The neighbors and diners who were gathering around heard that it cost five cents a piece, which was about the same price as maltose, but this thing called persimmon cake looked golden and translucent, with a layer of white frost on it, which made it very appetizing.
Everyone knows that the food from Xu Ji Restaurant always tastes great. Someone said, "Then I'll buy two to try." After saying that, he took out ten cents and handed it to Gong Ge'er. Gong Ge'er wrapped two persimmon cakes in oil paper and handed them to the man. The man couldn't wait to take a bite. The skin was soft and glutinous, and the flesh inside was just like Xu Ji's custard buns, which was runny but would not drip. It was slightly solidified but still flowable. The flesh was even sweeter and softer, and it tasted sweet in the mouth, but not at all greasy.
"It's delicious, give me a few more pieces so I can bring them home to try."
This man also owns a shop nearby, so he has the money and can afford it. He wants to buy twenty more persimmon cakes from Gong Ge'er.
Gong Ge'er said, "The persimmon cakes are limited in quantity. Each person can only buy ten pieces."
This was also what Xu Qinyu requested. She was worried that if there was no limit on the quantity, someone would buy them all in one go and sell them at a high price in Raozhou City.
In fact, the price of persimmon cake is not particularly low, it is the price of normal food with sugar, but considering its taste and the fact that it is fresh, five cents is really not expensive, and it is even cheaper than those candied fruits, brown sugar, granulated sugar and rock sugar, and the price is about the same as malt sugar.
This flavor can still be easily sold even if the price is several times higher and sold to the gentry in Raozhou City.
So Xu Qinyu was worried that someone would resell the products, so she limited the purchase to ten per person.
The man felt a little disappointed when he heard that he could only buy ten, but he still bought six more, wrapped them in oil paper, turned around and went back, intending to let his wife and children at home taste the soft and sweet persimmon cakes.
This is what Xu Ji's customers often do. Whenever Xu Ji has new breakfast or dinner dishes, they will bring them to their families or ask their family members to try them.
Seeing this, everyone rushed to buy some to try. After tasting it, they all couldn't help but praise it, "It's indeed Xu's preserved fruit. It tastes much better than other preserved fruits."
Most preserves are pickled with honey and sugar, and are overly sweet.
Persimmon cakes don’t have that problem, because they don’t contain any added sugar, only the sugar from the persimmons themselves. They are sweet but not cloying at all.
Two dustpans of persimmon cakes were sold out quickly, but many people still hadn't bought any and asked, "Gong, why are there only so few? Will there be more tomorrow?"
Most of the diners recognize Xu Ji.
Gong Ge'er said, "Don't worry, there will be more tomorrow. There will be more tomorrow, five dustpans. We will start selling them after breakfast."
After hearing this, everyone felt relieved and decided to buy again tomorrow.
Pei Weixuan stayed in the restaurant the whole day today. In the evening, he returned to Guihua Lane with Yu Niang. He was holding a small box containing the money earned from the restaurant that day. Normally, when he was not there, it was Cheng Ge'er or Feng Ge'er who sent Xu Qinyu back. Today, since he was there, it was naturally him who sent her back.
Along the way, Xu Qinyu was still chatting with her fourth brother about family matters. She wanted to send some persimmon cakes to the capital, maybe a few hundred, for her parents, younger brother, and uncle to try. However, she didn't know when Ma Liu would escort the exiled prisoners to the southwest, so she was worried that he would not come until after next spring, and the persimmon cakes would not be kept.
Pei Weixuan said, "I know a caravan moving goods in the southwest, and they want to send them to the capital. I'll run a trip for you tomorrow and ask them to help deliver the persimmon cakes to the capital. What do you think, Yu Niang?"
The owner of this caravan is named Zhou Yan, in his thirties, and belongs to the emperor’s brother.
The colored glaze he obtained from overseas was also sold by the Zhou family caravan. Even the coal and iron that he had robbed from the official ship were secretly sold by Zhou family members.
The caravan that Huo Ye ran was just a small and unknown caravan, so even if he made a living in the caravan, it would not arouse any suspicion from the two people in the palace.
Xu Qinyu said happily: "Thank you, Fourth Brother."
The only people in the capital that she could care about were the second branch of the Marquis Dechang's Mansion and her uncle from her natal family. As for her fourth brother, all of them were in the southwest, and there was no one for her and her fourth brother to care about.
Back at the house in Laixi Lane, Xu Qinyu counted the money as usual, put it in her big safe, and deposited it in the bank after half a month.
As for Mrs. Lu, the share of 6,000 taels of silver from the second batch of wine sold was given to her two days ago. By the time the next two batches of wine are sold, she will have about 25,000 taels of silver notes on her. After giving another 2,000 taels of silver notes to her parents next year, she will still have more than 20,000 taels left for herself.
More than 20,000 taels of silver were more than enough for her to open a bigger restaurant in Raozhou City or buy a house with five courtyards.
But she has no plans to open a branch of Xu Ji in Raozhou City this year.
Cheng Ge'er and Dong Qian are not yet able to cook. When they can and no longer need her, she can hand over the restaurant here to them. Then she plans to open another Xu Ji in Raozhou City.
Wen and her fourth brother had already discussed the matter of moving to Raozhou. As Governor Zhu was in Raozhou City, the family would be protected if they moved there. Although he could not protect them openly, he could still protect them a little secretly. Old lady Zhu's health was getting worse day by day. Even if she was given the best wild ginseng to prolong her life, she could only live for about another year. It seemed that the old lady would die next spring.
The old lady can still eat and drink now, so if there is anything, it would be a happy funeral.
Pei Weixuan also hopes that his family can move to Raozhou City.
He will always restore the throne to its proper place, avenge his father and brother, and kill Empress Dowager Fu and the new emperor. But even if he does restore the throne to its proper place, he will not use the reputation of the Fourth Prince, otherwise the new emperor and Empress Dowager Fu will kill all the relatives and family members on both sides, as well as nearly half of the officials in the court. There will be rivers of blood, and he will have no choice but to revolt, and he cannot even use his name.
This will also protect your family.
Governor Zhu is my uncle's maternal grandfather, and the first area to be recovered will be the southwest.
So he had to persuade his uncle and grandfather.
But no matter what happens in the future, my uncle and grandfather will be able to protect the Pei family.
So moving to Raozhou City was inevitable.
The next day, Pei Weixuan took a batch of persimmon cakes to the canal.
The Zhou family caravan has a batch of goods to transport from the border town to the capital, and will stay in the canal for a few days.
Pei Weixuan gave the persimmon cake to Zhou Yan.
Zhou Yan is in his thirties, with a refined and easy-going face, and seems to be a very gentle person.
He said, "Master, don't worry, I will send the things to the princess's mansion."
Pei Weixuan nodded, and gave him some detailed instructions, asking him to go to the capital to find out some things.
The two talked for a while before Pei Weixuan went to the restaurant.
By noon, today's five-dust-basket persimmon cakes were quickly sold out. Some families who were living in poverty were willing to spend ten cents to buy two for their children to taste.
Xu's persimmon cakes are very popular.
Several dustpans of persimmon cakes are prepared every day and sold out in less than half an hour.
In just twenty days, she sold all the remaining 3,000 persimmon cakes and earned only ten or two taels of silver.
Twenty days later, the goods transported by Zhou Yan also arrived in the capital.
He asked his men to deliver the persimmon cakes to the second room of Marquis Dechang's mansion.
Precisely because they were the princess's family, he had to avoid suspicion and not let outsiders know about his relationship with Her Highness.
The subordinates sent the persimmon cakes to the second room of the Dechang Marquis's mansion and said, "The owner of Xu's in the border town paid a lot of money to have our caravan deliver these persimmon cakes. If we receive the goods, we will trouble you to put your handprint on them. We will have to go back to the border town to show the receipt to the guests."
Upon hearing this, Xue thanked him and pressed his fingerprint on the certificate.
After everyone left, Xue asked the maids and servants to help move the persimmon cakes back into the house.
After entering the house, she tasted a persimmon cake and found it so delicious that she couldn't resist eating two more in one go. She stopped only because she was afraid of indigestion.
Last time I drank the wine brewed by Yu Niang, I thought the wine tasted very good, but after eating the persimmon cake made by Yu Niang, I realized that the food she makes is also excellent.
Xue ate three herself and gave two to the maids and servants in the second room so that they could try them.
The maids and servants took the persimmon cakes and thanked him. They ate them after returning to their rooms. They were all amazed after eating them: "What kind of dried fruit candied fruit is this? It's delicious, sweet, soft and glutinous, and not greasy."
"Is this really the food made by the second girl?"
"That should be the case. Didn't the second young lady ask someone to send some wine back? It seems that the second young lady is doing well in the border area."
"That's because our Second Miss is blessed. Humph, unlike the Third Miss and the old lady, they are not afraid of retribution!"
"Hush, keep your voice down. Be careful, there are ears on the other side of the wall. If the Third Miss and the old lady find out, they will sell us out."
"How dare they! We are the slaves of the Second Madam, and the indentures are in her hands. We are not afraid of them."
"No matter what, I hope our second young lady is doing well in the border area, and I also hope that Madam and the second young lady will meet again in the future."
"That's right."
As for the bigger extravagant hopes, they, like Xue, did not dare to dream about them. They never thought that Yu Niang would return to Beijing one day.
As usual, Xue gave some of these persimmon cakes to the eldest wife and her brothers from her natal family, and kept the rest for Li Ge'er, who liked sweets.
In the third room, Xu Qinhui also received the message from the middle-aged man in the past two days.
Because the middle-aged man stayed in Yuanbao Town and Raozhou City for a few days to inquire about the Pei family and Xu Qinyu.
After asking around, I learned that Prince Shu was doing business in a small caravan and earning some hard-earned money. Princess Shu did have some skills, but she could only be a cook and run a small restaurant and a winery. The winery seemed to be very profitable, and it seemed that this family was supported by Princess Shu.
The middle-aged man didn't understand why the third elder thought that King Shu still had a chance to ascend to the throne.
How can such a king achieve great things?
When he went back to report to Master Xu San, Xu Shuping couldn't help but frown after hearing it.
If King Shu really just does business in a small caravan, he will obviously not be able to achieve anything great.
Two years have passed, and King Shu has not made any move. My daughter said that King Shu will achieve great things in ten years, which means there are still eight years left. How did King Shu rise to power?
Could it be that my daughter had a wrong dream? But the other things she dreamed about in the capital city were completely consistent.
He also asked his daughter how Prince Shu came to power, whether he rose to power under the banner of restoring the royal family and avenging the late emperor and the eldest prince, or whether he started an uprising.
But Xu Qinhui had no idea. She was in the harem at that time and she knew that if she waited a few more years, the new emperor and Empress Dowager Fu would be greedy for pleasure and disrupt the government. Taxes and corvée labor became heavier and heavier, killing many people. Then someone revolted and somehow reached the capital after a few years. Then the decree of the previous emperor that made the eldest prince the crown prince was announced to the world, and people learned that the new emperor and Empress Dowager Fu had poisoned the previous emperor and slandered the eldest prince. After that, Prince Shu broke into the palace and chopped off the heads of the new emperor, Empress Dowager Fu and her.
So she had no idea how the King of Shu came to be.
Because during all these years of the uprising, no one had ever heard of such a person as King Shu. The leader of the uprising was also an ugly, short, and ordinary-looking man, and he was not King Shu at all.
So she was also confused.
After listening to his confidant's words, Xu Shuping went to see his daughter.
As soon as Xu Qinhui saw her father, she asked anxiously, "Father, did you meet the Fourth Prince this time? Did the Fourth Prince read my letter and have someone write back to me?"
The letter to the Fourth Prince was sent several months ago, but his father told him that Prince Shu was not there, so the letter was given to Pei. This time it was the second letter, to the second sister.
Xu Shuping shook his head, "I met King Shu, but he didn't reply."
Xu Qinhui was stunned. "Why?"
Xu Shuping glanced at his daughter. "Prince Shu didn't even read your letter. He burned it directly. As for the letter to Yu Niang, it has been delivered to her. Yu Niang should have read it, but she didn't ask that person to write you a reply. And Hui Jie'er, did you remember it wrongly? Can Prince Shu really rise to power? He is just a bodyguard in a small business now. He earns money by hard work. How can he rise to power? According to what you said, in another two or three years, the new emperor and the queen mother should have caused great trouble to the court and the people. Two or three years may not be enough time to recruit soldiers and buy horses."
As he spoke, Xu Shuping's voice became noticeably softer, as if he was afraid someone might hear him.
"Dad, don't worry. Although I don't know how His Highness rose to power, he will definitely inherit the throne in the end. Dad, don't worry about this."
Xu Qinhui was also very anxious, but she was not worried about how the prince would rise to power. She firmly believed that the Fourth Prince would be the heir to the throne in the end. What she was worried about now was only that the prince would not forgive her. However, she could not help thinking that the Fourth Prince was not a person who would get angry with others, but the Fourth Prince did not read her letter and even burned it directly. Could it be that he was angry with her?
The Fourth Prince has a cold personality, and since he is angry with her, it means he cares about her.
As long as he has her in his heart, there is a way. She continues to write letters to the Fourth Prince. One day, the Fourth Prince will forgive him.
No wonder the Fourth Prince killed her after he rose to power in the previous life. It seemed that he hated her for abandoning him and following the new emperor.
It turned out to be a wise choice for her not to become the new emperor's concubine in this life.
Xu Qinhui made up her mind to write a letter to the Fourth Prince every month.
But in this life, many things are indeed different.
For example, my second sister, the sixth princess, the seventh prince, and the little princess are all still alive. Even the new glassware and glass jewelry that have been popular in the capital in the past two months have never appeared in my lifetime.
Xu Qinhui was a little confused about how Liuli appeared, but she didn't think much about it. They were just some mundane things, nothing could compare to what she was going to do.
…
Yuanbao Town.
After the persimmon cakes were sold out, Pei Weixuan left.
He didn't stay at home for long. This time he would stay at home for only about half a month before returning to the island. The workshop had to be built and he needed to supervise the work.
But this trip is not for business, he can come back every two or three months.
I told my family that I was still going on a business trip and would be back in two or three months.
Before leaving, Xu Qinyu gave him all the remaining persimmon cakes at home and asked him to take them with him on the road.
On the way, Pei Weixuan ate a few and took the rest to give to the children on the island.
Every time he went out, he would bring back delicious food. As a result, even though the children on the island were a little afraid of his icy face, they still looked forward to his visit every time he brought back delicious food.
Needless to say, the persimmon cakes this time were even more popular with the children.
During the half month he was away, Huo Ye had already bought all the bricks, tiles, mud and sand materials for building the workshop. He had also drawn the blueprints and started supervising the construction of the workshop so that they could start firing colored glaze.
The first batch of colored glass was sent to the capital by Zhou Yan, and it was indeed very popular among the dignitaries in the capital, and was sold almost at the same price as gold. Therefore, the money to build the workshop is enough now. After the workshop is built, the colored glass will continue to be shipped out in batches, and the price should drop a little, but in the first two years, these colored glasses will save him a lot of money, enough to recruit soldiers and buy horses.
Pei Weixuan was busy building a workshop on the island.
Xu Qinyu was also busy in the restaurant. The winery had stopped working. However, Mrs. Lu did not return to Raozhou City, but lived in a house in Yuanbao Town. She enjoyed the food made by Xu Qinyu and planned to go back at the end of the year.
Time passed quickly, and by the time winter came, Zhen Wu had sold the last batch of wine.
Six thousand taels of silver were also given to Xu Qinyu.
Xu Qinyu had 25,000 taels of silver in her possession, all of which she deposited in the bank.
Now she is not short of money. Although she has come to this strange place, her life is gradually getting back on track.
As winter came, Dong Qian had learned a lot and started to help her with cooking, which gave her a lot more free time.
Ning Jie'er's Linglong Pavilion has also opened for business. The embroiderers there are all the best embroiderers in Yuanbao Town and the surrounding areas, and they are paid two taels of silver per month.
An embroiderer who does good embroidery work can earn very good wages indeed.
Now, Ning Jie'er's Linglong Pavilion can make a net profit of about ten to one hundred taels of silver every month.
That is because there are not many embroiderers in Linglong Pavilion. Sister Ning has very strict requirements. The embroiderers' embroidery work is the best. There are only a limited number of embroiderers available, so the finished products are also limited. Sister Ning is still looking for embroiderers. When there are more embroiderers in the future, she will be able to earn more.
Now everyone has their own business, and my fourth brother is also doing business. Everyone is working hard.
Fengger and Yuanjie are also grown up. Xu Qinyu has discussed with Mrs. Wen that they will send Fengger and Yuanjie to a private school for enlightenment in the spring of next year.
There was an old scholar in Yuanbao Town who could go to the enlightenment school by paying some tuition.
Although the Pei family was demoted to commoners and could no longer take the imperial examinations, they still needed enlightenment and had to learn to read and write.
Wen also thought it was okay.
The old scholar taught both boys and girls, so Sister Yan could go too.
But even so, not many people in the town would send their children there to study.
When winter came, Xu Qinyu bought a lot of cloth from Xia's sister-in-law and bought several sets of winter clothes for everyone in the family.
I also bought some satin material and a few sets of undergarments for my family.
These satin materials are used for work on weekdays and are not suitable for outer wear, but they are very comfortable to use as inner garments or pajamas.
The children in the family have all grown taller, even the fourth brother has grown taller. When the fourth brother came back a few days ago, Xu Qinyu found that he seemed to be taller and his shoulders were broader. With broad shoulders and long legs, he had lost the last trace of his youthfulness and became a handsome man who stood tall.
Xu Qinyu also secretly calculated that according to the standards of later generations, her fourth brother's height was about 1.88 meters.
Even she has grown a little taller. She was only fifteen years old when she traveled through time and space, and she could continue to grow for another two or three years, so she is taller than last year. When she first traveled through time and space, her height seemed to be less than 1.6 meters, but now she is more than 1.65 meters. This body is less than 18 years old. Xu Qinyu hopes that she can grow taller.
She had originally planned to make silk clothes again in the summer, but never had the time. Now that Dongqian is helping her with the cooking, she has a lot of free time and can go shopping to buy some fabrics and find an embroiderer to make clothes.
More than half a month passed before the family's winter clothes and midriff clothes were ready.
The weather is getting colder, and Xu Qinyu plans to make more ham this year. She has already told the large pig farmer who bought her pig hind legs last year about this in advance.
But even that big pig farmer couldn't produce hundreds of hams in one breath. However, there were many pig farmers in the southwest. After all, they had to supply pork to the entire southwestern border, and there were also many pig farmers in other villages and towns.
The pig farmer also agreed to start helping Xu Qinyu collect pig legs immediately after the second month of pregnancy, and fresh pig legs would be delivered to her every day.
So when the last month of lunar calendar came, Xu Qinyu became busy and started to pickle ham.
Xu Qinyu is not afraid that the restaurant will not be able to consume all the hams because the hams can be stored. The older they are, the more fragrant they taste. If the restaurant cannot use up all the hams, the caravan can send them to other states for sale.
Whether you are selling it to big restaurants or wealthy families, it will sell well if you tell them how to eat it and how to cook it.
Xu Qinyu was very busy afterwards, and Feng Ge'er and Cheng Ge'er would come over to help when they were free.
During this cold winter month, other restaurants and bars in Yuanbao Town are doing much better business than in the summer.
The business of Wen Lingling's Xiangrui Restaurant is also better than in the summer.
Her Xiangrui Restaurant has been open for almost a year. Except for the deserted beginning, it does have some diners thanks to the two specialties of the restaurant's chef, but business is still very average.
After deducting all expenses, the monthly income is only a few dozen taels. In the summer, there is not even a few dozen taels.
Wen Lingling was also upset at first, thinking that Xu Ji had taken away too many diners from Yuanbao Town, so her restaurant business was affected. She also hoped that Xu Ji would go bankrupt, but she watched Xu Ji's business getting better and better. She saw that Xu Ji had come up with a lot of fresh food in the summer and the number of diners had not decreased at all. When winter came, Xu Ji had even more diners. After being angry for a while, she calmed down and said that the gap was too big.
Although she hoped that Xu's would collapse and that other restaurants would suppress Xu's, she could even openly challenge Xu's and scold Xu Qinyu to relieve her anger, but she was too disdainful to use sinister tricks in secret, such as poisoning Xu's food like Ping'an Restaurant did.
Now, more than a year has passed, and Xu's business is getting better and better. She has completely run out of ideas and even wants to change her career. She doesn't want to continue running a restaurant. It's not bad to do other things with such a big restaurant, but what should she change the restaurant into? She is also quite hesitant. These days, she has been traveling to Raozhou City and other places, just to see more and see what kind of business is good.
This time she will not make a decision too quickly and plans to wait and see for about half a year.
During the last few days of the year, most of the restaurants and bars in the town were closed, even Donglai Ju and Xu Ji were closed, just waiting for the New Year.
Wen Lingling was not idle either, and ran to Raozhou City again, and then she saw a familiar figure.