Qiu Yan looked up and recognized the two men at the same time. The reason why the wild game sold so well last time was thanks to these two merchants.
"Brother, Xingyue Restaurant also has wild boar meat and roe deer meat. We just delivered some. If you want to eat them, they can make them right now."
Upon hearing this, the merchant smiled and nodded, "You're a very honest girl."
The two merchants walked towards the entrance of Xingyue Tower. Zhou Zifang, who was leaning against the door, glanced at Qiu Yan with a smile, then turned to look at Lin Shu.
Lin Shu immediately perked up, "Esteemed guests, this way please."
After the merchants entered, other locals began to buy meat from the stalls.
"Girl, give me two pounds of pork belly."
"Miss, I want a pound of roe deer meat."
"..."
Li Zheng was busy chopping meat, while Qiu Yan was busy weighing and collecting money; the two of them were extremely busy.
While selling meat, Qiu Yan also promoted Xingyuelou: "My uncle is a skilled hunter and often sends game to Xingyuelou. If you want to eat something fresh, you can dine at Xingyuelou."
After she said that, some passersby, like the two merchants from before, were attracted by the meat stall and went to the restaurant for a meal.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Zifang's smile widened.
Miss Qiu Yan is truly clever; while openly helping him, she also manages to do business with him.
Halfway through the pork sale, several more tables of customers appeared at Xingyuelou Restaurant, all eager to try some wild game.
They only had wild boar meat and roe deer meat available outside, but they wanted to try other wild game.
Qin Wu was so busy in the kitchen that he didn't have a moment to spare, and Zhou Zifang, the young manager, had to personally serve the dishes.
About an hour and a half later, all the pork was sold out, and there were no pig heads or ears left either.
Qiu Yan and Li Zheng cleaned up the place together and returned the table, dagger, and scale to Xingyue Tower.
Now, Qiu Yan's bag is full of money.
There were strings of copper coins, half strings, loose coins, and some small pieces of silver...
After counting, it totaled two taels of silver and more than four hundred coins.
She could only earn two taels of silver after digging for medicinal herbs for several days, but she earned more than two taels from just one wild boar.
But she can't be as lucky as she was yesterday, with wild boars readily available to scavenge.
Qiu Yan counted out one tael of silver and handed it to Li Zheng. "Uncle Li, this money is yours."
Li Zheng shook his head. "You've miscalculated."
“That’s right, you carried this wild boar back. You were the main force in slaughtering the boar yesterday, and you brought it here today as well. The extra money is nothing.” Qiu Yan felt that she really hadn’t given much.
Li Zheng refused, but Qiu Yan persisted.
After some polite refusals, Li Zheng finally accepted the money and counted out 590 coins, saying, "If you really want to thank me, ten copper coins will suffice."
Qiu Yan only said that he helped her, but didn't Qiu Yan also help him?
If it weren't for Qiu Yan, his prey wouldn't have sold for this price.
Seeing the two of them pushing each other back and forth, Zhou Zifang stepped forward with a smile, "Qiu Yan, Uncle Li, you're all family, so don't keep offering to each other. If you think you have too much money, why not give it to me?"
"You're quite the stranger." Qiu Yan still gave Li Zheng two extra strings of copper coins. Even when asking someone for a favor, this payment was still required.
“You’ve both been busy for a long time today, you must be hungry. You’ve helped boost my business today, so as a thank you, I’d like to treat you to a simple meal. Would you do me the honor?” Zhou Zifang said.
Upon hearing Zhou Zifang's words, Qiu Yan agreed without much thought.
Firstly, she wanted to get closer to Zhou Zifang, and secondly, she was really hungry.
Inside the restaurant, Qiu Yan, Li Zheng, and Zhou Zifang sat at the same table.
Zhou Zifang first served a small pot of wine, and then asked Qiu Yan and Li Zheng to order dishes.
Qiu Yan looked at Li Zheng, who felt that he was just there to freeload a meal and that he wasn't picky about food and would eat anything.
Lin Shu finished cleaning up the dishes with a sigh, glanced enviously at her young master, and waited for Qiu Yan to announce the names of the dishes.
Qiu Yan looked at the recipe carefully: "Stir-fried frogs." She thought that if she came across frogs in the future, she could catch them and sell them.
Lin Shu shook her head and forced a smile, "There are no frogs."
Qiu Yan then said, "Sweet and sour lotus root."
Lin Shu shook her head again, "The new lotus roots haven't been harvested yet."
"Almond tofu".
"No almonds."
"..."
"..."
Qiu Yan waved her hand, "Never mind, just bring a few simple dishes."
Zhou Zifang's expression changed repeatedly. Little did he know, this girl deliberately chose items that were out of stock.
"Qiu Yan, besides these, our restaurant has other dishes as well."
"You should remove these temporarily unavailable dish names; if customers can't see them, they won't order them. By the way, do you have lily bulb and pear soup?"
Zhou Zifang's worry turned to joy, "We have this." Even if it's not on the menu, we can still make it. He listened to the suggestion and asked Lin Shu to remove the dishes that weren't on the menu.
...
Fifteen minutes later, all the dishes were served. After chatting, Zhou Zifang and Qiu Yan gradually became acquainted.
He pushed a plate of roasted roe deer meat in front of Qiu Yan. "Qiu Yan, this dish is made with the wild roe deer that you delivered this morning. Try it and give me your feedback if you find anything wrong."
Qiu Yan took a small bite of the roe deer meat on the table and frowned slightly.
Zhou Zifang also took a bite. "What, is it not good?" He also thought it wasn't very good.
"It smells fishy." Qiu Yan thought that the chef at Xingyue Tower was not very good. The roe deer meat must have been served without being repeatedly soaked and washed to remove the blood.
Lin Shu grinned and chuckled, then glanced towards the kitchen, where she met Qin Wu's gaze. Qin Wu coughed stiffly and remained standing still.
He also wanted to hear Qiu Yan's opinion of him.
Zhou Zifang then pushed another dish of chrysanthemum-shaped pork tenderloin in front of Qiu Yan, "This is one of our chef's specialties, and it's the pork you brought this morning. Try this one and tell me what you think is wrong with it."
Qin Wu also stared intently at Qiu Yan. Of all the dishes, he was most confident about the pork tenderloin.
It just so happens that Qiu Yan had eaten this dish in the present world.
She picked up a piece with her chopsticks, took a bite, and said, "The taste is a bit bland. I'm afraid it wasn't marinated with scallion and ginger water before frying. Also, it was over-fried, and the sweet and sour sauce wasn't flavorful enough."
Every time Qiu Yan tasted a dish, Li Zheng would take a bite, but he just couldn't tell that there were so many problems.
Qin Wu couldn't resist and ran straight to Qiu Yan.
"Miss Qiu Yan, our Xingyue Tower is short of a cook. Why don't you stay and work? It's much better than you spending your days braving the wind and rain to travel to and from the mountains. Our manager is very generous and will definitely not treat you unfairly."
Zhou Zifang's smile deepened as he and Qin Wu stared at Qiu Yan.
He had already confirmed in his heart that Qiu Yan was indeed a noblewoman who had fallen on hard times.
Qiu Yan shook her head. "I can only eat, not cook." She was a female soldier, not a cook.
After Qiu Yan finished speaking, she pushed the lily and pear soup in front of Li Zheng, "Uncle Li, this soup is quite good, please try it."
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