11. To get rich, build roads first.
◎The shop is offering free burger samples◎
After a long day of farm work, it was already late. Jingming, Qingxi, and Shuyu collapsed onto the bed and soon fell fast asleep. This bedroom was much larger than the one next door, and the large communal bed was spacious enough for the three of them to sleep comfortably.
Yan Yunzhao thoughtfully tucked the blankets around them, then closed the door and went back to his own room.
This is the room that Yan Yunzhao used to live in. Although it is not big, it is decorated very warmly. There is a small window on one side of the roof where you can lie down and watch the stars and listen to the rain.
Lou Su had spread a thick quilt on the floor and was lying diagonally on it, lost in thought. When he saw Yan Yunzhao push open the door and enter, he merely smiled faintly.
He took off his outer robe, revealing only an ivory-white thin inner garment underneath. He was somewhat thin, yet his figure appeared slender. A thin belt was loosely tied around his waist, revealing his narrow waist completely.
Yan Yunzhao abruptly looked away from him, her heart pounding wildly, and went behind the screen to change her clothes. She didn't have the habit of sleeping naked, so she lay down in bed fully clothed in her undergarments.
"Sweet dreams." Lou Su turned over and pulled the covers over himself.
"You too." Yan Yunzhao lay on her side, closing her eyes tightly to stop herself from overthinking.
But for some reason, as soon as I closed my eyes, the outline of Lou Su's narrow waist, which was faintly visible, came into my mind.
He does indeed look very good in light-colored clothes, especially soft fabrics like silk and satin, which accentuate his figure...
Pah! Pah! Pah! Yan Yunzhao, what are you thinking?!
Frustrated, she pulled the blanket tighter around herself, buried her face in it, and silently counted the lambs.
Perhaps because there was another man in the room, Yan Yunzhao felt uneasy. He finally fell into a deep sleep after counting the five hundredth sheep.
On the other side, Lou Su, who had been asleep, was awakened by her incessant chatter. After hearing her rambling, he couldn't help but smile.
Since she likes it, let's do it every day.
...
A gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the trees outside.
She dreamed again of the day she had the car accident in her past life.
The blinding headlights suddenly shone on her, momentarily blinding her. In that instant, she was standing in the middle of the road when she was hit and thrown into the air by an out-of-control car coming from behind.
The dim streetlights cast overlapping and scattered shadows. She lay on the asphalt, her body numb as if she had lost all feeling, only the clear sensation of the sticky, warm liquid beneath her could be felt...
Yan Yunzhao woke up from a nightmare with a start, sitting up abruptly with beads of sweat on his forehead and cold sweat soaking his back.
A deafening clap of thunder came from outside the window, and a bolt of lightning struck, illuminating the entire sky as bright as day.
Oh no, potatoes!
Yan Yunzhao threw off the blanket, disregarding everything else, and hurriedly ran to the edge of the field in the pouring rain.
The potato tubers I just cut today are stuck in the mud. If left unattended, they'll probably rot by tomorrow morning. Luckily, there's a small talisman covering them, which prevents water from seeping in, so the potato tubers can still be saved.
Ignoring the mud that had dirtied her hands, she stood in the ground, scooping things up from the side in twos and threes. Suddenly, a pair of slender, fair hands appeared beside her.
Lou Su came out wearing only an outer robe. The light-colored clothes were wet from the rain and clung to his body, with mud splattered on the hem.
"Why did you come out—you've just recovered, you should have gone inside and stayed in bed—"
The wind howled, and large raindrops pounded on the ground. Yan Yunzhao shouted loudly at Lou Su in the wind.
"I'm fine—I'll help you first—"
A few words from Lou Su, carried by the strong wind, reached Yan Yunzhao's ears. She could only nod vigorously, raise her sleeve to wipe her rain-soaked face, and try her best not to let the heavy rain blur her vision.
Finally, the potato chunks were picked out intact. Yan Yunzhao and Lou Su braved the wind and rain to return to the small shop, closed the door, and completely shut out the thunder and lightning outside.
The two people stared at each other in the small shop, with only the sound of water dripping from their clothes.
Lou Su was soaked to the bone, his hair hanging wetly over his shoulders. The two of them wrung out their clothes like rags, but it was no use.
Yan Yunzhao smiled apologetically at him and suggested, "If we ignore it now, we might catch a cold. Why don't we take a hot bath?"
"You go first."
Lou Su smiled gently, turned his back and stood aside, taking off his heavy, wet outer robe.
Yan Yunzhao didn't stand on ceremony and went upstairs for a refreshing bath.
Thinking back to when the shop was first built, there wasn't even a bathtub; people had to wash in the river. After bathing and changing, she went downstairs and called Lou Su.
Downstairs, only a few candles flickered, but on the table were two bowls of steaming soup.
Lou Su changed into dry clothes, pulled out a chair for her to sit down, and said with a smile, "I made ginger soup using your recipe."
The candlelight cast their shadows on the window paper, and as Yan Yunzhao listened to the howling wind outside, he felt a sense of peace, as if the inside and outside were two different worlds.
"Thank you. It tastes just right."
Yan Yunzhao picked up the hot soup and drank it all, feeling much better afterward.
"However, I am a little curious. Miss Yun Zhao looks quite young and has no relatives by her side. When did she learn those recipes? It doesn't seem like she did it overnight."
Lou Su sat silently on the opposite side, watching her, his eyes gleaming in the candlelight.
Yan Yunzhao choked for a moment, then casually touched his face: "Really? Actually, I'm not young anymore, maybe even older than Young Master Lou. I've loved reading cookbooks since I was little, and I often watched my mother cook when I was a child, so I naturally learned how to cook them."
"To make something taste this good, your mother's cooking skills must be even better. But... why aren't they with you?"
But as the words were about to come out, Yan Yunzhao felt that saying his entire family had passed away would be even more suspicious and unlucky, so he made up a story: "They run a restaurant elsewhere. I'm just starting out in the business and preparing to go it alone."
Lou Su nodded knowingly and said earnestly, "Then I must try it. I can also learn from their experience and their business strategies."
Yan Yunzhao panicked slightly and hurriedly said, "They are very busy, and the journey is long, and..."
I can't come up with anything else.
Lou Su seemed to understand her well-being and said, "The wild venison from Cui Liang Mountain is excellent. I've wanted to visit you and your parents for a while now. Miss Yun Zhao must be missing you very much since you've been away from home for so long. It would be perfect to accompany the three young ladies back to visit you."
Having said that, Yan Yunzhao had no choice but to accept the situation and not risk suspicion. He could only take it one step at a time and say, "Very well, very well. Let's pick a day and go together."
The matter was thus dropped, and Yan Yunzhao decided that if he ever brought it up again in the future, he would find a group of actors to act it out.
Lou Su meant to tease her, but seeing her hurried attempt to cover it up, he found it amusing. He drank a few sips of ginger soup before he could barely suppress the upturned corners of his mouth.
After drinking the ginger soup, Lou Su took a bath and returned to his room, where he changed his clothes behind the screen. He hung his wet clothes on the rack and then realized he hadn't brought any dry clothes with him.
"Miss Yun Zhao...could you please bring me a set of clean clothes?"
Yan Yunzhao paused for a moment, then gave a soft "hmm" from behind the screen. After searching for a while, he finally found a coarse cloth shirt in a newly moved box in the corner of the room.
This was the outfit Lou Su was wearing the day she found him. The material wasn't good, the tailoring wasn't fine, and it was somewhat deformed, perhaps because it had been washed too many times.
She stretched out only one arm and handed the clothes to the person behind the screen, but Lou Su did not react for a long time.
Yan Yunzhao adjusted the direction of her outstretched arm in confusion, when she suddenly touched a warm, delicate skin. Realizing what she had touched, her face flushed crimson, and her ears burned hot.
Lou Su's back trembled slightly, and he quickly pulled his clothes away to avoid contact.
Yan Yunzhao's mind went blank for a moment, feeling a sense of guilt, as if an old lady had taken advantage of a young man. In the small space, the two of them were constantly running into each other, and she even thought about taking advantage of Lou Su not finishing changing his clothes to open the door and escape.
Unfortunately, before he could even take a step, Lou Su had already emerged from behind the screen. The dim orange candlelight inside the room illuminated his face, making it somewhat dim and obscuring his complexion.
Yan Yunzhao breathed a sigh of relief. Bathed in this orange light, Lou Su probably wouldn't be able to see the embarrassed blush on her face...
She didn't know where to look, so she glanced around awkwardly. Seeing that Lou Su acted as if nothing was wrong and simply pulled back the covers and lay down, Yan Yunzhao also pretended to be calm and lay down on the bed.
But I wonder if it's just my imagination, Lou Su's nightgown seems a bit tight today? I didn't expect that despite his slender appearance, his thin muscles were faintly visible under the thin clothes.
Yan Yunzhao's mind wandered, and the image of his impressive physique uncontrollably surfaced in her mind. Her cheeks flushed, even though she always prided herself on being indifferent to emotions.
She thought to herself: Should I apologize? Saying "I'm sorry, I accidentally touched your back" would be too awkward! Pretending not to know would make it seem like I deliberately tried to take advantage of you...
After waiting for a while, Lou Su fell asleep quietly and didn't say anything more to her. She felt a little relieved and decided not to bring it up again. They both tacitly forgot about the little incident just now, and soon fell into a deep sleep.
As the rain intensified in the latter half of the night, Yan Yunzhao, though asleep, frowned, disturbed by the sound of the rain.
The woman before him had her delicate eyebrows slightly furrowed, her long eyelashes trembling slightly, and her red lips pursed. Compared to her usual lively and cheerful demeanor, her restless sleeping face now stunned Lou Su.
He casually cast a spell to block out the sound of the rain outside, and the sound of the rain suddenly became quieter. He watched as her furrowed brows relaxed, and then he tucked the corner of the blanket that had slipped down to her waist.
Unable to resist, Lou Su raised his hand and gently stroked her eyebrows and eyes, feeling her delicate and warm skin touching his fingertips. He even felt a little greedy for this feeling.
The person he had been searching for for four hundred years was right in front of him, yet he had no idea how to get along with her, fearing that his clumsiness would annoy her.
"Lou Su, you put too much soy sauce in..."
Yan Yunzhao murmured as he turned over. Lou Su paused for a moment upon hearing his name, then smiled and withdrew his hand that had been hanging in mid-air.
"I'll be more careful next time."
A very soft response was drowned out by the patter of rain and went unheard by her.
...
Early in the morning, the shop removed the "Closed for the next few days" sign and put up a sign announcing the launch of a new dish, "hamburgers." The five people divided the work clearly and got to work.
With the help of Jingming, Qingxi, and Shuyu, Yan Yunzhao was able to relax and focus on studying recipes in the kitchen. Lou Su only needed to pick fresh mushrooms and wild vegetables on the mountain every day and occasionally go fishing and shrimp catching in the river.
Meanwhile, the three little grass fairies learned to sweep, mop, and wipe tables, and in their spare time, they helped Yan Yunzhao wash and chop vegetables, which greatly improved the efficiency of the small shop.
These past few days, Yan Yunzhao has been making tomato sauce, adding countless amounts of white sugar, and finally it doesn't taste sour. Although it's not as delicious as industrially produced tomato sauce, it has a truly fresh flavor.
The meat patties are marinated and then grilled until they sizzle and drip with oil. They are served with fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and shiitake mushrooms, topped with a layer of tomato sauce, and then covered with a slice of bread sprinkled with sesame seeds.
"Boss Yan, as usual, I'll have two bowls of chicken and mushroom noodle soup, with extra broth!"
As bowls of noodles were served, Yan Yunzhao was somewhat troubled. Most of the customers at the small shop preferred her noodles. Perhaps because the shop was small, customers often came alone, and rarely ordered elaborate dishes such as sweet and sour pork ribs, braised pork, or hot and sour pork tenderloin.
But Yan Yunzhao's original intention in making food was to let more people taste unique dishes. Their refusal to order, however, left him in a dilemma. Selling noodles for twenty coins a day, how could he possibly support a family of five?
"Boss Yan, what is this... hamburger?" A customer turned to Yan Yunzhao, who was in a daze, and asked.
Coming to her senses, she enthusiastically introduced, "This burger is a new dish at our shop, a unique way of eating that combines vegetables, meat, and noodles. Would you like to try one?"
The diner stroked his beard and hesitated for a while: "This doesn't sound like something I'm interested in. It's a bit strange, so I'll pass. I'll just have a bowl of scallion noodles instead."
Upon hearing this, an idea suddenly flashed into her mind: we could offer free samples!
Sure enough, when Yan Yunzhao pushed the wooden frame with the "Free Samples" sign to the store entrance, a long line of diners came to watch.
"Don't rush, everyone gets a share! There are plenty of hamburgers to go." Jingming, Qingxi, and Shuyu called out cheerfully, and the customers, seeing the three beautiful young women who had recently joined the shop, all crowded around to take a look.
The fried chicken burgers and honey-glazed beef burgers were launched, and the samples for tasting were quickly eaten up. The number of diners who came to watch grew from just a few in the morning to a long line of hundreds in the evening.
Word is spreading: Cui Liang Wild Game has launched a new dish that you can eat for free!
Regardless of the taste, the townspeople were determined to try this free food. In all their decades of life, they had never heard of any restaurant in Lixi Town that offered free samples of new recipes! After tasting it, they were delighted: it was so delicious!
Even as night fell, diners continued to arrive for tastings, leaving Yan Yunzhao feeling helpless; it seemed all the wild pheasants on the mountain were about to be eaten up.
When the tasting ended, the diners in line would complain, "I climbed all the way here," "I'm starving," "You're dishonest in business," and so on.
Lou Su strolled over from a distance, carrying four chickens in his hands. Yan Yunzhao cleared his throat and stood at the shop entrance, announcing loudly, "Today's tasting is officially over. Our shop really has no ingredients left. If you all like hamburgers, please come back to our shop tomorrow to order!"
A mournful sound came from behind. Yan Yunzhao smiled apologetically, then pulled Lou Su and the four pheasants that were flapping in his hands over and closed the shop door.
After a busy day, the five of them finally collapsed into their chairs, getting a moment of respite.
"Gentlemen," Yan Yunzhao announced weakly, "I have some insights today, and I think our shop needs to hold a staff meeting regularly."
The four looked at her with confusion and bewilderment.
Although the shop was famous in Lixi Town, only about twenty or thirty people were willing to travel over the mountains to taste it. Most of them were young people who liked to try new things and hunters who passed by while hunting in the mountains. The source of customers was very monotonous, and the dishes they liked to order were also very monotonous - just noodles.
“A bowl of noodles costs only thirty coins, so selling noodles all day long will definitely not make money. But if the price is raised, the shop is in a remote location, and no customers will be willing to come.” Yan Yunzhao paused.
"To increase customer traffic, expanding the store or opening branches is essential, but we don't have enough funds right now, so we have to put it on hold for now. But I have a plan that can break this deadlock!"
Jingming, Qingxi, and Shuyu's dejected expressions vanished, and they looked at her expectantly.
"To get rich, build roads first!"
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