Liang Shuyan finished packing her things, clapped her hands, and said, "Erniu, drive the car, let's go back!"
Just as they were about to leave, they heard the sound of a carriage behind them, and with a hiss, the carriage stopped.
The carriage curtain was slowly lifted, and a middle-aged man of about 50 years old stepped out of the carriage. He was wearing a blue robe, with a money bag and a piece of jade hanging from his waist. Judging from his attire, it was clear at a glance that he was at least a wealthy man!
"Huh? I don't think I know this person."
"Excuse me, are you the woman who sells jelly here? I'd like to sell your jelly recipe at a high price!"
Liang Shuyan was thinking about something. She had been running two businesses for about ten days, and the money she had earned was not much. She never thought that she could sell the recipe for the cold noodles and thus earn more money. If she had this plan, she would not have contacted the county magistrate about the raw materials.
She smiled politely: "No need, this recipe is passed down from our ancestors and cannot be sold. Also, I would like to ask, which restaurant do you belong to, and how do you know what the raw materials are, so you dare to come here to buy my recipe?"
"Hmph, if I tell you the name of our restaurant, I guarantee you'll be scared to death! You ignorant countrywoman, how can the things made in your workshop compare to those of Qiongxian Restaurant? No matter how delicious your jelly is, it can only be sold to those lowly farmers, but Qiongxian Restaurant serves distinguished guests from the capital every day! Just think, if your jelly were sold at Qiongxian Restaurant, that would be where you would truly make money!"
"Oh, since your customers at Qiongxianlou are so distinguished, how dare we, from our workshops, utter something that would offend your esteemed palate? Let's just forget about it!"
The shopkeeper, seeing that Liang Shuyan was no pushover, grinned and leaned closer, whispering, "I said, I can give you 80 taels of silver!"
Although the current profit from jelly is far from 80 taels, Liang Shuyan said, word by word, "No need. No matter what, I cannot sell this recipe."
The man's face immediately darkened: "Don't be stubborn. I'm only giving you this price out of respect. Otherwise, I could buy your recipe for 20 coins, so what?"
"Talking about it now doesn't count; it only counts if you can actually buy it!"
Seeing that Liang Shuyan was no ordinary woman, the shopkeeper turned and left angrily.
Zhao Ergou snorted coldly: "Look at this shopkeeper, he looks down on us country folk, as if his silver is worth so much. Bah, if he comes again, I'll give him a taste of my fists and feet first!"
Liang Shuyan didn't want to make a big fuss over this matter. The manager of Qiongxianlou was a force to be reckoned with in the local area. They were just doing some small business in Furong Town, and there was no need to lower themselves to the level of such people.
If the shopkeeper had malicious intentions and deliberately arranged for someone to harm her, wouldn't her cold noodle business be ruined? She knew that she absolutely couldn't afford to offend such a narrow-minded person.
Sales are currently quite good. In less than half a day, the three buckets of jelly were sold out. However, the ratio of three buckets of jelly to one bucket of water and one ounce of potato starch is about 1 ounce. If this continues, there will be less than five pounds of potato starch left at home. How can this jelly business continue?
Thinking about this, she suddenly realized that she should have discussed it properly with that man earlier. If it were 100 taels of silver, she would still be willing to accept it.
She wanted to see where Qiongxianlou would get these raw materials.
But then I thought about how I'd grown so many potatoes just to make ends meet with this cold noodle business. If I really stopped making cold noodles, wouldn't all those potatoes have been grown for nothing?
Thinking about this, Liang Shuyan made a decision: "I can't sell this recipe no matter how much it costs. Who would sell their livelihood? Am I out of my mind?"
Jin Erniu drove the donkey cart, swaying and rocking, and soon arrived at Qingfeng Town. Although Qingfeng Town was relatively poor, she felt much more at ease and at ease once she arrived.
"Mom, shall we go to the market?"
Liang Shuyan nodded: "Yes, we've reached the market entrance. Let's stop here. I want to buy some things for the Dragon Boat Festival. No matter what, we should prepare some food for our family during the festival."
Seeing her mother-in-law's disappointed look, Zhang comforted her, "Mother, don't worry. No matter what, that shopkeeper wouldn't be in Qingfeng Town. Now that we're here, what's there to worry about?"
Liang Shuyan jumped off the donkey cart and glanced at her daughter-in-law, Zhang Shi: "Come on, let's go to the market and see if we can buy some glutinous rice. Your grandmother likes steamed cakes, so we can steam some for the festival. We can also buy some sweet dates while we're at it!"
Zhang nodded.
As soon as I reached the market entrance, I saw small vendors setting up stalls along the roadside. They were selling sweet dates, zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), zongzi leaves, and some steamed cakes.
Liang Shuyan's mind suddenly clicked: "That's right, we can make zongzi and sell them. People in ancient times liked to eat zongzi made with honey and sugar water, but I can make some meat zongzi and sell them. If the price is a little higher than theirs, there might still be a market for them, right?"
When Liang Shuyan passed by the large butcher shop, she bought 5 jin of pork with alternating layers of fat and lean meat, as well as some glutinous rice. She also bought some hawthorns from the roadside.
Zhang asked curiously, "Mother, what's the use of these hawthorns? They're sour and you can't eat them, so why did you buy them?"
"Adults want to celebrate, and children want to celebrate too, so I want to make some candied hawthorns for the children! Come on, let's go to the cloth shop up ahead and buy some cloth for the children. When we get home, your grandma will make each of us a new outfit!"
Zhang hesitated: "Mother, no need. We still have some clothes from last time. Why make more? We have enough clothes to wear."
When the topic of clothes came up, Liang Shuyan thought of the cloth bestowed upon her by the county magistrate and said angrily, "You still have the nerve to say you have clothes at home? Look at you, you don't even bother to tidy yourself up before going out. Dressed like this, what a laughingstock to the county magistrate! It'll be a huge slap in the face for me, your mother-in-law!"
Zhang said awkwardly, "Mother, I was in a hurry this morning and didn't have time to change, so I just wore the one I usually wear at home."
“From now on, wear nicer clothes at home. Throw away these patched shirts and don’t wear them anymore. If the villagers see them, they’ll laugh at how poor our family is, saying we can’t even afford a single piece of clothing.”
"Something terrible has happened! Someone's about to be beaten to death at the gambling den up ahead! We need to go check it out right now!"
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