"Please come in, sir!" Before Song Ran and Song Li even reached the door of the store, an enthusiastic waiter came to greet them.

They followed the waiter into the store and took their seats.

Song Ran's eyes couldn't help but be attracted by the decoration inside the store. Everything seemed so familiar, as if time had gone back to the days she spent with her parents.

My father was from the north. He fled south due to a severe drought. When he finally arrived in Feng County, he was the only one left in the family. With his ancestral cooking skills, my father found a job at Xunzhenlou in Feng County. He started out as a handyman and gradually rose to prominence, eventually becoming the head chef of the restaurant.

Xunzhenlou at that time was not as crowded and prosperous as it is now.

There was a time when the restaurant was in trouble and almost closed. It was my father's delicious food that brought Xunzhenlou back to life and made it famous.

It was also at Xunzhenlou that my father met my mother, who had also gone south to make a living and was doing odd jobs in the kitchen.

The two knew each other, loved each other, and supported each other. In the end, they got together, settled down in Lihua Village, and bought a family business and land together.

When Song Ran was ten years old, his father had frequent disputes with the owner of Xunzhenlou, and then he opened his own shop. Every table, chair, and cabinet in the shop were bought by his mother herself.

As time went by, their store gradually became popular in the city and won the love of many diners. Two years later, the birth of their little sister brought endless joy to their family.

But at this time, a guest died suddenly after having dinner at their house, and my father was involved in a lawsuit. After giving birth to my younger sister, my mother was busy running around to seek help to save my father.

In the end, my father was sentenced to death and had to pay a large sum of money to the family of the deceased. In order to raise this huge sum of money, my mother had to sell the shop.

At that moment, Song Ran felt heartbroken. She watched her mother sign the document with tears in her eyes and transfer the shop to Xunzhenlou, making it its second branch.

"What would you like to order, sir? I see that you two are girls, so I would like to recommend some dishes that girls like..." The waiter's enthusiastic greeting interrupted Song Ran's memories.

Song Ran smiled slightly and responded, "I'll have eight-treasure glutinous rice chicken and assorted soup."

"Okay~ It seems that the girl is a regular customer. Do you want some dessert? We have a new dessert called Hongma Bingyu." The waiter introduced enthusiastically.

Song Ran and Song Li looked at each other with a slightly surprised expression. "Hongma Ice Jade? What is this? How much is it?" she asked curiously.

"It's 15 cents a portion. Seeing that you two are feeling hot, would you like to try it?" the waiter recommended enthusiastically.

"Then have a bowl."

"Okay~ Eight Treasure Glutinous Rice Chicken, Mixed Soup, and Red Apple Ice Jade!"

Soon, the dishes were served. The first thing that caught my eye was the bowl of red mabingyu.

Song Ran and the other man took a look.

Song Li asked, "Isn't this the ice jelly made by Sister Xiaoxiao?"

Song Ran was also surprised. This bowl of ice jelly was transformed into red ice jade in the store, and the price actually rose to fifteen cents per bowl.

Fortunately, in addition to brown sugar, red beans, crushed peanuts, raisins, and small dumplings are also added, making the ingredients look much richer.

The two of them shared a bowl of ice jelly, which had a refreshing taste and relieved the heat they had just felt.

After a while, assorted soup and eight-treasure glutinous rice chicken were served.

Song Ran poked open the chicken's belly with a chopstick and frowned. She found that there were only glutinous rice, green beans and mushrooms in the chicken's belly, and the so-called eight treasures were missing five.

"Little Second!"

The waiter saw Song Ran's expression change and quickly ran over to ask, "What do you want, young lady?"

Song Ran pointed to the eight-treasure glutinous rice chicken in front of him and said bluntly: "This dish is not right."

The waiter scratched his head and asked in confusion, "What's wrong with this, girl?"

"Why does this Eight Treasure Chicken only have three ingredients? According to the traditional method, Eight Treasure Glutinous Rice Chicken should contain eight different ingredients, but here it only has glutinous rice, green beans and mushrooms."

After hearing this, the waiter smiled and said, "My mistake. Just now, when I saw that the girl could name our dishes, I thought she was a regular customer, so I didn't introduce it in detail. This Eight Treasure Chicken is just an auspicious name, which means good luck and fortune. This is the Eight Treasure Glutinous Rice Chicken."

"Is that so?" If Song Ran hadn't seen the authentic recipe in the recipe left by her father, she would have been fooled by the waiter's eloquence.

"How do you think we should do this? Should we really give red agate or ice water jade to red agate? If you think there is something wrong, I will go to the back and call out the chef who made this dish and ask him to explain it to you.

Song Ran waved his hand. These waiters and cooks also work and have to support their families.

The shopkeeper has the final say on what ingredients to use for a dish.

"Okay, young lady, if you have any instructions, just let me know." The waiter nodded and bowed before retreating.

"Sister, is this dish wrong?"

Song Ran whispered, "The taste is still acceptable, but the ingredients are not enough. Xunzhenlou is such a big name, but the dishes are so expensive. There is no rival to it in Fengxian. If there is another one, sooner or later it will surpass Xunzhenlou."

After they had lunch, they went to look for accommodation for the night.

During the solar term, the cost of a night's accommodation in the city's inns rose sharply. Fortunately, some people in the alleys cleaned up their houses and let people stay overnight.

Of course, there are also people who are reluctant to spend the money and will just squeeze in outside a store and spend the night.

"Sister, will Grandma Gu and Sister Xiaoxiao stay with us tonight?"

"Granny Gu has already made an appointment with Boss Jia. She will rest in Boss Jia's shop at night. I don't know if Xiaoxiao has found a place to rest. We can talk about it when we meet in the evening. At worst, she can squeeze in with us then."

When the two of them walked into the alley, several aunts came to greet them warmly. One of them asked, "Miss, are you looking for a place to live?"

"I have an empty room in my house, and it's very close to the river where lanterns are displayed at night."

Song Ran nodded.

My aunt continued, "I have an empty room at home, and it's very close to the river where we light lanterns at night."

"How much is a night?"

"They're all the same price, thirty."

Song Ran also knew that this price was probably agreed upon in advance. Every store would stick to this price and it couldn't be lowered. However, this price was acceptable to her, so she smiled and said, "Okay, I'll bother you more tonight."

The two men followed their aunt through the streets and alleys, making sure to recognize the roads and doors.

"My family is also going out to see the lantern festival. You can come and walk around for a while. There will be lights on at the door. When you come back, knock three times and I will open it for you."

The two followed him into the house, "This is it."

It was obvious that this was where sundries were usually stored. Now they were all gathered and piled up in one corner, with four long benches in the middle forming a simple bed.

"There's a palm mat underneath, so it won't hurt. Later, I'll fumigate the room with mugwort. When you come back to sleep, there will definitely be no mosquitoes."

"Okay, okay." Song Ran paid half of the money, and the two went shopping on the street again.

You must carry all the silver with you. In addition to the seven taels of silver that you refunded and the money that you originally intended to use to buy medicine, you have more than eight taels of silver on you.

There were many people at the lantern festival at night, and there were many pickpockets. To be on the safe side, Song Ran put four taels of silver on her and her younger sister, and hid them in the inner pocket above her belly.

As for the scattered copper coins, Song Ran put them in a purse and hid them in the pocket on his sleeve.

She told Song Li: "When there are many people around, just hold your stomach with one hand when you walk, understand?"

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