After Chapter 26, business took off...
After that, business boomed, and many people gathered around the two of them, clamoring to buy steamed buns.
At first, the vegetarian buns sold the best, and in no time there were only five left. The meat buns were expensive, so few people bought them. Even if they did, they only said they wanted one to try. The vegetarian buns were almost sold out, but there was still half of the meat buns left.
Zhu Mingyue started to get anxious. If he had known that meat buns wouldn't be popular, he wouldn't have made so many. It would have been much better to make vegetarian ones, at least then he wouldn't have had to worry about selling them.
Just as she was regretting it, the woman who had left with the child returned. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw there were still buns in the bucket, took out a copper coin and handed it directly to Zhu Mingyue, saying, "I want all meat ones."
Zhu Mingyue counted them; there were twelve copper coins in total. She quickly took four meat buns out of the bucket and gave them to her.
"Where's the child?" Zhu Mingyue asked, pointing behind her.
"Oh," the woman said, putting the buns into her bosom and realizing the young stall owner was talking to her. She sighed and replied, "The child is making a fuss at home!"
The woman bought those two steamed buns and took them home so her family could share them. There were four people in her family: her husband, her child, and an elderly person. Half for each person would be just right.
Children are greedy and have no patience; once the buns are divided, they stuff them into their mouths.
After finishing his meal, he stared longingly at the buns in the adults' hands. The child's grandmother, feeling sorry for her grandson, immediately gave him her own bun.
The child, not understanding, ate it directly.
That's really bad; the child's father, in a fit of anger, slapped him.
The house was thrown into chaos, with children crying and men scolding each other. It took the old lady's desperate attempts to calm things down to stop the commotion.
But the child kept making a fuss. He was used to being beaten, and being beaten was a daily occurrence for him. But steamed buns were different; he had never tasted such delicious steamed buns before.
Left with no other choice, the couple discussed it and decided to buy a few more. They really liked the buns; not only did the kids love them, but they loved them too. They had tried the vegetarian ones and wanted to taste the meat buns that their child had begged to eat even if it meant getting a beating.
Seeing the worried look on her face, Zhu Mingyue roughly knew what had happened, so she didn't ask any more questions and watched the other person leave.
After that, two more repeat customers came, and they almost simultaneously said they wanted to buy all the buns.
With only six buns left, neither of them wanted to give in, but in the end Zhu Mingyue suggested that they split them equally, as it was better than one of them going home empty-handed.
Looking at the empty wooden bucket, Zhu Mingyue raised an eyebrow, her joy barely concealed.
He turned to Xie Pei and said happily, "Quickly count how much we earned today."
Xie Pei collected the money one by one, so he knew exactly what it was without counting it and immediately answered him, "One hundred and thirty-two coins."
Zhu Mingyue knew, of course, that it was 132 coins. He had calculated it in his mind on the way here, and now he just wanted to confirm that he hadn't been shortchanged. He was relieved to hear the number.
"We need to use this money to buy more flour later. Fifty buns definitely won't be enough for tomorrow."
"Okay, sure."
"Double the volume tomorrow; the more we do, the more we earn."
"Um."
Zhu Mingyue was a little tired, so he sat on the ground and chatted with Xie Pei casually. Even though Xie Pei just agreed with him, he didn't get angry.
A successful first day at his stall was a good omen, he thought confidently. After deducting the cost of flour and pork, he had earned nearly seventy coins today. If things went the same tomorrow, he would have made a net profit of one hundred and forty coins.
What is the probability of earning 140 coins? In the past, Zhu Mingyue certainly wouldn't have understood, but after working on the river for two days, he understood everything. This is equivalent to the wages a worker would earn by working from dawn till dusk for seven consecutive days.
It's true that if you have a skill, you can make money anywhere. This money is so easy to earn!
The two walked along the street to the grain shop, bought nearly five catties of fine flour, and then headed home.
Just a few steps into the village, he ran into a middle-aged man. Zhu Mingyue recognized him; it seemed that this man was one of the people who had surrounded and attacked him at the Xie family's place that day.
When the man saw him, he was taken aback at first, but after realizing what was happening, his expression changed drastically. He spat on the ground and hurriedly left.
Zhu Mingyue knew that they were afraid of being tainted by his bad luck, but he wasn't angry. Getting angry wouldn't do any good. It was better to just close the door and live his life well than anything else. He even hoped that these irrelevant people would stay far away from him and not bother him.
It was noon when I arrived home, and wisps of smoke were rising from the chimneys of every household.
Apart from sharing four steamed buns in the morning, he and Xie Pei didn't eat anything else to fill their stomachs. Now, not only Xie Pei's stomach was rumbling, but Xie Pei's stomach was also rumbling.
With rice and vegetables to cook fresh, Zhu Mingyue was unsure when she would finish, so she scratched her head and decided to make noodles for lunch.
But not plain noodles; he wanted to make noodles with minced meat sauce.
He pulled out a small piece of pork with alternating layers of fat and lean meat from the snowdrift in the backyard, chopped it up, stir-fried it until fragrant, and then ladled a spoonful of meat sauce into each of their bowls after the noodles were cooked.
Xie Pei didn't say whether it was delicious or not, he just kept eating. When he finished eating, he found a tender egg at the bottom of the bowl. When he bit into it, the yolk was still running inside, which looked very tempting.
Zhu Mingyue ate until sweat beaded on the tip of her nose, but she didn't care much as she wiped it away. She then shoveled the soft-boiled egg that she had deliberately saved for last into her mouth and happily swung her legs.
After lunch, Zhu Mingyue went back to her bedroom for a nap, so she could continue working with renewed energy.
I didn't sleep well last night, and when I woke up it was already dark outside. I hurriedly put on my clothes and went to the kitchen to prepare the dough.
As soon as he entered, he saw Xie Pei tending a fire. He sniffed and smelled a strange odor, which he couldn't quite put his finger on, but it didn't smell very pleasant.
He strode over to the stove and found the source of the odor; the lid was already open.
Good heavens!
A pot of dark, unappetizing stuff turned out to be a large, mixed stew of meat and cabbage upon closer inspection.
"You can cook meat dishes?" After arriving at the Xie family, Zhu Mingyue only saw him cook taro and make porridge.
Xie Pei replied without hesitation, "No."
Hehe, if you can't do it, what are you doing?! Zhu Mingyue laughed awkwardly for two days, her eyes simply unable to bear looking at the "miserable state" in the pot, and could only silently mourn for the pork that Xie Pei had ruined.
Zhu Mingyue said, "Sorry, I woke up late. I'll do it next time."
Xie Pei nodded in agreement. No matter how much he tried to deceive himself, he couldn't lie and say that his cooking was better than Zhu Mingyue's.
The dish looked disgusting, and Zhu Mingyue really couldn't eat it. Luckily, he had eaten a full lunch, so he picked out a few leaves and ate only a small bowl of rice with them.
Xie Pei's expression was also somewhat pained. His original dictionary only contained edible and inedible. After tasting Zhu Mingyue's cooking, he added "delicious" to his vocabulary. Now, after eating his own cooking, he realized that there was also the option of "inedible".
Looking at the dark, rotten vegetable soup mixed with greasy fatty meat in the basin, Zhu Mingyue felt an overwhelming longing for the side dishes that were a staple in every household in his previous life: pickled radishes, pickled mustard greens, and pickled cowpeas. Although they seemed ordinary and unremarkable, when there was nothing else to eat, a dish of them would be enough to accompany a meal.
After thinking it over, he felt that pickling some vegetables was still very necessary. He and Xie Pei would be very busy with their stall in the future, and if they came back late for lunch or if something like tonight happened, they could use them to tide them over.
Zhu Mingyue glanced at Xie Pei, who was still finishing up, and asked softly, "What vegetables are left in the fields at home?"
Xie Pei said, "Cabbage."
Zhu Mingyue stared at him, waiting for him to continue.
Xie Pei glanced at him indifferently, "That's all."
"That's all? How could there be none? Did you only have cabbage all winter?"
"Hmm," Xie Pei swallowed a piece of meat, his tone neither good nor bad: "Originally there were five vegetable plots, but he sold three of them. The remaining plots are only enough to grow cabbages; there's no room for anything else."
If it weren't for adhering to the principle of respecting the deceased, Zhu Mingyue would definitely have stood on Xie Hong's grave and cursed him. They Chinese have a pioneering spirit in their bones, putting some foam boxes on their tiny balconies to grow some scallions and vegetables.
In his past life, he loved to fantasize about having a vegetable garden where he could grow various things, only to discover that someone didn't appreciate it and sold the land.
To make matters worse, this person is a farmer who makes a living by farming. Isn't that infuriating?
Zhu Mingyue couldn't say anything in front of Xie Pei, so after a while, she still wouldn't give up and asked, "Did he sell anything else?"
Xie Pei: "A few acres of land."
Zhu Mingyue choked on her saliva and coughed violently.
"So, how much land do you own?"
"One mu (unit of land area)."
...
Okay, very good!
He suddenly remembered that when he was working on the river, he once overheard some women chatting about how someone in the next village had sold several acres of land at a low price. He had been happily thinking that he would buy a few acres of land when he had earned enough money.
Unexpectedly, the person selling the land was her nominal husband. He hadn't saved enough money to sell the land yet, and they hadn't even sold all the land in the house.
He had no doubt that if he didn't start a business to save himself, he would still starve to death even if he survived the spring planting season.
It's infuriating! In ancient times, an acre of land could only produce a hundred or so catties of grain, and after deducting taxes, only a few dozen catties were left.
In this situation, where even one person is not getting enough to eat, Xie Pei still managed to ask him to stay in the Xie family. He is truly a hero among heroes!
Xie Pei saw through his thoughts and explained, "If I don't have land, I can make a living by hunting."
Zhu Mingyue sighed, "Hunting is unpredictable. If we don't catch anything, we'll go hungry."
Xie Pei didn't understand. In his view, hunger was a common occurrence for ordinary people, hunting was unstable, and how stable could farming be?
Zhu Mingyue, who has always pursued stability and even planned to take the civil service exam after graduation to secure a stable job, said she was exhausted and didn't want to talk.
Fortunately, there's always a way out. He can still make money by selling steamed buns. If he's lucky, he might be able to buy back two acres of land before spring planting.
Zhu Mingyue was so devastated that she didn't even want to talk anymore, and kept kneading dough, bowl after bowl.
If the kneaded dough is left to rest at room temperature until the next day, it can be used to make steamed buns, so he won't have to get up so early.
The next day, in town
The two appeared in the same spot as the day before, but this time there were two more wooden barrels on the ground.
Having gained a day's experience selling goods at her stall, Zhu Mingyue was completely at ease. She had barely caught her breath when she started calling out again: "Big steamed buns! Big steamed buns with both meat and vegetables! Don't miss out!"
This time, Zhu Mingyue didn't have to shout a few times before people automatically gathered around.
Most of the customers looked familiar, indicating that he has already built up a group of repeat customers.
"Give me four, or five meat buns!"
The man who spoke was a young man who seemed to have a grudge against Su, as he immediately demanded five all-meat dishes, not vegetarian ones.
After Xie Pei accepted the fifteen coins, Zhu Mingyue picked up five more and handed them to him.
The man grabbed the steamed bun and started biting into it without caring that it was hot, grimacing from the burning filling but not stopping.
A short man approached from behind and secretly tapped the man on the shoulder, startling him so much that he almost dropped his steamed bun. Just as he was about to curse, he looked up and saw it was his coworker. The two were so close that they were practically brothers, and the man immediately calmed down.
The short man teased, "Li Lao Er, why are you being so extravagant today? Not only are you willing to buy steamed buns, but you've bought so many. Are you trying to ruin your life?"
Li Lao Er laughed and said, "Of course we'll eat! It's precisely because we can eat these buns so early in the morning that we have something to look forward to in life!"
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