Chapter 135 Chapter 135 Update.
The family bought a house in early August and borrowed 1,200 taels from Zi Qian's family for a period of two years, which had to be repaid in installments, with 59 taels to be repaid at the beginning of each month.
My family has small stalls in Jiaomen City and Huai City, and we can earn about 80 taels a month, which can cover the monthly repayments. The remaining money is enough for us to live a comfortable life.
However, after they moved in August, the county official of Anling informed their family that they had to pay a property tax of 90 taels on September 10th.
Ninety taels!
Fortunately, more than a month had passed since the house was bought, and the 25 taels of silver that the family had left for home decoration had not been fully used. In August and September, money was earned, and at the beginning of the month, 59 taels of silver was paid back to the family's creditors. On the tenth day, a total of more than 90 taels of silver was paid as tax for the whole family.
As a result, the family only had half a string of money left, and they couldn't even afford a tael of silver.
This half string of money was used to buy miscellaneous items that day, and business must continue as usual.
Fortunately, the two stalls have daily income. There is a cash box at home with the word "stall" written on it, and all the money collected daily is accumulated in it.
Counting copper coins was too time-consuming, so Ji Xu had bought a copper money scale. This way, he could directly weigh the coins and calculate the amount he collected every day, which he would then record on a bamboo scroll.
Outgoings such as the purchase of offal, spices, and glutinous rice flour, as well as monthly city rent and taxes, are also recorded in the book, so that the total monthly business volume, operating costs, and profits can be viewed at a glance.
Like Feng, Zhu and Xiaoyao, the three of them helped with housework diligently and were paid. They earned five cents a day, which was enough to buy some meat patties and drinks to satisfy their cravings.
Maybe they saved it to buy a silk flower or a toy they liked during the holidays. It was all up to them, so the three children had no shortage of pocket money. They were even well-off among the children in the alley.
There is an extra account book at home, which records daily expenses such as buying rice and firewood every month. It is not mixed with the money from the stalls. Corresponding to this, there is another money box with "household expenses" written on it.
"This is what my mother and Erfeng earned in Huai City today. We were out of rice at home, so we bought two hu of rice on the way back."
Tian said as she put money into the cash box marked "stall".
"How much did it cost?"
Ji Xu said that she would record the money in two separate account books.
The money used first has to be marked. Because the family has to pay back the mortgage and taxes continuously, the "household" cash box is empty, and I have to borrow the cash box from the "stall" to buy rice.
"It cost seventy coins, which is a few coins cheaper than before. I heard that this year we have a good harvest in the south of the Yangtze River, and the rice harvest is very good."
Seeing my daughter keeping accounts, she said,
"We all earn money and spend it at home, so why bother keeping separate accounts?"
Ji Xu dried the ink, held up the bamboo scroll and said:
"By keeping accounts, we can see the high and low costs of different places. This was told to me by Wang Dianji, an accountant, when my daughter was in her hometown.
I noticed that the price of offal dropped last month, but the price of spices went up, so the total cost is even higher. I'll go to another place and ask around to see if I can find some cheaper ones.
This month we have to work harder to earn the fifty-nine taels we have to pay back on the first day of next month."
"This tax has emptied our family's pockets. It's already the end of September, and we're still short of fifty-nine taels?"
Tian took it to heart and realized the benefit of keeping accounts. She always thought she earned a lot, but was so extravagant and couldn't pay back the money. This was no joke, and she worked hard to sell it for days.
At Ji Xu's place, four more pounds of braised beef were prepared that day.
However, beef is expensive and relatively rare on the market, so the braised beef she bought was not beef she bought herself.
Yesterday was the Autumn Festival. Many wealthy families would set up a sacrificial site under the community tree on this day, slaughter cattle and sheep to sacrifice to the land god, to express their gratitude for the land god's protection for their families this year, and to pray for good weather and a good harvest in the coming year.
Although Mr. Cheng had resigned from his official position, the Cheng family was still a wealthy family in Anling County, with many relatives and old friends. Mr. Cheng received four pounds of beef from a good friend. Because he liked braised food, he asked a child to take it to Sangshu Lane and invited Ji Xu to braise it for him, and gave her an extra half a string of money as processing fee.
Ji Xu naturally agreed and said to the errand boy:
"I'll be out at the stall tomorrow morning. Please come to the store to pick it up."
The next morning, she packed the braised beef and took it to the store.
There were already people waiting to buy braised food here. She skillfully used a big knife to cut liver and pig ears for people. Accompanied by the shouts of vegetable vendors around, she was busy all morning. Listening to the sound of copper coins entering the box, she had a happy smile on her face.
The Cheng family's little boy came to get the braised beef. The braised beef, when cut, had a gelatinous texture and looked very nice. The aroma of the meat was also overwhelming. The people who saw it were envious and asked:
"Little boy, what's the price of beef now?"
"I don't know either. This beef was given to Mr. Cheng by someone else."
"The price has gone up! We can't even afford to eat cow stomach!"
Nowadays, cows are mostly used to pull carts, and only wealthy families can afford to slaughter them for food.
When Mr. Cheng was hosting a banquet, the little boy brought home a food box and placed the braised beef on the table for the host and the guest, along with a dish of braised lotus root and bean curd sheets.
The boy said, "These vegetables were sent by that Xu girl. She said that if Mr. Cheng wants to eat braised beef again, he can come to her."
Mr. Cheng smiled and said, "Well, she knows how to do long-term business. Brother, try this braised food. Is it to your liking?"
The guest was kneeling at the table. He was over fifty years old, with a silver beard half a foot long. Upon hearing what was said, he put down his ear cup and tasted the thin slice of braised beef.
I felt the taste was sweet before I swallowed it, and the fragrance lingered on my lips and teeth, which greatly increased my alcohol tolerance. I praised it again and again and asked:
"This braised food is really fresh! The flavor is so rich and the texture is so clear. Where did this method come from?"
The guest had a token on his waist with the words "Jiaomenshi" engraved on it. Mr. Cheng twirled his beard and smiled, saying:
"You ask me, this braised food was invented by a girl named Ji, and she's selling it right here in your Jiaomen Market. She even boasted that she'd make Ji's braised food the signature dish of Jiaomen Market, just like Zhao's roasted duck and Zhuo's rotten lamb stomach in the East Market."
This made the guest laugh, but he nodded in agreement.
**
At Jiaomen Market, several vendors gathered together, whispering to each other, glancing at Ji's Braised Food in the southwest corner, their faces changed.
A man in a half-worn robe and a green cap was particularly dissatisfied with the heat there. He had a pointed face and was thin, but he pointed to the sky and the ground when he spoke:
"This chick is deliberately stealing our business! She only sells for half a day in the morning, and during that time, people are flocking to her place. Those of us who pay extra rent in the city center have been lured away by her, and our business is not as good as before!"
The man's surname is Guo, and he sells sliced liver here. He sells boiled pork and mutton livers. When boiling, he simply adds some peppercorns, ginger, soy sauce, salt, etc., which is far less impressive than Ji Xu's 28 spices.
He actually added the thirteen ingredients that Cheng Gong mentioned in public to his own liver and stewed it, but the dish became more and more weird, and even his former regular customers stopped coming.
I had no choice but to go back to my original approach, but business was never as good as before.
It was Ji's braised pork liver that lured people away, so when they looked at Ji's braised food stall, their eyes were filled with poison.
From this side, they could just watch Ji Xu's business. She actually filled a plate with braised lotus root and bean curd sheets and handed it to the little boy from Cheng Gong's family, as if she was doing something sneaky.
Guo Dalang suddenly felt that he had something on his hands and said:
"What a shame, Ji! Our stall sells meat, and she dares to sell vegetables!"
"I heard she just took out a loan to buy a house. She has to pay a lot of money back every month. She just paid the property tax two days ago. She must be short of money, so she's selling some vegetables to make more money."
Aunt Li, who was frying fish, said that there were probably few people selling meat here who were not jealous of those who were selling meat there.
There are also people who add fuel to the fire and say sourly:
"We've been selling it for years, but we still don't dare to borrow hundreds of thousands of taels to buy a house. If we can't pay back the money for even one month, how can those thugs from the Ziqian family let us do business in peace? They'll even smash our stall! Is she a young woman who doesn't know the consequences? Or does she really think her business can be extremely profitable?"
Guo Dalang's eyes rolled around as he said:
"It just so happens that her shrewish mother and sister are not here. All of you, follow me. I will make sure she can't do any business today!"
Ji Xu had just sent the Cheng family's little boy away and was picking duck hearts for someone when she saw several cooked food vendors led by Guo Dalang coming towards her aggressively.
"Nephew, it's her. We just saw her selling vegetables."
The reason why Guo Dalang could act so arrogantly in Jiaomen City was because he had a nephew who was a market clerk, and he had also come with him.
I saw Guo, the clerk in black clothes and black cap, with a pointed jaw and rat eyes, who looked a bit like Guo Dalang, actually drove away all the guests from Ji Xu's place and pointed at her and asked:
"Who allowed you to sell vegetarian food? You can only sell meat in this place!"
Ji Zhu and Xiao Yao, after hearing what Ji Xu said, crouched down, quietly slipped out from under the stall, and blended into the crowd.
Ji Xu said, "Maybe I misunderstood. I never sell vegetarian dishes. I just braised some lotus roots and dried bean curd sheets for our own consumption. This morning, the Cheng family's child came to get their braised beef. I gave the child two plates without charging any money."
Chang'an not only has tofu, but also bean curd sheets. She bought the bean curd sheets from the store and brought them home to eat. She just braised some for her own consumption. Knowing the regulations, why would she sell them?
Ji Xu knew that they just wanted to find faults in him so as to get rid of him.
So Ji Zhu and the other person were asked to go to Cheng's house to find the boy who brought the braised food to testify.
The Cheng family's house was not far from Sangshu Lane. The sisters had played nearby. When the little girl heard the boy at the door report, she went to the corner gate to meet her two sisters.
Although Ji Zhu was shy, her anxiety outweighed her fear. She grabbed the ten-year-old child and left. The child broke free and asked why. Ji Zhu was so anxious that she stammered:
"Come with me... I'm leaving. My sister... has been falsely accused."
The little one was also babbling and gesticulating, and the little boy couldn't understand anything at all, but he did understand one sentence, which was that Ji Xu was framed.
"Well, well, one of you stutters and the other is dumb, I'll just go with you."
Because he bought braised food for Cheng Gong that day and got a lot of good food from Ji Xu for free, he must make this trip.
After telling the doorman where he was going, he was pulled by the two girls, one on each side, and ran away.
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