July's heat intensifies, and the weather gradually turns cooler.
In autumn, Ning'an Village enjoyed a bountiful harvest. Without the effects of the drought of the previous two years, the fields were full of crops.
During the off-season for farming, Zhou Jiren came to the city and brought a cartload of grain for the Lin family.
When the Lin family moved from the village to the city, they rented out their old farmland to other villagers. As was customary, they agreed that the family would receive 30% of the rent and would not have to pay any land tax.
The villagers thought it was quite fair. The families that had a good relationship with the Lin family rented some of their land, and the Zhou family, being the largest, rented the most.
This time when he came to the city, he took the opportunity to deliver the rent money to the Lin family. Along with it on the oxcart were some dried mushrooms, dried fruits, dried vegetables, and other things that the villagers had picked from the mountain. They were not expensive, but they were a token of the villagers' goodwill.
Holding these things, Liu Junlan felt a lump in her throat and invited Zhou Jiren to stay for a meal at her home.
He soaked the dried mushrooms and other dried goods he brought in water, and then went to the market to buy two pounds of meat.
Seeing the sausages ready in the butcher's shop, Liu Junlan took out a coin from his purse, bought two sausages, and also bought a dime of rice wine.
During the rice harvest season, rice prices are low, making the business of selling rice wine particularly easy.
The sausages and sliced meat were thinly sliced, and the dried mushrooms were diced. A large pot of rice was steamed with this year's new rice. Everything was mixed together, the aroma of rice mingling with the fragrance of dried mushrooms, and the fat from the pork seeping into every grain of rice, giving it a glossy sheen. The aroma of the sausage was also present, making one's mouth water just from smelling it.
With two plates of freshly stir-fried vegetables as a side dish, Zhou Jiren couldn't be too polite. He filled a large bowl with rice and drank the remaining rice wine with Lin Weiming.
The fragrant aroma of the cured pork and rice whetted the appetites of the children. Everyone ate until their bellies were round and full, but they still didn't want to put their hands down, feeling that the salty and savory taste of the rice was still lingering on their tongues.
Zhou Jiren had a good capacity for alcohol, and even after eating and drinking his fill, he refused to rest and immediately drove the carriage back home.
Lin Wanyue wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, leaving her hand greasy.
Her little brain finally had a flash of inspiration, and she thought of something suitable to sell at Lin's Restaurant.
As autumn's solemnity arrived, fewer families sold fruits and melons at the market. As the weather grew colder, the fruit salad business at the shop became difficult. Lin Wanyue couldn't keep selling fruits that people had never seen before, so she simply stopped selling fruit salad.
But after eating the delicious rice and vegetables today, Lin Wanyue thought of a food that would become extremely famous in later generations.
That's a rice ball!
Like roasted sweet potato noodles, rice balls can be made from pre-prepared ingredients. When someone wants to buy them, they simply need to wrap the cooked rice and vegetables inside a vegetable leaf to create a simple and delicious meal.
More importantly, the rice balls are really good value for money!
Even the most frugal family would need seven or eight copper coins for a meal with both rice and vegetables. If they wanted a more lavish meal, the price would be even higher.
But rice balls are different; they're affordable, about the same price as large steamed buns.
However, meat buns may not be filling, but rice balls can be very filling and keep you full.
For the Lin family, the preparation is simple. They only need to steam the rice, and the other fillings and sauces used inside are the same as those used for roasted sweet potato noodles.
Liu Junlan and the others thought Lin Wanyue's ideas and suggestions were good.
After all, they themselves thought their rice balls tasted good. If they could reduce the cost of a large rice ball to less than three copper coins, such a low price would definitely attract people to buy it.
Moreover, unlike roasted sweet potato skin, rice balls are more suitable for breakfast or as a quick bite after a meal. Since they contain both rice and vegetables, they are not unsuitable to be eaten as a main meal.
Lin Weiming felt that the rice balls could fill the lunch and dinner hours of his shop, so they shouldn't be wasted. He immediately agreed and would try them tomorrow.
"No, we need to think of another way. If the weather gets colder and colder, we can't just sell cold rice balls to others, can we? We won't get a good price then." Liu Junlan raised the question, frowning as she said, "If we could find a way to keep the cooked rice at home warm after we take it over, that would be great."
“I have a way,” Lin Xiangwu said unexpectedly.
Everyone looked at him.
Lin Xiangwu's face flushed slightly as he was stared at by so many eyes, but his skin was dark, so even if his face turned red, it would be a dark reddish-brown.
"When I was in the army, the soldiers were afraid of their food getting cold in the winter, so they would put a big pot on top of a large wooden bucket, with a stove underneath. There was no need to light a fire, just charcoal to keep it warm. Although there was some burnt rice at the bottom, it tasted good when sprinkled with salt and chili powder." Lin Xiangwu recalled those difficult years with a touch of nostalgia.
Having made up his mind, Lin Weiming was kicked out by his mother to order a large wooden bucket that could be connected to the big pot, and a sturdy iron stove also had to be prepared.
The charcoal that Liang Xin had sent over earlier was still stored in the Lin family's woodshed, which would come in handy later.
This is actually a testament to Madam Xia's thoughtfulness; she knew that the Lin family would need a lot of charcoal to make roasted sweet potato noodles.
...
Before long, the customers of Lin's Restaurant discovered that Lin's seemed to have added new items.
They rushed over to line up, and when they saw the curtain over the large wooden tub lifted, the fragrant aroma made them unable to resist reaching for their coins.
That day, the large wooden bucket that had been used to cook twenty catties of rice was scraped clean, and the slightly charred rice crust at the bottom was so scarce that it was almost snatched away by the last customers.
The next day, Lin Weiming gritted his teeth and cooked fifty catties of rice, but it was all sold out by noon and couldn't be sold until the afternoon or evening.
Such powerful and frenzied purchasing power led Lin Weiming and Liu Junlan to believe that the Jiang and Liu families might have come to show their support. They were just about to find an opportunity to persuade the two families when Lin Wanyue told them the answer.
Lin Wanyue tells fortunes every day. The price isn't high, but she can still earn about thirty or forty coins.
Most importantly, you can easily get a lot of gossip from them.
They also learned that their magistrate, Lord Liang, seemed to have changed his ways recently. Not only did he work diligently at the yamen every day, but he was also very fair in judging and investigating cases. He even changed the rule that anyone who wanted to file a complaint had to be given ten strokes of the cane first.
Although most people were skeptical, there were always some who were bold enough to actually go to Liang Xin to complain. Unexpectedly, Lord Liang really did uphold justice.
This made the atmosphere in the whole city lively.
Although it's a good thing, bad news travels fast even if it doesn't go out.
However, the news about the county magistrate spread quickly throughout the city and several surrounding counties.
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