Chapter 20 Chapter 20 (Revised) Making Huge Profits at Qiqiao Festival
With the money for the journey, Zhao Xiucai began to pack his luggage and prepare to return to his hometown. The house he rented still had more than ten days left, and living there would cost him money every day. Now that he had spent all his money and the prices in Bianjing were high, he didn't dare to delay any longer. If he continued, he would probably not even have enough money to go back.
I don't know who they asked, but they found a merchant ship heading back to the south, and the whole family boarded the ship.
This completely exposed his shame. Even if he returned home and got some money, he would be too ashamed to come to Bian Jing.
The house next door was vacant. Xu, who worked as a real estate agent and knew many people, was looking for a reliable person to rent the house out. However, Mr. Zhao looked kind but had a wicked heart and was not a good person. She would have to see his character before renting the house to him this time.
Of course, this is a later story.
Ah Xiu was rescued by Xu and was filled with gratitude. If it were not for the Zhen family, she didn't know what would have happened to her. She would have been charged with theft and sold to a brothel, and her life would have been over. She had thought that if it really came to that, she might as well jump into the river directly, so that she could have a clean body to reincarnate.
Mrs. Xu felt sorry for the girl who was only in her teens and had to endure such torture, so she took the indenture and prepared to return it to her. She also asked her where her hometown was and told her that if there was anyone at home, she would give her some money so she could go home.
Ah Xiu cried even more bitterly, and was absolutely unwilling to accept this paper contract.
"It's a great favor that you ladies are willing to save me. I dare not accept this contract for nothing. If you have mercy on me, I will redeem myself after I have saved enough money..."
As for where her home is, she refused to mention it, which had already hurt her family. Now she just felt like a lonely person with no relatives or friends.
Afraid that Xu would drive her away, she knelt down and kowtowed, saying that she had done all the work and only asked Xu to give her a brick and tile to live on, and she would work like a slave in the future to repay her.
There is a small room in the Zhen family courtyard that is now piled with miscellaneous items. It is impossible to make a bed there now, so for the time being, we can only put together a cabinet and put a board on it to temporarily place it there.
"Just having a place to stay is enough." Ah Xiu knew how great the favor was. Although Xu didn't mention it, she secretly planned to pay back the twenty strings of cash she had used to redeem her. However, the money alone was not enough, and Ah Xiu made up her mind to work like a slave for the Zhen family.
Not to mention helping the Zhen family with chores during the day, they would rush to do everything from cleaning, cooking, and washing clothes. Apart from anything else, the Zhen family would always have a hot meal when they came home every day.
Baozhu and her elder brother got up early every day and didn't want to see Ah Xiu sitting by the window knitting during daylight. Ah Xiu saw the two of them getting up early and going to the kitchen and wanted to help burn firewood and add fuel to the fire, but Baozhu smiled and shook her head and told her to go ahead.
She has been like a frightened bird these days, so she'd better stay calm for a while. After making some money from selling her silk threads, she will have some money left over and can relax a little.
When no one was at home during the day, she would finish her work and start making shoes. She used the money from making lace to buy good uppers and sew thick soles layer by layer. At first, people thought she was going to use the money from selling shoes, but later people found out that she was making a pair of shoes for everyone in the Zhen family.
Xu took the money and wanted to give it to her, but Baozhu shook her head, "Only if I accept it will I feel more at ease."
Ah Xiu has been smiling more often these days. Before, when she was at Mr. Zhao's house, she often smiled at the Zhen family. In the past few days, she has finally gotten over that hurdle.
When Baorong was setting up a stall, he met a lady from an embroidery workshop. Now she was following behind her, and no one knew what she was up to. Now it was only her and her elder brother who were busy at the stall.
Baozhu wanted to ask Xu,
"Business is booming, but we're short of staff. My brother and I are too busy to handle it. Why don't we ask Sister Xiu to help? She'll pay us twenty yuan a day."
Xu also thought it was okay and asked Ah Xiu, who immediately nodded without hesitation.
She was so busy at the stall that she had no time to spare, but now that Ah Xiu was here, things were much better. Originally, her eldest brother would prepare the rice and give it to Ah Rong to make porridge and ice porridge at home. At a certain time, Baozhu would go back and help her push the porridge and rice cart. Baorong had run away, so she had to go back and push the cart by herself. Now that Ah Xiu was here, the two of them took care of the stall at home.
It is the hottest time of the year, and rice and flour cannot be kept for long. The food eaten in the morning becomes sour by noon, so we have to make it several times a day and sell it at the stall.
During the hottest days of summer, Baozhu had to stay outside for the entire day. She could hardly stand the heat and wiped her face with a wet towel, acting like a heroic woman.
Many people bought the ice porridge and ice noodles. The officials who had patrolled the streets before became regular customers. They would slurp a bowl of mint and mung bean ice porridge in the hot summer, which was really refreshing.
The Qiqiao Festival is approaching, and there are more people at the ferry. There is an endless stream of ships coming and going from the south and the north. In the eyes of wealthy families, the Qiqiao Festival is a good festival to join in the fun, and in the eyes of Baozhu and others, it is another opportunity to make a small fortune.
The family now has a push cart and a flatbed cart. During festivals, the push cart with a stove is still used to set up a stall at the ferry, because noodles and meals have to be sold at the wharf. The other flatbed cart is pushed into the city and only sells cold porridge and cold drinks. The flatbed cart is large enough to hold the porridge and drink buckets.
It wasn't even the seventh day of the Lunar New Year yet, but the streets and tile houses in front of the gates to the east, west, south and north were crowded with vendors. Not only vendors from Bianjing City, but also those from the suburbs and nearby counties had come to make a small fortune.
There are many vendors and even more pedestrians wearing silk and satin.
Baozhu also joined in the fun and bought a few Mohelu and gave one to each of them. These were naturally the most common wooden ones, painted with pigments. For richer families, using gold and silver to make Mohelu was considered vulgar. The vendor said that there were also ones carved with ivory and pearls, which made the wealthy people sneer.
There were more and more people selling lotus flowers on the street, and a bunch cost only a few cents. The old lady selling flowers next door always kept up with the trend and picked lotus flowers from her own pond to sell at this time of year, along with some lotus pods, young water chestnuts, and water shield. The two stalls were next to each other. Baozhu was grateful that she was willing to squeeze out space so that her stall could be set up, so she often bought some fresh flowers and tender vegetables from her.
The vegetable seller on this side had not come for a long time, so Baozhu took that seat and there was no need to squeeze anymore.
Peel open a lotus pod, and you will find the lotus seeds inside are plump and tender. The lotus core is sweet when you put it in your mouth.
The lotus flowers at the stall have been selling well these days. Any boat docked at the ferry would buy a bunch of lotus flowers to decorate the screen if they saw them. The old lady could sell out all the two baskets she picked every day. Originally, the location was not good and not many people asked about it, but some wealthy businessmen loved to eat the porridge and noodles at the Zhen family stall. When the eldest brother delivered them to the boat, Baozhu asked him to ask them about it. Eight out of ten people would say they wanted to buy flowers.
The old lady sold out her flowers very quickly today, leaving only a small handful of lotus flowers and a handful of water shield. She was too old to bear it, and even though she hid under the green umbrella of the Zhen family food stall, she was still dizzy from the sun after noon. At her age, she was too lazy to endure it any longer, so she packed up the remaining lotus flowers and water shield and went back home.
Baozhu couldn't stand the heat, so her elder brother told her and Ah Xiu to go back first. He would also close the stall later. In the morning, he bought two freshly caught bighead carp and put them in the tank. In the evening, he fried lotus slices, minced the fish meat, and cooked a pot of fish balls and water shield soup.
This is a southern dish, especially fresh and refreshing in the summer. Zhen's father slapped his head and said, "Today, a familiar customer asked me to come to his house in a few days to prepare a banquet. The banquet is for scholars from the south of the Yangtze River, and he just wants something elegant. I was just wondering what dish to make. This soup tastes good and has a certain elegance."
When the whole family heard him say this, they realized that they were invited to a banquet.
Because this restaurant has relationships with many places to maintain, regular customers often invite the chef from Fanlou to their homes to prepare a meal, and the manager allows it to pass the bill through the restaurant. After all, he is not the only chef who cooks southern dishes.
If he accepted a banquet in private and someone reported him, he would have no chance of staying at Fanlou. The regular customer who had invited Zhen's father to the banquet was someone the owner had hired, and the bill was being paid by the restaurant. The cost of the banquet wouldn't be counted against Zhen's father, and at most he could get a small reward for a good meal. Even so, he was afraid of any mishaps, so he brought wine and food to the owner's house, so he could get in on any rumors in the kitchen.
During the Qiqiao Festival, the streets were crowded. Baozhu and her elder brother got up early every day to go to the dock to reserve stalls. When the gong sounded for the opening of the market, they rushed to their old spots as if they were familiar with the market. The new vendors fought over the stalls and got hurt. In the end, no one got any good result.
——They were all taken away by the police.
I didn't make any money but ended up spending a few days in jail. As this happened more often, the number of disputes arising from the occupation of stalls immediately decreased a lot.
When the Chinese Valentine's Day came, Baozhu and her eldest brother were responsible for each side. A Xiu and Baozhu went to Zhouqiao to reserve a spot, while her eldest brother and Baorong still went to the pier.
After Ah Xiu and Bao Rong took their places, they went back to make porridge.
The stove at home was always on fire, and the mung bean and mint ice porridge was in great demand. The stall in Zhouqiao prepared a pile of bamboo tubes, and sold a bamboo tube of thinner porridge for fifteen cents. There was an endless stream of people buying it, and it became so famous that even the ladies in silk clothes would often send their servants to buy some to try.
There were so many small vendors that Baorong and Axiu were dazzled when they came to deliver the porridge buckets. To the west of Zhouqiao was a fruit shop, selling golden peaches from Jinling, lychees from Lingnan, not to mention melons and sour fruits.
Ice cubes and ice water were placed under the fruits and covered with cloth. They were treated more preciously than their parents and grandchildren, for fear that they would go bad or be wasted. There were many wealthy families in Bianjing, and as soon as these fruits were put on the table, they would often ask their families to buy them up and take them away to please their masters.
There are also some powerful families who have their purchasing agents pick out the goods first when they arrive, and then sell them outside.
There are a lot of people on the streets these days. After closing the stall at the ferry, the eldest brother came to Baozhu to help set up the night market. Pedestrians are shoulder to shoulder, and from time to time, people who came out to shop together get separated and shout to look for them.
By the time Baozhu closed her stall, the moon was already at its highest point in the sky. When pushing the cart home, Baorong saw someone selling lychees and asked his elder brother to buy a few bunches for him to try.
There were still a few bunches of lychees left on the lychee vendor's stall. Because they were looser than fresh lychees and it was already evening, they were sold at a low price. The remaining bunches were bought up by the big brother.
Baorong couldn't wait to eat one on the way. When he peeled off the bright red skin, he found white flesh, which was so sweet that it made him dizzy.
"Whenever I have money, I will eat lychees every day." Baorong is still young and speaks in a childish manner.
When Zhen's father came home today, he brought half a basket of bayberries. It turned out that the bayberries on the farm of the restaurant owner were ripe, and the servants brought a few baskets to the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper distributed some to each of the cooks in the kitchen. Zhen's father distributed some to the kitchen helpers who often followed him, and took the rest back.
The bayberries were large, juicy, and purple in color. Their sweetness overwhelmed their sourness. Only a few were left to hang in the well, some were pickled with salt, and the rest were used to make wine.
This wine is not a strong liquor, it just has a sweet taste. You can wait until the festival to take it out and drink it.
The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and the Zhen family eats later and later. Tomorrow is the Qiqiao Festival. Ordinary people celebrate it, but people who run small businesses naturally cannot miss this opportunity.
Dad and Mom were tired and rested early. Baozhu and the others took advantage of the moonlight to soak the rice for tomorrow's use. They had to get up early tomorrow and grab a spot when the market opened.
They quickly prepared the ingredients for tomorrow. After washing up, Baozhu blew out the lights and fell asleep immediately. She was so tired that she couldn't even dream. She got up when she heard the rooster crow twice outside. Her eldest brother steamed rice, Baozhu cooked porridge, and Baorong and Sister Axiu picked mint and were washing it.
Remove the mung bean skins and grind them into sand. Add some boiled blooming beans, boil them, let them cool, then add mint juice. Put it into a bamboo tube and put two mint leaves in it. It looks refreshing and pleasing.
The bamboo tubes used in the stall were all ordered from the bamboo craftsman's shop, totaling over a thousand, because they wanted to do business during the Qiqiao Festival. Half of them had been used up in the past few days, so they hurried to the shop to add money and have another 200 made urgently.
The bamboo tubes are boiled in water and then dried in the sun, so they are cleaner than washed bowls.
By the time the market opens, the cold porridge and cold drinks in the well have been chilled. In addition to the cold ones, a bucket of normal food is also prepared. After all, people may not want to eat cold food early in the morning.
At the pier, they still sell cold porridge and cold noodles, but on the Zhouqiao side, they only sell cold porridge. Although it is called cold porridge, it is actually no different from thick drinks. A layer of apricot jam or peach jam is poured under the bamboo tube. In addition to these two jams, there are also pie sauce and osmanthus honey. They will add whatever the customers want.
There was a quilt on the cart, and the bucket was cold for half an afternoon even though I was wrapped up in it.
At the alley entrance, they split up. Baozhu and Ah Xiu headed for Zhouqiao Street outside Zhuque Gate, while the eldest brother and Baorong continued their journey to the ferry. The cart jolted, and the bamboo tubes and bowls rattled as they bounced, making a particularly lively sound this early in the morning.
They arrived relatively early and occupied a good seat. There was a drink vendor next to them. Seeing only two young ladies, he deliberately pushed the cart towards them. Baozhu immediately frowned.
"You're such a daredevil! If you really want to cause trouble, I'll go to jail and make sure you can't set up your stall."
If you bully him, he will become soft. The man selling drinks stopped talking. Baozhu would not gain anything if he did not set up his stall for one day, but if he did not set up his stall for one day, he would have no food to eat for a day.
Seeing that man silently pushed the stall back, she felt relieved. When competing with such people, it all comes down to who is tougher.
As the day gradually brightened, more people came, and the officials from the Street Office were also busy. Not only the Street Office, but all the departments of the yamen sent people out to patrol the streets. The fire watchtower was crowded with soldiers. On such a busy day, there were countless human traffickers and petty thieves. Even with so many officials, it was inevitable that someone would say that he had lost his purse from time to time.
The wealthy families had set up colorful pavilions early in the morning, and they started setting off fireworks at dusk. The red and green colors were very beautiful. Baozhu looked up from time to time. More than ten buckets were sold all day, and only dozens of the more than 700 bamboo tubes used to hold porridge were left.
At the end, there were still people asking, and Baozhu said that if they asked for a bowl from home to serve the food, she would give them two cents as a bonus. Seeing that people who used their own bowls could get two cents as a bonus, those who came around and wanted to buy more went back to their homes to ask for bowls.
Xu finished work early today and only brought two people to look at the house. She came to the stall to help Baozhu in the afternoon. She had just picked out two buckets of porridge. Baozhu still had one bucket left, so she said to the diners, "We have three buckets left. Once they are all sold today, we have to close the stall."
Someone asked, "Where do you usually set up your stall?"
Most of the people who came to buy today had bought and tried the food two days ago. They thought it tasted good and came back again. Many of the stalls set up these days are temporary, so they asked about it because they were afraid that they would not be able to eat it later.
Baozhu has said this many times today. She is not afraid of people asking, but she is afraid that people will not ask.
"Madam, there is a Zhen family food stall that usually sets up shop at the dock. You can find it by just asking when you get to the dock." Baozhu explained to people in detail how to get there, and everyone who listened nodded.
As it got darker, there were more people on the street. Most of them were people who had eaten and were out for a stroll. When they saw Baozhu's stall selling drinks, they came to ask for a taste. This drink was new and interesting. It was hot in July, and seeing mung bean and mint made people feel cool. Most passers-by wanted to buy a bowl to try.
——All the bamboo tubes are used up, so I have to use bowls as a replacement.
More and more people were setting off fireworks. There were already many official residences on Zhuque Street, and when you looked up, it seemed that the dark sky was lit up.
There was a commotion that came from nowhere, and the whole street started to get in chaos. When we heard the news, we only knew that a few children were missing.
As the news spread, the streets became more chaotic and more and more police officers appeared.
Because of this incident, there were fewer people at the stall, and everyone held their children tightly, fearing that one of them would be taken away by the kidnappers.
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