Under the watchful eyes of Su Yun'er and He Liu, Lin Moniang finally seemed to have made a great decision and slowly nodded.
He Liu patted her happily: "That's right! It's better to be out working than to stay at home. Go out and meet more people, don't always look so scared."
Su Yun'er laughed too: "That's right, since you're looking for a job anyway, and I happen to be short of work, isn't this a win-win situation?"
"Oh, right, Auntie, Mother Mo, I have something else to tell you, it's about the tofu pudding stall."
Upon hearing that it was related to business, both of them looked over.
Su Yun'er said slowly, "Before the New Year, we were just a small stall, but after the New Year, we'll be turning it into a shop..."
"A shop? Where did you get a shop?" He Liu asked in surprise before Su Yun'er could finish speaking.
Su Yun'er didn't intend to hide it from her, because she couldn't hide it anyway: "It was built by the family that invited me to cook at their home before the New Year."
"My God, isn't that the family that came to your house a few times and even brought you a truckload of New Year's goods?" He Liu exclaimed in surprise.
Su Yun'er nodded. She didn't want to show off, but she would inevitably have to deal with Sun Wanqing again in the future. She couldn't hide it, and hiding it would make it seem like this matter was not something that could be discussed openly. It would be better to be frank and explain the reasons clearly to avoid people having other thoughts.
Su Yun'er then briefly explained to He Liu and Lin Moniang why the Sun family had invited her and how Sun Wanqing's health was gradually improving.
He Liu nodded repeatedly after hearing this: "No wonder, no wonder! You saved someone's precious granddaughter's life, so we must thank you profusely! Yun'er, you're amazing and so lucky!"
Lin Moniang also rarely spoke up to join the conversation: "Sister Shanhe is really amazing. She can cook a lot of delicious food, knows how to do business, and takes such good care of her whole family. It's truly enviable."
“Mo Niang, let’s make a deal. Please stop calling me ‘Sister-in-law Shanhe’. It’s tiring to say those four words and it sounds too formal. You and I are about the same age, so let’s just call each other by our names,” Su Yun’er said.
But Lin Moniang seemed startled: "How can this be?"
“Why not? It’s just a form of address,” Su Yun’er said, leaving no room for refusal.
Seeing Su Yun'er's insistence, Lin Moniang had no choice but to agree.
“Now that we’re opening a shop, we can’t be as casual and unruly as when we were running a small stall. Before, my aunt and I split the daily profits, but after the shop opens after the New Year, Aunt and I will receive the same monthly allowance of 215 copper coins. We’ll work six days a week and have one day off. We’ll also have holidays for festivals and family birthdays.”
Tianyong has many holidays, and there is a day off for each of the twenty-four solar terms.
Moreover, there was no time off in lieu of leave.
With the shop layout planned and staff found, the next step is to spend money on purchasing and decorating the shop.
Su Yun'er and the two agreed to pick a day to go to the shop together to take measurements and then order cabinets, tables, chairs, cookware, and other items.
In the end, it took the three of them two whole days to finally order all these items, and then they had to wait a few more days for the goods to arrive.
On the day the goods arrived, He Liu called her husband and son, Lin Moniang also brought Ma Xiaolan, along with Song Da Niang's family, and Su Yun'er's family of four. More than a dozen people worked hard all afternoon and quickly tidied up the shop.
That evening, Su Yun'er and Grandma Chen cooked a delicious meal together.
Because there were so many people, cooking would probably exhaust her in the kitchen, so Su Yun'er prepared hot pot instead.
The pot was specially prepared when setting up the new shop. Su Yun'er thought that if the shop's business gradually improved, she could add more dishes. If the shop didn't need it for a while, she could use it herself.
So Su Yun'er drew a sketch on paper based on the shape of the old Beijing copper hot pot and explained the purpose of the pot to the craftsman.
A tall chimney was added to the center of a normal round pot. The area around the chimney was for holding soup, meat, and vegetables. The bottom was raised and had perforations to dissipate heat and prevent the table from being scalded.
The chimney in the middle of the pot is used to hold charcoal. There are two iron plates at the opening, one end of which is connected to the chimney and can be opened and closed. When using it, you only need to adjust the size of the opening of the iron plates to adjust the heat and thus control the boiling degree of the water in the pot.
The pot has a unique shape, but it can control the heat with simple operation. After listening to Su Yun'er's introduction, the craftsman praised the ingenious design and became very interested in making the new pot.
The craftsman was quite skilled. He made one and showed it to Su Yun'er, who was very satisfied. So the craftsman went back and immediately made several more, including an enlarged version of one of them.
So today, these hot pots came in handy. There were many people, so we used a total of three hot pots: one large and two small.
A large quantity of pork, beef, lamb, and chicken were prepared, along with plenty of various vegetables and tofu. In addition, Su Yun'er prepared hand-pulled noodles and sesame sauce. Everyone in the new shop was eating heartily.
"Hey, Yun'er, shouldn't we give this shop a name?" He Liu asked suddenly while eating meat.
"I've made up my mind. I want to use 'Su's Food Shop'." Su Yun'er bit off the noodles in her mouth.
"It's simple and easy to remember."
Aunt Song sat down next to Su Yun'er and patted her on the shoulder: "Yun'er, my little cart for setting up my stall is all set up. From now on, I'll set up my stall in front of your place and sell steamed buns and pancakes. From now on, any customer who buys your tofu pudding will get a one-cent discount on steamed buns and pancakes!"
Su Yun'er clapped her hands and laughed, "Any customer who buys food from Aunt Song can come in and eat, even if they don't buy anything from my shop."
Everyone laughed and said, "Are you food vendors putting on a show?"
The day after the shop was tidied up was the Lantern Festival. After resting at home for another day, on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, "Su Ji Food Shop" officially opened its doors to customers.
Just as Su Yun'er's food stall was bustling with activity as she opened its doors to customers, Gu Jingheng, far away in the Yongzhou camp, also received two new messages.
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