Chapter 196 195. My husband is the first on the must-eat list
Preferring sons over daughters.
A bad habit that has existed since ancient times.
In the Dayou Dynasty, an era where all three sexes existed, girls and boys were despised and boys were valued. From the poor to the royal family, it was common for people to use boys and girls to gain benefits.
If the grassland tribes had not been extremely xenophobic and disliked the people of the Dayou Dynasty, they might have added a price of marriage between a princess and a nobleman on top of those compensation terms, and the hypocritical court officials who advocated peace would have been eager to agree to it.
——Those officials are all men, and letting boys and girls bear the brunt of the consequences is what they are used to doing, isn’t it?
Fortunately, although the Meng family is a merchant family, they are not so profit-oriented and heartless. The mistress of the Meng family is also a kind-hearted woman. She has chosen good marriages for all the children in the family, both the eldest and the young, and the legitimate and illegitimate children.
Meng Luo's only elder sister married a scholar from a scholarly family. The couple lived in harmony with each other. The other concubines' daughters and brothers and sisters of the Meng family all married well. There was no such ridiculous thing as sending children to officials to build connections.
Not to mention the men and children in the family.
Mengluo and his elder and second brothers were born of legitimate parents, while his third brother was born of a concubine. However, he was the only one in the family who took the imperial examination, so his family supported him with all their might, hoping that he would pass the imperial examination and then find a good girl or boy to start a family.
The same goes for other illegitimate children. Those with business talent will be placed in the family business, those with academic talent will continue to study, and those with no future will just have to avoid committing crimes.
The Meng family was a large one, with over a dozen children, including legitimate and illegitimate children. Minor frictions were certainly present, but overall the family was relatively harmonious.
"My mother was so soft-hearted. When I told her that Xiaoqing had suffered a lot and been bullied a lot in the past, she held Xiaoqing's hand and cried with heartache."
Meng Luo said proudly, "Don't look at my father as a fierce person, but he couldn't bear to let me start a family alone in Xiling. My eldest brother and second brother are both very lively."
As he spoke, he held Mei and Qing's hands, his eyebrows beaming with joy, "Xiaoqing, just wait until the eighth day of the eighth month for us to get things done! I estimate I'll be back in July."
"Um."
Mei Yuqing responded softly, glancing at Mengluo's hand clasped with hers, a faint smile in her eyes.
"July..."
Lei Li thought for a moment and said, "Then Zhou Yi and I should be free to go. After the summer harvest, let Xiao Cao oversee the autumn plowing. We can just catch your rice-harvesting fleet back home."
"That's what I thought."
Meng Luo chuckled and said complacently, "If my mother can persuade my father, we should be able to return to Zhongchuan Prefecture in early July."
"I'll take you around Zhongchuan then. There are so many fun places in Zhongchuan, especially the famous pleasure boats!"
"OK!"
Lei Li nodded without hesitation and asked, "What's a painted boat? A place with lots of paintings? I can't appreciate that kind of elegant stuff. I'd rather eat and drink."
"You can eat and drink on the pleasure boat."
Meng Luo said enthusiastically, "A painted boat is a beautifully decorated boat designed for tourists to ride. It's like a house on the water, with flying eaves and angled corners, exquisite four-cornered pavilions, as well as beauty chairs, colorful paintings, and gauze screens."
"There are also beautiful singers and dancers singing and dancing on the pleasure boats, and you can also listen to music and opera."
"On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month every year, when the Heavenly Official bestows blessings, Zhongchuan is at its busiest on the water. Luxurious and luxurious pleasure boats appear one after another, dazzling the eyes."
"That's great..."
Lei Li suddenly remembered the time when the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince passed by Qingmi County. He raised his head and glanced at the big ship where the two princes were staying. With its carved beams and painted rafters, auspicious beasts and auspicious clouds, it should be an enlarged version of a luxurious pleasure boat, right?
Zhou Yi thought of the TV dramas and historical stories about the romantic encounters on pleasure boats, and couldn't help but ask, "Is this pleasure boat a legitimate one?"
Could it be a "brothel" with a different name and location?
"Of course it's serious!"
Meng Luo saw Mei Yuqing also looking at him with a faint gaze, and his face flushed. He quickly waved his hands to explain, "Some people do some shady things, but the ones I go to are all legitimate!"
"It's just to listen to the songs and watch the dancing, that's all! I swear! I went with my eldest and second brothers. If you don't believe me, Xiaoqing, ask my brother!"
“…”
Mei Yuqing withdrew her gloomy gaze and her hand, and said softly,
"I naturally believe you."
“!”
Why does this seem unbelievable?
Meng Luo was really anxious this time. He kept giving glances to Lei Li and Zhou Yi, asking them to say something good for him, and he also made promises and explanations repeatedly.
"really."
Lei Li mocked Meng Luo without hesitation, saying, "Look at Meng Luo's stubborn appearance. He wouldn't even dare to accept something offered to him."
"Before, someone sold himself to bury his father. Meng Luo felt sorry for the girl and gave her ten taels of silver so that she could buy a coffin. Unexpectedly, the girl was very ambitious and fell in love with Meng Luo. She was willing to go home with him and be his slave even though she had no status or status."
"And Mengluo...hahahaha! Just put him in the restaurant and let the little girl serve the dishes."
"When the little girl saw Mengluo, she burst into tears and complained about her grievances, untying her clothes as she spoke. She frightened him so much that he ran away and almost fell into the pool."
Lei Li laughed heartily.
Zhou Yi couldn't help laughing.
Meng Luo's chubby face turned red. He opened his mouth and then closed it again, his cheeks slightly puffed up, making him look like a real chubby.
Mei Yuqingyuan wasn't really angry. He just heard Mengluo always go to the pleasure boat, and suddenly thought of the gap between his family background and his.
Mei Yuqing was also invited many times to perform opera in the pleasure boat. At that time, he was a little proud and felt that he was famous and popular.
But now when he thought about it, Meng Luo was also watching others with great interest outside the pleasure boat at that time, and perhaps he had just heard him singing on someone else's boat, he suddenly felt complicated, depressed, embarrassed, and a little bit ashamed.
A bird trapped in a cage, singing complacently.
He subconsciously loosened his grip on Mengluo's hand, but unexpectedly, this scared Mengluo, making him feel... a little warm in his heart.
He shook Mengluo's hand again.
Mengluo was immediately overjoyed, looking at Mei Yuqing with sparkling eyes, laughing a little shyly and a little foolishly.
A few people chatted about other things, and when it came to the tomatoes in Zhongchuan, Mengluo started talking nonstop again.
"Tomatoes are so popular in Zhongchuan! You wouldn't know it, but the day the tomato hotpot came out, the entire Sichuan restaurant was packed, and reservations were booked out for three days later!"
"My second brother said that this tomato hotpot isn't spicy at all and is similar to red soup. We should just open another store specializing in tomato hotpot and red soup hotpot, and the Sichuan restaurant will specialize in spicy dishes."
"When I returned to Xiling, the soup pot restaurant was already open. They added several types of soup pots, such as fish head pot, chicken soup pot, and mutton pot. My second brother also found a few famous talents to write some poems, and business was very good."
"Soup Pot Building?"
Zhou Yi frowned slightly, thinking, isn't this just a hot pot restaurant? Before he even said anything, Zhongchuan had already opened. Mengluo's second brother really had a good business mind.
Lei Li was also a little surprised and said with a smile, "Zhou Yi told me before that soup pot and spicy dishes can actually be made separately. It's just that Qingmi County already has enough Sichuan restaurants. Opening a soup pot restaurant would be superfluous."
"Nakagawa has a lot of people, so it's really nice to have more dedicated soup pot restaurants. They don't have to squeeze in with spicy food."
"yes!"
Meng Luo smiled and said, "My second brother wrote to cousin Xiang Chong and told him that he is in Dongyuan now, so it's a good opportunity to let him take care of the new building."
"Is your cousin in Dongyuan?"
Lei Li felt something was amiss. "Wasn't your cousin still in Wensheng before? Why did he go to Dongyuan again? Aren't the foreign tribes and Dongyuan in a tense situation right now?"
"I don't quite understand either."
Meng Luo tilted his head. "Maybe there's something else for Cousin Xiang Chong to do. But it's true that there's been some friction between Dongyuan and the foreign tribes recently."
"It seems that Dongyuan merchants stopped trading with foreign tribes, causing a shortage of daily necessities for them. They were forced to come to Dongyuan to buy. Perhaps they couldn't agree on the price, so a fight broke out and more than a dozen people died."
Lei Li sighed softly upon hearing this. "There's constant friction between the foreign tribes and Dongyuan. Tell your cousin to be careful and not get involved accidentally."
"I see."
Mengluo nodded.
—
No matter what conflicts and frictions there are between the outsiders and Dongyuan, life in Qingmi County remains stable and peaceful.
Lei Li and Zhou Yi are busy with the tomato business.
After Zhongchuan opened a soup pot restaurant, Xiling, Baihui, Nanjiang and other prefectures also opened one, specializing in hot pot. Spicy pot and tomato pot are the signature dishes. In addition, there are fish fillet pot, mutton pot, mushroom pot and porridge base hot pot, etc.
Famous for its novel and delicious dishes, attentive service and beautiful environment, Tangguolou gradually gained popularity due to the direct or indirect promotion by some talented people and important figures.
Because the soup pot restaurants in different prefectures have different characteristics, every outsider who goes to the local area must try this special soup pot, and it has even become one of the must-eat attractions.
After hearing this, Zhou Yi said with a bit of amusement, "Is our place on the must-eat list? One of the must-eats in the city?"
"Must-eat list?"
Lei Li pondered over this word and had an idea. He teamed up with major restaurants and food businesses in Qingmi County to organize a voting for the must-eat list. He used the form of giving out coupons and asked the county residents to fill out the form and select the top 20 must-eats in Qingmi County.
This thing was novel, interesting, and there were also benefits (discounts), which fully mobilized the subjective initiative of the people, and in the end it became quite a big success.
Half a month later——
The top 20 must-eats in Qingmi County are freshly released.
As expected, Sichuan restaurants, dessert shops, and bakeries made the list, as did signs from other restaurants, and there were also many classic examples from the fly-in-the-wall restaurants in the streets and alleys.
This list was also published in the Qingmi County Gazette.
The court bulletin was published only once every two to three months or half a year. It was distributed free of charge by the government about major events in the court and Qingmi County. Although they were generally not major events, they were widely circulated among the people.
In places with high traffic such as ports, bulletin boards are set up and official bulletins are posted.
So some people started checking in according to the must-eat list.
It was like a treasure hunt. It really brought a lot of traffic to the merchants on the must-eat list, and the Qingmi County must-eat list even became popular in a small area.
The "Yijia" series of stores have a constant stream of customers and are thriving.
Lei Li was busy with the accounts, busy counting money, busy eating Zhou Yi, licking his lips afterwards, whispering teasingly in his ear,
"If you ask me, my husband is the number one on the must-eat list. He's so delicious that you'll want to eat more after eating him..."
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