Chapter 62 Chapter 62 Speaking of which...
Back to Zeng Laoer's side, after he sent the Su family and the people going to the county town to their destination, he tied the mule outside the shed of a familiar teahouse outside the county town, then bought a bowl of tea and drank it, then carried the basket to the county town.
He had worked as a peddler for a while in his early years and knew where to sell these foods, so he walked without stopping and went all the way to the alleys of the west city.
"Delicious and affordable mooncakes, big sister, do you want some?" Zeng Lao Er walked towards the crowd, carrying a basket and shouting. However, because of his size, the women avoided him. One woman even brought out a basin of water and poured it on him, shouting, "Go away, go away."
Then he slammed the door shut.
After asking several families and hearing the same thing, Zeng Laoer felt helpless. As the sun got higher and the weather got hotter, Zeng Laoer couldn't help but want to give up.
But he still felt a little unwilling to go back like this, so he simply lifted the cloth of the basket and said to everyone he met,
"Madam, take a look at our mooncakes. They are delicious, affordable, and beautiful in appearance. If they are not delicious, you don't have to pay for them. Madam, you can buy one to try. They are two coins each."
Zeng Laoer learned this sentence from Su Li. This was how Su Li used to sell her products at the dock.
As he was talking, he also introduced,
"There are five-nut mooncakes, which have a rich and varied taste. There's also lotus seed paste and egg yolk, which have a delicate lotus seed paste and plump egg yolk. Both young and old love them. And there's rose flavor, which leaves a sweet aroma in your mouth."
There was nothing special about it, but the fact that the mooncakes were actually rose-flavored piqued the curiosity of a newly-wed lady. She had gone out with her neighbor to buy groceries and prepare lunch at home. Seeing this, she said,
"Then, peddler, are rose-flavored mooncakes made from rose petals?"
Zeng Lao Er saw that someone was paying attention to him, so he quickly flattered her, "Yes, young lady, it's made of roses. Would you like a piece? Two cents."
She had never eaten rose-flavored mooncakes before, and two cents was not expensive, so the young lady was a little hesitant.
The person walking with her seemed to notice her hesitation and tried to stop her, saying, "Let's go home quickly."
After that, he leaned closer to the young lady and whispered, "It's obvious that he's not a serious person. If you want to buy mooncakes, it's better to go to a pastry shop."
There is no way. There are too many beggars these days. Not only children are easily abducted, but adults are also easy to be abducted, especially young and beautiful girls like this. Once the drug is smeared on your face, you will lose consciousness. When you wake up, you won’t know where you are. That is a tragedy in the world.
The young lady's eyes became clearer after hearing this, but she was still greedy when she saw the beautiful mooncakes in the man's basket. What does the rose flavor taste like?
"Sister-in-law, let me buy a piece to try."
After saying that, the young lady turned to Zeng Lao Er and said, "Then peddler, give me a piece of rose-flavored mooncake so I can try it. If it tastes good, I'll buy it."
Zeng Lao Er was about to leave and was about to give up, but he never expected the other party to call him. He quickly turned around with a sincere smile on his face, "Okay, wait a moment, my lady."
After saying that, he opened the basket and let the young lady in front of him take it herself.
A mooncake doesn't need to be wrapped in oil paper, but he also doesn't want to touch it with his dirty hands.
Seeing this, several women nearby murmured, "It's a pretty nice style."
But they were unwilling to spend money to buy it. They could buy it from a shop for two cents, so why buy something of unknown origin?
"Sister-in-law, come, you guys try it too." The young lady was afraid that her mother-in-law would scold her when she got home, and she would want to eat it as soon as she bought another one, so she divided the mooncake into several portions, one piece at a time.
The woman next to them felt a little embarrassed now. They thanked him awkwardly before taking the food and starting to eat.
Unexpectedly, after taking this bite, everyone was stunned.
This mooncake is surprisingly delicious, much better than those in the pastry shop. It has a smooth and sweet taste, not greasy at all, and has a scent of roses. The rose filling inside is also particularly delicious.
"good."
"really."
“It smells pretty good.”
A few people looked at each other, and one of them said, "How about we buy some too?"
"I think so."
“You can buy a few pieces to try.”
So, just like that, the 20 yuan that Zeng Laoer brought was divided up among several people.
There were even onlookers who, seeing that the mooncakes were selling so quickly, couldn't help but say, "Can you come tomorrow? I want to buy two too."
"I want one too."
Zeng Lao Er heard this and said happily, "Come on, come on, come back tomorrow."
Then I wrote down how many mooncakes the other party wanted and what flavors they wanted. In the end, I found out that they had ordered more than 20 pieces, most of which were rose flavored.
However, when Zeng Laoer came again the next day, he found that those who had bought mooncakes yesterday came back and asked for other flavors, including the young lady who had first bought Zeng Laoer's mooncakes.
"Yesterday I brought your mooncakes back to my mother-in-law and others to try. They all said they were good. I want to order 30 from you as gifts, and I want several flavors."
Then the young lady said, "When you're done, I'll pick it up from your shop. By the way, where is your shop?"
She thought such delicious mooncakes must come from a pastry shop in the county town.
But Zeng Lao Er said, "There is no shop. If my lady wants me to bring it to her someday, I will."
No shop? The young lady was stunned. "Then these mooncakes are made by your wife?"
Zeng Lao Er shook his head again, "It wasn't my wife who did it, it was a young lady from our village who did it. She's now selling food at the Jiangkou Wharf."
So that's how it is.
But these are not important, and the young lady doesn't care, as long as it tastes good. Then she talked to Zeng Laoer about the price and time for a while before leaving.
Once you have one, you will have two, especially for things like food. As long as the taste is good and the price is right, repeat customers will naturally come. On this day, Zeng Laoer directly ordered mooncakes worth more than 80 yuan.
Then he made persistent efforts, and taking advantage of his free time, he led the mule around the streets of the county and towns. In just ten days, he had sold three to four hundred yuan worth of goods, including those sold for one or two yuan each. He actually earned several hundred coins, which was more than he could earn from pulling people for several months.
At night, Zeng Laoer dragged his tired body back home. Mrs. Lu had already heated up the food and brought water for him to wash his feet. Zeng Laoer took a quick shower first, and while eating, he soaked his feet in the basin and sighed comfortably.
Mrs. Lu sat beside them, lighting an oil lamp and counting the silver carefully. As she counted, the corners of her mouth became wider and wider.
"Dad, is our family going to be rich?"
"This is just the beginning. After a few days, I'll give away the mooncakes and collect the remaining silver. It must be this amount!" Zeng Lao Er stretched out his hand and gestured, but there was an unconcealable pride in his eyes.
"How much? 300 wen?"
"3 taels."
?! Three taels!!!
Lu was shocked. There were so many?
Zeng Lao Er saw his wife was so surprised and nodded, "That's right."
In fact, he couldn't earn so much originally, but he was so diligent that he rode a mule cart to almost all the villages and towns nearby, selling one or two, and even delivering ten or twenty to people's homes. Later, he found that there were many places with inconvenient transportation and everything was in short supply, so he sold other things as well. In this way, in the end, the money he earned was actually more than what he had earned in the previous six months.
Hearing that she had earned three taels, Mrs. Lu was completely shocked. She murmured:
"so much."
Why does it feel so unreal?
"Are you stupid? Haha, I am stupid too." Zeng Lao Er laughed. If Miss Su had not let the Huang family sell the mooncakes later, maybe he could have earned more.
But speaking of it, the relationship between the two families was originally better, so it was normal to let him sell it. Besides, he had a mule cart and could go to more places. In the end, he should earn more. What's more, Huang Laoer was just a piece of wood, so whether he could be sold or not was another matter.
"By the way, give the mule more food and water later. It's been hard for it to follow me around these days."
"Okay." That's what I should do.
"Also, in addition to sending gifts to your parents, my parents, and my son's master during the Mid-Autumn Festival, we will also prepare one for the Su family."
"Okay." Mrs. Lu had no objection. They were able to earn money thanks to the Su family, so they still had to observe the proper etiquette.
"By the way, I'll buy you a silver hairpin with the money I earned this year." Zeng Lao Er looked at Lu.
As early as a few years ago, Mrs. Lu had always coveted the plum blossom hairpin on Mrs. Lan's head. Unfortunately, the family was not well off, and the couple loved to eat. They would eat up any money they had, so they had no money to buy jewelry for Mrs. Lu.
So Lu always imagined that if she had money, she would buy a silver hairpin. She kept repeating it, and Zeng Laoer remembered it.
"Okay, I'll make you some clothes too." Mrs. Lu said. Her husband had wanted to make you some nice clothes for a long time, but he never had the money.
"Should we make two for our son as well?"
"Forget it, let them do it when they can earn money themselves in the future."
"I think so."
After the couple finished talking, they counted the silver several times, laughed for a long time, and went to bed late at night.
On the other hand, the Su family also made a lot of money from selling mooncakes in the past few days, but the majority of the money came from selling meals, especially today when student Lin came to Su Li specifically to hold a birthday party, just two days after the Mid-Autumn Festival. He paid a deposit of five taels of silver, and there was another five taels afterwards.
Chen and Mrs. Wu had agreed to give this silver to Su Li, and no one objected. In addition to saving some of it, Su Li also used some to buy meat frequently, sometimes pork, sometimes mutton, and either braised or fried it. The whole family grew several pounds of meat.
Tonight, Su Li made another dish of green bean pork ribs and spicy and sour vermicelli, and the whole family enjoyed it very happily.
The spare ribs had the fragrance of mung beans, mixed with the aroma of meat, which cleared away heat and relieved summer heat. The hot and sour noodles were appetizing and relieved greasiness. They were soft and sticky, and you couldn't get enough of them. Old Man Su and Mrs. Wu, who were old and afraid of the heat, both ate two bowls, and finally they filled a bowl of mung bean soup and drank it slowly.
Mung beans are sandy and especially suitable for the elderly.
Su Tao ate a piece of ribs at a time, and the bones fell out of her mouth in an instant. Sometimes she felt it was not tasty enough, so she dipped it in some red chili oil prepared by Su Li. After finishing the meal, her whole face was sweating and looked as red as a red apple.
Similar to her was Lian Gu, who was enjoying eating the pork ribs.
The eldest sister Su Hong ate more politely in comparison, but perhaps because she was hungry, she ate more than usual tonight, especially when she ate the hot and sour noodles. The sour and smooth taste made her unable to stop.
“It’s delicious.”
“I’m so full!”
"Me too…"
After dinner, Chen drove the chickens and ducks into the cages, Mrs. Wu went to feed the pigs, Su Tao went to wash the dishes, and Lian Gu and Old Man Su fed the mule together. After everyone had finished everything, they sat together on the mat in the yard, looking at the night sky in the distance and admiring the moon. Everyone felt very happy.
"In two days, we will take a break. It's a good time for you, Qingshan, to take Daya, Siya, and Liangu back to your parents' home to stay for two days." Mrs. Wu suddenly said. Her daughter-in-law had lived a hard life in their family for many years. Because she was busy with work, she seldom went back to her parents' home. Now that life has improved, Mrs. Wu discussed with Old Man Su and asked her to take the children back to stay for a few days to relax.
As a married woman, who doesn’t want to go back to her parents’ home?
Mrs. Wu was deeply touched.
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