Chapter 36: Shop Opening, Hearing Bad News...
It was April, a warm spring day, with a gentle breeze and perfect sunshine.
Zhu Mingyue slightly raised her head amidst her busy work, and what came into view was a clear blue sky without a cloud, with distant mountains shrouded in mist, which inexplicably put her in a very good mood.
When Xie Pei returned from town, he told him that the carpenter had finished making the tables and chairs, and that he was carefully cleaning the large iron pot in the yard.
This iron pot was also made at great expense, and he plans to take it to town later. It will be his long-term partner from now on.
He discussed it with Xie Pei and decided that he could go alone tomorrow, since Xie Pei had already arranged everything in the shop in advance, and the kitchen had prepared plenty of flour and oil.
Mid-April is the time when people start planting crops here. Although his family doesn't have much land, it wouldn't do if it went to waste without anyone to cultivate it. After thinking it over, he decided to go to town to sell dumplings, while Xie Pei stayed home to farm.
Tomorrow is the first day. Apart from his regular customers who are very familiar with him, there shouldn't be many other customers. He can manage on his own.
The next day, as dawn broke, Zhu Mingyue carried the large iron pot that she had prepared at home the night before and went out.
Xie Pei escorted him to the village entrance, and only turned back after his slightly cheerful figure disappeared down the path. It was getting late, and he needed to start his work for the day.
Zhu Mingyue had walked the road from Gouhe Village to the town countless times, so much so that he could find the town with his eyes closed. But the difference was that in the past, he had always walked with Xie Pei under the moonlight. Today, he was alone, and he felt a sense of emptiness because someone was missing. A subtle and strange feeling suddenly arose in his heart.
Zhu Mingyue patted her face, banishing these inexplicable and chaotic thoughts, and muttered softly to herself while quickening her pace.
He didn't leave early today; by the time he arrived in town it was already early morning, and there were already quite a few people on the streets.
But it doesn't matter, now that he has a shop, he doesn't have to do business only in the morning like before; his shop can stay open until he closes in the afternoon.
After arriving at the shop, Zhu Mingyue hung a sign outside the door with the prices of the dumplings clearly marked. Just to be on the safe side, he planned to make only two types of dumplings for the time being: one with pork filling and the other with a half-meat, half-vegetarian filling.
Based on individual appetites, he further divided the bowls into three sizes: large, medium, and small, with thirty large bowls, twenty-four medium bowls, and eighteen small bowls available. Meat fillings were priced at twenty, sixteen, and twelve coins respectively, from largest to smallest. Half-meat, half-vegetarian fillings were priced at fourteen, twelve, and ten coins respectively.
Zhu Mingyue clearly marked the prices so that passersby could see them and come in if they wanted to eat, thus preventing anyone from arguing with him.
Actually, his pricing is quite reasonable compared to that noodle shop, since he uses real meat. A medium bowl is enough to fill a person with a normal appetite, unlike that unscrupulous vendor who serves a bowl of noodles with only a little water, which is too small even for someone like him with a small appetite.
Therefore, he was very curious about how that shop could continue to operate on West Street.
The store welcomed its first customer 15 minutes after opening.
"Shopkeeper!"
"Coming, coming!" Zhu Mingyue had already kneaded the dough and was mixing the filling in the back kitchen. Hearing the commotion outside, she quickly wiped her hands and went out to greet them.
"Sir, which one would you like to have?"
The person who came in looked like someone who wasn't short of money, and without a second's thought, said directly, "Bring me the most expensive one."
"Alright!" Zhu Mingyue readily agreed, poured him a cup of tea, and smiled, "Please wait a moment, it will be ready soon."
Boiling dumplings is not troublesome. It only takes eight or nine minutes from putting them in cold water to taking them out of the pot. The customers want soup dumplings. After they are cooked, add some small dried shrimp to the bowl to enhance the flavor, and then they can be served.
"The large portion of meat dumplings is ready. Please enjoy."
The customer was probably hungry; he blew on the food a couple of times and put it in his mouth. It was so hot that he had to stir it in his mouth again before daring to swallow it. Even with his mask on, he still gave Zhu Mingyue a thumbs up.
"fresh!"
Zhu Mingyue smiled and nodded: "Be careful, it's hot."
As the two were talking, another group of guests arrived together, and Zhu Mingyue hurriedly went forward to greet them.
This group of people had orders for medium and large portions, meat or semi-meat options, and both boiled and dried dumplings. Zhu Mingyue made a mark with her calligraphy brush and then went back to the kitchen to get busy.
More than a hundred dumplings were put into the pot, and he silently wiped the sweat from his forehead as he watched the dumplings bubbling away. With Xie Pei away, he had to do all these chores by himself, but fortunately it was only this busy month of farming, so he could still manage.
"Shopkeeper, is ours ready yet?"
"Alright, alright!" Zhu Mingyue answered loudly, placing the dumplings on the table with a tray.
"Shopkeeper, I've never seen this kind of food anywhere else. This is the first time I've seen it. It's really quite rare."
Zhu Mingyue replied truthfully, "It was passed down from our ancestors in our hometown."
"Where is your hometown?" the man asked, intrigued.
Zhu Mingyue smiled and said, "Huaxia Village." The origin of dumplings can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period, so saying Huaxia is not wrong in a strict sense.
“Huaxia Village?” one of the bearded men muttered repeatedly, then shook his head. “Never heard of it.”
Zhu Mingyue lowered his head, pursed his lips, and chuckled to himself. It was right that he hadn't heard of it. As far as he knew, this was a parallel universe, and the two universes didn't even have any historical points where they intersected. Just like he had never heard of this dynasty before he came here, they couldn't understand what he was saying either.
"By the way, shopkeeper, do you have any chili peppers here? We're all from the southwest, and people from our area love spicy food."
Zhu Mingyue's mind raced. When he first arrived in this world, Aunt Huayi seemed to have mentioned the south. It seemed that she and Brother Cui had fled north from Ningjiang in the south.
"Yes, yes!" Zhu Mingyue brought out a small jar from the kitchen and said, "I made my own chili oil, you can try it."
"Delicious! It's spicy enough!"
"We've been traveling this far, and our mouths are practically tasteless."
"The shopkeeper's skills are quite good; the chili oil is authentic!"
"Thank you for the compliment." Zhu Mingyue watched as they stirred the soup into their bowls spoonful after spoonful, turning the clear broth into red broth and the dumplings into red dumplings. The whole jar of chili peppers was quickly emptied, but they ate without changing their expressions.
Seeing them enjoying their meal, Zhu Mingyue seized the opportunity to speak: "I just heard you gentlemen say you came from the southwest. Do you know how Ningjiang is doing now?"
The group paused in their eating, exchanging bewildered glances. One of them sighed and said, "Ningjiang fell more than a month ago. Our hometown is Suiyuan County, which is north of Ningjiang."
Ningjiang has fallen? Zhu Mingyue blinked, feeling like the country was about to be destroyed. Could he really be that unlucky?
"I didn't expect the news to reach even the people of Kangyang County. I thought the higher-ups didn't know. It seems they don't intend to care and just let the people of the south fend for themselves."
"Fifth Brother! I've told you so many times, there are some things you shouldn't say outside."
Zhu Mingyue recovered from her brief moment of distraction and warmly greeted them, "You eat, I'll go add some more chili oil for you."
Zhu Mingyue couldn't hear what was said after that in the kitchen. She only vaguely heard the man called Lao Wu still saying something indignantly, such as that the corrupt officials who were afraid of death had all fled long ago and that Ningjiang had been abandoned long ago.
He knew that his brother Cui was from Ningjiang and was definitely not an ordinary person, but he didn't believe that his brother Cui was the kind of "corrupt official who is afraid of death".
As Zhu Mingyue put dumplings into the pot, she drifted into a daze. "I wonder if Brother Cui and Aunt Huayi have settled down in the north and are doing well?"
He still kept the jade pendant that Brother Cui left him in good condition. He had already thought it through. If the south continued to be captured, one day the battlefield would reach Kangyang County. At that time, he would take Xie Pei with him to the capital to seek refuge with Brother Cui.
Under the emperor's nose, in the heart of the royal domain, they should be able to hold out for some time. Better to live a wretched life than die a glorious death; every extra day he lives is a bonus.
However, upon learning that Ningjiang had already fallen, his mood became much heavier.
After closing in the afternoon, he cleaned the shop inside and out twice. Carrying his box, he counted the money he'd earned that day. Most of the customers ordered a medium bowl of pure meat dumplings, totaling 960 coins, which was quite a good amount. This was only the first day of business; with repeat customers, the turnover might be even higher, and during peak season, the gross profit might be even higher. The net profit was close to half the gross profit, meaning that as long as the gross profit was above one tael (approximately 50 grams), he could earn nearly 500 coins.
Zhu Mingyue locked the money in a box, which was then placed in a hidden compartment under the bed in the attic. The hidden compartment was personally crafted by Xie Pei, and no one but the two of them knew about it. It was safer to keep the money there than to take it back with them.
After finishing all this, it was getting late, and he needed to get home as soon as possible.
He made money, but he wasn't in high spirits the whole way. He even tripped over a tree root while passing through the woods, but fortunately he wasn't seriously injured.
He saw Xie Pei's figure from afar. Among the group, he looked the most upright, and even manual plowing hadn't broken his back.
The land looks almost completely plowed.
Instead of going directly to the field to find Xie Pei, he rushed home, lifted the pot lid, and sure enough, the pot and stove were cold, and even the firewood was the same as when he left in the morning, unchanged.
This guy didn't eat lunch at all.
Zhu Mingyue was both angry and anxious. She was angry that he ignored her health, but she was also anxious to cook breakfast and dinner for him and bring them over. There wasn't even a cow in the house, so all the physical labor depended on Xie Pei. What would happen if he collapsed from exhaustion or hunger?
There were also bamboo shoots at home that he had asked Xie Pei to pick up on the mountain. They were all extremely crisp and tender. After blanching them once, he could just slice a couple of pieces of cured meat, stir-fry them for a while, and they would be ready to serve.
Meanwhile, cook white rice in another large pot.
While waiting for the rice, he took out an extra piece of pork belly that he had specially bought when he went to buy pork this morning and made braised pork, which is Xie Pei's favorite dish.
A simple yet nutritious dinner is ready.
Zhu Mingyue packed her lunchbox, and just before leaving, she remembered something and filled her water bottle with water.
When he reached the edge of the field, he saw many women and children carrying lunchboxes to deliver food to their families, just like him. Some had simpler meals, carrying large bowls in both hands.
He was still thinking about how to get through the muddy path to Xie Pei when Xie Pei noticed him first and walked towards him with his long legs through the mud.
Once he reached the edge of the field, Zhu Mingyue put the lunchbox aside, took the water bottle from her waist, and said, "Quickly wash your hands, and you can eat when they're clean."
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