Uncle Niu asked Pei Yao with a look of surprise, "Yao girl, how did your mother make this? It's so delicious! I've never eaten such delicious snails before."
The villagers usually boil snails in water with ginger or, if they have better conditions, stir-fry them in oil.
But they had never eaten anything like this before, mixed with all sorts of seasonings.
But it tastes much better than those boiled ones, it's flavorful!
Pei Yao smiled and explained, "These are spicy snails made by my mother. We plan to take them to the market to sell in a couple of days."
Pei Yao didn't admit that she had mixed it herself, but instead blamed it on Yun Niang.
When Uncle Niu and Aunt Niu heard that they were going to sell the ingredients, Aunt Niu immediately slapped Uncle Niu: "It's just ingredients that people are going to sell, why are you asking questions for no reason, you old man?"
After saying that, fearing that Pei Yao might misunderstand, he explained, "Xiao Yao, I'm sorry, my old man doesn't know how to speak properly."
Uncle Niu explained, "Yes, Xiao Yao, I just asked because I thought it looked delicious, I didn't mean anything by it."
Having lived most of their lives, they knew in their hearts that the spicy snails at Pei Yao's house were made so deliciously must be due to some kind of family secret recipe.
It's their future livelihood, so it was indeed presumptuous of me to ask that question.
Seeing their reaction, Pei Yao knew they were both kind and simple-minded, so she smiled and said, "It's alright, it's alright."
Pei Yao had actually observed the Niu family's meals when she first came in. They were very simple: a pot of clams and other shellfish, sweet potatoes and brown rice porridge as the main dishes, and a steamed sea fish.
These are all incredibly simple methods.
Both times she brought food to Uncle Niu, he gave her positive feedback, which suggests that everyone's tastes are probably not that different.
Pei Yao learned that it was because people in this era were too poor, and ordinary people did not eat very refined food.
They're lucky if they can get enough to eat on a regular basis, so who has the time or inclination to research strange and unusual foods? Besides, they're unwilling to waste ingredients and time trying and researching them.
Those delicious dishes are only researched by chefs in restaurants, but ordinary people can't afford to eat in restaurants.
For them, delicate food like Pei Yao's is a great delicacy.
Pei Yao left the bag of spicy snails with the Niu family and went home.
She is quite confident about setting up a stall the day after tomorrow.
When Yunniang got home and told her family about her idea of setting up a stall at the dock, they were utterly shocked.
"Yao'er, it's not good for a woman to do business in public, as it's easy for people to gossip about her."
"Right now, as long as your aunt and I can go to the beach every day, we have enough clams to eat."
As Yunniang spoke, her voice grew softer and softer.
She was a woman from a noble family, and she had been taught the proper etiquette of a young lady from a young age. So when she heard that her daughter wanted to go out and set up a stall, she naturally felt some resistance.
She felt that they could eat enough by digging for seafood every day and adding some wild vegetables.
Most importantly, doing business is too hard.
In their dynasty, most of the people who went out to do business were men; very few women went out to do business.
Even if they exist, they are extremely rare.
She was afraid that her Yao'er would be bullied by others outside.
Pei Yao naturally understood her mother's worries and considerations, so she patiently explained to her family: "Mother, although we have enough wild vegetables to eat every day for the time being, Father and Uncle are still working at the salt field."
I've heard that life at the salt fields is very tough, and you might not even get enough to eat.
The officials had previously said that they could be ransomed as long as money was paid, so I wanted to earn some money to ransom them as soon as possible.
"Besides, we do business with our own hands and earn clean money, so we're not afraid of what others will say."
Pei Yao didn't actually know how hard the work in the salt trade was, or whether they had enough to eat.
But she thought that they were exiled prisoners who had come here to undergo labor reform, so it certainly wouldn't be easy for them.
Pei Yao deliberately exaggerated these things in order to get her family to approve of her doing business. After all, doing business alone as a fourteen-year-old girl would definitely be more tiring than having the whole family work together.
As soon as Pei Yao said this, Yunniang burst into tears.
"Yao'er, are you sure what you're saying? Your husband and elder brother really can't even get a meal?"
Pei Yao was caught off guard when she saw Yun Niang's tears fall. Although she knew that her adoptive mother was a bit weak, she did not expect that tears would fall so easily.
She suddenly felt a little guilty and clutched at the hem of her clothes: "I only heard it from people in the village, I'm not sure..."
Chen Fang: "Yao girl, I'll go with you."
Pei Yichen also agreed, "I'll go too." He missed his father and wanted him to come back soon.
Although little Xuan'er didn't know all the intricacies, she missed her father very much, so she called out in her childish voice, "Xuan'er wants to go with her older sister too!"
Yunniang was worried about her daughter, fearing that she would be gossiped about or bullied if she went out to do business. But her daughter was right; they earned their money honestly with their own hands and had nothing to fear from what others said.
Looking at her daughter, Yunniang felt that her daughter was very different from when she first came back.
It's as if I've had a different soul ever since I woke up that time.
........
These past two days, the entire Pei family has been going to the beach to collect snails whenever the tide goes out. The thought of turning them all into spicy snails and then selling them at the dock has given them a lot of motivation.
When Pei Yao went to pick other ingredients, she ran into Liu Yu and his mother Chunlin from the Liu family.
The two of them kept praising the bag of snails that Pei Yao had given them, saying they tasted very good.
They also ran into Niu Qingshan. Pei Yao asked him how the food tasted, but Niu Qingshan shook his head, not understanding what she meant.
It was only later that we learned that Niu Qingshan hadn't eaten any snails when he went back that day.
Pei Yao told him about her idea of setting up a stall to sell this. Niu Qingshan was familiar with the town, and setting up a stall to do business was not a secret. She didn't intend to hide it from him, so she told him directly.
"You can sell them at the dock; there are lots of people there."
Niu Qingshan's idea was the same as Pei Yao's.
On her way home, Pei Yao thought about the problem of how to pack these snails.
They do have a basin at home, but it's not very big.
Upon hearing this, Yunniang and Chen Fang patted their chests and said it was alright, they would handle the basin matter themselves.
Sure enough, the next day, Yunniang borrowed a wooden bucket from Qiaohui's house and came back.
Chen Fang also borrowed two wooden buckets from the Liu family, the kind that can be carried around.
The one from the Liu family looks very new. My aunt said that Liu Yu made it himself.
After saying that, he glanced at Pei Yichen and said, "You brat, you should go and learn from Liu Yu when you have time. You went to school too, and he knows how to make wooden buckets."
Pei Yichen: "..."
This is somehow related to me? I'd like to know how too, but unfortunately, I don't have a grandfather from a poor family who could teach me.
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