Chapter 84 Did the Sang family really get rich?
There were 127 pieces of dried bean curd, but of course Sangluo didn’t sell all of them.
It was the first time a new product was released, and all three stores were testing the sale. After consulting the three, Sang Luo divided the 120 yuan of dried bean paste equally, giving each store 40 yuan. They started receiving orders the next day.
Before they left, Sang Luo asked Qin Fangniang to use the money from the vegetarian tripe purchase at Dongfulou to help her bring back a large jar and two round winnowing baskets as big as the ones at home from the county.
It was time for everyone to dry the vegetables. She couldn't always borrow the winnowing baskets from several families. She couldn't save money. As for the big jar, Qin Fangniang initially thought that Sang Luo wanted to buy a water jar, but in fact, Sang Luo wanted to use it to collect the dried konjac chips. It would be too easy to get damp if they were packed in bags. She didn't explain in detail, but just roughly described the size and purpose of the jar, and Qin Fangniang agreed.
Of the remaining seven pieces of dried bean curd, Sang Luo kept three for her family's lunch, and for the other four, she took Chen An to the mountains in the direction of Sanli Village early in the morning to pick sour dates, and successfully sold the four newly produced dried bean curds to the butcher.
Once the rent and taxes were collected, few people in the villages could afford to eat dried bean curd. Now Chen Youtian just sold some tofu at the market every time there was a market.
But the people who could not afford dried bean curd and tofu did not include butchers. Sang Luo did not have much on hand, only four pieces. She accurately locked onto her target, went to pick sour dates, and sold the dried bean curd to the butcher on the way, in order to improve the food for herself and her two children, and exchanged it for half a pound of meat from the butcher.
This little bit of meat made Shen An so excited that his face lit up.
Because of the sudden taxation and the need to buy clothes and bedding due to the cold weather, their family had not eaten meat for quite a while. The last time they tasted meat was the oil residue sent by Shen Jin, and the time before that was when they had wine in the house, which had been nearly twenty days.
It doesn’t matter if you haven’t eaten it, but if you have, you can afford it. What child doesn’t crave meat? Even Sang Luo craves meat.
On the way back, they walked a little further in and came to a small area where there was no village and which they had not walked through last time when picking mushrooms. However, Sang Luo found two jujube trees, which was a big surprise.
However, since I seldom walk this road, I have picked up a lot of sour jujubes. Now the two backpacks are full, even covering them with wild vegetables.
Sang Luo could only note the location, take Chen An back, free up the backpack and come back here immediately.
After being busy until mid-morning, it was time to make lunch when I got home. Chen Ning didn't know how to make the braised pork and meat delicious, so he didn't dare to start. He finished all the other chores and only waited for Sang Luo to prepare these two dishes.
Delicious food is the most important thing that you cannot miss, and eating is not something you can just do sloppily.
Sang Luo brought a bowl of fresh tofu dregs and asked Shi Erlang's wife for a handful of garlic sprouts in exchange. Lunch consisted of white rice and stir-fried garlic sprouts with soybean sauce. Of course, the stir-fried garlic sprouts with soybean sauce had meat added, and an egg and meat pie soup stewed in water.
These two dishes were the first time that Shen An and Shen Ning had seen and eaten them. Not to mention the meat pie soup, which was so delicious that the two children wanted to lick the bottom of the bowl. Not to mention the stir-fried garlic sprouts with dried bean sauce. Garlic sprouts, meat, and dried bean sauce, which one of them was not delicious?
I dug two batches of konjac in the afternoon and was planning to close the door and make sour jujube cake.
Qin Fangniang and her companions came back very quickly today, and went straight to Sang Luo as soon as they came back.
The dried sauce is very popular.
Qin Fangniang sent tofu and vegetarian tripe to Dongfulou in the morning. Naturally, she recommended this new food to Chef Yu first.
Dongfulou had been doing quite well these past ten days because of its tofu and vegetarian tripe. Seeing that Sangluo had come up with new food, would they still refuse? After roughly asking how to eat it, he immediately took away all the 40 yuan Qin Fangniang had earned that day.
As soon as Qin Fangniang left, Chef Yu started to try to cook this dish early in the morning. He and Shopkeeper Xu and others got together. After tasting it, they were delighted and went to the East Market in person to ask Qin Fangniang for a bill of 60 yuan a day.
Just as Qin Fangniang received the order, Gan, who was in Xishi, also received an order from Hongyunlou, which was opposite Dongfulou.
That’s right, it was the restaurant where Sang Luo first went to sell vegetarian tripe, and the chef was very skilled.
To talk about Gan's order, we have to first talk about the competitive relationship between Dongfulou and Hongyunlou. The two largest restaurants in the county have been competing with each other since they opened together, but after a few years, they have been evenly matched and it is difficult for either to really suppress the other.
The number of customers at Hongyun Building suddenly decreased a few days ago. At first, I didn't think much of it and thought it was affected by the taxation and disasters in various states. I was afraid that some people were panicking. But when I became concerned about the bad business, I stood on the second floor of my house with my hands in my pockets and looked at the store across the street from me. I soon realized that something was wrong.
What panic? Those who are panicking are always the people at the bottom of society. These young and old men in silk and brocade clothes still eat and drink as usual. Even if they are worried, they are worrying while eating meat and drinking wine. The business of Dongfulou opposite is not affected at all.
No, how come it seems even better?
The owner of Hongyunlou watched for a whole day and confirmed it because he saw that the old customers who often came to his place went to the opposite side.
Those who have become restaurant owners all have their own tricks. He waved his hand to call a waiter, gave him a few instructions, and quickly found a suitable person to go to Dongfulou.
Within an hour, several new dishes from Dongfulou were brought directly from the back door of Hongyunlou to a private room where the owner and the chef of Hongyunlou were staying and presented in front of the two men.
All dishes were delivered to the restaurant kitchen by a designated person, and the owner of Hongyunlou, who rarely went to the market, had a feeling...
It turned out that the opponent was using a big move.
He immediately asked his waiter to go look for the tofu early the next morning.
The guy's home was close to the West Market, and he happened to run into Gan, who had just switched jobs with Feng Liuniang and moved to the West Market to set up a stall.
I found some tofu, bought twenty pieces and took them back.
Hongyunlou added several new dishes that day.
The matter was not over yet. The shopkeeper of Hongyunlou had set his sights on Dongfulou. He asked his waiter, "Why don't you see anyone selling vegetarian tripe?"
Of course not. Sang Luo cannot supply that many goods. What she gave is exclusive to Shopkeeper Xu. You can’t find it anywhere else.
She actually arrived at Hongyunlou first. The chef of Hongyunlou sent her away without even hearing what she was selling, so how could he know that the vegetarian tripe was originally sent to them first?
The county searched for the vegetarian tripe for two days but couldn't find it. In order to find out where the vegetarian tripe came from, Hongyunlou started to bribe people from Dongfulou, picking out the least conspicuous ones.
That person had no contact with the kitchen, and it was not clear who sent the vegetarian tripe. Dongfulou tried to make dried bean curd the day before, and the news was passed to the contact person at Hongyunlou by the waiter who had received the bribe.
This is why Dongfulou serves new dishes in the morning and Gan's takes orders at noon.
These two restaurants alone would order 120 pieces of dried bean curd every day, which meant that even if Sang Luo asked Chen Youtian to make 15 boards, it would not be enough.
Naturally, Chen Youtian didn't hesitate to say anything and immediately offered to do more, no matter how much.
Sang Luo: “…”
She hurriedly told Chen Youtian not to do too much, twenty boards would be enough.
She doesn't have the ability to make more for the time being.
Grinding beans is really tiring, and what she uses to make tofu is not the big iron pot like the one she used in her own time and space, but a ceramic pot. Even though she has tried to buy the largest one possible, it is actually limited. The family also has other businesses, and Sang Luo really can't take care of it all.
Making money to live is one thing, but exhausting yourself for the sake of making money is another. Sang Luo will not do anything that is not worth the loss.
…
A new large vat and two round winnowing baskets were added to the house, and Chen Youtian and others were asked to help move the stone mill in the kitchen outwards, leaving space inside for the large vat and also for the shelves.
The kitchen, which was originally built to be quite spacious, now seemed narrow.
Chen Youtian delivered two wooden shelves on the third day. One was placed in the kitchen to store soybean bags and various jars, and the other was moved into the main house by Sang Luo to store the grain bags.
The three dining stools were finally returned to the table.
During this period, the shopkeeper Xu of Dongfulou was wary of the fact that Hongyunlou across the street was following suit and delivering dried meat with preserved sauce at an incredibly fast speed, so he hired a person to do odd jobs of sweeping and cleaning.
Of course, Sang Luo didn't know all this.
It rained for two days on September 20th, and the weather became noticeably colder. The mountain wind was so strong that people wearing thin clothes would subconsciously shrink their necks. It was even colder at night, and even several layers of sheets, cloth and clothes could not keep out the cold. It was as if we had skipped autumn and jumped into early winter.
Yes, once October comes, it’s winter already.
It’s just that the climate changes between autumn and summer here are not very obvious.
On September 22, Sang Luo went to Yongfengzhai again with freshly made jujube candies and sour jujube cakes. This time she brought back more than three kilograms of cotton, and she only spent the income from Yongfengzhai. The surplus from the sale of vegetarian tripe, tofu, and dried bean curd was stored in a broken clay pot under the bed and was not touched.
Sang Luo started to make the quilt.
There are more than six kilograms of cotton. She thought about getting two quilts weighing more than three kilograms. In this way, three people don't have to squeeze into one bed for the next few days. One quilt per person is just right. When the weather gets colder, the two beds can be used as one, so that they can get through the winter.
The original owner didn't know how to make the quilt, and neither did Sang Luo. In the end, it was Old Lady Chen who helped.
This was the first time that Sang Luo witnessed the omnipotence of an ancient old lady: cotton fluffer. The tools were borrowed from Zhou Cunzheng’s family. The two of them carried the tools back to Sang Luo’s yard. Old Lady Chen started to get things done right away, and she also brought along Sang Luo, Chen Ning, and Chen Xiaoya, three helpers and apprentices.
Sang Luo had only seen this in movies and TV shows, but after following the old lady through the entire process, she realized that there were more than a dozen steps involved.
There were two quilts weighing more than three kilograms. Since the old lady was not very experienced, she did not even take a break at noon. Sang Luo simply made some food and then continued to work. It was not until the sun set that the two quilts were finally finished.
Sang Luo made the first bed herself. When the old lady looked at the sky, she asked Sang Luo to take out the sheets used to make the quilt and helped her sew the quilt.
The way of wrapping a quilt at that time was different from that of modern times. It was not the kind of way of directly putting it on and then zipping it up. At that time, the quilt was wrapped with a quilt cover and a quilt lining, neatly wrapped and sewn together stitch by stitch. If you wanted to wash it, you had to take it apart first.
After everything was done, the old lady said, "Okay, it's all done. You can sleep warmly tonight. Save some money these days and prepare winter clothes. When the winter clothes are ready, get a mattress when it gets colder. You can sleep warmly this winter."
Sang Luo smiled and said yes, inviting the old lady to dinner. The old lady waved her hand and said, "Don't bother me. Your aunt has already prepared it at home. Just follow me and return these borrowed things to the Zhou family."
After returning from the trip to Zhou's house, Shen An and Shen Ning were already rolling on the quilt with joy. Seeing Sang Luo coming back, Shen Ning jumped out of bed and happily rubbed against Sang Luo: "Sister-in-law, sister-in-law, we can cover ourselves with a new quilt tonight! It won't be cold tonight."
Sang Luo smiled and patted the little guy on the head: "You earned it through hard work every day. Let's work harder and earn enough for the mattress and jacket."
The two little ones nodded in unison, responded loudly, and happily rolled around on the quilt.
Sang Luo didn't know that when she and Old Lady Chen were delivering the quilt-making tools back to Zhou's house, they were seen by Li who was picking vegetables on the mountain nearby.
Since the two branches separated, this was the first time that Li touched the hill where his family once lived.
The dilapidated thatched house halfway up the mountain has now become a large yard, with chicken coops and duck coops built outside the house. The house has completely changed its appearance.
She watched for a long time, avoided Sang Luo who came back, and went back home alone. She was depressed for a long time. At night, she talked about this matter with her husband and muttered: "I saw it clearly. If Xu Weihua didn't need that thing, not only would the house be built, but it would be cold today, and the quilts would be prepared. You say... Did the Sang family really get rich? How did they make the money?"
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