Chapter 88 Growth【VIP】
The next day, noon.
Chang Wei tightened the reins and led the team to the destination they usually passed by.
So everyone unloaded the carts carrying the goods on the spot, and took the mules to the river to eat grass and drink water, so that the animals could rest.
Huang Songbai also led his mule to the river and fetched some water.
Tanaka Masaru and his daughter were collecting firewood on the spot, building a clay stove and making a fire to prepare lunch.
"Dad, let's cook noodles for lunch, cut two sausages, beat three eggs, and add some vegetables, okay?" Tian Baozhu picked out the ingredients prepared by her family from the basket in the caravan.
OK, why not?
These ingredients were packed separately in oil paper and sacks, while the dried meat and sausages were hung outside the car to dry.
Tanaka Masaru took the water brought back by his third brother and poured it into the pot to boil. He first filled the three people's water naan, and left the rest for his daughter L to use for cooking.
Tian Baozhu grabbed a handful of dried vegetables and put them into the pot, took out three crispy breads, cut the sausage and rabbit meat into cubes with a tiger bone knife, simmered them for a while, and then stirred them in the pot with chopsticks.
Tanaka Zheng and Huang Songbai sat on the side and watched. Although A Yao told them before leaving that he would make some easy-to-store ingredients for them to take with them on the road, they never expected that noodles could be made into this kind of pancake shape.
Especially after Baozhu put all three dough cakes into the pot, in a short while, the originally crispy dough cakes became fluffy and curled up. When picked up with chopsticks, they were very elastic and not easy to break.
The fragrance spread out instantly, causing the men around to sniff, curious about what the three were eating and why it smelled so good.
Tian Baozhu pinched a pinch of salt into the pot to adjust the taste, took out a jar of pickles, and then began to distribute food to the elders.
A bowl of chewy noodles with vegetable soup, after slurping it up, all the fatigue of the three people disappeared. Paired with the crispy pickled radish strips made by themselves, they really enjoyed it more and more, and sweat began to appear on their foreheads.
"This soup is very refreshing. We have naan, right? I'll get a piece and soak it in the soup. Brothers-in-law, do you want some?" Huang Songbai finished eating first and got up to walk towards the caravan.
Tanaka finished slurping the last mouthful of noodles and yelled to his third brother, "Give me two pieces."
He had no appetite after chewing the dry naan yesterday, and today he finally had a meal with soup, so he must eat until he was full.
There is still some sausage and meat in the noodle soup, which is served with crushed naan. The taste is incomparable to dry naan.
Chang Wei couldn't help himself after hearing the sounds of the three people eating. He walked over shamelessly and looked into their pots. "Didn't you say you wanted to make some dried vegetables to sell to us? Is this what's in this pot?"
Hearing this, the three of them looked into the pot, and there was nothing left.
Fortunately, Tian Baozhu reacted quickly and understood what Chang Wei meant. She wiped her mouth, put down her bowl and chopsticks, and said to Chang Wei, "If Captain Chang doesn't mind, I'll make you a bowl to try."
"Leader, don't let Brother Xiaotian only have one bowl. Make more for the brothers to try. If it tastes good, we can all pay for it." The brothers behind Chang Wei have been drooling over it for a long time, but they are too embarrassed to speak up.
As they walked together, they could see that this Xiaotian brother was going out for the first time and was very shy, so he didn't talk to them much.
Chang Wei took out a tael of silver from his pocket and handed it to Tian Baozhu, "Is this money enough to buy a meal for my brothers?"
Tian Baozhu didn't argue with him and took the silver in her hand. "Then please fetch more water, brothers. I'm afraid one pot won't be enough."
Everyone was overjoyed when they heard this. They stuffed their dry food into their bags and took containers to fetch water.
Pot after pot of noodles were cooked and distributed to everyone. If there were not enough bowls and chopsticks, everyone would take turns eating.
Some people couldn't even wait and broke off branches on the roadside to make chopsticks to share a bowl with their brothers. After they finished eating, they all ate the soup, a mouthful of naan, a mouthful of noodle soup, and a bite of pickled radish.
It’s really delicious and addictive.
"Brother Xiaotian, how much are your dried vegetables, meat, and bread? I want to buy some. The meat tastes better than the ones we buy in the store."
"And the pickles, why didn't I think of bringing them? They're so appetizing."
"You talk as if you have pickles at home to bring."
After the meal, everyone scrambled to buy ingredients from Tian Baozhu. The taste of this pasta was very different from the noodles they had eaten in other places. It was fragrant, extremely fragrant.
Tian Baozhu took out a notebook and gave everyone a quote while asking his father to take all the ingredients out of the car and show them to everyone.
Crispy noodles cost five cents a piece.
All kinds of dried vegetables are ten cents per pound.
Dried rabbit meat and sausage are both 25 cents per pound.
They didn't bring much food with them, so apart from keeping some for themselves, they could only share some of the rest with everyone.
Chang Wei had already spoken first, "Don't grab it. If you think it's delicious, we can go to Huang Ji next time."
"yes,
Please buy less this time so that the brothers can enjoy their food first."
Chang Wei said, "Get lost!"
Tanaka was packing the food for everyone, Huang Songbai was weighing it, and Tian Baozhu was collecting the cash and keeping accounts on the side.
When it was Chang Wei's turn, he had not yet handed over his money, but instead received a lot of copper coins.
Brother Xiaotian said seriously, "It's not easy for everyone to earn money when we're out there. We'll take what we have. Those pots of noodles won't cost more than a tael of silver. You don't have to pay me for the ingredients you want to buy."
When the brothers present heard this, they felt very relieved.
When they were away from home and didn't know anyone, they were often cheated by shops in various places. The reason they were able to settle down was because of the experience they had accumulated from being cheated so many times.
So when Tian Baozhu said these words, everyone was deeply moved.
"I accept you as my brother. If you go out again in the future, Brother Chang will take you with you." Chang Wei said proudly and stretched out his hand to pat Tian Baozhu's shoulder heavily.
Tian Baozhu couldn't withstand his force and was suddenly hit, falling to the ground. She quickly got up and opened her bright eyes excitedly, "Captain Chang, do you keep your word?"
"Of course, I, Chang Wei, can do anything I say, but you're too weak. Can you handle it?"
"Yes, I can definitely do it."
The meal fostered a sense of camaraderie among the people.
When the tea merchants passed by Baihe Town, the three of them followed the team to stay in a hotel first, and booked two connected guest rooms. After completing the formalities, they drove the mule cart to the traction building to deliver the goods.
According to the agreed time, Manager Lu estimated that they would come in the next two days, so he arranged for Li Niang to wait for them early.
As soon as the mule cart stopped outside the embroidery building, Li Niang saw Huang Songbai and hurried forward to greet him.
"It's hot and you must have had a hard time on the road. Please follow me." Li Niang walked forward with a smile and welcomed the three people into the embroidery building, while directing the guys in the building to unload the raw silk from the cart.
"Miss, there's some embroidery work my sister got from you on the cart. It's a folding screen. Please ask the guys to help move it."
It was the first time for Tian Baozhu and Tan Zhongzheng to come back. They were shocked to see the huge embroidery building and the embroidery, clothes and jewelry displayed inside.
No wonder A Yao was worried that the silk fans and velvet flowers they made would not sell. It turns out that the world outside is so wonderful.
She had broadened her horizons today.
However, she also found that the hairpins and ornaments displayed on the counter of the embroidery building were mostly gold, silver and silk, but she had never seen velvet flowers. She touched the jewelry box in her arms and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Scarcity makes things valuable, and she thought that this trip to Jiangnan might be feasible.
Li Niang led the three people into the room, first served each of them a bowl of sour plum ice drink and cakes, and asked them to wait here.
Not long after, Shopkeeper Lu came back from the warehouse after counting the goods.
As soon as she came in, her eyes were full of smiles. The quality of this batch of raw silk was much better than the raw silk she had purchased before.
"Manager Lu!" The three of them put down their iced drinks and greeted the visitor.
"Please sit down and talk. I just went to see the goods and was very satisfied. Wenying's embroidered screen is also very good. Her embroidery skills are becoming more and more exquisite."
The two grown men didn't know how to respond and just kept responding in L. Since we took the job of shopkeeper, we naturally have to do it well. This is what we should do.
Shopkeeper Lu hadn't met such a sincere partner in the business world for a long time. He took out the silver note he had prepared and handed it over: "The total payment for this batch of raw silk is 46 taels, and the cost of the screen is 10 taels. Do you think it's correct?"
They had already calculated the weight and payment of this batch of raw silk at home.
The two children, A Yao and Zi An, also told them to tell the shopkeeper Lu to exchange them for silver notes so that they could carry them easily.
Unexpectedly, Manager Lu had already done it for them without them having to ask.
Huang Songbai took the five silver notes and gave them to Baozhu, and kept the six taels of silver on himself.
Shopkeeper Lu exchanged a few pleasantries with everyone and then asked why Chen Yao didn't come this time.
Tian Baozhu immediately took over her words, and took out a jewelry box from her bosom and handed it to Shopkeeper Lu: "Ayao and Wenying have been working on making velvet flowers at home recently. They specifically asked me to give this peony velvet flower to you, Shopkeeper."
Shopkeeper Lu looked at the jewelry box with smooth polished edges and knew it was not bought from outside. He knew that the jewelry inside was made by them themselves, so he accepted it with confidence.
At first glance, she was stunned by the lifelike peony flower.
Shopkeeper Lu immediately took it out, and pinned it in his hair in front of the bronze mirror in the room. The more he looked at it, the more he felt that this peony suited her perfectly. "Did A Yao say she wanted to sell this velvet flower? If you have more styles, why not keep a few for sale in my embroidery shop?"
Tian Baozhu went to the backyard and took the jewelry box from the caravan and brought it to Manager Lu for her to admire.
Shopkeeper Lu was very attracted by these velvet flowers of various shapes, but he failed to reach a cooperation with Tian Baozhu this time because Tian Baozhu wanted to take these jewelry to Jiangnan to sell.
However, Tian Baozhu promised Manager Lu that she would write a letter to tell A Yao, and then A Yao and Manager Lu would communicate in detail to discuss the cooperation matters.
After staying in Baihe Town for a day, the three continued on their journey with the tea merchant.
Later on the journey, Tian Baozhu had learned to drive a mule cart alone, dared to sleep on the ground under the tent, and dared to joke with the men she traveled with and listen to their interesting stories from all over the country. Her notebook was already full of notes before she arrived in the south of the Yangtze River.
Every time she arrived in a town, she would write a letter home, expressing her father and uncle's longing for her as well as her own, and also included local crop seeds and planting methods. She would give money to the post station to send it back to Qingfeng Town to Huang, the manager of the Huangji Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
The only thing that bothered her during the journey was her monthly menstrual period and the problem of washing herself during the journey.
At night, Tian Baozhu pulled down the curtain of the caravan and opened the bundle that her mother had prepared for her. She looked at the brand new menstrual belts and the corners of her eyes gradually turned red.
But she soon returned to normal, changed her menstrual belt, jumped out of the caravan, and took turns staying up all night with her uncle.
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