Chapter 61 Chapter 61-Two in One Make Money La La La La La…
Fortunately, Lin Qingqing was tolerant and did not ask any further questions. The few of them left with their backpacks on their backs.
There was a lot of rain in this season, and there was plenty of pig grass in the fields. They found a piece of land with plenty of grass and soon filled a basket with it.
It was still early when she returned home, so Lin Chunhe neatly broke the branches that she had dragged back last time and left outside, and carried them into the yard.
Normally, the three sisters would not feel that time passed slowly when they waited for Lin Chuntao at home together. But today, she felt that time passed very slowly when she was alone at home. After waiting for a long time, she soaked the rice and steamed the rice before Lin Chuntao and the others came back.
"Sister, you're back!"
Lin Chuntao looked at her, then looked at the steamer on the stove and the neat and clean yard. Lin Chuntao took out the mutton pie from the backpack.
"The meat patties I bought this morning are cold. Put them in a steamer and heat them up."
Lin Chunhe took it and asked as they walked, "How is it? Are they all sold out?"
Before Lin Chuntao could say anything, Lin Duoer beside her told Lin Chunhe excitedly.
“They’re all sold out, and there’s still not enough!”
Upon hearing this, Lin Chunhe looked at Lin Chuntao in surprise, her eyes filled with joy. "So, do we need to make more tomorrow to sell enough?"
"No, there might be about the same crowd tomorrow as there is today. We'll calculate the money later."
The rice in the steamer wasn't cooked yet. Pei Ying put down his backpack. Lin Chunxing impatiently poured the money from her purse onto the table. Lin Chuntao glanced at the gate, which was not locked. She looked at Lin Duo'er and said, "Duo'er, go and fasten the bolt."
Lin Duoer hurriedly bolted the door and ran back quickly.
Lin Chunhe looked at the pile of copper coins and exclaimed, "Is this a day's earnings?"
"There's still money left for shopping?" Lin Chuntao said as she pulled over a stool and sat down. Yesterday she gave Lin Chunxing 350 coins in change, 150 of which she used to buy noodles, and she spent 86 of the remaining 200 on meat patties and clay pots, leaving her with 114. She counted this part first, and then counted the rest, which was 602 coins.
When I came back, I spent 184 on meat, so my total income for today is 786.
Lin Chunxing was very happy. This was just the money she earned in one day. If she sold it every day in the future, she would definitely make more.
Lin Chunhe and Lin Duoer next to them had no idea how much money they had spent on shopping yesterday, but when they looked at the pile, they didn't care about anything else and were so happy that their heads were dizzy.
Lin Chuntao was quite satisfied with today's situation. At least all the noodles she brought were sold out. The most feared thing in the food business is that some food is not sold out and there are leftovers.
If they continue to sell the next day, they won’t be fresh. If they don’t sell them and can’t finish them, that’s all money. So Lin Chuntao would rather have less than enough to sell than have any leftovers.
But then I calculated yesterday's costs: 25 jin of flour cost 150 wen, the meat I bought yesterday cost 90 wen, the tomatoes and leeks cost 58 wen, plus the cost of soy sauce, oil, salt, firewood, land, and so on, so I'll just say 350 wen for now. After deducting these, I'll have 436 wen.
Just this, 45% of the cost accounts for nearly half.
This is not like picking mushrooms. It only takes a little time. You can pick them in the mountains and sell them quickly without spending most of the day in the county town.
I go to sell noodles before dawn, and after selling them I still have to work in the fields. Since I am doing business, making money must be the only goal, and I have to earn some money in addition to my hard work fee.
Lin Chunxing looked at Lin Chuntao who was silent and seemed to be thinking about something. Lin Chunxing pursed her lips and called out softly, "Sister, we earned more than 400 coins today!"
Lin Chuntao looked back at her. It was difficult to save money in the countryside. Lin Xinghua was very satisfied to earn so much money in a day. She didn't feel it was hard to get up in the middle of the night to sell noodles.
"We're spending too much on groceries. We need to see where we can cut back."
Lin Chunxing swallowed and looked at Lin Chuntao in disbelief: "Sister, we have earned more than half, is it still not enough?"
Lin Chuntao laughed when she heard this and said, "Would you think it's too much money?"
Lin Chunxing smiled foolishly and said, "That's definitely not the case."
Now that she had an idea, Lin Chunxing was silent for a moment and asked, "Sister, are we selling at too low a price?"
Lin Chuntao shook her head. "Mutton noodles are only twelve cents a bowl. In people's minds, lamb is much more expensive than pork. If they sell it for a higher price than mutton noodles, many people will prefer mutton noodles. Besides, they sell breakfast and lunch, so people don't want to spend too much money on breakfast."
Lin Chunxing felt worried after hearing this. She had been so happy collecting money this morning.
If the price can't be set too high, should we have smaller and larger bowls? Or should we use less?
She thought about it and said it out loud. Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "Let me think about it. Let's cook first."
As she spoke, she asked Lin Chunxing to put the money away. Pei Ying stood up and took out the vegetables and meat from the basket to dry. The meat was bought to make stuffing. Today, everyone in the butcher shop was sharing large bones. Pei Ying took two shoulder blades and a few ribs. Watching Pei Ying packing these bones, Lin Chuntao had an idea.
"Do you have a lot of these big bones left every day?"
"Yeah." Pei Ying nodded.
Lin Chuntao suddenly smiled. People in Yizhou didn't like bone soup. Bone soup without any spices had a fishy smell. Adding spices to stew it? The bones were not as valuable as the spices. It would be better to buy a piece of meat and cook it and eat it directly.
"How much are these bones for?" Lin Chuntao asked again. Pei Ying replied, "I saw Shopkeeper He send someone to buy them. They're four cents a pound. But the meat on the bones has been cleaned off and is very smooth."
Lin Chuntao looked at Pei Ying and said, "Give me these bones. I'll see if we can reduce the cost."
Pei Ying smiled and said, "Then I'll wash it now?"
Lin Chuntao nodded, and Lin Chunxing went to cook. After Pei Ying washed the bones, Lin Chuntao asked him to chop the big bones and knock them. When the vegetables were cooked, Lin Chunxing put all the bones directly into the iron pot. She grabbed some dried ginger and spices and put them in. When the bone soup was ready, Lin Chuntao tasted it and found that it had no fishy smell and could be drunk directly.
She quickly scooped up some oil, stir-fried the sauce and poured it in. The half pot of red soup base was filled with oil, and the aroma of the sauce and meat blended together. The smell was somewhat familiar. Lin Chuntao called Lin Chunxing over: "Chunxing, come and scoop up some and cook a bowl of noodles and see how it goes."
Lin Chunxing brought over a clay pot, scooped two spoonfuls of soup into it, added noodles, tomatoes and leeks. The noodles tasted almost the same. She was shocked after taking a bite.
"Sister, this seems to work too."
Lin Chuntao picked up a piece with chopsticks. It had a stronger meaty taste than before. Lin Chuntao cooked it herself. She scooped out the soup and added a little water. The taste was more like yesterday's, except that there was no meat filling.
"Sister, this tastes good, but what about the meat filling? Are you not going to put it in?"
Seeing that it was about to be done, Lin Chuntao smiled slightly and said, "Of course we have to put it in, but we just need to boil the soup powder and scoop a spoonful of it in, and that's it."
Lin Chunxing pursed her lips and said, "What should we say if the guests who dined there yesterday ask about it?"
"We just changed the soup base. We replaced the water with broth. It has more oil and water, so it tastes better."
Lin Chunxing nodded, "Then should we fry less meat sauce?"
The next day, before the hour of Yin, Lin Chuntao got up. As soon as she came out, Lin Chunxing got up as well. After washing up, the sisters quickly got busy frying the meat filling and preparing it.
As soon as the Yin hour arrived, the system started broadcasting that they were going to pick mushrooms. They were halfway there together. Lin Chuntao went into the mountains to pick mushrooms, while Pei Ying took Lin Chunxing and Lin Duoer to the county town.
Lin Chuntao added water to the bone soup yesterday to make it taste just right, and this morning Pei Ying helped carry it over in a bucket.
Lin Chuntao was not at home, so Lin Chunxing took Lin Duoer to move the things out and arranged them all as they did yesterday. They went to the noodle shop to get some flour and then started to make a fire.
The guys in the butcher shop still wanted to eat, so Lin Chunxing started to cook for them. She remembered Lin Chuntao saying that these people were acquaintances of Pei Ying because they worked together, so she could put more in the noodles. She cooked for them according to the amount from yesterday.
Just as they finished cooking, a familiar person came to the stall.
He was the owner of the mutton noodle shop. He stood in front of the stall and looked at it carefully.
"Lin Ji Soup Noodles, were you the ones selling the braised pork noodles yesterday?"
Lin Chunxing nodded. She felt that the man's tone was not very good, and she couldn't laugh. Was this man looking for trouble because he had taken away her business? She kept thinking in her mind, what would Lin Chuntao do if she was here? Before she could think of it, Lin Duoer, who was standing next to her, asked with a smile, "Uncle, do you want to try our soup noodles? They are delicious! Just as delicious as your mutton noodles!"
Feng Guan looked at Lin Duoer standing in front of the stall. She was a skinny little person with no flesh on her face. He said calmly, "Okay, call your parents and cook a bowl!"
"Let me try it and see if your braised pork noodles are as delicious as my mutton noodles!"
Lin Chunxing quickly agreed, "I'll cook it for you right away, please wait." After she finished speaking, she skillfully ladled out the soup and added the noodles to start cooking. He stood in front of the stall with his hands behind his back, frowning slightly: "Is this stall for you two sisters to manage?"
Lin Chunxing nodded and said, "Yes, my sister will be here soon."
Feng Guan was bored waiting for the noodles to cook, so he asked again, "Where are my parents?"
"Our mother passed away a long time ago, and our father just passed away a few days ago."
Feng Guan remained silent after hearing this. Lin Chunxing cooked the noodles and followed Lin Chuntao's instructions. She scooped a small spoonful of meat filling into the noodles and brought it to the table.
"Boss, please enjoy your meal."
Feng Guan smelled the flavor and found it was indeed very different, but he quickly figured out the key point: the sauce had a unique flavor. Without the sauce, the noodles might not taste good.
No wonder this small stall was able to steal his business.
He was a little unhappy about his business being taken away, but when he saw that it was these two little girls who didn't even have parents, his anger subsided a little.
"Where did you buy this sauce?"
Lin Chunxing didn't know what Feng Guan meant, so she replied softly, "My sister made it herself."
Feng Guan frowned, "Did your sister make it herself? Did she ever work in a soy sauce factory?"
"No, I just figured it out at home."
After finishing his meal, Feng Guan paid. He looked at the simple stall and said to Lin Chunxing, "With a sauce recipe like this, why bother selling noodles? Sell the sauce recipe to the sauce factory, and you will never have to worry about food and drink for the rest of your life."
The two sisters were stunned by Feng Guan's words. After he left, Lin Duoer came to her senses. She tugged at Lin Chunxing's sleeve and said, "Second sister, what did he just say? Selling sauce recipes will allow us to have food and drink for the rest of our lives?"
Lin Chunxing nodded.
Lin Duoer widened her eyes and asked in a low voice, "How much does it cost?"
Lin Chunxing patted her and said, "What are you imagining? That was done by my sister."
Just as Lin Chuntao said, the neighbors would not come to buy today like they did yesterday. They waited until dawn, when more people came to the market, and then they cooked a few bowls and sold them one after another.
Lin Chuntao picked up a basket of blue-headed mushrooms and pine-hair mushrooms today. She was a little worried about Lin Chunxing and Lin Duoer, so after picking up the mushrooms at the place indicated by the system, she carried them directly to the county town.
When she arrived at the market, there were not many people there. Lin Chunxing was cooking noodles. When they saw her coming, smiles instantly appeared on their faces.
"Sister, you're here."
Lin Chuntao put the backpack away, scooped some water and washed her hands before walking over.
"How was it? How many bowls did you sell?"
Lin Duoer replied to Lin Chuntao quickly.
"Thirteen bowls. The uncle selling mutton noodles also came and had a bowl."
Lin Chuntao raised her eyebrows slightly, "Did he come here specifically to eat noodles?"
Lin Chunxing shook her head. "Probably not. He came here to look at our stall and asked if we were selling the braised pork noodle soup from yesterday. It was Duoer. She said our noodle soup was just as delicious as his mutton noodle soup. She asked him if he wanted some, and he ordered a bowl."
"And then, what else did he say?"
"While we were eating, he asked us where we bought the sauce. I told him my sister made it."
Lin Chunxing stared at Lin Chuntao as she spoke. She wasn't sure if she had said anything wrong. In the silence, Lin Duoer said, "Sister, the shopkeeper also said that we could sell sauce recipes. He said that if we sold a sauce recipe, we would never have to worry about food and drink for the rest of our lives."
"How much is our sauce recipe worth?"
Lin Chuntao didn't know how much it was worth, but if it was as popular as the sauce in the sauce factory in the market, it would definitely be valuable.
"I wouldn't sell my house even if it's valuable. Isn't it better to sell it as sauce?" Lin Chuntao said lightly.
Lin Duoer stuck out her tongue. Lin Chuntao looked at Lin Chunxing and said, "Don't worry. He can't be the only one selling this noodle. Anyone can sell it. It all depends on which brand the customer prefers."
Lin Chunxing nodded and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After picking mushrooms today, Lin Chuntao was afraid that people who wanted to buy mushrooms would be waiting for her there, so at about the same time, she went over with her basket on her back.
After selling the mushrooms, she told them about the new location and asked them to go to the butcher shop from now on and she would not come here anymore.
Lin Chunxing shouted in the same way as Lin Chuntao did yesterday, and quite a few customers came, but there were not many old customers from yesterday. After she was busy, she saw some familiar people buying meat nearby, holding noodles and a small jar of sauce in their hands.
This... is it because you tried their noodles and found them delicious, so you bought some and cooked them yourself?
When Lin Chuntao came back, Lin Chunxing told her about this.
Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "That's normal. I buy some meat and a pound of noodles, and cook enough to feed many people at home. If I can make delicious food myself, why not save money?"
“When we can’t make this taste anymore, will they come back to eat it?”
Lin Chunxing was a little uncertain, and Lin Chuntao said, "Maybe, maybe not. That's how cooking is. Someone might come for ten days in a row, but when she gets tired of it, she'll go for a bowl of mutton. We need new customers to come every day to keep it going."
"I see."
Business was good today, with many people coming to try something new. It wasn't as crowded as it was yesterday. As the stall was about to close, two women came running over, each carrying a clay pot. Before they even reached the stall, they asked, "Shopkeeper Soup Noodles, do you have any more?"
Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "Also, auntie, would you like one?"
"I want three." Then he pointed to the woman next to him and said, "She wants three too."
Lin Chuntao collected money while Lin Chunxing started to scoop soup for them.
Yesterday, the neighbor's kids bought some, and after taking a bite, they started clamoring for more. They bought meat and noodles early in the morning and cooked it, but when it was ready, those kids refused to eat it and made a fuss, insisting that the taste was different. They rolled around in the yard, as if they just couldn't bear to buy a bowl for the kids.
Aren’t they all cooked with sauce and minced meat? They also bought the sauce, so what’s the difference?
The two of them stood in front of the stall, watching Lin Chunxing scoop up the soup, put the noodles and vegetables directly in, and finally scooped a spoonful of fried meat filling in. The aroma was overwhelming. Why did it feel like the taste of the sauce was different?
"Boss, did you buy this sauce from the sauce shop over there?"
She asked, but she felt a little embarrassed after asking, as if she was asking about someone's secret recipe. Lin Chuntao looked at her and smiled: "No, we made this sauce ourselves."
"You made it yourself?"
The woman was a little skeptical. She thought that if she could make a sauce with a special flavor, why would she sell this powder? She wouldn't make any money at all.
Seeing her disbelief, Lin Chuntao remained silent. The woman said, "Shopkeeper, why don't you sell some sauces as well? A small jar of sauce costs a lot of money."
Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "Aunt, we haven't thought about it before. The sauce shop is too big and we don't dare to go in. We don't know how much the sauce costs per pound or how to sell it. We only earn a few cents from this powder through hard work!"
The woman looked at them. They were still wearing straw sandals, and there were several young girls. She followed up on Lin Chuntao's words and said, "The sauce garden looks big, but everyone can go in and buy sauce. The shopkeeper is very polite. There are many kinds of sauce. Some are only a dozen cents, and the fragrant bean sauce is 22 cents per pound."
Lin Chuntao pretended to be surprised when she heard this, her eyes widening. "So expensive?"
The woman said, "Isn't it? That's why my lady, you might as well sell sauce instead of noodles."
Lin Chuntao nodded and said, "Aunt, since you said that, I have to think about it."
The woman continued, "That's right, boss, your sauce smells so good, it will definitely sell well."
The two pots cooked together, and soon six bowls of noodles were cooked and poured into their pots. After collecting the money, the two took the noodles away. After they walked away, Lin Chuntao could still faintly hear the two women say, "I want to see what kind of heavenly flavor this is. Why is it different? They said they made the sauce themselves, but I don't believe it. They must have bought it from the sauce factory, but they just won't tell us what kind they bought."
Lin Chunxing: “…”
Lin Chuntao couldn't help laughing when she heard what the woman said. She said that she was urging her to sell sauce because she thought she didn't have any sauce.
"Sis, are you really considering selling sauce?"
Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "Let's take a look first. Aren't we selling noodles? We must have confidence in our little noodle stall."
"Besides, the sauce is ours, we can sell it if we want."
After the two women left, there were not many noodles left. Lin Chunxing watched them sell. Lin Chuntao went out to buy vegetables. She had been buying from the same person for several days in a row. Lin Chuntao bargained for the price and it was a little cheaper than the previous two days. When she came back, Lin Chunxing and the others sold two more bowls, and today's noodles were sold out. They packed up the stall and took the things home together.
Only half of the meat bought yesterday was used. Today, Lin Chuntao bought another two pounds of bones. She told Helan about the bones, and Helan only charged her three cents per pound and took another five pounds of bones.
After returning home and counting the accounts today, they found that they had cut down a lot of costs on meat and tomatoes. They also slightly adjusted the amount of flour today, and the income was 875 coins. The cost was controlled at about 35%. Lin Chuntao took a deep breath. In this way, she could still earn some hard work fees, the money in her hands could be circulated, and she could also save some.
Lin Chunxing was very happy that she could continue to run the noodle stall.
During lunch, Lin Chunhe and Lin Chunxing said, "Second sister, I forgot to tell you. Yesterday, Sister Qingqing asked me where I was going, but I didn't tell her. I just said that you and your sister went to the county town."
Lin Chunxing nodded and looked at Lin Qingqing: "Sister, can I talk to Qingqing?"
Lin Chuntao said, "Whether you tell the truth or not is your business. We have been doing this for a long time, and the people in the village will definitely know about it."
Lin Chunxing nodded. After lunch, she stewed some bone soup and went to find Lin Qingqing to cut grass for the pigs.
After they went to the fields, Lin Chunxing told them about her plan to set up a stall in the county town. Lin Qingqing and Lin Jiaye both widened their eyes.
"Are you alone? What are you selling?"
Lin Chunxing shook her head. "My sister comes with me to sell noodle soup. I wouldn't dare to do it alone."
Lin Qingqing and the others looked at Lin Jiaye in surprise and could hardly believe it.
"Do you make a lot of money every day?" Lin Qingqing asked in excitement. After she realized what was happening, she smiled awkwardly, "Pfft, I'm too excited. Is business good every day?"
Lin Chunxing said, "We just went there yesterday, and today alone is only two days, so it doesn't count. We came back yesterday to settle the accounts, and my sister said we were going to lose money. We worked on it for a long time yesterday, so I didn't have time to tell you."
"Why should we lose money?" Lin Jiaye asked.
Lin Chunxing replied, "Because we have to buy meat and vegetable noodles, which are very expensive. If we make it and sell it without making any profit, we will lose money."
Lin Qingqing actually didn't understand, but nodded anyway. She was so shocked that she looked at Lin Chunxing with admiration.
"Chun Xing, you are amazing. You can actually do business now."
Lin Chunxing blushed a little after being praised, "I just follow my sister's instructions. She also makes the noodles we sell and taught me."
Lin Jiaye leaned against the ridge and said with a smile, "Sister Chuntao is amazing. Does she also pick mushrooms to sell?"
“Sometimes there is, sometimes there is nothing.”
After Lin Chuntao finished speaking, she said to them, "Don't tell anyone else yet. We don't know if this can be done."
The two nodded, "You will definitely make more money."
Lin Chunxing nodded slightly and said, "We just want to save money to build a house. We can't keep living in the old house of my great-grandmother. People will talk about it after a while."
Lin Qingqing said: "I'm sure we'll be able to save enough soon."
Lin Chunxing pursed her lips, a trace of difficulty on her face. Lin Jiaye raised his eyebrows slightly and asked, "What's the matter?"
Seeing the two's concerned eyes, Lin Chunxing said, "We are not in good health. Last time, my sister had a fever, and my brother-in-law carried her to the clinic. The doctor prescribed her some medicine, and she has been taking it ever since. A dose costs more than 30 wen. She also took me, the third and fourth children to the clinic, and the doctor said we had to take it too. The four of us spend 70 or 80 wen a day on the medicine..."
"Hiss~" Lin Qingqing exclaimed: "So many!"
Lin Chunxing nodded. "That's why we really want to do something to make money and save money, but saving money is still difficult."
Lin Qingqing patted her gently and said, "It's okay. Once you're better, you'll be able to save money soon. What's wrong with you?"
Lin Chunxing said, "The doctor said that we have internal damage and need to recuperate first, otherwise no matter how much good food we eat, it will be useless."
Thinking of their past days, Lin Qingqing and Lin Jiaye sighed at the same time.
After running this small stall for a few days, Lin Chunxing gradually became proficient. She could greet customers, collect money and cook noodles skillfully even when Lin Chuntao was not around. She also slowly learned to be like Lin Chuntao, with a friendly smile on her lips.
He often got up in the middle of the night, and after Lin Duoer went there for a few days, he couldn't get up anymore.
Lin Chunhe went with him twice, but she didn't go because she had to take care of her family.
Every day, Lin Chunxing goes to do the preparatory work first, and Lin Chuntao goes after picking mushrooms. It doesn’t take long to sell the mushrooms. After selling the mushrooms, she starts to work on the stall with Lin Chunxing.
In just a few days, Lin Ji Tangfen had become well-known to many people. Many of the customers who came later were familiar faces. They would even jokingly ask Lin Chuntao what kind of sauce this was and why they couldn't make the same taste when they bought sauce from the sauce factory.
Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "This is naturally my exclusive secret recipe. If you like to come often, I will cook it for you myself."
It’s okay for people to ask in front of these stalls, but some people end up asking in the sauce factory.
Most people think that eating mutton noodles is not something they can afford often because mutton is expensive, but ten or twelve cents for a bowl of noodles and a big bowl of soup is a good treat.
But the noodle soup made by Lin Chuntao and her friends only has pork as the filling, they just chop it up and stir-fry it, and they think they can make it too!
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