Chapter 42 (Catching Bugs) The store was hit on the day of opening...

Jiang Yanyi went back and looked at the red pepper in his yard. Thinking that he could start growing seedlings soon, he sat on a small stool with his hands on his cheeks and laughed.

The pepper seeds were used to grow seedlings, and the remaining pepper shells could be used as seasoning. It was impossible to make red soup hot pot with this amount of pepper, but mapo tofu, chopped pepper fish head, boiled pork slices, spicy chicken cubes... Jiang Yanyi could drool just thinking about any Sichuan dish.

Seeing that she was always daydreaming, Qiu Kui walked forward and touched Jiang Yanyi's forehead with some concern: "Huahua, why are you always staring at this pepper plant and grinning?"

At this time, Feng Shuo, who was in the next yard, had just grabbed the parrot that was parroting nonsense with a gloomy face. When he heard the word "pepper", he couldn't help but continue to concentrate and listen carefully to the movements in the yard over there.

The parrot used its two claws to pull Feng Shuo's hand. Its already round eyes looked even rounder at this time, as if the word "fear" was written on its face.

"Huahua, didn't you just water the pepper this morning? Why are you watering it again now?"

"I'm happy."

"It's worth it, Huahua, you're so caring. The peppers are growing so well..."

She took great care of the pepper pot?

The corners of Feng Shuo's mouth lifted up unconsciously.

The parrot remembered that gentle female voice with a smile, which was simply the sound of nature to it. Because when the bastard master heard that female voice, the force of pinching its weak body was much less.

It didn't want to eat now, it just wanted to go back to its bird cage and continue to be locked up.

But the bastard master took it to the top of the pavilion.

The pavilion was built on a high terrain. Feng Shuo stood on the top of the pavilion and could just see the situation on the other side of the courtyard wall.

Jiang Yanyi was seen half squatting in the flowerbed where peppers were planted, caressing each pepper with special compassion. And the pepper, which was green and red when he gave it to her, had long since turned into bright red, obviously it had been carefully taken care of.

It was as if a small stone had been thrown into the lake of his heart, causing shallow ripples.

Although peppers were precious, she was a girl from a noble family after all, and she would not be dazzled by such a pot of flowers.

Feng Shuo sat on the top of the pavilion, with one leg bent and the other leg outside the pavilion eaves. The hand holding the parrot rested lightly on his half-bent knees. The broken hair that was blown by the light breeze fell on his forehead, slightly covering his narrow and clear eyes.

He murmured, "Actually, you are interested in me, right?"

However...

the next moment, Jiang Yanyi plucked all the red fruits from the pepper plant with a smile on her face, and turned to Qiuku and said, "I've been looking forward to it for so long, and now it's red. I'll fry it tonight and make it delicious."

Feng Shuo's lips, which had just been raised, froze.

But the stupid parrot in his hand was still trying to imitate his words just now: "Actually, you are interested in me, right?"

Feng Shuo: "..."

He decided to have an extra meal tonight and asked the chef in the mansion to make a clear stewed parrot soup.

That night, Jiang Yanyi picked the peppers and removed the pepper seeds, spread the pepper seeds in a colander and put them under the eaves to dry. She used two peppers to stir-fry a plate of fish-flavored pork shreds, and planned to dry the rest and grind them into pepper powder.

While eating, Qiukui stared at the whole plate of shredded pork, his eyes almost becoming dizzy, but he still couldn't find a piece of fish. Jiang Yanyi had already picked up a piece of shredded pork with chopsticks

and put it into the bowl and started to eat. Seeing that Qiukui was holding the bowl but not eating, he couldn't help but ask, "Qiukui, why don't you pick up your chopsticks?" Qiukui poked the rice in the bowl with a wooden stick and said confusedly, "No fish?" Jiang Yanyi chuckled, "Although this dish is called Fish-flavored Shredded Pork, it is not made with fish." Seeing that Qiukui still didn't quite understand, Jiang Yanyi gave an example, "Look, when we made lion's head in Huotouying before, didn't we use the meat from the lion's head?" Qiukui nodded in confusion and didn't bother about the name of the dish anymore. He also picked up a large piece of shredded pork with black fungus with a wooden stick, put it in his mouth, squinted his eyes with a greedy look on his face, "Delicious!" Although there was no fish meat, there seemed to be a fishy aroma in his mouth. She suddenly asked, "Huahua, can green vegetables and radishes be made to taste like meat?" Jiang Yanyi paused while picking up the vegetables and said, "It's probably a bit difficult to make green vegetables and radishes taste like meat, but there are indeed many vegetarian dishes that taste like pickled mustard greens." Qiu Kui's eyes suddenly sparkled, "I want to learn. I can't afford meat, so making vegetarian dishes taste like meat is the best!" This child is afraid of the hard life in the past. Jiang Yanyi thought for a while and said, "You can learn to cook, but you have to start practicing basic skills from tomorrow." Although they have settled down here now, who can predict what will happen in the future? Qiu Kui is a little dumber than normal people, and she used to be a camp prostitute. Jiang Yanyi doesn't know if she can meet a good man who doesn't mind her past in the future. If Qiu Kui masters a skill, then if something happens in the future, she can work as a chef in other people's restaurants or as a cook in the houses of dignitaries. It is a way out. When Qiu Kui heard Jiang Yanyi say this, she put down her bowl and went to serve her tea. Jiang Yanyi hurriedly said: "Let's not use the master-apprentice system. I will teach you as much as you can learn." Qiu Kui said seriously: "I will only learn a little bit, so that it will be convenient for me to help Huahua in the future." Qiu Kui has been in Huotouying for a while, and she knows that every chef will not teach people to cook easily, after all, that is their ability to eat. Jiang Yanyi has been very good to her, and she is not greedy. It's just that she heard Jiang Yanyi say that vegetarian dishes can be made into meat dishes, and then she was tempted. Jiang Yanyi said seriously: "Whatever you want to learn, you have to learn it seriously, otherwise I will teach you in vain. If you can cook, you can help me a lot when our store opens up in the future." Qiu Kui was moved to tears: "Then I'll study hard and make a lot of money for Huahua in the future!" Jiang Yanyi's heart softened because of her silly words, and she said, "Okay, let's all make a lot of money. Let's eat first." Okra sniffed, then Gao Gaoxin picked up the bowl again. That night, Jiang Yanyi's side was peaceful and peaceful, but the Hu family's side was in chaos. The young lady of Hu Mansion found out that Hu Wanwan failed to molest a common girl and was taken to Xizhou Mansion instead.

Madam Hu Shao is the niece of the prefect of Xizhou Prefecture. Because she had an extraordinary figure since childhood, no one came to propose marriage to her when she reached the age of marriage. In order to be more comfortable in Xizhou, the Hu family asked their eldest son to marry the niece of the prefect.

Madam Hu Shao was so fat that she had to breathe heavily every time she walked. Three maids standing together were not as big as her. She was also jealous. Relying on her family's official status, she would buy any maid in the mansion as long as Hu Baiwan looked at her. The two elders of the

Hu family did not dare to show their dissatisfaction with their daughter-in-law who came from an official family. As long as the young people did not make too much noise in the room, they simply did not bother to ask.

Facing such a powerful and influential daughter-in-law, Hu Baiwan couldn't bring himself to do it eight out of ten times. He could only make excuses and run out to have sex.

Tonight, he was carried back by someone, and his buttocks were almost beaten into a rotten persimmon. He cried all the way.

It was the soldiers of Feng Mansion who took him to the yamen. Even though the prefect Xie wanted to protect his nephew's husband, he didn't dare to lose face for Feng Shuo, so he could only give him a severe punishment.

When Mrs. Hu learned about the ridiculous things her husband had done, she was so angry that the half pound of fat on her chin trembled. She used a chicken feather whisk to whip Hu Baiwan's buttocks twice. Hu Baiwan screamed like a pig being slaughtered. Mrs. Hu then realized that her husband had just been beaten with a stick and couldn't be beaten again.

Hu Baiwan looked at his wife who was so fat that her eyes were almost invisible. He suppressed his hatred and cried bitterly, "Jiaojiao, I was wrong, but it was really that woman who seduced me..."

He was an uneducated playboy, and he was able to marry the niece of the prefect. Of course, he had a good face, but because of years of indulgence in wine and women, his eyes were swollen and his body was very thin.

Mrs. Hu snorted coldly, "Do you really think I don't know your little tricks?"

Hu Baiwan immediately ignored the pain in his buttocks, pulled her hand, and coaxed her like a sweetheart. He was a frequent visitor to the entertainment industry, and he had some tricks to coax people. Mrs. Hu was quickly comforted by him.

"Uncle is really a jerk. How could he let his men do such a heavy hand?" After her anger subsided, Mrs. Hu felt sorry for her husband again.

She took the medicinal wine and wanted to apply the medicine to Hu Baiwan herself, but her hands were too strong and she didn't know how to control the strength. Hu Baiwan bit his pillow several times and almost fainted from the pain. His forehead was covered with sweat and his face was pale, but he had to pretend to be moved to tears.

Mrs. Hu was no longer angry with her husband at all.

She asked her husband to rest and went outside.

After finding out from the servants how Hu Baiwan and Jiang Yanyi met, Mrs. Hu was so angry that she hammered the armrest of the chair twice and cursed: "Shameless little goblin, you sneaked into my flower room under the name of buying flowers, but you are here for my husband!"

The maids who were serving beside her wanted to say something but stopped, but they knew her temper and didn't dare to say a word.

Only Mrs. Hu treated Hu Baiwan as a treasure. All the decent girls outside would avoid Hu Baiwan.

The chair Mrs. Hu sat on was modified by a carpenter. She was too fat to sit on the usual chair. Fortunately, the wood was strong, otherwise it would have fallen apart after being hit by her hammer.

Madam Hu continued to ask the servant who went out with Hu Baiwan today: "Do you know where that little witch came from? Who is behind her?"

"I have inquired about it. It is said that she is not from Xizhou. She just moved there not long ago. She bought the shop next to the Protectorate General's Mansion and planned to open a restaurant. There is no man in the shop. She is the boss. She is not seen getting close to any powerful family on weekdays. Today, the young master was taken to the yamen by the people of the Protectorate General's Mansion. It seems that they broke down the door in public, which was too noisy. The Protectorate General could not sit idly by."

Knowing that Jiang Yanyi had no backer, Madam Hu felt more relieved.

If she had a backer, Madam Hu would have to go to the residence of Prefect Xie to inform him before doing anything. After all, he was just her uncle, not her biological father.

Over the years, Magistrate Xie helped her clean up a lot of broken stalls, largely because the Hu family gave Magistrate Xie a lot of money every year.

Madam Hu Shao said disdainfully, "Which girl from a respectable family would do such a public business? She opens a restaurant to sell food in public, but I don't know what she sells behind the scenes! She is shameless, so I will tear off her face and see how she can live on that street in the future!"

The servant said, "Her restaurant hasn't opened yet. If she has kept the shop closed these days, I'm afraid we will be taken to the government office if we knock on the door."

Madam Hu Shao sneered, "It's just right that it hasn't opened yet. Let's go and find out when she will open. On the day her restaurant opens, I will bring people to smash her restaurant to pieces!"

"I don't believe it. I will teach a lesson to the bitch who seduced my husband, and the Protectorate will send people to arrest me!"

Jiang Yanyi didn't know that she was being targeted.

These days she was busy raising pepper seedlings. Thanks to the good words of the gatekeeper of the Protectorate, she went to the greenhouse of the neighboring house every morning and evening to water the pepper seeds.

In the remaining time, she had to deal with various trivial matters of opening a store.

The hardware facilities in the store are complete, but there are still many details that need to be gradually improved.

The cattle of this era are basically oxen for farming, which are as precious as war horses. Farmers who have cattle at home have to register the cattle. If you slaughter a oxen for no reason and are reported, you will have to go to jail, so there is basically no beef for sale on the market.

Although pork is delicious, it is not satisfactory when it is cooked in a clear soup pot. Jiang Yanyi mainly focused on mutton.

Thanks to the fact that this is outside the Great Wall, every household raises sheep, and there is an adequate supply of mutton in the butcher shop. Probably because the mutton here is in oversupply, the price is not as expensive as Jiang Yanyi imagined, but it is not cheap either. In

this dynasty, only the powerful and wealthy businessmen can afford to eat mutton. His hot pot restaurant was positioned as a mid-to-high-end restaurant from the beginning. Jiang Yanyi knew that there would definitely be a market for his hot pot restaurant.

However, since the customer base is the powerful and wealthy businessmen, they must have chefs at home. What he needs to do now is how to make these people feel that the mutton hot pot in his store is better than the one made by their chefs at home.

Three days before the opening of the store, Jiang Yanyi quickly found a blacksmith to make a grill for him.

Qiu Kui didn't quite understand why Jiang Yanyi asked someone to build a grill at this time. Jiang Yanyi just said that it would be used on the opening day.

In order to promote his own hot pot restaurant, Jiang Yanyi asked a street vendor who was shouting to sell candied haws to help.

She bought a whole bunch of candied haws from the vendor and said that she would buy three more bunches of candied haws from him in three days, but she only wanted the vendor to mention her store name when he was shouting to sell candied haws at the market in the next few days.

The vendor might not be able to sell a whole bunch of candied haws in a whole day, so he was naturally happy to cooperate with Jiang Yanyi.

So for the next three days, wherever the vendors passed by, they could hear the following shout: "In three days, Jiang Ji Gudong Soup will open on Duhufu Street. All diners who enter the store will receive a string of candied haws and reeds."

The ancients called hot pot "Gudong Soup" because of the "gulp" sound made when food was put into boiling water, but at that time, hot pot was generally cooked in clear soup.

Although this marketing method was not very clever, in the ancient times when there was no marketing at all and customers were only attracted by word of mouth, the brainwashing effect was still very significant. At least half of the people in Xizhou City knew that a Jiang Ji restaurant was about to open on Duhufu Street.

Before the opening day, many children often wandered around Jiang Yanyi's shop, and the braver ones would even ask her if she had any candied haws and reeds to give away.

Jiang Yanyi usually picked up a piece of cake and handed it to them, saying that it would be given away for free if they ate in the store on the opening day. The children then left happily.

Qiu Kui felt sorry for the candied haws and cakes that Jiang Yanyi was going to give away: "Huahua, we haven't even started making money yet, but we've already given away a lot of money."

Jiang Yanyi smiled and said, "You can't catch a wolf if you don't want to sacrifice a child. We have already made money by using such a small amount to build our reputation."

No matter what you do in the future, publicity alone will become a huge expense. At this moment, Jiang Yanyi really suddenly felt that doing business in ancient times was pretty good, at least the competitiveness was much smaller than in the future.

Maybe they were both a little nervous. The night before the hot pot restaurant opened, Jiang Yanyi and Qiu Kui couldn't sleep.

The two stayed in the kitchen while Qiu Kui washed the dishes over and over again. Jiang Yanyi originally planned to get up at four o'clock to make soup, so she simply lit a fire to make the soup first, and then lit the fire in the stove outside to bake a few egg tarts.

"Huahua, will the egg tarts be given away for free tomorrow?" Qiu Kui asked while wiping the dishes.

"Well, we are counting on selling hot pots to make money, so we naturally have to do everything we can to get people to spend money to eat hot pot." Jiang Yanyi said.

She is confident that as long as the diners have eaten their hot pot once, they will definitely become repeat customers in the future.

Qiu Kui said with a pained look, "But I think this is a loss."

Candied haws are fine, but egg tarts are made with milk and eggs.

Jiang Yanyi comforted her: "Don't worry, you will earn back all the money."

When it was daybreak, Jiang Yanyi and Qiu Kui went back to their rooms, changed into new clothes, and opened the door of the shop early. The sign outside was hung with red silk, which looked festive.

However, because it was still early, there were not many people walking on the street, and even the breakfast sellers had just started to set up their stalls.

Everyone was doing business on the same street. Jiang Yanyi would occasionally go to the street stalls to buy food. Her hot pot business did not compete with those who bought breakfast, and they got along quite well. The lady who sold wontons and the uncle who sold pancakes exchanged a few words with her and gave her a bowl of wontons and pancakes as a congratulations on the opening of the store.

Jiang Yanyi thanked him and did not make breakfast. He ate wontons and pancakes with Qiu Kui for breakfast.

Qiu Kui, who usually loves to eat, now has a little taste for wontons. She glanced at the door from time to time and said worriedly: "Hua Hua, why hasn't anyone come to our shop yet?"

Jiang Yanyi was also nervous, but much better than Qiu Kui. She said: "We buy hot pots to make lunch and dinner. It's still early, so naturally there aren't many people."

When the sun half showed its face, the owner of the flower shop brought the hibiscus branches that Jiang Yanyi had ordered. She said as soon as she saw them: "Congratulations, Manager Jiang, and good luck with the opening of the business!"

"Thank you, this is a homemade snack. Take it and try it." Jiang Yanyi handed the owner of the flower shop an egg pie.

Because the egg tarts were baked in a small bowl shaped like a pear blossom, the egg tarts were also shaped like a pear blossom after being formed, which looked particularly beautiful.

The lady boss of the flower shop had never seen such snacks before, and was very curious. After tasting one, she found that it tasted good, and praised it repeatedly. She also taught Jiang Yanyi how to arrange flowers.

The hibiscus branches she sent were freshly picked, and the flowers were still covered with dew, which looked very tender.

Jiang Yanyi saw off the flower shop owner and arranged the flowers on each table. Suddenly, the voices of Zhao Touer and Li Chef were heard outside the shop, "Shopkeeper Jiang--"

Jiang Yanyi hurriedly went out with a smile on his face, "Master, Zhao Touer!"

Li Chef and Zhao Touer both changed into clean plain clothes, and with them came more than a dozen firemen, each carrying a large bundle of chopped firewood on their backs.

Chef Li's smile was much more amiable than usual. Looking at Jiang Yanyi's outfit, he said to Zhao Tou'er, "Look, she looks like the female shopkeeper now!"

After not seeing each other for nearly half a month, Jiang Yanyi suddenly felt that the people in the Fire Camp were much more friendly. She smiled and said, "Master, please stop teasing me. Everyone, come in and sit down!"

Zhao Tou'er pointed at the firewood carried by the firemen and said, "These bastards heard that you opened a shop here, so they insisted on following us to take a look. There is no firewood around in the Xizhou camp. They prepared some firewood for you, so you don't have to waste money on firewood when you open a shop."

Jiang Yanyi was grateful and no longer rejected her experience in the Xizhou camp. She thanked the firemen who had come from afar to carry the firewood one by one. The young boys blushed with shame.

The lady of the clothing shop didn't know Jiang Yanyi's background before. Now she thought that Chef Li and Tou'er Zhao were her relatives. Seeing so many men and women carrying firewood for her, she couldn't help but joked, "Big sister, it's good for you to open a shop. You won't have to worry about firewood in the future."

Jiang Yanyi smiled and said, "If Sister Chen runs out of firewood in the yard, just come and get it."

"Then I'm serious!" The lady of the clothing shop also laughed.

The tension of the morning was almost dissipated after Chef Li and his men came.

Jiang Yanyi asked them to put all the firewood in the backyard, poured tea for the people in the fire camp, and was going to get some egg tarts to entertain them. Chef Li hurriedly said, "We all had breakfast here, and we're still full. If there's any work, just leave it to these bastards. We didn't bring them here from so far away to hang out!"

Jiang Yanyi said, "There's nothing to be busy about. Just treat this place as your home and don't be so restrained."

Chef Li glared at her and put down the tea bowl, "Why are you still saying such polite things at this time? Come on, take the master to the kitchen to see how the soup you made is going."

Jiang Yanyi was scolded by Chef Li, but she felt warm in her heart. She took Chef Li to the kitchen.

Tou'er Zhao was sitting outside the shop, planning to help Jiang Yanyi look at the account when he got busy today. He was looking at the elegantly decorated shop when he suddenly saw a group of people following a carriage and coming towards them. Judging from

their clothes, they looked like servants in some mansion, holding sticks more than half a meter long in their hands.

When the carriage stopped at the door, Tou'er Zhao thought something was wrong, and he quickly shouted, "Wu Lengzi, call all those bastards out!"