The Family Had Split, Why Should I Care if They Go Broke? - Chapter 16

They arrived at Four Directions Restaurant. Zeng Xiaoyan and her husband parked the ox cart some distance away, and didn’t go near it. Xu Zhichun and Aunt Zhu’er each carried a basket forward and knocked on the restaurant’s backyard door.

“Who is it?” 

After quite a while, a waiter finally opened the door, looking impatient. The moment he saw two village women, his expression turned to disgust and wariness. He swept his eyes over them without politeness.

“Who are you? What do you want? We’re not short on women to wash dishes, scrub vegetables, or sweep the floor. We’re not hiring.”

Aunt Zhu’er had never been so openly looked down on before. Her face instantly flushed red, and she didn’t even dare lift her head.

Xu Zhichun was also angry inside—if it weren’t for Zeng Xiaoyan’s sake, she’d have turned around and left already.

“Brother, we have two kinds of food we’d like to sell to the restaurant. Could you let us meet with the manager? We’d like to explain it to him in detail.”

“You want to see the manager?” The waiter gave them a mocking glance and burst out laughing with scorn. Then, waving his hand impatiently, he said, “If our restaurant needs something, we’ll buy it ourselves. Who’s going to buy from you? What a dreamer!”

“But, brother—”

“No need, no need, now move along, move along!”

Bang! Without any courtesy, the waiter slammed the door shut.

Aunt Zhu’er’s face burned. “That man is just… just unreasonable.”

Xu Zhichun smiled faintly. “Since they’ve refused, we’ll just try another one. Let’s go.”

In truth, she felt relieved.

In the future, even if Master Zeng complained, they’d have an excuse. Honestly, she hadn’t wanted to do business with Four Directions Restaurant anyway—especially since Madam Zeng disliked Zeng Xiaoyan, it was hard to guarantee there wouldn’t be ugly disputes down the line.

This way was best.

Zeng Xiaoyan was happy too. “If they don’t want it, forget it!”

She was even less willing to meet them!

They next headed to Lotus Restaurant.

Same kind of waiter—yet such a huge difference.

They easily met with Lotus Restaurant’s manager, Tang. The moment Manager Tang saw the crystal-clear, ice jelly, his eyes lit up.

The restaurant already had brown sugar syrup on hand. He poured come over the ice jelly and tasted it—he was very satisfied.

“Refreshing—very good. What do you call this? Ice jelly? Good, good, not bad. It’ll make an excellent pre-meal dessert.”

Since Manager Tang was pleased with the ice jelly, he naturally became curious about the konjac tofu and shredded konjac.

He ordered the kitchen to stir-fry them right there—one vegetarian, one with meat—and had the head chef taste them as well.

It was indeed a fine product.

A good restaurant would never turn down new dishes that came to its door. Adding variety was no bad thing, and this gray tofu and gray tofu strips were very versatile.

Right then, Manager Tang said they could start by bringing ten catties each of gray tofu and gray tofu strips the next day, plus ten catties of ice jelly as well.

Gray tofu: 12 wen per catty

Gray tofu strips: 18 wen per catty

Ice jelly: 20 wen per catty

If sales went well, they could bring more in the future.

The group was overjoyed. The two or three catties they’d brought today were left for Manager Tang to enjoy as a treat.

By midday, the four of them had a pouch heavy with copper coins. They stopped at a noodle stall, each ordering a bowl of pork bone broth noodles, then happily headed home.

Aunt Zhu’er said quickly, “Since it’s still early, let’s go dig konjac and pick lantern fruit right now. We can’t delay tomorrow’s delivery to Lotus Restaurant.”

Zeng Xiaoyan nodded at once. “Yes, yes. Let’s split up—Mingliang and I will dig konjac, Aunt Zhu’er and Sister-in-law Zhichun will pick lantern fruit. Whoever finishes first will help the others. Oh, Sister-in-law Zhichun, how much konjac should we dig?”

Liang Mingliang, standing by, also hurriedly echoed, “Yes, yes, yes!”

Xu Zhichun laughed. “Don’t rush, don’t rush. Let’s split today’s earnings first.”

“Huh?”

Zeng Xiaoyan and Aunt Zhu’er looked at each other—well… that worked too.

They were actually a little excited.

Xu Zhichun first gave Liang Mingliang 10 wen for the ox cart rental, then counted out 20 wen as his wages—5 wen more than the 15 they’d originally agreed upon.

Liang Mingliang was about to refuse, but Xu Zhichun smiled. “We’ll likely be hiring you often from now on—20 wen a day, with lunch included. If you’re willing, come along. If you’re not, that’s fine too; we’ll hire someone else. When profits grow, your pay will go up too.”

Zeng Xiaoyan laughed. “Honestly, even if we didn’t pay him, he’d still have to help me! Giving him 20 wen is already generous.”

Liang Mingliang felt much the same. After all, who could make 20 wen in a single day? Grinning, he said, “20 wen a day is great. You must hire me—don’t go hiring someone else.”

That made all three women laugh.

Good. Xu Zhichun had worried he might feel unbalanced and demand a share of profits, which would have required lengthy explanations. Even though they had a written contract, no one liked unpleasant disputes.

Luckily, it didn’t come to that.

She had chosen to be upfront with Zeng Xiaoyan and Aunt Zhu’er about how to make ice jelly and konjac tofu precisely because she trusted Chief Liang’s family reputation and valued Zeng Xiaoyan’s character. Zeng Xiaoyan wasn’t the scheming type, and Aunt Zhu’er naturally wouldn’t be either—otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to stay in the village.

And if, by chance, she’d misjudged them? Xu Zhichun didn’t have many options.

A lone, helpless widow couldn’t possibly run a business smoothly all on her own.

She needed reliable partners.

Otherwise, even before dealing with trouble in town, she’d attract jealous eyes right in the village.

After agreeing to hire Liang Mingliang, the three women closed the door to count and split the money—Zeng Xiaoyan even shooed him out with a mock glare, forbidding him to peek.

What a joke—this was money she had earned herself; no one was allowed to sneak a look!

Today, they’d sold about 40 catties of konjac tofu and 10 catties of konjac knots. After deducting 16 wen for the noodles, 10 wen for the cart rental, and 20 wen for Liang Mingliang’s wages—a total of 30 wen—they still had 752 wen left.

Xu Zhichun took 450 wen. Zeng Xiaoyan and Aunt Zhu’er each earned 151 wen.

The heavy bundle of copper coins wrapped in handkerchiefs made both women giddy with excitement.

Zeng Xiaoyan still had over a dozen taels of dowry silver, but these 151 wen were money she’d earned with her own hands. And this was only the trial run—they’d surely earn more in the future.

Aunt Zhu’er’s hands were trembling with excitement. She had never earned money before. She hadn’t expected to make such a big profit on the very first day.

“Over a hundred wen—this is over a hundred wen! I… I made this in just one day! Heaven above, I actually made this much! Zhichun, Xiaoyan—are we… are we dreaming? Heavens!”

Zeng Xiaoyan giggled. “Of course it’s not a dream. We’ll make even more tomorrow and the day after. Right, Sister-in-law Zhichun?”

Xu Zhichun was just as pleased. Adding it to her previous four hundred-odd wen, she now had nearly a tael of silver.

And soon, there’d be more.

She felt full of confidence.

“Let’s head up the mountain.”

“Yes, yes!”

“Let’s go, let’s go!”