Chapter 21 Hawthorn
Su Ruojin ordered a large wooden barrel and filled it with soup every day. As soon as the soup arrived at the stall, it was snapped up by diners and her business was booming.
In the middle of the street, several patrolmen from the Military Affairs Department were standing. One of them asked, "Bi Guan Gou, would you like to have a bowl of eight-treasure porridge?"
Bi Changgui clasped his hands in his sleeves trimmed with rabbit fur, and looked at the steaming and crowded Su's stall with his deep-set eyes. He sneered, "No, do whatever you want." After that, he went to work in the whistling northwest wind.
What a bummer!
Someone glanced at them with dissatisfaction, but didn't show it on his face. He smiled and said, "Su Ji's eight-treasure porridge is sweet and just my taste. I have to have a bowl, no, I have to have two bowls."
In addition to soy milk, which can be taken away in an oil paper cup, spicy soup and eight-treasure porridge are thick and hot and are not suitable for eating on the go. Su Ji has prepared hundreds of white porcelain bowls, and customers can eat at the stall and put the food in a special large wooden barrel after eating.
Walking to a breakfast stall not far away, Bi Changgui waited for the stall owner to serve him breakfast while turning his head to glance at the Su Ji breakfast stall. Several colleagues were either drinking porridge or eating pot stickers, standing by the stall and laughing, it was very lively.
It would be fine if the Su family had exclusive rights to things like steamed dumplings and pot stickers, but how come the Su family even came up with a new way to make Laba porridge, calling it "Eight Treasure Porridge"? The name sounds festive, no wonder everyone is rushing to get it.
Why didn't my sister-in-law think of this? Bi Changgui retracted his gaze, sneered coldly, and left with a gloomy face.
The stall owner sent away the gloomy customer and glanced at the Su Ji breakfast stall which was doing a booming business. He shook his head. It was no wonder that the stall had such good business. They had been selling sesame cakes all year round, but who would have thought that they would also sell Laba porridge during the Laba Festival? They had missed the opportunity to make money in vain.
The stall owner's wife was unwilling to give up. "There are still three days until Laba Festival. How about we make some porridge and sell it tomorrow morning?"
The stall owner snorted coldly: "Su's porridge has plenty of sugar, are you willing to put it in?"
The stall owner’s wife: “…”
"It's not as delicious as others, so it's a waste of money if I make it." I not only lose money if I can't sell it.
That was true. The stall owner's wife stopped worrying and sighed, "Are we just going to watch others make money?"
Thousands of people live in the Xiqiao Alley area, and it is impossible for everyone to be willing to eat Su Ji's more expensive breakfast. Many people still buy sesame cakes, sour stuffing (similar to dumplings, with sour stuffing inside), water rice (a kind of rice in the Song Dynasty, a thin porridge made from cooked rice and semi-fermented rice soup, with a slightly sweet taste in sourness), and fish (a kind of pasta, simple to make, similar to dough balls).
The most Su Ruojin did was to make some of the money that was originally in the pockets of the middle and upper-level civil servants in the Dayin Dynasty flow into her pocket. The middle and lower-level and most civilians still bought ordinary breakfasts. Su Ji did not take away the business of ordinary small vendors. In fact, because of the unique flavor of Su Ji breakfast, it attracted customers who did not originally stop in Xiqiao Lane, but instead boosted the business of other vendors.
After a while of looking jealous, the stall owner retracted his envious and jealous gaze, "Although their business is booming, ours is not worse than before."
"That's true." She even earned 10 or 20 cents more every day than before. Thinking of this, the stall owner calmed down, smiled, and continued to do business with quick hands and feet. As long as she was diligent, she would definitely have food to eat.
While out shopping for ingredients for Laba Festival with Mother Dong, Su Ruojin encountered a coincidence. They came across a large amount of hawthorns from the deep mountains in the north. A middle-aged man was selling them in a grocery store. The store owner saw that the man was dressed like a beggar and was obviously an honest man who had never been to the city. In order to lower the price, the store owner refused to buy anything. The man had to carry out a bag of samples and continue to look for the next buyer.
Su Ruojin followed quietly and walked to a street corner where no one would notice her. She called out to the middle-aged man, "Uncle, I want to buy something."
The middle-aged man saw that it was a woman with a young girl and thought that they were only buying a pound or two for themselves, so he put down the bag, untied the bag, and took out a handful with both hands. "I didn't bring a scale, so just give me some money as you see fit."
Su Ruojin smiled and shook her head, "Uncle, I want to buy a few bags, do you have any?"
When Su Ruojin saw hawthorn, she thought of candied haws, which was her childhood favorite. The little kid didn't like it. But the New Year was approaching, and the kids on the streets had little pocket money. All the money went into her pocket.
This is really a money-making opportunity sent by God!
Hawthorn is a good thing. Most people know that it can stimulate appetite and help digestion. In fact, it also has the effects of lowering blood lipids and resisting arrhythmia. It is definitely a good medicine and fruit!
In addition to making candied haws, you can also make dried hawthorn, hawthorn jam, hawthorn tea, hawthorn snack chips... Anyway, it is a good thing for the stomach and digestion. It is the time for eating and drinking before and after the Chinese New Year, so any way of eating can be used.
Uncle Feng - the man who brought hawthorns to the capital to sell. All the hawthorns he brought were bought by Su Ruojin, who spent a total of twelve taels. The middle-aged man was extremely happy. People like them who lived in the mountains didn't know what silver was all year round. The harvest in the north was not good this year, and few people bought hawthorns, so he had to take his two sons and rent a mule to pull the fruit to the capital to sell.
After buying hawthorns, Su Ruojin didn't let them go: "Uncle Feng, how long will it take you to get home?"
"It took four or five days to get to the capital." Feng Wangtian, who looked exhausted but excited because he sold more than ten taels of silver, smiled brightly: "It won't take so long to go back. I estimate I can be home in three days." He pulled and carried a batch of hawthorns when he came here, and he only wanted to buy some New Year's goods when he went back. Mules can pull them very fast.
Su Ruojin smiled and said, "Uncle, there are still about 20 days before the Chinese New Year. Do you want to make some more money?"
Feng Wangtian: ...What profit? He has sold all the hawthorns!
Standing in the courtyard of the high-ranking official's house, looking at the neat and clean stone floor of the small courtyard, the honest man's worn-out thatched shoes on his feet unconsciously shrank back, feeling very uneasy. He really didn't understand what the young lady of the high-ranking official's family in the city was talking about?
Su Ruojin pointed to a pile of sacks on the ground and said, "I need to process these hawthorns. I would like to ask you and your two sons to help me until the New Year's Eve when I can let you go home. Is that okay?"
Money is hard to earn and shit is hard to eat. The man who has been living in the mountains has experienced it to the core. Just because the young lady bought all his goods today and didn't let him suffer a penny of loss, and directly stuffed the huge sum of money into Feng Wangtian's hands, he would do her any favor.
He agreed without thinking, but he didn't understand, "Although it's a lot, it shouldn't take more than 20 days to wash and dry them!" At the speed of the three of them, it would probably be done in two days.
Su Ruojin knew that the middle-aged man didn't understand what the treatment was.
After Miss Su cleaned up the house and let the father and his two sons live there, she let them handle the matter. Only then did she realize that city people are really city people. The hawthorn, which was once so easy to be defeated, could be transformed into so many different kinds of things in her hands, which really scared him.
(End of this chapter)
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