Chapter 18 Chapter 18 Changing Food and Being Panic in the Middle of the Night
When the weather gets hot, people lose their appetite, and not only the diners, but also the family members. Xu was still out and about in the scorching heat. She came back at noon and drank a bowl of mung bean soup that had been poured from the well, then left without eating.
Mr. Zhao next door is so shameless. I have come to his house several times to ask for money, but he still refuses to pay me back the money he paid for his wife's childbirth. Ah Xiu secretly said that something must have happened in Mr. Zhao's hometown recently, and the family is short of money. Since Mr. Zhao's wife gave birth, they haven't eaten meat for a long time.
She didn't have enough food to eat and her milk supply was insufficient. The child she gave birth to was premature and cried with hunger all day long. Xu was tough on the outside but soft on the inside. Although she urged Mr. Zhao to pay back the 600 coins every day, she still asked Ah Xiu to come over privately and bring some sugared eggs or something and asked her to take it back for Mr. Zhao to drink.
Mr. Zhao didn't come back often these days, and his wife was in bed to recuperate after giving birth. At most, she was scolded a few times, but she was never beaten again.
Xu only talked about what happened next door, and the rest of the family just listened to it. After all, the child was innocent, and she only gave her some eggs and vegetables, nothing more. However, Xu felt sorry for Ah Xiu, and often called her to eat when she gave her food.
It seems that the weather has only been hot in the past few days. A few days ago, it was still cool in the morning and evening, but these past few days, it felt like fire was coming out of my breath. Even the air started to become sticky after a few rains. Although there are sometimes customers who come to try the fresh rice, the clay pot rice business is not as good as before.
Baozhu has already started thinking about new foods, and her drinks have become very popular. There is nothing you can't buy in the teahouse, except for ice cream, various kinds of rice wine, and various kinds of tea.
Of course, the cost of making drinks is also high. These teahouses and drink shops all have special ice cellars or special craftsmen making ice. Selling these ice drinks on the stalls is not only costly, but not many people will come to buy them.
Baozhu wanted to make cold food, such as cold noodles, ice porridge, cold rice, etc., which are refreshing and delicious, and can fill the stomach. Whether it is the workers at the dock or the students at the Imperial College, they all mainly eat to fill their stomachs. If they can have something cool and fill their stomachs, these foods should be popular.
Not every household has a well, otherwise water wouldn't be so expensive. Poor families often draw water from the river, while those who are more affluent don't have to worry about their household water, but they still have to buy water for drinking.
The well at home solved the urgent need for cold food. The well water was still icy in summer. Baozhu and her elder brother tried many meals together in the past few days. They prepared two kinds of porridge, namely lotus seed, water chestnut and osmanthus ice porridge and mung bean paste and mint ice porridge.
After boiling, pour it into a bucket and put it into the well early to boil. After two hours, take it out and you will see fine water droplets condensed on the edge of the bucket. Pour out a bowl and drink it up in a few moments.
In Suzhou, families often eat water chestnut porridge during the dog days of summer. As for the mung bean and mint ice porridge, it is because the small patch of mint seeds that Xu scattered in the yard has grown densely, and the smell is refreshing.
As for the cold rice, it's a delicious and filling dish featuring homemade fried pork floss, diced cucumber and radish, and rolled into rice balls. Another option is bibimbap, a cold rice dish featuring grilled pork, a fried egg, and various side dishes, all mixed with cold rice and topped with Baozhu's homemade sauce.
As for cold noodles, it is the simplest way to eat it. The price of this cold noodles is also the lowest. After all, it is sold at the dock and uses the cheapest black buckwheat noodles. A bowl of cold water with some sweet and sour sauce, mixed kimchi, half a braised egg and a few drops of sesame oil is served. This bowl only costs seven cents, which is both filling and delicious.
The food stall is just a small business, so the food they choose is easy to make and convenient. It is not that they suddenly changed the food. They still sell it after the summer, but they sell less. Fresh food has gradually increased, and new food has been added, such as cold porridge, cold noodles and bibimbap. When old customers ask Baozhu and her friends about it, they seize the opportunity to promote it.
Until July, clay pot rice was no longer seen at food stalls, as it was replaced by new foods.
Clay pots are good for keeping heat and ice in. The clay pots that were previously used to make clay pot rice are now very good for holding porridge or noodles. As for rice, a batch of new bamboo lunch boxes have been made to hold it.
The weather was hot, so several people opened a huge bamboo umbrella with green cloth in the umbrella shop and covered the top of the stall to block some of the dryness in the hot weather.
The food on the stall is divided into three batches. One batch is made early in the morning and sold in the morning, and Baorong delivers another batch at noon, mid-afternoon, and dusk.
Among them, cold porridge sells best near dusk. After a busy day, no one wants to light a fire to cook a hot meal. Summer is already irritating, and the heat makes people even more anxious. If you can't afford all kinds of milk, flower, and fruit juice drinks, the cold porridge at Zhen's food stall is a good way to beat the heat.
The portion is generous, one bowl is enough for two people to share. The mint and green bean paste is even more refreshing, with a refreshing feeling that goes from the throat to the stomach. After finishing a bowl, I feel relieved.
Taking advantage of the afterglow of the setting sun, every household pushed open the door and came out to move around, and the Zhen family food stall was surrounded by people.
The eldest brother prepared the ingredients before he left. The two buckets of porridge cooked by Baorong in the afternoon were frozen at the bottom of the well for the whole afternoon. They were just piled up in the quilt and pushed over. The water droplets condensed from the alternation of hot and cold were still hanging on the edge of the bucket.
As soon as the stall was moved, the two buckets of porridge that were almost sold out were taken away. Some people brought their own pots and bowls to fill up the ice porridge, while others took Zhen's clay pots back. Those who took the clay pots away paid a deposit, which would be returned when the pots were delivered later.
By dark, both buckets of porridge were sold out. Whenever someone came to ask for more, Baozhu could only shake her head and say that there was no more. The diners could only sigh and ask the other person to come earlier.
The ice porridge is the best-selling item every day, with six buckets sold at most. The second best-selling item is cold noodles, with three buckets sold. Fewer people buy bibimbap and rice balls, as most of the orders come from students at the Imperial College.
After a busy day, the three brothers and sisters all felt sore in their backs.
There was still a small pot of porridge boiling in the well, just in time for dinner. Neither Xu nor Zhen's father had returned yet, so the eldest brother went to cut up a few salted duck eggs and stir-fried some pickled mustard greens with chili peppers. Baorong served them all on the table, and then his parents returned.
After the lights were lit, tiny mosquitoes flew around the flames. It was a hot day, and drinking some cold porridge made people feel much more refreshed. The family didn't have any particular manners. They each took a bowl and picked up some food and sat under the eaves or stood in the yard to eat, and they had to drive away the flying insects from time to time.
Since everyone started to get busy, the Zhen family always had this dinner very late. By the time they finished eating, all the lights in the alley were turned off.
Baozhu had just washed the dishes and came out to empty the dirty water when she suddenly heard a faint knock on the door. At first she thought she had misheard it, but after listening carefully for a while, she realized that there was really someone knocking on the door.
It was late at night and Baozhu was on guard, so she called her elder brother to ask.
When the door opened, Ah Xiu was seen standing at the door with a miserable look on her face. She knelt on the ground and kowtowed several times. Zhen Jia Dalang was startled and pulled her up again.
Ah Xiu hit the ground so hard that her forehead was bruised and bleeding.
The eldest brother immediately pulled the person up. Ah Xiu was thin, so he could easily lift her up. When Zhen Dalang saw that Baozhu and Rong had come out, he avoided them and went to the kitchen.
Baozhu took her into the house and asked what happened, only to see her about to kneel again, "Please girls, save me——"
Ah Xiu was like a cat whose tail had just been stepped on, her face filled with fear and panic, tears streaming down her face. "Mr. Zhao told my wife that he wanted to sell me to a brothel."
The Zhen family found out what kind of business was done on the flower boat on the first day they arrived in Bian Jing.
Xu, who had followed, heard half of what was said and spat, "It's a pity that you are a scholar, but you can come up with such an idea."
Baozhu asked again what happened to the Zhao family.
Ah Xiu just sobbed and told the whole story.
"A letter arrived from my hometown some time ago."
Zhao Xiucai has made little progress in his studies, and even though he used connections to get into the Imperial College, he spends his days out drinking and having fun. Last month, on the day his wife gave birth, he was out with those people, composing poetry and prose.
This was supposed to be a happy day, but it was the letter from their hometown that made Mr. Zhao and his wife panic.
It turns out that Mr. Zhao's family is also a mess.
Although the family has a lot of wealth, Zhao Xiucai still has two brothers. In the past few years, they were not married and had no say in the family. Now that they each have their own families, they naturally can't stand that their parents gambled all the family wealth on Zhao Xiucai.
For decades, they had been asked for money, like a bottomless pit, and no one knew how much money they had fed. However, they had never passed any imperial examinations. Even if their family was wealthy, it could not withstand such a situation. Besides, they had wives and children to support, so how could they be willing to support their eldest brother's family for nothing? So, the two brothers had a quarrel and proposed to separate the family.
Of course, his parents did not agree, but in recent years, Zhao Xiucai sent very few letters back home except asking for money. The two brothers made a fuss and finally separated the family.
The letter said that his parents did not ask Zhao Xiucai to support them, but only wanted him to show filial piety during the New Year holidays.
Zhao Xiucai was the eldest son in the family. The money he had spent on his studies over the years, plus the debts he owed to others, was too numerous to count. After the family assets were counted and divided among the people, Zhao Xiucai was given 20 mu of land, and he didn't even have a place to live, not even a brick or tile.
The family division document was not only signed by his parents and brothers, but also witnessed by several clan elders and uncles. The clan had always taken a fancy to him, and if he was at home, he would always be the first to kowtow to the ancestors during the New Year.
This letter made Mr. Zhao dumbfounded. No wonder he hadn't received any money in the past few months. He had spent all the money he had and even borrowed some from his classmates to make ends meet. He was just waiting for some money from home to pay off his debts. Unexpectedly, he didn't receive any money but only the documents for separation of the family. He was now studying in the Imperial College and had to pay for it every month. If the money stopped, he would have no money even to go home.
Whenever his old friends and classmates invited him out for a drink and poetry, he would blush and refuse. He hadn't been to school for half a month, staying at home all day, and his temper only grew worse.
But he didn't know what the situation was like in his hometown, so he had to go back anyway. It was ridiculous that the family divided up the house while he was away.
He felt that his parents were coerced by the two brothers and that was why they didn't see things clearly. The two brothers were also short-sighted. His future was yet to come. If they fell out today, it would be of no use to the two brothers in the future.
He had never worked before and didn't know how to take care of the twenty acres of land he was allocated. Even if he didn't know how to farm, if the family division was really decided, he would have to rush back and rent the land to someone else so that he could continue to study.
Of course, he needed money to go back. The family had been struggling to make ends meet these days, so Zhao Xiucai secretly pawned some of his wife's jewelry. However, his hometown was far away, and the money he got from pawning the jewelry was not enough for daily expenses, let alone the money for the journey home.
Looking again, Ah Xiu has grown up and become taller. After she moved to the Zhen family's rented house, the Zhen family often secretly fed Ah Xiu, and she didn't look as skinny as before.
Having raised her for all these years, he felt he had done her a favor, so he secretly approached the flower boat owner's mother. The mother knew that Ah Xiu was of the right age, so she was willing to offer thirty strings of cash.
Zhao Xiucai was full of thoughts and naturally could not find a dentist because those dentists had loose teeth and often dealt with wealthy families. If this matter were to be made public, his reputation would be ruined.
He discussed this with the scholar's wife at night. The scholar's wife always beat and scolded A Xiu, so she was uneasy when she saw Zhao Xiucai's calculating look. She said that after all, she had served him for several years, and if she sold him to the flower boat, it would inevitably damage the good karma of her newborn son.
Mr. Zhao's face darkened and he started to curse. The scholar's wife didn't dare to say anything. Besides, she was short of money now. Her dowry was already used to cover daily expenses. If she didn't go back, she really wouldn't be able to survive in Bianjing City.
Zhao Xiucai talked to his wife again and falsely accused Ah Xiu of the jewellery he had secretly pawned some time ago. This way he could sell the person away without any excuse.
Ah Xiu overheard the couple's night talk and was so frightened that her heart was trembling and her legs were weak. She had no other choice but to go to the Zhen family while Zhao Xiucai and his wife were deep asleep.
"Please ladies, please save me. I can be your slave from now on."
The eldest brother went to the kitchen to boil eggs, knocked on the door and handed them in, and asked Baozhu to wipe the bruises off the man's forehead.
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