52 Trade Fair
◎I thought about cooperating with you, Shopkeeper Song◎
Song Jinyi got up early in the morning and started preparing breakfast. She washed two purple sweet potatoes, cut them into small pieces, and put them into the steamer together with the washed rice to cook.
When it is almost cooked, cut fresh snow pear into pieces and throw it in, add appropriate amount of rock sugar, and simmer over low heat for a quarter of an hour.
In the bedroom at the front, there was only one person left, lying on the bed and sleeping carelessly. Suddenly, her nose twitched slightly, like a puppy.
She seemed to smell a sweet scent, and she sat up half asleep, put on her slippers, and pushed the door open and walked out without even wearing a coat.
Xu Ruolan was fetching water outside. Seeing that her eyes were closed and she was wearing thin clothes, she hurried over, woke her up, and pulled her into the house.
Li He felt someone calling him. He opened his sleepy eyes slightly and saw the white fog outside at first sight. He shivered from the cold wind and immediately trotted back to the bedroom with Xu Ruolan.
He jumped onto the bed and wrapped the quilt tightly around himself.
Xu Ruolan found her coat and handed it to her, saying with a smile, "I thought you were awake, but I didn't expect you to walk out in your sleep?"
Li He scratched his head embarrassedly, and Chen said, "Sister Ruolan, please stop laughing at me. I seemed to smell a very fragrant smell in my dream, and I feel hungry.
Then I was searching for the smell, and I didn’t dream of going out. Who knew I would be outside when I woke up…” She stopped abruptly before she finished her words, and she smelled the smell in her dream again.
She sniffed and asked Xu Ruolan, "Sister Ruolan, it smells so good. What did you do?"
"It's your sister Jinyi who's trying to make sweet porridge. It smells like it's almost ready. Get up, clean up, and go over to eat."
The room couldn't accommodate four people and it was cold outside, so Song Jinyi and others moved the small wooden table for eating to the kitchen.
The fire had just been lit in the kitchen and the room was warm.
As soon as Li He arrived in the kitchen, she exclaimed, "What a nice smell!"
While eating, Xu Ruolan told Song Jinyi about Li He's dream of looking for food this morning.
Song Jinyi almost burst out laughing after hearing this. "If you like this porridge, drink more. And that, I'm afraid you'll get tired of it in the future."
Li He, this fool, wasn't very smart, but he was very good at talking. "How could that be? My sister's cooking is the best in the world. I'll never get tired of it."
Only Xie Wuyang asked curiously, "Don't you need to prepare ingredients for fruit tea this morning?"
Song Jinyi did not answer, but asked him to try the sweet porridge specially made today and asked him how the fruit sweet porridge tasted.
Purple sweet potatoes and rice are soft, glutinous and sweet, while warm pears moisten the intestines and warm the stomach, which is definitely not bad.
"Yesterday, I discussed it with your sister Ruolan. It's cold this winter, and fruit tea and drinks might not sell well, so I thought of making something warmer.
After much deliberation, we decided to change our main products to fruit porridge and health-preserving flower tea.
Sweet porridge and health tea aren't as popular as tea, but fortunately, Li He and I are both top-notch dim sum makers. If we add a few limited-edition pastries every day, they should sell well."
At this point, she gave Xie Wuyang a piece of cake and said, "Try this. This is the lotus seed and yam cake I made."
A few people were having breakfast when they suddenly heard a knock on the door.
Song Jinyi put down the spoon and looked at Xu Ruolan in confusion. Who would knock on the door at this time?
Xie Wuyang interrupted at an inopportune moment and said to Li He, "Maybe you were too loud and disturbed others."
Song Jinyi told him not to talk nonsense and went to open the door.
There were two men standing at the door. The leading man was wearing a gray robe, with slanted eyes and a kind face. The man behind him had thin cheeks, a pointed chin, big round eyes, and a face like a macaque.
"We two came from out of town and hadn't had breakfast. We saw the lights on in the shop and smelled the aroma, so we didn't wait for the shop to open and knocked on the door."
When Song Jinyi heard that the other party was a guest, she pushed the door open and welcomed the guest in, "It's just that we are a sweet soup shop, not a breakfast shop, but today happened to be trying to make sweet porridge.
We also have lotus seed and yam cakes. If you don't mind, you can have them here."
The two found a place to sit down.
Just then, Xu Ruolan lifted the curtain and walked over. Seeing the two of them here, she walked silently to Song Jinyi and asked her in a low voice, what do they do?
Song Jinyi simply said, "Come for dinner, Sister Ruolan, please go to the kitchen and serve two bowls of sweet porridge, and ask Li He to bring over a few pieces of the lotus seed and yam cake."
Song Jinyi took advantage of the break during lunch to chat with the two early guests and learned that the kind-looking man was named Peng Ziyue, and that the two of them were merchants from other places.
Peng Ziyue saw the purple porridge in front of him with a hint of surprise in his eyes. He stirred the hot porridge with a white porcelain spoon, and the hot steam was accompanied by bursts of sweetness.
He asked, "What is this?"
"Purple sweet potato and pear soup."
"Purple sweet potato and pear? What a wonderful combination." In the spoon, he could see the pear dyed dark purple, and the purple sweet potato turned into a bit of soft residue. He raised the spoon but hesitated to take a bite. Is this edible?
Song Jinyi was sitting at the table in front of his door. Seeing his expression, she guessed that he thought the purple sticky mass was some kind of dark food, so he didn't dare to eat it.
Song Jinyi didn't directly urge him to try it, but instead, noticing the strange tone of his voice, she asked, "Judging from your accent, you're not from Yunzhou, are you?"
"We are from Huizhou,"
"Huizhou?"
Seeing Song Jinyi's interest, Peng Ziyue casually asked, "Has Madam Song been there?"
Song Jinyi shook her head and said with a smile, "I haven't been there, but I just remembered a friend of mine who is much older than me. His name is Mr. Feng. His full name is Feng Quan. He is a famous person in our Yunzhou and an expert on gourmet food."
"What a coincidence, we also know this old friend of yours." After saying this, Peng Ziyue turned to look at his friend, who nodded.
Peng Ziyue thought to himself, "Since you know Mr. Feng and he's a cook, I guess he comes to eat here often." He thought so, and felt that Mr. Feng's vision was not wrong.
I took a bite without hesitation. Although it looked average, the taste was really good. The rice grains could be tasted as they had been cooked for a long time and had become tiny millet flowers with a very strong rice aroma.
He raised his eyebrows, chewed the food carefully, and couldn't help sighing: What a good life this Old Feng has. He had never tasted such sweet porridge before.
I tried it today and it is indeed interesting. It has more fresh flavors of fruits and vegetables than ordinary porridge, and the taste is richer.
Seeing that his friend hadn't touched his chopsticks for a long time, he nudged him with his elbow and whispered, "Try it now, it tastes really good."
After my friend tasted it and found it delicious, I immediately told him that this was the place to have breakfast during his stay in Yunzhou.
Peng Ziyue did not agree immediately. Instead, he turned to look at Song Jinyi and asked, "Madam Song, have you heard that Yunzhou will hold a trade fair in the next few days?"
In the past two days, Yunzhou City has been full of merchants from other places, and many of them have visited her shop. Naturally, Song Jinyi has heard of it.
This trade fair was specially organized by the newly appointed prefect. As the year was coming to an end, he found a spacious street market and rented it to merchants from other places.
Introducing foreign specialties can not only satisfy people's needs for New Year shopping, but also stimulate consumption and attract foreign merchants and tourists to Yunzhou, which is a good thing that kills three birds with one stone.
This trade fair will probably last about a week.
"We two came to Yunzhou to attend the trade fair. We tried Madam Song's sweet porridge and just now heard that she wanted to change the fruit tea in the store to winter health tea.
I have an idea, but I don’t know whether I should say it or not.”
Song Jinyi told him to just say it.
"We are herbal medicine merchants from Huizhou. We came to Yunzhou to sell medicinal herbs. In addition to wild ginseng and musk, we also bought some common herbs. Shopkeeper Song makes health tea, so tangerine peel and red dates are indispensable. So I thought of cooperating with you."
After hearing this, Song Jinyi was also very interested and asked Peng Ziyue to explain in detail.
"I've already rented that stall. I want to give a piece of land to Boss Song. Boss Song can use my herbs to make health tea and some health cakes. Then I can sell my herbs to Boss Song at a 30% discount. How do you say that?"
There are a wide variety of goods at the fair, including dazzling treasures, delicious food, and glittering silks. The bare, black medicinal herbs are indeed inconspicuous.
But if there are ready-made delicacies nearby, the effect will be extraordinary. It can be regarded as a disguised advertisement for them. But the advantage is that they provide the venue for free and can also provide cheap goods, which is a hundred benefits for her.
Song Jinyi thought it was a good idea and after discussing it with Xu Ruolan, she decided to close the shop for five days and go to the trade fair to "see" the world.
******
The fair begins at Chenshi.
Song Jinyi and his group had to get up two hours earlier and prepare their things.
The winter is so cold that you have to pull it back immediately even if you put half of your foot out of the quilt, let alone leave the house.
Li He felt heavy sleep, and whenever she got up, Xu Ruolan had to urge her repeatedly. However, she didn't understand the saying that the days were short and the nights were long in winter, so she complained in dissatisfaction: "You're up before daybreak."
I washed my face with cold water in the bucket. I shivered from the cold and all sleepiness disappeared.
Li He has difficulty getting up in the morning, but he does his work without hesitation and helps Song Jinyi make Poria cocos cake and hawthorn cake.
After the four of them had a simple breakfast, they began to put the boiled tea into a wooden barrel with a lid. Two of them worked together to load the barrel onto the cart and wrapped it with hemp rope.
The temperature outside was low, and this health-preserving tea needed to be drunk warm, so I didn't dare to delay any longer. Without even catching my breath, I continued to fill a tea bucket. After fixing the tea bucket, I wrapped it with an old quilt to keep it warm.
Two people pushed the cart, and two people held food boxes containing pastries.
The four of them went out at daybreak. The air was filled with the cold breath of winter, and the white breath they exhaled was like cotton balls, floating up in clumps.
After walking for a quarter of an hour, we arrived at the market on the west side of the city. The sun rose in the west, dispersing the morning mist. The early risers felt a long-lost warmth.
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