A tragic journey through ancient times, trying to make money

When the villagers saw such a large workshop, some of them with more active minds guessed that Lao Zhang’s workshop must be hiring people, otherwise it would be impossible to run such a large workshop with just the few people in Lao Zhang’s family.

"Aunt Li, what does your workshop do? I only know that your family used to sell mung bean jelly in the town. Are you making mung bean jelly here?" A woman in the village asked Grandma Zhang.

Grandma Zhang: "No, mung bean jelly is usually made at home. This workshop mainly makes chili oil. This chili oil is delicious when it is stir-fried, added to steamed buns, or noodles.

So in addition to selling mung bean jelly in the town, we also sell chili oil, which the townspeople like very much.”

"Aunt Li, your workshop is so big. Are you going to recruit people to work in the workshop?" the woman who asked the question just now asked again.

"We will recruit people. My family has discussed this. We will give priority to people from our village. After three or four days, when all the tiles are in place, we will start recruiting people. We will announce it in the village in a few days. If you want to come and work, you can sign up then."

"Really? I'll sign up in a few days."

“I’m here to sign up, too.”

"Add me, I'll sign up too."

......

When the villagers who had not left heard what Grandma Zhang said, they were all thinking about it. Some of them were quick-witted and were ready to sign up after a few days' notice from the Zhang family. This place was close to home and they could still work. Where could they find such a good place?

Because they had to go home to prepare the dinner for the first beam, except for the men in the Zhang family who stayed in the wasteland to work, the women were all ready to go home to cook.

Because there were thirty or forty workers working, more steamed buns had to be prepared, so before going to the wasteland in the morning, Grandma Zhang, Mother Zhang and Mrs. Zhu had already started to ferment the dough.

Zhang Yunyue and Grandma Zhang returned home. Since there were many dishes to be cooked soon, they saw that the dough had been fermented. They skillfully began to knead the dough into steamed buns, and then started to light a fire and boil water. After the water boiled, they could steam the buns.

While the steamed buns were being steamed, Zhang Yunyue remembered the soaked cowpeas and peppers she had made some time ago. It had been about 10 days since they were soaked, so she went to the corner of the kitchen and opened the jar of soaked cowpeas and peppers.

I smelled it and found it was fine. Then I picked up a cowpea with chopsticks and tasted it. Unexpectedly, it was soaked just right.

Now that the cowpeas were soaked, Zhang Yunyue took out the soaked cowpeas and some pickled peppers, preparing to stir-fry a dish of cowpeas with minced meat to go with rice.

"Mom, the cowpeas and pickled peppers that Second Aunt picked up some time ago are ready. I'm going to stir-fry some cowpeas with minced meat later." Zhang Yunyue said as she held the cowpeas and pickled peppers she had picked up.

"Okay, I also want to try whether the cowpeas soaked in this way are delicious. If they are, I will soak some more in the next two days. A new batch of cowpeas in the backyard vegetable garden is ripe." Zhang's mother nodded.

"Grandma, mother, and second aunt, you all try some and see how they feel." Zhang Yun also picked up a few pieces from the basin and gave them to Zhang's mother and the others.

Grandma Zhang, Mother Zhang, and Mrs. Zhu took the soaked cowpeas handed over by Zhang Yunyue and tasted them respectively.

Zhang's mother: "I didn't expect that the cowpeas that had been soaked for 10 days were not limp at all, but tasted sour and crunchy."

Zhu: "Not only that, but it also has a little bit of spicy taste. This should be because it is soaked with chili peppers, right?"

Grandma Zhang: "Not bad, delicious. I guess most of the cowpeas we soaked last time have been picked out. We'll pick some more cowpeas to soak in the afternoon. They will definitely taste good when we drink porridge this morning."

Zhang's mother and Zhu both nodded and were ready to go pick cowpeas together in the afternoon.

In addition to the meat we bought yesterday, our family also caught 5 chickens in the backyard and planned to make some spicy chicken.

We had already discussed the day before, the food for the day of raising the beam: spicy chicken, braised pork and potatoes, mixed cucumber, bone soup, stir-fried beans, fried cabbage, mung bean jelly, and the last thing we wanted to change to was stir-fried cowpea with minced meat, a total of eight dishes, including soup, vegetarian and meat dishes.

It just corresponds to the future of the chili workshop. Fafafa, this is what Zhang Yunyue said to everyone when they were discussing the dishes. As soon as Zhang Yunyue finished speaking, the rest of the Zhang family burst into laughter.

Zhang Yunyue is in charge of cooking today's dishes, and Grandma Zhang and the others are in charge of helping her.

As soon as noon arrived, all of Zhang Yunyue's dishes were ready.

"Xiaofeng, the food is ready. Go to the wasteland and find your grandpa and the others to come back for dinner." Grandma Zhang shouted to Zhang Xingfeng who was playing in the yard.

"Okay, grandma."

After Zhang Xingfeng agreed, he ran towards the wasteland.

"Xiaoyun, Xiaohao, go to the houses of the uncles and aunts next door and borrow their tables, chairs, and bowls and chopsticks."

"Okay, grandma." Zhang Xingyun and Zhang Xinghao agreed.

In this era, when a family holds a banquet, they borrow tables, chairs, bowls and chopsticks from their neighbors. After all, not everyone has the money to prepare so many tables, chairs, bowls and chopsticks.

As soon as Zhang Xingfeng arrived at the wasteland, he opened his mouth and shouted loudly, "Grandpa Zhang."

"Grandpa, Grandpa, Grandma said the food is ready, let's eat."

When Grandpa Zhang heard that the food was ready, he put down what he was doing and shouted to the workers, "Everyone, put down what you are doing and go to the house to eat. Hurry up, put it down."

When the workers heard this, they all put down what they were doing and walked to the small river nearby to wash their hands and faces.

Seeing that everyone had finished washing in the river, Grandpa Zhang took everyone home.

Grandpa Zhang brought everyone home. There were 6 tables in the yard, and the food was already on the tables.

Grandpa Zhang asked everyone to sit down: "Everyone, come in quickly and find a seat. There is enough food today, everyone, eat well and don't be so formal."

"Uncle Zhang, don't worry, we are not shy." Zhang Yi found a seat and sat down, saying.

"Oh my God, Uncle Zhang, your preparations for the beam-raising ceremony are so sumptuous. There are so many meat dishes, as well as chicken and meat." Qi Kai, the son of old man Qi at the village head, said.

Grandpa Zhang: "Everyone, take your bowls and start eating. Eat more."

"Hey, what is this? It tastes smooth and has a hint of mung bean fragrance. Is this mung bean jelly? Right, Uncle Zhang?" Zhang Yi asked.

"Yes, this is something that no one has tasted before. Today is a good day for the roof beams at home, so I made it for everyone to try."

Grandpa Zhang replied.

"This mung bean jelly is delicious, sour and spicy."

"This braised pork and potatoes is also delicious."

"Aunt Zhang, did you and your two sisters-in-law make today's dishes? Your cooking skills are amazing. Next time someone in the village has a banquet, I should ask you guys to cook."