bookcurios Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Mother Chen picked up the silver on the table. She didn't know how much silver was in it. She just took it and gave it back to her son. "You should take it. I haven't spent the fifty taels of silver you gave me last time. I'll save it and find you a loving wife in the future."
Chen Dongzhi pursed his lips. He had not yet considered his lifelong affairs, nor had he thought about what kind of person he would spend the rest of his life with.
But you still have to live a good life now. If you don't have the ability to give someone a good life, marrying a girl will only make her suffer. Why hurt her?
Thinking of this, he stretched out his hand and pushed the bag of silver towards Chen's mother, "Mom, Dad is gone, and you are the eldest in the family. I'll give this money to you for safekeeping. If I need it in the future, I'll ask for it."
Seeing that her son was unwilling to take the money back, Chen's mother could only take the money and keep it for safekeeping. She then put it in a small cabinet in the room, together with the fifty taels of silver her son gave her last time, so that she could use it to help her son get married.
Zhongji Snacks has sold out and closed the shop after selling today's braised food. Mrs. Zhong has been bending over to scoop up the braised food since the customers came, with the spoon in her hand all the time, and now her hands are shaking badly.
Second Brother Zhong felt extremely distressed, so he asked her to rest aside while he installed the door panels and prepared to close the door. Zhong Ruyi took the sold-out pots and basins into the yard to wash them. After everything was cleaned up, they sat down and poured out the wooden box containing the money. Now the person whose hands were shaking became Second Brother Zhong.
Mrs. Zhong was also very excited. As the person standing in front who was responsible for scooping the braised food for the customers, she knew best how good the business was today. A pot of braised food was sold out in less than an hour. If it was like this every day, would she still worry about not being able to sell it all? She was just afraid that it wouldn't be enough!
As the money in the wooden box poured out with a rustling sound, Zhong Ruyi was extremely excited. No matter how much or how little, this was the first time she had made money in all these long times. After she saved up some money, she wanted to open a Sichuan restaurant and let her second brother and his wife do the braised food.
One penny, two pennies, three pennies...
"...When I was preparing stew today, I counted them. There were ten customers who wanted two scoops, and six who wanted one scoop. I charged fifteen coins for each customer who wanted two scoops, which means one hundred and fifty coins for ten people. I charged ten coins for each customer who wanted one scoop, and sixty coins for six people, which adds up to two hundred and ten coins!"
Mrs. Zhong was shocked, remembering that she used to sell wontons at 18 wen a bowl and she sold about ten bowls a day. However, pork was expensive, with the price of pork in the village being 12 wen per pound and in the town being 15 wen per pound.
Wontons are made with flour and expensive pork, and the pork filling is added with some green vegetables. The soup is made from purchased pork bones. Although pork bones are cheap, you have to get up early to cook them, and with all the oil, salt, and sauces needed, the cost is high and the profit is low.
Moreover, selling wontons requires the store to be open all day long, in case customers come and want to eat but the store is not open. You can't just do business in the morning or afternoon.
It’s different with braised goods. Although you still have to get up early to sell the offal and prepare the braising process, you have a lot more free time. You can make it in the morning and sell it in the morning, and then you can rest in the afternoon.
Thinking of this, the second sister-in-law suddenly felt that she was not tired today. She could buy more pig offal and continue selling it in the afternoon.
"Two buckets of pork offal cost me twenty cents. The owner of the pork shop is familiar with me. He said that no matter how many buckets there are, it will be twenty cents. Pig offal is not worth money." said Brother Zhong.
Zhong Ruyi did a quick calculation in his mind: pig offal was twenty cents, a bag of spices was twenty-five cents divided into four small bags, each bag costing about six cents, plus sugar and other seasonings and firewood, the cost would be around sixty cents.
The smile on Zhong Ruyi's face grew deeper and deeper. "After deducting the sixty coins from the capital today, we will have one hundred and fifty coins left. This is the profit from the first three days of activities. If we sell two pots a day, each pot will make about twenty spoonfuls. Two pots will make forty spoonfuls, so forty spoonfuls will be enough."
Brother Zhong and his wife looked at each other and said in unison, "Four hundred coins!"
Three hundred wen a day, that’s twelve taels a month!
After deducting the cost, there will still be about ten taels left.
Oh my god! Brother Zhong and his wife were simply shocked. They could only make about 300-400 grams of wontons a month before, and that was only when business was good. Bad business was the norm.
The money was kept with the second brother Zhong. After counting the bills and washing the pots and pans, it was time for dinner. Zhong Ruyi went out to buy food and let the second brother and his wife have a rest. They had worked hard today. On the contrary, she, who came up with the idea of making a living by selling braised food, had the easiest time. She just handed the bowls to the customers and collected the money.
The ancient markets were really lively. Even though it was already four or five in the afternoon, the streets were still bustling with people and all kinds of shouting could be heard one after another.
She walked around and finally went to a stall selling steamed buns and sesame cakes, bought some sesame cakes and steamed buns. When she was walking back, she saw someone carrying two cages and selling them. She went over to take a look and saw that they were rabbits. The vendor said that they were raised at home. Rabbits always have a litter of babies at a time, and he couldn't raise all of them, so he picked out two cages to sell today.
Spicy rabbit head is delicious, cold rabbit is delicious, rabbit is delicious, rabbit is just delicious!
Zhong Ruyi decided to buy a few rabbits to take back. When she was in the village, Zhong's mother and her friends would occasionally go up the mountain to catch rabbits. However, Zhong's mother disliked that rabbits had little meat, so she became too lazy to catch them after catching them once or twice.
"How much is one of your rabbits?" Zhong Ruyi asked the vendor. If it was too expensive, then forget it and go up the mountain to catch one next time she returns to the village.
"Girl, if you want to buy some, I'll give you ten cents for one and eighteen cents for two." The vendor smiled eagerly.
Zhong Ruyi thought the price was okay, not too expensive and acceptable, "Then let's get two."
She gave the money and walked back carrying the two rabbits and the freshly bought sesame seed buns. When she met the owner of the tea shop next door, she smiled at her. She smiled back, nodded, and went back to the shop.
After returning to the store, she found a cage, locked up the two rabbits and put them in the kitchen, intending to cook them tomorrow when she had time. She then casually put a handful of vegetable leaves in the cage and left.
After dinner, Brother Zhong reminded us to go to bed early tonight because we had to get up early to work tomorrow.
This was the bad thing about ancient times. People had to go to bed as soon as it got dark, unlike modern times where they could go out to dance and sing or something, or at worst they could play with their cell phones.
After returning to the room, she sat in the space for a long time. Guessing that her second brother and the others should have fallen asleep, she tiptoed to the kitchen to replace the water in the water tank with space water. The water at home could only be added when she returned.