Chapter 31 Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes Are Here
When Tang, the shopkeeper of the Lotus Restaurant, saw Xu Zhichun and the others, his smile became even more sincere. He couldn't help but share with Xu Zhichun, "Miss Xu, we renamed the cold-mixed fish skin to cold-mixed crispy tripe. We served it yesterday, and all the customers who tried it praised it. This is a unique way to turn waste into treasure."
Xu Zhichun was also happy: "Congratulations, Shopkeeper Tang. Hearing what Shopkeeper Tang said, I feel more at ease taking the fifty taels of silver!"
Shopkeeper Tang laughed.
Their Lotus Restaurant was one of the most upscale restaurants in the county. Even a simple dish of lettuce with garlic sauce cost ten wen, while their cold-mixed fish skin, a new dish not found elsewhere, sold for twenty-five wen, even though the cost was practically zero. They could make their money back in less than six months.
After Manager Tang said this, Xu Zhichun couldn't help but feel a little greedy. He planned to buy a fish today and take it back. In the evening, he would skin the fish, cut the fish meat into pieces, make a braised dish, a cold dish with the fish skin, and a fish head tofu soup.
After leaving the Lotus Restaurant, Xu Zhichun said that he wanted to go for a stroll and asked Liang Mingliang to go and accompany Zeng Xiaoyan and the others first.
Liang Mingliang was a little worried, and Xu Zhichun laughed: "Don't worry, I know the way. What's there to be afraid of in broad daylight? I'll just take a quick stroll and then go back."
Liang Mingliang was a little worried about his wife, so he nodded and said, "Okay, Sister Zhichun, don't hang around for too long."
"good."
Xu Zhichun said that strolling around was fake, and taking out potatoes and sweet potatoes from the harbor warehouse was real.
She bought thirty acres of land, and planted konjac on fifteen acres, but the remaining fifteen acres, including the two acres the family already had, were not planted with anything.
The day before yesterday, when I was shopping, I also bought a dozen large sacks, which came in handy.
Fearing that something unexpected might happen, Xu Zhichun deliberately came to a deserted alley near the county government office. If someone had bad intentions, they would have to shout loudly to alert the government officers. No one would be so stupid as to dare to rob here. Isn't this an obvious provocation to the government?
With a thought, she filled twelve large sacks with sweet potatoes and potatoes, three bags of sweet potatoes and nine bags of potatoes, each bag weighing about 120 to 130 pounds.
Seeing a middle-aged woman walking by with her grandson and a basket on her shoulder, Xu Zhichun, regardless of whether others were looking at him curiously, smiled and said to the woman, "Madam, could you help me get an oxcart from the carriage shop? I'll give you five cents, and if you come with the oxcart, I'll give you another five cents."
The woman's eyes lit up, and she immediately nodded with a smile: "Okay, okay, just wait, I can walk very fast!"
Just running an errand and earning ten cents for free is like a pie in the sky.
"Well, then I called the right person."
Xu Zhichun immediately counted out five cents and gave them to the woman, who then trotted away with her grandson.
The carriage and horse carriage should not be too far from here. In less than two quarters of an hour, the woman came. Xu Zhichun kept his word and gave her another five cents.
The woman was even happier to see that she kept her word. She had originally thought that even if she didn't get the five cents, she wouldn't have lost out, but now she felt a little guilty. She didn't rush to leave, but asked curiously, "Miss, this big sack looks quite heavy. Do you want me to help carry it?"
Xu Zhichun was eager to say, "Thank you very much, Auntie."
She bargained with the driver.
The driver was about to take advantage of the young girl's ignorance of the market and ask for an exorbitant price, but Xu Zhichun said, "The carriage company you work for, I suppose, has some set pricing rules, right?"
Just one sentence made the driver obedient. After some bargaining, he agreed to a price of sixteen cents to help her deliver the things back to her home in the village.
Of course, a carriage and horse business has its own rules when it opens its doors to do business. It is fine for the coachman to make a few cents extra, but it is impossible for the coachman to arbitrarily increase the price and take advantage of the customers, otherwise the business will not last long.
If the driver dared to ask for an exorbitant price, Xu Zhichun would only need to go to the carriage company and ask him to expose him.
It's not worth it for him to lose his job just to earn a few more cents.
The woman helped, along with the driver, and Xu Zhichun also lent a hand, and soon the twelve large sacks were neatly stacked on the ox cart.
Xu Zhichun climbed up and sat down, "Master, let's go to the East Market."
"Okay."
The driver drove the cart expertly while gossiping, "Miss Xu's big sack is really heavy. It's not filled with grain or beans, so what is it?"
Xu Zhichun smiled and said, "Just some miscellaneous items."
Seeing that she didn't want to talk, the driver didn't ask any more questions. He just laughed and concentrated on driving.
Arriving at the East Market entrance, Xu Zhichun was hesitant to leave, so he paid another two cents to ask a passerby to call Liang Mingliang over. In an era without cell phones, communication relied on physical communication, aside from shouting.
Liang Mingliang was surprised to see that she had bought such a large cart of unknown things after shopping around. He widened his eyes in surprise: "Sister Zhichun, what did you buy?"
"I'll tell you more later," Xu Zhichun said with a smile, "Just keep an eye on it for me while I go talk to Xiaoyan and Aunt Zhu'er."
"Oh, okay."
Liang Mingliang swallowed his curiosity.
More than half of the konjac tofu and konjac knots have been sold, and it will probably take a while to sell out the rest.
The ox cart of the carriage and horse company couldn't wait forever, so Xu Zhichun explained a few words to them. Aunt Zhu'er accompanied her back first, while Liang Mingliang and Zeng Xiaoyan continued to stay and sell things.
Before going back, Xu Zhichun bought a big grass carp weighing more than three kilograms, so that he could have three dishes with one fish in the evening.
Aunt Zhuer saw her buy one and bought one too. "Zhichun, tell me how to cook this fish. I'll go back and cook it for Brother Qi to try."
"Okay!" Xu Zhichun smiled. Aunt Zhu'er's family had plenty of oil and salt. The fishy smell was removed thoroughly and the seasonings were sufficient, so the taste of the cooked fish would be good.
It was not yet noon when Xu Zhichun and his companions returned to the village. There were only two or three old ladies chatting with their children under the big locust tree. Before they could ask anything, the ox cart had already passed by in the time Xu Zhichun and Aunt Zhu'er had even said hello to them.
It’s a close call, at least I can have some peace and quiet.
After unloading, Xu Zhichun and Aunt Zhuer carried the large sacks of sweet potatoes and potatoes into the house.
"This is really heavy, Zhichun, what did you buy? It doesn't feel like grain to me."
Xu Zhichun thought to herself, "It's not food, but it's better than food." But at this moment, she couldn't explain it too clearly. She could only pretend to be a complete novice, and it would take a long time of "practice and exploration" before she could publicly express her understanding of potatoes and sweet potatoes.
After all, this was something new that she had never seen before.
"I don't know what this is, and I've never seen it before. It just so happened that today, I was walking around and saw two merchants from other places selling these two things called potatoes and sweet potatoes. They said they were edible, but unfortunately no one had seen them before and no one bought them. When I heard they were edible, I became interested and asked a few more questions. The sweet potatoes can be eaten raw, and I took a few bites. They tasted really good, so I bought them all."
(End of this chapter)
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