure she didn't have enough.
Ning Jie'er had no choice but to accept it, planning to return it to her fourth sister-in-law when she made money in the future.
So Sister Ning and Sister Tao have been busy looking for a shop these days.
They wanted to find a shop on South Street, which was closer to Xu's. They could close the shop and go home with Fourth Sister-in-law on weekdays. Maybe if Xu's had any problems, she could go over and help quickly.
Moreover, Sister Ning is not worried that her bags will not sell well. Just like Fourth Sister-in-law's Xu Ji, good wine needs no bush. If the bags are well made, girls are willing to come to the store to choose them no matter where the store is.
After searching for a few days, I found a shop with two doors, as well as a backyard utility room, kitchen and woodshed.
It used to be a rice shop. The owner wanted to move to a bigger shop, so he planned to rent out the shop on South Street for 40 taels of silver a year.
The rental price is reasonable, but the shop used to sell grain, and the corners are a bit shabby, not suitable for a workshop to sell bags, so it needs to be redecorated and renovated after renting it.
Ning Jie'er rented the shop without hesitation.
After that, he started to busy himself with the renovation of the shop, and would come with Tao Jie'er to keep an eye on it all day long.
The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and the hawthorns in the mountains are ripe.
Sometimes when Tao Qi and his friends saw hawthorns, they would pick a lot of them and send some to Xu Ji. For the rest, they would ask the workers at the winery to wipe the surface of the hawthorns, slice them, and dry them in the sun to make dried hawthorns.
This is also what Xu Qinyu wants.
Last year, Xu Qinyu had no one on her side, so Feng Ge'er and the others were busy with grapes and had no time to take care of hawthorns.
There are enough people this year, so Cheng Ge'er and the others don't need to go to the mountains to pick grapes. So Xu Qinyu asked Tao Qi and the others to pick some hawthorns from the mountains whenever they saw them. She will use them.
Not many people pick hawthorns, which are the raw materials for making candied haws, so not many people pick them on weekdays.
Hawthorn can be used to make hawthorn drink, which can lower blood lipids. In summer, drinking a bowl of sour and sweet hawthorn drink can both stimulate appetite and lower blood lipids.
Although hawthorn drink has the same sour and sweet taste as sour plum soup, the taste is completely different.
Some people prefer the taste of black plums, while others prefer the taste of hawthorns.
In addition to hawthorn drinks, there are many other things that can be done with hawthorn.
It can also be used to make hawthorn cake, frosted hawthorn, hawthorn jam, canned hawthorn, stir-fried red fruit, and can even be used as a substitute for tomato stewed beef, or stewed with radish in bone soup. There are many ways to cook it.
Xu Qinyu planned to use hawthorn to make hawthorn drink.
Hawthorn drink is made by boiling fresh hawthorn with rock sugar and tea leaves.
Boil the hawthorn into juice, remove the residue and tea leaves, add rock sugar and simmer over low heat until dissolved, then turn off the heat.
The proportion of tea should be smaller.
The hawthorn drink she made had a bright red soup with just the right balance of sourness and sweetness, and contained finely chopped hawthorn pulp. It was chilled in well water overnight and was ready to drink the next day.
In addition to the hawthorn drink, she also planned to add a hawthorn, radish and bone soup, and another dish of stir-fried red fruits.
Fried red fruit is also a famous snack.
Although it is called fried red fruit, it is not fried. After washing the hawthorn, remove the core, pour in hawthorn rock sugar and water and boil over high heat. Stir the fruit properly during the cooking process to prevent it from sticking to the pan. It is not easy to boil the hawthorn fruit until it is soft and glutinous, and thick and juicy. You have to add just the right amount of water and rock sugar at once. Otherwise, if you find that it is not cooked through or not enough sugar is added, adding water and sugar later will affect the taste.
The stir-fried red fruit has a rich taste, and the sugar water has penetrated into the red and soft hawthorn flesh. It is juicy, soft, sour and sweet, and especially appetizing.
Once the hawthorn drink and this fried red fruit dish came out, they became the must-order drink and dessert for every diner at dinner time.
However, fewer people order sour plum soup, mainly because restaurant customers are used to the taste of sour plum soup, so restaurants make less sour plum soup every day and serve more hawthorn drink.
In addition to the fried red fruit dessert, the restaurant also added another dessert.
Brown sugar and milk mochi.
There is no need to describe the taste of mochi, which is a must-have in all kinds of milk tea desserts. It tastes soft and sticky, sweet but not greasy, and chewy.
Mochi is also easy to cook. Add glutinous rice flour, milk, rock sugar and some starch, boil over high heat and stir until it becomes stringy.
This kind of mochi is delicious just by coating it with some cooked soybean powder.
As for brown sugar and fresh milk mochi, you pour the cooked mochi into brown sugar water, add some glutinous rice balls and sprinkle some osmanthus powder, and you have a bowl of chewy and soft brown sugar and fresh milk mochi dessert.
This is also a new food made with milk, so milk is indispensable. Combined with the daily custard buns, milk steamed buns, milk tea and other dairy products, the restaurant's daily demand for milk is getting bigger and bigger, and it has long increased from 20 kilograms to 40 kilograms.
For a while, Xu Ji Restaurant’s fried red fruits and brown sugar and milk mochi became the hottest topics in Yuanbao Town.
Both male and female diners love these two new dishes.
One dish is soft, sweet, sour and juicy, while the other is sweet, soft, chewy and full of milk flavor.
Many acquaintances would greet each other at the market with, "Have you eaten?"
"Have you ever eaten at Xu Ji? Xu Ji has two new desserts: stir-fried red fruit and brown sugar and milk mochi. Go try them! They're so delicious! Even a grown man like me who doesn't like sweets couldn't resist ordering a bowl."
"Xu Ji's new dessert? Oh, why didn't you tell me earlier? It's been getting hot these past two days. Although I've been missing Xu Ji's food, I haven't been out much. Hearing what you said, I have to go try it."
"Go and try it quickly, it's really delicious."
So Xu Ji came up with new food, stir-fried red fruits made with hawthorn and milk, and brown sugar milk mochi, which quickly spread throughout Yuanbao Town.
The hawthorn, radish and bone marrow soup made with hawthorn is pretty good. It tastes a bit sour, the soup is rich and tasty.
But compared with stir-fried red fruits and brown sugar milk mochi, hawthorn, radish and bone marrow soup is not as impressive.
As summer approaches, the business of other restaurants and food establishments has been generally affected, with a decrease in customer flow.
Only Xu Ji Restaurant's business is still as normal, and it is the same as in winter. There are even people willing to line up to eat at Xu Ji in the hottest weather.
Even so, many restaurants and food stalls are unwilling to be the first to take action against Xu Ji.
Because of the previous experience of Ping'an Restaurant and the popularity of Xu's owner, naturally no one dared to openly target Xu's. They didn't even dare to use those despicable means on Xu's, for fear that it would end up like Ping'an Restaurant.
…
In the past half month, Xu Qinyu has been busy making new food, and also taught the recipes to big girl Cheng Ge'er and others.
It is indeed tiring to go to Dagu Town every day to oversee the winemaking.
Xu Qinyu was thinner than before, but even if she was thinner, only her waist and face were thinner. Her fair and small chin became sharper, as was her waist. However, her breasts were not much thinner and seemed to be still growing. She usually wore loose clothes when she went to work at Xu's, and changed into silk clothes after washing up at home.
I feel that the silk pajamas are getting tighter around the chest area, so I plan to buy some more silk to make two more sets.
The next morning, she went to the restaurant to work again.
I went to Dagu Town at noon and returned to the restaurant in the afternoon, where I was busy until closing time in the evening.
After the restaurant closed, Xu Qinyu was sweating profusely and wanted to return to her house in Xixiang early to wash up and rest. Then she saw a woman in her forties standing outside the restaurant. She was wearing a silk dress and two simple gold ornaments. When she saw Xu Qinyu, she smiled and asked, "Are you the owner of Xu's Restaurant?"
Xu Qinyu didn't recognize this woman. She nodded and said, "May I ask who the lady is?"
The woman smiled and said, "I'm here to talk to Mr. Xu about some business today. Could you please give us a chance to go in and talk?"
Xu Qinyu nodded, "Then please come in, Madam."
Xu Qinyu led the woman into Xu's restaurant. The front hall of Xu's restaurant had already been swept clean.
The two of them found a place to sit by the window. There was still some hawthorn drink left in the restaurant, which was reserved for the Fengtiao Yushun brothers, as well as Yuan and Lin, to drink when they got off work. Now that there were guests, they naturally served two bowls first.
"This is the hawthorn drink from the restaurant. It's quite thirst-quenching. Madam, please try it."
Xu Qinyu placed a bowl of hawthorn drink in front of the woman. The woman took a sip from the bowl and sighed comfortably, "It tastes good."
The woman had drunk this hawthorn drink before. Even though her status did not allow her to eat and drink at Xu's, she had people pack up every food and drink at Xu's and take them home to try.
Even though her husband is a chef and she has been eating food made by chefs for decades, the woman still feels that her husband's cooking skills cannot compare to those of Xu Ji, the young owner.
This young lady Xu is really skillful. She is only sixteen or seventeen years old, but her cooking skills have reached such a high level.
To be honest, she felt that it was not unfair that her big restaurant could not compare to Xu's small restaurant. Although she had never been to the capital, she was afraid that even the big chefs in the capital could not compare with Miss Xu's cooking skills. One can't lie with words.
But it is not unfair, no one wants their family business to be affected.
She had endured it for more than a year and didn't want to endure it anymore, so she wanted to talk to Xu Ji's owner.
The woman drank half a bowl of hawthorn drink, put it down, and said to Xu Qinyu, "Master Xu, I am the owner of Donglaiju, my surname is Dong, the Dong as in winter. I am here to discuss a business with you today."
It was precisely because her surname was Dong that the restaurant was named Donglai Ju.
It also means good luck coming from the east.
Xu Qinyu was still a little surprised. Even though Xu Ji's business was good, its impact on Donglai Ju was not that big. Perhaps it had a greater impact on some small restaurants.
Because Xu Ji’s place is so small, no matter how good its business is, the number of customers it can accommodate is limited. Some of these diners come from East Street and West Street. Since Xu Ji can’t accommodate them, they can only go back to Donglai Ju to eat.
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