Chapter 244: Try Aunt Wu's Cooking
Song Yuntang looked at her.
"Well, when I come back from the market, I'll let you cook today's lunch. If it tastes good, you can cook at home and send it to the next door. I'll give you two taels of silver every month to cook lunch and dinner. Each meal must have one meat, one vegetable and one soup. The wages and the cost of the dishes are included in the two taels of silver. We will provide the rice ourselves. What do you think?"
Then she said, "My husband has three days off every month, and he may eat out occasionally. In this case, you don't have to send him money. Anyway, you can keep the remaining money every month."
She calculated that Xu Qingye couldn't eat too much by himself.
One meat dish, one vegetable dish and a soup. The portions don't need to be very large. According to today's prices, plus oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and firewood, a day's food would not cost more than fifty cents.
With two taels of silver, at least six or seven hundred coins would be left over.
I only have to cook two meals a day, and the wages of six or seven hundred coins are not low.
Wu had worked as a helper in the kitchen, so she could naturally calculate the profit and nodded happily.
"Okay, I'll do as you say. Thank you for giving me this opportunity."
"Then let's make it this way. I have to go to the market, so I won't say any more to my aunt." Song Yuntang said, and walked towards his yard with the basin for pouring chicken feathers.
Mrs. Wu looked at her and said, "My grandson is familiar with the county town and knows where the vegetables and rice are cheap. If you want to go shopping, you can ask him to lead the way."
Song Yuntang stopped and looked back at the grandparents and grandchildren.
"Okay, then I'll trouble Shunzi."
Cao Shun stood behind Wu with a complicated expression.
Ben thought that the sister who just came to his house was trying to cause trouble for him.
Unexpectedly, not only did she not complain to her grandmother, she also gave her grandmother a job.
Seeing Song Yuntang enter the yard, Mrs. Wu turned around and looked at her grandson, "Shunzi, be smart when you take Miss Song to the market later. Grandma hasn't found a decent job for a long time, and we will have to rely on this job to support the two of us."
Cao Shun nodded.
"I know, Grandma."
Song Yuntang came out of the house carrying a basket and delivered a piece of winter melon to Mrs. Wu next door.
Wu took it and said, "How can this be so embarrassing?"
After Song Yuntang gave her the winter melon, he went towards the market.
Mrs. Wu hurriedly asked her grandson to follow.
Cao Shun walked behind Song Yuntang and whispered.
"sorry."
Song Yuntang looked back at him and deliberately asked, "What are you sorry for?"
Cao Shun mustered up the courage to say, "I'm sorry for bumping into my sister yesterday."
Song Yuntang walked forward.
"You already told me to apologize yesterday. It's a good thing you hit me. If it was some lady from the county, you would have been in trouble yesterday."
"I will be careful next time." Cao Shun said, and came to Song Yuntang's side, "Sister, what do you want to buy? I'll take you there."
Song Yuntang asked Cao Shun to take him to the market to buy glutinous rice, cakes and preserved fruits, and also went to a garment shop. Based on Xu Qingye's height and weight, he bought him two sets of thick clothes for autumn and winter and an indigo cloak with a fur collar. He also bought him a pair of thick winter boots, a hot water bottle for warming hands, and a charcoal basin with a strainer based on the shoe size he measured with a rope before going out.
The weather is getting colder and colder, and I'm afraid I'll have to change into winter clothes by the end of this month.
She was watching when Xu Qingye was packing the boxes. The only thicker clothes he had was an old cotton-padded jacket. There was no kang in the newly bought yard, so he would definitely not survive the winter with that piece of clothing.
His current body still needs to be carefully nurtured.
On the way home, I bought some mushrooms for making soup and some supplements.
These things will be kept at home, but I will tell Mrs. Wu and ask her to prepare a different kind of medicinal meal for Xu Qingye every once in a while.
Winter tonic.
I think if I can get through this winter, I won’t have to be so cautious next year.
All these purchases cost nearly eight taels of silver.
The main reason was that the cloak with a fur collar was a bit expensive. That cloak alone cost nearly three taels of silver. Song Yuntang thought that Xu Qingye would have to travel back and forth between Liuqiao Street and Tang Mansion every day, and it would be cold on the road, so he gritted his teeth and bought it.
Song Yuntang and Shunzi returned to Liuqiao Street carrying large and small bags. They put the things in the yard and asked Shunzi to call Wu to come home to cook.
When Mrs. Wu came, she also brought some young cabbage hearts and a handful of chives that she had grown herself.
She was efficient in her work. While Song Yuntang was tidying up, she had already cooked a pot of chicken and mushroom soup, and also stir-fried some green cabbage and a plate of scrambled eggs with leeks.
Song Yuntang tasted them one by one and found that they tasted really good.
When Xu Qingye returned home, the food in the main hall had just been served. He was quite surprised to see two extra people in the yard.
Song Yuntang introduced him to him with a smile.
"This is Aunt Wu, our neighbor across the alley. She used to help out in the kitchen of a restaurant in town. Starting the day after tomorrow, she will deliver the prepared meals to our home every noon and evening. This is Aunt Wu's grandson Cao Shun."
Xu Qingye is usually a man of few words, so he just nodded towards the two of them as a greeting.
Looking at the serious and even somewhat solemn man, Wu and Cao Shun both became reserved.
Mrs. Wu took off the apron around her waist.
"Miss Song, Mr. Xu, since the food is ready, I won't delay your meal."
Song Yuntang said hurriedly, "I cooked some extra rice for lunch, and we have some vegetables at home. Auntie and Shunzi, can you stay and eat with us?"
Wu waved her hand.
"No, no, we can just go home and eat."
"My aunt has to start cooking again when she goes back. It will be past noon by the time the food is ready. You can just have lunch at my house."
As Song Yuntang spoke, he had already served two bowls of rice from the kitchen.
Mrs. Wu couldn't resist, "Then I'll take some food back to eat, so as not to disturb you two."
She did not dare to use her chopsticks to pick up the chicken. She only picked up one piece of Chinese cabbage and one piece of scrambled eggs with leeks and was about to leave. Seeing this, Song Yuntang hurried forward and picked up a few pieces of chicken and mushrooms for each of them.
After the grandparents left, Song Yuntang handed the chopsticks to Xu Qingye and they began to eat.
She picked up a chicken leg for Xu Qingye.
"Try Aunt Wu's cooking."
"You eat the chicken legs, and I'll eat the chicken."
Xu Qingye picked up the chicken leg from the bowl and gave it to Song Yuntang, and then picked up another piece of chicken from the bowl.
Song Yuntang was stunned for a moment, then quickly found another chicken leg and passed it to him.
"One per person, and don't give me any more."
Xu Qingye looked at the chicken leg in the bowl, smiled helplessly, and started eating.
Wu’s cooking skills were indeed good. Only some chicken soup and chicken were left, while the other two dishes were all eaten up.
When Xu Qingye cleaned up the dishes and went to the kitchen, Song Yuntang had nothing to do, so he took out some medicinal herbs from the supplements he bought today and started to make some common medicines.
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