Xu Qinyu then followed her fourth brother back to the house. There was Ning Jie'er's room between her and her fourth brother's. She did not notice anything unusual about her fourth brother and went straight back to the house, not noticing that her fourth brother turned around and glanced at her when he reached the door.

After going to bed at night, Xu Qinyu fell asleep quickly as usual.

Pei Weixuan did not sleep all night.

He got up early the next day, with no sign of abnormality on his face, and drove the donkey cart to take Yu Niang to the restaurant.

Yu Niang asked him to go to the restaurant for breakfast later.

While making breakfast, Xu Qinyu soaked the dried snails, intending to use the snail meat to make snacks for her fourth brother to take away.

Cooking breakfast is not so tiring for her now, as she has the help of her big girl Cheng Ge'er.

The girl is very talented in making pastries. Xu Qinyu not only taught her how to make pastries, but also some sweets and desserts. She learned very quickly.

Now most of the noodles in the morning are made by my big girl.

When summer comes, Xu Qinyu will give Da Niu a separate stove and table, and let her make desserts. Some new desserts will be added to the restaurant.

While the breakfast was being steamed, Xu Qinyu fried the soaked snail meat until dry, and then added the seasoning she prepared, and the fragrant and spicy dried snail meat was ready. She fried the dried snail meat drier, so it was chewier and could be eaten longer.

During breakfast, Pei Weixuan planned to leave.

When he went out, his bag contained only two sets of clothes for changing, nothing else.

After having breakfast in the backyard, Yu Niang stuffed him a big bag of oil paper. The bag was bulging and it was obvious that it was full of things. Before he opened the oil paper, he could smell the tempting fragrance inside, but Pei Weixuan didn't feel anything. He just looked at Yu Niang again.

Yu Niang smiled and reminded, "Fourth brother, have a safe journey."

"Yeah." Pei Weixuan responded, turned and left.

Watching her fourth brother's tall figure leaving the backyard, Xu Qinyu felt a little lost for some reason.

…

As soon as Pei Weixuan left, the house became deserted.

In fact, my fourth brother doesn’t talk much when he is at home.

Xu Qinyu felt that she was a little reluctant to leave her fourth brother. She comforted herself that she regarded her fourth brother as a family member. Her fourth brother had to go out to work for a living. Although the family was no longer short of money, her fourth brother, as a grown man, could not always help her with the work of making fire and chopping wood. A man should have ambitions and should go out and have fun.

It is the normal mentality of a family member to be reluctant to let go. Look at Wen Ning's sisters, they are all the same, they are reluctant to let go of their fourth brother.

Pei Weixuan went to the bamboo forest outside the city, where Huo Yedatou and Chen He were already waiting.

The three of them were eating, and they remembered to pack their breakfast.

Pei Weixuan didn't plan to share these snacks with the three people. He only gave them to Chen He and told him, "Share them with the children on the island."

If they hurry, they can get back to the island in one day, so the dried snail meat will be fine for a few days.

There are many children on the island, all of whom are relatives of Chen Yi's group of pirates.

The island is quite big. Even for the families of the pirates and several hundred black-armored guards, it is very spacious, with at least tens of thousands of acres of land. However, these lands are uncultivated and need to be reclaimed before crops can be grown. Over the past year or so, the residents of the island have been reclaiming land one after another. Now there are a large number of crops that need them to plant, and they are busy reclaiming land day and night. Hundreds of black-armored guards also stay on the island to reclaim land and grow crops.

Pei Weixuan did not plan to bring too many people with him on this trip. He only wanted to select a dozen black-armored guards with strong martial arts to follow him.

After selling these colored glasses this time, he will set up a workshop on the island to specialize in making colored glasses.

The fired colored glaze will continue to be sold to wealthy provincial capitals in the future, so Pei Weixuan plans to set up a caravan.

Neither he nor Huo Ye could come forward to be the owner of the caravan, so the owner of the caravan was officially Chen Yi.

After returning from this trip, Chen Yi already knew his identity, but the others did not. Needless to say, the black-armored guards were all loyal enough and knew his identity.

In addition, Chen He should have noticed something. He was the military advisor of these pirates and was smart. The caravan's daily accounts were managed by him.

The group rode at full speed and finally returned to the island after a day and a night.

There were many children on the island, and Pei Weixuan asked the black-armored guards who could read and write to teach these children how to read and write, and also teach them martial arts.

Teach both boys and girls.

Pei Weixuan asked Chen He to distribute the dried snail meat to the children on the island.

The children really liked the dried snail meat. They ate until their heads were sweating. They couldn’t bear to put it down even though it was so spicy that they kept gasping for air. They chased after Chen He and Datou and asked, “Brother Chen He, Brother Datou, what is this? It’s delicious. It’s spicy, but it smells so good.”

Chen He smiled and said, "It's delicious, isn't it? It's made by your brother Pei's wife. Do you want to eat it again in the future?"

The children said in unison, "We want to eat."

"Then you should study hard. When we leave the island, I will take you to eat. Your brother Pei's wife can not only make this, but also many other delicious dishes, such as custard buns, crystal shrimp dumplings, meat buns, and all kinds of breakfast stir-fried dishes. Each one tastes better than the dried snail meat you are eating now."

These children used to be wild, and now they can't sit still to study when they are forced to do so.

The children drooled as they heard this.

They couldn't help but look at Pei Weixuan and felt that Brother Pei was very cold, like an ice sculpture. Was the wife he married also like a piece of wood?

…

Xu Qinyu didn't know that her impression in the eyes of the children had also turned into a block of ice and a piece of wood.

Half a month after Pei Weixuan left, the grapes in the mountains gradually matured, and Madam Lu and Zhen Wu came to Yuanbao Town again to start the winery.

There are not many ripe grapes on the mountain now, so the winery did not hire many people to pick wild grapes on the mountain.

It only takes a few people to pick them.

Xu Feng handed the job over to Tao Qi and the other two.

The three of them were very skillful and could pick hundreds of kilograms of wild grapes from the mountain every day, almost picking all the ripe grapes on the mountain.

They were busy picking the grapes, so someone else would definitely be needed to wash and dry them.

The people who washed and dried the grapes were Mrs. Lu's people.

They are the women in the caravan who come to the winery specifically to work. They are paid 500 coins a month, with food and lodging provided. They live in the big shop in the winery, and their meals are prepared by a special chef. In the future, these women will not be enough, so Mrs. Lu plans to find some capable women from nearby villages to help.

But for now, only Tao Qi and the women of these caravans are enough.

After all, it takes a month for the wild grapes on the mountain to mature in large quantities.

After washing and drying the grapes, Xu Qinyu would go to Dagu Village during the lunch break to check the dried grapes, and then distribute the grapes and rock sugar in a proper ratio, and have someone spread the grapes and rock sugar in the wine jar.

The women in Mrs. Lu's caravan worked very carefully, and there was not a single bad grape.

Because even one bad grape will affect the taste of the wine.

Mrs. Lu had already prepared everything, including a large amount of rock sugar.

Xu Qinyu didn't need to worry about decorating the altar; she only needed to take care of the ratio of grapes to rock sugar.

Then just wait for it to ferment.

Xu Qinyu comes to the winery every day. She can tell the fermentation status of the wine in the wine vat by just taking a sniff. Once the first fermentation is finished, the wine can be bottled for the second fermentation.

Mrs. Lu was afraid that Xu Ji's business would be delayed, so she equipped Xu Qinyu with a horse-drawn carriage and asked Cheng Ge'er or Feng Ge'er to drive the carriage to pick up Xu Qinyu every day. After all, a horse-drawn carriage is more than twice as fast as a donkey cart.

Xu Qinyu was busy with matters at the restaurant and the winery.

Sister Ning was also busy looking for a shop.

A few days ago, before the winery started brewing, Xu Qinyu talked to Ning Jie'er and said, "Ning Jie'er, your bags are getting better and better. Have you ever thought about setting up a small workshop and hiring some women who are good at needlework and embroidery to make them? You can draw the pattern and make a limited number of ten bags each. The cost can also be increased. After they are finished, they can not only be sold in Yuanbao Town, but also sent to other states by Mrs. Lu's caravan."

Unexpectedly, Ning Jie'er said excitedly, "Fourth sister-in-law, to be honest, I was thinking of discussing with you a few days ago about opening a shop to make buns. I even asked Madam Lu before, and she also thought it was okay. She also said that if I could open a small workshop, the buns I made could be sent to other states for sale in the future."

Mrs. Lu felt that Sister Ning's workshop could not be opened too large in the beginning. The number of bags produced in a month must be limited. On weekdays, the caravans would go to other state capitals, and Mrs. Lu would help to sell them for free, which would not take much time and manpower.

Besides, the winery she and Xu Qinyu were partners in would surely grow bigger and bigger in the future, so it could be considered as a favor to Xu Qinyu.

Ning Jie'er didn't expect that her fourth sister-in-law had the same idea.

The fourth sister-in-law really cared about her and kept her affairs in mind.

Ning Jieer added, "I definitely can't manage the workshop by myself, so I can ask Tao Jieer to come over and help me be the manager."

Tao Jie'er is Wen Pingtao from the third branch of the Wen family. She is the biological sister of Cheng Ge'er and Gong Ge'er, and is two years older than Ning Jie'er.

Before, Tao Jie'er helped Ning Jie'er make dumplings every day. She inherited the personality of Meng from the third room. She looked gentle on the surface, but she was actually stubborn in her bones. She was kind to her family members and would not let others bully her.

Xu Qinyu said, "It's good to have Sister Tao to help you. Do you want your sister-in-law to help you with the shop?"

Ning Jie'er shook her head, "No, you can do your thing, Fourth Sister-in-law. Don't worry about the other Fourth Sister-in-laws. Tao Jie'er and I can find them ourselves. Tao Jie'er also wants to do it with me."

As for the shop's affairs, she only wanted to handle them with Tao Jie'er, which could be considered as a training exercise for both of them.

Tao Jie'er has also saved some money over the past year, and they plan to invest it together, but she will take the larger share, so it's fine for Tao Jie'er to get 10% of the profit.

The two of them have already discussed it.

Tao Jie'er usually helped her a lot. She once met a picky buyer who bought a bag from her. After using it for a few months, he didn't take good care of it and washed it until it was in tatters. He then came to her to complain and asked her to return the money.

Her handmade bag, like the delicate satin embroidered clothes she usually wears, needs to be washed and cared for. She needs to be washed gently with good soap. After washing, she needs to stuff something inside and put it in a ventilated place to dry, otherwise the strong sunlight will easily damage the material.

Tao Jie'er was usually gentle and kind. When the girl came to cause trouble, Tao Jie'er scolded her and asked her whether she had washed and cared for the clothes according to the methods they told her. She also said that even the silk clothes she was wearing had to be washed gently on a daily basis. She wanted to return the clothes after using them for a few months, but she was dreaming of a long time. If she was not allowed to return the clothes, the girl could only leave in disgrace.

And with Tao Jie Er with her, she could let Tao Jie Er do the accounting and take care of the customers on a daily basis, while she only had to concentrate on painting her own patterns in the back.

Xu Qinyu was worried that her sister-in-law did not have enough money with the more than one hundred taels of silver, so she took out another five hundred taels of silver notes and gave them to her sister-in-law, saying that she needed money to rent a shop, purchase high-quality fabrics such as satin and gauze, and hire an embroiderer, so she asked her to take the five hundred taels first to avoid having enough.

Ning Jie'er had no choice but to accept it, planning to return it to her fourth sister-in-law when she made money in the future.

So Sister Ning and Sister Tao have been busy looking for a shop these days.

They wanted to find a shop on South Street, which was closer to Xu's. They could close the shop and go home with their fourth sister-in-law on weekdays. If Xu Ji needed any help, she could go over quickly to help.

Moreover, Ning Jie'er is not worried that her bags will not sell well. Just like Fourth Sister-in-law's Xu Ji, good wine needs no bush. If the bags are well made, girls are willing to come to the store to choose them no matter where the store is.

After searching for a few days, I found a shop with two doors, as well as a backyard utility room, a kitchen, and a woodshed.

It used to be a rice shop. The owner wanted to move to a bigger shop, so he planned to rent out the shop on South Street for 40 taels of silver a year.

The rent is reasonable, but the shop was used to sell food, so it is a bit shabby and not suitable for a workshop selling bags. It needs to be redecorated and renovated after renting.

Ning Jie'er rented the shop without hesitation.

After that, he started to busy himself with the pavement repairs and would come over with Tao Jie'er to keep an eye on things all day.

The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and the hawthorns in the mountains are ripe.

Sometimes when Tao Qi and his friends saw hawthorns, they would pick a lot of them and send some to Xu's. For the rest, they would ask the workers at the winery to wipe the surface of the hawthorns, slice them and dry them in the sun to make dried hawthorns.

This is also what Xu Qinyu wanted.

Last year, Xu Qinyu had no one on her hands, so Feng Ge'er and his friends were busy with grapes and had no time to take care of hawthorns.

This year there are enough people, so Cheng Ge'er and his friends don't need to go to the mountains to pick grapes. So Xu Qinyu asked Tao Qi and his friends to pick up some hawthorns whenever they see them in the mountains. She will need them.

Not many people pick hawthorns, which are the raw materials for making candied haws. Usually, not many people pick them.

Hawthorn can be used to make hawthorn drink, which can lower blood lipids. In the summer, drinking a bowl of sour and sweet hawthorn drink can both stimulate the appetite and lower blood lipids.

Although hawthorn drink has the same sweet and sour taste as plum soup, the taste is completely different.

Some people prefer the taste of black plum, while others prefer the taste of hawthorn.

In addition to hawthorn drinks, there are many other things that can be made with hawthorn.

It can also be used to make hawthorn cake, frosted hawthorn, hawthorn jam, canned hawthorn, stir-fried red fruits, and it can even be used instead of tomatoes to stew beef, or it can be stewed with radishes to make bone soup. There are many ways to cook it.

Xu Qinyu plans to use hawthorn to make hawthorn drink.

Hawthorn drink is made by boiling fresh hawthorn with rock sugar and tea leaves.

Boil hawthorn into juice, remove the residue and tea leaves, add rock sugar and simmer over low heat until dissolved and then turn off the heat.

The proportion of tea should be less.

The hawthorn drink she made was bright red in color, with the right balance of sourness and sweetness. It also contained finely chopped hawthorn pulp. It was chilled in well water overnight and was just drinkable the next day.

In addition to the hawthorn drink, she also planned to add a hawthorn, radish and pork bone soup, and another dish of stir-fried red fruits.

Fried red fruits are also a famous snack.

Although it is called fried red fruit, it is not fried. Wash the hawthorns, remove the core, pour in hawthorn rock sugar and water and boil over high heat. Stir the hawthorns properly during the cooking process to prevent them from sticking to the pot. It is not easy to boil the hawthorns until they are soft and glutinous, and thick and juicy. You have to add the right amount of water and rock sugar at one time. Otherwise, if you find that it is not cooked through or there is not enough sugar, adding water and sugar later will affect the taste.

The stir-fried red fruit has a rich taste, and the syrup has penetrated into the red and soft hawthorn flesh. It is juicy, soft, sour and sweet, and especially appetizing.

Once hawthorn drink and this stir-fried red fruit dish came out, they became must-order drinks and desserts for every diner at dinner time.

However, fewer people order sour plum soup, mainly because restaurant customers are used to the taste of sour plum soup, so restaurants make less sour plum soup every day and serve more hawthorn drink.

In addition to the fried red fruit dessert, the restaurant also added another dessert.

Brown sugar milk mochi.

There is no need to describe the taste of mochi, which is a must-have in all kinds of milk tea desserts. It tastes soft and sticky, sweet but not greasy, and chewy.

Mochi is also easy to cook. Add glutinous rice flour, milk, rock sugar and some starch, boil and stir over high heat until it becomes stretchable.

This kind of mochi is delicious just by coating it with some cooked soybean powder.

As for the brown sugar and milk mochi, you pour the cooked mochi into brown sugar water, add some glutinous rice balls and sprinkle some chopped osmanthus flowers, and you have a bowl of chewy and soft brown sugar and milk mochi dessert.

This can be considered as a new food made with milk, which requires milk. Add to that the daily milk products such as custard buns, milk steamed bread, milk tea, etc., and the daily demand for milk in restaurants has become greater and greater, from 20 kilograms to 40 kilograms a long time ago.

For a while, Xu Ji Restaurant's fried red fruits and brown sugar milk mochi became the hottest topics in Yuanbao Town.

Both male and female diners love these two new dishes.

One is soft, sweet, sour and juicy, and the other is sweet, soft, chewy and full of milk flavor.

When I bump into many acquaintances at the market, the way we greet them is to ask, "Have you eaten?"

"Have you ever been to Xu Ji? Xu Ji has two new desserts, stir-fried red fruits and brown sugar milk mochi. Go and try them. They are really delicious. Even a grown man like me who doesn't like sweets couldn't help but order a bowl to eat."

"Xu's new dessert? Oh, why didn't you tell me earlier? The weather has been getting hot these past two days, and although I've been thinking about Xu's food, I haven't been out much. Now that you mentioned it, I'm going to try it."

"Go and try it, it's really delicious."

So Xu Ji came up with new food, stir-fried red fruits made with hawthorn and milk, and brown sugar milk mochi, which quickly spread throughout Yuanbao Town.

The hawthorn, radish and pork bone soup made with hawthorn is okay. It tastes a bit sour, but the soup is rich and tastes good.

But compared to the stir-fried red fruits and brown sugar milk mochi, the hawthorn, radish and pork bone soup is not outstanding enough.

As summer begins, the business of other restaurants and bars is generally affected and the number of customers decreases.

Only Xu Ji Restaurant's business was normal, and it was the same as in winter. There were even people willing to queue up to eat at Xu Ji in such hot weather.

Even so, many restaurants and bars are unwilling to take the lead in dealing with Xu Ji.

Because of the previous experience of Ping An Restaurant and the popularity of Xu Ji's owner, naturally no one dared to openly target Xu Ji with malicious intent. They didn't even dare to use those despicable means on Xu Ji, for fear that they would end up like Ping An Restaurant.

…

In the past half month, Xu Qinyu has been busy making new food, and also taught the cooking methods to big girl Cheng Ge'er and others.

It is indeed tiring to go to Otani Town every day to oversee the brewing.

Xu Qinyu was thinner than before, but even if she was thinner, only her waist and face were thinner. Her fair and small chin became sharper and so was her waist. However, her chest was not much thinner and seemed to be still growing. She usually wore loose clothes when she went to work at Xu's, and changed into silk clothes after going home to wash up.

I feel that the silk pajamas are getting tighter around my chest, so I plan to buy some more silk pajamas to make two more sets.

The next morning, she went to the restaurant to get busy again.

I went to Dagu Town at noon and returned to the restaurant in the afternoon, where I was busy until closing time in the evening.

After the restaurant closed, Xu Qinyu was sweating and wanted to go back to her house in Xixiang to wash up and rest. She saw a woman in her forties standing outside the restaurant. She was wearing a silk dress and two simple gold ornaments. When she saw Xu Qinyu, she asked with a smile on her face, "Are you the owner of Xu's Restaurant?"

Xu Qinyu did not recognize this woman. She nodded and said, "May I ask who is your wife?"

The woman smiled and said, "Today I am here to discuss some business with Mr. Xu. Mr. Xu, can you give us a chance to go in and talk?"

Xu Qinyu nodded, "Then please come in, Madam."

Xu Qinyu led the woman into Xu's restaurant. The front hall of Xu's restaurant had already been swept clean.

The two of them found a seat by the window. There was still some hawthorn drink left in the restaurant, which was reserved for the Fengdiaonyushun brothers and for Yuan and Lin to drink when they got off work. Now that there were guests, they were naturally served two bowls first.

"This is the hawthorn drink from the restaurant. It's better for quenching your thirst. Madam, please try it."

Xu Qinyu placed a bowl of hawthorn drink in front of the woman. The woman took a sip from the bowl and sighed comfortably, "It tastes good."

The woman had drunk this hawthorn drink before. Even though her status did not allow her to eat and drink at Xu's, she had people pack up every kind of food and drink at Xu's and take them home to try.

Even though her husband is a chef and she has been eating food prepared by the chef for decades, the wife still feels that her husband's cooking skills cannot compare to those of Xu, the young boss.

This young lady Xu is really deft with her hands. She is only sixteen or seventeen years old, but her cooking skills have reached such a high level.

To be honest, her big restaurant is not as good as Xu's small restaurant. She doesn't think it's unfair. Although she has never been to the capital, she is afraid that even the big chefs in the capital cannot compare with Miss Xu's cooking skills. You can't deceive people with your mouth.

But it’s not unfair, no one wants their family business to be affected.

She has endured it for more than a year and doesn't want to endure it any longer, so she wants to talk to Xu Ji's owner.

The woman drank half a bowl of hawthorn drink, put down the bowl, and said to Xu Qinyu: "Master Xu, I am the master of Donglaiju, my surname is Dong, the Dong in winter, I came to see Miss Xu today because I want to discuss a business with you."

It was because her surname was Dong that the restaurant was named Donglai Ju.

It also means good luck coming from the east.

Xu Qinyu was still a little surprised. Even though Xu's business was good, its impact on Donglaiju was not so huge. Perhaps it had a greater impact on some small restaurants.

Because Xu Ji’s space is so small, no matter how good its business is, the number of customers it can accommodate is limited. Some of these diners come from East Street and West Street, and since Xu Ji cannot accommodate them, they can only go back to Donglai Ju to eat.