You are unlucky and I am tough

After seeing off several village heads, a smile appeared on Cheng Lizheng's face. He thought Cheng Shuang's idea was good and praised her for being smart.

The two sat in the yard with the village head for a while before they discovered that Cheng Mingli, the eldest grandson of Cheng Lizheng, had returned from the academy. Seeing that the village heads had all left, he came out and greeted the two.

The head of the village said that the academy was closed for a few days because the Chinese Valentine's Day was in two days.

After that, they talked about the recent situation of the villagers and confirmed that no one showed signs of a recurrence of headache. When they were about to leave, Cheng Zhengyi came back from the fields with a hoe on his back and asked them not to leave yet, as he wanted to share the profits from the braised meat in June.

Today is July 5th. Cheng Shuang received more than 7 taels of profit from May. As for June, the profit was delayed for a few days because both companies were busy at the end of the month.

Cheng Zhengyi took out the account book from the room and showed it to the two of them. It recorded clearly how much goods were delivered to the restaurant every day and how much was sold at the market stall.

By June, Taibailou's supply had increased to 50 kilograms, and two other restaurants had each agreed to deliver 20 kilograms. The restaurants alone delivered 90 kilograms of goods every day, plus what Yang sold at the market stall every day, the net profit for June was more than 110 taels.

Cheng Shuang took 20%, Cheng Zhengyi gave her 23 taels, and the rest was divided equally with the eldest wife.

Cheng Lizheng watched them finish dividing the bill, then said to Cheng Shuang, "Shuang girl, I suddenly remembered that the mustard greens in the field are ripe. We picked some a few days ago and stir-fried them. They tasted delicious. Is it about time to pick some and make sauerkraut?"

Cheng Shuang nodded and said, "Yes, you can pick them now. If you like to eat them, you can keep a few for your family. For the rest, just cut them off whole with a knife. Don't remove the yellow leaves. Then wash them and drain them.

Cheng Shuang glanced at the sky and said, "Tomorrow, I'll come over to teach you how to make pickled cabbage. Prepare two large vats or jars, and about 40 kilograms of salt. If you don't have that much salt at home, I have some and you can bring it over."

Although Yang was frightened by the 40 kilograms, she still said, "Then do it this afternoon. I'll bring back the salt from the county town."

Wei Qinglang was observant and noticed the surprise on the others' faces when Cheng Shuang mentioned forty kilograms of salt.

He explained, "These 40 kilograms of salt can pickle 600 to 700 kilograms of sauerkraut. The sauerkraut will be ready to eat in about 20 days. Then Uncle Cheng can take it to the restaurant and sell it to them for 20 or 25 cents per kilogram. He can easily make more than 10 taels of silver."

"Can the vegetables be sold at just over 20 cents per pound?" Cheng Zhengyi was surprised.

"Of course you can." Cheng Shuang said with a smile, "There are many ways to eat sauerkraut, such as stir-fried sauerkraut with minced meat, stir-fried pork belly with sauerkraut, sauerkraut with pig intestines, etc. We can go with you, Second Uncle, and we'll make sure it sells well."

Cheng Zhengyi was excited after hearing this. "Okay, then let's come back early tomorrow and make sauerkraut together."

Cheng Li was listening nearby and asked, "Can other people in the village who grow mustard greens also pickle them and sell them?"

After all, there are so many, we can’t finish them if we pickle them at home, and salt is not cheap.

Cheng Shuang pondered. In fact, she didn't want to care about the vegetables in other villagers' hands, but it was Cheng Lizheng who asked the villagers to buy seeds from her. She was worried that the villagers who had planted mustard greens would be reluctant to buy salted sauerkraut, and would blame Cheng Lizheng for having so many mustard greens in their hands.

"It's up to the villagers to choose. They can make sauerkraut or dry it into dried vegetables and store it for later consumption.

Sauerkraut can be stored for a year. If the restaurant's customers like it, Uncle Cheng can buy it from the villagers and sell it to the restaurant. There are several large restaurants in the county, and with so many towns around, there's no need to worry about not being able to sell it.

Cheng Lizheng nodded after understanding, "Okay, I'll tell them when the time comes."

After the agreement was reached, the two took their share of the money and went home.

When she returned home, she saw Wei Xinyi watering peppers in the yard under the scorching sun. Cheng Shuang went over, took the gourd ladle from her hand and took over the job.

Wei Xinyi squatted nearby and watched. Suddenly, she asked, "Sister-in-law, Sister Yinyin and Yuanbao haven't been here for a long time. When will they come to our house again?"

During the period when Cheng Shuang was treating the villagers, Lu Yinyin came three times. Each time, she brought her younger brother to the village to play. However, Cheng Shuang was busy and had no time to accompany her, so Cheng Pan and Wei Xinyi accompanied them. After coming a few times, everyone in the village knew them.

Cheng Shuang sprinkled water on the roots of the pepper seedlings. "It's hot now. If you take them running around outside, they'll get heatstroke. Her parents definitely don't want them out either. Let's wait until the heat is over."

Wei Xinyi nodded, and after a moment she continued, "The last time Sister Yinyin came, she said the county town was having a Weaver Girl worship ceremony on July 7th, and it was going to be very lively. She asked if we wanted to go. I've never been to the county town before, so sister-in-law...can we go too?"

Cheng Shuang was stunned and turned around to see Wei Xinyi looking at her expectantly. Lu Yinyin had last come more than ten days ago. This kid must have wanted to go a long time ago, but probably didn't say anything because she saw that she was not done yet.

Cheng Shuang nodded immediately, "Sure, I'll talk to your brother later, and the whole family will go to the county town the day after tomorrow."

"Great." Wei Xinyi jumped up happily. "We can go to the city now. I'll tell Sister Pan'er that we can watch the ceremony and then go to the academy to see my brother."

Cheng Shuang smiled when she saw her running away happily. After watering the plants, she returned to the room.

Wei Qinglang was writing something at the desk. When I looked over, I saw that he was preparing lessons. In the past month, he had been teaching his three younger siblings almost every day, and he also prepared lessons in advance like modern teachers.

The three of them have finished learning the Three Character Classic and are more than halfway through learning the Thousand Character Classic.

Cheng Shuang stood next to him and said, "The day after tomorrow is Qixi Festival. There will be activities to worship the Weaver Girl in the county town. Xinyi and the others want to go and see it."

Wei Qinglang was slightly stunned. "Oh, yes, there seem to be a lot of activities for Qixi Festival here. The county town will be very lively at that time."

They both had modern thinking, and subconsciously thought that Qixi Festival was a festival for young lovers, so they didn't take it seriously. In addition, their original bodies didn't have many memories of Qixi Festival, so they didn't think about it.

But in fact, there are many activities in the county town every year during the Qixi Festival. The first one is to worship the Weaver Girl. The Weaver Girl is regarded as the goddess of textiles. For those engaged in cloth and textile business, worshiping the Weaver Girl can pray for smooth business, prosperity and daily wealth.

On this day, merchants in the county who are engaged in these two types of businesses will gather together, bring out the statue of the Goddess of Weaving, set up an altar, offer tributes, and burn incense to worship.

Ordinary people would also make appointments to go there on this day, especially women of marriageable age, who would pray to the Weaver Girl to bless them with dexterity and a happy marriage.

The second is to worship Kuixing. July 7th is Kuixing’s birthday. There is a Kuixing Temple in the county town. Scholars who want to pass the imperial examinations or those who have scholars at home will bring tributes to worship and pray for good luck in the exams and success in the examinations.

There are also things like threading a needle to pray for dexterity, drying books, eating chocolate cakes, etc.

Cheng Shuang suggested, "Then let's go to the county town as a family the day after tomorrow to have some fun.

Also, no wonder Cheng Caijun and Cheng Mingli are back. I guess the academy is on holiday so they can go worship Kuixing. Should we pick up Chen'er and Xiaosi as well and take them to worship Kuixing as well?"

Wei Qinglang nodded and said, "Sure, maybe you can pass the imperial examination in the future."

The two of them discussed it and told their brother and sister-in-law about it during dinner. The three of them were very happy, especially Cheng Pan and Wei Xinyi.

Cheng Shuang looked at them and felt a little guilty. Neither of them had ever been to the town, let alone the county seat. After being here for so long, life at home had improved, and she hadn't thought of taking her two sisters to the city for a stroll.

On the second day, Cheng Shuang went to the headman's house in the afternoon to teach how to make sauerkraut. Wei Qinglang was working on a storybook at home, thinking of submitting it on his way to the county town tomorrow.

The headman's family had already tied Wangcai up somewhere else in advance and harvested all the mustard greens, leaving only a little for frying.

Qi spent the whole morning washing them all, and now they were all hanging out in the yard, with the large containers that had been prepared also placed in the yard.

There was only one large vat and three jars.

It is actually very simple to pickle sauerkraut. Before coming, Cheng Shuang even looked up the recipe to confirm the steps. While she was doing it, the headman and his entire family watched.

Starting directly with the largest vat, in order to avoid being unable to move it after it was full, Cheng Zhengyi first placed the vat in a cool place in the kitchen, and then sprinkled a layer of salt on the bottom.

Yang and the others brought in the mustard greens from the yard. Cheng Shuang put the mustard greens in after making sure they were dry, spread a layer of salt on them, compacted them, spread the mustard greens again, and then sprinkled salt, repeating the process.

After watching for a while and realizing how simple it was, the others came over to help, and Cheng Shuang just gave instructions from the side. She asked them to cut some of the particularly large ones into two halves with a knife.

After everything was loaded, the large vat contained more than 400 kilograms, and the rest was stuffed into three jars.

Cheng Shuang asked the two brothers Cheng Zhengyi to go outside to find stones, bring them back, wash them clean, and then put the stones into each vat to compact them.

Finally, seal it by covering the mouth of the container with a piece of cloth and then tie it tightly with a rope.

After finishing, Cheng Lizheng, with Cheng Shuang's consent, asked the children at home to notify all the families who grew mustard greens to come to his house and teach them how to make sauerkraut. As for whether to make it or not, it was their own choice.

As the children left the house, a man who lived at the entrance of the village came running over, panting and calling out anxiously, "Uncle Head of the Village, the County... County... County Magistrate is here and is entering the village."