Chapter 79 Chapter 79 The rumors are getting more intense
Although they weren't together anymore, they corresponded frequently. He'd informed Baozhu of his absence during the previous holidays, but he hadn't given her the specific reason. He'd always had his letters opened. The first time Baozhu noticed, she'd secretly written a letter to warn him. Pei Yanqing was a meticulous person, and he hadn't written anything he shouldn't have, and with Baozhu's reminder, he wouldn't do it again.
He'd been too busy before, but these days he'd sorted out the people and the issues within the yamen. He was a seasoned official, and after a few dinners, he'd uncovered evidence of collusion between his subordinates. Before he could do anything, they'd already disintegrated from within.
Because they didn't know how Pei Yanqing found out about these things, everyone was suspicious and thought there was a traitor among them. They were too busy taking care of their own mess to bother him. Pei Yanqing, being a good guy, gathered the group of people together and gave them a beating, and then promised them some benefits. After a slap in the face and two red dates, everyone admitted defeat like a pug.
No one dared to make trouble for Pei Yanqing anymore. He had sorted out the affairs of the yamen, so he had time to come back during his leave.
The two chatted for a long time in the yard, their voices were low and no one could hear them. Baozhu also told him some unimportant things about coming to the restaurant. Pei Yanqing saw Baozhu and knew that she had nothing to do recently, so he went home again under the cover of night.
"I'll go to the store tomorrow."
Baozhu nodded, lit another lantern and sent him out.
The restaurant has lost a lot of business recently. These days, most of the customers who come to eat are old customers who have food cards. Even while eating, they still ask from time to time who was causing trouble at the door a few days ago.
Baozhu had no choice but to explain, but seeing these people's half-believing and half-doubting expressions, she knew it was useless to explain.
Those with food passes had their money charged directly to their bank accounts, without having to pay cash. For a while, the store's revenue was minimal, and business seemed even worse. Fortunately, these regular customers trusted the restaurant, and there were no instances of people using food passes to request refunds.
The store was deserted and Baozhu had no intention of going out for the moment. She was concentrating on thinking of how to attract business. Pei Yanqing had to take a day off, and Baozhu had no intention of going out, so he came to the store to help.
This month, the new menu signs also need to be changed, and some of the lanterns in the store that have faded or are covered in dust need to be replaced in time. He is tall and can do all these tasks just by using a stool.
Business is normal today. Many vegetables and fresh meats in the store have not been used yet. If they cannot be sold in one day, they will mostly be taken home to make salted fish and salted meat. The amount purchased in the past two days is only half of the previous amount, so there are still many left.
If we lower the price, business will only get worse in the long run.
There were more customers at noon, so the waiters ate first when there were fewer people. There was not much business in the store at this time, and the waiters were tired after a day's work, so they went to the second floor and found some stools to take a break.
Baozhu had no appetite. Pei Yanqing saw her frowning as she checked the bills, and went to the kitchen to cook two bowls of sauerkraut noodle soup.
It was sprinkled with chili peppers and chopped green onions, and then poured with oil. Baozhu felt hungry when she smelled the sour and spicy aroma.
"Ever since I took up my post, I've been eating bland soups all day. I learned this trick from an old man selling noodle soup in the market. What do you think?"
Baozhu nodded, and his face blushed from the praise.
There were still some unsold cakes in the store, so they didn't bake new ones this time. They packed up the remaining cakes and asked Pei Yanqing to take them away.
Under the cabinet was the herbal tea prepared by my mother. It was shipped from the south and was just the right way to cool down in the summer. Pei Yanqing hung up the bags.
It was just one day off, and after dinner he hurried off. He had something to do in the shop that afternoon, so Baozhu didn't see him off, only telling him to be careful on the way. The shop was empty, and the sun was high outside. Baozhu watched him go away, silently counting a few times in her mind, and saw that he had indeed turned back.
The two looked at each other and felt a little reluctant to leave. Pei Yanqing came back trotting, took Baozhu into the house, closed the door, kissed her on the forehead and left.
The business in the restaurant has not been very good in recent days. Even after trying new dishes this month, there has been no improvement. Baozhu has inquired privately and found out that several restaurants on the same street are secretly making trouble.
Because when Ma Er came to cause trouble before, some people took advantage of the situation. There were many more people watching at the door of the restaurant at that time, which made many people notice Zhen's Restaurant. Those restaurants were happy to watch the fun. Not only did they fan the flames behind the scenes, but even after Ma Er left, they still gossiped behind the back, saying that the cook of Zhen's Restaurant was a woman of bad conduct, and naturally the owner was not much better.
Rumors like these are spreading like wildfire, and there is no way to explain them one by one. Just like three people can make a tiger, this nonsense has been spread around and has become as if it is true.
Zhen's Restaurant was doing good business, and some of its dishes were particularly famous. Some young ladies or wives of officials often sent servants to buy food. However, after they believed the rumors, no one came anymore. The scholars and students were even more afraid to come, as if they would gain a bad reputation by entering Zhen's Restaurant. For a while, even the wedding cakes made by the restaurant could not be sold.
Not to mention the ordinary ladies and aunts in the city, who spread the rumor one after another, turning the restaurant into a den of scoundrels. The hot weather made Baozhu feel suffocated. Seeing business declining, she tried to explain it to others, but they just thought she was making excuses.
Seeing this, Mrs. Chen felt even more guilty. After enduring for a few days, she even wanted to quit her job, thinking that she was the one who was delaying the business of the store.
"The rumors out there are mostly gossip about me. I think the store will be better without me..."
Baozhu shook her head. "It's not you who's delayed us. There are a lot of people on this street who are jealous of our business. Even if there's nothing wrong, it's become gossip. If you really quit, it will just make it seem like something's wrong, and those who are fanning the flames behind the scenes will be even happier. You can just stay in the kitchen and cook as much as you can if there are any customers. If there aren't any, you can come up with some new dishes, or maybe teach Dani'er some cooking skills."
Madam Chen nodded, but her heart felt as heavy as if a huge rock was pressing on it.
Ordinary people believe everything they hear. Once a small story is fabricated, the more people hear it, the more likely it is to be true. If you want to cover it up, no explanation will be enough and people will just think you are quibbling. For ordinary people, there are too few things to do after dinner. If you want to let the rumor go, you can only suppress it with something more interesting.
Baozhu was writing and drawing on the paper while Jiang Shishi was talking to her.
"The weather is getting hotter, and most people don't like to go out. When there are too many people in the store, it's still stuffy even with the windows open. I get up early and sweat just to eat a bowl of noodles." Jiang Shi was also a little helpless. "The second floor is even hotter in the daytime because of the sun. The tables and chairs are all scalding. It's not even the hottest days yet. If it really comes to June, our business..."
Business in all restaurants is bad when it's hot. Although it is related to rumors, those gossips are only one of the reasons. When it's hot, the restaurants are stuffy and most diners don't want to go in to eat.
It's a pity that both the ice stored and the ice made are extremely expensive nowadays. The shop was originally smaller, and although business was average in the summer, there were more cold foods in the summer and the ventilation was good, so generally speaking, it didn't make much of a difference. Now that the restaurant has expanded, not only do the customers feel hot when they come in, but the waiters are sweating profusely when they enter the store.
Baozhu was extremely worried. The cold dishes in the restaurant were not enough if they were rinsed with well water. After the restaurant expanded, more ingredients would be used. The ingredients rinsed with well water were only enough for the two stalls now.
You still have to go find ice. Not many people buy ice at this time of year, and the ice in the ice cellars is mainly supplied to wealthy families or large restaurants. Snack shops have to pay high prices to buy ice. An ordinary ice drink costs dozens of coins, let alone a large block of ice.
However, this did serve as a warning to her, "There's no restaurant in Bianjing that keeps ice in the shop to cool down. If we want to invite people to dine, we should wait until the hottest summer days. If the restaurant has ice to cool down during meals, everyone will want to come and see. But when the summer heat gets really unbearable, who will think about rumors and gossip? They'll just be thinking about how to cool down."
The restaurant putting out ice to cool down is much more important than those groundless rumors. Baozhu also felt that whoever heard that the shop was putting out ice to cool down would come to enjoy the cool air, and the original rumors would naturally dissipate.
When she got home, she asked Madam Xu if she had any ideas. Madam Xu shook her head. However, Baozhu mentioned this matter and it gave her some ideas.
"Why don't I rent an icehouse next year and freeze a cellar of ice during the winter for use next summer? River ice is worthless in winter, but at this time of year, a block of river ice sells for five hundred coins. Even if there isn't much ice left after a few months of storage, any ice I can save is profit. The only expenses are the workers to dig and cut the ice, and the cost of renting the icehouse. After deducting those expenses, the rest is profit."
Baozhu nodded. "Mother, let's form a partnership. This year, you rent an ice cellar. I'll pay half of the cost, and next year, I'll give you 40% of the ice you make. How about that?"
"There's no need for a mother and daughter to talk about this. If this thing really succeeds, I'll give you half next year."
Mrs. Xu would never discuss this with Baozhu, so she immediately nodded in agreement.
However, river ice can only cool down the body, and cannot be used to make iced drinks. If river ice is used to make drinks, the river water is already dirty, and it will become even dirtier after being frozen for several months and melted. Diners will definitely get stomach upset after drinking it. Ice made from saltpeter is good for making drinks. Most of the ice used in restaurants now is made of saltpeter, and there is also ice that is frozen and stored with clean water in winter. In the real dog days of summer, no matter which kind of ice is used, it will cost at least 700 to 800 coins per piece.
If you want to put ice in your store to cool down the heat, you should use at least six blocks of ice every day. When the weather is hottest, the ice will melt quickly and you will use more.
Ice is not only used to relieve heat, the store also plans to serve some new and novel iced foods. Baozhu wants to use river ice to relieve summer heat, and if she wants to make iced foods for the store, she can go to the ice shop to buy clean ice made from saltpeter.
She was originally thinking about where to buy ice, but Zhen's father came back and heard her talking, and immediately said that he knew the owner of an ice shop.
Rich families all had their own ice shops, and some even had their own ice cellars. Zhen's father often went to these people's houses to prepare banquets, and that's how he got to know the ice shop owner.
Baozhu went out to ask around and found out where the store was. Then she went out and found the ice shop.
He asked the price first, then told the shopkeeper his father's name and asked him to give him a lower price. The shopkeeper seemed to be quite familiar with Zhen's father, and the price he offered was cheaper than that of ordinary ice shops.
But even if it is cheap, if the restaurant really wants to use ice to cool down, it will cost at least seven or eight strings of cash a day. The revenue of an ordinary restaurant in a whole day is only a dozen or twenty strings of cash, and during the New Year holidays, the revenue is only thirty or forty strings of cash a day.
Baozhu did the math in her mind. Since the weather got hot, the store only took in three or two strings of cash every day. The rest was mostly deducted from the food cards. Some diners who had food cards even used up all the money on their accounts and were unwilling to renew them.
If we continue like this, business will only get worse and worse. Even when the weather cools down, the original customers will probably have forgotten Zhen's Restaurant.
Baozhu was torn about this matter. If the ice was settled, daily revenue would remain flat, and the shop, which had previously been able to break even, would start to lose money. After much thought, she wrote a letter to Pei Yanqing. Pei Yanqing smiled after reading the letter. Although she said she was torn, in fact, she had already made up her mind. She only wrote back a letter saying that if there was a loss, the loss would be his only responsibility.
"I'll make up for whatever you lost."
Baozhu was actually inspired by his words. What did she mean by loss? From the time she set up her stall to now when she owned this two-story shop, she had never made a loss in business.
Without any further hesitation, he went to the ice shop and asked the owner to order some ice. Since it wasn't the hottest weather yet, he would send three blocks every day for the next few days.
Since the decision was made to use ice to cool down, all the diners who came to the restaurant were very curious. Baozhu took the opportunity to tell the diners about the new ice food that the restaurant had introduced.
Mulberry snowflake dew and mint apricot tea are two cold drinks. After brewing, let it cool down and then add crushed ice. After taking a sip, you will feel the coolness everywhere. It is not just drinks, there are also cold foods, such as cold pork, cold duck, cold chicken and other meat dishes, and cold vegetarian foods such as bamboo shoots and dried tofu.
These cold meat and vegetable platters are priced high in summer. Baozhu makes them with a sweet and spicy flavor, and the fragrance can be smelled from a long distance away.
Fry various ingredients in oil that has been used to fry various spices. This will remove the fishy smell and make the food smell fragrant. Then mix it with condiments such as chili and let it cool.
The meat platter costs 200 wen, and the vegetable platter costs 80 wen. They are spicy and refreshing, and there are ice cubes in the shop to cool down. You can enjoy them just by eating them.
These cold dishes are perfect with wine. Ordinary women like fruit wine, while men prefer sake. In the hot summer, ice is added to the wine. A sip of it will cool you down to your lungs but make you feel comfortable. But this year it is unusually hot.
It's already so hot just after the Dragon Boat Festival. The sun is so strong that even the women who like to sit in the streets to enjoy the cool air are unwilling to go out. It will be even more uncomfortable in June and July.
However, nowadays, Zhen's Restaurant is a great place to cool off, and the newly served cold food and drinks make people linger. Diners who had used up all the money on their food cards and had no intention of renewing it, saw that the restaurant was using ice cubes to cool down the heat, and all of them renew their money.
Ingredients in summer are simple, mostly salads or cold dishes, with few hot dishes. At this time of year, all kinds of vegetarian dishes are sold cheaply at vegetable vendors, and the daily cost of ingredients is very low. In addition, there are more people in restaurants now than during the New Year holidays. Originally, people were a little worried about the cost of ice, but since the reputation of this cool place became known, the profit is no less than during the New Year holidays.
Baozhu simply ordered two more blocks of ice every day. The store used eight blocks a day, and increased it to ten blocks a day during the dog days of summer.
There was a curtain hanging at the door to prevent the cold air from escaping, and it felt cool as soon as I walked in. The restaurant was full of diners. Some of them didn't want to leave after eating, so the next diner started to urge them to leave. The diners who didn't want to leave felt embarrassed to sit there any longer. Baozhu was afraid that a dispute would arise, but fortunately, no dispute arose.
Baozhu wasn't greedy. Not only did she use ice to cool down, she also cleared two tables and placed two jars of water to reduce the dryness. Now even the little kids out there knew Zhen's Restaurant was a great place to cool down in the summer heat. It was cool inside, and the food was refreshing. No other restaurant or restaurant could compare.
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