Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

After lunch, Zhang Youtie took the shrimp to the village chief's house and didn't return until evening.

“The land to the east of our house is unclaimed, but the village chief said that it can’t be sold at the price of wasteland. It’s sandwiched between two households, and it wouldn’t be right to sell it as wasteland,” Zhang Youtie said to Liu Shi and his daughter after taking a sip of hot tea.

"What does the village chief mean?" Liu asked after hearing Zhang Youtie's words.

"The house will be sold at the price of the land, which will be much more expensive than the price of wasteland." After saying that, he looked at Xia Yu and asked...

"Xiaxia, how much money do we have now?"

"I haven't counted it, but it must be more than two thousand taels," Xia Yu said after thinking for a moment. She really hadn't checked carefully. Usually, when her father brought back silver or copper coins, she would just throw them into the money box in her spatial storage and hadn't counted them seriously.

"Let's close the door and do the math after dinner," Xia Yu suggested.

“Well, that’s fine. We won’t have much income from now until next spring. We don’t need to be too frugal with our food, clothing and other daily necessities, but we still need to keep track of our budget,” Liu continued her daughter’s words.

"Okay, let's do it this way. Is the food ready?" Zhang Youtie asked.

"Alright, go and bolt the courtyard gate, and let's close the main room door too. We'll eat in this room in a bit," Liu said to Zhang Youtie. Hearing his daughter-in-law's words, Zhang Youtie didn't suspect anything, lifted the cotton curtain, and went out to bolt the courtyard gate.

When Zhang You returned after securing the courtyard gate, he found the table in the main room already laden with vegetables and meat, all raw. He noticed a strangely shaped object in the center of the table, steaming hot.

"Is this food?" Zhang Youtie asked Liu Shi and her daughter with some uncertainty.

"This is my first time seeing this too. Why don't you ask your daughter?" Liu said with a smile.

Xia Yu chuckled.

"Dad, this is hot pot. Boil the raw meat and lettuce in this pot of water, then dip them in this sauce." As Xia Yu spoke, she put a few slices of not-too-thin lamb into the boiling water for a while, then dipped them in her carefully prepared sesame sauce and fed them to Zhang Youtie.

"Dad, how does it taste?"

Zhang Youtie had some doubts that the mutton was undercooked, but remembering the first time he ate prawns, he still opened his mouth and ate the piece of mutton coated in sauce. Seeing him eat it, Xia Yu immediately picked up another piece, dipped it in sesame sauce, and brought it to Liu Shi's lips. Liu Shi, who had always been supportive and trusting of her daughter, ate it without hesitation.

"Is it delicious?" Xia Yu asked nervously, watching her parents' reactions.

"It's delicious, especially with this sesame sauce, it's very fragrant." Liu quickly gave her evaluation.

"Dad, what about you?" Xia Yu looked at his father again.

"Haha, what if I say it doesn't taste good? Will you be unhappy?" Zhang Youtie wanted to tease his daughter.

"So, is it delicious or not?" Xia Yu asked, somewhat displeased. The ingredients in the broth were stir-fried by herself. Butter wasn't easy to come by in this era, so she used mutton fat instead. Although it wasn't quite as good as the hot pot broth from her previous life, it was still acceptable.

"Delicious, delicious!" Zhang Youtie quickly said when he saw his daughter was a little unhappy. Then he looked at the unfamiliar things on the table and asked his daughter about them.

"What kind of food is this?"

Xia Yu looked in the direction his father was pointing.

"This is shrimp paste, made with shrimp meat, cornstarch, and egg whites." Xia Yu then pointed to several plates of food beside her, saying, "This plate is the mutton slices we just ate, that's frozen tofu, those plates of greens over there are freshly grown in my space, this is tofu skin, and the noodles are handmade noodles made by Mom." "Dad, didn't you order two lamb twigs from Uncle Zhang's? Next time you go, ask him if he can get us some lamb liver and tripe; they're especially delicious for hot pot." In Zhang Youtie and Liu Shi's eyes, the table of red and green dishes was already quite abundant, but Xia Yu still felt there weren't enough dishes, especially beef—such a great ingredient for hot pot! Unfortunately, in this era, cattle couldn't be slaughtered so easily.

"Okay, we agreed on the day after tomorrow. I'll ask you when I get there. Enough talk, let's eat. I wasn't really hungry just now, but after taking a bite of mutton, my stomach is rumbling." Zhang Youtie rubbed his hands together and suggested we start eating.

"..."

The family sat down around the table, picking out their favorite vegetables and putting them into the pot just like Xia Yu did. The rising steam made the not-so-bright room warm and cozy.

"Xiaxia, where did you get this pot? I've never seen it before." While eating hot pot, Zhang Youtie didn't forget to ask his daughter.

"Do you remember when I asked my older brother to take me to town during the autumn harvest?" Xia Yu took a bite of shrimp paste before answering his father's question.

"Is that the time you said there was no pork and went to town to buy some?" Liu remembered as soon as her daughter mentioned it.

"Yes, that was the time," Xia Yu nodded.

"I drew up the blueprints at home and took them to the blacksmith to have them made. They said they weren't sure if they could make it, but they were willing to give it a try." Xia Yu took another bite of mutton, squinted her eyes happily, and continued to tell the story of how the pot came about.

"Last time I brought food to my brother, the restaurant we ate at was very close to that blacksmith shop, so I went there to pick it up. Dad, what do you think about the restaurant doing this business in the winter?"

“This will keep you warm in winter, and you’ll definitely have business. Do you want to open a restaurant?” Zhang Youtie asked, sensing that his daughter was thinking about starting a business.

"No, I don't have that ability. That's all I can think of. I really can't open a restaurant. I'm thinking of making a batch of pots and selling them to Zuixiaolou." Xia Yu knew her own limitations. She wasn't a very capable person in her past life, and she was content with a modest life in this one. She wasn't thinking about anything else.

"How much is this pot? It's made of copper, it must be expensive, right?" Zhang Youtie thought it was a good idea that his daughter only wanted to sell the pot.

"The blacksmith charged me one tael of silver."

Upon hearing the price their daughter mentioned, Zhang Youtie and Liu Shi both gasped. This price was truly exorbitant!

"How much are you planning to sell it for?" Liu asked.

"Two ounces, I guess? Do you think Zuixiaolou would buy that?" Xia Yu asked, eating a slice of white radish.

"Probably," Liu said somewhat uncertainly.

"..." Zhang Youtie felt that spending two taels of silver on a pot was too expensive, so he didn't say anything.

"I've already had the blacksmith make a hundred. Let's send some to Zuixiao Tower to test the waters first." Xia Yu's words made her parents gasp for breath again before they could even exhale.

"Cough cough...cough cough..." Zhang Youtie coughed uncontrollably, whether from inhaling too much cold air or accidentally choking.

"You ordered a hundred? Will you be able to sell that many?" Liu asked with some concern.

"It should be fine. I calculated that two Zuixiaolou restaurants should be able to use up fifty or sixty of them. We can ask around at a few other restaurants and that should be enough."

Zhang Youtie finally finished coughing, his face flushed, and asked Xia Yu, "When will it be ready?"

"I don't know either. This time, my brother went in my place. They'll go to the school to let him know when everything is ready. But it should be soon," Xia Yu said nonchalantly.

Zhang Youtie and Liu Shi exchanged a helpless glance. Their two children were so capable that they, as parents, seemed to be struggling to keep up with them.

"Father, Mother, eat quickly! Why aren't you eating?"

"..."