Chapter 59 Soul Painter

Jiang Yanyi thought about it carefully, and finally gave up this idea for the time being.

The reason was simple. Not to mention the customer acceptance, she didn't have the time to help the female customers with skin care one by one. Besides, everyone has shortcomings. Jiang Yanyi is really an amateur in skin care, otherwise she wouldn't let her lips dry out and crack.

If she hired someone else to take care of skin care, Jiang Yanyi would not only have to provide free skin cream, but also charge an extra person's salary, which was even more unacceptable.

Moreover... although the box of skin creams Feng Shuo sent was ridiculously large, he saw that his lips were chapped, so he thought of preparing these for her. Although the way of giving gifts was a bit unique, it was prepared by him with all his heart after all. If she turned around and gave it to another woman, wouldn't it be a waste of his good intentions?

Jiang Yanyi thought about the business model of those business districts in her previous life, and thought that if there were rouge and powder shops willing to cooperate in the future, she could vacate a place for them to set up a counter. She would only charge rent, and they would give some moderately priced skin creams to the ladies who came to eat hot pot for free, and at the same time promote rouge and powder or skin creams of better quality.

In this era, wealthy women would also put on makeup when they went out, but the makeup technique was definitely not as perfect as it is in later generations. Therefore, when they went out, they were particular about food, and everything was based on not putting on fancy makeup.

If there was a makeup girl in her shop who could help female customers with makeup and skin care for free, the number of female customers coming to eat hot pot would definitely double.

However, this idea had to be put aside for the time being. After all, it would not be easy to find a makeup girl who was willing to cooperate with her and had decent skills

. Jiang Yanyi had done market research before deciding to open a hot pot restaurant. People in this era had few entertainment options. It was already a kind of enjoyment to have a meal in a big restaurant, listen to Hu Ji playing the piano and singing, or listen to people telling stories.

If she invites Hu Ji to sing in the store, she is afraid that some female customers will find it inappropriate and lose customers.

Moreover, there are only a few popular songs on the market. If she invites Hu Ji to sing, Lai Fu Gudong Soup will surely be able to do it. Unless she can use a cheat to memorize all the song lists and music scores of later generations, and let Hu Ji sing the songs of later generations, maybe she can attract a wave of customers with her novelty.

But remembering the lyrics is obviously impossible. Jiang Yanyi has never learned all five tones. She can only remember one or two lines of the lyrics of the songs that were popular all over the country in her previous life. All her talents are basically in cooking. So Jiang Yanyi also gave up the idea of ​​inviting Hu Ji to sing in the store to attract customers.

It is feasible to invite someone to tell stories. Even if she has a goldfish brain, she has watched those classic old dramas since she was a child. Can she forget the plot?

Jiang Yanyi said immediately: "After our store resumes business, let's invite a storyteller to sit in the hall."

Qiu Kui's body was shocked, and suddenly remembered something, and complained: "Huahua, you haven't told me the story of Yang Jiajiang yet!"

Jiang Yanyi smiled and comforted her: "Let the storyteller come to the store to tell it when the time comes."

Storytellers tell nothing more than those familiar stories. Jiang Yanyi felt that in her original world, the four great classics could be passed down for thousands of years, and there was no need to say much about their charm. She believed that these stories would definitely be liked by diners. Even if

Lai Fu Antique Soup Shop also invited a storyteller, could he still tell the same story as in her store? After

the new idea of ​​attracting customers was decided, Jiang Yanyi asked Yang Xiu and Bing Shao to go out and inquire about all the storytellers in Xizhou City. Since she provided the story, it would be natural for them to have long-term cooperation in the future. Otherwise, once Lai Fu Restaurant came to poach people, they would leave immediately. Wouldn't she be making wedding clothes for others again?

Jiang Yanyi wanted to find someone who was trustworthy and had decent character, at least someone who would not do such a wicked thing as taking her story and turning his face against her immediately after his net worth increased.

However, the most important thing for opening a store and doing business is the dishes themselves.

Jiang Yanyi thought about it and felt that most diners like to eat hot pot in autumn and winter, largely because the pot is warm and will not get cold no matter how long they eat.

Clear soup hot pot Lai Fu Antique Soup has the signature dish of Yu Chef, and the chef's soup-making skills are also strong enough. It is a bit difficult for her to surpass him, but she can still sell dry hot pot!

In Jiang Yanyi's original world, dry pot is one of the eight major cuisines of Sichuan cuisine, and the spicy ingredients of Sichuan cuisine only started in the Qing Dynasty.

As a young lady of the Shangshu Mansion, she had never eaten such a thing as dry pot in her memory. Apparently, dry pot did not exist in this world.

Jiang Yanyi instantly became determined. She did not believe that the chef of Lai Fu Restaurant could learn how to make dry pot in such a short time! Jiang Yanyi

drew a sketch that day and ran to the blacksmith shop to ask the blacksmith to make ten small stoves that could be placed on the table. The small stoves were hollow in the middle and could hold silver charcoal to keep the bottom of the pot hot.

But probably in this era, no one had proposed to build such a small stove, and Jiang Yanyi was a soul painter. The blacksmith made four or five of them, but none of them looked like what Jiang Yanyi wanted. He had to go back to the stove and rebuild it several times. The blacksmith got angry, and Jiang Yanyi and Qiu Kui were so scared that they dared not say a word.

Fortunately, after four or five modifications, the small stove was finally successfully built.

Jiang Yanyi looked at the small stove after it cooled down, and couldn't help but flatter him: "Master, your craftsmanship is really good. I'm afraid there is no one as skillful as you in the whole Xizhou City."

The blacksmith was a black-faced man like an iron tower. He was straightforward and had a hot temper. Hearing Jiang Yanyi's compliments, there was no obvious joy on his face. He just said: "If your sketch was a little better, I wouldn't have wasted so much effort."

Jiang Yanyi, who was rebuked: "..."

It seems that in the blacksmith industry, customers are not God.

As a soul painter, she was also desperate...

Qiu Kui heard him say this to Jiang Yanyi. She was always timid, but she glared at the blacksmith hatefully.

The blacksmith noticed the hostility in her eyes and looked over. Qiu Kui was frightened at once, shrinking like a quail, but still staring at him with her neck stiff, as if all her courage was used in those glaring eyes. The blacksmith

looked at Qiu Kui for a few times and said nothing. When he spoke again, his temper was a little calmer: "The remaining stoves will be ready in three days, and you can come and get them then." Jiang

Yanyi watched him forging the iron and knew that it took a lot of effort to build such a seemingly simple small iron stove. Fearing that he would find it troublesome and cut corners, he said: "Master, you have good craftsmanship. I will add five cents to each of these stoves as a reward for your hard work."

The blacksmith was sweating from forging the iron, and he pulled the iron stove with his hand. He was wearing a short brown linen shirt, and considering that Jiang Yanyi and Qiu Kui were women, he didn't want to just bare his chest, so he said impatiently: "Once the price is set, there is no reason to change it. I still have to make a living with this craft, and I won't ruin my reputation. If the quality of one of the stoves delivered in three days is worse than the one you have, I won't charge you for this batch of goods!"

Although the blacksmith's words were not very pleasant to the ear, and he treated his customers with an attitude of "I am the king, what can you do to me", he was really honest.

Jiang Yanyi thanked him politely, paid the deposit, and left with Qiu Kui with the finished stove.

Qiu Kui was still a little scared until they walked out of the blacksmith's shop, and muttered to Jiang Yanyi: "Huahua, that blacksmith is so fierce."

Jiang Yanyi said: "He looks bad-tempered, but I think his character is not bad. Sometimes you can't just look at the surface when judging

a person." Qiu Kui thought for a while and asked: "So he is a good person?"

Jiang Yanyi asked this question, and she said hesitantly: "We have only been in contact with him for a while today, and we can't make a final conclusion about a person's goodness or badness. Human nature is complicated. Good people have dark times, and bad people also do good times. Many things in this world are not black and white."

Qiu Kui nodded, not quite understanding.

When they were returning from buying food, they ran into He Xingniang from the jewelry shop, who was leaning against the door eating melon seeds. When she saw Jiang Yanyi, she immediately showed a mocking look on her face: "Manager Jiang, why is your antique soup shop closed? People who don't know the truth would think you are afraid of Lai Fu Restaurant!"

Jiang Yanyi thought to himself, is this He Xingniang just sitting there all day? Why does she like to jump around and cause trouble so much? He replied calmly, "Doesn't your throat hurt today?"

He Xingniang's face suddenly turned ugly, and she spat out the melon seed shells in her mouth. "I'll see if you can still be so proud in a few days. The chef of Lai Fu Gudong Soup is from a family of chefs. Everyone who went to eat hotpot today said that the hotpot in your restaurant can't compare to theirs!"

Jiang Yanyi handed over some dishes. He gave it to Okra and asked her to take it to the kitchen, and replied to He Xingniang: "Sister He, I don't have to worry about whether my shop can continue to open. However, although I heard that your family gets dividends from the Laifu Restaurant, the antique soup shop below them is divided. I wonder if you can't get the dividends from his antique soup shop. Why are you so complacent here?"

He Xingniang didn't expect that this little girl would watch movies on weekdays. She was silent, but her tongue was sharp and her words were full of guns and sticks. She said angrily with her hands on her hips: "I see that your shop can't be opened, so I am happy in my heart, right?"

Jiang Yanyi smiled and said: "I am afraid you will be disappointed."

After that, she closed the door from the inside, leaving He Xingniang no chance to say anything back. She could only yell and curse at her closed door.

Jiang Yanyi made a dry pot of tenderloin, ribs, and chicken mixed with pickled vegetables that night. Because there was no chili and pepper was too expensive, Jiang Yanyi used a lot of dogwood instead.

Wash the tenderloin and chicken, then marinate with scallions, ginger, cooking wine, salt, and dark soy sauce. To make it more tender, you can coat it with a thin layer of starch. Spare ribs are more complicated. After marinating to remove the fishy smell, they must be blanched again.

Jiang Yanyi added a large amount of oil and fried the spare ribs. She then used the hot oil to fry the chicken until it was 70% cooked before taking it out. She also put the potato strips that had been cut early in the morning into the pan and fried them until crispy.

If she hadn't been short of time, she would even want to grind some tofu, make bean skin, and make some fried tofu strips as a side dish.

Whether the dry pot tastes good or not depends on the preparation of the "five-spice oil". The so-called "five-spice oil" is to put various spices into the oil pan and fry them to extract the fragrance. Use this oil to stir-fry ginger and garlic, and the smell is really amazing, and the whole kitchen is full of fragrance.

Jiang Yanyi poured the green pepper, red pepper and dogwood prepared in the morning into the pot and stir-fried them together. When the spicy smell hits the nose, first put the marinated tenderloin into the pot and stir-fry until it is 70% cooked, then pour the potato skins, lotus root slices, bean sprouts and other side dishes into the pot and stir-fry together, and finally put the ribs and chicken nuggets that were fried at the beginning, add water and simmer for a few minutes.

When all the ingredients are cooked, transfer them to a small pot, sprinkle with scallions, coriander and white sesame seeds, and a fragrant and hot dry pot is ready.

Yang Xiu and Bing Shao came back at mealtime, and Jiang Yanyi put red-hot silver charcoal into the small stove on the table, took the small pot out and started eating.

As soon as the two entered the house, Yang Xiu said, "It smells so good!"

Qiu Kui rushed over and said, "Hua Hua said that this is a new pot that will be sold after the store opens!"

Yang Xiu swallowed his saliva. Although he was a close confidant of Chu Changping, he didn't have the money to spend on spicy food on weekdays. He had never even heard of many of the foods. So when he saw Jiang Yanyi making a dry pot, apart from thinking that what he had eaten for the past twenty years might have been fake food, he didn't have any other doubts. He said, "There will definitely be a lot of people buying this pot!"

Jiang Yanyi was worried that they had never eaten such strong-flavored food before and would easily get angry, so he specially brewed a pot of chrysanthemum tea and took it out.

While eating, she asked Yang Xiu, "How did you get through?"

Although Jiang Yanyi told them not to be shy because the restaurant was not crowded and they usually ate at the same table, Yang Xiu still didn't dare to act casually when she asked. She didn't even move her chopsticks and answered Jiang Yanyi's question first:

"There are only a few famous storytellers in Xizhou City, but they all have old bosses, so I'm afraid they can't be hired. There is an old scholar, who is said to be the top storyteller in Xizhou City in the past. He used to tell stories in Lai Fu Restaurant, but because he was not clean, he was fired by the boss of Lai Fu Restaurant. After his reputation was tarnished, other places refused to let him sit in the hall. He has wasted his time at this age, and even if no one cares about what happened in the past, no one will invite him to tell stories."

Jiang Yanyi became interested and asked, "Why is he not clean?"

The charcoal fire in the stove was roasting, and the red oil in the pot was still bubbling. The tempting aroma made Yang Xiu swallow his saliva several times without saying a word.

He just ate a piece of pork ribs! The other meat dishes were not picked up yet.

Bing Shao and Qiu Kui were fighting over the meat. Qiu Kui was still paying attention to Jiang Yanyi. While he was eating, he did not forget to put some meat into Jiang Yanyi's bowl.

Jiang Yanyi was asking questions, and Yang Xiu did not dare to pick up his chopsticks. Seeing Bing Shao's chopsticks accurately picking up the ribs again, he kicked him under the table without any hesitation.

He thought that this kid was usually taciturn, but it turned out that all his smartness and energy were used here. He didn't like to talk, so Jiang Yanyi could only ask him questions.

Yang Xiu finally felt relieved after kicking the bowl. When he was about to answer Jiang Yanyi, it was Qiu Kui who cried out. She held the chopsticks and said in confusion and grievance: "Who kicked me?"

Yang Xiu: "..."

Bing Shao: "..."

Jiang Yanyi: "..."

The scene was very embarrassing.