Chapter 32 Bao Yue, Chen Bao Yue
"What are you doing in the county town?"
Chen Baoyue never expected that this seemingly large county town was actually so small.
It's rare for me to go out, and I even ran into someone I know.
However, it's unclear whether they are actually acquaintances.
Although Guo Baiwen knew she was a straightforward person, he didn't expect that the first thing she said when she saw him was, "The houses in Guojia Village are uninhabitable, so we simply moved to the county town."
He never expected to run into Chen Youtian and Chen Baoyue in the county town.
Just as they were about to exchange a few more pleasantries, they heard Chen Youtian's stomach suddenly rumble.
Seeing that all the eyes of the people around him were suddenly focused on him, Chen Youtian felt a little embarrassed.
This tall, imposing man, now far removed from his familiar territory, displays a surprising contrast in personality to his commanding presence when organizing a hunt.
"I rushed into town today to sell leather, and only ate three mixed vegetable pancakes on the way..." Chen Youtian's appetite was not small to begin with, not to mention that he had been on the road all day.
There's no time to sit down, take a good rest, have some tea, or eat something.
The fact that my stomach only started to rebel at this point shows how sensible and hard-working I've been.
Chen Baoyue's initial anger dissipated along with the sound of her stomach rumbling. She opened her mouth, as if to say something.
But Guo Baiwen spoke up before she could, saying, "My family runs a small food shop not far ahead, selling spicy and flavorful dishes. If you don't mind, would you like to come over for a meal?"
"A snack shop?" Chen Baoyue remembered that the last time she saw this person, his family was still living in Guojia Village.
"Yes, it's just ahead, only a few steps away."
In such a short time, they've already opened a shop in the county town.
She rarely went to the county town, and this time she followed her father around to find her way.
Instead of randomly picking a restaurant on the street that you don't know if it's good or not, why not go with him and check out his shop?
So he nodded immediately, "When you're hungry, it's always best to have a hot meal. There's nothing to complain about."
Man is made of iron, food is made of steel.
She didn't care about the unsold furs anymore; she'd rather keep them at home as blankets than go back to the shop owner.
Chen Youtian carefully checked everything, rolled up all the things he had brought, and carefully piled them into his basket before following Chen Baoyue and Guo Baiwen toward the shop they had mentioned.
Hearing his daughter chatting with that boy, he asked, "Is the injury on your back any better?"
It was after these words that Chen Youtian recognized the young man in front of him as the unlucky fellow who had been accidentally whipped by his daughter.
He remembered—
His name is 'Guo...'—what was it again? Stone?
"After using the Panax notoginseng powder, the wound healed very quickly, and now it's mostly healed." Guo Baiwen said very politely, "I'm ashamed that my family ate the pheasant that Miss Chen sent, but I haven't had a chance to thank you."
"It's just a pheasant, there's nothing to thank me for." Chen Baoyue didn't think there was anything wrong with giving a pheasant as a gift.
If we really want to be fair, he got hurt because of himself.
Hearing him call her Miss Chen, a term she'd never heard before, made her feel a little awkward. "My name is Chen Baoyue. What's yours? Guo something?"
So Miss Chen's real name is Chen Baoyue.
When the village chief brought his people here, he only introduced them as the Chen family, who lived deep in the mountains and were all skilled hunters in the forest.
He didn't even know what Chen the hunter's name was, let alone find out the name of a strange girl.
Baoyue, Chen Baoyue.
He silently repeated it to himself several times, but that didn't stop him from responding to Chen Baoyue's words, "Everyone in the village calls me Guo Bawen, but you can also call me Guo Baiwen."
"Is Bawen your nickname?"
"I guess so." Guo Baiwen nodded vaguely, then turned around and found that he and his men had already reached the entrance of his shop.
Throughout the journey, Yang Qiaomai, who was at the very back of them, did not utter a single word.
There was still a while before the shop opened in the evening. Grandma Guo and Guo Xiaohua were having dinner in the yard when they suddenly heard voices coming from the front door.
Although she couldn't hear what was being said, Grandma Guo, despite her advanced age, still had sharp hearing and eyesight.
I could recognize Wenzai's voice in this bunch of conversations.
She put down her chopsticks and walked to the small door connecting the courtyard and the storefront. She gently opened the door a crack and peeked out, "—Is that Wenzai?"
Guo Baiwen was showing Yang Qiaomai around the store when he also let Chen Baoyue and Chen Youtian choose a seat they liked.
I'm going to take advantage of this quiet time to heat up some food for them.
I also wanted to fill my stomach a little while I was at it.
Before he could even look up, he heard Grandma Guo call his name. He replied, "It's me, Grandma. I've found a helper."
He pushed Yang Qiaomai in front of him and pointed to the person behind him. "His name is Yang Qiaomai. We agreed that he would come to work for a month as a trial. It's just a coincidence that I brought two customers back with me today."
Because the shop was selling mala tang (a type of spicy hot pot) during this period, they often just used whatever was left over to cook a big pot of mixed ingredients and eat it all together.
After all, the broth is right there; no matter how messy it gets, it won't taste bad.
This way, cooking rice is faster and saves a lot of time.
But no matter how delicious it is, if you eat it for four or five days in a row, you will eventually get tired of it.
So today, Grandma Guo made a special effort to cook sour soup vegetables and buckwheat cakes to change things up.
Unexpectedly, it turned out to be the same name as the new worker who came today.
She smiled, glanced at the somewhat reserved Yang Qiaomai, and greeted everyone in the room, "I just happened to cook a little extra rice today, so I'll boil some vegetables to make it more palatable. Let's all have a meal together first."
Sour soup dishes were a common dish in my family. The method is not difficult. We usually use vegetables that we have at home, such as bean sprouts, houttuynia cordata, cabbage, radish, and pumpkin vines, and cook them together with some homemade pickling brine.
There were still some tamarinds left, so Grandma Guo broke off a few and threw them in to cook as well.
If there's meat, you can add some, but the meat that was prepared beforehand was meant to be sold that evening, so Grandma Guo added two big pork bones instead, so that it would at least have some meat flavor.
As for making that buckwheat raft, it was purely on a whim.
Having kneaded too many dough pieces these past few days, she noticed that the bag of buckwheat looked a bit damp and worried it wouldn't keep, so she simply used it to knead into dough with hot water.
Once you've kneaded the dough well, roast it over hot coals until it turns slightly yellow, then switch to a longer flame until it turns golden brown. Finally, gently tap the roasted dough with tongs; if you hear a 'bang bang' sound, it's done.
Roasted buckwheat cakes may have a slightly bitter aftertaste, but they become delicious when cut open and eaten with homemade stir-fried black beans or kimchi.
Chen Youtian was quite hungry before he arrived.
Even though he told himself that he was in someone else's home, he still couldn't control the speed at which he picked up food with his chopsticks and ate it when the hot pot dishes were served together.
The faster you eat, the faster you eat.
Following closely behind were Chen Baoyue and Yang Qiaomai.
Although Chen Baoyue ate a lot, she didn't pick up food often and ate slowly with her bowl in hand, which made it easy to fool her for a while.
Yang Qiaomai looks quite young, but the way she eats makes it seem like she'll never have a tomorrow.
In the blink of an eye, Guo Baiwen saw that the amount of buckwheat cakes Chen Youtian had eaten was almost as much as Chen Youtian had eaten.
How big is Chen Youtian? How big is he?
You've eaten so much at once, don't overeat.
Noticing Guo Baiwen's gaze, the person who had been frantically picking at food suddenly stopped.
They ate in small bites, but their chopsticks, which seemed to waver, remained firmly in their hands, unwilling to put them down.
It's obvious they haven't eaten enough.
Grandma Guo couldn't bear it, and not knowing how he usually ate at home, she handed him half a buckwheat cake and comforted him, "Eat if you want."
Hearing this, he felt relieved and continued to eat heartily.
This sight left Guo Xiaohua, who didn't like buckwheat cakes, speechless. Looking at her thin and frail appearance, she wondered where all the food she had eaten had gone.
After the meal was over, without anyone having to ask, Yang Qiaomai skillfully cleared the table and headed towards the wooden basin and well she had chosen when she arrived.
His skilled demeanor made Guo Baiwen, who had originally intended to give him some instructions, click his tongue and silently call Xiao Hua over. "His name is Yang Qiaomai. I told him that he's here specifically to wash the dishes and clean the table."
"If there's anything you don't understand, you can tell him."
Seeing that Guo Xiaohua was a little shy, he patted his younger sister's head again, "Just say what you need to say, don't be afraid, your brother will pay you."
Upon hearing this, Guo Xiaohua visibly relaxed considerably.
Seeing this, Guo Baiwen couldn't help but feel a little amused and exasperated.
He patted her head again.
It sounds quite crisp and fresh.
Seeing that the Chen father and daughter had finished their meal, they prepared to try their luck at other fur shops in the county town.
He thought for a moment, then stepped forward and said, "If there aren't any suitable fur shops, we could try our luck at Xu's Pawnshop in town for that big spotted pelt—"
"Actually, the best option is to pay a stall fee and try selling things at the night market yourself, but that might mean staying overnight in the county town..."
"The owner of Xu's Pawnshop has a good temper and is fairly fair, but you still need to negotiate the price with him more."
Although the pawnshop owner gave him a discount when he sold the glass bottle last time, this is common in business.
It's much better than those fur shops that ask for fifty taels and maliciously drive down prices to bully people.
As for whether it will work out, he wasn't really sure.
I'll just give you some hints.
Otherwise, they would be like headless flies, bumping into walls everywhere in this huge county town.
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