Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

That very evening, Aunt Ma taught the lame woman how to do it, and the next day she was able to officially start working.

The next day, Zhang Youtie drove an oxcart with Xia Yu out, without telling his family where they were going, only saying that he was going out to buy ingredients for hot pot base.

The father and daughter drove their oxcart along the main road. Many other oxcarts and pedestrians passed by, but everyone was well-covered and no one recognized anyone. Upon reaching town, they found a wonton stall, where they ate several bowls of wontons and whiled away some time. When they decided it was about time, they set off on their return journey. The cart was loaded with a pile of large sacks they had just bought from a general store.

Once they were out of town and halfway through the journey, seeing no one around, Xia Yu began emptying various spices from her spatial storage. As if by magic, she reached into a burlap sack, and in the blink of an eye, the sack was full. Soon, several sacks were stacked on the cart, and Zhang Youtie used rope to secure them, then covered them with felt. Only after all this was done did she urge the oxen to move forward.

Once home, there was another flurry of activity. With the addition of the lame wife, Xia Yu's family's daily output increased significantly. On the first day, the lame wife single-handedly cooked forty catties of hot pot ingredients. Xia Yu weighed them and carefully wrote them down in a notebook, planning to pay her every ten days.

Zhang Youtie was also busy, searching for fatty pork and lard. He bought up all the pork from the butcher shop, and also bought all the lard from the two meat stalls in town. So, Xia Yu's family had been constantly enjoying the aroma of oil lately, and they had a lot of leftover minced meat from rendering the fat. At first, Uncle Ma and Aunt Ma wouldn't eat a single bite, saving it all to send to Xia Yu and his family. But even delicious food can't be eaten every day, and after a few days, Xia Yu got tired of the salt and pepper minced meat. Seeing the ever-growing amount of minced meat, Liu Shi had Zhang Youtie send a large basin of it to the old house. This resulted in another round of complaints from Liu Shi, who said that Liu Shi was a spendthrift woman who didn't know how to be frugal. Xia Yu felt that Liu Shi was ungrateful; if it was sent, she should just accept it happily. Although she knew Liu Shi meant well, hearing her criticize Liu Shi like that still made Xia Yu feel angry.

Although a large basin of food was sent over, there were still quite a few left at home. Aunt Ma and Liu were thinking about steaming buns. The first time they steamed them, they filled them with plenty of minced meat and cabbage filling, and they smelled delicious. Xia Yu ate two large buns in one sitting, and Zhang Youtie ate five before he stopped. Even counting Uncle Ma and Aunt Ma, Xia Yu's appetite was still the smallest.

Liu also asked Aunt Ma to send ten buns to Zhang the Cripple and his wife. The two of them rarely ate white flour, but when they saw the big white flour buns with minced meat filling, they couldn't bear to eat them. They hung them in a basket on the roof beam, and took one out to heat up and eat together at each meal to satisfy their craving.

When Changyun returned from his day off, Aunt Ma made dumplings with minced meat filling for lunch and large steamed buns with minced meat filling for dinner. The aroma was so enticing, Changyun almost swallowed his tongue. Seeing that Changyun enjoyed the food, Aunt Ma became even more motivated to cook. On the morning Changyun went to school, she even got up in the middle of the night to start steaming buns. When Changyun was about to leave on the mule cart, he discovered that Aunt Ma had packed forty large steamed buns for him to take with him.

"Aunt Ma, this is too much. I can't finish it all," Changyun said, looking at the pile of buns with some difficulty.

"How could you not finish it? You're growing taller right now, you should eat more." After saying that, he instructed Uncle Ma to drive steadily and not to jostle the young master.

When Changyun saw his younger sister standing next to his mother, winking and making faces at him, he was speechless. He finally understood what his sister meant by giving him that slightly aching stomach look when he happily praised Aunt Ma's cooking skills yesterday.

There's been so much minced meat lately, there's practically nowhere to put it! Aunt Ma, worried about rats, has been making different kinds of minced meat dishes three times a day. But it's always the same few things: cabbage and minced meat dumplings, radish and minced meat dumplings, steamed cabbage and minced meat dumplings, steamed radish and minced meat dumplings, or maybe buns with those two fillings. Xia Yu is starting to get a headache just looking at dumplings and buns. In the end, she had to secretly put some of the minced meat into her spatial storage to stop Aunt Ma's madness, but that's a story for another time.

It seems that Liu couldn't take it anymore. This morning, seeing that Aunt Ma had steamed big buns again, Liu said to Aunt Ma...

"Yesterday Changyun said he liked meat-filled buns, let's pack some and take them to him, we can eat them at home anytime."

"Madam, don't worry, I've already packed twenty for the young master, that should be enough for a few days. In a few days I'll steam some fresh ones and have Old Ma deliver them to the school," Aunt Ma said to Madam Liu while serving the porridge.

Xia Yu inwardly grimaced upon hearing Aunt Ma's words; it seemed like there was no end to the meat sauce. This morning, she'd just wanted some plain porridge and pickled vegetables. Then she heard Liu Shi say...

“It will take ten days for the long journey, twenty won’t be enough. Besides, he’s growing up right now, he needs to eat more. Let him take it first, we can talk about it at home. We’re busy these days, so we don’t miss the chance to deliver it to him. Let him think about it later.” Madam Liu said gently, watching her son’s back as he washed up in the yard.

“Madam is so thoughtful. I’ll pack everything except what we ate this morning for the young master to take away.”

"Just leave enough for you and Uncle Ma this morning. I don't have much of an appetite today, so I'll just have some congee," Liu said gently to Aunt Ma.

"Oh dear, the young master has been gone for ten days. No wonder the madam is in a bad mood. Even I, an outsider, miss him after not seeing him for a few days. Besides, the madam and the young master are mother and son." Aunt Ma thought that Liu's poor appetite was caused by Changyun's bad mood because he would be away at school for several days.

Because of that conversation that morning, there were now forty large meat buns on the carriage. Xia Yu looked at her brother's helpless expression and almost laughed. She felt that she had the mentality of "better to sacrifice a friend than myself."