Travel back to ancient times and open a Sichuan restaurant

At the Zhong family, Mother Zhong also got up early in the morning. Her daughter, son, and daughter-in-law were going to town today, and they would not be back for several days.

She began to knead the dough skillfully. She was going to make shepherd's purse and pork buns today, so she started to prepare the meat filling. The pork was cut from Wang the butcher's house in the village yesterday morning and was very fresh. The shepherd's purse was dug by the children in the family.

When the buns were out of the steamer, Zhong Ruyi and the others had just gotten up and washed up. When they entered the main room, they saw a basket of steamed buns on the table. Zhong Ruyi picked one up and broke it open to eat. A thousand words could not describe it better than the word "delicious"! The buns were served with porridge. This breakfast was really delicious!

Zhong's mother was packing some things to take back to town for her son and daughter-in-law. She was in the kitchen, muttering as she packed: Take this, there are several jars of this bean paste at home, take two jars, and also this chili sauce, I made two more jars a few days ago, take them all.

When Zhong Ruyi came out after breakfast, her mother had already put all the things she needed to take on the cart. Seeing her mother still standing by the cart, wondering what else she hadn't brought, she hurried over and asked, "Mom, come and have breakfast. Don't bring too many things. The cart won't be able to hold them all later."

Mother Zhong was still muttering to herself and had no time to pay attention to her daughter. She ate three steamed buns as soon as they were ready in the morning so as not to starve herself. After thinking for a while, she went to find the eggs she had saved up a few days ago and put straw in the basket to prevent them from breaking due to the bumps on the road.

Another bag of wild bath beads was found in the room. These were picked by the eldest sister-in-law and a few children in the mountains during their free time. They picked a lot, and Zhong's mother poured out half of the bag.

Gradually, the cart was no longer able to hold all the things they had taken. Mrs. Zhong's second wife also came over and told Mother Zhong not to load so many things, as she could come back every few days and there would be no need to worry about not having enough things.

By the time they finished packing, the sky had become completely cold. Looking at the sun, it should be nine o'clock in the morning. Mother Zhong gave her daughter a small bag, which contained a dozen cakes and steamed buns, which Mrs. Zhong had just steamed in the morning. They were to be eaten on the road. She also took two bamboo tubes filled with boiled water, which she could drink if she was thirsty on the road or to eat the steamed buns.

After getting ready to set off, Second Brother Zhong walked in front, pulling the cart. Second Sister-in-law was talking in a low voice to her son Xiaohe, who sniffed and nodded.

Usually when the second brother Zhong and his friends came back, Xiaohe would sleep with them. When they went to the town, Xiaohe would either sleep alone, or if he was scared, he would go and sleep with his grandparents or his uncle.

The second sister-in-law was telling him not to run around or play in the water, and to help with housework at home. Zhong Ruyi felt that the more his second sister-in-law talked about Xiaohe, the more reluctant he was to leave. He did not know whether to laugh or cry. It was not like he was not going home for several years, so why did it seem like he would never see her again in the future?

Unexpectedly, when she turned her head, she saw Mother Zhong leaning on Father Zhong with red eyes looking at her, and Father Zhong also looked reluctant.

Zhong Ruyi: ...

This made us feel like we would be wasting these few days if we didn't hug each other and have a good cry.

Zhong Ruyi and Zhong Ersao walked behind, talking as they walked. Zhong Erge walked in front pulling a cart. Zhong Ruyi asked Zhong Ersao how many wontons she could sell in a day when business was good. Zhong Ersao thought for a while and said, "When business was good, we had to sell about a hundred wontons from morning till night. There were many people in the town eating wontons, but there were too many people selling wontons on the street behind."

Zhong Ruyi nodded, "Then we can sell braised food first, and if we are busy enough later, we can add pig intestine noodles. We can just sell wontons and noodles and put some pig intestines on top and call it pig intestine noodles."

Mrs. Zhong fell into deep thought. She had also seen in the past few days in the village that the braised offal was indeed selling very well. A whole pot could be sold every day. This was only the number of people in the village. There would be even more people in the town, and by then she would have no worries about not being able to sell a whole pot a day. It made her happy just thinking about it.

They walked until past lunch time before they reached the town. On the way they ate the cakes and steamed buns that Zhong's mother had brought to fill their stomachs. After finally arriving at the store, Second Brother Zhong went to boil water to give his wife and younger sister a bath.

Zhong Ruyi and Zhong Ersao were sitting on the long bench in the store. The store was equipped with one table and four long benches. There were six tables in total. The area of ​​the entire store was neither big nor small.

After the two men recovered, they packed up the things they had brought. Mother Zhong took out two jars of chili sauce and asked them to bring them, in case there was not enough when they wanted to eat.

After they finished cleaning up, Brother Zhong boiled some hot water and everyone carried a bucket to their respective rooms to clean up. Zhong Ruyi had just taken the things in the utility room to the kitchen. Fortunately, there wasn't much to clean up in the utility room.

After they washed themselves, they took the clothes to the small courtyard to wash them. When they came out, the tables and benches in the store had been wiped with water by Second Brother Zhong. Zhong Ruyi couldn't help but sigh in her heart that the brothers of the Zhong family were all men who loved their wives, especially Second Brother Zhong. He would do everything he could do himself and let his wife rest when she could. He was truly a good man that was hard to find even with a lantern.

Normally, when doing business, Brother Zhong would get up early and go to the next street to buy fresh pork to make wontons. Today, he had just arrived in town and it was too late to buy ingredients, so he could only go to the pharmacy and buy the spices he needed. He bought five bags in total and spent 125 coins.

They also bought some sugar. The wine was brewed by Zhong's mother, and father Zhong would drink it occasionally. This time, Zhong's mother brought them all to them at once. The sauce was also made by Zhong's mother, using her own grain. The cost was not calculated, and the amount of sugar used was not much, so she just bought some and spent twenty cents.

Zhong Ruyi felt that sugar was actually more expensive than spices. After all, a bag of spices could be divided into several small bags, while sugar was only the size of a palm, but it cost twenty cents. Fortunately, not much sugar was used.

In the afternoon, I just wiped the table and washed the floor. In the evening, Mrs. Zhong made noodles for us.

Boil hot water in a pot, pour the noodles in, scoop a spoonful of chili sauce and half a spoonful of lard at the bottom of the bowl, scoop out the noodles as soon as they are cooked and pour them into the bowl, sprinkle two bowls with chopped green onions and a few slices of fried bacon brought from home, and add bacon to one bowl without chopped green onions, as Zhong Ruyi doesn't like chopped green onions and thinks the smell is bad.

After the three of them had eaten, Zhong Ruyi wanted to wash the dishes, but her second brother Zhong stopped her and told her to wash up and rest early because they had to open the shop to do business tomorrow. After her second brother said this, she nodded and went back to the house.

Chen Dongzhi arrived in the town early in the morning. He went to find the restaurant that bought his rabbits before. He had asked before, and they also bought deer. The purchasing agent said that as long as he could hunt one and bring it to the restaurant, the restaurant would definitely buy it. Even if they didn't want to buy it, the purchasing agent promised to recommend it to a wealthy businessman in need, as long as he was given a small kickback.

Arriving at the back door of the restaurant, he knocked on the door. A man dressed as a waiter opened the door and asked him what he wanted. Chen Dongzhi said he was looking for a purchasing agent. "A few days ago, your purchasing agent said that if you hunted any big prey, you could send it to him. He wants to buy it."

Seeing that there was indeed a rather large deer behind him, he nodded, turned around and called the buyer to come out to see him.

When the buyer saw the deer he was leading behind him, he grinned. He didn't expect that this guy actually caught it. "This deer looks good and is in good spirits. How much do you want for it?"

"Forty taels. I just caught it yesterday. I didn't kill it, but just shot its leg and pulled it here early." Chen Dongzhi offered a high price right from the start. Purchasing for this restaurant was a lucrative job with a lot of money. If he didn't ask for a higher price, he would definitely be ripped off.

"This deer is pretty good, but your price is too high. I'll take it if you offer a lower price." The buyer shook his head repeatedly, but his eyes were shining.

Chen Dongzhi wanted to talk about the price again, and took out a fat rabbit from the basket on his back, saying that he would use the rabbit as a souvenir.

The purchasing agent gave a price of thirty-five taels, and Chen Dongzhi said the lowest was thirty-eight taels. Finally, the purchasing agent agreed but wanted two more rabbits. Chen Dongzhi then took out two more rabbits. Anyway, there were plenty of rabbits on the mountain and they were not worth much money.

After getting the money, he found a place to eat, bought some things needed for the family, and then hurried back to the village with his backpack.