Chapter 13 Chapter 13 Small Business Brother and Sister Settle Accounts
Mr. Zhao had quite a lot of luggage, a few mahogany boxes and crates that he had hired porters to carry over.
The scholar's wife waited until the maid had put all the things in place before she came in a small blue cloth sedan chair. Her daughter got out of the sedan chair first. Her two buns were tied with red hair strings. She was about three or four years old, looked a little scared, and followed timidly behind the maid.
The maidservant was not very old and spoke a dialect from some unknown place. She helped the scholar's wife get out of the sedan chair and stayed by her side to serve her.
The scholar's wife had a pair of small eyes and thin eyebrows. She walked into the yard slowly with a big belly.
The doors of the two houses were separate and there was a wall between them. Apart from the occasional bumping into each other when they went out, they had no other interactions. However, sometimes louder voices could be heard, usually the scholar's wife scolding the maid.
After living there for a few days, Xu found out that the girl's name was A Xiu, and she looked younger than Bao Zhu. Once, Xu saw the girl being beaten and being driven out of the yard to kneel. She was so thin and looked pitiful. After asking, she found out that the girl was already eighteen years old this year. Her family could not make ends meet. She had a bunch of younger brothers and sisters. She was sold to a human broker for eight strings of coins when she was about fifteen years old. In the past few years, she has been following the scholar's wife and serving her. Although she was often beaten and scolded, at least she could have food to eat and live a life of plenty.
When Xu found out about this, she felt pity for her and often secretly gave her some food.
The house had already been rented out, but after sending out the rental forms, there were still many people asking about it. Xu was quick-witted and saw that the house agent was making a lot of money, so she became tempted. She went to the brokerage firm to ask and learned that there were official brokers and private brokers. If she wanted to do it, she could only register with the brokerage firm and pay a considerable fee to be a private broker. In addition, she had to give the brokerage firm a cut for each order she took.
Since there is profit to be made, she doesn't care whether she takes a cut or not.
The pawnshop had some properties for sale, and they had allocated a section to Xu. She was very discerning, and she had given gifts to everyone she dealt with at the pawnshop. After some maneuvering, she was able to secure a much better property than others.
Xu thought that the previous method of issuing bills was feasible, so he made a lot of bills to distribute, including renting and selling houses.
As a result, Zhen's father went to Fanlou to work every day, and Xu was busy outside. Now the family has settled down. Baozhu and her eldest brother also began to think about the small business that was originally proposed.
If you go to the streets, you will see a wide variety of food. Whether it is special snacks from the north and the south, or even exotic food from foreign countries, you can find them in the city of Bianjing. There are several famous ones, and you have to queue up every day to try them.
In the huge city of Bianjing, it was not difficult to find a job, but it was difficult to find a long-term job. Even the pork vendors at the street corners had to come up with new tricks to attract customers from time to time, let alone starting a food business.
After wandering around the streets for a few days, the brother and sister decided that they should first find a good place to set up a stall. Dalang thought that selling lunch boxes outside the Imperial College would be the best option. Firstly, there were many scholars there and they had more money than ordinary people. Secondly, there were not many vendors there and no one was competing for business. He was just afraid of getting in the way of his second brother.
No matter what era it is, there are always people who laugh at others but do not hate others. If my second brother's classmates saw his brothers and sisters setting up stalls, they would probably gossip and disturb his studies.
After my second brother learned about this, he didn't feel any impact, but instead became particularly supportive.
"This won't affect me in any way. We earn our money honestly, so why should we be afraid of being laughed at?" The second brother shook his head. "My family has already spent countless money on my studies. It's already very unfair. If my studies delay our profitable business, I'll be even more ashamed."
Baozhu smiled and shook her head, "What are you talking about, second brother? If it weren't for me, our whole family wouldn't have had to rush to Bianjing to hide."
The brother and sister smiled at each other. In her previous life, Baozhu had never felt any family warmth, but in this life, her family was lively and cheerful. Although the brothers and sisters had different personalities, they worked together. Although life was difficult for a while, they would always be able to live a good life in the long run.
Although her second brother nodded in support, Baozhu thought about it and still felt that it would be better to go to the ferry terminal. Most students of the Imperial College would not eat until lunchtime after school, and most of them would look down on the food sold at the street vendors.
After careful consideration, Dalang and Baozhu decided to set up a stall at the dock.
She was planning to sell clay pot rice. She had been wandering around the streets for a long time but had never seen anyone selling clay pot rice. She thought that new food would always attract a lot of attention, so she decided to make her stall famous first. When the weather got warmer, she could make other food that would be easier to follow up.
Today, Bian Jing is prosperous, and there are many laborers loading and unloading goods at the ferry docks. However, these laborers only earn two pounds a day, and they would rather eat two mixed flour steamed buns to fill their stomachs than spend more money to buy food.
But when you actually see it, you realize that the majority of people at the dock are not manual laborers. There are also many merchant ships and passenger ships docked at the dock. On these ships, there are merchants who want to fill their stomachs with something to eat, and boatmen who have been sailing for several months and whose faces are green with greed. There are all kinds of people there.
Baozhu still remembers the days on the boat when she came to Bian Jing from Suzhou. Every time she changed boats, she would rush to the dock to look for food as soon as her feet touched the ground. The food on the boat was really hard to swallow. Since she was looking for food on the spur of the moment, she couldn't be picky. If the food tasted good, she would remember to come back next time. If it didn't taste good, she would just curse and leave in a hurry.
The cost of making clay pot rice is not high, but the clay pot and the bamboo covering it need to be specially made, which costs some labor.
Of course, we have to ask the family to taste it first to see if it is reliable. Baozhu told her eldest brother how to make this clay pot rice. Zhen Dalang is the cook, so after Baozhu explained it, he almost knew it.
The brother and sister pondered in the kitchen for an entire afternoon and finally decided on four flavors. The first and most expensive one was the cured meat rice, which contained cured meat, cured sausage, cured pork ribs and salted egg yolk. The second one was the mushroom and chicken rice, the third one was the minced meat and eggplant rice, and the fourth one was the sauerkraut and shredded pork rice.
After the decision was made, Zhen Dalang started to work. By the evening, he had made four dishes in a clay pot. Baozhu had brewed a jar of sauce for the rice with beans when she came. It is not ready yet and is refrigerating in the warehouse. The sauce she made is loved by her family. All the way from Suzhou to Bianjing, they relied on her sauce to mix with the rice to make it through.
The homemade sauce is not ready yet, so I’m using ordinary sauce for mixing it today. I add some fried oil, mix it well, lift the lid of the casserole, and pour it on the rice. It will instantly burst out with a mouth-watering aroma.
Today we are using our own clay pot. We have four pots of different sizes. The whole family will eat this in the evening, and I am trying some of the flavor for them.
Although Zhen's father worked as a kitchen helper in Fanlou and was provided with three meals a day, he usually came back to eat with his family in the evening. Baozhu just said that her father and mother were in for a treat, and then she saw her father and mother come in from outside together.
After work, Zhen's father went to the pawnshop to pick up Xu. Baorong couldn't help but want to try it in the afternoon. He was very anxious after being stopped. Now that the whole family was together, he couldn't wait to urge his parents to wash their hands and brought the bowls and chopsticks to share the food.
Not only the appetizer, she felt that the rice crust underneath was even more fragrant. The oily and golden rice crust was crushed with chopsticks, and it was indescribably crispy and fragrant when put in the mouth. It was more fragrant than the ordinary rice crust rice cooked in an iron pot. It was even more delicious when mixed with soup, making people unable to put their chopsticks down.
Grandma Zhen is old and her teeth are a little loose, but that didn't stop her from chewing a small piece of rice crust with relish. Everyone agreed that selling clay pot rice at the ferry was a viable idea.
"My second brother won't be back these few days, so I'll send him a bowl tomorrow to try, and also send another bowl to my cousin Dong." Baozhu put down her chopsticks when she had almost finished eating. Her idea was to ask her second brother and cousin Dong to help promote the business. Then, she would not only sell the food at the docks, but she might also be able to get in touch with the Imperial College.
Xu also nodded, "Then I'll pack some dried fruits and clothes, and you can send them over tomorrow."
Erlang only came home once every ten days, bringing some dry food. Although his home was closer now, he still felt it was better to live in the school dormitory, because he was afraid that he would become lazy at home and delay his studies. The difficult conditions made him more focused on his studies.
Baozhu admired her second brother from the bottom of her heart. Everyone said that he was talented in studying, but in fact, his second brother was the most hardworking among them. In the summer, if mosquitoes landed on him and sucked blood until his stomach burst, he would not know to drive them away. In the winter, his feet were frozen and he did not know until he stood up and fell and called for help.
Baorong kept saying that she would go with her elder sister to deliver food to her second brother tomorrow. All the brothers and sisters had their own private money, and her second brother often gave it to his two sisters. People strolling in Bianjing were in a dazzled state, and Baorong got some pocket money from her second brother and went to buy food or entertainment. After she finished her muttering, her second brother leaned back in the chair and touched his stomach. When he saw that everyone had put away their chopsticks, he stood up with his stomach full to clean up the dishes.
The praise from her family members gave Baozhu more confidence. The next day, she went with Baorong to deliver food to her second brother and cousin from the Dong family. Since her second brother had many classmates and they were not from Bian Jing, she asked her eldest brother to make a few more portions and bring them along. She naturally had in mind that if others tasted the food and found it delicious, she might be able to attract some business.
After the meal was delivered, Baozhu went to the shop to order clay pots. She ordered about a hundred of them. These pots had to be made using special molds, and the price the shopkeeper asked for was a little higher. Even though she bargained hard, each one still cost more than forty cents!
At the end, he rounded off the remainder, which made up four strings of cash.
After the clay pot is made, I will ask someone to weave a bamboo bag. The price of bamboo is not low now. The bamboo craftsmen in the shop are skilled. They don’t do this kind of small job themselves, but distribute it to the women who know how to weave bamboo. The shopkeeper will take some profit from it, so both sides can make money.
I had built a cart before, which was used to transport goods at home. Now, if I want to set up a stall, the cart is not enough, so I just need a push cart at most. I was familiar with Zhen Jia Dalang, the carpenter shop I went to last time, so I asked him to build a push cart with a stove, and the owner gave me money without hesitation. Apart from the above expenses, I only need to buy ingredients when I set up the stall, and there is no other expense.
After the brother and sister discussed it, each of them paid half of the capital. They also made it clear that although they had a good relationship, they had to distinguish what needed to be settled. Madam Xu, who was the real estate agent, took the initiative and even signed a document for the two of them, stating that the brother and sister would each pay half of the capital, and the interest would also be divided in half. Baozhu and Zhen Dalang had no objections.
Madam Xu is a gifted speaker. She has already closed two deals in recent days. The individual orders are particularly useful. Recently, she helped a wealthy man who returned to his hometown to sell an idle house. After deducting the money paid to the brokerage firm and the expenses of handling the matter, she still had five strings of cash in her hands!
Another incident was helping a young man who was studying at the Imperial College to rent a small courtyard. This was the young man who had wanted to rent a house from the Zhen family before, but later Zheng Xiucai rented it first. Madam Xu felt a little embarrassed, so she specially helped him find a suitable house. The money she charged the middleman was not much, and after deducting the money she paid to the broker, she made a profit of 800 yuan.
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