North and South groceries

In the past two years, more and more people in Chang'an have planted sweet potatoes. By this spring, almost every household has planted sweet potatoes.

Since the beginning of summer, some people have dug up sweet potatoes that have not yet fully grown and sold them. At first, the sweet potatoes were only the size of a child's palm. Until recently, there are many people selling sweet potatoes with carts on the street. The sweet potato has also grown quite large.

As the production of sweet potatoes increases, there will be sweet potato flour that can be used to make pearls. This variety of sweet potato is mainly used for food, and the flour yield is not very high, but it is still useful.

Aunt Luo and the others have started making pearl milk tea recently, and it is estimated that they will wait until Qixi Festival to start selling, because at that time, autumn has already begun, and the price of sweet potatoes will be cheaper than now.

On this day, these officials came to the engineering school to talk about cooperation, and they had a simple lunch. They only ate the same meal as the students. The lady who made pearl milk tea came over and specially made a few bowls of pearl milk tea with these gentlemen to eat.

These few bowls of pearl milk tea, even if they are left in the future generations, they are considered to be a relatively good food. Freshly beaten pearls, fresh milk just squeezed that day, and high-quality tea leaves are carefully brewed into a pot of milk tea. Put in the cane pulp, sprinkle some nut powder from the Northland for seasoning, let it cool, and chill it.

In the hot afternoon, if such a few bowls of cool pearl milk tea are served, the gentlemen will naturally be satisfied.

However, this milk tea is good, but few people can afford it. If my sister’s restaurant wants to sell well, it must reduce the cost. Recently, they are researching this, replacing fresh milk with cheese from outside Guan, sugar cane If the syrup is replaced by caramel, then the tea leaves naturally don't need to be high-quality, the most ordinary ones will do.

The imported cheese is boiled with water, it is indeed much cheaper than the local fresh cow and goat milk in Chang'an, but sometimes it will inevitably have some fishy or fermented smell, how can I get rid of those smells, sister The people at the restaurant also racked their brains.

During the engineering study that day, Luo Yong also talked to these officials about the fact that the people in the sister's restaurant wanted to use cheese instead of fresh cow's and goat's milk. focus on.

For them, whether this bowl of milk tea should be cooked with fresh cow's and goat's milk or cheese is really a trivial matter. How much time and energy would you be willing to devote to solving this small matter.

And the word-of-mouth of Ah Sister's Restaurant has been accumulated bit by bit.

From the beginning, Aunt Luo had to do everything by herself, and later recruited many women, and now, there are even many people who have contributed more to Auntie’s restaurant than Aunt Luo, and there are also many women who have contributed to this restaurant. My sister's relationship with the food shop is deeper than that of Aunt Luo.

A sister's restaurant has also opened many branches in recent years, mainly in the Jiangnan area and various places in Hedong Road.

In Mengmenguan, Dinghu County, which is not far from Luoyong’s hometown and Shixian County, there is a sister’s restaurant. In the area around Lishi Dinghu, many women want to work there, but it’s a pity that there is only one restaurant. It is big and does not require too many manpower, so it is fully recruited early.

Even so, there are always people going to ask them on weekdays to find out if they are still recruiting. Sometimes it is the adults in the family who ask, and sometimes it is the little ladies who go there by themselves.

There was a person from Fangshan in Linquan who walked for several days with the seller in his hometown to find the shop, just to ask this question, but he often returned disappointed.

Not to mention them, even the women who live on the street where my sister's restaurant is located, not all of them can go in.

Women from ordinary families would not want to go to that shop. Once they enter, they will not only have work and income, but also have more status in the family. I heard that if they do well, they can go to the capital.

Earlier in their Mengmen Pass, there was a woman from a silkworm raising family who was lucky enough to marry the eldest son of a disciple of Naluo Sanlang. Later, the young couple followed Mrs. Naluo to Chang'an City to run a business. It was the first sister's restaurant at that time.

People in Mengmen often talk about it, saying that someone met that woman somewhere, and what happened to her now, some said that she went down to the south of the Yangtze River and became a very prestigious steward, in charge of several houses in the south of the Yangtze River. Some from the sister's food shop also said that she is now in Luoyang, some said that she was in Chang'an, and so on. In short, she is no longer the poor girl she used to be.

Whenever the local girls in Mengmen mentioned this person, they were all envious.

One day, the second wife of the Huang family went to wash clothes by the well, and heard those old ladies and young ladies who were washing and washing vegetables by the well talking about this again, she just listened silently, without saying a word, but her heart was full of tears. I can't help but yearn for it, and when the clothes are all washed, I take the basket of clothes back to my yard, and the dream will wake up.

Her house is in a dilapidated small courtyard deep in the alley, and the courtyard is full of various sundries. Her sister-in-law with a big belly is sitting on the porch at this moment, twisting twine, and a two or three-year-old nephew is crawling. Play on the ground.

Huang Erniang silently aired the washed clothes, and then went into the kitchen to cook. Not long after, she heard the sound of her mother returning, and she was still scolding outside at the top of her voice, saying that she had done something today. She just went to wash her clothes at night, and the water is still dripping at this time. In such a hot day, if she doesn't have a change of clothes tomorrow, she might be hated when she goes to work...

Huang Erniang's Aye and her elder brother are peddlers. The two of them go out every day and don't know what to do. In the yard, if you can't sell it, you won't be able to get the money back.

Her aunt works in a food shop on the street, and she can get some wages every month, but every time she comes home, she has a very violent temper and often yells and scolds loudly. Even her sister-in-law, who has only been in the house for three or four years, is used to it now.

"...I am lazy to eat and eat all day long, and my mother works every day to support you, so what is there not to be satisfied with?"

"I know it's a face of mourning, but I'm short of your food and clothing!"

"Isn't life so bad now? When I was your age, I could really starve people to death."

"I was starving when I was young, and now I have to work so hard, and I'm going to lose my life to all of you!"

"..."

Huang Erniang still eats dinner with her mother-in-law and sister-in-law, and there is also a nephew who is learning to speak. As for Aye and elder brother, it is often as if they are not in this family.

The dinner was also very simple, just a pot of tasteless mixed vegetables and a few pancakes. During the dinner, her mother was still cursing, venting all her dissatisfaction with life on her daughter and daughter-in-law.

Huang Erniang dreamed of escaping from such a family, but where could she escape? Would she marry someone? With her background, what kind of good family could she marry? Do you think highly of her?

Ever since her sister-in-law got started, Erniang Huang has no expectations about getting married. Her sister-in-law's natal family is not a good one either. After she got married, she married into a family like theirs.

"Why did you eat first and didn't wait for us?" They were eating when Huang Erniang's Aye and elder brother came back.

"Who knows when the two of you will return?" Huang's mother knocked on the edge of the bowl with her chopsticks, she was not as fierce as before, and she sent Huang Erniang to say: "Go, make some food with your elder brother Aye. "

Huang Erniang responded and went, knowing that although her aunt had no good looks, she still felt sorry for her husband and son, so she took some good noodles from the urn and cooked two big bowls of Hoto.

When she brought up the two big bowls of Hoto, she heard a strange cry from her mother: "You have no conscience! Could it be that you are going to trick your sister into selling it for money?"

Huang Erniang trembled all over when she heard this, and managed to avoid dropping the pottery bowl in her hand to the ground. If she did, she would have to be beaten and scolded again today.

"Mother, what are you talking about? This is not going to sell her. Luo Sanlang's machine workshop is recruiting people. I heard that it is like that sister's restaurant. It only wants some young ladies. If he is willing to accept men , I went by myself..." Elder Erniang held the pottery bowl, took a sip of the Hoto in the bowl, and spit out a lot of words.

"Don't scare me, Luo Sanlang's machine workshop is in Chang'an City, and I've heard people say it when I was working." Huang Mu said.

"It's the news from Chang'an City." Father Huang also said at this time.

"Since you are in Chang'an City, why do you come to us to recruit people, but they don't have enough girls in Chang'an City?"

"Mother, you don't know, the little ladies in Chang'an City also sharpen their heads and want to go in. What kind of place is that machine workshop, where they can earn money and learn crafts. If Er Niang goes in , she still has any worries in her life."

"Isn't it right? The family only needs 300 people. How can it be her turn? Traveling thousands of miles will cost a lot of money just for the road. How can this family have that spare money..."

"You woman, you are short-sighted..."

"She is 14 years old, and she can't read. Can people want her?"

"I heard that it doesn't matter..."

"If she leaves, what will happen to your aunt, she is about to give birth again."

"..."

"I think it's better not to bother, and find a good family with her in a year or two..."

"..."

They discussed this for several days. The Huang family's father and brother got the news relatively early. Within two days, many people in the city began to discuss this matter.

Many young ladies want to go to that machine workshop, and some are afraid, worried that they are deceiving...

Huang Erniang finally left. On the day of the trip, her mother still went to work early, and only Aye and her elder brother sent her out.

After walking for a while in the alley, Erniang turned her head to look, and saw her sister-in-law standing at the gate of the courtyard, with her big belly stretched out and her neck stretched out to look at her...

There were more than a dozen young ladies who went to Chang'an City with Huang Erniang. In the past two days, people who happened to catch groceries from the north and the south were shopping at Mengmenguan. The adults of their family greeted them and asked them to bring them Go to Chang'an City.

Some family members also went together, and Huang Erniang was alone, carrying a bundle, which contained some clothes, several catties of dry food, and dozens of copper coins.

The north-south grocers were driving the carts ahead to deliver the goods, and they, the little ladies, followed behind the team, walking step by step.

People in the convoy often call them to sit in the ox cart for a while, and some people tell them that it will be fine when they get to Xicheng, and then they will change the waterway and take a boat all the way south, so they don't need to travel so much On the way, people with groceries from the north and the south have chartered the big boat, and these little ladies don't need to pay for the boat.

When they arrived in Lishi County, many young ladies followed them on the road, and the team of transporting goods became even stronger.

The little ladies who traveled together, many of them were cheerful. Although the journey was hard, they talked and laughed. The people in the team were willing to lend them iron pots, and they could use salt and bean paste as they wished. On the way, these little ladies who met by chance cooked and ate together.

If there is a market, I would pool my money to buy some melons and vegetables. Now it is summer, and it is the season when the prices of melons and vegetables are the cheapest. On those rural grass collections, vegetables are not worth much.

Later, the waterway was changed, and when we arrived at the Fenshui River, there were a lot of fish, and the price was also cheap. Some young ladies carried very little money, and others didn't care too much. They still invited them to eat together. They bought meat a few times, which made these little ladies very happy.

The further south you go, the more people there are in the team. Some young ladies from the same place gather together to form some large and small groups, with as many as fifty or sixty, and as few as ten. People who come here generally get along very well with each other.

It's just that Luo's Machine Workshop will recruit 300 people this time, and when they get to Tongguan, there will be more than 300 people just because they came from Hedong Road.