When they reached the Sifang Restaurant, Zeng Xiaoyan and her husband stopped the ox cart some distance away, choosing not to come closer. Xu Zhichun and Aunt Zhu’er stepped forward with the baskets and knocked on the back gate.
“Who is it?” After a long while, a worker opened the door impatiently.
Seeing two rural women, he immediately showed a look of disgust and wariness, sizing them up rudely.
“Who are you? What do you want? We don’t need dishwashing, vegetable-sorting, or floor-sweeping women here. We’re not hiring.
Aunt Zhu’er had never been so openly humiliated and looked down upon.
Her face flushed with embarrassment, and she didn’t dare lift her head.
Xu Zhichun was angry too. If it weren’t for Zeng Xiaoyan, she would’ve turned around and left right then.
"Young man, we have two kinds of food we’d like to sell to the restaurant. Could we meet the shopkeeper? We’d like to speak with him in detail."
“You want to see the shopkeeper?” The worker gave them a mocking look and burst into laughter. Impatiently, he waved them off: “Our restaurant buys what it needs on its own. Who would buy from you? What a joke!”
"Young man—"
"We don’t need anything—now get going, hurry up!"
With a loud bang, the staff shut the door in their faces—without the slightest courtesy.
Aunt Zhu’er’s face turned red. “This person is just… just too unreasonable.”
Xu Zhichun gave a small smile. “Well, if they won’t take it, we’ll try somewhere else. Come on.”
To her surprise, she felt a sense of relief.
Even if Master Zeng complains in the future, they’ll have something to say for themselves.
Truthfully, she didn’t really want to do business with the Sifang Restaurant anyway—after all, Madam Zeng disliked Zeng Xiaoyan, and who could guarantee there wouldn’t be unpleasant conflicts down the line?
This is for the best.
Zeng Xiaoyan was happy too. “If they’re unwilling, then forget it!”
She’s even more unwilling!
The group went to the Lianhua Restaurant next.
Same job, completely different attitude.
They successfully met the shopkeeper of Lianhua Restaurant. When Shopkeeper Tang saw the crystal-clear, jewel-like ice jelly, his eyes lit up.
The restaurant had plenty of brown sugar syrup. He asked someone to prepare it, tasted the ice jelly, and was very satisfied.
"Nice and refreshing—this is good. What do you call it? Ice jelly? Good, good. Not bad at all. It’d work well as a starter dessert."
Since Shopkeeper Tang was satisfied with the ice jelly, he naturally had expectations for the konjac tofu and konjac threads as well.
He instructed the kitchen to stir-fry on high heat right away—one vegetarian, one with meat—and called the head chef over to taste it on the spot.
It’s a pretty good thing.
No self-respecting restaurant would reject a new dish offered at their doorstep. Adding another flavor never hurts—especially when the gray tofu and threads are so versatile.
Shopkeeper Tang immediately said they could start by bringing ten catties each of the gray tofu and shredded konjac tomorrow—and ten catties of the ice jelly too.
Gray tofu is twelve copper coins per catty, gray threads eighteen copper coins per catty, and ice jelly twenty copper coins per catty.
If sales go well tomorrow, we’ll send more in the future.
Delighted, they offered all two or three catties they’d brought today to Shopkeeper Tang for sampling.
In less than half a day, the four of them were carrying heavy pouches of copper coins. They found a noodle stall, each ordered a bowl of pork broth noodles, and went home happily.
Aunt Zhu’er quickly said, “While it’s still early, let’s go dig konjac and pick lantern fruit. We can’t delay tomorrow’s delivery to the Lianhua Restaurant.”
Zeng Xiaoyan quickly nodded. “Yes, yes, let’s split up. Mingliang and I will go dig konjac, Aunt Zhu’er and Sister Zhichun can go pick lantern fruit first. Whoever finishes first can go help the others. Oh right, Sister Zhichun—how much konjac should we dig?”
Liang Mingliang chimed in eagerly from the side, “Yes, yes, yes!”
Xu Zhichun said with a smile, “Don’t rush, don’t rush—let’s divide today’s money first."
“Ah?”
Zeng Xiaoyan and Aunt Zhu’er exchanged a glance. It seemed… doable?
I really am a bit looking forward to it!
Xu Zhichun first gave Liang Mingliang ten copper coins for renting the ox cart, then counted out twenty copper coins as his wages—five more than the fifteen they’d agreed on earlier.
Just as Liang Mingliang was about to decline, Xu Zhichun smiled and said, “We’ll probably need to hire Brother Liang often in the future—twenty wen a day, lunch included. If Brother Liang is willing, he can come; if not, that’s fine too, just say so. We can hire someone else just the same. And if we earn more later, Brother Liang’s wages will go up too.”
Zeng Xiaoyan laughed and said, “If you ask me, we don’t even need to pay him—would he dare not help me? Giving him twenty copper coins is already too much.”
Liang Mingliang was thinking the same—after all, who earns twenty copper coins a day? He chuckled and said, “Twenty copper coins a day, that’s a good deal. You have to hire me, not someone else.”
All three laughed at that.
That’s good. Xu Zhichun had been worried that Liang Mingliang might feel upset and ask for a share of the profits, and she’d have to waste words explaining.
Even with a written contract, the Liang family wasn’t the sort to act shamelessly, but it would still have been an unpleasant scene.
Fortunately.
Xu Zhichun chose to be upfront with Zeng Xiaoyan and Aunt Zhu’er about how to make ice jelly and konjac tofu from the start, precisely because she trusted the Liang village chief’s character and family values, as well as Zeng Xiaoyan’s personality.
Zeng Xiaoyan wasn’t the type to harbor bad intentions, and naturally, neither was Aunt Zhu’er—otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to stay in the village.
As for the “what if”? Xu Zhichun had no choice.
She’s a helpless widow with no one to rely on—how could she possibly get a business running smoothly?
She must have trustworthy partners.
Otherwise, never mind the trouble that might come from selling in town and drawing unwanted attention—even in the village, it would stir up envy.
Once they’d agreed to hire Liang Mingliang, the three women closed the door to sort out the money. Zeng Xiaoyan even gave him a mock-scolding and shooed him out—no peeking allowed.
What kind of joke is that? This is what she earned herself—no one’s allowed to peek!
Today, they had about forty jin of konjac tofu and nearly ten jin of konjac knots.
After deducting sixteen copper coins for noodles, thirty copper coins for the ox cart rental and Liang Mingliang’s wages, there were still seven hundred and fifty-two copper coins left.
Xu Zhichun took four hundred and fifty copper coins, while Zeng Xiaoyan and Aunt Zhu’er each earned one hundred and fifty-one.
The heavy pouch of copper coins was wrapped in a cloth—Zeng Xiaoyan and Aunt Zhu’er were overjoyed.
Zeng Xiaoyan still had a dozen taels from her dowry, but this one hundred and fifty-one copper coins—she earned it herself. She made this much just by trying today, and there’ll only be more in the future.
Aunt Zhu’er was so excited her hands were trembling. She had never earned money before, and never imagined her first try would be such a big success.
“One hundred wen—this is over a hundred wen! I—I earned this much in just one day! My heavens, I actually made this much! Zhichun, Xiaoyan, we—we’re not dreaming, are we? My heavens!”
Zeng Xiaoyan giggled, “Of course it’s not a dream. We can earn even more tomorrow and the day after, right, Sister Zhichun?”
Xu Zhichun was pleased too. With the four hundred copper coins she already had, she now had nearly one tael of silver in hand.
There will be more soon.
Full of confidence.
“Let’s go up the mountain.”
"Okay, okay!"
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
🐇♡🐇♡🐇♡🐇
The sun is setting. The three women sit on overturned baskets, fanning themselves with cabbage leaves. The cloth-wrapped pouch of copper coins rests like a baby in Aunt Zhu’er’s lap.
Zeng Xiaoyan (hands on hips, grinning):
“If we keep earning like this, I’m buying myself a gold bracelet for New Year!”
Aunt Zhu’er (hugging the coin pouch like a treasure chest):
“A bracelet? I’m getting a cabinet. A big one. Just for my coins! I’ll open it—clang!—scare my husband half to death!”
Xu Zhichun (folding up the stall cloth, calm as ever):
“Don’t get ahead of yourselves. We still have to be up at four tomorrow to sell more tofu.”
Zeng Xiaoyan (flopping down dramatically):
“Ugh, Sister Zhichun, why do you always kick us out of our dreams the moment we get comfy?”
Aunt Zhu’er (murmuring):
“But I wasn’t done dreaming yet… I was swimming in copper coins…”
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