Beloved Concubine

Chapter 18

Chen Xiao was wearing a strong suit and her hair was tied into a high ponytail. She stood at the door of the store and looked at the pedestrians coming and going on the street.

Fang Yu looked at her heroic appearance, pleasing to the eye and full of liking.

"How did you come up with this coat style?" Fang Yu asked.

Chen Xiao's strong suit consists of trousers and a short long-sleeved jacket underneath, and a half-sleeved long shirt on the outside, with a wide belt around the waist, imitating the style of women in ancient costumes in film and television dramas.

Her trousers and jacket are somewhat similar to the style Fang Yu wore before, but the coat is different, with a belt that looks like a skirt.

"Does this look like a military uniform to me?"

"Not like."

"Can this be worn on the street?"

"Well...you are easy to attract bees and butterflies like this."

Chen Xiao glanced at him.Fang Yu often has a sense of substitution of "they are boyfriend and girlfriend" when speaking.

At this time, a woman in her 20s walked towards the shop with a basket of vegetables.

"Sister-in-law Wenxiu!" Chen Xiao greeted her with a smile.

"Congratulations! Happy opening." Wenxiu said, handing over a red paper package.

This is a red envelope specially prepared by her, with two hundred Wen in it.

Wenxiu came to Nanmen Street to buy vegetables almost every day. She met Chen Xiao the day before yesterday and heard that they opened today, so she went back and told her mother-in-law about it.Aunt Shen asked her to wrap a red envelope to show her congratulations.

Chen Xiao and the others lived at Aunt Shen's house for nearly half a month before, and they got along very happily.It's just that once when I met Shen Feng, the son of Aunt Shen, he saw Fang Yu wearing his clothes, and his face was very ugly.Afterwards, Fang Yu returned the clothes to Aunt Shen and asked her to make new ones for him.

When Chen Xiaochu saw Shen Feng, he was a little surprised to see that he was much younger than Wenxiu.It was later learned that Wenxiu was the child bride-in-law of the Shen family, four years older than Shen Feng.

Shen Feng, 21 this year, passed the examination of scholar, and is currently preparing for the examination of Juren.He was opposed to opening an inn at home, but the income from the cloth village alone could not afford him to go to school.

Chen Xiao took the heavy red envelope, knowing that it contained money, and said with a smile:
"Thank you! Come in and taste us."

Wenxiu was not too polite, walked into the store and asked, "What is the name of this you sell?"

"Rice noodles."

"how to eat?"

Chen Xiao called Chunhong hot bowl of rice noodles.

Because of the special tools used to make rice noodles, they make them in the backyard, pack them bowl by bowl, and place them on the stove in front of the shop.When a guest wants it, pour it into a colander, blanch it again in boiling water, then add the secret soup and top it with toppings.

"The toppings include stewed meat, braised pork, braised chicken, and spicy chicken, which one do you want?" Chen Xiao asked.

Braised meat and chicken are not spicy; stewed meat and spicy chicken are a bit spicy.

Looking at the bright red toppings, Wenxiu wanted to try each of them, but felt that this was too greedy, and said:
"Can you recommend me one?"

When trying dishes before, Chunhong liked spicy chicken, and she thought this would be more popular.

Chen Xiaodao: "Then eat spicy chicken."

After saying the words "eat spicy chicken", Chen Xiao suddenly felt that the name had to be changed, otherwise it would sound like "eat garbage".

"it is good."

Chen Xiao took a spoonful of spicy chicken, brought it to the seasoning table, and said:
"There are all kinds of condiments here, you can add whatever you like."

"How to add this?"

There are more than a dozen small tile vats on the seasoning table, with a variety of seasonings, which makes people a little at a loss.

"Chives, fragrant willow, minced ginger... Sister, you can cook too! Do you still need me to teach you?" Chen Xiao laughed.

Wenxiu taught Chen Xiao some South Vietnamese dishes, and her cooking skills are also very good.

"Oh, then, how much can you add?" Wenxiu asked.

"Add whatever you want. You can add whatever you think is delicious."

Wenxiu added a few of them according to her own preferences.Bring it to the long table and take a pair of chopsticks.

She took a few bites and her eyes lit up.

“The taste is very good!”

Chen Xiao smiled happily.

The chili in the spicy chicken is the dried chili that she brought from modern times.She first made chili peppers into Ciba chili, and then fried chicken with Ciba chili.Because she made this as a topping, she added water and boiled it.Otherwise, hers is "Spicy Chicken with Ciba".

Although there are a lot of peppers brought in, it will not be enough for a long time to open a shop.She has already left the chili seeds, planted some in the space, and planted another part in this small courtyard.After that, she plans to find a piece of land to grow peppers.

Wenxiu sips after sips, couldn't stop eating, and finally drank up the soup, then raised her head and asked:
"Is this rice noodle made of rice?"

"Yes." Chen Xiao nodded.

"How?"

"First grind the rice into flour, steam it and press it into strips."

That's the rationale, but not quite.There are many ways to make rice noodles, some are cooked and can be eaten directly; some are made raw and need to be cooked before eating.

Chen Xiao didn't tell her the real method, because it was related to tools.They are still figuring out how to modify the tool, which is not the case for another tool.

Wen Xiu didn't ask in detail, she knew it was someone's secret recipe.When Chen Xiao told her how to make stewed pork, they didn't plan to open a shop at that time.Now that the store is open, I'm afraid I won't tell her the detailed method.

"How much is a bowl of rice noodles?"

"Thirty texts."

Wenxiu took out her purse and prepared to pay.

Chen Xiao pressed her hand: "You gave me a big red envelope, how can I still charge you for a bowl of rice noodles?"

"No, today is your opening, and the money must be collected."

Wenxiu asked for money, but Chen Xiao had no choice but to accept it.

"Okay, good luck, thank you!"

"You are welcome, I will come to eat in the future."

Wenxiu had to go shopping for groceries, so she said goodbye and left without staying.

Chen Xiao handed over thirty Wen to Chunhong and asked her to keep it.

Chunhong drew a "one" on the wooden board behind her.

This is the "positive" word counting method Chen Xiao taught her. Selling a bowl draws a penny, so I can know how many bowls are sold every day.

With the rent plus the cost of materials, they have to sell at least [-] bowls a day to keep their capital.Chen Xiao had no idea what the business would be like in the future.

Chen Xiao said to Chunhong: "From now on, Spicy Chicken will be called Spicy Chicken."

"Why change it?" Chunhong was puzzled.

"Because 'eat spicy chicken' sounds like 'eat crap.'"

"What's wrong with eating garbage?" Chunhong was still puzzled.

"Trash! Garbage."

Chunhong looked puzzled, because they didn't have the word "garbage" here.The corresponding words are "waste" and "waste". There is no such thing as garbage.

Chen Xiao saw that he couldn't explain clearly to her, so he waved his hand, forget it, spicy chicken is spicy chicken.

Nanmen Street is very lively in the morning, most of them come to buy vegetables.Someone came to the shop smelling the fragrance, and left after just asking.In the morning, only four bowls were sold, one of which was eaten by Wenxiu.

Near noon, the vegetable sellers had basically left, but other vendors came again.Most of these people came on foot from the nearby villages and towns. Even if they went out at dawn, it would be almost noon when they walked ten or twenty miles to the county seat.

In addition, there are also people who come from farther afield by horse-drawn carriage.Just like when Chen Xiaofangyu went from the town more than 40 miles away to the county seat.

At the end of the day, they sold 46 bowls.Although it is halfway from [-] bowls a day, it is not bad to sell so many bowls on the first day of opening.

(End of this chapter)