Miao Chu

Chapter 63 Honey
Song Miao looked up and saw several burly men rushing towards her.

Although she didn't know the other party's purpose, it was broad daylight and there were soldiers following behind her, so she wasn't afraid. She simply pushed her stall to a wide open space by the roadside and stood there, waiting for someone to come over.

Before long, seven or eight burly men ran up to them one after another.

The one at the front asked, "Are you the owner of the glutinous rice and shumai from the shop at the Vermilion Bird Gate yesterday?"

Song Miao nodded in agreement and then asked about the other party's background.

As soon as she nodded, the group of people opposite her seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

Someone immediately replied, "We are patrolmen. We ate your glutinous rice and shumai at the Zhuque Gate patrol post yesterday. Today we were transferred to another post, but we missed your food. We asked around and came here specifically to find you!"

Someone else said, "Are you really the owner of the goods from yesterday? Don't get it wrong, let us see it first."

Those who pay are the bosses.

Song Miao readily agreed and immediately opened the steamer containing the shumai for everyone to see.

As soon as the steamer lid is opened, the aroma of scallion and pork shumai wafts out.

A group of patrolmen kept swallowing hard.

"This is the taste!"

"This is it! This is it!!"

Some people were so excited that their voices trembled.

"It smells even better than yesterday's!"

"Of course, it was cold when I received it yesterday."

A group of people were all talking.

How many do you want to buy?

The crowd then asked about the quantity.

Song Miao counted the items one by one. There was still half a pot of glutinous rice left, more than half a basket of shumai, and only about forty servings of the two kinds of drinks combined.

A man who appeared to be the leader on the other side, hearing this, became anxious and hurriedly said, "I want them all! I want them all!"

He waved his hands to the left and right and shouted, "What are you standing there for? Hurry up!"

A moment later, the people surrounding the vehicle parted to the left and right, and a small cart came over with several bamboo baskets and crates stacked on it.

Someone actually brought a cart and a bamboo basket with them when they bought breakfast!

Several more people gathered in front of Song Miao, urging, "Young lady, hurry up and settle the accounts, we're in a hurry to leave!"

Song Miao then ordered the shumai and drinks.

As soon as she finished counting, someone took lotus leaves to put shumai and drinks in, and someone else followed suit and scooped up glutinous rice.

Five or six people worked together and quickly cleared out the entire cart of breakfast.

After everything was settled, Song Miao gave a total amount. Thinking of the IOU she received from the patrol station yesterday, she asked, "Would you gentlemen give me an IOU, or..."

The leading patrolman opposite said, "Why bother with a note? I'll give it to you right now!"

As he spoke, he took off the satchel he was carrying on his back, counted the satchels one by one, paid the bill in full, and then asked Song Miao if "Song Ji" had a shop, where the shop was located, and where the stall was set up every day.

Upon learning that Song Miao lived in Suanzao Lane and had been setting up a stall at the patrol shops for the past few days, and that she would later set up a stall at the gate of the Imperial Academy, the patrolmen all looked extremely disappointed.

"It's too far!"

"Too late."

Someone advised her, "What's the point of running a student business? You're so stingy, and they don't eat many different things. Why don't you move to Caomen? We all work there. If you only sell this kind of thing, you won't even need to go out to sell. Two teams of us can clear out your stall!"

Song Miao smiled and thanked them first, then specifically reminded them to eat the shumai while it was hot, and to be careful on the way back, trying not to spill the meat juice inside, because if it ruined its shape, it would not only look bad, but also feel bad.

After the patrolmen left with their carts, Song Miao put away the money, looked at the empty steamer and steamer baskets, and then looked up at the road ahead. She was still a little dazed for a while.

—Is it sold out already?

We were supposed to go and visit the shops and set up stalls, but now that everything is sold out, how can we set up the stalls?
She thought about it for a moment, and decided that she couldn't leave her promise unfulfilled. She looked around and saw a fresh fruit shop ahead with an open space next to it. So she pushed her cart over, bought some fresh fruit, and asked the shop owner if she could leave the cart there for a while before continuing on her way with the fruit.

Meanwhile, at the Zhuque Gate patrol station, the constables who had been on duty early in the morning were busy but also absent-minded.

People ask questions every now and then.

"come yet?"

"Why haven't you come yet?"

Then someone else patiently answered.

"Someone's watching us. We'll find out when we get here!"

"I'll definitely make sure you get to eat, don't worry!"

"You all ate your fill yesterday, so of course I'm at ease. You only left me one meat dish, the rest were all vegetables. I didn't even get a good taste of it. I was waiting to eat my fill today. How can I be at ease when you haven't come for so long?"

"Suanzao Lane is a bit far from here, it will probably take some effort to get here."

But as time went by, even the most composed police officers began to feel uneasy.

Someone suggested, "It can't be this long, can it? Should we send someone else to check on it?"

Some people said, "Did that stall owner go to the Imperial Academy to set up a stall again?"

One of the constables immediately said, "That young lady Song promised not to go to the gate of the Imperial Academy for the next two days, so she should not go back on her word."

It was the very one that was right in front of us yesterday.

He simply stood up and said, "I'll go take a look!"

But before he had taken more than a few steps, several people hurried in from outside, carrying food boxes and bundles.

"coming?!"

"Finally here!"

Everyone rushed over.

"I am mutton shumai!"

"I have pork shumai and sticky rice, plus a tangerine peel and mung bean drink!"

Everyone was eager to get what they wanted, and some couldn't wait for the items to be distributed and went to get started on their own.

But as the food boxes and bundles were opened one by one, the whole room let out disappointed hisses.

"I ordered shumai, how did it turn into fried pancakes?"

"Isn't this the sweet meat bun that the old man sells in the back alley? I'm so tired of it, why are you buying this again!" "Why are you buying so many fruits out of the blue?"

The group of people who returned carrying their belongings all looked rather grim.

Someone pointed to the fruit and said, "This was just delivered to us by Mr. Song, the stall owner who sells glutinous rice and shumai. He said he didn't want to disturb us by coming in, so he left the fruit and left."

Someone else said, "That stall owner, Ms. Song, said she was originally going to set up her stall here today. She sold some goods along the way, but then the patrolmen from yesterday intercepted her halfway and bought her entire stall!"

As he spoke, the man pointed to the old breakfast items on the table and said, "Today there's no sticky rice or shumai! This is all we have to eat; otherwise, we'll go hungry!"

After hearing the whole story, the hungry police officers in the room were all indignant.

"We kindly treated them to a meal yesterday, why are they still thinking about it?!"

"Stealing someone else's breakfast, have you no shame, soldier?!"

Suddenly, another person slapped their thigh and exclaimed, "I knew it! Yesterday afternoon, someone specially came to deliver snacks to me and asked where I bought my breakfast! I wasn't on guard and just blurted it out. If I had known this would happen, I..."

As he was talking, he suddenly realized something was wrong. He looked up and saw that everyone in the room was staring at him. His former brothers all had fierce eyes today, looking at him as if they wanted to devour him.

***
After delivering the fruit, I went to the butcher shop and vegetable shop to buy ingredients, and it was already past 9 am.

On her way home, Song Miao specially bought a large bamboo tube of milk—Aunt Zhu had gotten up early that morning to help out quite a bit, and she couldn't be persuaded to go back. After helping out, she said hesitantly that she wanted to eat ginger milk curd again that night.

Meanwhile, the patrolmen and yamen runners who had just changed shifts in the miscellaneous rooms heard the conversation outside and poked their heads out one by one, saying that if there was any extra, they would like to eat it too.

A little sweetness, easy to make, and it satisfies all your cravings!

After buying the milk, she went to a general store and bought some yeast for making sweet fermented rice. She also bought a small bottle of honey.

Yesterday, she heard Han Li mention the division commander, and that the division commander really liked to eat the taro braised pork and pig's feet rice that she made.

Regardless of whether the other party is just being polite or has something to say, this is a rare opportunity.

Although Han Li kindly offered to help resolve the issue of the forged document, the document was merely a pretext. Even if it was eventually resolved, as long as Master Wu refused to let the matter rest, the consequences would be endless.

Han Li is still a student and should be doing his studies. He is currently on temporary assignment to the capital government office, so it is not good to trouble him with everything.

But the teacher at the Imperial Academy was none other than Han Li's teacher, so it's easy to imagine that he must have had countless students throughout the six ministries.

She wanted to try and see if she could strike up a conversation with the other person by offering one or two snacks.

Master Wu was a man of great wealth and power, with many subordinates. He was known only by name from beginning to end, and all the dirty work was done by others.

Song Miao knew that she was just an orphan girl burdened with debt, and that she was in the public eye, with her every move being watched. It wouldn't be easy for her to fight back.

Fortunately, there was also Liao Qingjiao, who was in the open.

When Song Dalang's body was laid to rest, Liao Qingjiao sent his men to cause trouble at the door. A few days ago, he also sent someone to break into Song's residence at night.

One should only do something once, not twice.

People bring trouble upon themselves. Even rabbits have two front teeth. If they don't bite back, what if they get used to being the ones who are easy to bully?
How do you deal with a leader who's prone to swaying his feet?

Song Miao thought that she could try her best to see if she could prevent him from becoming the leader.

In the past few days, she has taken every opportunity to inquire around, asking neighbors, students, the village head, and yesterday she also asked Inspector Xin, as well as many other patrolmen.

There are more than one peddling business, and taking over the peddling business in the Zhuquemen area is not a simple matter.

For a guild to bid, it must first meet the government's requirements, including the size of the guild, its qualifications, manpower, and tools. Only if all these conditions are met can it be eligible to bid. The lowest bidder wins. Once a bid is won, the government will allocate a portion of the money to the guild, while the remaining portion will be collected from the people within its jurisdiction.

Liao Qingjiao's business, which used to be responsible for only a small area, has suddenly been winning more and more bids in the past year, and its area of ​​responsibility has been expanding. At the same time, the money he collects from the people is no longer based on the original price, but has been increasing again and again.

However, he only did manual labor, and he was also fierce, so the neighbors dared not speak out against him.

Others, fearing offending others and inviting trouble, dared not speak out, but Song Miao could—she had already offended them to death, so stabbing them a few more times wouldn't matter.

She first needs to find out the price stipulated in the betting document on that day, see how much the price difference is, and then see if Liao Qing's men are still qualified to bet.

If it doesn't meet the requirements, or if the price difference is too large—the former is not necessarily true, but the latter is certain—Liao Qingjiao has been doing this for so long since the first day, so don't blame her for doing it for the fifteenth.

The purchase of gambling tickets should be made public. In principle, the government should announce it to the people in a prominent place and then keep it in the archives of the relevant authorities. If anyone questions it, it should be made available for inspection.

But which department or bureau is this responsible for? If I want to investigate, who can I ask? And is the person in charge willing to cooperate?

These questions might seem daunting and extremely troublesome to outsiders, but for the teachers at the Imperial Academy, they might just be a matter of asking a few questions.

Even if she doesn't want to help, it doesn't matter. Sending a meal or two over is a way of showing respect to the old gentleman. Song Miao still has that much money.

What do gentlemen over seventy years old like to eat?

Han Li said he had bad teeth, but he also praised several meat dishes that didn't require much chewing.

Song Miao planned to wait for Han Li to return and ask him what the old gentleman's preferences were. If he could accept sweet meat, she wanted to make him honey-glazed char siu.

This is a dish enjoyed by people of all ages. It's made with pork neck meat, and if you cook it a little longer, it becomes tender and juicy, with a sweet and salty flavor that's absolutely delicious. Most importantly, even people with few teeth can easily chew it.

Just as she was thinking about how to get to know the teacher and ask him to accept her kindness, since it was just some food and nothing much, and how to ask him for help, she had already reached the end of Suanzao Alley.

However, upon looking up, one could see that the once spacious alley was now occupied by a carriage and several horses, and two people were sitting right in front of their own door.

The two people were one tall and one short.

The older ones were only ten years old, and the younger ones were just a few years old. When they heard the commotion, they all looked over here, their eyes shining brightly.

"Street vendor Song!"

This is He Qi.

"Sister Song... stall owner!" The voice was very young, and it even took a detour halfway through the call, sounding extremely happy.

This is Sister Zhu.

After greeting everyone, Zhu Jie'er didn't wait for anyone else and came over on her short legs, chattering and shouting around Song Miao.

"I brought my sister a really big shrimp, and I also brought her flowers!"

"I'll help you push the cart, sister! Come look at this shrimp!"

Song Miao dared not let go, nor did she dare push the cart, so she had no choice but to stop.

Zhu Jie'er hurriedly handed over the large bamboo tube she was holding.

Song Miao bent down and looked down. There was only one shrimp in the bamboo tube, as long as Zhu Jie'er's palm. It was indeed quite large, with a bluish-green shell that was quite hard.

He Qi hurriedly caught up, pulling Zhu Jie'er away and saying, "What's the rush? This shrimp isn't going anywhere."

He added, "How did you teach me just now? You should ask your sister if she's busy at noon!"

Zhu Jie'er said "Oh," blinked her eyes, looked at Song Miao, and asked in a soft voice, "Are you busy at noon, sister?"

No sooner had the younger one finished asking than the older one immediately looked at Song Miao with a smile and asked, "Stopkeeper Song, are you busy at noon? We have a lot of shrimp here, just scooped out of the pond!"

(End of this chapter)