Chapter 9 009 Tea Eggs
Su Dalang said like a little adult, "Mom, you know that the fried dough sticks and soy milk my sister made were sold by Uncle Shutong. This is the money he earned."
Cheng Yingzhen couldn't believe it. "This would be about twenty taels of silver, right?"
The two siblings looked into their mother's eyes and nodded with a smile, "Mom, that's right."
Cheng Yingzhen was delighted, but also worried. "Your father is a doctor of the Five Classics. If your family does business, I'm afraid..."
Su Ruojin immediately interrupted her: "Mom, I know, so I did this small business with the money you gave me as your dowry."
Cheng Yingzhen was simply sent out by her stepmother as if she were a beggar: "What do I have for a dowry?"
Su Ruojin raised her head and said, "Whenever someone asks me, I always say that the recipes for fried dough sticks and soy milk are from you, mother."
Cheng Yingzhen: …
"Mom, at the end of last month, I took out part of Dad's salary to pay the rent for the first half of next year, and I used the rest to set up a breakfast stall. This way, I will have more than 20 taels of income every month in the future."
Cheng Yingzhen was shocked by the children's words: "Then...then we don't have to worry about food, drink, defecation or urination anymore?"
"Yes, mother." Su Ruojin sat next to her, "Mom, are you still worried about not having enough money to live on?"
"I……"
It is true that Cheng Yingzhen suffered a loss of health after giving birth, but it is also true that Su Ruojin gave her enough nourishment this month.
However, Su Ruojin did not expect that the sumptuous confinement meals did not replenish her mother's body. However, for fear of disturbing her mother during the confinement period, she hardly told her about the good breakfast business. This made her mother worried and anxious. Seeing the sumptuous meals, she kept wondering if the child would have no food to eat after the previous meal.
For a woman who has just given birth and is always anxious and weak, eating more is useless.
"Is the fried dough sticks and soy milk business really so good?" Cheng Yingzhen still couldn't believe it when the brother and sister helped her lie down.
"It's all my fault." Su Ruojin blamed herself: "I didn't bother mother with these things in order to let her have a peaceful and quiet confinement. I didn't expect that mother would misunderstand that our family would run out of food."
Cheng Yingzhen felt very distressed when her daughter blamed herself. She wanted to stand up and comfort Su Ruojin, but she pushed her back down. "Now mother can rest in peace and take care of herself after the baby's birth."
Cheng Yingzhen smiled with relief, and just as she was about to breathe a sigh of relief, she suddenly said, "I'll eat well from now on, so don't go get the recipe, it's a waste of money."
"That won't do." Su Ruojin's face was stern. "Mom, I'm only six years old. If you don't take good care of yourself, won't you keep me working hard?"
Cheng Yingzhen: …
What her daughter said was strangely right, but Cheng Yingzhen always felt that something was wrong.
Of course Su Ruijin knew about it, and she chuckled to herself, which helped her mother to be comforted. Now she could rest assured during the month of confinement.
"Mom, there is still more than a month before the New Year. You have to take good care of yourself. The social interactions and visits to relatives and friends during the New Year depend entirely on you!"
Yes! Cheng Yingzhen was finally persuaded by her daughter and began to take care of herself after the baby's birth.
Cheng Yingzhen was no longer worried, and she followed the prescription to take care of herself. Her complexion became visibly rosy. Su Ruojin finally had the heart to run a regular stall.
When the mule pulled the set of household items to the stall at the entrance of the alley where the tax had been paid, someone was already waiting there.
"Hey, are the fried dough sticks fried on site today?"
"Yes, my dear, as many as you want, I'll have them ready in a moment."
For a month, everyone knew that youtiao were fried, but few knew that they rolled in the oil in this way to become golden brown, which was really appetizing.
A customer seemed to click his lips and said: "Youtiao is delicious, but if you eat it every day..." The implication is that there are too few varieties and you will get tired of it if you eat it every day.
Su Ruojin, who came with them, had already thought of this and was standing by with a smile on her face.
Shu Yi slapped his head and said, "Oh, if my husband hadn't reminded me, I would have forgotten about it." After that, he put a clay pot with ears on the small stove, reached out to lift the lid, and the next moment the aroma of salty tea leaves wafted into his nose.
"This is..." Someone leaned over and looked into the pottery jar.
Su Ruojin motioned Su Dalang to come over and help.
Su Dalang felt a little embarrassed and didn't move with his face red.
Su Ruojin quickly went up, picked up the long-handled spoon and scooped one out, "Sir, tea eggs, two cents each, would you like two?"
Can eggs cooked with tea leaves be eaten? While wondering, he reached out to take the tea eggs that the young lady had wiped dry. The shell was cracked and peeled open in a few seconds. He took a bite and found that the egg white was salty, fragrant and tender, and the egg yolk was salty and fragrant. The taste was very good.
"Give me three." One is not enough.
With someone taking the lead, customers who came to buy breakfast bought one or two each. After a while, the whole pottery jar was sold out. Fortunately, Su Ruojin had prepared one more jar, so she asked Shu Tong to quickly move it to the small stove to continue supplying it.
On winter mornings, the wind is bitterly cold. In order to keep customers staying, the Su family's breakfast stall is well designed. It is a detachable mini hut. The eaves open to customers are equipped with a folding awning, and a windproof awning wall is extended three feet from the eaves. Customers don't have to worry about wind and rain when they come to buy food or wait.
It's just like a mini shop.
With the stall, breakfast is no longer sold for most of the hour, but from the beginning of the Mao hour to the beginning of the Chen hour, that is, from five in the morning to nine in the morning, a four-hour period. The customer base is no longer court officials, but also nearby merchants, passing hawkers, and all kinds of pedestrians who are out doing business.
The busy business meant a shortage of manpower, and Shu Tong alone was unable to handle the work. For several days in a row, Su Ruojin and Su Dalang came to help.
"Oh, Dr. Su can't support his family, but he lets a decent young lady show up in public. How can this be considered as a disgrace?"
Su Ruojin and Su Dalang helped in the small shop, making soy milk, scooping tea eggs, and taking care of collecting money, allowing Shu Tong to concentrate on frying dough sticks.
Su Ruojin saw Mrs. Xu when she walked through the crowd, and guessed that she would make sarcastic remarks. Shu Tong glanced at the young master and wanted to say something, but was stopped by Su Ruojin's eyes.
She drooped her eyes and did what she was doing, ignoring her completely.
No one in the Xiqiao Alley area dared to treat Granny Xu like this. She raised her eyes, put her hands on her hips, and said, "You stinky girl surnamed Su, do you know who I am? Believe it or not, I can make sure that you can't set up your stall tomorrow."
When she started pouring the dough, customers were so scared that they dared not come forward to buy the fried dough sticks. Passers-by stopped out of curiosity, and in a blink of an eye, the small shop was full of people.
Su Ruojin sneered, reached out and smashed the tea egg into the jar, splashing the tea.
Mrs. Xu took a step back after being splashed. When she realized that she was frightened by a little girl, her eyes narrowed and she glared at him, "You stupid girl, how dare you show disrespect to me?"
Su Ruojin walked out of the shop and looked at her coldly.
Half a month ago, seeing that the Su family's fried dough sticks business was booming, Mrs. Xu asked Mrs. Dong to fry some. The dough sticks were fried, but the taste was different from those fried by Shu Tong. Mrs. Xu thought that Mrs. Dong had some tricks up her sleeve, so she found out that Mrs. Dong really didn't have the skill to fry dough sticks. So she came up with another idea: she asked Mrs. Dong to come back and learn the skill, and then sell it in her shop after she learned it.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
