Reborn in a small village in the 1990s

The three of them then arrived at Erwei's Lamb Offal Restaurant. This restaurant wasn't actually very professional; besides lamb offal soup, it also sold tofu pudding, and their staple food was sesame flatbread. The flatbread here was famous; it was baked in an iron oven, upside down, and then dried over a fire. It tasted exceptionally good, and later they heard that this type of flatbread had become a popular spot for taking photos in the area.

The location was a house marked by the camera at a corner in the middle of the market. Zhao Da'e's greatest feast in his previous life was a bowl of mutton offal soup he had here for half a year, which satisfied his craving.

The Erwei Lamb Offal Restaurant was located inside this family's house. It was a three-room tenement house, somewhat like the kind of inns that used to be in roadside hotels. The small house was not big, with old newspapers pasted on the walls, a blackened wooden roof, and a dirt floor, but thanks to years of watering, no dirt was splashed up. In the middle was a small torch filled with coal dust. Around it were seven or eight small tables, where a few diners sat smoking pipes, and a few others with ruddy complexions were drinking cheap, two-ounce bottles of liquor, savoring each sip as if lost in their own world.

Zhao Da'e found the cleanest table he could find, wiped it with a cloth, dusted off the long bench, and then sat down.

On the table were four seasoning containers for mutton offal soup: chili powder, MSG, salt, and pepper. Next to them were small bottles containing soy sauce and aged vinegar.

The proprietress was an elderly woman in her sixties or seventies. After seeing people sit down, she came over and took out a menu, which was actually just a cigarette box wrapper.

"Three bowls of mutton soup, please? Mutton offal or mutton?"

Even Zhao Da'e felt that the menu the old lady had brought was a bit redundant: "Three bowls of mixed vegetables".

"Would you like some scallions and cilantro? What would you like for a main dish?" the proprietress asked.

"For the main course, I'll have two jin of sesame seed cakes. After that, could you go to Old Kong's and buy me a jin of fried dough sticks? My older sister eats fried dough sticks. Oh, and do you have any side dishes?" Zhao Da'e asked.

"Yes. Dried small fish with soybeans, and cooked pickled vegetables."

"Give me a plate of everything. The fried dough sticks should be fried first, don't leave any leftovers," Zhao Da'e instructed.

"Okay." The proprietress took the menu and left.

After saying a few words back in the kitchen, a middle-aged man in his forties went out to buy fried dough sticks from Old Kong.

In his previous life, Zhao Da'e loved eating the fried dough sticks made by Lao Kong. It wasn't that Lao Kong's fried dough sticks were particularly delicious, but Lao Kong would often give him an extra one after weighing them. Perhaps Lao Kong knew that Zhao Da'e was living in poverty, or perhaps he was just doing it unintentionally, but for Zhao Da'e, who was extremely poor in his previous life, even a fried dough stick was precious.

Just for this sentiment alone, I absolutely have to buy Lao Kong's fried dough sticks.

"Fourth Grandfather, what are you planning to buy on credit at the market today?" Zhao Da'e asked with a smile.

Zhao Tingliang grinned, took out his tobacco pouch and started rolling his own tobacco. As he rolled the tobacco, he said, "Hey, the village says that the vinegar factory in Yangcaogoumen Village next door is about to go bankrupt, so they asked me to go and get a few barrels of vinegar on credit."

Yangcaogoumen Village is not far from Dongtaizi Village, and it's very close to the town center. Just cross a large bridge to the west, and walk another ten or so miles, and you'll arrive. There is indeed a vinegar factory there, and it's quite famous.

Kashi County's aged vinegar used to be extremely famous. A group of people from Shanxi Province who migrated to Northeast China brought with them the technology of brewing aged vinegar, and the industry quickly spread. Initially, business was booming; there were hundreds of vinegar makers in the area, and it even became a supplier to the imperial court. Later, however, things declined, and fewer and fewer factories remained. The aged vinegar factory in Yangcaogoumen isn't actually very large; it's probably a business owned by their village.