Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

Actually, Xia Yu could take out more shrimp; her shrimp pond in her space was still quite crowded, and the rate at which her family ate and sold them couldn't keep up with their reproduction rate in the space. However, after discussing it with her father, the two decided not to sell them at other restaurants. They had already sold quite a few shrimp in the county town today, so they would only bring five buckets out. Selling too many would arouse suspicion.

It was late afternoon when the two drove the oxcart back to their rented stall. The Du couple next door had almost sold out of fish, but all their equipment was already loaded onto the cart; only two fish remained, staring wide-eyed and mouths agape in the wooden basin. Seeing Zhang Youtie return, Sister Wu smiled and said, "You're finally back! At lunchtime, I invited Sister Liu to eat with us, but she was worried about you and said she wanted to wait for you to come back so we could eat together. The kids didn't go either; they've been starving since."

"Sigh, it's my fault. I thought I'd be back soon before I left, so I told her to wait for me to come back so we could eat together. Who knew it would take so long? Brother Du, sister-in-law, thank you for staying here with them, and for keeping you from going home." As he spoke, he glanced at his daughter, then at the wooden bucket. Receiving her father's look, Xia Yu instantly understood. She lifted one of the buckets off the oxcart, secretly put more than two pounds of large shrimp inside, and brought it to her father's lap.

"Brother and sister-in-law, these are the shrimp that weren't sold earlier. There's about a pound left. Take them home and give your family a change of pace."

"No way! Your shrimp aren't cheap. They look great, though. Take them home and keep them for a few days, then bring them out to sell next time. You'll make a good profit! We haven't sold our two fish either. You should take them home for your children," Sister Wu said, declining Zhang Youtie's offer to give them shrimp. She had seen firsthand how well their shrimp sold today; it was impossible for them not to. Even if they didn't sell for 32 coins a pound, they'd still find plenty of buyers at 30 or 28 coins a pound.

"Sister Wu, we'll take these two fish from your farm. Don't say you didn't sell them; I was watching just now, and several people wanted to buy them, but you didn't sell them to them. It's a pleasure to meet you today, so let's keep in touch. Don't be so polite with us; take these shrimp home for your family to try."

Hearing what Liu said, Sister Wu agreed without hesitation. It would be too formal to refuse when both sides wanted to be on good terms.

After packing everything up, Sister Wu and her family said a reluctant goodbye to Liu and her family before leaving. Xia Yu and her family also returned all the items they had borrowed. The group loaded everything onto the cart, and Zhang Youtie drove the oxcart with his wife and children to a restaurant. At first, Liu wasn't keen on going, thinking there were plenty of food options at the market, and they could eat whatever they wanted. However, Zhang Youtie felt that his wife and children hadn't eaten much with him all these years and wanted to treat them to something good, even though he himself had never eaten anything like that.

The group arrived at a restaurant, but it was past lunchtime and there weren't many customers. The waiter at the entrance saw Zhang Youtie and his group arriving in their oxcart and greeted them warmly, "Brothers, are you here for a meal? Our restaurant offers cheap, large portions, a wide variety of dishes, and delicious food. We guarantee you and your family will be satisfied. Please come in and have a look!"

Zhang Youtie and his family followed the waiter inside. The space was quite large, with seven or eight tables. They sat down at one table, and the waiter stood beside them, introducing the restaurant's food. Xia Yu could roughly read the words on the wooden sign on the wall. It was a restaurant selling noodles and side dishes. Finally, on the waiter's recommendation, they all ordered the waiter's favorite oil-splashed noodles. Zhang Youtie also ordered a plate of pickled garlic and a plate of mixed spicy vegetables to go with the noodles. Xia Yu looked at the signs for shredded chicken noodles, three-delicacy noodles, braised pork noodles, steamed buns with filling, and sweet and sour pork buns… just looking at the names made them look delicious; they all contained meat. Some of these dishes she had eaten before, but others were new to her and she didn't know what they were. She definitely wanted to try them all sometime.

Soon, the waiter brought out four large bowls of noodles on a tray. The bowls were truly enormous, completely different from the shallow dishes and small bowls she'd seen in TV dramas before. Xia Yu felt those bowls were bigger than her head. Before the tray was even set down, the aroma of oil-drizzled garlic and chili was already filling the air. Without even tasting it, the aroma alone was enough to whet their appetites. However, Xia Yu was puzzled. Wasn't there supposed to be no chili here? Why was she smelling chili? When she saw the red powder in the bowl, Xia Yu was excited—it really was chili! She had asked Liu Shi about this before, but Liu Shi had never heard of chili or spiciness. The only spicy seasoning here was pepper and black pepper; nothing else.

Xia Yu called out to the waiter who was about to leave, "Hey, waiter, where can I buy this?" She held up a bit of chili powder with her chopsticks and asked him.

"Hehe, how is it? Little sister, isn't it delicious?" The waiter seemed quite smug when Xia Yu asked him about the chili peppers.

"Hmm, it smells delicious, but I don't know where I can buy it. I want to buy some to take home and eat."

"Let me tell you, this is our family's secret seasoning. It's spicy and flavorful, much better than dogwood!"

"Can I buy some of your seasoning?" Xia Yu saw that there were still whole chili seeds inside and wanted to take them back to try planting them in her space to see if they could grow.

"I'm sorry, little sister, we don't sell this chili powder. This seasoning is very difficult to make, and we don't have much in stock. At present, it can only be used in our shop."

Hearing him say that, Xia Yu felt a little disappointed, but it was understandable. She guessed that the owner of the shop had obtained this kind of chili by chance, and since they ran a restaurant, how could they bear to sell their limited seasonings?

Liu was also listening to her daughter and the waiter talking. She remembered that her daughter had asked her about chili peppers before, but she never expected that it was this red thing in the bowl.

"Father, Mother, Brother, don't rush to eat. Check your bowls for any of these." Xia Yu flicked a tiny chili seed between her fingers. She just hoped there were still chili seeds in the bowls of noodles that hadn't been splashed with hot oil. Hearing her say this, the children rummaged through their bowls and finally found twelve chili seeds in total. Liu Shi took out a clean handkerchief, carefully wrapped the chili seeds up, and handed them to her daughter.

"Waiter, could you add some more chili? No need for oil, I want it spicier." Xia Yu was worried that the buds wouldn't grow properly, so she wanted to ask the owner for some more chili powder.

"Okay, I'll get you some more right away." The waiter didn't say anything else, ran over, picked up the bowl of noodles, and left.

After a while, the noodles were returned. Xia Yu noticed that there wasn't much chili powder on top again. Luckily, the owner hadn't poured more oil on it. She carefully picked out two chili seeds from the newly added chili powder. Without wasting any time, Xia Yu immediately put them into her spatial storage and planted them, then sprinkled a few drops of her spatial well water on them.

After finishing all this, she snapped out of her daze and smiled as she called her parents and brother to eat. Seeing her like this, the family knew she had finished preparing. Only then did the family begin to eat the oily, garlicky noodles. It must be said that the noodles were indeed delicious; the noodles were chewy and springy, and the side dishes were tangy and spicy, very flavorful when eaten with the noodles. The portion was also generous; Xia Yu and Liu Shi were stuffed but still couldn't finish. Finally, seeing that the two of them couldn't eat anymore, her father took the remaining two bowls of noodles and ate them with the pickled garlic.

"Burp!" Zhang Youtie patted his stomach and let out a happy burp. "So full! Pure white noodles, I haven't had them in so long!"

"Waiter, the bill!" Seeing that his family had finished eating, Zhang Youtie called to the waiter to settle the bill.

"Brother, that's fifty coins in total."