Sunday 16 July 2023

WLAEF 31




Chapter 31


In the town. The sun was already leaning far to the west. Wang De squatted in front of the stall, looking at his plates and bowls reluctantly. He made all of these things one by one, with some points of pride and some points of dissatisfaction. After today, these will all be put into some corner.

Today was the deadline he agreed with Jiang Yun Zhu. In fact, it didn't matter whether Jiang Yun Zhu came or not. Even if she buys some bowls, it won't save his business. This was just an excuse for him to procrastinate. He just didn't want to part with his craft.

Now this excuse was about to disappear. He knew that he had to be responsible to his wife and family.

Forget it. Let's go to the mine tomorrow, he thought.

At this moment.

"Boss, do you still remember me?" A crisp voice asked.

Wang De looked up. It was Jiang Yun Zhu. he remembered her, "Miss, have you overcome the difficulty?" Pleasantly surprised, he asked.

"En." Jiang Yun Zhu smiled.

"That girl..." Wang De’s decision to go to the mine tomorrow was going to be delayed from helping Jiang Yun Zhu make the bowls.

"Boss, how many lunch boxes of the kind I want can you burn in this kiln?" Jiang Yun Zhu asked.

What did she mean? Wang De’s heart slightly raised, "About a hundred."

"Then I want to order a hundred lunch boxes of that kind. Can Boss do it?"

One hundred, that was, seven hundred wen. Even if he made it cheaper for her, he can earn a lot from this order. It was more cost-effective than going to the mine.

Wang De asked urgently, "Do you want to order a hundred?"

"En, let's look at the situation first. There may be more in the future." Jiang Yun Zhu replied. There were thousands of soldiers and craftsmen in the mine. It was estimated that a hundred wasn't enough.

Wang De was overjoyed.

"Then it will be cheaper for you." He took the initiative to offer.

Jiang Yun Zhu didn't argue with him about the price. First, the price wasn't too expensive. Second, it was rare that Boss still remembered her and her affairs.

One hundred lunch boxes. Six hundred and fifty wen. Hearing that Jiang Yun Zhu needed it urgently, Wang De stopped setting up his stall and immediately packed up his things to head back to make them for her.

Jiang Yun Zhu went to the market to buy groceries. Since she decided to do lunch and dinner long term, she should prepare the necessary ingredients. It was cold now. The groceries every afternoon won't spoil the next day. This way they wouldn’t have to rush to the market every morning and can definitely buy the ingredients she needed.

The next morning, Jiang Yun Zhu still set up the stall. But today she didn't sell food. Only boiled a large pot of tea on the stove.

Though Wang Bin and others were arrested, nothing serious happened. Many people in the mine didn't know what happened. They just saw that a lot of soldiers came yesterday, and then they all left. Life went on as usual.

However.

"Boss, you’re not selling food anymore?" Someone specially came to Jiang Yun Zhu's stall to eat food and discovered there wasn’t any.

"We won't sell breakfast anymore. We sell lunch and dinner. For lunch, there is braised pork rice, chicken rice, and soy-braised giant meatball rice. Or there is a menu here. Customer can order whatever you want. When it is ready at noon, we will send it to you to the designated place." Jiang Yun Zhu introduced.

After shopping for vegetables yesterday, she made a menu overnight. The menu was based on the groceries she bought every day.

As for braised pork rice and the likes, it was the first batch of set meals. This one had only one dish and can be served in ordinary bowls.

In fact, Jiang Yun Zhu also thought about making over rice, but over rice had to be divided into different types. Which was too troublesome. It wasn't as good as the model of small stir-fry and set meals. The former was more profitable, and the latter can be sold directly after packing. It was simple.

Some people were disappointed when they heard this, while others were very interested in the lunch and asked about the price.

"A bowl of braised pork rice costs 13 wen, a bowl of chicken rice costs 11 wen, and a bowl of soy-braised giant meatball rice costs 12 wen."

The miners all looked sad when they heard the price. They only earned 20 wen for a day of hard work. A bowl of soup and steamed buns cost 3 wen. They could still eat once in a while. While this meal, they were really reluctant to buy.

Jiang Yun Zhu's smile remained the same. The main customers of her dinner weren’t the miners, but the soldiers and craftsmen.

Sure enough, some soldiers heard this and immediately decided to order a portion to try. Thirteen wen was still acceptable. Mainly because Jiang Yun Zhu's soup, pancakes, buns, etc. were all very delicious. They estimated that this meal wouldn't be bad.

Moreover, Jiang Yun Zhu had already gained a bit of reputation among the defenders for making small stir-fries before. Everyone knew that the food that Deputy General Zhao and others ate every day was very delicious but many people didn't know that Jiang Yun Zhu made it. Now they knew, they naturally ordered one.

"I want a braised pork rice."

"I want a soy-braised giant meatball rice."

"What kind of dishes are on this menu? I can't read." A black and thin man asked. He was an iron smelting craftsman on the mountain. This was a skilled job and the monthly salary was very high.

Standing at the side, Jiang Lin read the menu to him.

Hearing that there were fried livers, he immediately said, "Give me a portion. I will have fried liver."

He had wanted to eat this dish for a long time, but there were no canteens on the mountain.

"Okay, one portion of liver, twenty wen." Jiang Yun Zhu sat in front of a table. There were three things on the table. On the far left was a stack of paper notes that were two fingers wide and one hand long. Whoever ordered what meal, she wrote the name of the dish and the number on the note. Then she tore it from the middle. Half for the person who ordered the meal, and the other half for herself.

When the meal is delivered, the person who collects the meal will say his number and match the note in his hand with the note in her hand. If they match, the meal can be taken away.

The second thing was an account book for those who deposit money with her. How much money was deposited by who on which day, what food was ordered on which day, how much was spent, and how much was left was written clearly.

The third piece was a small scale, which was specially used to weigh silver.

With these three things, she looked like a shopkeeper.

As for learning characters. She wasn't so cautious in front of Gu Yan Zhou. She only learned names, dish names, and numbers for a few days before using them. Even if Gu Yan Zhou really asked, she wouldn’t be afraid.

There were three-year-old child prodigies, so can't she be smarter?

After a while, more than a dozen people ordered meals and nearly three hundred wens entered their hands. After deducting the cost, they could earn about one hundred wens. This was half of the profit of selling breakfast. Beside her, Mrs. Chen finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Since food wasn’t getting sold today, she didn't need to come. But she was worried. So she followed. Now that the business was this good, she spoke to Jiang Yun Zhu, "Then you be. I will go back and make breakfast for you. What do you want to eat?"

Today, the new business opened successfully, and she decided to make some delicious treats for everyone.

"It’s up to Mother." Jiang Yun Zhu answered.

Mrs. Chen had an idea and went home to cook.

Not long after she left, three people came over there. They were none other than Deputy General Zhao trio. They were startled by what happened yesterday. Later, the troops left as quickly as they came. It had nothing to do with them at all.

It was a little later that they heard what was going on.

General Wang and Zhu Liang secretly withheld some iron ore and gave it to Sixth Prince.

Iron ore was a taboo.

No wonder even the famous Qilin Guard came.

Hearing this, they didn't dare to inquire any more. They only sighed for a while before coming to a conclusion - don't do anything illegal, otherwise there will be no good results sooner or later.

As for life, it still went on. After a period of time, the court will send a new general. It will be the same as before.

Meals, still have to eat them.

A few days ago, Wang Bin tormented them three times a day and they had enough of it. Today there was nothing. So they immediately decided to go down the mountain and come to Jiang Yun Zhu's stall for breakfast.

"Stop making breakfast?" Deputy General Zhao’s ox eye’s poped out.

"En, make lunch and dinner." Jiang Yun Zhu repeated what she said before.

Deputy General Zhao was a little disappointed. But after thinking about it, it wasn't bad. They can find delicious meal in the evening. In the morning, it was fine to order something else.

They ordered their meal and went to other stalls to find food. Aftering searching around, they found that it wasn't as good as Jiang Yun Zhu's meal. So they casually bought some and went up the mountain to wait for the meal at noon.

At this time, two more people came to Jiang Yun Zhu's stall.

"Customers." Jiang Yun Zhu looked up, but stood there in a daze.

It was the big-eyed man who used to buy her food every day. She guessed that he was from Qilin Guards. Why when Shen Feng Ming had already left, but the two of them were still here? Did she guess wrong before?

She didn't guess wrong. Nie Xin duo belonged to Qilin Guards. They used to buy food for Shen Feng Ming and Yang Sheng every day. They should have left with Shen Feng Ming yesterday, but who made Yang Sheng lie about collecting food.

Yang Sheng told the two of them to stay and deal with this matter.

The two needed to help Yang Sheng tidy the lie’s loose ends. They couldn't really collect so much grain back to the capital. So they found a grain merchant and sold the grain to him directly.

After such tossing around, some time had passed.

Now that it was almost done, the two wanted to leave when they suddenly remembered that they had smelled the fragrance for so many days and hadn't tasted the food yet. It just so happened that they could go to that stall to eat before they left. This time, Deputy Commander shouldn’t be able to control them, right?

So they came.

Jiang Yun Zhu still gave the same explanation. Today she won't sell breakfast, only lunch and dinner.

The two looked at each other. What should they do? How about going after lunch? Though the journey was a rushed, they should be on time.

The two of them did stay. It can be seen that they were obsessed with this meal. In fact, It wasn't just the two of them. The rest of Qilin Guards also wanted to eat, but unfortunately they didn't have a chance.

Thinking of this, the two felt that being left behind was a good thing. Just don't know if this meal was really so delicious. Even Commander ate it every day.

It must be a rare delicacy.

En, after they finish eating, they have to go back to the capital to show off to those brothers. No, describe it.

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